Homemade gummy candies using real (canned) fruit and/or fruit juice

A couple of weeks ago, we got to talking in the comments' section about making gummy candy. My friend, Sara, (if you read the comments' section, Sara is a frequent contributor) mentioned making gummy candy with her grown sons. Sara is quite an accomplished cook, so I trust her ability to search out recipes, then tweak them to work even better. I asked her to share her method and recipes for gummy candies, and to our good fortune, she agreed and has provided them, here, today. Thank you, Sara! 

If you have questions or comments, Sara has agreed to make herself available to answer them.

"Good morning, everyone.  I'm very flattered that Lili asked me to share our recipes for gummies with all of you, after the recent discussion of uses for lifetime supplies of unflavored gelatine.

One of our sons originally found a recipe for fruit-and-juice gummies from The Undressed Skeleton site. http://undressedskeleton.tumblr.com/post/42764785751   I have done a banana version, and it was very tasty.  This time we used leftover canned fruit; and this would also be good for over-ripe/imperfect fruit that is flavorful but not pretty. This makes a medium-soft gummy with a little tiny bit of texture, in a generous batch.

The recipe for all-juice gummies is from  the Elana's Pantry site. http://elanaspantry.com/gummy-bears/ Elana Amsterdam has many good recipes for other items there, as well.  The first time I used her recipe with papaya juice, it was excellent; but this time we wanted to try and get a stronger fruit juice flavor. For those of you with kids or grandkids who will want the most recognizable, "authentic" gummy, I think that this style may be a better choice, though both types are fun and tasty.  This recipe is fairly small, probably to accommodate the size of molds.

You can buy cute gummy bear molds, but on this blog, I imagine I don't have to apologize for being happier to just use something I already had.  In this case, I used the smallest-circumference cutter from a biscuit cutter set I already had to cut shapes from a sheet of set gelatin in a casserole dish.  If you're going to use molds, please refer to Elana's directions for how much to cool the mixture before putting them into the molds, etc.

Unlike the original recipes, we actually didn't sweeten either of our recipes this time.  We do not eat stevia, and did not think we needed additional sweetening with these flavors.  If you want a sweeter result, however, I did use a little touch of honey for the gummies last time, and they set up just fine. We also altered the order of preparation steps to an order we felt would reduce potential clumping.


Apricot-Pineapple Gummies

1 1/2 cups canned apricots
1 1/2 cups canned pineapple slices
3/4 cup pineapple juice
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup water
5 1/2 packets unflavored gelatine

Put apricots and pineapple into a medium-sized saucepan, and cook and stir over medium heat until hot and softened some.  Transfer carefully to blender and puree.

Measure pineapple juice, lemon juice, and water (cold or room-temperature) in a 2-cup measuring cup.  Then add the packets of gelatine fairly quickly and efficiently, sprinkling it around the surface and jiggling the liquid to keep it dissolving in and keep it from clumping.  (This makes more sense as you do it than when you explain it.)  It should be fairly firm by the time you've poured the last packet.

Return the warm fruit puree to the saucepan, and add the soft-gelled gelatine/fruit juice mixture, whisking constantly until softened and fully-blended. Pour into rectangular casserole dish (ours is metric, but approx. 7" by 11").  Let set in refrigerator until firm (this happens quickly!) 

Cut with knife or shaped cutter. Loosen the first pieces at the edge, if your cutter doesn't pick them up, as ours did some of the time.  The rest should pry up easily with the tip of a fork or little flat spatula.  Store in the refrigerator in a single layer on a plate covered with plastic wrap or in ziplock bags.

Black Cherry-Elderberry Gummies
(We use these two juice concentrates for health reasons as well as taste. You can find them for fairly economical prices on-line at places like Vitacost.com.)

1/4 cup unsweetened black cherry juice concentrate
2 tablespoons unsweetened elderberry juice concentrate (a.k.a. sambucus)
enough water to make 1 cup of liquid total
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 packets unflavored gelatine

Measure juices into 2-cup glass measuring cup, then add water to equal 1 cup.  Pour 1/2 to 2/3 of this mixture into a saucepan and heat to a simmer over medium heat.

Meanwhile, add contents of gelatine packets to remaining cold or room-temperature juice mixture, as described above.  When juice is heated, pour gradually back into measuring cup, whisking constantly.  Then continue to whisk until gelatine is dissolved and fully-blended.

Pour immediately into a 1-quart  square casserole (for thicker gummies) or 1 1/2-quart round casserole, and chill in the refrigerator until firm. 

The top surface of this batch was frothy. Flip them over for best presentation.

Cut, move, and store as above, except if your mixture was frothy, flip gummies to display the slick, shiny underside on top.



The number of gummies you are able to make from each recipe will depend on the size of your pan and your cutter, as well as the amount of waste in-between cuttings. 

DO be frugal, though, and plan to eat the "waste" strips and bits.  They may not look cute, but they taste just as yummy (and gummy!)  See photo of our bowl of gummy "ends and pieces"."


Looks good, Sara! I can't wait to try my hand at making these!

U.F.N.

Do you know what this means on a grocery store shelf's price tag? I've only seen this a couple of times, with a reduced price for that item. I've found these letters in the spot on the sale tag that usually displays the date when a sale price expires.

It means, Until Further Notice.

This was on the unit pricing tag on the shelf for Adam's Natural Peanut Butter, 16 oz jars (and yes, they're glass jars). The price was reduced from $2.89/16 oz jar, to $1.50. I bought 16 jars. This was an unadvertised price reduction.

When I have seen the U.F.N. price reduction before, that item has been discontinued by the store and/or manufacturer, and the reduced price is kept until inventory is sold out (usually within a week or two).

Anyway, I bought all of the chunky-style that they had on the shelf and a couple of the creamy-style (we prefer the chunky), for a total of 16 jars. That's about a 5 month supply for us.

Just a heads-up on the U.F.N.

I have also seen items with unadvertised reduced prices with expiration dates on the price reduction set about 2 months into the future, in contrast to most advertised price reductions lasting just about 1 or 2 weeks. In some of these cases, the item has been discontinued entirely.

Stores take some less-popular items out of their inventory all of the time. When there's just a few of the item, I typically see them on the clearance shelves. But when there are many of the specified item, stores will often leave them on the "regular" shelf, with the reduced or "clearance" price.

The house-brand butterscotch chips that I bought last month remained on the shelf with a reduced price until they sold out (about a week), and that spot has now been filled with another product.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am mentioning this because when in the store this past week, my first reaction was, "oh, so the price has been reduced indefinitely, so I can always pick up more at this price later". Then I remembered when I've waited before, the product had been completely sold out, and I missed my opportunity to stock up at a great price. And I want you to be able to snag a good deal when something like this comes up, too.

