Hello Everyone. Sorry it's been awhile since I posted to the blog. Since we are all facing some difficult times, I thought I would post a recipe that is cheap, easy, quick, and yummy.
Feed a Family of 6 for $6 With Pasta "Frugal"-esca:
Prepare 1 one pound bag of Penne al dente, drain, $1 bag from Dollar Tree
While Penne is preparing, saute 3 stalks celery (0.50 estimate, you can use equivilant of 1 1/2 cups diced or chopped veggie you have on hand, grated carrots are wonderful also) with 1 one pound package of Jimmy Dean Country Mild Sausage, or any sausage you have on hand, Mine was $2.00 from Sav-a-Lot. Stirred in 1 Tablespoon each dried Thyme and Sage from my garden and a few dashes of garlic powder(pennies)
Add one can of Hunts Traditional Spaghetti sauce, $1 from Dollar Tree. You can use any pasta sauce you have on hand, or crushed tomatoes work well also. Only have diced tomatoes on hand? No problem, stick them in the blender a minute, and use instead. Leftover whole fresh tomatoes in the summer? Blanch a few in boiling water a minute or so to loosen the skin, peel, dice and blend. If it's tomatoes you grew, well, this dish is even cheaper :)
Mix all of the above ingrediants together.
Grate one block of pepper jack or some other block cheese you have on hand. I got the marked down cheese at Food Lion for $1.50
Put half of the cheese in the pasta mixture and stir. Turn out into a 9 X 13 glass baking dish. Top with remaining grated cheese and serve.
Congratulations, You've just fed a family of 6 for $6. You can make the dish more expensive by adding more vegetables and serving with homemade italian bread, but why would you want to?
September Savings
In my area, September is the month of beginnings and endings. Local schools and colleges have now started back, county fairs have come and gone, and the harvest is well underway.
I was blessed to spend my "teenage years" growing up on my grandparents' farm. As I got older and started my own family, I got away from my "frugal" beginnings, but as prices have increased and concerns about food safety and climate control have increased, I have come to realize that there is no time like the present to try to incorporate some of the half-forgotten budget-friendly practices of my youth. Even though I have a very small yard, each year for the past three years, we have consciously made the decision to try to be more responsible and a little more "self-reliant" by reducing the size of our lawn and increasing the size of our vegetable patch. It is surprising how "ornamental" many of the most common vegetables can be in our yard, and how good it is for the environment to grow at least a small portion of our own food.
This year we planted zucchini, squash, cucumbers, peppers, corn, onions, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, peas, pole beans, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, okra, radishes, beets, turnips and watermelons. I continued with herbs from last year: basil, thyme, oregano, sage, tarragon, lavender and rosemary. Everything but the basil will "over-winter" right in the garden by applying a thick layer of "leaf mulch" right before the first killing frost. We also have a Bartlett pear tree, that is overloaded with fruit, and my neighbor has an overloaded apple tree which she gladly shares in exchange for me making apple butter. I took a week of "vacation" from my "paying job" to stay home and start canning our harvest. My yard is only 1/10th of 1 acre, and even though we were hit with a cold, wet Spring and then a major drought this Summer, I have an over-abundance of food for my family of six.
I already have "big" plans for next year to dig up even more of my yard and expand further. My hope is to have nothing left that needs to be mowed. The first year that I started gardening again, I just put a few tomato and pepper plants in some pots along my walkway. Whatever you do, whether you dig up part of your yard, or set out a few plants in pots, each little bit helps. It is just one more food item that did not have to be mass-produced and driven to your local store.
I started out with "heirloom seeds". Some were seeds from family and friends and some were seeds that I purchased, but heirloom seeds are the way to go. You can save the seeds from your harvest year to year, and you are cultivating varieties not normally found in your store's local produce selection. These "heirloom" varieties are often more attractive visually, with unique flavors and textures.
So this September, as the growing season is coming to an end, make a resolution for a new beginning next year and begin planning how you can begin or expand your own vegetable patch; you will save money, you will help the environment and you will get a little exercise in all at the same time. That is truly a frugal beginning that we can all use.
I was blessed to spend my "teenage years" growing up on my grandparents' farm. As I got older and started my own family, I got away from my "frugal" beginnings, but as prices have increased and concerns about food safety and climate control have increased, I have come to realize that there is no time like the present to try to incorporate some of the half-forgotten budget-friendly practices of my youth. Even though I have a very small yard, each year for the past three years, we have consciously made the decision to try to be more responsible and a little more "self-reliant" by reducing the size of our lawn and increasing the size of our vegetable patch. It is surprising how "ornamental" many of the most common vegetables can be in our yard, and how good it is for the environment to grow at least a small portion of our own food.
This year we planted zucchini, squash, cucumbers, peppers, corn, onions, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, peas, pole beans, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, okra, radishes, beets, turnips and watermelons. I continued with herbs from last year: basil, thyme, oregano, sage, tarragon, lavender and rosemary. Everything but the basil will "over-winter" right in the garden by applying a thick layer of "leaf mulch" right before the first killing frost. We also have a Bartlett pear tree, that is overloaded with fruit, and my neighbor has an overloaded apple tree which she gladly shares in exchange for me making apple butter. I took a week of "vacation" from my "paying job" to stay home and start canning our harvest. My yard is only 1/10th of 1 acre, and even though we were hit with a cold, wet Spring and then a major drought this Summer, I have an over-abundance of food for my family of six.
I already have "big" plans for next year to dig up even more of my yard and expand further. My hope is to have nothing left that needs to be mowed. The first year that I started gardening again, I just put a few tomato and pepper plants in some pots along my walkway. Whatever you do, whether you dig up part of your yard, or set out a few plants in pots, each little bit helps. It is just one more food item that did not have to be mass-produced and driven to your local store.
