Everyday Cheapskate - Mary Hunt's Everyday Cheapskate

Here is the Secret to Healthy Eating on a Budget

Recently, I got a frantic letter from Barbara, who lives in Florida. It seems that her teenage son has taken up bodybuilding and her husband is adhering rigidly to the Atkins Diet, both of which are protein heavy. Barb got through the first week with a major case of mixed emotions: Her husband lost 7 pounds, her son gained 4—and her food bill doubled!

Can Barb keep her food costs down while still supporting her family’s healthy eating choices? I know she can. Special diets don’t have to be budget-busters. In the same ways her son and husband are adjusting their way of eating, Barb must adjust the way she shops.

Don’t pay full-price for protein

Tuna, chicken breasts, and lean beef cuts are always on sale somewhere. If you don’t want to store-hop, you can always find some cut of meat, fish, and poultry on sale in your favorite market.

Eat what’s on sale and if it’s a loss-leader (that means dirt-cheap in an effort to entice people through the door), stock up for the coming weeks.

Grab up the items that are marked down for quick sale because they are close to the “sell by” dates, and then freeze.

Buy carbs in bulk

Find a warehouse club, ethnic market, health food store, or food coop that offers rice, beans, oatmeal, nuts and, legumes in bulk—by the pound. Store dry items in the freezer to retain freshness.

March 24, 2019/0 Comments/by Mary Hunt

Randomly on a Saturday

Mary's Perspective

Men having break near watercooler on white background, closeup

123rf.com

1. I love coffee. The real stuff. Next best is a fun email I get each weekday morning—Morning Brew—that gives me a quick rundown and a jump on what I need to know about what’s going on in the world—with super brief summaries.

If I worked in an office with a watercooler and my fellow workers and I congregated around it, Morning Brew would give me confidence to contribute to the conversation. Or at least understand what others are talking about. Morning Brew makes me feel smarter and makes me laugh, too. Check it out. It’s free.

2. Here’s a list of 2019 Sales Tax Holidays by state. One thing to note, not all states hold sales tax holidays. Some are annual and recur under legislation, while others that are non-annual require legislation each year.

March 23, 2019/0 Comments/by Mary Hunt

4 Easy Ways to Make Perfectly Baked Potatoes

Food & Recipes

Think you have nothing to fix for dinner? As long as you have a few potatoes in the pantry, you have at least one option—bake potatoes and call it dinner.

Whether topped with a pat of butter or loaded up with broccoli and cheese—or a big scoop of hearty chili—baked potatoes really are an easy, no-brainer meal. The bonus is that potatoes are both nutritious and cheap.

While you can bake just about any kind of potato, Russets are the best option. The skin on a Russet is thicker and the starchy inside has a sweet flavor that gets extra fluffy while baking. Russets are typically larger, which makes them ideal for a dinner entree.

Here are four easy ways to prepare baked potatoes—in your Instant Pot, in the oven, microwave, or slow cooker. Read more

March 22, 2019/0 Comments/by Mary Hunt

Chicken Labeling: Prepare to Be Surprised

Food & Recipes

123rf.com

If you’ve ever stood in the supermarket wondering if paying more for chicken that is free-range, antibiotic-free, no hormones added, farm-raised, natural, and organic is going to make you healthier, wealthier, wise—or just a better person—you’re not alone.

Recently, as I was doubting myself on my chicken choices I decided to get to the bottom of what all of this really means. It’s not what I thought.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is a cabinet-level agency that oversees the regulation of food-grade chicken and is responsible for the claims on packaging and labels.

And despite all of the hype and fluff, there is only one label—organic—that guarantees specific standards and for which you might consider paying more.

Briefly here is what all of it means—or doesn’t mean—according to the USDA.

March 21, 2019/0 Comments/by Mary Hunt

How to Clean a Shark Vacuum and Its Filters

Cleaning

You know by now just how much I love my Shark vacuum cleaner. And given my readers’ letters and comments, I know that many of you have Sharkies, too.

