I've also heard that keeping the blended milk in a glass container as opposed to a plastic one makes it taste better. I don't know where I read this and have never experimented with it, though.
If it's greater than 50% at the grocery store I usually buy it, because then I can get one for me and one for the food bank for the price I normally budget.
But somehow getting motivated to save such a small ammount is harder than being motivated to save $100 a month. It's just harder not to 'oh, just this once' it if it's not a significant ammount..
You can also save in a foreign currency that's holding value better if you're willing to pay the exchange rate to change it into Euros or something else. I've often done this with British pounds when I'm saving to go visit my aunt there.
What i'm going to get from my vacation- you're right it's best that way because then you get to hunt for your treasure as part of your trip and the tshirts don't look so appealing!
As a promoter of disaster readiness, everybody should keep enough powdered milk in their pantry to replace 100% of their families needs for a -minimum- of 3 days, and ideally 6 weeks to 3 months. This also protects your family from price fluctuations (such as the fuel/corn one we are in right now) or seasonal variations (cows naturally produce more milk in the summer when people tend to cook and drink less, so it's often cheaper).
Unless you go to BJ's and buy in bulk (which I do 1x per year when they send out their free 6-week trial membership coupon), you don't save a lot on powdered milk, but if you bulk up at the warehouse stores, it comes out to around $2.36 per gallon (versus $3.99 for fresh).
We have three young children and use 1.5 gallons per day, so multiply that by your "just in case" cushion. In our case, 3 months cushion = 92 days. 1.5 gal/day x 92 days = 138 gallons. Since powdered milk is usually measured in quarts, multiply 138 x 4 = 552 quarts.
To convert that into how many boxes you need to keep in stock in your "just in case" stash, divide 552 by however many quarts are in the powdered milk package. The big boxes of Carnation have 22 quarts, so 552/22 = 25 boxes of Carnation.
As someone with three young children, our 3-month "disaster stash" is an awful lot of milk powder that will go bad if you don't drink it, so we've gotten creative about using it. On the other hand, the kids turn their nose up to 100% powdered milk for drinking. Here's how we use it and save money:
-Keep a quart made up at all times in the fridge for "cooking milk." Whenever you need a splash of milk in your mashed potatoes, instant pudding, hamburger helper, scrambled eggs or microwave oatmeal, use the cooking milk. You'll never taste the difference.
-Very clean glass jars are better than plastic for making the reconstituted milk last longer in your fridge.
-If you're always trying to up your picky kids protein counts, mix 1.5 packets (instead of 1) in your "cooking milk" quart. It's a sneaky way to slip more protein into their diet.
-Make homemade bread pudding, rice pudding, and custard pie. Yum!!! It's dirt cheap to make and the kids love it.
-Make up your own pancake and cocoa mixes using powdered milk. I simply multiply the recipes in Betty Crocker by 10, stick it all in a big Tupperware canister, then add the egg and oil or hot water at the time of food prep. Not only does this utilize cheaper powdered milk and taste exactly the same as Swiss Miss and Aunt Jemima, but you'll save a bundle over commercial mixes.
-No matter how cold I chill it or how long I try to gradually convert the kids to 100% powdered milk, there is this magical ratio of fresh-to-powdered milk before the kids reject it. I start with 1/5th powdered milk (even Mom can't taste it), and can get to 1/3rd (slight powdered taste, but not obvious) before the kids reject it. If it's in a separate container, the kids reject it, so I pour the 1/3-2/3 ratio milk back into a (sterilized) milk jug and they don't notice.
-Toss a few tablespoons of milk powder into homemade bread mix, meatloaf, meatballs, etc. to give it a mild flavor and boost the protein count.
-Instead of adding expensive cream to fish or clam chowder, make extra fish stock from the fish frame and then slowly dissolve double the amount of milk powder as you would normally use for that amount of water (i.e., if you have a 2-qt. saucepan of stock, mix 4 packets worth of milk powder) to make your chowder. Not only will you save a bundle, but you get healthy protein and no unhealthy fat.
To make sure we're always using the oldest box of powdered milk first, we write the expiration date in big letters with a marker on the side facing outwards on our pantry shelf. Oldest boxes are on the left, new boxes go in on the right, and the entire collection just keeps getting slid to the left as you use it up. That way, your milk powder doesn't expire and go to waste. Our 3-month "just in case" stash lasts about a year, so I figure 25% of our milk consumption is powdered milk and we save $150 per year. Bon appetit!
Thanks for the heads up. I try not to be too paronoid but I also make sure to watch my credit report twice a year... so far no problems that I've not caused myself *Grin*
According to the numbers you quoted, a $1 house could still end up being a good bargain at right around $25,000 including fixing up and the back taxes, especially if you plan on living in it and doing some of the repairs yourself until you sell. THen if you sell, even at below market price, you've still made a bundle.
