One of the most difficult crimes to deal with today is identity theft. When someone steals your identity and racks up credit card debt, bounces checks, and otherwise trashes your credit rating, it can be hard to survive in a world that is so dependent on good credit.

You may not be able to get a loan. Your car insurance rates may go up. You may be turned down for a job.

The best way to deal with identity theft is to prevent it from happening in the first place. You’ve heard advertisements for companies like Lifelock, which claim to insure that you will never succumb to identity theft. But do you really need to pay to prevent your identity from being stolen?

The answer is yes…and no. No, you don’t need to pay a company to monitor your credit for you, though it certainly can’t hurt. But if you don’t want to shell out the big bucks for someone else to monitor your credit, there are simple steps you can take to make sure your identity is not stolen. Some will cost a little, but in the end, these purchases are well worth it.

Invest in a Shredder

A good shredder is an identity thief’s nightmare. If you merely toss bank statements, credit card applications, and other financial documents in the trash, it’s easy for a thief to raid your trash to find the information he needs to steal your identity.

If you shred all of your sensitive paperwork before tossing it, a thief will move on to an easier target. Shredding documents just takes a few seconds, but the result could save you from a big headache down the road.

Check Your Credit Report

By regularly checking your credit report, you will be able to quickly catch any strange activity. Checking your credit report is free at annualcreditreport.com. By law you can receive a free credit report from each of the three major reporting agencies once a year.

Rather than ordering all your credit reports at once, though, you should order from a different agency once every four months. This will allow you to monitor your credit report throughout the year, making it easy to catch an identity thief before he does major damage.

If you are married, stagger your credit report orders with those of your spouse. Since many transactions are joint transactions, suspicious activity on your spouse’s credit report may alert you to a problem with your own. Another way to keep watch is to check your credit scores regularly with one of the many free services available.

Secure Your Mailbox

Many identity thieves steal identities by stealing mail. If your mail isn’t secure, find a way to secure it. A small post office box doesn’t cost very much, and your mail will be kept safe in a locked PO box. Similarly, you can buy a locking mailbox for your house.

Leaving your mail unattended and unsecured isn’t worth it these days. Spend the money to make sure thieves can’t get easily get your mail. I use a UPS box for my blogging correspondence, and my plan is to use that address as my main mailing address from now on.

Identity theft is a crime of opportunity. If you make it hard for an identity thief to steal your identity, he will move on to an easier target.

Do you have any additional ideas to help prevent identity theft? If you’ve been a victim of identity theft, how did the thief get your information?

Photo by TheMuuj.

Sure, furniture isn’t what it used to be. My great-great-uncle built our kitchen table shortly after he married his wife who arrived by wagon train in Oregon (not exaggerating!). It looks nearly new, still. But my modern mid-range furniture and kids’ beds are starting to show their age already. I guess they don’t make things like they used to. But admittedly, much of my “mid-grade” furniture was packed flat and assembled with hex wrenches.

But there is good news. There are ways to fix cosmetic damages and wear to your “in-between” furniture. (All that furniture that came after pizza boxes, bricks and boards, and before the furniture you hope to will to your children or grandchildren).

A Few Tips for Repairing Minor Furniture Flaws

Scrapes in Faux Leather

My cat like to ride “co-pilot” on the back of my faux leather chair. But every now and then he surprises me, and I give him cause for alarm. And he gives me small holes in the back of my chair. But to my wonderment, the brown Sharpie pen matches the material perfectly, and obscures the little snags. For larger tears and snags you can buy a leather repair kit that creates a patch.

Real Leather

For small cat scratches and snags on real leather, you may be able to find a shoe polish that matches. If you can, take a needle, and very carefully push the snags back into place. Next, smooth a light coat of the matching shoe polish over the area, and heat it with a hair dryer. Repeat the process several times until the snags are concealed. (Be sure to test your shoe polish on a hidden section of leather to ensure it is a good match first!)

Upholstery

Red wine, dark chocolate, blood, cat vomit, melted crayon, and ice cream: All things I’ve successfully removed from my pale beige sofa!

The melted crayon—it was bright orange, and fully melted. A small child left it in the sunshine on my patio, and brought it in positively dripping with moist wax. He came to show it to me and dragged it across the back of my chaise at the same time! It left a .5” orange gash across the back of my sofa. After contacting Crayola, we discovered that WD-40 would remove molten crayon from the sofa. Sure enough, it did. WD-40, followed by a wash with dish soap to remove the residual oils, and there was no stain left at all. (We raced outside and cleaned the green crayon from the back seat of our car next!)

