August 28th, 2006 - Practicing what I read
This weekend, I picked up The Tightwad Gazette (TWG) again. This is at least the 5th time I’ve read it; I’d bet I read it at least once a year, although I do not recall reading it since Maggie was born. But I’m not sure. Anyway, as usual, I’m being inspired all over the place. Previously, Ive placed bunches of bookmarks throughout the book. But, in reality, I don’t tend to think, “Gee, why don’t I go do something I read in TWG?” and then choose one.
I had a brilliant idea: Write the ideas down in a small notebook and pledge to do something frugal/simple every week. I’ve had the second thought a number of times, but find it hard to think of what to do each week. The notebook solves both problems. My first thought was that I needed to go buy a memo book. Then I thought twice and figured I probably had something workable in my “office supplies” box…if I was lucky enough to be able to find it. Luckily, it was right where it’s supposed to be (we haven’t unpacked completely from the non-move). I found a couple possibilities, along with some notepaper which was just what we needed for shopping lists as our other pad had just run out. The thing I’m using is hard to describe but I’ll try. It’s a set of bright yellow note cards, about 1″x2″ with a ring holding them together. It’s openable, so I can rearrange the cards. The intention, I believe, is to use it for school-stuff like flash cards for language classes. It’s perfect for my idea list because I can write all the ideas down and it doesn’t matter what order they are in!
I’m writing one idea per card. Each week, I intend to choose one, put it on the top, write the date down, and then write smaller goals on the back. This week, my goal is to make one soup (with all the fresh veggies from the garden). My smaller goals are to remove 2 items/day from the dining table (a MAJOR hotspot that is becoming a hazard because Maggie can now remove things from it) and to make better-for-you-Rice-Krispie-Bars (a recipe from Good Eats for which I bought Kashi puffed cereal months ago!).
My only problem so far is that the veggie soups tend to take 2 hours to cook–or 5 hours in the crock pot. Neither of these timings work very well during a work day (I eat an hour after getting home and 5 hours earlier is the middle of the work day). So it might have to wait for the weekend. A late dinner doesn’t work well because I’d be starving as would Maggie (I intend for her to eat the veggies since she can’t do soup quite yet).
August 29th, 2006 at 8:09 am EDT
You should be able to cook a veggie soup in less than 1 hour. 45 minutes? That’s how long I cooked mine, anyway. Of course, that’s with beans soaked overnight and pre-cooked the night before, etc.
So…. depends.