-Suz
And haven't looked back. If I had my way we'd not have any car, but we don't live in an urban enough environment yet to make that a reality. The only people this one-car thing seems to bother is my parents who can't fathom how we live with just one car! (and they're divorced!)
My husband and I a) move frequently and b) have tons of books. We have folding book cases that we love, but which are very expensive evrerywhere except Bed Bath and Beyond durring 'back to school' time. Shopping dorm deals can, indeed, be a good thing.
Even for people who are visiting countries other than China. I remember the first time my midwestern friends went with me to Mexico (I'm from so cal) and insisted we doe things the 'tourist' way. It was shocking how much it cost! I was used to doing Mexico the mexican (or so cal) way!
No problem. That's what a good review is for... we read em' so you can decide before you buy. Nothing is more frustrating than spending money on a book that was not a good fit for you!
I don't drink milk, so I keep a some powdered milk on hand in case I want a little for tea or something. I don't think that's going to kill me with bad cholesterol.
Loved the idea about the fish! I'll have to try that.
I love the idea of taking a class at the library! Unfortunately my local library classes are $25, but the community center in town offers ones for cheaper.
I always enjoy the Wise Bread reviews because of my *slight* addiction to personal finance and business books. I think, however, that I'll skip this one. Thanks for the heads up!
As someone who used to be in charge of hiring, I can't agree with this enough! When you put a job posting up on any sort of mass communication device (a la internet) you get not just dozens, but usually HUNDREDS of applicants. If someone didn't follow application instructions I just generally threw out their resume or whatever. The exceptions to this were the people who went above and beyond to put themselves in front of my face. They usually were the ones who got interviews and normally the ones who got hired.
I usually buy two kinds of souvenirs. I live in a smaller city where I can't usually find the kind of clothing I'm looking for. So whenever I go somewhere, I do a little investigating beforehand and find out if there are any shops I want to check out. They're usually small local shops that you'd never find if you weren't looking for them. This is kind of an accidental souvenir because it's not really meant as one, but works anyway.
The second thing I do is buy a shot glass or two from my favorite places I visited. I often use them for sipping a nice liqueur rather than use a large glass. Not very classy I suppose, but a shot is usually all I'm going to drink anyway. I try to avoid the straight out tourist ones that just say the city. For instance, in Vegas I bought a Ferengi shot glass from the Star Trek experience and one from the Luxor hotel, in Disney I bought one that says Star Wars academy (I think my geek is showing here). I try to find unique ones that are fun to pull out for parties.
That's a good way to think of it, although I might say the 1:1 ratio works better if comparing to prices in another world capital than in Peoria.
Ten years later, we still have some things we purchased at the Silk Market in Beijing: so-called North Face thermal sleeping bags and a knitted scarf with a misspelled "Calvin Klein" label are the things that spring to mind first. Of course, I also bought a ton of things that unraveled or fell apart within the first year, or proved too uncomfortable or sheer to wear.
If you do not show up for jury duty, you will receive a notice of FTA (in SoCalat least). It is no big deal missing jury duty, as they can always reschedule you. I work for the courts and that is how they handle it.
too many of his tips (that just wouldn't be fair, would it?) But I can tell you he has learned how to get the most from apartment leasing, reality TV, cheap dating, and has a nifty oatmeal recipe. Not chock full of stingy tips, but a nice amount of frugal to offset the basic financial wisdom and the very interesting story.
I agree that there were some cheapskate strategies that appeared a little short-sighted (the Ramen thing, for one.) Being cheap at a detriment to your body, your morality, or your family and friends is something I could never advocate. Eating a bit of Ramen from time to time is certainly something that won't kill anyone (especially if you're particularly down and out.) Eating it daily for two months in order to stay well below your $2 a day food budget is another. The book didn't talk much about things like health insurance, medical care, et, and I would have loved more insight into Mr. Corey's true monthly expenses (instead of just what he spent on investements and his return.) We have to assume that he took as good of care of himself as anyone could in this situation. I do know that he went to the gym (as he also has cheapskate tips for utilizing the 2-week free gym trials to his advantage.)
I believe that his definition of "crappy job" is entirely relative. I personally think any job making well above living wage that doesn't require you to do anything hazardous or illegal is a pretty good deal. However, I understand what it's like to work a boring or unfufilling job, and in this book, Mr. Corey dreaded going to his job each day. It did pay the bills, and it did get him a foot into the real estate business. And in his case, it motivated him to strive for a life that didn't require your typical mind-numbing 9-5.
I agree w,th frugal bt not cheap. I am in favor of being generous in terms of giving.
Thanks for the cool link share, I've been trying to eat more locally and this site rocks! THanks for pointing it out.
