Avivah Werner

Category: Intentional Spending

  • Ingenius envelope solution!

    Today I was paying bills, and to my dismay, found that the last of our envelopes had glued themselves together to the point of being unusable.  Since I like to get things out in a timely way, the only solution seemed to be to go out to the store and buy some more, but that seemed like a lot of time and energy for just three envelopes. 

    Suddenly, I remembered something I read about years ago, that I just yesterday demonstrated the concept of to my kids, how to recycle an envelope (not a used one, but the kind enclosed for bills, donations, etc.).   I checked my recycling pile from yesterday, and it had exactly three evelopes there, and this is what I did.  Firstly, you separate the flaps of the envelope, and turn the entire thing inside out.  Then you use a glue stick to restick the flaps back down (I bought packs of glue sticks at the beginning of the school year when they were 5 cents for a package of five), so this is a very nominal cost for me), and when you’re ready to seal it all up, just moisten the flap, and stick it to the inside of the envelope, instead of the outside. 

    It probably sounds much more complicated than it is!  I was delighted to save myself a thirty minute outing to the store, and my husband also loved the ingenuity of it when I showed him.  I also liked finding a way to resuse something instead of tossing it into the recycling pile (which is better than throwing it away, but still uses additional resources).  I wouldn’t use this for my business mail, but for the type of things I needed envelopes for today, it was perfect.  It saved me time, gas, money, and energy. 

    You just never know when a frugal tip will come in handy!

    Avivah

  • Winter vacation ideas

    It seems to have become expected for many families to take a vacation during winter break, and that vacation increasingly has come to mean going away.  I don’t begrudge any hardworking parents or kids for wanting to relax when they finally have some time off as a family, but I have to wonder about the focus placed on getting away.   After all, how much time do most families get to spend at home during the course of the year?  And by that I don’t mean seeing each other in transit, grabbing quick meals and in between rushing from one activity to another.  I mean, how much time do they actually get to spend relaxing together and sharing good times at home?

    When we bought our house, I joked with my family that if the actual hours our house was use was figured in, and tallied with how many people it was used by, it would be hard to find a cheaper house than ours!  We’re very blessed to be able to spend many hours a day together, and I know that we’re unusually lucky in that and don’t take it for granted.  I realize that most people don’t have a schedule like ours.  Which is what makes me think, isn’t winter vacation a good opportunity to spend some time at home together?  It would reduce money stress (too many people are spending money they don’t have for vacations) while giving families a time to reconnect, and isn’t vacation supposed to be about relaxing and connecting with those you love? 

    Maybe staying home – having a ‘staycation’ – isn’t viewed as much of an option because it seems so humdrum.  But being home doesn’t mean doing nothing!  There are so many places to explore in every city, most of which you’ve probably never been to.  When I lived in Seattle, I never visited the Space Needle, even though I lived only a few minutes drive away (and it was right next door to the science center that I regularly took the kids to!).  But every tourist who came to the city headed there right away! 

    To find out about some of your local possibilities, you can contact your chamber of commerce, or start asking friends and neighbors for ideas.  They should be able to give you a long list of options, many of which are low cost.  I’ve lived here for six years, taken the kids on a good number of trips, and still have many, many places that I’ve never gone to that are within a thirty minute drive.  Your attitude also makes a big difference – you shouldn’t oversell something because your kids will get suspicious, but be cheerful and have an attitude that you’re going to have a great time – my husband once commented that I’m good at selling my kids on my ideas.  I never thought of it as selling;  I just figured, if I’m positive about something and share with my kids why I think it will be fun, why shouldn’t they want to participate?  And they do.

    Remember, the outings don’t have to be mind-blowingly exciting.  I think that trips that are too impressive actually set our kids us to have unrealisticly high expectations for the future, and diminish their ability to enjoy simple outings.  (That’s one problem I have with Disneyland.)  And places you’ve been to before, like the zoo, aquarium, science center, etc, are fun to go to again – having been there before doesn’t preclude them from being good options.  You don’t need to schedule a day full of activities – even one outing a day is plenty, and will leave you with ample time to wake up late, move a little slower than usual, and make everyone feel there’s something fun to look forward to (this is the approach I take to planning summer days at home with everyone).  And if you choose a novel way to get there, even going somewhere old is a new experience – my husband wants to get day passes for the train and take the kids from place to place downtown one day, which would be fun (but when he broached the idea to me this summer, the reality of taking an infant and toddler along with their stroller and carrying the food and water we would all need for the day made me suggest we put it off for another point).

