Abundantly Frugal

Frugal vs. Miserly

I woke up this morning with the phrase “no, not miserly—frugal” ringing in my head.  I think it must have been the tail end of a dream in which I was discussing the relative merits of frugal living to someone and she (we’ll just make a couple of little assumptions here) told me she just couldn’t be miserly like that.  It felt right when I ran that thought through my head so, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

So, back to the whole frugal vs. miserly issue.  Here’s how I see the differences:
Frugal                                                Miserly
“Downsizing” our expenses                Pinching every penny until it begs for mercy
Thinking in terms of economy            Never purchasing anything that isn’t useful and cheap
Weighing the cost/benefit analysis    Never mind the benefit—it’s all about cost
Thinking globally, acting locally            Who cares where it came from—if it’s the cheapest, buy it
Balance need with want                    If you don’t need it, you don’t need to buy it
Plan for luxury                                    When we have lots of money there will be time for luxury

There’s a lot more but you get the idea.  You may have very different ideas about what these two things mean so this may help you understand what I mean when I refer to things as being frugal or to my lifestyle as a frugal one.

By the way, speaking of lifestyles, I’ve decided that if I’m going to give you ideas for how to be frugal, you should probably see what I’m spending on stuff.  I just decided this so it’s going to take about a month to calculate the whole actual budget.  I’ll also give you a general idea of how I plan my budget.   I’ll cover that again when I actually give you the figures.

[Note:  I really hate that I can't figure out how to get nice, even columns in TypePad.  I've tried tables--a mess. I've tried formatting in Word--also a mess.  Please understand that I really do know how to do this in real life.

Modern Cooking Ingredients

I was reading a cookbook the other day—one that was written about 30 years ago—and I noticed something I had seen before and had even thought about a little but hadn’t really put into context with budget cooking until today.

When I was buying groceries 30 years ago I had far fewer choices than I do today.  It was difficult to find a store that carried fresh mushroom and no one I knew had ever heard of Portobello mushrooms let alone some of the more “exotic” mushrooms we have come to expect to see today.  We actually purchased fruit and vegetables when they were in season and when I say “in season” I mean in the United States, not in South America.  I suppose there were places to get fresh fish (I knew about a few places when I lived in Houston), but not many in the states not on a coast.  In Minnesota, where I lived, it was just assumed that the men went out and caught fresh fish if that’s what you wanted.  Actually, I don’t know what was assumed, just that I don’t recall all that much fresh fish being around.

In the summer we ate fruits and vegetables that were in season locally (for a reasonable price) and those that were seasonal in warmer climates like California and Florida (for a considerably higher price).  In the winter we ate apples, oranges, and bananas.

You could almost always get onions and potatoes, and I know there were other fruits and vegetables available year-round but the entire produce department of the grocery store took up less than 1/10th of a modern grocery store.  The same could be said for other parts of the store.  You may be familiar with some of the little stores that sell overstocked groceries.  These aren’t called Grocery Outlet or anything like that.  These are little neighborhood stores that have about 10 short aisles that include one or two cooler sections (the double door variety) and half a row of frozen foods.  Those little, independent neighborhood stores are the largest grocery stores we had back in the early 1960s.  I don’t know how far back it goes but the first time I saw a grocery store that is still much smaller than what we have now but was considered a supermarket back then was in 1967 or ’68.

This really has nothing to do with anything—it’s just an observation that I thought younger people might be interested in knowing and those of us who are older might be interested in remembering.

Enjoy...

Tuna and Can Opener Woes: Who Knew?

I don’t have an electric can opener—it’s not because they’re more expensive, though.  This is one instance where I just prefer the old-fashioned hand-operated can opener (besides, it works during power outages).

I recently purchased a new can opener.  I have been drooling over the openers that take the whole top of the can off rather than taking the center out of the top of the can.  It just leaves a much cleaner, less dangerous edge.  I love my new can opener!  It removes the entire top of the can every single time.  No more do I have to wiggle a partially removed top back and forth to break the last bit of metal lid that the opener didn’t release.  I have no idea why it works that way but it does and I hated that part.  I’ve cut my fingers on the edges of those lids as well—only once or twice but often enough to be nervous about it and certainly nervous about letting a child help by opening cans for me.  This new one is so much better!

