R.I.P., My Faithful Friends

In a society where products seem largely designed to break down less than a year after purchase, it's increasingly rare to have a long-standing relationship with most of your "stuff".

That makes it doubly heartrending that I need to say goodbye to not one, but two of my hardest working and long lasting possessions:

#1: My Hiking Boots:

I'm sure that at least one of my kids was still in diapers when I bought these boots. The youngest is now 12, so I'd say these boots are somewhere between 10 and 12 years old. They are perfectly broken in, and have carried me in comfort through countless kilometres of tromping through the woods and trudging through the city streets running errands on foot. Unfortunately, they have suffered a fatal injury that my local shoe repair guy deemed unfixable. I know they look fine from the top - it's the heel and sole of one of them that's wrecked. You can't tell from a quick look at it, as my husband rubber cemented it back together after the shoe repair guy handed down the death sentence in an attempt to make them barely functional until I can find a replacement pair.

I'm really going to miss these boots. I knew they probably didn't have too much life left in them, but I thought I was going to get 1-2 seasons more out of them, otherwise I would have started searching for a new pair much sooner. It's going to be hard to replace these old friends!

#2: Our Blender:

This humble machine has lasted us nearly 20 years, withstanding all manner of abuse by both of my smoothie-obsessed kids, not to mention the many batches of soup it's pureed in the last 2 decades. I remember buying this blender with my husband when we first moved in together during our college/university days, paying for it entirely with Canadian Tire Money we'd stashed away (for all you non-Canadians, Canadian Tire is a national hardware store chain, and they give you a percentage of each purchase back in Canadian Tire "money", which you can then use to buy whatever you'd like!). Amazingly, it's not the motor that's shot - it's the glass carafe, which has several chinks out of it, plus it's not sealing properly and liquids are leaking out the bottom. We've replaced a couple of different parts over the years to extend its lifespan, but at this point I think the motor's days are numbered and it's really not worth it to replace all the other parts that need replacing.
Of course, I'm even more bummed that both of these hard working objects decided to call it kaput during our No-Spend Month. In fact, remembering the crazy week we had during our last No-Spend Month back in October, I'm beginning to wonder at the wisdom of declaring No-Spend Months! I think I'm probably just more acutely aware of extra, unexpected expenses during these months, as I'm sure they happen during the rest of the year, too.

I may not end up replacing either the boots or the blender until my No-Spend month is over, unless I find a fabulous deal on a suitable replacement before then.


In an age of planned obsolescence,  I honour both of these items for serving me so long and so well.

Farewell, friends! May I find worthy successors for both of you.

Help Me Spread the Word About My Book - and WIN A COPY for Yourself

I need a little help from you - and in exchange I'm giving you the chance to win one of two copies of my new book, Cheap Appétit: The Complete Guide to Feeding Your Family for Less Than $400 a Month (While Eating Better Than You Ever Thought Possible). I made half a dozen recipes from the book just yesterday - I really do consider the 125+ recipes in the book indispensible in my kitchen, and I hope they will be in yours, too!

If you would like a chance to win a copy, do any of the following:

1. "Like" Cheap Appétit on Facebook (1 entry).

2. Share a link to the book listing (Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon UK or Barnes and Noble) and/or the book page on my blog on Twitter, Facebook or other social media (1 entry for each place you share it).

3. Share a link to any of the listings and/or the book page on your blog (1 entry).

4. Recommend the book for purchase at your library (3 entries). You'll need the book's ISBN number to do this, it's ISBN-10: 0982780397 or ISBN-13: 978-0982780398 depending on which one they want.

5. If you already have a copy of the book, write a review on Amazon (3 entries). Wouldn't it be nice to win another copy to give away to a friend or relative that could really use it?

6. Share a link to this giveaway post on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or other social media (1 entry for each place you share it).

Be sure to leave a comment letting me know which of the above activities you've completed, along with your email address so I know how to contact you if you've won.

You have until Monday, January 23nd at midnight EST to enter and I will announce the winner Tuesday January 24th!