I love your messages. They make me smile because I understand the range of emotions that come from using a Shark vacuum for the first time—from amazement to flat out embarrassment.

Where on earth did all of this dirt and debris come from? I can’t believe what’s been lurking in my carpet!

With all of the miles I’ve put on my numerous Shark vacs over the years, I’ve never had one fail. And while the manufacturer boasts that Sharks never lose suction, that is predicated on regularly cleaning Sharkie’s canister, filters, and rotating brush.

It’s right there in the owner manual, which most of us don’t think to read until we have a problem. You need to clean your Shark every three months to keep it working at top efficiency—more often with heavy use. It’s easy.

Signs Sharkie needs a bath

loss of suction
dirt being left behind
sounds weird like Sharkie is gasping for air
an unpleasant, dirty odor

March 20, 2019/26 Comments/by Mary Hunt

9 Cooking Mistakes We All Make and How to Fix Them

Food & Recipes

Just the other night I suffered a kitchen disaster. I hate when that happens. I ruined an entire pot of pasta because I got busy and was not paying attention. By the time I realized, the pasta had cooked way beyond al dente, all the way to total mush.

It killed me to dump the whole thing down the disposal, but there was no way to undo that disaster.

Thankfully, that’s not true for every cooking mistake. This is a list you’re going to want to keep handy just in case.

Too much salt

It’s a common cooking mistake. If you’ve added far too much salt to a sauce or soup and you have enough ingredients, double the recipe or make more by half, then mix it in with the salty batch a bit at a time until you’ve reached your desired flavor.

Another trick is to add a bit more unsalted water to the mix, provided this will not also dilute the flavor.

Burnt toast

Don’t toss it until you’ve tried this neat trick: Use your cheese grater to quickly scrape off the burned layer. Works like magic!

Undercooked cake

The first sign of a cake that’s not done is that sinkhole in the middle. Once cooled you cannot re-bake it. But don’t worry. This is not a hopeless kitchen disaster.

Break the cake into pieces (even those parts that are undercooked) and combine them with whipped cream and fresh fruit to make dessert parfaits or one large trifle.

ENJOY: 25 Items Under $25 to Help Organize Your Life

March 19, 2019/3 Comments/by Mary Hunt

Meet My Spring Clean A-Team

Cleaning

make your-own-glass-cleaner-for-sparkling-windows

There’s an illness that has been documented by poets for centuries and I’ve got it. It’s Spring Fever, that wonderfully amorphous disease we all recognize come April and May.

Spring fever remains a fuzzy medical category, but there has been a great deal of research on how seasonal changes affect our mood and behavior. I know how it affects me—it makes me want to clean!

While I don’t invite all my friends over to help, I have built quite a team that makes the job, if not fun, at least enjoyable. Today, I’d like to introduce you to each member of my awesome spring clean team.

Deep Cleaning Brushes

I got the initial set as a gift from a friend who knows me well. I love to clean nooks and crannies, which is crazy, but true nonetheless. OXO Good Grips Kitchen Appliance Cleaning Set specific cleaning tools are perfect but not only for the kitchen. I use them on grout, in corners; along baseboards. And into the dishwasher they go almost daily, to get sanitized. Watch out nooks and crannies. Your dirty days are fast coming to an end.

Squeegee

I suppose that windows would win if I could have only one item on my spring clean list of dirty things to clean. There’s just nothing like looking at spring through sparkling, crystal-clear windows. Want to know the secret to the sparkle? A good squeegee and the best scrubber to go with it.

MORE: Sparkling Clean Windows—Cheaper, Better, Faster!

Microfiber Cloths

Forget the paper towels. And the terry cloth. When it comes to serious cleaning of anything—especially glass and mirrors—there’s nothing more efficient than microfiber because it is lint-free and streak-free. A set will last for years. And years.

