A day of this and that: frugal highlights

The other day was a busy one for us. My 3 kids and I spent the entire day shopping for gifts. We left the house around 10 AM and returned around 5 PM. I was helping them find that perfect gift for several people on their lists. Also, I squeezed in a few errands of my own. At the end of the day, I thought to myself that there was quite a bit that I'd like to share with you.

First, I had a return to make. I had bought something as a gift for someone last month, then changed my mind on it. In going to make the return, I read the back of the receipt. Returns with a receipt made within 14 days, only. What?! I thought most retailers give you 30 days. But not Barnes and Noble. Unless. . . . you ask for a gift receipt, the sort of receipt that doesn't give dollar spent information. I had asked for a gift receipt, so the rules were different. At Barnes and Noble, with a gift receipt, you have 60 days to make a return. So I presented the gift receipt, and not the regular receipt. I made the return and was issued a gift card in it's place. No problem. I'll use that sometime.

So, lesson learned, read the details on the return policy, and ask for gift receipts on all gifts.

Second, we made a stop at Trader Joe's for dried fruit, nuts, and bananas. I've said this before, many months ago, but at Trader Joe's bananas are priced per piece. A small banana cost 19c and a large banana cost 19c. So, why choose small bananas, when I can buy the larger ones for the same amount of money. On a bunch of bananas, the outside bananas are generally smaller than the inside ones. I remove the inside bananas from a couple of bunches, and buy just the large ones. There are actually quite a few people who prefer the smaller ones -- those with smaller appetites, on a restricted calorie diet, or with small kids. So I don't feel bad taking only large bananas.

When I got my bananas home I weighed them individually. The smallest of them weighed about 9 3/8 oz. and the largest about 9 3/4 oz. I averaged about 32c per pound with my banana purchase. In the store, I was sizing up the small bananas, and my guess is they weighed about 5 oz each. Big difference.

This per piece pricing method is often found in drug stores that sell a basket of fruit, per piece, near the cash register. Walgreen's has a basket of apples, oranges and bananas for 25c each. If I have my choice between large fruit or small, for the same price, I'm going to choose the large.  

In bottled goods, when the bottle is transparent, I can easily see which container is most full. I'm going to take a minute to look at the stock on the shelf and choose the most full one. They are all sold for the same price.

So, my message here is whenever items are sold per piece and the size or fullness can be determined by sight, look for the largest/fullest. An an FYI, I paid about 32c per pound for bananas, while my local grocery store charges 79c per pound!

After a long day driving around town (and it was long), I came home to the need to put together a quick dinner. This is where I really appreciate having leftover turkey frozen in some stock, and rolled-out pie pastry in the freezer. In just 20 minutes of my time I put together a homemade turkey pot pie. In a large saucepan, I cooked an onion (chopped) in a little oil, a potato (diced), the turkey in stock, seasonings and flour for the gravy part, and mixed vegetables. Topped all this with a crust and popped a turkey pot pie in the oven, to bake up the crust.

And for dessert, I made something that is really, really easy to make. And would be a great last-minute gift idea or a treat to add to a dessert tray. They're chocolate-dipped dried apricots.

Melt about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips in a microwaveable dish or cup for 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir. Melt another 30 seconds, stir again. If needed, melt in 20 second-increments. Stir in about 1/2 teaspoon vegetable shortening (like Crisco, what you use for pie pastry, not butter or margarine which contain trace amounts of water and will ruin your melted chocolate). Stir well, and dip dried apricots about 2/3 of each into the melted chocolate.

Place on a sheet of waxed paper. Sprinkle them with chopped or sliced almonds, if desired. I do this, for texture and flavor, but also, if the chocolate develops gray streaks after a week or two, it will be concealed by the nuts. Just my way of hiding any mistakes ; )

Allow to firm up on the counter overnight, or in the fridge for 1 hour.

This amount of chocolate will cover about 20 dried apricots. They look nice packaged up in a candy box, such as you'd find at Michaels or other craft stores in their baking sections, or a small box that you have repurposed, and covered with gift wrap. (I used to overwrap the lids of gift certificate boxes with pretty Christmas wrap, but since every store moved to gift cards, I haven't seen gift certificate boxes recently.)

Anyways, these were the frugal highlights of my day. What have been the frugal highlights of your days, recently?

December grocery money journal -- mid-month

(November's journal is here)

Dec. 4. It always makes me just a little bit happy when I don't have to rush out on the first of the month to buy groceries. I made it to day 4 this month. We were very low on coffee and decaf. Stopped in at a drug store with coffee advertised for $6.99/large can. Bought the coffee and 1 bag of good decaf (I love dark roast coffee, and they had French roast decaf, so I'm a happy elf today!) Total spent, $12.98.

I've been cooking up those pumpkins from last month. We're about done. Just need to run them through my food processor and freeze. I lost one to mold : (  but I am looking at it like this, nine free pumpkins and a handful of compost for the garden. I also cooked up the last of the yams, as they get soft spots quickly in my kitchen. I pureed those and froze to make into a casserole for the New Year's feast.

Dec. 5. Bought one thing at the store today, a quart of eggnog. Expensive stuff, so we dilute it with milk, and add a bit of vanilla and nutmeg. Spent $2.50. Ouch! Total spent for the month -- $15.48.