I started out with "heirloom seeds". Some were seeds from family and friends and some were seeds that I purchased, but heirloom seeds are the way to go. You can save the seeds from your harvest year to year, and you are cultivating varieties not normally found in your store's local produce selection. These "heirloom" varieties are often more attractive visually, with unique flavors and textures.
So this September, as the growing season is coming to an end, make a resolution for a new beginning next year and begin planning how you can begin or expand your own vegetable patch; you will save money, you will help the environment and you will get a little exercise in all at the same time. That is truly a frugal beginning that we can all use.
How Cool is Cuil?
Today is the official unveiling of the website Cuil (pronounced cool) and at first glance it appears to be the first challenger to realistically have a shot at dethroning Google's top of the search heap status. With all of the ballyho, I had to go check it out, and I have to admit I, for one, was not disappointed.
I think we are all pretty familiar with your standard search engine, you put in your term(s) and you get x number of matches, listed numerically in order based on a mathematical formula that summerizes how each link most appropriately matches your search query. You have to click on each one, go to the site, go back to the search, back and forth, until you settle on what you are looking for, or you get so bored by the tediousness of the task that you abandon your search, or worse, until your eyes glaze over and you are mindlessly no longer processing what you are reading, but are simply trying to click through all of the results.
Cuil is totally cool, in that it is the exact opposite.
Cuil's searches are presented in a format similar to a magazine or newspaper layout. With Cuil you get the title of the match in hyperlink text, and then a short paragraph that gives you more information BEFORE you click on the link, so that you have a better idea if this search result applies to your specific search. Searches are fast, and they find much more information than your typical Google, MSN or Yahoo search. So you are getting your information, your results, more quickly, with more information and less eye strain. I believe we will all save lots of time with this new search engine. You know the old saying, "Time is Money"? In this economy we can all benefit by saving our time and money.
Got some spare time? Don't just take my word on it, go see for yourself and visit Cuil today:
http://www.cuil.com/
I think we are all pretty familiar with your standard search engine, you put in your term(s) and you get x number of matches, listed numerically in order based on a mathematical formula that summerizes how each link most appropriately matches your search query. You have to click on each one, go to the site, go back to the search, back and forth, until you settle on what you are looking for, or you get so bored by the tediousness of the task that you abandon your search, or worse, until your eyes glaze over and you are mindlessly no longer processing what you are reading, but are simply trying to click through all of the results.
Cuil is totally cool, in that it is the exact opposite.
Cuil's searches are presented in a format similar to a magazine or newspaper layout. With Cuil you get the title of the match in hyperlink text, and then a short paragraph that gives you more information BEFORE you click on the link, so that you have a better idea if this search result applies to your specific search. Searches are fast, and they find much more information than your typical Google, MSN or Yahoo search. So you are getting your information, your results, more quickly, with more information and less eye strain. I believe we will all save lots of time with this new search engine. You know the old saying, "Time is Money"? In this economy we can all benefit by saving our time and money.
Got some spare time? Don't just take my word on it, go see for yourself and visit Cuil today:
http://www.cuil.com/
Everything That Goes Around Comes Around
For those of us who were growing up in the '70s it's getting harder to deny that all pervasive feeling of Deja Vu. No, I am not referring to the come back attempts by various Rock Groups, all though there is that as well, I am referring to the oil crisis, the devaluation of the American Dollar, the credit crunch and the rise of inflation. 2008 seems a lot like 1978, the only thing that is different to me is that this time I am an adult with children of my own rather than a child growing up and having to adjust to a dramatic "lowering of profile".
With gas almost $4 a gallon here, everyone is being forced to "cut back" in some way, especially since easy sources of credit have vanished for the majority of us. While I have always lived a somewhat frugal lifestyle, the continuation of this lifestyle is more by neccessity now than choice.
I am really interested in hearing from others about what they are doing to conserve and save money. This year I have expanded my garden space, in an effort to cut down on the grocery bill, so that the money saved in this catagory can be used in the gas tank. At first I gave up cable in favor of Netflix; now the video section at the local library seems even more appealing, since it is free to check out videos, as well as a host of other media types. Websites like Hulu, and most of the major broadcast networks, offer a vast array of streaming programming over the internet for free. I have also been subscribing to all of the free internet coupon sites, as well as researching which of my local stores accept them, as well as ceasing to shop the ones that do not. While the various factors affecting the American economy seem the same as in the 70s, this time around, through the internet, we at least have more ways to research and plan to save.
You have probably heard of this website, http://www.gasbuddy.com/. If not, check it out, it will help you research the lowest gas prices in your area. Believe me, pennies do add up over time.
With gas almost $4 a gallon here, everyone is being forced to "cut back" in some way, especially since easy sources of credit have vanished for the majority of us. While I have always lived a somewhat frugal lifestyle, the continuation of this lifestyle is more by neccessity now than choice.
I am really interested in hearing from others about what they are doing to conserve and save money. This year I have expanded my garden space, in an effort to cut down on the grocery bill, so that the money saved in this catagory can be used in the gas tank. At first I gave up cable in favor of Netflix; now the video section at the local library seems even more appealing, since it is free to check out videos, as well as a host of other media types. Websites like Hulu, and most of the major broadcast networks, offer a vast array of streaming programming over the internet for free. I have also been subscribing to all of the free internet coupon sites, as well as researching which of my local stores accept them, as well as ceasing to shop the ones that do not. While the various factors affecting the American economy seem the same as in the 70s, this time around, through the internet, we at least have more ways to research and plan to save.
You have probably heard of this website, http://www.gasbuddy.com/. If not, check it out, it will help you research the lowest gas prices in your area. Believe me, pennies do add up over time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)