The Complete Tightwad Gazette
This is not a book review because I did not read the whole book yet. What I have read has been sort of an Examination of Conscience for Financial Household Management. The author, Amy Dacyczyn (pronounced decision) believes that most people have financial troubles (or at least can make more use of their money for example in the 80’s with four children on an under 30K a year salary, she saved $49.000 in seven years and used it as a down payment on her dream home) by saving more as opposed to earning more (two income families). She might just be a woman after my own heart. But man is she frugal. I suppose it becomes a habit, but in the meantime thinking of ways to save money like that 24/7 makes my head hurt.
I have to say, I am not totally ashamed of myself, there are things I do do. We do not eat a lot of meat, I buy in bulk, I make a great deal from scratch, keep lights off at night (and use oil lamps when necessary), use cloth diapers, wash out ziploc bags, my husband cuts the boys’ hair, just to name a few (although I refuse to cut moldy parts off of fruit or pour hot water in the bottom of a ketchup bottle to make it stretch-gross). People are often surprised how we have 4 children on one modest blue collar income and are not on any assistance or starving. Still I could do better.
My biggest problem is something everyone knows is a financial no-no. I like to eat out. Once a week, after cooking almost everything from scratch, watching our foods for dyes,preservatives and cholesterol, I have to get a weekly grease fix. What a hypocrite. I know this bad habit (and it is a habit because I have been unsuccessful in just saying “not this week”) is what is going to keep me from my dream farm house on a few acres in Schoharie County, NY, I have begun to look at the “why’s” of this habit.
Number one is I am burnt out. At the end of the week, I am sick of chopping onions, doing dishes, looking at the inside of my kitchen and wearing clothing that it is OK to splatter tomato sauce on. I want to get out and get cute. Also, there are times when, for example, someone drops by and stays until like 4.30, so I will order a pizza. To remedy this, I am going to attempt to fix things like casseroles to put into the freezer for days like this, and all I have to do is pop them in the oven.
Reason number two is I get tired of the taste of my own cooking. Do not get me wrong, I am a pretty good cook. Not an Erik Keilholtz kind of cook, but a pretty good (as Peony would say) a la femme cuisine cook. I would not eat my food at all if I could not cook well. But once a week I am dying for something like buffalo wings, or french fries, a burger, General Tso’s chicken, you know those things that are hard to make at home-especially since I have no idea how to fry anything. This one is more tough to remedy. I have found two interesting sites that may help. One is Copykat.com and the other is Top Secret Recipes. It’s like I need a junk food fix or something.
What I am looking for are recipes for something like Hot Pockets for when the kid’s are hungry and I can stick in the microwave, but make myself without all the sodium, fat and preservatives. Would anyone have such a recipe?