Great comment about watering- I must be the 'little dutch girl'. Water restrictions here prevent me from using sprinklers, or hoses at any times that suit me so I always end up using buckets of recycled water from around the house!
I live on a big sloped block and by watering my veggie patch, right down in the back corner (of course!) I get a full workout. Up and down no less than 30-40 steps with two full buckets gets my heart going every time!
Only problem with growing snow peas and beans is that my kids get into them before any can actually make their way onto our dinner plates! No such a bad problem to have really!
If possible, you might consider switching to a chest freezer, which opens upwards. For one thing, it's less likely that the door can be ajar, since it always closes itself. Even if there's enough stuff inside to pop the lid up slightly, the cool air tends to stay down and not simply flow out as in an upright model. It's more of a pain to get things out of it, but perhaps a small price to pay for some protection against accidental whole-freezer thawing.
The other thing, which I think was mentioned earlier, is to create giant ice-packs inside your freezer in the unused space. We fill our old 1-gallon plastic milk jugs with water and keep them in the freezer as space allows. Don't fill the jugs all the way, to allow the ice some room to expand. With 5 or 6 of these in a chest freezer, it can hold the cold for quite a long time, even if the power goes out.
Extra bonus: when you go grocery shopping and need some extra cool in your cooler (for those that take along coolers for the cold stuff) you can just grab one or two of these ice jugs and you've got some decent refrigeration for a few hours. When you get back, just put the jug back and it'll refreeze for the next time.
I am shaking my head here. What you are calling frugal is just the way many of us need to live normally. I am in my 40s and have never made more than $30,000 a year. I'm a newspaper editor at a daily newspaper, and we are horribly overworked and underpaid.
Yet even before I remarried a couple of years ago, I still managed to have a nice home and a decent car, and could even take a few trips to Europe. How? By walking instead of driving as much as possible, eating economically at home, having a very limited and old wardrobe, teaching my teenagers not to want a lot of junk, not having cable, etc., etc.
My new husband makes about the same amount of money as I do. But we still decided to limit ourselves to one car. I walk to work and he carpools.
Like others I am dubious about this. Now I don't put bumper stickers on my car (apart from an embarrassing one in high school, appropriate to a high school kid of that age I suppose ;-) ) but as someone already said,
I went so far as to remove the license plate holders and sticker put on by the dealership. It's my car, I'm not going to give the dealer free advertising!
Exactly! And I replaced it with a personalized one. I'm surprised by how many people around here leave those on. Do those count as well, according to this study?
And I had a roommate once who had a car completely covered in them. She explained how some friends of hers put a couple on, and now it's a running gag, people find new ones for her to stick on, and when she goes to concerts and such, she finds that she often picks up a sticker there as well. Don't think she was a very aggressive driver, either.
I'm not sure where the policemen and teachers of which you speak are, that get to buy run-down homes in bad neighborhoods for half price and live in them for only two years.
I've looked into this program myself. The homes aren't just waiting there for you to pick them. Most of them go to Katrina survivors. You have to check the site everyday. And the commitment is 3 years, not 2.
It's not that great of a deal. I know two people who bought one of these homes. One has about $60,000 of repairs to put into it. The other did it because she has family members who can do the fix-up, reconstruction work for free. For most teachers and policemen, the trouble isn't worth it.
My husband only made $16,580.00 last yr. I don't work. How much will we get back?? I was told $300. $600. and $1200. Which one is true?? Can anyone help me find out?? Thank you.1
Same problem here: Inverted 2 digits on child's SSN on original 2007 tax return. Mistake found, fixed within one week in February, and subsequently received full refund.
Stimulus is now minus one qualifying child due to this error.
Called IRS, and after 4 phone calls, and a wait time of 35 minutes, two representatives explained "Sorry, that's how it is written."
That's how what is written? The un-written stimulus rules? My original '07 return? Rep (a one Mr. Chestnut) wouldn't or couldn't explain what he meant. Just "...that's how it's written." Was told that I could "possibly receive refund for this child next year." What???
Have had the same kid for over 9 years with no problems before now. Could have really used the extra $300 especially since we counted on it. With so many unknowns, unspoken rules and exceptions, this is confusing and ridiculous. Makes us feel like hungry little panting puppies eager for our treat. That we were promised by our now annoyed master (IRS).
