A Different Perspective

I guess I am just one of these people who was born out of time. I believe that hard work pays off. I believe that you should treat people with kindness and respect, not only because God tells us to, but because it is the right thing to do. I believe that the people should support the government, not the other way around. I believe that food and meal time should be a joy, and not just something to keep your body alive. And I believe that every action, every decision, every desire of every person, affects everyone else .

Work is hard. Otherwise it wouldn't be called work. If something isn't difficult to achieve, we just don't value it. For instance, 2 people of very different social classes, decide they want or need a barn. The poorer of the two has to build it himself while the rich man hires a contractor to build it. The poor man saves his money, asks for salvaged materials, plans extensively so that the barn will do everything he needs or might need for the future. It takes him several months to gather supplies, prepare the building site, and build the barn. It rains, it is hot, it is cold, he bashes his thumb with a hammer a few times, but finally the barn is finished. It may not be pretty, but it is dry and will do what he needs it to do.

The rich man only has to pick up the phone and call a contractor. The contractor comes out with his crew, prepares the site and builds the barn. It takes about a week, then they are gone. The Rich man fills the barn with all of the things that should be in a barn, then stops thinking about it at all.

The rich man never lifted a finger to build his barn. To him it is simply a building. To the poor man, it is an extension of himself, something that he provided at his own expense to better himself, his animals, and his property. He works in it every day. He sees the condition of the walls, the floor, the roof. He will repair anything that needs to be fixed. He adds on to it as needed, because you see, it has to last. He cannot afford to build another one. He values the building, not just because he needs a barn, but because his sweat went into the construction. And his barn is probably more solidly built and of better quality than the barn of the rich man who paid someone who doesn't care about it.

Hard work creates value and self worth. It makes you feel good about something and yourself.


Being kind should be a no brainer. There are many admonitions in the Bible to be kind to others. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The story of the Good Samaritan. Just to name a couple. But seriously, wouldn't the world be a better place if every one were kind to each other? Smile at a stranger. Help someone who is struggling. Take a meal to a sick friend. Do any of these things hurt you in any way? No. But they help someone else in ways that are beyond belief. That stranger you smile at walking down the street may have just gotten fired from their job and has to go home to tell their family the bad news. That smile may just give them the encouragement to apply for a job on the way home. The person that is struggling may be your elderly neighbor who is having trouble getting the trash can to the street every week. Your little bit of help may be the difference that keeps her from falling in the driveway and hurting herself. That meal you take to a co-worker when she is sick may feed her children so they don't have to go to bed without dinner. None of these things cost you much in either time or money, but by simply being kind, you have brightened the lives of others, who will in turn, be more willing to be kind to the people they meet. If everyone was kind to 1 person each day, it could change the world.

This country was created to give the people a nation where individual freedoms were considered an inalienable right. The governments sole duties were to provide security to the entirety of the nation and to provide the structural framework for a free society. And gradually, over the last 236 years, the people have asked the government to do more and more of the things we should be doing for ourselves, mostly because we don't want to be bothered with it.

Your granny is old and sick and can't really live by herself any more. So instead of moving her in with you, you sign her Medicare check over to a nursing home and move her in there. She will get minimal care, but they will make sure she gets her meds and someone will check on her every few hours and you will not be burdened by having to deal with her. You live in a small town where there are not many jobs. You have always always lived there and don't want to move or get the education you need to get one of the few jobs there are available. So you get the government to provide you with a welfare check. It pays the bills and provides you with some money for food. Your children see that you get a check every month without having to work for it, so they don't bother working either when they come of age.

The people in a small town want want to be able to commute to work in the city a little faster, so the contact their State Legislators to get a better highway. The bill passes and the highway is built. But it also raises their taxes, but only a little bit. The tax money more than pays for the highway but the tax doesn't go away. Then someone wants to upgrade the civic center. So the taxes go up to pay for it. But the tax doesn't go away after the building is paid for.

