Avivah Werner

Category: Intentional Spending

  • Get rid of your credit card debt NOW!

    Okay, I know that getting rid of credit card debt is a suggestion that every financial guru makes, and hardly anyone follows those suggestions.  Getting rid of credit card debt is a hard sell, because using a credit card is easy, it’s convenient, and to be honest, it helps a lot of people live in a manner they really can’t afford.  But I’m going to share a little about my current concerns regarding it now, because I want to help anyone who may be affected by the following be as prepared as possible. 

    To be open on our credit care usage, I do have and use one credit card – we got one because we were having so much trouble getting a mortgage without one – but we pay it in full every month, and I try to use it as little as possible.  The truth is, I’d rather not use it at all, because it’s too easy for it to be a crutch, and I’m very glad we didn’t have one for the first twelve years of our marriage, because there were times we struggled so much financially that it’s hard for me to look back with confidence and think I wouldn’t have reached for credit to make things a little easier.  

    Credit card debt is expensive, because if you’re making your minimum payment, you’ll still be paying for today’s purchases in fifty years.  And there are huge late fees for being even a day late in your payment- prior to online banking this year (which I love and highly recommend!), twice my snail mail payment arrived a day late to the c.c. company and we were charged a $40 fee plus interest for all of that month and the next on the balance.  (And both times I had the fee waived, something they’ll sometimes do when they see you’ve never been late and want to keep you as a customer, but I still had to pay the interest fees for those two mistakes – we were fortunate that our balances were so small that we only had to pay about $10 total.)  But these aren’t new concerns, and many good books have been written about the dangers of credit card debt, as well as the best way to get out of debt (Dave Ramsey is a good starting point), which will give you a lot of specific advice and support.

    Since the fact that a significant percentage of the population is grossly overextended on credit isn’t new, why am I bringing it up now?  Because I’ve recently heard of many people across the country, those with problematic credit and those with longstanding perfect credit, having their credit lines suddenly and unexpectedly slashed or totally revoked.  When I think about the connotations of this, it’s of serious concern to me.  If you’re living within your means and your credit cards are paid off every month, it would only be an inconvenience if this happens to you.  But – if you’re depending on your credit card to carry your lifestyle, what will you do if you get sudden notification that you’re one of those whose credit is being shut down?

    This is a very real situation a lot of people are encountering, but by being prepared, it doesn’t have to cause you economic distress.  Gas prices are down, food prices are somewhat stable, most people still have jobs – take advantage of this opportunity to pay off your credit cards as fast as possible.  Most of us have areas in our budgets that we think are non-negotiable, expenses that we would insist we can’t minimize, but the truth is that all of us have places were we can cut down (yes, even me!). 

    I’ll be open about my expectations of the next few years (which I very much hope turn out to be wrong), even though I try to be a positive person – we’re in for a long, hard haul, and most of us are going to be forced at some point to reevaluate our spending and lifestyle choices.  Changing your priorities and thinking about how and where you spend your money can be challenging, but it’s so much more pleasant to make these changes because you want to, than because you’re forced to.  And by making the changes before you’re forced to, chances are that you won’t find it necessary to make so many adaptations later on, and in any case, you’ll be a lot more mentally prepared for whatever we’re going to encounter. 

    Avivah

  • Buying holiday gifts

    Last year I planned to write about this, but at first it seemed too far ahead of the holidays to write, then it was too close and it seemed it was too late for the suggestions, and then the holidays were over and it seemed way too early to think about the next year.  This year I had the same thing happen, but I’ll share some thoughts on this now.

    We keep things very non commercial.  I really dislike the focus on buying, buying, buying, and feel strongly that having so much attention paid to presents shifts the focus away from the true meaning of the holiday.  I think it’s unfortunate that so many people feel they need to put themselves deeper into debt to fulfill the expectations of those around them.  As I try to do with other holidays throughout the year, I space the extra expenses over time so that it’s not a burden at one time (though Chanuka expenses are quite low in our house, and it’s more of a help in terms of not putting pressure on myself last minute to pull a rabbit out of a hat).

    Another point that I think is important to be aware of, so you can avoid it, is that the more you spend, the more those around you come to expect, so everyone ends up less satisfied all the time.  And it spirals every year as everyone comes to expect more and more.

