2010

This is a year-end quiz that Linda over at All & Sundry does every year. It seems like a good tradition to start and a good way to end my 2010 blogging adventures. Also? Finishing up Reverb today.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
Cooked a Christmas dinner for my family (in January). Turned 32. Ran a half-marathon. Took two yoga classes. Planted my first real garden. Traveled by myself (but not to anywhere new). Ran a faster 5K. Had a wedding anniversary. Became the bread-winner. Bought a bunch of home improvements (two exterior doors, a storm door, a hot water heater, a window).

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don’t remember what my resolutions were but yes, I will make more for next year. (Stay tuned, they'll become public tomorrow.)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Two people I work with gave birth. I know tons of people who’ve had babies or gotten pregnant this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No

5. What countries did you visit?
Does Texas count? It's like a whole other country, I've heard.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
I will have better health insurance, something I lacked for ten months of 2010. I would like to have a less cluttered home and to cultivate more peace in my life.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I’m no good with dates. By 2012 I probably won't even remember what year I did these things. See why this is a good exercise for me? Late March’s half-marathon, Labor Day Weekend’s 5K, Mid-September wedding anniversary and celebrated my parents' 40th anniversary, husband's job loss first Friday in November, Christmas’s sledding.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

The half-marathon. It seems like such an unachievable task when you are back at the fitness level of trying to run for 13 minutes. It takes a lot of training to get from that point to running 13 miles.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I don't know if I'd call it a failure, since it is still a work in progress, but we've had a couple of arguments wherein we are still figuring out how to be better as husband-and-wife.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No. I had a situation wherein everything in my abdomen slightly malfunctioned all at the same time. It was painful and a bit scary playing the "what if" game, but it wasn't serious. As far as the medical community of my community could tell, it was probably the rupturing of a functional cyst on my ovaries, a bladder infection, and constipation all at the same time. (Just in case you wanted those details.)

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Yoga class and race registrations. A new basement door.

12. Where did most of your money go?
Mortgage, Taxes, Home Improvement, Grocery Store, Target

13. What did you get really excited about?
The Wilderness Run (always excited about that) and blogging and book club starting next year

14. What song will always remind you of 2010?
Live and Let Die by Guns and Roses because it was first on my running playlist. Bad Romance by Lady Gaga because it was near the end of my running playlist and I knew I would be close to done with long runs. Freedom by Wham! became my new favorite old song but I don’t know that it will specifically remind me of 2010 in any way. I will remember a particular discussion with my husband about Freedom 90 by George Michael and how things reveal different meanings as you age, learn new information and gain more understanding about the world. I would like to make the disclaimer that I’m not particularly a George Michael fan although the preceding sentences may seem to contradict that fact.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder? Right now I’m probably happier but I’ve had some black moments.
– thinner or fatter? Same-ish?
– richer or poorer? Well, technically poorer but I don’t feel it.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Wandering, wondering, laughing until my abs were sore, running, gardening and yard work, enjoying life

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Wasting time online or with a computer game.

18. How did you spend Christmas?
At my parents' house. We got up, had breakfast casserole, opened some gifts, bundled up and went sledding, came inside and warmed up, lazed around and visited family. Great day.

19. What was your favorite TV program?
This year, I watched DVDs of Magnum P.I. and The Office. I caught a couple episodes of Parks and Rec. I also got involved with The Biggest Loser, The Sing-Off (Who doesn't love Ben Folds?), Project Runway, and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, all courtesy of the internet.

20. What were your favorite books of the year?
I can only remember a few books I read this year: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides was the first book I read and probably the best novel. Pretty in Plaid, Jen Lancaster, which I enjoyed much more than Bitter is the New Black.  The End of Overeating by David Kessler was interesting. The most memorable book I checked out from the library was Twinkie Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger and the best audio book I listened to was A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. I really was into nonfiction this year.

21. What was your favorite music from this year?

I was never really in a music vibe this year. Lately it may be Donavan. His greatest hits were in the CD player while I was wrapping presents. Thankfully, I was too lazy to change it. How can you ignore a song that begins with a spoken word lesson about the myth of Atlantis or with the lyrics, "I'm just mad about saffron?" And "Sunshine Superman?" You gotta love it.

22. What were your favorite films of the year?
True Grit, Inception, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Shutter Island (Again, not particularly a Leo fan, these things just happen.)

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Awkward and Office Space joined me for a tour of a coffee plant and we enjoyed brunch. 

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
My attitude. In 2010, I really started to take charge of it. It's a work in progress.

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
Black, grey, and shades of brown. I have my favorite turtleneck from the Gap in black, oatmeal, grey and white. I wear them all the time and I love it. I even wore one during the half-marathon. I've decided I'm bringing purple back.

26. What kept you sane?
I talk to my mom twice a day during my commute. Just a little something to break the monotony.


27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.

