May 2021 Grocery Recap

I shopped twice in-person and once online in May. I used Walmart online for a large supply of coffee before prices went up, spending $66.38. I shopped at WinCo twice in May, once early in the month, spending $101.75. This includes convenience food groceries to make Mother's Day brunch for 6 people ($31.14) with lots of leftovers. And the second time in late May, spending $117.40.

My total spending for the month of May -- $285.53

Here's what we've been spending for the last year:

Aug 2020   $92.18

Sept 2020  $182.30

Oct 2020   $304.52

Nov  2020  $189.45

Dec  2020  $77.98

Jan  2021  $54.07

Feb  2021  $184.66

Mar 2021   $152.77

Apr 2021  $447.19

I think I'm good on what we've spent. It averages out to about $197 per month over the last 10 months. We are still using some of the supplies that I bought last summer, items like meat, pasta, peanut butter, applesauce, raisins, TVP, rice, powdered milk, dried beans, and some canned veggies.. So the $197/month is in addition to the value of the items bought last summer. Also, our garden is beginning to produce for the season, so we can get by with fewer produce purchases for the next few months.

What I bought this month:

10 lbs fresh carrots
3 bunches bananas
fresh tomatoes
celery
cabbage
bag of apples
frozen peas
banana chips, bulk
dried apricots, bulk
dried papaya, bulk
5 cans frozen orange juice
5 frozen apple juice
3 frozen grape juice

4 lbs cheese
12 lbs butter
7 gals milk
3 dozen eggs
Parmesan cheese, bulk

3 big bags toasted oat cereal
4 boxes bran flake cereal
17 boxes assorted crackers
mini chocolate chips, bulk
5 bags butterscotch baking chips
salt, bulk
sunflower seeds, bulk
popcorn, bulk
dry roasted peanuts, bulk
ground cinnamon, bulk
cocoa powder, bulk
corn starch, bulk
1 bottle mustard
2 jars mayonnaise
20 lbs whole wheat flour

hot dog buns

6 jars instant coffee

6 jars instant decaf

for Mother's Day:

chicken Cordon Bleu entree

cantaloupe

frozen roasting vegetables

broccoli slaw

dinner rolls
frozen peach pie
chocolate candies, bulk

canned cinnamon rolls

Items I noticed price increases on from April to May: orange juice concentrate, apple juice concentrate, sugar, chocolate chips, Parmesan cheese, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, mayonnaise, milk, eggs, bananas, popcorn, vegetable oil, crackers, cookies.

I am still in stock-up mode. I've been watching entire categories of foods for price increases and remembering recent price paid on several items. The crackers probably looks crazy. I noticed some of the house brand crackers had been marked up, but not all of them. So, I bought many boxes at the old price. I expect to see these same items priced 20 cents more per box the next time I shop. Another example -- I had bought bulk Parmesan cheese in April and early May. I noticed by late May the price per pound had increased 20 cents. I'm glad I bought when I did. The butter I found on sale for $2.48/lb. That's about as good as I think I'll find for a while. And I've finished stocking up on whole wheat flour for the year.

I mentioned to my cracker-loving family (that almost sounds like some sort of euphemistic insult, doesn't it?) that when the crackers and dry cereals are gone, we'll go the homemade route again, meaning oatmeal and granola for breakfasts, and snacks like homemade muffins and popcorn in place of crackers. My husband is trying to gain some weight, so I like to keep nuts and dried fruit on hand. You can really bulk up the calories in a bowl of cereal or oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts. The least expensive nuts/seeds for snacking seems to be peanuts and sunflower seeds. We like them well enough, not our favs, but good in a pinch. 

Chocolate chips went up by almost 50 cents a package in early May. I had been buying a few packages each time I went to WinCo, then stopped when I saw the price increase. Late in the month I saw butterscotch chips for 98 cents/package. I bought 5 packs. To supplement our chocolate fixes, I stocked up on cocoa powder. If chocolate chips are going up in price, I expect cocoa powder will too. 

And finally, I got a pretty great deal on coffee online. I stocked up enough to last about half a year. The decaf had a confusing label on the website, calling it "ground" when the image and description indicated it was instant. I took a chance and ordered it. It was instant and this made the price outstanding. I think with the mixed messaging on type of coffee, the product wasn't selling, so it was marked down.  Great deal. I got it for almost 1/2 price. When I checked the website this week, the coffee was still marked down, but not nearly as low as I found it at the beginning of the month. However, it's still labeled "ground" but pictured and described as "instant". 

That's it for May's grocery purchases. I won't need to go out for groceries in June until close to mid-month, as we have enough fresh/frozen milk to last another week and powdered milk to push my shopping a little further into the month. Milk seems to be the deciding factor in our house of when to shop again.

