Category Archives: frugal strategies

My rising monthly mortgage payment, and what I’m doing about it

frugal strategies, homemaking

Back in June, I noticed a jump in our mortgage payment, which had previously been stable for years.

My husband and I wondered what was going on, so he called the bank to find out. They told him that a portion of our mortgage loan is linked to the prime rate, which means it’s linked to the Bank of Israel interest rate increases.

(Quick explanation of Israeli mortgages so all of this will make sense: the standard mortgage consists of three different loans, each with different terms. One portion is fixed, one portion is linked to inflation, and the third portion is linked to interest rates. A completely fixed mortgage isn’t a typical offering here, no doubt because the high prices of real estate necessitate loans to be rigged like this to make them affordable to the average buyer.)

Concerned about the possibility of inflation, we made the decision over a year ago to pay off the portion of our mortgage that was linked to inflation. We talked about this for a long time, and breathed a sigh of relief when it was done, relieved that our mortgage payment wouldn’t be affected by market fluctuations. (At that point we were still unaware that the prime loan was linked to interest rates.)

It was a very unpleasant surprise when we learned that we still had a portion of our mortgage with a variable rate. My husband was told by the bank representative that they’re legally allowed to raise the rates eight times in a year – though when he called someone who works in mortgages to verify this information, he assured us that they wouldn’t do that because it would destroy the economy. (Good we’re not in Australia, where I was told they had interest rate increases for eight months straight! I suppose they aren’t worried about destroying their economy?)

After seeing the mortgage go up in June, I considered converting our prime loan to a fixed rate, but assumed it would be fixed at a much higher interest rate. That obviously would mean a much higher payment, and I mentally debated if it was worth it. While I was mentally waffling, my monthly mortgage steadily moved higher, and is now up 20% in the last six months.

Two weeks ago I finally called to get the details on converting our variable loan to a fixed rate, rather than continuing building up in my mind how costly it would be.

Our mortgage broker told me that interest rates will be going up again in January, but suggested I wait to convert my mortgage until next year when he hopes rates will go down. Though generally people convert a mortgage to take advantage of lower rates, I explained that I want the stability of a predictable, fixed monthly payment.

I was very pleasantly surprised to learn I could get a fixed rate for less than one percent more than what I’m currently paying. I was sure that it would be at least 3 – 4 percent higher. To think that for months I debated converting to what I thought would be a much higher rate, when the fixed rate for a prime loan is just marginally higher than the prime rate itself!

I am very much hoping we will have our loan converted before the interest rate increase in January. The paperwork is in process so we’ll see. It’s been reassuring to have taken this step, even if it’s not finished yet.

Avivah

Is homeschooling expensive?

frugal strategies, homeschooling

Following the last two posts that I wrote and shared years ago on a homeschooling forum, below is my follow-up to questions asked, about an article on budget-wise homeschooling that I mentioned just having written, babysitting and curriculum costs, and burnout. The costs are all specific to the activities mentioned in the last post. Again, this was from 2004, with six children ages 2 – 11.

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The article I wrote was for Live Free Learn Free (a mostly unschooling mag), and should be out soon (printing was delayed because of the holidays), and was titled, “Homeschooling, expensive?  Naah!”  In that I detailed how we spent less than $150 for the year for six kids, including all outside expenses, including Girl Scout and 4H dues. 

I have never hired babysitters to watch the younger kids, and have always had babies and toddlers since I started homeschooling.  (My youngest is now 2.5.)  So we didn’t have that expense. The first year I started homeschooling, I purchased curriculum used on vegsource.com (namely Saxon math).  It cost less than half of what I would have paid for it brand new, and I resold it three years later when I switched to Singapore for the price I paid for it.   (And then that money was used to make my new purchases. :))  For the three years I used it, I didn’t need to make any further outlays.

There are always free and low cost alternatives, regardless of where you lived.  In Seattle, we had great community centers and my kids were able to take swimming, dance, karate – all very cheaply.  Otherwise, we did things on our own as a family. 

In Baltimore, classes like that are four times the price, so we do different things.  Here I am hooked up with the larger homeschooling community and can go to activities as part of a group and get the sharply discounted rates.  Recently, in the space of three weeks, I took my kids to a concert at the symphony hall (got free tickets from a friend), a dance concert at the university (free), the Nutcracker (student performance – $4 per ticket), a Chanuka concert for the family ($5 for family), and a musical of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (I blew my usual budget and paid $6.50 per ticket for this, also a student ticket price).  That is a lot of entertainment for the money, though people will tell you that providing quality exposure to the arts is pricey.