Then, one day, I opened a can of tuna and went to use the lid to squish the water out of the can just as I have done forever.  Uh oh!  The way this opener takes the lid off doesn’t allow me to do that any more. 

There are two options for this.  Initially I borrowed a can opener of the variety I had replaced and cut the lid off the next can of tuna I needed and washed that lid and put it in my “junk bowl.”  I have a very old stoneware bowl that sits on a shelf above my sink where I toss things like the cat food can lid, extra bread closers, the rubber bands off the broccoli—you know, all that little stuff.  I put the tuna can lid in there and now I can squish the water out of the can.

The second option is to watch for a special gadget made just for such a purpose.  It’s a plastic piece the exact circumference of the inside of the tuna can and it has little holes all over the flat part of it.  You just put this in and squish and the juice all comes out without needing the tuna can lid.  In fact, now that I have the new can opener I’m thinking that owning one of these little things is a good thing and I will start watching for one.  In the meantime, I have the reusable version (as long as I don’t forget why I have a can lid drying in the dish drainer and throw it away).

Update:  I had whined about this to a friend of mine and one day when we were going to go shopping together she came in with one of those tuna can squishers for me.  I really does work exceptionally well and now I don’t have to look for one when I think about it.

Enjoy…

My photo

This is so funny!  I've been avoiding putting my photo on my blog for--oh, I don't know--forever!  You can't even imagine how much I hate having my photo taken and the idea how having to get my hair done and wear makeup is even worse.  So, you haven't known what I look like.  I know that's important to you (well, to some of you, anyway).  I know it's important to me.  When I go to a blog with no photo of the author, I wonder about them--what do they look like, are they young or old, are they nice or creepy.  See, that's the thing--are they creepy?  I really didn't want you to think I was creepy.  I wanted you to get to know more than my words.  I wanted us to become friends.  How can we become friends if you don't even know what I look like?

I think you get the idea of how conflicted I was.  Finally, my coach said, "This is not optional.  You really need to do this.  If you expect to have credibility, you need to have your picture on your blog."  All right already!  Here's the really funny part.  I was whining about this to my upstairs neighbor.  I knew he was a photographer of more than a little skill but I wasn't talking to him in that capacity.  I was talking to him as my friend--someone who might be even more reluctant to have his photo taken than I.  He offered to photograph me.  I thought perhaps I could do that.  That didn't sound so daunting as the getting the hair done, makeup, AND going to a photographer's studio all in one day.

Steven offered to come down and do a test shoot.  I could put on a little makeup if I wanted, wear what I wanted to wear for the "real" shoot, and we'd just do something informal.  Steven prefers to shoot in natural light when at all possible so we set a time in the afternoon when the west facing windows would provide us with the best light.  I do, however, live west of Seattle and it is, as you well know, winter.  For those of you who don't know this, as a general rule, Seattle is pretty damp all winter long.  We get sunny days and sunny hours in otherwise cloudy or rainy days, but it's less likely to be sunny than cloudy.

On the appointed afternoon (we had checked the weather forecast for the best likelihood of sun), Steven came to my home/office to take a few practice shots, just so he could see how the light would work, where I wanted to sit, if the color of the blouse I'd chosen photographed well--all that stuff.  It was a bit darker than we had hoped for and it was late enough in the afternoon that we were losing what little light there was but that was really no problem because this was more for practice than anything else.  I had put on a bit of lipstick but that was it for the hair or makeup part.  Steven clicked away for a few shots and then the phone rang.  I offered to let it go to voice mail but Steven said, no, go ahead and take it--he'd just see what he could see through the viewfinder.  Of course he did more than that, he snapped a few photos while he was at it.

