How timely. Last night I discovered a box of ribbons I had forgotten about. Maybe I should copy Junk Mail Gems and turn an old cookie tin into an organizer to hold them, like so:
Great idea. Apparently, the idea originally came from ReadyMade. Here’s their version:
I eat a lot of pizza. It’s probably my favorite everyday food. As such I have carefully analyzed the cheapest way I can purchase a good pizza. And by good, I mean a pizza with real cheese and a nice dough–not those paper-dough cheese-food pizzas you can get at fast food chains. Here’s my options for purchasing a large sausage pizza, from the cheapest option to the most expensive:
Homemade using my own dough: Dough: $.25, Cheese: $2, Sauce: $.10 (using tomatoes from the garden), Sausage: $.25, total: $2.65
The problem here is you have to think ahead and give the dough time to rise, so this option is not good on spontaneous “Let’s get pizza!” nights. However, I do make my own pizza from scratch quite often.
Homemade using the local pizzeria’s dough: Dough: $2, Cheese: $2, Sauce: $.10, Sausage: $.25, total: $4.35
When we are feeling lazy, we usually go for this option. We get a bag of the uncooked dough from a local pizza place and then use our own ingredients from there. (Trader Joes also sells uncooked dough for about $1.30 a bag. It’s not the greatest dough in the world, but it’s passable.)
Take N Bake from local grocery store, on sale: $6
I’m not a fan of grocery store pizza because they skimp on cheese. However, on sale this can be a reasonable way to get pizza.
Take N Bake from local pizza place, on sale: $6-$10
I used to use Papa Murphy’s when they first came out in the 1990s, but now their prices are so high, I don’t see the point of their pizza. If you have a coupon or get them on sale, they can be worth it but not on sale, they are around $12-$15. At that price, you might as well just get a cooked pizza. (Costco also has a Take N Bake pizza for around $10. It’s pretty good.)
A pizza from my favorite pizza place: $15
Bricks has great pizza and we go there a lot. I have no complaints about Bricks, frankly. I love that place.
A pizza from local delivery place, take out, with coupon: $18
The local pizza delivery places have good pizza. Sometimes I take advantage and order a pizza, using the coupons I get in the mail and picking the pizza up. Without the coupon, the pizza costs between $21-$22.
A pizza from local delivery place, delivered, no coupon: $25
This is a hell of a lot to spend on pizza.
(Two categories I left out are fast food pizza, as mentioned above, and frozen pizza. I have never had a frozen pizza that I thought was comparable to a homemade pizza. I just don’t like them, I guess.)
If you compare the most expensive way to get a pizza–delivered with no coupon–to the least expensive way–homemade with your own dough–you’re talking a savings of $22.35 a pizza. When you’re buying about four pizzas a month, like I do, that’s about $90 a month in savings. This is precisely why I almost always make my own pizzas. And if I do go pay for one, it’s usually to Bricks.
Here’s a recipe for making that sausage pizza at the top of the entry, courtesy of Eggs on Sunday.
A little under two months ago, I made a Use It Up Challenge for myself. I wrote a list of things I needed to use up in my pantry and then set about using them. Here’s an update:
Pantry:
Refrigerator:
Freezer:
Not too bad, really. I should make up some falafel and something with lemon curd and coconut. The salmon patties and plums are probably bad by now. Oh well, I tried.
I really have no idea what to do with that blackberry tea though….
Putting up this video full of famous people telling you to buy books makes me feel kind of dirty, but I do agree with it. Books are my favorite things to give and receive. It breaks my heart that somehow reading has become an extra in our culture, a hobby like knitting or golfing. Reading is essential to sharpening the mind and keeping it sharp. On top of that, books aren’t that expensive, especially if you buy them used. And they are something people can use again and again. So if you are a loss of what to give this holiday season, a book is the way to go.
First, pack up and address the package.
Second, weigh the package on a bathroom or kitchen scale.
Third, measure the packages length, width, and height, like so:
Fourth, compare rates on FedEx, the post office, and UPS.
The best thing about this method is you know for sure that you are getting the best rate you can. I had to mail three packages this year. FedEx was the cheapest, saving me $3 over the post office and $10 over UPS.
(This is a wrought iron balcony in New Orleans. It looks gray because the sun is hitting it–it is actually black in real life.)
Here’s an idea if you need a headboard for your bed: Use a balcony railing. Salvaged balcony railings, especially the wrought iron kind, can make a elegant headboard in a bedroom. I have seen some pretentious designers use these beautiful remnants of the past as headboards and have always liked the effect. But there’s no reason to pay those guys thousands when you can purchase the railing at salvage yards and make headboards on your own. After all, ideas are free!
pomegranate
c.1320, poumgarnet, from O.Fr. pome grenate, from M.L. pomum granatum, lit. “apple with many seeds,” from pome “apple, fruit” + grenate “having grains,” from L. granata, fem. of granatus, from granum “grain.” The L. was malum granatum “seeded apple.” It. form is granata, Sp. is granada.
