Betty Bunny, Master of the Skies

Betty Bunny has struck gold again with her latest juvenile mystery novel, Burrowed Trouble. She has been invited to teach some promising young writer rabbits at a three-day conference, an idea which doesn't thrill her especially at first. The conference is being held a full day's journey away, and she will have to travel first by bus and then on Bunny Airways. Maybe she should just say no and stay home to work on ideas for her own next book. However, her ears perk up when she hears that one of her writer heroes, Nigella Quottontail, will be the keynote speaker. She could also fit in a visit to the famous Bunnyheim Gallery, something she has always wanted to see. So she says yes.

The conference has paid for her travel, but when she checks over the details, she realizes that those budget-minded organizing bunnies sprang for only a Super-Super-Cheapo ticket, which means she can take only one bag that fits under the tail of the rabbit in front of her. And that's not a very big space. Can Betty do it? Stay tuned.

"Start With A...Coat?"

Betty thinks through several possible iterations of her cold-weather, tiny-bag travel wardrobe, and makes a couple of hard decisions. First, she is going to go trousers-only on this trip, because skirts and dresses require extra bunny underpinnings, not to mention shoes. Second, she's going to go with almost everything in navy blue, for reasons of simplicity. Third, she decides to wear her nicest green coat. The conference is supposed to be indoors; however, the attendees will likely take some time to hop around town.

And that last decision helps her figure out what to do next. She matches the coat with a multi-coloured scarf, which would also look good with her lavender turtleneck top. She adds in a navy blazer (it's stretchy like a cardigan), and a pair of pants that are sort-of-jeans-but-nicer. She thinks about wearing her navy loafers, because they're easy to take off for airport security; but when she checks the weather, it sounds like her waterproof ankle boots would be a better choice. She'll just have to make do with one other pair of shoes.

Betty realizes that, rather than planning her other outfits by possible activity, it might make sense to organize layers of clothes in sequence, so as not to have to do any laundry (outside of emergencies). This is what she comes up with:

First conference day: Pink tank top worn under a navy silk shirt, with navy knit pants, and probably the same scarf, plus navy sneakers.

Second conference day (and the art gallery): The navy shirt worn under a navy and white striped sweater, with one of the pairs of pants and her shoes. 

Third conference day, when she is scheduled to give a talk: A t-shirt (doesn't matter much what colour, but she picks teal) worn under the buttoned-up jacket, with the navy pants and a different scarf, plus shoes.

Day of return travel: The striped sweater, with one of the pairs of pants, plus the jacket and coat, and boots. 

If you didn't keep track there, Betty is going to pack a sweater, a shirt, a t-shirt, a tank top, a pair of pants, and one pair of running shoes (plus bunny-jamas and undies, and everything else she needs). The clothes, Betty thinks she has nailed now. It's the "everything else" she's a bit worried about.

What Does One Rabbit Need?

After a trial run with the clothes and shoes, Betty figures that she has just enough room left for one small  liquids bag, a zippered pouch for charger cords and jewelry, and a small purse that can fit inside the bag and hold small items like a comb, toothbrush, and chewing gum (bunny ears are sensitive to takeoff pressure changes). So, she can take anything she wants--as long as it fits within those limits.

Luckily, the conference will be printing out all the student handouts, and her own notes are on her Babblet (a bunny electronic device). She can put a few things in her coat and blazer pockets too.

Security checks can be stressful.

If you want to watch Betty pack in more detail, here are some photos.

The five items of clothing. (Forgot to include the extra scarf.)

Fitting them into a (thrifted) packing cube, along with pajamas and undies.

Shirt is folded on top.

Cube zipped up.

Things going into a small purse: money and i.d.cards, pen, comb, tissues, and other non-liquid toiletries.

Packed in the purse. (She took the shoulder strap off the purse to make it fit better; the strap can slip into the bottom of the bag. But maybe it doesn't make that much difference.)

(Thrifted) zippered case to hold charger cords and a jewelry pouch, sitting on a knitted hat.

Everything goes inside the hat, for some padding.

Clear bag for liquids.

Everything shown so far, plus shoes, a notebook, and the strap for the purse.

It all fits in. (The red thing is the packing cube.)  Betty's electronic device will slip in between the purse and the packing cube. No other space to spare on this trip, though--if anything else goes in, something will have to come out.

Zipped up.

Off she goes.

And here she comes back again. It's always nice to be home. 

(She did get to meet Nigella! And Nigellette.)