I hope you're still finding plenty of good deals at the grocery store.

Nasturtiums in Salads, Sandwiches, Smoothies, and Pesto

We are already using our nasturtiums in salads and sandwiches, both the blossoms and leaves.

This is the basket with a nasturtium plant that I overwintered indoors (next to a  south-facing window) this past fall, winter, and early spring. Because it got that great head-start for the season, it's flowering already (began about 10-14 days ago). 

In contrast, this is a nasturtium plant that I started from seed this spring indoors (under lights) before transplanting out to the baskets. Nice, but not ready for picking. I read online that nasturtiums don't transplant well. Well, they did for me. Every single plant is thriving.

When I pick the flowers for salads, I gently wash them in the bowl with the other greens. After a light pat dry, I remove the petals from the stem. There are 5 petals to each blossom. So, that's 5 whole petals per blossom tossed in the salad. A few blossoms will add a nice touch of color to a family-sized salad. They have a mild radish flavor, just a little peppery. In addition to salads, chopped fresh blossoms are a nice addition to bean spread sandwiches.

I also use the leaves from the nasturtium plants. I pick young leaves and wash with the other greens. I remove the rest of the stem from the back side of the leaf, then tear into 3 or 4 pieces. 

The leaves can be used in salads, on sandwiches, in green smoothies, or to make pesto. They have a peppery taste, much like watercress.

In addition to adding color to my garden and flavor to our salads and sandwiches, nasturtiums are also beneficial in the flower and vegetable garden by attracting hover flies/syrphid flies. Hover flies eat aphids in enormous amounts. Planting nasturtiums in the garden can be a non-toxic part of the insect control program. Beauty, edible, pest control -- win, win, win for my garden!

A Busy Weekend

I hope you all had a nice Memorial Day weekend. 

We were busy here. 

I put the pressure washer to good use all three days. Here's a glimpse of the brick patio when we were half done.

We eventually finished cleaning the patio, so it all looks like the right side now. There's something about renewing our belongings or property that is very satisfying. This is the main patio. I still need to clean the small utility patio where we keep the grill and compost tumbler.

For "fun" we also cleaned the patio chairs that surround the fire ring.

Here they are, one before and one after. Gives me a great big "ewww" that I even would have considered sitting in the dirty chair.

I will be tackling the deck in sections this coming week and next weekend, if the weather cooperates.

The pressure washer is a lot easier than scrubbing with brushes. But this is still a lot of work.

I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh post. Tonight, my body hurts is places I didn't know could hurt. Have a great day!

And the World Was Baking . . .

2020 was a year without precedent. I wanted to record, here, some of the issues that we all confronted concerning our eating patterns during the pandemic. 

Lockdowns, school closures, work-from-home, and restaurant restrictions changed how the world ate during 2020. For those who previously habitually grabbed a coffee to-go or fast food lunch, forced stay-at-home periods meant making our own cup of joe and quick lunch. With children home all day, typical cafeteria ingredients went unsold while canned soup and SpaghettiOs flew off supermarket shelves. Easy cooking was definitely a high priority for many.

Working from home meant more free time for hobbies for some folks. One hobby was bread-baking. People who had never baked a loaf of bread in their lives bought up the world's supply of packaged yeast. Of course, this led to the next big hobby, making your own sourdough starter to bake sourdough bread. This of course was premised on being able to buy flour. I stalked online retailers for both whole wheat and white bread flour on a daily basis for close to a month. King Arthur's website had a waiting list/pre-purchase for flour at one point, with limits on how many bags each customer could purchase. For yeast, if one was truly desperate, or wildly wealthy, bags of yeast could be bought on Amazon at a triple or quadruple mark-up. Amazon promised to curtail price gouging. They must've missed the yeast department.

Institutional food purchases sunk while supermarket shelves were cleared as fast as they could be restocked. One afternoon in mid-March, my sister phoned to tell me her son just called. What was his big news? He scored the last loaf of bread for the day at his local grocery store. Meanwhile, here in Washington state, my restaurant supply store had a surplus of bulk butter, the type of butter that is sold in 1-lb blocks, not handy sticks. I was able to "score" a 30-lb case of bulk butter for about $1.50 per pound.

Fears of virus contagion also changed how many of us shopped and ate. In the early weeks, fearful of catching or spreading coronavirus, I made my grocery purchases online, most of the time to be shipped to my home. Foods that are easy to ship are non-perishable. My family ate a lot of canned vegetables, canned tuna, canned chicken, powdered milk, dry Parmesan cheese, jarred applesauce, raisins, and peanut butter in spring of 2020. 

