I absolutely struggle with the need to keep my grocery bill as small as possible, and the fact that buying the cheapest food may not be the healthy choice.
I really WANT to buy fruits and vegetables that are free of pesticides and other scary stuff, but that 10 lb bag of potatoes at Winco for $1.98 just calls to me every time!
I also agree that the lack of frugality is what got our country into the economic mess that we're in (and will continue to BE in, if we just pull out the credit cards to 'help' the economy).
I want to do what's best for ME (i.e. live frugally, become financially secure), while balancing my need to also live lightly on the earth. That is probably my greatest challenge (other than passing up the 50% off signs in the shoe store window. . . .)
Good post. I have one thought, though. You say the that new landlords should avoid Section 8, but you never explain why. If someone invests in lower income properties, I think section 8 is a great idea, no matter if someone is a novice or expert investor. Because the tenants are tied to the program and want to stay in the program, they typically do what is needed to be a tenant in good standing. I've experienced lower eviction rates from Section 8 tenants in low income properties
Just a thought . . .
Maybe you can tell us a bit more about your reasoning?
Great Post. I would like to invest in rental properties one day. Right now I'm trying to learn as much as possible. Can you recommend any good books or websites?
"I want my cheap stuff, and I NEED my cheap stuff. I stay at home and take care of the kids, and my Husband breaks his butt SEVEN days a week, for our family. SEVEN DAYS. I'm not kidding.
It's a running joke on weekends, when I see my family, they say, "oh...where's Jim? Let me guess.....he's WORKING???"
Saturday AND Sunday. Full days. Non stop.
But we believe that kids should be with their parents, and not have someone else raising them all day. So we deal with it."
All I have to say is AMEN! Thank you for your words - I am a Stay at Home Mom, too, and I love it. I am a bargain shopper because I have to be. And if I didn't have to be, I still would be because then I would be able to donate my money directly to the charities I see fit.
The thing is, you can pay a fortune for a shirt or whatever, and you may be paying for the marketing of that shirt, not the salary of the person who makes it. Every year, I challenge my students to find an article of clothing that is made in the United States, and usually, they can't do it. This year, one kid found a pair of socks. When we look at each others labels in class, we find that ALL of the clothes are made in countries where people are paid next to nothing to produce those clothes. So in the end, it may not really matter how much you pay for that shirt, or where you buy it. Perhaps it just boils down to which corporation you want to have your money.
1. Right now is a historic time to buy real-estate: BOTH property prices AND finance rates are cheap ... I say, buy as much as you can and lock in the rates for as long as you can, BUT
2. Keep the 20% rule in mind (have no more than 20% of your own Net Worth locked up in the equity in your own home. Have extra? Great, use that to buy more rental real estate.
BTW: there are other forms of rental real estate than houses and condo's: retail office, industrial and other small commercial.
Whatever you do ... buy and HOLD FOREVER (if you can) and eventually retire on the income. It's what the Rich have done for thousands of years.
Persecute you? NO WAY! I stand by every word you said. I am a SAHM to 4 with a husband that owns his own small company and he, too, works 7 days a week. In the summer he sometimes only gets about 4 hrs sleep. My job is to save the money, while his is to make it. You bet I'm gonna find the best deal I can on what ever we need to make his hard earned money go as far as it can!
Not being frugal is what has reduced our economy into it's current poor state. And you would lay the guilt trip on us as consumers, who must be frugal to cope with the rising cost of living? Sorry, but I don't agree with this post at all.
I live in what I feel is a quaint old-fashioned village, and it's important to me that the stores in the village survive. I can walk into town and buy a variety of things that are more expensive than if I bought them at Target or online. But I'm walking, and I'm supporting my neighbors, and I'm keeping up the property value of my home (quaint villages mean higher property value), and I'm not using gas/polluting, and I'm getting some free exercise.