And she's already busy thinking of plots for the next bunny bestseller.

Frugal Life: When to say yes, when to say no

Years ago I read a novel about a family facing an economic crisis in 1923. The husband had lost his job, and the bills were piling up.

Finally [Irene] took an astonishing step. Without consulting anyone, she put $5.00 down on an electric sewing machine, which she arranged to buy on the installment plan, paying $8.00 additional each month for a year.

"At a time like this!" her husband fumed. "What are you thinking of, Irene?"

"I'm going to make clothes for some of my friends," Irene retorted grimly. "I know half a dozen women who like the way I dress and who can't find sizes to fit them properly in the stores." (Betty Cavanna, Joyride)

If you do the math, that comes out to about a hundred dollars (apparently about $1800 in 2024 dollars), so it's not hard to see why that made Irene's husband stagger a bit. (He probably also wondered why anyone would need an electric sewing machine.) However,  Irene turned out to be right, and the dressmaking business was a success. Sometimes getting ahead (or at least staying on course) means you have to take a calculated risk.

Buying used things can be a calculated risk, or just a regular old random one.

But so can buying new things, especially these days. Mr. Fixit recently bought a new pair of sneakers at a local store, in a brand that has previously worked well for him. However, these ones hurt from the first day he wore them, and even so, the store wasn't especially cheerful about taking them back (they did eventually). Everything you buy, new or used, carries some amount of risk. One of the ways you can minimize that is to try to pay so little for things that, if you hate the taste or the shirt's too tight, you won't feel like you've lost much (even if you bought them at a yard sale and there aren't any returns).

Example #1: I posted in August about some packages of rice and mixed grains that we bought for half price. I was a bit leery of the lentil-ancient grains mix, as it sounded like it might cook up into something awfully heavy or with a weird flavour. I thought I might have to doctor it with taco spices or something to make it edible. However, one night we needed a side dish, and I decided to cook up a small potful to check it out. We actually ended up liking it quite a lot--it has an interesting Thanksgiving-ish flavour and texture. So, you never know.

And, on the other hand, the baked yogurt-egg-fruit thing was too much to choke down, so I had to call that one a loss.

Example #2: On the didn't-work-out side, I bought a winter coat for five dollars at a church rummage sale. It was a good brand and it was in good shape. However...it turned out to be too big for me, so I'm going to re-donate it. I guess I will be wearing my same-old coat this winter. But five dollars is a manageable loss.

On the wins side, though, I found a boiled-wool vest for a dollar at the same rummage sale, and a pair of  leather pumps at Value Village (something I really needed).

Example #3: I had thrifted some candles in fall shapes, a couple of years ago, and stored them in a Ziploc bag. We lit a couple of them, and  used the rest as decorations. When I pulled them out this fall, I found that most of them had gotten kind of soft and sticky, maybe from the bag, maybe just from age, so I disposed of of them. Well, we probably got our small-amount-of-moneys'-worth from them, so I wasn't too put out; and we have enough other things to decorate with that I'm not looking for replacements.

On the positive side, one of our favourite thrift shops had some new-in-package silver taper candles, which I'm already thinking will be our Advent wreath candles in another few weeks. I'm not a colour traditionalist on that--I think silver could be as nice as purple and pink (and easier to find).

They might even work with these sparkly candleholders I found in the summer. The holders are meant to hold tealight candles, but with some sticky stuff and maybe a bit of padding, they could work with tapers. 

Well, one way or another we'll use the tapers.

Example #4: Travel stuff. About a year and a half ago, I made a trip by air, with only an underseat bag, and I bought a new backpack that fit within that airline's size limits. Sometime in the near future, I will be taking off again for a couple of days, but with a different airline, one that has even tighter size limits. Well, I'm not buying yet another bag just for one trip, so I scrounged around to see what we did have that would fit. It's down to a choice between two.

 I also thrifted a couple of packing cubes and other gizmos that might help this more-in-less venture succeed.

But that's what the next post will be about.

Experiments in Breakfast

The supermarket near us is still renovating and clearing out food items. Last week we found a large frozen chicken potpie, a lemon poppy-seed loaf, a canister of steel cut oats, and a tube of tomato paste, all for half price. The tomato paste is in the pantry, and we've been eating the other things

Part One: I haven't seen any deals lately on cold cereal, and with just two of us I don't always feel like messing up a pan with oatmeal.  I've tried microwaving quick oats by the bowlful, but they're sometimes too mushy. I thought these steel cut oats would be a good fit for Budget101's Instant Oatmeal mix. You run some of the oats to powder in the blender, then mix them with the rest and add your choice of sweeteners, dried fruit, etc. 