I'm waiting to do some batch cooking for the freezer, for when it's a bit more empty. Perhaps next week I'll be able to put together some casseroles and freeze.

Dec. 6. Picked up a gallon of milk on the way home from work. Weird thing happened. I had a $2 rebate check from the drug store, which on the check says it can either be cashed at the bank or used for a purchase in their store. So I was planning on using it towards a gallon of milk, retailing for $2.69. Handed my rebate check to the cashier. Her register was refusing to take it for several tries. Then finally, she managed to push the buttons that the check wanted (she wasn't even sure what she'd done). The register accepted the check, but said my milk was paid in full. I told the cashier that I still had to pay 69c, that her drawer would come up short at the end of her shift. She refused the 69c, saying that the register wouldn't accept it, as it thinks it's been paid in full. Anyways, I tried a couple of times to just leave the 69c that I feel I owe, but she wouldn't accept it. So, my 1 gallon of milk cost $2. Not bad! Spent for the month -- $17.48.

Meals around here. Last night made pumpkin soup, eggnog scones and blackberry cobbler. Turns out no one was all that hungry, so the cobbler was left for tonight. Tonight we had a kale and ham quiche from the freezer, baked squash, oven fries and that cobbler.

Breakfast this morning, choice of leftover eggnog scones or gingerbread oatmeal. We're in the holiday spirit with our meals these days.

Dec. 7. Last day of school for daughters. They were having a party at their school, and suggested my son and I do something special for lunch, too. Okay, so Jack in the Box is not exactly special. But we enjoyed it. Two burgers and split an order of onion rings.  $5.22

Dec. 7. The Cash and Carry is down by daughters' school. I thought this would be the last chance for several weeks to pick up things there, so made a stop. Spent $64.50, and got a 6 pack of green peppers, brown rice-25 lb, sugar-50 lb., oats-25 lb. popcorn-12 lb, a large bag (about 3 lb) raw mixed veggies.

Also, down in that area is Trader Joes. Mostly picked up baking supplies -- dried fruit, nuts, cocoa powder, soy milk, plus cherry tomatoes for  $23.42 total for month spent $110.62.

For meals this week -- hot dogs and roasted veggies, leftover turkey in gravy with leftover cornbread stuffing, fried rice with egg, ham, carrots, peppers and kale, veggie lasagna with kale, broccoli, carrots and eggplant, turkey-pizza sandwiches, sourdough pancakes with rhubarb coulis, tex-mex turkey over rice, lentil-veggie soup.

Lunches have been a bit of a challenge this week, with kids home from school. I feel like I need to go to more effort at lunchtime. During school term, I pack sandwiches. And when it's just me at home, I often don't make lunch at all for myself. I'm not a lunch person, I guess.

Still using up apples and pears that were harvested this fall, and harvesting kale and broccoli from the garden. My indoor lettuce is growing well since I gave it some plant food. I'll harvest some of that in another week or so.

Being super busy, getting things done for the holidays has put a cramp in my dinner prep routine. So many of our dinners have been slap-it-together-at-the-last-minute sort of meals. I've been grateful for the leftover turkey in the freezer. And bread baking on a large scale (5 loaves at a time) has fallen by the wayside. I'll get back to that in a couple of weeks.

Dec. 12. Crazy morning shopping for gifts and leotards for my daughters' dance recital this weekend. Happened to be at Fred Meyer (large discount dept store like Target, but has a full grocery section), always cruise by the dairy dept to check for milk. Gallons of 2% on sale for $2.49. Not a super great price, but better than $2.69 I find at my cheapest regular-priced spot in town (Rite Aid, 1% and skim milk). Picked up 4 gallons. Also, chocolate chips were on sale for $1.39/12 oz (got 6), and white chocolate chips for $1.89 (got 1, for our traditional January cookies). Spent $20.19, bringing month to date spending to $130.81

We are still well-stocked on fruit in the fridge and freezer, but are down to kale, broccoli, mustard and turnip greens and beets in the garden for veggies. I'll need to buy more at this point, for variety. We have yet to see a hard frost in the garden. This is unusual for our area. But I'm not complaining!

Dec. 14. A day out shopping and running errands. Stopped by Trader Joes for dried fruit (apricots, cherries, dates), almonds, and bananas. Spent $16.79.

next stop, the Cash and Carry wholesaler. Bought whipped topping, a 5 lb. bag of frozen mixed vegetables, a 5 lb. bag of carrots, and a half gallon of eggnog. Spent $12.03. My month-to-date total then comes to $159.63

You may have noticed that I bought a lot of dried fruit these past couple of weeks. Dried fruit is one of those treats that our family enjoys around the holidays. For me, personally, the dried fruit keeps me from gobbling too many cookies, cakes and pies. Probably the same amount of calories in a handful of dried fruit vs. a handful of cookies, but my body feels so much better with the fruit.  A yummy treat, and only slightly decadent, is dried fruit in chocolate. I microwave some chocolate chips, stir and add some dried cherries and almonds. Allow to harden on waxed paper. If I'm choosing between a candy bar and dried fruit in chocolate, the latter wins, hands down.

In the second half of the month, I'll be spending a fair amount of $$ on supplies for a party, and buying a few extras for New Year's Eve. But I still have a surplus from previous months that I can play with.