For other stains, we try to follow the old fashioned chemistry rule of “like dissolves like.” We usually pre-treat with dish soap, and then follow up with a soft scrub brush (even an old toothbrush) and some oxygen bleach. We’ve never had an issue of bleaching, and nothing has ever stained. It helps that we own a steamer. Sometimes, after scrubbing, we put an oxygen bleach or vinegar solution in the steamer and run that over the affected area.

For cat snags, if you’re handy, you may be able to use a needle around the affected areas, and pull individual threads to weave the spot back in. If that doesn’t work, get some clear nail polish, clip the snag and nail polish it in place (be careful to use only a tiny bit, or it will be obvious). The idea is just to provide enough texture that the thread can’t slip back and create a run.

Bashes/Scrapes on Wood

I have a lovely dark walnut colored desk. It sits in my little corner of my living room and serves as my “office.” The downside is that this really is a “discount” desk, and is made of rubberwood. While it’s heavy and stable structurally, if you even lean on it wrong, you leave a ding that goes through he finish and it looks like heck.

For low-frequency injuries, I cover it with a product called Old English Scratch Cover for Dark Woods. It is an oil base, and soaks right into the wood, and it looks beautiful. But for high-damage areas, like the front of the desk, where my chair rubs on the edges, I once again rely on my trusty Sharpie pen. There are also wood and floor markers designed for this sort of thing, but my sharpie is on my desk already, and it was cheap.

Deep Scratches, Nail Holes and Kid Carvings

Yes, kids are ever so cruel to furniture. Our church has recently had an epidemic of kids “carving” things into the walnut pews. You may think that this damage will require a full sand-down, but there’s a pretty good repair available. Minwax makes a wood-toned soft wax fill, that blends beautifully. You smash it into the scrape or gouge, smooth it off, and put a coat of furniture polish over it. Contractors use this to cover nails used to apply finishes like beadboard, and mop boards.If the surface is painted, it’s a good idea to keep a little bit of touch-up paint on hand in matching colors. Most hardware stores can mix small sizes from a sample (even part of the furniture!)

“Ruined” Pots and Pans

Unless you’ve melted a pot or pan to your range, it is likely salvageable. (Note: don’t use scratched, flaking non-stick products, it’s not believed to be safe!) For bad burns, broiled-on-food or the remnants of a stovetop popcorn fire, try some warm water and a product called “water softener.” You can usually find water softener at the hardware store, or a pool/spa store. A couple of tablespoons of it, plus some warm water and soaking time, and you will be able to scrub off almost any messy cookware.

Let me hear it — what was your best home fix?

The home fix I feel most victorious about is still the crayon on the sofa. The sofa was brand-new and the giant swath of molten crayon was so shocking to see, I was sure it could never be salvaged.

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It can’t be denied — cooking for one is a tricky thing. It seems like a lot of work for only a single meal. Dishes made, serving sizes to be determined, and usually too many leftovers. Besides, after all that cooking, you don’t typically have someone else to wash dishes.

I spoke with DebtKid (who prefers to use this alias for privacy reasons, but you can read his story at www.debtkid.com). We compared our single-days experiences. We both seem to remember regular standby meals. For DebtKid, it was Hamburger Helper. For me, frozen taquitos. We’re both pretending that we supplemented this nutritional catastrophe with fresh fruit and vegetables…

In later years, I widened my repertoire with a handy (and also) broke neighbor. As newlyweds, we both cooked for one plus the fridge and traded ideas. Sometimes we even traded entire meals—we’d both made our dinners only to discover we were tired of them, so we simply swapped. My husband worked shifts rarely allowing for a meal together, and her husband was deployed at the time.

Libby (and all of our single-dwelling friends), there is hope! A key technique is to have a bit of a food routine, but not so much routine that you go trading your dinners with the neighbors.

Automate one or two meals a day if you can, leveraging some staple foods.

Here Are Some Things to Always Have On-Hand

Go-to-Meals

Mason jar salads. This site has a number of clever salads made in Mason Jars. The jars keep the greens fresh—just put your dressing in first, and shake it right before serving!