Probably the most valuable life lesson is that I can choose how I want to feel.

Permission Granted: A Few Days Off

I may not be updating this blog much between now and Christmas. Mostly because I have a deadline for work and I'll be doing a lot of writing between now and the 24th. I expect that I'll have to work after-hours to finish the project. Why after-hours? Because, while I'm at work I'll be writing a grant for the grant writer we hired (who made it clear we'd both be sitting at my desk working on my computer, joy)--silly question. So I'll be writing everyday...just not the kind of writing I'd prefer to be doing.

In the meantime, I'll try to update my Reverb 10 page everyday. I caught up this evening with all my reflecting and manifesting: reflectifesting, maniflecting.

In saving news, I put up the insulated curtains this morning and my nose no longer instantly starts to run when I enter the cold room. Perhaps it was just full of phantoms chased away by the weird khaki-colored curtain that now graces the wall. Or maybe the ghosts were connected to the old, dusty, faded plaid valance that got taken down. One thing's for sure--it's not the light bulbs heating up the room...(see next paragraph...)

Stay tuned for a highly entertaining blog post Husband proposed: LED Light Bulbs! He's super excited about it. I'm super excited that Husband is now telling me what to write about. Maybe he's just trying to keep me from typing about his man-crush on Alexander Hamilton or his plastic man-doll (sorry, action figure) collection. Anyway, I hope you're excited about it, too.

What's It Worth to Ya?

I often repeat and sometimes reflect on thrifty colloquialisms I heard growing up. A couple of them came from my grandma via Mom--"He has more dollars than he has sense" and "It's good to want." But if you ever told my parents how much something was "worth," they would respond with something along the lines of, "Well, you gotta find someone who is willing to pay that much for it."

Like beauty, worth is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. Husband can't possibly understand why I am willing, eager even, to pay money to waste time at a sit-down restaurant. I can't comprehend how anyone could pay money to amass the amount of muscular, sculpted, articulated hunks of plastic painted in primary colors and populating multiple cardboard boxes that hog our limited living space. While he finds absolutely no pleasure in slowing down and savoring food, I get heart palpitations when I have to slow down on shopping errands to inspect the artfulness (albeit mass produced) found in the toy aisle.

This evening I engaged in another ritual he doesn't understand--but that's ok, because he's out looking at plastic man-dolls. A weekend evening + house to myself = Christmas come early. I was supposed to go home tonight. But because of scheduling conflicts, I wasn't ready to leave last night. And if I"m not ready to leave on a Thursday evening, I'm not going home until Saturday morning.

One of my favorite things to do on evenings like this is to stop by the grocery store and spend a lot of money on fancy food. I did keep it under control tonight though--less than $20--and incorporate some ingredients I already had at home. I had some of my favorite things for dinner: Smoked Salmon on Wasa with Laughing Cow, cucumber, red pepper, green onion and tapanade with some white wine my parents gave me. A three course dessert followed: dried figs and feta; Christmas cookies; and my Christmas bonus (three fancy chocolates--I accidentally squashed one on the way home.)

All this was accompanied by trashy tv on my computer (Thanks, Bravo, for the Real Housewives, but I don't think I can handle them anymore.) and a magazine.

There are a couple of magazines that I always am tempted to buy at the check-out line: Real Simple and In Style. Why do they appeal to me? I have no idea. They are both just ways to shill stuff--I'm not talking about the ads either. I mean, I have an adequate citrus juicer that I hardly ever use. I don't need a $67 stainless-steel one, no matter how artful you say it is. Besides, it's good to want.

This month, however, Real Simple's cover promised to help me "be happier" in 2011. I gave into temptation. And I must say, $25 for a nice, low-key evening alone, with leftover food and leftover articles to read? While it may prove that I have more dollars than I have sense, I'll claim temporary insanity. I'm the person who, on occasion, will pay that much for a quiet, solitary floor picnic. To me, it's worth it.

Bits and Pieces

I got a little Reverb writing done during my lunch break Plan to get all caught up on the weekend. I keep Reverb responses in a separate page. The link is over there ----------->

No recipe today. We had a whirlwind evening. It included leaving work early, using a BOGO Sonic coupon, attending a junior high basketball game ($3 for 4 games. If you can stomach watching other people's children playing sports and most importantly if you can stomach the parents, that's a lot of entertainment for just $3.), buying a new hot water heater and insulated curtains (an endcap sale at Target--they were cheaper than I could make them.), and installing a new headlight on my car (Husband did this. I shivered and held the flashlight and made silent prayers that nothing went wrong.. Because 9:30 PM is as good a time as any to change a headlight.). Also, I collected shoes to take home and give to Barber Larry to give to his friend to take to Haiti. No time for cooking and not a lot of time for blogging.