The Kiwanis just west of Downtown Ann Arbor, MI was a favorite Saturday morning stop of mine. Very limited hours, but very cheap. Being in a college town, it was sort of the "rental site" for furniture: Pick it up in September, return it when you moved out in August. Bibles for Mexico was also good for furniture in Holland, MI.
I'm currently drinking out of a chipped mug from the Free bin at Kiwanis. Ah, the memories - wish I still lived there.
bottom 20 + middle 20 + 0.1 equals 40.1 What about the other 59.9% of us? I doubt Obama will be as good for someone making 250K as someone making 39k. What a HORRIBLE and MISLEADING graph!
Minor quibbles to be sure, but Atwater Village is "out of the way?" Of what? Perhaps it is to some ensconced westsider who only ventures west of La Brea to go downtown a few times a year, but to the rest of us angelenos, it's rather centrally located and readily accessible -- and its thrift shops are certainly stocked by residents beyond that "artistic enclave" (whatever the heck that means) of Silver Lake (not Silverlake).
I had a similar problem last month. I went on vacation for a week, and about halfway through a friend of mine (who had been looking in on my pets) called and told me the freezer door was open. Since he only came by a couple times during the week, it could have been opened for anywhere from a few hours to a couple days. To make matters worse, he shut the freezer door again, refreezing everything into a massive, sticky clump (I don't blame him to for shutting the door, it wasn't his stuff, after all).
I lost several pounds of ground beef, a couple chicken breasts, a ton of frozen veggies, a quart of ice cream, a pound of bacon, a box of popsicles (melted into a puddle and then refrozen) and a package of hot dogs!
How the freezer door got open is a mystery to this day. My theory is that the cats managed it somehow..
You've definitely taken this in a direction I never would have thought of. Thanks! One thing I do so I don't have to make the crust every time is make a bulk batch a couple of times a year and freeze them separately. I'm on the road with a way slower connection, so opening up a second window for the exact link isn't going to be easy. I'm pretty sure the recipe's up on our family blog though, if you or anyone else is interested. http://www.webesharin.com . If you can't find it with the search box, let me know. I'll be back to a normal internet connection in a few days and will put the exact one up.
"Who'll be better for your wallet"? or "Who'll be worse for public works projects, education budgets, grants for arts, federal research, college financial aid, social welfare, and other things that we need taxes for"? People act like they get nothing out of taxes.
We lost a fully loaded upright freezer while out of town for a week. Everything thawed and went bad and the resulting ooze ran out onto the floor. The house smelled like a slaughterhouse and the cleanup was a big pain. The ruined contents amounted to 2-3 times the cost of the freezer (inexpensive gift from in-laws). Now we split frozen items between the two refrigerators (the old one is in the garage) knowing we won’t loose it all when (not if) one of them quits working.
You know I am surprised I don't hear more horror stories about freezer's going out. I have a freezer that is about 30 years old that I bought used. It hasn't gone out yet, but I'm setting some money aside to buy a new one in case it does.
I once refroze ice cream. I remember the taste to this day and it was an episode of enlightenment for me on the importance of good freezer etiquette ;)
I always thought I would just have a big ol' neighborhood BBQ if something happened to my freezer. I would just break into the rest of my stockpile and feed the neighbors - at least all the little ones who are constantly over here. Perhaps they'd feel my pain and offer some frozen meat. Perhaps not. We usually have our freezer well-stocked, so I know it would take a while for it to really start warming. Perhaps wrapping it (if there was an outage) would also help. We have a large spool of reflective insulation in our garage. We could wrap the freezer many times with that.
One of the biggest negatives about keeping a stocked freezer for frugality is the risk of that investment vanishing during the first power outage of the summer. I have nightmares about finding my freezer door ajar. Nice to know I dont have to throw it all away. Although I don't think I'd be willing to try the dry ice trick in the event of a hurricane. Too afraid I'd kill us all...
wikepedia is not a reliable sourc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great comment about watering- I must be the 'little dutch girl'. Water restrictions here prevent me from using sprinklers, or hoses at any times that suit me so I always end up using buckets of recycled water from around the house!
I live on a big sloped block and by watering my veggie patch, right down in the back corner (of course!) I get a full workout. Up and down no less than 30-40 steps with two full buckets gets my heart going every time!
Only problem with growing snow peas and beans is that my kids get into them before any can actually make their way onto our dinner plates! No such a bad problem to have really!
