Six Budget Vegetables for Fall And How to Store Them

With October arriving this next week, we're sliding into the fall menu season. Most of us think of summer as the great fresh produce season for value. Fall can also offer several varieties of fresh vegetables that are budget-friendly. I do stock up on canned vegetables in fall, but we save these for use in winter when fresh produce is much more expensive.

Here are 6 of my favorite vegetables that are very budget friendly in fall.

(All of the storage times are for purchased produce, which may have been harvested weeks before your purchase.)

cabbage -- Cabbage is such a budget-friendly vegetable practically year round in my area. If I don't have them ready in the garden, I buy a head every time I do a major grocery shopping. But I find the quality and price is better in this favorite in fall. 

Green cabbage is the thriftiest, but red cabbage is just another 20 cents per pound in my local stores. So I like to buy red cabbage a few times a season for visual interest and phytochemicals. 

Lacking a root cellar, cabbage stores well in the refrigerator for up to 2 months. I keep mine in the plastic produce bag from the store. If I'm buying several heads and plan on storing them the maximum time, I wrap each head in a piece of flour sack or tea towel then place in a plastic bag. This cuts down on spoilage by keeping the cabbage leaves from direct contact with the plastic bag.

winter squash -- Choose squash that have the stem intact. Store in a cool, dry location (55 degrees F is optimal), partially wrapped in crinkled newspaper to aid air circulation and absorb moisture from the air, and prevent each piece from touching. Winter squash should keep 8 to 10 weeks. I've had luck transferring aging winter squash to the fridge in late November/early December to hold them another few weeks. 

There are some varieties of winter squash that keep especially long, such as turban, buttercup, and Hubbard squash. Keep in mind, the tougher the skin, the longer the storage potential. 

pumpkin -- Choose pumpkins that have the stem intact. Store as winter squash, however pumpkins are thinner skinned than squash and won't keep as long, perhaps 6 weeks. 

In early December, I cook any remaining fresh pumpkins to puree and freeze. Don't forget to cook up your carved Jack o'Lantern on November 1. For my entire adult life, I have always used regular field pumpkins for cooking and pureeing. They're more watery than pie pumpkins, but they're also a lot less expensive.

sweet potatoes --Fresh sweet potatoes go on sale just before Thanksgiving. While the sweet varieties don't store as well as white potatoes, you can still keep them for a month or more in a cool and dry location, much like the conditions needed for winter squash storage. 

Sometime in late December, I freeze whatever fresh sweet potatoes I have remaining. An easy way to store sweet potatoes in the freezer is to bake them whole and freeze. 

I scrub them well, pierce with a fork, then bake at 425 degrees F for about an hour. After cooling to room temperature, I transfer the baked sweet potatoes whole to a ziplock bag and toss them into the freezer. They'll peel easily once thawed to use mashed or cut into chunks. Alternatively, you can reheat the thawed sweet potatoes in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, then split and top with butter and spices, as desired.

celery -- Celery adds great flavor to cooked dishes and fresh in salads or as a crudité. While celery may be more expensive per pound than veggies like winter squash, it doesn't take much in recipes to get that flavor. Use the leaves in soups/stews, rice pilafs, egg and tuna salad, and green salads. The best deal on celery is usually just before Thanksgiving. 

If you're buying extra celery to use at a later date, you can chop and freeze celery to add to soups, stews, stuffings, pilafs. 

To store celery fresh, you'll want a cold (40 degrees) and humid spot. The crisper drawer in your fridge is the perfect place. You may have read of using aluminum foil to keep celery for long durations. This actually does work. If you wrap the celery loosely in foil with the ends left open, ethylene gases which could hasten rot can escape. Alternatively, wrapping celery in damp paper towels, then placing in a well-pierced plastic bag is a great way to store fresh celery. 

You can expect fresh celery to keep in the fridge's crisper for about a month to perhaps a little longer if you're lucky. I like to cut the leaves off the bundle of celery and use or freeze before storing the rest of the ribs longterm. 

whole carrots -- Carrots are a budget's friend year round. In fall, however, I often find the 25-lb bags of carrots for less per pound than in the 5 and 10-lb bags at stores like WinCo, the produce stand that shuts down on November 1, and at the restaurant supply. If you happen to find a deal on fresh, whole carrots in smaller bags, you can stock up for future use. 

I've had the best success storing fresh carrots for a couple of months if I remove them from the plastic bag in which they came and sort out the damaged carrots that look like they'll keep for a shorter period. These are set aside to use first. I then wrap smaller bundles of the sound carrots in paper towels then place in plastic bags. The paper towels prevent moisture contact with the carrots and delay rot. Carrots stored this way in the fridge will keep a couple of months. Any limp carrots can be rehydrated by soaking in cold water in the fridge for 30 minutes.

So those are the top 6 budget fall vegetables in my area. Your region or state may differ from mine. What are your area's thrifty veggies? Do you have any tips on storing fresh vegetables?

This is how I know it's really fall in our house . . .

I made another failed batch of caramel sauce. My daughter makes beautiful caramel sauce. Mine, not so much. 

But I keep trying. Wasn't that a car rental slogan -- We Try Harder? I try harder each fall to make a good caramel sauce. What I will say is, I'm persistent. 

Each fall I get this idea that homemade caramel sauce for dipping apple slices would be wonderful. We have all of these crisp apples from our own trees. A nice caramel dip would turn a fresh apple into dessert. Surely this year my batch will turn out. Each year it fails miserably. But I do try to fix it. This year's batch is not quite caramel sauce. It's something like a cross between brown sugar syrup (I added molasses at one point in the "fixing") and milk-less butterscotch pudding (after trying to reduce the graininess, I added more water then finally gave up and thickened it with corn starch).

