How to save money by brewing your own wine

     I was pretty excited to find grape juice available at the big box store near my house again. It has been sold out for months, but obviously November is a month where surplus abounds in the world of frozen concentrate.

     "Frozen concentrate grape juice?" you gasp in shock.

     Yes frozen concentrate grape juice. I had previously read that you couldn't use it to make wine, but I have since disproved that to be a myth. It certainly does ferment and well. 

Each frozen concentrate grape juice container makes approximately 48 ounces or one quart of juice once rehydrated. Cost per quart $1.86. Cost per gallon $7.44. 

      You will also need one packet of winemakers yeast, though I have heard that you can use breadmaking yeast. I should do a post about that experiment sometime. Amazon has champagne yeast $7.99 for 10 packs, cost per pack is $0.79.

      You will also need a fermenting bucket or carboy and an airlock. These are not different from the beer brewing supplies and so are cheaper to buy them that way. They are one time purchases and pay for themselves after a few batches.

     Place the room temperature grape juice in the brew bucket. Add yeast. One packet of yeast will brew about 5 gallons of wine. No need to stir. Put the airlock on. Wait 2+ weeks.

     Total cost for one gallon of wine equals an astounding $8.24! Beat that, box wine. Plus, since you didn't add any sulfates or problems the homemade wine is a lot more natural than the storebought bottled wines.

Save money by making popcorn from scratch at home!

     When I was a kid, my family was given a hot air popcorn machine, and I was fascinated by it. It was loud, and hot, and hot pocorn shot out of the side into your waiting bowl. After we had played with it a few dozen times, I finally figured out that the machine was basically a hair dryer shooting hot air over the kernels until they popped. Cool engineering, but not very energy efficient. Heck, nowadays I don't own a hair dryer and I don't own a popcorn machine. 

     Later they invented microwaved bagged popcorn, and I have to admit that I used to love to eat this. As an adult, I never eat this! They are loaded with polyunsaturated fat and salt, which none of us should be eating. So I went on a quest to make the perfect home popcorn with no additives.

     I tried to cook popcorn on the stove. Several messes later I decided maybe microwaving would be better. I set no less than two hand towels on fire in the microwave until I discovered this technique.

     Find your favorite covered glass dish, whether new from the store or used from the thrift store. Cover the bottom of the dish with one layer of kernels. Add a dash of your favorite oil and spices if desired. Cover dish with its lid (not a towel) and put in the microwave on high for 4 to 5 minutes. Each dish and microwave varies, so you will want to work with your setup until you find the exact sweet time to pop about ninety percent of the kernels without burning the rest. In my 1.5 quart dish from Walmart it is exactly 5 minutes. Use towels to protect hands when removing from microwaving, take off lid and let cool, and then done! My kids like salt added, spices, honey, and other things. I like plain.

These prices are from the Walmart website.

PopSecret family pack 12 packages for $6.18, cost per serving $0.52.

Popcorn from scratch, cost of additives negligible, Great Value Yellow Popping Corn 32 ounces, serving per container approximately 13 of the 4 tablespoon size, $2.28, cost per serving $0.18.

     After mathing this up, it is clearly better to make popcorn from scratch and have no added chemicals. As a bonus, the kernels last for years whereas the popcorn bags go bad in less than one. The first time I tried to cook up old gross popsecret was probably the last time I cooked up bags of popcorn.

     I bought this dish many years ago from Walmart. Im surprised I haven't broken it, considering how often it I used and how my house is the place glassware goes to die. Thy have a similarly sized glass dishes with lids for about $30. Or better yet shop your thrift stores.

     By the way, you can't pop dent corn sold as animal feed. It's unpopable. Read all about that here.

Roth IRA Conversion Ladders

      I definitely need to learn more about this idea. I really like the concept that you can withdraw at any time to help pay for health insurance costs.

https://www.investopedia.com/how-roth-conversion-ladder-works-5214808

     Over the years, I have been religiously placing the maximum amount of after tax money into Roth IRAs, which I had thought was the smartest thing to do. As long as it sits in an account somewhere for I believe 5 years, you may withdraw the bulk of it to use as you please. In the past I have only ever withdrawn the money once, and that was to pay down on my mortgage. Some would say that was a bad move, but ultimately it set me up a lot closer to my financial goals than you would think. And if you figure out what your future costs of living are going to be, then you can set yourself up to withdraw that amount every year. Or most of the amount.

     Recently I learned about the Roth IRA conversion, which is a way to move money out of a 401k (pretax money) and into a Roth IRA (post tax money). Why would you want to do this, as you are going to be taxed on the distribution as if it were income? The truth is that you wouldn't want to do this move if you were working and earning income, as it would raise your taxes. You would want to do this if you are retiring early and have no income, but you want to use your 401k money to live off of. You would withdraw just the money you need to live from for each year, then it must be held in the Roth IRA account for 5 years to avoid penalties. During the first 5 years you would have to live off some of your other invested money before your 401k turned Roth IRA money becomes available. And each year you would rollover another future year of living expenses to be held for 5 years and then used. Doing this conversion does incur income tax burden, meaning, you will have to pay income tax on it as if it is income.