It is, however, tough for me to spend $45 + tax on a book locally when I can get the same book minus tax and shipping for $30 from Amazon. It's not the bookseller's fault though. They're not marking anything up -- they're just trying to get by. Amazon buys in such bulk they can afford to make such huge discounts. I end up compromising -- I make sure to buy what I see as a fair number of my books from my local bookseller, and I order some online. (I actually get most of my books from the library -- we mostly just buy reference-type books or gifts.)
Anyway, it's far more important to me to support my local shops on every day than it is to support the Gap or Target or some other big box or chain store when they are selling an organic t-shirt. The same goes for food. I'd rather buy local meat and vegetables, organic or not, and support my local small farmers, than support huge organic factory farms that truck in the items.
BTW, I agree with the poster who points out that saving money in one place means investing it somewhere else. We've been frugal for years by necessity. The last year or so have been a little better for us financially, but we've continued to be frugal, and this January, we were able to buy our very first brand new car (talk about an ethical decision -- trying to figure out whether new was automatically worse for the environment, blah, blah, blah). So in the end we invested all that saved money in the automobile industry.
It took years for me to try it, but growing a lot of your own spices is a great way to go. I have found that Basil, Dill, Parsley, and Oregano grow amazingly well in assorted pots. And, they will keep growing and growing and growing....the more you pick the more they grow. If you start from seed, it costs very very little, and only investment is a little time at first. Make sure they are watered, and keep in a sunny spot. No worries, all the fresh herbs you need. I am sure other herbs work just as well, just haven't tried them.
Oh, also, I have found great success in saving extra seeds to use later in the year or the next year. So, the $1 or $2 package of seeds can spread over several seasons if kept in a dry place. That way you don't feel like you are wasting seeds, if you grow a few pots at a time.
I've started growing my own herbs indoors with grow lights. What I don't use fresh gets put in the dehydrator and placed in "handi-vac" bags for future use.
I'm not a gourmet cook/taster so I have no problem buying other spices at discount stores, plus I will buy in bulk on eBay for the specific spices I use heavily and don't grow (like dry mustard or seed).
I found a nice website (E.D.FOODS) for spices jars and I've standardized my entire spice cabinet, making labels on my computer, so everything is easy to find/use. That ended finding 5 jars of one spice because I always thought I was out because I didn't see it.
I'm also learning to make my own condiments since it becomes cheaper, less salt, and very rewarding, plus you can play with the taste to your liking.
It was mentioned about Ginger (powder) not lasting long. Buy your Ginger root(s) and store in your freezer. Lasts for years. Take out and use what you want.
I also find it much easier to chop up and freeze Bell Peppers, Onions, and similar items, so its always available for recipes year round and I don't have to run to the store at the last moment because I don't have a green bell pepper in the frig. Once chopped the pieces are flash frozen before being vacuum bagged so its easy to measure what you want.
BTW, if you haven't invested your $10 yet for the Reynolds "Handi-Vac" unit you are definitely missing out on some major convenience and food saving.
I watched a show one time, and it showed a lady from one of the sweatshop countries, who lived in a tiny room, with hardly anything, and she worked at a sweatshop, making clothes for Walmart. She sewed on the two white stripes on the sides of black exercise pants...a pair that I actually HAVE! Seeing the face of someone who actually made my clothing was weird.
She made about $12 a WEEK at her job. The pants she sewed stripes onto, were selling for $12 a pair.
So they sent people and cameras, along with that actual woman, into a Walmart, to ask customers in the clothing section, if they wouldn't mind paying a little more for their clothing, if it meant that the woman who made them could make more money, and live a better life.
All of them said they would be willing to pay more, for her sake.
I sat there, thinking, NO! I would NOT be willing to pay more!
The whole reason I'm NOT shopping at the GAP, for my clothing, is that I can't afford it! So I'm shopping cheap, trying to make MY life, and my family's lives better. Heck...the reason I hardly ever shop at Target, even, is because they are more expensive than Walmart! They got nicer stuff, but oh well. I gotta make due!
I'm sorry, but I personally want to save MYSELF money...not give more for someone across the world.
I know. I'm gonna get clobbered with angry responses.