March 18, 2019/0 Comments/by Mary Hunt

The Best Way to Vacuum Carpet is to Memorize this Routine

Best Inexpensive, Cleaning

Perhaps this has happened to you: You’ve lived with carpeting, then for one reason or another you live with hardwood or some other type of hard surface flooring that shows up every little bit of dust and dirt. You can’t believe it! You can sweep or vacuum one day and by the next morning, dust and dirt have returned.

Of course, you think that some new dirt- and dust-producing thing has mysteriously descended on your living space, but the truth is it’s the same dust and dirt that has always been present only now you can see it.

I cannot tell you how shocked I was to see what accumulated in such a short time on my new dark wood floors. In my mind, I multiplied by 7, 14 and even 21 days. Am I the only one who doesn’t vacuum every day of her life? Yes, I admit it. And just imagining what had accumulated in the carpeting almost made me wretch. Seriously.

March 17, 2019/36 Comments/by Mary Hunt

This is How You Make World-Class Gourmet Pasta on a Shoestring

Food & Recipes

A plate of gourmet-quality Pasta Mama from Hugo's Restaurant, West Hollywood, Calif.

A popular restaurant in West Hollywood, Calif., Hugo’s, has been critically acclaimed for one of its menu items, Pasta Mama.

The first time I heard about it, I thought it was a bit odd. Pasta with eggs? I couldn’t imagine what would prompt people to drive many miles to get Pasta Mama. But they do, saying, it’s the best pasta they’ve ever eaten.

I had to try it, and as you might imagine, I love it. I would describe it to you here, but it’s indescribable—indescribably delicious, that is.

But I don’t drive to Hugo’s to pay $14 (plus tax and tip) for this dish. Instead, I make it myself, from scratch, following my copycat recipe. What a wonderful, simply satisfying dinner—or breakfast—entree.

Pasta Mama takes all of about 10 minutes from start to finish and feeds two for a total cost of about $1.50.

At that price, you have little to lose if you try it and don’t like it, and chances are really good that you’ll love it.

In fact, I won’t be surprised to hear that you’ve added Pasta Mama to your family’s list of favorite meals. Serve it once a week and your grocery budget will love you.

March 15, 2019/7 Comments/by Mary Hunt

This is the Best Car Trash Can Ever

Automobiles, Best Inexpensive

This car trash can is the perfect size with all the features we need at a super affordable price

123rf.com

Wouldn’t you think that if car manufacturers can perfect self-driving cars, they could also come up with a way to conquer the car trash problem?

Inside of a car with every nook and cranny stuffed with trash

Photo Credit TheOnion.com

I’ve always thought that a built-in trash compactor would be great. Or even better, some kind of incinerator that sucks the accumulation of trash and garbage right out of the car and into a holding tank somewhere that magically converts it into purified drinking water. Or gasoline.

While waiting for that kind of invention to appear, I’ve tried plastic bags, plastic tubs, and every kind of frugal trick and tip you can imagine to handle the annoyance of car trash.

I’ve tested and tried. Some ideas are better than others, but nothing has ever proven 100% satisfactory. Until now.

March 14, 2019/1 Comment/by Mary Hunt

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Here is the Secret to Healthy Eating on a Budget

Don’t pay full-price for protein

Buy carbs in bulk

Randomly on a Saturday

4 Easy Ways to Make Perfectly Baked Potatoes

Chicken Labeling: Prepare to Be Surprised

How to Clean a Shark Vacuum and Its Filters

Signs Sharkie needs a bath

9 Cooking Mistakes We All Make and How to Fix Them

Too much salt

Burnt toast

Undercooked cake

Meet My Spring Clean A-Team

Deep Cleaning Brushes

Squeegee

Microfiber Cloths

The Best Way to Vacuum Carpet is to Memorize this Routine

This is How You Make World-Class Gourmet Pasta on a Shoestring

This is the Best Car Trash Can Ever

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Don’t pay full-price for protein

Buy carbs in bulk

Signs Sharkie needs a bath

Too much salt

Burnt toast

Undercooked cake

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