frugal underground

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Yahoo! Finance offers some tips on "Slicing the costs of a backyard barbecue".

• Choose an equally good, but less popular, cut.
• Buy a larger section, and do some of the cutting yourself. (Bulk buying for meat lovers.)
• Buy seasonally, when supply is up and demand is down, and freeze.
• Want good taste and a good bargain? Buy what’s fresh, cheap and plentiful.

“My advice would be to not plan the menu and buy the product,” says Peter Vaillancourt, instructor with Johnson & Wales, a culinary arts and food service school. Instead, “Check out the meat, the price, then plan the menu.”

Many times, you can get the same cut, or something as good, just by learning where on the animal a particular piece originates. One example: Blade-end pork chops run about $1.99 per pound, says Vaillancourt. A popular pork item known as “country-style spareribs” runs about $3.99 per pound. It’s the same meat, cut differently.

“Every time you touch meat with a knife, you change its name and its price,” he says.

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FrugalWAHM gives the scoop on which theaters are offering free summer movies for the kids. Even if you have these movies at home (they’re not going to be first run, of course), it’s still fun and a “field trip.” I don’t have kids, but I might borrow some I know.

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Aunt Annie has some great advice in her post entitled “Found Money #8 - The Library“. I’ve been a library enthusiast forever, and I’m always astonished at how few of my friends regularly use the library (I’m slowly bringing this number up) and how few people in general know all the things the library has to offer.

In my area, the library system is fabulous: all of the public libraries have websites, on which you can place holds and have everything ready when you arrive (great time saver, although I also enjoy undirected browsing). They lend between libraries, so one card gives you access to millions of items. Aunt Annie’s post gives an overview of what kind of items you can expect to find.

My local library also has really excellent childrens’ programs and a great summer reading program for adults as well as kids.

Depending on how many books you typically buy or movies you usually rent, the library can save you a tremendous amount of money.

Action step: read Aunt Annie’s post. If you’re not familiar with your local library, stop in this week and see what they have. Take the time to explore the variety of items, including books, magazines, movies, music, and activities.

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I’m a fledgling frugalist myself, I’ll admit. I don’t know all the tricks in the book yet (but I will!). However, one thing that most all frugal folks agree on is this: meal plans are good. (I was going to put “meal plans are one of the most important parts of saving” but I would be surprised if everyone agreed on anything this specific).

In any case, I’ve been trying to use meal planning to keep my grocery purchases realistic and get the most out of what I buy. I do all of my grocery list making at the computer already, so I wanted an online service that would let me do some planning while I was at my computer (I’m pretty much here most hours of the day anyway).

At first I tried Recipezaar, of which I am a big fan in general, but their meal planning tool requires that I create the plan using recipes or simple ingredients already in their database—well, I could also add my own recipes. But that’s too time consuming, especially if I have the recipe I want to use in a cookbook already. I don’t necessarily want to type the whole recipe in, at least not until I’ve made it and know if it’s any good. Alternately, there were things like “deviled eggs” and “grilled cheese sandwiches” that really don’t need a recipe, but aren’t simple enough to be in the ingredient database. What I really wanted was something that would let me enter freeform info, like “Mushroom Lasagna on page x of The Whole Foods Market Cookbook”.

Enter Meals Matter. This is a great site that’s “developed and supported by the Dairy Council of California”. When I saw that, I thought it might be skewed somewhat, but I’ve been pleased to find that not only does it seem unbiased, it’s exactly the tool I’m looking for.

Well, okay, the first thing I did was email them a few suggestions, but that’s only because I think I’ll be sticking with them for the long haul and want it to be fabulous. Right now, it allows both freeform planning and also adding recipes from their recipe database. It also offers a reasonably robust shopping list generator. I have a few issues with it (I like my list grouped by store aisle, etc.) but it’s as good as any free tool I’ve seen yet.

The upshot is that this free, handy site might be just what you need, too. It is a good tool right now; it looks to be well-funded; the response to my suggestions was positive and implied to me that development is active; and (need I mention it again? I think so!) it’s free. Viva free! If you need a basic meal planning tool, give it a shot.

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I’ve been somewhat conflicted lately. I actually didn’t realize I was conflicted until this weekend. For the last couple of months, I have been pursuing money (making and saving) like there’s no tomorrow. My notebooks are filled with attempts to compare one money making scheme with another, in order to make the most money in the most efficient way. I’ve been systematically increasing my reading speed in order to be able to plow through more business books. I bought an ebook solely about saving money while grocery shopping, and have contemplated buying several more on similar subjects. In short, I’ve been obsessed with money.

None of the above activities, I should point out, are really bad things. Most of them are very good and useful things, and part of thinking about the future and planning for it. But any time or passion devoted to one thing necessarily takes time and passion away from something else. That’s where the conflict comes in. My time and passion were being sapped from my work, to some extent from my home life, and most distressingly, from my relationship with God. I lost interest in activities that used to be meaningful to me (this sounds like a commercial for depression; but I haven’t been depressed, I’ve been misfocused).

This point was driven home to me this weekend at a really deep series of spiritual meetings. We were encouraged in a lot of soul searching and specifically pinpointing those things that are distractions and barriers. Money came up front and center for me. The trouble was, I didn’t know what to do about it. I do want to earn money and be frugal; I think those are things that God not only wants of me but are even things He gives me tools and talents to do. I just didn’t know how to find balance.

Then yesterday, one of my friends (completely unaware of my internal struggle) proposed a simple, radical idea that blew me away. “Figure out how much money you need to live on,” he suggested. “Make it practical; put a specific number on it. Then commit to giving anything you receive above and beyond that number to God.” Whoa! Maybe that doesn’t seem revolutionary to you, but it sure does to me. There are lots of things about that idea that send my mind spinning, but the number one thing is that if I followed his advice, all of my money making ideas, far from being the separate pursuit that they are now, would actually be an act of worship. Not to mention that I would be able to achieve one of my other primary goals in life at the same time, which is to give to causes that need the money; causes like ADRA and Project Patch, as well as my own local church.

Simple as this idea is, it is transforming my thinking. The question is no longer “How I can best make money?”; it’s “How can I make money matter?”

If this is all too philosophical for you, and you wish I’d just get on with it and tell you how to make money, don’t worry, I will. By and large, this is going to be a nuts-and-bolts blog, with lots of specifics and practical advice and five-step plans. But the reason behind my decision to finally go forward with this long-planned blog matters a good deal to me, and that’s why I’ve shared it here. I suspect that money and its abundance or lack has more to do with attitude, motivation, and beliefs than we typically understand. But don’t worry, I’ll “get on with it” starting with the next post.

Oh, yes, and by the way, welcome. I hope that you’ll join in the conversation by posting comments and by all means, please feel free to contact me via email at bookchiq AT gmail DOT com.

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