Things to Cut When Money Is Tight...2026 March Edition

So...Everyone is out of money again. Well, the 99%. And my youtube algorithm is chock full of budget cuttery. To them I say...BEGINNER! Novice!!! 

 But still, you do have to begin at some point and that will indeed make you a novice. So, things to cut...just some thoughts probably not in a resonable order because my brain does not work in a normal order. 

 1) Cut out avoiding facing facts. 

 Figure out ACTUAL income (the paycheck, no the hourly wage. You don't take home the hourly wage, the gubment, insurance company, retirement fund, union etc etc etc take their cuts first). 

To do that take a look at your auto deposited paychecks or whatever (or, if your pay amount varies take as many as you can find and make and average and subtract 10% as a precaution). Make a note of how many hours are on that check. 

 A fulltime job is 2080 hours per year. Just keep that number in your brain pocket NOW, look at your spending records. If you use a credit and/or debit card or online, virtual venmoy type stuff...look at those records online. If like me you rock it like it's 1826 and pay cash, then gather receipts. Figure out about how much you have been spending. Use that info to estimate a budget for the next month. WRITE THIS ALL DOWN. 

 This won't happen in a day. Baby steps. START recording everything you spend in real time or like me (because I'm awesome) at the end of the day on graph paper with a pencil (for real). Be honest. EVERY spend. It's in pencil so I can got back and put in things I forgot. The top line on the sheet is "income" so if I find a dollar on the street, that goes into "income". In a month or 2 you will figure out categories (rent, electric, phone, streaming services (don't worry...you won't need that one for long)), beer, weed, coffee. WHATEVER. Just be honest and record everything. Now that you've started to face facts... 

 2) Quit buying lunch out if you can bring lunch with you. 

 Left overs ARE lunch. So is a bag of nuts and an apple. It doesn't have to be "lunch" but whatever meals you are buying out and about, STOP IT.  Again, baby steps. 

Also, do not buy equipment to bring lunch in or a fancy warmer for your lunch that plugs into the USB. NO. You have that giant bag of bags under the sink. Use one of those bags. Bring the whole loaf of bread going stale on the counter and jar of peanut butter from the cupboard to the office, or throw it in the work truck. TA DA! You packed lunch for the week. Good job. 

No...do not buy a fancy set of bamboo carbon neutral cutlery to spread the disgusting palmoil based peanut "spread" on your indestructible 99cent loaf of industrial bread shaped product. Grab a spoon or knife from the drawer at home. Find that plastic spoon from one of the last 2000 to-go meals you got at a drive-thru and throw that in the vehicle or office drawer. I dedicate one cupboard at work to the "office pantry" and keep a bowl, bit of silverware and salt and pepper in there along with the food. No one cares. If there is a shared fridge, embrace it and be polite (each monday or friday throw out the crap you forgot to eat). 

 3) STOP with the Unplanned purchases. 

 STOP and think first. Do you really need a new outfit for the concert (which will be your last because...seriously, if money is tight do not buy concert tickets, sing to yourself while you ar packing your lunch, that's your concert now).  Check the closet. Shop the hoard! Think about borrowing or swapping with a friend. 

Do you really need a countertop mixer? No, you do not. If you needed one, you would have one. Move on. 

Do not run to the store for a shallot when you have an onion sitting right there on the counter. No onion? Leave it out of the recipe. Find a recipe that uses what you have. New subscription to a streaming service...NO. NO NO NO. NO unplanned purchases and DEFINITELY no new subscriptions. 

 4) No More Buying coffee out. 

 Make it at home. You will save on the coffee, the health care needed due to constant consumption of liquid candy bars (Seriously saw a "Snickers Latte"...EW!), they cost a mint and are not that great. 

You also save on the gas burned idling in the line to the coffee hut. I set my coffee up the night before so it's ready to go. I have a couple of really nice travel coffee cups that I found at thrift and/or was given as presents. Use a cup you have. Don't have one? Use a portable water bottle, a thermos bottle, or like an old colleague of mine...just a mug from the cupboard, though his car carpet was indeed the thing of nightmares with the crust of years of dried coffee spills. But he did not care so it worked for him. 

 5) Put and End to Grocery shopping without a plan. 

NOT a meal plan necessarily. That is advanced thrifting, we're talking beginner cuts. 

Here's how to make a basic plan for grocery shopping. First 2 things...

A) look at the food you have on hand. Do you really need to shop? Fresh salad greens are not a necessity so maybe you can wait a bit. Can you make 2 or 3 days of meals from what you have? If the answer is no, get more creative and think again. Still no? OK, you're a beginner. But by now you know what you have and probably have some "I can almsost make that" things in mind. 

B) MAKE A LIST.  Really.  If you can ALMOST make soup and grilled cheese sandwiches but don't have the "right" veg.  Search for a recipe that will use up that 1 cup of chopped kale you were DEFINITELY going to eat but now it's limp, that lone can of diced tomatoes with the dusty top in the back of the tupperware cupboard, and 2 half peppers in the veggie drawer (Hint...all you need is an onion).  So, "onion" goes on the list.  Those keep pretty well so knock yourself out and get a couple.  You will use them in the next "stuff about to go off soup" aka "friday night dinner from here on out".  Figure out work lunches (bag of bread, jar of peanut butter).    

Great list!  onion, bread, peanutbutter.  Good first list.  I would add "cheapest fruit I like to eat" on there.  Remember that the "cheapest" is determined by the PER POUND price, not the per piece price.  If there is a cheap price on a 3# bag of apples ...divide it by 3, compare it to the loose apples.  If it is equal or close...here is your first advanced savings tip....weigh a few of the bags.  Some will be a half to a full pound over.  That cuts the cost even more.  

As noted...veg about to go bad is good for soup. But you noticed there is no "broth" on the shopping list.  You do not "need" broth. Do you know what is in broth? BOILED VEG (and/or meat). How do you make soup? YOU BOIL VEG (and/or meat). If you want it to be even tastier, fry some of the veg first. ...oh, sorry...I mean "saute' in oil heated to a shimmer"...Just fry it a bit. When it smells good, pour in water. Boil/simmer till the veg is the texture you like or the meat is cooked enough to be safe. TA DA!!! You made soup AND broth. If you sing to yourself while you do it you just saved the price of a concert ticket too. Way to go! 

Now.. Keep up with the income/outgo tracking. Facing facts is hard but gets easier with practice.

 Later I might to a post on what to stop immediately if you have a sudden money crisis. This is more longer range planning by shaving down the budget and knowing where you are at financially. Good luck!

A Month of Scratch Cooking

 July I did an experiment...or as Gramma would have called it...did nothing at all.

Nowadays cooking everything I ate from scratch ingredients myself for an entire month is not the norm.

By "ingredients" I mean no premixes (no "cake mix" "pancake mix" etc)flavored coffee, bag-o-salad,  prepped veggies from the store...whole veg and fruit YES, cut veg and fruit NO.

There were 2 exception meals.  I was invited to join friends in a meal made my a visitor from out of state.  They actually made almost everything from ingredients!  I had a few store bought pickles and some pimento stuffed olives.  The main dishes were bean soup from dry beans and chili with meat.  I had quite a bit of chili.  It was great!  I skipped the crackers and bread.

Fortunately I like making mustard so I had that as a condiment.  Along with all the flavored vinegars I make.  I needed to buy some kombucha from the folks who supply me with kombucha vinegar for free.  SO...I re-brewed the kombucha with berries and mango skins.  It re-fermented and we called it good. 

The other exception meal was a pre-committed meal at a work event my department was hosting.  It would be odd to cater a meal and refuse to eat it!  We catered in bbq pork sliders, raw veggies with dip (they were cut and I ate them but I skipped the "ranch"...I hate "ranch" so that was an easy miss).  We also had some coleslaw and another salad.  No pastries or cookies which was a choice by someone else, though I validate it in general.  The sliders were good! 

I definitely appreciated the meals I didn't cook and clean up from more than usual.

It was easy.  I just needed to think through the next day at some point of an evening.  If I had a field day coming up,  I made sure I had a "grab n go" option ready for the morning.  Mostly this was nuts and whole fruit or clean whole veg.   A few times it was boiled eggs and salad in one of my thrifted tiffins (those metal multi-tiered lunch carriers popular in India).  It gets lots of use and even more this month!  One person traveling with me was so impressed he kept asking about the tiffin.  I had a spare, also thrifted, that I use very little so I gave it to him the next day. 

Salad in a mason jar with nuts and chia seeds for protein is another good option.

I've been doing my own salad dressings for years so that's easy.  Just throw vinegar and oil and whatever herbs/spices are handy, bit of fresh ground pepper.  A dollop of my homemade mustard if I'm feeling fancy.  I'm not much on sweetening them.  All about the savory salads.

Once the serviceberries were coming on, a handful of those went in pretty much everything. 

I am growing greens so actually went the whole month just eating my own greens.  The bugs destroyed all but one kind this week so greens options are getting a bit thin.  

For meat/eggs....lots of my friend's free range eggs that she lets me "u-pick" without washing or refrigerating.  I ran out late last week and got a bit creative over the weekend.  At work we had canned a goat and no one seemed to want it so I've been eating up the goat meat to free up the jars.  We also got free salmon at work and I took one, cleaned it and am keeping it in the work freezer (a tiny one).  I took a piece home now and then to thaw and cook.

I have a fishing license and could have made more use of that or any use, if things got thin.  I also have good sources of frozen, local free range meat at a couple of farmers markets.

