The simple beauty found in recyling

Lately I’ve been inspired by books such as A Guide to Green Housekeeping, by Christina Strutt, and Flea Market Style, by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead.  In both books, the authors emphasize that a key feature of living frugally and sustainably is reusing - and repurposing - old items. In particular, I noted the beauty of re-purposed glass; for example,Christina Strutt turns old jam jars into beautifully decorative and practical items for the home.

I was rather inspired to look inside my home for opportunities to pull out the little gems that may have been gathering dust in the back of my kitchen cupboards and actually use them to bring more beauty into my home at no extra cost.

The little jam jar (left) turned into a cute handle holder.  This jam jar was in fact used by my grandmother to can raspberry jam in 2007, so it has fresh sentimental value.  So do the little butter dishes (right) from my Nana’s antique collection.  These little butter dishes used to sit at formal dinners, holding a small pat of butter at each place setting.  I have four of them, and as it turns out, they are the perfect shape for tea lights.  

These frosty jars are great for keeping beers cold on a summer day.  But once defrosted, they could also easily be used for holding a few flowers, or perhaps candles as well.

But then again, they do their job with the beers pretty well.  These old fashioned mugs could probably be found pretty easily at flea markets.

I truly love the idea of re-purposing items found within your home to add beauty, as well as practicality, to a frugal life.  Of course, I love thrifting and antiquing, which is a great way to decorate a home at low cost and without contributing to any environmental stress.  But I also believe that the best way is to make do with what we already have.  Not only is it the most frugal and environmentally friendly way to go, it also reminds us of the abundance that already exists in our homes.  We can be self-sufficient while enjoying a bountiful, fulfilling, simple daily life.

Is there anything you have found in your home lately that you would like to re-use or re-purpose?

How to cut your grocery bill in half (Part two)

In my last entry, I noted that a great way to reduce your grocery bill is to simply reduce your intake of highly processed foods. The second most important thing that you can do is reduce the amount of food waste you produce.

If I want to know how much I am really spending on food, I calculate the cost on a per-serving basis.  If you make sure to use every bit of what you buy, your per-serving cost lowers dramatically.

In general, I have a few tips for reducing edible food waste:

Learn about the best ways to store and preserve your foods. For example, herbs and salads last much longer if they are washed, dried, and then stored in the crisper, in-between pieces of paper-towel. 

Plan meals around what you have in the fridge.  Even if you feel like you can’t possibly pull together a meal based on what you’ve got, forage through your freezer, pantry and refrigerator and think about what you might be able to make with those ingredients.  Look at it like a fun challenge.  By planning meals based on what you’ve already got, you will reduce the number of trips you take to the store. For example, usually find carrots, potatoes and baking supplies are still hanging around when almost everything else has been eaten - this means a hearty supper of soup and dumplings can still be arranged.

Check your fridge frequently to see what is on its way out.  By monitoring expiration dates and checking your fruits and veggies regularly, you will catch foods before they go bad.  I recommend doing this before you decide what’s for dinner.  In other words, do this every day or as often as possible. 

Use any foods that are past their prime, but still edible, in soups, stocks, stews, casseroles or in other creative ways you can think of.  

An example: On Friday, before I left the city for a weekend to go to a wedding, I surveyed my kitchen.  There were three beautiful tomatoes that had already ripened and were unlikely to last the weekend.  Similarly, I had a full bag of mushrooms that were just started to go bad.  I decided to turn the tomatoes into a really lovely bowl of tomato soup (pictured above) and use the mushrooms in a mushroom and barley soup I had been wanting to make.  Neither was difficult to make, and they provided a meal before we left and upon our return.

For more suggestions on how to reduce your edible food waste, check out my earlier posts:

How much should your food really cost?

Reducing waste and eating well for less

And now for the tomato soup recipe:

(Please keep in mind, this was just done on a whim, without a recipe.  So please feel free to improvise, taste and modify as you go along.)

