Not Spending Money

The Wonders and Perils of Macaroni and Cheese

May 19th, 2009 . Posted in dinner, macaroni and cheese | 2 Comments »

The Light Side of Mac n Cheese

There is nothing quite as comforting as sitting down to a nice, warm, cheesy, substantial bowl of macaroni and cheese (the kind from the blue box, not the goopy stuff that real cooks make) after a long day, especially when you know that your entire meal is costing you about 70 cents, instead of in the $3 range that other inexpensive meals can cost.

MMMMMmmmmmm, mac n cheese.

We all ate it as kids. It’s yummy. It’s hot. It takes about zero brain cells to make when you’re tired. It costs less than a dollar a meal. Cleanup is easy. What’s not to love?

Some tips and tricks for mac n cheese:

Ignore the recipe on the box. If you want to add butter and milk like they suggest, add it to your own taste.
Adding less butter and milk means it has fewer calories.
You can forego the butter and milk entirely and it tastes about the same. This is a good option if you don’t have any, if you don’t want to buy any, if you didn’t plan ahead, or if you don’t have a fridge.
You don’t have to refrigerate the blue boxes
Important! When buying mac n cheese, make sure that the 5-pack doesn’t actually cost more than buying 5 individual boxes. Hint: If the 5-pack is over 5 dollars, you’re spending too much. Go buy real food instead.
Having mac n cheese on hand means that you’ll always have a meal at your fingertips.
Mac n Cheese doesn’t count as real food if you have guests. At all. Put it back in the cupboard.
Ignore the recipe instructions for amount of water and time cooking. Just put in “some” water and cook it until it “tastes right”. You’ll get used to the amounts after a few boxes. This way you can use a smaller pot and not need to take the extra effort to use a timer. It makes cooking even more brainless.
When you put your mac n cheese in a bowl, put water in the pot immediately or the cheesiness will be harder to clean off. You can let it soak while you’re eating it, and then cleanup is super easy. Or, you can eat it right out of the pot, but this seems a little brainless, even for me.

The Dark Side of Mac n Cheese

According to dieticians everywhere, Mac n Cheese does not count as actual food. It should say this on the box somewhere, but I’m pretty sure it’s FDA approved anyway. Even though pastas and grains are that giant base on the food pyramid, living on an all-carbs dinner plan is not good for you over time. There are no other nutrients worth mentioning in Macaroni and Cheese (unless your personal recipe calls for a lot of brocolli and spinach) and you will be starving yourself over time even if your belly feels full. Eating it once in a while, like at the end of the month when your finances are low and you’re eating food out of your cupboard, is a great way to make some extra dollars stretch, but be sure and read the Nutrition Facts on the box and know what it is that you’re not getting.

It’s not the only cheapo food that people can eat in tough times (Ramen noodles get all the glory), but it’s worth mentioning.

And worth maybe stocking a few boxes, just in case.

Use it Up

May 12th, 2009 . Posted in clean, don't spend money, shampoo, share a bathroom, use it up | No Comments »

If you’re like most people, you have several bottles of shampoo/conditioner/body wash/etc lining the wall of your shower. If you share a bathroom with housemates, you might have a tidy little collection for each occupant. You might even have a drawer somewhere just chock full of little shampoolets “in case guests come by”.

If you are strapped for cash for the month, or are fitting more people into your house due to budget constraints, you might want to consider this REVOLUTIONARY new way to consume your shampoo:

Use it up. One bottle at a time.

Pick one. It doesn’t matter; you bought them all, right? So pick a shampoo bottle and put the rest in the closet. Use the bottle of shampoo up. The whole thing. Then throw it out. Then go into your cabinet and get another one. Then use that up. You may be surprised at just how long you can last without buying new shampoo. Or, you may be surprised at how clean your bathroom feels without a bajillion bottles of shampoo.

