Name One Soup That . . .

. . . you could make with what you have at home this week.

Soup is one of the most frugal foods, financially, calorically, and time-wise. You can add all sorts of odds and ends from the kitchen, cellar, garden or spare freezer. Soup is one-pot cooking at its finest. Start it on the stove or in the crockpot, and leave it to simmer until you're ready to eat. A bowl of soup, some crackers or bread, and you have a meal. Bonus -- on a chilly day, a steaming bowl of soup will warm you from the inside out.

Here's your challenge: Think of one soup that you could make this week using what you have on hand. Thinking of what you could cook with on-hand ingredients is a good exercise to do from time to time. It always helps me see the possibilities. Sharing your one soup, here in the comments, will also help the rest of us, as we think through whether or not your soup would work for our ingredients.

So, name your soup plus the list of ingredients it takes.

Anyway, I'll start. My soup is Cream of Green. I use kale, broccoli, collards, spinach, chard, or as I used this week, Brussel sprout leaves (they're like collards). In addition to the raw, chopped greens, I used 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, some celery leaves, nutmeg, dried thyme, salt, pepper, milk (I used unsweetened soy milk), flour, butter, oil, water. We topped our bowls of Cream of Green with cheddar cheese. A creamy and hearty soup.

Your turn. In the comments name the soup you could make with what you have on hand and list its ingredients.

Refilling A Depleted Emergency Fund

We all know that an emergency fund within our budget is essential to surviving the unplanned and unforeseen events that happen in life. Events this past winter and spring plowed right through my family's rather generous emergency fund. In fact, we needed to tap into money that we had set aside for retirement. (This was not tax-deferred money, so we don't owe any penalties for withdrawal). A slew of unforeseen events can wipe a person's account out in a matter of months. And it can happen to anybody at any time.

My husband and I add to our emergency fund each month, so its growth is never stagnant. But the amount added each month is not enough to quickly replenish the fund. Should anything else happen, we'd need to take more money out of that set aside for our future. So, we are attempting to rapidly refill our emergency fund. 

Here are my thoughts on how this is achievable.

How to refill after an emergency fund has been depleted

There are 2 ways to go about this, cut back on spending or bring in more money. Cutting back on spending can be the simpler way to go about this. while bringing in more income has more avenues to pursue.

• cut back spending in all discretionary areas and redirect that money towards refilling the fund. In the past, we've simply cut every variable category by a flat percentage. This works well for us and doesn't leave us feeling too deprived.
• bring in more money via yard/ebay/Craigslist/Facebook marketplace sales of used household items or clothing. Bring in more money through temporary side or supplementary employment (temporary holiday job, online gig work, such as Cambly or Upwork, start/rejuvenate and monetize a blog or YouTube channel, take on extra shifts with current employer, take on part time work through a new employer.

If you do just one of these checklist items, your emergency fund could be refilled with time. However, if you pursue several avenues, the time-to-goal can be dramatically reduced.

How it's going for my family

What we've done

• we had a yard sale this summer, getting rid of kid stuff and unwanted furniture while adding to our emergency fund.
• my husband has picked up additional work in his field. This is work he does remotely and can do on weekends/evenings. 
• I've cut our budget in many areas. Some of the basic frugal things we've been doing: diligently turning down heat when no one is home, cooking/baking from scratch regularly, using the oven for several items at one time instead of heating the oven multiple times, sticking to grocery lists when shopping, mending clothing instead of buying new pieces, harvesting as much as I can from the garden and freezing for winter meals, substituted free or cheap day outings in place of an extended vacation this summer.

The impact so far

We've already refilled about 40% of our emergency fund (and this is after we bought a second car). We're at a point right now that we could handle one major appliance repair or replacement, if need be. 

Our monthly contributions to an emergency fund are roughly four to five times what they normally would be. It's fair to say that we're being aggressive about saving right now, forgoing most discretionary spending. And yet, I don't think we feel deprived. 

I try to plan for fun but free or cheap entertainment and meals on a regular basis. We continue to have Friday pizza (homemade) and movie nights (library DVDs or what we can stream for free through library's apps, or borrowing DVDs from friends). We had a game day in early September which was a lot of fun. This month we went to a pumpkin farm. By mid-November there will be many holiday activities to enjoy for free or low-cost. For example, the pumpkin farm does a  Christmas thing between the middle of November and the middle of December. 

If all continues to go well, our emergency fund should be fully replenished by the end of 2025. That's not that far off.