"A cheap, healthy drink"

I remember when I was a kid, the only refreshments that we could afford was good ole Kool-Aid even though soda pop wasn't as expensive as it is today, being one of nine kids, our mother found a cheap drink to serve us all. I no longer drink sugar laced drinks, artificial sweeteners, or use honey. I don't care for drinks that contain additives that I can't pronounce. For the last five years I enjoy the taste of fresh brewed tea. I have grown accustomed to having my tea by itself with no sugars or anything. Teas are one of the most cheap healthy drinks to have. My very favorite is green tea. There are so my benefits of drinking green tea. I have found that my cholesterol and blood pressure has dropped tremendously since I started drinking my tea. I no longer need blood pressure medicines. I enjoy sitting by the fire, just gazing, meditating and relaxing. It's so easy to get lost in a beautiful fire. Oh by the way, the weather here is in the 60's, so it was a good reason to light the fireplace. This is the first lighting of the fireplace and that means it is officially fall. Anyway, back to the tea talk. You can save so much money by giving up the artificial sugary drinks, including the sodas. Just think of all the sugar you are ingesting in one bottle. So how much sugar is in a bottle of soda? Well, most bottles of soda are 20 ounces. 20 ounces has 69 grams, divide by 4, and it means there's 17-and-one-quarter sugar packets in a 20 oz soda bottle. No wonder it makes you hyper. Try choosing tea for a change and watch how much money you will save. Be frugal and live like a queen!

Under the pile, I found a treasure

Last year I ventured out to an estate sale. First of all, the parking was a bear, but I came prepared to walk far and hard. I was wearing my lucky Keds sport shoes. God I love these tennis shoes. I should do a commercial about keds tennis shoes. I wore these things all summer. OK, back to what I was going to say. Anywho, I had to walk about a block. The house was big and beautiful. It sat in one of the upscale areas in St. Louis. There were as many people in the house as there were items. I decided that I wanted to venture upstairs to look for linen. To my surprise there were not as many people there wanting to look through the piles of linen. Under one of the pile of linen I found this beautiful old lace tablecloth. I loved it. There was no tag on it, so I decided to hang on to it. When I asked the lady how much she wanted for it, she said $15. At this point I knew I was going to do some bartering with her. I said, "There are a few holes in it, how about $5". She said, "OK". I was happy to have this tablecloth for my table. I was smiling like a cheshire cat. She did say that it was really old and that her mother had it for awhile. She said that her mother had passed away. I asked her if she was sure that she wanted to get rid of it since it was her mother's. She said that she had no problem with getting rid of it and she was sure that her mother would want to see it being put to use instead of never being used at all. I knew I had a good deal and decided to leave the holes in the cloth. I just simply left it the way that I bought it. It made the cloth seem so authentic and old. I do put the tablecloth to use. It comes out every fall and stays on the table until the spring of the following year. I also bring it out on special occasions. I treasure the tablecloth and the story of where I got it from. Something so simple and beautiful for only $5. I got a great deal. Remember, when you go to these estate sales, sometimes the seller just want to get done, and may come down on the prices. Never be afraid to go low. Until next time, be frugal and live like a queen!

"If I must die, let me die in the fall"

Fall is my favorite time of the year. That's why I need to talk about fall. It is so beautiful this time of the year. That's why I say, "If I must die, let me die in the fall. (That was my poetic self speaking). As I started putting the summer clothes in the back of the closet and pulling out the blankets, knitted scarves, gloves and hats, I reflect on what I love most about this time of the year. I remember as a kid walking through the leaves that had fallen to the ground and loving the rustling sound that they made. As an adult I still love doing that. I love the changing of the leaves, the blooming mums and the crisp air. I love getting out the sweaters, snuggling and drinking hot chocolate. I think about the luxury of a nice warm bath. I love the drive to wine country on the winding roads here in Missouri, the landscape is to die for. The beautiful colors of pumpkins and the sweet aroma of homemade apple pie brings a smile to my face and the comfort that I find in a simple cup of hot tea...priceless! Fall is the season for trick or treating and giving thanks. This is the time of year that we gather the harvest from all the hard work and celebrate the season with the ones that we love. It's the time to share a laugh or two with a friend or to extend a helping hand to those who are in need. Remember to count your blessings and give thanks for what you have. Until next time, be frugal and live like a queen.

