Notes on Woodstove Cookery

 Not a cookstove, a regular woodstove you heat the house or shop with.   The first part is a review of stove top cookery.  The other part is new and more interesting and has pictures.

I have one made out of a water heater tank.  I had the guy put a full flat top on it.  Most of the ones he made (he's retired from the woodstove biz) had a half flat top and half rounded.  I wanted room for like 2 pans or a little pan and a tea kettle.

It works.  

I had someone recently, a charming young man with apparently very little real world experience, say "oh, you can cook on a woodstove!?!?!"   Uh....ya.

Here's the thing.  Food + Heat = Cooking.

Seriously that is it.  You just need a heat source and some food.  There is all that raw crap and salad, but I'm talking about cooking with a woodstove so that isn't relevant.

Any heat source can cook.  A candle can cook tiny things...just check out that channel on youtube with the guy cooking for his hamster.

I cook on top of the stove.   This is easy.  Anything in a pot:

Tea, coffee, soup, rice, noodles.   When I have the woodstove going daily (really nightly because I don't heat during the day if I'm not home), I put on a tea kettle of water and save it in vacuum bottles.  Then I have pretty hot water for coffee, tea, soup, noodles, whatever.  Yes, smartass, in science class in 5th grade they told you that cold water heats faster than hot water.  If you are trying to raise a quantity of water 1 degree, then yes.  The cold water will heat that 1 degree faster.  If you are trying to boil water, hot water boils faster than cold water because there are fewer degrees to heat.  And yes, I have had idiots tell me that when they asked how I cook.  Why ask me and then tell me I am doing it wrong?  You don't even live off grid douchebag and you clearly do not cook or even make damn tea...

Sorry...rant break there.

By saving the hot water, if the stove goes out or I don't want to rebuild a fire or I have the stove set to burn pretty low, it's easy to boil water on the woodstove or on the little butane stove much more quickly.   Speeds up soups too.

Too cook wet food (soup, rice, noodles, boiled eggs, etc) on top of your woodstove:

Put food in a pan with water or whatever liquid.  Put it on the stove.  When it's done or you are sick of waiting, take it off the stove and eat it.

You can also fry stuff on the woodstove.  I only do the occasional egg on there.   Meat, fish, onions etc will stink up my wee shed.  When I have a bigger house I will do more frying on the woodstove.  Which will in fact be a cookstove.  An egg is pretty quick and doesn't smell like much.   

To fry on the woodstove, put the pan, preferable a cast iron or other heavy pan, on the hot stove.   Add some oil.   When the grease is as hot as you want (you can spit in it if you want to check it old school style or put a drop of water in it if you are rocking it new style) (if it's medium hot the spit/water will dance and evaporate, if it's high heat you will get a face full of hot grease spatters), put in the food.

Yes, you can dry fry a steak or burger or whatever.  If you are going to fry fish, I assume you want the whole house to stink of fish for months.  Knock yourself out.  Personally, I'm not doing that right now.  Same with onions, garlic etc.   Too much stank.

Now for the exciting and innovative bit that many people have already done around the world but "modern" "mainstream" americans don't seem to think of:  Cook inside the fire box.

I've posted the pumpkin and onions in the past.

Today, I took it up a notch.  

I did an elk roast inside the firebox.  It was astoundingly good.   A) it's elk.  B) it was slightly smoky and cooked to medium.   I did an onion in there as well.  The onion was HUGE and actually needed longer but the elk was ready and it's been years since I had elk and maybe forever that I have had an elk roast so, when it was ready it came out and I ate half of it.  The rest is for soup tomorrow.

Here is the detailed and specific recipe and costs (because it is still no-spend-groceries-February)

Remember to bring the roast home from the work fridge freezer (have forgotten it multiple weekends but remembered this weekend).

Cut up the tiny garlic cloves and one giant single mutant clove (it was its own head) and put it in the tiny cast iron pan you got a thrift store for like 50cents that you like to cook a single egg in because it is square and fits on a piece of bread unless you get the good artisanal bread in which case, still a fun square egg.  The pan is sitting on my grubby butane stove .  The garlic is from my garden so cost is zero.

Rik: Thanks for the elk!!!  It was a gift so...the cost is zero.

Here is the roast unwrapped.  Note the lack of fat.  I still didn't add any oil or fat because I like my meat like my men....lean.  It is sitting on the garlic cloves.  The center was a tiny bit frozen but what the hell. 

Stick it in the firebox.  Note that I let the fire burn down to coals and pushed those to the back BEFORE I put the food in.  There is a bit of firebrick the pan is sitting on which helped keep it level.  The brick is in there to hold up the end of the logs/sticks that go in the woodstove so there is a bit of air circulation under them while I get the fire going.  If they sit flat on the bottom layer of firebricks they don't burn as well.  Next to the roast is the giant onion.  The onion is from 2nd harvest so the cost is zero.  

On top of the stove I am making a side dish in a little pan I got at a thrift store for 50cents...set of three but the "big" one was dinged up and is now the auxiliary chicken water pan (let them drink the pot metal particulate, not me...also their main water pan is frozen solid to the ground and full up with ice).

