Ms. Frugal

I used to buy 24 or 48 packs of bottled water at the store.  I never realized how wasteful I was being by doing that.  Instead, I spent $6 and bought myself a reusable water bottle.  Not the kind that you see on a bike, but more of a camper’s water bottle.  It is rugged and durable and I could, in theory, hook it onto my bag with the hook it came with.  I don’t plan on doing that.  But it really opens up a lot of options for me.  I fill it up every day before I go to class and I drink it throughout the day.  It has a really large top, so filling it up from the drinking fountain or sink is easy too.  Plus, it helps me get my 5-7 glasses of water a day.  I know that most people don’t believe the benefits of that, but I’m telling you, I really feel the difference.

As a student at a university, I have the opportunity to get a good discount on a ZipCar membership.  Not that you need to be a student in order to partake in this, but you get a better deal if you’re in school at the time.  For a $50 annual fee, I can drive a car whenever I want.  While the carpool situation I think will work out really well, this is a nice alternative to have.  Gas is included in the price and I can rent for around $8/hour.  You really can’t beat that when you consider that gas around here is at $3.55 a gallon.  And that’s at the cheap station my friends told me about.  If you’re looking for an easy alternative to public transportation or waiting around for your carpool mates, check out Zipcars.

I made a ham the other night but had a lot of leftovers.  Try this recipe to help you make those extra slabs of meat disappear.

Ham Griddle Cakes

1 cup all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk (use skim - I found it tastes better)

1 cup ground fully cooked ham

Pancake syrup

In a large bowl, combine flour and baking powder.  In another bowl, beat the eggs and milk.  Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fold in ham.  Pour the batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a lightly greased hot griddle.  Turn when pancakes begin to brown on the edges; cook until second side is golden.  Serve with syrup.

Yield: 8 pancakes.

As for the syrup, I recommend Mrs. Buttersworth.  It goes perfectly with the flavor from the ham (mine still had some pineapple flavor in it).  Enjoy :)

In my current situation, I am carless. I walk or take public transportation everywhere. The nearest Target is about an hour away by Metro. I have made the trek a few times, but I realize that it just isn’t worth my time. And I never realized how often I actually went to Target. All of these problems were resolved today though. I found a signup sheet outside one of my classrooms for this exact purpose. People in my cohort who have a car are signed up go make multiple trips to Target a month. Us “riders” pay some gas money and we can get there in style and in only about 20 minutes. This is perfect! The amount of money I’m going to pay in gas is less than it costs for the subway. Yay!

So I had friends in town this weekend.  I took them to see the sites, making sure they got the limited day Metro passes, and we had a really good time.  I really wanted to take them down below the Lincoln Memorial to see the political cartoons from the 1930’s, but I couldn’t find a friendly enough Park Ranger.  Anyway, we’d just had a great day and decided we should go out for a nice dinner.  One of my friends said he would treat as payment for all my tour guide services.  I’m Ms. Frugal, so of course I said yes.  We find this nice little grille (note the ‘e’) and go inside.  The hostess is shocked to see us.  She shakes her head and says we are under-dressed.  We were all wearing sweaters and hats.  She said we needed ties and skirts.  It is a grille for goodness sakes!  Oh well, don’t waste your time at restaurants who don’t want your business.  The food wouldn’t have been worth the cost anyway.

Fluffy Pink Fruit Salad

1 jar (10 0z) maraschino cherries

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

2 cups heavy whipping cream, whipped (I used Light Cool-whip since I was trying to save some calories)

1 can (20 oz) pineapple tidbits, drained

1 can (15 1/4 oz) fruit cocktail, drained

1 can (15 oz) sliced peached, drained and diced

6 medium firm bananas, sliced

3 cups pastel miniature marshmallows

Drain cherries, reserving 1/3 cup juice (save the remaining juice for another use). cut cherries in half; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and reserved cherry juice until smooth. Fold in whipped cream. Fold in cherries, pineapples, fruit cocktail, peaches, bananas and marshmallows. Transfer to a serving bowl. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Yield: 18-22 servings. Woohoo!

I took a half hour break tonight from studying to go through the paper and cut out coupons.  Now, first I should mention that the newspaper is my landlords - I’m not foolish enough to actually purchase a paper when I can read everything online.  Anyway, I went through and found a lot of good deals on food items.  When I go to buy fish this weekend, I’ll save $1.25 a pound.  For cereal, since I’m taking to eating that more and more, I’ll save $2 on the generic family sized box.  That’s a great deal.  Something I can get 50+ meals out of only costs me around $3.30.  Talk about good shopping!  Those were really the highlights of my experience, but I’ll keep at it.  Every bit helps.

I grew up without cable television in my house.  My family was some unknowing group of Luddites I guess.  Either way, when I went to college, I got hooked on cable tv.  I would watch it all the time.  To this day, I am still crazy about A&E and Lifetime.  I also like the History Channel, although I can’t really put my finger on what attracts me to that.  Maybe all the shows about criminals and brining them to justice.  A constant reminder of why I want to go into law, even if it isn’t going to be criminal law.  Anyway, in an effort to save money, I’ve decided to cancel my cable.  It will save me $59 a month and I can watch almost anything I want online nowadays.  Plus, it will help me focus more, not that I ever stray too much from my work to cable.  I guess I just don’t need it anymore and the novelty has worn off.  Looks like there are a variety of reasons.

This is by far the best use of Blueberries ever come up with!

2/3 cut butter, softened

1-1/4 cups sugar blend for baking

2 eggs

4 egg whites

1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

3 cups all-purpose flour

3-3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup fat-free milk

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (I used 3 cups and it was well worth it)

1 cup canned unsweetened crushed pineapple, drained

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (totally optional)

1/2 cup flaked coconut (I left this out since I’m not a big fan)

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar blend.  Add the eggs, egg whites and lemon juice; mix well.  combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk.  Fold in the blueberries, pineapple, pecans and coconut.

Transfer to two 8 x 4 x 2 loaf pans coated with spooking spray.  Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes (around 53 seemed to be perfect for mine, but I like mine soft) or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.  Yields: 2 loaves.

With the extra cup of blueberries, each piece is so rich that you can really extend the time that these loafs will stick around.  They’re pretty healthy too.  I highly recommend them.

I was getting off the metro stop today and riding the escalator back to the surface. Wow, those are some steep escalators. Anyway, as I was walking out of the exit, I ran into some tourists who clearly were confused. I offered to help them find out where they were going. They were actually looking for the airport. I showed them on the map where they needed to go and the quickest way to get there. They had plenty of time before their flight, but they still seemed anxious to get to the airport just in case. Despite having done this out of the goodness of my heart, and understanding how confusing it can be at times in D.C., they gave me a very nice reward. They gave me one of their commuter passes. They had put too much money on it and they weren’t going to use it again. So I got an extra $23 worth of free travel. It was a good day.