This is an old recipe we use when we want something like Quesedillas, but we haven't enough tortillas left to go around.  It's a flexible, what-do-you-have, -add-a-little-more-of-this, -this-sounds-good, sort of recipe.

Chop up a goodly amount of any combination of these sorts of vegetables.  You'll want enough to feed your family at least one serving:

onions
bell peppers, green, yellow, and red (I buy bags of these frozen, as it's cheaper than the fresh peppers most times of the year)
green onions
hot peppers (we don't do these)
A little bit of leftover chicken or beef, if you have it.  We usually don't.
slice tortillas in strips, and then cut the strips in half.  This is easiest if you roll the tortillas up and then slice them. It doesn't matter how many you have.  We generally do this when we have less than one tortilla per person.  It also works for older, dried out and tearing tortillas.
Tomatoes if you have them
black olives if you like them in your Mexican food
Grated cheese

Stir fry the onions in a hot skillet.  Add garlic and a bit of chili powder or taco seasoning.  I usually start with the onions because we like ours very well cooked, and then add the peppers because we're usually using already cooked, but frozen peppers.  Add the meat, if you're using it, and continue to cook and stir until it's heated.  Now, make sure there is still plenty of fat in the skillet, and add the tortillas and stir these as they fry.  When they are golden brown, add tomotoes and/or salsa, stir until heated through, and then top with grated cheese and olives if you want them.  The amounts don't matter- what do you have on hand?  What seems good to you?

Serve this with sour cream and more salsa, and of course, cilantro if you have it.  In spite of the chopping involved, it's a fairly easy lunch to make for a crowd of hungry children, and it's pretty filling.  It's easy to adjust to what I have available in the refrigerator, and it's a nice way to use up the last of the tortillas without anybody feeling slighted.

We had a salad of odds and ends on the side- diced zucchini, corn cut off the last corn on the cob that nobody finished, dill, and a bit of ranch dressing.

And then we had a jello-dessert.

There was about a cup of a fruit salad leftover from a birthday bash, and one container of yogurt.  I made jello the usual way (it was cherry), except I used a handful of ice-cubes instead of cold water for the quick-set version.  I diced the rest of the fruit (mostly peaches, strawberries, and cherries) and stirred that and a container of peach yogurt in and chilled until set.

What are your favorite 'use up the leftovers' recipes?

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Two bachelors go to the store for beer and toilet paper.

At checkout, they learn that they only have enough money for one item.

"Which do you want?" the cashier inquires.

"We'll just take the beer," replies one.

"Ok.  Paper or plastic bag?"

They answer in unison:  "Paper."

Maybe beer isn't on your shopping list, but you have to admire their flexibility.  Has the need to be frugal ever led to a humorous situation for you?

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Perhaps that's why I always see the red, white, and blue on super-clearance by the end of the month. Last year, I picked up some rustic Americana paper plates for 10-cents a pack. They looked just country enough to go with a dinner basket or picnic.

As you do your regular grocery shopping, keep an eye out for post-holiday items that can be used  for other occasions.

• stars
• red, white, and blue sprinkles
• bunting
• plates, cups, napkins, straws

Do you have any frugal holiday hacks to share?

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One idea in the 'frugal philosophy' cateogory is how to accurately calculate the 'WOW' factor of things we want but don't really need- because there's nothing wrong with buying things you want but do not need if you can afford it.   It's just a good idea to make that decision based on a realistic assessment of what you're spending and why.    Sometimes we have spent a little more on something because we had the cash and we liked the more spendy option- it has a 'wow factor' for us.  After you determine if you can actually afford an item, the next step is to compare the costs of the two options, and think about whether we get three or five or ten or whatever the ratio is, times 'the wow' out of the spendier buy. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't, and when we don't, we don't even feel deprived anymore when we decide that extra item does not offer a big enough wow.

The Tightwad Gazette, volume three, is where Amy talks about this.  The example she gives  is watching free movies from the library compared to going to the theater.  Movie tickets for two are around 15.00, but it is more fun to watch a movie in the theater than at home on the DVD player.  However, a free movie from the libary is... free.  Does watching the movie in the theater provide you with fifteen times more WOW than watching it at home?  If not, you should probably save your money and do something else.  If it does and you can afford it, then go to the theater without guilt.  For us, it depends on the movie and the circumstances.  Sometimes the big screen, the surround sound, the specific movie, and even the company along for the movie might make the WOW factor of the theater worth it, other times (more often than not), we're willing to wait for the DVD.