My girls now take sewing lessons once a week – it costs $10 for each of them per lesson.  That is my largest ongoing expense, and $80 a month doesn’t compare to what I would pay for school even with the biggest tuition break I might qualify for.  The knitting club is free, 4H has minimal dues, Girl Scout dues are about $30 – 35 a year each. 

I have a membership to a science museum which allows me reciprocal privileges that I use at other places (science centers, cultural museums, aquariums) when I travel – that’s $50 a year.  We use the library a lot, frequent the library book sales and thrift shops for cheap reads. 

A couple of my older kids will be joining a math club next week, and it will be $30 per child for the semester (which goes until the beginning of the summer.)  When my kids took a sailing class, it was also as part of a homeschool group, and we got much better prices than the general public because they were already there and had very little business in the middle of the week.  When we go ice skating, I go to a homeschool session – $4 for the first person, $3 each additional person, and it includes the skates. 

Parks and nature centers are free.  Lots of historical events are free or minimal charge.  Even for events that charge, there are times that it is more affordable – for example, I took the kids to the Renaissance Faire in September, which is $17 for adults, $8 for kids.  I went on the one weekend that kids under 12 were allowed in free, and at the gate they gave me a $3 discount on my ticket because I shop regularly at a certain supermarket (I didn’t know that until I got there and they asked me).  So it cost me $14 for the entire day with all six of my kids and a friend of my son, going to plays, jousting, puppet shows, historical reenactments, etc.  Would the next weekend at full price when they did the same events have been more satisfying? 

I buy Singapore math books – the textbooks are non-consumable and can be passed from once child to the next, so it is a one time purchase (about 7.50 each). The workbooks are about also about 7.50 each, and each child uses two a year. That’s $60 total for my purchased curriculum.

Games are cheaply bought at any yard sale, and can provide loads of educational value. Paper, pencils, and art supplies also aren’t expensive.  Fun with friends is free. I don’t send my kids to a private rebbi or tutor for Judaics – not because I can’t afford it, but because I enjoy learning with my kids and learning groups tend to become very school-like in their approach.  This is where I see most frum homeschoolers paying big bucks. 

Homeschooling is about choices, but homeschooling with minimal costs doesn’t mean doing without or burning out.  It means choosing what is worth spending money on – I wouldn’t pay $10 per person for any museum or class.  (Remember I have six kids so with at least four kids in a class this would add up fast.)  As far as burning out, a parent always has to be aware of their limitations and act accordingly, or they will become overwhelmed. 

I do a lot with my kids, but I monitor my energy so that I don’t get caught up in running around to every possible opportunity that presents itself.  ‘Know thyself’ is applicable in many circumstances, particularly to moms who want to do it all and do it well.  Burnout would be less of an issue if people didn’t keep pushing themselves when all their internal warning signals were bleeping dangerously.

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Are you enjoying the recent ‘look back to the past’ posts?

Avivah

Baked Oatmeal – gluten free, sugar free

frugal strategies, recipes

My sixteen year old son baked a few large pans of Amish oatmeal for the yeshivas bein hazmanim breakfast that he organized for the Sukkos vacation and it was a big hit. It’s one of several baked oatmeal recipes that I have – they’re all good but more dessert-like than I prefer to serve for a regular breakfast.

Here’s a healthier version that I jotted down ages ago and finally made this week – I made it the evening ahead so it would be ready for breakfast the next day, but half the pan was gone before everyone had gone to sleep! This has a mellow sweetness that my family enjoys; it’s gluten free and sugar free.

For me this was a very frugal recipe, but please don’t make the blanket assumption that if I say it’s frugal, then it will be equally inexpensive for you. I use a lot of strategies that keep my food costs down that you may not use, and have different resources available that you may not have. And you have frugal resources and options that I don’t have! If the exact recipe doesn’t work for you, take the general principal of frugal cooking – use ingredients that are inexpensive for you to make meals with.

