One of the Dumbest Financial Things I've Done

Growing pumpkins is NOT a dumb thing.
It's a source of frugal fun for me.

I'm cleaning out some of my kids' stuff this week and came across a large set of children's books. Doing this brought to mind some kinda dumb financial things I've done in my adult life.

I've done a lot of dumb things. But there are two of them that stand out in my mind for costing more money than the value provided. Here's the first one. When my son was a baby, I signed up for one of those story book of the month clubs. They sent us the first 3 books for about $2 plus shipping. Then every month after they sent 2 more books for $5-something each plus shipping. The deal was I was free to return any book we didn't want to keep, but I would have to pay the return shipping. And I could cancel at any time. Anyway, I was busy with a small baby and didn't get around to canceling for many months. While we did amass a nice collection of children's books, it wound up costing a lot more than it would have if I'd bought books like Golden Books from the drug store. These monthly merchandise clubs are often financially wasteful.

The other stupid financial choice I made was before I was married. I joined a gym with a 2-year contract that wasn't remotely convenient for me. I went for about 3 months, then never made the time to go again. Meanwhile, I continued to pay off the 2-year contract, even after I'd moved out of state. In hindsight, I should have asked if there was a shorter term contract, or even a month-by-month payment. I also could have found a less expensive way to get exercise, perhaps a YMCA or parks and rec classes.

The most costly financial "mistake" my husband and I made jointly. When we originally financed the purchase of our home, we qualified for both a 15- and 30- year mortgage. As is customary, the 15-year mortgage had a lower interest rate than the 30-year one. We knew we could afford the payment on the 15-year, but we went with the 30-year out of fear something could happen and we'd have a difficult time making the larger payment on the 15-year mortgage. In the end, we refinanced to a 15-year mortgage in 4 years, paying new closing costs. This fear-based decision cost my husband and I substantially more than either of my/our earlier dumb choices. At least this "mistake" of ours wasn't on dumb stuff.

Can you look at your past and see dumb or costly financial choices? Can you see ways that you could have done things differently?

Microwave Blackberry Upside Down Cake

And for no related reason whatsoever, here's another microwave recipe. I baked this over the weekend.

Microwave Upside Down Cake

(The recipe calls for canned pineapple, but I use whatever fruit I have. The one in the photo is a blackberry upside down cake, using half the butter in the fruit layer and granulated, not brown, sugar, but the rest of the recipe as written. Peach or apple upside down cakes are also delicious.)

fruit layer

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 8-oz can pineapple slices, reserve juice

4 candied or maraschino cherries, cut in half

batter layer

1  1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup soft shortening (I use a mix of butter and oil)

1 egg

liquid from pineapple plus milk to total 1/2 cup (if baking any other fruit cake, use 1/2  cup milk only)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

In 8-inch round microwaveable dish, such as a soufflé dish or quiche dish, microwave the butter to melt. Sprinkle sugar over butter. Drain fruit and arrange in dish. Decorate with cherries.

Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix in soft shortening, egg, liquid, and vanilla until smooth. Carefully spread over fruit layer.

Microwave until a toothpick inserted comes out clean (6 minutes in my turntable 1100 watt microwave). Lacking a turntable in the microwave, rotate dish a half-turn midway through cooking. Total cook time could range from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, depending on wattage of microwave. Begin checking at around the 5 or 5.5 minute point.

Remove from microwave when baked. Cool 5 minutes in baking dish. Use a table knife to go all the way around the edge of the dish to loosen the cake. Invert onto a plate and allow to stand for a few minutes. Serve warm, if desired. 

This recipe makes 8 slices for my family. I place an upturned glass bowl over the plate of leftover cake as a cake dome to prevent drying out overnight. We finish the cake on the second day, and it's still very enjoyable.

The Frugal Person's Dilemma: Are You Still Frugal if You Spend More Than You Need To?

I had to show you this -- a licorice shrine.
Apparently, licorice is a very big thing in Scandinavia.

This may shock you: There are instances when I feel downright spendthrifty.  Our Wednesday day trip to Poulsbo, WA brought out my extravagant side. We spent more on a few purchases, some as gifts and others to enjoy by our family, that I definitely could have bought elsewhere for less. Surprising as this may be, you can even find souvenir t-shirts that feature the name of a town or attraction on Amazon for close to half the price as buying at that destination.  For these purchases, though, I wanted to support some local businesses, even if it meant I would spend more.

The choice to spend more for ethical, sustainability, or community-driven reasons presents a dilemma for frugal people -- the question of are you still frugal if you spend more to prioritize non-financial aspects of purchases in place of maximizing savings at all times?

It may be ethical sourcing that's important, such as not patronizing brands that use child or slave labor, or don't pay their employees a fair wage, or do something damaging to the environment in the production of their goods. Sometimes it's about shopping at businesses that are locally-owned, or are small businesses. And sometimes making a purchase from a non-profit will benefit a greater cause than simply profit. This idea of being selective with purchases extends to restaurants and other similar establishments. A person may prefer to support an independently-owned restaurant to keep money in their local area.

