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19
Nov 2006

Cheap Food

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I sat down to write about my favorite cheap food, and ended up reading all sorts of other pf blogs.  Before I knew it, I’d been clicking from one to another for well over an hour.  Wow, time flies when I’m reading lots of stuff from people who think like I do.  I just discovered the Under 30 Honor Roll and was amazed that so many of the pf bloggers are in their 20s.  Sometimes it seems that everyone - especially the 20 somethings - has lost their minds when it comes to money.  So it’s nice to see so many sites authored by young people and dedicated to financial competence. 

I’m making rice and beans for dinner today.  That’s my all time favorite cheap food (rice and lentil curry is another favorite, but not quite as cheap).  I spent two years in East Africa with the Peace Corps after college.  If I had not been a fan of rice and beans, I would have starved.  Seriously.  I ate rice and beans or ugali (stiff corn porridge) and beans for lunch and dinner about five days out of every week.  We’d have spinach or avocado on the side, but the main dish always included beans.  I didn’t have a clue how to cook when I first went to Africa.  I had lived on sandwiches in college, and basically learned to cook over a coal fire with the help of the friendly villagers who lived near me.  Once I came back to the US, I had a great appreciation for things like electric stoves and sinks with faucets.  And rice and beans. 

My mother-in-law gave me a big crock pot for Christmas last year.  I buy pinto beans at Costco in 10 pound bags for about $5.  I soak a few cups of beans overnight, and then cook them in the crock pot on all day.  I saute a bunch of onions, garlic, and chopped tomatoes, and then add the cooked beans – just like I learned in Africa.  I make a huge pot of brown rice, some sort of green side dish, and dinner is served.  This is usually enough food to last 4 or 5 meals.  And it costs about $7 total, including the rice, beans, tomatoes, onions, and garlic.  Not a bad deal.  And since we have tons of rice leftover, I can make other dishes during the week that need rice.  I love brown rice, but it takes so long to cook that I always make a bunch at a time. 

Another bonus – brown rice and beans is good for you.  It sure beats ramen noodles in the health department.

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11
Nov 2006

Back to Normal

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We got home from Hawaii a couple days ago, and we’re getting back to normal.  Overall, we did a pretty good job at being frugal on vacation.  We had a few dinners out, and took a trip to the Big Island, but we didn’t buy a lot of junk, and we stayed within our budget.  We got to see tons of great sights, and do lots of hiking, swiming, surfing, and relaxing.  We owe a huge thanks to J’s sister and her family – for a place to stay, a car, food, and the ultimate tour guides – you guys are awesome! 

We found ourselves very drawn to the natural wonders of Hawaii, and tried to avoid the commercial, touristy areas as much as possible.  We enjoyed places like the North Shore of Oahu, with its sleepy small towns and beautiful beaches.  We loved Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and the small towns we stopped in during our travels.  We liked seeing aspects of true Hawaiian culture, and the spirit of Aloha that greeted us along the way.  We weren’t so impressed with places like Waikiki, which is overflowing with tourists and junk for them to buy.  The stores along the main street there – including Chanel and Prada – have nothing to do with Hawaii, and are just aimed at people who are on vacation to shop.  It could have been Vegas.  We ended up there one evening and left as quickly as possible to go to dinner in a smaller town on the other side of the island. 

For us, traveling is about seeing new things that we can’t see at home, experiencing different cultures, and meeting new people.  We got to do all of that during our time in Hawaii.  And avoiding touristy areas (largely designed with shopping and over-priced dining in mind) is about the best way to truly experience a new place, and save money in the process.  One of our favorite places in Hawaii was Volcano National Park, which costs $10 to enter (waived if you have an annual National Parks Pass).  We packed a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and some fruit, and got to spend the whole day hiking around a truly one-of-a-kind place, for less than it would have cost to have lunch in one of the commerical tourist areas of the state. 

 

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29
Oct 2006

Souvenirs

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J and I love to travel. We’ve been to some great places, and have lots of places that we’ve love to go in the future. We’re loving our time in Hawaii right now. We’ve only been shopping for about 15 minutes during the five days we’ve been here, and it was to buy a couple of gifts that some special people at home would really appreciate. We’re not planning any other shopping time during our trip. There are too many sights to see, waves to ride, sandcastles to build (we’re visiting our nieces), and pictures to take. We decided that pictures will be our only souvenirs from this trip. Usually when we travel, we bring back some sort of trinket as a momento of our trip. But we don’t have any more room in our house, so we can’t keep buying stuff everywhere we go, or else every surface in our house will be covered in stuff.

I love to scrapbook, and we take tons of pictures, both at home and when we travel. We have a digital camera; we can delete the bad pics, and we always end up with lots of good ones, so this is a perfect solution. Part of me wants to buy something Hawaiian – but not cheesy or touristy – to put in our house to subtly remind me of our trip. And perhaps to subtly remind our friends and family? That’s a tough one to admit, but I think it’s true. We love to travel, and so do most people we know. Somehow souvenirs from exotic locales feel like a status symbol when they’re on display in your house. Let’s face it, most people would rather have an African carving – that they picked up in Africa – on their wall rather than a poster they bought at KMart. Including myself. But when I really think about the whole souvenir issue, it seems a bit shallow, and flies in the face of my efforts to save money and have a clutter-free house.

We are having a great time here, and it’s a trip we’ll remember for a long time. We don’t need stuff from Hawaii sitting around our house to remind us of the trip. And the fact that we are lucky enough to have family in Hawaii who invited us to visit doesn’t make us better people or worthy of anyone’s admiration. When our friends come over, we can just have a good time hanging out with them, in front of a KMart poster.

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Category: lessons learned, travel  One Comment
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