Potatoes. You can bake a whole bunch of them in the oven or a crock pot. (For crock pot, scrub the potatoes, and poke holes in them with a fork, then coat in butter or wrap in foil and place in the crock pot for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high). Leftover baked potatoes should live in the refrigerator. They can be topped with chili and cottage cheese, bacon and cheese, cheese and broccoli, salsa, or even this clever recipe for egg/bacon potato breakfast boats. (I’m trying this tomorrow!)

Eggs: Fried, scrambled, poached, boiled, or baked inside a potato (as above). You can top some canned black beans, rice and avocado with a fried egg for a quick juevos rancheros. Egg in a basket is a quick and easy dish for one (or more) simply cut a hole in a piece of bread with a glass or cookie cutter. Grease a frying pan, and put the toast in on a medium temperature. After a few seconds, add an egg into the hole. And let it cook, then flip it over and cook the other side.

Chicken: Now with a family, I seldom buy a whole prepared chicken. We typically buy two raw ones, and roast them at once. But in a one-or-two person household, I’d do this in an instant! Many supermarkets offer a whole fryer chicken pre-seasoned and cooked (often available in several seasonings). Buy one per week, and split the meat between salads, main meals, and then make a stock from the bones, adding leftover vegetables, or potatoes and leeks and freeze in individual portions for later use or lunches for work.

Produce: Buy spinach instead of lettuce. It does double-duty in the fridge and freezer. If it’s in danger of spoiling—keep a big zipper bag in the freezer and add your fresh spinach to it. For avocados, use �, and leave the seed in the remaining half and spritz with lemon or vinegar before refrigerating to use the next day. Buy apples and oranges in the amount that you can use. Apples, pears, squashes, zucchini and the like all freeze well if you can’t use them all. You can puree or shred into ice cube trays and use in baking (especially bran muffins!) Many foods can be chopped, frozen on trays, and then put into bags. (I do this during the summer with bell peppers, and use them year-round from the freezer). Fresh ginger can be kept in the freezer—just use a cheese grater and grate the amount you want into your cooking. Cook hearty greens that freeze well. Collards are great when boiled with ginger and garlic or bacon and brown sugar. Leftovers freeze and store well.

Meats: Don’t be afraid to ask the butcher to downsize your order. Order 1-2 salmon steaks instead of the whole fish (or order the whole fish, have them cut it in steaks and freeze it separately—when packed properly, salmon freezes well!). You can often find pre-packaged individual steaks in the freezer section. Canned salmon and tuna are great for sandwiches and salads, and the trusty whole-roasted chicken from the deli. Some groceries cater to smaller family sizes and pack accordingly. The Trader Joe’s near me does a great job of packing single-serving size foods. Don’t forget the seafood. You get to do what those of us with larger families only dream of doing…. buy scallops and oysters! Maybe it’s just a Northwestern thing, but I’d need a second mortgage around here to share oysters and scallops with the whole crew. (The kids and I are getting fishing licenses this year though, so we can go crabbing and clamming).

Avoid: Beware of the packed-in-a-cardboard-box convenience foods. They typically aren’t very healthy, and aren’t a good value. If you really love the convenience of a hamburger-noodle casserole in a box, investigate a home-made alternative (this site offers some great home-hacked alternatives). Avoid the takeout every-day routine. Avoid the “I can’t buy anything fresh because I can’t use it all” mindset. Yes, you can use it. With the right techniques for utilizing and preserving, you can use your entire purchase.

Must Haves

Own a toaster oven. You can cook so many things, so much faster, and using less energy. I still have my toaster oven from my single days. Only one button still works, but it’s just what I want when I want to whip up a midnight snack. You can even get “single-sized” bread pans, muffin tins, and cooking pans to make little lasagna, or casserole, without getting a great big dish dirty. It’s perfect for 1-2 servings, and easy to clean up after if you have a tiny kitchen.

Ok readers, time to chime in! Without using a meal-in-a box, how can our single readers eat frugally, and nutritionally?

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For many of us, this kind of annual pressure doesn’t fit our budget, but also, doesn’t fit our lifestyles. You may prefer to focus on the real meaning of Christmas, without feeling like a “party pooper” or wrecking your annual budget.