This is getting far too long so I'll just cut to the chase.  Yesterday Steven sent me three of the test shots he took and we both agreed the one you now see residing to the left of this post was really quite good and reflected more of who I really am than a formal, posed photo.  This may well be the first photo of me that I've liked since I was a small child.  I hope you enjoy it as well.

Now, I promise to do more writing about the important stuff--having money left over in your grocery budget every month--money you can spend on something else.  With Christmas coming, this is an opportunity to save at the grocery stores whether you celebrate the holiday or not.  Come back often.  I promise to be busy!

What happened to prices?

Is it just me or did grocery store prices go as crazy as gasoline prices? 

As I was editing my book I noticed that just a year ago I was talking about milk for $1/gallon, chuck roast for $1.29/lb, and chicken for $.49/lb.  Granted, those were sale prices but sale prices today are milk for $2/gallon, chuck roast for $1.99/lb (and that's almost impossible to find), and chicken for $.99/lb.  It's crazy.  Butter doubled in price on sale and it seems like just about everything else went through the roof as well.  Oh, potatoes--when's the last time you saw potatoes for $.10/lb?

OK, that's it--just whining.  I realize there is nothing to do about the spiraling costs except be more careful about how we spend out money.  I'm working on more ideas for that.

What Was I Thinking?

It occurred to me that it had been a while since I'd posted here so I came to take a look.  Oh my gosh, it has been well over a month since my last post.

When I started this blog I had tons of good intentions of posting a minimum of once a week.  Well, you know what they say about good intentions--the road to hell is paved with them.  Anyway, back then I was just starting to get my Virtual Assistant business going and I only had one small client.  I was doing fewer than 10 hours of work a month.  That on top of my regular job, 10 hours a week of working on my business, and another few hours a week working on my book (Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half) left me with plenty of time to research and write one or two blogs a week here.

Since then I have picked up a couple of new clients (Hurray!), one of whom gives me the opportunity to work another 10 hours a week or so.  This is a very good thing where my new business is concerned but I've been neglecting this blog something awful.  So, here I am, apologizing for my lack of posts and letting you know it may be a while before I actually post anything of significance. 

I have, however, made a promise to myself to post even little things here when I think of them.  You know, the stray thoughts that aren't full-blown blog postings but are more like snippets.    To that end, I'm creating a new category called "Appetizers"--you know, little things that make you want more.  For the three of you who are actually reading this, I hope these liitle tid-bits will help tide you over until I can quit my day job and devote more of my time to both this blog and my book.

Thanks for your patience.

Guests

Not long ago I moved into a very small apartment.  Actually, it wouldn't feel quite so small if I could use the bedroom for more than storage.  That will change but in the meantime I have the equivalent of a studio (efficiency/bed-sitter/whatever, depending on where in the world you live).  In other words, I have a kitchen, bathroom, and one other room that is my bedroom-living room-office-sewing room.  It's cozy. 

What this means, though, is that I have a single bed that also serves as my sofa and no table and chairs for eating.  I have a couple of ideas for how to make that happen but for the time being, this is just the way it is. I'm actually quite content in my little apartment but it's difficult to have guests over to eat since I can't put them at a table. 

Well, tonight I'm having a friend over for dinner and I don't even care whether there's a table or not.  I decided that many people have buffets or other events where people end up eating in the living room and not having a table and chairs isn't going to keep me from having dinner guests.  OK, it's not going to be fancy but Chris is a friend and not a fancy person so it's just fine.

Is there a point to this?  I don't think so other than to say that I think we may spend too much time worrying about what to serve, where to serve it, what kind of impression we're going to make, etc. when thinking about having someone over for dinner.  Entertaining doesn't have to be a huge event.  The whole idea is to have an enjoyable time with friends or family.  Oh, and the meal couldn't possibly be simpler.  I'm serving Taco Pie--a one-dish meal--with tortilla chips on the side.  It's easy, tastes good, and is very good on the budget.  The recipe is in the book but I'll include it here in a later post.  Right now I need to go put dinner in the oven because Chris will be here any minute. 

Until next time...