Simply Thrifty

100 opinions for 100 Things you can make yourself

• CD Santa
  Aug 15, 2007 at 7:30 pm

  Some of these are interesting. But some are just ridiculous. Homemade maple syrup? Homemade PAPER!?

• Deborah Ng
  Aug 15, 2007 at 7:59 pm

  Why is it so ridiculous to make your own maple syrup or paper? Long before Log Cabin or Mrs Butterworth, people made their own maple syrup - and in places like Maine or Vermont it’s really not so far fetched.

  I also have a friend who recycles and makes paper for invitations and greeting cards. She does well in her business.

  It’s not ridiculous if you enter it with an open mind. Not all of these things are for everyone, my list is to give you an idea of the things you can do yourself.

• Heather
  Aug 15, 2007 at 11:55 pm

  That is truly an amazing list!

• Vanilla
  Aug 16, 2007 at 8:04 am

  I am so making the sparklers!

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• dacker
  Aug 16, 2007 at 5:44 pm

  As someone who grew-up in Vermont, has helped make syrup, and had a teenage brother industrious enough to make his own maple syrup one year, I can tell you that only 0.1% of people would be able to do so — and it would not be economical.

  To make maple just one quart of maple syrup, you will need:

  * Access to maple sugar trees. Maple trees come in many species, but maple SUGAR trees only grow in a small subset of the US, most notably in northern New England and NY, and in Michigan. Canada, especially Quebec, has many more.
  * Taps and buckets with covers.
  * Appropriate drill for the tap.
  * Cold nights and warm days for the sap to flow.
  * Determination to check and empty the buckets twice a day.
  * If you have made it this far, collect 10 gallons of maple sugar tree sap, and keeping it cold until you have enough.
  * One BIG pot
  * Lots of available energy (gas/electric/wood to boil away 98% of the water in the sap.
  * Hours and hours of time.
  * Hydrometer, so you know when the correct amount of water has been evaporated and the syrup is ready.
  * Cheesecloth or other filtering material.
  * Heatproof hands.

  Oh, hell — no one is going to do all this themselves. Even I just go to Costco, unless I can get another of my brothers to go down the road to a family farm who have a sugar shack, buy it from them, and ship it to me. Costco sells Grade-A Amber, which used to be called Grade-B, until the markets tinkered with the nomenclature.

• Deborah Ng
  Aug 16, 2007 at 6:38 pm

  Dacker - Some of these things can be whipped up in five minutes, others take time and patience.

  My point is that there are plenty of things we can do ourselves if we have the time and ambition. You and I may not enjoy making maple syrup, but I know of at least one person who finds it to be a relaxing hobby. Every single thing on this list is doable. It’s up to the individual to determine which projects are worth one’s while.

• Heather
  Aug 16, 2007 at 8:00 pm

  I get what you mean, Deb. I make soap and it takes up to six weeks for it to cure and get hard enough to use (I do the good old-fashioned lye kind, not the melt and pour). I could just go to the store and buy a 12-pack but it’s so much more fun and relaxing to do it myself, and the bonus is that I know everything that’s gone into it.

• Michelle Gartner
  Aug 16, 2007 at 9:56 pm

  I think it’s an awesome list Deborah- I am going to link on it and comment it too! So don’t be offended by my crass commenting, it’s just my dry wit showing and not anything personal. I hope you get a lot of traffic out of this post- you put a lot of effort into and IT is by far the best THRIFT post I have seen as of late. You out did yourself! -Michelle

• dacker
  Aug 16, 2007 at 10:30 pm

  Deborah, I took the word, “Thrifty”, as in “Simply Thrifty” literally. There are many items on the list which can be fun and creative to make yourself ( I bake artisan bread as a hobby myself), but most of the 100 items cannot be done to be thrifty — to save money over buying them ready-made. We have mass production and cheap overseas labor (um, near-slave wages) to thank for that.

  I did not mean to offend anyone; maple syrup stuck out at me because I am very familiar with how much work it takes to make it commercially, much less at home.

• jane
  Aug 16, 2007 at 11:01 pm

  Hrm, will have to agree with dacker on the thrifty part. I make my own ice cream because I love experimenting with different ingredients, but it’s not very cheap to buy the milk/cream/sugar/whatever else you need. For the same price as a quart or so of my homemade ice cream, I could have purchased 2-3x that in store-brand or even like Dreyers or ben and jerry ice cream, nevermind all the time saved…add to that my hideously expensive but awesome $300 commercial ice cream maker (faster and better results than making it any other way).