In my family's case the other day, we bought a Christmas gift for an extended family member, a men's t-shirt for my husband, and some salty licorice, pastries, and ice cream/iced coffee for us to enjoy. The Christmas gift came from a store that features items from Scandinavia and will be appreciated by a family member who strongly identifies with the Scandinavian side of our family. I could have purchased a Christmas gift for this family member on Amazon. But I wanted my purchasing dollars to benefit a local business. 

This was my husband's first visit to Poulsbo. I took our three kids there many summers ago, and bought t-shirts for each of them then. My son still wears his t-shirt, and my husband has admired it a time or two. We found the same shirt in several color choices at the maritime museum. Their merchandise sales keep this museum open to the public with free admission. We saw other t-shirts at retail shops in Poulsbo for a few dollars less. And I even found a couple of Poulsbo t-shirts on Amazon for several dollars less. But I wanted to help a non-profit stay open. So we made the purchase at the museum.

The food purchases all came from independent and locally-owned businesses. We could have gone elsewhere for the ice cream, breakfast pastries, or licorice. But again, I wanted our purchasing dollars to stay in the area. 

The employees we interacted with all live within a short drive of their places of work. The owners also live locally. My hope is that this town continues to have the same small town charm for many more decades.

There was a time in our family's story when we couldn't afford to prioritize anything but paying the lowest possible price. I'm blessed and can say that we sometimes can now make decisions in ways that help small businesses or non-profits, or keep profits local, or prioritize the way that products are made or harvested that benefit employees or environments. It's a balance, however. We can't make our choices in these ways all of the time. But when we can, it makes me very happy.

Being frugal is not always about saving the most money. Incorporating thoughtfulness in spending has a place in a frugal mindset. Personally, I like to use my purchasing power to help local businesses and their employees. I worked in retail when I was younger, and I think I connect with people working in shops and small restaurants. I want to have an impact on their day in some very small way. Giving them my business is one way to accomplish just that.

What do you think? Do you think a person is still frugal when they spend more in order to prioritize other values instead of maximizing savings? Can you think of other reasons a frugal person would be willing to spend more for a purchase or service?

Summer Vacation Crammed Into One Day

With no possibility of a summer vacation this year, my husband took today off from work, and the four of us went to a small Norwegian town near us. My husband and I are early wakers. At 5 we were both up, so we decided to try for an early ferry.

We brought coffee with us, and then once in Poulsbo, we made a beeline for Sluy's bakery.

There's a park on the waterfront with plenty of seating. It's just a 2-minute walk from the bakery. So we enjoyed our pastries and coffee al fresco overlooking the marina.

Our favorite post-breakfast stop is the Marina Market. It's also the only store open so early. Marina Market is filled with interesting international foods. They're also know for their selection of licorice. We chose a container of salty black licorice, both a Scandinavian and Dutch confection.

We explored the town,

visited shops, 

had to stop in the children's book store for my daughter
who is a children's book illustrator and writer

took a walk on the boardwalk along the bay, and soon found it was time for a picnic lunch at the gazebo. We packed turkey and cheese sandwiches on homemade bread, apple slices, homemade pasta salad with garden vegetables, homemade cookies, and fruit juice and iced tea. It was nice to have some shade and a moment to rest our feet.

After lunch we visited the maritime museum and made a purchase to support this wonderful free exhibit.

We visited several art galleries that featured local artists 

and a few more interesting stores.

At the end of the afternoon, we stopped for ice cream cones for the other three and an iced coffee for me.

We made it home before sunset and had a simple dinner of peanut butter sandwiches and fruit. Our feet are plum worn out, putting over 9000 steps in for the day. It was a lovely time that felt like an entire vacation crammed into one day.

The Happy Side Effect of Grocery Shopping Less Often

30% to 40% of all the food produced in the US goes to waste. Of this waste, 43% happens in households. Household food waste is primarily produce, milk, and leftover components of meals.

As a basically frugal person, I have avoided wasting food for almost my entire life. And still, I find myself with food waste from time to time. 

And then I made one change in how I grocery shop, and I found our household wasting minimal food.

our fridge on Day 4 after grocery shopping at WinCo
It's easy to see how foods could get lost in here, isn't it?

I changed my grocery shopping from once per week to a big shopping trip every other week (choosing WinCo over any of our other grocery stores). In the off weeks, I sometimes go to the Walmart right around the corner, picking up only a couple of items that I prefer from Walmart.

When it dawned on me that I wasn't throwing very much away these past few months, I asked myself how this was happening.

What were the foods most likely to be wasted in my household?

• leftovers from meals
• fresh produce
• fresh and processed meats
• milk and cream cheese
• opened tubs of tofu
• opened cans or jars of foods, like partial cans of fruits or vegetables
• small amounts of fruit juice and lemonade

Here's how our reduced food waste played out. Shopping once every two weeks, I spend the last 4 to 5 days before shopping again scouring the fridge for foods to use up. We run out of our favored supplies and are forced to consume the less favored. As the fridge becomes more and more empty, it's easier to spot those foods that may have been pushed to the back. I may not have all of the "right" ingredients for cooking meals by day 10, so I make do with what I have on hand. 