By late spring/early summer I was getting curbside pick-ups, which opened culinary possibilities to fresh produce, fresh eggs, fresh dairy, and fresh meat. Possibility is the key word, as some of these items were often sold out at my local grocery store. All of the inexpensive brands of eggs were quickly snatched up, leaving me with organic brown eggs for several weeks -- not a bad thing, but more expensive. I wondered, why eggs? My thinking is that for many who normally would buy take-out for meals, now had to cook for themselves and eggs are an easy to prepare main course.

For a while, there were limits on how many gallons of milk I could buy at a time. This was such a contrast to what I saw on the news where farmers were having to dump their excess milk. It seems without institutional users of milk, these farmers had no way to repackage dairy products for home consumption.

Grocery store scarcity was not only a result of folks eating at home significantly more. There were poultry and beef shortages due to virus clusters in meat packaging plants. I am normally somewhat selective about the meat that I buy. I like to see it in person and choose for myself. (This means I don't send my husband to the market to buy meat for me.) I have specific brands of chicken that I prefer. In late spring of last year, chicken was in short supply at my local market, even with strict purchasing limits imposed. When placing my curbside pick-up order, the store was sold out of a brand that I would find acceptable. I took my chances on an unknown brand. That was a mistake. My whole family agreed that this was perhaps the worst chicken we'd ever eaten. It was tough and had a heavy chlorine taste.  I didn't even know that this was a "thing." Here's a shocker -- the USDA allows poultry plants to use chlorine as a rinse to reduce bacteria. Luckily for us the consumer, only about 10% of poultry processors use chlorine. My family got unlucky. After dinner that night, I went online to discover that many other folks had similar poor experiences with this brand.

Another interesting bit I noticed was how much my family ate when at home all day, every day. They must have been picking up snacks while out and about before the pandemic, as they were gobbling everything I baked or set out as quickly as I produced. And yet, no one but me gained any extra weight. A side note, I spent more of my day in the kitchen in spring and summer of 2020 than I had for many years prior. Not only did our eating change, but my daily activities changed, too. Speaking of my family's eating habits, one of my daughters was frustrated by the Cheetos shortage. Yep, Cheetos. Salty snacks must've been popular with people working from home or laid off young adults (like my daughter). While I stalked retailers for flour and yeast, my daughter was stalking online sources for her beloved Cheetos.

A side effect of the pandemic was the rise in homeowners building up their own emergency pantries, more after the fact of the other food shortages (count me as one of those folks). At one point, I went online to find dehydrated potatoes and there were none to be found for many weeks. Ditto with powdered milk. When I finally got a notice that instant mashed were now in stock online, I bought 9 boxes. I think panic buying became a real thing for grocery shoppers like me. And we're still eating instant mashed potatoes. 

This may be something to which you can relate -- our dinnertime practices changed, too. We not only began eating dinner at an earlier hour, but we were all home every single night to eat together. No late stragglers or missing members because of work, classes, meetings, or other relationships. We had actual conversations as a family and lingered at the table longer after eating. This is one aspect of pandemic dining which has already begun to shift back toward previous patterns.

I do wonder, how many of these changes in eating habits will remain with us as we go forward into the post-pandemic world of gastronomy. Will I continue to keep my emergency pantry super well-stocked in future years? Will I buy instant mashed potatoes on a regular basis? This quick and easy side dish was a first for my family this last year. While we never ate in restaurants a whole lot before, I'm now even less inclined to dine out. It's not just Covid fears, but I've discovered that I simply like my own cooking. In addition, I'm now more aware of all kinds of infections that can be passed on to diners in public settings (norovirus, hepatitis). Plus, I've adopted healthier eating habits this past year. I don't want to slide back into eating foods that may taste great but be bad for heart-health. So, for those reasons, my family may not dine out much at all going forward, maybe for special occasions or when traveling. 

Some of our changes likely won't be permanent. While I loved the flavor and texture of my homemade sourdough bread, it really was a lot of work to make. I'm not eager to bake more any time soon.

So tell me, how did the pandemic change your food habits? What changes do you think you'll keep for the future and what do you never want to try again? Please add your own stories, struggles and observations about eating and shopping practices during the pandemic.

Portioning Out My Big Chocolate Bars and Other Snacks

I'm going to hazard a guess, here. There are some of you who have way more self-control when it comes to chocolate than I do. Please, don't lecture me on developing discipline when it comes to chocolate. I've been trying to refrain from wolfing down entire chocolate bars in one sitting for decades. I'm a hopeless case of no self-control when chocolate is involved.

I most fortunately received a few large chocolate bars for Christmas and my birthday this past year. I've been reluctant to even open them as I know myself, and I'll eat the whole thing in a day or two. 