    To deal with the aspect of not getting caught up in large sudden expenses, I keep my eyes open all year round – if I see something at a great price that will make a nice gift for a family member, I get it.  At the beginning of January tends to be a good time to buy gifts from retail stores, and takes the pressure off for later on in the year because you have what you need by the time the holidays are here!  But you can look at thrift stores, yard sales, wherever – no one outlet has a monopoly on great deals.

    I have a box in the attic where I put all of these finds during the year, and a few weeks before Chanuka go through it and get a sense of what would be appropriate for whom.  But I really don’t spend a lot per person.  And since I’ve too often seen how little use some gifts get, I decided this year to suggest to all of the kids that they think of gifts they can give that are either free or very, very low cost.  My kids like to all get things for each other and for us, and it ends up being a lot of stuff, even when done simply and inexpensively.

    What kind of things do I get my kids?  Well, they have plenty of games and there’s not much to add to in that area.  We haven’t found a large variety of toys useful – though there are some we have in large amounts, like K’nex, so toys are usually only for the younger kids.  For the past couple of years, we gave homemade coupon books, which the kids really like.  The only problem with that is that they like to save their coupons, and all of a sudden now, they’re rushing to redeem them now from a year ago, before they expire!  Dh had fun taking them all out for donuts and hot cocoa this week, one of their coupons!

    I try to get a mix of practical things I know they’ll appreciate, and something a little fun. My ds15 and ds9 have been letting me know they’d LOVE a membership to the JCC, and dh and I decided this will be the big family gift for everyone – a year’s membership, which I know they’ll all get a lot of use out of (we live a five minute walk away).  This year I got them all new gloves, earmuffs, and scarves, but it got cold so early in the year that I gave them the gloves and earmuffs early.  But I put aside the beautiful fleece scarves for my dh and ds15.  I bought hot water bottles ($35 total) for everyone, to keep them toasty on cold nights, which they’ll appreciate since our nights are cold and we keep the house temps low- I’m planning to make individualized covers for each of them sometime in the next week.  Even though it’s something I would have given them anyway (like the JCC membership), by saving it for Chanuka it adds to the fun.

    I bought card games, a couple of board games (for the younger kids), a craft kit, science kits, alef bais cookie cutters, another Gears kit (to add to the collection we already have) and that will be distributed to whoever it’s most appropriate for.  Then I have miscellaneous items – like for my husband, he told me about a video (Seabiscuit) he found inspiring that he saw at someone’s house when he was away – so I got him the book, found at a book exchange (therefore free).  And he mentioned recently that he wanted to try to find some peppermint oil since ten years ago he found it soothing to add to his tea.  I got two small bottles for him, which I know he’ll be quite pleased and surprised that I got.

    For the 8 and almost 10 year old, who love listening to audio books together in the afternoons, and both have a very high level of comprehension and similar tastes, I’m giving an unabridged recording of the first book of Lord of the Rings (10 cents at the library sale – that’s five cents per child for 20 hours of guaranteed entertainment each!).  Dd14 will get an apron, and a special lip balm (she always borrows mine and says it’s the only one that helps her chapped lips.  Dd12 will get a crafting book and a special box for supplies, ds6 has a beautiful new picture book, the little ones will get that ride on solid wood airplane I mentioned.  I’m thinking of baking each of them a bear bread with a ribbon around it’s neck, just as a fun little thing.

    For our parents, I’ve bought nice moisturizers (that I got for free by shopping wisely and using rebates), and will give them some homemade jam and probably loaves of bread wrapped in a gift basket that they’ll enjoy.  Our parents can spend much more on themselves than we ever could, so I try to think about what I could give them that they can’t buy.  I think that except for the JCC membership and hot water bottles, I spent a total of less than $20 for everyone combined.

    Oh, I almost forgot that all of our kids (ages 5 and up) light their own menorahs – the older kids each have their own special menorah, but the younger ones use the standard cheap ones.  Right after Chanukah last year, I bought the next child in line a beautiful menorah on clearance at Target; I think it was 50% off so $12.50 (that’s not included in the above number).  It’s not like they expect to be given one, because it’s not a standard gift from us, but I know the child I have in mind will be very happy to have his own unique menorah.  Just unpacking the menorahs and preparing them each night is fun!