Ingredients

12 vine-ripened or roma tomatoes, seeded and cut in halves or quarters

4 cloves garlic

2 red peppers, cut into strips

2 onions, sliced

4 cups water (approx)

1/2 cup cream

olive oil 

s&p

parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

Cut the tomatoes into halves, or quarters if larger tomatoes, and scoop out their seeds. Then place in a large roasting pan, along with the garlic, onions and red peppers.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Put in 400 degree oven and roast until the tomatoes start to caramelize and turn colour (approximately 30 minutes.) When done, empty contents in blender and puree until smooth. Then add to a large pot at low-medium heat and simmer.  Thin with water, adding slowly and stirring to get the consistency right.  Simmer gently until heated through and flavours have melded together.  Remove from heat, add cream and stir.  Add more s&p if necessary.  You may also want to add a little extra olive oil and parmesan cheese, and/or parsley if you desire.  (The picture above shows all three.)

This tomato soup was unbelievably delicious.  And while it’s not the cheapest recipe (tomatoes can certainly be expensive, especially when out of season) it is an example of how to use up ingredients around the house.  This soup can also be used with imperfect or bruised tomatoes.

How have you prevented food waste this week?

How to cut your grocery bill in half (Part one)

I’ve heard some friends ask recently how to cut back on their grocery bill.  I have many ideas, so here is the first of a series on how to trim back your grocery bill.

Choosing the right store, stocking up on sales, and using a local food box are great ways to start. 

But it doesn’t just matter when or where you shop, it matters what you buy. And maybe even more importantly, what you don’t buy.

 
The best way to cut back on your food bill is to eat a simple but healthy diet of rustic foods and foods made from scratch.  The more processed foods you buy, the more expensive your bill.

Here are a few of the foods that  I consistently buy when I go shopping:

- Local & cheap veggies including potatoes, carrots, celery, broccoli, aromatics and apples.  These kinds of foods are versatile, affordable and easily turned into hearty meals.

- Beans (dried are the cheapest but we also buy cans because of the convenience factor) as well as dried lentils and canned tomatoes that can be turned into soup bases, curries, pasta sauce or pizza sauce.

- Rice

- Whole grain crackers 

- Dairy (I usually have coupons for milk, yogurt, butter, sour cream and certain cheeses) and eggs.

- One or two cheap cuts of meat

- Baking supplies

What I don’t buy (and make from scratch, instead):

- Bread, pitas

- Snacks, such as hummus, guacamole, salsa,  granola bars or dips

- Muffins, cookies, desserts

- Sauces & Salad dressings (such as curry sauces, pasta sauces, gravies, cooking sauces, etc)

- Canned soups, chicken or vegetable stock

- Junk food (chips, chocolate, pop)

- Cleaning supplies

Eliminating processed foods, especially the ones I mentioned here, such as the junk food, deserts, and pre-made sauces that have high mark-ups, can save you money right away. 

This cabbage & white bean soup recipe, described below, is the perfect example of a rustic, homemade meal, complete with homemade bread. Thanks to 101 Cookbooks for this easy, cheap and very tasty recipe! It’s one of my favourites!

Rustic Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
a big pinch of salt
1/2 pound potatoes, skin on, cut 1/4-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
5 cups stock* Saver Queen’s note - use a homemade stock for a super-cheap soup, or buy beef broth instead!
1 1/2 cups white beans, precooked or canned (drained & rinsed well)
1/2 medium cabbage, cored and sliced into 1/4-inch ribbons

Stir in the garlic and onion and cook for another minute or two. Add the stock and the beans and bring the pot to a simmer. Stir in the cabbage and cook for a couple more minutes, until the cabbage softens up a bit. Now adjust the seasoning - getting the seasoning right is important or your soup will taste flat and uninteresting. Taste and add more salt if needed, the amount of salt you will need to add will depend on how salty your stock is (varying widely between brands, homemade, etc).

Warm the olive oil in a large thick-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the salt and potatoes. Cover and cook until they are a bit tender and starting to brown a bit, about 5 minutes - it’s o.k. to uncover to stir a couple times.* Saver Queen’s note: I recommend cooking at a lower temp, or else the potatoes might burn.

Serve drizzled with a bit of olive oil and a generous dusting of parmesan (or blue!) cheese. Serves 4.

What do you buy and what don’t you buy when you go to the store?

What are your thrifting rules?