However, I've come up with a "fix" for this problem for me. I have been making my own prepackaged chocolate squares. I break a large bar into about 15 small portions, then wrap in bits of plastic wrap. For some reason, pre-portioned snacks work for me where trying to have self-control doesn't. It's true, I could eat bunches of pre-wrapped chocolates. But I don't. Having to unwrap those squares makes me more mindful of how much I'm eating.

I love the idea of those 100 calorie bags of snacks and cookies. I just don't like the big mark-up just to have someone help me with self-control. So, I've also been portioning out crackers into baggies, just for my own consumption. Here's a price comparison on 100 calorie cheese cracker snacks. At Walmart, you can buy a 6-ct box of Cheez-It 100 Calorie Portions Right Bites for $2.50, with a total weight of 4.62 ounces. That works out to $8.65 per pound for these snacks. 

In contrast, I buy store brand cheese crackers for $1.58 for a 12.4-oz box. That works out to $2.04 per pound. This size box yields 16 snacks comparable to the Cheez-It 100 calorie snacks. We reuse our zip-top sandwich baggies many, many times each, washing in between uses. But if I had to add in the cost of bags for the portions, that would add 32 cents, total (Great Value sandwich baggies). So, I'm able to make 16 portioned snacks for $1.90. My cost for 6-ct homemade snack packs is 71 cents. The Cheez-It product sells for $2.50. 

While I would probably not buy the pre-portioned snacks, I like that I can portion my own and get the same result for no extra expense.

More On Keeping the Bunnies Out of Our Veggies

When are those critters with long ears and cotton ball tails called bunnies and when are they called rabbits? I think I'm beginning to sense when.

I felt something like the fictional Scottish farmer Mr. McGregor the other night, chasing not one but four bunnies around the yard. I don't think I'll be baking any of these cute critters into a pie for supper (as Mrs. McGregor did). I am, however, actively trying to dissuade them from gobbling up my vegetable garden.

So, how do you keep bunnies/rabbits out of a vegetable garden? I'm not sure they're paying attention to my lectures on choosing grass instead of vegetables. For the most part, I feel we're lucky that the rabbits haven't done more damage to our garden. They've eaten the leaves off of strawberry plants and last year they chewed the pea vines right off at the base. So far, that's it. This year, we skipped planting peas altogether. No use devoting precious garden space to something so tempting to the animals. So, that's one thing we've done to save the veggies for ourselves.

Another thing that has worked for us is this year, after transplanting tender young zucchini plants into the garden, I protected them well with empty gallon milk jugs with the base cut off. Last year, it was a bit of a battle between us and the bunnies with the zucchini. I had to reseed the summer squash, as the rabbits chewed the seedlings down to the soil after the first attempt. This year, so far so good. I think the milk jug protection has been working. As the plants grow, the main stem should become too tough to chew through. 

When the zucchini seedlings grew too large for the milk jugs, I moved those containers over to protect some tiny Romaine lettuce seedlings that were in the garden.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we made a couple of primitive stick fences to enclose the strawberry beds. Those appear to be working. Although an earnest rabbit could jump these low fences, the thought is they might just be deterred enough to move on to another planted area, hopefully one that the people don't plan on eating themselves.

When I transplanted the Brussel sprout seedlings into the garden, I covered that patch with insect cloth and secured the edges with stones. I transplanted these about 3 weeks ago. I checked on them today and they appear to be doing well under the cloth. Again, like the zucchini, I hope the main stems become too tough soon and I can lift the cloth for the rest of their growing season.

But I think the best move we've made is to grow foods that are tender and appealing to rabbits raised off the ground. I've shown you the hanging salad baskets we have growing across the back side of our house. 

We've also utilized space in our trough planters for beets and lettuce. 

I planted a shallow bowl planter with the remaining lettuce seedlings from planting the hanging baskets. The bowl planter is currently sitting on the deck table  along with planters of basil.

I seeded spinach in pots which I set on top of the tall and narrow terracotta pots, just high enough that the rabbits can't even peak over the edge to see what's there. And, I planted the carrots in deep pots this year instead in the main garden beds.

I think mostly we're improvising on the fly and using what we have on hand. So far, the salad greens are working out fine with these efforts. I'll be seeding green beans over the weekend and I'll cover them with insect barrier like I did the Brussel sprouts. I've started seeds in the main garden as well. So far the slugs are more of a problem there than the rabbits. 

As for those 4 rabbits the other evening, after about 15 minutes of bunny craziness, I caught a glimpse of something in the air at the front of our woods. Next I saw what I think was a Cooper's hawk swooping down. I didn't see him nab any rabbits. But then again, I haven't seen those 4 bunnies in a few days. Perhaps they're hiding out someplace safe. Oh well, it's the cycle of life and all.