    None of my kids mind if something was purchased brand new or not, or at top dollar or not – it’s more important to match their interests with the gift, and this takes more thought than just buying the newest and latest gadget.  They are all very appreciative kids, but some things have been harder for them to muster up excitement about than others.  A couple of years ago they received gifts that were costly from a set of relatives, but not suitable at all (like a 12 year old who got a craft kit appropriate for a 6 year old, an almanac for a child who didn’t read much, etc),  and I was glad to see they were able to enthusiastically cover up their disappointment so the givers felt happy the gifts had been well received.  But they told me afterwards they so much would have rather been given ten dollars that they could have spent as they wanted, than to know so much money was spent on things they got no pleasure from and would never use – they felt it was almost worse than getting nothing because they had the feeling of missing the chance to get something they wanted for the money spent.  Fortunately, this is very unusual, and they are almost always happy with whatever they get, from whoever they get it from.

    The kids asked me what I wanted, and I said I would appreciate something that would take me time to do/make, but would be wonderful if someone else could do so I wouldn’t have to.  My oldest son has been building me something, working on it for hours – I’m looking forward to seeing the final results.  I know a couple of kids started sewing something, but then the sewing machine jammed so I don’t know what’s happening with that.  As I already mentioned, I encouraged them to also think in terms of doing for each other rather than buying for one another this year.

    I think the reason we can get so much enjoyment out of such simple presents is that we keep the focus on our time together and on the holiday – it’s about so much more than presents.  Everyone benefits by keeping expectations low – there’s more joy in giving, more joy in receiving, and more joy in just being with each other!

    Avivah

  • Making fabric gift bags

    Have you ever noticed after Chanuka, it takes much more time to wrap the gifts up nicely than it does to unwrap it?  Around here, it seems like it’s destroyed in about five seconds once the gift is opened, leaving a mess of paper behind!  When I was thinking about it this year, it seemed wasteful of time and resources, and I heard about a solution that would save time, money, and look nice.  What was it?  Fabric gift bags!

    After making the one time investment of time, I’ll be able to use them year after year, while giving a gift in an attractive and festive way.  You know me, the queen of frugality :), of course I didn’t run out and buy some fabric for this project idea (and it’s fine if someone wants to do that!).  No, though it would be cheaper in the long run to make these from brand new fabric than buying rolls and rolls of wrapping paper over the years, I found yet another way to economize. 🙂

    Here’s what I did.  Several months ago, I sorted through our costumes, and put several aside to donate.  But they never got donated, because I wanted to give them to a costume g’mach (clothing exchange), not to a typical second hand store, and that meant a separate trip, and I kept forgetting about it since the bag is down in the basement out of sight.  One of the costumes was a beautiful green taffetta and black velvet gown that I remade from something I was either given or bought at the thrift store for a few dollars.  I decided this would be perfect to use for the gift bags, since the fabric is great quality, and looks elegant and festive.

    I took apart the gown, and cut several different size pieces from the taffetta.  That was so that I would have different sized bags, suitable for various sized gifts.  I sewed these into basic rectangles, and left the top gathered but open.  Then I took apart the velvet from the gown, and cut/sewed it into long thin strips.  I attached the black velvet strips to the top center of each bag, so that it could be easily closed (initially I was going to use a ribbon, but knowing the reality of our family, it would be lost very fast).

    They look really nice!  I made a total of seven, since that’s what I could squeeze out of the gown, and I think that will be enough.  One is very large, two are pretty small, and the other four are a standard medium size.  What’s nice about it is that if necessary, I could use the same one more than once in an evening, for two different people, since once a family member opens the gift, they don’t need it anymore.  The kids who have seen them think they look great, and I put them away before the other kids came home, so that they’ll have a little bit more of a surprise when we pull them out to use them.

    I didn’t watch the clock, so I don’t know how long these took.  It seemed to go extremely fast, with the velvet strips taking the bulk of the time – it was definitely under two hours from start to finish, but I can’t be more precise than that.  My 8 year old daughter enjoyed helping me, and since I was in the middle of where my kids were and interacting with them as I did this, it was like keeping my hands busy while I was hanging around with them, so I wasn’t conscious of it being like another thing I needed to do.

    Avivah

  • The Nutcracker

    Tonight I took my three daughters (8, 12, 14) out to see a performance of the Nutcracker.  I’ve taken them three times in the past, but it’s been almost three years since I took them.  In the past, I took them to the same performance, year after year, so when this opportunity came up, I decided it would be nice to go to something similar but different.  We had to rush out after Shabbos, but managed to get there basically in time to meet the group we were going with (we got a school rate for the tickets by joining together with other homeschoolers, so each ticket was $5 instead of $15.)