How I'm wasting less fresh produce

I've learned to push the more perishable produce first, by using these foods in my cooking for the family and making suggestions to family members as they assemble their own breakfasts and lunches. Then days 10 through 14 we use the less perishable foods. Leafy greens, tomatoes, and bananas are used first and cabbage, celery, and apples are used later in the period. Some produce items have surprised me how long they keep, watermelon being one of them. We were finishing off our last watermelon about 3 1/2 weeks after we bought it. We kept it uncut in the fridge for a week and a half before cutting into it. And then it just kept for a long, long time.

Buying milk just twice a month

It's not all sunshine and roses. I've needed to be mindful of the milk. Two weeks is a long time to go between milk purchases. We could pick up more milk at our local Walmart, but we don't care for the milk from there. So we try to get by on whatever milk I buy from WinCo. Buying a couple of gallons at WinCo, and keeping both in the fridge, would likely lead to some soured milk. Here's how I've managed to buy milk twice per month, and how I want to tweak this. 

When we first open a gallon of milk I pour off about half of it into small freezer containers. A week after the milk is first opened, I'm thawing a container of the frozen milk to fulfill my family's needs. If we happen to go through all of the milk before my next WinCo run, I have a little bit of powdered milk that I mix up to tide us over. 

Hopes for not needing powdered milk

My plan on this next WinCo trip (in about 10 days) is to buy 2 gallons of milk and freeze 1  1/2 gallons, instead of just a half-gallon, in quart containers. This would provide back-up milk at a reduced cost of the powdered milk. Powdered milk is expensive compared to liquid milk. I wouldn't need all of that frozen milk in a two week period, but would have a little stash of milk for future weeks.

The other happy side effect is my fridge becomes reasonably empty by day 12 or 13 and I can do a thorough cleaning of the shelves. This was rarely possible when I did sizable shopping every week.

Anyway, I'm saving money, saving gas, and saving food by shopping less often.

How often do you like to grocery shop? Are there changes you've made that result in less food waste? What foods tend to end up as waste in your household?

Budget-Friendly Stock-up at WinCo: What I Bought, How I'll Store It, and How I'll Use It All

an abundant garden has left room in the budget
 for stocking up on other foods

I saved almost $10 on 4 foods by stocking up this last week, buying my regular foods but at a lower price. WinCo is already known as a low price leader in my region. So to save an additional $10 over my usual spending for the same groceries is a good savings. I don't intend for any of it to go to waste. I will store all of it smartly and make a plan for how to use it.

Last Friday was my every-other-week shopping at WinCo. I arrived at the store with bags in hand and a pocket full of cash.

Stocking up on mayo, tuna, butter, and cocoa powder

When I come across a sale in-store, I quickly calculate a reasonable stock-up amount. I check expiration dates on packages and think through our family's usage of that item. For example, mayo was on sale, down 40 cents per jar from the regular price. Based on my family's usage and the expiration date, I bought 3 jars, saving our budget $1.20. 

Tuna was on sale for 10 cents less a can than usual. I normally buy 2 cans every time I'm at WinCo. This time I bought 10 cans. The expiry is over a year away on the tuna. I saved a buck by buying the 10 cans. I also know that WinCo's sales last longer than a week. I believe their sales last a month. So I will have another opportunity to buy more mayo and tuna. 

Butter was still on sale this week (as it had been two weeks ago). So I knew it was unlikely it would also be on sale in another 2 weeks. As I've mentioned in my freezer cleaning posts, I've been well-stocked on butter all summer. But butter is an often-used food in our house, hence a regular purchase for me. So a little more is welcome. I bought 8 pounds of butter this week, at a savings of 40 cents/pound, or $3.20 savings total. 

In addition to finding sales, I also checked the bulk bins of cocoa powder. While cocoa powder in the bulk bins was not marked down, it's a stock-up item nonetheless, as they are usually out of cocoa powder. The containers of WinCo brand cocoa powder sell for $3.99/8 oz or almost $8/lb (it's even more at Walmart in a container), while the bulk bin cocoa powder price is $3.88/lb. I bought about 1 pound of cocoa powder and consider myself lucky to have found it in stock.

My storage for each of the stock-ups

the cool storage pantry

If I had a basement of cellar, I'd store my canned and jarred foods there. Our 1970s house was built for convenience, not long-term food storage. So I've made do with the space I have. We use a room in the coolest part of the house (furthest from the furnace and with a northern exposure) as extra pantry storage. Extra mayonnaise and canned tuna are stored in our cool pantry. If we come within a month of expiry on the mayo, I'll refrigerate even the unopened jars to prolong their lifespan several additional weeks (see article in this link).

Butter is always stored in the freezer. We take out 1 pound at a time. Butter stored in the refrigerator begins to take on off odors and tastes after a few months. Whereas in the freezer, butter can remain fresh in taste and odor for a year or more.