Growing Black Currants in My Suburban Yard

unripe black currants -- they'll ripen in June

I was out near our woods, gathering sticks to make another bunny fence when I spied these tiny berries beginning to develop. Over the years, I've told you about many of the fruits that I grow in our suburban garden. Perhaps you've guessed -- I like variety! There's a fruit that I grow that's not terribly well-known in American gardens -- black currant. Black currant, however, is well-known in northern Europe, Scandinavia, the UK, Asia, and New Zealand. 

For most of the 20th century, fruiting currants were banned in the US, due to a fungus which can devastate white pines, a common logging wood. In the last couple of decades of the 20th century (with the advent of successful treatments for this fungus), the federal ban was lifted for many states, including Washington state. This is great for me, as my cool maritime region is perfect for currants, with its damp and acid soil.

In studying what would grow in my partially shady yard and would have food value, currants and their cousins gooseberries sounded appealing. Prior to this garden, I had only tried the dried Zante currants, which by the way are a grape and not a currant. About 20 years ago, I ordered 1 black and 1 red currant plant. Both red and black currants will spread by fallen seeds in overripe  berries. But I also found they were incredibly easy to propagate from cuttings. I simply cut off about a foot from a cane and stuck it in soil in a shady spot. Within a year the cuttings had fully rooted. 

The red currants are more prolific in my yard, but I appreciate the black currants a bit more for their nutritional value and delightful flavor. High in vitamin C and polyphenols, these tiny black berries pack a punch. During WWII in England, imports of oranges were blocked by the enemy. The British turned to alternative and native sources of vitamin C, one being black currants. The juice from the berries can be made into a high-C syrup to be taken daily during cold and flu season. The juice is also the basis for currant liquors. The berries each have many seeds, so I tend to use them in places where seeds won't be as apparent, such as in tea, smoothies, fruit sauces, jelly, and juices.

I also use the leaves from the black currant plants. (Interesting, the red currant leaves have no distinctive flavor.) The aroma and flavor of the black currant leaf is fresh, herbal, and fruity. The leaves are high in vitamin C and GLA (gamma-linolenic acid) which is said to boost the immune system. 

I make a tea from both fresh and home-dried black currant leaves, often times adding some black tea and/or dried berries. Perhaps you've seen Harney & Sons or Twinings' black currant teas. Obviously, I love the frugality of growing my own tea ingredients. But, also, nothing can beat the flavor of freshly-harvested black currant leaves brewed into tea. Of the herbals that I grow for tea, black currant is my favorite.

This may surprise you -- black currant has been a somewhat popular fragrance for candles and air fresheners in recent years. My son and daughter-in-law gave me a black currant candle a year ago and I was quite pleased at how much it smelled like fresh black currant leaves. As I said before, black currants have a nice, fresh fragrance -- something appealing in a candle or air freshener.

Finding the plants doing well this year, I feel even more motivated to care for these canes and perhaps take a few more cuttings for expanding my harvest of future berries.

Another Almost-Summer Weekend and More Free Piles

I think all of our neighborhood is in a purging mood. I've seen quite a lot of good free stuff in the past few weeks. Sometimes I stumble upon these piles while driving. But lately, I've come across most of them while on my daily walks. Here's what the weekend brought to us.

We picked up a long rectangular folding table. This is the kind of table that you might use as a craft table for a group or a buffet table when covered with a floor-length cloth. The metal is brown and the top surface is very thin laminate. The laminate is peeling on the corners. One of my plans is to use this on the lawn for alfresco dining. We tried it out on Saturday for our dinner. It worked well and could seat up to 8, I think. For now, we're using a tablecloth. When I can get my husband to help me, we'll sand the laminate off and I'll paint the top. Many years ago, I picked up a laminate desk for $5 at a garage sale. My husband and I sanded the laminate top, and I painted, then coated it with marine varnish.This is the desk my daughters shared in their room for years when they were young. I'm thinking I can do the same with the folding table.

We also snagged a chandelier-style hanging light fixture. It's in brown faux wood, with fake drippy candles that take chandelier bulbs and have fabric shades. There are 5 shades. I can repurpose them on a couple of other fixtures in the house. The bulbs all work and I can use them in my existing chandelier. My plan is to remove the electrical components and fake candles, spray paint the fixture and use it as a hanging candle holder, perhaps in the backyard or on the deck. 

I also found the perfect picnic basket. It looks like something out of Yogi Bear. My daughter and I stumbled upon the picnic basket in a free pile on one of our walks. It prompted me to tell her all about Yogi Bear and Boo Boo, Rocky and Bullwinkle (plus the villains Natasha and Boris), and Felix the Cat -- all animated shows she's never seen before. I'm hoping to use the basket for breakfasts at the beach this summer -- an improvement over my usual brown shopping bag.