See, it looks like caramel sauce. But it's really not, at all.

My family is grateful that there's any sort of sweet sauce to add to tea or for apple slices. So there's that. It also might be good as a topping for vanilla ice cream.

I'll try again in October, maybe under the tutelage of my daughter.

Why does a tidy-looking fridge matter to you?

We're been working hard to use up leftovers lately. And I've made a point to keep the refrigerator organized so we can find everything. I mentioned to my family how clean the fridge has looked for the last week or so and how happy that makes me. One daughter said she loves that too, then asked why I thought a tidy fridge would make us happy.

My thoughts:

• it's clean and that's always pleasant to see.
• it means we're not wasting any food, so more food to go around for others. 
• it means we are getting full value of the food we grow and purchase. We could and do compost food waste, but commercial compost is much cheaper than food. So using food to make compost is not a good value.
• it saves money, obviously. If we spend money or labor procuring food then don't eat it, we have to spend more money or labor to proceed additional food at some point. This is why I work hard to use as much of our garden produce as possible. I try new recipes to use fruits and vegetables that don't have a chance to ripen, or over-ripen, or are tough, or have a strong flavor. If I go to the trouble to grow something, we're going to eat it.
• keeping a tidy fridge just seems like the responsible thing to do and being responsible actually makes us happy. 

If you like a clean and tidy refrigerator, what are your reasons?

The car saga is coming to an end

Okay, so Tuesday we found out that the cost to repair our car exceeded its resale value -- it's totaled. It makes little sense that a car that still runs well and is solid other than a headlight out and fender damaged that a car would be scrapped. Tuesday evening after my husband came home from work, we talked about the options we had at this point.

One, we could accept the check from the insurance company for the car's resale value minus the deductible but with the salvage payout of a few hundred dollars, and say goodbye to the car. 

We could keep the car and the check for its value, forgo the salvage payout, change the title to a salvage title, and pay for the excess of the repair bill ourselves so our car would be restored. In this second scenario, the car would no longer be insurable for future damage (since the value of the car had been paid out), but would carry liability insurance. The excess cost for restoration could be $1000 or more. In this case, we have our car back in the same condition it was in before the accident and we go back to life with the car and four drivers.

The third scenario is that we could keep the car and the check for its value minus the deductible, forgo the payout for salvage, change the title to a salvage title, carry liability insurance only on it, but only get the repairs done that would make the car road worthy again (headlight kit replaced but body damage pounded out but not looking really great). The car would look a bit rough, but run well. The insurance check would more than cover the cost to get it road worthy, so we'd come out ahead financially, but with a crummier looking car. And the four of us would share the car for longer.

The fourth scenario is that we do everything in the third scenario, turn this car over to our daughters to share, and my husband and I buy a second car that is in good shape for just ourselves. The upside to this is we would be a 2-car family with 4 drivers. The downside is a new-to-us car would cost us.

In case you missed it, both my husband and I have been frustrated these last two and a half weeks being car-less. We've both taken the bus to places that were not bus-convenient. When I went to my new Bible study earlier this week, I walked an additional 3 1/2 miles to and from buses coming and going, in the rain. My husband needed to get a rx filled and walked a mile to the bus to get to the pharmacy. Another day, he needed to get to the library to pick up a hold, again walking mile+ to get to the bus stop. 

After many conversations about pros and cons, we decided to go with scenario number 4. Yesterday morning, my husband took a vacation day from work and the two of us walked up to the bus stop (1+ mile), got off that bus, walked a bit to the next stop, got on another bus, got off and walked 1/4 mile to a car dealership that we've worked with in the past. I had checked their used car inventory online the day before and had picked out a couple of cars that I liked, were in our price range, and had low miles. 

When we got there, we looked at every car that was within our parameters. My first choice didn't look nearly as good in person as it did online. It showed a lot of signs of wear, despite not having too many miles on it. My husband was favoring another car that was a lot older, but had been maintained really well, had fewer miles, and was in almost perfect shape. It's also a lot smaller than I wanted, but it's very fuel efficient. This one was also less expensive than my first choice car.

We went back and forth between these two cars, spending a good two and a half hours looking, inspecting, and talking.  My husband looked under the hoods of both, we examined every inch of the interior of the cars, and we read the CARFAX reports and car lot inspection report. The smaller car's CARFAX report indicated that it had been taken care of really well. We could see the dates it was taken in for servicing, noting its frequency of regular maintenance. My husband had pretty much talked me into this smaller car. During one of our inspections, though, I noticed a small star crack in its windshield. That was an instant "no" for us on this car. That is until the salesman, who gave us a lot of space, happened to be coming back to see if we had any questions. We pointed out the crack in the windshield and he said he could take care of that for us. We asked if that meant complete windshield replacement and he agreed. We took the car for a test drive and privately discussed what would make this deal work for us. We decided that if they knocked $1000 off the price, replaced the windshield and got us a second key we'd take it. My husband did the negotiating, and in the end we got exactly what we wanted.

So we have a new car (new-to-us that is)! And once the old car gets its minimal repairs done later this week, we'll be a 2-car family until my daughters buy their own cars.

I wasn't expecting we'd drive home in a new car. But I'd brought the checkbook with us in case we found something we thought would serve its purpose for us. My husband and I are not high-maintenance types. We're pretty satisfied with a car that runs well and looks clean. I think knowing what matters to you and skipping the rest is how many of us live out our frugality. There are other areas of my life that I prefer to spend more. A car is just not one of them.

And here's what I learned in all of this -- if a car is "totaled" but can still be functional, there is a way to keep the car. I had previously thought if the insurance company made a payment for the value of the car, that we had to surrender it.

And where did we go right after driving off the car lot? Why to Walmart, of course! Like I said, we're low-maintenance types.