Bulk bin cocoa powder is akin to an opened container of cocoa powder. Once a container is opened, it's at its best for up to a year.  It's still "safe" to consume after that, but its flavor may begin to go off. However, cocoa powder can be stored in the freezer. I keep about a pound of cocoa powder in the cool storage room in a glass jar (with just a small amount in the kitchen cupboard) and the rest I double-bag and store in the freezer. 

Plans to use these stock-up foods

I've been in the position of having too much mayo on hand and scrambling to use it up before expiry. I've baked cakes and biscuits with mayo, added a dollop to quiche a time or two, and used it in coating chicken pieces before a crumb layer for baking a nice crispy skin. But this time, I'm hoping I've made a prudent guess as to how much we will use before the date on the jar.

We have tuna a couple of times per week, in casseroles, tuna salad to top greens on spread on bread, and in tasty hot tuna boats and melts. I'm not a fan of creamed tuna or tuna patties, so I will plan for tuna boats and salads as the primary way to use this up.

chocolate chips cookies made with part butter, part applesauce

We use butter primarily as a spread on toasted and untoasted bread and as topping for potatoes and vegetables. I use part butter/part oil/part lard or shortening/part applesauce or other puree in baking to stretch the butter. 

highly recommend --bread, cheese, and jam

I try to find other spreads, like mustard, mayo, jams, and peanut butter, for sandwiches. I had a delicious cheese and fig jam sandwich for lunch the other day. Jams are also tasty on meat sandwiches, like sliced chicken and red currant jelly or plum jam. 

Cocoa powder is a budget-friendly way to get a chocolate taste. One of my favorites is a very chocolatey scratch brownie. See the recipe at the bottom of this post. I also really enjoy a cup of hot cocoa for a chocolate treat. And when it comes to cake, my family thinks chocolate cake is lackluster in the chocolate department. So we make vanilla cake and frost with a chocolate buttercream frosting. Now that's a great chocolate experience at a fraction of the cost of chocolate candy. 

Pros and cons

Stocking up on frequently used items is not only a good budget strategy, but it can also be back-up stock when there are shortages or price hikes. In spring of 2020 I bought a couple of cases (5 dozen each) of eggs for $5 each to freeze. I just this last month finished off our last container of frozen eggs. This whole past winter and spring exorbitant cost for chicken eggs thing wasn't nearly as hard on my budget as it could have been. I was able to get through several months on a measly purchase of 5 or so dozen eggs by relying on my freezer stash of stock-up eggs.

There are caveats, however. Buying too much, expiring food, not being able to store it all properly, having a change of preference/taste leaving one with foods no one will eat are all very real possibilities. I try to err on the side of caution with my stocking up these days. 

I'm not perfect at stocking up. I always have some hesitancy around buying large quantities (and spending a lot of money). I remind myself that even if I didn't stock up as much as I could have, I still saved money and made our tight grocery budget stretch that much further.

Best Brownies Ever (conventional or microwave oven)

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup butter, melted (or half butter/half oil)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Beat together the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Stir in the butter. Mix in flour and cocoa powder.

Spread evenly in a greased 8-inch square Pyrex baking dish.

Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 20 to 22 minutes.

Or

Microwave on HIGH for 4 to 5 minutes, rotating dish 1/2 turn after 1 1/2 minutes, if no turntable. When done, the top will look dry, mostly, with a dime-sized center that still looks moist.

Would you trust a recipe from ChatGPT?

My daughter really wanted to replicate the cookies she remembered from her childhood, the ones given to her when we shopped at Albertsons grocery store. So, she consulted ChatGPT.

I must add that both of my daughters love to bake and have made many treats for us over the years. It's not like they don't know how to bake. But one daughter was looking for a recipe for a specific cookie.

When she was asking ChatGPT about this cookie, she gave it feedback and tried to provide as much information as she could, questioning some advice and offering her own opinion here and there. When she thought she was finally given a good recipe, she headed out to the store to buy the special ingredients AI suggested. This recipe called for Crisco, butter, margarine, instant pudding, corn syrup, as well as eggs, flour, sugar, chocolate chips, salt, and baking soda. I'm not sure why ChatGPT thought the cookies needed pudding mix, corn syrup, or three types of fat.

She followed ChatGPT's recipe to the letter, using specific ingredients, refrigerating the dough, and doing everything ChatGPT called for. Here's how they turned out.

They spread a lot, were overdone on the edges, and were under-baked at the centers.

For reference, they should have looked something like this, from Albertsons' own website.

While my daughters have baked many batches of cookies, I must say that there are some things they just haven't thought through about recipes. When I saw how her batch turned out, I asked her for details from ChatGPT's recipe. I could tell right away that ChatGPT's recipe called for far too much sugar and fat, both ingredients that can cause cookies to spread. Like many women my age, I have many years of experience baking cookies and can kind of guess how a cookie will turn out based on the ratio of some of the ingredients. At the very least, I can think of "fixes" when a cookie doesn't turn out as I'd thought it would.