I got a nice, unexpected Christmas bonus--a referral for a friend that turned into some good work for him which turned into a few extra bucks in my pocket. Hello savings account. How long can I keep raking in unexpected money? I swear it's not from pole-work. AND some delicious Christmas cookies from Office Space. She should be the one posting recipes today.

Trash

Being wasteful is not something I aspire to. In this neighborhood, it also costs money. We live in a community that doesn't provide trash service. If you want someone to take your trash, you have to pay a collection service to come pick it up.

I like those towns that offer free curbside recycling and composting and charge you by the bag for trash disposal. That seems like a good way to keep trash down. So much of what we put in the garbage is mindless. We don't have to think about where it goes after we put it in the dumpster or at the curb. But our trash has a life after the garbage truck picks it up. It's not a pretty life either. Way back when I was little, I was in a speech contest and I wrote a speech about recycling. That was over 20 years ago and here is one thing I still remember: landfills aren't designed to allow stuff to break down. Landfill excavations have unearthed 40-year-old newspapers that are still legible. If you've ever left a newspaper in your back window or outside for even a small amount of time, you'd know how ridiculous that is.

So, for starters, we try not to create trash. I use reusable Tupperware-type containers to take my lunch. We use cloth napkins. I'm a fan of the old man handkerchief. I've been known to reuse zipper bags and aluminum foil. We have reusable plastic stuff for picnics. I try to remember my shopping bags. Like most of you, I'm sure, we do what we can and what we can think of to stop trash before it starts.

We try to compost as much as we can, too. Any uncooked, unprocessed food waste goes into the compost bin I made last year, along with "brown material" like shredded paper, leaves, egg cartons, etc. Next spring I won't have to buy soil amendments at the box store because I'll have my own.

We also take everything to the recycling place that we can. It's a hassle but I cart recycling around in my car trunk for weeks until we can make it to the place to sort all our treasures. But it is worth it, to me, to keep stuff out of the trash.

I also research what to do with typically non-recyclable stuff--stuff our recycling place won't take. You can take number 5 plastics and Brita filters to most Whole Foods stores. My running shoe store will take old shoes and wash them up and give them to needy people. If something has value (even if it's only a nickle), we try to put it in a garage sale.

Only at a last resort do we take stuff to the Goodwill or other thrift stores. Here's why: sometimes those stores have too much stuff. If they can't process things, they might end up throwing it in the dumpster. No joke. And that's ok--they're limited by how much storage they have and how much stuff they can sell. But don't think that just because you take something to a thrift store that it is going to find another home. You may have just dropped stuff off for someone else to do your dirty work. (I've heard the same about recycling, too. I have possibly optimistic and limited faith in our recycling place, though.)

And lastly, we don't pay for the trash truck to drive down our street. We have an arrangement with in-laws, who live down the road and also have to pay for trash service. Because we try to keep our trash production low, the four of us can get by with one can a week, saving a lot of money.
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Breakfast: I ran out of time this morning and ate a gas station sandwich $1.84
Lunch: Non-awkward work lunch
Dinner: Free food Mother-In-Law left at our house on Monday.

Total: $1.84

Chicken Enchiladas

This meets all the requirements for comfort food in my book: cheesy, cheesy, cheesy. This is one of my few go-to recipes, along with Ravioli Casserole. We all like it and it's good in a pinch--especially if you have cooked chicken on hand.

Mother-in-law brought over enchiladas last night. Not my recipe but free and delicious. I stole the leftover one and took it to work for lunch today. I think my husband wanted it--he went to Taco Bell instead.


Chicken Enchiladas

2 cups chicken (I only used the chicken from 1 quarter) 75 cents
1/4 c onion  13 cents
small can diced green chilies 98 cents
2/3 can red enchilada sauce 66 cents
2 tablespoons butter 14 cents
1 tablespoon milk  1 cent
3 oz cream cheese 45 cents

4 tortillas 50 cents
1/2 cup shredded cheese 32 cents

Cook the onion in butter and add 1 tbsp of green chilies and cumin. Mix milk,cream cheese, onions and chicken. Spoon into tortillas and roll up. Place in a baking dish. Mix chilies with sauce. Top enchiladas. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes, covered. Uncover, add cheese, bake 5 minutes more.

Total:  $3.94

4 servings: 99 cents

The variations are really endless. Once I used a can of refried beans instead of chicken--turkey, beef or pork would work well too. Once I only had 2 oz of cream cheese so I threw some cottage cheese in, too. You couldn't tell the difference. I'm going to use salsa instead of the chilies and sauce because I have free salsa in the fridge.

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Breakfast: Oatmeal, milk, blueberries, and flavored coffee creamer 25 cents
Lunch: Enchilada and chips $1
Snack: Cucumbers, laughing cow, red pepper, tapanade:  $1.31
Dinner: McChicken Sandwich, small fries $2--I know, I know. But at least I ordered off the dollar menu, right?