    We’ve been to this theater a couple of other times for other dance productions, and this time decided to see what it was like sitting in the balcony.  I think the seats are good wherever in the theater you sit, but this was a different vantage point that we enjoyed.  Tonight’s ballet was performed by a different dance company than the one we watched in the past, and I was really surprised by what a huge difference it makes in how the scenes are organized.  I kind of assumed that the story and music are basically the same, so how much different could it be?  I was sooo wrong.  Because I’ve seen the other dance company perform it three times, I kept expecting certain scenes at certain times, and it wasn’t happening!  It was fascinating to see how differently the music was interpreted and what very different scenes were conceived based on the same basic story outline.  Coming home, we were listening to an instrumental piece on the radio, and I suggested my girls imagine making up a story and then a dance to go with that music, matching the movements and actions to the music, and then think how much more was involved in such a large scale production.  It made them even more appreciative of the talent and hard work that went into it.

    I couldn’t help comparing the two productions, and though this was supposedly on a higher level, and definitely had a tremendous amount of talent, we all agreed that we preferred the performances we’ve seen in the past.  I don’t know if that’s fair to this dance company, because that one is familiar and is the standard that everything else is held up to, but even though we all know it may be unfair to say we like that one better, we do.  🙂  It was a nice girls night out for us all.

    Have you ever heard the music for The Nutcracker, by Tchaikovsky?  I enjoy classical music, even though I’m not very knowledgeable about it, and I especially enjoy when a piece I recognize comes on (there aren’t many of those!).  When the Nutcracker comes on the classical radio station, it’s a special treat.  My kids also recognize it right away, and will describe what scene the music goes to.  Six years ago, before I first took the kids to see it performed, we borrowed the music recording from the library and listened to it repeatedly, and we also checked out books on the plot.  That was very helpful in preparing all of us to appreciate the performance.

    Two weeks ago, three of my older kids were asked to be ushers for a classical concert that was a local fundraiser, and were able to stay for the entire performance for free because they volunteered.  They enjoyed it, but they found it hard to sit for so long and listen to music being played without hearing any lyrics, even while appreciating the amazing talent of the pianist.  A couple of those kids at the end of November went to a dress rehearsal of our city’s symphony orchestra (a special opportunity for school groups), so this rounds out some of the high level music appreciation opportunities they’ve had recently and is simultaneously expanding their familiarity with classical music.

    Avivah

  • Is saving $ on your food bill time consuming?

    I often hear/read comments to those who are frugal in general areas, about how unrealistic and time consuming it must be.  I want to address that as it applies specifically to food planning.  After all, saving on your food bill generally means cooking from scratch, shopping carefully, and planning ahead, so obviously only a tiny percentage of the population could ever find time for that!  After all, the rest of us actually have a life!

     I think the amount of time that people estimate has to be spent in the kitchen is significantly over estimated. And in fact, cooking from scratch doesn’t need to take much longer than buying ready made food, particularly when you take into account the time savings of planning ahead (for example, it keeps you from running in and out of the stores several times a week).

    I’m a busy mom with eight kids ranging from 1-15 years old, all of whom are home all day.  That means I need to homeschool everyone while taking care of a one and two year old, run my business, have time to spend with my husband and kids in a relaxed way, and have personal time as well as time for my friends, in addition to serving three meals a day! How in the world could I keep our budget to $600 a month for our family of ten (I’m not yet used to the sound of such a  high monthly amount, since I raised it by $100 recently :)) if it meant hours every day in the kitchen?!? 

    No, cooking from scratch and shopping with an eye for bargains definitely doesn’t take nearly as much time as you might think.  I probably spend less time shopping than the majority of people – I take one day a month and buy everything, with another hour thrown in later in the month to restock the veggies.  The main factor involved in cooking from scratch is: planning ahead.

