Fresh Eggs Daily in 3 Detailed Steps

What if, instead of "reinventing" leftovers, you could convert them to brand new food? Believe it or not, it can be done even in most urban backyards with the help of some feathered friends. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to start keeping backyard chickens.

1. Check Local Ordinances on Backyard Chicken-Keeping

I realize not everyone can have chickens, but the urban chicken-keeping movement sure makes it easier to have a couple of hens in a backyard coop. While city ordinances may restrict the number of chickens you can have (check with the city before you go all chicken-crazy), your coop design and whether or not your girls can free-range, kitchen scraps are a great way to keep chickens occupied and recycle those scraps. You give chickens scraps like wilted lettuce, slimy berries and moldy bread, and they'll give you back a protein source that is rich in antioxidants and long-chain fatty acids. That's a trade you can't beat.

2. Select the Right Breed for Your Climate and Needs

Mother Earth News has a great Pickin' Chicken App for iPhone to help you select your breed. Also, Tractor Supply Company stores now carry heritage-breed chicks in partnership with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, which I think is a great cause aimed at preserving America's heritage breeds. The stores carry pamphlets with information about all the heritage breeds they'll be stocking during their Chick Days each spring. Select birds that are appropriate for your setup, and do plenty of research and preparation before you bring your girls home. Local feed store owners are an excellent resource for which chicks are the most popular in your area. They're also fantastic resources for local feed and emergency help.

3. Let's Pick Up Chicks

Love them, feed them, and name them George, and in just half a year or so, VOILA! Insert scraps, collect fresh eggs in the morning. It's a win-win.

(Note: Some people think chickens shouldn't eat meat, which I think is crazy since chickens are omnivores. But, your chickens will eat what you give them. It's totally up to you, so do your own research.)

Using bulk buys to cut the grocery budget

It's not that we eat tuna all that regularly. It's not that I'm prepping for the zombie apocalypse. It's just that, when I find that deal that's so good I have to post it on Facebook (you know you've done it), I don't ever buy a sensible amount. I buy almost everything on the shelf.

There's a little controversy surrounding stock-up buys. Some people say it's not fair for one person to buy two cases of tuna because it's a loss leader at 2/$1. I say, since when is life fair? Everyone else should have gotten there sooner, because my pantry will be stocked with cheap food for as long as I can keep it that way (50 cents for a 5.5 oz can of tuna is a protein source at less than 10 cents an ounce). When I find that once-a-year deal, I have to be able to pay for it, and that's where a stock-up fund comes in handy. It's the cushion that allows you to buy your normal grocery budget while stocking up on the occasional awesome deal. Normally, $100 is a good amount to budget for unexpected windfalls, but if you can set aside more, that's even better. These are the sales that will get your grocery spending down further than you ever imagined was possible, so don't be shy – buy everything you are comfortable buying. Store it under a bed or a couch if you run out of room in the kitchen.

Of course, spotting these super awesome deals means knowing your prices and/or carrying your price book. Hubs glanced away for a moment at the grocery store last week and was SHOCKED, I tell ya, when he looked back and saw me loading 10 pounds of butter into the cart. I explained, gently, that butter is a staple and staples don't ever go on sale, so 30 cents off is a big deal for butter (which is yet another thing that freezes beautifully). If I had a decent sized deep freeze, I would have gotten three times as much as I did: it was the cheapest I had ever seen it. I'm still kicking myself for only bagging up seven pounds of free mangoes at the local Mexican market last week. D'oh!

Some women brag about some fancy shoes they got for 10 percent off. I brag about a year's worth of coffee for $54, or two months' supply of milk for $5 (freezes!). My shoes, by the way, are $120 shoes that someone got a "great deal" on, then wore twice and sold to me for 50 cents at a garage sale.

Project: Salvage-Style kitchen island for less than 30 bucks

OK, I'll admit it. I have a lot of pet peeves. People who say, “libary.” Misspellings or incorrect punctuation in advertisements (I will never shop there). Shipping film left on electronic devices and appliances (eek!! Must...peel...).