Anyway, I thought taking long walks was delightful this spring as an opportunity to see all of the flowers as they bloom. Who knew my walks would also become treasure hunts?!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. What was the most exciting thing you did this weekend?

Why Do You Make Frugal Choices?

I was thinking the other day about why we make the choices that we do. More specifically, what motivates people to be frugal. It seems that people are frugal for a variety of reasons.

For some, it's ideological or philosophical. One doesn't like waste or being frugal is part of a simpler approach to life. Sometimes this is derived from a person's younger years. Growing up in a period where there was a great deal of lack often leads a person to be diligent about waste, even after years of having abundance. I think of my grandparents who struggled to put food on the table during the Great Depression. This influenced not only how they lived out their lives, but also how may own parents parented us kids. Wasting food wasn't allowed, even though child-raising times were much more affluent for my parents than for my grandparents. As well, a desire for simplicity could also be a reaction to a consumer climate that seems excessive. Parents may want their children to experience simpler activities and play, while themselves opting to leave a lighter footprint on this world. With either scenario, it seems like a person's basic philosophy influences many frugal choices.

It may also be a matter of self-sufficiency that goes beyond one's philosophical approach to life. For example, not trusting that the future supplies of necessities will always be available, or not knowing if one's income will remain steady in the coming year. Here's an example: Our family is careful with water use. We collect rain water in rain barrels for some of our garden watering. We also save water from washing garden vegetables in a container on the deck to use later to water the garden. We reclaim the water from the shower warming up to flush toilets. I reuse the water used in incubating yogurt to do a load of clothes washing. It isn't that our water supplies are imminently threatened. But as more people move into our area, the burden on our current supply of water is stretched. At some point, there may not be enough municipal water for everyone to use as we always have. Water shortages are a thing in many parts of the country. They could even come to places where you think it does nothing but rain. 

Our family also likes to keep a vegetable garden, orchard, and berry patch, in part because growing our own produce ensures we will always have plenty of healthy food to eat, regardless of what happens in America's farmland or with transportation issues getting foods to local markets. The pipeline crisis just last week was a hint at what could possibly happen in the future, affecting transportation of all goods. There's also the ever-present risk of contaminated produce. Having a large garden means we control the safety of much of our own food.

For others, frugality is a necessity -- bills are simply greater than one's income. I think most adults have experienced this, especially in the early years of supporting oneself or while a student in college. We can all recall how poor we felt at some point in our lives. Unfortunately, these periods of greater bills than income can also come at later periods of our lives, as in unplanned unemployment, fixed incomes, major health crisis (and accompanying bills), and even joyous surprises, such as multiple babies in a pregnancy when you only anticipated one. It isn't always easy, but frugality allows folks to pay their bills and stay or get out of debt.

For still other's, it's a matter of choices to afford what's most meaningful. For example, the thinking "I can have this, if I give up that" such as spending less so one can stay home with their young children, or curtailing spending on new clothing, so you can travel, or being frugal now, so you can retire when you want. 

My own family has lived out all of the above motivations toward a frugal life. We've lived through periods of actual lack, as well as the choice to spend in some areas instead of others. We've also liked the way we feel when we don't waste. It makes us feel good to know that we are leaving plenty for others. We can also see that supplies and incomes can change on a dime. Who would have ever guessed that toilet paper, yeast, bread, and canned soup would ever be in short supply in America? Obviously, about 300 million of us never anticipated any of the shortages we saw last year.

These were just thoughts that were rolling around in my mind. What else did I miss? Do you think about the motivations behind your own frugal choices? 

Ploughman's Lunch (or Dinner)

The only exotic travel my husband and I have ever taken was our honeymoon. We visited England and Scotland. The tickets for the flight were a wedding gift and my newly-minted spouse and I found cheap lodgings and meals for the trip.

In looking for inexpensive eats, we ventured into the pubs. The best deal was the Ploughman's Lunch. My husband and I would find a quiet corner of the pub to sit for a spell (we were sight-seeing for hours each day) and split a plate of ploughman's. In its most basic form, ploughman's lunch is bread, cheese, butter, pickled onions, and a piccallili relish or chutney. In our experience, the lunch was served with fresh apples in some pubs and fresh tomatoes in others. Boiled eggs or cold meat were also available as extras. In all pubs, the entire meal was served cold and sort of do-it-yourself style -- break off a bit of the hunk of bread, slice off a knob of cheese, dab on some relish and enjoy. 

I understand that now there's something called a Posh Ploughman's -- more along the lines of a bread, meat and cheese platter to put out for gatherings. Not at all what my husband and I enjoyed.

When I'm working, I often make myself a ploughman's style lunch -- slice some bread and cheese, add some butter, and wash an apple. 