Total: $4.56

Spending to Save

Let me just get this out of the way: I'm freezing. My toes are so cold. I'm definitely going to have chilblains. My nose is running. I'm washing clothes just so the water in the hot water heater doesn't get to cold for tomorrow morning's shower. (It heats the water fine. It just doesn't keep it hot too well.)

Instead of cranking up the heat, I'm cranking it down. We were going to replace our old original windows on the front of the house. Our house is old enough to be on the National Register...it's just not significant in any way. So, yeah, they're pretty old and leaky. We didn't get new windows bought before the Great Layoff of '10 so we are just going to have to make due.

I know I said I didn't need any more projects, but for the good of our gas bill, I'm making curtains. I finally convinced Husband to let me hang curtains in one room of the house for winter. I'm going to make them for all the rooms. Of course, when I say "I," I mean me and my mommy. Now I just have to go shopping (ugh) for material.

We also bought LED lights for our Christmas tree. Husband sings the praises of LEDs and how much they will impact our electricity bill. I'll believe it when I see it. It might take a long time to offset the costs of the new LEDs. I guess we'll see on our next bill. At the very least, I won the battle over white or colored lights (white!) so I'm ok with it.
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Breakfast: Orange rolls  54 cents
Lunch:  Not-so-Hamburger Helper 63 cents
Snack: Saltines, deer sausage & cheese  36 cents
Dinner: In-Law Enchiladas: Free. I think this was pay-back for the chicken pot pie.

Total: $1.53

Waste Not and What Did We Learn This Week

For all of you who want to bust me for ignoring the "Secret of Adulthood" I wrote about earlier this week, rest assured that I did write yesterday. All my writing time was taken up by yesterday's Reverb 10 prompt. I still don't have it finished and posted yet. Also? I'm being really fancy and tying "This Week's Lessons" into the narrative.

As far as food waste goes, I'm pretty sure nothing got thrown out this week. But, at the same time, impulse food purchases did happen and cause some money waste. The Honor Snack was irresistible this week. Not that the food was good, but I ran out of granola bars to satisfy my afternoon snack desires. Also, we got to see Step-Daughter Thursday morning for about forty minutes before she went to a study session at school. I found out the night before so we had to resort to store-made muffins. Oh, and the $10 meeting lunch.

In big exciting news, the gift cards I ordered with my credit card points for Christmas presents arrived. Unforch, one of them was back-ordered. That operations fail doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But anyway, we might have to go buy the gift-card if it doesn't arrive in time for the gift exchange. Then we'll have an additional $25 to Borders. Not something we really need--just more clutter. But in the scheme of things, at least we won't have an extra gift card to Build-A-Bear.

And, finally, I made Shepherd's Pie yesterday. Except I learned that real Shepherd's Pie is made with ground lamb/mutton. I used ground beef & bulgur. If you get the beef/bulgur proportions right and cook the bulgur enough, it's kinda hard to tell that it's not all meat. I've never had Shepherd's Pie before but Husband deemed it a success, even though he wanted the meat part to be more runny. I deemed it a success because it was another 99 cent potato dish!

Electrical Tape - or - Why I Won't Just Go Buy Some New Danged Boots

A manifesto and a rant combined in one—isn’t this what blogs were made for?

I mentioned in yesterday’s post about how I used electrical tape to hold my boots together. Here is the backstory and the front story and a little more in the middle, as well:

When I was a young naïve spendthrift living in the Dirty South, my roommate came home one day from shopping with a great pair of name-brand high-heeled ankle boots. Unforch for her, one evening of wearing them around convinced her that they didn't fit. I bought them from her. It’s six years later and I’m still wearing the shit out of them. 

They’ve been re-heeled once by my very favorite shoe-guy ever. I don’t know if he’s even in business anymore but he was one of those “I’m open when I’m here” guys. He’d just as soon sew up your black dress shoes with red thread as change the spool on the machine, unless you specifically asked. If you’re a kid and you needed your baseball cleats to last you one more season, he’d probably charge you a quarter or fifty cents for the fixes.

I noticed this boot season that the new heel cap on the right boot was starting to loosen. Tuesday, the glue and the nails gave up the ghost. Off came the heel cap, well before lunch. I tried to pound it back together, without luck. One of my co-workers graciously offered to bring back some super glue when she went home for lunch. Comedy of errors: the glue tube was empty. Staplers wouldn't penetrate the cap but I did have some tape--both industrial strength squishy double stick tape and black electrical tape. As luck would have it, there was a board meeting that afternoon. I just decided that if anyone noticed the electrical tape, it would just be evidence of how I needed a raise.