-Suz
I've also heard that keeping the blended milk in a glass container as opposed to a plastic one makes it taste better. I don't know where I read this and have never experimented with it, though.
If it's greater than 50% at the grocery store I usually buy it, because then I can get one for me and one for the food bank for the price I normally budget.
-Suz
But somehow getting motivated to save such a small ammount is harder than being motivated to save $100 a month. It's just harder not to 'oh, just this once' it if it's not a significant ammount..
-Suz
You can also save in a foreign currency that's holding value better if you're willing to pay the exchange rate to change it into Euros or something else. I've often done this with British pounds when I'm saving to go visit my aunt there.
-Suz
What i'm going to get from my vacation- you're right it's best that way because then you get to hunt for your treasure as part of your trip and the tshirts don't look so appealing!
-Suz
As a promoter of disaster readiness, everybody should keep enough powdered milk in their pantry to replace 100% of their families needs for a -minimum- of 3 days, and ideally 6 weeks to 3 months. This also protects your family from price fluctuations (such as the fuel/corn one we are in right now) or seasonal variations (cows naturally produce more milk in the summer when people tend to cook and drink less, so it's often cheaper).
Unless you go to BJ's and buy in bulk (which I do 1x per year when they send out their free 6-week trial membership coupon), you don't save a lot on powdered milk, but if you bulk up at the warehouse stores, it comes out to around $2.36 per gallon (versus $3.99 for fresh).
We have three young children and use 1.5 gallons per day, so multiply that by your "just in case" cushion. In our case, 3 months cushion = 92 days. 1.5 gal/day x 92 days = 138 gallons. Since powdered milk is usually measured in quarts, multiply 138 x 4 = 552 quarts.
To convert that into how many boxes you need to keep in stock in your "just in case" stash, divide 552 by however many quarts are in the powdered milk package. The big boxes of Carnation have 22 quarts, so 552/22 = 25 boxes of Carnation.
As someone with three young children, our 3-month "disaster stash" is an awful lot of milk powder that will go bad if you don't drink it, so we've gotten creative about using it. On the other hand, the kids turn their nose up to 100% powdered milk for drinking. Here's how we use it and save money:
-Keep a quart made up at all times in the fridge for "cooking milk." Whenever you need a splash of milk in your mashed potatoes, instant pudding, hamburger helper, scrambled eggs or microwave oatmeal, use the cooking milk. You'll never taste the difference.
-Very clean glass jars are better than plastic for making the reconstituted milk last longer in your fridge.
-If you're always trying to up your picky kids protein counts, mix 1.5 packets (instead of 1) in your "cooking milk" quart. It's a sneaky way to slip more protein into their diet.
-Make homemade bread pudding, rice pudding, and custard pie. Yum!!! It's dirt cheap to make and the kids love it.
-Make up your own pancake and cocoa mixes using powdered milk. I simply multiply the recipes in Betty Crocker by 10, stick it all in a big Tupperware canister, then add the egg and oil or hot water at the time of food prep. Not only does this utilize cheaper powdered milk and taste exactly the same as Swiss Miss and Aunt Jemima, but you'll save a bundle over commercial mixes.
-No matter how cold I chill it or how long I try to gradually convert the kids to 100% powdered milk, there is this magical ratio of fresh-to-powdered milk before the kids reject it. I start with 1/5th powdered milk (even Mom can't taste it), and can get to 1/3rd (slight powdered taste, but not obvious) before the kids reject it. If it's in a separate container, the kids reject it, so I pour the 1/3-2/3 ratio milk back into a (sterilized) milk jug and they don't notice.
-Toss a few tablespoons of milk powder into homemade bread mix, meatloaf, meatballs, etc. to give it a mild flavor and boost the protein count.
-Instead of adding expensive cream to fish or clam chowder, make extra fish stock from the fish frame and then slowly dissolve double the amount of milk powder as you would normally use for that amount of water (i.e., if you have a 2-qt. saucepan of stock, mix 4 packets worth of milk powder) to make your chowder. Not only will you save a bundle, but you get healthy protein and no unhealthy fat.
To make sure we're always using the oldest box of powdered milk first, we write the expiration date in big letters with a marker on the side facing outwards on our pantry shelf. Oldest boxes are on the left, new boxes go in on the right, and the entire collection just keeps getting slid to the left as you use it up. That way, your milk powder doesn't expire and go to waste. Our 3-month "just in case" stash lasts about a year, so I figure 25% of our milk consumption is powdered milk and we save $150 per year. Bon appetit!
Thanks for the heads up. I try not to be too paronoid but I also make sure to watch my credit report twice a year... so far no problems that I've not caused myself *Grin*
-Suz
According to the numbers you quoted, a $1 house could still end up being a good bargain at right around $25,000 including fixing up and the back taxes, especially if you plan on living in it and doing some of the repairs yourself until you sell. THen if you sell, even at below market price, you've still made a bundle.