Last night, dinner was very rushed. Time got away from me and I needed to throw together a quick meal. I sliced up homemade bread, cut up some cheese, made apple wedges, added butter and pickles, plus some leftover cooked greens and rhubarb gelatin. I called this  Ploughman's Dinner. It was not only fast to make but had virtually no clean-up except the cutting board and a knife. Dinner was tasty, made with simple, wholesome foods, and a heck of a lot cheaper than take-out. A winner all around.

I can see how this would make a good lunch for a workman, as it's quick to make, relatively balanced, highly portable, and depending on the quantity of cheese and bread, this could be quite filling. Have you enjoyed ploughman's lunch before? Anyone remember piccalilli relish?

And so the harvest begins . . .

This is such an exciting time of year. I've been picking little bits of vegetables, rhubarb and herbs all spring, but nothing like yesterday.  I kept finding more and more to harvest for our meals. Let's see if I can remember it all. Yesterday, I picked several stalks of rhubarb, a bunch of turnip greens, several beet greens, a few leaves of red leaf lettuce, lots of big green lettuce leaves, some baby spinach, a few nasturtium leaves, a bunch of radish greens, a bit of parsley as well as thyme, and a mass of chive blossoms. Both the beet and turnip greens were from thinning those patches, so I won't be getting more of either of those greens until the roots are ready to harvest. 

Here's how I used all of the above.

I made rhubarb-cream cheese gelatin salad (making a sweetened rhubarb sauce, then puréeing with 3 tablespoons of cream cheese, and stirring in softened plain gelatin),

sautéed turnip greens with onions, garlic, and smoked sausage as a side dish,

a gourmet salad blend with lettuce, beet greens, spinach, radish greens, nasturtium leaves, parsley, thyme, and chive blossoms (enough for all of us for our lunches, with leftovers for today),

and a pint of chive blossom vinegar.

In these early days of this season's garden, harvesting this much may only happen a couple of times per week. But it sure is exciting. 

I was thinking about the value of our garden. It's more than just saving money on our grocery budget. It's the quality and variety that we gain by keeping a garden. If I didn't have this garden, I don't think we would eat such variety. I likely would not buy a gourmet or premium salad mix. If I bought rhubarb, I would only do so once or twice per season. And I doubt I would buy so many high-nutrient cooking greens. In addition, our garden produce is consumed soon after harvest, meaning the nutrients, flavors and textures are still at their peak. Whenever I get a notion to quit gardening, I remind myself of these hidden values of my garden.

Making a Sparse-Looking Flower Pot or Basket Look Full

So, the dilemma with buying flowering annuals for pots -- buy extra plants to put in a pot to make it look full right away, or spend less money and have the pot fill in as summer progresses.

I'm sure you guessed already which way I went on this one. I knew my basket was on the small side. And I did think about buying 2 begonia plants. But then I thought that maybe I could get by with just one. I  knew I could use one of my tricks to make the basket look full while the single plant grew.

Here's how small and puny my one begonia looked before.

After planting the begonia, I cut several short leafy stems of camellia and stuck them in the dirt all around the begonia. The stems add greenery and a sense of lushness, covering up the bare dirt around the edge of the pot. Leafy evergreen stems (not deciduous) will remain green and healthy looking for several weeks when stuck in moist soil about 2 to 3 inches deep. 

From a distance, it just looks like a full pot. Once the begonia fills in, I can easily remove the stems of camellia.

Weekend Free Piles and My Very Cheap Begonia Basket

Free pre-owned empty (except the weed)
hanging basket,
ready to be filled with flowers

It was garage sale Saturday in our area this past weekend. While I happily look around at everything for sale, I am mostly interested in the free piles. I must admit, our neighborhood has some pretty good items in free piles. One daughter picked up 2 nice looking lamps and a side table for absolutely free. The other daughter found a bunch of spots equipment in the piles. And I found some holiday decorations for next year.

What perhaps looked the most like garbage is actually something that will save me about $26 or $27. I've been watching for an empty hanging flower basket to appear in free piles to use near our front door. I spied one early Saturday. I picked it up and asked "is this free pile, too?" The lady replied, "yes, I bought my flower basket for the season the other day," pointing to the hanging flower basket on her front porch. It was beautiful and fully in bloom.

However, for about 30 cents of new potting soil, a $3.50 large begonia plant (large in bloom, not necessarily the whole plant),, and 15 minutes, I'll have my own hanging begonia basket in bloom.

Fred Meyer sells slightly larger planted begonia baskets for about $33, giving me a savings of about $26 to $27 for a slightly smaller version.

Maybe the woman who gave me the empty basket doesn't like to garden. Or maybe she doesn't have much free time. Or, maybe she picked up the basket on a whim. Or, perhaps she didn't realize how quick and easy it would be to replant her old basket. Whatever the case, I'm very grateful for my own good fortune.