I used up a few cups of the oats, plus a bit of cinnamon, brown sugar, and a few stray Craisins. I also added a dash of salt to each bag (the recipe doesn't call for it).

I think it turned out pretty well. You have to experiment a bit with the amount of boiling water you add, as it's easy to get it too thin (you don't want gruel). If you don't feel like the oats are "cooked" enough by just adding hot water, you can try microwaving them instead. (That is, add the mix and water to your cereal bowl and microwave, not nuke it in the bag.)

And it's definitely an easy breakfast option when you're not up to much more than groping for the spoons and the jar of coffee.

The Part Two this week, I'm still debating the success of. I wanted to make something higher-protein, so I tried out a recipe for "pancake bowls." This particular recipe required most of a container of Greek yogurt, several eggs, some frozen fruit, and a few other things like baking powder and flour (no fat, very little sugar); you combine most of the ingredients, top with the fruit, and bake until solid. The results? well, don't expect a Dutch Baby. It's more like...baked yogurt and eggs. (Or Tubby Custard.) Which, I guess, is not a bad thing, and it's quite nutritious; it's just not necessarily a delicious thing. 

Each of these little pans is supposed to be one serving, but I can't manage more than a piece at a time. Now that they've chilled in the fridge, I think I'm going to cut them in smaller portions and freeze them, then microwave when I want one.

Would I make this particular recipe again? Probably not, at least not without a couple of modifications. A little more spice or sugar wouldn't be unwelcome. Or just eating some of the Greek yogurt and fruit without going to all the trouble of baking it.

Now there's a thought.

Ten dollar thrift haul, plus a jacket

Janice at the Vivienne Files website often starts a wardrobe with a small core of neutral clothes. She then lets her fictional heroine go shopping for a few additions, and shows how the new things might be used with the older ones.

But I'm going to start with the additions, then go back. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a necklace, a bracelet, and a pair of earrings for a total of $7 (Canadian). Actually we had a five-dollar loyalty card to use, so it came to two-plus-tax.

This week, I was browsing the dollar rack at one of our usual stops, and I found three items that I thought would work with clothes I already had. One is a pink top with a draped-neck front. It's on the large side, so the draped part needs a camisole underneath. It could be also worn back to front.

The second thing was a navy skirt with kind of an assymetrical, draped thing going on in the front. I do have another navy skirt, and I hesitated just for a minute on this one because it's polyester, and not the nicest kind of polyester, but the different shape got me curious, and I bought it.

The third dollar find was a grey zippered activewear jacket. I do have a grey hoodie, but for a dollar I was not going to pass this one up. I thought the neckline might work for layering when I don't want a hood sticking out.

So, we're up to ten dollars. Minus the loyalty card.

Finally, we dropped in at a for-profit thrift, where the prices tend to be a bit higher. I found a mostly-wool Eddie Bauer lightweight coat/blazer, and I really liked it, so I'm adding it to this story too. I could have done a bit better on the price if I'd had a coupon; but even so, it was a good find. With the five dollars taken off the jewelry, the total of everything came to about $20.

To do a Vivienne Files-type story, I thought I would put together a casual, mostly navy core wardrobe of things I already had. I'll show you those items, but not how I would put them together--you can figure that out.

Two t-shirts

Another t-shirt and an "un-blazer"

Pull-on pants, mixed navy/grey pants, and jeans

V-neck pullover, and grey cotton pullover (given to me recently by a daughter who didn't want it)

Blue and white striped cotton shirt; navy silk shirt

White blouse (vintage, thrifted recently); off-white mock neck sweater

Not terribly exciting, but you could get along with just these things for awhile, especially if you added some accessories. So, here are a few outfit ideas with the dollar finds and the jacket. I didn't include the three pieces of jewelry, but they would blend well too.

Pink top, navy skirt. Boots, purse, necklaces.

White blouse, navy pullover, navy skirt. I'm not as sure about this combination because the navy of the skirt is different from the sweater; but I might try another sweater that would work better. (Boots, purse, necklaces)

Navy shirt, navy skirt; striped scarf, purse, boots. Again, the colour match isn't perfect, although I think you could get away with it here as it doesn't look as formal as the other outfit.

Pink top, navy pants. Purse, animal-print scarf, boots.