Baked Oatmeal

  • 1 c. applesauce
  • 10 large Medjool dates
  • 4 eggs
  • 4 c. milk
  • 1/2 c. juice
  • 2 T. baking powder
  • 1 t. cinnamon
  • 6 c. rolled oats
  • 1 c. fresh or dried fruit, chopped

Blend the dates with the milk, juice, applesauce and eggs. Mix the dry ingredients, then add the applesauce mixture to the dry mixture. Fold in fruit.

Pour in the pan, and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, you can top with nuts if you like. Bake at 350 degrees F/180 degrees Celsius for 35 – 45 minutes, and serve warm.

My cost breakdown:

  • applesauce – I got the apples free, and cooked and preserved the applesauce when I got them last season
  • dates – free (my son picked them locally)
  • 4 eggs – 3 shekels
  • milk – I used a half of a carton of coconut cream, 7.5 shekels (purchased at restaurant supply store I told you about; at Shufersal I saw it for double the price I paid). Dairy milk would be cheaper.
  • juice – didn’t use it, instead I cut the coconut cream with water
  • baking powder, cinnamon – purchased in bulk bags of 1 kg each, don’t know how much a spoonful would be but let’s say .50 for both
  • 6 c. rolled oats – 6 shekels
  • dried or fresh fruit – I left this out

Total: 17 shekels for a deep 9″ x 13″ pan or two shallow 9″ x 13″ pans; this makes a generous amount for two breakfasts for a family of six.

Avivah

When the pull to buy something you can’t afford is so strong

frugal strategies

Fifteen years ago we bought a van that was a lemon, and that frustrating experience combined with being very pregnant and knowing that with the birth of that baby we would be outgrowing our van motivated me to buy my first and only vehicle from a dealership.

It was so nice, getting a much, much newer and nicer vehicle. It felt prosperous. I felt on par with all the other carpool moms on the road in their nice passenger vans. Nope, no eight year old van for me!

The monthly loan payment was another story, though.

As the weeks went on, I enjoyed the newness and niceness less and less, and was more and more bothered by that monthly payment.

After three months I made a decision. I got a quote from the dealership that serviced my vehicle to find out how much they would pay if I sold it back. Then I went to our original dealership with that quote and asked if she could do better, after explaining that I would rather have an older vehicle and no debt.

She couldn’t beat their offer and told me to take them up on it – and she also told me how impressed she was with my choice, that it was very rare for someone to be willing to live within their means. (We had an interesting conversation as she shared her experiences selling vehicles and seeing people’s financial numbers when they qualified for loans, and her commenting that for a lot of people it was irresponsible to finance a vehicle.) Although we didn’t recoup the three thousand dollar initial payment we had put on the van, it was worth it for us to be free of that monthly debt.

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This week I’ve thought a lot about that experience, because there’s been a big something I’ve wanted to purchase. It sounds melodramatic to say ‘more than I ever wanted to buy anything’ but it’s honestly way, way up there. I’m not a high maintenance person and having this much desire for something is unusual for me. If I want something, it’s usually small enough and affordable enough that I just buy it.

I don’t have enough to buy it in cash, but I could easily qualify for a loan and have it paid off within two years. As long as my husband continues to be employed at his current salary, we can make the monthly payment without compromising ourselves financially. And I really, really wanted it, so much that I was willing to put aside any of my usual compunctions and debt-avoidance.

However…you know there has to be a ‘however’, right? I have concerns about the direction that the global economy is taking, and as such have been taking steps to tighten up our budget, to create more margin by building savings and reducing the amount we need to live on. It feels particularly important at this time.

Buying something on credit absolutely doesn’t fit into this picture right now. Even if I really, really want it. Even if two people I told about my excitement about this offered to loan me the money. Even if I’m pre-qualified for a loan of that amount and simply have to press a button on the computer screen of my online bank account to have it automatically appear in my account.

I thought about what a relief it was to sell our van back to the dealership, and to buy a replacement van with cash outright, just as we always had. I thought about how fleeing my pleasure of that acquisition was and how quickly the pleasure was overtaken by the pressure of the loan repayment.

Then I thought about this purchase. If life continues as has been for the next two years, we’d be fine financially even if we make this purchase. But what if we experienced a personal economic contraction during that two year period?

I didn’t want to think about negatives. I didn’t want to be fearful about potential downturns in the economy. I wanted to make this purchase!!

