I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

Archive for the ‘frugality’ Category

Some parts of frugality are really not too big of a struggle for us once they are started, and I wonder why I didn’t think of them earlier. But some drive me completely batty day after day after day. I like to give things a chance to work which is why I have been pretty mellow about it until this point, but there is a fine line between sacrificing comfort to be frugal, and driving oneself insane. Which is why I am considering making a change to one of my frugal choices.

I miss hot baths.

Our water heater is set to 120 degrees F for two reasons. One is for the safety of our small children - it is what is recommended to prevent kids from scalding themselves. The other is because it saves money on our natural gas bill, since the water heater is not heating the water as hot. Safety is of course paramount, so I will not be turning up our water heater to absolutely scorching temperatures, but, again…

I miss hot baths. A lot.

I am thinking of raising the temperature just a tad. Maybe to 130 degrees F. As it is, when I want to take a bath, I turn on the hot water, come downstairs, fill a big pot with scorching hot water from my kitchen tap (the kitchen has its own small under-counter water heater set much higher and that faucet is well out of reach of the kids), carry it upstairs, dump it in the tub, go back downstairs, repeat, and then take a bath. It makes it warmer but not really… hot. I really like a nice HOT bath. It is one of the small simple pleasures I really enjoy in life.

We all have to find a balance between frugality and livability or comfort. As we incorporate more and more frugal practices into our lives, sometimes, we need to know when to say when. Some comforts are worth the extra costs.

Now I need to learn how to change the water heater temperature. I will admit, this frugal measure has an element of apathy to it - when we bought the house, the water heater was set this way.

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Something I think about a lot is the concept of frugality as a mindset vs frugality as a practice. Basically, it can be summed up like this - is your frugality second nature and automatic, or it is a conscious choice that you may sometimes struggle to achieve? I don’t think it is necessarily all one or the other, for there are undoubtedly aspects of frugality that one can find easier than others. But certainly, there are some people who find behaving in a frugal manner more second nature than others. Or than I do, at least.

There are aspects of frugality that I grew up with and have done all my life without much thought, so much so that I sometimes forget they are frugal things to do. My parents bought generic items at the grocery store as a general practice, and so as I started shopping for myself, I did the same. I reuse a number of items, such as plastic bags and glass jars, instead of throwing them out. And I set the heat to a low temperature, and the a/c to a high one (although my spouse is not always in agreement!).

However there are many aspects of frugality that I do as a conscious practice, that are not second nature, and I continually struggle with. Conserving my resources comes directly to mind. I am a fritterer by nature, and as easily as I find it to fritter away my time, I also can fritter away my money. I am also not generally a very savvy shopper when it comes to big ticket items (when it matters the most!). I tend to overspend trying to insure something lasts but not in a very effective matter.

I have read before that it takes a month of doing something for it to become a habit, but I wonder if that applies here as well. I think it may take much longer than a month to develop frugality as second nature and not a conscious choice. The result however, will definitely be worth it.

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So it has been a week since Thanksgiving, and the turkey usage has gone well. There have been a few bumps in the road but with the power of the internet I was able to work through them.

I must first admit, I have never made “meat” stock before. I have made vegetable stock a few times, but I’ve never made a meat-based stock. The opportunity hasn’t really come up before besides Thanksgiving, because I very rarely buy a whole chicken. I had ladled the stock into 2 cup portions and put some into the freezer and a few into the refrigerator to use immediately. Well, I took the first one out of the refrigerator and opened it to pour into a pot and… it was like jello. It was completely gelatinous and wiggly and basically freaked me out.

Luckily, instead of just tossing the entire batch and calling it a day, I quickly did some internet research and found out this was normal and I just needed to heat it up. I thought I had done something horribly wrong but in fact it was just fine. Whew! I was pretty upset when I thought all my effort in making turkey stock was for nothing.

I made three dinners out of the leftover turkey meat - one with all dark meat, one with a mix of dark and white meat, and one with all white meat. The last meal, the all white meat meal, I made a stir fry type dish with turkey, green beans, and tomatoes served over turkey-stock cooked elbow pasta, and my spouse thought it was chicken. Hah! One victory for me. You can’t whine about eating turkey for a bunch of days if you think one of the days was chicken. Hee hee. I made:

• Turkey Tetrazzini
• Turkey in a sauce made from leftover gravy over egg noodles with broccoli
• Turkey, green beans, and chopped tomatoes with italian seasonings served over elbow pasta boiled in stock

I’ve also made two turkey side dishes with stock as well as the above meal that I cooked the elbow noodles in stock - a rice dish and a pasta dish, and my spouse also ate three turkey sandwiches over the weekend. So that has been a success as well. I have four cups of stock left in the freezer and that is it. The turkey was not a huge turkey so I am not surprised that I used up most of it in a week. I am pretty excited about how many things I did with it though. My spouse also has three more turkey lunchovers left in the freezer and one for tomorrow in the refrigerator from the three turkey meals I made.

I am not sure I am excited enough about this to buy a cheap turkey on sale, but if they get really cheap, I certainly will. Yay for the turkey! And I had a lot of stuffing, potatoes, and cranberry sauce related meals myself. Yay for starch.