    Meals – make mealtimes special.  Make something different that you know your kids will love.  For lots of moms, there’s no time for anything more elaborate than a bowl of cold cereal and milk in the morning before school and work, which is fine – now’s your chance to shake things up a little with a bigger and nicer breakfast.  That might be pancakes and french toast, shakes, omelettes, muffins – there are loads of possibilities (some of the recipes here on my blog might be helpful).  Don’t think this means you need to spend your days in the kitchen during vacation – get your kids involved side by side with you.  Cooking and baking, especially treats, can be so much fun for kids! 

    Then there are the entertainment possibilities that you can do at home.  Maybe you can buy a new game (or pull out one that you’ve bought and never used), do some crafts, or plan a large scale family activity.  Would it be fun to make baskets?  But some kits.  Painting, clay modelling, sewing, quilting?  Start thinking and get your juices going.  Visit a local craft store for ideas.  Activities can be as simple as a big family jigsaw puzzle, or bigger, like painting a room or doing some home renovations.  Don’t say, ‘Well, that’s not fun.”  Remember what I said about attitude?  It’s the attitude combined with doing something with your child/ren that makes it fun.  We did a huge amount of work in our house with our kids (knocking down walls, putting up walls, adding a bathroom, replacing the kitchen, painting, etc), and it was a positive experience for everyone.  They learned so much and felt great about being able to do something meaningful and real.  Kids don’t expect to be entertained (unless you’ve gotten them used to expecting that, and you can get them unused to that, too!), but they do want to have something to do.  If you assume it’s drudgery, it’s virtually certain they’ll see it like that, too.  If you think it’s a great family activity, your enthusiasm can pull them in. 

    Think about what’s fun about going away.  Is it the hotel experience?  Maybe you can replicate that in your own house.  Room service, a printed schedule of events for the day, even putting some special mini soaps and lotions in the bathroom can add to the ambience.  Maybe you can plan a theme for your vacation at home.  I’ve shared here about our indoor campout – this meant we did some of the things inside that we would have done outside if we were camping – setting up a tent in the living room and all sleeping there for the night together, eating dinner by candle light (since our most recent Daddy Fun Day, my 2.5 year old asks every night if we can use the oil lamp at dinner – and probably 50% of the time now, we agree!), having foods that are typical camping foods for us (hot dogs, hamburgers, roasted marshmallows).  That’s an example of a theme.  You can get your kids involved in brainstorming if this is something that interests you – getting them involved also means they’ll be a lot more positive about whatever you do, since they’ve had a say in planning it.  Get a good book for an evening or afternoon read aloud, or check your library for a nice family video that you can enjoy together.  If it ties into your theme, all the better.

    It’s great for everyone to have time to sleep in, hang out, and relax.  But don’t rely on that alone to create a nice atmosphere.  Most kids who have been used to rigid school scheduling start getting antsy without knowing what’s coming in the day.  So making a plan and letting them know what the basic plan is, in my opinion, is very helpful in keeping everyone relaxed.  

    If you have ideas of things that have worked well for you, please share here for others so others can benefit!

    Avivah

  • Time to start budgeting for Purim and Pesach

    Many of you have been surprised that my monthly food budget stays the same, regardless of holiday food expenses, particularly at times like Purim and Pesach.  I do this by thinking ahead.  The reality is that a month which has a holiday in it is going to be more expensive than months that don’t have holidays.  That’s the reality, but it’s a predictable reality that you can plan for.  Too many people are for some reason surprised two weeks before a holiday at the necessary expenditures.  If it’s the first time they’re dealing with it, that’s one thing, but I hear the same shocked comments every single year, and most of them come from people who have been preparing for __________ (fill it in with the name of the holiday) for years.  What a shame to go into any holiday with a sense of financial doom, especially since it’s just not necessary. 

    Right now is the time that I consciously plan for Purim expenses like mishloach manos and matanos l’evyonim.  They don’t go on a credit card – they’re budgeted for in cash in advance.  However much I might want to do, I have the natural constraint of keeping my costs within the money available, which is very different from being able to put a little more on the credit card if I feel it’s necessary.  Also, I try not to be elaborate in what I send to others – I’ve never believed it a service to the community to participate in overly high standards that leave everyone feeling pressured to keep up.  We have way too much of that pressure in our communities and I don’t want to contribute to it. 