Fortunately, I do have a rational brain and in this case, my rational brain was my husband who said he really didn’t want to do it. Despite my resistance to hearing him say that, I couldn’t help but reactivate my own financially cautious brain, which was hovering there at the wings.

The more I thought about this, the more clear it became to me that I need to emotionally step back from this purchase at this time. Who knows, maybe it will come back again at a time that we can make the purchase without going into debt. Or maybe it will never come back but I can focus on the abundance of all that I have, rather than thinking about what I don’t have.

Right now, I’m choosing to simplify, cut costs and cut back in order to create a financial margin for our family. There are significant things going on in the financial markets, and I’ve decided that I’d rather be sitting on the sidelines with fewer expenses and some extra padding in the bank account to weather that instability.

Sometimes it’s really hard to be financially responsible. But along with my very acute disappointment, I have a sense of peace that I’m making the right decision.

Avivah

Lifestyle creep and how it happened to me

frugal strategies, homemaking

A year ago, my husband got a new job along with a raise in salary. Nice, right? And yet, here we are a year later with hardly any increase in our savings rate.

How did that happen? When we talked about our numbers, we both felt we were being pretty careful financially – we’re not big spenders. We sat down together a few times for financial meetings to go over the numbers, and seemingly the only answer was that our expenses had gone up. It wasn’t until this week that I could finally answer that question more definitively.

Why this week? The first year we were married, my husband was responsible for the finances. I took over the next seventeen years. And then for the next twelve years, my husband has been at the helm. This week I took responsibility for the finances once again, something my husband really doesn’t like but I actually enjoy a lot. (As to why he did it for so long if he didn’t like it, that’s another question, but it was a purposeful decision on both of our parts and we’ve agreed our goal was reached.)

Taking over again is a bit overwhelming because I’m looking at a different system than my own, and I have to wade through a lot of numbers to figure out what’s going on, what money we have coming in and what’s going out, in order to get clarity in my own mind.

Here’s what’s become clear so far: we’ve allowed lifestyle creep to sneak in. For years we were really, really frugal and careful about all of our expenses. We had to be, as our income was on the lower side (my husband’s friends who had similar incomes as well as a spouse’s second income were all in debt) and it was only by very careful and conscious management that we had any possibility to accrue some savings.

As our financial situation improved, we got a little more relaxed, and then a little more relaxed….we stopped paying attention to all the little expenses because the bills were getting paid without it.

And we began to spend a little more money here, a little more money there – nothing major or budget busting that we could point to as to where all the potentially savable money was going.

Now I’m back in the hot seat. The first couple of nights I sat for hours, going through details of months of expenses, trying to get a clear sense of where our money goes. I felt like giving up because it was so frustrating to me. But I stuck with it, and after a couple more nights looking at printouts, am excited and energized to be our financial money manager again. I’m looking forward to seeing how much money we can save and funnel into savings.

That’s going to mean becoming more conscious again about expenses, assessing the value of where we spend money rather than just spending it when it seems necessary. I’m going to be carefully tracking all of our spending – neither of us has been tracking our cash expenditures at all, and all the itemized expenses have to be gone through regularly – and plugging the many small leaks that our budget has sprung. There’s no one big item to point to – yes, prices have gone up, but even more than that, what I’m seeing is a general increase in expenses due to lack of attention.

I’m recognizing lifestyle creep and taking steps to counter it. This is a very hopeful and empowered place to be, and I’ll be sharing about different things I’m doing and how it’s working out for us.

Avivah

Make your own 15 bean soup mix

frugal strategies, recipes

I like to periodically cruise around online looking for new meal ideas, and I came across a recipe for 15 bean soup. In the US it’s a popular premixed dry bean combination but I don’t have the ready made bean mix available here.

What I do have is a variety of different beans in my pantry, so I took out whatever I had and put together my own mixture. I made a big batch so I’ll have it ready when I want to make it again – it doesn’t take any longer to make a big batch than a small one.

Doesn’t it look nice?

I set aside some to make for dinner tonight, then jarred the rest for future meals.

After making dinner tonight, I saw that half a jar is plenty for our family at this time (there are 6 of us at home right now), so the jars above will be enough for fourteen meals.