Over time, all of those taxes provide the government with a lot of money to use at their discretion. Some of the money is used for the good of the people as a whole. But a goodly portion of it is used for things that only benefit a select few. Our tax money is being used to support programs that are either not necessary, are beneficial to only a few, or are to the detriment of society as a whole. Our tax burden on the whole is many many MANY times higher than what triggered the Boston Tea Party. And yet, no one complains. It makes me rather sad.

As a society, we have gotten away from cooking meals ourselves. With the advent of inexpensive drive thru service, it is easier and faster to just pick up some questionable food from a chain restaurant or pick up the phone for take out. Our busy, hectic lives prevent us from having the time to spend an hour or so making a good healthy meal and enjoying it with family and friends. A home cooked meal has become a luxury. Is it any wonder the Old World countries where meals are prepared at home look down on us for our eating habits?

I try to cook our meals myself at least 5 or 6 nights a week, health permitting. I know the quality of the food we eat, and can make sure that we are all getting the proper amount of vegetables and fruits we need. I try to grow as much of our food as possible and what I can't grow, I try to buy locally. I generally do not buy mixes and kits for the things we eat because they are loaded with salt and preservatives. My children had rather eat a meal that I prepare than to spend a lot of money to eat out. It makes me feel good to know that they understand the difference in quality that a home cooked meal provides because the secret ingredient is always Love.

And finally...

Your actions make a difference. You work hard at what you do. It gives you a feeling of accomplishment. That in turn makes you feel good about yourself and more willing to feel good about the things and people around you. And the effect is viral. The better you feel, the more those around you want to feel that way as well. If you don't work hard, that good feeling isn't spread around and everyone is simply plodding along. If you treat others with kindness and respect, they return the favor. If you treat others poorly, you will also be treated that way. If you tell the truth, no matter how hard that truth is to bear, you will receive the truth as well. When you want only the things you actually need or already have, then you are not wasting your resources for frivolous things. You can focus on Enough, and not on the media driven consumer driven compulsion to buy, you do not need a McMansion that you cannot afford to house all of your things that you don't need or even really want. You don't have to work every second of every day to be able to pay the credit card bills for all the things you have bought. You have time to actually be a parent and spouse. You have time to do the things that make you feel good about yourself. And you have time to sit down at the table to a home cooked meal, prepared with Love.

Unfortunately, none of these things are very common in the fast paced society we now live in. We do not have time to sit and think about the things we do and how it effects ourselves and others. We have become greedy with our time, our money, and our feelings toward others. We all want MORE, without having to give of ourselves in return.

Well, I for one, will not live that way. I challenge the WORLD to join me.

Making due

With more and more companies downsizing and prices on the rise, it is becoming more important than ever to watch where and how we spend.

There are so many ways to save money every day that it is almost intimidating. Most of us settle for just not buying things, but that can make you feel deprived and depressed about the whole situation. What my family and I have done is a little bit different. We haven't completely stopped spending money, but we are a lot pickier about what we spend it on.

For instance, instead of buying some of our Christmas gifts this year, we made them. We spent less money than if we purchased them, and they are actually a little more heartfelt. We found out at the last minute (actually about 10 days before Christmas) that our nephew was giving us a gift after the family decided last year to not buy for each other any more. So I rapidly made him an afghan in his favorite team colors. I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing when I made the original chain for the length, so it wound up being HUGE. Almost 8 feet long. Well, at least he and his wife will have plenty to keep warm at the football games. But he loved it. Probably better than if we had bought something random from the store.

Since I cook, that saves us a lot of money too. We haven't stopped eating out completely, but we have cut down a lot. And when we do stop for a burger, we generally eat off of the Dollar Menu. Last night, for instance, we had to go grocery shopping after my husband got off work. It was 7pm by the time we were finished and we were both very hungry so we decided to go to McDonalds and just grab a bunch of double cheese burgers and take them home. We got into the drive thru and saw the new dollar menu and were shocked. There were only 6 items on the dollar menu now and none of them were meat. Just ice cream, fries, pies, parfaits, small sodas, and I think cookies or something. We were amazed that McDonalds would kill their dollar menu like that. So we went thru a couple of more drive thrus looking for dollar items. Finally wound up at Wendys. Jr Double Cheeseburgers for $.99. Sold! We got 8 of them( 2 for each of us) and 4 plain baked potatoes for $14 and change. While it is still somewhat expensive, it is better than it could have been. Had I cooked them myself, it would have been about 1/3 of that after buying buns and meat, but at least we got to eat quicker and didn't have a mess to clean up.