But I asked all my friends, and family about what they would say in that situation, and they said that they would say yes to paying more, because the cameras were on, and the sewing lady was right there. But in actuality, they would NOT want to pay more. Their thoughts were the SAME as mine.
Most of this life is "look after you and your own", isn't it?
I want my cheap stuff, and I NEED my cheap stuff. I stay at home and take care of the kids, and my Husband breaks his butt SEVEN days a week, for our family. SEVEN DAYS. I'm not kidding.
It's a running joke on weekends, when I see my family, they say, "oh...where's Jim? Let me guess.....he's WORKING???"
Saturday AND Sunday. Full days. Non stop.
But we believe that kids should be with their parents, and not have someone else raising them all day. So we deal with it.
I know the people in the sweatshops would never do anything to help MY Husband have a day off. So why should I spend more on that striped pair of pants, so MY Husband has to work harder, just so that woman can have more?
Sorry. I'm being honest, and I think more people should be honest about this stuff. Not ONE person I asked, said they'd be willing to pay more. Not ONE. And I know plenty of respectable people. They aren't all lower class, hicks, or anything.
I have this problem with my Video Game buying habits. I tend to only buy games after they've been out a year or two, and at a used $20 price point instead of the standard $50 new.
It's great on my budget, but I realize that not a single dollar of what I'm paying goes to the game creators. To make matters worse, I'm often buying games that, while good quality and good reviewed, didn't sell too well. Things like Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Psychonauts, etc. These games saw low sales and I know I'm contributing to that problem.
The best storage solution I've found so far is a spice rack my father invented called SpiceStack. It allows you to organize up to 27 spice bottles (or 54 half-size little guys) from the grocery store in a compact space in your dark, dry kitchen cabinet where spices will stay freshest. The drop-down drawers make it easy to find the spice you need and help save you from buying duplicate spices (go count how many paprikas you have, I dare you!).
Check out SpiceStack at SpiceStack.com. Its $29.95 (and 50% off additional units) plus S&H. We also sell airtight spice bottles for those of you that like to buy in bulk.
Barbara, I've had luck with a modification of your Mom's drying procedure. I lay the leaves out on a plate lined with a paper towel and cook for 8-10 second increments. You have to watch them so they don't ignite (and stink the place up), but I went through a few bundles of basil this way last summer, and I'm still enjoying it. I stored the leaves in a mason jar in a cool dry place.
Freecycling is amazing... and a testiment to the fact that one person's trash is another person's treasure. I once had a box of Ebay-purchased dishes arrive broken (poorly packed by vendor).... once he and I had worked out reimbursement details, I offered the shards up on Freecycle. I had over a dozen people contact me. Apparently, there are a lot of mosaic crafters/artists around here, and they use broken china for tesserae. I personally don't care if they sell their crafts afterward: my goal is to get the stuff out of my space and not into landfill... if people inject some value add into the items (fix them up, remodel them, make quilts out of them, craft them), so much the better!
When trying to get rid of accumulated "stuff":
Talk to your local womens'/mens shelters... they are often looking for clothing, soaps/shampoos, unused personal items.
Church organizations: often looking for items to help people set up apartments
Some of our local sports stores collect used running shoes for redistribution in wartorn Africa.
If you are trying to shed or acquire books, check out Bookcrossing.org.
Compost!
There are lots of alternatives to sending your cast offs to landfill... it just takes a bit more effort than depositing your stuff at the end of the laneway each week.
If you don't shop at Wal-Mart, you'll be depriving Chinese factory workers of their livelihood. The factory will shut down. Then the workers will be idle and restless and they'll revolt. China will fall to chaos. Is that the Right Thing? :)
Copper is the classic material for stills. I think if you used the same copper line used for drinking water, you'd be fine. The general rule is food-grade materials. I'd prep it the same way you'd do before using it for drinking water.
