Mother's Day Was Just One of Those Times That We Chose to Spend More

Since we talked a bit about where we spend our money and when we choose to spend more, I thought I'd mention my family's Mother's Day celebration.

My daughters take over the cooking for me on Mother's Day as their gift to me. Like many young adults, they're both very busy people. So, when I did the grocery shopping this past week, I chose foods for Mother's Day that would be easy for them to prepare. This means that I bought foods that were more expensive than I would normally buy.

For breakfast, I had bought refrigerated, canned cinnamon rolls. That and coffee are plenty for me for breakfast. And these were so easy for my daughters to bake. We had a late lunch/early dinner as our main meal, with my son and daughter-in-law to share it with. I had bought frozen chicken Cordon Bleu (that only needed to be baked), a couple of bags of frozen roasting vegetables (Brussel sprouts, butternut squash cubes, and onions) that were easily roasted in the oven, dinner rolls from the bakery, a cantaloupe (to cube), a bag of broccoli slaw (to be dressed), a frozen peach pie (to be baked), and some chocolates. My son and daughter-in-law brought strawberries. Everything was delicious. But most of all, it was all easy for my daughters to make and have ready at the same time.

In total, I spent about $30 for our  Mother's day foods. And we had leftovers to pull together an easy dinner on Monday. Yes, we could have spent less by cooking everything from scratch. But sometimes it's worth it to spend more so the whole occasion can be enjoyed by everyone. I should also point out, that if we were to have eaten in a restaurant, a meal might have cost around $50-$70 for 6 of us.

The bonuses -- my daughters weren't too exhausted to enjoy time with the rest of us, and this taught them how to incorporate a few prepared foods in cooking a celebratory meal.

That was our Mother's Day. What did you do for the occasion?

What My Family Spends Our Money On

I don't know about you, but when I am first waking up for the morning, my thoughts can be kind of random. Yesterday morning I was thinking about the proportion of our money spent in different categories and how that must relate to our values. Following that thinking, the areas that we spend the most in must be the areas that are the most important to us.

There's a "however" to this. The expense for a couple of the most expensive categories for our budget is largely out of our control. These items are fixed in price by bodies greater than our family. Aside from this, I still think there is some truth to my morning musings. I'll list out our top spending categories in order from greatest monthly expense to least, then discuss how the order is a reflection of our families values and choices.

Taxes, that fee that we pay to government so that we can be governed -- far and away the winner for most expensive category for our household. When I combine income, property, and sales taxes, our family pays a larger share of our income in this category than any other.

Healthcare insurance -- again, another area where we have little control over the cost. We purchase our insurance through my husband's employer. We could buy insurance for myself separately from my husband's and choose a low up-front, but high deductible plan. But we choose to have the same plan for both of us, mostly because if I knew I had a large deductible, I would simply not go to the doctor. My access to medical care would be psychologically limited, whereas my husband's lower deductible plan would allow him to feel free to get medical care for himself.

Charitable giving

The next two categories are tied for 4th place.

Car insurance and food  

We live in an area with high car insurance rates, plus we have 4 drivers. If my husband and I were paying for the entire insurance on 4 drivers, car insurance would beat food in cost. However, our daughters pay the share of additional insurance to have them on our policy.

We have more control over the cost of food for our household than any of the previous categories. We keep costs down by growing our produce, shopping around for price, buying basic food items and cooking from scratch, eating at home, and having simple tastes.

Heat -- this cost is dependent on climate, home size, quality of insulation and heating equipment, and personal tolerance for cold or heat. I actually like a cooler house in winter. I like to sleep in cool air, and I find I'm more active during the day if the house is slightly on the cool side. We don't have AC, so I don't have to factor in cost to cool the house in summer.

Water -- despite living in an area known for rainfall, our cost of water is somewhat high, here. We do what we can to keep our water bill down, such as using rain barrels for some of our garden watering and taking shorter showers.  Four adults simply use a lot of water. And we're no longer willing to take extreme measures to reduce this bill. Water use is an area that we indulge.

Car repair and maintenance -- with an older car comes higher repair bills.

Internet service -- as we've seen this past year, modern lives have evolved to the point that having good internet service can be a requirement to earn a living. My husband has been working entirely online for the last 14 months, both daughters have needed internet service for their careers, one substitute-teaches online through Zoom, and I use the internet to earn a little money, too. We also just prefer high-speed internet and that costs more.

Electricity -- years ago, we had super low electricity usage. We own more electrically-powered gadgets and appliances now, so this expense has risen in our list. 

Items for the home -- we buy used, acquire for free, or shop discount stores/sales/coupons. We also keep our "stuff" in good condition, doing as much maintenance ourselves as we can. Every once in a while we buy a new appliance or electronic. It's these appliances or electronics that increase our average annual spending on items for the home. Last year's purchases included a new desktop computer and a new freezer. This year we bought a power washer.