    As far as food, it’s not too soon to start keeping your eyes open to suitable possibilities for Pesach food.  Many foods that we use on Pesach are suitable for Pesach all year long and don’t require special supervision, or have Pesach supervision all year long (grape juice comes to mind).  Ground beef on sale?  Chicken, turkey, lamb, roast?  Now’s the time to buy it (obviously assuming it’s kosher l’Pesach) and can be used and put it in the freezer.  You know that it’s not going to be less expensive the longer you wait, right?  (Does the term price gouging mean anything to you? :)).  I put the meats (which are already wrapped) into the freezer inside a clean bag on a separate shelf from everything else so that no chometz gets on it; the non perishables are likewise stored away from other things. 

    What about clothes?  Shoes?  If these are things you want to buy for yourself or children for the holiday, get them now.  Spring clothing is already in the stores. Don’t wait to do this when you’re trying to buy everything else.   In addition to the huge financial wallop all of this packs when done within a very short time, there’s also the time pressure of too much to do, too little time. 

    Take a little time now to make a list of what you expect to need for both Purim and Pesach.  Look at what can be done in advance, and spread that shopping out over a period of a few weeks so that it’s only a little bit more to do each week.  You will feel so much more relaxed when yom tov comes around.  Simchas hachag should be a term that means something, not something about which we roll our eyes in disbelief that it’s expected of us!

    Avivah

  • Is saving bad for the economy?

    I’ve had a busy day of doing stuff around the house – I spent hours organizing a huge number of Mishpacha and Binah magazines.  Some things will be worthwhile reading years from now for my kids as they get older, other magazines I selected specific articles from to save.  The pile of recyclables is now much bigger and the pile of magazines remaining to be sifted through is much smaller, but there’s still one more pile to deal with at another time. (I didn’t get anywhere near starting the blanket covers today.)  It’s nice to put things into order and make them more useable.

    Then I canned a few pounds of beans – pinto, kidney, black, and navy.  For the amount of gas I use to cook one pound, I can pressure can eight quarts.  That’s useful on days when I want to pull something off the shelf.  And then I canned green beans, but most of the seals failed because there was more fat in the broth I used than I realized, I guess.  That’s okay – we eat so many vegetables around here that there will be no difficulty in using them in the next few days.

    Anyway, on to my deep thoughts from my exhausted brain today. 🙂  My dh told me about an article he saw today, which I happened to stumble upon later myself online (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28965133).  It’s front page news that Americans are saving more and spending less, which is supposedly bad for the economy – at least that was the point of the article.  For their purposes, they defined saving and paying off debt as the same thing – ie, not pouring money into consumer goods they don’t need and can live without.  It got me thinking once again about how there are assumptions made that what’s good for the individual and what’s good for the nation are two different things. But I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. 

    It violates natural principles that millions of people overextending themselves financially can actually be healthy for a country on an extended basis.  Short term, lots of things can look good (and that’s what we’ve had until now), but long term, true principles will always show themselves.  Financially strong and stable families are good for the economy, although it will cause short term contractions (I’m not saying we’ll see only short term contractions, I’m saying that specifically people putting money into savings would only cause short term contractions).  In fact, if people had been responsible in their spending until now, we probably wouldn’t be in a recession, because all of our national spending would be reasonable and sustainable.

    Those who are saving money and being responsible still need to spend on some items.  My own experience and conversations with others show that plenty of spending is still going on, but not on the same kind of items as before.  Perhaps those items are more utilitarian than frivolous, but irregardless, they’re buying something.  Markets would spring up to accomodate those needs, and it would be a healthy and stable market that would boost the economy, not a deck of cards ready to collapse at any time. 

    I remember after 9-11, I kept hearing how it was our patriotic duty to spend, spend, spend.  And I didn’t go for it then, either.  But enough people were happy to oblige and it kept the economy afloat for another few years.  I’ve already strongly suggested that everyone work in a focused and committed way to pay off any debt they owe, particularly on credit cards (http://vibrantmoms.com/homemaking/get-rid-of-your-credit-card-debt-now/).  If there are purchases that you can make now which will help you save money in the long term (figure this out, don’t rush out and start buying based on false assumptions), then now is a good time for that kind of thing.  Otherwise, put every bit you can into savings, get your family’s personal economic situation as stable as you can. And know that by taking care of your family responsibly, you’re doing the best thing you possibly can, on both a personal and national level.