The alcohol content is simply a matter of physics: alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water, so as soon as you heat up the fermented liquid, you'll be getting almost pure alcohol out. (Only almost pure because some water will also evaporate no matter what the temperature is, which will dilute your product.) As the run goes on, the product will come to have a higher and higher percentage of water, simply because the stuff you're distilling will have a higher and higher percentage of water. This leaves you with a trade-off: you can get a higher percentage of alcohol, but only at the cost of leaving behind some of it.
I'd highly recommend purchasing spices at "Ethnic" groceries; online or local. You'll find Indian spices in particular (including cinnamon) much MUCH cheaper. For $4 I can buy enough bulk cinnamon bark to last me 6 months, when ground. (And I go through cinnamon like some folks go through soda.) If I bought it pre-ground at my local grocery, the bill would be absolutely insane. (Something like $50.)
Hubby and I had a keg of Shiner Bock at our wedding reception 11 years ago and we ended up with half a keg left. (That wouldn't have happened if either I or hubby had been drinking at the time. Sigh.) We pumped the contents onto our compost pile and a couple of months later had the richest, most sumptuous compost imaginable. It grows great tomatoes.
1) Lobby interests aside, I still maintain my position that this is a very useful tool. When I mentioned an extra glass of milk, it is implied that I may also get my dairy/calcium through other easily-digestable means. As someone who grew up in a very small farming household, I'll be quick to point out that rarely were our "interests" defended to the point of altering public health programs. Maybe for the big guys, but not for us. (Besides, we grew up on good old goat milk!)
2) I read over the complete list of activities with some friends after a late night of board games and overeating. We cracked up at some of the activities entries!
3) Thanks for sharing DWLZ with us! I had visitedyears ago, and had completely forgotten about how great a resource this is!
I absolutely struggle with the need to keep my grocery bill as small as possible, and the fact that buying the cheapest food may not be the healthy choice.
I really WANT to buy fruits and vegetables that are free of pesticides and other scary stuff, but that 10 lb bag of potatoes at Winco for $1.98 just calls to me every time!
I also agree that the lack of frugality is what got our country into the economic mess that we're in (and will continue to BE in, if we just pull out the credit cards to 'help' the economy).
I want to do what's best for ME (i.e. live frugally, become financially secure), while balancing my need to also live lightly on the earth. That is probably my greatest challenge (other than passing up the 50% off signs in the shoe store window. . . .)
Good post. I have one thought, though. You say the that new landlords should avoid Section 8, but you never explain why. If someone invests in lower income properties, I think section 8 is a great idea, no matter if someone is a novice or expert investor. Because the tenants are tied to the program and want to stay in the program, they typically do what is needed to be a tenant in good standing. I've experienced lower eviction rates from Section 8 tenants in low income properties
Just a thought . . .
Maybe you can tell us a bit more about your reasoning?
Great Post. I would like to invest in rental properties one day. Right now I'm trying to learn as much as possible. Can you recommend any good books or websites?
"I want my cheap stuff, and I NEED my cheap stuff. I stay at home and take care of the kids, and my Husband breaks his butt SEVEN days a week, for our family. SEVEN DAYS. I'm not kidding.
It's a running joke on weekends, when I see my family, they say, "oh...where's Jim? Let me guess.....he's WORKING???"
Saturday AND Sunday. Full days. Non stop.
But we believe that kids should be with their parents, and not have someone else raising them all day. So we deal with it."
All I have to say is AMEN! Thank you for your words - I am a Stay at Home Mom, too, and I love it. I am a bargain shopper because I have to be. And if I didn't have to be, I still would be because then I would be able to donate my money directly to the charities I see fit.
The thing is, you can pay a fortune for a shirt or whatever, and you may be paying for the marketing of that shirt, not the salary of the person who makes it. Every year, I challenge my students to find an article of clothing that is made in the United States, and usually, they can't do it. This year, one kid found a pair of socks. When we look at each others labels in class, we find that ALL of the clothes are made in countries where people are paid next to nothing to produce those clothes. So in the end, it may not really matter how much you pay for that shirt, or where you buy it. Perhaps it just boils down to which corporation you want to have your money.