When my husband and I adopted our daughters, we knew two things—they don’t have the expectation of mountains of presents under the tree, and most importantly, they simply need us—our presence, not our cash. We do very low-key Christmas gifts. Each child gets a Christmas stocking with a few items, usually a movie, mittens, a couple of candies, hair beads, and a small toy or accessory to a toy they already have. This reduces our stress, and prevents them from being overwhelmed. We also make a point to spend a lot of quality time together, talking about the real meaning of the holiday season.

To control your holiday budget, try implementing some of the following ideas:

1. Manage expectations. Nobody needs piles of presents. Trust that “less is more.” It’s more time, more relief, and much less holiday anxiety.
2. Make an effort to spend quality time. See a show (many churches offer free productions of classics like A Christmas Carol), my family especially loves to go see Langston Hughes “The Black Nativity” at a local theatre company. (My kids say it is a lot more fun than the Nutcracker)
3. Be frank with extended family about expectations for travel, entertaining and gifts. Suggest family gifts or a gift exchange in lieu of piles of individual presents. (More on gift exchange ideas later this week). Our parents love to shower gifts on our children, but rather than stuff, they get experiences–we have been gifted tickets to live performances, and memberships to zoos, etc, which provides a year of fun and learning, rather than batteries and “some assembly required,” and for that out-of-town family that we just can’t afford to travel to visit, they are welcome to visit us here, but plane tickets aren’t in the budget–we try to do our out-of-state traveling in lower-cost months like March and September.
4. Nix the office gift exchange and party if you can, or work to downsize it. Who really enjoys those anyhow? One company I worked for that used to throw a gigantic black-tie holiday party downtown and changed up plans with the economic downtown. After a few years of big holiday parties, they held an office party with goofy contests (ugliest holiday sweater) and we had a “regift” exchange, rather than a regular gift. It was a big laugh—quality relaxed time with colleagues without the dozens of uncomfortable spouses or the need to hire a babysitter.
5. Make your own cards. If you haven’t tried Pinterest yet, there’s piles of great ideas for creative holiday cards.
6. Give home-made gifts, practical, or charity gifts. (Start here for home made gift ideas.)

What does the holiday season look like at your house? How do you hope to change your family’s approach this year or in the future?

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In your day-to-day cooking, you are likely throwing away valuable flavor and nutrients every day without even realizing it.
You cut an apple, peel an onion, and cut the hard skin off of a squash before baking or boiling it, or scrubbed the brown bits out of a roasting pan.

If you’re frugal, you’re composting the vegetable scraps, or adding it to a worm bin. If you’re super-frugal, you’ve discovered this goldmine of nutrients can be used one more time before heading for the compost heap.

You can make and freeze stock made from either meat or vegetable bits and scraps and use it as a base for soups, stews and chilis, or even to add flavor and nutrients to those frugal staple potato, rice or pasta dishes.

You can also use stock instead of water to add flavor to a recipe, or instead of beer or wine to reduce cost without losing moisture.

Perhaps you’ve seen stock in the supermarket (or *gasp* perhaps you’ve even bought it?). Usually stored near the soup, you can find fish, beef, chicken, vegetable and mushroom stocks in the supermarket, with prices ranging from $0.10-$0.79 per ouncet. But why buy what you can make for nothing?

How to make soup stock:

Vegetable Stock:

The best way to make a vegetable stock is to save scraps. Peels, from onions, husks from garlic (my garlic press leaves little “skins” inside, so I always save those.) Ends of celery, extra mushrooms and any produce nearing the end of its life in the refrigerator. Shells from peas, stems and even apple cores go great in vegetable stock. (Never use spoiled/moldy produce).

If you have a few cups of vegetable bits, just cover them with water, simmer for 45 minutes, strain and freeze. However, if you’ve only got an onion skin here and a stalk of celery there, just throw it all in a big bag in the freezer until you have enough vegetable bits and time to boil it all at once. Strain and store.

Meat stock:

Bones, ends, and drippings! Use pan drippings, or bones to create a fantastic stock. The easiest way it to start with the brown bits from the bottom of a pan. First, pour off any grease/oils and then heat the pan quickly on the stove. Add a small amount of cold liquid to the hot pan (water, beer, wine, fruit juice, brandy, or even water that you cooked pasta or vegetables in), and as the liquid rapidly comes to a boil, scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon or heat-safe spatula. This will free up the flavorful bits from the bottom of the pan, and allow you to use them again. As an added benefit, the pan will be much easier to clean.