Prayers please

I'm rather distracted today and tired from a long morning. More on today's morning in a post tomorrow. But for now, could I ask you to pray for my niece? She had surgery on Saturday to remove a mass. Now the pathology report is back, and it was cancer. My niece is a young 24 years old. She still needs to meet with her doctor to talk about next steps. So I don't know what else is in store for her. Thank you, friends. You're some of the most kind and compassionate people that I know.

The Frugal Approach to Shortages

This should not come as any surprise, but when us frugal folk run out of something, what is it we do? It seems to be a frugal reflex for many of us that we simply make do. This frugal technique is really being put to the test in my house this week. Here are some things we're running out of and how we're managing:

• laundry detergent -- I melted some bar soap in water on the stove and mixed it with the remaining detergent in the bottle. This should get us through a week.
• vegetable oil -- an obvious substitution, we're using more of saved meat fats. After my daughter cut a raw chuck steak off the bone the other day, I rendered the swath of fat from it. This gave us about 3 to 4 tablespoons of cooking fat. We also have saved other fats in the freezer to draw from. I'm not completely out of oil, but we're saving what we have for for recipes that really do better with oil.
• hair conditioner -- I have several practically empty tubes of conditioner that have come with home hair dye kits. I have squeezed most of the conditioner out of the tubes. However, there's always more product stuck to the inside walls of the plastic tube. While standing in the shower, I blew each tube up then held it under the stream of water from the shower head. I could shake enough product up with this water to make a watery conditioner. I did this with each tube several times and was able to get my hair fully conditioned. I have enough other practically empty bottles and tubes to get through at least one more shampoo.
• my "chill pills" -- these are a supplement containing Lemon Balm, L-theanine, and GABA. L-theanine is  found in green and black tea. And Lemon Balm is an herb that I grow in my yard for tea. I've been making an infusion to drink from some decaf green tea and Lemon Balm leaves each day. I can't replicate the GABA, but I'm doing okay with much less of the stress supplement. I previously took 4 dummies per day (2 in morning, 2 in evening). I'm taking half that for now. 
• natural peanut butter -- a favorite lunch for me is an open-faced peanut butter sandwich on homemade bread. I noticed we're almost out of natural peanut butter from WinCo. So I was wondering if I could make a sandwich-worth of peanut butter with roasted peanuts and my mortar and pestle. 

To make this I first chopped a handful of peanuts. This is crucial to speeding up the process. I use a serrated bread knife to chop nuts. The serrated edge catches the nuts so they don't go flying.

Next I pummeled the chopped peanuts a heaping tablespoon at a time in the mortar with a pestle. This took some elbow grease, that's for sure. But after a couple of minutes I had a dry paste. 

I added a couple of drops of vegetable oil to the paste and worked the mortar and pestle until I had a good texture. I repeated with the rest of the chopped peanuts until all done. I also added a drizzle of honey to the final batch. 

The finished product is akin to crunchy natural peanut butter. It's a bit gritty and thick. I mixed it with soft butter when I made my sandwich at lunch. Delish and I have a favorite.

Tomorrow I'll make a larger batch using the small cup with the smoothie blender. A pitcher blender can also be used for larger batches, adding a bit of oil to help it come together.

I'm making do as best as I can. What are some ways you've made do recently? Have you ever made peanut butter? What tools did you use?

The Influence of World War 2 Cooking on My Meals Today

In 2020 and 2021 I watched a bunch of videos that discussed or demonstrated the eating habits of ordinary English people during WW2. Prior to the war, Britain imported a large proportion of the food. Because they were unable to import much during the war, there were severe shortages of many foods. The Ministry of Food put together a plan to produce as much food as possible on their country's farm land. In addition they heavily encouraged citizens to grow gardens anywhere they had space. The sparse foods that could be bought in shops were stretched substantially with homegrown produce. 

When the war was over, the government analyzed statistics for disease and mortality during the war compared to that from before the war. Despite suffering some severe shortages of purchasable foods, the English were actually healthier by the time of the war's end. The hypothesis is that the people were eating far more vegetables and locally grown fruits which led to better health, better body size, and this reduced mortality from disease in the general population.

I was thinking about this as I was putting together tonight's dinner. I served meatloaf, rice, fruit and one vegetable. I was fleshing out the few purchased ingredients with homegrown produce. I packed the mini meatloaves with celery, garlic, tomatoes, herbs, and onions, all from my garden. 

I sautéed the green beans that I grew in my own yard in oil and seasoned with garlic and soy sauce. 

The plums were picked from our tree yesterday. 

I even added more garden herbs and a diced tomato to the gravy. 

If I take away all of the foods that we grew for this meal, there would only be ground beef, 1 slice of homemade bread, brown rice, salt, black pepper, vegetable oil, sesame oil, a spoonful of flour for the gravy, and soy sauce. 

It's unknown if we'll live longer or be healthier than if we'd eaten more of the Standard American Diet than our usual meals chock-full of fruits and veggies. But I do know for certain that we spend less for foods than if we ate the SAD. And our meals are tastier because of how I cook and all of the garden produce that I use.

Two Weeks, No Car

Tomorrow morning will be two weeks without a car. It seems there's some sort of hang-up with the insurance company and damage not visible in the initial photos sent to the claims adjuster. Anyway, two weeks is a long time to go without good transportation. 

I still have my two feet, and one of the nearby bus lines is a little over a mile away. However, the bus line that goes down the highway where all of the grocery stores are located is two and a half miles away. That's a little long to walk carrying much in the way of groceries. Despite this, one of my daughters needed some things from Walmart, and she was willing to bike up to the highway, then take the bus to the store. The other day she did just that. I asked if she could pick up one head of cabbage and one gallon of milk for us. Those are the only groceries that I've bought in over two weeks. So far in September, I've only bought those two items plus one package of hot dog buns bought on Sept. 1. My grocery spending may be very low this month.