On my blog, I mention two related points:
1. Right now is a historic time to buy real-estate: BOTH property prices AND finance rates are cheap ... I say, buy as much as you can and lock in the rates for as long as you can, BUT
2. Keep the 20% rule in mind (have no more than 20% of your own Net Worth locked up in the equity in your own home. Have extra? Great, use that to buy more rental real estate.
BTW: there are other forms of rental real estate than houses and condo's: retail office, industrial and other small commercial.
Whatever you do ... buy and HOLD FOREVER (if you can) and eventually retire on the income. It's what the Rich have done for thousands of years.
Persecute you? NO WAY! I stand by every word you said. I am a SAHM to 4 with a husband that owns his own small company and he, too, works 7 days a week. In the summer he sometimes only gets about 4 hrs sleep. My job is to save the money, while his is to make it. You bet I'm gonna find the best deal I can on what ever we need to make his hard earned money go as far as it can!
Not being frugal is what has reduced our economy into it's current poor state. And you would lay the guilt trip on us as consumers, who must be frugal to cope with the rising cost of living? Sorry, but I don't agree with this post at all.
Diet-Blog.com has a nice list of mostly free online sensible (important criterion!) weight-loss and fitness sites
My personal favorite is SparkPeople.com
I live in what I feel is a quaint old-fashioned village, and it's important to me that the stores in the village survive. I can walk into town and buy a variety of things that are more expensive than if I bought them at Target or online. But I'm walking, and I'm supporting my neighbors, and I'm keeping up the property value of my home (quaint villages mean higher property value), and I'm not using gas/polluting, and I'm getting some free exercise.
It is, however, tough for me to spend $45 + tax on a book locally when I can get the same book minus tax and shipping for $30 from Amazon. It's not the bookseller's fault though. They're not marking anything up -- they're just trying to get by. Amazon buys in such bulk they can afford to make such huge discounts. I end up compromising -- I make sure to buy what I see as a fair number of my books from my local bookseller, and I order some online. (I actually get most of my books from the library -- we mostly just buy reference-type books or gifts.)
Anyway, it's far more important to me to support my local shops on every day than it is to support the Gap or Target or some other big box or chain store when they are selling an organic t-shirt. The same goes for food. I'd rather buy local meat and vegetables, organic or not, and support my local small farmers, than support huge organic factory farms that truck in the items.
BTW, I agree with the poster who points out that saving money in one place means investing it somewhere else. We've been frugal for years by necessity. The last year or so have been a little better for us financially, but we've continued to be frugal, and this January, we were able to buy our very first brand new car (talk about an ethical decision -- trying to figure out whether new was automatically worse for the environment, blah, blah, blah). So in the end we invested all that saved money in the automobile industry.
It took years for me to try it, but growing a lot of your own spices is a great way to go. I have found that Basil, Dill, Parsley, and Oregano grow amazingly well in assorted pots. And, they will keep growing and growing and growing....the more you pick the more they grow. If you start from seed, it costs very very little, and only investment is a little time at first. Make sure they are watered, and keep in a sunny spot. No worries, all the fresh herbs you need. I am sure other herbs work just as well, just haven't tried them.
Oh, also, I have found great success in saving extra seeds to use later in the year or the next year. So, the $1 or $2 package of seeds can spread over several seasons if kept in a dry place. That way you don't feel like you are wasting seeds, if you grow a few pots at a time.
Shelle
I've started growing my own herbs indoors with grow lights. What I don't use fresh gets put in the dehydrator and placed in "handi-vac" bags for future use.
I'm not a gourmet cook/taster so I have no problem buying other spices at discount stores, plus I will buy in bulk on eBay for the specific spices I use heavily and don't grow (like dry mustard or seed).
I found a nice website (E.D.FOODS) for spices jars and I've standardized my entire spice cabinet, making labels on my computer, so everything is easy to find/use. That ended finding 5 jars of one spice because I always thought I was out because I didn't see it.