On days I was home, or going to be home in the late afternoon rather than not until late evening, I set up my simple solar cooker so lunch or dinner would be ready.  Even used it for late morning coffee sometimes but that's normal.  A new favorite meal is solar cooked quinoa and lentils with dried tomato and some herbs and a handful of service berries.  When it is done cooking, I thrown on vinegar, oil, pepper and a bit of salt.

Normally I don't add salt because any food not prepped at home is incredibly SALTY which bloats me up like a tic,  My sodium intake was consistently low to the point that on hot sweaty days, I actually included some salt to compensate.

Another result: I saved a boatload of money!  Came in at about half my usual food spend, which is groceries and all meals out and coffee out. So that helps.  I've cut back on meals out, coffee out is rare now, but I do buy pre-made bread at farmers markets and etc.

One factor in the low food bill is that my serviceberry bushes were bonkers so I ate a TON and have 7 or 8 quarts in kombucha vinegar to keep for the off season.  Critters were eating the free potatoes I planted so I harvested those and ate them.  Then all the canning at work resulted in quite a bit of free protein.  I have had coffee in stock and got a gift of another pound of coffee so didn't need to even buy coffee beans.

Still...what I did buy is clearly cheaper than prepared food.  For example, today I restocked with some ingredients, keep the habits going, and spent:  20$ for 4doz eggs and 8.50$ for a weeks worth of veggies.  

I expect another 30$ this week to stock up my coffee, grains, and dry beans/lentils because those are all pretty tapped out. 

I learned that having nuts on hand keeps me from running to the store for fieldwork lunches when I have low supplies of grab-n-go food.   Nuts or seeds and an apple or orange can get me through a day.

There is likely more but I'm supposed to be focused on a webinar...

Selling Stuff and the Coolest Thrift Find of 2023!!

 There is a vintage store in a near by town.  Last time I was in UNIRONICALLY wearing torn up old Carhartt pants and a 25+ year old letterman's jacket, both of which I got at thrift stores years ago, I found the same items in WORSE SHAPE on the racks for sale for lots of money.

80$ish for the pants, 150-200$+ for letterman's jackets.

SO....last weekend I went in with some of my crap.  Some tatty Carhartts that I haven't worn in years because I lost weight.  A coffee pot I got a thrift about a year ago but it makes weak coffee.  It is like a moka pot from the 1980s.  Got 10$ each.  

No dice on the vintage Durango boots (that I got from thrift and they just hurt my feet) and a suede jacket I got for 25cents several years ago and never wear.  It's cute and fits, but I never wear it.  They didn't want it.

Oh well.

Earlier that day before the vintage shop opened up, I was doing a thrift store run with a friend (who also sold some vintage stuff to a different store) and spotted a super cool percolator for 6$ that looked damn old.   Also a columbia shirt in perfect shape also for 6$.  That's high for a shirt but my others are tatty and it's a new color, neon pink, that I can wear on job sites and skip the orange safety vest usually.  Those are handy.  It has zippy pockets too.  

The coffee percolator.  I thought 1930s but the base is skinny and odd so maybe older.....HOLY CRAP!!!

Last made in 1908:

That's it behind the tea cup (also thrifted a while back)

It is super cute.  I used the patent and maker info to google it and last made in 1908.  That skinny base is odd but it works.   

The coffee in that cup was nasty.  I hadn't cleaned out all the bits of antique coffee dregs apparently

Now I'm running plain water through it when the wood stove is in use anyway.  It is getting lighter and lighter.  I've used a few bamboo skewers to pick at the nooks and crannies that are full of coffee munge.  We'll get there.

The same pot in perfect shape is for sale on the ebay for 250$.  Ones in similar shape for much less than that but more than 6$.  Also, looks classy so I'm going to keep it and enjoy it.

Excellent Thrift Find

 So I found one of these coffee pots:

at a thrift store in Lewiston Idaho. I paid 5$ plus tax so like, $5.30.  

The pic is bogarted from ebay where the person is trying to get 64$ plus crazy expensive shipping.  The one I got is in better shape than the ebay one.  We'll see if that one sells for that price.

I've already used it multiple times.

Protip:  Turkish grind (like talcum powder) coffee is a bit fine for this pot and takes about 20 min to drip through and leaves a good quantity of sludge, but is delicious. I will try it with a proper grind size when I get some.

Pantry ReStock Blow Out...OOOPS. BUT one big benefit to the 2months of eating from the pantry

 So apparently I lack focus (yes, not a surprise to anyone who has met me).  Sometimes it looks like I have focus because the distractions are all inside my head.  My affect free expression may not change.

BUT, distracted get I do (and I don't even LIKE star wars crap, yet the yoda comes out).

So, haven't been in a grocery store or market in AGES.   Haven't even gone through the food bits of salvage stores like Ross Dress For Less.  

My skillz are RUSTY.  I had a list with me.   Divided into "now" stuff and "stock up" stuff.  Well, NO WHERE on there was "cheap maple nut clusters" but they were on sale for 50cents at Ross (or maybe Marhsalls, whatever).  And then I ate them.  10 servings of not good nut candy clusters.  Like gross sweet.  I did plan to buy the Honey Mama chocolates at Grocery Outlet.  DID NOT plan on eating all of them while I drove home.   Did plan on checking out the winter market down in Moscow.  Planned on 1 cookie.  Had 1 normal cookie (excellent).  BUT there was a young super cute couple selling TINY COOKIES and MINIATURE donuts and cinnamon rolls.  So, there you go.  I had to have those.  3$.  Damn.  

I also got quinoa which was the cheap "grain" (yes, it is not a real grain it's a brassica seed yada yada yada).  Made pilaf this AM with some elk steak (from a friend...wow was it good) to have for M, T, W lunches.  BUT ate it for breakfast and lunch today already.

Thank goodness I got distracted and didn't buy the whole wheat sourdough loaf!  I have eaten 4 days of food/calories in 1.5 days.  AND I have a bday to hit this afternoon.  Dammit.

Food is so good!

Still, I have had a breakthrough on the coffee. I was early (yeah, always) and the cheapo grocery wasn't open yet.  AND I had forgotten my coffee on my porch and NOT walked back up the snowy hill to get it.  I have a coffee-out budget this month and used 6$ of it for a coconut milk latte and 1$ for the tip.  Well...won't happen again.  The first time I had this particular latte, a dirty chai with a shot of huckleberry syrup...the "sasquatch" it was amazeballs.  About 50% of the time since then it has been really good.  50% of the time...not great but good.   This time!  BARF!  SO SWEET.  Probably a bit too much huckleberry syrup plus I had had only honey and maple syrup for the past several weeks since running out of sugar.  Also, some stevia.  I have made all but ONE coffee at home.  That other coffee was an americano on a preplanned coffee date with a friend's son (to check up on him in his new town, not a blind date.  No one get their hopes up...talking to you MOM).  That was fine. Strong, dark and bitter...like me. (heh heh).  This time. GROSS.  I respect that the prices have gone up in the 2months I have been out of coffee circulation and I always tip.  However, even at the old price of 4.50$, this would not have been worth it.  I am going to help the coffee huts in the region with their staffing issue by not going there anymore.  Maybe the occassional americano, straight espresso shot, or drip when a social obligation is easier to deal with that way, but mostly just no.  Not good enough.  

Most of the beans I have at home are really good, gifts from the holidays!  Thanks all!! and even the lesser beans/roasts I have now learned how to prepare.  Like today, old fashioned perculator on good beans, boiled until it was tar made an excellent fake espresso.  I added powdered coconut milk and a bit of stevia and vanilla extract.  Whole thing cost me maybe 90cents (most of that was the coconut milk powder...spendy but awesome). $6.10 savings off the poor quality dirty chai...even though I like saying "dirty chai."  I can brew a chai with coconut milk or nut milk (even cheaper when I have nuts (heh heh)), add flavor and stevia if it needs it.  If I am paying for the coffee it is under a quarter a cup (I re-use grounds...more anon on that), like well under.  And I get what I want.  As my taste preferences have shifted to include strong sours and bitters, and less standard sugar sweeteners, and certainly less high fructose corn syrup (which I bet was in the huckleberry syrup) I get less tolerant of the sicky sweet coffee things. David Sedaris (heart emoji here) calls those "liquid snickers bars" and he's right.

I was down to about 10$/month on coffees out on average, including vacations.  I expect that it will start averaging 3$/month.  7x12=84$/year savings.  Not huge, but it is a thing!  1/10th of a window for the future house.  

My tolerance for candy is also less high ...I think we have a term for that...ah yes, "lower."

While I ate all that crap, I didn't like it.  I was distracted.  I made coconut oil coconut fat bombs with peppermint flavor last week with what I had in the pantry and they were FAB!  Fatty, fibery, and good.  NO sweetener in there at all.  Just coconut oil melted, desiccated coconut that was about 2 years beyond the "best by" date but not rancid, and a bit of peppermint emulsion I bought at least 4 years ago.  The "best by" date has faded and I can't read it.  I also binge ate those, but with fewer negative gut and budget repercussions.  Next I am going to try replicating the Honey Mama style chocolate.  Which is really cocoa treats per their information.  No cocoa butter so not officially chocolate.  They use coconut oil, excellent cocoa powder, and some honey along with various flavors and it is ASTOUNDINGLY good.  NOT over sweet.  Tasty, rich and doesn't make one more hungry like sugar/fructose syrup can do.  I'm wondering how it would go with maple syrup thought I did not find any maple syrup in the budget this round.  I will pay more for local or traceable and packed in glass. The only reasonable deal with in plastic and not made by a traceable farm

Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 21 Days

 So far so good!