Do you thrift or collect?  I love thrifting and antiquing but I have certain rules.  I don’t know very much about price values, so I stick to items that I really love. Attempting to anticipate the future worth of antiques is just as risky as playing the stock market.  I either buy items that I will actually use or can be displayed prominently and add significant decorative value to my home.  I don’t buy items that are going to sit on a crowded shelf or cupboard and collect dust.  I’m very selective with what I buy.  It’s very easy to get into some bad habits while thrifting, because items are so affordable it’s easy to think you can afford to buy just about everything you want and then find yourself over budget, (not to mention with a house full of clutter.) If you’d like some tips on how to thrift, check out The Thrifty Chicks, one of my favourite thrifting blogs.  

Normally, as I said, I don’t collect, as in I am not a collector of rare or valuable pieces.  I did, however discover this Star Trek collectors item. (Did y’all already realize I was a great big NERD or did I just out myself?)

I found this fantastic Star Trek bowl in my favourite antique store.  It wasn’t in the best shape when I bought it.  There was some old tape on Dr. McCoy’s face, dirt encrusted on the bottom, and some stains.  (The tape was probably there from an unsuccessful garage sale - that hurts.) I got all the tape off, and all the stains off on the bottom and sides of the bowl with baking soda.  I think I can remove most of the stains inside the bowl with a little Comet, although I worry about damaging the plastic.  

This bowl is, according to price books, worth about 4-times what I paid.  However, this was not consistent with the prices I found on Ebay.  I wonder if this is because the present demand (with the poor economy) means there is less interest in collectibles. I also wonder if more people are attempting to sell off their collectibles in order to make a little pocket money.  So the Ebay prices might not reflect it’s future worth.  With that perspective, it’s probably a reasonably good time to buy collectibles.

Anyway, I now am faced with the dilemma - do I use the bowl or protect it?  Light will surely fade the plastic.  But what’s the point of having cute memorabilia like this if I don’t use or display it?  It’s not worth much if it’s hidden in a box somewhere. 

Do you thrift or collect? What are your thrifting rules? And do you display or keep your cherished items portected?

Linked to: Life as Mom

The carbon footprint of wine

Although I enjoy drinking fine frugal wines, I’ve never considered the carbon footprint of wine - until now.  According to Dr. Vino, National Geographic just published a diagram that illustrates the carbon footprint of wine by region.  

The results are a bit surprising - it shows that it is actually far better for a New Yorker to drink wine produced in France, Chili, or even Australia than in California.  Why? Because wine produced in the US is shipped by truck or plane, instead of boat.  The minute your wine gets onto a truck or a plane, the carbon emissions escalate. As a recent article in the NY times explains, glass is the main culprit, adding mass.  Wine stored in tetra-packs can be packed much more efficiently. However, as Josh pointed out to me, tetra-packs require more energy to recycle than glass.

The best solution is to drink local wines.  Living in Guelph means that my lowest carbon emitting wines would come from the Niagara region, Pelee Island, and the small wine producing region surrounding Port Perry.  I’m guessing that the next best solution would be to buy from New York State.  For international wines, France is probably the best choice.

Where does your wine come from? What is your preferable low-carbon emitting, frugal wine?

Frugal weekend activities

This weekend I enjoyed many frugal luxuries. A good friend came to visit for the weekend, which was truly great.  We enjoyed a number of many fun, frugal activities that included snacking on homemade treats like guacamole and hummus with fresh pitas, and playing video games.  We look a long walk by the river, played board games, and calmed ourselves in a lovely Sunday evening yoga & meditation session.  

We enjoyed a hearty bowl of my homemade cabbage soup with perogies on Sunday night. I will share the recipe shortly; it’s a real gem. Then Josh made these yummy chocolate chip cookies before joining us in playing video games.  It doesn’t much more relaxing than that!

Before my friend arrived, I got up early to go to a rummage sale at a church basement.  You never know what goodies you’ll find.  I have a big list of kitchen needs that I’m hoping to thrift.  Unfortunately, the rummage sale consisted entirely of junk.  I did, however, have much more luck at my favourite little antique store in Guelph, The Corner Store.  During this visit I picked up a table runner and some cute placemats.  Everything in this store is very reasonably priced.  I got the table runner and five placemats for $13.50 after tax.