Here’s my personal combination – you can adjust according to whatever beans you have:

Avivah’s 13 Bean Soup Mixture

Mix equal amounts of each of the following:

  • black beans
  • navy beans
  • red beans
  • red kidney beans
  • chickpeas
  • black eyed peas
  • cranberry beans
  • red lentils
  • brown lentils, large
  • brown lentils, small
  • green split peas
  • yellow split peas
  • mung beans
  • Other suggestions are broad beans (large and small), pinto beans and lima beans. (I had adzuki but that would have been too many red beans in the mixture.)

Mix equal amounts of bean in a bowl, then mix by hand. Pour the mixture into jars and stick them on the shelves to make dinner easy one night in your future. 🙂

Here’s how I used the dry bean mix to make a soup for dinner:

I usually presoak beans overnight but this afternoon didn’t have time for that, so I let the beans cook for an hour before adding everything else. Then I added chopped onions, carrots and potatoes, a cup of rich chicken gravy, some dehydrated mushrooms (I shared about sun drying them here), a couple of bay leaves and a little salt. The pot continued to cook on low until everything was soft.

How much did this cost? I bought the beans in bulk so they averaged 6 shekels a kilo and it was 3 shekels for the half a kilo used for this recipe. I used a kilo of potatoes – 4 shekels, 2 onions – 2 shekels, 1 kg carrots – 4 shekels. The gravy was left from the roast chicken I made on Shabbos – I always drain off the pan drippings and set it aside to enhance the flavor of a dish. I got the mushrooms for free last year. So it cost under 15 shekels for a generous pot of thick soup that filled up all six of us, for less than 2.5 shekels a person (70 cents per person).

It was a very quick and simple dinner with hardly any prep time other than the vegetables. Even the vegetables don’t take long since I invested in one of my favorite kitchen tools ever, a heavy duty manual vegetable chopper. It makes vegetable prep so quick and professional looking. Oh, how do I enjoy that chopper – I think I tell a family member probably every other day, “Have I mentioned lately how glad I am to have this?”

With food prices going up around the world, I’m going to be sharing more frugal tips, strategies and recipes to help you make your food budget stretch further. If you have a frugal recipe or suggestion, please share in the comments – it helps all of us! Also, if you have a question about something specific, the comments is the place to ask. 🙂

Avivah

Local supermarket no longer selling foods from Osem conglomerate

frugal strategies

A month ago, I was at the supermarket and chatting with the checkout clerk, who commented that all the customers have been talking about how the prices have been going up.

When I returned ten days ago to the same large (chain) supermarket, I saw the following sign.

Translation: As the leading supermarket for the charedi population, we are doing all we can to bring our customers products at fair prices.

The change in prices by the Osem supplier has translated to a sharp increase in pricing that harms our clientele. As a result, it is expected that there will be a shortage of products by Osem, Materna, Nestle, Tzabar, Tivol and others.

As I continued through the store, I saw more and more signs like these, all in front of mostly empty shelves. Interesting, I mused – and somewhat concerning.

A few days later I was back at the same supermarket, and couldn’t help but overhear a very agitated customer complaining to a staff member about the foods that are in short supply. She said that it’s been six months with the prices rising and more and more products missing, and that if the management is going to stop selling items by these suppliers, they’re obligated to find other products to replace them. They can’t leave the customers without anything in that category.

It was an interesting conversation, and when they finished, I went over to the same staff member. I heard her say she’s been working there for 14 years and had some questions about what I heard and what I was seeing in the store.

She explained that prices have gone up so much by these suppliers that the management has made the decision not to carry them because their customers can’t afford it. Where they can, they replace the product with something similar made by a generic company, and are able to sell it at a price similar to what the product was previously sold for. However, since they only offer products that have a particular kosher certification, they are limited in what substitute products they can offer. This is a challenge unique to them, as the other supermarket chains can use off brands with any minimal kosher certification (or none) to replace the more expensive products.

What’s going to happen to the availability of these foods that they haven’t found a substitute for? There seem to be only three choices: the suppliers will drop their prices and the store will begin to sell them again; the suppliers will not drop their prices and the store will decide to sell them since they can’t get anything else; or the store will not carry these products and they will not be replaced by anything – in which case they will stay missing until the bigger economic picture sees an upturn.

The option of prices going down would be welcome, but unlikely. Are the products made by these brand name companies rising due to sudden price gouging? I doubt it. They need to stay in business and make their profit; they are selling it at the price they need to get to cover all their supply/production/storage/packaging/delivery expenses, all of which have gone up.

