Summertime...

and the living is busy!  Even though the calendar says it's not yet summer, the thermometer begs to differ.  Especially last week, when we all sweated through some frighteningly hot & humid days.  Being on the fourth (and top) floor, we tend to get pretty toasty up here, and there are times when I definitely regret our green resolve in giving away our air conditioners.  However, the really awful days are very few, and we know if we kept the air conditioners, we would definitely be tempted to use them on a more regular basis.  Not good for the environment, and not good for our electric bill! 

We also decided to try to make some more inroads in both these areas by investing in a new refrigerator.  We had planned to do this a while back, but like many projects we start here at Chez Necessity, we lost some of our mojo partway through the researching process, and it languished.   However, our old fridge is now rusting and dripping, so we decided to get moving.

Unfortunately, like many things, this was easier said than done. NY State is offering a rebate program if you replace an existing appliance with an Energy Star product.  This rebate goes up if you can prove that it was recycled.  The recycling bit was the difficult part, because Home Depot told us that they simply crush the appliance they remove rather than recycling it.  So, we dug a little deeper, tracked down some local appliance stores, and for just a little more money were able to get the refrigerator we wanted and have our old one recycled, allowing us to get the full rebate.  When The Professor dug up the serial number on the old fridge for the application, we discovered that it was from 1987 - a good run, I think, but as it seems to run all the time and the top gets really hot, we should hopefully be seeing a lower electric bill in a month or two.  Now we have a couple of days to dig out all the collected nonsense that has managed to find a home in my fridge and freezer (I'm always amazed what I find when I start digging). 

Miss Serious is having her class picnic today (and sadly it's a bit gloomy outside, but third graders don't seem to care), and I've been assigned potato salad.  I never liked potato salad until I found this recipe (I think it's from my mother's neighbor), and even The Professor (who firmly dislikes potato salad) will eat it.  And, it's easy.  The recipe is:

Red Potatoes
Red Onion (about 1/4 - 1/2, finely chopped)
Chopped Parsley
Mayonnaise
Salt and Pepper

Cook the red potatoes until tender (not too soft, or you get mashed potatoes - ask me how I know!), and cool.  Cut them up, leaving on the skins.  Add the rest of the ingredients, and mix.  I find it's even better the second day, but it's pretty tasty right away, too!  Now it's off to the third grade picnic - including sprinklers, t-shirt decorating, and a large group of loud, excited 9 year olds.  Do you think there's any possibility of wine being served.........?

I Am Weary, Let Me Rest

Yesterday, in a fit of hoarders induced de-cluttering (seriously, if you haven't checked out this show, it's worth a peek, if only to inspire you to clean out that closet that keeps getting more and more stuffed) I dug through the various hidey-holes in our little apartment (you wouldn't think there would be that many opportunities to amass stuff in this little space, but that's where you would be sorely mistaken....) and cleaned out a lot of the junk that I keep thinking I'll need someday, but never, in like 5 years, have I needed any of it. 

So, yesterday was a good day.  Today is looking less good, and here's why.  The Professor and I just returned from a consultation with an orthodontist for Miss Serious' apparently giant teeth.  Said giant teeth do not have room to fit in her tiny, almost 9-year old mouth, so she will soon be the proud owner of braces.  And we will soon be the proud owners of a monthly fee deducted from our credit card to pay for said braces (not to mention the 1/3 down-payment).  This isn't a crisis, it's why we save our pennies, and Miss Serious really needs to have the work done.

To add to the financial fun, I began the exciting process of refinancing our mortgage this week.  We had gotten a 7 year adjustable mortgage under the (apparently incredibly misguided) notion that we of course wouldn't still be living in this little apartment in 7 years.  Lo and behold, 7 years have come and almost gone (as of March), and as I'm not too excited about what the whole adjusting mortgage payments will do to my bottom line, we are refinancing.  Refinancing is expensive - like braces expensive.  However, we got a good rate, it's a fixed-rate 20 year mortgage, so it even shaved some time off the total loan, and now we don't have to deal with any adjusting.