Someone brought me store bought bread yesterday, and food freely given by people who don't know what I am up to is inside the "ok" category per the rules I set up.  Anyone trying to give me stuff through pity or sabotage...that is outside the "ok" category.

So I ate some.  I hadn't had industrially processed carbs since an xmas dinner before xmas.  Turns out...I do not digest them nearly as well as whole grains well cooked/soaked.  Good to know.  Also, the bread was not particularly delicious, threw my sodium intake off, and I look like a puff ball today.  Totally not worth it.  I will try a little of the long ferment sourdough I can get at a local farmers market, but I think store bread type products are just not doing it.   I have the no-sodium baking powder and baking soda as well as yeast and the whole wheat, plain flour and keto-ish breads I've made with those, even with additional wheat gluten for texture, have been fine with my guts.  Again, excellent info.  Store bread is BS for my GI.  Like dairy...I might eat some breads now and then, but it will have to be worth it not crap.

Alright, as for the regular pantry challenge.  There are 10days left after today and I am clearly not going to clean out the supplies.  I will have protein (beans, lentils, duck meat, maybe tuna) left.  Grains, probably the whole wheat flour, left.  I won't get through the camelina seeds, the vinegar preserved berries, spices/herbs, coffee, tea, vinegar (still literal gallons), cocoa, possibly not the keto-flours, definitely not the vital wheat gluten.  Plenty of gelatin (I use it as a protein supplement, egg replacement in some recipes, and to thicken things).  Someone at work...and old lady...needed honey to make herbal medicines and casually said "do you have any honey?"...then STARED AT ME POINTEDLY.  I couldn't lie and said yes.  She stood there until I handed it over.  So...I will be out of sweeteners other than stevia.  Will need a bit of sugar to keep the kombucha mother going.

I will eat up the squash and I might go for the smoked duck this weekend.  Also hitting a jar of that chicken broth.  I think an egg drop soup made with that and some hot and sour spices and the dried veggies/mushrooms I have will be quite nice.  I plan to get onions, garlic and carrots once off the pantry challenge though I have granulated onion and garlic which is fine and can still do sprouts for fresh veggies and have a few frozen carrot slices.  I do want some fermented ginger carrots going again because they are delicious and keep their crunchy texture.  That really improves soups made with dried veggie mix.

At thrift yesterday (was in town to re-up the building permit) and got a norpro spaetzle cutter for 94cents!  It would have been a buck but I'm old and it was 10% off for the 55 and up crowd that day so whoohoo!  I have a spaetzle shaker with a squeezy lid too, also from thrift, obviously.

Once I go back to stores, I might put semolina flour on the "if it is on super sale" list because I think that is the better flour for those noodles.

I could easily go a few more weeks or a month on what I have and it would not be an issue as far as nutrition or calories.   NUTS.  I had no idea I had that much food.  Good to know. 

Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 16 Days

Going well!   

Had strawberry pancakes made with whole wheat flour, strawberry powder (thanks Pam), and an egg with maple syrup.  WOW was that delicious.  Also coffee and rooibos tea (thanks Chris).  

Lunch yesterday and today is/was duck soup.  Like actual soup made with duck meat, not a movie with the Marx Bro's.  I added my last fresh onion and the last of the non-frozen fermented ginger carrots along with some dried mushrooms (thanks Sher).  Really really good.  Yesterday I made some whole wheat flour dumplings to go with the soup.   Since I would be out and about today, radio show day and laundry day, I made some bread things to go with: almond and coconut flours with psyllium husk and camelina seeds.  Egg and fake (low sodium) baking soda for leavening.  Quite good!  I fried them up last night in the last of a jar of coconut oil.  I have another jar.  I supplemented breakfast with some walnuts.  I have about a pound of those left.  

I have more soup for supper or for tomorrow.  Probably for supper.  I don't work tomorrow so will have time to make beans or something.  I meant to bring home smoked salmon, lunches midweek were smoked salmon and some muffins made in the work toaster oven.  Anyway, forgot the salmon in the office freezer so I have that to eat.  I am thinking it would make a killer pilaf with the rye berries.  It is a low sodium brined fish smoked by a colleague (thanks!) and given to me.  

While I can see some definite gaps in the pantry now, I'm not in any danger of starving any time soon.  The radish seeds I tried to sprout said no...too cold at the wee shed.  Need to move the sprout factory to the office.  I am down to a few cloves of garlic, most of a hand of ginger, and a decent sized pumpkin and those sproutable seeds for "fresh" veg.   Still have dried peppers, dried mushrooms (I know they aren't really a vegetable, neither is a squash if we are playing that game), dried veggie soup mix and a can of artichoke hearts (thanks Chris!).  Plenty of beans which may or may not be a veg depending on your biases.

For proteins I have dried beans and lentils, gelatin, smoked salmon, smoked duck, a big can of tuna, and a couple of jars of duck as well as walnuts, pine nuts, eggs from the chickens and 1 3/4 bags of dried eggs (thanks Cindy).  Like I said, not starving.  Oh, and vital wheat gluten which is both protein and flour-like.  Also camelina seeds...are they a protein?  A superfood?  Something just to get stuck in my teeth?

Still have rye berries, whole wheat flour, almond flour, coconut flour, and that vital wheat gluten.

I'd like to use up the arrow root.  Maybe a pudding with coconut milk?  I have a bag of that left.

Also have tons of spices and dried herbs.  I'll parcel out the squash hopefully between this week and next and then we're done.   

Plenty of coffee, tea, cocoa, coconut oil and olive oil.   I've been using a vinaigrette I got for xmas (thanks Cindy!) for making baking soda leavened whole wheat quick breads at work.  It is really good!  I still have plenty of yeast as well.

My grocery list for the after challenge times is more refined.  Like I eat dried fruit too fast so less of that.  Also nuts in the shell go slowly, nuts out of the shell I eat too fast.  Nutbutters rarely make it into a sandwich much less a recipe.  I just eat them on a spoon which is stupid and pointless.  And expensive.

Tart jams go slowly as well.  Other stuff goes better if I portion it out by week's worth rather than looking at the whole giant quantity.  That's just a pantry reorganization issue for effective use of what I've got.

It is still strange to just skip grocery stores.

I was chagrined today to see the tiny free pantry I usually contribute to when I do groceries, is totally empty!  Usually it has stuff in it.  It is at a church and this is Sunday for pity's sake!  Put your canned goods where your mouth is people!  

OK, time to prep the radio show some more.  Enough bloggery.

No-Spend February Informed Pantry Stock List

 It is time to start restocking the pantry.   The no-spend month was handy in getting through the stuff I don't eat, as well as noticing what types of foods I get for free or onsite and hence, they will not be on the top of the restock list, but instead on a sort of watch list in case the supply should change.

Things I get, or can get, onsite or through my own efforts:

Meat  By helping people butcher, I have a pretty good supply of meat and I gain skills...oh so slowly do I gain skills.   I will add the hunting rider to the fishing license mentioned below.  I can get small game or big game here on the property.  I can also butcher out my chickens as they get past being decent layers or I get sick of the cock duet in the mornings.  The 2 roosters are on notice every day they start the concert before 4am which is now every dam day.

Eggs More free hens should 

Fish. I'm going to go get a fishing license with the "stuff for land" or "household" budget line(s) this month.  If I actually fish this year (AHEM Sara W!!  You have been warned), that will pay for itself AND provide recreation and nature break thinking time.

Legumes.  I managed to grow a very few lentils and garbanzos last year.  Critters got them before I did but with more effort, I could make it happen I think.  The Siberian Pea shrubs are starting to put out pods and those are an edible legume.   I might be able to harvest some this year.

Camelina seeds.  They are a protein boost with omega-3, fiber and they can be gelled into fake eggs like flax seeds.  EASY to grow, harvest, clean and store.  I kept plenty for seed.

Greens 9months of the year.  Need to work harder on this and I am getting a jump on it now.  My Good King Henry is up but got frozen in the bad weather.  Might begin being harvestable in April.  Same with some wild greens like nettles, dandelion leaves, and fern heads.   If I plant radish seeds this weekend, the sprouting kind (the radish is edible but not delicious but the greens are excellent if you like strong flavors on the bitter side) I could have greens in a few weeks.   I have kale coming up in the mini greenhouse.  I have some kale that has been alive through 2 winters now.  It doesn't put out a ton of leaves, but one takes what one can get.  Lovage...god the lovage!  Both a green and a seasoning.  I moved as much of the roots as I could get out of the raised bed yesterday over to the big in-ground garden and planted what might be 3 large clumps.   The rest of the root bits I plan on potting up and maybe selling or giving away.  IF I am diligent and dry some of the greens, I might be able to stretch the supply into winter.  If I get enough sprouting seeds off radish plants, that would nearly get me greens independence.

Garlic.  I am still eating on last years' sad harvest (critters got most of it) and what the community teaching garden was giving away.  Of course I forgot to plant any last fall, middle of the house build and whatnot, until a sudden really hard freeze and then gave up.  Still for the past month or more I've saved a clove off the heads that had stored well and yesterday I stuck them in the mini greenhouse.  Why not?  Might work.  I've had a few this past week that were starting to grow in the storage bag so I put a few of those in as well and planted on in a little pot in the wee shed.  The spider plant former pot occupant froze to death a few weeks ago.  Oops...

Flavoring agents.  I've managed to collect dill.  Could have collected and dried lovage leaves, chives, sage, thyme (multiple kinds), oregano, tarragon, horseradish, onions (walking onions mysteriously appear and disappear in the garden...I did plant them but where do they go sometimes?), garlic, mint (various types).