Neither of the other two options are encouraging – one means much higher prices and the other an absence of a number of products.

I don’t know which way things will go, but as I’ve been noticing these trends in rising food prices, over recent months I’ve been gradually recalibrating my shopping and cooking habits to continue to stay within my budget and make meals that everyone enjoys!

Avivah

How I’m providing nourishing food to our boys in a dorm

canning, frugal strategies, parenting

>>I know how you cook and care about feeding your family nourishing meals- how do you “handle” (for lack of better word, handle seems a bit dramatic), your kids’ diets while they are away in their schools?  <<

We’ve found the meals in Israeli dorms in the past to be decent, with good amounts of protein and fresh produce. It helps that my children aren’t picky eaters. I don’t really worry about their food once they’re out of the house; I assume they’ll make the choices that are right for them and work within the parameters of what’s available. They do appreciate home cooked food much more when they come home, though!

However, at the current yeshiva both my boys are at, the menu seems to be scaled down; it’s heavy on the starches and light on proteins; there’s hardly any fresh produce. This isn’t a complaint; I think this is typical of yeshiva ketanas, and that the yeshiva high school my boys attended in the past had unusually good food. In any case, we have a situation we haven’t had come up before.

When I spoke with my sixteen year old son at the end of last week, he mentioned how helpful it was that I sent them with so much tuna, since he eats a can every day.

I sent it thinking it would be something he would have once in a while, and asked him why he was eating it so often. He explained that if he doesn’t have it a couple of hours after lunch, he’s so hungry he can’t think about anything but eating dinner the entire afternoon. He’s never said anything like this, so I asked him about what and how much he was eating. Since he has a cavity that just started that he wants to heal, he’s trying to avoid processed carbs. That’s the bulk of what is served at his school, and since he’s not able to fill up on bread/pasta/white rice, the small amounts of protein leave him unsatisfied.

I wondered what I could do about this. What could I send him other than tuna? I wanted him to have foods that would be satiating. Cookies and crackers wouldn’t be helpful, nor would any of the snack foods available in the stores. I couldn’t think of anything that would be filling that doesn’t need refrigeration or involve some kind of preparation.

Then I had a brainstorm. I asked him if he had room in the dorm for electric burners and a pot. He said he did. I asked if I sent him home canned foods, would he heat them up and eat them? Yes, he would.

I offered to make him some hearty homemade soups to supplement his diet and asked what he wanted. He requested split pea soup, so that’s what I started with. I made a thick stew with a generous amount of rich broth, to pack in nutrition and calories; he could eat as-is or thin it down for a more typical soup consistency.

I pressure canned seven liters of the soup, as well as seven pints of chicken wings. When ds15 returned back to yeshiva after Shabbos, he was traveling by bus with just a backpack and therefore could only take only a few of the jars back with him. Ds16 called to tell me that even without being able to heat it up, he enjoyed it at room temperature.

One jar is four cups of soup, and is enough for both boys to supplement one school lunch. Based on their feedback, though, from now on I’m going to can pint sized jars for them, so they can eat separately according to their schedules. This week I’ll make them some beef stew, and by periodically canning different dishes, they’ll have some variety.

This Shabbos both boys will be coming home, and I’m planning to send them back to yeshiva with a suitcase containing the burners, pot, and jars of food. They’ll bring the empty jars home for me to reuse. I’m also going to send some fresh vegetables and fruit, and a frozen bottle of raw goat milk. I suggested he buy yogurts and produce at a local store to supplement.

This is a first for me. Until now, the food served at the dorms has been adequate for all of our boys. In this case, I’m sure they could have found a different solution, but this is one that I feel good about nutritionally. I hope this will be a good solution to keep them nourished from a distance!

Avivah

My new steam juicer, clearing out the freezer, and finally fixing the dehydrator

canning, dehydrating, food preservation, frugal strategies

My son recently visited the US and brought back for me my latest kitchen tool, a steam juicer. I had put a lot of grapes in the freezer knowing he would be bringing it to me when he came for this past Shabbos, and yesterday I had a full day of experimenting with my new plaything.

A steam juicer is basically a large pot that has three sections that nest inside one another: the bottom holds the boiling water, the middle collects the juice, and the top is a colander that the fruit or vegetables are put into. There is a plastic tube that leads from the center juice receptacle to whatever container you want to put the juice in.