Share your savvy shopping tips, please!!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers in early September

Thursday
chicken-noodle soup w/ garden veggies
*rhubarb jello
*pesto-French bread roll
*tomato wedges w/ 1000 Island dressing

Friday
BBQ pork on buns
*sliced tomatoes
*kale and garlic, sauteed
*plum cobbler

Saturday
pork and beans
cornbread
*fruit salad with pear, apple, plums, blackberries
*tossed salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber
*leftover plum cobbler

Sunday
*homemade pizza with tomatoes, basil, olives, marinara and leftover pesto
frozen peas
*mixed fruit sauce

Monday (got home around 7:30 PM and had to make a quick dinner This is what we came up with)
breakfast sausage
frozen peas
frozen corn
bread and butter
assorted fresh fruit

Tuesday
Salisbury steak
brown rice cooked with herbs, garlic and canned tomato paste
*tossed salad of lettuce, tomato and cucumber
*fresh plums

Wednesday
falafel
leftover rice
*sauteed summer squash
*plum pie

Thursday
*hummus
on fry bread
*tossed salad of lettuce, tomato, marinated waxed beans, canned olives, sunflower seeds
*fresh pear chunks
*leftover plum pie

*indicates some of this item came from the garden and orchard

The summer garden is winding down. I have a few more weeks of daily vegetables for dinners, and then in October I'll be relying on purchased produce, more and more. I dug half of the potato patch yesterday afternoon. While the potatoes did not do spectacularly, I dug enough to save for planting in the spring, plus a couple of family meals. There's still the other half of the patch to dig, but that will come later, as the pumpkins sprawled over that half. I am thinking about changing up how I plant and grow potatoes, beginning next year.

I pick a basket full of plums each day. One basket is enough for one pie, with a handful leftover. Yesterday's basket was halved and frozen for a pie in winter. This weekend will be when I try to harvest the rest of that tree, then deal with all of the plums, likely about 20 quarts of halved plums, looking at the tree. After the plums, there are the late pears, the crabapples and the cranberries. Cranberries did not do well this year, but I have about a pint left from last year, in the freezer. And the berries this year will be enough for Thanksgiving and one more meal. The figs are still not ripe, but I estimate I have another 2 to 3 weeks with that tree, due to it's location (up against the house, on a south-facing wall). If they don't ripen, then I'll make more spiced fig jam. We've been eating some of this jam alongside baked chicken. It adds a nice flavor to the meat, in the same way having cranberry sauce with turkey is a nice complimentary pair. Grapes, yes I do have some grapes. I have about 3 small clusters of grapes ripening, in total. The birds often beat me to any grapes, but maybe this year, we'll be able to enjoy a few in a fruit salad.

In this past week's menus, Monday evening was one of those very rushed meal prep nights. We had been visiting my FIL and his wife for the day and didn't return home until 7:30 PM. In the car, as we were approaching our town, we brainstormed what we could put together that would hit the major food groups, decently. It wasn't a grand menu, but it hit the target, and only took about 10 minutes to get from freezer to table. It was a great reminder to me, that we really don't "need" to stop for fast food, on a busy day. Of course, it saddened my husband that we would not be stopping at Mc Donald's for a meal of burgers and fries. But it was healthier and saved us about $15.

If you had to tonight, what could you throw together quickly, with what you have in stock in your freezer, fridge and pantry?

The last 10 days have been super exhausting

I'm just going through one of those life phases where everyone is needing my energy. It set me up for a nasty stomach issue this week. I know that you know the kind of phase I mean. Anyway, I just felt completely useless yesterday. I kept trying to make myself do something productive, so I could feel good about my day. But came up short.

I have a friend who tells me when I have these sort of days, to make a 2-do list. Not a to-do, but 2-do. Put two things on the list, and anything else that gets done is just gravy. So my 2-do list yesterday was to make dinner for 2 nights (so tonight's dinner prep would be easier, and give me time/energy to get other things done today), and catch up on laundry.

The "gravy" part yesterday included hot-gluing these acorn pieces together. Oak trees are not plentiful in our area, so when we come across acorns, we pick up both whole and pieces. I am working on my "collection" of acorns. Jo Ann Fabrics sells decorative acorns for about $15, for a small box. That probably sounds ridiculous to some of you. But for me, that really is tempting. I imagine a large bowl of acorns on the coffee table in the family room. Or a tall, clear vase filled with acorns on the table in the entry way. Or, apothecary jars filled with acorns on a shelf in the living room. For now, I have barely a 1-pint jar of acorns. So, I'll work on my "collection" first, then do something decorative with them.

I'm hoping today is a lot more productive. My stomach issues are abating. I slept long, last night. Yes, today should feel much more productive.

Have a great day!

Pesto-French bread roll

This was a dinner item that I baked last week that was a big hit in our house. If you love pesto on bread, this is a nice presentation, nice enough for potlucks, dinners with invited guests, or to bring as a hostess offering at the next occasion.

I used a half and half whole wheat/white French bread dough (using this dough, 1/2 of a recipe), and homemade pesto.

To make the Pesto Roll-up:

Make one loaf of French bread dough. Just before forming, have your pesto (about 2/3 to 3/4 cup), ready to go. Roll out the bread dough to about the size of a sheet of school notebook paper (9 X 11 inches, roughly).

Spread the pesto on thickly, leaving a margin of about 1 inch of dough, uncovered along one of the long edges.

Roll the dough up tightly and pinch the seam. Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet. Allow to rise until double in bulk. Bake at 400 degrees F, until golden brown, about 25-30 minutes.

After a brief cooling, slice into nice rounds, revealing the pesto swirl.

My daughters and I had a sample of a similar bread offered at a local farmer's market. This vendor's bread used just chopped basil, with none of the other ingredients of traditional pesto (garlic, Parmesan, nuts, parsley). We think our own version was an improvement on the farmer's market bread. :-)

A small gift

This is one of the African violets that I grew from a stem cutting. I brought it with us as a gift to my father-in-law and his wife, yesterday when we drove up for a visit.

I wanted to show you how I put together a simple but nice presentation.

After pulling off all of the poor-looking leaves, I used a pink plastic shopping bag for a waterproof wrapper. I cut a square out of the pink bag, just big enough to cover the pot entirely, and for the four pink corners to fold out to embrace the plant nicely. The plastic is held onto the pot with a rubber band, and a ribbon tied on top of the rubber band. Very simple.

The African violet took 2 full years to grow from a single leaf to a full plant with blossoms. I have one more of these cuttings-turned-plant to give away. Looks like I'll be needing to take a few more cuttings this fall.

Anyway, just thought I'd show you how it all came together.

Sometimes a price difference between two similar items just does not make sense!

Sunflower seeds are among the least expensive nuts or seeds you can buy for snacking or baking. I like to add them to oatmeal-raisin cookies, granola, oatmeal, salads, and half and half with roasted almonds in pesto, in place of the traditional pine nuts. We also like to snack on them, as is, or mixed into trail mix. And I prefer the flavor of roasted sunflower seeds over raw ones.

I was buying sunflower seeds from the bulk section of Fred Meyer on Tuesday (my senior discount day -- 10% off -- yay! me for being 55). I had my choice between roasted or raw, hulled seeds. The roasted ones were selling for $3.99 lb, while the raw ones were selling for $1.49 lb. Which ones do you think I chose?! For $2.50 lb savings and 5 minutes of work, I think I can roast my own sunflower seeds.

While I roast whole nuts, like almonds in a low-temp oven, I roast sunflower seeds and any other small seeds in a pan on the stove. I add a small amount of oil to the pan. Heat over Med flame. (You can dry-roast them, but using hot oil coats each seed so they roast more evenly in oil, I've found.) Then I add the seeds, and stir constantly for about 5 minutes, until they've turned color, from gray to light tan. I dump them onto a piece of brown paper bag, to both halt the cooking and remove excess oil from the seeds. A little salt, and they're just perfect.