Anyway, I generally cook our meals. I haven't really found anything that I can't cook at home that we would normally eat if we went to a sit down restaurant. And sometimes, I can do a better job than the restaurants, since I can tailor it to my family's liking. Granted, it does make us have to have a wider variety of ingredients on-hand, but if I shop smart, and use coupons, I can almost always make it cheaper than retail.

An example of this is flatbread. I got online and looked up pita bread recipes and found that you can use just about any bread dough to make pitas. So yesterday I was making bread and decided that instead of 2 loaves of slicing bread, I would make 1 loaf and some flat bread. Pinch off a ball about the size of a pingpong ball, roll it out really thin, like 1/4-1/8 of an inch, pre-heat a pizza stone in the oven to about 475 degrees, and bake them on the stone 2 or 3 at a time. When they puff, flip them. It takes about 5 minutes each. And they are wonderful. Since I was making bread anyway, it saved me the $3 or $4 dollars that a pack of flatbread would have cost me, and I know they are fresh.

Prices have gone up so much lately that it is almost cheaper now to make our bread instead of even going to the thrift store. And if I can ever get a batch of sourdough going without killing it, I won't even have to buy yeast. Flour is going up, but that will affect commerical bakers as well as home cooks.

So as long as prices keep going up, I will continue to find ways to either make it myself or make due without.

Tools for Cooking

There are a few things that IMHO are necessary if you are going to be cooking a lot. A GOOD set of cookware, a cast iron skillet, a steamer basket, sharp knives, a grater/slicer of some sort, heavy spoons, a wire whip, a good cutting board, and a good cookbook.

Meals can be made or broke on the cookware. Yes you can heat up a can of beans or make hamburger helper in the el cheapo dollar store cookware, but do you want to cook or just make food? Personally, I prefer good heavy stainless steel cookware. It heats fast and evenly, is virtually indestructible, and if you do somehow manage to burn something onto it, you can scour the blazes out of it without hurting it. And it can go in the oven. I have a stainless stockpot I got from Goodwill, was it 15 (yikes! Time flies...) years ago. I use it at least 3 or 4 times a week. I make pasta in it, boil corn on the cob, use it to roast meats, and even make soup in it. It has a lid that fits snugly so I can use it for just about anything. If I had no other cookware, that is the one piece I just will never give up. I have only had to give it a good scrub once, and that was just my own stupidity for burning garlic onto the bottom. I had to soak it a while and get out the steel wool, but it did clean up. Anyway...Stainless steel cookware with a good solid core will heat evenly so you don't have hot spots. That is key when you are cooking. That way you won't be as prone to burn spots while others are not cooked. You can find good sets online at reasonable prices or you can build your set a piece at a time as you find them on sale. Don't bother with the Teflon coated skillets unless you plan on making a lot of sticky things. I have 1 skillet that I use to make omelets and pancakes, but other than that, I don't use it much. No matter how careful you are, the coating will eventually wear off. And you can't use metal spoons and stuff with Teflon so that is another drawback.