And, after 20 years, if we're still here (and as the magic 8-ball would say, "All signs point to yes") we'll be paid in full.   Now let's hope the dog won't need braces.....

Oh, And I Have a Coupon...

I love a bargain. I try to be careful with what I buy for many reasons - one of them is that we live in a 2 bedroom apartment with 2 kids, and anything that is purchased has to have somewhere to go. (The aftermath of Christmas, after the kids' presents get hauled up our 4 flights of stairs can be excruciating...) Another is that we are trying to be more aware of what and why we buy, and be less materialistic (it's going slowly...). The final reason is that we don't have lots of extra cash hanging about, so if we want to eat and pay the mortgage and all that other wild and crazy stuff, we have to watch our pennies a bit.

This brings me to my trip to Michaels last week. Miss Serious had a gift card, so we stopped by and browsed a bit. They're revamping some of their sections, and had big piles of clearance things, and as I do so love a clearance we dug through and I found a couple of stamp sets. They were a good price, and I thought I would get use out of them, but being me I hehmed and hahwed a bit before I decided to finally get them both. I also picked up a little tree stamp from the $1.49 section.

We toddled up to the cashier, and she started ringing up my purchases. This was the ensuing receipt:
Even though it's gloriously blurry (I have yet to figure out how to take a decent close-up with this camera), hopefully it can be seen that my final cost for these items (with tax, mind you) was 98 cents. That's right - each of the stamp sets rang up at a penny a piece. Now, as I am a person who is quick to make sure I mention it when I am overcharged, I also try to do the same when I'm undercharged. I figure fair's fair, after all. The cashier said that some of the clearance items are out of the system, so they just ring up this way and they've been told to leave it. And then, of course, I presented my 40% off coupon for the remaining $1.49 stamp.

For some reason, everything is more fun to use when it only costs a penny!

The More Things Change...

I am a thrifty gal. Part of this urge comes from the fact that we don't have lots of money, and we live in a really expensive area. (The other part is genetics - my family has been known to squeeze a penny or two in their time.) Now, I like living here, so I'm willing to spend a little time on our finances to allow us to benefit from the great schools, beautiful public spaces, and all the other amenities that go along with breathtakingly high property taxes.

This week has been designated National Thrift Week. It was started in 1916, and occurs right around the time of Benjamin Franklin's birthday. Thrift was something he was well known for (as well as awesome inventions, somewhat annoying phrases, and a proclivity for the ladies), and even though I often think of spending problems as something more recent, they obviously have existed forever.

In a New York Times Article from 1/15/22 (yes, that's 1922), ten ideas were outlined to try to get Americans on board with the ideas of thriftiness. Now, one would think that they would be different from what people are advised to do with their finances today, judging from the incredible proliferation of financial writers out there. You can't turn on the television these days without seeing a segment (or 2, or 3, or 11) about how to have healthy finances. The 1922 article gives us these 10 suggestions:

1. Work and earn
2. Make a budget
3. Record expenditures
4. Have a bank account
5. Carry life insurance
6. Own your own home
7. Make a will
8. Pay your bills promptly
9. Invest in reliable securities
10. Share with others

Hmmmm......almost verbatim what the financial folks are trying to sell us in their books today. Which means that maybe everyone already knows all the steps, but they're hard. And they're a pain. And they're generally not fun at all. It's a lot like losing weight - I remember a segment from a tv show where a character is lamenting about losing weight, and she's told that she just needs to eat less and exercise more. She answers that if it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. (And yes, I still do have those 4 Christmas pounds hovering around my own mid-section...don't judge me.)

Happy National Thrift Week, but it would probably be best not to buy something to celebrate.

The Grass Does Look a Bit Greener

Envy is a funny thing. Well, not funny ha-ha, but you know what I mean. We used to live upstate, in a rather depressed area. I was working as an elementary school teacher, and in that area, it was very common for people to either not work at all, or work at sporadic, low-paying jobs. The major industry in the area had left quite a few years ago, and people either left to find other work, or stayed and tried to make the best of things. Therefore, as a teacher, I had one of the higher-paying careers in the area (thus making all of us teachers beloved by the community, obviously...).