What I told my daughter was that when it comes to coming up with baking recipes, she's really better off consulting a seasoned baker instead of AI. AI might sometimes have a good recipe, but you can't count on it.

When AI was becoming a thing, about a year or so ago, I recall folks talking about it "hallucinating." That is, when AI didn't have an answer, instead of saying "I don't have the answer," it sometimes gave information based on nothing. I wonder how much of that was happening when my daughter asked for help coming up with a recipe for these cookies. I heard today that ChatGPT just released its version 5. Perhaps this improved version will address this issue of sometimes providing incorrect or not-quite-correct information. I will say that the recipe my daughter tried at least produced cookies and contained cookie ingredients. It just couldn't get a specific kind of cookie right. But my family still ate almost all of them. As my daughter said, "they're cookies. What's not to like. But they're not at all like the Albertsons' cookies. The taste and texture are way off." 

After the cookies were done baking my daughter went back to ChatGPT and explained the recipe it had given her and how the cookies looked and tasted. Funnily, ChatGPT told her the exact things I said, that excess sugar and fats caused the cookies to spread too much. Nice to know that when it comes to baking cookies, I'm as smart as AI.

So what kind of information is ChatGPT good for? I've used it for suggestions for movies for our family to watch. I can give parameters and ask it to recommend a movie list for me. It's good at making lists. However, it's up to me to then research every movie on the list to see if it would be right for our family. Like other lists or suggestions, I'd recommend researching anything AI says before acting on that information. It's a starting point, only, in my mind.

Anyway, my daughter will be sourcing recipes from a wider pool of information in the future.

Freezer Finds This Week

So I've cleaned out and organized both stand alone freezers. I had to do those because they needed defrosting. But I also have 2 freezer compartments of fridge/freezer combination units, the kitchen one and our old kitchen one (now in the garage). Neither of these need defrosting, but they do need cleaning out and organizing. So I am slowly going through both as I have a few minutes here and there.

it's dark because the lightbulb burned out several years ago --
the absolute only thing that has ever failed in this fridge/freezer

Here's what the freezer section of the old fridge/freezer looks like now after about 6 weeks. Goodness! This is about as empty as I've seen it in years. And this photo was taken right after I put 2 new loaves of bread in there. It was emptier than this when I opened the door. And yes, it is avocado green. How very 1970s!

And here's the kitchen fridge/freezer's freezer after 6 weeks of trying to use up its contents. It's getting there. It's still a jumble of stuff, but at least there's room in the freezer basket now, and I can find foods. These lower basket freezers are difficult to keep organized, as the basket slopes, so you can't easily stack containers.

Here's what I found this week:

• more chicken stock
• pumpkin stock (the liquid that I strain off of cooked, pureed fresh pumpkin)
• 2 containers of unknown contents, likely someone's leftovers. One looks like it might be baked beans. I'll need to thaw them just to find out what they are.
• ground cumin
• phyllo dough (very old, but I may try doing something with it)
• grape juice concentrate
• a partial can of apple-raspberry concentrate
• 2 1/2 burritos, homemade
• 1/2 eggroll, homemade
• multiple ice cream containers (5) with about 1 scoop left in each
• whipped cream
• 2 cups of sour milk
• 1/2 cup chicken gravy
• 1 cup of ham drippings
• candied orange peel scones, several

What I did with our finds:

• I used 1 quart of chicken stock divided between some chicken gravy to go with roasted chicken and a small pot of chicken noodle soup.
• 1 quart of pumpkin stock has been used as the liquid in my breakfast smoothies.
• cumin was used to refill the kitchen spice jar
• 1/2 burrito was part of my lunch yesterday. 
• the sour milk went into a large batch of pancakes for my family this week for breakfasts and snacks
• the 1/2 cup of chicken gravy was mixed with the fresh homemade gravy this week, allowing us to get 3 dinners of roast chicken and gravy from one whole chicken.

What's left? And what I plan for these items:

• the 2 containers of unknown contents, perhaps one is baked beans -- I plan on thawing at least one of them at lunch one day this week, getting my family's approval, and seeing if a family member recalls freezing it. Then it will become part of their lunch for that day. I'll do the same with the second container the following week.
• phyllo dough -- I don't want to waste other good ingredients on something that is old, so I may just layer the sheets with butter, sugar, and cinnamon and bake. Any other suggestions?
• The juices will be beverages at a picnic or cookout in the next month.
• 2 burritos -- these will be used in lunches this next week.
• 1/2 egg roll -- this is my daughter's. I'll encourage her to eat it.
• ice cream -- this is easy. We'll have an ice cream moment on Saturday afternoon when the warm weather returns.
• the whipped cream is a few years old -- I'll use it in a batch of scones or pancakes, thinned with some water. Or do you have any suggestions?
• ham drippings -- I saved these drippings for making gravy. Do you have any suggestions on using the drippings or for what to use a gravy made with them?
• no one remembers baking the scones. So I'm guessing I baked them. Using candied orange peel sounds like something I'd bake. (My daughters thought so, too.) They likely have dairy milk in them, so I can't eat any. I think I'll thaw a few at a time and set them out for breakfast choices.