Tall Side Table

A year ago my husband and I where out riding around in new subdivisions, because I love walking through display homes to get ideas for designing and making my own frugal version of things that I see and like. Well this particular day I noticed a tall table in the master bedroom next to the bed. The table displayed fake family pictures, (remember I am in a display house)and the cover for the table was a beautiful red material with gold tones in it. I decided that I wanted to look under the skirt of the table (because I am nosey) and see what kind of table it was (since there was no one else in the room with us). Well! To my surprise the table was made out of 2x2's and had a pressed particle board top. I immediately looked at my husband, before I could say anything, he says, "I know, you want to go to the Home Depot or Lowe's on the way home". I smile that famous lovely smile of mine and said, "yes dear". We ended up at Home Depot where I found some precut round 24 inch particle board for the top of the table and 2x2's for the legs. The table stand 35 inches tall. We made four legs with the 2x2's and used four 14 inch pieces for each leg for support to make the table sturdy. You may want to use your own designs for this table. This is my quick and easy version. For the table top and material to make the legs, I did not spend over $15. Ok, we made the table, and had no idea what I was going to cover it with. So the table sat naked for a long time. Lets fast forward to four months, that's right, the table sat for 4 months without a dress on. One day, while watching my favorite soap, Days Of Our Lives, I noticed this beautiful burgundy curtain at Stefano Dimera's house (one of the characters on the show) in the background. The burgundy was sooo rich looking with the gold tones. Guess what, you are not going to believe this! I found the same exact curtain panel at the Goodwill three weeks later for $4! I almost screamed out loud. Tell me that the get a great deal gods were not with me! I was so excited about the find. The smile on my face...priceless. Anywho, I found another red curtain that I used for the top of the table. Even though it is a different color of red, it was prefect. The whole project was under $25. So look at the picture and tell me how you like my table. Until next time, be frugal and live like a queen!

Four Dollar Pillows

I love pillows! It's one of the quickest and cheapest ways to accessorize any room when you want to make a change, or add a pop of color. Anywho, recently I walked into my reading room and decided that my boring pillows needed to be dressed up a little bit. I decided to take a trip to one of my favorite stores, the goodwill. This was one of my good find days. I found the most beautiful quilted silver material that was originally a curtain panel. I could only find one, but was happy to have it. I was able to make three large and one small pillow with this material. Two of the large pillows grace my sofa and you see the other two on the chaise in the picture. This long curtain panel cost me $4. I was excited! I could envision the pillows on the sofa and chaise dressed in this material when I was in the store. I love the silky feel and the raised diamonds on the material. I decided to keep searching for more bargains and to my luck I found the red and white material that is in the posted picture. This material was valance panels. I found four pieces and made four pillows. Wow! It cost me under $25 to make eight pillows! Now that's what I call a great deal! If you can sew a straight line, you can do a project like this. I simply sewed three sides of the fabric, put the pillow in and hand sewed the fourth side shut with a needle and thread. This project took me about an hour to do four pillows, then the next day I did four more. Learn to look at material in a different way. Any material that you really like is game for making into a pillow for your sofa, chaise, chair or bed. Take a chance and mix and match colors, designs, and textures. Until next time, "be frugal and live like a queen"!

Summer's Bounty (REVISED)

Summer's Bounty is what I live for. I love getting out in the garden, working hard in the sun, sweating and then for all the hard work, I reap the rewards. Great exercise too! I found that it is so much cheaper to grow my own vegetables. There is something about becoming one with the earth. It's so therapeutic. You take a seed and put it in the ground and these beautiful edible creatures come up, that's when you smile and think, "I did this, I actually grew my own veggies", and then you taste it. That's when you know that you have had a piece of heaven! I was so excited the first time that we got tomatoes to grow, I literally did the happy dance. That's when we decided to try a few more things. Before I knew it we had cucumbers, basil, sage, rosemary, spearmint, egg plants, sweet green peppers,string beans, cabbage, broccoli, and collards. Wow! This was so delicious! It gets addicting. You start thinking,"what else can I grow". If you don't have a yard, try growing something in a pot. The great thing about growing you own veggies, you know where they come from. Nothing gets more frugal than growing your own and you eat like a queen.
I have also tried composting. Its a great way to nourish your garden with it's own scrap and guess what, we actually had three additional tomatoe plants that came up on their own from scraps we buried the previous year. Those tomatoes tasted even better and looked redder than the ones that we had planted. I took a tin trash can, put tiny holes in it all the way around so that oxygen can allow the compost to decompose. This project was so easy. If I can do this anybody can. This is a fun and easy way to go green. Try getting the family in on it and just think of all the money that you save at the grocery store.

Introduction

Hi Everyone,

This is Lee and this is my official first blog. First, I would like to tell you why I am 1 Frugal Queen. Like everyone else, I want to stretch my dollars and get the most for my money, especially in this day and time. Like most Americans we too have to be careful with our money and how we spend it. I like to think that I have been frugal for years and wanted to share some of my ideas with others. I hope that you find my blogs helpful, and informative with a little sense of humour. I found that you can be frugal, not spend a lot of money and still be happy and content. I started out going to the good will, consignment shops, thift stores, estate sales and garage sales to find my bargains. I realized that this was heaven for me to find the bargains that I now treasure without feeling like I broke the bank. The more good finds that I found, my husband was very impressed. Now he also enjoys accompanying me to the venues that I go to for my searches. My husband had already started calling me queen as a pet name and I knew that I was always frugal with most things that I did, so I put the two together and came up with 1 Frugal Queen. I feel that I can practice being frugal and still feel like I'm living like a queen. Here I will share with you lots of ideas so that you too can become 1 Frugal Queen...or King.