Fast forward a few years, and we moved down to Westchester. The Professor began teaching college, and I stayed home with the kids. It's a really good life. My kids are wonderful, I have a great husband, we live in a lovely area by the water, the schools can't be beat, we have enough to eat, we own an apartment that we like, we're able to save for retirement and the kids' college, etc. If I could stay in my own house with my own family, things would be fine. Because going outside around here invariably causes problems.

Just after we moved here, I was driving to the store, and got a bit lost (a very common occurrence for me, I'm afraid). I ended up on some back streets and was stunned at the size and grandeur of the homes. We're not talking just nice houses here. These are absolutely beautiful places to live (admittedly they're on postage stamp-sized pieces of land, as land is at a premium here). When I finally found my way home, my first question to The Professor was, "So when did we become the bottom-feeders?" We live very close to New York City, so the vast majority of people in this area are either lawyers (you can't throw a stick around here without hitting at least one lawyer, which is certainly never suggested, for fear of lawsuits) or in the financial industry. The amount of wealth floating around is staggering. My children have playdates in some of these homes, and I admit to being somewhat embarrassed to have their children over to my 4-story walk-up apartment (although the kids are always fascinated to visit an apartment house and climb the stairs - always fun to see how the other half lives, I guess.)

These feelings are my problem, not anyone else's. I think it's wonderful that people are able to have these things, most of which I'm not even interested in having. I am not one who spends her life trying to keep up with The Joneses. However, it's hard to keep plugging along trying to save money on tuna fish in a place where wealth and conspicuous consumption are so very conspicuous.

Dinner and a Show

We went to Costco this weekend. For most people, this probably just involves picking up some (enormous) groceries and going about your business. Not so at Chez Necessity. As I've mentioned, my children think Costco is an absolute wonderland. (I've decided that if one sets the excitement bar very low, it's easy to impress one's children...)

A trip to Costco is a carefully orchestrated affair, and when said trip is announced, there is very often cheering (again, that low bar really comes in handy). We begin with lunch. Costco sells the world's biggest hot dogs (I know, not healthy, but we don't eat meat at home, so it's an occasional aberration) plus a drink (with refill) for $1.50. Quite the excellent deal. I used to be able to make it even better by talking the kids into splitting a hot dog, but they're getting bigger and more opinionated these days, so I've thrown caution to the wind and gone for the whole $3.00. The Professor and I make do with pizza.

During lunch, I amuse myself by people watching. I am endlessly fascinated by what people put in their carts, and what these items might say about their lives. Like the guy that had 48 rolls of paper towels (almost every single cart had a giant package of paper towels). Who's making that big mess? Or the person with 6 steaks and a giant bag of potato chips. Party? Just a standard Saturday at home? I also invariably see at least 3 people buying the world's largest television sets. Not only does this make me wonder how big these people really need their tv characters to be, but also how big must their car be to haul that monster home?

Lunch is followed by a trip to the samples counters. This is the other real draw for my kids. They love being able to get little cups of food on toothpicks, and usually there are several things that they enjoy (we went one day at dinner time, and there were NO SAMPLES. You cannot imagine the horror; obviously, this error has not been repeated).

Then, finally, as an afterthought, the groceries are purchased. Costco is one of those places that has really good deals on certain things, and bad deals on others. If you know your prices and can avoid temptation ("Wow, I really do need 4 pounds of pita chips...") you can do well there. And where else can all of this fun be had in one place for such a reasonable outlay of cash?

Knowledge Can Be Expensive

I've been watching the grocery budget here at Chez Necessity continue to climb. We are a family of four, and we don't eat meat (but do eat fish). I used to be able to feed everyone for about $240 a month. Lately, my head hurts when I go onto my Quicken file, because our monthly bill has climbed to about $340 a month. Some of this can be blamed on the rising cost of food. I especially enjoy the price increases that the food companies think are hidden, such as the shrinking package size. Just irritating (but then, I am easily irritated).