You can do this with big and small things.  Calculate the cost of a can of beans vs the cost of dried beans, for instance (it's roughly four times as much to buy a can as it is to buy dried and cook it- though this may vary with your cooking fuels).  Is it four times better for you to have the convenience of a can of beans over making up a big batch of dried beans and freezing the extras for later convenience?  It's fine if it is.  It's just better to be as informed as possible about the decisions we make.

So what are some "WOW factor" items where the "WOW" makes it worth it to you spend more?   What are some other things you've learned you enjoy, but they don't really have a big enough punch in the WOW department to make them worth it to you?

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Three engineers and three accountants were all taking a business trip together by train. The accountants each bought a ticket, then watched as the engineers pooled their money and bought a single ticket. The accountants wanted to know how they were all going to travel with just one ticket. The engineers smiled, and one of them said, "You'll just have to wait and see."

When they boarded the train, the three engineers all crammed themselves into one bathroom and shut the door. When the conductor came around, he knocked on the bathroom door and said, "Ticket, please." One arm shot out of the bathroom handing the ticket to the conductor.

On the return trip, the accountants thought they would try the same trick. They pooled their money and bought only one ticket. They watched and noticed that the engineers didn't buy a ticket at all. One accountant asked, "How do you guys think you'll manage to ride the train without any tickets?' The engineers smiled, and one of them said, "You'll just have to wait and see."

On the train, the three accountants cram into one restroom, and the three engineers all fit into another one. Shortly after, one of the engineers leaves his restroom and goes to the room that the accountants are in. He knocks and says, "Ticket, please."

Some of us go farther than others when it comes to being frugal.   Taking home ketchup and sugar packets;  sneaking food into theaters;  buying more than the stated limit on a sale item; taking advantage of offers several times using other names or email addresses.

What frugal practices do you think are unethical? Why? What controversial practices do you think are OK?

Let's keep it courteous and be slow to take offense.  If somebody else thinks you're crossing a line but you can honestly act in clean conscience, we can agree to disagree, right?

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We finally bought a vehicle to replace the old station wagon. We did our research, we combed the ads, and we ended up with a price that was well below Blue Book Value.

So why do I feel so bad?

Buyer's regret and I are old friends. Every time we've bought a house, I spend a month afterward mentally cataloging its every flaw. I keep checking the real estate ads for what I could have bought instead.

Buyer's regret and cheerful frugality don't mix. Buyer's regret steals the joy of a job well done. Buyer's regret makes you focus on "What if?" instead being grateful for what we have.

I'm trying to use buyer's regret as an opportunity to be cheerful, myself:

• We now have a vehicle that can haul furniture, mulch, and friends for the kids.
• We now have a reliable second car, which is more than most people have.
• We paid cash, and we could sell it for more than we paid, if necessary.
• The air works GREAT!

Have you ever let buyer's regret spoil your cheerful frugality?

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The weather is in the triple digits, and milk left out for half an hour goes bad.  Salad wilts in 20 minutes.  Bread left open is stale in the blink of an eye.

My kids waste food, and it's happening more and more quickly as the temperatures heat up here in south Texas.  We needed to find a solution fast!

The solution:

I now charge 50 cents every time a child leaves food out or fails to properly store it.   There are always ways to earn a quarter or two in our home, so if a child doesn't have 50 cents she must drop what she's doing and earn it.

The fines they pay for wasting food are ostensibly to replace the food they waste, but in reality the change just goes toward the next little job so they'll have money the next time.   That's ok; it's not about the money.  It's about teaching them to be good stewards, and I have high hopes that they will soon remember to put the lid back on the peanut butter.

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Mulberries, and now black raspberries which can be treated the same way.

Two extra little boys, ages five and two. They visit many weekends, but this visit has had them here for nearly two weeks, and the five year old (we call him Blynken) asked me tonight if he could stay for a hundred nights. The two year old spoke to his mother on the phone and told her he wanted to stay too, but she shouldn't cry about it, he would come back sometime (he is very precocious). Beds for the boys are a bit problematic because the 2 year old is an acrobatic sleeper and falls out of beds, and the boys aren't quite secure enough to be put to bed in some empty room and feel happy about it. They want one of us with them. We don't all go to bed at decent hours, and the boys are accustomed to early nights and very early mornings. Soooo- their 'bed' has been a very nice, thick, cushy mat- it's really for wrestling on, but I picked it up cheaply at an auction. We can put this on the floor in any room, put a quilt down for a bottom layer and another quilt or sheet for the top and the boys are portable.