The side dish is dried mushrooms and dried carrots from Sherry (thanks Sherry) which were a gift so the cost is zero.  Recipe:  crunch up the big bits of mushroom and put in pan.  Add some dried carrot slices.  Add a bit of water (the hot stuff from the insulated bottle) and set it on the stove over the hottest part which will be at the back by the stove pipe because that is where you pushed the coals).  When it starts to boil, move it to a cooler part or on the fire brick you keep on top of the stove for just that purposed and also a tiny bit of heat storage. I did cover it with a scrap of foil so I was minimizing the steamy vapor in the wee shed and because I wanted to.  It does not matter.  If the water gets low, add more.  Give them 10min or more.

About 20 or so minutes later I looked in and the top of the meat was nice and cooked, looked browned but not seared.  So I turned it over.  Some of the garlic stuck to it.   I let it. I mean, really, who cares?  It's my damn roast.   I spun the onion so the other side was facing the coals.  It wasn't very soft but was very hot.

Another 10min or so, maybe less, and this is how it looked.  We're back on the tiny butane stove (with some baking soda stains...oops...I'm not a food stylist).  The side that finished toward the coals, started toward the door, was less done. Both the done-er and less done bits are delicious.  The garlics caramelized and the tiny bit of juice in the pan got used as a sauce sort of.

Here is the full meal on my thrift store steel camping plate, enamel mug, and the thrift store pan all sitting on my wood stove...with a drying dish towel in the background.  Jesus H. Christ I am NOT a food stylist am I!?  The onion, a free yellow onion not a fancy sweet anything, was vaguely sweet and smokey.  The roast was delicious and vaguely smoky but not overly so, with the caramelized garlic and garlicy elk juice it is fantastic! As you can see, the roast was still juicy inside.  I have heard you need to sear it to keep the juices in.  Apparently not. The carrots and mushrooms were simple and delicious.  I added minimal water so they didn't get soft.  Good texture and the carrots get oranger when you cook them up.  In soup with lots of water the mushrooms stay mushroom texture and the carrots get softer and softer.

I didn't bother with any spices, not even salt and pepper.   It was all delicious as is.

I did not check the temperature inside the firebox. Sometimes I do that with an over thermometer but I didn't feel like it.  I could stick my hand in there long enough to get things settled and not be bothered.  I have super tough hands temperature-wise so ...350 or 400?  Don't know.  Didn't matter.  If you are worried about exact temperatures, don't do this sort of cooking.  You can't build the fire back up once you start unless you want the food to be in flames.

I have half the onion and about half the roast, it was a tiny roast which I super appreciate! and the dregs of the mushrooms and carrots in a tin on the porch (35 degs out so it will keep) along with the bits from the elk pan that I deglazed with a bit of water.  That all goes in soup or stew tomorrow.  Might add more veg, might not.  That will get cooked on top of the stove as described above.

Total cost for an astoundingly delicious meal:  ZERO.

For the record I also made breakfast on the woodstove.  I fried 2 eggs in the cast iron skillet you can see on the floor in on of the pictures (not really the floor...it's the bit of cement board I use as a hearth and a giant cake I set cooking pots in...they don't burn the floor that way).   I don't have counter space to set the frying pan on when the butane stove is being used as a prep area.  I'm used to this sort of curly-shuffle but those thinking of living tiny might take it as a warning.  When you cook, you spend fully 50% of the time shuffling your crap to questionable locations so you can find a place to assemble the meal.

Anyway, breakfast was 2 eggs from my chickens...cost of feed maybe 50cents because of low egg production in winter.  I used some coconut oil for the pan which was looking dry so I used more than usual...maybe 5cents.  Coffee (used the grounds twice in a tiny thrift store percolator...I should show that in a picture some time).  Old cheap coffee because the free grounds are finally used up.  10cents.  Water...free.  

I've also had a few cups of peppermint tea, 2 cents (loose leaf peppermint bought in bulk ages ago).

Total cost for lunch:  ZERO

Total cost for breakfast: 67cents.

For a snack today I had a can of diced pears in pear juice from 2nd harvest:  Zero.

Total for the day so far (and likely the whole day because I'm still stuffed from lunch): 67cents.

Cooking on and in the woodstove is not difficult and since I had no actual time spent preheating the oven...I was out doing chores and had a fire going just because it is winter, my total prep time was under 10 min and cook time under 30 (which I spent watching random  youtubes).

To the young doofus who was surprised you can cook on a woodstove...yes, and also, there is no santa claus and your mom is the toothfairy.

  

Some of My New/Recycled Thrifty Ninja Moves

 I've blogged about my uber thrifty...like to the point they may be pointless...habits in the past.  Things like giving up shampoo.   Which of course worked out well and IS worth it to me.  Make your own choices.

Watching some thrifty/frugal food youtubers and other cheapskate vloggers, I can see how far I've come/gone.

E.g.  Watching grocery hauls where people buy selzer water.   First I think "wow, that's a ton of plastic...more plastic than food" that they come home with, in their reusable bag!