But maybe my biggest pet peeve is people who claim they're selling something frugal, because it's a bold-faced lie. Frugal can't be bought, that's the whole POINT. If you have to buy something to call yourself frugal, thrifty, or any other popular label floating around cheapo-world these days, go ahead.

But I don't have to like it.

Case in point: I got an e-mail from a home improvement warehouse that sometimes offers good tips or pretty pictures I can get ideas from. Their big sell this time? “Salvage Style Kitchens.” They take stock cabinetry and make it look funky by adding ginormous wood corbels to kitchen islands, “distressing” the paint to make it look old and worn, and then charging three times more than they would normally (it was seriously like $1,400 - I snorted!). Really? Like any self-respecting trash picker would pay $125 each for mismatched milking stools that aren't even the same size. We'd use the stuff if someone gave it to us or we found it on the curb, but why on Earth would I spend thousands of dollars on stuff I can find and/or make for nearly free?

"Salvage style" $22 kitchen island, made out of two free bathroom vanities. Note super-stylish salvage bar stool at right, next to the dog's bowl, which came with the dog.

I must be way ahead of this trend, because my entire home is in true “salvage style,” which I love because it's free or nearly-free. My kitchen island is fast becoming the latest object of my affection. Right after we moved into this house, I saw an ad on Craigslist for two free bathroom vanities. The Most Awesome Goat Rancher I Know helped me load them up and get them home, and I put them in the kitchen, back-to-back. Mr. Rancher then built a custom-made top for my cabinet island, and it became functional. My boys and I recently (finally) painted the whole base a soft green (paint was given to us), and I (finally) installed some hardware I bought two years ago at an actual salvage store. Total cost for my island: $22. Now if I can just decide whether to use tile or laminate on top, it'll be finished.

Guess I'll be watching the curbs to see what turns up...

Plan a Break From Frugal Fatigue

We all have different goals for the money we're struggling to save, and sometimes those goals change as they get closer. Our goal was to survive at first. When we mastered survival on one income, we began paying down years of debt (credit cards and an expensive truck). Now that the truck is paid off and the credit cards are ancient history, we're working on this little house so we can upgrade sometime soon.

But, before we do, we're gonna lighten up a little.

SMH! Another dinner out??

After all, we don't take vacations, and we don't buy expensive toys except maybe once every three years. So lately, we're taking a “break” from some hard and fast rules of being tightwads. Some people need breaks from being squeaky, and I get it. I'm married to one. And, I'd totally be lying if I said I didn't love going out to dinner once in a while. It hurts my frugal heart to pay the bill, but when it's time to lighten up, it's just time. That time, for us, is summertime.

I'll just make up for it secretly in other ways. Like, feeding my family what we're growing instead of buying veggies. Like, stocking the freezer with a few extra roosters and getting creative with eggs. I'm not scared of you, summertime spending – just let me take a deep breath and set my goals aside to review later. I'm jumping in! (sort of)

Hey! Find us on Facebook and Twitter. We get downright silly, for a bunch of cheapos. Plus, you'll get stream-of-consciousness tips as I think of them, moment by moment! Well, I usually think of one a week, and I may or may not remember to post it. There's always a chance, though! - Becky

Cheep, cheeper, cheepest: Three phases to the cheapest eggs, ever

There's just nothing better than free stuff, and that's how I got on this whole chicken kick that's taken over our homestead. In my search for cheap protein sources that weren't beans, I learned how complete the protein in eggs is, and how cheap it is per serving. I think for a dozen eggs at the store, when I caught them on sale, they were around 8 cents a piece. Even at regular price, 10 cents for 12 grams of complete protein is nothing to sneeze at. But, I also knew how OLD store eggs are by the time they get there, and I thought if we're doing the fresh-food thing, our eggs should be fresh and free-range, too. (No WAY was I paying $4 a dozen for organic, “cage-free” eggs at the supermarket. That just means they're all shoved into a closed-up barn all together, anyway.)