    Avivah

  • Flannel sheets

    Thirteen years ago, I only had a toddler and infant and was living overseas, but when we were visiting our parents here in the US, I naturally did some shopping .  At that time I found flannel sheets on sale for $10 per twin set, and bought four matching sets sporting the 101 Dalmations on them (those were the only patterns suitable for kids).  That has worked out great over the years, since we have two bunkbeds in a room (that means four beds), and I like for all of the sheets to match.  Those sheets have seen plenty of use over the years, especially the fitted sheets, getting increasingly well worn, and surprise (!) – my ds15, who shares a room with three younger brothers, doesn’t especially want to use them. 

    After thirteen years, today I bought  my kids new flannel sheets!  I love flannel sheets – it’s so nice to crawl in the winter into a bed that doesn’t take warming up.  I was at Walmart, not finding anything I was looking for, nor did I find an associate to point me in the right direction, when I stumbled upon these sheets, reduced 50%, to $11 a set.  That kind of tag gets my attention, especially for an item I’ve been thinking about getting for a while.  There were several patterns, but only the plain blue had four matching sets, so that’s what I got for the boys. 

    A little further down the aisle, I found fleece sheets on sale ($12 a set).  Have you ever used fleece sheets?  I haven’t, but I figure they must be nice if it’s anything like using a fleece blanket!  I managed to find four matching sets of those, too – it took some looking though.  I got them in plain ivory, for the girls, which I thought would be a good match for their lavender walls. 

    I have to laugh at how unspoiled my kids are.  When they saw me walk in with all of these bags full and I pulled out the sheets, they were so excited.  They all rushed upstairs to make their beds, and then do a big clean up to make the rest of their rooms match their beds.  My ds15 politely let me know that he didn’t like blue when he first saw the sheets, but then later retracted after his bed was made, and told me how nice the room looked.  Our bedrooms aren’t large, and I think that it makes a big difference for the bedding to be uniform in keeping things looking neat and pleasant. 

    Unfortunately, when the girls opened the fourth set to make up the empty bunk in their room, they discovered that someone must have returned a defective set to the store, and it was placed back on the shelf – it was missing the pillowcase, and the top sheet had a stain and a hole!  I’m disappointed because I really want to have four matching sets, and I know there was nothing else left in the store I was at.  Maybe tomorrow evening I can head to a different Walmart and will have more luck finding something suitable to exchange it for.

    When I bought the original flannel sheets years ago, I made blanket covers of the top sheets for two of the sets.  I like blanket covers.  In the winter, it adds another layer to the blanket for warmth, in the summer it can be used alone in place of a top sheet, and all year round it makes neatening the bed much simpler.  Right now everyone’s beds look neat since they’re freshly made, but I don’t expect that to last very long once they have to make them every day – it takes more time and effort to make a bed with a top sheet and blanket, especially on bunk beds, when it’s harder to get around to maneuver.  Since blanket covers have worked so well for everyone (and hide the different blanket patterns they have), I’d like to make some more with these new sheet sets. 

    To make the blanket covers then, what I did then was use the flannel flat sheet for the top of the blanket cover, and a flat white sheet I had around for the bottom of the blanket cover, and attaching a zipper at the bottom center.  It’s a very easy project since the flat sheets are a standard size and all you have to do is sew long straight seams down the sides.  I’m thinking it would be a good use of materials to take apart the two old blanket covers, and reuse the flat white sheets and zippers from them to make new covers for the boys.   Since I don’t think the dalmation sheets will see much use anymore unless it’s as a backup measure, it will be a better use of them than taking up room in the linen closet.   Then I’ll see if I can find a couple more inexpensive white flat sheets to make two more matching blanket covers for the other boys.  I’ll have to look for a different sheet color that will be complimentary to the girls’ sheets (white and ivory aren’t quite a good fit). 

    So today I have some work cut out for me – to take apart the covers, start resewing the new ones, and buy more flat sheets for the others.  There’s always something fun to be busy with!