    For example, dried beans have a reputation for being time consuming and unrealistic to make at home.  But dried beans actually take less than five minutes of hands on time.  That’s hardly longer than the time it would take to open a couple of cans of beans!  Here’s what you do: first you soak them overnight – fill a pot with water, and dump in the beans – less than one minute.  Once they’re soaked, put fresh water in the pot and put them on the fire – another minute. Cooking them takes a while, but once you’ve turned the fire on, there’s no other energy involved except being home and turning the fire off when they’re done.  That can be done when you get home from a long day of work, and they can be turned off before you go to bed – in other words, anyone could find time to do this.  It doesn’t take any more time to do a large amount than a small amount, and if you do a big potful, you can bag them into portion size amounts, and put them in your freezer. 

    What about breakfast?  Hot cereals take just a few minutes to prepare.  And if you soak your oatmeal, for example, the night before, then you can further cut down cooking time, and in the morning all you need to do is heat it up and it’s ready to eat – five minutes, max.  And that means even a large amount for a big family – it could take almost that long to pour bowls of cold cereal and milk for everyone!  Mixing up a batch of muffins for breakfast or baked oatmeal takes more time, but even this takes only about fifteen minutes, can easily be doubled or quadrupled (so your time and energy are maximized, and you have future batches to pull out of the freezer for your own fast food), and can be mixed up the night before.  The next morning, just pop it into the oven when you get up, and by the time everyone is dressed and at the table, pull out a fresh batch of muffins or a breakfast loaf.  Scrambled eggs are another quick dish.  French toast, pancakes, and waffles can all be made ahead and frozen, though I like to make them fresh, usually on Sundays, when our schedules are less full. 

    What about dinners?  There are lots of kinds of dishes to make, but I keep it simple.  I enjoy cooking, but I enjoy relaxing over a good picture book with my toddler or reading a chapter book to my middle kids more, so that’s where I’d rather spend my time.  Baked potatoes, pasta, and rice make for quick and easy side dishes, and you can quickly teach your kids how to make these.  There are so many possible dishes that I can’t really even start to list ideas here, but I already mentioned that we do a lot of stew-type meals in the winter – throw a bunch of compatible ingredients together and heat.  🙂  Tonight I defrosted some chili, mixed it with cooked beans in the fridge, and heated them together.  We had tacos with the chili mix and brown rice for our main dish, with some carrot kugel on the side – again, not much  hands on time spent, but a tasty and filling dinner. 

    Now I know that some families expect something much more elaborate than that, but frugality isn’t only about saving money.  The time I have is limited and of value to me, and I spend it as such.  I won’t make three different meals to accomodate picky eaters – which is probably why none of our kids have ever been picky eaters, and I won’t make a three course meal every night.  My goal is tasty, nutritious food that nourishes everyone, eaten together in a relaxing environment where we can talk, share, and connect.  Life is all about making choices, and fancy foods aren’t going to enhance my goals, so that’s one decision made. 

    Remember, most of the time it takes to prepare food is spent not in preparing it, but in actually baking or cooking it, but that’s a passive process that doesn’t involve any of your energy.  Once you organize your prep time, you’ll find you can get a lot done in much less time than you might have previously expected.

    There are things that I do that take more time than this, like canning or dehydrating.  I’m not going to try to convince you that doing it will save you time.  I don’t do those things to save time, I do them to save money and for the convenience of having it there when I need it.  That includes situations as simple and common as when I’m out all day and didn’t think to pull something out of the freezer to defrost early enough, to the less likely scenario of losing power and the food in my freezer being spoiled.  But these aren’t necessary to keep your food bill low by any means – I didn’t start canning or dehydrating until this year, and my food budget has been very low for many, many years.  In some ways, I’ve probably added to my food costs by doing this, because I buy more than what I need for the month in order to preserve some for later on. 

    Avivah

  • Watch where your money is going!

    I’ve periodically told my kids that’s it’s important to pay attention when you go shopping, and since I’ve had several instances this past week that came up, I thought I’d share this thought with you.

    Don’t assume that whatever you’re charged is what you’re supposed to be charged.  Sale items don’t always ring up as such, and some stores have a policy that if you’re mischarged for an item, they’ll give you the item for free. But even without that policy, pay attention when you’re checking out in the grocery that everything has scanned properly.  The thrift store I’ve shopped in for years has a new computer system, one that makes it almost impossible to see if you’re being charge correctly when you check out, as the discounted price doesn’t show up on the screen.  It took me fifteen minutes after I got home to figure it out last week (I couldn’t work it out in the store, it was way too complicated), and it had six errors on it.  Fortunately, the mistakes evened out – I was overcharged for some things, undercharged for one, and not charged at all for another – so I didn’t need to go back.  By the way, I feel that if there’s an error of any sort, even not in your favor, that it should be corrected.  A number of times I’ve gone to customer service (this happened again last week at the grocery store for a 9.95 charge) when an item wasn’t on my bill after checking out that should have been, and asked them to ring up the missing item so that I could pay for it.  Spending your money responsibly is important, but being ethical is even more important, and I don’t believe there are any true savings on dishonestly aquired money or things. 