Vacations and fun outings

Prescriptions, supplements, co-pays for medical/dental

Cell phone service -- my daughters pay for their own service. When my kids were in university, we bought prepaid text/voice only service. The main intent was that they'd be able to keep in touch with us. If they had wanted smartphone features, that would have been something they'd have to fork over the dough for.

Gasoline for our car -- my daughters use the car more than my husband or I, as sub teaching is often not compatible with taking the city bus. They also drive for their other career needs (classes, internships, auditions, filming). We've come up with a system that we feel is fair. We rotate who fills the gas tank -- daughter one, daughter two, then husband and self jointly.

Landline phone service -- we have a cheap basic phone plan for the home phone that is bundled with the internet. I don't know at what point we'll drop the landline. For the time being, it's the only number that one aging member of my extended family will call to talk with us. I want to leave that number intact to accommodate this member's comfort.

*see below

Garbage collection -- We used to opt for their cheapest service, once per month pick-up of a small can. We upgraded our service to once per week of their smallest can. We've been using the additional service for about 2 years, primarily to get rid of all of the junk that we acquired over the past 26 years that is either not recyclable nor fit for giveaway or resale. When we have cleaned out the attic and garage of all of this junk/garbage, we'll go back to once per month service.

Non-food household supplies, like paper products and cleaning supplies

Clothing -- I used to love buying clothes. I also used to giveaway my clothing on a regular basis. I now wear items until they are too far gone. And I'm careful to only wear nice clothes for as long as needed and change into comfy, less-nice clothes for when just around the house. 

* in a non-pandemic year, I guess we spend a bit more on restaurant dining per month than garbage collection but less than landline phone service. We haven't eaten out since Feb. 2020. I'm not sure how our dining out will look later this year. We seem to be enjoying eating at home all of the time.

The order of expenses has changed with time and as our income level has risen. When we were younger (and poorer), housing was our largest expense each month. Yet we didn't have a mortgage. We were renting a small 2-bedroom unit in a triplex, and spending 3 times the amount for our housing than for food at that time. When we bought a house and took on a mortgage, we spent about 6 times for our mortgage compared to food. An interesting point, though, is that when we were younger and poorer, we not only spent a larger share of our income on dining out than we do now, but we ate out with more frequency then than we do now. We also bought more new clothing back then. My thought is that feeling "poor" led to us treating ourselves to meals out and buying knick-knacks or clothing. 

At this stage in our lives, medical access and care is very important to us. So is the luxury of long, hot baths, having a well-watered garden, fast internet, and not worrying about the lowest possible electricity bill. We do try to turn off lights when not in the room. But I don't chase family members down just so I can lecture them about turning off those lights. My younger self did plenty of lecturing over wasting money. But we needed to always be vigilant, then. There wasn't much wiggle room at all in our budget.

Another thought about spending less on items for the home or clothing: once you've acquired what you need to run and enjoy a home or buy a set of nice clothing, you only need to replace items when the old ones wear out, you outgrow them, or technology or style outdates them. So, there's less need to buy something like furniture at this stage in life than there was 20 years ago for our family.

One thing to note about our family's not spending a lot of our income on food: it isn't that we don't value good food. To the contrary, we do value what we eat, and that is why we prefer to make and grow our own food as much as possible. We don't like the taste, texture, or knowledge of additives or preservatives found in or on many commercially prepared foods. We appreciate good, homemade meals made simply with fresh ingredients.

Yes, I was thinking almost all of this in those groggy moments of yesterday morning. It was threshold consciousness thinking -- not always in words, but in ideas. It was interesting to me to write this all down and analyze my family's spending priorities. 

Do you ever think about your spending values and how they play out in your actual spending?

Thoughts on the Cheap Gift

Saying that I love to gift cheap gifts has a bad sound to it, doesn't it? What I love is to take something that was inexpensive to me and do something with it to turn it into something nice.

I potted up my extra tomato plant for my son and daughter-in-law yesterday afternoon. I used the pot that I reclaimed with bleach and water. If I amortized the value of the pot (over 20 years), we're looking at about 50 cents. The tomato plant is one I grew from seed, so about 30 cents. I used about 3/4 of a bag of potting soil, about $3 worth. And I added a tomato cage that I picked up from a free pile a couple of weeks ago. My cost for this gift, then, comes to about $3.80. Oddly, the most expensive part of this gift was the bagged potting soil. Kind of goes against the phrase "dirt cheap!"

So, maybe it isn't that I love to give cheap gifts, but that I love to give nice gifts. And if they happen to be inexpensive, then that just means I have more money leftover to give more gifts.

Reclaiming a Dingy and Stained Garden Pot

I should've taken a "before" photo. I've had this pot for about 25 years. It's had indoor as well as outdoor plants in it. For the last 7 or 8 years, it's been a outdoor pot and really took a beating in our damp weather. The pot was stained by mildew and looked very dingy. It was actually looking kind of gray instead of its original almond/beige.