The other reason for the vast increase in our grocery bill is reading. Yes, reading. If I (and The Professor) would stop reading I think we would be rich as kings. I used to be very leery of the organic food movement (I used to live up by Woodstock, and the people on this bandwagon were a bit too crunchy granola for me), but after reading again and again what the use of pesticides, antibiotics and the like is doing to our food, ourselves, and our environment, we have begun switching to more and more organic products. Milk was my final holdout, because it's so pricey, but I finally gave in this summer.

The other issue is one of fair trade practices. I am not one who spends huge amounts of time scrutinizing the labor practices around the world, so it's always a shock to me when I learn about what goes on. We started buying Fair Trade coffee last year, after The Professor showed me some information about the treatment of the farmers and workers who harvest coffee. This effectively doubled the price we pay for coffee. It's also not so easy to find, but lo and behold, when I was in Costco this week, I picked up this:


The thing to look for (which I never would have notice before) is the little Fair Trade symbol:


Luckily for those of us who are unable to remember things from one minute to the next, this symbol is used for all products that have been certified Fair Trade. This certification basically means that the company adheres to the standards set up by the organization (fair prices for workers, sustainability, no slave labor practices, etc.). For more specifics, Wikipedia has a comprehensive article here.

Now I see that my bills will be going up again, because I've been reading this:


It's an interesting (but painful) read which chronicles the history of chocolate and chocolate production. I am now in the section on the labor practices, and they are horrific. Who knew that such a tasty luxury item in this country is made with a raw product produced in part by slave labor, including children. Unfortunately, it's much easier to find fair trade coffee than fair trade chocolate, as I've discovered from hunting online for the last hour, but I'll keep at it.

They say ignorance is bliss, but unfortunately the bliss only applies to those who are ignorant, not to those on the other side of the coin.

Eating Humble Pie

Here at Chez Necessity, I keep track of all the money we spend. I use Quicken, and it arranges all the entries into different categories, such as gas, groceries, clothes, etc. I started keeping track of expenses (all of them - if I put a quarter in the meter, I need to enter it) about 10 years ago, and it is certainly an eye opener. I began writing down everything I spent in a little notebook (this was a real pain, and Quicken is SO much nicer) because I kept looking at all these ATM withdrawal slips and had absolutely no idea what we had spent the cash on. I would recommend that everybody try it for a couple of months, if only to see where all the money goes.

Another good thing about Quicken is that it lets you compare this month's spending with the prior month, or the same month last year, or pretty much in any combination you want. This helps keep us in line, and allows me to analyze where I might be able to cut back a bit. As everyone's pocketbook knows, I am definitely seeing large increases in both gas and food. Food is partly our doing, as I've switched to more and more organic products (including milk, which almost physically pains me every time I pour out a glass) and our farm share started in June. I was fretting over the grocery bill (we're up to about $85 a week for our family of four) and I came across this link about what the rest of the world eats. A little perspective is always a useful thing.

Who Knew?

I really like books about saving money, but as I also like actually saving money, I check them out of the library and rarely purchase them. The one exception to this is The Tightwad Gazette series by Amy Dacyczyn. These books are a compilation of a newsletter that she wrote out of her home as well as letters from readers. Most of the articles and letters are interesting and useful, and some are downright off the wall, like making children's toys out of bread tabs and melting the tiny bit of deodorant left in the dispenser in the microwave so that it can be melded with other remnants to make a new deodorant.

Years ago I read about how she replaces an egg in baking with a heaping tablespoon of soy flour and a tablespoon of water. I wasn't terribly interested in this fact, as eggs were dirt cheap at the time, and I didn't have children eating at a rather astonishing rate. I've been reading more and more (I think I really need to just stop reading!) about the treatment of chickens on egg farms, so I've been trying to buy organic and cage-free eggs. This is excruciatingly painful for me, as it makes my eggs now cost about 33 cents apiece.

So, in the spirit of experimentation I toddled on over to my local health food store and purchased some organic soy flour. I used it in place of the egg in the muffins I made this morning, and lo and behold it worked beautifully! Everyone scarfed them down, and as the soy flour only cost 3 cents, I think it was a success. Now I have to figure out how to invest that 30 cents.....