I love having a tidy fridge

We're doing okay with groceries for the most part. One of the benefits of not being able to shop is that my refrigerator looks quite tidy. Under our usual circumstance, the shelves and drawers are loaded with plastic containers, plates, and bowls of leftover foods. Not much in that department today. But still, we have plenty of milk, lots of produce, eggs, enough condiments and sauces to make meals interesting, a couple of types of cheese, and a few other items in the fridge.

my free pile cheese dome on a pie plate

Something we did run out of last week, and that my family really enjoys for its convenience, is the individual servings of string cheese. They're not as inclined to slice or cube some cheese for themselves. So, I cubed up both mozzarella and cheddar cheese and tucked the cubes under this little cheese dome. I picked up the cheese dome from a free pile a few years ago and just now found a good use for it. I'm not fond of the floral painting. I'd rather the dome was simply clear glass. But for free, I'll take it. Maybe I could scrape or buff the paint off.

No word on when the car will be ready. Tomorrow I'll need to take a bus (the one that's a mile away) to get to a Bible study that is just starting up for the year. I don't know who will be there, so I can't call someone for a ride. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we won't have rain in the morning. 

I've kept us stocked in goodies and treats by baking. Last week we had brownies. Today I made a batch of almond-coconut bars. One of my daughters made caramel sauce for dipping apple wedges. With a well-stocked pantry, there's no shortage of goodies.

There is a silver lining to being car-less. Without any place to go, I am a lot more productive around the house and yard. And that's something for which I'm grateful this evening.

Fall foods already!

Thursday's dinner

I know it isn't fall yet, but in our house, we're already eating fall foods. For dinner tonight I served open-faced smoked brisket sandwiches (yes, I did get the smoker out again this week), shredded Brussel sprout leaves and onions (sautéed in bacon fat), fresh apple, plum, and celery salad in a sweet vinaigrette, and tomato salad in 1000 Island dressing. Dinner was delicious!

It's turned chilly in my area. I pulled out my one and only flannel shirt and fleece vest yesterday. I've added an extra blanket to each bed. And the thought of hot drinks is very appealing once again.

How about you? Is it cool enough to want some fall foods in your meals? Is it too early for pumpkin flavored foods?

Have a great weekend, friends!

Would you consider downsizing to one car to save on transportation costs, such as insurance, gas, and car maintenance?

I'll preface this with we live a little over a mile to the nearest bus stop. We're in the suburbs of a major city. Stores are a few miles away. On Zillow, our house has a walk score of 13 out of 100 and a transit score of 24 out of 100. So evidently, Zillow thinks this neighborhood is car-dependent.

Two years ago we went about two weeks without a car when it was in the shop for an extended time. This week, our car is again in the shop with body damage. It's now been 8 days. They promised us about 10 days. So here's hoping they were on target with that estimate. We chose not to rent a car for this period. (And our insurance doesn't cover car rental.)

It's been a little challenging for this past week without a car. My daughters have walked to the bus stop to go to the places they need to be. My husband works from home several days a week, but  he did need to go into the office for meetings earlier this week. He normally takes the bus. However, we usually give him a ride to the bus stop. So this was inconvenient for him to not have a car. I've been a true homebody all week. I did a huge grocery stock-up shortly before the car went in. The only things we're low on now are fresh milk and bananas. We're fine, though. We've been using powdered milk the last couple of days and have been inundated with our own fresh produce, even if we don't have bananas. This week is obviously not the norm for us. 

Our experience with just one car and four drivers the rest of the year

the good

• one car costs less to purchase than two cars do
• we pay less in insurance
• we car pool places more often, including errands, so we spend less in gas. A side benefit -- going places together more often builds the relationships within our family.
• just one car to take in for general maintenance and repairs
• we need less space for housing one car vs two, freeing up the garage for storage space

the bad

• sometimes two of us need to go in two different directions at the same time. How we've managed that--a third person (usually me) will chauffeur both people to and from, with one person arriving at their destination a little earlier than needed. Or, sometimes one person will take the bus, for the person for whom bus travel works out more favorably.
• with just one car, we don't have the flexibility of having a larger car, SUV, or truck for transporting large  or dirty items. When buying our current car, we chose a sedan for gas economy and ease of driving for our then teen drivers. If we were to ever add a second car, we'd look at something larger to use as a secondary vehicle, with the idea we'd transport those large items with it. We've missed out on a couple of yard sale or free pile items that would have been nice to own, such as exercise equipment.
• and of course, like this week, when our one car is down, we don't have a back-up car to count on.

This week of being carless will come to an end soon. I think we'll all appreciate having the car back for our use. I've missed the freedom that having our own transportation offers.

So how about you and your situation? Would you or have you considered downsizing your current number of cars? What opportunities would you miss by having fewer or no cars? Do you live in an area with a good walk score? 

It's the attention to the little things that makes me smile

the after -- those light spots on the right upper side are light reflections

The day that I spray painted the styrofoam trough planter pieces brown, I also did a couple of heat vent covers that were looking a little shabby. It took hardly any additional time to add the vents to the spray painting area and very little of the paint.

the before, badly paint splattered

These vent covers are original to the house, so almost 50 years old. They had paint splatters, rusted edges, and were a battleship gray metal. The two rooms where these were have medium-dark wood floors. The gray metal really stood out as not quite right.

The vents took 2 coats of paint and now look sooooo much better.

It's the little things that are often so easy to fix, yet they complete the mood of a room. In this case, the mood was "polished." 

In addition to making the space look better, I find by paying attention to the details, I achieved 3 additional goals. I find I have more satisfaction with what we have been given. I created a more inviting space for welcoming family and guests. And third, by taking care of our property, I've maintained or enhanced its value as an investment. 