I'm also learning to make my own condiments since it becomes cheaper, less salt, and very rewarding, plus you can play with the taste to your liking.
It was mentioned about Ginger (powder) not lasting long. Buy your Ginger root(s) and store in your freezer. Lasts for years. Take out and use what you want.
I also find it much easier to chop up and freeze Bell Peppers, Onions, and similar items, so its always available for recipes year round and I don't have to run to the store at the last moment because I don't have a green bell pepper in the frig. Once chopped the pieces are flash frozen before being vacuum bagged so its easy to measure what you want.
BTW, if you haven't invested your $10 yet for the Reynolds "Handi-Vac" unit you are definitely missing out on some major convenience and food saving.
I watched a show one time, and it showed a lady from one of the sweatshop countries, who lived in a tiny room, with hardly anything, and she worked at a sweatshop, making clothes for Walmart. She sewed on the two white stripes on the sides of black exercise pants...a pair that I actually HAVE! Seeing the face of someone who actually made my clothing was weird.
She made about $12 a WEEK at her job. The pants she sewed stripes onto, were selling for $12 a pair.
So they sent people and cameras, along with that actual woman, into a Walmart, to ask customers in the clothing section, if they wouldn't mind paying a little more for their clothing, if it meant that the woman who made them could make more money, and live a better life.
All of them said they would be willing to pay more, for her sake.
I sat there, thinking, NO! I would NOT be willing to pay more!
The whole reason I'm NOT shopping at the GAP, for my clothing, is that I can't afford it! So I'm shopping cheap, trying to make MY life, and my family's lives better. Heck...the reason I hardly ever shop at Target, even, is because they are more expensive than Walmart! They got nicer stuff, but oh well. I gotta make due!
I'm sorry, but I personally want to save MYSELF money...not give more for someone across the world.
I know. I'm gonna get clobbered with angry responses.
But I asked all my friends, and family about what they would say in that situation, and they said that they would say yes to paying more, because the cameras were on, and the sewing lady was right there. But in actuality, they would NOT want to pay more. Their thoughts were the SAME as mine.
Most of this life is "look after you and your own", isn't it?
I want my cheap stuff, and I NEED my cheap stuff. I stay at home and take care of the kids, and my Husband breaks his butt SEVEN days a week, for our family. SEVEN DAYS. I'm not kidding.
It's a running joke on weekends, when I see my family, they say, "oh...where's Jim? Let me guess.....he's WORKING???"
Saturday AND Sunday. Full days. Non stop.
But we believe that kids should be with their parents, and not have someone else raising them all day. So we deal with it.
I know the people in the sweatshops would never do anything to help MY Husband have a day off. So why should I spend more on that striped pair of pants, so MY Husband has to work harder, just so that woman can have more?
Sorry. I'm being honest, and I think more people should be honest about this stuff. Not ONE person I asked, said they'd be willing to pay more. Not ONE. And I know plenty of respectable people. They aren't all lower class, hicks, or anything.
Go ahead. Persecute me for telling the truth.
I have this problem with my Video Game buying habits. I tend to only buy games after they've been out a year or two, and at a used $20 price point instead of the standard $50 new.
It's great on my budget, but I realize that not a single dollar of what I'm paying goes to the game creators. To make matters worse, I'm often buying games that, while good quality and good reviewed, didn't sell too well. Things like Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Psychonauts, etc. These games saw low sales and I know I'm contributing to that problem.
The best storage solution I've found so far is a spice rack my father invented called SpiceStack. It allows you to organize up to 27 spice bottles (or 54 half-size little guys) from the grocery store in a compact space in your dark, dry kitchen cabinet where spices will stay freshest. The drop-down drawers make it easy to find the spice you need and help save you from buying duplicate spices (go count how many paprikas you have, I dare you!).
Check out SpiceStack at SpiceStack.com. Its $29.95 (and 50% off additional units) plus S&H. We also sell airtight spice bottles for those of you that like to buy in bulk.
Happy Spicy Cooking!