What are your suggestions for the foods I haven't used yet?

It feels like summer is waning in my area -- there's still much to do

tonight's dessert -- rice pudding under homegrown fruit and runny blackberry-raspberry jam,
inspired by a fruit and custard tart in the bakery case
 at the market the other day

This week I have felt in a rush to get some summer chores finished, as if summer were soon coming to an end. I started washing the heavy part of bedding (quilts, blankets, mattress pads). This will take several dry days to complete, and tomorrow we expect rain. Today I hosed down the seed starting trays for next season. As you know, I've now defrosted the freezers. What I haven't mentioned is I'm also in the process of cleaning up the garage (where the freezers are located). I need to get this one done before storing patio furniture. At least I can work in the garage when it rains this week. Anyway, I'm pushing myself to work faster.

Perhaps it's harvesting apples and pears that has put me into an end-of-summer mindset. Or perhaps it's the turn toward cool and cloudy weather this week. Or maybe it's the changing angle of the sun that is making me think summer is nearly done for my area. I know that warm weather will return after tomorrow and Thursday rain, but somehow summer won't feel the same.

So we are frantically rushing to plan picnics in the park, dinner at the beach, finish painting the deck railing, and having multiple cookouts and BBQs. At least I've been enjoying lots of time outdoors this summer and making lots of fruity desserts. So I won't feel like summer completely passed me by.

There is an upside to feeling rushed to complete projects -- I will work harder, faster, and with greater intent as I do my once-per-summer work. I tend to work more efficiently when faced with a deadline. 

How about you? What are the must-dos on your list for the remainder of summer? Do you have a plan for accomplishing those activities? Or do you just wing it?

Easy Sautéed, Spiced Apple Chunks

I've mentioned making this many times, and I thought it was finally time I showed you what I mean by these. 

I picked more early apples this morning and managed to knock several off while doing so. I also found several apples on the ground under the tree that had been there for a couple of days. These apples were bruised but still mostly okay. I picked them up, washed, cut off bruises, and cut into chunks. I freeze the good chunks to use in sautéed apples. Today, since I was roasting a whole chicken, and it was a cool and cloudy day, I thought sautéed, spiced apples would be a nice side dish. So I used about half of the apple chunks tonight and froze the rest. 

To serve 4 adults, I use the chunks from about 5 or 6 fist-sized apples (small compared to grocery store apples). As you can see, I leave the skins on.

To make, heat a skillet with about 2 to 3 teaspoons of butter. Drop the apples in and sauté while stirring periodically. When soft but still hold their shape add some cinnamon and a teaspoon or two of sweetening, sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, whatever you like. The sweetening should just bring out the natural sweetness of the apples, not make them apple pie-like sweet.

I like to serve these warm. So if I make them early in the day, I will add a couple of tablespoons of water while I reheat them.

Each year I have enough apple chunks in the freezer from fallen or knocked apples to last us the winter. Bruised apples simply wouldn't keep in the fridge. But freezing the good parts (which is most of the apple) keeps them for many months. 

While it's still summer, here in the northern hemisphere, our cool and cloudy week brought to mind our family's fall festivities. I usually make sautéed apples using maple syrup to go with Thanksgiving dinner. They're always a big hit with our family.

An easy-peasy side dish that salvages fruit which might otherwise be tossed out.

Riches

It's not bars of gold, nor shares of stocks, nor fancy jewelry that makes me feel wealthy. It's an abundant garden. 

Today was apple picking day for our early apples. This apple tree is an overachiever. It outdoes itself each year, giving my family buckets of apples. I filled 3 produce drawers with apples today and there are still more on the tree. I think this is the most apples we've had in a season from this tree. It's a good thing this tree is so productive, as our two late season apples don't do as well. (But they're great pollinators.) Early apples are generally not good keepers. Along with our abundance of cabbage, we'll be eating apples morning, noon, and night from now until mid-September. I also collect all of the apples that I knock off, or dropped, and cut off bruises, chop the good parts, and freeze those in chunks. I have 3 gallon ziplock bags in the freezer of apple chunks. I use the frozen chunks in sautéed spiced apples to serve as a side dish in fall and winter. So, in one way or another, we'll be eating our own tree apples from now until next spring.

As with the apples, we're eating cabbage daily, too. Tuesday's cabbage was raw with grated carrots in a salad topped with a fresh basil dressing at lunch and stuffed cabbage rolls at dinner. Yesterday's cabbage was raw in a Thai slaw at lunch and shredded, cooked, in a beef and vegetable soup. Today's cabbage was the vegetable component of fried rice for 3 at lunch time, and, surprise, no cabbage in tonight's dinner. (We needed to also eat the abundant Swiss chard.)

In addition to the apples and cabbage, we have kale yet to pick, 100 or so garlic bulbs to dig later this month, and I now have 8 pumpkins and 11 winter squash in the pumpkin patch! These are my worldly riches. I'd rather have abundant good food than any other worldly good or service.