Phase one of the egg project was a small step: I started buying local eggs at the feed store. People around here whose chickens produce more than they can eat, sell them for $1 a dozen to the feed store. The feed store sells them for $1.70. It messed up my pricing because it wasn't the cheapest, but this concession was worth it to me. I mean, have you ever tasted a fresh egg? No way would I ever buy store-bought eggs again. I am such an egg snob now.

So a few months passed, and sometimes the feed store had eggs and sometimes they didn't. I kept cruising Craigslist's free postings, and came across an ad for two free chickens. Aha! We loaded up and drove 40 minutes to see these chickens, which were what was left of a classroom hatch that a teacher was giving away. She had one of those nifty chicken tractors that allow chickens to free-range just by moving it to new grass every day, and when I complimented it, she said, “Take it.” She gave us feed, feeders, waterers, the chicken tractor, and two young chickens, and that's how we moved into Phase Two of the egg project.

The free tractor coop, with chickens snugly in the upper level during a freak Texas snowstorm.

Our first egg was cause for celebration; we took it to my parents' house, fried it up and everybody had a bite. It was unbelievably awesome. Before long, I found a big coop (free) and raised my own baby chicks that I bought at the feed store when I bought eggs one day (Enter: Phase Three). We've had lots of chickenish adventures and chicken poop on the front porch every day, but the best part is having so many awesome, free-range eggs that I've been giving them away. (We've also had a couple of tasty roosters, but that's another story.) And yet, we're not done: we have 15 new chicks in the brooder and – wouldn't you know it? -- a broody hen sitting on 11 eggs in the coop. Time to find a new free coop or two...

Starting a price book means never having to head-slap yourself for paying too much

A price book is a notebook you organize to suit your shopping habits, in which you record a product's price per ounce (or serving, if you prefer), the brand, size of the container, store name and date. A cold cereal category might look like this:

Brand Name	Package Size	Store	Date	Price per Oz
HCF Corn Flakes	18 oz	East Side Grocery	04/06/12	0.087

(If using software to make your price book, I just realized you need to set your number format to text so it won't automatically round your price per ounce to the nearest penny.)

When you're first starting a price book, I recommend going to the store without children, if at ALL possible. At least for me, when there's math involved, it must have my undivided attention if it's going to be anywhere close to accurate. Use a calculator to figure price per ounce or serving; don't trust the handy-dandy price per ounce on the shelf tag that some stores provide. That number is sometimes wrong, so figure it yourself.

Calculate the prices of everything in a certain category that you are sure your family will eat, and then decide on a maximum price per unit (price point) you're willing to pay. For cold cereal, I don't pay more than 11 cents an ounce. Don't assume that larger quantities (such as huge bags of cereal) are cheaper; that's what manufacturers want you to assume. Those bags sometimes cost double what smaller boxes cost. What happens when I don't find cereal that is less than my highest price point? We don't have cereal.

Keeping a price book can help you track store sale cycles (usually 3 months). It can also save you time at the store if you're buying loss-leader items, because you'll know in advance if they're good buys for you. Loss-leaders are advertised sales, usually on the front and back pages of a sales circular, on which the store takes a loss. They're hoping that great deals will entice you into the store and you'll spend money on other things so they'll recoup that loss, but an ad scheme is no match for a smart shopper with a price book.

A few of my price points:

• Cereal: 11 cents an ounce
• Fresh fruit: $1 a pound
• Cabbage: 33 cents a pound
• Potatoes: 30 cents a pound (good cheap food, but “junk” food in my book)
• Ground meat: $1.50 a pound
• Bone-in meat: $1 a pound

Just a note: adjust your price points with inflation. The cost of everything has gone up about 33 percent recently, and it's only going to go higher as gas prices increase.