If you have bones or tough meat scraps to use, add the bones and enough water to cover them, and simmer for 45 minutes (fish is the exception—heads and bones go in the water, with the gills removed, but remove as soon as the bones become opaque). Large bones such as hamhocks or entire turkey carcasses may take longer—cook covered in water until the bones come out free of meat scraps. Strain and store.

Storage:

To freeze, pour into plastic containers leaving some head-space (frozen liquid takes more space than solid, so if you overfill your container will break), cool completely in the refrigerator, and then freeze. Alternately, pour your stocks into muffin tins or ice cube trays and freeze, and then pop them out and into a plastic bag for storage until you are ready to use them. If you store your stocks in glass jars like I do, use only wide-mouth jars, and fill no more than 2/3 full, leaving the lid open until the liquid is fully frozen. Be warned that any attempts to rapidly freeze or thaw a glass mason jar will likely result in breakage. They are temperamental buggers.

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That was before we drank the debt-free Kool-Aid. In fact, right after arriving home from Ethiopia with our second daughter, who was very ill, I received my layoff notice. That’s what sparked our debt-free crusade. We asked ourselves, how could we care for these children properly, when we were so financially vulnerable?

Our adoptions were both unusual circumstances, requiring more than the usual fees. Between legal fees, agency fees, home study, fingerprints, notarization and notary verification, dossier, medical checks and vaccines for travel abroad and ever so many plane tickets, the costs were staggering.

There’s no doubt about it, our kids our priceless. Truth be told, I would have done anything in my power to make sure my kids had a family that worked for them—even if it wasn’t our family.

With all of that said, I wish I knew then, what I know now about ways to be resourceful and adopt without debt.

Sure, we did some clever things—friends donated air miles to help us get to Florida over a holiday weekend for our oldest’s adoption (we had only four days’ notice and prices to Orlando were absolutely atrocious). With our youngest, a re-adoption proceeding was required here in the states to finalize her adoption. We completed that all pro se (by ourselves) by completing and submitting the forms to the court without the aid of an attorney—saving us $500-$3,000 depending on the attorney’s estimate. But we missed a lot of opportunities where we could have saved a bundle.

When we felt the call to adopt, it didn’t come with explicit instructions. Ok, so there was, Deuteronomy 28:12 “The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow” but we just hadn’t connected the dots yet. We did the best that we knew how. We saved, liquidated savings, reduced spending and leveraged the adoption tax credit with an interest-free adoption loan.

Ideas for adopting debt-free.

1. Use a no-fee agency. Friends of ours are using Antioch Adoptions. Antioch only accepts Christian families, but they are a ministry organization and do not charge an adoption fee.
2. Use a low-cost program. Many programs have lower costs. Domestic, particularly foster-adopt programs have fewer legal costs, in part because the birthparents’ rights were terminated before the adoptive parent enters the picture.
3. Sell some stuff. Many adoptive families that I know swear by the church rummage sale, or multifamily garage sale. Others E-bay or craft their way through their adoption expenses.
4. Hold a raffle. Many families I know have held successful raffles for iPads, plane tickets, jewelry and more. If you want in on the iPad action, check out this link.
5. Use a commercial fundraiser. Some great fundraising/profit sharing programs exist from MLM-type kitchen products (usually through a friend or family member who already sells) or organizations like Just Love Coffee.
6. Use grants. At least two dozen organizations provide grants for prospective adoptive families.
7. Use air miles. If your adoption involves travel, you may be able to buy air miles, or get donations of air miles to offset all or part of your travel costs.
8. Create Work Parties. The Both Hands Foundation has an innovative way of helping families to adopt: the family creates a work party, and earns their fee by working on behalf of a widow or senior.
9. Get a job. My friend Jennifer is a busy stay-at-home mom of ten (8 at home), and after adopting four children in four years, have been called to adopt one more. Though Jennifer is a military retiree and a professional woman, she wanted to bring home a little more ‘bacon’ without sacrificing time with her kids. To help close the funding gap, she took a job at a fast-food restaurant a few days a week on the night shift. When the kids get home from school and her husband gets home from work, Jennifer dons the hairnet and heads for the golden arches. See Jennifer’s story here.
10. Get crafty. One of my friends raised adoption funds with hand-made dolls. Other friends make Christmas tree ornaments and beautiful artwork.