The basic idea is that rather than blend/mash/cook/strain the grapes to make juice, you can steam them and skip all those steps. It took longer than I expected for the juice to be extracted and I was a bit impatient waiting for it to be done, wondering if this had been a worthwhile purchase or not. After a few hours I realized that I had slowed down the process significantly by not keeping the juicer at a high heat the entire time. (I was afraid that the water in the bottom section would boil dry, and thought that keeping it at a simmer would be effective and minimize the likelihood of burning the pot). Once I realized my mistake, it went much more quickly. But it’s not a fast process.

The last time I made grape juice I added water while the grapes were cooking. Since I wasn’t sure of the exact dilution, there was a question about if the bracha was still hagafen or not, so we didn’t want to use it for kiddush on Shabbos. This time I made sure it was 100% grape juice.

Once I had eight liters of juice, I began canning the juice in jars so they would be shelf stable, while simultaneously adding a fresh batch of grapes to the juicer. In the end I processed 16 quarts of juice.

My conclusion on the steam juicer is that I’m glad that I bought it since the actual hands on time to make the juice is cut down quite a bit, so I was able to do other things while the steamer basically made the juice for me. The end product is nice and clear, and the flavor is excellent. Now that I have a steam juicer, I’ll be looking for other opportunities to put it to use and justify the space it takes up in the cabinet!

I bought my dehydrator back in 2009, and it served me well until last year it suddenly stopped working.

I wasn’t sure what was wrong with it, but since it’s basically a simple contraption, figured it could only be one of two possibilities. When I originally bought the dehydrator, I got a reconditioned one for $150. To buy the same thing new at this time would be $319, so the investment in a couple of parts seemed like a worthwhile choice. I bought a thermal fuse and a motor from the online store for about $50, but they don’t ship to Israel so I waited for many months until my husband made a trip to the US and was able to bring them back.

My husband brought back the replacement parts in February but putting them in was low on the priority list of projects. When he was ready to replace the parts, the transformer had blown. Since I bought and used my dehydrator when living in the US, it runs on 110 electricity and needs a transformer to be used here. I had to get the part for that to be fixed before working on the dehydrator.

I was taken aback and discouraged that I couldn’t find any local hardware stores that had the size fuse I needed. I made two separate trips to RBS over a period of several weeks and each time looked for the fuse; thankfully I finally found it the second time, when I took the boys to yeshiva for their first day. I did not like that several of my appliances are dependent on a five shekel fuse that I couldn’t find, and they couldn’t be used for weeks while I was searching for the fuses. I don’t want to be in that situation again if I can help it, so when I found them, I bought four extras to have on hand.

After all this time and effort, I finally have a working dehydrator again! I wanted to clear the freezer since I’m getting my chicken and meat order for the holidays soon, and need to make space. In addition to taking out the grapes, I took out all the frozen peas and frozen mixed vegetables, four bags of each, and put them all in the trays to dehydrate.

Once they were finished drying and had cooled off completely, I put them in containers on the shelf, and am ready for my meat pickup later today! I like canning so much and it has its advantages, but it can’t compare with how compact and lightweight food is after being dehydrated.

Avivah

Waste not, want not – do you need it, can you extend it, can you upcycle it?

frugal strategies, homemaking

There’s a pithy phrase that was popularized in the WW2 era: ‘Waste not, want not’. There are so many resources available to us and when we look at them with a creative set of eyes, you’ll often find more life left in that item than you previously assumed. Do you need it, can you extend it, or can you upcycle it to use it differently?

Here are some examples:

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Food – Do you need to use the expensive ingredients listed in the recipe, or can less costly similar ingredients be substituted? Can you prepare less of the dish rather than be left with leftovers that end up being thrown away? Can you cut down on the frequency of meat meals, and integrate meatless meals during the week?

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Repurposing clothing – My son ripped the elbow of a high quality shirt that was in excellent condition. Patching that wouldn’t be doable or aesthetic, so I headed to YouTube to watch a video on how to turn a long-sleeved shirt into a short-sleeved shirt. It was the first time doing this for me and my first attempt wasn’t perfect, but it looks pretty good. Next my husband asked if I could do the same to a cufflink shirt of his; he now has two ‘new’ work shirts.