-Suz
And haven't looked back. If I had my way we'd not have any car, but we don't live in an urban enough environment yet to make that a reality. The only people this one-car thing seems to bother is my parents who can't fathom how we live with just one car! (and they're divorced!)
-Suz
My husband and I a) move frequently and b) have tons of books. We have folding book cases that we love, but which are very expensive evrerywhere except Bed Bath and Beyond durring 'back to school' time. Shopping dorm deals can, indeed, be a good thing.
-Suz
Even for people who are visiting countries other than China. I remember the first time my midwestern friends went with me to Mexico (I'm from so cal) and insisted we doe things the 'tourist' way. It was shocking how much it cost! I was used to doing Mexico the mexican (or so cal) way!
-Suz
No problem. That's what a good review is for... we read em' so you can decide before you buy. Nothing is more frustrating than spending money on a book that was not a good fit for you!
I don't drink milk, so I keep a some powdered milk on hand in case I want a little for tea or something. I don't think that's going to kill me with bad cholesterol.
Loved the idea about the fish! I'll have to try that.
I love the idea of taking a class at the library! Unfortunately my local library classes are $25, but the community center in town offers ones for cheaper.
-Suz
I always enjoy the Wise Bread reviews because of my *slight* addiction to personal finance and business books. I think, however, that I'll skip this one. Thanks for the heads up!
-Suz
Amazing the many uses for this product. But would you really want to drink something that can be used for paint??
-Suz
As someone who used to be in charge of hiring, I can't agree with this enough! When you put a job posting up on any sort of mass communication device (a la internet) you get not just dozens, but usually HUNDREDS of applicants. If someone didn't follow application instructions I just generally threw out their resume or whatever. The exceptions to this were the people who went above and beyond to put themselves in front of my face. They usually were the ones who got interviews and normally the ones who got hired.
-Suz
I usually buy two kinds of souvenirs. I live in a smaller city where I can't usually find the kind of clothing I'm looking for. So whenever I go somewhere, I do a little investigating beforehand and find out if there are any shops I want to check out. They're usually small local shops that you'd never find if you weren't looking for them. This is kind of an accidental souvenir because it's not really meant as one, but works anyway.
The second thing I do is buy a shot glass or two from my favorite places I visited. I often use them for sipping a nice liqueur rather than use a large glass. Not very classy I suppose, but a shot is usually all I'm going to drink anyway. I try to avoid the straight out tourist ones that just say the city. For instance, in Vegas I bought a Ferengi shot glass from the Star Trek experience and one from the Luxor hotel, in Disney I bought one that says Star Wars academy (I think my geek is showing here). I try to find unique ones that are fun to pull out for parties.
That's a good way to think of it, although I might say the 1:1 ratio works better if comparing to prices in another world capital than in Peoria.
Ten years later, we still have some things we purchased at the Silk Market in Beijing: so-called North Face thermal sleeping bags and a knitted scarf with a misspelled "Calvin Klein" label are the things that spring to mind first. Of course, I also bought a ton of things that unraveled or fell apart within the first year, or proved too uncomfortable or sheer to wear.
If you do not show up for jury duty, you will receive a notice of FTA (in SoCalat least). It is no big deal missing jury duty, as they can always reschedule you. I work for the courts and that is how they handle it.
too many of his tips (that just wouldn't be fair, would it?) But I can tell you he has learned how to get the most from apartment leasing, reality TV, cheap dating, and has a nifty oatmeal recipe. Not chock full of stingy tips, but a nice amount of frugal to offset the basic financial wisdom and the very interesting story.
I agree that there were some cheapskate strategies that appeared a little short-sighted (the Ramen thing, for one.) Being cheap at a detriment to your body, your morality, or your family and friends is something I could never advocate. Eating a bit of Ramen from time to time is certainly something that won't kill anyone (especially if you're particularly down and out.) Eating it daily for two months in order to stay well below your $2 a day food budget is another. The book didn't talk much about things like health insurance, medical care, et, and I would have loved more insight into Mr. Corey's true monthly expenses (instead of just what he spent on investements and his return.) We have to assume that he took as good of care of himself as anyone could in this situation. I do know that he went to the gym (as he also has cheapskate tips for utilizing the 2-week free gym trials to his advantage.)
I believe that his definition of "crappy job" is entirely relative. I personally think any job making well above living wage that doesn't require you to do anything hazardous or illegal is a pretty good deal. However, I understand what it's like to work a boring or unfufilling job, and in this book, Mr. Corey dreaded going to his job each day. It did pay the bills, and it did get him a foot into the real estate business. And in his case, it motivated him to strive for a life that didn't require your typical mind-numbing 9-5.