    Avivah

  • Making orange zest

    When I got my dehydrator, I didn’t expect it to be so fun or so frugal!  For years I thought of it as a luxury item and couldn’t see a practical value in it, but I’m now enjoying proving myself wrong and finding new uses for it.

    I bought these gorgeous navel oranges, with thick clean peels, and it occurred to me that maybe I could dry them to make orange zest that would be used for baking.  At first I sliced them into small pieces, since I didn’t want to make them so small that they’d fall through the spaces in the drying tray.  But even though things shrink substantially when dehydrated, they’re still a little too big to use as zest (funnily enough, my baby thinks these are a super treat!).  Then my dd14 put the next peels into the food processor with the ‘S’ blade, and put them on top of the paraflex sheet (that’s intended for making fruit leathers) that covers the regular dehydrator tray.  That worked perfectly, and the final result is a perfect orange zest, just like you’d buy in the store.  It’s a nice feeling, turning something you would have thrown away into something of value.

    I don’t like to run the dehydrator just for a small quantity of something, because it seems to me an inefficient use of energy – I made these because there was one unused tray that afternoon that wasn’t needed when drying all the shredded broccoli stems that I experimented on the same day. 🙂  Those turned out great, too.

    Avivah

  • Stainless steel baking pans

    Woo hoo!  I am so excited by my newest kitchen additions!  I’ve been wanting to get stainless steel baking pans for ages, but they are sooo expensive.  Several years ago, I bought a number of baking pans at Walmart, not realizing they were aluminum.  I soon discovered they were terrible quality (they left black marks on the bottom of the food cooked in it, through the parchment paper) and after a while I threw them away (and I don’t recklessly throw things out – they were really horrible).  And I went back to using disposable aluminum pans lined with baking paper. 

    But I really don’t like using them.  I don’t like the wastefulness of having to periodically buy a large stack, and then having to throw them out (I rewash and reuse them, but they still don’t last long).  Pans are something you should be able to buy once and then have them.  And I don’t like the health concerns associated with using aluminum (even though I line them before using).  And my kids really don’t like washing them, since they have those difficult to clean ridged sides. 

    But I haven’t been successful in finding affordable alternatives.  I looked at Sam’s Club, to see if they had some decent quality pans, but they were all aluminum.  My husband checked prices from restaurant suppliers for stainless steel pans a while back, and they were out of my budget.  Periodically I think about where and how to get good metal baking pans (not glass because glass doesn’t last long around here), but I  haven’t had any luck finding anything suitable in mainstream stores at reasonable prices. 

    On Weds. night, I was totally out of disposable pans, once again unexpectedly (it happens when you discover all the pans you have have teeny pin sized (or bigger) holes on the bottom and have to all be thrown away unless you want a burnt-on mess in the bottom of the oven at the end of the cooking time from the leaks).  And the pan I borrowed when I was given the meat from a restaurant a while back (the meat was in it) happened to catch my eye.  It’s been put to the side for ages, waiting to be returned, but hasn’t quite made it out of the house yet.  I figured since it was the only usable pan in the house and the people I borrowed it from wouldn’t mind, I’d use it for our honey baked lentils last night, and I did. 

    Then this morning, I finally took out the Lehman’s catalog that came along with my oil lamps a few weeks ago.  I was flipping through, and in the kitchen section, I looked to see if they had any stainless steel baking pans.  They had one baking pan with a lid for about $35.  The pan I used the night before from the restaurant suddenly flashed into my mind, and it occurred to me that I could ask the owners if they had extra pans like that which they might be willing to sell me.  If they had more than they could use, they’d make a little money and get rid of pans they weren’t using, and I’d be able to buy some more cheaply than I could buy them new.

    Yesterday I asked my husband if he could speak to them, since he’s the one who has more of a relationship with them than I do.  He said he’d try, and I figured within a few days, I’d hear if they would sell them and what the price would be.  When he came home several hours later, he brought a surprise for me – nine stainless steel pans!  All of them were 9 x 13, six were standard depth, and three were like the one I didn’t yet return, about double that depth.  So now I have ten strong pans that will last me forever, enough for whatever cooking I do at any given time.  Bye, bye, disposable pans!