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Every year since my spouse took the job he is at now, his employer has given a free ~12 lb turkey to all the employees for Thanksgiving. In the past, I’ve carved up the breasts of the turkey and not really used much more of it. My spouse isn’t fond of dark meat and I’m a vegetarian so I don’t eat turkey so I’ve just looked at it as sandwich fixings for my spouse for a few days after the meal.

But this year, I was determined to get everything I could out of this turkey. White meat, dark meat, everything was going to be processed and used to the best of my ability. And if I end up being super-thrifty with it and the meals work out well, I may buy another turkey when they go on sale after the holidays and try to repeat my success. The jury is still out on that but this is what I’ve done so far:

I carved the breasts off the turkey in two whole pieces (one side of the turkey was one piece). I actually saw this technique done on one of the Food Network Thanksgiving shows and it seemed to me this would get the most meat off the bird at once instead of the long slices I usually did. I carved one breast into inch-thick slices to serve with dinner, and my spouse said they were moist and juicy. Score! I now have one whole breast and half of the second breast wrapped up and in the refrigerator to incorporate into lunches or a meal. I intend on using one of the breasts for a meal this weekend and cutting the half breast into sandwich slices for my spouse.

I removed the legs and wings from the turkey and then picked all the meat off the bones by hand into a tupperware bowl. I collected enough meat to use in a casserole of some sort, I think I am going to try my hand at making turkey tetrazzini on Monday. Even though my spouse is not a huge fan of dark meat I think he will like it (or at least, will eat it) in a casserole type dish.

I then put those bones into a large stock pot, and demolished the rest of the turkey carcass, picking the meat off of those bones as well and putting it into a new container. I collected enough for another meal picking off those bones, which I intend to make a thanksgiving style shepherd’s pie from (layers of turkey with gravy, stuffing, and potatoes, baked in a casserole dish and served with cranberry sauce on the side). All those ingredients are leftovers from our meal we still have. I then put all those bones in my stock pot as well, and covered the whole thing with water and simmered for 4 hours to make a nice turkey stock. I didn’t add any extra veggies to it, just some herbs, but I don’t intend on using it for soup. I froze some and refrigerated some and will be using it to cook rice and pasta in to make it richer and not have to add seasonings to. This will make easy side dishes for weeks to come, for I ended up with about 14 cups of stock.

So hopefully, I will have at least three more meals, a few sandwiches for lunches, and a number of side dishes all from this one turkey and a few additional ingredients. I have a lot of whole wheat pasta and brown rice to cook with the turkey stock already so I should have to spend too much money. Maybe my grocery bill will be under $30 this week after all! Maybe. But I feel super thrifty anyway even if it isn’t.

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So, it seems a bunch of people I know from my pre-blogging days have now started blogs of their own.  One of those blogs is maybe the longest blog name I have ever seen, Are You Going To Be This Way The Rest Of The Time I Know You?, and she nicely contributed to the M-Network writing project on cars earlier this week, so I’m returning the favor to her and contributing to her writing challenge, which is to come up with 5 absolutely free gifts and 5 almost free gifts for this holiday season.  Your mileage may vary, because you can use whatever you have around the house, and around my house is different than around your house.

Unless this is my spouse reading this, but then again, he has no idea what we have in our house so basically the above still holds true.

So…  5 absolutely free gifts, some of which I have actually given in the past:

• Chore coupons - I’ve given these to my spouse to let him have a free pass on chores a few times.  Don’t give too many or you’ll be doing all the chores all year ;).

• Babysitting - again, one I have actually given, all it takes is your time.  And that you are reasonably competent around children.  or whoever is being babysat.

• Pet sitting - kind of the same thing but one I would love someone to give to me.  We travel a few times a year and I need people to check in on my cats.

• Hobby sharing - This is what my spouse wants from me.  A promise to spend a few hours playing computer games with him.  I’m broke this year so who knows, he may get it!

• A collection of their favorite TV on DVD, made by you - We have blank DVDs sitting around and we own a DVR (thanks mom and dad!) so I can do this for free, you may not be able to.

And 5 almost free gifts, this was a lot easier and all again things I have given in the past:

• Homemade Jam - In the past I worked in a fruit lab and got lots of experiment fruit for free.  No, not poisoned lol, just yield studies and such of different varieties.  I have tons of mason jars left from making jam from the fruit, so I could make more jam pretty cheaply if I pick the fruit on sale.

• Homemade Fudge - It makes a lot and is very well received!!  One year in high school I made everyone fudge.  It cost $30 for 17 people.  SO cheap.

• A computer-made DVD of pictures of the kids in a slideshow format, set to music if you desire:  Most computers have software built in to do this.  it takes a lot of time but if you have little kids, the relatives love it.  I did this for my son’s first year.  I should do one for my daughter’s too.

• Scrapbooked pages of your kids, their kids, or other important people to them:  I scrapbook so I have tons of supplies - but you can buy a bunch of supplies for a page or two rather cheaply.  Get some 4×6s printed and go to town.

• Inexpensive posed pictures:   You can do it yourself or at an inexpensive chain studio that you get a lot of pictures for a small price at.  Again, if you have kids, the relatives eat this stuff up.  Heh.

So there you have it!  Do you have ideas of your own?  Feel free to join the writing project too in the comments on the challenge post or on your own blog!  There are a LOT of more creative people than I am.  :)  Give me some ideas… I will need them this year!

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