Even the 2nd harvest I'm getting has less plastic packaging.   Clearly I do not shop like a normal human.

Anyway, here are some ninja moves I've developed thrifty-wise:

1) Groceries

Grocery list is in general terms, rarely specifics.

I write "grain" meaning any type of grain, flour or starch. I can work with rice, flour, corn flower, wheat berries, etc.  Whatever is on sale.  It's a starchy for a meal that is shelf stable and dry.

I also put "veg X2" for 2 types of veggies.  Whatever is cheap.  Varies by season and you never know what's in the discount veggie bin.

Same with fruit.  I put about how much or if I would like multiple types.  I can generally get discounted bananas at 25cents a pound at a local store.  They are not bagged, just starting to show spots which is fine  Freeze some and use some right away for banana eggs.

I haven't bought meat in a store in recent memory so that's not on the list anymore.  It could pop up again in the future in which case it will be whatever is cheap.  I eat plenty of meat.  I get it in other ways.

For spices/herbs I may be specific and always buy in bulk or from the deeply discounted rack or large bags from an international food store.  Working on remembering to harvest more of my own.  Right now I could use a poultry mix or some sage.   But, no hurry.

I do like canned tomato products but right now am out and am getting used to not having them.  When I do put them on the list it says "tinned tomato".  Paste, diced, whole, sauce.   As long as it is low sodium (health issue), and just tomatoes not sugar and tomatoes or overly seasoned in a strange way, I will get it.  I can usually get things for 39cents or less for a 14.5oz can.  I'm all for dried tomatoes and will can my own when I have a kitchen again.  

I use the occasional bouillon cube, though there is only one brand I have found locally that is low sodium AND tastes decent.  I only buy it when I find it on supersale or for a buck or less on the discount rack.  8 cubes of 2 servings each per box.  I used my last one recently, last cube, and so if I see it when I'm back in a store, I might get it.

For non-food things, I'm doing better at shopping in my own storage.  I recently brought the shirts from the back of the hanging storage to the front.  It looks like I have 5 new shirts.  All are of course from thrift and I have had them for ages, I just haven't worn them for months.  I think I have 10 button down long sleeve shirts and 1 thick sweater in the shed right now and I wasn't even wearing most of the shirts.  I wear a t-shirt or shell under the button downs and a longsleeve t under the sweater.  I also have 3 sweatshirts, 2 are fine for work if we're doing fieldwork that day.   Those are in heavy rotation.  I keep 3 button downs at the office for meetings (even zoom meetings) that come up on fieldwork days, or after a tragic coffee spill.  Wear one for an hour and hang it back up.  They get washed about 2x per season.

2) Laundry:  I bought more undies at the start of 'rona in case I needed to quarantine.  I had enough to go a week or 10 days between laundry trips.  Now I have enough to go 2 weeks.  Since laundry is the main reason for going to town on the weekend, having more undies, hence fewer laundry trips, saved in multiple ways.   1) 5$ gas every other week at current rates.  2) if I'm not going in town, I don't run other errands and don't hit thrift stores where something on the list might be available.  Things fall off the list if you wait long enough.  Either I find something else that works, or figure out I don't really need the item.  3) I do 3 loads of laundry every 2 weeks instead of 2 loads every week.  I use the bigger machines, and find by delaying a week, I only add one more load.   I go ahead and wear my weekend work pants (Carhartts from thrift usually) for an extra weekend so no extras there.  1 or 2 more pairs of work jeans in the winter, possibly more in the summer when I'm sweaty, and some long johns, undies, sox, kitchen towels and gym towels, some t-shirts and long sleeve shirts only adds one load.  Interesting.  Might keep up with the 2 week laundry system after 'rona.

Not going to town for laundry weekly, and people being idiots, made me stretch my grocery trips out to every 2weeks after the farmers market closed for the season.  Pantry/no-spend grocery challenges have stretched that out even more.  As I type this it has been 42 days since I've set foot in a grocery store or paid for food in anyway. I've GOTTEN food....eggs from the chickens, 2nd harvest left overs, bread with a gift card, gifts, and shared it out, but haven't gone to a store or otherwise paid out of pocket for any.  Not even a restaurant.

The 2 weeks between laundry/town trips was also a good time to wean myself off of fancy coffee.  I would buy one per week for about 2 - 4$.  Not much by many people's standards, but a unnecessary cost to me.  I get good beans to grind from the discount grocery store, and use the old ones at work, and drink up the tea I have rather than have 3 or 4 cups of coffee.   I have a hand grinder so I also have to preplan my coffee.   This saves the drive through cost AND the idling the car costs while sitting in the drive through. 

