I read food labels, but try to avoid foods which have labels. I’m struck by how the same ingredients show up over and over again in different products. I looked up five McCormick spice mixes online for comparison: The mixes contain ingredients we already have in the kitchen, apart from outliers like Yellow #5 and… Continue reading Minimizing Duplicate Pantry Ingredients
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Freakin’ Cheap: How to Fly with a Pet Without Paying Fees
December 26, 2017, United Airlines 5637, MSP–SAN. The two women in the AB seats in our row had two dogs on their laps for the entire flight. They stowed two collapsible kennels in an overhead bin. United Airlines charges $125 per pet brought on board, and it has to be stowed under a seat in… Continue reading Freakin’ Cheap: How to Fly with a Pet Without Paying Fees
70 Hours on Airline Seats
A thirty-something neighbor once announced he would love to visit Europe, but he would have to wait until he could afford to travel that distance in Business. He appeared to be in good health, so I can only assume he wasn’t particularly interested in the wider world.
I would willingly travel that distance holding on to a subway-style strap if that was the only option.
Freakin’ Cheap: Almost-Free Flights
How about an almost-free flight to Tokyo? How about applying for a credit card with a 70,000 airline frequent flyer (FF) mile signup bonus, using the card for three months, then cutting up the card? 70,000 miles can buy a round-trip ticket from Minneapolis to Tokyo. Flying is not always the best way to accumulate… Continue reading Freakin’ Cheap: Almost-Free Flights
Immersion Blender
We have a simple rule in our kitchen: if we buy a new piece of equipment, something has to go. We go a long way with good knives and a couple decent pots, and we don’t use many gadgets. But I do like my immersion blender, and have been using it for over ten years.… Continue reading Immersion Blender
Mirepoix
I like to cook from scratch, but some days I simply want to assemble previously cooked ingredients. The solution is to have a selection of “subassembly” ingredients in the freezer. I’ve written about one of these ingredients: stock. Another is mirepoix. Mirepoix is the “holy trinity” of two parts onion and one part each of… Continue reading Mirepoix
Freakin’ Cheap: Almost-Free Homemade Stock
Risottos, soups, and gravies taste best when they’re made with homemade stock. I want to make these dishes quickly, but stock takes a long time to prepare. My solution is to make stock in bulk and freeze it. My stock is basic, and varies from batch to batch depending on ingredients on hand. It provides… Continue reading Freakin’ Cheap: Almost-Free Homemade Stock
Freakin’ Cheap: Eliminating Unwanted Phone Calls
A few years ago we reached a tipping point with unwanted phone calls. When the phone rang, it was usually a call we did not want to take: fundraisers punishing us for our previous gifts, pollsters, sales people, scammers. Then I came up with a solution that for a one-time cost of less than $25… Continue reading Freakin’ Cheap: Eliminating Unwanted Phone Calls
Freakin’ Cheap: Free Landline Phone Service
Google Voice and a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) adapter give us free dial tone on all our landline phones. Almost all calls within the US and Canada are free. International calls are near enough free. We use our home landline phones the same way we have always used them. People continue to call our… Continue reading Freakin’ Cheap: Free Landline Phone Service
Freakin’ Cheap: Free Telecom
The typical household pays north of $20,000 over ten years in landline, long distance, and mobile phone fees. In our household, we pay almost nothing for these services. There is a long history behind free telephone service. In the 1960’s and 70’s, phreaking was the art of hacking the public phone system using tone generators called blue… Continue reading Freakin’ Cheap: Free Telecom