Incidentally, Husband seemingly fixed my boot. I don't know if the fix will hold, because they haven't been worn yet, but we'll see.

And now for the manifesto...

I wasn't always so anti-consumerism. There were times in my life when my closet was five times the size of my current closet and it was packed full. But with the belated and slow-moving onset of adulthood, I realized that no matter where it came from or how much it cost or how it looks or what you do with it, it's--all of it--is still just stuff. I've eventually decided that, if it ain't broke, don't buy a new one. And if it is broke, fix it. Sure, I like nice stuff as much as the next person, but I don't want a lot of it. I don't want to move to Walden (yet?), but the less stuff I have, the less stuff I have to take care of and the fewer choices I have to make. No buying; less stuff; more life.

And now more ranting...

I sure hope the boots last because I'll be using them a lot more to get back and forth to work after the first of the year. Ironically, boots and a parking pass cost about the same amount of money. I've decided to avoid this O. Henry story and forgo both. After all, I've got a lot of electrical tape left over...
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Breakfast: Muffin 75 cents--I could say "free" because Husband bought them...

Lunch: Not so hamburger helper and cottage cheese 94 cents

Snack: red pepper and Laughing Cow, banana, Oreos $2.05

Dinner: Saltines, deer sausage and cheese 47 cents

 

Total:  $4.21

New Habits

Developing new habits is hard. I'm reminded of this over and over, whenever I have fall off the wagon, so to speak.

I can clearly identify what kept me from blogging both times that I've missed a few days. First, it was the emo-hangover from emo-warfare waged by a 9-year-old. Most recently, this, the second week of the month, is when my habit-change plans always encounter a hiccup. Before you go jumping to conclusions, it's not hormonal. The second week of the month is a busy time at work and it drains me. If I'm not working to meet a deadline of some sort, I'm planning and leading a big meeting of 40-50+ people. When I get home, "being good" is the last thing of interest. Bad tv, junk food, and bourbon seem much more comforting on bad days.

But, you know what I'm starting to realize? All this rationalizing doesn't get me closer to a goal. Rationalizing is just a $5 word for making excuses. And I can’t afford those prices.

I’m super good at starting something and not following through. Missing one whatever turns into missing two, then a week goes by, and that turns into a month. You get the idea.

The same thing happens with spending money and not spending money. It is easy and exciting to make a plan to save. The hard part comes with the mundane keeping up with the plan. That’s because keeping up with the plan is habit change.

There are a lot of tips out there to help people keep their resolutions and change their habits. You can find tons of blog posts, like this one, totally dedicated to helping people plan, implement, and track habit changes. Some of them are better than others. You can consider this post one of the "others." But, that's probably not why you're reading this blog. You're probably reading this blog either because I force you or because you were looking for a chicken pot pie recipe. Nonetheless, here are my top four suggestions for habit change:

1. Don't try to change too much at once. I've read before that we have a limited amount of willpower. For example, dieters are more likely to overspend and people trying to curb spending are more likely to give into other temptations. I believe this wholeheartedly. A few weeks ago, Husband and I were wandering around some of my favorite stores. Our last stop on the errand run for the evening was the grocery store. By the time we got there, all I could contemplate was buying the quickest, easiest, cheesiest thing I could cram into my pie-hole. It turned out to be Hot Pockets. If you tackle more than one habit, try to make sure they are related. Currently, I'm trying to save money and update this blog. The two are vaguely related as stated below 

2. Know why you want to change your habit. I started this blog because I knew I was going to need an outlet to express myself about this uncrisis of becoming a one-income household. (I say "uncrisis" because as scary as it is, we could be a LOT worse off. I realize this and am immensely thankful for it.) I decided to focus more on saving money because because I realized how closely we were to living on the edge. I started thinking about what would happen if our uncrisis suddenly turned into a crisis. I, for one, would rather keep my boots together with electrical tape (true story) and have an extra $80 in the bank than to have new boots and not know how to pay for the electricity.

3. Start with something you're really motivated about. I quit smoking. That is probably the biggest habit change that most people can go through--short of getting off the smack (heroin, not vagina, just to be clear). Your first habit change doesn't have to be huge or difficult, but it should be something that means a lot to you. For me, I know that if I can quit smoking, I can do anything. That mantra helped me start running and complete a half-marathon. (Sidebar: Another mantra that worked for running and smoking was that I can do anything for a minute longer.) Chances are, the success you have in one area and the lessons you learn from that first habit change will motivate you and help you succeed with other changes.


4.  Be accountable to someone else. This blog serves two purposes at once. While I'm not divulging any specific financial information, just knowing that I have to record how much I spent on food for the day makes me more aware of the little unnecessary splurges that we can sometimes fall victim to. Also, since writing this blog is a habit change itself, knowing that I have a few regular readers helps spur me out of the funk of not writing.