     Sometimes it can help to see some numbers associated with something like this. Here is a graphic I found on the web, this assumes your annual expenses are about $50k. I have already worked out my potential future annual expenses assuming I don't move and don't have a car Mr. Moneymoustasche style, is about $10k, with the bulk of that being the cost of health insurance and food.

     I find this trick to be ingenious, as you are not normally allowed to take any distributions from your 401k until age 55, as long as that is your current job you are retiring from, or 59 1/2 otherwise. 

     I tried calling my 401k company and rolling out some of my money into a self directed IRA or conversion, but they wouldn't let me! They said I was too young. But they also said if I was a former employee I could do whatever with the money. Way to go, hospital organization, why don't we just encourage healthcare workers to leave by holding their 401k money hostage and not allowing them diversified investments? Whoops was that out loud?

Do Ducks Eat Shrimp Tails?

 

     They absolutely do love to eat raw shrimp tails and shrimp peels.

Utilizing Food Waste on the Homestead

      The kids have been driving me crazy lately with what they will eat and what they won't eat. Literally worsened by the idea that their other family just gives them whatever they want, even going so far as to leave the house to drive to get takeout for them. Obviously I am not a fan of this kind of thing, nor am I a fan of encouraging picky eating. So I decided in my frustration to just start cooking whatever I want for myself, and if they don't like it then they can make themselves sandwiches. Mmm... sandwiches.

     The high prices of foods have also changed my life. I used to shop at the good grocery store that had everything, now I shop at two stores to save money, Walmart and Sav a Lot. I particularly enjoy how Sav a Lot has a huge Latin section with dried peppers, tortillas, and many other staples being really inexpensive. One day at Sav a Lot the freezer section had a big bag of frozen whole tilapia, very cheap. Of course, I knew that I wasn't going to get much usable meat from those little fishes, but it was kind of an experiment too, as I wanted to see if the cats would dig in. 

     I got the fish home and defrosted them, the my oldest saw them in the fridge. She, of course, hates me and everything about my life as she is a teeny ager right now. She looked at me like I was absolutely crazy when she found the fish. But then she offered to do the gutting and skinning which she wasn't too bad at. It turns out you have to have a really good knife for skinning, which I have since picked up from Walmart for a few dollars. 

     So the skin and heads and tails and fins all went into a bowl for the cats. Another thing I learned from this experiment is that my male cat who loves ham, sliced turkey, and cat treats will not eat fresh fish; my female cat who loves ham and bits of chicken, will eat fresh fish. She will only eat three small bites before she is full though. I should retry this picky eating with two hungry cats who have had an empty food dish for a few hours.  🤔

     I put the rest of the fish pieces outside for the ducks to eat, which they quite enjoyed. And I learned that the ducks love fish but they prefer it to be cut into bite sized pieces. The heads, which I had not cut up, stayed in the dish for a while before they disappeared into the compost. I don't think they ever did get eaten. But the fins and tail and spine all got eaten.

      So now I deliberately buy foods that have waste so I can feed it to the ducks or rabbits. For example, did you know ducks like to eat shrimp peels and tails? Who knew. And the rabbits absolutely love banana peels, orange rinds, and apple cores. These guys turn waste foods into compost.

Rabbit Forage in Florida

      I get quite a few questions from people asking me what I feed my rabbits, especially after they find out that I feed them almost completely out of my yard. 

     Keep in mind that I live in the deep deep south on the west side of Florida. Most of the year I have some kind of green stuff to give them, even if it is just grass. 

     I don't knowingly give them plants that I know to be toxic, like pokeweed, poinsettia, amaryllis, ferns, cherry laurel, 4 o'clock, croton, and crinum, though I do have those in my yard.

Grasses

     When I feed grass, I always try to offer a higher protein feed with it, like my go-to water hyacinth, which I like to refer to as the alfalfa of the South. 

     - Bahia grass

     - Papyrus

     - Elephant grass, also called Napier grass

     - Sedge

     - Crabgrass

Herbs

     Rabbits can eat everything we can eat and more. These plants are seasonal, and they may have a whole bunch of one plant on one day and then a whole bunch of another plant the next day. They have no digestive issues, despite what you might read online when it comes to varying up diets.

