Amy Dacyczyn from The Tightwad Gazette:

Some people won’t abandon cable TV [when trying to get out of debt]. This may seem like a small point, but to me, cable TV is a sort of barometer. Anyone who is deep in debt and spends $25 a month for cable clearly hasn’t “gotten it.” A frequent excuse is that “we can’t afford any other entertainment, so we feel this one expense is justified.” Deeply indebted families should not only cancel cable, but might also sell their TV and use the time they free up for frugal activities or a money-making hobby. They must maximize their use of time to get ahead.

I love what Dacyczyn is saying here. Some people have come to see certain luxuries, like cable TV, as a necessity. Even in desperate financial situations, where people can’t pay bills or have huge debts, TV is one of the last things they cut from their budget.

Or, another example, the other day I was on a frugal blog and the woman writing it listed the gym under her necessities. “Health is important,” she explained. And she’s right, except that there are many ways to excercise without paying for a gym membership–take a walk, get weights from the thrift store, buy a jump rope, etc. The gym is not necessary for good health.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with luxuries. I have plenty of them myself–we all do. But if you’re deep in debt, or can’t pay your bills, or just want to buck up savings, the first thing you have to do is divide necessities (food, shelter, water) from extras. And the problem is that some people don’t seem to know what is and is not a luxury. We are so used to seeing extras as part of life that when it comes to getting finances under control, we keep paying for them even when we can’t afford them.

Here are a few luxuries people sometimes confuse with necessities:

Cable TV–As mentioned above, TV is an extra that can really add up. People regularly pay $1,200 a year on cable.

Cell Phones–Sometimes cell phones are a necessity, but judging by how much people pay for their iPhones, there are data plans and other extras that can be cut.

Pets–I would never tell someone to give up their pet, but some people take on animals when they can barely pay their bills. Even a little furry creature can be a luxury.

Soda/Junk Food–These things, while fun, are not part of the nutrition we need to live, and so are extras in the food bill.

Alcohol–Much like soda/junk food, alcohol is far, far from a necessity in life.

Gym Membership–As I mentioned, there are free ways to exercise.

Cars–Paying for two cars when you can get by with one, buying a gas-guzzler because it’s more fun or convenient, or leasing an expensive luxury car are all ways that a car (often a necessity) turns into a luxury.

What other luxuries do people confuse with necessities?

Last October, someone left a bottle of cheap red wine at my house. It was too gross to drink. I thought of freezing it or cooking with it, but there was too much of it for that. And yet I didn’t want to pour it down the drain, in part because this is hardly the first time this has happened to me. For some reason, I often end up with cheap bottles of wine that no one wants to drink.

Then it occurred to me: since I had a free source of wine, why not turn it into a free source of vinegar instead?

I looked up making vinegar and discovered it takes is something called Mother of Vinegar. This is a bacteria that eats the alcohol and converts it to vinegar.

There are different mothers for different vinegars–in this case, because I had red wine, I would need a red wine mother. You can make vinegar without the Mother of Vinegar (more on that in a moment), but it takes longer. I purchased Mother of Vinegar from a local hobby store for $8. You can also buy it online.

To make the vinegar, I combined 2 cups of wine, 1 cup of water, and the mother in a sterilized 5-gallon jar. Then, because the vinegar needs air to convert, I covered it with a cheesecloth and a rubber band to keep the dirt out, like so:

I stored it in a dark place for three months. At the end of that time, I had vinegar.

Over the three months the Mother of Vinegar had turned into this weird, gel-like stuff that you can reuse to make more vinegar. So after I decanted the exiting vinegar, I added more cheap red wine and started a second batch.

Here are the pros of making your own vinegar:

* It tastes better. The homemade vinegar has a rich depth of flavor that is remarkable considering the cheapness of the wine. It will be great in cooking, salad dressings, and anything else that calls for vinegar.

* It’s easy. Combine everything in a clean jar, cover, and wait. Simple.

* I have a never-ending supply of vinegar. I can keep making vinegar for as long as I want–all I have to do is keep adding more wine, waiting three months, and decanting.

* It’s frugal. I paid $8 for the Mother and everything else I used was free. Considering that I can reuse the Mother, it will quickly pay for itself. Even if you don’t have a regular source of free wine like I do, wine can be bought for as low as $2.

I was so pleased with my red wine vinegar, I decided to make apple cider vinegar, this time without buying the mother. A friend had an old bottle of apple cider vinegar with bits of naturally formed Mother floating around in it. I combined it with homemade apple cider and put it in a jar with cheesecloth over the lid.

In a couple of months, we’ll see if I have apple cider vinegar too.

Here’s a video on making vinegar that shows you the Mother of Vinegar. I like that the woman reuses the wine bottle–I wish I had thought of that.

No money for a grandfather clock? Just draw one on the wall like this image from Molly Stern’s house tour on Apartment Therapy. It’s a playful and fun way to display a clock.

I love this Squirrel Tape Dispenser. So cute! $18.

This is a great use for old jeans: turn them into jeans for your child.

Abby at Things For Boys made a pattern out of a cereal box and cut the jeans for her son’s pants out of her old pants.

Then she sewed them up, using a piece of elastic for the waist. Looks great!

The cat box has been an eye sore in my bathroom for awhile now. Just look at it.

With Savvy Junior veering toward crawling soon (and getting into things), I wanted something that would cover the cat box, look nice in the room, and double as a bench.

The problem was that our cat box was too wide for most furniture designed to cover cat boxes. I looked all over at chests, baskets, and boxes that I could cut a hole in the side, but nothing worked. They were either too big for the space or too expensive.

So I asked my dad to make me one as a Christmas present, and he did! Here it is.

I’m happy with it. It matches the dark stain we’re using in the bathroom and fits perfectly beside the toilet. It has no bottom, so it simply sits over the box. When we want to change the cat box, we either lift the cover off entirely, or lift the lid.

The cats seem to like it, too.

Now to tackle a better way to store toilet paper…

Happy New Year!

2012 was a humdinger of a year for my family, but when it gets down to naming what specifically happened, things can get blurry. So in 2013, I’m going to do this project I heard about on Facebook: a New Year’s jar.

Every time something good happens, you write it down on a piece of paper and put it in the jar. Then at the end of the year, you go through the jar and remember all the good things that happened.

Sounds fun, don’t you think?

[Courtesy]

Merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful holiday.

Blogging will resume in the New Year.

You guys, Pickled Brussels Sprouts! I am fascinated.

They suggest you put them in a martini. I think I would just snack on them.

If you have pickled before, these do not look hard to make.

Brussels Sprouts are in season. I want to try this.

Here are 5 Cool Gift Wrap Ideas for Christmas, many of which are useful if you’re running low on wrapping paper:

Use a paper bag and the last of the wrapping paper to make a gift bag.

Country Living shows you how to dress up a package wrapped in newspaper with this cool blossom topper.

Wrap a package in a brown paper bag and dress it up with a typographic name cut out of newspaper.

Santa Claus Belt! I wish I’d seen this earlier. I had red paper exactly like that.

Out of bows? Draw them on instead. I am doing this one next year when I send presents in the mail.