Herbal teas.  I have wild roses, pine and fir trees, hops, mints, raspberries, and much much more that I could have been gathering leaves and petals off of to dry for winter teas.  I'm testing chicory to see if I want to grow that as a coffee substitute or coffee stretcher...so far, it makes me poop to  much to want to have all the time but might be worth it as a medicinal.

Berries.   Still have a TON of service berries, elderberries, and oregon grapes perserved in vinegar (partly because I had access to so much other fruit all winter this time).  I also have blueberries from the you-pick and I might even have some of my friend's blackberries in vinegar.  My berry bushes didn't put out enough to preserve, the planted bushes.  BUT they are doing better since the move to a new garden.  We'll see...   Service berries are pretty reliable.  If I drive or walk 5 miles to the state park up the road, I should be able to get huckleberries now and then.  I think I've found a spot to put my honeyberry shrubs and they are even bearing in their sad undersized pots.  The hens picked them clean the day before I had about 2 cups coming ready to harvest.  My blueberries have never been happy and my wild raspberries are meager.  I could work harder with the pin cherries on the lower part of the property and try working with the ash berries (those orange danglers on ash trees are edible), as well as haw apples (the fruit of the hawthorn).  My aronia berries and chokecherries are coming along a bit but are not happy.  The gooseberries and currants put out 1or 2 berries a year so far...hope springs eternal.

Apples.  I get bucket tons off the deer poop apple trees.  Plenty.  Need to work on more preserving them with drying, canning, and a root cellar some day.

Water. I have a well. 

Mushrooms.  Not many, just a few.   I am trying to learn more about identification so I will have more species that I can harvest and eat. 

Potatoes grow but are hard to preserve without a root cellar.

Beets also grew well in the big garden and were a good source of greens as well as roots.

Oddly, I suck at squash but am going to keep trying.   I have a ghost pumpkin in the small garden rotting away with some sheep poo on it.  Here's hoping it turns into a nice pumpkin patch this year!!

So, that's a great deal!

Things usually/often included in 2nd Harvest distribution locally:

Canned fruit, some fresh fruit 

Canned veg, some fresh veg

Canned beans

Pasta

Rice

Bread

Those have come, in the past few months, in large enough quantities to become part of the pantry stock.  Recently the canned items have been no-added-sugar and no-added salt versions (mostly) which work in my preferred diet.  

I'm learning to pace myself with the canned goods...eat the fresh fruit and veg early on because it's usually a tad bruised or near the expiration date.

Occasionally there are windfalls like the 10lb bag of all purpose flour I got 10 months back or the 6lbs of red meat that we got last week.  Those can't be counted on but are lovely when they happen.  The usual animal proteins are dairy and/or super salty processed meat.  I can't eat those and stay healthy due to personal problems.   The amount of pasta lately has been bonkers so that is getting shared out and when people quit accepting it, I put back 2lbs of angel hair to make up for the chickens.  They love it.

Things that are currently hard to produce and hence could be purchased as pantry stock:

Grain.  I like me some grain!  I might be able to get buckwheat to go but don't have the brain space to figure it out.  I've planted it and it came up and flowered and put out seeds. I didn't figure out an easy/doable hand harvesting method.  Once I do, then there is the cleaning and getting the hulls off and etc.   I might try wheat and wild rice.  I've tried quinoa (yes, I know it's not a real grain)  (neither is buckwheat smarty pants) but didn't get a harvestable amount.  Will try again.

Nuts.  I've planted chestnuts, hazelnuts, english walnuts, butternuts, horse chestnuts (don't eat those....make soap).  So far all but 1 hazelnut tree have died.  A chestnut might be powering back from roots.  We'll see.  I really want nuts (heh heh).   Good protein and an oil source.  BUT I can grow sunflower seeds so once I get that going, I may need/want fewer nuts.

Oil...the meats I can get easily are pretty much super lean.   Even the chickens because they are layers butchered in old age or roosters, they are not fatty.   The elk a friend gave me (thanks Rik!!) was amazing and lean.   Same with the ducks I've butchered with a friend. More fat on the ducks.  Since we're canning, we've been taking it off.  I might ask for some to render into cooking fat next time.  Nut oil (heh heh heh) would be handy.  It magically appears when you try to make nut butter.  Instead of mixing it in, pour it off and cook with it.  For now, I've been buying various oils. Coconut oil is the easiest to store, hardest to spill and I prefer it to the others when I use it as skin lotion.  I may not want to smell like olive oil or canola all day and they go off flavor in the freeze/thaw/overheat cycle of my home.

Spices.  Many herbs I can grow.  If I get a greenhouse going maybe hot peppers will make it, or thai peppers as a house plant.  Many spices like cinnamon won't.  Nutmeg is from Madagascar so I don't believe it's going to make it in north Idaho.  Mustard seeds...the debate is still alive on this one! Not growable in the quantities I need for making mustard for others, but maybe enough to make for me.  I will run a test.

Cocoa/Chocolate.   That's not going to grow here but I am going to continue to love it.  That will be purchased as needed/wanted/possible.

Coffee.  That isn't going to grow here.   I'm working my way toward lower consumption and finding ways to stretch it.  Right now I reuse the grounds.  If I start with all fresh grounds and make a french press, pour over or percolated version, then for the 2nd press/pour/perc  I add about 1/2 the original amount or less of fresh grounds.  It's not going to win coffee awards, but it cuts the amount of coffee grounds per 2 cups by 1/4.     That's about a week's worth per month.  Every 4th month is free!  (sort of).  Cutting back on the number of cups per day also helps.  I've been filling in with my back stock of tea and will keep doing that until the tea is gone.

Tea.  Herbal teas yes.   Green or Black tea...nope.  Not able to grow that here.  Hopefully I can mostly transition to growable or gatherable tea types (nettle, mint, raspberry) eventually.   They don't have caffeine so I'll have to watch and see if coffee intake increases when the G/B teas run out.

Sweeteners.  I keep trying to grow stevia as a houseplant!  So far, no go.   Honey is a theoretical possibility but I have failed for several years to get a harvestable amount and currently do not have bees.  I have been cutting back on  sweetener so that will be the biggest help.  If I keep making kombucha I will buy sugar for it.  If I eventually get a honey source going then I can try to move the mother over to that.   Sometimes sugar is also helpful in a liquid to turn into vinegar.  Honey vinegar is delicious but without my own honey it can be spendy.

Sourers.   I can brew vinegar and the pineapple scrap vinegar I brewed is AMAZINGLY delicious.  For reals!  I will keep trying with the vinegars.  Eventually maybe press apple cider and vinegar some of that.   Other sours...I have started a perennial sorrel in the garden and learned to pick sheep sorrel.  Nice sour for salads and whatnot.  Hmmm...I wonder if it is still sour if I dry it!  Lemons are not going to grow here outside. Perhaps a tree when I get a house.

OK!  Time to inventory my seeds while enjoying a cup of pantry stock tea!

No Food-Spend February Final Results

 HOLY COW!   You save a LOT of money if you don't spend it on food.  I mean, for reals.  You also learn stuff.

1)  You save on food

2) You save on tips (because not going to restaurants)

3) You save on gas (because groceries and laundry are my towntrip motivators)

4) You learn to eat new, often cheaper, things that have been sitting in the pantry

5) You really start to appreciate that living off other people's "waste" food is pretty amazing and get more and more willing to eat it.

6) You learn that 6 is my favorite number so I had to have 6 things in the list.  

As of Feb 28 I had 2 heads of garlic and a few random cloves as "fresh food" and still have almost all of my sprouting seeds.

Still had a few cans of 2nd harvest veggies and peaches.  4 or 5 cans of peas.  No more beans in cans.  Maybe a half cup of lentils left.

Some dried carrots.  No more bouillon cubes or dried veg mix as soup base.

Still have plenty of berries in vinegar (actually gave a pint and a half jar of them away today...must remember to get that jar back, I love that size/shape) and have been eating them pretty regularly.  They are nice on a veggie and bean soup and add some color other than the carrots from the cans of veggies.

I still have plenty of rice and put 6lbs of spaghetti in the little free pantry over the weekend because it was too much.  While I was there, I grabbed a can of diced tomatoes.  Just one.  It made a really nice tomato-garden soup with the last of the dried veggie mix.  Surprisingly good.

I'm a bit low on spices but still plan to use up what I have.  I'm out of cumin and paprika which are surprisingly handy for adding flavor to almost anything with rice or beans.  BUT I still have chimayo green chili powder and a tube of "poulet" (thanks Chris!) seasoning that is about half full and seems to have some smoky paprika in it.  It is delicious on much more than poulet.  I also have 1 or 2 small jars of salsa from the farmers market.

I was planning on going to the store in a week or so because I will be in town anyway.  I was thinking through what I "need" vs what I want and turns out I don't "need" anything.  I'd like a small bag of sugar to keep my kombucha mother going and keep making kombucha.

I thought I'd like some oatmeal or flour of some sort (still kicking myself for not grabbing the bag of 5lbs of corn meal for 25cents...damn! but I had enough flour).

I say "thought" because I am just moments back from an extra "2nd Harvest" distribution day.  A random truck showed up about 6hours ago and after lunch, the call went out far and wide that there was TONS of stuff available.  INCLUDING MEAT!!!!   

I got many many too many pounds of pasta.  I will re-donate that.  Already passed on the mac and cheese to a colleague with kids.  I don't do the dairy so much and that is totes not worth the dairy cost.  I will pass on most of the spaghetti because I got 3 or 4lbs of spinach rotini and still had 2lbs in the pantry. 