Next year, I plan to plant a pomegranate bush. I have loved these fruits since I was a child. There is just something special about them. Maybe its their incredible color, or that you have to work a little to eat them, or the sweetness of the juice.
I’m find that the pomegranate juice you can buy in the store is kind of sour. I prefer to buy pomegranates when they are in season–like now–and use them fresh. The key to picking a good one is to look for a pomegranate that is plump and shiny. The skin should be a deep red without any bruises, cracks, or brown marks.
To eat, run a knife along the side to make a shallow cut and then slowly pry open. Pick the seeds out from the white pith. Be careful of the juice–it stains.
What to do with them? I just eat them, but there are other alternatives. You can use them:
In salads. Martha Stewart recommends a Persimmon and Pomegranate Salad with Arugula and Hazelnuts but they can just be sprinkled on top like you would any dried fruit. (Martha also has a good trick for how to juice a pomegranate in that recipe.)
In cocktails, like this Pomegranate Champagne Punch.
In homemade Jell-o. Alton Brown makes a pomegranate gelatin. It made me start experimenting with making my own gelatin (but that’s another post).
As a glaze for meat. For example, this Duck Breast With Pomegranate Glaze.
Other ideas?
For years, I have saved concert tickets, plane tickets, entrance tickets to museums. Someday I plan to do something with them in a crafty way, although I’m not sure what. BabylonStudios has an interesting idea with these concert ticket coasters for $30. (Via)
As I spent three hours wrapping Christmas presents the other night (?? how?), I started thinking about wrapping paper. It just seems like wrapping paper should be free to me, but it’s not. It can cost quite a lot, in fact. I’ve seen wrapping paper for as much as $12 a roll.
I usually buy wrapping paper once a year at an after-Christmas sale of some kind. Last year, I went to a sale at Target and bought six rolls of paper in a wrapping-paper carrier for $2.99. That’s less than $.50/roll, plus I now have a wrapping-paper carrier that I will use to store my paper from now on. Also, I picked paper that wasn’t too Christmas-y so it could be used at other occasions–green and red don’t just mean Christmas if they are stripes or dots.
Since I only went through two rolls of paper this year, I won’t need to buy any more for at least another year, which means I spent $1.50 a year on wrapping paper, maybe less if I stretch it to three years.
As for the bows, I just avoid throwing them out during the gift-giving frenzy. I collect them in a bag and stick them in the closet. Two years ago, I bought a full bag of bows at a thrift store for $.80 and I have yet to buy anymore. I wonder how long I can re-use the same bag of bows?
Anyway, the other night, I started thinking about all the cheap ways of getting wrapping paper. Here was my order from the cheapest to most expensive:
Free wrapping paper:
Re-used wrapping paper from last year. You are the type that when someone gives you a gift, you carefully fold the paper and save it for repeat uses. The problem with this is some of us (i.e. me) don’t have the patience to carefully remove paper when opening a gift.
Recycled wrapping paper. You use paper bags for wrapping paper and plastic bags for gift toppers and somehow still make the gift look elegant. I have personally used the Sunday comics from the newspaper, paper bags tied with twine, and colored tissue paper. The problem is, this can look tacky if you’re not careful.
Free Gift Wrapping. Some stores like Borders Bookstore still do free gift wrapping, which I always take advantage of when I can.
Free Paper. Yesterday I got a free roll of wrapping paper from Maker’s Mark Bourbon. I plan to use it up, even though it has tiny bottles of bourbon on it and therefore not appropriate on gifts for certain teetotaling relatives.
Cheap Wrapping Paper:
After-Christmas Sales. As I mentioned above, this is where I get my wrapping paper. I regularly buy wrapping paper for under $1 a roll at after-Christmas sales.
Thrift stores. You’d be amazed how often people donate perfectly good rolls of wrapping paper. In addition to my after-Christmas score, I bought a roll of retro-looking Christmas paper for $.75 this year.
Dollar stores. By the frugal standard we’re talking about, $1 a roll is getting a little pricey, plus the paper is cheaper and not as attractive. However, it’s a perfectly acceptable method to get wrapping paper in my book.
What’s your way of getting free/cheap wrapping paper?
Design Sponge has a cool little project on making your own illuminated canvas light. Kate painted the canvas and then wired a light to the back like so:
The one concern I have, though, is that the light bulb is too close to the canvas. It seems like it could catch on fire to me unless you were careful to get a fire-safe bulb. Aside from that, I think this would make an amazing kid’s nightlight.
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