The other benefit to buying seeds and nuts raw, then roasting your own at home, is that the roasting process shortens the keeping-life of both nuts and seeds, about by half (according to nutrition.about.com). There really is no telling when seeds and nuts sold in a bulk bin were roasted, from a consumer's point of view. I have a much better chance of my seeds tasting fresh, if I buy them raw, then roast them at home, myself. And once home, they will keep much longer and I'll have more time to use them up. Less waste!

Don't you think that's crazy that there could be such a price difference for a convenience so very easily replicated at home?

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the week

Wednesday
*salad of lettuce, tomatoes, watercress, cucumber, baby beet greens
*baked chicken, smothered in fresh pesto
*brown rice, cooked in chicken stock, with herbs from garden
*leftover plum-blackberry pie

Thursday
*chicken fried rice, with egg, garden cabbage, kale, shallots
*fruit salad with apple, pear, blackberries, plums -- all from our garden
banana pudding cream pie (my son brought home a bag of overripe bananas from his office that were going to be thrown out)

Friday
*homemade pizza topped with marinara, cheese, basil, olives and fresh tomato
*marinated cucumbers
*sauteed yellow crookneck squash
leftover banana pudding cream pie

Saturday
bean, rice and cheese burritos
*tomato wedges with 1000 Island dressing
*leftover sauteed summer squash
banana bread

Sunday
homestyle macaroni and cheese
ham
*kale sauteed in ham fat
*steamed green and waxed beans
banana bread

Monday
*Tex-Mex black bean soup (with garden veggies, shallots, Swiss chard, summer squash, plus canned tomatoes)
sopes
*fruit salad (plums, apple, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, marshmallows)

Tuesday
*chicken and dumplings, w/ green beans, Swiss chard, carrots
*tossed salad, w/lettuce, tomato wedges and marinated black beans
hot fudge pudding cake

Wednesday
*black bean burger patties, topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella
brown rice cooked in chicken stock with garlic powder and onion powder added
*kale sauteed in ham fat
*fresh plums

*indicates part of this meal item came from the garden or orchard

So, this time of year, our fridge looks somewhat bare, almost all of the time. A good part of each day's meals comes directly from the garden, and is not stored in the kitchen. Like last night, the kale and plums were picked in the afternoon. Looking in our fridge, you would never guess that I could be making meals from it, would you? This isn't an end-of-week look to our fridge, either. It pretty much looks like this every day in late summer.

The day before, I run through my mind what main dish item we should have for the next day's dinner. Then in the morning, I rummage through the fridge for anything that needs using up, to add to dinner.

Last night's dinner :

With the black bean burgers, not only did I have the black beans cooked already, but I also had about 1/8 cup of leftover refried pintos from Saturday's burritos. And about 1 tablespoon of vinaigrette from the bottom of the bowl of last Wednesday's salad. Then the marinara was made with leftover pizza sauce (from Friday), chopped oven-roasted canned tomatoes (made on Monday for Tuesday's lunches), and the juice from the open can of tomatoes. All of those items were sitting in the fridge before this photo was taken. Leftovers rarely get shoved t the back of the fridge, here. If they're not frozen, eaten the next day, then they find their way into a dinner later in the week.

I think one of the things that helps with leftover management, for me, is NOT planning a week's worth of meals ahead of time. When I have menu-planned a week at a time, I have wound up with a lot of leftovers at the end of the week. Just my two cents. So, if you don't menu-plan extensively and you're feeling guilty about it, well, take heart, I don't do a lot of menu planning these days, either.

If you're wondering about our garage fridge, it currently has almost a case of butter, a half-gallon of whole milk thawing, some heavy whipping cream, assorted cheese, some condiments, along with the thawing pork roast for tomorrow's dinner. Our freezers, well they're a different story altogether.

Buying canisters of unflavored gelatin

Sorry I couldn't get this posted for yesterday. I was playing mental health non-professional for the day, emphasis on "non-professional". All's good now, but I was wiped out for a day. Back, now, though!

left: 2 new canisters gelatin from Amazon
right: old box of 32 packets from wholesaler, about 3 years ago

So, in posting about what I bought, grocery-wise, for August, I mentioned that I finally got around to restocking our supply of unflavored gelatin. Previously, I had bought this in individual, four  1/2-cup serving each, packets, through Cash & Carry. It was still a pretty good deal from Cash & Carry, but I was looking for a less expensive way to purchase gelatin. And as I bought this through Amazon, this is a purchase any of you would be able to make. So, thought I'd share just what a good deal this is.

I use plain, unflavored gelatin, plus fruit juice or pureed fruit, to make salads and desserts. It's a good way to use excess garden fruit, or make a homemade fruit sauce (like rhubarb sauce) portable for brown bag lunches. Or, to make a jello base, for adding chopped miscellaneous fruit from the garden, for a fruit salad. (Last week, I found a couple of apples knocked off the tree. I brought them inside, cut off bruises and other bad spots, then chopped and added to a homemade lemon jello, made with bottled lemon juice, sugar, water and gelatin.)

I also use gelatin in chiffon pies and sorbet. Pumpkin chiffon pie is my family's favorite version of pumpkin pie, as it's light and airy. I make this pie several times per year. Another favorite of ours, using gelatin is Chocolate Bavarian Pie -- a whipped, mouse-like chocolate pie. I've also turned orange juice concentrate plus gelatin and sugar, into an orange chiffon pie, one year, when needing a dessert, was about to move, so had an otherwise empty pantry. It was surprisingly good, for such an ad lib, last-minute dessert. So, that's primarily what I use unflavored gelatin for.

Unflavored gelatin has an unlimited shelf life, if kept cool and completely dry. As for expiration dates on gelatin, it actually has more to do with the packaging breaking down, rather than any deterioration of the product. So, stored properly, so no moisture gets into the dry product, my unflavored gelatin should last as long as it needs to, before consuming all of the product. Once opened, a canister like this can be transferred to a glass jar with tight-sealing lid, or the entire canister can be placed into a gallon-size ziploc bag.

for a price comparison:

Through Amazon.com, a 1-lb canister sells for $10.18 each (when buying 2 canisters). One canister contains 283 servings. So, that's 14  1/2 cents per four 1/2-cup servings (equivalent to a small box of Jello, or one of the packets of unflavored gelatin), if using the recommended 2 teaspoons gelatin granules per 2 cups liquid. Phew -- the take away in that is   14  1/2 cents

Through Cash & Carry (a wholesaler with better prices than my standard grocery store on this product), a box of 32 envelopes (to make 128 1/2-cup servings), costs $11.88. That works out to 37 cents per 4  1/2 cup servings, using 1 packet per 2 cups liquid.  37 cents

Buying in a canister is 60% cheaper than buying in packets through a wholesaler!!

Yes, I did have to buy A LOT of gelatin. But I look at it this way, now I don't have to think about buying gelatin again, for a lo-o-o-ong time. (And as I said before, it keeps indefinitely.)

For our home, the real value to buying unflavored gelatin is in transforming something that's become humdrum into something new and different. When using produce that is primarily only what I grow, for a season, there can be a lot of repetition. I don't have the option of just not buying more rhubarb next week, if we're tiring of rhubarb. When next week comes, we still need to eat rhubarb.

As a result, we eat a lot of rhubarb sauce and blackberry-rhubarb sauce in our family. It's made with fruit from our own property and is almost free. The only cost is the sugar. When we tire of the fruit as sauce, I can use a little unflavored gelatin and transform it into a fruit jello, adding a bit of interest to a food that has become boring. And trust me when I tell you that packing a container of fruit gelatin is so much neater in a backpack all day, than a similar container of fruit sauce.


