Hey Dudes! Been a while since I posted one of these so I thought I’d put this one together. With all the tough news on the economy out there I’ve been trying to get creative on ways to save a buck or two here or there. It’s made me think back to some of the stuff my dad used to try in his endless quest to pinch every penny at least twice. Not that we were poor when I was growing up (although we certainly weren’t “wealthy” either!) but my dad had grown up during the tail end of the Great Depression and I guess that some of those habits of thinking were indelibly printed onto his personality. Times are a lot different now than they were back then when my dad was a boy and even since I was young! I think that we’ve lost touch with some of those old ways of thinking about stretching our dollars and our resources. So, that being said, I thought I might share some of Dad’s money saving schemes as an exercise in creative thinking; I don’t expect that many of you will actually try these yourself (although they DO save you money if you do!). The point here is to get us thinking “outside the box” (or the wallet if you will). Some of them are a little funny as well so one way or the other I hope you get some enjoyment out of this post.
1 – Cream of Broccoli Stump Soup: The fresh Broccoli that you buy at the store tastes a lot better than the frozen stuff and is much more nutritious to! But about half of what you buy normally just gets thrown away! The “stump” of the broccoli isn’t something we normally think of eating yet it’s something we pay for. Dad got tired of the wasted money and figured out how to make a pretty decent cream soup with these. I don’t recall the recipe but I know he peeled the stumps and then diced the rest up small and boiled it a while to get it tender. Makes me think about what other “wasted” food we might look at twice (and NO I don’t recommend Bologna skin soup! ~:?)
2 – Turning the hot water heater off at night . . . I guess there is some debate about how much you save since the heater has to heat up the water again in the morning; but the point here is to think about all of those automatic expenditures of energy and money that we just take for granted. For instance . . . do we really always HAVE to use the microwave to defrost stuff? How did they do that before microwaves? Doesn’t seem like much but over the course of a few months it probably adds up more than we realize. What about the dryer? A clothes drying rack costs about 10 dollars new and works just great on socks, underwear and washcloths . . . if you can save running the dryer two or three times a week that’s all money saved.
3 – S.O.S. (i.e. “Stuff” On a Shingle) for the uninitiated this is hamburger in a white gravy served over toast; real popular back in the day when hamburger was dirt cheap. It’s actually pretty good if not exactly healthy (ok “not exactly healthy” is a misnomer . . . stuff is a heart attack on a plate!). You don’t see it much anymore due in large part to the greater health awareness these days and also because it’s definitely not gourmet fare. But the heart of the matter here is not so much S.O.S. its self but the idea of creating simple, solid, meals from cheap ingredients. A box of Mac-n-cheese and a half pound of hamburger makes a pretty good meal – maybe even two!
4 – Letting “her” coast in – I recall dad putting the car in neutral when going down a long hill or even turning it off when waiting in traffic. . . and that was back when gas was at the unheard of price of 40 cents a gallon! Living in a hilly portion of the country I have to admit that I’ve been known to do the same. The savings might not be much but over the course of a month I probably save a gallon or two of gas that way and with gas costing 2.50 a gallon that ads up! Again this underscores a situation awareness of what things are costing you and how you can limit those expenditures.
5 – “This Place is Lit Up Like a Cathedral at Christmas!” Something similar to what my dad would say whenever he walked into a vacant room with the light on. It really underscores the whole attitude here. My dad was CONSTANTLY aware of every watt of energy burned, every wasted morsel of food and every lost ounce of gas; it was a state of constant awareness that we’ve gotten away from as a society.
As divorced “dudes” many of us are in a pretty vulnerable position as the economy sours and now might just be a great time to learn or re-learn that same state of awareness. It’s not really about eating broccoli stumps or turning off the water heater – it’s about being AWARE that we are spending money in those small, seemingly unimportant ways. Hopefully these anecdotes from my childhood have helped spur your thinking along those same lines.
Be Well!
Bill