I needed a large pot for 1 tomato plant to gift to my son and daughter-in-law for their porch. I thought I'd be able to scrub the plastic clean. When that didn't work, I decided to soak it in my oversized sink with bleach and water. After about a 2-hour soak (with me turning it over periodically to get all sides bleached), the pot came out very clean. It's now presentable enough to offer to someone else.

I was just really thrilled with this and wanted to share. After the fact, I looked up removing mildew stains from plastic outdoor furniture, and sure enough, bleach and water is one of the recommended methods. Garden Axis recommends a mixture of half bleach/half water in a pump spray bottle. Spray the furniture piece, wipe with the scrubby side of a sponge or a rag, and then rinse well with the hose. I'll be trying this on our plastic patio chairs this weekend. 

My Cheap and Easy Way to Get a Crispy Crust on Homemade Pizza Without a Special Pan or Pizza Stone

I don't know if I've shown you this before. I make a scratch pizza every Friday night and was going through the usual process last Friday and thought to share my technique with you.

I admit it, I do have a lot of kitchen ware. However, I tend to not want to buy single-purpose kitchen gadgets. So, I've never bought a pizza stone or special pizza pan. Instead, I bake our scratch pizzas on my regular (but large) baking sheets. The problem with baking pizza dough on a regular baking sheet is the crust doesn't crisp up very well without over-baking the top of the pizza.

I stumbled upon this little technique that requires no extra equipment and little skill. I first bake the pizza on a greased baking sheet for all but the final 2 minutes. The crust edge is beginning to brown and the top of the cheese looks a little toasty. At this point, the dough has baked.

I remove the pizza and sheet from the oven, then using a metal spatula, I loosen the entire pizza from the baking sheet, but leaving it still on the sheet.

Next, I hold the baking sheet, with the loosened pizza still on it, just over the wire rack in the oven and shake the sheet until the pizza slides onto the oven rack. I then bake the pizza another 2 minutes.

To remove the pizza from the oven, I use the spatula to slide it back onto the baking sheet. Once the pizza is out, I slide a cake cooling rack between the sheet and the pizza so sweat doesn't form on the crust's bottom.

You can kind of see how toasty the underside of this pizza looks. Perfectly crisp pizza crust -- just how we like it, here.

It works. It's free. And I didn't need to buy or store anything extra.

Ironing Fabric Ribbons Quick & Easy and Other Frugal Things

I used to use a heated light bulb to quickly iron ribbons. However, now that almost all of our bulbs are either LED or CFL, they don't generate enough heat to iron anything. 

Enter my hair flat iron. My flat iron heats up in seconds and doesn't require an ironing board. I slip the ribbon between the paddles and pull it through a half dozen times. Hair flat irons always seem to have a sweet spot where the paddles make better contact than the rest. That's where I pull the ribbons through.

These satin ribbons were used to tie up some small gifts for my step-mom for Mother's Day. I save and reuse nice ribbons. Sometimes they become a tad rumpled when piled haphazardly in a box. A quick pressing makes them look good as new. Big but -- do not try this with plastic ribbons!!! Eek! I can just imagine the smell!

Anyway, if you were a previous light bulb-ribbon ironer, just a quick tip for if and when you need to iron satin or grosgrain ribbons in the future (and also happen to have curly hair (like me) that you straighten with a styling flat iron).  :)

Just curious, do you have plans for Mother's Day? I'm still not sure exactly what we'll do. But I'm hoping to have my son and daughter-in-law join us. Keeping my fingers crossed for no rain, as we'll be outdoors once again.

Did you pick any flowers for May Day?

Here's my May Day posy. I went out into the yard to look for flowers to pick. In early May, there's not a lot to choose from in my yard. But I did find a lot of violets. I cut a handful and tucked them into this tiny vase. 

On another note, the adorable little bunny has become a hungry, adorable bunny. He/she got into our strawberry beds and ate most of the leaves. The blossoms are still developing, so fortunately, they're safe from our hungry friend. One afternoon last week, we had to quickly devise some fencing for those beds. I wanted to show you one small critter fence that my daughters helped me make that day. 

(My husband used the last of the chicken wire on the bed just behind this one.) I worked with what I had on hand. I didn't have a lot of time to think something up, so I went with rustic. 

We collected a bunch of sticks from our woodlot and stuck them into the ground just inside the perimeter of the bed. Afterward, I used wire along the top third of the fence to anchor key sticks together, making it a little more difficult for either a squirrel or bunny to push the sticks over to get in. 

I had read that a rabbit fence needs to have slats no more than 2 inches apart. I'm assuming some of our squirrels could squeeze in through even tinier openings. So, we went with 1  1/2 inches apart. Anyway, so far, so good. It's been a little over a week, and the fence hasn't been breached. I like the look of this fence. If it works this strawberry season, this is what I'll use for future years. If not, it's back to the drawing board. 