I think a good way to sum up this blog is through the words of Gretchen Rubin. While I don't know if I could ever sustain the kind of habit change marathon that she recounts in The Happiness Project, I have taken several lessons and words of wisdom from her work. Rubin records "Secrets of Adulthood" in her book and blog and this one is particularly apropos for me and for this post: "What you do EVERY DAY matters more than what you do ONCE IN A WHILE." Not only does doing something every day reinforce it as a habit, carving out the time from our busy schedules means that this particular whatever is important.
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Breakfast: egg and soft cheese on English muffin
Lunch: Meeting lunch. $10 I don't know why I don't turn this in to be reimbursed. I never have before, though, and I guess I won't start now. 
Dinner: I haven't eaten anything yet.



Total: I may update this later. I just really want to hit "Publish Post" and overcome the blog-post-apathy feeling.
 

99 Cent Potatoes

Sometimes the store had 5 pound bags of potatoes for 99 cents. It is during these times that our household enjoys what I like to call Irish Potato Feasts. Except I'm not Irish and I'm sure the potatoes aren't Irish, but Husband has been called a "thievin' Mick" before so I guess that's close enough. (Note: He's never really stolen anything.)

I used a potato or two in the Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot Pie I made awhile ago but now I'm getting serious about potato cooking. Especially since I brought home a metric ton of sweet potatoes from Parents' after Thanksgiving. Do you know what I forgot? The pumpkin I was gonna cook.

This is a recipe I like to call Loaded Scalloped Potatoes. It's like a loaded baked potato, only they're scalloped potatoes. I don't know what the difference is between scalloped and au gratin. I don't need to know, really. They both scared me as a child. Probably because school lunches and church dinners were the only place I came into contact with anything scalloped or au gratin. And during school lunches and church dinners, you must choose wisely. Once at a church dinner Sibling and Friend found a rubber band in a dessert. Pops had a theory about how the rubber band got there--something to do with a newspaper. We call that recipe Rubber Band Dessert at our house. It's good, minus the newspaper detritus.

Despite my scalloped fear, I settled on this recipe because I was going to load it with good stuff. Free ham from Thanksgiving and a box of frozen chopped broccoli. And cheese, lots and lots of cheese. Cheese is always the right choice. I used a scalloped potato recipe out of my BH&G cookbook just to make sure I did the scalloped part right.

Loaded Scalloped Potatoes

1/2 cup chopped onion 25 cents
1 clove garlic, minced 5 cents
2 tbsp butter 14 cents
2 tbsp flour 1 cent
salt and pepper
1 1/4 c milk I use powdered milk for stuff that isn't drinking. 12 cents
1/2 c mozzarella cheese 32 cents
1/4 c Parmesan cheese 21 cents
3 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced 18 cents
10 oz chopped, frozen broccoli, thawed and drained 99 cents
2 cups chopped ham free
1/2 cup cheddar cheese 32 cents

In a pan, cook onion and garlic  in butter until soft. Stir in flour, salt, and pepper. Add milk all at once. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened. Add the white cheeses and stir until melted.


In a greased 1 1/2 quart casserole, layer 1/2 the potatoes, 1 cup of ham, and 1/2 the broccoli, top with 1/2 the sauce. Repeat.

Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover, top with cheddar and bake 15-20 minutes more.

Total: $2.59

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Breakfast: Oatmeal with cranberry sauce 33 cents
Snack: 1/2 granola bar 10 cents
Lunch: turkey wrap and oreos (from the honor snacks) $1.70
Dinner: Not-so-Hamburger Helper  63 cents

Total:  $2.76

This made about 6 servings so 43 cents per serving. It went very fast!

These Weeks' Lessons

So what did we learn these weeks?

1. I love being at home.
2. Once you get this song in your head, it is there forever. And don't invite In-Laws over for dinner if you want leftovers.
3. I'll have to make this post more vague if I want to share my blog with more people.
4. Only vaguely related to this blog post, when I asked my father about his home remedies for sinus troubles, he told me anhydrous would clear them up. WTF?
5. Black Friday: the downfall of our species or natural selection?
6. Along with snotting eyes, old man handkerchiefs are also good props for proving you're too sick to work.
7. My Thanksgiving turkey tryptophan kicked in a little late. Also? I can spell tryptophan and anhydrous right but I have to think hard to get handle right.
8. The way to In-Laws hearts is through their stomachs.
9. I like to play -- not turn -- tricks. Also, the way to Husband's heart is Alexander Hamilton.
10. I love my grandpa.
11. Flaming poo is the answer to a lot of things.
12. We're crafty people.
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Breakfast: Biscuits, sweet potato and banana, cranberry sauce
Lunch: deer summer sausage and cheese on saltines
Dinner: Pizza and cookies

Total: ?

Waste Not...