There was also....OATMEAL!!! Maypo brand.  Plain oatmeal.  No sugar.  Whole grain.  Nice.  It's quick cooking but whatever.  I kept thinking I could make a nice fruit crumble if only I had some oatmeal.  And there it was.  2 boxes of 1lb 2oz each.  Lovely.  

More than a dozen cans of fruit.  4 cans of peas.  4 cans of kidney beans.  4 cans of pork and beans (I ate one...oddly good cold out of the can...but tooo salty so the other 3 are getting donated to the little free pantry). 

3 pounds of frozen ground beef.

3 pounds of frozen ground BISON!!!!!  YAY!!!!

Since I was down to 3 or 4 jars of my home canned meat, this is excellent. I cannot remember the last time I had a burger.   I plan to fry one up this weekend and put the rest in soup with the potatoes left from last week's regular distribution (they have some dark spots so need to be eaten sooner rather than later), some of my garlic and dried carrots.  Whatever spices I can round up.   I know I have fennel and peppercorns.   I'm skipping the salt as much as possible so not adding it to most dishes.  I gave away my hot sauce but have that delicious green chili...oooo....green chili bison stew...oh yeah.  That sounds good.  With a random fruit crumble using the oatmeal and a bit of the buckwheat honey or stevia (I bought that stevia powder...less than an ounce, before I moved into the wee shed.  It lasts forever because you need so little).

There are also cans of the mixed veggies in the 2nd harvest "non-perishables" box.   I have started just emptying one into a bowl and adding meat and spices.  The home jarred meat is already cooked.  Just heat and enjoy.  The broth from the veggies in the can is good enough as soup.  Left over soup with a bit more spice and oil is good on pasta or in rice as a casserole.   Like, really not bad.   

I'm not as much of a food princess right now.  I'd RATHER eat local, organic, no-spray and think that is the way farming and consuming food helps the planet.  I think that eating up food "waste" also helps in a different way.  When I have more cash flow, once the house is done or whatever, I can go back to the fancy eating.   

I do appreciate fancy food more now.  

I put money in the grocery budget for March, but could continue to eat healthy meals without it.  I didn't put any money in the dining out lines of the budget.   Or the coffee out budget.

I still have money on the fancy bread gift card and by cutting back to every other week and getting less, like 2 small treats rather than a whole loaf of bread, I am stretching that out for another month at least.  That's kind of fun.  

Hopefully most of the March food budget will go to pantry staples I'm unlikely to get from 2nd harvest, spices, cocoa, coconut oil (one of your better no-dairy oils that keeps reasonably well in the wee shed).

I have enough coffee beans to make it through the month and still have enough tea to host the royal family a few times.  I've cut back to one cup of coffee in the morning and then black or green tea for the next couple of caffeine shots.  It works well so far.  I also found the dregs of a bag of ground chicory root so I can add a bit of that to a small ration of coffee beans and make some New Orleans style coffee.  It's quite tasty really.

Overall, my total spend for things that were NOT the "new" used car (more anon) or the house building bill, was 700$ less than January.  About 300 of that is attributable to the no food-spend.   In the summer, while building the pantry stock, I can spend 200$/month on groceries.  It is easy to spend 50-100 a month on coffee and restaurant food with a couple of work lunches and a few fast drive through coffee hut trips.   March has some annual bills to be paid so won't be as much lower.  But I think I can keep the food bill a great deal lower than it was and that I will keep patronizing 2nd Harvest late in the day after the truly needy have had a shot and the food pantry folks from the small towns around have stocked up their rigs and headed back for those 2ndary distributions (does that make it 3rd Harvest?)

10 Things I Can't Live Without

 Yea, this is all BS but you know.  I'm home.  It snowed a FOOT and got HEAVY and I am on a shoveling break.   Watching youtubes and apparently GQ for a while did a 10 things celebrities couldn't live without.  Mostly they think headphones and watches are essentials.  Uh...whatever.

Leaving aside things I really can't live without like air, water, food, shelter, yada yada yada.

Here's 10 things I really like having:

Ipod (which is now and old iphone with the sim card taken out).  Need my fatto app (free version, obviously).   And it's a handy way to have audio books.  I like falling asleep with someone reading me a story.  I also keep my master list in it.  The iphone is an improvement on the old ipod touch (may it rest in peace) because when I accidentally delete the master list, I can get it back.  The Master List includes, groceries, hardware, errands in town that need doing when I'm there, things my stock is low on (flour, bouillion cubes, underwear) so I can get those if there is a big sale or something.   And I use it as an alarm clock.  

Phone.  Flip phone.  I don't want a smartphone.  I like to separate my devices.  The ipod/phone is for email if there is free wifi, lists and whatnot.  It is rarely on the internet.  The flip phone is for texts and calls.  And lately getting lots of squares (no emojis on the flip phone).

Wool socks!  Love my wool socks.  I have heavy ones, light ones, thing ones, thick ones.  Got some super cool fancy high tech ones for xmas. Have some alpaca wool socks from a few years back and some giant knitted NW Coast wool sock booties that are on my feet the minute the floor of the wee shed gets cold.  I won't even know it's cold.  

Mouse-proof food storage. Jars and tins.  The little beggars can't bite through those AND cleanup is easy.  

Shovels.  I have a good collection of shovels.  I think only 2 were bought retail and that was due to a time crunch.  The snow shovel...aluminum with a wood (replaceable) handle.  Plastic snow shovels are STUPID.  This cost about 5$ more than a plastic one and I've had it since I moved out to the wee shed.  This is its 6th winter.  It is bent up and beaten and rusty and still moves snow.  The other retail shove was a basic rounded-point shovel for moving dirt.  Use it TONS and again, had it on the thrift/garage sale list but there came a time when I just really needed to get some dirt moved and had to spring for retail.  Again, metal with a wood handle.  It's alright.   Oh wait!  There is a 3rd retail priced shovel.  A short handled square blade one.  It's in the truck right now for snow.  I wanted a shovel that fit in the back of the car and would move snow.  Also needed one for straight walled holes. Flat/square blade for the straight walls and short handle so it fits in the car better.  The car isn't being used so it's in the truck.  I have a half dozen thrift/garage sale shovels.  As long as the blade is good I get them.  ONe is a round blade with a bat as a handle.  Like a baseball bat.  It's short but good for the raised beds with tops on them.  A few small scoop shovels for moving poo and for days like today when the snow is too heavy for the snow shovel to be effective.   The small scoop preserves the spine a bit.  They all get used.  

Long johns.  Warm, handy, and in summer they can be jammies.   Now that I'm doing zoom yoga at home, with the camera off, they are also yoga pants.  I'm wearing some now!  I have some that are SUPER stretched out and old and ratty.  They are jammies but this may be their last winter as a garment.  I can't keep them up with out a belt or new elastic..

Good hair care utensils.  Wooden comb, boar bristle brush.  I have 2 wooden combs right now and a really good boar bristle brush.   (Thanks Katie!!).  These are much better for my crappy hair and for the no-poo hair regime.  Plastic or nylon bristles make way more static and plastic combs mostly shred my hair. 

Buckets.  Love me some buckets.  I used them to haul small amounts of wood inside for the stove, keep one by the stove for waste water (like from doing dishes and rinsing coffee grounds out of my french presses), another for the composting toilet (well marked...once a bucket is a toilet, it can never be anything else, it is the end of the bucket line).   Plastic buckets, mostly free from the recycling center are used to haul water/wood/whatever until they are too broken or have holes.  Then I grow potatoes or something in them.  And then, when they are too busted up for potato planting, I used them to haul trash to the dumpsters. 

Coffee brewing equipment.  I have at the moment...IN the wee shed 5 stainless steel french presses, 3 percolators, 2 moka pots (one is a tiny camping version that makes 1 small demi-tasse at a time), 2 versions of pour overs, and some non-functioning antique graniteware coffee pots.  I do NOT Have a problem.  I do.  ALL were gifts or thrift.   The stainless steel french presses run $35 and up new, I have paid 3$ tops.  The 3 percolators were 1 or 2 bucks each at thrift.  In the office I have a BIG stainless steel percolator (thanks Pam!) that currently serves to make a colleague jealous more than it makes coffee.  I like making coffee.  Even bad coffee.  I also have a hand grinder from thrift that I've used 2 or 3 years so far.  I have an antique one in storage but it takes up too much room.  

DVDs. I like movies.  I don't like streaming movies.  I like the DVD extras, the wide screen option, the subtitle options, the commentaries, the little extra featurettes that I usually hate but then can talk about how much I hate them.  Movies are good.  I have a few series on DVD as well.  Not many.  

None of these are essentials and maybe I could have listed things like "good underpants" (which I am short on at the moment)  or jeans and t-shirts and sweatshirts and boots because that's pretty much my daily uniform.  But I didn't.

If GQ asked me, which they won't, to answer their stupid question.  This is what I would say today.

Good Riddance 2020.   Happy 2021 to all of us.

A Month Without a Grocery Store Trip

 In August my financial/thrifty experiment was to go the entire month without a trip to the grocery store.

It was EASY.  The farmers markets are going strong and I'm at one per week minimum.  Small local ones.  My garden has greens and zucchini and potatoes.  Zucchini are "fruit" and the berries were pickable, as were some plums.  Friends were handing around tomatoes, summer squash, and potatoes.  

I had a few jars of duck still on hand (who eats so much pekin duck that they get sick of it?  Me.).  

My chickens are laying 0-7 eggs a day, usually 3 or 5.  Plenty to eat and share.

I'm making and selling mustard at a farmers market so I'm at one each week for 2 purposes which encourages me to go ahead and focus on the food that is there.