Next up, devise a fence that will keep raccoons out of the corn. Any (cheap) suggestions for keeping hungry raccoons out of a small corn patch?

Thought I'd show you what making carrot powder in my kitchen looks like

Last week I told you about using vegetable powders. Today I wanted to show you how I make my own carrot powder. It's a 2-day process for me, one day for drying the carrot slices and the next next for grinding them into a powder. 

The other day, I made powder from 4 medium-sized carrots. I scrubbed, but didn't peel them. I trimmed the end and tips, then used my food processor and the slicing blade to slice the carrots into 1/16 to 1/8-inch slices (it's my finest slicing blade). I spread the carrots onto dehydrator sheets to dry at 135 to 145 degrees F for about 7 to 8 hours.

At this point, I really could make the powder. But waiting until the next morning means a relaxing evening for me.

If I had a newer and more powerful food processor, I would use it to grind the dried slices. But, since my fp is 37 years old, and I don't want to burn the motor out, I use my coffee/spice grinder to make the powder.

After one grinding, I put the rough powder through a mesh sieve, using a pastry brush to get all of the finer powder out of the grinder.

I run the coarse powder through the grinder about 4 more times, sieving in between each grinding. By the end, I have about a teaspoon of coarse grind (that I add to a cup of soup for myself) and about 1/2 cup (more or less) of finer-ground carrots, kept in a covered dish to use mixed in juice or yogurt.

The other day, I said that 1 tablespoon of powder was equal to one carrot. That may be true for more finely ground powder (which is more dense and compact). But for my home-ground powder I think 1  1/2 to 2 tablespoons is equal to 1 carrot.

The differences between commercial and home-ground carrot powder

To the left is a commercial powder and to the right, my homemade powder. Mine is definitely more pigmented and likely has much more beta carotene than the commercial. Home-ground is also more flavorful than the commercial powder that I've used.

I have a few thoughts on the color and flavor differences between the two powders. My home-ground is slightly coarser in texture than commercially-ground. A finer grind, like the commercial one, may affect appearance of color. I noticed this in the finer carrot powder that clung to the lid of the grinder. It was slightly lighter in color than the coarser pieces in the base of the grinder. It's possible that the commercial powder is made with larger, fatter carrots, grown for size, that have a larger center core that is light in color. Or, perhaps commercial powder is made with the residual pulp from making carrot juice. Anyway, home-ground dried carrot powder has more pigment and more carrot flavor than the commercial brand that I had tried.

The other noticeable difference is that without high-speed grinding equipment, the powder that I make at home is slightly more coarse than the commercial product and so doesn't completely "disappear" when mixed into other foods. I should add, some people shred their carrots before dehydrating, in order to make grinding easier. This might also produce a finer grind. I'll give that a try sometime soon and see.

Despite these differences, I'm very satisfied with my home-ground carrot powder. I have seen for myself just what is in my powder, so I know the nutrients that my body is getting from it. And, as I said before, I am able to squeeze a couple more servings of vegetables into each day without much extra effort.

Grocery Recap for April

Just before Easter I went to WinCo and spent $120.05. If you remember, we did a cook-out brunch, with kabobs as the main item, hence the boneless ham, smoked sausage, peppers, and mushrooms. Also, I added another 10-lb bag of sugar to our back-up pantry and did a little stocking up on meat. $120.05, with a major holiday and a little meat stocking up, is a great amount for this shopping trip.

I also made a Walmart order for pick-up just after Easter mostly for bathroom tissue, but also to stock up on a couple of items. I spent $39.24. Our Walmart limits the bathroom tissue to one package per shopping. So, I'm making a couple of pick-up orders at Walmart this month to get just a bit ahead on the tissue.

Mid-month (just before 2 more birthday celebrations), I went to WinCo again. I'm using these frequent shopping trips to stock up on some basics. Last month it was flour and oil. This month, it's sugar and chocolate/cocoa powder. I spent $94.96.

Near end of the month I did a split order between curbside pick-up and delivery through Walmart. I spent $56.77 combined.

End of month, I went to WinCo to stock up on several items. I spent$113.67. The next day I picked up an order from Walmart, spending $22.50. 

In looking at the list, you may notice that I bought a lot of ketchup this month (4 bottles). I have NOT heard that there will be a price surge on ketchup. It's just a convenient item to add to an order that needs a minimum spend for delivery or pick-up when I'm very close to that amount.