Barbara, I've had luck with a modification of your Mom's drying procedure. I lay the leaves out on a plate lined with a paper towel and cook for 8-10 second increments. You have to watch them so they don't ignite (and stink the place up), but I went through a few bundles of basil this way last summer, and I'm still enjoying it. I stored the leaves in a mason jar in a cool dry place.
Freecycling is amazing... and a testiment to the fact that one person's trash is another person's treasure. I once had a box of Ebay-purchased dishes arrive broken (poorly packed by vendor).... once he and I had worked out reimbursement details, I offered the shards up on Freecycle. I had over a dozen people contact me. Apparently, there are a lot of mosaic crafters/artists around here, and they use broken china for tesserae. I personally don't care if they sell their crafts afterward: my goal is to get the stuff out of my space and not into landfill... if people inject some value add into the items (fix them up, remodel them, make quilts out of them, craft them), so much the better!
When trying to get rid of accumulated "stuff":
Talk to your local womens'/mens shelters... they are often looking for clothing, soaps/shampoos, unused personal items.
Church organizations: often looking for items to help people set up apartments
Some of our local sports stores collect used running shoes for redistribution in wartorn Africa.
If you are trying to shed or acquire books, check out Bookcrossing.org.
Compost!
There are lots of alternatives to sending your cast offs to landfill... it just takes a bit more effort than depositing your stuff at the end of the laneway each week.
If you don't shop at Wal-Mart, you'll be depriving Chinese factory workers of their livelihood. The factory will shut down. Then the workers will be idle and restless and they'll revolt. China will fall to chaos. Is that the Right Thing? :)
The only thing points.com is good for is to get a few hundred miles bonues when you sign up.
Copper is the classic material for stills. I think if you used the same copper line used for drinking water, you'd be fine. The general rule is food-grade materials. I'd prep it the same way you'd do before using it for drinking water.
The alcohol content is simply a matter of physics: alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water, so as soon as you heat up the fermented liquid, you'll be getting almost pure alcohol out. (Only almost pure because some water will also evaporate no matter what the temperature is, which will dilute your product.) As the run goes on, the product will come to have a higher and higher percentage of water, simply because the stuff you're distilling will have a higher and higher percentage of water. This leaves you with a trade-off: you can get a higher percentage of alcohol, but only at the cost of leaving behind some of it.
I'd highly recommend purchasing spices at "Ethnic" groceries; online or local. You'll find Indian spices in particular (including cinnamon) much MUCH cheaper. For $4 I can buy enough bulk cinnamon bark to last me 6 months, when ground. (And I go through cinnamon like some folks go through soda.) If I bought it pre-ground at my local grocery, the bill would be absolutely insane. (Something like $50.)
You might try www.ishopindian.com as a resource if you don't have any local Indian food stores. For Mexican spices, www.mexgrocer.com/ .
Hubby and I had a keg of Shiner Bock at our wedding reception 11 years ago and we ended up with half a keg left. (That wouldn't have happened if either I or hubby had been drinking at the time. Sigh.) We pumped the contents onto our compost pile and a couple of months later had the richest, most sumptuous compost imaginable. It grows great tomatoes.
BRAUN coffeemakers last longest, best quality, reasonable price, under $25.
Mrs. Chef
Only the rich - or naive - can NOT buy at the cheapest/or most frugal price, ethics notwithstanding.
1) Lobby interests aside, I still maintain my position that this is a very useful tool. When I mentioned an extra glass of milk, it is implied that I may also get my dairy/calcium through other easily-digestable means. As someone who grew up in a very small farming household, I'll be quick to point out that rarely were our "interests" defended to the point of altering public health programs. Maybe for the big guys, but not for us. (Besides, we grew up on good old goat milk!)
2) I read over the complete list of activities with some friends after a late night of board games and overeating. We cracked up at some of the activities entries!
3) Thanks for sharing DWLZ with us! I had visitedyears ago, and had completely forgotten about how great a resource this is!
Thanks for the comments!