There *is* something that I'm picky about the brand

Most of the time, I could care less about brands. I'll eat any brand of mayo, any brand of tomato paste, any brand of soy milk -- I'm just not picky about brands, for the most part.

But there is one item that I am selective with. That's olive oil.

I don't know if you remember a couple of years back, but there were allegations that some olive oils weren't really olive oil. This situation got me looking into olive oil and how to improve my chances that what I'm buying is, indeed, olive oil.

certification and harvest date on the back label

From what I read, the 2 best indicators that an olive oil was legit are these: 1) the bottle is stamped with a "harvest date", and 2) the bottle has a quality seal, such as the California Olive Oil Council, which certifies the oil has passed some chemical analysis.

So, off I went in search of an olive oil that met these 2 criteria. I only found 1 brand of olive oil in my grocery store which had a harvest date stamped on the bottle, California Olive Ranch. And they also had the seal from the COOC, mentioned above. So that is what I bought a couple of years ago.

I brought it home, and was pleasantly surprised by the flavor. It actually had a distinct flavor to it. It's described as having a "floral, buttery and fruity aroma" with hints of green apple flavor. To me, it tastes a bit like an oak cask. I found it very appealing. You know how it is. You find something that tastes different to you than all of the rest. So, this is my preferred olive oil.

I've stuck with this particular brand for several years now. When the old bottle was nearly empty, I began searching around for a favorable price on this brand. I found that at World Market. I had seen this olive oil on sale, there, before. So, I just waited. And voila, as hoped, on sale, 25% off. It is a "splurge" item for me, at about $4.25 per pint.

Like I said, there's not a whole lot that I'm picky about, but with olive oil, I really am.


To keep my olive oil tasting fresh for as long as possible, I store the bulk of it in the fridge, pouring out only about 2-3 ounces at a time, into a small, dark glass jar with lid, to store in a cool, dark cupboard, for ease of use. My last bottle remained fresh-tasting until the very end, about 8 months post the "best by" date.

Do you have a food item about which brand you are picky?

Scottish shortbread, made with my 1/4 Scottish hands

I was out running errands yesterday, and at one of the stores, they had individual packages of shortbread cookies for 99 cents. There were just 2 cookies in each package. I was so hungry at that moment. I nearly bought a package. This was my second to the last stop, so I knew I'd be home somewhat soon -- not a hunger emergency. But I'd also been craving shortbread for a couple of weeks. I had it on my to-bake list for a while. But just didn't get around to actually baking any.

Even though 99 cents is not a lot of money, it just seemed more than the shortbread was worth. After all, shortbread is easy to make. It only takes 3 ingredients, butter, sugar and flour. And I could whip some up in under an hour, if I could just make myself wait that long.

I did resist buying the shortbread. And when I got home, I did make a batch. You see, for that 99 cents, I could make enough shortbread for the whole family, plus some to tuck away in the freezer, for my next shortbread craving. Of course, there would be no nice, red plaid packaging. But I think I could live with that sacrifice.

I do sometimes buy little treats for myself. But I try to limit those treats to items that I can't easily make at home. Like croissants. I once did make croissants at home. But they were so time-consuming to make, that I didn't feel they were worth my time to make from scratch.


Of course, I had to cost out the batch of shortbread that I made, just to make myself feel better.

1 stick of butter -- 49 cents
1  1/4 cup of flour -- 13 cents
1/4 cup sugar -- 5 cents
oven usage -- 7 cents

The full cost to bake a batch of shortbread (24 pieces) -- 74 cents. Yep! That was worth it.

Sometimes, saving money isn't the thing that motivates me to make changes

Do you know why I'm drinking way more water and way less coffee these days? Here's a shocker, it isn't to save money!

One day, I looked in the mirror and noticed this skin hanging down on my neck. Yep! I think I'm developing "turkey neck". Where did this come from? It really just crept up on me. Anyways, I am downing the water and nixing the post-morning coffee. Because water can help your skin's appearance to improve if you're on the dehydrated side. Hey, I'm willing to give water a try. It's monumentally cheaper than a neck-lift.

But, I'm not buying bottled water. I understand that not everyone has decent tap water, readily available. And if that's the case, I'm not knocking your choice to drink bottled water. But for me, we have good-tasting tap water in our area. And the price can't be beat. We pay less than half a cent for a gallon of water, here. If you triple that, to account for wastewater fees, it's still just 1  1/2 cents per gallon, or less than a 10th of a cent for an 8 ounce glass.

I do use a filter for our drinking water. It's installed in the fridge. I replace these every 9 months, at a cost of about $25 a replacement. That works out to $2.77 per month, or about 9 cents per day. We are all drinking a lot of this filtered water -- including myself, perhaps as much as 15 glasses per day, on average. So, dividing the cost of the filter by the water consumed (in glasses), each 8 ounce glass of water costs about a half-cent to filter. Our "complete" cost of drinking our filtered tap water, then is still under a penny per 8 ounces. In comparison, Wal-Mart sells Aquafina bottled water in a 32-pack of 16.9 oz bottles for $13, or 2.4 cents per OUNCE. That's 19.2 cents per 8 ounce portion, roughly 20 times what it costs to drink filtered, tap water from home. Oh wow! That's ridiculous!

Do you know what's really mind-boggling for me? During the recent recession, bottled water consumption did NOT drop off significantly (the figure is about a 3% cutback in bottled water consumption for the years of 2008-2009). And it's not surprising that Americans drink the most bottled water of any country in the world.

I used to think it was a sort of status-y thing, to be seen carrying around your bottled water, like carrying around that Starbuck's cup. Now I just think it's a mindless consumer thing.

So, I may be improving the appearance of my skin. And I'm certainly helping my body and not hurting it, by drinking more water and less coffee. As a bonus, I'm saving money, as tap water is way cheaper than coffee. Time to go fill up my glass!