  Most of the items on this list aren’t thrifty to make..just fun or easier, if you’re adding a little something to it.

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• Isaac
  Aug 17, 2007 at 2:19 am

  This list is ridiculous. I should’ve stopped reading at bacon. Do you really think it’s wise to encourage the same people who are manufacturing homemade lava lamps (#89) to branch out and try their hands at explosives (#88)??

• Deborah Ng
  Aug 17, 2007 at 4:15 am

  Again, Isaac, I realize most people aren’t going to make the things on this list. The purpose of the list is to show people how many things they can do on their own if they put their minds to it. Of course, positive thinking does help.

• Paige
  Aug 17, 2007 at 4:32 am

  Deb I get it.

  You don’t necessarily expect us to make this stuff but you’re letting us know we can if we want to. To stop relying on convenience once in a while and make a stool or a bowl of salsa. I do get it and I think it’s a great list and obvious you worked hard.

  Granted, some of the things aren’t necessarily thrifty but if you do make an initial investment some of these things have a way of paying for themselves.

  Also, when you consider homemade foods such as maple syrup are generally safer and healthier than processed and chemicaled products you find on your grocery shelves, that makes it all worth it.

  Still. I get it. You’re encouraging people to think of all the things we can make on our own without having to rely on the mass produced - even if some people think they’re ridiculous.

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• Dave
  Aug 17, 2007 at 11:06 am

  Thanks for this great list!

• Deborah Ng
  Aug 17, 2007 at 11:30 am

  You’re welcome, Dave, and I just posted 100 more!

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  Aug 17, 2007 at 11:37 am

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• Amy
  Aug 17, 2007 at 3:15 pm

  I think this list is EXCELLENT! I know lists like these take so much time so I appreciate what you have done over here. I am going to post it up on my site! Hope it gets you some traffic!

• Mr. The Hat
  Aug 17, 2007 at 4:13 pm

  I don’t understand why anyone would NOT make their own Guacamole. Honestly… the stuff I see in those packages in the stores is frightening to me.

  Avocados, salt, lemon juice, onion, tomato, cilantro, chiles… or a plastic tub full of erythorbate-whatever, diethylhydratedfecalomadehyde & yellow number 5?

  Eh…

• Deborah Ng
  Aug 17, 2007 at 4:18 pm

  @Hat - I so hear you. No jar stuff can compare with my party dip. And it’s so simple, my five year old even knows how to make it (with a little help, of course.)

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• Catherine
  Aug 17, 2007 at 6:24 pm

  Perhaps you should have put pancake syrup on the list instead of maple syrup. If you buy a bottle of McCormick’s maple flavoring you will find the recipe for maple flavored syrup right on the box. Works for me.

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• fake name
  Aug 18, 2007 at 6:52 am

  I love making my own stuff!

  Don’t forget how to make your own yogurt, your own plastic, your own pasta, your own Oreo cookies…

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• Jen / domestika
  Aug 18, 2007 at 8:22 am

  I love the diversity of this list. After all, DIY is about the creative process as much as it is about the end product — and every one of us finds different activities enjoyable.

  I keep honeybees, for example. No doubt it would be much easier to go to the store and buy a jar of honey for next-to-nothing from some mega-corp that imports cut-rate honey from China… but it’s the joyful challenge of bee husbandry, the eternal learning process, the scents and sensations of working among the bees, and the sweet ritual of the honey harvest that makes the home honey production so worthwhile. It’s my guess that the maple syrup DIYers feel much the same way…

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• Melly
  Aug 18, 2007 at 11:48 pm

  I love this list. I can relate to Whole Foods check-out remorse.

  I used to always make my own hummus. I’ve made my own candles, and I used to always have a garden and can tomatoes, marina sauce, zuchinni, pickles, jams and jelly, etc. My mom used to make the modeling clay for us.

  LOVE this list!

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• jayedee
  Aug 19, 2007 at 10:37 am

  i love this list!
  we homeschool and we are SO gonna work our way thru this list, as possible, an item at a time!
  i can’t wait to see the thought processes this inspires in my children!
  thank you!

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• Matt Wolfe
  Aug 19, 2007 at 1:16 pm

  This an awesome list. I’m definitely going to try some of these.

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• Debbie
  Aug 21, 2007 at 9:13 am

  Another good thing about making things yourself is that, once you get good enough anyway, you can make them exactly the way you want them. Once you find the perfect recipe, you can have that thing whenever you want, even if a restaurant goes out of business. If you sew, you can make something that fits perfectly and is your favorite color. Sometimes you can save money buy just making something once instead of buying an okay one, then buying a better one, then buying an even better one.