If possible, you might consider switching to a chest freezer, which opens upwards. For one thing, it's less likely that the door can be ajar, since it always closes itself. Even if there's enough stuff inside to pop the lid up slightly, the cool air tends to stay down and not simply flow out as in an upright model. It's more of a pain to get things out of it, but perhaps a small price to pay for some protection against accidental whole-freezer thawing.
The other thing, which I think was mentioned earlier, is to create giant ice-packs inside your freezer in the unused space. We fill our old 1-gallon plastic milk jugs with water and keep them in the freezer as space allows. Don't fill the jugs all the way, to allow the ice some room to expand. With 5 or 6 of these in a chest freezer, it can hold the cold for quite a long time, even if the power goes out.
Extra bonus: when you go grocery shopping and need some extra cool in your cooler (for those that take along coolers for the cold stuff) you can just grab one or two of these ice jugs and you've got some decent refrigeration for a few hours. When you get back, just put the jug back and it'll refreeze for the next time.
I am shaking my head here. What you are calling frugal is just the way many of us need to live normally. I am in my 40s and have never made more than $30,000 a year. I'm a newspaper editor at a daily newspaper, and we are horribly overworked and underpaid.
Yet even before I remarried a couple of years ago, I still managed to have a nice home and a decent car, and could even take a few trips to Europe. How? By walking instead of driving as much as possible, eating economically at home, having a very limited and old wardrobe, teaching my teenagers not to want a lot of junk, not having cable, etc., etc.
My new husband makes about the same amount of money as I do. But we still decided to limit ourselves to one car. I walk to work and he carpools.
It's just normal life to us.
Good idea!
Like others I am dubious about this. Now I don't put bumper stickers on my car (apart from an embarrassing one in high school, appropriate to a high school kid of that age I suppose ;-) ) but as someone already said,
I went so far as to remove the license plate holders and sticker put on by the dealership. It's my car, I'm not going to give the dealer free advertising!
Exactly! And I replaced it with a personalized one. I'm surprised by how many people around here leave those on. Do those count as well, according to this study?
And I had a roommate once who had a car completely covered in them. She explained how some friends of hers put a couple on, and now it's a running gag, people find new ones for her to stick on, and when she goes to concerts and such, she finds that she often picks up a sticker there as well. Don't think she was a very aggressive driver, either.
But I guess they'll study anything...!
FrugalZen,
I'm not sure where the policemen and teachers of which you speak are, that get to buy run-down homes in bad neighborhoods for half price and live in them for only two years.
I've looked into this program myself. The homes aren't just waiting there for you to pick them. Most of them go to Katrina survivors. You have to check the site everyday. And the commitment is 3 years, not 2.
It's not that great of a deal. I know two people who bought one of these homes. One has about $60,000 of repairs to put into it. The other did it because she has family members who can do the fix-up, reconstruction work for free. For most teachers and policemen, the trouble isn't worth it.
My husband only made $16,580.00 last yr. I don't work. How much will we get back?? I was told $300. $600. and $1200. Which one is true?? Can anyone help me find out?? Thank you.1
Same problem here: Inverted 2 digits on child's SSN on original 2007 tax return. Mistake found, fixed within one week in February, and subsequently received full refund.
Stimulus is now minus one qualifying child due to this error.
Called IRS, and after 4 phone calls, and a wait time of 35 minutes, two representatives explained "Sorry, that's how it is written."
That's how what is written? The un-written stimulus rules? My original '07 return? Rep (a one Mr. Chestnut) wouldn't or couldn't explain what he meant. Just "...that's how it's written." Was told that I could "possibly receive refund for this child next year." What???
Have had the same kid for over 9 years with no problems before now. Could have really used the extra $300 especially since we counted on it. With so many unknowns, unspoken rules and exceptions, this is confusing and ridiculous. Makes us feel like hungry little panting puppies eager for our treat. That we were promised by our now annoyed master (IRS).
The Kiwanis just west of Downtown Ann Arbor, MI was a favorite Saturday morning stop of mine. Very limited hours, but very cheap. Being in a college town, it was sort of the "rental site" for furniture: Pick it up in September, return it when you moved out in August. Bibles for Mexico was also good for furniture in Holland, MI.
I'm currently drinking out of a chipped mug from the Free bin at Kiwanis. Ah, the memories - wish I still lived there.
