Filed under: Bulk Buying, Frugality, Growing Food | Tags: frugal, growing food, leftovers, One Acre Cafe, root crops, walkability
Boy howdy, can I tell it’s spring! I am busy every day with community garden and personal garden stuff, as well as all the other things that fill up my calendar. It’s during times like this that I see money slip through my fingers more easily, spending more on things like restaurant meals or car washes or bakery cakes instead of home cooking and backyard car washes. Tracking our expenses for 15 years now tells me instantly where our money goes so it’s easier to stop the bleeding when it begins. As busy as this week has been, I’ve tried to be frugal:
Monday: Put a new double-edged blade in my old razor. I bought the razor new for $5, along with 10 blades, in 2008. Since then, I’ve bought another box of 5 blades, with 2 left. So, that means I’ve used 12 blades in about 6 years. That’s right, 12 blades in 6 years! The secret? After every single use, I drag the wet blade across a scrap of denim, then coat it with baby oil using the handy little brush that came with it, before putting it back in its box. I read the tip about using the denim right after I’d bought the razor and have been amazed at how long the blades can last by taking the few seconds it takes to sharpen and oil them after each use. If you try this, all you need to do is make a few quick strokes UPWARDS, against the ‘nap’ of the denim, like you would if you were shaving. I think I paid about $3 for the box of five extra blades. I’m very pleased that I’m no longer throwing away ‘disposable’ razors and that I’m saving $1-$2 a month on their cost. Savings over 6 years? A LOT. And I get a MUCH closer shave than I ever did with triple edge blades. Just sayin’. (yeah, you get used to the sharp blade after just a couple of uses and I rarely cut myself)
Tuesday: I’m putting my Sam’s Club membership to good use. I’ve started buying #10 size cans of peaches, then dividing them into smaller containers which I freeze. Michael did the math for me: we were buying the smaller cans at 4.2 cents per oz, the larger ones are 2.3 cents an oz. When thawed, they are as good as they were when the can was opened, with no degradation in texture or flavor. Savings: 50%! I’ll be looking for other bulk buys like this in the future.
Wednesday: Notice that large can pictured above: See how it says “California Peaches”? Nope, not local. Michael’s chemo treatments have left him with compromised taste buds and he CRAVES the cool sweetness of them so much that he blew through all the Georgia peaches that I’d canned last summer before Christmas! Who am I to deny him peaches simply because they’re not local? But this day wasn’t about peaches, it was about tomatoes instead. I told you recently that the president of the California Tomato Growers Association was quoted on NPR as saying that because of the ongoing drought there, as well as the lack of high Sierra snow pack (and spring melting) that this year, instead of that states’ farmers providing US consumers of tomato products with their normal 90% of all processed tomato products, THEY WOULD BE PROVIDING ZERO PER CENT! There’s simply not enough water available to grow them this year. What’s a person to do? Well, you can convert your front yard to tomato production and can your own sauces and salsas OR you could hope that you run across the sweet deal I found yesterday at the discount grocery: 30 full-sized cans of seasoned diced tomatoes, all with long ‘sell by’ dates, for 25 cents a can. I found the same brands in Krogers for 90+ cents a can, so savings on the tomatoes alone were $19.50 or more. I also bought 4 name brand jars of salsa for 50 cents a jar and some organic cooking sauces for 30 cents a jar! Be sure to check out your local ‘discount grocery’ too for super savings like these, but when you find great deals, stock up, because chances are they won’t be there when you go back!
Thursday: This was Michael’s birthday. I cooked his favorite meal, African Peanut Stew, using many ingredients that we’d grown and preserved. No restaurant meal for him, he wanted this instead. A pot of it, served over rice, costs less than dessert would’ve at any restaurant in town. Plus, we had enough left for 2 more full meals. I had made some chocolate chip cookies for a meeting the day before, so that’s what we had in place of a cake, along with some of his beloved peaches, and called it a birthday. He was happy, so that was priceless.
Friday: Planted peas, onions, potatoes, beets and carrots. Walked to the drug store, Dollar General, the music store, the community garden, the library and the Buddhist Dharma Center. Ate “leftovers and peaches” for lunch. Washed and vacuumed the car in the back yard. Gave myself a manicure. Attending a fund-raiser dinner tonight for One Acre Cafe, and will make a donation with the money I saved.
“Living well on less” is my mantra, I hope you don’t get tired of hearing about it and I hope it inspires you to seek out all the ‘little ways’ that you can keep money in your pocket too, all while making your life more resilient- and fun!
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Tennesseetransitions 
I’ll never get tired of your good tips or any of the other inspirations you write about. Rock on, girl, and thank you! I hope he had the most wonderful birthday.
Comment by sarasinart March 21, 2014 @ 8:32 PMNope not tired…love all the great ideas and tips!
Comment by Elizabeth Jones March 22, 2014 @ 8:20 AM