  Thanks for this list; I’m going to try some things.

• CJ
  Aug 21, 2007 at 11:55 am

  I really do like the idea of this list. However, in practical terms, I think that making most of these things would actually be impractical and uneconomical. Unless you had loads of time on your hands….

  To add to the maple syrup debate - I grew up in rural Ontario, Canada, and my family made maple syrup every year; my brother continues to do so. But this is a task that only 0.00001% of the population would be able to do - it is enormously labour-intensive, and depends a lot on the weather and luck. It is totally uneconomical - for example, my brother took two weeks off work to make his syrup last year; so he lost two weeks of wages, for a few bottles of syrup. Not to mention all the time (sometimes up all night), energy (carrying all that sap!! and wood for the fire etc), etc spent, and volunteer help from other family members (argh) and the cost of all the equipment. They end up being hugely expensive bottles of syrup.

  Of course, if the aim is simply to make something for the sake of it, or because it’s relaxing or enjoyable, that’s totally different. But if the aim is to be thrifty and save money, I think you’re generally better off buying these things.

  So you need to take into account what it’s actually costing you to make things yourself - in terms of time, loss of earnings (potentially), energy, resources, raw materials etc.

  So perhaps the lesson is to differntiate what is thrifty to make ourselves from what is not (if saving money is your aim, as I said). For example, making your own meals, lunches, sandwiches, baked goods etc is generally VERY cost-effective, for very little effort. But aside from that, I can’t think of too many things….

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• Deborah Ng
  Aug 21, 2007 at 12:47 pm

  Hi CJ,

  Thanks for stopping by. The purpose of this list isn’t to suggest everyone make something on this list - it’s to inspire us to use our hands to create things rather than buy what is convenient. I understand some of these are a little far fetched for many of us, but my point is some people do it. I make my own zucchini bread, but the guy who makes maple syrup may not be into that. It’s all a matter of preference.

  Of course one needs to take lots of things into consideration and make sure it’s worth it (to the individual) to put out the time and labor to make certain things. It costs me more to grow my own veggies every summer than to buy them, but it’s worth it because they’re fresh and organic. Again, it’s all up to the individual. Thanks so much for your input - do stop by more often.

  Deb

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• Jessica
  Aug 23, 2007 at 3:16 pm

  I always love trying to make things that most people only think of as store bought. Like marshmallows. I do it mostly for fun, and because I like a challenge. I did laugh a little about maple syrup only because my first thought was “Shouldn’t I be a tree?”. I do realize there is a process to taking the sap and turning into syrup. A very tasty process.

  Also, my mother in law is paper making fiend. She uses hers as card material and has made wedding invites for about five family weddings at this point. It’s more art like than what you’d put in a printer.

• Smiller
  Aug 23, 2007 at 7:04 pm

  The only problem I see with this list is that if you don’t already have all or most of the materials on hand to make a particular item, you’ll spend so much money getting the appropriate stuff that you might as well just buy it from Wal-Mart.

• Random_Tangent
  Aug 24, 2007 at 3:40 am

  Wow. I can make all purpose cleaner with ammonia by adding ammonia to a bottle of 409?

  …

• jdg
  Aug 24, 2007 at 6:02 am

  Don;t forget you smokers can make your own cigarettes…I got all my stuff at http://www.StuffYourOwn.com

• Mama Squirrel
  Aug 26, 2007 at 5:59 am

  What’s wrong with making pancake syrup? I do it all the time.

  Neat idea–I’ve linked!

• shelly53
  Aug 27, 2007 at 1:27 pm

  Love this !!!!! Much can be made with out all of the fuss!!!! yes–maple syrup, too!

• shelly53
  Aug 27, 2007 at 1:28 pm

  much can be made without the fuss—-even maple syrup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Tony
  Aug 27, 2007 at 2:23 pm

  I don’t know where everyone else is from, but making whiskey is illegal in the US.

• Rachel May
  Aug 28, 2007 at 3:06 pm

  Tony, it’s legal to make — you just have to get a license… http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/id10.html

• Ashley
  Aug 28, 2007 at 11:45 pm

  If time is money, then making my own paper would put me in the poorhouse.

• Mama Squirrel
  Aug 29, 2007 at 7:55 am

  Oh, give her a break already! Not only does she have to deal with people stealing her list (I hope my “memed” version of it wasn’t one of the offenders–I did link clearly to your original post), but she has to fend off this kind of flack from people who missed the point. No, I wouldn’t be building a crawfish trap or a sunroom either (the second list), but isn’t it nice to know that somebody does know how to do that? It encourages me to think of other things I could make myself.

