Doing the math on bedsheet repair

It's back to the basics of saving money, this week.

When my dad passed away, 11 1/2 years ago, I inherited my parent's California King-sized bed, sheets not included. I bought 1 set of plain white, cotton sheets for about $60. This included the fitted sheet, the flat sheet and 2 pillow cases. California King beds are not common in my area, and neither are the sheets.

About 1 1/2 years ago, I developed a thin spot in the fitted sheet. I patched it with Heavy Duty Wonder Under and scrap fabric, and my iron. This small patch has held just fine for the past year and a half, requiring occasional re-ironing of the patch.

A few weeks ago, I put my foot through another thin spot, this time tearing the sheet. I went out shopping for a new fitted sheet, and found I couldn't just walk into a store in my area and buy a Cal. King fitted sheet. It would have to be ordered, and at the minimum, would cost about $20.

I decided to hold off on buying a new sheet, and patch this one, one more time. We keep talking about replacing this bed with a smaller, Queen-sized one. And it looks like this summer could be the time to do so. Buying a new sheet, that we'd only use for half a year, didn't seem economical.

the math

A new sheet would cost $20, and would likely last 10 years, if alternated with the other sheet set for the rest of winter (a flannel set). At $20, for 10 years, the amortized annual cost of a new fitted sheet would be about $2 per year, or 3.85 cents per week.

At the fabric store a couple of weeks ago, Heavy Duty Wonder Under was on sale, and I had a coupon applicable for sale and non-sale merchandise. I spent about 25 cents for a piece of Wonder Under large enough to patch this larger tear and thin spot.

At 25 cents for the patch job, the sheet only has to last another 6  1/2 weeks, to recover my cost. And I still have a piece of Wonder Under large enough to make another patch, if necessary, in any other thin spots.

Does all this matter? Should I have just ordered the fitted sheet, even though we may not even need it in 6 months' time?

I think it does matter. I may have spared our budget $19.75, by not buying a new sheet right now. If we do, in fact, down-size our bed to a Queen in 6 months, I would have found myself with sheets in the wrong size.

I could have saved myself the 25 cents, and patched the sheet with stitching. But my time is valuable. An iron-on patch took 10 minutes start to finish, and I was able to work this mending job into a small chunk of time over the weekend.

I recognize that not everyone would be comfortable sleeping on a sheet with a patch. I got used to it within a couple of nights, on the last patch. I'm okay with this slightly imperfect solution to a worn bed sheet.

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I do the math, frequently, to see if something is worth the money. It may seem tedious to some folks, but it winds up saving us a lot of money in the long run. (We have several calculators around the house, and I keep an extra one in my purse.)

An example, is it worth the gas money to drive a few miles out of my way, for a sale? I will figure the cost of my gas and weigh it against the potential savings on the sale item. I often decide that the savings on the sale, are not great enough to warrant the extra gas expenditure. Avocados are on sale this week, for 50 cents each, at a store 10 miles from my house. That's a 20 mile round trip, just for avocados. There's a limit of 4 avocados at that price, and the store is not featuring any other sale items that I can use right now. So, I would spend about $2.75 in gas, to save $1 to $2 on avocados. Not worth it.

Another example, I can buy an LED light bulb, that will use 50 watts per hour less than an incandescent bulb, for about $10. If the fixture is in use for 6 hours per day, I can save 300 watts per day, or about 9,000 watts (or 9 KW) per month. At a rate of about 10.5 cents per KW hour, that's a savings of 94.5 cents per month, on our electricity bill. It will take about 11 months for the LED light bulb to pay for itself, then we'd see savings of almost $1 per month for the life of the LED bulb. So, in my mind, the investment into LED bulbs is worth the money.

My dad used to say, "don't sweat the small stuff, kid." But really, the sum of all the small stuff is what has allowed my husband and I to have the life of our choosing.

Overnight herb and cheese strata with marinara sauce & Apple, dried fruit and nut salad

These are two recipes that I used for brunch on Christmas Day. Both used only what I had on hand, and were very economical to make. Carol from CTMom asked for the recipes in the comments the other day. But also, this would make an easy breakfast for New Year's Day, so thought I'd post it in case any of you would like the recipes.

The strata, in particular, was sparing of my dwindling egg supply (I am now down to 2 eggs, total), and my small amount of cheese. Yet, it fed my family at brunch, and left us with snacking extras in the afternoon. You don't need to serve it with marinara sauce, but if you are a fan of polenta with marinara, then I suggest you try this. It adds a flavorful touch to the strata.

To make the strata more frugal than standard recipes, I use just a little cheese (many recipes call for 8 ounces of cheese for this amount of eggs/bread). I also use whatever cheese I happen to have on hand. (Some recipes call for fontina or other more spendy cheese.) And I use herbs from my summer garden, that I now have in my freezer. (I freeze basil, parsley and rosemary, instead of drying them. I think they have more flavor frozen, than dried.) You could substitute dried herbs, or change the herbs altogether.

A true strata is made with layers of bread slices. I prefer the "bread pudding" variation of strata, with cubes instead of slices of bread. The bread cubes allow the herbs, seasonings and cheese to coat each bite.

Herb and cheese strata with marinara

5 thick slices of French bread, cubed
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash red pepper flakes
3 to 4 ounces of shredded cheese (I used half cheddar and half mozzarella), use 2/3 of the cheese in with the bread, and 1/3 to top the strata
2 tablespoons fresh or frozen basil
1 tablespoon fresh or frozen parsley
marinara sauce (any leftover pasta, pizza or marinara sauce will work)

Butter an 8 by 8-inch pyrex baking dish.

In a medium bowl, beat eggs. Combine with milk, salt, pepper flakes and herbs. Add bread cubes and 2/3 of the cheese. Toss well to coat each piece.

Spread mixture in baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, remove strata from refrigerator about 30 to 40 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Bake, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Warm marinara sauce and spoon over individual servings.

This recipe makes about 4 main-dish, breakfast servings. For us, it was part of a larger brunch, so it went much further. To serve 6 to 8 people, simply double the ingredients and use a 9 by 13-inch rectangular casserole.

Apple-dried fruit-nut salad

This salad has many variations on our table. I add celery when I have it, and alternate between raisins, chopped prunes or dried apricots or dried cherries (which ever I feel like using). My favorite nuts in this are either pecans (expensive here), or almonds (the budget alternative for us). And I sometimes add cubes of cheddar to this salad -- good with the apples!

For 3 to 4 servings:

Dressing:

2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons fruit vinegar (I use raspberry, blackberry and blueberry -- but plain vinegar will also give that tang)
1/4 cup spray whipped topping (if using real whipped cream or Cool Whip, 3 tablespoons may be enough)

In the bottom of your salad bowl, combine the above ingredients.

Toss dressing with the following:

1 large apple, skin left on and chopped
1/2 cup dried fruit
1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped nuts (roasted or unroasted)

If I'm making this an hour or so in advance, I add everything but the apple, then chop and add the apple at the very last minute.