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But it doesn’t have to be this way. The best “bargain” is where everyone is happy, and where the transaction is conducted in a respectful way. (Oh, and when you get a screamin’ deal).

I never considered myself a bargainer, until I traveled in Africa. There, nothing was priced, and I was subject to” muzungo (foreigner) pricing.” Even my native-language translators couldn’t get a price lower for me. Muzungo prices were almost always 300%+ locals pricing. Using a few strategies, I began to overcome this (though I doubt I ever truly got pricing to match locals’ prices).

Bargaining rules

Here are a few rules about bargaining that I learned while traveling, and have since employed stateside.

1. Always bargain with cash. First, it doesn’t cost the merchant anything to accept it, second, there’s no risk!
2. Know what you’re willing to pay. Always do your research first, and know your top price for the product or service that you’re hoping to buy.
3. 3. Be prepared to walk away. One thing I’m nearly certain of, is that aside from people and artwork, nothing is one-of-a-kind. You can always find the product or service that you’re looking for somewhere else. When in doubt, always walk.

Where to bargain

Overseas (check travel guides). Most cultures expect some bargaining and consider you a fool if you don’t. (Perhaps they’re right?)

With service businesses (carpet, drapery cleaning, auto detailing, construction, etc).

With any major purchase (appliance, automobile, real estate)

On anything used (thrift shop, garage sale)

Monthly contracts (mobile phone, gym, etc)

Credit cards and mortgage companies (on mortgages, get all of your bargaining done before you sign the papers!)

Doctors and hospitals: Try offering payment in full before the treatment. Ask for a 20% discount. Ask for cash discounts.

Be polite! Do’s and Don’ts of Bargaining

Do: Ask for a manager when you can.

Do: Be reasonable. The vendor or service provider deserves to make a profit.

Do: Use cash!

Do: Plan a maximum price.

Do: Buy in quantity or negotiate a quantity purchase. (Consider asking the carpet cleaner for a 30-50% discount if you can get 2-3 neighbors to have their rugs cleaned the same day).

Do: Know if the item must be purchased, or if it is possible to be scavenged or thrifted.

Don’t: Be loud or rude.

Don’t: Bargain with an audience. Be discreet. If you really want that washing machine, don’t try to bargain them down in front of three other shoppers—they’ll all want the same deal, which makes yours a lot less realistic!

Don’t: Use credit or write checks for your deal. Seldom is it a real “deal” this way—the vendor absorbs both risk and merchant fees. See if they’ll let you save the difference, or split the difference.

Don’t: Visit during a busy time of day or season. If you want a new washer and dryer, forget the home store on a Saturday morning—go on a Tuesday morning, when nobody else is there. The daytime sales rep will be eager to meet quotas, and is likely getting poor hours.

Reporting back:

I don’t buy a lot of household items, but in my business I wheel-and-deal like crazy. I’ve purchased several printers for my business (and for others) at deep discount because they are open box or because I’m buying more than one at once. We recently got cash discounts on two medical bills, a dentist and a 15% discount on a major auto service for paying in cash (oh, and two new tires for my husband’s Civic—because we moved all service for both of our high-mileage cars over to one mechanic!)

Here’s your challenge for the week (or month if you don’t have anything you need to buy this week). Set a goal of an item to get a deal on. Give it a try, and report back. I can’t wait to hear your savings!

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My wife hates it.

I don’t mind it, but she hates having to recharge the battery, and it’s small and light, which is nice for stair….but we don’t have that many stairs.

Enter the Eureka Endeavor NLS. It’s not small. It’s not electric. But man can this thing SUCK!

ha ha.

The NLS stands for “No Loss of Suction”.

It’s very powerful, and it worked especially well on our carpet. Though we did use it on our fake hardwood kitchen area as well, and it did pretty good there as well.

Pros

• Lots of power
• Easy to empty (no bags!)
• Surprisingly nimble for it’s size
• Price: $79.88 at Walmart

Cons

• Bulky, and pretty loud
• Lots of plastic

Overall for the price, it’s a pretty darn good vacuum.

And now my wife is happy : ).

Video of Eureka Endeavor NLS

What do you think are the most important features in a vacuum.

Disclosure: We received this vacuum as a review unit to keep. Which is awesome, cause we needed a vacuum! End disclosure.

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Here’s my harvest.

