A Frugalite "Lets go"

Yesterday I took a daytrip with my DH to NYC, something for which we'd had bus tickets for some time. I packed homemade picnic-y foods for lunch. I figured we'd eat one restaurant meal and have a great time as a planned splurge in a year of really good frugal practices. We are serious foodies, so we planned to visit Zabar's, Murray's cheese shop and some other culinary meccas.

The only food we ended up buying as convenience items to eat right away were a bottle of coke, two poppyseed bagels, some smoked salmon shmear, and two on-draught micro-brews for my beer fanatic husband. I just couldn’t see a visit to NYC without some fresh bagels for me or good beer for him. We spent somewhere around $100 on the gourmet items we brought home.

We visited the MoMa for the free Friday evening admission and paid for admission to the Frick. We decided not to eat dinner in the city and instead just head home relatively early. We were gone from 6:30 am to 10 pm.

It felt a little odd spending so freely when I normally keep such strict discipline over my purchases. I told myself that I'd only buy stuff that I had no way of finding in the much more rural area we live in. The feeling of letting go and giving myself permission to spend after living very frugally was so different from the way I used to quieten the twinge of guilt about spending by just telling myself that I deserved these things, or that I would cut back in other areas, which of course I rarely did.

I feel great about the trip. It was a planned excursion with a moderate amount of indulgence. The weather was great. We had both a birthday and anniversary this week, and this was sort of a combination celebration for both. We'll enjoy the stuff we bought for weeks to come. Yes, I wish stuff had been cheaper, or that we'd been able to comparison shop for better prices. But it really feels like we earned this fun, and that it was "all right."

An Unlikely Frugal Kitchen Tool

One of the least obvious frugal tools in my kitchen is the humble plastic ice cube tray. I keep several of these around to use whenever I have a surplus of several different kinds of food. By freezing stocks, sauces, fresh herbs and even some soups, I save up what I can't use immediately in a stable form and a convenient size. This lets me buy some items in quantities much, much larger than my two-person household would otherwise be able to use.

For instance, there's a particular tomato sauce that I like to use on our homemade pizzas. I first came across it in an expensive antipasto bar at our local upscale grocery store. I soon identified the brand of sauce that they were selling and sourced it from an Italian deli/grocery store. The cans were large, but the price was great. So I opened the can and used just what we needed for our dinner. Then I filled three ice cube trays full of tomato sauce for three days running. I ended up with frozen cubes of tomato sauce, which lets us thaw just a tiny bit of sauce at a time, just enough to lightly sauce our pizza pies. I store these in a ziploc bag in the freezer.

I've done the same with coconut milk. Cans of coconut milk inevitably seem to contain more than my recipes call for. Rather than trying to come up with an additional use for the remaining milk, I just freeze what's left over. Same goes for chicken and beef broth or any leftover cooking liquid. The size of the frozen cubes makes it easy to garnish with small quantities. I've also used frozen cubes of broth to rapidly cool down soups that need to be refrigerated. I try to prepare the soup with a little less liquid than called for when I want to do this. So when the cubes melt, I don't have soup that's too thin. When storing broths this way, or anything that looks less distinctive than tomato sauce, I label the bag so I can easily distinguish between beef broth and chicken broth. It saves rummaging around in the freezer and letting out too much cold air.

One of the less intuitive uses for the ice cube tray as a stocking up tool is preserving fresh herbs. When basil is in season, I grow a lot of it, clean it, chiffonade the leaves and pack them tightly into the compartments of a tray. Then I cover them with olive oil and freeze. The cubes of oil and herbs make a great accompaniment to meats, some soups, pasta dishes and of course, pizzas. Naturally, frozen "fresh" herbs aren't quite as good as the real thing. But it's better than letting anything go to waste, paying through the nose when it's out of season, or worst of all, going completely without the taste of basil in the winter. I try to match the oils with the herbs. Olive oil goes with parsley, basil and sage. Canola oil goes with Thai basil, mint and cilantro.

Hope you found this tip useful!

Home Cooking & the Importance of the Pantry

Frugality is easy for me to practice in the kitchen because I am an experienced cook. With professional training as a chef, this isn't much of a boast. But I got to thinking about how frugality works in a kitchen the other day.

I'd picked up some ends of smoked ham at the butcher, planning to make either ham salad or deviled ham. I'd never made either of these before and didn't have any specific recipe in mind. When I got home, I surfed for a few recipes, got a rough idea of what the standard ingredients were and then headed into my kitchen. Dried spices came out of the freezer, condiment jars and half a red onion out of the fridge, and a few other things out of my pantry.

As I mixed the chopped ham with a variety of ingredients, I once again felt that familiar pleasure of creation in cooking intuitively. I marveled at what I was able to create, just from what I had on hand in my home, plus one ingredient that I picked up very cheaply on impulse. What struck me is that my pantry allowed me this creative freedom, and that my pantry is a reflection of my approach to cooking. I suspect that the home pantry, as much as the inclination and the skill of the cook, is what allows delicious meals to be prepared in any given home. Ingredients are as essential as skill when it comes to cooking. Even a skilled chef can only work with what is on hand.