Pink top worn backwards under the grey not-hoodie; a pair of grey pants that I substituted because I didn't want to keep photographing jeans; boots, necklace.

Blue and white shirt worn under the grey jacket; jeans; backpack, boots.

Grey jacket zipped all the way up and worn underneath the grey pullover. Jeans, purse, boots.

White sweater, navy/grey pants, plaid jacket. Purse, necklace, navy sneakers.

Pink top worn backwards under the plaid jacket; navy pants; purse, boots, necklace.

Navy sweater (backwards), plaid jacket, skirt. Turquoise necklace, boots. I don't think this is going to be my most useful skirt, due more to the colour than the shape. But playing around like this is good for getting inspiration, even if I end up using a different skirt. Or pants.

So: now I have some ideas for how I'm going to wear my little haul.

Good things happen on the dollar rack!

Frugal is as frugal does

Last week Mr. Fixit and I had a whole afternoon of errands, and at the end of it we found ourselves near a  mundane-looking Chinese restaurant, the kind that does mostly takeout. However, it was handy, and we were hungry, so we got their dinner for two, which turned out to be egg rolls, lemon chicken, chow mein, a whole pile of wontons, and some better-than-average fried rice. I am not a fan of fried rice when its other major ingredient is frozen mixed corn and peas, and even lima beans (heaven help us), but this was not one of those places, thankfully. There was enough left over for lunch the next day, plus a bit of extra fried rice to boost that night's supper. Sometimes getting a meal out is just the right thing at the right time.

As an update on the bag of frozen squash, I cooked it up for dinner one night; we ate part of it, and I pureed the rest to make twenty-four mini muffins. And one supersized one because there was too much batter. We still haven't tried the grains-and-lentil mixture, but probably the next time we have a tortilla meal.

I cleaned out my closet for the fall/winter. It wasn't in terrible shape, as I've tried to keep things minimal, or at least reasonable; but lately I had thrifted a few new things, and even been given some free stuff, so (to my mind) it kind of felt like the clothes were taking over, and anyway it was time to put my shorts and sandals away, so I did a pull-out and put-back, and weeded out a few things that were not going back in at all. 

I wasn't able to use all of the free clothes, but I did keep a couple of useful pullovers and a navy top. I also found a couple of things I liked from last fall that had gotten pushed to the back, including a green fleece-lined jacket I'd forgotten I'd thrifted, so that made me feel like I had something new to wear! Just neatening things up can be all you need.

I  put some of the most-likely-to-match-things scarves front and centre.

And, finally, we dropped in at a thrift store where we had a filled-in loyalty card, so I got some already-cheap but now almost-free jewelry to jazz things up. I've already worn the turquoise necklace several times.

Tonight's frugal meal is Greek Spaghetti, made with a half-price package of ground beef, canned tomatoes, and a few seasonings. I might make some garlic bread to go with it, and we have some of those muffins.

That's all!

Generally Frugal, A Few Updates

I'm trying to get back into posting more of our "generally frugal" lifestyle stuff, rather than just the thrifted clothes stories I've mostly done for the past while. So what is there to share? I could say something about our stop this morning at the closest supermarket, which gave us some discounted banana bread and mini muffins (handy to freeze for company), but also a small tray of cut-price beef cubes, which Mr. Fixit turned into an astonishingly good Slow Cooker Goulash. We included some of those red peppers we froze last week, and served it with a just-enough-left container of sour cream.

I could also write something about a couple of odd put-together leftover meals we've had lately, but I'll spare you the details. To misquote Milo in Bloom County, it's food and we're gonna eat it.

But if I'm allowed to talk about thrifting and clothes, there is a Providential side to finding used stuff that I've seen so many times, and I think I'm finally getting smart enough to realize, first, that it's no accident, and second, that I shouldn't try to outjump God on these things by buying something new, or even something used but more expensive than I really want to pay. Because, so often, there it is right in the thrift store, or at the yard sale, that thing I was looking for, or at least a reasonable version of it. Thrifting patience, unlike Slow Cooker Goulash, is a dish best served cold.