The table runner

The placemats

In addition to the fresh homemade pitas that Josh whipped up, we finished off the best batch of homemade bread ever.  Josh made this one with flax, wheat germ and a blend of whole wheat & white flours.  A truly healthy homemade bread!  This fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth bread stayed soft and moist and was perfect for sandwiches, even once it was a week old.  I’ll get the recipe out of him soon and share with everyone, because you all need to have this one!

It occurred to me, after my friend left, that we weren’t being frugal necessarily intentionally, that it was a happy coincidence that drinking tea and chatting is an incredibly affordable thing to do.  We didn’t do it because it was free, we did it because it felt healing and rejuvenating to spend time at home, in nature and at a yoga studio.  Of course, there were a few minutes spent at The Beer Store too, which the warm Saturday afternoon required!

What are your favourite weekend frugal activities?

Free coffee from McDonalds

As my faithful readers already know, the scope of this blog has become more about simplicity, sustainability and frugality and has veered away from freebies, free samples, and coupons. 

However I just can’t let me readers go without knowing about the great freebie from McDonald’s - free small “premium roast” coffee every morning during breakfast hours for the next two weeks!  No purchase necessary and no strings attached!

While we are on an environmental theme, however, let me remind you all to bring your own mug and request that they use it instead of a paper cup.  Not all restaurants may allow this and quite frankly I’m not sure where their policy lies on the subject.  I do know, however that Tim Hortons will reduce the price by 10¢, so why not give it a try and see what happens.

Enjoy your free coffee!  I happen to love McDonald’s coffee so it works for me!

No time to waste

An article in The Toronto Star today, “No Time to Waste” drives home the point that we need to start changing the way we live.  

This part of the article broke my heart:

Millions of plastic bottles, grocery bags and coffee cups end up on the streets, beaches and forests as litter. Some of that plastic enters the water stream and, over time, can be carried as far as the Atlantic Ocean. Marine life, such as the endangered leatherback sea turtle, mistake plastic bags and bottles for jellyfish and eat them. And so the litter that originated in a faraway city gets trapped in their digestive system, often leading to starvation.
 
The oceans are the great predictors of environmental change, and it is the Atlantic, off the coast of Nova Scotia, where Dalhousie University scientist Mike James studies the endangered leatherback sea turtle. The enormous turtles feed where ocean currents merge, pulling in their favoured food, jellyfish – and a massive field of plastics bottles and bags, chairs, balloons and beach balls from around the world.

The plastics are found in the bodies of dead albatross, porpoises, turtles and other marine life that confuse them for food. In the Pacific, powerful currents pull the litter into seemingly endless piles of floating plastic, named the Plastic Killing Fields by researchers who study their impact on marine life.

Packaging from products is apparently the biggest part of our waste problem, which drives home a key point: although we were brought up with the “three Rs” we have not learned to prioritize. 

“We have been completely drilled into thinking of recycling as the solution to this problem of packaging,” says Heather Marshall of the Toronto Environmental Alliance. “It is not. Recycling is the last thing you would do before you throw it away. What we really have to do is teach the hierarchy of the `Three Rs’; we must reduce first, then reuse and, finally, recycle.”

This echos what Annie Leonard said in a recent issue of Body & Soul.  When asked, “is recycling the solution to our “stuff” problem?” she said:

“There’s a reason that ‘recycle’ is 3rd in the oft-repeated eco-mantra, reduce, reuse recycle. First let’s reduce the stuff we buy and reuse what we already have.”

This message sounds good to frugal ears. In fact it makes me think about what else I could do to reduce my consumption and re-use what I already have. 

So, let’s share our ideas! 

Is there anything you can eliminate, reduce, or repurpose to cut down on waste? 

Repurposing: a decanter into a vase

My friend from The Nature Hogg and her husband came over for dinner on Friday night and brought me these daffodils from the garden.  I lack a simple vase for holding just a few flowers.  I did, however, discover that a decanter does a lovely job of showing off a few stems.  To me, this is an example of how we can repurpose items in our home instead of buying new.  

Have you recently repurposed an item in your home?

Save water and electricity with this quick tip…

My money saving tip for the day:

DON’T pile your freshly washed blankets and sheets onto the bed and walk away before returning to fold and put them away. You may find that someone’s rather inconsiderate choice of a nap location has required you to re-wash the clean laundry.