This contest is open to all residents of Canada and the continental US (sorry, international readers!). I will be drawing the names the good old-fashioned way by pulling them out of a hat (the random number generator is just no fun!).

Thanks for your help, and good luck!

Weekly Menu Retrospective #54 + Upcoming Giveaway

Welcome to my weekly roundup of the past week's eats. I prefer to report what we ate in the last week, rather than what we're planning to eat in the coming week. Why? The reason is pretty simple: although I usually have a general idea of what we're going to eat in the next week or so, life often unfolds a little differently than planned, and I adjust my menu plan on a near-daily basis to accommodate leftovers and other not-possible-to-plan-ahead circumstances. I find this is the easiest way to ensure that I minimize our family's food waste. I'm also willing to admit that I'm a rather spontaneous cook, given to preparing foods that strike me as the most appealing thing to eat right here and now!

BOOK UPDATE: My book, Cheap Appétit : The Complete Guide to Feeding Your Family for Less Than $400 a Month (While Eating Better Than You Ever Thought Possible) IS NOW AVAILABLE on Amazon (Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon UK) and Barnes and Noble.  I've started putting page references to recipes that are in the book in my menu plans so you can locate them quickly. For more details about the book, go here. 

Breakfasts: Rhubarb Streusel Muffins (p.97), apple cinnamon pancakes, Granola (p.92), Upside-Down Apple Oven Pancake (p.95)

Lunches: leftovers, pizza, sandwiches

Dinners: 

Monday: Macaroni & Cheese with Ham and Peas (p.174)

Tuesday: Big Batch of Black Bean Chili (p. 160)

Wednesday: Spinach, Bacon and Cheese Egg Puff (p.181)

Thursday: Turkey Casserole (based loosely on my Turkey Pot Pie recipe, p. 175, with a mashed potato topping)

Friday: Spaghetti

Saturday: Make-It-Your-Way Potato Hash (p. 140)

Sunday: Pork & Apple Stew (p.156)

For more great meal ideas, check out Menu Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com. And come back on Wednesday to find out how you can win your very own copy of Cheap Appétit!

15 of My Favourite Posts from 2011 That You Might Have Missed

Photo: anat_tikker/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I've had a lot of new readers join me over the past few months, so I thought I'd take a minute to highlight what I feel are some of my most useful posts from 2011 so you can catch up on anything interesting you may have missed! As I took a look back on the year, I discovered several posts that even *I'd* forgotten that I'd written, so even my most loyal readers may find something here that they didn't catch the first time around :)

Why It's Worth It to Bake Your Own Bread

How to Make Your Own Menstrual Pads in 5 Minutes

5 Ways Decluttering Saves You Money

Beat the End-of Winter-Blahs with a Do-It-Yourself Spa Night

Energy Medicine: Frugal and "Green" Self Health Care

5 Ways to Save Money on Fruits and Vegetables

Six Natural and Cheap Ways to Freshen Up Your Home

A RE-USE IT PROJECT: Hockey Stick Muskoka Chair

Fresh, Local Food for Free: Starting a Produce Cooperative

My Successful Soapnuts Experiment

Five Ways Having Money Can Save You Money

Clean, Green - and Cheap?!?

The (Sorta) Secret Second Lives of My Stuff

Make Your Own All-Natural Lip Balm for Less Than 25 Cents a Tin

Happy Reading!!

Accomplishments, Goals and Another No-Spend Month

 Photo: Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot/FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

I guess it's finally time for me to admit that the holidays are over and a new year has begun! 2011 was a *very* busy year at our house, and I promised myself that I'd take a bit of quiet time after Christmas before jumping back into the rhythm of my usual routine.

In 2010, I shared my top five frugal successes of the year, and I wanted to do a similar look back on 2011 to see what I'd achieved in the past 12 months. As I took a look back, I realized that our family accomplished much more than I'd realized in one short year: 

1. Paying off our last credit card balance: Yes, it's a bit embarrassing to admit, but we did have an outstanding credit card balance we've been working on paying off. Rest assured that we didn't run it up on big screen TVs or other frivolous purchases. Let's just say we were in a really tight spot financially a while back, and had some expenses we had no other way of dealing with at the time. It took a good deal of discipline to finish paying off the balance, but we did it! 