    Last week I noticed that I was credited only $14.50 for a rebate I submitted online to my drugstore, instead of $20.  When I saw that and realized I had thrown away my receipt, I didn’t think I’d have much luck getting the full rebate (since I couldn’t ‘prove’ what I paid), but I called anyway to ask about it.  They didn’t ask for my receipt (because they were charging the same amount on this across the country in conjunction with the rebate, so they knew what I said I paid was true), told me it was a processing error, and refunded the $5.50 immediately (and since I had it put on my store gift card, I received another 10% on top of that!).  So it took me less than five minutes to ‘earn’ $6. 

    Several days ago I called my phone company to remove one of the additional services I have for my line, after seeing that we really don’t use it and the extra cost isn’t being justified.  While I was on the phone, the customer service rep told me that they would take the monthly charge of $5.50 for that feature off, but would also lower my monthly total bill by another $10.99 (it’s a special they’re giving to those who call to make changes, it seems, not advertised), increase my internet connection speed, and otherwise keep all the same features.  I’ll get this price for another year, before it will shift back to the regular price I’m paying.  I was on the phone for a few minutes, and that will save us $16.50 every month (not including the tax on that) – it may not seem like a lot of money, but we’ll have over $240 more in our pockets in the course of a year than if I hadn’t made the call.

    Today I was expecting a delivery that I paid extra for in order to get it quickly.  Though the company emailed to say it would be here today, it never showed up.  I called the company (and waited on the line for at least ten minutes until I got a rep – I browsed the internet and checked my emails while I waited), and was told that it wasn’t supposed to be here until tomorrow.  I told them that the email they sent said it would be here today, and offered to forward it to the rep so he could see for himself.  No need, he assured me.  The full amount for the rush shipping (over $38) was refunded to my credit card while I was still on the line.  Was it worth the time?  I thought so…

    Though I usually try to pay a little extra on the mortgage every month, I’ve never been able to do more than that.  Our mortgage is a significant portion of our take home pay, but after two years, for the first time last month I was able to make an extra month’s payment.  When I paid it, I clearly labelled it ‘additional principal’.  Imagine my surprise when my mortgage statement came a couple of weeks later, and said that this month’s bill was paid, but the principal wasn’t decreased at all!  They had applied my principal payment towards the coming month’s payment (meaning mostly interest).  I called the bank to straighten this out, and had a chance to practice being patient as the representative repeatedly told me that I had paid my mortgage payment for this month so I didn’t need to send in anything else until next month.  Finally she looked at the records and agreed that I did make an extra payment, but because it wasn’t labelled as intended to go towards principal, they automatically apply it in a way that benefits them (she didn’t use those words to explain it :)), and told me that I was at fault for not making a note of it.  I told her it had been labelled (and since I pay online, it would be very, very easy to show proof of this), and she quickly apologized for their error and took care of properly crediting it to our future principal.  This would be fun to figure out how much we saved by following up with the bank, as it saved us another 28 years of interest at 6.5% – I can’t figure that out in my head, with all the amortization rates, but I’m sure it’s significant.

    None of these are earthshaking or exciting, but little things add up, and it all comes from paying attention to the details.  I see this as a matter of being a good steward of the money that we have – I gladly pay what I need to for the services or goods we buy, but it’s senseless to spend unnecessarily for no additional benefit!

    Avivah

  • It’s the season for soup!