So glad I did this.

When you don't have frugal friends or family in your real life community

russet apples are ready for harvest

I feel like I'm stranded on a deserted island with my little family sometimes. 

The Seattle area used to be a west coast oasis for fairly frugal folk. Many of my in-person friends' parents kept gardens, spent well below their means, drove one car, wore simple but enduring clothing styles for decades, etc. But in my own circle today, it's hard to find any of my contemporaries who continue in their parents' frugal lifestyles. In my extended family, neither of my siblings are frugal. They're both financially successful, so they can afford the luxuries in their lives. I think it's genuinely difficult for them to relate to my daily life. My stepmom was fairly careful with finances in her latter years, however. She grew up on a small farm in Iowa. When she first came into our family, I grilled her regularly on ways her mother stretched their small income.

come and sit with me for a bit

The internet has been a wonderful gathering place for people of various like-mindedness. Case in point, we're just a handful of friends, here, and we are scattered not only across this continent, but from other regions of the world. Could it be that truly frugal friends and family are few and far between for many of us here?

the begonias are still going strong

Do you have moments in each day where you just want to share your latest frugal accomplishment with a friend, neighbor, or sibling? Or a question when you need help/inspiration/encouragemnt DIY-ing or fixing something yourself? 

but the hydrangeas are about done for the year

Have you wondered where the cheapest local place would be to buy an X,Y or Z? Do you long to share your bounty of very imperfect-looking garden produce, but are certain most of your friends would shy away from a fruit or vegetable that didn't look as pristine as those found in the market?

the last of the blackberry foraging 
I'll freeze these for a winter smoothie or treat

I keep many of the details of my and my family's life from my siblings. They just wouldn't relate and would most likely suggest remedies that aren't feasible for us. I also fear they would turn up their noses at my homemaking routines. Many of my in-person friends don't get the frugal aspect of me either.

So, I turn to and share with you. You, friends, are always welcome into this little corner of my life.

Do you ever feel like a frugal loner in your real life community of family or friends?

 

Harvest Season Front Porch Planters

I finished the porch wall trough planters this week. I had mentioned going to Dollar Tree and spending $10 plus tax on some faux florals, pumpkins, and leaf sprays. I also said I'd try to go to another Dollar Tree and pick up a couple more sprays to fill out the planters.

To hold the faux decor in place, I used the lid to a styrofoam cooler, cut in half.

I had a can of spray paint in brown that I bought for another project. Styrofoam really soaks up the paint. A few coats later, and I had 2 brown flat sheets for the troughs.

Above are the additional pieces I bought at the other Dollar Tree. I spent $5 plus tax on 2 sprays of cattails and 2 sprays of yellow marigolds. I cut all of the sprays apart into single stems so I could divide some of the elements in each arrangement.

Laying this all out, I could see the troughs would look a bit sparse. So I dug through the box of free pile faux foliage and found fern, ivy, and leaf pieces.

I took some time over the weekend to lay it all out in a pleasing arrangement.

Again, I could see it would still look sparse and show too much of the brown styrofoam. I added a roll of boxwood garland to secure around the highly visible edges.

The styrofoam pieces needed a little trimming down to size with a serrated knife in order to fit inside the coir liners. Once I had them sized right, I placed some plain blocks of styrofoam under the brown ones as support.

Many of my florals had stems that would poke into the styrofoam nicely. For those pieces that didn't have any such stem, I added toothpicks. This is to prevent birds, squirrels, and wind from tossing these objects around. I secured lengths of the boxwood garland with regular U pin hairpins.

For the loose leaves, I made stems using hot glue and toothpicks. To make inserting the pieces easier, I used a wood skewer to pre-poke holes.

Ready to see the finished product? Drumroll, please.

And here's one of the finished planters.

My front porch is looking ready for harvest season, which will carry us through Thanksgiving. I'll switch out the planters with something wintry the first of December.

So, costs -- 

I spent $15 plus tax at Dollar Tree to create both arrangements. That's $7.50 each! I also spent $18.50 plus tax on the two coir trough liners.  The second expense is for reusable parts of the troughs that will be used 4 seasons of the year for a long time. I think my costs are pretty reasonable, and I created something very similar to an autumnal window box that I had seen online.

Lunch Meat for Less: Home-Smoked Chicken Breast

While I was using the smoker to smoke the short ribs on Monday, I threw a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the smoker. I used some of the leftover rub from the ribs on these chicken pieces and put them directly on the interior racks. I kept the smoker at about 225 degrees F during the time the chicken was in there. After about an hour of smoking (and when the interiors reached about 130-135 degrees F), I wrapped the chicken breasts in foil. It only took about another 20 minutes to bring them up to 160 degrees F in the thickest parts. 

At that point I removed them from the smoker but left them in the foil on a plate. The temperature rose to 165 degrees F in that resting period. After they cooled (about 15 additional minutes), I refrigerated them wrapped in the foil and inside a plastic bag.

We used one of the smoked breasts cubed and in a main dish salad for dinner on Tuesday. Today, Wednesday, I thin sliced the other breast for 4 sandwiches at lunch time.

I paid about $2.29 to $2.49 per pound for the boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I figure they lost some water weight in the smoker. So maybe my finished cost per pound for the smoked chicken is around $2.75, or up to $3.00/lb. The least expensive chicken breast lunchmeat I can find at Walmart runs about $7.00 per pound.

I realize I could also simply bake chicken breasts for lunch meat. But the taste of the smoked chicken really elevated the taste of our sandwiches. The chicken was tasty, unsalted with exception to the spice rub on the outside of the meat, lean, and moist. I also didn't incur additional cost to use the smoker for the chicken, as I was already smoking something that day. The only drawback of home-smoked that I can see is that because it doesn't have any preservatives, it likely doesn't keep very long in the fridge. We used the meat up within 3 days. If I wanted to keep the smoked meat longer, I'd freeze it in portions.