It's beginning to sound like one thing to do when travelling is tape the door shut...!
bottom 20 + middle 20 + 0.1 equals 40.1 What about the other 59.9% of us? I doubt Obama will be as good for someone making 250K as someone making 39k. What a HORRIBLE and MISLEADING graph!
Minor quibbles to be sure, but Atwater Village is "out of the way?" Of what? Perhaps it is to some ensconced westsider who only ventures west of La Brea to go downtown a few times a year, but to the rest of us angelenos, it's rather centrally located and readily accessible -- and its thrift shops are certainly stocked by residents beyond that "artistic enclave" (whatever the heck that means) of Silver Lake (not Silverlake).
I had a similar problem last month. I went on vacation for a week, and about halfway through a friend of mine (who had been looking in on my pets) called and told me the freezer door was open. Since he only came by a couple times during the week, it could have been opened for anywhere from a few hours to a couple days. To make matters worse, he shut the freezer door again, refreezing everything into a massive, sticky clump (I don't blame him to for shutting the door, it wasn't his stuff, after all).
I lost several pounds of ground beef, a couple chicken breasts, a ton of frozen veggies, a quart of ice cream, a pound of bacon, a box of popsicles (melted into a puddle and then refrozen) and a package of hot dogs!
How the freezer door got open is a mystery to this day. My theory is that the cats managed it somehow..
Thanks ladies, I'll keep a lookout for both of those. Also, I'm back to a normal internet speed connection, so here's the direct link for the bulk pie crust: http://webesharin.com/2007/06/03/budget-recipe-bulk-homemade-pie-crust/
and the link for the bulk low fat baking mix, which has half the shortening of the regular mix recipes:
http://webesharin.com/2007/06/01/dry-mix-recipes-bulk-low-fat-baking-mix/
I'll be waiting for the product substitution update, if anyone has a chance to post their results.
You've definitely taken this in a direction I never would have thought of. Thanks! One thing I do so I don't have to make the crust every time is make a bulk batch a couple of times a year and freeze them separately. I'm on the road with a way slower connection, so opening up a second window for the exact link isn't going to be easy. I'm pretty sure the recipe's up on our family blog though, if you or anyone else is interested. http://www.webesharin.com . If you can't find it with the search box, let me know. I'll be back to a normal internet connection in a few days and will put the exact one up.
LOVE the cowboy pie idea. Thanks again!
"Who'll be better for your wallet"? or "Who'll be worse for public works projects, education budgets, grants for arts, federal research, college financial aid, social welfare, and other things that we need taxes for"? People act like they get nothing out of taxes.
We lost a fully loaded upright freezer while out of town for a week. Everything thawed and went bad and the resulting ooze ran out onto the floor. The house smelled like a slaughterhouse and the cleanup was a big pain. The ruined contents amounted to 2-3 times the cost of the freezer (inexpensive gift from in-laws). Now we split frozen items between the two refrigerators (the old one is in the garage) knowing we won’t loose it all when (not if) one of them quits working.
Linsey, this really is a cool article, but I just can't stop chuckling over your intro . . .
Funny, and yet I'm sure it was a total pain in the neck to deal with. Ah, motherhood. And I think I have a tough time with our labrador retriever.
Good piece.
You know I am surprised I don't hear more horror stories about freezer's going out. I have a freezer that is about 30 years old that I bought used. It hasn't gone out yet, but I'm setting some money aside to buy a new one in case it does.
I once refroze ice cream. I remember the taste to this day and it was an episode of enlightenment for me on the importance of good freezer etiquette ;)
Atwater village is not out of the way and is too fabulous to miss if you blink.
I always thought I would just have a big ol' neighborhood BBQ if something happened to my freezer. I would just break into the rest of my stockpile and feed the neighbors - at least all the little ones who are constantly over here. Perhaps they'd feel my pain and offer some frozen meat. Perhaps not. We usually have our freezer well-stocked, so I know it would take a while for it to really start warming. Perhaps wrapping it (if there was an outage) would also help. We have a large spool of reflective insulation in our garage. We could wrap the freezer many times with that.
One of the biggest negatives about keeping a stocked freezer for frugality is the risk of that investment vanishing during the first power outage of the summer. I have nightmares about finding my freezer door ajar. Nice to know I dont have to throw it all away. Although I don't think I'd be willing to try the dry ice trick in the event of a hurricane. Too afraid I'd kill us all...
Cool tip!