3) Woodstove cookery.  It's not a "cookstove" but you know...cooking is just food + heat.  So it works.  I have taken to roasting things inside the fire box.  Not while it's BLAZING and over heating, when it's all died down a bit and is coals.  Push the coals to the back.   Set a whole pumpkin or squash or onion toward the front, by the door.   Close the door.  Wait.  Every now and then, open the door and spin the squash/pumpkin/onion around a bit.  Cook all sides.   You don't have to get the seeds out of the squash/pumpkin before cooking.  I do poke a hole or two so it won't blow up in there.  Once it feels pretty soft and before it's totally charred, take it out in a pan.  Peel the skin off, cut off the top.  Scoop out seeds and guts.  I put the seeds in a bowl of water to clean up and save some to plant and roast the rest on top of the stove.   The first time I did an onion, I wrapped it in foil.  This seemed messy and the outside of the onion was still charred.  Now, I just don't peel them at all.  Set an onion in the firebox.  Spin it around now and then to get a new side toward the coals.   Remove when it feels soft.  It's a bit sticky.  I peel off the charred bits, mostly it's the papery skin that chars.  I wasn't eating that anyway. That takes the ashes with it.   Then, I stab it with a fork (because it's hot) and dice it up a bit.  Throw it in soup, on rice, or with pasta.  EXCELLENT caramelized (if you burn it a bit, call it caramelized) or sweated onion.   Great soup without frying an onion in a small space.  I assume I could do garlic in there as well but I've been boiling that in the soups. That's been working well.

On top of the stove I can bake...usually burning the bottom because it's hard to control.  Put a small pan of muffins or cake or biscuits on a trivet (I use a real trivet or a few jar rings that are beyond using on canning jars any more)  Put a BIG roaster upside down over the whole thing.  Or...a small soup pan fits over my little cake pan which makes a nice chocolate wacky cake (the one with no eggs).

4) Soaking pasta is my new thing.   If you soak it, even cheap spaghetti, for a couple of hours before throwing it in hot soup (using it for noodle soup this week) or bring the soak pan up to a boil, it's done fast.   When the wood stove is going I don't have to worry about saving fuel so much, but there isn't a ton of room on top of the stove.  If I'm making a sauce or soup, that's pretty much all the space.  MIGHT get the little cake pan on there for a side of biscuit type bread or bannock or cake.  If I want pasta, much easier to presoak it off the heat, then throw it in the hot soup.  Ready in about 2-3 min.  Taste for done-itude.

5) Back to thermos cooking.  I've done it in the past but with being home a lot since March 2020, I'm doing it more.

Thermos pasta.  Fill thermos with boiling water.  Put the top on.  Let it sit about 5 min.  Measure pasta that will take up about half the interior space of the thermos.   Boil more water.  Pour out the first boiling thermos water (I use it for doing dishes or something) which was to pre-heat the thermos.  Put in the pasta.  Fill up to the bottom of the cap with water.   Close TIGHTLY.   Rotate it around a bit to help separate the noodles.  Do that now and then for the next 10-15 min.  It's not very picky about timing.  I use a thermos with a pour top so I open that a bit and pour out the water (good for soup or rehydrating dried veggies for a side dish or soup).   Put the pasta on a plate.  Eat.

Thermos rice and thermos rice with lentils have also worked well.  Use LESS rice than half the interior size of the thermos.  Takes a bit of trial and error.  Set the thermos on its side and rotate it now and then.  This takes a couple of hours usually.   Sometimes you might want to reheat it to eat, or reheat and put back in if it's not done.   White rice cooks faster but also goes to mush easily.

Presoaked wheatberries cooked up in a thermos very nicely.  I preheated the thermos as above.   Boiled the berries in water in the appropriate proportions for about 5 min, then put in the thermos and rolled it around now and then for a couple of hours.  Great texture.  I ate half with dinner with some oil and spices and saved the rest as breakfast with some jam stirred in like it was oatmeal.   It is almost impossible to overcook whole grain berries.   

6) Shop in the storage.

Before I go to the store, I often (not always, I'm not a monster) check the current stock.  Since March 2020 it's been safer to be in the storage unit than the store so doing more of it.    For groceries, check the pantry/stored food stock BEFORE making a list.  Figure out what can be made with what's on hand.  I often take out what would be good to eat up first and put that on the visible shelf at home or the office.   E.g. If I get too much fruit, focus on eating that.   Often, turns out I don't need anything and can skip a store trip.

For other stores (hardware, thrift, clothes) checked stored stuff.  I have a back stock of sox an pants bought at thrift in 2019.   It was a good year for wool sox and cotton-no-stretch jeans.   Rather than getting something new, wear those.  No one gives a crap what I wear.  Sometimes I find hardware bits and bobs in the tool storage so don't have to buy then.   If there is something I do need, I hit thrift first if it looks safe to go in the store.   Some things I can't get at thrift. like butane for the tiny non-woodstove.   I've started ordering that in bulk rather than getting cans a few at a time.  It costs more upfront but hasn't seemed to increase overall consumption.  We'll see in spring when I don't have the woodstove going.  With being home so much, I may be using it up faster.

7) Use up what others are throwing out or I have in stock but don't super like.   