A cast iron skillet is another essential. Depending on the size of your family, I would say don't get one over 12 inches. Anything over that size is just to big to handle with anything close to ease. A good cask iron skillet can last a hundred years if you take care of it. I know a lot of people who have their grandmother's skillets and are still using them. There are a couple of things to remember about cast iron though. Never, never, NEVER, put them in the dishwasher. Automatic dishwashing detergent will eat the finish off of them. That finish (the black stuff) is what keeps your food from sticking to the pan. You need to hand wash them with a mild detergent if you must, but you can generally just wash them with water to get them clean. You can use a plastic scrubber, but don't use steel wool unless you plan on reseasoning them. After you wash them, always dry them immediately. Otherwise, you are inviting them to rust. After they are dry, take a paper towel that has about 1/2 teaspoon of cooking oil on it, and wipe the entire thing with the oil. That will replenish the coating and help to keep food from sticking. You don't need enough oil to make it slick, just enough to sort of seal the skillet. It will also help keep it from rusting. If you buy a new, unseasoned skillet, or if the one you found at the yard sale is rusty, you can scrub them down(not necessary for the new one) and coat them heavily with oil. It shouldn't be enough to pool up in the bottom but enough to make the whole thing kinda shiny. Then stick it in the oven on about 300 degrees for a few hours. This is baking the oil into all of the pores in the cast iron and sealing the metal. Sealing(seasoning) the skillet will make it turn the classic black that cast iron cookware is supposed to be. After is is completely cooled, you can put it away. I have done everything from frying chicken to baking cakes and cornbread in my cast iron skillet. I even made a pie in it once. And like the stainless, it is really hard to destroy one.

Steamer baskets...well, what can I say about them. They are very low tech when you think about it, but it makes for some really awesome food. You can steam rice, veggies, potatoes, corn, really just about anything without losing the nutrients and vitamins like you would with boiling. And it is really fast. Take your classic broccoli/cauliflower mix. Steam your veggies, turn the burner off, sprinkle a little bit of cheese on the top and put the lid back on the steamer. The cheese melts and you are good to go. Or you can shred potatoes like for hash browns, mix in your favorite seasoning salt or steak rub, put them in the steamer, and you are good to go. You will need to stir those up at least once so all of the potatoes will get cooked, but it is just wonderful with grilled steaks or beef roast.

Nothing bugs me more than dull knives. You can seriously hurt yourself with them. It takes more manhandling of your food to cut it with a dull knife, making an accident much more likely. A sharp knife is a pleasure to work with. It slices through food easily, makes prettier cuts, and doesn't wear you out working with them. KEEP YOUR KNIVES SHARP. OK, enough of that. But seriously, it is much faster to work with a sharp knife and you will be amazed at how much nicer it is to use. And your food will have nice clean cuts instead of torn jagged ones. And if you do manage to cut yourself, you also will have nice clean cuts instead of torn jagged onces, and they will heal faster. I have cut myself before, but only once(in my 39 years) that needed stitches. And that was because I was stupid. But because my knife was sharp, I barely have a scar. Even the Doc commented on it.

Slicer/graters are one of the most wonderful money and time saving devises ever made. I actually have a couple of different ones, none of which are a food processor. I have the classic box grater that has different grating surfaces on each of the sides, I have a little hand held cheese grater that has three different blades (it was a freebie, I don't think I would have bought one given a choice, it is just too small) and I have a Saladmaster rotary grater that I love. One the money saving end, just think about how much you spend buying pre-shredded cheese, boxed scalloped potatoes, pre-cut coleslaw, potato chips, etc. instead of making those things yourself. It really doesn't take that long to do and you don't have all of the added preservatives and anti-caking agents added to what was once healthy food. Not only that, but a block of cheese is much less expensive than buying the same weight pre-shredded. And you can use that same piece of equipment over and over. Hash browns, slaw, carrots, cheese, onions,you can even make bread crumbs with it. Very handy to have.

Heavy spoons are another item I use a lot. Granted, I have some of the plastic kind, but I try to make sure that they are not too flexible. Try picking up a whole boiled potato with a flexible spoon and you will know what I am talking about. Get some that are slotted and some that are not. After you use them a few times, you will agree that they are necessary.

A wire whip is another good thing to have. You can use it to make gravies, sauces, mashed potatoes, and cake mixes. Easier than a spoon, and more useful than a hand mixer. They are cheap so just get one. Or two.