Politically Incorrect

When The Professor and I were first married, we knew that we would never be millionaires; we were both training to be teachers (he on the college level and me on the elementary level) and had to watch our pennies. Here we are almost 13 years later, and still pinching away. I've been musing on the fact that being frugal and trying to save money is seen as such a negative in this country (maybe it's just the areas of it I've lived in, but that has been my experience). I spent a lot of years trying to get those around me to see the benefits of frugality, sometimes with success and sometimes not.

I've discovered a fascinating fact, however. Even though frugality seems to be politically incorrect, being green is seen as EXTREMELY politically correct. Therefore, even though I tried unsuccessfully for years to get The Professor to wash and reuse Ziploc bags, it was only when it became an issue of being green that it was ok. (FYI, if you ever mention to a group of people that you have washed and reused a ziploc bag, do not admit it's because they cost 11 cents apiece - it is because you are being green; you will see those looks of disdain change to appreciation faster than you can say global warming).

The nice thing is that the majority of the things that we try to do to save money also happen to save energy, materials, etc.; things like having no AC, or walking more and driving less. There are certain things that are definitely MORE expensive, like buying local and organic foods, but I'm pretty sure that in the long run, our health will benefit, which will end up being the more frugal choice.

I like to think of it all as killing two birds with one stone, but of course I will only be mentioning one of the birds out loud - the green one.

Tiny Shiny, Big Difference

Hello all... The Professor here, chiming in as "guest blogger" today. Mother Necessity has informed me that she has right of refusal on any and all posts I write, no rights reserved, the comments presented here are the sole opinion of the author and do not indicate the opinion or endorsement of the management, objects in mirror may be larger than they appear, and any other warnings and disclaimers that spring to mind.

Earlier this afternoon, we were running the numbers on Quicken to see how having a new car has impacted our fuel bills. Our little 2007 Hyundai Elantra, "Tiny Shiny" (everyone gets a pseudonym in this blog), is turning 1 at the end of July. Sigh, they grow so quickly these days, don't they? Seems like just yesterday we were... But I digress. We purchased the new car last year before our annual summer car trip to Cape Cod. The minivan we owned was costing us a lot of money in maintenance and gas. So it was farewell to "Big Red" and hello Tiny Shiny. Bonus green fact about Tiny Shiny: It's a Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle (SULEV) and the greenest car we could afford.

Here's the lowdown on how Tiny Shiny has helped us go green and save a little money:

1) This year, we filled up at a gas station 43 times. The year before, we filled up 40 times. Now, before you get on our case about wasting precious natural resources, Big Red had a 20 gallon tank and Tiny Shiny has a 14 gallon one. While we don't know exactly how many gallons of gas we bought the past 12 months, I'm sure that it's a reduction over the previous year.

2) Despite the insane increases in gas prices (we're paying around $4.40 per gallon these days), we've actually spent $243.56 less fueling the car this year. Some of it is driving less (about 1000 miles less this year) and some of it is driving differently (see Mother Necessity's post on hypermiling). But a lot of it is the improved mpg.

Mother Necessity still has "Prius Envy," but the Elantra is doing well by us.

I Love Free!

I am the one who is home, so I do the majority of the shopping for the house. As we needed some things for the Flag Day cupcakes, I recently stopped off at my local supermarket. I needed cupcake liners and Crisco. I know, Crisco is not good for you, but it makes very nice frosting. I even sucked it up and paid the extra $2.00 for the name brand (GASP!) because they've dropped their trans-fats. This was not easy for me, as the concept of willingly paying more for something goes completely against my cheap nature, but it went in my cart anyway.

We (Big Trouble and myself) brought our purchases to the cashier, paid, and then, as is my normal procedure, I scanned the receipt. And, as is also generally normal procedure, we headed to customer service because they overcharged me for the Crisco. I think my children think that when you go shopping, there are always two stops - cashier and then customer service; they consider this a typical shopping trip with mom, just like they're never surprised when we're driving somewhere and have to turn around because we're lost.