There is AWFUL coffee at work.  In a nice can. Or rather there was.  I drank it up.   It is B.A.D.  And it is G.O.N.E.   Now I have a nice 3lb coffee can to turn into a chicken feeder by filling it with chicken food.  Or to use as whatever.  And, it's gone.   Stretched my decent coffee supply about 3 weeks by drinking it up and now the decent coffee tastes really good.

I found some instant espresso powder in the back of my home pantry shelf (2 or 3 shelves in a book case by the "kitchen" which is a table).  It's not horrible.  Especially if you put a bit of baking cocoa with it.  Then it's actually decent.  I have another serving or two.  It wasn't getting fresher.  Might was well drink it up.

I famously don't care for peaches.  Mushy.   Canned peaches from 2nd Harvest are less awful because they are underripe and have some texture other than mush.  They come packed in pear juice, unsweetened.  Nothing wrong with them.  I drink the juice and eat the peaches with breakfast at work.  I'm generating a lot of empty cans which I hope to turn into a solar collector like this:

I could heat a solar dehydrator or the chicken coop or a tiny greenhouse   We'll see.  For now I get to spend my time cutting the bottoms out of cans.

8) Candle nubbin candles.

I like candles.  They fix the light from too many LEDs (the head lamp or flashlight or solar light I use for general and task lighting).    I also use a little candle heater.

Cans that have an integral bottom, not a welded or crimped on bottom, think salmon cans, make good containers for candle nubbin candles.  So does the "CAN-dle" that I got at thrift a few years ago.  It's a low flattish can that had a 3 wick candle in it for emergency heat and it fits in my candle heater (which does not heat the whole wee shed no matter what idiot youtubers say.  It's more candle than heater).  When I get candles, thrift or gift almost never new, burn them.  There is usually some candle nubbin left that didn't burn.  I store that in a tin or bag.   When the CAN-dle is used up, or mostly, or I have a good appropriate can, I put a bunch of nubbins in it, melt it on the woodstove...carefully.  Not when it is SUPER HOT more when it's died way way down.  Take it off...carefully.  Let it cool.  Right before it is totally set, I jam in a few dollar store birthday candles (40 for 1$) or smallish candles from thrift or gifts.  I found wicks at thrift once and found that letting the candle nubbin candle totally cool, then drilling a hole about wick size worked really well.   These don't burn perfectly, are usually a hideous color but they give light and I don't have to throw out the nubbins.

For those thinking of gifting me...think unscented!  They don't attract bugs AND they mix better in the nubbins.  Adding vanilla to bayberry to "wet forest" does not make for a nice smelling candle.  More like someone over ate cookies and pooped under a tree.

No Food-Spend February Update 2

 It's going fine.  Amazingly fine.  Like beyond fine.

Today's menu, I was "working from home" (I did do a virtual meeting so some work.  Also took comptime): 

Breakfast: Brown Rice Pancake thingies.  I like to add eggs to left overs and make them into breakfast.  I made brown rice (free, 2nd harvest) yesterday and added powdered eggs (gift so...free) because the hens are not having it right now, coffee from the free crap at work, cinnamon (1cent), nutmeg (1cent) and water (free).   Total:  2cents

Lunch:  Noodle soup with lentils.   1 onion (free 2nd harvest), a 1/4cup scoop of dried veg from the food co-op (about 5cents), spaghetti for the noodles (free, 2nd harvest), dried mushrooms (gift), vinegar (pineapple vinegar I made myself from pineapple skin and core and a bit of sugar...maybe 1cent for the sugar), black pepper (1cent), spice mix (gift, free), coconut oil (1cent), 1/4c red lentils (more expensive...like a dime).           Total: 18cents

Snack:  Rooibos Tea (gift...thanks Chris!),  Tiny cocoa pancakes (Apparently I felt like making pancakes today)  Flour (free, 2nd harvest), powdered eggs (free), baking cocoa 1T (2cents maybe...it was on sale), baking powder 1/2tsp (1cent), coconut oil (1 cent)          Total: 4cents.

Supper: Spaghetti with cracked pepper and a pinch of salt (surprisingly delicious and I'd just had my snack so it wasn't much).   Spaghetti (free, 2nd harvest), peppercorns (1cent), salt (less than 1 cent but we'll call it a penny).      Total: 2 cents

Total for the day: 26cents.   Just over 2 bits    

Yesterday I had apples as well, 2nd harvest.  I brought home enough for a couple of days but they are sweet like candy and I ate them all the first day.  Oh well.  

I shoveled snow for 2 hours or so yesterday and an hour today.   We have a total of 11 inches on the ground as of an hour ago.  NUTS.  Before the storm, no snow  Zero.  Zip . Nada  It DUMPED in 2 days.   I shoveled in 2 shifts today but can still feel it in my back.   Time for more yoga to keep that moving.   The shoulders are a bit wonky as well.  Anyway, as a result of all the shoveling, and the effort of walking through a foot of snow, I got some serious exercise and probably ate more than usual.  I've been avoiding having a snack most days, instead just lovely tea.

I meant to bring home some meat in jars or frozen elk (YUM! Thanks Rik) but forgot.  Hopefully I will remember it for the weekend along with some of the canned veggies from 2nd harvest.  The fresh onions and apples were a real treat.   