    And guess what?  They told him we could have them for free!!  Can you believe that?!  I wasn’t expecting it AT ALL.  I would have gladly paid for them and counted myself very lucky to have them at less than the retail price.  (I think the only reason they did that is they like my husband. :)) Isn’t that a nice way to go into Shabbos?  And my ten year old son, whose turn it is for dishes, is very happy about them, too – he hates washing the disposable pans, and just in the nick of time, he’ll have something much easier to wash this Saturday night! 🙂

    Avivah

  • Finding buckets for grain storage

    I’ve written about how I find it most effective to store the bulk grains that I buy (http://vibrantmoms.com/food-preservation/storing-bulk-grains/), but since someone recently mentioned to me that they planned to buy buckets, and someone else called us a couple of days ago to ask us about where we got buckets (and I know many new blog readers don’t go too far back into the archives), I thought it would be helpful to share again on this.

    You can find 3 – 6 gallon food grade plastic buckets for free or a nominal cost at many restaurants.  Restaurants buy lots of foods that come in them, and usually don’t have a need for them when they finish.  Ask around at local restaurants, and let them know you’d love to take the buckets off of their hands when they have extra.  You may have to wash them out yourself (or you may not – I’ve been lucky in this regard, since they very generously wash them for me), but since it costs about $6 for a five gallon bucket, and $10 for a six gallon bucket, the savings in spending five minutes washing each bucket are justified.

    You can also ask at ice cream stores and bakeries.  Frosting buckets can be a pain to wash out, but other than that, they work as well as anything else.  I don’t recommend using the buckets found at stores like Home Depot, which aren’t intended for food use. For the same reasons, I wouldn’t use empty drywall compound or paint buckets.  They could be useful for other things, though.

    Because there are so many similarly sized round buckets but the lids vary slightly from one company to another, you might get some buckets and lids that don’t perfectly match up.  My choice was to accept whatever buckets and lids they had, and then keep the ones that didn’t match up for the next time around when I picked up buckets.  Over a period of time, I got lids to match almost everything, and even when I didn’t have the perfect fitting lids for my buckets, they were still adequate to cover the top.  When I put another full bucket on top of it, the lid was held down and pretty effectively sealed against insects or other intruders for all intents and purposes. 

    Another option is if you are able to get the buckets but still need lids, you can buy the lids separately online.  Look for gamma lids, which are better than the regular lids because of ease of use.  If you have tight fitting lids, I wouldn’t personally suggest going to the extra expense.  But it can make it possible to take advantage of the free buckets that you otherwise might not think usable.

    Avivah

  • Ground chicken

    This past Friday, I ran into the store at the last minute (something I rarely do) and noticed that ground chicken was on sale for $1.29 lb.  Hmm, I thought, I smell a bargain.  🙂  So true to myself, I had to buy some – 35 pounds or so; I hate to leave a good deal behind.

    No, I don’t worry about if I’ll like it or how I’ll use it.  I figure that I’ll work that out once I get home, and if it’s inexpensive enough, we’ll have to like it. 🙂   I had just finished placing the last of six large packages of it on the conveyor belt at the store when the woman in front of me noticed it, and asked me what I was going to do with it.  While I was answering her, a man behind us in the next lane asked ds15, who had come along with me, what we were doing to do with it.  Fortunately I had told my son I’d use in the same way I use ground beef, so he had a ready answer. 

    When I was checking out, I asked the cashier if it was a new item, since I didn’t remember noticing it before (though I didn’t find it quickly even when I was looking for it because of it being in the sales flyer).  She said she hadn’t seen it before I checked out, and I was there on the last day of the week long sale!

    I did some online searching for recipes, and came up with some that looked good.  We used one package (five or six pounds) for chicken burgers for dinner on Monday, and they were a huge hit.  (That made enough for two meals for the ten of us, and it cost less than $8.)  I then canned 17 pounds of it, which filled 17 pints.  A pint may only be a pound of meat, but it’s enough to frugally add some flavor and body to a casserole or stew.  And I can always use two jars instead of one for dinner and not be so frugal, so that one canning session should be enough for 8 – 17 meals.  And now it’s not taking up freezer space. 

    My experience so far with ground chicken is very positive.  It is juicy and flavorful – I was expecting it to be more bland and dry, like ground turkey.  Because it’s lower in fat than beef, it doesn’t reduce too much when cooked, so it’s really a bargain, since most of what you’re paying for, you end up eating.  My kids all liked it a lot, and I like that it costs a third of ground beef – I can be a lot more generous with it and make it go a lot further.  Ground beef has small pieces that are easily defined, while this is kind of pasty and mushy (sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?!), so don’t picture it being the same consistency, but it’s very easy to work with.  The difference once it’s cooked isn’t noticeable.

