Major cooking today

Whew! Being parsimonious has its ups and downs. I benefit from the "ups" and get over the "downs."
~~24 meals of meat in the oven for about $8~~

Frugally exhausted,
Linda--parsimonious and practical

Yes, it is true. I like the economy of cooking bursts. You must know that by now. For at least 2 weeks I won't need to cook meat. I might decide to open a can of tuna or make salmon croquettes. But, I don't have to use the oven if I don't want to.

In the oven--4 chicken thigh-leg quarters and 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts. This will make 12 meals from the thigh/legs and about 12 meals from the breasts. So, that's 24 meals of meat in the oven, all cooking at once. I store the quarters in freezer and feed to friend when he comes to help me and send the rest home with him. He reports at least three and maybe four meals from each quarter. The breasts are for me...I am picky.

My seasoning is a celery rib, slice of bell pepper, free onions (red, chopped, from freezer) and a bit of salt, pepper, and a whisper of sage.  The sage won't be so evident that it tastes or smells like Thanksgiving.

The quarters were free and boneless, skinless breast were less than $1/lb, on sale for half price. Corn and apple were both free.

Happily, the chickens will get all the skin and be in chicken seventh heaven for about a week. Then, my friend brings back ALL the bones, more skin, and gristle that he freezes for the chickens. They are delirious when they get chicken.

My only ear of corn resides in foil to bake for me. Plus, the only baking apple is cooking in a little dish. I only had one of each.

Broth--chickens get the fat and I freeze the rest.

Oh, I am going out to eat tonight--free dinner where I bring home loads of scraps from the plates for the hens.

Personal "Christmas Club" Postage Stamps Savings Account

Sometimes, I save stamps through the year and have enough stamps saved by Christmas to use them and not have to fork over money to the PO for mailing gifts. It is sort of like a Christmas club savings account, but with stamps. This is akin to saving change all year to spend it at Christmas. Saving stamps is my unique parsimonious scheme.

I did not set out to do this, but one year I knew I could not afford to mail my gifts that I had worked so hard to acquire for little throughout the year. As I scrounged for stamps so I would not have to come up with cash, I found a stamp here and a stamp there. Those single stamps, forgotten by me, helped to save almost the whole cost of mailing a box.

Often, I find envelopes stamped and never mailed. If you cut these stamps off and affix to a package with Elmer's glue, you have salvaged a stamp. Right now, I have an envelope with a 33 cent stamp. This will go into my stash of Christmas stamps. The stamp would never have been thrown away! But, now I have a new goal for stamps! It is my new Christmas tradition!

Some of the stamps were not adequate for mailing a letter after postage went up and I had forgotten to buy penny stamps. Others were just lost. Then, there were the penny stamps I bought and did not use. Yes, those packages had loads of stamps!

Using less cash and more forgotten stamps worked for me! Now, I just set aside the sheets with at least three stamps left and use those at Christmas for gift mailing. Setting aside three stamps each month for a year: 3 stamps x $.42 x 12 months=$14.12.

You must realize I don't use a book of stamps each month. So, I will not have deliberately set aside stamps that will mail a box without using some cash. However, if you do use many books of stamps during the year, this "savings plan" will work for you. A flat-rate box costs $10.95 or $14.95 at USPS, depending on the size box.

One year around September, I started saving change with the express intent of using it for mailing gifts. Since I mail gifts for three people to NYC and five in Texas, I put all gifts for one destination in one box. The weight of the gifts does not matter. However, they must all fit in one flat rate box.

I do and can use change during the year even if I am saving it. Stamps can only be used for one thing--mailing items.

Has anyone ever scrounged for stamps to mail a letter or box?

Money and a Child--Me

Even as a child I was mindful of money. Having it was important. After all, isn’t this one of the differences in children and adults—having money? I had no job, so I had to be creative. I learned early, around age four, to maximize my chances of having money. Collecting Coke or other drink bottles for the deposit was just one of my methods of getting money.

I lived in the era of recyclable bottles. Bottles were a boon! I could get two cents for recycling one bottle. Since Cokes and candy were a nickel apiece, it didn’t take long to accumulate the necessary funds. Of course, every child wants both Coke and candy, finding enough bottles in one week was sort of difficult. Usually, I just settled for the candy--a Baby Ruth.You see, I was not allowed out of the yard to make the big bucks.

The best I could hope for was that someone would throw one into the ditch in front of our house in the rural area in which I lived. Since there were three of us children (then four children) collecting bottles for deposits, chances were slim that I would find a bottle. To make matters worse, I did not live on a main road. Occasionally, and only for a specific reason were we allowed to walk down the road. Reasons? To go pick plums. (for a few weeks) To go on an errand where I was allowed to ride my bike to the store and go onto the main highway. To walk to a friend’s house. Maybe!

Later, we lived in a neighborhood where the chances of finding a bottle were greater. Then, we moved back to Memphis and we were once again relegated to finding bottles thrown out on the highway. No matter where we went when we were in town, we found stray bottles in order to collect the deposit.

We never missed the opportunity to gather bottles even though we scarcely had the chance. We did manage to get ten cents to buy the occasional candy bar or coke or both. Hallelujah! Sometimes, we claimed Coke bottles brought home full of Coke. Sadly, this rarely happened. I suppose I was a deprived child, forced to subsist on and quench my thirst with water instead of Coke.

We bothered our father to allow us to keep change if we were sent into the store for a purchase or if we took money and ran an errand. Since I was the oldest, I was the biggest pest. Rarely did he ever give me anything when I pestered him except grief.

Even though I wanted to buy candy, I also wanted just to amass money. While my younger siblings found joy in having more coins, I knew from an early age that having large coins was the key. They played with, counted, lost, and frittered away a handful of pennies. If they had a nickel, I could always count on one of them to trade me the nickel for five of my pennies. To my credit, I did explain why it would be best to keep their nickel and how foolish they were being. Those little kids were overjoyed with their good fortune, while I was celebrating having silly siblings.

You might say, “Okay, Linda. You were 7 and they were 6 and 4. You were just older and had learned about coins.” I say, “How about when I was 10 and they were 9 and 7?” See, they just kept wanting pennies while I wanted to get dollars for my quarters and a five dollar bill for my five ones.

I think this strong desire and ability to take small amounts and save and consolidate until I reached my goal of more money has served me well. I was never tempted to fritter away my money even though I really did want Cokes and candy. I did spend some of my money on these small pleasures, but I valued saving more than I valued having a constant supply if candy.

This attitude still serves me well. I paid off my mortgage after years of deprivation, skimping, saving and patching together a living for a few years.

Oh, please tell me how you collected bottles? When? Where? Did you have a ready stash? Live behind a store?