Another example: my boys are hard on pants, and I periodically recycle their ‘good’ pants to ‘work’ pants. That is almost always because they’ve ripped the knees. I patch them from behind using material from a pair of pants that I keep for this purpose, then reinforce the patch at the knees and the areas around it repeatedly so they’re very strong. I do it all with the same color thread as the pants, and this extends the life of them for a long time as work pants. They do a lot of hiking/biking, outdoor work and home repair work, so these pants get a lot of use.

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Spatula, a valuable frugal tool – Ds10 and ds5 and I made banana muffins yesterday. Ds10 wanted to taste the batter and I told him he could lick out the bowl when we finished. He was dismayed when I took out a spatula and ran it along the bowl, scraping out enough for two or three more muffins. He still got to lick the bowl but it didn’t have the generous amount leftover that he was hoping for! A spatula is a simple thing but it’s amazing how much you can get out of that can or container or bowl by scraping it with the spatula.

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Repurposing containers – At the same time that there’s a huge industry selling us storage containers to organize items in our homes, there are many free containers that come into the home that can be productively reused, reducing or eliminating the need to buy the ‘storage solutions’. Here in Israel when we buy screws and nails, they are sold from bulk bins and you bag the amount you want. So you don’t come home with a box for them. My husband recently was organizing the hardware and found that the peanut butter jars with screw on lids were perfect for keeping nails and screws organized well.

And then there’s the glass jars and bottles that store bought food comes in. I didn’t use to reuse them because I didn’t see the value of the recycled containers or cleaning them out seemed like too much work, but now have recognized how useful they can be! So now I reuse most of the glass jars that come into our home. If the jars have metal pop-top lids, I use them for canning. If not, I use them for storage.

Lately I’ve been saving glass grape juice bottles rather than recycle them – until now I’ve been storing our goat milk in recycled plastic water bottles, and while plastic has its advantages, glass is a healthier option for storing food.

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Saving electricity – Electricity costs have gone up world-wide, and that’s motivated me to be more conscious of all the quiet leakage going on in our home. Though we hardly use air conditioning, we regularly have way more lights and ceiling fans on than we need. Someone leaves a room without turning off the light, then goes into the next room and turns on the light – and so it goes. I’ve begun asking our boys to be more conscious of this, and while I don’t go around all day long being the electricity police, I do turn off lights and fans that aren’t in use. I’ve explained to them there’s no use spending money on something that brings us no benefit; it’s just throwing money in the garbage.

Building supplies and natural resources – My son dug up a lot of dirt in the backyard when preparing to build a shed. He piled it to the side of the yard and left it while he was building the shed. Once the shed was done, it was time to find a place for this dirt. The easiest thing would have been to dump it. However, I wanted to build a raised garden bed, and it made no sense to dump it and then at a later time to dig up more dirt to fill the raised bed. We also had pallet wood in the spot that the shed was built that we needed to find a new home for, so I asked him to use the wood to build a garden bed. He built the raised bed using the pallet wood scraps, filled the bottom of the raised bed with more wood scraps hugelkultur style, and then dumped all the dirt on top. (Though the dirt is low quality fill dirt that will have to be actively enriched to be a decent growing medium, it was still worthwhile to do this.)

I’ve been looking for a rack to hang in the kitchen to organize brooms, dustpans and sponja sticks for ages. I know they exist but haven’t found one. Finally, I asked my husband if he could make something for me. Using a scrap of white painted wood (a castoff from another project), he attached hooks along the length of it. Then he screwed a wire ring into the end of the sponja stick so it could be hung; the brooms already had holes in the handles. Free, using what we already had in the house, and now my kitchen is better organized.

These are just some ideas to get you thinking creatively, not a complete list of things we’ve done. I could give you so many more examples – we do this regularly because it’s an extension of the way we think: to look for ways to use our resources wisely and responsibly. It’s particularly satisfying to create something useful from something that seemed destined for the garbage/recycling. And I also appreciate when we are able to put in the effort to maintain an item rather than replace it.

I do want to clarify that I don’t like clutter, so this doesn’t mean keeping a huge amount of stuff piled around. If it’s something I’m not likely to reuse, I rehome it as quickly as I can so it doesn’t take up space in my home.

Waste not, want not – there is abundance in using what you have wisely and well.

Do you have things you’ve done to recycle, upcycle or otherwise extend your resources? Please share your ideas in the comments for others to learn from!

Avivah