The picture is me making my first felt hat in my millinery class. I was kind of nervous about the class, as it was expensive and to justify it to myself I had to pare down my couture sewing class to part time. Which starts on Saturday so *fingers crossed*
But HATS! I don't care if I never wear this hat (it's also in a mousey colour I've never ever worn because the supplier was waiting on a shipment but I had to get started) because it was FUN! I can block felt good! Whee! Am I too old to be jazzed about getting compliments from teachers? Apparently not!
This past week has had me stressing out about money. Suddenly my credit card is higher than I like, my hat supplies cost me more than I thought they would, The Boy booked as in to see Tim Minchin at the Comedy Festival without asking (though he said he'd pay - which makes me feel pretty crap, but well, I _do_ want to go) and on and on. The bond cheque from the old place went directly onto my credit card which meant new winter clothes (and boots) have to wait. And on and on. So I sat down and played with the budget. And according to it I'm okay. Not great, but fine. I just need to accept that I'm a student again and that means that yes, at the end of the pay cycle I might be down to my last $20.
But despite it being payday and therefore a time to stress less, I've been poking at the internet about being frugal, which I have done in the past and discovered the same things I usually do - I'm already pretty frugal (mostly) and being frugal in America is really different to frugality in Australia in certain respects, especially in the most popular tip - cancel cable tv. Almost all website suggest giving up cable tv to save money. Easy done as I've never had it. The Boy's parents have it as His dad got it free as he installs it. So if I really want to watch 4 hours of cooking shows I can when I go there (and I did that over Christmas. Yay for The River Cottage!)
Most of the other suggestions I was looking at were food related. Eating gluten free can be expensive and, well, I have expensive tastes at times (mmm duck). But since I started thinking more properly with The Boy over the whole gluten free thing I think we've actually started spending less on food in general. Lately our grocery bill has gotten higher (eep) BUT we are feeding The Housemate as well now AND we're not eating out nearly as much (due to people moving away).
Things I think are the big money savers on our food bill:
-Rice - Thanks to bentos and The Boy's love of making curry rice has become our starch of choice and that's pretty cheap. And freezes! which I never realized before (http://lunchinabox.net/2008/06/20/inarizushi-with-toppings/) which is a big help when making lunches quickly.
-Carrots - I've been having carrots almost every day lately in some form or another. Carrot sticks are a good snack, with or without a dip. Stir fry quickly in some tamari, chilli flakes and sesame oil to get kinpira (Just Bento). Tomorrow I'm going to try carrot rice which was on justbento.com a little while back because I have a cold and the vitamins the better IMO.
-Eggs - I used to think I didn't like eggs. They ruined my bacon and toast when I was a kid. I'm an adult now and have rediscovered them. While I avoid buying bread now as GF bread is never the same, full of calories and damn expensive, I'm still trying to eat eggs. They're cheap protein, keep well and are very handy to have in the kitchen. My first bentos often had hardboiled eggs in them. Then I went to tamagoyaki, japanese omelette. Lately I've been eating the quiche mum made for my aunt's birthday party.
-Spices - sesame oil, tamari, chilli, garlic and sesame seeds. These things are staples frequently used nowadays. I never used to be much of a spice girl, I think because I usually baked cakes etc when I was a kid, not "real" cooking. Sick of carrot sticks? Carrot kinpira instead.
Most websites told me that going grocery shopping without a list is a recipe to waste money. You should shop with a list and never deviate from it. Sure, I shop with a list, but not deviate from it? The Boy would fall over. He hates the meal planning mentality frugal websites advocate. It's too locked in for him. Instead we work out how many nights we'll be at home, if there's a night when only one of us is home the one at home eats leftovers (as does Housemate as we do the cooking). Then we consider what meals to make. Sure, this sometimes leaves us with some strange assortments of ingredients and leftovers to work with, but that can lead to taste sensations. White corn tortillas (Diego brand are the only GF tortillas I've been able to find) but nothing to fill them with? What about leftover potato and chickpea curry? OMG were those good!
Does all this rambling end with a point? I guess it's don't be locked in to a "poor," "frugal" or even "gluten free" mentality. Instead, be creative, get out there and experiment with what you have! No chilli? try that strange chilli/capsicum relish someone gave you for Christmas. Google "substitute IngrediantA" for suggestions on what to use instead. Dig in the back of your cupboards for inspiration.
In further food experimenting news, I attempted steamed pork buns. It was a mixed success. I used my staple "bread" mix, Safeway's Freefrom pizza mix. The filling? Pork mince cooked in the last of the strange tamari hoisin sauce I had (which The Boy dislikes so it won't be back).
The steaming didn't really give me a cooked result, still sort of doughy and I couldn't be bothered steaming them more. They'd had 30minutes, I was over it considering I could only cook 4 at a time. So I got out the muffin tin and baked them instead. The steamed then baked ones were a little gluggy tasting. The just baked ones were quite nice. A meat scone kind of taste (not surprisingly). The Boy was underwhelmed. The Housemate consumed with gusto.
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