I will definitely add seasoned chicken breasts to the smoker on other days that I have another piece of meat in there.

Inflation Edition: The Scraps Matter

When it comes to saving money in this era of ever increasing food prices, the scraps matter. Making use of every last scrap of food, from bones, to vegetable peels, to stale bread, these little bits and bobs can be remade into something tasty and save some pennies in the grocery budget.

Some frugal habits are timeless. This is something my grandmother did and her mother before her. They saved stale bread slices to make bread pudding or French toast.

When the week's baking

leads to a bulging baggie of bread ends and stale half-slices stored in the freezer, we make it useful in a breakfast bread pudding. 

Since the scraps are non-uniform in size and shape, I find it easiest to dice all of the bread substances. In this batch, I had a half bran muffin, one mini heart-shaped waffle, a tiny square of cornbread, numerous half slices of bread, and several loaf ends too skinny to toast without burning to a crisp. I stirred these cubed bits together with a sweetened egg and milk mixture to bake for a tasty treat at breakfast time. My family thinks it's a special breakfast. I know it's a thrifty breakfast.

But this is nothing new. My grandmother did this and yours probably did too. Some frugal tips save us money as much today as they did a century ago.

Happy Labor Day, Friends!

Wishing you a restful holiday today. Do you have anything special planned for the day or evening? We'll be having a cook-out with our son and daughter-in-law. Plus, I'll be using my Mother's Day gift for the first time -- a smoker. (I know, all you ladies are so jealous of my Mother's Day gift, ha ha.)

Here's our menu:

hot dogs cooked over the fire ring

buns and all of the fixings

smoked beef short ribs

rosemary and Parmesan mashed potatoes 

kale, apple, and bacon salad in a sweet and tangy dressing

fresh figs and plums

steamed, buttered sweet peas

s'mores

blackberry pie

The hot dogs are all-beef and uncured. The brand is Marketside, bought at Walmart for $4.98. This is a great price for all-beef and uncured hot dogs. The package size is 16 oz ,and there are 8 in the package.  Here's the link to see what they are. For comparison, Nathan's are $5.96 per pound (package size 12 oz), and Hebrew National are $7.69 per pound (package size 10.3 oz). Although the Marketside hot dogs are not kosher. Nathan's are not kosher, either. But Hebrew Nationals are kosher, if that's a consideration for anyone.

The buns were the only thing that I bought especially for today. I picked them up at Fred Meyer on the way to church yesterday, $1.67 for the package of 8 buns.

I am smoking the beef short ribs along with some chicken breasts (to use later in the week). The aroma is a wonderful mix of meaty with the sweet smell of applewood. The short ribs came in my recent box of beef from the rancher, and the chicken breasts I picked up at WinCo in July or August.

I'm using boxed mashed potatoes as our garden potatoes aren't ready to harvest just yet. I use olive oil in place of butter, and soy milk in place of dairy milk, along with the potatoes, chopped fresh rosemary, shaved Parmesan cheese, and garlic powder. I made these earlier this one night, and the three of us who were home really enjoyed them -- savory, cheesy, and herby combined with silky potatoes.

The kale and apples are from our garden. These apples are sweet with a bit of tang. The bacon bits were from the marked down bacon that I bought in July? at Grocery Outlet, $1.99 per package. I chopped both packages, cooked and froze the bits to add to salads and other dishes. So handy to have at the ready. I will blend together some blackberry jam, vinegar, salt, and oil for a sweet and tangy vinaigrette.

The figs are from our trees, and the plums came from a neighbor's tree. Our neighbor very kindly brought a box of plums to us the other afternoon. She lives alone and hates to see the fruit wasted. So she gifts boxes or bags of plums to neighbors when her tree produces a lot.

The peas are just frozen peas that I bought on sale at WinCo. WinCo uses a green price tag on shelves to indicate temporary markdowns. Their sweet peas are so delicate and small. I bought 10 bags that day. While I like Walmart for a lot of their store brand products, their peas are mealy and overly starchy. WinCo's are the best!

The s'mores are just s'mores. I bought the graham crackers on sale at Grocery Outlet earlier in summer, and the marshmallows and chocolate bars at Walmart recently. The Great Value brand chocolate bars (milk and dark) and really pretty good. They're priced at $1.12 for 3.52 oz bars.

One of my daughters baked 2 blackberry pies last night after dinner. She was taking slices of one pie to a friend for while they watch a movie together today, and left an entire pie for us. I think she's also planning on gifting a few slices of pie to neighbors.

That's it for our menu. Enjoy the rest of your day and evening. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon!

What was in my grocery cart for August 2024? I spent a lot

August was a very expensive month here.

I started the month with an order of powdered soy milk. In order to get the lowest unit price, free shipping, and a free 3-pair pack of socks, I purchased enough for 6-8 months. I spent $103.92.

August 1.  The trifecta of grocery shopping, a run to WinCo, Walmart, and Grocery Outlet, all along the same highway in the town next to me. I spent $84.05 at WinCo, $2.50 at Grocery Outlet, and $7.44 at Walmart, for a total of $93.99. I bought 1 pack of bacon, 2 packs of turkey snack sticks, 2 frozen peas, 2 frozen broccoli, 2 butter, 3 lb onions, large pack chicken breasts, gal milk, 24-ct string cheese, 2 lb cheddar, 2 liquid soy milk, 10 tuna, mustard, lemon juice, bread flour, mayo, peanuts, 5 lbs carrots, bananas, iodized salt, garlic powder, baking powder, natural peanut butter, sea salt, Himalayan salt. This was for the most part a week to 2 weeks worth of groceries for us.