I feel so blessed.

Well, it's done

I'm starting to freeze garden produce, so it became imperative that I defrost the chest freezer now. 

I got an early start in the morning, before the day grew too warm. As I mentioned before, most of the contents are already bagged. Bagging like items has helped us keep the freezer organized this last month. But it also made for a very quick and easy transfer of contents to other freezer spaces and styrofoam containers, and then back again to the chest freezer once I had defrosted and wiped it out.

Once everything was out, I just let the freezer do its thing while I baked cookies.

After an hour, I came back and checked the insides. I used a plastic pancake-turner type of spatula (flimsy Dollar Tree variety) to scrape the insides periodically. It took about 3 hours total to get it all cleaned out and dried (don't want residual moisture to turn to new frost).

I don't know if you do this, but I line the floor of my chest freezer with two large plastic bags. So I had to wipe those off as well. The plastic bags keep containers of food from freezing to the floor of the freezer should something spill or burst. The worst case scenario if something bursts is I pull the bottom food items out of the freezer attached to the bags. A few years ago I had a jug of milk that burst in the freezer and froze several items to the floor of the freezer. I had to wait until I defrosted the freezer before I could get those foods out.

As I said, the foods were quick and easy to transfer back into the clean freezer. The whole thing is really an easy job. I don't know why I put it off each year. But I am glad to have this done for the summer.

For those still reluctant to get their freezer defrosted this summer, here are the upsides I found in doing mine.

• It forced me to go through all the frozen food, and I found several very pleasant surprises (croissants, cookies, cupcakes, muffins, blueberries, pecans, and eggs when I needed them).
• It also gave me the opportunity to reorganize all of our frozen foods. As I put foods back into the cleaned freezer, I moved some foods to other freezer spaces and others into this freezer space. We now have a plan for where we will try to store the different types of foods, so we will be able to find things faster, easier, and before foods develop freezer burn.
• It will save us money on electricity. Excess frost inside a freezer makes the motor work harder. Defrosting a freezer regularly should also prolong its lifespan.
• It gave us more room to store foods. 
• And it gave me a sense of accomplishment in completing this one chore.

I need to continue working on organizing our food storage spaces. If it were just me accessing foods, I could remember where I put something. But with four of us getting in and out of fridge, freezer, and pantry, things get moved around, and not necessarily to spots that seem logical to me. Kitchen organization is a never ending chore, but it is satisfying as I get things tidied up.

Tonight's Stuffed Cabbage Rolls Using the Large Outer Leaves and Leftover Pot Roast

My family all agreed tonight's dinner was delicious. So I thought I'd share with you.

This year I have 12 heads of garden cabbage at varying stages of development. We've picked 3 so far. I expect they will last through sometime in September. When I pick the heads I cut most of the loose large outer leaves as well as the tight heads. We've been shredding these dark leaves and adding them to salads. When I picked the third head on Sunday, I set aside the large dark green outer leaves. In tonight's dinner I used the ones that were about 7 or 8 inches in diameter.

filling of leftover beef roast, slice of bread, onion, seasonings

To fill the cabbage leaves I used leftover cooked beef pot roast, a slice of bread, some onion, garlic powder, onion powder, herbs (thyme, oregano), red pepper flakes, and salt. I chopped the meat, bread and onion before grinding in the food processor, adding the seasonings to taste. The benefit of working with a cooked meat was I could taste the filling as I put it together.

Once I had a filling that I thought was good, I began the rolling process. I steamed the leaves one at a time in the microwave for 20 seconds. To make the roll work with the thick core end, I cut about 2 inches through this end, allowing it to split as I rolled. 

Cabbage rolls are assembled like burritos or egg rolls, filling at one end, fold in the sides, and roll up.

Once filled, these need to be steamed or baked in a sauce, usually a tomato sauce. As I'm low on tomato products right now, I chose to steam these, covered, in the oven, using some of the liquid from the pot roast as my steaming liquid. At serving I spooned the residual liquid over each roll.

These were a tasty way to use both the outer cabbage leaves and leftover beef pot roast. My family asked me to make these again this summer. I may try other filling combinations, perhaps leftover pork roast or chicken and vegetables or a cheesy-beef filling.

I realize that most of us here don't grow their own cabbage each summer. Other leaves can be used for filling with great success, too, such as Swiss chard, collard greens and kale. 

Just thought I'd share.

My once every two weeks shopping at WinCo: *sigh* spent more

Friday was my every other week trip to WinCo. I spent more on that shopping trip than my previous WinCo runs. Despite spending more, I did refrain from buying a bunch of foods for the freezer, with exception to 2 pounds of butter, a piece of fish, breakfast sausage, and 1 whole chicken to replace the chicken I roasted this past week, but no frozen vegetables or packaged frozen foods. In the refrigerated section, I only bought a bunch of celery, some pepperoni for pizza, a block of cheddar cheese (again no block of mozzarella), a bag of carrots and a container of natural peanut butter -- no milk or eggs. I also bought a bunch of bananas, but those aren't refrigerated. 