I know, I know, some hair types require special treatment, etc, and it is absolutely neccessary to have multiple bottles of stuff costing over $25 that you rarely use. If you have this hair type, this does not apply to you. But for the rest of us, we can think of it not as foregoing a luxury but systematically using all the products that we’ve splurged on over the months.

You can also use this type of thinking for other consumables in your home:

Sort your cupboard by expiration date and use up all the canned items before buying any new ones
Put all your teas and coffee packets in a pretty basket or bowl (or corner of your cupboard) and use them all up before buying refills
Take inventory of your gift wrapping and use up existing wrapping before buying new stuff
Organize your bookshelves by what you have or haven’t read yet and read all your existing books before buying new ones (ha, yeah right.)
When you do a project, make alterations to the project to take advantage of the supplies you already have rather than buying new ones. For example, if your project requires glue, do you need to go out and buy glue sticks, or will the white glue work? Will the black thread work as well as the gray thread? It’s up to you.
If you are the sort who keeps several notecards on hand for occasions of any sort, select one from your existing collection rather than purchasing a special new one every time.

This idea may either seem super obvious (Of course I’d use up the ten Kleenex boxes in the house before buying another one!) or super impossible (Why on earth would I wear one pair of strappy black heels into the ground before buying another pair?) depending on who you are, what you like to keep in reserve, and what you enjoy buying. It’s really all up to you.

Luxury Camping and Other Games

April 25th, 2009 . Posted in Adding Value, camping, games, home, houses | No Comments »

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If you have some spare time on a Saturday, head down to your friendly local outdoor store and take a look at their camping supplies. Pretend for a minute that you’re going to go camping, and you need a complete supply of everything, and you have all the money in the world to spend.

Hmm, let’s see. They’ve got sleeping bags and sleeping pads. They’ve got little camp stoves and bug spray.

Ok, now spend all the money you want, and pretend that you are camping for a month. Also, pretend that you dislike mosquitos.

Hmm. They’ve got three-room tents that look like mini apartments. They’ve got camp cots and big squooshy cot pads to sleep on. They’ve got lanterns that you can safely hang from every room in your tent. Not only that, but there’s mosquito netting, rain vestibules, comfy folding chairs, comfy folding tables, awnings for shaded outdoor areas, awnings with hangings for buggy outdoor areas, rugs to go under awnings or in front of tents, and little mini generators so you can charge your iPod even when you’re roughing it. We could get a cooler for our camp kitchen and an entire set of little matching camp dishes, along with a collapsible dog bowl for Fido. There’s even a portable camp oven! And a whole rack of donkeys to carry all our gear.

Now, since we have donkeys, we can even carry luxury items on our pretend camping trip, like that bath soap that you like so much, or your complete set of Harry Potter novels. If you have kids, they could bring a lot of their favorite toys. Now, this is really living!

Now you’ve got a setup that you’ve spent thousands of dollars on that has ALMOST all the luxuries of home.

Now go home.

Oh my goodness, now you’ve really got ALL the luxuries of home. Scented shampoo? Deoderant? Electricity? This kitchen even has a dishwasher! It’s amazing! Not only that, but I can stop reading IN THE MIDDLE OF A BOOK and start a NEW one, no matter how heavy either of them are! I don’t even have to pick up after the donkeys.

All of this luxury comes infinitely cheaper than the best camping trip you can afford.

Don’t get me wrong, camping has its place, and usually the most avid campers can do without all the luxury items that are for sale in the big outdoor stores. But if you are a fan of luxury, and are feeling a tad unluxurious in these times, pretend you are luxury camping and have all the luxury that money can buy.

Campsite image courtesy of Raza: The Blog.

The Art of Lending

April 23rd, 2009 . Posted in borrowing, crafts, hobbies, lending, share with friends, supplies | No Comments »

Wouldn’t it be great to have all the gaming systems in the world in your living room, and you could use any one you wanted? You could have all your friends over for Rock Band concerts and also just to veg and play Mario Kart.