• One very large zucchini.
• Fifteen blue lake green beans.
• Six cherry tomatoes.
• A bumper crop of green tomatoes on the vine—so I harvested some to give the vines a better chance with the rest.
• Five extremely large (read: neglected) pickling cucumbers.

So what to do?

Perhaps it was the stress of this underwhelming produce yield, but I felt compelled to mull this matter over some fried food and a beer, pub-style.

And then it hit me, I had exactly what I wanted right in my farm basket… for a perfect plate of pub food.

I sliced the woody cucumber up, and dropped it in a big bowl of iced saltwater to take the bitterness out. (It did nothing for the woody skin, but it wasn’t too bad, and I could have cut it off).

And then I whipped up a cornmeal-based batter for the green tomatoes.

If you’ve never had fried green tomatoes, you’re missing out. Typically, we think of these as a southern dish—typically creole, but food historians say it likely came with Jewish immigrants in the north and Midwest, then Pennsylvania Dutch also make a version. A classic southern-style recipe is here, but I prefer to use bacon grease for this versus vegetable oil, the way my grandmother did.

The combination of the firmness and tartness of an unripe tomato plus the crusty crunchy friend crust is fantastic. The classic southern accompaniment is shrimp remoulade but I served mine with a salsa of hot sauce, peaches and ripe tomatoes.

Once my tomatoes were done, I had a little batter left, and the problem of a few green beans. So I battered them next. A favorite neighborhood pub used to serve deep-fried green beans, and I think they’re on the TGI Friday’s menu too.

I’ll steam the zucchini with some sweet onions tomorrow. The cucumbers came out fine in their saltwater bath with good texture and flavor.

Fried green tomatoes and green beans plus fresh cucumbers

Yes, we ate a bunch of fried food, but it’s a rare occasion around here, and there is a satisfaction to growing your own food.

PS: Next week, I’d like to do a post on menu and meal planning. Let’s compare menus and meal planning techniques. Do you keep a list? Do you compare weekly or monthly? Before or after shopping? If you have a chance, post a picture of your master meal plan on our Facebook wall or email it to editor@beingfrugal.net. (If you belong to the “winging it” camp of meal planning–I’d love to know that too, and a strategy for keeping costs under control).

Buyer’s remorse

Buyer’s remorse is really just a self-induced, purchase-related guilt trip. I deal with this a lot, but I’m a travel agent for guilt trips. They’re my specialty. Especially the self-induced ones.

Prevention

They say “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” There are some ways to prevent buyer’s remorse.

1. Play the waiting game. I never make a purchase of more than $100 without sleeping on it, and checking with my husband (not because I need his permission, but because he’ll tell me if I’m crazy).
2. Research purchases thoroughly in advance.
3. Avoid emotionally-charged purchases.
4. Work from a list and a budget for in-store purchases.
5. If possible, make purchases online, to avoid impulse purchases and “upsells” (would you like a warrantee with that?).

When those steps fail, (or you fail to implement those steps in time to save you from yourself…don’t worry, it happens to me too), you’ll have to move to “cure” steps.

Cure

1. Return it if you can. All new purchases at my house migrate to the coat closet for a 24 hour cooling off period. No tags are removed or receipts destroyed. I re-inspect my purchases the next day to be sure I still agree with my (yesterday) self. (This has saved me a bundle lately, while I’ve been shopping under stress and while fatigued. I find I don’t make very good choices).
2. Resell it if possible. You might not recoup all of the damages, but Craig’s list, Ebay and more might help heal the pain.
3. Re-gift. Sure, you don’t need the pack of 72 batteries, you only needed the package of 8, but the pack of 72, might go great with your nephew’s handheld gaming system for Christmas. Be creative and keep a “hit list” of guilt-ridden items that can be repurposed.

Ok folks, confession time—what left you with buyer’s remorse lately? I’ll be honest, for me, last time, it was actually eating out. I was in a rush, and needed some quiet time so stopped for a lunch at a diner by myself. Lunch was lousy, the diner too loud to accomplish any work, and I was out $14 that I’m sure I could have put to better use. Unfortunately, I don’t have a cure strategy for this, but if anyone does, I’d be thrilled to hear about it.

What techniques do you use to prevent or remedy buyer’s remorse?

Did you like this post? Then check these out:

• The Housing and Economic Recovery Act: To Take the First Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit, or Not?