August 2.  We were wanting some summer-y treats. So we bought a carton of ice cream and 2-liter of root beer at Walmart to make root beer floats at home. We spent $4.56, which may sound like a lot for those treats, but compared to getting similar summer treats out, this was a bargain for 4 people. And the ice cream would also be used the next week when we made peanut buster parfaits, using. homemade fudge sauce and peanuts we had at home.

August 10.  This was my off-week from running all the way down the highway to WinCo. So I just did a quick shop at Walmart and Grocery Outlet. I bought bananas, turkey snack sticks, and milk at Walmart and non-dairy vanilla ice cream at Grocery Outlet. I spent $14.56 total.

August 12.  Out running errands and I stopped by World Market to get some whole cardamom pods. I spent $3.99.

August 18.  After church we swung by Fred Meyer to pick up something for my daughter. While there I bought a jar of instant decaf coffee. I spent $6.49. I'm down to a half-cup of coffee/decaf per day, most days. Occasionally I have a second half-cup of decaf only. So this jar should last a while.

August 21.  Went only to WinCo this day. I bought 2 frozen broccoli, 10 frozen peas, frozen turkey breakfast sausage, 24-ct string cheese, 2 lbs Italian sausage, 1 pack pepperoni, 4 butter, gal milk, mayo, bananas, 2 natural peanut butter, bread flour, 3 10 lb all-purpose flour, peanuts. I spent $109.16. Our car will be in the shop for 10 days beginning next Tuesday to repair damage done in daughter's accident. So, I shopped for 4 weeks of the foods I normally buy at WinCo.

August 29.  Maybe the last grocery shopping for a bit. I may be able to get a bus to Walmart or Fred Meyer to pick up milk and bananas in a week. Today I went to Chef'Store (a restaurant supply) and Walmart. I bought 1 lb yeast, 6 lbs mozzarella, 5 lbs sharp cheddar, 1 lb shaved Parmesan, 50 lbs onions, 50 lbs, whole wheat flour, 50 lbs sugar, gal milk, turkey breakfast sausage, ketchup, 2 doz eggs, bananas, jalapeño peppers. I spent a total of $136.77. Some of these items were stock-up foods, such as the whole wheat flour, the yeast, the sugar, and the onions. The cheese will also last us a couple of months. Prices were up on everything I bought today. It's shocking to pay $4 for a dozen eggs and feel like that's the best price around. Sugar has doubled in price since 2020. Cheese is up by about 50%. It's just all shocking.

Our next delivery of beef will be arriving in a week. It's been charged to my card already, so I'll include it in August's total. The charge is $359.00.

The only not-totally-necessary treat foods this month were the root beer and ice cream. We enjoyed those a lot, though. And a bargain compared to going out to Dairy Queen for similar treats. Thankfully we have a large garden to supplement the groceries. Otherwise it would look like the only produce we eat are onions, carrots, and bananas. We bake often using the fruits that we harvest and forage. So no deprivation around here. I do buy some "healthier" snacks, like the string cheese, turkey snack sticks, and roasted peanuts. We all enjoy having an easy-to-grab protein snack, even if those are kind of pricey per pound. I expect that a fair amount of what I bought will last for several months. September's grocery shopping should be on the light side.

The grand total for this August's food-only groceries comes to $832.44.

How did you do with grocery spending this month?

What have been the highlights of your summer?

With the unofficial end of summer this weekend (Labor Day), now seems like a good time to reflect on the last couple of months. This summer had some definite lowlights for me, which makes it even more important for me to focus on what made me smile or gave me some joy.

So here goes, the highlights of my summer:

I'm a visual person, so making areas look attractive makes me happy.

• refreshing the front porch, including cleaning the flooring, adding 2 new chairs, spray painting the wall troughs and welcome sign, filling hanging baskets with begonias, spray painting 2 pots a bright green and planting with colorful coleus, and adding a new doormat. The front porch has become a favorite morning hangout.
• making the chair bench and setting it on the front patio (adjacent to the front porch). I sometimes stop at the front window to look at that pleasant little spot.
• spray painting a wood chair purple to set next to potted lavender.

Spending time with my family brings me joy.

• the whole 4th of July holiday, including a cookout with our son and daughter-in-law and watching fireworks afterwards, plus decorating for the 4th and buying some "flag" napkins at Dollar Tree.
• picking cherries with my daughters and husband. We had a lot of cherries this year. I'll be baking cherry pies well into winter.
• all of the Friday movie and pizza nights we had. One favorite was Swiss Family Robinson. We all enjoyed watching that one.
• making root beer floats and peanut buster parfaits with my family.

Observing nature makes me smile.

• watching the hummingbirds visit the nasturtium blossoms right outside my window.
• enjoying the copious begonia blossoms. I planted begonias in a few places this summer, as they seem to do well in my yard. I still have the plant from summer 2021. I keep it in the garage over winter then bring it out each spring. It keeps blooming for me. I'm hoping my new begonias will do as well overwintering in the garage.
• the bunny population has been thinned in my neighborhood (owls, hawks, coyotes?), so the few bunny sightings I had were sweet moments watching a bunny nibble the grass.

And of course, food made me happy this summer.

• blueberries
• raspberries
• strawberries
• salads
• our own cabbage
• a good steak dinner at home one evening
• barbecue chicken
• homemade burgers
• rosemary and garlic potatoes
• cherry and blackberry pies
• blueberry muffins
• our apples
• s'mores

So, for summer with its share of lowlights, I can also recognize that there were more than a handful of wonderful summer moments.

How about you? What have been the highlights of your summer?

Would finances motivate you to consider moving to a different region of your country for retirement?