     - Mulberry

     - Pear

     - Hibiscus including Chinese and Turks Cap

     - Roses including thorns

     - Grape leaves

     - American Beautyberry

     - Loquat

     - Gingers, including False Cardamom, Shell, and Shampooo

     - Cannas

     - Perennial Peanut

     - Daisies, especially Spanish Needle

     - Tradescantia species, including Spiderwort, Purple Heart, and Small Leaved Tradescantia

     - Sages, including Tropical Sage and Swamp Sage

     - Hoja Santa

     - Copperleaf

     - Spanish Bayonet

     - Citrus anything including Lemon with thorns, Tangerines

     - Sprouted Dent Corn

Other stuff 

     There are a few plants that they can eat, but maybe they don't like so much. These are what they eat last or not at all.

     - Sago Palm

     - African Honeysuckle

     - Agave

     - Sycamore leaves in the fall

     They get some human food too. My family once asked me why I dont have a compost bin. The reason is because the rabbits eat most human foods, but I don't feed them meat or oily things, not that I have a lot of that around to throw away. 

     - Apple cores 

     - Pear cores

     - Banana peels

     - Orange and Lemon peels

     - Limp fennel

     - Basil,  Cilantro, and herbs that have been forgotten 

     - Pepper tops with seeds

     - Uneaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

     - Dry or weird bread

     - Leftover plain popcorn

There's Something Going On With The Economy

      The other day I was at a big box store on the west side of the adjacent county, which is where I work now. And I was looking to see if they had jalapeño or red pepper jelly, which is wayyy better than normal jelly for your great American traditional sandwich, the peanut butter and jelly. Or as my kiddo said when she was little, the belly jelly sandwich.

     The store did have pepper jelly, but it was oddly sold out of normal flavors of jelly, like your standard grape and strawberry. Even gone was my other favorite, blackberry. Apple butter was gone. Oddly apricot and mint were there. And hot pepper.

     Most of the peanut butter was also sold out, but the more expensive brands were there, plus the few jars of store brand. Not a jif in sight.

     Then I noticed that all the store brand cheap bread was bought out, but there was plenty of Nature's Own, now $4 a bag. And plenty of that disgusting Sara Lee bread.

     I'm not sure if it's a reflection of our economy or the high homelessness on that side of the county. Or both. 

Grapple Part 1

 

     Having noticed that the organic apple juice that I have been occasionally buying is nonexistant in the grocery stores right now, I decided to try the Welch's grape juice concentrate method of making homemade wine. I remember years ago when I first started learning about homebrewing that you could make a subpar wine this way, but I also remember reading from a homebrewing book that you couldn't ferment any juice with ascorbic acid in it because that preservative inhibits yeast formation. So, I never did try it until now.

     There is a homebrewing store near my house but I have never been in it. One time I wanted to pop in and see what they offered but the woman running the store made me stand out in the heat with the kids for what seemed like minutes while she secured her yappy dog. So I turned around and left. After I tied everyone into their car seats she came to my window and apologized for having to secure her therapy dog. 

     This blend of grapple is seven juice concentrates of grape and one gallon of organic apple. I figure even if the grape doesn't ferment it will still taste pretty good.

     It's the most active ferment I have ever made, with bubbles rising and the airlock pinging on day one. I even took a video. The glass of the carboy is not very clear so forgive the quality.

Imitation Starbucks Egg Bites

• 3 cups egg whites or 8 large eggs
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup roasted red peppers, diced
• 1 cup spinach, finely chopped
• 1 cup monterey jack or cheddar cheese, shredded

Blend the eggs and cottage cheese together, then add this and the rest of the ingredients to the greased silicone molds. Bake at 325 for one hour or until egg whites are set.

     While I was making this recipe I realized that I no longer had any muffin tins for some reason. So I had to use the use the silicone molds, and cook and eat the rest of the mix immediately, which wasn't bad at all. I didn't have any spinach or peppers, so mine were just duck eggs, cottage cheese, and shredded cheese. And it was surprisingly good.

Would the pet cats eat baby rabbits if they were hungry?

     With the current inflation rate being predicted to be at 15%, I can't help but question my spending habits. I'm trying not to have a mentality of scarcity, as I am happily employed, but I have been rethinking all of my spending in light of my long term goals, which are to hopefully retire early, preferably away from the city, and sell plants. And grow my own food of course.

     I used to have pet parrots, and they were wonderful, but expensive and hard to keep up the maintenance with. Now I have pet ducks, which surprisingly, are providing quite a bit of eggs, which I have been enjoying. They are paying for themselves. But they require quite a bit of maintenance as they need their water to be clean.

     And I started breeding the rabbits again, I need to use their manure creating abilities to help me with the garden. I also thought that they could be eaten at some point, but now that they are small, I wonder if they could be cat food. Or if I could make baby rabbits to create cat food.

     What would you do if you couldn't buy cat or dog food anymore? Or if you had to choose between nutritious food for you and good pet food for the animals? I suspect that a lot more people would stop buying cat and dog food and start giving them people food. Or perhaps baby rabbits and duck eggs?