    So why was I seemingly one of the very few people to take advantage of this great deal in the past week?  I think that it’s because many people don’t want to try something new, because they might not like it.  Or they think that if it’s a really good price, something’s wrong with it, or it’s not worth more than that (the ‘you get what you pay for’ philosophy).  We tend to get stuck in our culinary comfort zones, like everything else.

    I checked the online flyer for this week and didn’t see it listed on sale, but I went back anyway, thinking there might be some left at the sale price.  Sure enough, there was – it looked as if no one had touched the shelf since I was last there!  So I did the store a favor and emptied the shelf for them. 🙂  There’s more canning in my immediate future!

    Avivah

  • A useful thing about cold weather

    Yesterday I went with my dd14 and ds15 for our big shopping stock up.  I usually say my monthly shopping, but since it’s been 7 weeks since I last went shopping, it wouldn’t be quite accurate to say that.  Since it was my son’s tenth birthday, he spent the day with his grandparents instead, and in the end, most of the other kids joined him there.  This was the first time I’ve ever gone with just older children, and it was very nice.  🙂

    It was nice to go with a budget for two months instead of one, since it allowed me to purchase a lot of bulk things at one time instead of breaking it into smaller amounts that better fit a monthly budget.  I got a bunch of bulk grains and frozen vegetables, among other things.  Whoa, did I get frozen vegetables.  $140 worth (and since none of them were more than $1 lb, and a lot were less, you can do the math….).  I kind of went overboard.  For the first time, I ordered them in advance by the case with the person in charge of the frozen food department, and since I wasn’t seeing how much I was ordering, it was very easy to overdo it.  I was like, ‘Two cases of that, two cases of that, four cases of that….’  It didn’t sound like so much!  When I got there and they wheeled out my order on an industrial sized cart, I was a little taken aback for a minute, wondering how in the world I would fit it into my freezer. Especially since at the store before, I blithely bought two cases of blueberries and two cases of strawberries.  But do you think I’d let a little consideration like that stop me?  🙂

    When we got home, we unloaded everything before picking up the other five kids (wouldn’t have had room for them to sit in the van before unloading), and came home to do the major work – finding space for everything.  Because the weather is so cold, I had my kids take five or six cases of frozen vegetables to the steps outside our house, covered by the storm door.  Then I had them put most of the milk there, too.  After filling our large freezer almost entirely with frozen veggies (fortunately it was much emptier than usual thanks to the long space between shopping trips), that worked out perfectly.

    I also had them take the bulk bags of grain to those same steps.  (Yes, this very small area is packed now.)  I like to freeze grains before putting them away in buckets, to make sure if there are any insects in it, they’re killed.  But that’s problematic when you buy things in fifty pound bags and there’s not more than an inch of available freezer space, so I often skip this step, as important as I know it is.  It occurred to me that with the weather being so cold outside, that keeping the bulk grains in that area would be the same as keeping them in the freezer.  I’ll leave them there a couple of days and then do the transferring – I’m kind of glad to have an excuse not to have to deal with unpacking them yet.  It’s always a big project – yesterday I got 150 lb. hard white wheat, 25 lb. millet, 25 lb. brown rice, and 100 lb oats (50 – rolled, 50 – quick) – it takes some muscle and spatial organization (I call on my oldest son to do the muscle stuff, ie, hoist the bags and pour them into containers; I do the organizational aspect).  This should hold us over until our next shopping trip.  Though I don’t enjoy cold winter weather, I’m so grateful for this beneficial aspect of it – I’d be canning up all those veggies for the next few days if I didn’t have the possibility of keeping them cold in nature’s freezer.  As it is, I made a 16 quart pot of veggie soup to use some of those vegetables right away and free up some freezer space, and will be starting to can that as soon as I finish here.

    On the way home from the shopping, my ds15 asked me why I buy so much food.  I told him, ‘Because we eat so much food!’.  I know it sounds obvious, but because I don’t shop weekly, the amounts are much more noticeable than they’d be otherwise when I do shop.  It is kind of amazing how much food a large family can go through, and even family members forget until they see (and have to unpack) all that we buy. 

    Avivah