Active or Passive

I was reading an article in my ever present Tightwad Gazette last night about active and passive tightwaddery, and I realized I had never really thought about frugality from this perspective.

What is boils down to is this: the things we actually do to save money, conserve resources and frugally increase quality of life for our families are active tightwaddery. The things we don't do that save money, preserve resources or protect the quality of life for our families are passive tightwaddery.

Let me give you a couple of examples. My son loves those frozen bean and cheese burritos. I don't get it but they are one of his favorite go to foods when he gets hungry and needs something now. But the cheapest I have ever been able to find them are $.89 ea for the small ones or $1.00 for the larger ones. He will eat two at a time, sometimes several times a day! So I have developed a homemade substitute (I have included the recipe below) that he swears are waaayyyy better then the frozen kind and alot less expensive. I can buy burritos for $.89 ea or make them for $.49 ea. I make them. This is ACTIVE tightwaddery, something I am actually doing.

Other times when he gets out of classes and we are heading home he is also starving and will say something like "there is Carl's Jr, lets grab a burger, I'll buy". I will look at him and say "By the time you add fries and a drink, for the two of us it's $15.00. I can get you a lift ticket to Hoodoo for $15.00, is it worth it?". My son is an avid snowboarder and his favorite place to ride is Hoodoo resort. I have found a place online where I can get lift tickets on certain days for $15.99, instead of the normal $44.99.  My son will think about it for maybe 1/2 of a second, shake his head and we whiz by the Carl's Jr to home. I probably have something ready to make quickly for dinner already waiting. This is PASSIVE tightwaddery, something we are not doing (not stopping to eat out).

There are probably a lot more passive things we do that save a small amount on any given day then active things that save a large amount. But it's really more about the attitude and mindset for me. Each little thing I do, each decision I make is bringing me closer, or further away to the goals I have set. I am training myself to make the right choices, both active and passive automatically. The bonus in the last scenario is my son is also learning about choices and how they will effect his own quality of life.

One Frugal Thing: I made homemade burritos of course!

                Homemade Frozen Bean/Cheese Burrito Recipe (quick food for teenagers)

I take a can of refried beans (bought on sale for $.89, the cost of one small burrito), put it in a pan with a splash of salsa, a couple of drips of hot sauce and some garlic/onion seasoning powder, stir and heat. Then I take a package of tortillas (package of 8 cost $1.00 at the Dollar Tree) and put them on a plate with a damp paper towel or napkin over them and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds. I take out my block of cheese (I have recently been able to find it regularly on special for $5.99 for 2lb) and use the fine shredder side of my grater to grate some up. I place an oblong shape blob of beans in the center of a tortilla, then place some shredded cheese along the top of the blob of beans (I make sure it is evenly distributed so there is cheese in every bite). Fold both of the sides of the tortilla in (this will be the sides (left and right) of the ends of the bean/cheese blob), fold the bottom edge of the tortilla up over the blob and folded-in tortilla sides and tuck down around top edge of beans. What you have now have should look like a fat tortilla envelope. I take the spoon I am using for beans and swipe a smear on the top of the burrito where I am going to fold the "flap" over the top to use as "glue". Fold the top flap of the tortilla over the bean smear and press closed. I can just fit 2 burritos in a regular sized zipper baggie (a box of 30 at Dollar Tree for (you guessed it!) a $1.00, and I wash these and reuse if they are not yucky and I haven't used them for meat). This recipe will make 7 burritos. I usually put one package of 2 in the fridge and 2 packages in the freezer. The last one he always eats as soon as I am done making them.

Here is the dollar breakdown:               
$0.89 (beans)
  1.00 (tortillas)                                Store bought 7 small burritos @ $.89 ea $  6.23
  1.50 (cheese, approx)                     Minus amount to home make                      3.39
--------                                                                                                               --------
$3.39                                                                                            Savings           $2.84  

This is alot of savings as far as I am concerned, plus I know there is no "junk" in these burritos. He just throws them on a plate and heats in micro.