Total spent for April -- $447.19

What I bought:

three 10 lb bags sugar, WinCo, $4.95

1 25-lb bag sugar, WinCo, $12.38
pastel M&Ms, WinCo, $2.47 (Easter)

2 large bags toasted o's cereal, WinCo, $3.98 ea

8 boxes crackers, WinCo, 5 @ $1.28, 3 @ $1.58
2 boxes animal cookies, WinCo, $1.38
8 bags chocolate chips, WinCo, $1.68 ea

2 boxes graham crackers, Walmart, $1.17 ea

.16 lb nutmeg, WinCo, 94 cents
,17 lb garlic powder, WinCo, 86 cents
.70 lb plus .55 lb cocoa powder,  plus 1.27 lb WinCo, $1.81 & $1.42 & $3.28
1.20 lb plus 1.38 lb plus 4.03 lbs popcorn, WinCo, 91 cents & $1.05 & $3.06

2 gals vegetable oil, Walmart, $4.44 ea

10-lb bread flour, Walmart, $5.98

four 5-lb bags whole wheat flour, Walmart, one at $3.47, 3 at $3.76

2 5-lb bags whole wheat flower, WinCo, $3.22 ea

chicken bouillon granules, Walmart, $2.74

2 jars instant decaf coffee, Walmart, $6.23 ea

1 large jar instant coffee, Walmart, $7.73

2 dozen mini croissants (birthday), WinCo, $4.98

1 jar mayonnaise, WinCo, $1.98

mustard, Walmart, $1

4 bottles ketchup, Walmart, 88 cents ea

burger buns (birthday), WinCo, 92 cents

2-litre club soda (birthday), WinCo, 97 cents

4 oz onion powder, WinCo, $1.14

.52 lb corn starch, WinCo, 48 cents

marshmallows, Walmart, 88 cents

32-oz raw honey, Walmart, $7.93

1 gal vinegar, Walmart, $2.72

3-lb vegetable shortening, Walmart, $2.98

1-lb bag yeast, WinCo, $2.98

.73 lb sliced amonds, WinCo, $2.98

.78 lb peanuts, WinCo, $$1.33

7 gals 2% milk, 5 gals whole milk, WinCo, $2.29 ea for 4, $2.39 for 7, $2.49 for 1

two 2 lb bags shredded mozzarella, two 2 lb bags shredded cheddar, WinCo, $4.98 ea

2 1-lb blocks mozzarella, WinCo, $2.98 ea

2 2-lb blocks cheddar jack cheese, WinCo, $5.51 ea

3 18-ct eggs, WinCo, $1.70 ea

potato salad (birthday), WinCo, $5.48

8 lbs butter, WinCo, $2.48 ea

1.05 lb Parmesan cheese, WinCo, $4.70

.47 lb Parm/Romano cheese, WinCo, $2.11

5 cans orange juice frozen conc, WinCo, $1.17 ea
5 cans apple juice frozen conc, WinCo, 88 cents ea
4 bundles celery, WinCo 1 at 98 cents, 3 at 78 cents
5 lbs carrots, WinCo, $2.48
four 5-lb bags apples, WinCo, $2.48 ea

3.46 lbs apples, WinCo, $3.04
1.39 lbs Roma tomatoes, WinCo, $1.36 (Easter)
3 red bell peppers, WinCo, 48 cents ea for 2 (Easter-2) and 68 cents-1
3 green bell pepper, WinCo, 1 at 68 cents (Easter), 2 at 58 cents
19 bananas, WinCo, 84 cents plus $1.50, plus $1.57

1 lb mushrooms, WinCo, $3.76 (Easter)

5 small bags dried cherries, Walmart, $2.66 ea

2-lbs dried cranberries, WinCo, $3.98

1 lemon (birthday), WinCo, 68 cents

1 watermelon (birthday), WinCo, $10.71

1.80 lbs and 1.85 lbs tomatoes on the vine (birthday), WinCo, $1.22 and $1.28

6 lbs onions,  WinCo, $2.36

fresh ginger, WinCo (birthday), 82 cents

boneless half ham, WinCo, $10.34 (Easter)
beef smoked sausage, WinCo, $2.98 (Easter)
shank ham, WinCo, $7.52
beef top round roast, WinCo, $10.40
beef petite sirloin steaks, WinCo, $10.39
boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, WinCo, $8.22

2 large bags frozen turkey breakfast sausage, WinCo, $4.48 ea

2 value packs pepperoni slices, Walmart, $6.32 each

4 packages smoked sausage (like kielbasa), WinCo 68 cents ea

2 20-ct. packages Hebrew Nationals, Walmart, $9.14 ea

Because one of these birthdays was mine, I chose to buy some pre-made foods, such as the burger buns, potato salad, and some croissants. Gotta treat myself well on my birthday, right? As it was a bbq celebration, we also served watermelon and the homemade ginger ale (hence the lemon, ginger, and club soda).

I spent a whole lotta money this month on groceries. However, for the most part, I haven't been spending very much each month on food since last summer, and I had about depleted all of my supplies. Here's what I've spent monthly on food alone since last August:

Aug   $92.18

Sept   $182.30

Oct   $304.52

Nov   $189.45

Dec   $77.98

Jan   $54.07

Feb   $184.66

Mar   $152.77

Apr   $447.19

October and April were my stock-up months. The average for the last 9 months has been $187.24. That's not bad at all, especially since we have not spent any money on food from restaurants or venues other than grocery stores since Feb. 2020. We're doing fine.

