Save money#6 make stock

 This is a bit of an experiment since I've never done this before. But I was inspired to do this when I saw a video about environmentalism and a person said she saved her kitchen scraps to make stock. This was from a zerowaste perspective but it works equally well for frugal people. Not that stock is that expensive but still. 

So before I begin I should say that I've never made stock before. I know my sister tried to do chicken stock once and ended up throwing it all away so I'm not super confident. I decided to try it. 

Looking through my big cookbook I actually found a recipe for vegetable stock. So rather than look for another I used that. The recipe assumes using whole vegetables rather than scraps but well see. 

For a while I have been gathering scraps like carrot and parsnips peels, leaves from cauliflower, onion and other things. This was the work of a few weeks so I put it in boxes in the freezer and slowly filled them. 

Cooking

I'm not going to include the recipe here because it's not my recipe and I'm sure there are plenty you can find. But it was basically put vegetables and salt in pot add water, boil then let simmer. Finally run it through a sieve. To make it more flavorful I threw in some oregano. I have some growing (dying) in the window so the wilted pieces went in as well.

At this point I realized I have nothing to store it in except some glass jars which is less than ideal for freezing. I did worry that the jars would break when it froze but I also wasn't sure it would last in the fridge. I tried to not fill them completely and luckily they didn't crack. 

Results

I'll admit this takes some time both to gather the scraps and to cook the stock. I'm currently at a point where I work from home and so have time to keep an eye at a pot that need to simmer for a few hours. 

I've used it in a few things since then some couscous and a soup. It's worked well though it is less salty than stock-cubes and it is less versatile so ill still be using them but this was I fun little experiment and I'm already starting to gather scraps for the next batch. 

save money #5 free stuff swapping

In my local facebook group I saw that a local garbage company was organizing an event. Here people could get rid of things that can't be recycled in the normal bins but also for things that were in good condition they would be set out for people to take. 

Events like this along with buy nothing groups are fairly common and good places to find things for free or at least cheap. The downside is that the selection tends to be limited so finding something specific can take time. 

I didn't have anything I needed but I had things I wanted to get rid of and I was curious. It is amazing how much things I found that I didn't want anymore. I wasn't even doing a decluttering just keeping an eye out and slowly the pile of things grew. Adding  that I'm maybe considering moving soon and it makes this very timely. 

The day of

The event started at 3 and I had a lecture until 4. It didn't say on Facebook when it would end but I assume it's at least a few hours so I'm trying to make it if not there is another event in a month. 

I did make sure to pack everything before hand so I could just leave directly after the lecture. That same day I'd gotten a delivery and the box came in handy to transport it. Partly since I was going to get rid of the box and I don't want to get rid of the bags.

Turned out my lecture ended early so I could leave and be there a bit after three. There were quite a lot of people there but not that many interesting things. They brought things out as they came in so there might have been something if I stayed longer. But I didn't. 

Though I did find some things a stack of clay pots but they didn't have draining holes so I left it. I did pick up a pot to use as a mold for some future candle-making endeavors. 

In the end I didn't find much I wanted but if I had been less picky or stayed longer there were plenty I could have picked up. I'm mostly glad to be rid of my things, mostly my printer which has been a source of frustration almost since I bought it. 

Save money #4 thoughts on discounts

Buying things on discount is a usual way for people to save money and that makes sense. If you pay less for things you save money. However it's not really that simple and I'm going to talk about it because relying on discounts might loose you money in the long run.

To begin with why does companies offer discounts?

Get rid of products

Getting you into the store

Getting your data

Promoting impulse buys.

Getting rid of products.

This is when the store knows that they can't sell the item at full price but that it's either easier for them to sell it than to throw it away or they are hoping to re coupe some of their losses. 

Examples of this include: out of season items like Christmas decoration in January, food nearing the last sell by date, everything in a store that is moving or closing or when the store has just a few things left in a batch and they don't want to make room for new stock.   

The discount for these are usually significant starting at 30% but I have seen up to 80%. 

You have a good opportunity to save money here assuming the thing is something you actually need. But there's often a reason why these things couldn't be sold full price. 

Getting you into the store

It's quite common for some stores to always have discounts on some of their items. Most grocery stores will do this where there every week will be new items sold at a discount. The idea is that by having a discount on one thing you need you will buy other things while you are there. This is the same as getting the first month for free when you sign up for a streaming service. 

The discounts here usually aren't that good. It's also common for the price of something to be advertised as a discount but just be regular or there are similar products that are cheaper. 

In general if you know what the regular prices are and don't get carried away you can save some money here but it wont be much.