I've also managed to go through a few things in my pantry supply.  The "pantry" being various metal boxes, tins, and jars on shelves with some back stock in the dead fridge down in the crap camper/bee-shed.

It was actually EASY to not go to a grocery store.   I ate my cracked wheat up which is good because I was getting bored with it.  Makes a fine breakfast base.

I had, and still have, some black beans and sunflower seeds for veg based, long storage freeze-ok protein.  Ate some of those but the solar cooker is hard to use on work days.  The beans are tough to make in a thermos, I think they are old.  Lentils would have been a better option.  They cook faster and are easier to cook in a variety of ways.

The month of not going to a store also encouraged me to eat from the garden!  I know.  Stupid to have it and not eat much from it.  Some things were small or I was sick of greens. Well, too bad.  Eat them anyway.  It's a habit I hadn't had before and now I can look at the garden the same way I look at pantry stock PLUS it's fresh.  Got a few tomatoes, several zucchini, plenty of potatoes.  Harvested camelina seed (works like flax seed) which will last into winter for me and the chickens if needed and may have enough to plant too!  Some garlic and walking onions with the various herbs helped with the flavor options along with the spices in the pantry stock.

Since I'm making and selling  mustard, I eat plenty of that as well.

There is good bread at the market so I buy that for a change and to support the market.  Egg sandwiches, duck sandwiches, tomato sandwiches.

I got bacon at a different market one Saturday and used the grease for a week to keep the eggs tasting a bit different than the usual random veg oil.

I learned to make the sticky rice that I'd gotten as a 'rona stock up. I'm keeping 2 weeks of healthy and easy on the stomach food around.  The only rice I could find was 5lbs of sticky rice like you get in sushi.  Most people here were clearing their usual shelves and they don't shop the "ethnic" aisle.  So I went there and sure enough, big bags of reasonably priced rice.  It cooks up sticky but delicious.  I do rinse it and the chickens like the starchy water. 

TP...I took one of the roll ends from work that usually end up getting tossed and got a 4 pack at a drug store when I was down to the last scrap.  Yes, other things wipe, but sometimes you just want the old reliable familiar turlet paper.  So, now I have plenty.

I went ahead and went to a Second Harvest distribution in the community as well.  Got corn, onion, bananas, bananas so far gone they were for the chickens (really were bags of mush), and a few other veggies.  There were also "farm to family" boxes which are a 'rona thing.  But those had ham, milk, cheese and a few other things that a) need a fridge and b) I didn't need and c) I don't usually eat.  I don't do the dairy.  The ham would be too salty and the size is beyond what I can eat without fridging or freezing it.  I left that for someone else.  I went late in the day after those in true need had mostly already been, and asked for the stuff that others would tend to leave behind.  

Another day I was helping butcher chickens at the food distribution center (learned a new trick or two that I will share later) and was told they had 10lb bags of white flour that they were having trouble passing out to people.  I said if they had spares, I would use it.  So, I have 10lbs of flour in the camper back stock now.  I will get it in jars or something so I can bring it to the shed slowly.

Being mindful of my stock made me kind of ration out the delicious things.  I do still have the garlic olive oil sent from a friendly non-local aunt as a future treat.  I'm wondering if I could use my banty eggs, which are small, to make manageable amounts of garlic mayonnaise...winter time experiments to do.  Full size eggs make too much mayonnaise for me to eat in a day and I'm not keeping that stuff at room temp.

Anyway, the upshot is that during august and with a reasonable stock of stuff, a garden, and non-grocery store options, I was able to do it pretty easily. 

I saved a bucket ton on my grocery budget. BUT (there's always a big but), did spend more going out to eat.  Partly this had to do with hanging out with people and partly it had to do with treating a birthday person.  I need to be more clear about when people come to the market with me, then we bring food or eat at the market.  Though one time, I traded mustard for a meal at a restaurant and that went well. Might try it one more time when I really need a change.

I had plenty of coffee but by the end of the month was down to the coffee I buy because it is cheap and because the can it comes in makes a really nice berry picking tin, nail/screw container, tool-belt accessory, chicken feed scoop, etc...and less because it is good. It is CRAP.  The other coffee I had was from a different friendly non-local aunt and was stunningly delicious in my travel french press, my stove top percolator, as a cold brew and probably as just a pinch between the cheek and gum.  I managed NOT to go out for coffee through August but the first of September found me at a drive through pouring out the crap coffee and paying 2$ for something drinkable.  Damn...need to spend a bit more on the beans/grounds and maybe just drink 1 fewer cups per day.

I have so much tea stock thanks to 2020 and 2019 gifts that I'm SET and I made a point to enjoy it.  I will continue to make a point to enjoy it daily which will help cut back on the coffee.

The month also taught me to be more creative with what I have.  Eggs boiled up (which is hard because they are so fresh...I had to save some for a week at room temp and they STILL had the shells clinging on to the white after boiling) and put in the left over juice from a jar of pickled beets I got at a farmers market make a nice flavory topping to a salad from the garden I hauled in to work.  

As I do most years now, I picked berries (so far service, huckleberries, oregon grape, chokecherries, and blueberries) and fill a jar and cover with apple cider vinegar.  I've taken some of the huckleberry vinegar to make dressings for the salads when I remember to pick greens and pack them into work.  One day I ALSO remembered to throw in some of my sunflower seed stock and the salad was a pretty decent lunch!  I can put boiled eggs in the fridge at work whether in beet juice or a carton, and add those to the lunch tiffin if I have a field trip.  Saves $$, contact with random folks in different towns, and is healthier.  So, trying to remember to do that more.

At the end of the month, I took stock of the back stock and made a new list of foods to re-stock or that would be better choices.  The list is now split into stuff that would be useful sooner, and that which is good to buy if on super sale for long term stockage.  All while keeping and eye on my revised lower food budget.

Long term stock up items are things like dried fruit, nuts, lentils, and canned fish.  Maybe canned tomatoes too because it makes for easy soup in the winter.  Possibly also canned beans in case I get sick and want easy meals...can of tomatoes, some dried onions and things, and a can of black beans makes a really decent soup.

All in all this was a really good exercise.  I've done pantry challenges in the past.  That's also a good exercise.  This one stretched my imagination a bit more and cut the grocery budget as much. I'll do it again. 

I'm also looking at doing a 10 day local challenge in Sept.  More anon if I do it.

10 ways to save $10 a Week!

If you do all of them, you'll save 100$ a week. 5200$ a year.

If you do half of them, 50$ a week. 2600$ a year.

A half assed job at all of them, also 2600$ a year.

A half assed job at half of them...still 1300$ a year.

These aren't in any order and are because I'm doing a frugal touch-up and rereading The Tightwad Gazette. I don't know how many of these I can do but I'm going to try.

1) Make 2 homemade coffees instead of buying 2 fancy coffees per week.

Assuming $5.25 and a tip per fancy coffee, you could even use those spendy pod or cup thingies for the coffee.

I am already using my thrift purchased travel french press stainless steel mugs and a thrift purchased thermos of hot water (heated upon the butane burner I found for free in a former apartment like 3 years ago and using the cheapest butane I can get my hands on)

To cut that EVEN MORE, I asked for coffee for my birthday and my favorite Aunt...well, one of my favorite aunts...sent not the 1 lb I asked for, but 2 full lbs AND several little fancy roast samplers that I can get 3-5 cups from. Nice. I figure that's 3 months of coffee. After that I still have an lb of chicory blend coffee I bought for 6$ in Louisiana (I was there for work) as a gift for someone but ended up not needing. So there is a few more weeks of coffee.

AND I need to cut back to just one cup per day. More than that gives me hot flashes anyway. I do make a 2^nd cup from the same grounds. It's not good, but I don't want to waste the last of the caffeine.

2) Cut out 1 restaurant work-lunch per week. 

 It's hard to get a restaurant lunch with a beverage for under 10$. In the past few weeks I've been invited to work lunches repeatedly.  I go because people expect me to be minimally social.  The trouble is, it costs $$.  The other trouble is, I eat too much and get fat and salty and tired and have hot flashes. I guess that's several troubles.

I am retrenching personally on this one.  I texted the colleague who most likes to do lunch, and knows the VERY best lunch spots.   I suggested that since I need to save $$ AND the delicious food was undermining my health goals and making me sweaty...we should meet up in the conference room with salads or whatever. Perhaps we could share lunch preparation.  We've tried to help each other in the past with cutting sugar content in the diets so this is someone sympathetic to at least the health part of the equation.   It's much cheaper to even buy bag of salad and some fancy tuna than to go out.

3) Cut 100 miles of driving.  

For reals.  At the current price of gas, a 50 mile round trip is costing me about 5$.   Actually a bit more. I drive 25 miles each way to work.   That's not very cuttable. I use my car for work during the week and am “on call” from the office to field sites so can't really share rides with people unless they want to not know what time they will be home at night. I could cut one trip to town (25 miles each way) and try to consolidate work trips each week. I can also walk more once I get to town for errands. This one is a challenge in the summer when I'm called out more. But, worth a try.

4) Cut food waste by eating what I have and eating all of what I buy.

Food waste….On the “Dollar Stretcher” website there has been a forum called Food Waste Friday where those who choose to participate can post what they wasted each week. Despite my efforts, I still chuck some of the fresh food I buy. Convenience foods tend to get fully consumed, but cost more. Buying fresh or at least not convenience and eating all of it would save the most money. Making the effort! It doesn't take much waste to add up to 10$. Since I try to spend 200$ a month on groceries, 40$ (4 weeks at 10$) is 20% of the budget! That's worth the effort and will more than offset any extra groceries needed by not going out to lunch.

5) Shop in my stuff before I shop at the store. 