2. Writing a book: I finished my book, Cheap Appétit: The Complete Guide to Feeding Your Family for Less Than $400 a Month (While Eating Better Than You Ever Thought Possible), which I actually started back in 2010. Writing a book is a long and sometimes very frustrating process, and I have to admit there were more than a few times I just wanted to chuck the whole thing out the window! So I'm thrilled it's finally here - a real, live book at last! While this is a satisfying accomplishment for me personally, book sales will also provide a source of passive income for our family. 

3. Paying cash for a couple of large purchases: We made a couple of major purchases in cash in 2011 and receiving substantial discounts for doing so, saving us several hundred dollars.

4. Discovering soapnuts: I wrote about this inexpensive, eco-friendly and effective alternative to laundry soap here. I'm so glad I decided to give soapnuts a try - they are quite possibly the best thing that's ever happened to my laundry!

5. Making my own lip balm and hard lotion: One of my goals for 2011 was to continue finding homemade and inexpensive solutions for more of my personal care products. I'm very satisfied with the homemade lip balm and hard lotion I made a few weeks back (instructions here). Hurray for adding two more low-cost and effective personal care products to my repertoire!

Goals for 2012:

I'm not one for setting New Year's Resolutions as I don't think they're effective. What I prefer to do is to pick one big thing to focus on for the year, and doing as much as I can on a daily or weekly basis (depending on the type of goal) to bring myself closer to achieving it. Last year, my big goal was to finish writing my book, which I managed to squeak out with a couple of weeks to spare at the end of the year! This year, my husband and I have decided to focus on working on our house. We've lived in this house for eight and a half years now, and while we knew it was a fixer-upper when we bought it, we'd like to tip the balance so it starts feeling less fixer and more upper! We did do some work on the house in 2011, including installing a banister in the front hall and continuing to work on improvements to the backyard. We're currently at work on the next round of renos in the front hall, so I hope to be able to share updates on that area later this month! If you want to see the complete list of our DIY projects, check out my Domestic Arts & DIY page for links to all the relevant posts.

January = No-Spend Month

I did a fairly successful No-Spend Month back in October, and I've declared January another No-Spend Month to kick off the new year. After the relative indulgence of the holiday season, I'm more than ready for a break and look forward to a month of buying as little as possible! I'm going to try and keep grocery spending as well as general household purchases to a minimum. We kicked things off with a $55 grocery bill this week (not bad as we didn't buy groceries the week between Christmas and New Years!), which was further reduced to $30 as we had a $25 gift card we received from a generous neighbour over the holidays. My husband has also accumulated $20 worth of free gas (through the "rewards" program of the gas station he frequents) and we have another $20 gift certificate for a local grocery store on the way (received through redeeming Air Miles). We will need to purchase some supplies to complete the front entranceway project, so I'm excluding those expenses from the "no-spend" challenge as we need to get this reno complete ASAP. I'm hoping that our lack of spending in other areas will offset the costs of completing this DIY project!

Book Update:

Before I sign off this post, I'd just like to give a quick update about my book! It's now available for purchase on the following sites:

Amazon.com: click here
Amazon.ca: click here
Amazon.co.uk: click here
Barnes and Noble: click here

I'd also like to ask a favour of those of you who do purchase the book (or have already done so). If you enjoy the book and find it useful, it would mean a lot to me if you would review it on Amazon. It doesn't have to be long and involved - a couple of sentences and a star rating would be really valuable! (A note about the Canadian listing - it says it will ship in 1-2 months, which is definitely not the case - it should read 1-2 days and we're working on getting that fixed!). We're going to be doing the big "official" launch for the book in a few weeks, and having some positive reviews online will help make the launch more successful.

What are your favourite accomplishments of 2011? 

Do you have big plans for 2012?

