Yesterday morning, with a minute to kill before leaving for a walk to the bus stop, I brought out the slow cooker and put it next to the pork tenderloin recipe my husband printed from the Internet. I also brought out all the non-refrigerated ingredients, and the pork tenderloin, and set them by the recipe and the slow cooker.
What do you know, when I walked in at 6:15 pm there were the good smells of dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, and a very tender and flavourful pork tenderloin. With organic chard, and potatoes. And we have lots for sandwiches and leftovers. We're both to thank: he found a recipe 20 hours before it was to be ready and printed it out, I brought out the ingredients onto the kitchen counter in the morning so he'd have sufficient time to prepare.
But I know there are many more things I could do and should do.
I'm rereading Frugal Living for Dummies and it looks like the author is from my part of the world! Maybe I can overcome the HCOL.
I am very keen to try a price book. The challenge of affording a weekend at Newport, Oregon ($300 for gas, hotel, meals) or tankless water heaters strictly on food savings is very appealing.
We've cut down a lot on our supermarket adventures, except for the dairy purchases--they must be fresh, the supermarket does offer organic and rBGH-free dairy options. Going to the farmer's market is more fun: I get to meet the farmers, I learn more about their products, and I can quiz a master gardener or a sustainable-agriculture expert. And I pay the same price as everyone else without having to have a 'card'.
Other challenges:
1. cutting down on water usage, implementing the rainbarrel. It's rained quite a bit here, and is the barrel up to the downspout? No.
2. finding creative alternatives and ways to cut the budget when expenditures in one category go up. After seeing the documentary "Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox," I may try the very water-frugal method the ninth-generation chemist performed himself for the camera to clean his hair, his face, and his body. (If you plan to see the film, have no fear: there is no nudity in the demonstration.)
I'm also gently coaxing the spouse to try walking more with me. On Sunday we all walked 1.9 miles on a roundtrip to my child's prospective school, to acquaint everyone with the correct and shortest paths. I do this to gauge time, in case we have a good morning, or lots of budgeted time to walk the tot to school. We probably should bike it, eventually--the hills and traffic scare me.
Those crucial little steps to frugality
August 21st, 2007 at 04:47 pm
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