That's it for grocery spending this month.

And tomorrow is May Day! Do you remember May Day posies from many years ago? As a child, we would pick flowers and make little bouquets to leave on neighbors' doors. I think I'll make my own posy for tomorrow.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Vegetable Powders

rhubarb-vanilla-beet smoothie

Last summer, when I was trying to stock an emergency pantry, I stumbled upon vegetable powders at a couple of websites. At one particular website, I was trying to meet a minimum order to get free shipping on powdered milk. I added some beet, carrot, and spinach powder to that order and have been experimenting with adding these powders to a variety of foods to boost nutritional value.

I have since discovered that I can make my own vegetable powders at a savings, using my dehydrator and food processor with fresh vegetables. I'll be processing some of our garden surplus as powders later this growing season.

You may wonder -- why bother with vegetable powders when fresh or frozen veggies are so easy to use in cooking? I'm aiming for 6 to 7 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. To reach that volume, I try for 2 servings at breakfast each day. My standard breakfast is a small cup of homemade yogurt. To add vegetables, I add some carrot powder, along with honey and vanilla for flavor. For my birthday, my son gave me some blueberry powder. So, I've been adding some blueberry powder along with the carrot powder. There's almost 2 servings done for the day. And it's delicious. Carrot powder has a mild taste and a small amount of texture. 

Later in the day, I make myself a smoothie with the handy Ninja smoothie blender that my husband picked up off the "free" table at work. Beet powder has more flavor than the carrot. However, when mixed in a smoothie, such as the above rhubarb-vanilla-beet smoothie, I don't taste it at all, yet I'm getting the benefits from beet root. (I used leftover cooked vanilla rhubarb with beet powder and a small amount of water.)

When I make pizza sauce, unbeknownst to my family, I add a spoonful of spinach powder to the tomato paste and seasonings. A little dark leafy greens slipped into a pizza dinner without anyone noticing.

I also make myself juice drinks, using apple juice as a base then adding carrot, beet, and spinach powder and shaking well. This is my "recharge" beverage when I'm working out or a quick, last-minute vegetable with lunch on a particularly busy day.

Yes, I could cook, puree and add vegetables to the same foods, but I like the powders for a couple of reasons. They're super easy to use, no on-the-spot cooking and pureeing. They don't add water content to foods that I don't want thinned, such as my yogurt breakfast. Alternatively, sometimes I want to actually thicken a soup or sauce. Vegetable powders have a slight thickening effect, as well as add flavor and nutrients.

I still consume most of my fruits and veggies un-dehydrated. Powders are just one more way to boost the nutrients in my foods.

Have you ever tried vegetable or fruit powders?

Foods Which May Be Affected by Inflation

I don't know if you've been reading news' articles about food inflation for 2021. There are some foods that we can expect to pay more for this year. Here's the list so far for the year:

• Coffee -- due to drought in Brazil
• Cheese, especially Parmesan -- increases related to shipping, herd feed prices, and aging of cheese
• Meat and dairy -- due to shortage of some animal feed
• Poultry -- avian influenza affecting poultry in EU
• Imported seafood -- port issues
• Vegetable oil -- drought in Brazil affecting soy, labor-strike in Argentina, and increased demand from China for vegetable oil fueling shortages combined with Russia's increased export tax on sunflower seed and oil (Russia is world's largest exporter of sunflower seeds) and Thailand and Malaysia's lower than expected palm oil production 
• Grains -- due to China's increased demand for grains as feed for increasing their livestock herds, Russia's increased export tax, US mid-west/Ukraine/Argentina/Brazil crop reductions/failures (weather-related)
• Sugar -- fears over worsening crop prospects this coming year in South America, Thailand, EU, and Russia

Even if the US is not a big trading partner with one or more of these mentioned countries, world-wide price increases and shortages still affect domestic prices.

It goes without saying, many processed foods will also bear higher prices or shrinking packages. Kraft-Heinz, Conagra (Duncan Hines, Marie Callender's), and Unilever (Lipton, Hellmann's) have already announced price increases for this coming year, due to higher cost of grains and sugar. Mayonnaise, a product that uses vegetable oil, is already more expensive than it was just 6 months ago.

So, what am I doing about this? I'm once-again dedicating more of our income to grocery purchases, trying to get a step ahead on these key food items. I'll also be setting aside a bit of our surplus of ingredients that I'll want to use next fall and winter holiday season. It's common sense that we'll likely feel the full brunt of food inflation, then, just as Americans do their annual holiday big-baking and cooking to celebrate what we hope will be the first "normal" holiday season with loved ones.

sources:

businessinsider.com
gro-intelligence.com
seekingalpha.com

reuters.com

ijr.com

Hybrid Shopping to Save Money

When I think of the word "hybrid", I usually think of something with two components that makes one working whole, like a hybrid engine. My hybrid shopping actually has three components, in-person/in-store, in-person/pick-up, and home delivery. 