*I'm doing my Reverb 10 on a special page dedicated to it. Look over there if you're interested in that kind of thing.------------->

No waste not post on the holiday weekend so I have a lot to catch up on.

Last week the only thing that would have made the list was bacon. Sacrilege. It was moldy. I pulled it apart, slapped it into the pan, and then took a closer look when I noticed a furry patch. How could I have possibly wasted bacon? That is a cardinal sin. Was I saving it for something special? Is this my own Egg Nog Dilemma?

I cleaned the fridge yesterday. I found some other things that should have gone a long time ago. They certainly didn't go bad this week. But since I found them this week, they are:

1/2 a loaf of gluten-free bread. This is old. I tried to help my husband solve his acid reflux issues with an allergen-free test. He didn't last long on it. But that is when I discovered my favorite sweet potato and banana breakfast. So I consider it a success even though the acid reflux is still with us from time to time.

A few green onions and carrot slices. These went in the compost bin. They were from Step-Daughter's birthday party. If I mention when her birthday was, you may be afraid to enter my house.


There hasn't been a lot of other waste in this household, unless you count the run to Steak and Shake. Which I do.

On the more successful side of the coin, we have been practicing our three Rs--recycle, reduce, reuse--in a few different ways.

We had a big jar candle that the wick had burned up on. There was still a lot of wax left in it. We went to the crafty store and got a new set of four long wicks for $2.99. I rescued a roasted red pepper jar from the recycle bin. I melted the old candle wax in a water bath, set a new wick in the pepper jar, poured the melted wax in, propped up the wick with scotch tape and a clothespin, and let it set overnight. Trimmed the wick the next morning. (We have enough to make another candle. You can buy the metal things for the bottom separately at the craft store.) Then we got all the residual wax out of the original jar and washed it. Now we have a new candle and a jar to stash stuff in. The best part? Husband (candle-lover, Alexander Hamilton-lover, girl) won't have to spend good money on a new candle for a long time.

We bought a Christmas wreath on sale after the season last year. During Thanksgiving at Parent's I rummaged through old decor. I found some red satin balls, a string of red beads, and an old holly candle wreath. As of this afternoon, we have a new Christmas wreath to hang outside. I just have to scare up a hot-glue gun to affix the holly and beads. Do you have one you want to loan me?

And lastly...remember green bean bundles? Well, the thing about leftover refrigerated green bean bundles is that you're left with a lot of bacon-infused, brown sugar butter in the bottom of the dish. It doesn't look pretty, but in this house, wasting bacon-infused, brown sugar butter is tantamount to dumping a beer on a fancy computer keyboard or busting out a window--maybe you do it, but you don't feel good about it. So when the beans were gone, I saved the congealed melted butter. I had a plan because I had free sweet potatoes. Sometimes the most heavenly dinner is the simplest: baked sweet potato, melted leftover green bean bundle butter, and a biscuit from breakfast. Now that's what I'm talking about.
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Breakfast: oatmeal, blueberries and milk 11 cents
Lunch: biscuits, sausage and gravy, orange marmalade and apple butter 46 cents
Snack: cookies 30 cents
Dinner: sweet potato, green bean bundle butter, biscuit 10 cents

Total: 97 cents

Sometimes You Just Have to Ask for It

Shortly after we became a single-income family, my renewal notice came for my favorite magazine. I planned to cancel my subscription, then I thought, "You know what, mother-in-law will probably appreciate having this on my Christmas list." She did and my favorite magazine will continue, uninterrupted.
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Before I worked in my current job, I basically worked in my current job. It's confusing, but I was a consultant for a consultant. An independent contractor working on a team of consultants for a company that was quarterbacking the gig. Obvs, this led to my current, non-consultant job. Not only was the pay shit, but I also didn't get paid for all my work. A few months after the gig was over, I resorted to a guilt-trip and got most of what I was due. But not all--so the third thing I did on the Monday after my husband was handed his walking papers (after health insurance and flexing) was e-beg for my money. I didn't get an e-response and expected the e-worst...but a week and a half later, I got a check for about half of what I'm owed.

Sidebar: If you ever run a company, don't make people beg for what they are owed. Oh, and in case you're wondering, no one really cares when employers screw their employees. If you're owed something, no one will stick it to the man for you. If you've exhausted all your other efforts and it will cost more to get a lawyer than you're owed, just resort to flaming poo on their doorstep. 

Same story different dance for a travel stipend I was owed for a workshop I went to. I'm cashing (and saving) checks left and right.
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So the moral of the story is don't work for a company that won't pay you. The second moral is don't count your travel stipends before they hatched. And finally, mothers-in-law like it when you make Christmas easy for them. Oh, yeah, and the title of this blog post.