I love the store policy that if the items scans incorrectly, you get it for free, and this particular store had this policy. So, I walked out with a big tub of free Crisco and a smile on face.

Theory of Relativity

I live in a strange place, moneywise. The area where I live is absolutely beautiful - near the city, near the water, and has lots of wonderful amenities. These amenities are paid for out of the buckets of property taxes that people pay here. Unlike us, who own a 2-bedroom apartment, most people here pay enormous sums of money (the cheapest house around here starts at above half a million, and comes with 2 bedrooms and $12,000 a year in property taxes) to enjoy everything this area has to offer.

It's also an interesting place to live when you don't have an income which rivals the GNP of many developing nations around the world, and leads to a lot of comparisons with the Joneses that we have no business making. We're teachers; we chose our professions because we love them, and knew that they would never make us rich. We have a wonderful quality of life, but it's easy to forget that and wallow in self-pity when you are surrounded by people flying off for spiffy vacations, owning gorgeous homes, and being able to supply their children with pretty much anything they would like. At such times, it's important to remember that wealth is relative, and that we are incredibly lucky to have what we do.

I found this link for the Global Rich List the other day, and it made me more grateful than I have been in a long time. Give it a try, and I'll bet you agree.

Is My Head Dented From Beating It Against This Wall?

We got our tax rebate last week. Although I am not in favor of the bizarre policy of our government to try to fix a sagging economy by sending everyone money they don't have, I'm unfortunately not principled enough that I would refuse said money. And, although the powers that be are trying to talk people into spending this money as soon as humanly possible, The Professor and I had just been discussing some options we would have for a good savings vehicle for some savings we had accumulated, our tax rebate, and tax refund. We try to live pretty cheap here at Chez Necessity, and by pinching pennies as tightly as possible, we were pleased to be able to even have such a discussion.

Thus, we come to today. I went to Trader Joe's, which is actually one of the more pleasant activities of my week. I love Trader Joe's. When I first moved here, I must admit I didn't get the whole Trader Joe's thing. I had heard good things about it, and went in thinking it would be a large specialty market like The Fairway in Manhattan. It's not. It's tiny. But the longer I've lived here, the more attached to it I've become. So much so that I think I would consider the proximity to a Trader Joe's before I would move (if that ever happens, which I'm starting to seriously doubt, but I digress). I purchased our groceries, filled my cloth bags, and left, still feeling the Trader Joe's love. All that quickly subsided when I got out to the parking lot and was met with this:


This is our poor car - not even a year old. We traded in our gas-guzzling mini-van last year for it, choosing it specifically because it gets great mileage and is listed as a SULEV (Super Low Emissions Vehicle). It is now a Super Scraped Up Vehicle, and of course there was no car in sight who had done the damage, no note, and not a single person in the parking lot who had seen the deed.

I guess I will be supporting the economy with my tax rebate check after all - I'm trying not to think about government conspiracy theories, but can you blame me?

The Eagle Has Landed!

Hello, all. The Professor, here. I'm guest blogging today.

We have made another little commitment to traveling with a lighter footprint ‘round these parts. It’s an investment in using less energy about the house and it will save us a bit of money each laundry day. We purchased an Eagle Clothes Drying Rack for air drying our clothes in the apartment.

Industrial size and strength. Hard metal frame with coated line adding up to 65 feet of drying space. Folds up nicely for storage, but opens into the general shape of a medium-sized flying wing aircraft you might see flying sorties over no man’s land. However, no stealth bomber, this… Once its wings are unfurled and it’s loaded with 30-40 pounds of the recently sopping, you can’t miss the darn thing!

It cost $52.90 including the delivery of the massive thing. That’s a pretty fair bargain given its MSRP of 59.95 without any shipping. (We declined the under carriage rust-coating package and the 10 year drivetrain warrantee.)

Our building has a laundry room in the basement. (Mother Necessity has her own homemade laundry detergent recipe that she’s told you all about in a previous post.) The prices for washing and drying the clothes went up a bit recently, including a bump in the price of the ultra mega-mega dryers to $1.75 per load. (Note my liberal use of parentheses, Mother Necessity?)