    I get lazy about making menu plans in the winter time, because it’s so easy to throw together a soup or stew, which is especially enjoyed by everyone in the cold weather.  Since a large pot of soup takes hardly any more time than a small pot, I end up with easily enough for two meals, and I don’t need to cook as frequently as I do in the summer (in the summer, no one in my family finds hot dishes like this appetizing).  That’s why I haven’t been posting my menus lately – our leftovers from the weekend turn into ingredients for the meals of the week, and the leftovers from one night’s soup often end up as part of a different stew the next night.  It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s super frugal, and it keeps my fridge from becoming buried in little piles of small containers of miscellaneous food that eventually grow fur! 🙂 

    Here was tonight’s quick dinner, which was actually not based on leftovers, for the most part – toasted pitas and thick vegetable soup.  I always buy a large amount of frozen vegetables in the beginning of my monthly shopping, since I saw that running low on veggies was my biggest challenge to shopping monthly (with one trip after two weeks to replenish the vegetables), so this keeps me from running out when the month is coming to an end.  Frozen vegetables were the backbone of my soup tonight because they were fast and the only labor involved was opening the box.  Which is nice on a lazy day, and when it’s not sunny out, I feel lazy.  🙂 

    I make up most of my recipes, so I don’t have exact measurements.  I often use chicken stock as the base for my soups and stews; it adds a rich flavor and valuable nutrients, but didn’t do that tonight.  I started by sauteeing a couple of onions and some cloves of garlic (my daughter feels like this is a waste of time and that I should just chop them up and throw them in to boil with everything else), then added 2 boxes (10 oz each) of lima beans, 2 boxes of peas and carrots, a 32 oz bag of corn, a large can of tomato sauce, leftover green bean/tomatoes dish from the fridge, and a bunch of zucchini (the amounts I add are kind of arbitrary – it’s basically whatever I feel like, with whatever I want to use up).  If I hadn’t had the green bean/tomato dish, I would have added 2 boxes of green beans, and two more cans of tomatoes, diced or whole.  I added some water, but I like to keep it thick, so I didn’t add too much.  I tossed in some spices – garlic powder, salt, pepper, parsley (sorry, I really just pour in whatever looks right to me, so I have no measurements on this), let it simmer for a while, and then serve.  I made a large pot (I think it’s twelve quarts) full, for under $5 – that fed all ten of us amply. I have about a third of a pot left, which we’ll have for tomorrow’s lunch.

    If you want to bulk this up, you can add barley, rice, or diced potatoes.  In our family, four of us don’t eat bread, so in place of the pita there was also a pot of fresh cooked rice for whoever wanted it.

    Avivah 

  • Shopping fun

    Today is Black Friday, a major shopping day, but you won’t find me in any stores!  I don’t particularly enjoy shopping in retail stores (unless their prices are extremely low), and shopping in crowded retail stores ranks way up there with getting a tooth pulled as far as things I’d choose to do for fun.  But lots of people seem to enjoy it and if you’re one of them, I hope you find/found lots of bargains!

    Yesterday I did some ‘shopping’ that was more in the line of things I enjoy.  Someone was moving and had some items that they didn’t want to take to their new home, though everything was in great shape.  It’s so fun to get things that are useful for our family, and know that the person giving them away is happy to have them go to a good home.  The woman I got the items from told me that she really doesn’t want to throw the things away, but she’s moving today and can’t take more time to find people who can use these things, so they’d be going into the garbage if someone hadn’t claimed them by last night.

    So what did I get?  

    • A beautiful solid wood rocking airplane, the perfect size for a toddler to play on – I’m going to give it to my baby and toddler for Chanuka; we kept it in the van until he took a nap and then snuck it up to the attic (it’s big enough to be hard to hide). 
    • a new looking good quality floral apron – that will go to one of my daughters for Chanuka (I got one of them a nice one last year, and though they all have functional aprons – read, solid colors – it’s nice to have something pretty and functional!)
    • Two sets of oven mitts (my kids suggested I buy some just last week when we were in the store, since I don’t have any); one set will be for dairy, one for meat.
    • Lots of good quality hangers, including skirt hangers, coat hangers, and suit hangers – and one tie hanger- this will help the kids use their closet space more efficiently, and we’ll get rid of any cheap wire hangers that have been in there until now.  And the solid wood coat hangers will support some of the heavy winter coats well.
    • A large bag of spices and canned foods
    • Two lucite canisters for storage items, one new in the box
    • Gauze pads, alcohol, bandaids (I have hardly any first aid items in my house and am glad to add something to the little I have)
    • Two large bottles of mouthwash, one hardly used, the other new
    • A gilt frame picture that looks great in my bathroom and replaced something else that was too overpowering (I didn’t realize how overpowering until I took it down and replaced it with this)
    • Matching cup and toothbrush holder for my bathroom – cream and gold, and together with the above picture have added a classier look to the bathroom
    • Three beautiful oil paintings for my living room – all gold frames, one large one and two smaller matching ones.  My living room walls have been bare except for one picture (which I took down today) since we moved here over two years ago.  I wasn’t sure how they’d look, but the colors in the paintings matched my couches, and the price was right to take the chance so I brought them home with me.  🙂  The pictures we used to have didn’t match the couches we got when we moved here, which is why the walls have been basically empty, but these look SO nice! 
    • An old cookbook of nutritious recipes – I’ll look through it and get some ideas.
    • A wire strainer that will be perfect for straining curds when making cheese
    • A shaitel head and pins