The quilt they sleep on is one I picked up at a yard sale. It's not terribly pretty, but it is very comfortable and very versatile. In the spirit of what's in my hand, I have used this quilt on the blanket to picnic on, as a tablecloth, spread beneath a table so kids can play with playdough and keep the floor clean, and to cushion breakable things when we've moved.

Also in hand, all these ways of keeping cool in the summer without breaking the budget. I don't remember if I included it in that post, but another way we keep cooler indoors is the use of foil window shades for cars- you know, the kind you unfold and set on your dashboard, blocking the sun from entering your windsheild. I picked up several of these one fall when they were marked down to a ridiculusly low amount. I put them up in the windows that get the strongest sun, and I know it drops the temp in that room at least several degrees.

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After 40 years of hard work, a man retired with $9,000,000, which he had gained through courage, diligence, initiative, skill, devotion to duty, thrift, efficiency, shrewd investment, and the death of an uncle who left him $8,999,999.50.

Did you ever lose on a "sure" investment, only to find unexpected blessing elsewhere? We have one of those stories.  I'll bet you do, too.

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Granny Tea tells me that even though her family lived in town, they owned a cow that they boarded at the outskirts of town- just at the edge. When her father got home from work, the family would drive over to the edge of town and milk their cow. One milk cow produces more milk than most families can drink in a day, and even with butter and cheese making, the occasional crock or jar of milk would go sour. It was a wasteful housewife indeed who would throw out milk just because it was sour, so she made sour cream (which we now buy on purpose from the store) or used it up in a recipe calling for sour milk.

One of our kind readers emailed once to ask me if I really did use sour milk, milk past its sell-by date and slightly off in taste, in recipes calling for sour milk. I really do. Because my husband works at a grocery store, he sometimes bring me home a carton or two of the stuff, and then it's free. I use it in any recipes calling for buttermilk. It makes great biscuits and pancakes. You can also use it for these cookies (this recipe is from another reader):

Sugar cookies
cream together:
1 C shortening
1 1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

add:
2 tsp soda
1 tsp salt

alternately blend in:
4 C flour
3/4 C milk (I used sour milk as you know

makes a very sticky dough, roll with lots of flour if you're going to use cookie cutters, other wise, drop by spoonfuls and flatten with the back of a floured spoon, a butter knife, or a potato masher.
Bake 350 for about 7 minutes; they will be a soft cookie, bake longer if you like them a little stiffer or crisper.

Here are some very old family recipes using sour milk:

Inside a cedar trunk full of all kinds of treasures, I found an old graph paper notebook full of math and physics homework and in the middle of the notebook was a section labeled "Favorite Recipes," dated February, 1901. We are guessing it might be my great-grandmother's and, ever thrifty, she used her children's homework papers to copy recipes. But it doesn't quite look like her writing either. Perhaps it belonged to my great-aunt when she was in high school. At any rate, here are two ginger bread and one spice cake receipt(s) as copied down in 1901:

I think the two different measures of butter in the spice cake recipe are because she made an adjustment after making the spice cake, but that's just a guess. The 1/2 cup is the later revision. Don't you love the ambiguous 'spices?'

According to the 1911 cookbook, The Royal Baker and Pastry Cook, (I blogged about it here). Baking powder renders the need for cooking with sour milk unnecessary, but I think they're selling something.=)

A recipe for shortcake is introduced by this long paragraph:

"[O]ld-fashioned fruit short cakes were generally made with flour, soda, sour milk, and shortening, and were restricted to the strawberry season. We now use Royal Baking Powder for lightening them, employ all the fruits of the various seasons, and thus feast ourselves upon the delicate confections almost the whole year through. The short cake made with Royal Baking Powder and sweet milk is incomparably better, surer, and more healthful than the old-fashioned concoctions. Too much skill was required in combining soda and sour milk. The milk had to be at just the right stage of sourness; not a grain more of soda could be used than was sufficient to neutralize the acid in the milk, or the cake would be yellow, with a disagreeable odor and soapy taste; if too little, the cake was heavy.

Perhaps this was true with raw milk, but I have only once had cookies, biscuits, or pancakes made with sour milk turn out to be less than delicious, and then I do think we had waited far too long to use the milk. At any rate, it seems if you are going to cook with sour milk, you should leave out the baking powder.

God bless, and have a joyfully frugal weekend!

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