THE $20 EXPERIMENT: DAY 6

Hello dear friends!  Another day, another dollar saved!  We're having beautiful Spring-like weather here today, hoping your weather is nice where you are at, too.  Well, I can see the light at the tunnel for this challenge, it's been fun.  Some part of me doesn't want to go back to my old habits; like having sweets in the house all the time.  I've also discovered that beans can be your best friend when you are a on a strict budget.  Many people grouse about them, but when prepared with the wonderful $1 bottle of barbecue sauce or maybe some salsa, they really are not as bland as people think.  They're probably the cheapest source of protein you'll ever find, that's for sure.  As an example, today we had a brunch of bean hash:

Which is just some parboiled potatoes and carrots fried with that fat  I skimmed off of the broth (which imparted a wonderful flavor), stirred in the beans (with the barbecue sauce) to heat them and topped with the cheese.  To be honest, it didn't taste much different than the corned beef hash I usually make. The portions were rather skimpy, as I'm holding back three of the largest potatoes for baked potatoes for tomorrow, so I was glad that we only had to split it two ways, as Ran hasn't returned home yet.  This actually would have been a very nice brunch with the addition of an egg and a piece of toast. We often get free eggs from my son, but for the sake of the challenge, we didn't have any.  One of my pet peeves about blogs is when people write about how inexpensively they do things and start out with "we were given" or "had this in my stash".  One lady wrote about how she feeds her family so cheaply and  started out by saying her neighbor had given her a roast!  Mighty nice neighbors!  I have wonderful neighbors, but none have them have ever given me a roast, but I can imagine that would be a real money-saver.  Only problem, how can we apply that to our situation unless we have the same generous neighbor?  What's the lesson to be learned from that? Another gal always writes about her inexpensive sewing projects and always says either she had the fabric in her stash or that her mother gave/bought the fabric.  Well yeah, I can see how that would make a project inexpensive if you are given the items to make it.  And somewhere along the line, you had to have spent the money for the things in your stash.  That's what I call fuzzy economics. 

Somebody I'd Like You To Meet

I think you'd enjoy this post about bartering by Sharon.  Sharon is one of those pull-yourself-up-by -your-own-bootstraps types.  Of all the types of people in the world, those are the kind I most admire.  With a bit of friendly bartering, she was able to fill her larder.  Bartering is a wonderful old-fashioned concept that has almost fallen by the wayside.  And I'd say a much more honorable  and dependable way to get what you want, then expecting things to be given to you.   Anyway, I thought you'd enjoy reading how she did it.  She's a wonderful writer too btw. Before our apples trees were mature, we always had a friendly barter between our neighbor Lori and us.  We gave her asparagus and produce from the garden and she let us pick her apples and pears.   As a matter of fact, we supply our entire neighborhood with asparagus and other vegetables that we have a glut of, and once in a while the return the favor with fresh-caught fish, plants, or free wood, not  that's the reason we do it, it's just part of being neighborly.  It's good to build up relationships.  Makes for a much more pleasant life.

What's For Dinner?

Tonight we'll have the remainder of the pot pie.  Ran will be home by then, and there's plenty to split three ways.  I'm discovering that I should be grateful for those little extras like a piece of biscuit to sop up the gravy, or an egg to top the hash, or brown sugar for the oatmeal.  It's the difference between getting by and getting pleasure.

This being Sunday, I'll sign off with my usually, so that's it for another week at the old Zempel boarding house.  I hope that you all have a pleasant evening and I hope to see you back here tomorrow with the final chapter of the $20 challenge!

Hugs
Jane