Frugal Challenge-Learn a skill.

How many skills do you have? Can you cook from scratch, sew, ( at least mend), crochet, spin your own yarn, knit, 1st aid, canning, gardening, basic car maintenance, welding, carpentry,  making soap, process your own meat, make your own bread, etc.

If money is super tight you are not going to have the extra funds to have these done for you. Being able to do at least a couple of these will be super helpful.

One of my New Years goals for this year is to learn a couple new skills. I can do most of these things some not as well as others ( I went to welding school way back when but last time I tried it you could tell it had been years haha).

Try and pick one or two things that you would like to learn or brush up on this year on concentrate on them. The one or two that you pick to learn and learn them really well so if something happens you know what and how to do them and do them well. It will be a huge asset.

On the monthly Deep pantry challenge, I have different skills to learn each month. You don’t have to learn to be an expert in these but get the information and at least familiarize your self with the skill then in an emergency you have a general idea and between that, your books and information on the skill you might be able to muddle through it.

If you know the skill really well you might be able to earn a little extra money with it in tough times since there are a lot of people with no skills or you may be able to trade something you can do for something that someone else can do.

The skills I want to work on this year are fermenting, knitting and spinning. I learned how to knit when I was pretty young and I hated it ( would much rather crochet) I would like to learn how to do it well now since there are just some things that are better knitted rather than crocheted. Another is spinning I have had my spinning wheel for a couple years now and I am no better now then I was when I first got it, so I want to learn how to do it so I can start spinning some of my own yarn. I also want to learn to ferment I am doing a little now but I want to get where I can ferment most everything since it is so good and healthy for you.

I am also starting a first responders class next month where I will learn a little more than basic 1st aid.

I want to familiarize myself with wine/mead making, machine quilting, and rug making. I want to be able to make some mead and wine. I know this is a huge learning curve but I want to at least familiarize myself then maybe next year I can learn to do it well. Machine quilting, I can hand quilt and tie a quilt but I haven’t ever tried to do it on the sewing machine. I have a couple friends who do it and they say it is pretty simple so I want to figure out how. I have been watching some stuff on Amish knot rugs and no-sew rugs I want to try and figure out how to do these then maybe, later on, I can make my own rugs.

What skills would you like to learn on this year? And which ones would you like to familiarize your self with?