Getting your data

Similar to the previous the store is hoping that a small loss now will make a profit in the long rum. Things like 10% of if you sign up for a newsletter or a membership where the aim is for them to be able to advertise to you. Still not great discounts but there is nothing stopping you from getting it and then close down whatever you signed up for. Being constantly sent ads wont help you save money.

Promoting impulse buys 

This is things like few percents of to get you to try a new product rather than what you usually gets.

This won't save you money, because the products probably isn't thing you need and the discount is still well within the profit margins. Making you think you are getting a good limited time deal to make you buy something. 

In general the way to use discounts is to not buy things you don't need even if they are cheap. It's also useful to know or look up what a product should cost. I have noticed that branded items even with the discount often are more expensive than store-brand products.

Save money #3 Cook based on what you have.

This is primarily a way to reduce food waste though it can lower the weeks expenses they will simply be moved to later. That being said things don't stay fresh for ever so it's important to prioritize eating things you have. It's also just easier you are going to cook anyway and using what you have rather than buying ingredients and then throwing out things you had because they went bad is more work. In a perfect world you would avoid this by having a meal planed that takes care of all this but lets face it no one's that organized. 

The easiest way is that before you decide what you want to cook you check your fridge and cupboards see what there is. Mostly the fridge actually since the food there has the shortest shelf-life. Also by limiting your choices it can make it easier to come up with ideas. Easiest is to just google one of two ingredients and recipe I promise you are going to find several. Even better if you find one that lets you utilize other things you have. This is also why its important to know what you have and to regularly clean out cupboard and other food storage.

I don't have that much food at home in general. But as an example I have some celery and broccoli left over since the everything can be frozen post. But also some frozen heavy cream. Googling the ingredients got me among other things broccoli pie, checking the recipe it is mostly things I already have at home. Though I might need to buy more eggs and I do have a lot of cheese that needs to be eaten.

All in all it was quite a nice pie. 

Making Breakfast Bars

 I started making these regularly after I moved. At work there is an early morning meeting once a week and to get there on time I would skip breakfast eating two of these on the train instead. It gave me plenty of opportunities to improve the recipe. Now I could easily buy some bars instead but they are all 1 too expensive to be a regular purchase and 2 mostly sugar. 

Ingredients

3 dl Oats

50g Coconut oil
100g Datepaste or dates

1 Banana

100g Peanut butter

50g Almonds or other nuts

50g Dried fruit(I like cranberrys)

Instructions

In general you can mix these however you want but this is how I usually do. Preheat the oven to 175 C.

Melt the coconut oil in a double boiler (basically put it in a small bowl and then put the bowl in warm water). Personally I used my small mixing bowl and put the water in my large mixing bowl to avoid unnecessary clean up. While the coconut oil is melting use a blender to turn the oats into flour. I use a immersion blender and a mason jar. This doesn't have to be perfect since some texture is nice.

Peel the banana and put it in the mixing bowl with the oil along with the date past, and mush them with a fork. A thing a bout date paste, I prefer to use it but it can be somewhat hard to find in stores. You can replace it with finely chopped or blended dates.  

Then add the peanut butter, oat flour and stir. Roughly chop the almonds and cranberrys add those as well and stir it into a even paste. If its too dry you can add up to 50g of juice. 

Spread the mixture on a parchment paper on a baking tray making it about 0,5 to 1 cm thick. I tried to make it a square since it needs to be cut up later. Then bake for 20 minutes.

Once it's baked take it out of the oven and let it cool for a little. But before it cools completely and gets hard cut it up in 2×5 cm pieces.

Results

I have done this several times before and it turned out like usual so it's hard to have any opinions since its mostly what I was expecting. In general they are good and I lake them. If you are used to the store bought kind they are less sweet and they have a milder and less immediate taste. This is mostly because there isn't as much sugar. But most store bought bars are more like candy than food.  

There is a thing with the amount. I could have made a double batch and it would have filled out the baking tray rather than just a bit in the middle. But I like to save these for the days when I don't have time to eat breakfast therefor these will last me a long time a there is a limit to how much I want to store. 

About storing I put them in a box in the freezer, I don't think they would survive that long. But they thaw very fast in a few minutes you can eat them. 

Save money #2 Most things can be frozen

Living in a one person household my main reason for food-waste is things going bad before I can finish them. I don't mean past the expiration date I mean them growing mold. This doesn't just apply to things forgotten in the back of the fridge but also to things I eat regularly. This could to some extent be solved with preservatives but enough people avoid that for food producers to follow along. They proudly declare being preservative free which for me means that my pesto starts growing mold when the jar still half full even when stored in the fridge.
This is annoying since buying larger packages are often cheaper but not if you can't use them. Not to mention that some things are just hard to buy a small amount of. Last time I made soup I bought a thing of broccoli and celery but only used about half of it. 
To solve this I have turned to freezing as much of my food as I can. After using as much of a produce as I need I cut up the rest put then in containers and freeze them. With a freshly defrosted freezer there are lots of room for them. This also allows me to later take out only a little bit depending on what I'm making I can put in the whole container or just a few pieces. This also makes future cooking faster since I don't need to cut it up then. 
So far I have found that there are very few foodstuffs that can't be frozen. Here are a few and my experience of using them.