IF you haven't tried roasting onions instead of frying them, you are missing out.  I am roasting mine inside the woodstove, but an oven will work as well.   DO NOT roast them in the microwave at work.  They taste delicious but people were p.o'd at me for WEEKS.  The weeks it took for the smell to dissipate.

I'm working on a post about woodstove cookery when it's not a cookstove.   Hopefully post that later this week.   (see...I learned from the youtubers to tease a future episode).

3,000 Things I Don't Buy Anymore!

 Ok.  Hyperbole.  A bit. Not really 3000 in the list but if you expand the classes into individual things I think I'd have a pretty high number.

I've been following some frugal youtubers. The recipes are usually useful because they are like mine:  Take what you have, apply heat, eat.

The youtube then posts a list down the side of the screen of other stuff I might enjoy.  The list is usually wrong.  I noticed that many many of these are videos you have to watch to putatively find out what X number of things the person or family (all well staged in full make up and often wearing yoga pants) doesn't buy.  You might find out, admittedly I only watched a couple to get the flavor of it, that this person/family gave up buying a brand new Mercedes each year, no longer orders from the most expensive restaurant in town more than once a week, etc.  The real goal seems to be to build views and clicks and ad doses so the youtuber gets paid.  I moved on.  The youtubers I like for the frugal tips are the ones who clearly are filming on an outdated phone, no make up, and wearing the same outfit in pretty much every vid.

So, I gave up the new car yearly before I even started.  My "don't buys" are a tad more advanced and rest assured if you read this, I make no $$.

Most my "things" are whole classes of things.   Many of the blogger/vlogger types have "things" that are actually subsets of things...like they don't buy top end shampoo anymore.   One who is running in the background is saying they gave up "expensive make up"...ok.  What if you just looked like what you look like?

Some things I have quit buying or never bought/paid for:

1) Make up.  Once I bought mascara but it was green and blue and specifically to bug a creepo professor I was working for.

2) Hair products.  A bit of Sun-In in the 1980s, shampoo and conditioner until I went no-poo.  The occasional deep conditioner (turns out it was just olive oil). In the last 2 years I have spent 5$ on specific hair products.  An expired box of henna.   Still baking soda or salt to wash the hair, and vinegar-water to rinse, then a cold rinse.  A year ago I got a fantastic hair brush and comb so not even those.

3) Car washes.  In my life I have never washed a car that I own.  I trash them before they rust.  And, I don't care how my car looks.

4) New cars. Never bought a new car.  Don't plan on it.  Used cars and I'm shifting back to more used.  The 3 year old car was hard to get the money out of.  

5) i-anything.  I have never spent money on an apple product.  I have one. It's a gift (thanks pam!) of someone's used old one to replace another hand-me-down version of an outdated i-product.  

6) Anything from Amazon.  ONCE in 2020 I got a thing on Amazon because it couldn't be had from any other source in the timeframe I needed it to keep working.  I blame covid.

7) Cheese. OK, dairy.  I can't eat it hence I don't buy it.

8)  Booze.  I don't drink much so why buy it.  I remember buying prosecco in Italy a decade or more ago.  I might have treated to some booze in Portland a year ago...then again, might have been Unca Pat who sprung for the Brennevin.

9)  Earrings for myself...because I do not have pierced ears. 

10) Haircuts.   As covered in other posts, not even a trim since 1989. 

11) Manicures/pedicures.  I don't even get why people spend money on odd looking fingernails.  Whatever.  

12) Tattoos.  Don't have one.  Don't want one.

13) Piercings.  Why?  Why spend money to have a hole punched in your body that you now want to buy jewelry to fill the hole back up?  Those who want to pierce, help yourselves. You probably wonder why I want to spend money on thrift store coffee makers.

14) Purses. I don't carry them so I don't buy them.  I do have ONE that I carry on vacations because it fits a bottle of water and is the "personal item" I can take on an airplane in addition to the carry-on.  I got it in San Gemignano (spelling????) Italy more than a decade ago.

15) Sox.  This one I might have to start again some day but I get enough REALLY NICE sox on the holidays (3 pair or more this year...all fabulous) that I haven't needed to.

16) Dish clothes/sponges. I have a friend who knits amazing dish clothes and have a few in back stock, 3 in rotation.   An Aunt (Hi Marcie) sends me re-usable cellulose ones for holidays pretty often too.  I also find that the pockets off worn out jeans make a really good dish rag for things like cast iron pots.  Given that I buy thrift jeans and wear them out about 3 pairs a year, that's 6 dish clothes I'm producing...I should have a sustainable system going.  Yes, I wash the worn out pants before I repurpose them.

17) Paper towels.  I have dish towels and a rag bag.  AND I'm not above taking the end of the roll after the custodian at work refills the fancy (stupid?) automatic electric paper towel dispenser that seems to be unable to cope with the last 1/2inch of the roll.  That's a lot of paper towel to chuck in the trash.  That said, I have bought shop towels in 2020 so maybe I'm lying.  People were helping me with plumbing and they like shop towels to use.  So I got some.  Used up the remainder as TP during the mid 'rona times.