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• Abbi
  Aug 31, 2007 at 9:34 pm

  I enjoyed the list and found that I have made or helped to make over a 3rd of the items on there. And as far as most of the others I would be quite willing to try and think that it would be possible to make them too if I had the time. (I think I’ll skip on the alcohol however.)
  I also thought I would add to the maple syrup debate. We live in MN, which is another area that has lots of sugar Maples. Most of my growing up years we tapped trees and made syrup. It was so fun! The time to tap them is when spring is coming and what better time to be outside and collect sap. I come from a family of 6 kids who where homeschooled. That provided much of the free labor, a great activity for kids! My parents also helped and loved the time outdoors. We used recycled goods for the most part to collect the sap (very little expense) and my dad welded together a special stove to boil the sap down in (again free except for labor which he enjoyed). I say Hurray for syrup making!
  Concerning time versus money. I enjoy making many, many things by hand. It might take me more time to make it than a factory and if I counted up how much everything cost me by $15 an hour than things would be pretty expensive indeed, but I have time. I have chosen to be a homemaker and we live of one income and so I can do what I love, take care of my kids and do “time consuming” projects.
  Great list!

• Dee
  Sep 1, 2007 at 11:45 pm

  I think alot of people miss the meaning of this list. Even though some people think alot of these things cost alot to do themselves, ie: maple syrup making and ice cream, there are always ways to do things in small batchs and cheaply… i have seen small quart and pint ice cream balls that u put ingred. in and ice and just toss around for 20 mins to make ice cream.
  I think this is great , i am a diy person.. id rather make it than buy it. tks!!

• Catherine
  Sep 2, 2007 at 6:16 am

  I have a batch of apple butter cooking in my crockpot right now. It is seasoned and sweetened to my family’s liking, and it smells heavenly. You can’t buy that taste or smell in any grocery store. DIY works for me.

• party ideas
  Sep 5, 2007 at 7:19 pm

  My husband and I made the paper for my 150 wedding invitations… from cutting up the 100% linen tablecloths to dying them the right color to letterpressing the text. It wasn’t about being thrifty at all but about the shared experience. And, BTW, they were really cool too.

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• Abby
  Sep 7, 2007 at 10:30 am

  I would be in trouble in I made my own sauces. I go through them so fast that I would always be in the kitchen.

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• Jym
  Sep 16, 2007 at 12:17 am

  Really useful list!

• Nancy
  Sep 17, 2007 at 12:42 pm

  As society “advances” and we learn to depend on other people and countries, we lose our ability to care for ourselves. Most stores only have 48 to 72 hours of supplies in them, for food.
  I have no problem with buying goods and services, however, we should also have some idea of how things are made and what goes into quality. What does it hurt to know how to make syrup? I would not do it, but I live in an area where there are too many people for enough sugar maples to grow.

  I bake my bread, crochet and know how to milk a cow. Do I have a cow? No, and we don’t plan to get one, but there may come a time that this knowledge is darn helpeful.

  This is a good list of practical links for education alone. Dogging on people who put a list like this together strikes me as more than a bit mean spirited.

• Catherine
  Sep 17, 2007 at 3:38 pm

  I agree with Nancy that we should know how to do things, and make things. You never know when or if you might have to make do. No, I’m not being “chicken little”. But it never hurt anyone to be prepared. Besides, there is a whole lot of satisfaction in being able to say “I made it myself”.

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• Jennifer
  Oct 24, 2007 at 11:06 am

  This is just a list of stuff meant to inspire. It’s not telling you that you have to do everything. Make your own list of things that you know you would like to do….

• Homemaker of the 21st Century
  Dec 19, 2007 at 10:04 am

  What an awesome post!! Great ideas and wonderful links :) I linked to it on my blog as well!!

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• Amie
  Jan 25, 2008 at 9:32 am

  Thank you soooo much for this list! I made my own laundry soap from this list and it worked great. Not to mention all the money I saved!!!!! WOW Please Please keep posting this stuff! Especially homemade cleaners!

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• Gina Terry
  Jun 18, 2008 at 10:25 pm

  Thanks for your time and effort compiling this list, I will definitely be busy trying some of them out! I have been an avid canner for years now, making jellies and butters and applesauce, and have also been making my own laundry soap for several years, spending as much in a year as I used to in one month! Even though some items are not so thrifty, they are fun and enjoyable, and we know what we are putting into them! Thanks again for the list! =)

• PK
  Jun 19, 2008 at 1:13 pm

  I don’t think people are trying to be obnoxious by pointing out that some of these would be a little past the time- and labor-intensive threshold for most people to manage on their own. Of course it’s worthwhile to do something yourself sometimes just to have done it, or because it’s enjoyable! But the post *is* in a blog entitled “Simply Thrifty,” and perhaps more to the point, the introduction mentions that “convenience is expensive.”