 I have more often than I wish to admit bought a duplicate of an item that I already own, just because I forgot I had it. So, before I buy a clothing item, I will go through the clothing back stock and really see if I need the exact item or if something will work just as well. E.g. today I say a nice raincoat at thrift (5$), but thinking through it, I have a rubber rain coat (also from thrift) that works fine. Just doesn't look fabulous. Ultimately, not worth another 5$ to me to have a nicer looking less rubbery raincoat that might not be all that waterproof.

I've also bought medical supplies when I already HAD that medical supply (bandaids, elastic wraps, creams, etc). So, a few weeks ago I went through the box in storage marked “meds” and got out the aspirin I'd forgotten I had. I was out of aspiring at the homestead. I also went through the first aid kits at home and in the vehicles and made sure the stock was evenly distributed instead of all the bandages in one case and none in the other. This way, hopefully, everything will get used up at a fairly steady rate.

I periodically go through my clothes to see what really isn't getting used and can be donated, chucked, recycled, or in several instances...put back into circulation. E.g. I have too many pairs of lovely knee high wool skiing sox. I can't store them all in the homestead. So some are in storage. When the ones in full rotation get tatty, I try to remember to go through the stored winter clothes before buying new socks. In trying on all my pants to see what did/didn't work I found that one pair that I hadn't worn in a while, was actually presentable and fit reasonably well. They aren't my favorite pants, but no reason not to wear them. An old pair of work pants is just too big, but also pretty tattered so may be turned into a set of pouches with the waist band and belt loops still attached so I can use it when gardening to carry pin flags, seeds, tools, etc.

6) Cut back on entertainment expenses. 

 Mine are pretty well cut, but there is always more to be done!

I used to do a movie a week at 5$ (2^nd run theater...1st run theaters are too expensive to even be considered). This year, I bought a 10 movie pass for 50$, which is a better deal than it sounds since their basic movie rate went up to 7$. I was also buying the 1$ popcorn. I can skip the popcorn. The 10 prepaid movies means I can see how many movies I want to spend on this year, it's already spent, and prioritize which ones I go to.

I get most movies from the library. I rent a few from the local video co-op. I will be cutting back on co-op movie rentals.

I also rarely spend on books anymore (says the woman who spent 20$ on a plant guide this morning….more on that anon). I get them from the library. Even audio books. Library. With interlibrary loan I can get pretty much anything. Today I asked about a book I wanted but could not find in the system. The librarian put in a “purchase request” for the book. If they don't buy it, they will look further afield to interlibrary loan it. If I find I check a book out over and over, I put it on the list for things to find used, at thrift, or ask for when it's gift time (holidays, birthdays). Just this year I got multiple books I'd been coveting (including a different plant guide than the one I bought) as gifts.

I don't go out to clubs or bars so that saves but that means it's also a spot I can't cut from the entertainment budget...already cut to 0.

Radio: don't under estimate it. I listen most days to get the weather and news. I don't have internet at my place or a smart phone. The radio is the basic info stream. No TV on the premises (movies watched on the laptop). One day I couldn't get the weather I wanted on the radio so I called information...that's a thing we used to use all the time and DOES cost a buck or so, and got the number for the local national weather service office. Sure enough they have a phone line where you can get the weather forecast for your area. NICE!! No need for a TV and cable to watch the weather channel. I programmed the number in the phone so it's a one-time cost for information.

7) Review car insurance coverages.

I recently did this and saved over 400$ per year. I had full coverage on one vehicle, including rental car. This made sense when I had one vehicle given how dependent I am on it (life choice that costs $$ but one I made with my eyes open). I would need a rental vehicle. NOW that vehicle is worth much less and I have a 2^nd vehicle. I don't need the rental. Should I decide to make a long distance road trip, I will look into adding the rental coverage back in. You can do that. You can also suspend the insurance on the vehicle you aren't driving at the moment. I don't have the attention span to turn the insurance on and off depending on which rig I'm driving on a day, and often drive both in one day for different tasks. So, cutting insurance made sense. See what you can personally tolerate and see if you can cut back. Also, compare companies. That's my next step.

8) Use the discounts or coupons that you have AND that you need. 

 I won't use a coupon for an item I wasn't buying anyway. I won't go somewhere or buy something just to get the discount. I keep a list of what I need or choose to buy, then watch for a coupon or discount that will apply to that.

Today, I knew I had a 10$ off customer appreciation coupon for a local hardware store. It was good yesterday and today only. Yesterday I wasn't going to be in town and gas to town and back is about 5$ so ...not worth a specific drive to use the coupon. TODAY I was in town for multiple errands and tasks. I took my list to the hardware store. It included the above mentioned plant guide (it is specific to local native species and I am trying to restore native species on my property). I also needed a ground tamper and had compared prices during other trips to hardware stores. This store had one in stock and at the same price as elsewhere. So, the cost of the book and the tool met the minimum amount to use the 10$ coupon which maximized the value of the coupon. I went in, spun the wheel for a free gift (which turned out to be a free sample of dog treats...I don't have a dog but I can use them as bait in traps), grabbed the two items I had already identified as the best things to buy there with the coupon, and hit the check out. Then it was off to the next errand.

9) Keep a list and keep it on you. 

 I have a master list of things I need or want and have chosen to buy. I don't go to stores without it. This morning I had to get out of the car and go back up the hill to the homestead on foot (no driveway up there...too expensive) to get the list. No point in going to town to do errands without the list.

With the list, I can go to thrift stores and yard sales I may pass, and see if things on the list are available for cheap. Just yesterday I stopped by a yardsale and found a ground squirrel trap! That was on the list. I have a ground squirrel problem and have chosen not to poison them. The trap was 5$ at the yard sale. In full working condition. I looked online and new it would be 56$. I would never spend that much. I'd suffer with squirrels. For 5$ I will try it and if it doesn't work the way I like, I can resell it or trade it for something else.

At the farmers market and grocery stores today (walking from one to the other to save on the gas noted above) I carried the list and got things at the best price without duplicating or having to go back and return something when I found it cheaper elsewhere. TP at the co-op. There is cheaper TP but the co-op TP is one roll in paper, not 4 or 36 in plastic. I have limited storage and store things in tins. I can store 3 or 4 rolls, not 36. I also don't like to buy things in plastic if I can avoid it. I wanted stevia sodas this week as I get off the sweet restaurant food. Those are cheaper at a grocery store. As was mint tea. There was a 3^rd grocery store. That one has the best “discontinued” or “discounted” food rack and the cheapest allergy stuff that was on my list. It is also near the recycling center with the free book bin. I got a free book and next time I'm through I will drop off a free book I'm done with.

10) Free stuff! 

 I love those little free libraries and the free book bin at the recycling center. I use them. A few times I year I actually find books on my list. That's always a treat. Sometimes I find awesome antique books like the vest pocket dictionary from the early 1900s that I have now been using for more than a year. It's tiny and handy and antique and free. I've found a few books from a home designer that I admire and have used ideas from them in designing my next home. The free book bin also yielded a honey cookbook that I've been using and may pass on if I ever stop using it. Today, I got a multi-cassette audio book about how to be a winner...I can't wait to find out how I can be a winner. The brand new used pickup has a cassette player.

At the community garden, in exchange for helping them while I learn new things, I am given greens and a few eggs. That's a win-win-win. They get help. I get educated. I get food.

Next to the community garden is a 2^nd harvest food distribution center. The manager there is happy if we take pallets. Many pallets. I do take pallets when I need them. I try to remember to drive that brand new used pick up that day and load up on the pallets I can use.

At work, people open lots of boxes of stuff. Big boxes. When I'm setting up new garden beds or smothering thistle thickets, I take boxes. Leave them in the rain a day or two and the tape and other plastic peels right off. Then they go down where needed, often held in place with pallets that haven't been used on their assigned project yet.

Beware of free stuff with strings. If it's new and free, you may be the product. I don't sign up for free stuff on the internet if it requires my contact info. That means someone is selling my contact info and/or trying to sell me crap for NOT free. I hate that.

I don't take free things I don't also need.

Today at the library I used the free seed exchange. I took 6 asparagus seeds. I could have taken enough seed to grow a market garden feeding dozens of people, but I don't need that much. I want to see if I can start asparagus in a newly tilled up garden bed. 6 seeds should give me an idea about that.

What Do "Regular" People Spend on Groceries and Food????? ???

So, I was listening to the radio last night.  The little solar powered (also a dynamo crank if there isn't sun) that my sister bought me years ago.  Still works although the handle broke off the crank and the broken end digs into my hand.   ANYWAY, listening to the radio.  The John Tesh show.  I can only get about 3 stations and it was that, music I loathed, or christian radio.  I can tolerate the 1980s power ballad line up on that show if not the "info for your life" bits he does.

An advertisement comes on with little Johnny Tesh's voice.  Marketing some pre-packaged-DIY meal/food delivery thing.  The selling points were "only 10$ a plate" and "faster than waiting for expensive delivery food."

I would not put "only" in front of "10$ a plate."  That would mean spending 30$ a day per person on meals.  Coffee trips, snacks, and meal time/other beverages not included.  900$/month for just your meals.   If it's only supper, still 300$ a month and you've got a lot of eating left to do.

My monthly grocery budget for high end organic food is under 200$. I spend about 50$ a month dining out for work lunches or treats and 20$ a month is currently in the "coffee out" budget so I can have a coffee with a friend about twice a month or do a drive through espresso if I'm on the way to an especially crap meeting.