On a weekend trip to the outdoor antiques market, I had been looking at a 1980's white short-sleeved blouse with a lot of pearl embellishments. It kind of reminded me of the crazy big shirts we wore during university (think the Brat Pack fashion era). It also reminded me a bit of my wedding veil, which was pearl-bead-embellished. Anyway, the nostalgia vibes were strong, but I know for one thing that a shirt covered with pearls would be a bear to wash and take care of, not to mention looking a bit out-there. It was also more expensive than I really wanted to pay for a crazy big shirt, so I left it in the booth. But the idea of a fancy-ish white blouse was still playing in my head. Today we were at Mission Thrift, and I found a white short-sleeved blouse, German-labelled, probably somewhat vintage. Instead of pearls, it's decorated with a lot of little stretchy pleats, kind of like grownup smocking. Also, it was quite a bit cheaper. So: sometimes you have to say no, and then let the better choice come along.

Also, I was looking at a clothing store online that is asking a breath-sucking amount of money for solid-coloured jersey midi skirts. I kind of liked the dark blue one, and I could imagine it working with some of my fall sweaters; but there was no way I was going to pay that much for one skirt.

So, on the same trip to Mission Thrift, there it was, a longer, dark blue, jersey skirt. This one, I think, was homemade; it has no labels at all, and the seams appear to have been done with a serger. But you know what? I have the feeling that if I bought a jersey skirt online, it probably wouldn't end up being any better quality, or fitting any better. So how weird is that, especially when the skirt rack is not usually my main stop at the thrift store, but for some reason I just thought I would take a few extra minutes on the crazy off-chance that there could be something close to what I was looking for. Actually, if there hadn't been anything with the skirts, I had also thought of scavenging the dress rack there--I've made skirts from dresses before, and it's often not as hard as you'd think. But in this case, I didn't even need to do that, because somebody went ahead and made the skirt I was looking for, and then donated it to the thrift store.

Which makes me both shake my head, and nod it with an "uh huh, I thought that's how it might turn out."

1930's Carltonware Buttercup dish, which I did buy at the antiques market.

Grain Gain: Another pantry post this week

One of our local supermarkets has been reorganizing, and they put a bunch of odd (mostly organic and health-food) items on a clearance table. We picked up some fancy packages of tea, snacks, and rice, all for half price. 

This is organic arborio rice, which is lovely, but not something we use a lot. 

I was browsing online and found a recipe for "risotto mix in a jar" at Food.com. While not authentic or anything, it did sound like something we'd eat. I bought a package of sundried tomatoes to chop into it.

The only real problem was getting bouillon powder that didn't have MSG (that's an issue for us), but I did find some at Bulk Barn. Anyway, short version, I used up the whole bag of rice (I increased the seasonings to make it work). That filled six sandwich-sized Ziploc bags.

I cooked up one of the packages for dinner (along with fish sticks, corn on the cob, and leftover salad). It made a big bowlful: looks like we're having risotto leftovers tonight.

We also got two packages of "Ancient Field Blend," which we haven't tried yet. One of the suggested recipes for this blend of grains and sprouted lentils is veggie burgers, which you make by cooking up the grains and blending them with squash and a few other ingredients. (Helpful hint when you buy something unfamiliar: see if there's a website with directions or recipes.)

I do have a bag of frozen squash, but I have other plans for that (probably cooking it into puree and then making muffins). But that recipe made me think that this grain blend sounds like it's going to be pretty heavy-duty, maybe more than we typically want as just a carb side dish. And some of those grains might not be the taste-testing favourites around here, though they're undoubtedly nutritious; so disguising them a bit with seasonings would also be a good idea.

And what that made me think of was the Hillbilly Housewife's Taco-Style Lentils and Rice, which was first posted by Miss Maggie, the original HH. We used that recipe quite a bit over the years, such as when vegan relatives came for tortilla night. Anyway, I haven't tried using the ancient-grains blend yet instead of straight-up lentils and rice, but I'm planning on doing a test run soon. If we like it, I'll put some small bags of grain and seasonings together, like the risotto mix, and keep them in the pantry.

Another way to use up a protein-packed grain blend like that might be to cook it as Crockpot Cereal, something I learned from my friend the Deputy Headmistress, a.k.a. Wendi. Again, it's something I think you'd have to experiment with, perhaps adding some kind of sweetener, dried fruit (like cranberries), or other flavouring. I'm not sure how well wild rice would go over at breakfast, but maybe it would be delicious. A test run is probably a good idea.

A third way I think it would be good, especially in the fall, would be using some of the cooked mixture to stuff an acorn squash. (Not with taco seasoning, although that could work too--but maybe with onions and celery, as you would for wild-rice stuffing.)

Well, anyway, we haven't cracked open those packages yet, but I will do that soon and let you know how it goes.