Cutting boards these days come in many shapes and sizes. And most of them are relatively inexpensive. I would suggest that you don't get the huge 4 inch thick butcher block kind that weighs 20 pounds. It is just too big to work with, so you will wind up not using it. Get a decent plastic one for cutting fruits and veggies and a wooden or bamboo one for cutting meats. If you get the two different kinds you will be less likely to get them mixed up. After cutting meats you will need to sanitize it by soaking it in a sink full of hot water with a few drops of bleach, just to make sure you kill all of the bacteria. Never put a wooden cutting board in the dishwasher. Not only will the heat warp the wood, but the detergent will soak into the wood and possibly transfer back onto your food. The plastic one is fine in the dishwasher and it will sanitize it( no pores in the plastic). A good cutting board should last you for years. And it is a good investment.

Last but not least is a good cookbook. I would suggest one of the big Betty Crocker ones. That is just about everything you will ever need or want to cook anyway. And a lot of the recipes have pictures and procedures described in detail so you can't really mess them up. Very good for people who don't cook a lot but want to or just don't really know how. There is even a section on making things like jams and jellies if you are interested in that sort of thing.

Hopefully, this will be helpful to anyone who is interested in the whole cooking thing. This is all from my own personal experience and I am sure that some will disagree with me on certain things. Every good cook has their own ideas about how things should be done. But if you haven't cooked much before, it is at least a place to start.

Don't be afraid of the kitchen. It can be fun and save you a lot of money from not eating out.

Frugal cooking

One of the best ways I have found to save money is on the cooking vs eating out mind set. Cooking doesn't have to be the chore that everyone thinks it is. Even if you have never cooked before, you can start making your own meals and save hundreds every month.

One of the very first things you should do if you have never seriously cooked before is invest in a good cookbook. I would suggest one of the big Betty Crocker ones with the red and white checked covers. It will cover every type of basic cooking from appetizers all the way thru snacks and desserts and it is also very easy to read and understand. Some of the more complicated dishes even have step by step pictures. Granted, these are generally just basic recipes, but for someone who hasn't cooked before, it is a great asset.

Another thing to do is always keep a supply of staples on hand. I always have a cabinet full of seasonings and spices, dried beans, different pastas, and grains (barley, rice, oatmeal, corn meal, plain and self rising flours, and grits). It is also a good idea to keep sugar or sweeteners on hand, including brown sugar and powdered sugar, and cocoa, corn starch, baking soda and baking powder. These are just a few of my pantry staples to get a general idea. Most of these things can be easily purchased in bulk since they all store well as long as they are kept dry and cool. Add vegetables and meats to these basic things and you can make just about any type of meal you want.

One of the things you really want to stay away from buying is mixes. Do you really need to spend $2.00 on a box of brownie mix when you have everything to make brownies at home already? Lets say you buy the mix on sale for $1.75. You still have to add eggs and oil or butter to the mix. So you buy a dozen eggs on sale for $1.19. You have butter or margarine at home already. So now these brownies are costing you $2.94. At home you already have the cocoa, sugar, self rising flour, and butter. So you spend $1.19 for the eggs instead. Now your decision to make brownies is only costing you a little over a buck. But since you will only be using 2 or 3 of the eggs, it is actually only costing about 20 to 30 cents. See the point?

In the last month, I have managed to cut our food spending by half, just by not eating out. I took a day to cook and freeze several different meats for those days when I just don't feel like cooking or when we would need a quick dinner because of the kid's schedules. Those would be the days that we would normally eat out. I have even made up some hamburger patties and froze them so that hamburgers would be quick and painless.(secret--put small squares of waxed paper between them so they don't stick together.)

Learning to cook is well worth the time and effort if you are serious about saving money and eating healthier. You will be able to control the amount of fat and sodium in your foods, you can make sure that the freshest possible ingredient are being used, and you will not have some minimum wage person that you don't know handling your food. It is also very satisfying to be able to make it yourself. Your friends and family will be in awe of your new skills in the kitchen and will want your recipes.

And the best part is that you will be saving a ton of cash in the process.