Running beside the wagon

Here’s the thing about frugal living: you have to think about it EVERY SINGLE DAY.  At least at first.  It’s not easy making the change, especially when your husband suggests Del Taco because nothing else at home sounds good and we have no leftovers from previous dinners.  Sure, we have other food on hand.  Sure, I could make something from scratch.  But if I have to expend energy to stand on my feet and cook something for lunch (lunch!  Who cooks something for lunch??) (the more I type the word ‘lunch’ the funnier it looks.  Ha!  Lunch lunch lunch…) (where was I?)…Oh yes, I am not going to expend precious energy to creatively combine random pantry ingredients to cook a satisfying lunch from scratch EVERY DAY.  That’s crazy talk.

Needless to say, my zeal for frugal living has it’s ups and downs.

Clearly, I have the wrong frame of mind.  The key to frugal living is Big Picture type thinking.  The little sacrifices, the planning ahead, the constant effort…it all pays off in the end.  In the end you’ll have extra money to [insert desired activity/item here].  But some days it is really hard to think Big Picture.  Sometimes I can’t help but just think about Right Now.  And Right Now mama’s tired and wants a burrito.

I’m not off the frugal-livin’-n-lovin’ wagon yet, just kind of dangling off the edge a little and dragging my feet in the sand.  And I’ll get back on.  Just you wait.  One day I’ll be driving that bad boy.  Just you wait…

Tags: frugal living, thinking

Taming the beast

There are a lot of words you could use to describe my husband:  Competitive.  Sentimental. Hard-working.  Athletic.  Fun.  Soft-spoken.

CARNIVORE.

And not just as in “oh sure, a little grilled chicken would be nice.”  I mean carnivore as in, “give me the biggest slab of prime rib you’ve got-  and RARE!”  We’re talking about the man that turned to me once and said, “I think ham is my 5th favorite meat.”

“You rank your meats?”  I replied.

“Well, yeah.  Don’t you?” he said innocently, as if it wasn’t bizarre to love meat so much that you classify them.

So when I read that one of the Eleven Miserly Guidelines was to cut back on meat I wanted to laugh.  A big, hearty, YEAH RIGHT kind of laugh.  HAHAHAHAHA!

But I remembered a while back I had proposed that we maybe institute a vegetarian night one night a week for health reasons, and he actually kind of agreed.  It didn’t stick though.  So this time I approached him with the argument that we really should try to be more veggie-lovin’ for the sake of our wallets.  To which he gave a big, hearty laugh.  He didn’t believe that forgoing meat occasionally would be cheaper.  He has been under the incorrect assumption that centering meals around meat is less expensive, as long as you get the meat for a good price.  However, really, meat ain’t cheap folks.  Unless there’s a great sale.  Overall though, cutting back on meats on a regular basis can do a lot for your budget.

I don’t really have anyone that I’m close to that is vegetarian, so I’m really quite stupid when it comes to how to go about this.  One of my concerns was that many meatless dishes were very fattening, usually centering around some sort of cheesy pasta (yummy, but not healthy).  That didn’t exactly seem like the right sort of trade off.

So since then I’ve been on the hunt for healthy, satisfying vegetarian recipes.  Yesterday I made a sweet potato and black bean chili that was fabulous.  Flavorful, filling, and super healthy.  I doubled the recipe so we could have some for dinner, and then I froze the other half for a dinner later on.

Here’s the recipe if you want to give it a go (this is the original recipe.  I doubled mine and made some changes to it which I will explain in just a sec):

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion, finely diced

1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground chipotle chili

1/8 tsp salt, or to taste

1 1/3 cups water

1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed

1 cup canned diced tomatoes (I like the petite diced tomatoes)

2 tsp lime juice

2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add onion and potato and cook, stirring often, until onion is slightly softened, about 4 min.  Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, chipotle, and salt and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add water, bring to a simmer, cover, reduce heat to maintain gentle simmer and cook until potato is tender, 10-12 minutes.  Add beans, tomatoes, and lime juice; increase heat to high and return to a simmer, stirring often.  Reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook until slightly reduced, about 4 min.  Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

So, my version was slightly different.  I realized after I started cooking I didn’t have any chili powder, so I substituted it with some pork rub seasoning and I actually think it turned out better- a little sweeter and smokier, which we like.  I also didn’t have any chipotle seasoning, which was fine.  I added a dash of black pepper and seasoned salt as well as garlic salt, and I didn’t put in any lime (didn’t have any.  I was rather ill-prepared).  I served it with a little dollop of light sour cream.  Delish!  Husband even loved it!

Any vegetarians out there that have some good, healthy recipes?  I’d love to learn more!

*Recipe from www.eatingwell.com

Tags: chili recipe, meat lover, vegetarian

Starting from scratch

As I am in this pursuit to be more miserly and save some money, I’ve realized how clueless I am.  One of the Eleven Miserly Guidelines outlined in the book I am reading is to make and freeze several meals at one time.  This reduces costs because a) you can buy food in bulk without it eventually going to waste and b) you don’t have to spend as much money on convenience items, such as frozen dinners.  As it turns out, frozen meals cost up to 6 times more than making it from scratch.  Who knew?  I certainly didn’t.  Plus, I’ve found out that from scratch really means from scratch. As in, cracking open a box of Bisquick to make pancakes is not making them from scratch, even though I have to add the eggs and milk myself and then I have to mix it, which takes all sorts of effort!  Turns out pancakes from scratch really means I have to put together the flour and baking soda and uh, whatever else goes into that powdery mix.  But it’s cheaper!  And really, not that hard…not that I’ve tried it yet.