(For how to make fruit jello, using real fruit or fruit juice, here's how I do it.)

Life took a turn towards the hectic yesterday

My afternoon was hijacked, yesterday -- by life. I've got to get some things straightened out today, but I'll try to get back to the blog tomorrow.

Hope you're having a great day!

August 2015 Grocery Spending Journal

20-lb case of frozen green beans, I repackaged into gallon ziplocs

I have a budget of $185 per month now with groceries. I went over last month by $16.09. So, the remaining budget for this month is $168.91. Once again, I need to buy some "extras" to boost calories for one daughter. But we made progress last month, and I may not need to work so hard this month. She's doing great.

August 1. Fred Meyer for milk, on sale with coupon, 99 cents/half gallon, limit 6 (I bought all whole milk, some for yogurt, the rest for one daughter's drinking). Also I find 3 gallons 2% milk (the "regular" drinking milk for the family), at $2 each. Spent $11.94

The one really great thing, going into this month is that August is typically the month when I have abundance coming from the garden and orchard. We will likely have blackberries every day that we want, for the next 3 weeks. The early pears are days away from harvest. The garden is in full production right now, with tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, leafy greens, beets, baby carrots, garden beans, and potatoes. Produces is expensive. But with the garden doing well, I can pretty much skip buying fresh produce this month (with the exception of an occasional watermelon or bunch of bananas). We also have a freezer full of meat, now.

Aug. 1 Cash & Carry for canned, peeled, whole tomatoes in the #10 cans, 3 cases of 6 at $14.82/case. Also another half-gallon of heavy whipping cream for $7.48. spent $51.94

Dollar Tree for 1 quart of soy milk, spent $1

Aug 4 Senior discount day at Fred Meyer, where I received 10% off of every item I purchased. I found 12 oz boxes of whole wheat spaghetti on clearance, for 87 cents each (bought 4), 3  26-oz containers of table salt for 48 cents each, a box of powdered milk that makes 10 qts, for $7.10 (I stir the milk powder into liquid milk to fortify my daughter's milk/boost calorie intake, otherwise fluid milk is cheaper for me), 2  12-oz bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips for $2.06 each (a splurge item), 4 1-lb packages of butter for $1.79 each (coupon, limit 4), 90 cents worth of sunflower seeds from bulk section, $1.26 worth of chopped dates from bulk section, $16.77 worth of whole almonds (3.12 lbs) from bulk section, large can of decaf round coffee for $6.29. spent $48.52

total spent for the month so far -- $113.40
gosh the money goes quickly! I realize that we didn't "need" the chocolate chips or the decaf coffee. Those are luxury items for us. The dried fruit and nuts/seeds are healthy, but also a bit of a luxury. I use these in making granola and fruit and nut snack bars.

Over the weekend, a facebook friend sent me a "friends and family" coupon/pass for Fred Meyer. This was good for 10% of house brand food items. Milk was already on sale, 99cents/ half-gallon, limit 6, which I intended to pick up, as I'm low on milk, so an extra 10% on that and anything else that looks lie a good buy. I only wish I had more cash for shopping!! Anyways, this is what I bought: 6 half-gallons whole milk (use to make yogurt and for one daughter's drinking milk), paid 89 cents each, also, found gallons of 2% milk marked down to $1.50/gallon. I bought 6 gallons (this will be rest of family's drinking milk, and I'll freeze most of it), I paid $1.35/gallon. Large cans of coffee (30 oz, about), on sale for $5.99. This is not a hugely great deal, and I had planned on buying a case at Cash & Carry's case lot sale this week or next for $5.49 per can (buying 6 cans). Well, Fred Meyer's price with my F & F discount came down to $5.39, and for a slightly larger can!!!. So, I bought 4 cans (that's all I really could afford, otherwise I would have bought 6 cans). I also found butterscotch baking chips (11 oz bags) on sale for $1.60. Regular chocolate chips are $2.29, so I thought I could mix the two when making choc. chip cookies, bringing down the cost of the baking chips in cookies. With the F & F discount, I paid $1.44 per bag (bought 4 bags). That's all I could afford with this extra discount, as I'm still wanting to buy whole wheat flour and frozen veggies on sale at Cash & Carry this week or next. I'll be going over again this month. Rats! It's discouraging, but I'll get everything under budget soon. Spent at Fred Meyer today -- $40.76

Aug 21. Cash & Carry -- so I had been debating with myself over the frozen vegetables on sale in 20 lb boxes, green beans, peas and corn. I wasn't sure if I could fit a whole case into our already stuffed freezers. But . . . if I take out a ham, repackage some meat, thaw some milk -- hey, it just might fit. When I got to C & C, I saw how small-ish the cases looked, and figured maybe I can fit a case of green beans *and* a case of peas into in the freezers, forgo the corn, and hope for another sale down the road. So, that's what I bought, 1 20 lb case, each of peas and green beans, at $13.97 each (69 cents/lb). I also picked up anther 1/2 gallon of heavy whipping cream ($7.48), a 1-lb bag of sesame seeds ($3.66 and a 50-lb sack of whole wheat flour ($12.99). Total spent, $52.07

Aug. 22. I know this will put me way over, but it's been on my list for a while. I was placing an order with Amazon, and didn't have enough for free shipping, so I went ahead and ordered my gelatin a few weeks earlier than I had planned, putting this cost into August's budget, and not September's. The cheapest way I've found to buy unflavored gelatin is in canisters. And Amazon's price is cheapest if I buy 2 canisters. As long as it stays dry, unflavored gelatin keeps indefinitely. So, laugh all you want, I now have about a 5 year supply of unflavored gelatin! I use it for chiffon pies (Pumpkin chiffon Pie, anyone?), sorbet, various mousses and Bavarians, and fruit "jello" made with homegrown fruit. I paid $21.93 for the 2 canisters, almost half what I pay when buying the little packets in a food service box.

Total spent for the month of August -- $228.16, over by $59.25, YIKES!

You'll notice what I didn't buy -- eggs, way too expensive, and meat, we have plenty of meat to get through the next few months.

what I did buy, this month:

dairy
12 half-gallons milk
9 gallons 2% milk
2 half-gallons heavy whipping cream
1 quart soy milk
4 lbs butter

pantry
18  #10 cans of canned tomatoes
4 12-oz boxes whole wheat spaghetti
3 26-oz canisters salt
large box of powdered milk
2 12-oz bags chocolate chips
4 11-oz bags butterscotch baking chips
2 cups sunflower seeds
1 lb sesame seeds
3.12 lbs whole almonds
2 cups chopped dates
large can decaf coffee
4 large cans coffee
50 lbs whole wheat flour
2 lbs of unflavored gelatin

fruits and veggies
20 lbs frozen peas
20 lbs frozen green beans

Cutting it just a little close

So, I made my new pj pants this week. Before I went to the fabric store, I got out my pattern and laid it out on the cutting board to see how much --er, how little fabric -- I would need/have to buy. I hate having all that leftover fabric, so I try to make as close a guess as I can. To make the best use of fabric, I would need to reverse the direction of either the front or the back of the pants. So, I looked for an all-over pattern whose direction could be reversed, no nap or one-direction design on the fabric.

I got to the cutting table, and debated over whether to get just an inch or two more. I went with my original measurements. I do think there is such a thing as being too cheap. And I think I was flirting with it that day that I bought the fabric.