I began using a hybrid approach to shopping last spring to minimize virus risk. I am now continuing to use my hybrid approach to save the maximum amount of money while saving my energy and time.

I shop in-person at a couple of stores to buy those items that are true deals -- priced lower than any other store. A couple of these stores don't offer curbside pick-up, so shopping in-person is my only option. Other stores do offer pick-up service, but I might only need a handful of items and not meet the minimum spend for free service.  So, I am left with shopping myself, the old-fashioned way, where I actually have to push my own cart!

I also shop via in-person pick-up at Walmart, because I can usually meet the $35 minimum for a free pick-up. I am only buying from Walmart those items that are best deals, made in USA, and/or are only available locally through Walmart. This is usually just a handful of items, such as bathroom tissue, bar soap, dish detergent, and a few food items.

In addition, I order a few items once every couple of months from walmart.com or target.com to be shipped to my home. I discovered that some items that I would normally buy at my local store are actually priced lower if bought online to be delivered, using free delivery on a minimum spend. With Walmart.com's $35 minimum order for free delivery, this is easy to meet once every 6 weeks or so for our supply of coffee, decaf and one or two other items. Some items are priced the same whether bought in-person or shipped, so I add those items to whichever order (my pick-up or my shipping order) based on where I need to spend more to make the minimum $35 for free shipping or pick-up.

So, how much am I saving by combining these three approaches? Last week, I put in two orders at Walmart, one for pick-up and one for delivery. I didn't need much, but I did compare prices online for each item. I spent $47 for a curbside pick-up and just over $35 for a delivered order. I saved 39 cents on a large jar of Folger's coffee, 18 cents on a smaller jar of Folger's decaf, 38 cents X 2 for a couple of bags of Wheat Montana ww flour, 40 cents X 4 for four bags of dried cherries, and 50 cents on a multi-pack of bar soap. That's a total savings of $3.43 simply by choosing shipping for some items and pick-up for others. This savings is on top of having compared prices with other grocery stores.

It didn't cost me a single extra cent to split my order this way. Often times, when we're shopping around town trying to get the best deal, we're spending extra money (gas for our car) and time to shop those different stores.

This coming week, I'll be shopping in-person in another store to pick-up other essentials for our household, focusing on those items that are best deals in that store and/or made/grown in USA-only products.

All in all, I'd estimate that by comparing my different shopping options, I'm now saving about $25 to $30 per month while buying the same basic foods, and I'm not running all over town each week to do so. 

Food Not Wasted Is Money Saved

Gingerbread made with leftover cooked ginger root,
past-dated heavy cream, and"old"rye flour

This last week has been one of using up leftovers. Some of these leftovers we ate, as is, and others we made-over into new foods and dishes. Not only does not wasting food save money on our grocery bill, but it also means that we aren't taking more of the world's food supply than we will use. Here's what I was able to "save" this past week:

• the ginger root that I used to make a syrup for homemade ginger ale -- I diced the cooked ginger root slices tiny and added to batter for a gingerbread cake. I also used rye flour that has been in my pantry for about 4-5 years.
• whipping cream several weeks past sell-by date with slightly soured smell and a bit gloppy -- used in the batter as part of the milk for husband's birthday cupcakes and batter for gingerbread
• leftover cream filling for my birthday copycat Hostess cupcakes -- added cocoa powder, vanilla extract, powdered sugar to make a creamy chocolate frosting for husband's birthday cupcakes
• 2 tablespoons pizza sauce from Friday's pizza dinner -- made a cup of Italian tomato soup for myself, adding chicken bouillon and water
• as mentioned earlier, cheese sauce (leftover from brunch), tomato slices (leftover from burger bbq), cooked bacon (leftover from brunch) -- put together with toast and made Welsh Rarebit
• leftover washed lettuce leaves from burger bbq fixings and leftover celery and carrot sticks from birthday bbq -- chopped the celery, carrot sticks, and lettuce to make a salad for dinner on last Sunday

What have been your "food saves" lately?

Some Highlights of My Week in Pictures

Using up leftovers from last weekend, one night I made Welsh Rarebit for a quick supper. We had bacon, tomato slices, and cheese sauce leftover from brunch and a bbq. All I had to do was toast some bread and assemble.

Violets are in bloom all over our yard this week. I picked a bunch of the blossoms and leaves to press to use in making a card for someone special. I hope the colors of the petals and leaves hold.

So, this is our greenhouse. I wrote about this a few years ago. It has a tubular frame with 5 shelves, and has a plastic cover that slips over the top and zips at the sides. It's portable and can be disassembled easily, but we leave it up year round and use it for winter storage for patio cushions and empty pots.

One of 5 edible hanging baskets. It contains 1 green leaf lettuce, 3 small red leaf lettuce (hard to see as the red is so dark), 1 thyme cutting that I rooted in water earlier this year, 1 nasturtium seedling, 1 tiny parsley seedling, a bunch of radish sprouts (to use as greens, so tightly-packed), and a few spinach sprouts. They all just need to grow, now!