Yes, we partially did it to be cheap. Mother Necessity prefers the term frugal, with its connotations of personal virtue, simplicity of living, and noble intentions totally absent of meanness. But let’s call it as it is: we’re trying to squeeze the old nickel until it screams “uncle.” Mother Necessity is the mistress of the household books. We’ve worked hard to budget our money to go as far as it can. OK, she’s worked hard and I’ve quietly supported her from a respectful distance. But ultimately we’ve tried to answer the question of how to make ends meet in a rather unique way in this affluent enclave. Instead of driving hard to make more, we’ve tried to use less.

The Eagle has flown twice since it arrived, letting us skip the equivalent of three of those coal-fired, wallet-sapping, $1.75 each dryer loads. That’s $5.25 saved so far and the Eagle is already about 10% paid off. We’re not just saving a few dollars and cents; we’re avoiding regularly running a heavy machine that gobbles electricity to make heavy wet clothes spin for 30 minutes in excessive heat. Here in Chez Necessity, green living = black ink.

Crunchy Granola

I don't like to spend money. This is partly a result of my upbringing, but mostly because of the fact that I don't have any money. Living where we do, housing is really pricey, and as I don't want to live in a box somewhere under a bridge, I need to save money so that I can pay the mortgage. The food budget is one of the most obvious targets, and I try to make as much as I can from scratch. Thus, today I made a batch of granola. I try not to mention that I make things like this. When socializing around here (I'm telling you, people here are not just ordinary wealthy. They are SCARY wealthy) I tend to keep the chit-chat light and on neutral topics. Once in a while I've slipped and mentioned making things like bread or granola from scratch, and the person I'm speaking with generally eyes me warily and takes a step backward as if I've just announced I beat my children with sticks or perform pagan rituals around the trees out front. I then realize I've said too much, and steer the conversation back to pediatricians, school systems, and taxes.

Here's the granola recipe:

6 cups dry oatmeal
1 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup dry milk
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup ground flax seed (optional)
1-2 cups chopped nuts (optional)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1-2 cups raisins or craisins

Mix the oatmeal, wheat germ, dry milk, cinnamon, and nuts together. Heat the oil and honey on a stove just until boiling and add the vanilla. Mix into the dry ingredients and pour the whole thing onto a pan sprayed with PAM. Cook in a single layer in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes; stir and cook another 10 minutes. If you like it really crispy, you can put it in for a little longer. Take out of the oven and mix in the dried fruit.

This makes a yummy breakfast or snack, and can be made into granola bars (I'll post the recipe another day). I buy most of the ingredients in bulk, which cuts down on cost and packaging. It's easy to make, and much cheaper and healthier than what comes in pricey little boxes in the grocery store. Just don't mention it at your next cocktail party.

It's Not Easy Being Green

Here at Chez Necessity we (okay, mostly I) don't like spending money. I like to reuse things until they literally fall apart, and even then, I try to nurse them along for as long as I can. Case in point is my clothes drying rack; a piece has broken off, and to keep it from falling over when more than 1 sock is placed on it, it is now being held together by an assortment of twist ties and rubber bands, with greater or lesser success, depending on the day. The Professor does most of the laundry round these parts, and is barely tolerating this foolhardy attempt to avoid buying a new rack.

However, we are are trying to be more environmentally friendly; thus, I have been valiantly washing and reusing our plastic water bottles. This was very successful, until we started hearing about all the pesky possibilities of plastic molecules leaching into the water; I avoided thinking about this for a long time, but finally it was time to take steps.

Meet the newest members of our family:


These are SIGG water bottles, and are apparently on the cutting edge of water drinking technology. We got good recommendations on them, and ordered them from reusablebags.com. So, many dollars later (The Professor had to order them, as it was too painful for me) we have recycled our old plastic water bottles. The ones The Professor and I got for ourselves are flask shaped - I thought they would fit better in a bag when going to work; there is a side benefit of people thinking you're hitting the bottle during a particularly long, drawn out meeting.