Frugal Babe

Yesterday I spent about 5 hours cooking.  It was off and on, and I was able to do other stuff during the “simmer” parts of the process.  It wasn’t strenuous by any means.  But now our freezer is stocked: a spinach lasagna, spaghetti pie, baked ziti, lentil curry, chili, red clam sauce, pumpkin muffins, and chocolate muffins.  I have to give credit to the book Frozen Assets for giving me the idea.  I’ve always been a fan of cooking large quantities of soup or chili and putting the leftovers in the fridge for later in the week.  But I’ve never cooked several main dishes in one day and frozen everything.  I spent about $40 on groceries for my big cooking day, and ended up with ready-to-cook meals that will last us about 14 meals.  And it’s such a great feeling to know that everything’s in the freezer and just needs to be thawed and heated.  I stuck a list on the freezer door, so we know what’s in there, and when it starts to run out, I can spend another Sunday cooking several meals.  And the problem of don’t-feel-like-cooking-better-go-out-to-eat is solved.

Cooking everything in one day worked well for me.  I stayed motivated because I could watch the freezer filling up as I went along, and I was able to use the same ingredients in multiple dishes.  We don’t eat a lot of meat, so I used one package of groung buffalo and cooked it with a bunch of diced tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers.  Then I was able to use this meat/veggie mixture in the lasagna, spaghetti pie, and chili.  It was easier than starting from scratch to add meat to each of those dishes. 

I’ve checked the Frozen Assets book out of the library two or three times, and each time I thought it would be a great idea, but never got around to actually doing it.  I’m so glad that I finally tried it.  I enjoy cooking, so yesterday was fun for me, and will make my weeknights a lot easier.  Even for someone who hates to cook, making a bunch of stuff (it doesn’t have to be fancy) in one day at least gets the process out of the way for a while. 

 

 

Last night I was working at the library, and talking with some of my friends there about a book I’m currently reading.  It’s called Not Buying It – My Year Without Shopping.  I waited on the hold list at the library for over two months for this one, as it seems to be a pretty popular book.  Anyway, it’s the story of Judith Levine and her domestic partner, Paul, as they spend 2004 without buying anything non-essential.  They can buy unprocessed food, toilet paper, work supplies, etc.  But movies, clothes, dining out… all the non-essentials are axed for the year.  It’s in journal format, and I’m only to April, but it’s very interesting so far. 

As we were talking about it, one of the other librarians mentioned that someone should try to go a year without buying anything NEW except for food and other obviously consumable stuff – toilet paper comes to mind.  She was musing out loud about whether it would be possible to only buy stuff at thrift stores, garage sales, Craigslist, freecycle, etc.  I mentioned that I pretty much do that already, and she said I should write a book.  Or I could just blog about it. 

As it is, we never buy clothing new, and we rarely buy anything else new.  The exceptions are few.  I am a runner, and I buy new running shoes every 7 or 8 months.  Used running shoes have already formed to someone else’s foot, and if they’re in a thrift store, chances are the shock absorption has seen better days.  Since this has an impact (literally) on my knees, I have found over the years that new running shoes are an invaluable investment.  Underwear and socks I buy new, although I have been known to buy the occasional pair of socks in a thrift store.   I just found a sweet pair of Patagonia hiking socks for $1.  Didn’t look like they had ever been worn, and I’ve seen similar socks for $15 in sporting goods stores.  We will be buying a new computer in January.  We have an on-line insurance agency, and since we work from home, the computer and our phones are really the only infrastructure we need in order to work.  We use them pretty intensively, and mine is almost 5 years old.  It will be retiring soon.  We’re going to buy J’s dad a heart rate monitor this weekend, as he’s recently gotten into biking and is working really hard to get himself in good shape.  He’s doing a great job, and we want to encourage him.  I go to the scrapbook store every 6 months or so, but I could skip that for several years and probably still have supplies left over – I have enough paper to last the rest of my life. 

Other than that, we pretty much buy everything used.  Our cars, full suspension mountain bikes, bike shoes, bike jerseys and shorts, clothes, furniture (and no, our house does not look like a college student’s apartment), dishes, pots and pans, comforters, our juicer, even our pets were recycled! (Humane Society).  And we’re not into upgrading or replacing stuff just because.  We pretty much keep the same stuff until it’s no longer useful.  We’re not likely to go buy new furniture or dishes until what we have falls apart.  It’s the ultimate recycling – keeping what we’ve got already.

So yes, I think it’s absolutely possible to spend a year only buying used stuff.  I can’t imagine buying only new stuff.  That would take all the fun out of it, since I’d be worried about the money I was spending, and because I love how thrift stores are like a treasure hunt.  You never know what you’re going to find.  Not so in Banana Republic or Pottery Barn, where you can pretty much picture what’s in there before you even walk inside.