18)  Anything at Walmart.  Haven't been there since the floods in Iowa and that was about the only store in town with what we needed. Before that I hadn't been in a Walmart in years.  It always surprises me to see cars in the parking lot as I head to Goodwill next door in Moscow.  Much like Bezos, the Waltons do not need my money.

19)  Cable/dish/etc.   I don't have a TV.  Until the 'rona hit I didn't pay for wifi either and when it's over I plan to cancel it.  It's 20$/month for the wifi hotspot.  

20) Streaming service.  No hulu, netflix, whatever.

21) Gym membership.  I get one free at work and another one with the Dr I use.  So I have access to 2 gyms, but only one with showers.

22) Bottled water. This one I have the occasional mishap with.  Once in a while I am somewhere and have forgotten my tap water in a bottle or jug and can't find free potable water.  I then buy a bottle of water in a really good quality bottle if I can so I can re-use the bottle.  I hate it though.

23) Subscriptions.  No magazines, no food boxes, no make up boxes, no scarf/purse/etc.  I can't even conceive of how some of these are subscriptions.  No automatic re-order or re-ship things.  Since I buy less online than most of the other people I know, that helps.  

24) Autopay anything.  I don't autopay ANYTHING because it's complicated to get it stopped.  And it would make me ignore the bill.   I have auto-notices for the phone and storage, but I pay them individually and review all bills before I pay them almost every time. Twice in 2020 I paid the phone bill late so I put a reminder on my work calendar.  

25) Cleaning products.   I make what I need from vinegar, baking soda, borax, etc.  During early 'rona I bought a thing of bleach in case I had to drink my well water during a 2 week quarantine when I hadn't been running much water through the storage tank. It can get a bit funky...and not in a good "Jame Brown" kind of way.  The bleach is sitting unopened on the porch.  I may use it in laundry eventually.

26) Keurig pods.  I don't have a keurig or any similar coffee maker.  There is one at work.  I have a little adapter and fill that with whatever coffee is at hand.  The little pods are expensive compared to even nice beans you grind up yourself AND they are creating a layer at the dumps that will rival the layer of disposable diapers (I'm not just blaming babies for that...duffer diapers are a huge industry too).  

27) Audio equipment.  Because I have a bad ear for music.  No point in my buying fancy headphones or  speakers.  I have a 3 little radios, one was a gift and 2 were thrift, so I can check the news or weather or listen to something.  They are mono-speaker deals with crank things to charge them up.  One is solar.  OH!  Wait.  3 years ago I bought 2$ speakers at thrift because the speakers on my computer died.  I don't think they count as "audio equipment".   Work bought me headphones so I can do zoom meetings more efficiently.  I often forget I have them.  

28) Furniture.  The world is FULL of free furniture especially if you had my Gramma.  I bought a little shelving unit in the late 1990s when I lived in a house with a strange kitchen.  No drawers!   And the cupboards were narrower than a dinner plate.  So I got some folding shelves to put my plates on and to hold cans to stand the silverware in.

29) Electricity!  I have a wee solar system at the wee shed so that's paid off.  I will need to maintain the system through the years but no monthly electric bill.   Same with the water...put the well and pump and etc in so no monthly bill.  Something blew up last night or snapped.  Could have been a battery...which would SUCK or it could have been a frozen tree (cold and windy last night) snapping off.  Or a transformer on the electric line on the highway blowing up.  If it was one of my batteries I will need to replace that.  I think 1 or more need replaced anyway. But maybe not when it's 10 degrees out.

And much much more!    

NOT buying stuff is thrifty, frugal and helps with voluntary simplicity.  If I don't buy it, I don't have to deal with it.

No Food-Spend February Update 1

 I am eating like a FREAKING ROYAL.

Today:  eggs for breakfast, fresh from the chicken's vent (that's their butt hole).  Clover sprouts.  Fresh cracked pepper which is some fancy pepper mix from my pantry.  Cost:  1cent for the sprout seeds, 1cent for the pepper.  A bit of coconut oil to fry in so 1cent of oil.  The egg was about 1$ because I'm feeding 6 hens and 2  cocks (haha) and only averaging 1 egg a day over the winter.  In the summer, eggs are cheaper.   Still, all this food was in the pantry stock or coming out of a hen's butt on the property.  No grocery trip.   Total:  $1.03   

Also had water, free from the tap.   Coffee...stuff that is in a 3 year old can at work.  Might have to quit drinking that because I'm pretty sure it's giving me B.O!!!  What the heck.  But, it's free.  

Lunch:  Pumpkin soup and smoked duck.  LOTS of smoked duck because it was pretty well thawed out.  The porch-fridge is working fine, but still, been eating on this since thursday and needed to finish up the meat so I can boil the carcass tonight for broth.  I'll feed the bits to the chickens.  