So, I decided to follow this advice and make a casserole from scratch and freeze it for later.  I doubled the recipe so I could have more on hand for a later date when we’re just too pooped to cook a real meal.  I’m getting all set to work my magic and feel all thrifty and domesticated, when I realized I don’t have a clue on how to freeze a casserole for later use.  Just typing it makes it sound even more ridiculous, because really, how hard could it be?  Apparently too hard for me!

So here I am, Googling “how to freeze casseroles” and realizing that my poor grandmother would probably roll over in her grave if she knew I didn’t know how to freeze a simple chicken and spinach casserole.  Truly, cooking from scratch has become a lost art.  Back in the good old days people didn’t have lasagna in a box or a bag with a full meal inside that you could throw in a slow-cooker.  People had to actually cook, you know?  So they made their own convenience foods by cooking extra and saving it for later for when they were sick or a neighbor needed a helping hand.

I’m really pursuing this whole freezing-food-for-later thing.  It will save me a lot of money on convenience foods, not to mention a lot of time in the future.  Making a bunch at once means only having to clean pots and pans once, rather than again later.  And if I’m making some today, why not double it?  It doesn’t take any extra time!  Plus, by making the food from scratch I know exactly what goes into it, which is loads healthier.  I can avoid the extra fat and salt that is often added, and get rid of all those nasty preservatives that get dumped in too.

While I’m sure that some would read this and shake their finger at me for not knowing how to freeze my own food, I’m sure many others could totally relate.  I know my generation has been raised on convenience foods, starting with the nasty Salisbury steak TV dinners available 15 years ago, and then evolving into the complex pastas and pizzas and stir-fry dishes that line the freezer aisles.

I’m hoping eventually to make my own homemade bread and jam…mmm….I have a lot to learn before then though if I don’t even know how to freeze a casserole properly!

Tags: cooking from scratch, freezing food

Mind games

The writer of the book I’m currently reading, Jonni McCoy, is not a financial planner or anything like that.  According to the introduction she is a regular middle-class mom living in an expensive part of the country who simply wanted to be home with her kids.  Since a higher income wasn’t possible, she had to find ways to make the money they had work harder.  That’s why this book appeals to me right now.  There is not much possibility of us coming into more money in the immediate future.  Hopefully someday, but not today.  Probably not tomorrow either.  So, we need to stretch our dollars further.

To some, the words “saving” and “delayed gratification” and “used, er… pre-owned” are foreign.  The notion of spending and needing less is kind of an old-fashioned idea in today’s society.  Our country is all about bigger, better, newer, faster, flashier, and RIGHT NOW.  As I’ve been mulling over the ideas presented in this book and how to make it work for me, I’m realizing that the first step is to change my mentality.  Before any of this can work, I need to get in the right frame of mind.

Generally speaking, I think I could say that I do fairly well.  I don’t buy a lot of “stuff”: magazines, clothing, drinks, home decor, movies, etc.  However, I am all about anything that will make my life easier, such as pre-packaged and frozen convenience meals and snacks, or the occasional fast food run when we’re just too blasted tired to try to cook anything at home.  While I may be making my life easier in the short term by throwing a frozen pre-packaged burrito in the microwave, I need to look at the big picture and realize that I’m not making my life easier in the long run.  The more money I spend on convenience items, the more money I am going to have to make to pay for them, which means the more I am going to have to work.  The more I work, the less time I have to cook a real dinner, which means I will default to a convenience item.  It’s a vicious, vicious cycle, people.

So far the book has been focusing almost entirely on food expenses, since that is probably the biggest spending opportunity for most Americans.  I remember putting together a spreadsheet several months ago of our monthly expenses and discovering that we were spending more than $400 a month on groceries.  $400+ a month!  For two and a half people!  I about gagged on my frozen burrito when I saw that number.  Since then I’ve been trying to make more of an effort in my meal planning so we can cut down on the cost, but truth be told I haven’t exactly followed up and stayed on top of keeping track to see if its made a difference.

I’m hoping that if I start applying the ideas in Miserly Moms that I will be able to actually make some headway.  So, it begins!  Ms. Jonni has outlined Eleven Miserly Guidelines to get me on the way to financial freedom.  Guideline #1:  Don’t confuse frugality with depriving yourself.  And the bottom line to doing that?  Make sure your goals are worth more than anything else.  Is being debt-free your priority?  Quitting your job?  Maybe having a family?  Maybe it’s having more money to go see the world?  Whatever it is, it has to be better than anything else.  Better than getting your nails done regularly.  Better than take-out three times a week.  Better than a giant Diet Coke from the gas station every day.

For me, I want to be able to spend more time with my family.  That’s better than all the hair highlights in the world.  Yep, mind over matter.  I can do this.

What do you think?  What makes being frugal worth it to you?

Tags: priorities, sacrfices