Wouldn’t it be great to have all the books in the world, and you could read them whenever you wanted and loan them out to friends, or they could come over and hang out on all the comfy chairs and giant cushions that you’d have as well.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a world-class kitchen with all the latest gadgets, and people could come and hang out and cook for you just because your kitchen is so great?

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to go into any craft store, like Michael’s or JoAnn’s, and be able to use whatever you wanted? You could try out new things just to see if you liked them, or to make presents for friends, or just because it looked cool. Or, you could get together with friends just to make stuff and hang out.

Wouldn’t it be great to have access to all the clothes in the world for free? You’d never run out of things to wear, and you could always put together just the right outfit for that particular event. And friends would come to you and ask to help them pick out outfits. (Hat image courtesy of La Femme.)

In any economy, good or bad, none of us have enough money, time, or space to amass all the goodies associated with every hobby we have. Whether it’s power tools, office supplies, car mechanical accoutrements, there will always be somebody who has more and can do more stuff. And regardless of your own interests, specialty, or income level, there will always be something you can loan from your own personal library of accoutrements to other people who will want to share.

“But wait,” you say. “I hate lending stuff because it comes back all icky and destroyed and I can never get it back.”

That is because there is an Art of Lending.

Some basics to get started:

Figure out what you enjoy sharing with other people. Lending is a great way to start conversations with people on topics you both enjoy. If you love books and love to discuss them, lend out your books to friends and future friends. If you love doing art, loan your pastels to someone who dabbles i acrylics, and then hang out and talk about the results. Recently, a friend had me over and we made jewelry with her copious supply of beads and findings. She didn’t charge me for supplies, and next time I’ll have her over to paint or sew and I won’t charge her for supplies.

Figure out what things are worth to you, and what they’re not worth to you. Lending out a movie to a sick friend means that the worst that could happen is that you spend $20 to replace it if it gets destroyed. Lending out a handmade quilt for a friend’s baby’s picnic tablecloth means that the worst that could happen is that an irreplaceable heirloom gets destroyed with gras s stains and baby barf beyond belief.

Learn your personal lending style. Some people are the type to obsess over anything missing from their personal inventory. They write their name in every book and never lend out their car. This is really ok– it is not worth loaning something out if it will stress you out so much, but be honest with yourself about where you stand on this. Other people, on the other hand, could easily give away their posessions and never miss them. Most of us fall somewhere in between. Knowing where you fall in this spectrum, and being realistic about what you’re happy with can make the difference between feeling generous and feeling taken advantage of.

Know your friends. Some people will return items in mint condition. You know if you loan them an outfit it will be returned dry cleaned with a bouquet of flowers and a thank-you note. Other people will habitually trash items but be diligent about replacing them. Still others will ask to borrow items but be perpetually late in returning them. Regardless of your personal lending style, take into account the person’s borrowing style when you lend items. If you continually lend to a person who is late in returning, and that just happens to be your pet peeve, it is your fault for not taking that into account when they ask you again and again.

Offer to lend stuff. If you recommend a book or a movie to a friend, offer to lend it. If a friend asks you for fashion advice and you have the perfect accessory, offer to lend it. If someone expresses interest in the type of leash you have for your dog, and you have an extra one, offer to lend them your extra leash so they can try it before they buy one. Unless people are very close to you, they won’t just ask, and it’s a great way to build bridges.

It’s ok to say no. If you don’t want to lend something, you don’t have to. You don’t need a reason. If your friend gives you a guilt trip, that’s their problem. And don’t be an idiot– if your friend returned something late the last ten times she borrowed something, don’t rely on her returning it on time in order for you to do that big presentation at work.

If it’s important to you, there are a lot of home inventory software options available for free. Some of these, especially the home library software options, have modules written to keep track of the stuff you lend. Or you could just make yourself a spreadsheet.

The wonderful thing about lending is that you don’t need more stuff to share what you have with the people you care about.