  This is *true*, don’t get me wrong, in a lot of cases. There are others where economies of scale apply or where you might eventually get to saving money but it would take a while to recoup the initial outlay. But I suspect that between the title and the reference to the expense of convenience, a lot of people were probably expecting a higher proportion of the list to be about ways to be frugal through DIY and a lower proportion to be about things that might be costly but are fun or educational or possibly higher quality when you do them for yourself.

  Anyway, it’s a fun list, and of course it’s up to each individual which ones are really worthwhile for his or her particular situation. It’s great to have them compiled like this!

• cynthia williams
  Jun 19, 2008 at 2:58 pm

  I think this is an awesome list chockful of information, I dont know when I will get the time to do any of this but I do know I would love to spend an afternoon doing one of these projects. Thanx Deb for this list , I saved it to my favourites list, good job!!

• Ben Grim
  Jun 19, 2008 at 4:27 pm

  Even the Amish dont make all these things.They go to the store buy them.Hey the way Russia is talking you may need to know how to do these things.Armageden is coming BE PREPARED.

• Holly in OK
  Jun 19, 2008 at 7:57 pm

  Deb,

  I like the list and agree with several posters at the same time. I think the main point of the varying comments is that handmade does not usually equal thrifty. Knowing that I can make all of those things is intriguing for me, because I like to do crafts, cook, etc. But I do them because I enjoy them, not because most of them net any financial gain or savings for my family.
  I knit socks, for example. I buy a $15 skein of sock yarn (minimum price) and knit for what, 20 hours PER SOCK? Maybe 15? NOT cost effective, but very cool looking, creative, and a great pastime for me when watching TV with my family, waiting in the parking lot for my kids to get out of school, etc.
  I think the list is fun and inspiring to do things you haven’t done before, even if just to say you did them. (Like the bagels I so screwed up a few years ago. Or the tamales and sushi I’ve become very good at making.)
  I think, though, that seeing that your site is about being thrifty as well as the paragraph about convenience, it’s rather easy to think that you’re suggesting that these things will save us money or will best utilize our time that we are wasting right now by not doing them. I understand that’s not your point at all, but I can see it might be easy to think so and that by seeing things that way, one’s comments might be stated differently than if we all thought you were just giving us creative ideas and springboards to thinking outside the box.
  Don’t forget to add hominy to a future list! I read the Little House books growing up and have always wanted to make hominy, head cheese (ONLY to say I did it), etc. after reading them. :-)

• Anna
  Jun 19, 2008 at 8:27 pm

  Neat list, All the comments about maple suryp made me think I better put in my two sense. Yes very time consuming but very cheap if you use downed timber for fuel and recycle canning jars for preserving. My parents have made it nearly every year I can remember. It is great fun! So much of your list is very doable and MUCH cheaper and a great thing to do with ones children!

• Luci
  Jun 20, 2008 at 1:12 pm

  This list is great! I just hope more people will add to it. Such as the process of making Hominy. I would also like to know the process of making whole made cottage cheese. My mother made it when I was little but can’t remember all that she did. I can remember her sitting me on a chair in the kitchen and I had to shake this jar with cream in it till all the butter particles would cling to each other forming the cake of butter. ( My little arms got very tired ) but oh how I wished I had the chance to go back and do it again with my mother!!!!!! Anyhow, this list gives us a chance to learn how to do these things and to enjoy it while we are doing them. And to see what our parents went through with doing it the old-fashion way. To me it is better! I also loved the Little House on the Prairie shows but if I remember right Pa and Ma also loved some of the new and easier ways that came along. Would’nt you of just loved to had a taste of Caroline’s Berrie pies!!!!!!!!

• Andrea Bogolub
  Jun 20, 2008 at 9:40 pm

  This site is something that we all need. Saves a lot of money and we sure need to these days.

• alicia.
  Jun 24, 2008 at 4:20 pm

  That’s amazing.. I’m sure my husband (who would always rather make things himself) will be happy about this. Can’t wait to try the pizza!

• Brooke
  Aug 13, 2008 at 9:24 pm

  Good job explaning it. Lovin the pictures, altough I still couldn’t be able to make anything on that list, except maybe playdoh but I don’t have the ingredients.

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