So I wanted to take this opportunity to once again sing the praises of a well stocked pantry. Having fresh herbs on hand, as well as a large selection of shelf-stable items will allow you to be frugal with your food expenses. When the allure of your own home cooked meals outshines the convenience of a mediocre meal at a restaurant, it's very easy to economize. So practice good pantry management. If there's an ingredient that you really enjoy using, make sure you always have it on hand. You will find myriad uses for your favorite ingredients if they stare you in the face whenever you open the fridge.

My favorites include Italian parsley, heavy cream, and fresh ginger. Stored properly, these items will keep for weeks. And though they might not all go together, any one of them would make an excellent addition to soups, noodle dishes, meats, sauces, even baked items. Plus, they all have the ability to jazz up leftovers. There's never any risk of these items going to waste in my home.

When considering buying a perishable item, ask yourself if there you can think of a handful of ways of using it up. What's your contingency plan if it starts to spoil? Spoilage is less of an issue with shelf-stable items, but ask yourself how you're going to use something before you buy it anyway. If it's something so specific that you only know of one way to use it, consider carefully. Will you really use this item up? If not, think of something else to make for dinner.

Frugal Philosophy - When You Feel Punished

Frugality gets a bad rap from many people today. Too often it is seen as stinginess, or indicative of poverty. Those who are forced to abruptly change their spending habits by financial difficulties are especially apt to feel that frugality is synonymous with deprivation and unhappiness. Yet those who embrace frugality as a voluntary lifestyle don't see the practice in this light at all. Those voluntary frugalites have attitudes that might mystify those who come to frugality through necessity. So for those new to frugality who are feeling deprived in an unfamiliar lifestyle, I offer these ideas.

Try to look at frugality not as a punishment or as a penalty for lack of savings in the past. Instead, look at it as a challenge, a game and a choice you have made for yourself. Because even when money is scarce, it still is a choice, isn't it? You're choosing to live responsibly: within the means you now have, rather than racking up credit card debt you can't repay in order to live your former life.

Look for little ways to economize. Pat yourself on the back when you find each way to stretch a dollar a little further, to get by with a little less. Everyone is different and will find different ways of conserving their hard-earned money. Many aspects of a frugal lifestyle truly do allow you to live well on less. Comparing prices and buying in bulk saves you money without requiring you to go without. Learn some new recipes built around cheap ingredients. There are plenty of frugal meals that have no taint of deprivation about them.

Remember that a lot of people who live the way you used to have very little money in the bank. They look like they're rich and they behave as if they are, but in reality they're not rich (and never will be) if they're not saving. Only a tiny number of people, the multi-millionaires, can act rich and be rich at the same time. A lot more people can choose between looking rich and eventually being rich. And then there are those who can't choose at all and will never be rich. You may yet end up in the middle with a lot of the rest of us.

Look at your new lifestyle as an opportunity to teach your kids to do better than you did. Model frugality to them, talk to them about it frankly, so that they might avoid the patterns you followed earlier. Parental behavior is an enormous influence on children. You might not think your children listen to you, especially when they reach the teenage years. But they are assuredly watching you and learning from what you do. The most powerful lessons your children will learn are when your actions match your words. Challenging them to rely on their creativity and industry, rather than on expensive conveniences, will provide them with invaluable skills for their early adult years when their incomes will be modest.

A good way of thinking about expenditures is to ask yourself whether a brand new gadget is really worth 10 times as much as the same gadget bought used at a yard sale or thrift shop. Sometimes, we really need new things. No one will tell you that a used toothbrush is a good buy. But clothing, toys, furniture and tools can often be had for a fraction of the price of the new item. And often in excellent condition. Well made furniture will last more than a lifetime if well taken care of. The same can be said for most metal tools. It takes an investment of time to collect what is needed from yard sales and consignment shops. So try to see the time spent as a bonus: free entertainment and recreation.

Most importantly, when money is tight, try to retain a positive outlook. Don't beat yourself up over the past and don't despair for the future. You may have made less than wise choices with your money in the past. But every little step you take today to work your way out of debt, and to spend your money carefully means a better future for yourself and your family. Each little effort adds up. It really does!

Scrounging Money Around the House

For me frugality is a means to an extra principle payment on the loan we have for our vacant land where we plan to build a log home for our retirement. This mortgage has the higher interest rate of our two loans, and it's the property that means the most to us. So every nickel I scrape up is earmarked for that purpose. The extra principle payment is why I don't drive my car more than a couple times per week; why I keep the thermostat set at 64 during the day; why I'm selling our extra stuff on ebay, and looking for any possible way to cut expenses.