I trimmed up the rosemary plant on both sides to make room for a couple extra lettuce seedlings. The rosemary that I trimmed has been used in meals this week.

Another free pile yielded 4 of these lime green and white chairs. Yes, they were free. I was on a walk with one daughter, so we had to carry the bunch home.

And finally, one last batch of cupcakes for spring. Yesterday was my husband's birthday (4 spring birthdays in our family), so I baked these up in honor of his birthday.

We had about 10 days of beautiful weather, so I've been working and walking outdoors as much as I could. I overhauled the pumpkin patch, hoping for a better yield this year. My husband built another bed for ever-bearing raspberries. I've been hauling soil and compost to fill it. I moved a blueberry bush into a sunnier location, hoping it will produce better. And I started some seeds directly in the garden. Rain is expected to return over the weekend. I guess it's not summer after all. Oh well, the water will be good for the garden and the bare spots in the lawn that I patched.

How was your week?

Free-Pile Find -- A Shepherd Hook for Garden Lighting

One of the wonderful outdoor decor finds from last week's free-pile is this black metal shepherd hook-style plant hanger. I could immediately see that this would make a great candle hanger for the garden.

Once home, I used some household wire to turn a canning jar into a hanging candle holder.

I wrapped one length of wire around the top of the canning jar, just below the threads, twisting a loop on opposite sides of the jar.

I used another length of wire to make the hanger, attaching an end to each of these side loops.

Finally, I twisted a loop at the top of the suspending wire to secure the candle holder onto the shepherd hook. The lit candle added ambience to the garden during our Saturday evening celebration.

Also at the free pile was this nifty plastic tray -- just the thing I was needing to add more plant capacity to my greenhouse.

My Homemade Ginger Ale

To make ginger ale at home, I used a ginger syrup and club soda. I checked several recipes online for the ginger syrup and settled on a hybrid of several versions. Here's what I made mine.

Ingredients:

1 hand ginger, peeled and sliced thin
4 strips of lemon peel (6 or 8 might be nice for more lemony flavor)
3 cups water

scant 1  1/2 cups of granulated sugar

Ginger is easiest to peel if you cut the segments apart. Then you can use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin before slicing or mincing.

I peeled the ginger, then sliced into 1/16-inch slices. I had about 1 cup of slices when done.

In a stainless saucepan, I placed the 4 strips of lemon peel, sliced and peeled ginger, and 3 cups of water. I brought it all to a boil, reduced the heat and simmered, covered, for 10 minutes.

Next, I stirred in the sugar and brought back to a boil. Once boiling, I reduced the heat and simmered gently, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I allowed the infusion to cool with a lid on for 1 hour. After an hour, I strained the syrup through a mesh sieve and chilled it. 

After simmering, I had about 2 cups of strained syrup.

To make ginger ale, I used about 3  1/2 to 4 tablespoons of syrup for every 8 ounces of club soda. The sugary syrup causes the soda to really fizz up, so I discovered it was better to add the soda to a bottle or glass first, then add the syrup.

I wanted the ginger ale in bottles for self-serve on Saturday. However, I think this homemade version has more fizz when made fresh for each serving, pouring the club soda in a glass first, then spooning in measures of the ginger syrup.

My homemade ginger ale is very gingery and not nearly as sweet-tasting as commercial ginger ale. Because . . . frugal -- I've saved the cooked ginger pieces in the fridge in an airtight container and will chopped them fine to add to ginger cake later this week.

This was fun and delicious. I'll try it again very soon and maybe add more lemon peel and perhaps a bit of lemon juice.

Moisture Absorbers for Soil in Hanging Baskets and Window Boxes

I wanted to show you a product that I've been using the past couple of years. I've been adding this to soil in hanging baskets in order to reduce the amount of watering needed. There are several brands on the market. I use Soil Moist.

I bought this 3-oz packet a couple of years ago and still have quite a bit left. The packet instructions say to use 1 1/2 teaspoons of granules for a 10-inch diameter basket or equivalent measure for window boxes. You need to mix this into the bottom 2 or 3 inches of soil --  the root zone. This year, I've started fresh with my baskets' soil. I scooped soil into my basket, sprinkled the Soil Moist over it, then mixed it in with my hand before topping with more soil.

Using a moisture retention product doesn't eliminate watering, but it does hold enough moisture that I can water less often. The packet says that their product can cut watering up to 50%.

I wanted to show you just what 1 1/2 teaspoons of this product looks like both dry and wet.

Here is 1  1/2 teaspoons dry granules.

I began adding water and the granules quickly sucked it all up.

So I added more and more water, until I had added just over 1 cup of water to that 1  1/2 teaspoons of Soil Moist. At that point, I quit, as my bowl was getting full. But this is pretty amazing stuff, isn't it?