I've mentioned our high cost of living in my area of the US before. My husband is approaching retirement in a couple of years. Lately we've discussed the possibility of moving to a part of the US with a lower cost of living for retirement, so our funds will last longer and go farther. 

Our house has appreciated quite a bit in the last 29 years here. We could sell our house and have a nice sum leftover to enhance our retirement and be more generous in our giving. But here's the catch, we would likely be leaving some or all of our kids in our current area due to their choice. 

So, less expensive housing, same size house and land, lower property taxes 

vs 

staying here where we're comfortable and have all of our kids nearby.

I know we're fortunate to have all of our kids right here. That's just not the case for many retirees. But I also think it would be nice to worry less about the cost of every last thing.

This is a big question to think about over a long period of time. So I'm asking if you ever considered moving away from family, friends, church, community for your retirement years? What were your considerations?

My Dollar Tree Autumn Decor Haul

A week ago Saturday we slid right into November in my area. We had 8 days of rain, dark clouds, and cool weather, 1 day of sunshine (yesterday), and now, today, the November-like rain and dark clouds have returned. All last week I kept thinking about fall. 

I had previously mentioned plans to go to Dollar Tree to check out their autumn decor. I did go, but to the  one that was convenient at the time. That one is always later to get stuff put out or doesn't get the selection that the other location near me. But it was convenient for my errands that day.

So on Friday I went to the Dollar Tree which my daughter had mentioned had a good display of fall decor pieces. Here's what I bought:

4 small artificial pumpkins, 2 faux wheat-like sprays, 1 autumn leaf spray, and 1 russet mum spray. The cost was $10 plus tax. (Dollar Tree is now $1.25-Tree.) I used a gift card given to me by my daughters a year ago for my birthday, which covered all but a little over $1 of my purchase.

These are for the wall troughs by our front door. being in complete shade up against the house on the north side, I'm going with artificial botanicals and pumpkins.

For as early in the season as I went, the fall decor pieces were beginning to look a bit picked over. I bought what they had in stock at the time. I would like to check out a 3rd Dollar Tree for more of the mums and leaves. With the 1st of September right around the corner, I'll be putting these together very soon and will show you how they turned out at that time.

What's been your favorite restaurant re-creation as of late?

Yesterday we talked about how cooking at home is such a budget stretcher compared to dining out, even when using some convenience foods or premium ingredients.

Most of the time, our meals are just ordinary. Tonight we had tuna-noodle casserole with fresh blackberries and figs from our property. Nothing fancy, and certainly nothing that you would likely find on a restaurant menu. However, sometimes one of us gets the notion to recreate a restaurant favorite.

the homemade tostado bowl

Since I'm asking what your favorite restaurant re-creation has been, I'll tell you my recent favorite. This was in early summer. I already blogged about it. My daughters found a tortilla bowl maker at a garage sale in spring and later treated us to tostado salad bowls in homemade flour tortilla bowls, like a Taco Time taco salad bowl. 

the Taco Time Tostado bowl

Taco Time is a "better" taco place near us. Their prices reflect that. They sell beef tostado bowls for $8.19 each.

Our version was really very good.

How about you? What's been your favorite restaurant re-creation?

Inflation Edition: It's still more frugal to cook at home with premium ingredients than eat restaurant meals

I went grocery shopping yesterday morning and found myself taken a bit aback at the grand total of about $120.00 for people food only. This is a weekly shop for food for us. My husband was with me and asked what I honestly thought these foods would have cost 4 or 5 years ago. I told him this amount of groceries probably would have cost about $85. Some foods have seen a small amount of price increase, while others like eggs (which have more than doubled) have really skyrocketed. Butter is crazy high right now. Milk has increased 50% in price. I have primarily bought the same basic foods for many years, so I remember what I used to pay for items pre-2020. Even with more expensive grocery store prices, cooking and eating at home is still a better deal in most cases compared to restaurant eating.

I realize that my region of the US has a high cost of living. So understand that my restaurant meal prices may be more than yours. But I also believe that lower restaurant prices also correlate to lower grocery store prices. So, a similar comparison for your area could likely be made.

Here's a typical casual restaurant meal my family would enjoy.

A Five Guys burger costs $11.29 each, multiplied by 4, $45.16 for the burgers. If we split a regular order of fries 4 ways that adds $6.49. Our sales tax rate is 10.5%. So for $57.07 my household of 4 adults can go grab a burger out.

Or, we can use our premium ground beef bought on contract from a rancher, I can do burgers for 4 at home, including buns and all the fixings for ~ $20.00. If I add frozen fries, our home-made burger night would cost about $23.00. Judging by the fact that high schoolers are hired to flip burgers, I think it's fair to say that making burgers at home is very do-able for most adults.

So burgers can be a bit expensive for better quality ones. How about pizza? Mod Pizza is a popular choice for casual dining in my area. If we all got the Mad Dog (pepperoni and sausage), we'd need 1 "mini" ($9.39) and 2 "MODs" ($11.39 each) to feed us all. If we drank water, we could have a dinner out for $35.55 including tax.

Or, I can make pepperoni and sausage pizza from scratch at home to feed us for $8 or $9 at most. Scratch pizza is a bit more complicated than making burgers, as you have to make a dough. If I don't want to mess with a homemade dough, I can buy a Pillsbury Refrigerated Classic Pizza Crust at Walmart for $3.64. That would bump my homemade sausage and pepperoni pizza meal up to around $10. That is still less than 1/3 of a Mod pizza dinner out.

Even with significant grocery inflation, it's still a better deal for the 4 of us to cook and eat at home, and that takes into account that some of my ingredients are what I'd consider premium and not budget.

We may not be able to reduce inflation ourselves, but we can find ways to mitigate some of the effects of these higher prices.