On to cutting my fabric. I laid it all out, and wouldn't you know it, this was a very close call on the amount of fabric. The pattern just barely, barely fit on the fabric. I had to pin and re-pin a couple of times to get the pieces to fit. I should have gone with that extra inch. It would have made the cutting so much easier. In the end, I did get it all to fit, and got my fabric cut. But that was a squeaker!

I do like the way pattern instructions are written. Everything is broken down into steps. I could tell myself, "today, I'll cut the fabric and do Step 1." This makes the whole project feel much more doable, for me.


I have plenty of leftover scraps, just not at the ends. I am thinking, though, I've saved the scraps from several pairs of pj pants, all flannel, in varying colors. My kids are getting older. One of them could get married, start a family, hmmmm . . .  Not pushing, of course. But eventually, I'll be able to turn some of these nice, soft, flannel scraps into patchwork baby blankets. Like I said, not pushing or anything.

Here's how the pajama pants turned out.

I would love to say:

"It really, really helps to use the same pattern over and over. I've found that I can practically make these pants without the instructions. I have confidence in my ability to figure out this pattern, which is a big help in completing this project without a hitch!"

Not exactly how everything unfolded. But then, aren't hitches to be expected? But I persevered. An extra 30 minutes, unpicking a seam in the wrong place, and I was back on track. Not a bad project, though. Including cutting out the fabric and all sewing, this took me 2 afternoons. And I even had thread and elastic at home, so I was only out the cost of the flannel, which was on sale at Jo Ann's earlier this month.

And now all I have to say is,

Cold wintry nights? Bring it on!!!!

From my garden, August 2015

This has been a great month for garden produce for us. I haven't bought any fresh fruits or vegetables all month long. In fact, the only fruits and veggies I've bought this month were a little bit of dried fruit (for fruit and nut bars) and some canned and frozen veggies for fall and winter use.

But for our consumption in August, our garden and orchard (plus a few free bananas here and there) has provided all that we needed.

So, for the month of August, our garden provided:

• 2 heads of cabbage
• lots and lots of lettuce
• uncountable numbers of tomatoes
• over 50 pears
• about 30 quarts of blackberries (about half are frozen still)
• some summer squash and zucchini
• some Swiss chard
• some kale
• a few baby carrots
• lots of green, waxed and Romano beans
• many cucumbers, eaten as salads (I still need to make some pickles)
• just a couple of beets
• 2 meals of baby potatoes
• a second harvest of watercress (early spring is when the main harvest of watercress is ready)
• lots of herbs -- sage, oregano, thyme, basil and rosemary
• a few handfuls of blueberries at the beginning of the month
• about 10 red apples
• lots of rhubarb
• about 200 shallots

Our most prolific veggie has been tomatoes -- we've eaten fresh tomatoes just about every day of August, followed by pears  and blackberries (3 or 4 times per week, each).

I prefer to use the cabbage, fresh, in slaws, with our garden cabbage. It's very tender and delicious. I'll use market cabbage in fall in cooked dishes. In fact, while we have fresh produce from the garden, I prefer to use most of it, raw, in salads, as is, or lightly steamed. Fresh produce has enzymes, which are mostly destroyed by cooking. These enzymes help with digestion, in breaking down what's eaten. Plus, there's the vitamin C content in fresh, uncooked produce. This time of year, I don't buy traditional vitamin C foods, like oranges. But uncooked blackberries,  tomatoes,  cabbage and watercress are all good sources of vitamin C.

The peppers, eggplant and pumpkins/squash have still not produced anything pickable. One more month, so we'll see if I can get much of those veggies out of our garden.

I am making my plans for next spring's garden. Do you have any suggestions for other veggies I could plant, that have done especially well for you?

Cheap & Cheerful suppers for late August

Sunday's dinner -- no bun for me, but we had burgers (free) with lettuce, tomato,
sauteed summer squash and shallots,
blackberry-rhubarb sauce

Tuesday
*ham and kale quiche
*brown rice with herbs
*blackberry-rhubarb sauce
*marinated cucumbers

Wednesday
spaghetti and meatballs
*garden veggies -- Romano beans, waxed beans, yellow crookneck squash, fresh tomatoes, garlic
garlic bread

Thursday
rice and beans
corn tortillas and cheese, toasted
*tomato wedges
*cole slaw

Friday
homemade pizza
*tossed salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives and toasted sunflower seeds

Saturday (a busy day for me, out of the house all afternoon, not retuning until 6:30PM, but still needing to make dinner --so as quick and easy as I could muster)
*fried corn tortillas, topped with refried beans, cheese and chopped tomato
*fresh pears
leftover cake

Sunday
hamburgers on buns (both given to us, as leftovers from an event my 2 daughters and I served at)
*with homegrown lettuce, tomato and dill green tomato relish
*sauteed garden yellow crookneck squash and shallots
*blackberry-rhubarb sauce

Monday
pork in tomato sauce over
brown rice
*cole slaw

Tuesday
burritos filled with homemade refried beans, leftover rice, leftover pork, cheese
*tomato wedges
*rhubarb jello with pear slices
*blackberry-plum pie

*indicates this part of the meal was made with produce from our garden

A lot of simple meals this past week. Vegetables were treated very simply, either sauteed or in a salad. Main dishes were quick and easy, with the exception of the spaghetti and meatballs.

The super cheap supper was on Sunday night. My family and I calculated that it cost about 20 cents for 5 of us. It will be hard to do a repeat of that though. But most of our suppers were in the $2 to $3 range, feeding 5 of us.

Embracing the coming of fall

Putting out a little something everyday to help ease the transition. It was significantly cooler today -- a hint of what's to come.

A fall welcome for the front door.

Pumpkins, gourds and greens for the table in the entry hall.

The harvest cloth for the kitchen table. It was a perfect afternoon for fresh baked bread.

Do you pay attention to warranties offered on products?

In recent weeks, I've made a couple of purchases that involved warranties. We think of warranties as being applicable to purchases of major household appliances or our cars. But many smaller items are also carrying warranties these days.

One was on my set of bedsheets. On the package, it's stated that these sheets have a 5-year warranty. I've not seen this on sheets before. Also, recently, I bought a stick vacuum, to use in place of a broom and dustpan for the hard floors of the house. (I know -- a broom is much more frugal, but my aging back doesn't like to bend over very much any longer, so this will make my work easier, which means the floors will actually get cleaned more often.) The stick vac that I bought has a 2-year warranty. Several years ago, at least 10 years ago, I bought a set of pillows that carry a lifetime-warranty. And a few years back, I bought LED lightbulbs which carry a 10-year warranty.

I save all of the warranty information, along with receipts to prove date of purchase and purchase price. But so far, I've not needed to use warranties on these non-major appliance purchases. So, what good are these warranties doing me, anyway?

Well, I think a product that offers a decent warranty (beyond 30 or 90 days) is more likely to be made better. Manufacturers don't want to put a warranty out there if they know their products are produced shabbily. It wouldn't be cost-effective, is my thought.

And it seems that I'm not the only one drawing this conclusion about quality of product attached to either a longer than usual warranty or in some cases, actually carrying a warranty when similar products don't. I've been researching water heater replacements. One article I read said to go for one with a 12-year lifespan/warranty, over the 6 or 9 year models. In a comparison of actual products, where their engineers took apart various water heaters and assessed the quality of materials as well as craftsmanship, the 12-year models were made of substantially higher-quality materials than the models warrantied for shorter time periods. That's a good reason, in my book, to go for the longer warranty. It's not that I think I'd need to use this warranty, though it's nice to have it in place. But I'd prefer to not deal with a failure on my water heater, for as long as possible.