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Breakfast: Oatmeal and 1/2 banana and milk 25 cents
Lunch: Ravioli Casserole 75 cents?
Dinner: Cookies. What? It's Friday.30 cents

Total:   $1.30

Grandpa's Banana Bread

*I'm doing my Reverb 10 on a special page dedicated to it. Look over there if you're interested in that kind of thing.------------->


My Grandpa was awesome. As grandparents usually are, my grandpa was old. He turned 70 the year I was born. By the time I knew him, he walked with a cane and wore a very natty hat. After my grandma died, he moved a couple blocks from our house. He loved baseball and worked in our garden. He went on our Great Summer Vacations with us. He was an great pitch player and had Ricky Skaggs records. He had cable television way before we did so sibling and I watched old shows on Nick at Nite at his house. He always kept "sody pop" for us--the generic kind that was so full of sweetener it was a can of heaven. He was in Europe during World War II, only went to school until the 8th grade, and always knew what was going on in the news. He was most excellent.

He also baked. Chocolate chip cookies were his specialty. My friend still makes them for her daughter and husband. I haven't made his famous cookies for awhile, but I have been making his banana bread quite alot.

My step-daughter likes banana muffins in the morning for breakfast. The pre-made banana muffins from the grocery store bakery are expensive. These are cheap and easy. Instead of putting the batter in a bread pan like Grandpa did, I put it in muffin cups.

Grandpa's Banana Bread

3 bananas 21 cents
1/2 c oil 16 cents
2 c flour 16 cents
3/4 c sugar 25 cents
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda 4 cents

Mash the bananas. Mix everything up. Put those paper liners in a muffin tin. Fill 2/3. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until done.

Total: 82 cents plus muffin liners 16 cents. 98 cents

This makes 16 muffins so they're 6 cents each.
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Breakfast: Banana muffin 5 cents
Lunch: Leftover free turkey and green bean bundles 72 cents
Snack: Granola bar 21 cents
Dinner: I got suckered into Steak and Shake by husband. $5.14

Total: $6.12

Saving Money/Paying Off Debt

I have so many posts to write. They are kind of circular. There is the one about how blessed I am which helps explain why this post is about saving and paying off debt at the same time. I haven't written it yet. But that can't be helped. Just pretend I'm a mystery writer.

So, thankfully, I have very little real debt, but I do owe some people for minor things like a semester of out-of-state grad school tuition and when my car threw a rod during grad school and I had a day to find a new car. I'll call those people my parents because they are.* Basically I have to pay them back into a joint savings account that either of us can use if we really need it. (Mystery solved--you didn't even have to read 246 pages.) Guess who is more likely to need that money. (A new mystery!)

The thing is, since becoming a one-income household, I am doubly-motivated to get the balance up in that account. I'm terrified that the other shoe will drop and we will  be really hurting for some cash. There are a hundred what-ifs I can think of.

So I'm trying to fall back on some money-saving tricks that I developed in grad school to pay off my credit card while living below the poverty line. And can I just take a moment to say that my school is awesome at preparing you for reality. The humanities grad students earn significantly less for their assistantships than the business grad students. Just like real life!

1. Save first and last. One of the advantages of being on a staff of one is that the powers that be can't rationalize paying for direct deposit. I still get a paper check. Hello, 1999, I've missed you! I don't like the personal interactions I have every month with the bank tellers and I want to make them as short as possible. So I hurriedly deposit all but a minuscule portion of my check every month into my checking account. Then I run back to the safety of my computer and transfer some of that shiny new money into my savings account. If there is anything left over at the end of the month, it goes in too.
2. Save anything unexpected. I've been pretty good at getting money owed me out of people lately. I haven't broken any kneecaps and I'm not selling smack (heroin or vagina, just to clarify), but this wasn't regular paycheck money. So it goes into savings, too.
3. Saving Alex. My husband thinks Alexander Hamilton is by far the best looking founding father. I know, right? So whenever I get one, I put him is a super secret special hiding place. All my 10 spots are saved. I do the same thing with change.
4. Rounding up. This was my number one money game in grad school. You know the one. In your check register you just round up to the next dollar. I kept track of all the extra cents and all the money I saved at the grocery store with specials and coupons, too. I used this to make and extra credit card payment every month.

If all goes well, I'll have my parents paid back well before they're 157. Yay, I can't wait!

*The one stipulation of this loan was that if my parents died, I owed Sibling half. They are sticklers on those terms and conditions.
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Breakfast: Banana muffins
Snack: Clementine
Lunch: Stuffed scalloped potatoes
Snack: Granola bar and celery
Dinner: I went to Chili's with Awkward and Awesome. I'm still full. If you're in the mood to go out for a cheap app and drink, check out Chili's website. They have coupons you can print from now til Christmas. We had free chips and queso and those Southwest Eggrolls. Minus the 7 & 7, this cost, like $3.95 plus tip.