Recently, I discovered a bag of money just sitting in our home office. It contained not American greenbacks, but a large variety of foreign coins and bills we'd collected over our pre-mortgage years of vigorously decadent travel. I opened it up and sorted through the bills, some of which were for obsolete European currencies replaced by the euro. There were Australian dollars, Hong Kong dollars, Iranian rials, Estonian kroner, Finnish marks, Venezuelan Bolivars, New Zealand dollars, Russian rubles, Swedish kroner, British pounds, Irish pounds and Italian lira. I didn't even bother trying to sort the coins.

After sorting through the paper money, I called up my wonderful bank, USAA, and asked about depositing foreign currency in my account. They said they'd take everything but the Iranian rials and the expired European currencies: the lira, Irish pounds and Finnish marks. Best of all, they wouldn't charge me a currency conversion fee. Yet another reason why I love USAA! Running a few quick calculations on the exchange rates, I estimated that I'd just scrounged up around $250 towards next month's extra principle payment. That felt great! It may be a drop in the bucket, but it all adds up.

I was a little sorry to see the Estonian currency go. It's among the prettiest I came across in my travels. And also a little disappointed that we'd hung on to the old European currencies long enough for them to be worthless today. I have no ideas about how to cash in foreign coins. I'd probably do it if there was a somewhat easy way. In the meanwhile, the coins are fun for my nephew to play with, and they're nice mementos of our travels. We might see about selling the Iranian rials to some Persian acquaintances of ours who occasionally travel back to that wonderful country. We'll keep at least one 10,000 rial note as a souvenir. The rest would only be worth around $9 anyway.

At some point, I'll tell you about USAA and why you should definitely do business with them if you're eligible.

The frugal mindset

I'm not sure that I've said this before on this blog, but a frugal way of life crept up on me. Though the decision to start conserving money as much as possible was a rather abrupt one (we took on two mortgages nearly simultaneously), the ways in which I practice frugality have evolved over time. I don't think I obsess about money, but I do recognize that there are lots of things I now do that have an ingrained and unconscious character about them. At the same time, there is a mindfulness about the way I live that helps me conserve tiny amounts of money all the time. Here are a few examples.

I often eat my lunch, or even dinner off the same plate I put my breakfast on. A few crumbs from my toast and a smear of butter or jam doesn't seem that worrisome to me. I can eat my sandwich off that same plate and fill the dishwasher up a little more slowly.

I save any full-sized sheet of white paper that arrives in the mail with only one side printed on. More often than not, what I need to print out is for personal consumption and use only. So I don't care if there's something random printed on the back. This was even more useful to me when I was in school and needed to proofread term papers before turning them in. Also, unless there's a good reason for doing so, I always print stuff out on the lowest quality print setting. It's called "draft" on my computer. This uses less ink, so I get more mileage out of the cartridge.

I don't like to throw things away that might have some use left in them. Granted, this attitude could contribute to pack-rat accumulation if left unchecked. But I've found that by giving myself a little time to mull it over I often come up with good uses for things that would otherwise be tossed. I also don't like paying for disposable items, particularly when there's a free alternative. Pages ripped from an old phone book work well for cleaning glass in place of paper towels. They are nicely sized and free. They're also the perfect size for wrapping up tampons or sanitary pads, in place of toilet paper. Plastic produce bags can stand in for plastic wrap in many cases. Brown paper grocery bags and newspaper are absorbent enough to drain bacon or other fried foods on. Use the stuff you get for free instead of something you have to pay for. I'm currently saving up wine corks in order to duplicate a lovely large bulletin board made entirely out of used wine corks.

I like to feed birds, but I don't like paying for birdseed. So I actually save crumbs from the bread we slice at home, along with any seeds from store bought crackers that accumulate in the container. When the crumb bag fills up a bit, (and it does so surprisingly fast) I mix the crumbs and seeds with reheated fat saved from cooking meats. When it's cool enough, I gather it into a ball inside some wax paper and then put it in the freezer. Once it has solidified nicely, I unwrap the ball of fat, seeds, and crumbs and put it into a mesh onion bag and hang the bag from a tree outside our living room. The birds cling to the bag while they feed. I love to see them eating things I would just have thrown away otherwise.

I re-wash and re-use my ziploc bags and my aluminum foil until they fall apart. I see no reason to get only one use out of these items, except where raw meat is involved. I now know that heavy-duty aluminum foil is worth the slightly higher price because the extra thickness allows it to stand up to repeated washings. I'm beginning to grudge the use of plastic wrap because I haven't figured out a way to either clean it or store it after the first use.

All my task lists and grocery lists are written on junk mail envelopes.

A cup of tea warms me better than cranking up the thermostat. I routinely dress in warm layers during winter. But when the thermostat is set to just 64 degrees, sometimes I feel chilled anyway. If it's not time to burrow under the covers for a nap, I've found that just a warm cup of tea can take the chill off my bones for an hour or more. I've also left pots and pans around to be cleaned on cold days when I know that my hands are going to need warming at some point through the day. Spreading the cleaning chores out over the day gives me a tool - physical exertion - for keeping warm. In hot weather, I plan physical exertion, especially outdoor exertion, for first thing in the morning or late in the evening.