$2,799!?! Not Even Close

The premise looked promising.

"6 Simple Changes That Could Help You Save $2,997" said the title.

Okay, so i'll bite, i thought.  Maybe they will have something i can use to stretch my ever-tightening food budget.

Number one read, Eat Vegetarian a Few Nights a Week.  This makes sense, of course, as the meat entree is usually the most expensive part of the meal.

Problem in my house?  Sweetie will not eat vegetarian.  When we first married, he told me he loved vegetables, and would be glad to make a meal of nothing but that.  Then i took him at his word one night, and found out he was not so amenable to it.  Next!

Minimize Waste.  Well, who doesn't?  We toss out nothing but peels, rinds, and parts that aren't edible.  Everything else gets used, reused, frozen, and brought out again later in another form.  Meals are planned so that what's left can be made into another meal, and part of it frozen for later.  To paraphrase Calvin Trillin, i've served leftovers for almost 30 years, and the original meal will never be found.

Third:  Plug in the Slow Cooker.  It hasn't been unplugged in months, and not because i refuse to put it away.  Right there, fixing dinner 5-7 nights a week, is where it belongs.

Discover Great Ways to Use Canned Fish read the 4th suggestion.  Sweetie will only eat tuna, and only as tuna salad sandwiches, and only once a month at the most.  My vegetarian daughters won't touch it, and #2 Son likes fish even less than his father does.

Don't Order a Pizza, Make One At Home.  The kids wouldn't mind this, but Sweetie really doesn't like pizza much.  Yes, i know, un-American, but it's true.  The only two pizzas he likes are extremely thin crust sausage pizzas from the chain stores (any will do, as long as it's a thin, crisp crust), or a home made one made in the style of an old college friend of his.  That means it has to be in a 9x13 pyrex dish, with a thick crust and at least 5 pounds of hamburger.  In other words, an open faced cheeseburger, really, heavy on the meat and cheese.  Trust me, that's not an inexpensive pizza.

Last and least:  Pack a Lunch.  Already doing it.  That's part of the planned use for leftovers.

So, where do all these tips leave me?  Feeling as cold as the leftover roast that will be turned into chunky chili with black beans tonight.


Today is:

Cayenne Festival -- French Guiana (celebration of the capital city)

Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day -- actually a good idea

Dia del Descubrimiento de dos Mundos -- Chile

Dine with TV Dinners on the Floor Night -- probably started by someone who wanted to see how many websites would be crazy enough to even list this

Evacuation Day -- Tunisia (celebrates the day all foreign military finally and fully left)

Feast of the Three Noble Ladies -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (female pharoahs; date approximate)

Global Handwashing Day -- International (scrub up! prevent the spread of germs)

Guangzhou Autumn Trade Fair -- Guangzhou, China (through Nov. 15)

Hurricane Thanksgiving Day -- Virgin Islands (only celebrated if no major storms have come through that year)

Ides of October -- Ancient Roman Calendar; also on this date
     Harvest Festival of Mars
     Ludi Capitolini (games in honor of Jupiter)
     Winter's Day

Mahakiki -- Hawai'ian New Year Season (a four month season where warfare is forbidden and many ceremonies take place; begins around the time of the first sighting of the Pleiades in the Northern Hemisphere)

Mertz of All Possible Mertzes -- internet generated and on the day "I Love Lucy" premiered; i guess Fred and Ethel were the definition of what a Mertz should be!

Pan America Day -- Belize

National Cake Decorating Day -- again, because every website gives a different date

National Chicken Cacciatore Day

National Grouch Day -- sponsored by Alan Miller, chairman of the board of NAG (National Association of Grouches)

National Heroes Day -- Jamaica

National Roast Pheasant Day

National Tree Planting Day -- Sri Lanka

Newspaper Week -- Japan

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day -- Canada; NSW, Australia; UK; US

Rectification Day -- Burkina Faso

Rainbow Pickling Day -- Fairy Calendar

Sewing Lovers' Day -- internet generated, as those who love to sew deserve a day to celebrate

St. Teresa of Avila's Day (Founder of the Reformation of the Discalced [Barefoot] Carmelites; Patron of lace makers/workers, people in need of grace, people in religious orders, people ridiculed for their piety, sick people; Amos, Canada; Berzano di Tortona, Italy; Pozega, Croatia; Spain; against bodily ills, headaches, sickness, the death of parents)

Teacher's Day -- Brazil

White Cane Safety Day -- US (celebrating the achievements of the blind/visually impaired, and recognizing the white cane as the symbol of their independence)

Wishbones for Pets begins -- US program asking professional pet sitters to gather pet supplies and donations for homeless pets through Thanksgiving

World Rural Women's Day/International Day of Rural Women -- UN; related observance
     Mother's Day -- Malawi




Birthdays Today:

Sarah Ferguson, 1959
Emeril Lagasse,1959
Tanya Roberts, 1955
Richard Carpenter, 1946
Jim Palmer, 1945
Penny Marshall, 1942
Linda Lavin, 1937
Lee Iacocca, 1924
Mario Puzo, 1920
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., 1917
John Kenneth Galbraith, 1908
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844


Today in History:

Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Vandals, 533
Commissioned by Catherine De Medici, the 1st ballet "Ballet Comique de la Reine," is staged in Paris, 1581
Asser Levy is granted a butcher's license for kosher meat in New Amsterdam, 1660
The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon marks the first human ascent, by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, (tethered balloon), 1783
George Washington takes the first formal presidential tour, of New England, 1789
Napoleon Bonaparte is exiled to the Island of St. Helena, 1815
Child labor law takes 12-year-olds out of the work force, 1874
Edison Electric Light Company is incorporated, 1878
Koln cathedral is completed, 633 years after it was begun, 1880
The German dirigible "Graf Zeppelin' lands in Lakehurst, NJ, 1928
LaGuardia Airport opens, 1939
Fortran, the first modern computer language, is shared with the coding community for the first time, 1946
The start of the 2500-year celebration of Iran, celebrating the birth of Persia, 1971
The Great Storm of 1987 hits France and England, 1987
Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the NHL, 1989
Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1990
The first supersonic land speed record is set by Andy Green in ThrustSSC (United Kingdom), exactly 50 years and 1 day after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in the Earth's atmosphere, 1997
The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn, 1997
NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io, 2001
China launches Shenzhou 5, its first manned space mission, 2003