Gobble Gobble Redux

My household is small, by family standards. It is just my 18 yr old son, a menagerie of animals and myself. But at Thanksgiving I chose to cook a 13.5 lb turkey. I thought the process of selecting a turkey would be as simple as it has been in years past.

Every grocery store around had a special price on turkey and the prices were as low as $.39 a lb, such a deal! But in years past I had never paid attention to what I had to do to get the "special" price. You have to buy a minimum dollar amount of groceries. The more you spent the cheaper the turkey got. I have always cooked for a crowd because my house has always been where all the "orphans" came for holidays, and I love the feeling of sharing the occasion with all sorts of people. That being said, $100.00 spent on a huge feast to feed 20 people was not unusual. But this year I couldn't do it (spend $100 bucks, the invitation to orphans was still open). Not only did I not have a spare $100 dollars in the budget, I didn't need that much for the meal. Because I have been shopping carefully, stocking up on pantry items when on sale and buying less convenience foods I already had most of the basics for the meal.

I had asked my son what foods bring to mind Thanksgiving. What was important to him that be on the table for it to be a genuine holiday feast. This was what he came up with:

Turkey
Green Bean Casserole
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
Stuffing
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Cool Whip (this kills me, I am a real whipped cream person all the way)
Deviled Eggs
Olives/Pickles tray

Seems like a lot for just a couple of people, but hey, I asked. So I started doing an inventory of the cupboards and refer to determine what I already had. This is what was on hand:

Canned green beans (bought at a 2/1.00 sale a couple of weeks before)
Campbells Cream of Mushroom soup (bought that week on sale for $.89)
2 packages of french fried onions NOT French's (bought at the Dollar Tree earlier, $1 each, not quite as good as French's, but still good)
Potato's (always have these on hand)
Stuffing fixings (actual bread stuffing, chicken stock, ect)
Eggs (bought that week with a store coupon for $.99)
condiments to make deviled eggs
Olives (bought at the Dollar Tree earlier, then I saw them on sale for $.89 thanksgiving week)
Pickles (always have these in the refer)
Dark Caro Syrup (Don't know when I bought this, but there it was!)
Everything I needed to make pie crusts

I was shocked and I must admit pleasantly surprised to realize I had so much of the meal right in my cupboards.

My grocery list ended up looking like this:

Turkey
Pumpkin Puree
Heavy Whipping Cream
Pecans
and drinks

When I happily trotted off to the store to pick up my tiny list and my $.39 lb turkey I was shocked to find it was $1.79 a lb without the minimum purchase! Yikes! And that minimum purchase is BEFORE they ring up the turkey. Okay, I needed to regroup. I went back home, got online and did some research on all the stores it would be feasible for me to stop at in my normal travels that day. I ended up finding the turkey for $1.59 lb, and they had a $3.00 off coupon if it was over 12.5 lb and "fresh". Not exactly the deal of the century, but better than $1.79 lb. On the way there I stopped at another dollar discount store and found pumpkin puree. I ended up buying:

13.5 lb turkey for $18.47
 .5 lb pecans for $3.47
Heavy whipping cream $1.49
2 2ltr soda $1.76 ($.88 ea)
1 can pumpkin puree
total at grocery store= $25.89

Plus I figure about $10.00 for all the stuff I had already. So Thanksgiving dinner cost around $36.00. We ate leftovers for 3 days then it was time to be done with it.

We still had a lot of turkey left on the carcass so I cleaned off all the meat, and put it in a large pot to boil. When it was done I again cleaned off any extra meat while discarding the bones. I had several quarts of turkey broth and extra meat for turkey rice soup, enough meat to make turkey sandwiches for my son's lunch for several days, and made turkey noodles (with peas and corn mixed in) for lunch that day.

As much as I hated paying $1.59 lb for the turkey in the end I feel the whole process was a good investment. We had a lovely holiday and enough leftovers to feed us about a week. Not bad for $36.00 bucks, right?

One Frugal Thing I did today-

 I made my college age son lunch to take to classes instead of him buying fast food when he is STARVING after class. A turkey sandwich, homemade chocolate chip cookies, cheeto-like cheese puffs from the dollar store and a container of homemade potato salad.
Yummmm!