With my new stick vac, for the class of appliance I bought (mid-range, not super cheap, not uber-expensive), it has a pretty long warranty. Other stick vacs that I looked at had a one-year warranty. Those short warranties tell me that the warranties basically cover "lemons" which fail pretty early. A longer warranty indicates that a certain level of craftsmanship, design and materials are maintained in production.

Sometimes, it isn't even the higher-priced versions of a product that carry the better warranty. In regards to the sheets I bought, these were the least expensive California King-sized sheets that Bed, Bath & Beyond carried. There were more expensive Cal King sheet sets in this store, that didn't have any sort of warranty.

And it isn't enough that a product carry a warranty. I also have to think, "how will I use a warranty on one of these less expensive products/small appliances?" With a major kitchen appliance or automobiles, we all know how to find the manufacturer's customer service departments. But with a set of sheets how will I access the customer service for these items?

The sheets that I bought were specifically made for sale through BB & B, so I would likely go through that store-front. If I didn't feel I had a readily available, access-point to the warranty, then that warranty might not mean much to me.

To be clear, I'm not talking about those additional purchases of extended warranties, sold on kitchen appliances and electronics. Those are often managed by a third party, and don't indicate any '"extra" quality in the product that you've bought. They just give you peace of mind, should your appliance breakdown prematurely. But I don't feel that these types of warranties imply any sort of product quality.

Anyway, these recent purchases have had me thinking about warranties on products that I never would have thought would carry a warranty. Today, a warranty on sheets. What's next? A warranty on socks? Wouldn't that be something, if a company introduced a pair of sports socks that were warrantied for 5 years, to not get holes in the toes or heels. I think I'd try a pair of those. One of my daughters wears panty hose, and she burns through each pair quickly. How about a pair of panty hose that carried a warranty for 1 year. I think she'd buy those.

Have you noticed?

The days are getting much shorter. And the sun is going behind the tress much earlier.

This always makes me feel to be in a rush. As if we were suddenly going to get fewer hours in each 24-hour period.

Maybe I'm in a rush to get in all that last bit of summer fun.

It seems like just a couple of weeks ago that summer still stretched way out in front of us. And now, in the stores, I see parents buying the school year's supplies. I see teachers buying their classroom accessories and decorations.

And it had seemed like there was lots of time for veggies to continue growing and setting more of their crops. But now, I'm wondering if we'll get much of some produce, if any at all.

So much just didn't get done this summer.

Oh well, there's always summer 2016.

Good thing I baked myself a cake, yesterday, to cheer me up! Cake is such a cheery food. And licking the bowl isn't bad, either! ;-)

Why I love keeping a veggie garden

As I was plodding in my garden the other day, I was thinking about all of the reasons that I love keeping it.

But first, all of the things that I don't love about the garden. I don't love getting dirt under my fingernails. I don't love the dirty hands-look or the feel of dirt on my skin. I don't love squishing slugs and picking cabbage worms off of the plants. I don't love bringing a head of cabbage into the kitchen, peeling back the outer leaves, only to have a dozen earwigs crawl out and totally freak me out. I don't love the feeling that I may lose the contents of my stomach, when I see this buggy, crawling exodus from my head of cabbage. I don't love the tedious jobs of gardening, like weeding, thinning, and tying up and staking plants. I don't love the disappointment when I thought I planted the second batch of beets in plenty of time, but the garden decided otherwise.

But what I do love is this:

• I love that all of our veggies are organically grown. No pesticides, no chemical residues, nothing that could be potentially harmful to our bodies. This is a biggie for me, as both my parents died far too young, from cancer. If something isn't doing well in my garden, I know that next season I need to add more compost to the soil, not douse it with more chemicals.
• I do love that our produce is very fresh, and hasn't lost nutrients sitting on a supermarket shelf for several days.
• I do love that having a veggie garden encourages us to eat far more veggies than if I was buying all of our produce. I was hungry the other afternoon, and instead of reaching for something starchy, salty or sweet, I went out to garden and cut a zucchini and picked a tomato. I chopped both and tossed in a small frying pan with some oil and garlic powder. With a few slivers of Parmesan, this became my afternoon snack. With sack lunches, I'm able to pack 2 or 3 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, for my family. If I had to buy all of my produce, I'd probably be just putting  one piece of fruit in each lunch. Today, my daughters will be having quiche made with kale and shallots, tomato wedges and rhubarb-blackberry sauce, in their lunches -- and all of the produce came from our yard. 
• I love that we save money, but you already knew that one, as this IS a frugal living blog.
• I love going out to the pumpkin patch and visiting my pumpkins. I have no idea where my obsession for pumpkin comes from, but going out to count my pumpkins is a daily ritual.
• And I am thrilled beyond words that this time of year, there is ALWAYS something to eat coming out of the garden. I sometimes think about how we could manage if our income suddenly went away. I brainstorm how we could enlarge the garden, what we could plant more of to keep us fed, and how we could make this a year-round garden. I can't control whether or not my husband stays employed. But I can control whether or not we have a veggie garden and orchard. I imagine, if need be, I could devote most of my day to getting the absolute most out of our garden, to keep us fed.

Yeah, sometimes I have to deal with creepy or disgusting things from the garden. And the work isn't all that fun. But when I think about the things that I do love about keeping my garden, I can see that the positives are outweighing the negatives, and so I keep on with the gardening.

How to Render Ham Fat to Save for Use in Cooking

At the very end of using a baked ham, I always have chunks and pieces of fat. Rather than throw these chunks out, I render the fat to use in cooking later.

Rendering fat is an old-fashioned method for preparing solid animal fat to use later by separating the fat from any other tissue in the fat. Lard, for example, is a rendered fat. The happy by-product of rendering pork fat is the cracklings, those small bits of crunchy, tasty roasted fat, which sometimes have a bit of meat in them.

When you render ham fat, those bits of fat, the cracklings (with maybe some meat), have a taste and texture similar to bacon bits. The rendered fat, itself, tastes like ham or bacon. I use it in cooking the same way I would use saved bacon fat.

To render fat:

In the process of using a baked ham, simply set aside all of the fatty bits and chunks that you don't want to consume in their current state. On both the shank and butt portions of ham, there can be a substantial swath of fat across part of the exterior. Go ahead and bake the ham with the fat on, scoring well to render fat while baking. Not all of the fat will render in such a large swath without severely overcooking your ham.

initial batch of fat dices rendering

With all of the leftover chunks of fat which you trimmed and saved, cut the pieces which appear to be only fat (no meat attached) into 1/4 to 1/2-inch dices. In just a few minutes of cooking, these very fatty pieces will give off enough rendered fat to thoroughly coat the remaining dices, allowing your main batch to render evenly.

• Place about 1/2 cup of fatty dices into a heavy-bottomed saucepan or dutch oven (depending on amount of ham fat to render, more fat = bigger pot).

• Heat over low, and allow fat to render slowly. Stir occasionally. On my gas stove top, I use a gas mark 2, out of 1 through 5.

cracklings removed to a sieve over a small bowl

• When there's a nice pool of rendered fat, and this first batch is done, use a slotted spoon to scoop the cracklings out of the pot and into a sieve, which is placed over a dish to catch drippings. 