     And while I was there, she mentioned in passing that she was selling her toaster and food processor, and was I interested?  I have absolutely no use for a toaster that holds two slices of bread, since we toast panfuls of bread at a time!  But since my food processor blade broke recently (do you get a sense I’ve been on a roll with kitchen appliances breaking?! – and I didn’t tell you that a couple of days ago, the glass lid broke on the electric cooker I use every single day!), I’ve been limited in the vegetable dishes I’ve been making because the shredding is too time intensive without it and a food processor was very high on my list of wants.  I didn’t want to spend the money for a new one, but couldn’t buy a used one for kashrus reasons, and a food processor is something I use all the time, so though I’m reluctant to call it a need, it really is a huge help for me.  After three or four weeks of doing without it, I finally told my daughter on Wednesday night that we’d have to take out the Pesach food processor and use that, and just deal with getting a new one for Pesach when the time came.  My daughter really didn’t like that idea – somehow, if it’s been designated for Pesach, that makes it special and she didn’t want me to do it.  But what do you know?  The very next morning, before I took out the Pesach one, H-shem sent me to the home of someone giving these things away, who ‘happened’ to mention she had just what I needed for sale, a hardly used kosher food processor for just $20! Don’t you just love how everything ‘happens to happen’?

    This was my kind of shopping fun!  

    Avivah

  • What to do with mushrooms on sale?

    A few days ago I was in the vegetable store, and saw mushrooms on sale for $1 a pound.  I don’t know if that’s cheap where you live, but around here, that’s a pretty good deal, so I got a bunch of them.

    But you know how mushrooms are – they’re very perishable.  And if they’re on sale, it’s because they’re not at the top of the freshness line.  If you keep them in the bag you bought them in, they get slimy and you end up throwing away all of them, and if you take them out, they shrivel up and dry.  So you really need a plan to deal with them when you buy them.

    Here’s what I did:  as much as I enjoy fresh mushrooms in salad, I wouldn’t need many for that, and what I would use them most would be in cooked dishes.  I chopped up several cloves of garlic, a couple of onions, and sauteed them together.  Then I added all of the mushrooms (I chopped them up first), and added it to the onions and garlic. When they were all nice and soft, I turned them off. 

    This mixture is a perfect addition to soups, pilafs, and casseroles.  I put them into the small bags, sized according to what I think I’ll use it for.  Then they go into the freezer.  Anytime I want a nice addition to my meal, I can just pop them out of the freezer and into the pot.  And today, since some was still in the fridge, I got to use them to make a delicious vegetable dish for Thanksgiving. 

    Avivah

  • Gift cards for the holidays

    I’ll admit it, I’m not a big fan of gift cards.  I feel like they force you to spend your money in a store that you might not otherwise shop in, paying prices you might not otherwise pay.  I’d personally rather have the cash to spend where and how I like – and I can always get alot more if given the money than the person could have bought or I could get at the chosen store.  We were given a generous gift after our last baby was born, and I really wanted a new set of dishes.  But the store we were given the card to had very expensive dishes, and not the kind I wanted.  I ended up getting dishes, but not what I really wanted, and certainly not for the money spent. 

    But my post isn’t about telling you to give cash this holiday season – it’s to warn you to be careful about giving gift cards so that your recipients won’t lose out.  A number of large retailers are set to close down very soon, most of them by January 2009.  If you are given a gift card, spend it right away!  And if you really want to give a gift card, give one from somewhere that isn’t as at risk – the kind of stores that come to mind are Walmart and Target, Home Depot (though they are planning to close fifteen stores, they’ll still be around).

    Avivah