Episode 665 - Homemade Holiday Gift Ideas

Today we talk about some homemade holiday gift ideas put together by the Holler Neighbors for this year.

Today's Sponsor, Paul Wheaton of Wheaton Labs and Permies.com

Love listening to podcasts? Check out Paul Wheaton's huge bundle of podcasts, videos, and stuff so you can learn all about permaculture from The Duke of Permaculture himself!

 

https://permies.com/link/lftn

 

Livestream Schedule

• 9:30CT Tuesday Live with Jack Spirko and John Willis, TBD LINK
• Friday Homestead Happenings will be at 2pm (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-dYtvlhFjo)
• LFTN Weekly Mail
• LFTN Spring Workshop Presale Dec 17 at 9am

 

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

• Cow is safely in the freezer
• Meal plan by broken vacuum seal
• VakPakIt brand Vacuum Sealer Update (No longer recommend and why)
• Cruisin' through the canned goods (Almost out of stewed tomatoes, using green beans)
• Still need to do the year end resupply and the Cozi Tool I use

 

Weekly Shopping Report from Joe

 

There's likely to be yucky weather off and on all weekend, so we went during a pause in precipitation this afternoon (Saturday). Friday evening, however, a lot of the pumps at the Weigel's I use most often were bagged. I went to my secondary choice, and it was fine. A gallon of untainted regular had dropped to $3.999; this was at both stations.

 

Today's first stop was Dollar Tree. The drink coolers were in better shape, but still had a lot of empty spaces. They had lots of canned goods, but we didn't see any of the lentils we've previously seen there, and the only beans were Northern White. We hadn't bought any lentils in a while, so I don't know if they've been missing for longer. The store was otherwise normally stocked. It was also busier than we've often seen it, especially for a poor-weather day.

 

Home Depot was next. Every open area had islands with a lot of smaller items. The prices looked reasonable. We found the couple of items we wanted without difficulty. A 2x4x8 remains at $3.75.

 

Aldi was last. We found everything on our list, including heavy cream (at least two boxes in the cooler). Stock everywhere looked good. They have more of that generically-packed chicken.

 

Frugality Tip from Christina

I find myself traveling quite a bit. Recently, I found myself on the road without good coffee (gasp!!!). Long story short - and leaving out the scary days of gas station coffee - I went to the store and bought a pack of coffee filters for $1.50 and a cheap coffee grinder. Someone could do this without the coffee grinder by also buying pre-ground coffee but I had a couple pounds of whole bean bouncing around the truck. I took out my trusty Coleman thermos, put a coffee filter in the top so it was hanging over an inch or so then filled it with coffee. I heated water and poured it through the filter. Voila! Redneck pour-over coffee. Hope this helps someone! I've learned so much from you and this community. I'm grateful to have a chance to give back.

 

Operation Independence

• Turned a corner from panic minimums to progress

 

Main topic of the Show: Homemade Holiday Gift Ideas

 

Past episodes on this topic:

• https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2016/12/12/episode-15-five-country-holiday-gift-ideas/
• https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2017/10/23/episode-54-five-homemade-holiday-gift-ideas/
• https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2018/08/27/christmas-gift-ideas-emotions-winter-preparation/
• https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2019/08/28/four-christmas-gift-ideas-to-start-now/
• https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/2020/10/21/four-homemade-gift-ideas/

 

Why homemade?

Thoughts on the expectations surrounding gifts 

Declare independence from debt, but have fun gifting people

Toxicity and gifts

 

Ideas

• Pine shaving ornaments (Reference)
• Preserved lemons and decorated jar (10 lemons, ½ cup salt, water or lemon juice to pack) Clean lemons, put 2 tbsp salt in quart jar, cut lemons into a blooming onion in quarters, sprinkle with salt, pack, press, fill with liquid, seal and refrigerate)
• Juniper berries (Or other spices)
• Handmade walking stick
• Homemade granola (reference)
• Homemade tea blend in mason jar, or in a decorative bag with a tea infuser

 

Make it a great week!

 

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

 

Community

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Advisory Board

• The Booze Whisperer
• The Tactical Redneck
• Chef Brett
• Samantha the Savings Ninja

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

• Harvest Right Affiliate Link