• Add the remaining fat dices (again about 1/4 to 1/2-inch dice) to the rendered fat in the pot.  (I prefer to leave all my dices about 1/4-inch, as I just like the smaller "bits" to add to salads or to top soups.) 

• If you have any especially meaty bits, add those to the rendering about half-way through, to ensure that they don't burn. Continue to render the fat slowly, stirring from time to time.

some of the meatier dices I add about halfway through cooking main batch

• At the very end of cooking, remove the cracklings to a strainer/sieve or scoop into a piece of loosely woven cheesecloth. Use the back of a spoon to press out the fat into the dish below. Alternatively, put the cracklings into a cheesecloth spread over a dish, then squeeze out the liquified fat into the dish to save.

pressing the extra fat out of the cracklings to save for cooking

• The liquid fat is your rendered fat to be used in cooking, just like reserved bacon fat.

• The cracklings can be used in recipes for cornbread and egg salad, or to top soup, salad, and casseroles. Store cracklings in the fridge, or if not using within a day or two, freeze. Rendered fat for use in cooking can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for several months.

I used this batch of cracklings to top a bean and veggie soup --
tastes like bacon bits , Yum!

Rendering the fat from your ham is a way to make use of every last scrap. Hams are expensive; so why not make use of every last bit. Instead of tossing those chunks of fat, salvage them for cooking use. 


You'll find this post, and many others like it, a click away,  through this link (click) -- there's a compilation of my recipes, shopping lists, and menu plans that illustrates how I feed my family of 4 adults on $125 to $135 per month.

Cheap & Cheerful for the week

Sunday
pinto bean burger patties
*brown rice cooked in chicken stock with garden herbs
*yellow crookneck squash, sauteed in chicken fat with garlic
*tomato wedges with 1000 Island dressing (leftover tartar sauce combined with ketchup)
*fruit salad of blackberries, bananas and early pears

Monday
*rosemary-bean soup, with garden rosemary, beet greens, 2 bunches of shallots, garlic, new potatoes, ham stock (w/ bits of meat). This would have been nicer made with white beans, but pinto beans were what I had.
scratch cornbread, using bacon fat for most of fat in recipe, oil for the rest
*cucumber-dill salad
*blackberry-rhubarb sauce

Tuesday
baked ham (I needed to make room in the freezers, so pulled a ham out to thaw, late last week)
*garden green and waxed beans
*sauteed zucchini and crookneck squash
*tomato wedges
*leftover brown rice, cooked in chicken stock w/ garden herbs
toffee bars (made with half chocolate chips, half butterscotch chips which were on sale)

Wednesday
leftover ham on scratch biscuits (using up whey from straining yogurt, and pureed "skimmings" from making the yogurt)
*pears, apple and blackberries (blackberry picking in the afternoon)
*tossed salad with leafy greens (baby chard leaves, watercress, lettuce), cucumber, and tomatoes
toffee bars

Thursday
*ham fried rice, with veggies from garden (shallots, carrots, cabbage, zucchini, green beans)
*fresh blackberries
toffee bars

Friday
ham and gravy on scratch biscuits
*cole slaw
*fresh pears

Saturday
*rice and beans, topped with fresh, chopped tomatoes
*cole slaw
*fresh blackberries
toffee bars

Sunday
*hamburgers on homemade buns, with garden lettuce and tomatoes and homemade dill pickles
*sauteed zucchini and yellow crookneck squash

Monday
*garbanzo bean soup, with garden veggies (chard, carrots, shallots, green beans, tomatoes), topped with cracklings from rendering ham fat
homemade French bread with pesto
*blackberries with vanilla yogurt

* indicates part of meal was prepared with fruit or veggies from the garden/orchard or the wild (foraged)

Our kitchen fridge looks rather bare these days, especially the produce drawers. That's because, this time of year, we don't store our produce in the fridge. We store it in the garden!

I realize that keeping a garden isn't possible or desirable for a lot of folks. This is just something that I used to dream about when I was younger, the possibility of growing most of our produce. In actuality, we grow about half of our fruits and vegetables. With a family of five, I feel we would need a much larger yard to devote to growing all of our produce, given that our growing season is limited, and we are surrounded by tall evergreens. We definitely eat what is in season and local -- ha ha!

Digging my shallots

Shallots are from the onion family and to me taste like a cross between mild garlic and onion. Their mild enough that they can be used raw, minced in salad dressings. I particularly like them, as they fill a gap in my cooking staples. I typically find 50-lb sacks of onions on sale in late August or early September. My shallots begin maturing in mid to late July. So, with the shallots, I can have something onion-y for that 5 to 6 week period in summer, when I am often all out of purchased onions.

I've been digging these 1 or 2 clumps at a time, to add to recipes. My shallots give me a 5 or 6 fold increase. For every 1 shallot I plant, I get 5 or 6 in return. I planted these in early spring this year. Previously, I had planted them in October, per the instructions I was originally given with my initial purchase of the shallot bulbs. But this past fall was a difficult one for me, and many things I might do in "normal" years was put off. So, I didn't plant these until early in March. And as it turns out, these shallots seemed to gain in size better than fall-planted ones. I'll give it a shot again next year, and see if my results are the same.

These shallots are descendants from my initial purchase 19 years ago. I bought 1 dozen shallot bulbs, planted them out, and saved a few more each year. This spring, I planted 36 shallots. I estimate I will dig a total of about 180 to 200 shallots from this planting. I will save about 40-45 from this year's harvest, and plant in early spring. I will lose a couple over winter, so 40-45 should give me roughly what I had this past year.

Oh, and I found that shallots keep well in a paper bag in the fridge, over winter. I was using up the last of the shallots from last summer, in late spring this year. I had forgotten that bag was in the fridge, and was happy to find it when I ran out of purchased onions.

I've only begun digging them. I could just dig them all at once, but I was just out in the garden, gathering some veggies for dinner and quickly dug an extra few bunches. I'll dig the remaining shallots over the course of the next week or two.

My garlic is also almost ready to dig. Garlic is so cheap in the store, that the only reason I plant it every year is that one year, I had several purchased cloves of garlic that sprouted over winter, so I planted them out. And lo and behold, they grew into garlic bulbs. I've continued on for about 16 years with descendants from those first few cloves of garlic. These do not size up as well as the garlic I find at the produce stand, but for something that's free, I'm happy to do it, and have slightly smaller heads of garlic. I haven't dug any this year, so who knows, maybe these will also have sized up better than usual.

Another decent deal with a coupon

This has been my week for coupons!

In my post yesterday, I said I'm willing to pay more for a necessity than a want. There is something that's been a "need" for several years, and I've posted about it a couple of times -- our bedsheets.

The Cal King fitted bed sheet has been patched and patched for the last 3 years. I finally gave up on patching it sometime this past year, as it became uncomfortable to sleep on. Instead, I began using the flat, flannel sheet for that bed as the bottom sheet, tucking it back in on all sides, every morning, instead of a fitted sheet. Then using the still-good flat percale sheet for the top sheet.

Imagine how fine and dandy it's been sleeping on flannel in this hot, summer weather!!! Ha ha!

A month ago, I scouted out some sheets at Bed, Bath and Beyond, knowing that some time in August they'd be sending out coupons, as a back-to-school promotion, for university students going off to live in the dorms.

I got my coupon for 20% off and raced on over to BB&B, hoping they'd still have the color choice I wanted in a Cal. King sheet set. And yay! they did. Instead of paying $59.99 for a set, I paid $47.99. It's still a lot of money, but a necessity that I was willing to spend more for.