Can of pumpkin from 2nd harvest, free.  Garlic from the garden, free.  Low sodium bouillion cube I bought months ago, 8 for 99cents so 13cents.  Pepper, 1 cent. Onion jam, 1/2 jar from the farmers market $3.  Bit spendy.  It had been in the holiday gift stash, but we didn't do office gifts so I threw it in the soup. Delicious.    Duck: free for helping butcher ducks.       Total: $3.13.  

A spendier meal than usual of late.  I could have gone with a half jar of onion jam but the porch fridge will turn into a porch deep freeze tonight or tomorrow and that can ruin some jam (taking all other liquids/gels to work tomorrow to keep them from blowing up during the week of frigid temps in case the house freezes).

Supper, because of the big lunch, will be simple and light.   Spaghetti noodles (free from 2nd harvest) and blackberries saved in vinegar.  I picked the berries myself for free, and there is probably a penny's worth of vinegar in them.   The vinegar left in the jar is amazing! I might put some garlic olive oil on it, which was a gift (Thanks Chris and Pat!) that I am really enjoying.  With the vinegar-berries it makes a tart-spicy sauce on the noodles.    Total: 1cent.

I had a bit of buckwheat honey with some tea this afternoon.  The honey is spendy so probably 5cents.  The tea was a gift.  Total:  5cents

Total for the day: $4.20 of pantry/freezer food.   

Not bad.

There are 3 weeks left in the month.  The first week has been pretty easy!

I'm making veggie-rice casserole on the stove right now with brown rice from 2nd harvest and mushrooms and carrots (dried) that were a gift (Thanks Sherry).  Some saffron (see...eating like royalty) which was a gift (Thanks Chris and Pat!) and lots of garlic from the garden.  Pepper of course.  This can go out in the porch-fridge/freezer without any major damage to it to be eaten with duck broth that might turn into duck-noodle soup with some of the dried veggies in the pantry or I might fry it up with an egg.  

For protein I have:

Elk meat, 1lb

Duck, a whole pekin duck frozen and a few jars of duck meat

Venison: a few jars

Chicken:  on the hoof and a jar or two.

Lentils, about a cup of red lentils (oooo...those would be good in the rice!!!)

Eggs

Powdered eggs from a friend (work fine in baked goods)

Unflavored gelatin

For veggies: 

seeds to sprout

Dried soup base of mixed veggies

Garlic

Dried mushrooms

Dried carrots

5 or 6 cans of mixed veggies from 2nd harvest

Starches:

Brown rice

Spaghetti

Spinach Rotini

Gift card for artisanal bread

1 1/4 cup flour (I'm using it to thicken soups now mostly since I'm so low and have the bread card use)

Fruit:

2 jars of jam that were gifts

Berries in vinegar (huckle, service, black, maybe blue?)

Misc: 

1 or 2 half pint jars of salsa

Plenty of spices/herbs

1 small bottle hot sauce

1 c sugar (which will go in kombucha)

1 1/3 cups buckwheat honey

Tea bags

Coffee (free office crap and 2lbs of decent beans bought for 10$ from the discount grocery store)

Kombucha (I havea mother and enough sugar to brew another batch this month)

Vinegar

Mustard

Salt

Arrowroot powder

Baking powder and soda

Ener-G egg replace (bought AGES ago)

Yeast

Cocoa powder

Green Chili powder

Camelina seeds (work like chia seeds)

Tuesday is a 2nd Harvest distribution day and if they have plenty, I'll head over.  There is another one at the end of the month.

The only thing I'm really "low" on is veggies but since I have 3 kinds of seeds to sprout, even without 2nd Harvest, I'll be fine.   The berries work great in rice puddings with camelina seeds.  Makes a decent breakfast.  They also work with a dollop of vinegar in the unflavored gelatin.  It's not fabulous, but it's a good shot of protein and easy to make/store so I have a grab-n-go protein item.

I ate up my potatoes, onions and about half the veggies and all the canned fruit from the the 1 2nd harvest distribution I got in January.  Also ate up the January bread that I charged to the gift card.

Very nice to have the hens putting out an egg or so a day.   Getting brown ones that must be Gertrude as she is the youngest layer and lays brown.   Have gotten 2 blue eggs which would be Pru.  And a couple of white ones that are mostly likely Pearl.  The only other white egg layer is Flora and she's nearly 5 years old probably.  And a banty.  The white eggs have been quite large and the banty eggs are a medium size.   Flora is the last banty.  One was taken, probably by the Alaskan bald eagle that is wintering on my property, a while back. 

I'm enjoying going through my stash of food.  Makes me bit a bit more creative with what I cook and more willing to try stuff like berries on pasta (which is delicious because all the ingredients are good and I'm not over complicating it.

Drinking up the really crap coffee from work is a challenge.  It is truly awful and I smell like stale coffee.  It might have to go on the garden.  I hate to waste free food, but I think there is a reason it's been sitting around the office for a few years.  It's sh!t.  Was probably gross when it was fresh.  Still, I want the container because it's a real can and will make a good chicken feed scoop.  I'll dig deeper in the cupboard of abandoned things and see if there is different extremely stale office coffee.