What I spent, what I bought

So my total at WinCo came to $119.79, about $10 over my average prior to the last WinCo run. So, how did I spend my money this week? I stocked the pantry. I bought flour, sugar, peanuts, raisins, cocoa powder (it was back in stock in the bulk bins -- half the price of containers of cocoa), dates, mayo, canned tuna, popping corn, potatoes, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, baking powder, salt, powdered milk, corn starch, and dried cranberries. The cranberries and dates were perhaps a treat item for my family, to make meals and desserts more interesting. But I'm glad I bought both.

Souring milk and the last of the frozen eggs

What I didn't buy? Milk and eggs. I took the last container of frozen eggs out of the freezer over the weekend. That's a half dozen eggs (less one I used last night). And I have 4 fresh eggs remaining. I also pulled a quart of drinking milk out of the freezer on Friday and have another quart of drinking milk remaining in the freezer. These two quarts are from the last gallon I bought. When we were about a week away from the sell by date, I realized we just weren't going through the milk as fast as usual. So I froze 2 quarts. Good thing I did that, as yesterday at dinner, one of my family members informed me the milk was souring. I smelled it, and yes, it was souring. There was just a cup left. So after dinner I made a batch of pancakes for my family to enjoy with Monday's breakfast. If I had not frozen half of that gallon, we would have had a half-gallon of sour milk on our hands.

Why was this shopping trip more costly?

So, I'm asking myself, how did I spend so much more than my last WinCo trip, but not buy freezer foods or lots of meat? To figure this out I needed to compare my receipts from the two shopping trips. So, two weeks ago I spent $89.13 and bought 22 items. This week I spent the above mentioned $119.79 and bought 34 items. In those 34 items are some extra meats over last time (an extra bag of sausage, pepperoni, fish, although one less chicken), seasonings and baking ingredients not bought last time (cocoa powder was almost $4, and the other ingredients just add up), the popping corn (5 lbs at 88 cents/lb), and the dried fruit (dates and cranberries). I only bought a small amount of dried cranberries to use in kale salads, but the dates came in a 2-lb bag, and that was over $11. I also bought 2 lbs of butter, as it was on sale. If it hadn't been on sale, I wouldn't have bought any butter. I think all of the small packages of various items simply add up. And it didn't help that I was in a spending mood and splurged on the large package of dates, some fish, and a large bag of popcorn. It's funny, I just assumed that since I wasn't buying much produce or a whole lot of meat, that the final bill wouldn't be very high. Fortunately, I had plenty of cash with me (WinCo is cash or debit only).

The good news

So, trying to be optimistic -- at least my shopping at Walmart later this week is not expected to be expensive with food items. So far, the only food item on my list is hot dogs (the good beef kind). I would skip Walmart altogether this week, except I need to stock up on paper products for the household and buy some hair conditioner for myself. On my last shopping at Walmart I bought a lot of chocolate -- bars and chocolate chips. I'm still stocked on chocolate, so it'll just be the hot dogs. Plus, it's the cumulative spending over a season that matters, as grocery spending can vary considerably from one week to the next.

In case you're wondering, I'm still working on eating down the freezer. I'm getting close enough that I could transfer the contents to other freezers while the big one defrosts. Very soon.

Just for a Giggle: Adjustable Waist Jeans

These make me giggle every time I put the jeans on. 

They're my multi-purpose, around the house, cleaning, gardening, neighborhood walking jeans. This pair are hand-me-downs, and as such have fit problems.

The waistband has 3 buttons (one that came on the jeans, two that I added). The 3 buttons allow me to tailor the fit to whatever I need for the day. Going for a walk around the neighborhood and don't want to look gangster? The brass button on the far left in the photo gives me the tightest fit and holds the jeans all the way up. Scrubbing the kitchen floor or weeding the garden and want a sort of loose fit as I get up and down from my knees? The middle button provides a fit tight enough so the pants don't fall down, but loose enough to handle a lot of movement. Just eaten a H-U-G-E meal plus dessert? The original silver-tone button provides the loosest of fits.

The downsides -- none of the buttons match. The two that I added were selected from my mother's button box based on their size (so they would easily fit through the buttonhole) and not appearance. And the front of the jeans do look a little odd (being pulled over at the waist beyond the natural point when zipped) when I've got the tightest fit. 

But these are practical jeans. They're made from all cotton, thick denim that can take a beating. And they were free to me. Can't beat that price.

Despite their practicality, seeing the 3 odd buttons makes me laugh to myself in the morning when pulling the jeans on.

This is one of those things that only other frugal people would understand. Adding buttons to my jeans to make them fit better is akin to drying out a barely used paper towel to use again, or cutting open a toothpaste tube to get that last bit, or washing and reusing ziploc bags until the sides split and even then taping the split up with dict tape. Making do or using up are hallmarks of historic frugality.  But sometimes, even we laugh at our own frugality.