I had been going back and forth between buying a new bed (that was smaller, going for a Queen instead of this Cal King) and just buying new sheets. For now, it's a lot less expensive to buy a new sheet set, than a new mattress and box spring. And as frugal spinster pointed out, back in the comments in one of my "sheet dilemma" posts, I can always use these larger sheets on a smaller bed, by taking in the corners on the fitted sheet, to adjust the size. So, I'm not really wasting money, if in 2 years time we do downsize this bed to a Queen. I expect these sheets will last for another 8 years or so, at which time, maybe I'll be ready to make that decision to downsize beds.

Anyway, just thought I'd update you on the big sheet dilemma (because I know, "Enquiring minds want to know").

And if you are needing something from Bed, Bath & Beyond, you can get a 20% off coupon, for signing up for email offers. The coupon is good on one item. Also, check the glossy folder that your grocery ads come bundled in. That's where I found my 20% off coupon, in a bundle delivered a week and a half ago.

How do you assess what is a "deal" and what is not?

While in a second-hand shop in Poulsbo, I was thinking about this. What is a deal? Some of the criteria that came to mind were the following.

What's the margin between our income and our necessary expenditures.

What feels like a deal to me may sound like an extravagance to you, and vice versa, simply based on income and one's cost of living. If one's income is so pinched that there's nothing left after paying bills on the necessities of life, then spending even $5 on a non-essential will feel too extravagant. It's not a deal if buying it means you can't pay one of your bills.

Is this a "need" or is this a "want"? What would I be willing to pay for a similar item? And can I resell it for what I paid for it?

A needed item takes financial priority over a want. And depending on how desperate that need is, I could find myself willing to pay more than usual, and might still think it's a deal.

This, in itself, can be variable. If all my undies are tattered beyond repair, I'm going to be far more willing to spend money on that first pair of new undies, than on the sixth pair. (In fact, make that the first two pairs, so I can actually wash them.) The sixth pair can sort of fall into the "wants" category, rather than "need", as I know from experience that I can get by on just a few good pairs, doing laundry regularly. 

But I do think about it while shopping, "is this such a great deal? What am I willing to spend on similar items?" For the undies, I compared the price of pretty undies, to that of nice trouser socks, a few dollars, but not $10 or $11 each pair (the regular retail price on my favorite Maidenform undies). I have been replenishing my undie collection this spring and summer, one pair at a time, using Kohl's and Penney's $10 off coupons. I can get a pair for just a couple of dollars, with coupons. Same for nice quality trouser socks. 

I might not consider whether or not I could resell the undies or socks, but other clothing items, yes, I most definitely would consider resale value. Like that pj top I got at the thrift shop a couple of weeks ago. I spent 99 cents for it. And, yes, I could sell it at a garage sale for 99 cents. My daughters use the same criteria, when shopping for clothing. One daughter bought a cute, black knit tunic, to wear over leggings this fall. When she was considering her purchase of 99 cents, she said to me, "I could list this on facebook at school for more than this price and recoup my money".

For a decor piece for the house, I realize that decor falls under the "want" heading, nice to have, but I'm going to hold out for a really great deal before buying. I'm not as willing to part with my money for a "want".

I mostly shop at second-hand shops for decor pieces. I can find better quality, at a fraction of the price of a newly-crafted piece, by shopping second-hand. 

I have price points in my head, as for what I think is a deal on wall decor and knick-knacks. Basically $8 to $12 for a piece of wall art, if it's exactly how I want to use it (no new paint job, no new pane of glass, etc -- ready to hang). If I have to do anything to bring it up to my requirements for use, repairs or paint jobs, then that piece either needs to have collector's value, or needs to be close to free, $1 to $2. I have paid more, in the past, but at this point, we're not "needing" to cover as many walls as a few years ago. I can wait for that stellar deal to show up. 

Knick-knacks are harder to pinpoint my price on. I look for things that have resale value, are collectibles, but still in the "cheap" or "budget" categories. But I try to keep to the price that the exact same item might sell for on ebay. For the most part, any collectibles I buy, I find for under $10.

Knowing what items might sell for on ebay is key to getting a great deal, I've found. And it's so easy to check ebay for comparables, if you're willing to spend a few minutes looking things up. You no longer need to be a collector or dealer to know a good deal when you find it.

In Poulsbo, we browsed several second-hand shops. The one with the best prices, overall, was not on the main drag, but one street over. Even though they didn't all carry the exact same items, I knew the ebay prices for several key items that are always on my watch list, and could compare prices on similar items, between the stores. This made the main-street shops interesting to look through, but not at all tempting for purchases. I also discovered that Poulsbo shops had better prices, overall, than my favorite local vintage district, by doing a few of those price comparisons.

In practice

I had another one of those $10 off coupons to Kohl's this week. I had a few "needs" on my list, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. (No undies in my size, style, color and fabric this time, and no nice trouser socks for winter, yet.) 

So, not wanting this coupon to be wasted, I began searching the store for "wants". I was only interested in using this coupon if I found a stellar deal on something off my "wants" list. We're okay with the margin between our income and expenditures, right now. We're putting money into various saving's funds every month, so a "wants" purchase of a couple of dollars is within our budget.

After browsing the housewares, bath and bedding departments quite thoroughly, I headed over to the home decor aisles. Of course, I stopped at the clearance section first. I found a nice wall-mounted shelf that I liked, a wall-hung coat rack that was also nice, and then this -- a decorative mirror, with small shelf and a couple of small hooks (not for coats, but scarves and mittens would work).

This decor piece was originally $69.99. That's not even in my ballpark range of what I would spend on my wildest day, for this type of item. It's not an antique (or even vintage). It has no "collector's value". And it's not even solid wood (so it can only be refinished by painting). It's lovely, though, and just my style for the short wall, at the end of the hall, near the garage door. But not for $69.99.

It had been marked down numerous times, and now was priced at 80% off, for $13.99. Okay, that sounds better, and almost within my range for wall art/decor. But on an ordinary day, under ordinary circumstances, no I would not pay $13.99 for this. Not because it's not worth that price to somebody, but for me, I am able and willing to keep looking around. It's just a tad out of my range (by about $2) for a "want" of this sort. And that is key -- that I have time on my side for finding a piece for this particular spot in the house, so I am able and willing to keep looking.

However. . .

Remember that $10 off coupon? After the coupon was applied, my cost for this decor piece was $3.99. Forget that it was almost 95% off of the original price. But $3.99 fits in the margin between our income and our current necessary expenditures. 

I would actually pay a few dollars more for a similar item, up to about $12. I couldn't find anything comparable on ebay for this price. Shipping alone would eat up that $3.99. I did find one mirror that I felt was comparable in style and quality on ebay, and it was selling for about $30.00, plus shipping.

I could definitely resell it at a garage sale for at least what I paid for it. (Garage sales are overpriced, IMO, in our area. But people are willing to pay those higher prices.)

And while it's a want and not a need, it does fill a gap in decor for this particular wall. I had been thinking this wall could use a mirror, to reflect light in a dark passage, and as a last-minute "do I look okay" check.

I'm not likely to find anything comparable to this item, for less than this, at a garage sale, flea market, thrift shop or off craigslist. Anything I could find in a "free" pile would likely need paint and or repairs (costing a couple of dollars and my time). 

So, when I spied this mirror, it only took me seconds to figure that this, indeed, was a great deal.

How do you determine if something is a great deal or not?