Carbs

Bread and cake: (I bake my own and usually make two loaves at a time one goes in the fridge for eating and one in the freezer for later). 
pasta and rice: works well but shouldn't be kept too long.
Potatoes: this is one of the things that doesn't freeze well. 

Herbs, vegetables or fruits

All these has worked fine. They do unfortunately loose some of their structure and crunch so while they are excellent in stews, stir-fry, pie or anything that's heated I would't use them for a salad.

Meat or dairy

Meat: works fine though we are talking storing it for months rather than years. 
Milk: takes a long time to thaw but that's all just remember to take it out a day or two before you need it and let it thaw in the fridge.
Cheese: works well. When it becomes difficult to cut for sandwiches I usually freeze it and save it to be grated the next time I need it.
Yogurt and similar: doesn't work it loose all structure becoming grainy.

These are some things I could think of on the top of my head but for anything specific you can always just google it.

Tips to save money #1 defrost your freezer

 I plan to make this a series with various tips the aim of them is to not only save you money but also help you live a little more environmentally friendly.

Defrost your freezer

As a bonus this also give you more room to store your food. All that permafrost can take up a lot of space. Most importantly cleaning out and putting everything back in will let you take stock on what you have. This means that you will have an easier time using it and you won't end up buying things you already have.

This is something that should be done regularly and I found once a year to be sufficient. Doing this will make your freezer work more efficiently, using less electricity and so extending the freezers lifetime. This might seem like a small saving but every little helps and its not like it's a large job.

Taking my own advise

The best time to do this is in the winter when the food can be stored outside on a balcony without thawing. Unfortunately I don't have a balcony anymore so it will need to be stored in the attic. My attic has bad insulation and with outside temperature dropping to just one degree it lies at 3,7. Cold enough that my food wont thaw. Especially since I put it in a thermal-bag.

A good advise is to, in the days, week or month leading up to this to prioritize using the things in your freezer. Limiting the amount of things to move and store. I have been doing this for the last month and it takes a surprisingly long time. I have a tendency to cook too much stew and not enough pasta or rice to go with it so as a result I have weeks worth of chili and Stroganoff and lentil stew to go through before I can even begin on the raw ingredients. There's was also some cake but that disappeared quickly.

I had some trouble getting things to line up, mostly the weather has been relatively warm for a while and when it dropped last week I took my chance even if it means that there is more food then there could be. my thermal bag is not that big hopefully it will all fit. (spoiler alert it did not).

First step in this is turning off the freezer which is harder than I feel it should be and I ended up  checking the instruction manual to make sure I had done it correctly. It was confusing since turning of the freezer also turns of the light in the fridge.

This picture is mostly for me, so I know what to do next time.

Donning some thick gloves because cold makes my hands hurt. I emptied the freezer. Despite everything some things didn't fit and I had to get my smaller thermal-bag as well as put some things in the fridge. Those are things that I wouldn't mind if they thawed. A half empty ice-cube tray I just put in the sink. I had to move things around a bit in the bags, food in Tupperware are difficult to fit efficiently even more so since some of them were half empty.

I then carried it all up to the attic and left the freezer door open, put some plastic on the floor to protect it, fixing the runoff spout and placed a bowl to catch the meltwater. I then pulled out the trays/boxes and put them upside down in the bathtub. There is some ice in them but mostly it's to improve airflow. 

13,30 I was done with the preparations and left it to melt. It was only 10 minutes later that I could hear it start dripping. There are things you can do to make this go faster. Placing a bowl of hot water in it or turning on a space-heater. I just poked at it randomly, breaking the loose bits of ice and removing them.  

Remember to keep an eye on it just to make sure it isn't dripping water everywhere. I had to empty my bowl of water three times. I also noticed that there had formed a puddle on the plastic and that it had overflowed onto the floor so that got replaced by a towel.

19,30 and I finally got rid of the last Ice. Most was gone after an hour or two apart from a thick layer of solid ice at the top. I probably could have let it thaw by itself but I fear that would have taken several more hours. So I ended up pulling out chunks by hand. 

Now all that's left is to dry of the water. Start the freezer and once it has cooled down some bring my food back in.