270$ a month.  That's all meals, beverages and treats.  OK, in fairness, the 1$ popcorn at the local independent 2nd run theater goes in the "entertainment" budget line.  I see an average of 6 movies there a year so $270.50 a month if we're being totally honest.

What do "normal" non-thrifty people spend on groceries and food????

Do the people subscribing to these services sending them prepackaged meal kits think they are saving $$? 
Are they saving $$?

How much can they spend on food?

And what of the waste (much of it while the meal kit is being prepared and put together in the factory)?
What of the packaging?  How much food-packaging trash do these people haul out of the house (or pile on the floor if they are hoarders...no judgment)?

I've been being "lazy" by buying bag-o-salad which I find wasteful and feel guilty about.

I've checked some online resources for "average food budget" and I come in low for my income-level, and will be cutting back to afford some other things this year. 

Most sites note that people eat many meals at restaurants, as take-out, or delivery.  That wouldn't seem to be true in rural areas but maybe it is.  If so, the 10$ a plate wouldn't seem AS bad to those who buy restaurant and delivery frequently.  And the level of food and packaging waste would not be as dramatic as it would for me.

To each her own I suppose.

I like to cook and I don't mind butchering chickens, gardening, canning, and doing dishes.  Those meal delivery kits are not for me.

Boise, Idaho...Less Boring Than I Thought It Would Be

I was in Boise last weekend.  It was the first time I had stayed downtown with any free time at all.

There was plenty to do and some of it was thrifty.
The parks are great.  I happened by a community garden on or near State Street, checked out the architecture of a couple of historic districts, and got a reasonably priced donut at DK Donuts (Guru Donuts looked good but I wasn't in the mood for hipster donuts.  I wanted traditional donuts and plain coffee).  The donuts were VERY good.

I splurged a bit with a movie at The Flicks.  Independent films...so much fun.  I got to eat a cookie and see "The Little Hours."  I had been leery of the film based on a trailer I watched, but it was that feeling that I could either love it or hate it.  I LOVED it.  So funny.  Apparently it is based on a medieval story so now I need to read the original story...but in modern English so I can actually get through the stories.

I stayed at the Safari Inn downtown.  I loved it!  I didn't make it into the lobby for the free cookies from 2-9pm.  Oh well.  Next time.  The breakfast isn't bad.  Boiled eggs.  Some sort of pre-fab omelette thing, and peanut butter for proteins.  Oatmeal packets, bread selections, a few small pastries, fruit cups, yogurts, coffee, tea and juice were available.  I can start a day with a couple of boiled eggs and some fruit.  The fruit cups were recently made, not canned or in prefab shelf-stable tublets.  They were in the fridge!  As if they could actually go bad.  As much as I'd rather have an apple, I realize that we'd all just take an apple for later and that ups the cost.  If the fruit is already diced up, you need to eat it sooner. 

The room was big, a king bed with dining table and chairs in a semi-separate area, good functional bathroom.  There was one hair on the pillow, but it was probably just a maid with long hair.  It happens.  The sheets were clearly clean as was the bathroom.

One feature I really liked was the clothesline in the shower/tub!  It is a retractable deal with a connector on the far end of the tub.  You could wash the delicates and hang them to dry over the tub. There was a guest laundry for only 1$ per load for the washer and the same for the dryer.  That's not bad.  The workout room was pretty good as well and had a sauna, but I didn't try those out.

The location is close to all of downtown and over a few bars and things but with the window shut and the AC on, very quiet. I didn't hear the people above or beside me in rooms.  That impressed me.
Overall, not a bad value.

I did have some spendy coffee because I love that.  It was a treat.  I ate meals with family and friends so didn't spend on those (the brats wouldn't let me).

Simple Thrifty Introvert Friendly Holiday Extravaganza!!

I'm partway through an excellent Thanksgiving.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, how very American to celebrate the immolation and slaughter of native people.

Anyway, as you may have deduced, not my favorite holiday.  I don't mind celebrating the harvest with a bit of gluttony.  One can do that any day.  I have today off work and access to a friend's kitchen since she's out of town.  I am alone.  There is no television.  Introvert paradise.

Let overindulgence begin!

Breakfast: What did I have?  Oh, right. Spinach frittata and a coconut milk vanilla latte' which I made in my travel french press.  I did steal coffee beans from my hostess since I am out and forgot to buy any yesterday.

For a snack, a handful of walnuts (left from some thrifty holiday gift assemblage done yesterday) and a handful of stolen triscuits...sorry hostess!

I spent the morning preparing the big meal.  Most of my duties involved remembering the stove was one while something simmered or baked.

The main dish: Spicy adzuki beans on spelt berries. YUM!  I'd never cooked adzuki beans or spelt berries before but had done plenty of dry beans and whole grains.  That expertise along with the odd internet search saw me through.  I started both of those soaking, separately of course, last night.

In the morning I put the spelt in a big sauce pan with enough water to come about an inch over the top of the grain.  Brought it to a boil, and simmered. I don't know how long it simmered.  The internet said it would take 90 minutes, but it didn't take nearly that long.  I tasted it every now and then.  Once it wasn't crunchy, I called it good.  After a good drain in a seive, it went into a bowl in the fridge.
Since I still had some coconut milk after the latte' was made, I put some cooked spelt in a pint jar and topped it up with coconut milk and some fresh grated ginger root. It's in the fridge now becoming progressively more delicious.

After the exhausting time spent watching a video while the spelt simmered, I dove in and took on the beans.  These cooked up super fast as well.  Not the 40 min the internet told me. Lying damn internet! It was more like 25 min.  Again, I was tasting them off and on while they cooked.  They went from definitely not done to "OMG!  OVERDONE!" Pretty quickly.  But, still held up well in the final dish.

I drained the beans and left the lid off the pan to get them dried out a bit.  I don't like to leave cooked beans sitting in water.  Then, just let it all cool off.

Obviously I needed a rest after all that.

But wait!  What about dessert???
After the rest period, I made one of my quick tarts.  This may be the best one so far.
Apple with fresh grated ginger, and whatever cinnamon and nutmeg I could round up. Unroll the crust (the cheap store brand refrigerated pie crust...bought on sale of course), just one.  Put it on a baking sheet.  Not an insulted cookie sheet.  Those are stupid.  Just a thin piece of metal.
I had some plum pineapple jam from the farmers market so I used a couple tablespoons of that to make a circle on the unfurled crust (leave 1-2 inches of the edge unjammed).  I put the ginger more or less evenly on the jam.  I sliced up one granny smith apple, and scored the hide...these had crappy thick skin that was hard to bite through.  Arrange slices neatly on the jam.  Sprinkle the cinnamon and nutmeg on.  Fold the crust edges up over the apple edges any which way.  Seal up any cracks or tears in the crust. Bake at 425 until the crust is brown and the jam is a bit bubbly between the apple slices.

I have no idea how long that is.  Just keep an eye on it.

After another good rest, time to finalize the main dish.

I diced up an onion and sweated it in peanut oil.  This is thrifty peanut oil that I poured off the top of natural peanut butter I got on sale.  So, basically free oil.  I chopped up the remains of a head of garlic I found at my place.  Threw that in.  Let it sweat some more.  Turn up the heat and get a bit of carmelization going on the onions, but not much.  I put in about a tablespoon of cumin, and a mix of hot pepper (new mexico, ancho, chile de arbol, something else) that came in a multi-pack as a gift last christmas.  Stir that around and let it cook a tiny bit.

Open a can of diced tomatoes and throw that in.
While it heats up, get the beans.  I put in about 2 cups, maybe 2 1/2 cups.    Stir.
Then, I let it simmer.  It got quite dry even with the lid on the pan.  But, I let it be.  I probably kept it simmering about a half hour.

I heated up a cup of the spelt berries in a TINY bit of water in a smaller saucepan.  Once hot, I threw some spicy beans and mixed it up.  I had meant to slice up an avocado on there, but I didn't remember that until I was settled on the couch watching a movie and eating out of the pan so I just didn't bother.

The beans and spelt was really good!

The remains of the beans went into sandwich baggies with some spelt berries.  As I type they are freezing and I will take them to the office for microwave lunch options.

I meant to only eat ONE piece of the tart, but as I was doing some odd jobs in the afternoon, I just kept having "one more piece" and now, there is no more tart.  Oh well.

So, how was this all thrifty?

I got the organic adzuki beans for 50cents a pound and the spelt berries for about 66cents a pound.  A store was changing up the bulk-bin selections and had random bags of things they weren't going to carry in bulk anymore.  So, I grabbed what looked good.  I also got some prunes (which it turns out I do not hate) and other items.  The beans and spelt berries were the last things left from that deal.
The tomatoes are store brand, not expensive, but organic. The onion was something like 79cents a pound and the garlic is from the community garden for free.

Coconut milk is often a high end item.  The coconut milk I am using is from powder.  Wilderness Family brand.  While the bag of powder is still fairly spendy, there is virtually no waste.  You mix up as much as you need when you need it.  The bag I have is over a year old.  I think I spent $12.50 or so on it.  I don't use it that often, but it is still good.  Doesn't take up much space and no worry about freeze/thaw as I would have with cans.

The ginger was bought on sale about a month ago and I've been using it but it's time to use it up before it gets too dry and old.  Hence, ginger in things.

The jam was 3$ for homemade at the local farmers market.  I used 2 or 3 tablespoons full for the tart.  That's pretty thrifty.

I must say, it was a damn tasty meal!  All based on "what needs to be used up" supplemented with "what's on sale."  And a bit of theft from my hostess.  But I will leave her a tart or something as a thank you.
The store brand crusts were on sale for $1.69 and I used only 1 from the package of 2.
The apples were 79cents a pound.