I'll transplant the begonia later today. My daughter gave me a great idea for making the basket look more full while the plant grows to fill the space. I'll show you later this week.

Breakfast at the Beach

My daughters know me well. They had wanted to take me "out" for Mother's Day breakfast. But I spoiled their plans when I bought refrigerated cinnamon rolls for the four of us to have a special breakfast on Sunday at home.

So, they changed their plans a little and told me to keep Wednesday morning open. On Wednesday, the two of them took me to the downtown area of our little town. There's a little a bakery on Main Street and just down the hill is the beach. We each chose a pastry, then walked down the hill to enjoy a peaceful morning at the beach. My daughters brought fresh strawberries and coffee to go with the pastries. 

Our beaches, here in the PNW, are strewn with logs. The large logs make nice places to sit, have breakfast, and watch the water birds dunking their heads beneath the water's surface for a snack. The Washington state ferries come and go periodically. These are the same ferries that whisk my daughters and I across the Sound to one of our favorite get-away-for-the-day spots.

So we sipped coffee, enjoyed pastries and strawberries, and luxuriated in waterfront dining. After a couple of hours it was time for us to return home and get on with our work for the day. I, however, carried that carefree beach day feeling with me throughout the rest of my day.

Have a wonderful weekend!

The Progress of Our Hanging Salad Bowls

They're looking good! I think I'll wait one more week to maybe 10 days before beginning to pluck off some salad fixings. The two bonuses with using these baskets for salad greens is, one, pests can't get to them (no slugs or bunnies), and two, because they hang up near the roof's edge, they catch more sunlight than other parts of our deck and seem to be growing faster in this cool spring weather than pots down below (and much, much faster than in the garden).

As the weather warms, I'll start some seeds for heat-tolerant greens to replace these cool season ones. 

I have five hanging baskets just like this, plus several additional pots with a variety of salad greens. I can hardly wait for salad season to begin!

When you have simple tastes, the ordinary can be extraordinary!

I was pulling up the violets that had overtaken a footpath in the garden when I found the prettiest white rock. It looked like alabaster. The moment overtook me as I admired the creamy beauty of this solid white stone. It was just a moment, and to any one else, this might just be a rock. But because I find myself satisfied with the simple beauty of nature, I perceived this ordinary rock as extraordinary.

I think we are all born with simple taste. Have you ever watched a small child who has discovered an earthworm wriggling in the dirt? Child-like fascination with the natural world is corrupted by our culture as we get older. However, I believe we can encourage our tastes to appreciate the ordinary once again.

Here are 12 suggestions for getting back onto the path of simple tastes.

1) spend the day with a toddler -- play on their level, go for a walk and let them lead, giggle when they giggle

2) plant a seed -- watching a plant grow from a seed fosters my admiration for creation's perfect plan

3) watch the sun set from beginning to end -- so magnificent, yet such a simple pleasure

4) have breakfast early in the morning outdoors, alone, and listen to birdsong as you sip your coffee

5) volunteer in some capacity working with shelter animals, or with people who are less fortunate than you, either in their health or in their finances. Gratitude has a way of bringing us back to what is important.

6) give something up for a month or two. Giving up refined sugar causes me to really taste the sweetness in fruit. Having a no-spend month (except food and cleaning/paper supplies) forces me to appreciate the things I already own and experiences I can make for free. Give up social media for a month and you may find the simple pleasure of in-person conversations. 

7) read pioneer stories or stories from the Great Depression. When discretionary income was practically non-existent, folks found delight in everyday activities.

8) visit an elderly neighbor or relative and try to forget about the other errands you need to run. Can't do in-person visits right now? Visit by phone. Like Depression stories, a chat with one of our elders often puts life into perspective.

9) bring something from nature indoors to admire, such as a pebble, pinecone, seashell, twig, leaf, or blossom. I frequently pick up little treasures from my walks and set them at my place at the table to enjoy for a few days.

10) change the sheets on your bed and go to bed early. There's nothing so delicious as slipping between perfectly crisp and clean sheets at the end of the day.

11) plan a weekend retreat. Go camping or stay in a cabin. The point is forced disconnection from technology. 

12) visit a working farm and see first hand where real food comes from. Years ago, I was privileged with the opportunity to milk a goat and feed chickens. The experience was hilariously fun. But it was also very educational.

These suggestions feature a few things in common. Many either encourage encounters with nature or time spent with other people, in-person. I believe that humans are hard-wired to be both social and part of creation. For myself, I've found that expensive luxuries are often psychological replacements for the relationships that I crave deep-down.

Training yourself toward simple tastes is in the doing. The more you partake in simple moments, the more enjoyment you find in these activities. 

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.