My Favourite Holiday Pie

I know most families have a "must have" dessert that absolutely needs to grace their Christmas table to make the holiday complete. For many of us, it's a pie that fits into this category, and it's no different at my house. I first made this Cranberry-Apple Pie several years ago and it was such a huge hit with everyone it's now our traditional holiday dessert. It's such a festive colour and a perfect blend of sweet and tart - the ideal combination to finish off Christmas dinner!

Cranberry-Apple Pie

Pastry dough for a double crust, 9" pie

1 1/2 cups cranberries (fresh or frozen)
1 1/2 cups chopped, peeled apple
1 cup raisins
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of salt
3/4 cup water, divided
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp rum extract (optional)

Instructions:
In a medium saucepan, combine the cranberries, apple, raisins, butter, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/2 cup water. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10-15 minutes (until cranberries burst). Combine cornstarch and remaining 1/4 cup water; add to saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, until filling is thickened. Remove from heat and add rum extract (if using).

Roll out half of the pastry dough and fit into a 9" pie plate, leaving extra pastry around edges of plate. Add filling. Use remaining pastry dough to make a lattice topping (instructions here if you need them!).

Bake pie at 400F for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. I like to give this at least an hour to cool before serving so it's not too runny. Serve topped with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

I shared this recipe at Full Plate Thursday. 

Looking for more great recipes? Check out my recipe index (scroll down the page a bit to get to it) and my brand new book!

My Christmas Gift Plans This Year

 It's just over a week until Christmas - which seems to be the point every year where I wonder if I have everything I need to "pull it all together" gift-wise for the season.

So I thought I might as well share my gift plans for this year - it will help me sort out how well prepared I am (or not), and perhaps give you some last minute ideas as well!

WARNING: GIFT SPOILERS AHEAD! If you're on my gift list, please stop reading NOW :)

Hubby is getting a dress watch (which is not a surprise as he helped me pick it out!) and a 10 class pass for my hot yoga studio (he has come with me a few times in the past and hinted more than once that he might like to come with me occasionally).

My 14 year old son is getting a Nerf gun and a pair of slippers (two items he specifically requested).

My 12 year old son will also find a Nerf gun under the tree, plus a toque with his hockey team's crest on it (again, both items were specific requests). Extra bonus: the hat is made by a local company that is owned by a family in our neighbourhood!

Both boys will also find a new pair of gloves under the tree, which they did not request but definitely need!

In addition to the above, I'm going to be making up a "gift certificate" for a family night out (dinner and a movie). We rarely eat out *or* see movies in the theatre, so this will be a special treat (my kids still talk about the last time we did a whole dinner-and-a-movie evening as a family, which was several years ago!) 

Stockings:

We all love our stockings around here! One year when things were really tight, my hubby and I decided not to do stockings for each other - and we really missed them. So I don't think we will try skipping them again :) 

For the boys: mini-flashlights (for camping), some of my homemade lip balm, $5 gift cards for Tim Hortons (we have one in our neighbourhood and they love to go there with their friends), vouchers for tickets to a Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL) game (my husband got these for free!), plus assorted candy (some will be homemade, and some will be leftovers from what we bought to fill their Advent calendar). I also have a deck of "Things Every Teen Should Know" cards for my older son and a stocking-sized book of challenging mazes for my younger son, both of which I picked up at yard sales this summer. It's a tradition in our family that an apple and a couple of clementines go in the very bottom of the stocking, so that should just about fill them! Santa will also be leaving each of them a book beside their stocking (both of which were yard sale finds). 

For hubby: He will also find lip balm and homemade candies in his stocking, plus the "His" soap from The Guelph Soap Company (which is made less than an hour away from me). I still need to track down a few other things for him - he's pretty well stocked up on toiletries so I'll need to get creative - suggestions welcome :)

My sisters-in-law are getting my homemade lip balm. Last year I gave them all a little pampering gift of some homemade cleansing grains, and I want to make it a new tradition to give them a little nurturing treat every year (we don't officially exchange gifts, so I want to keep it small!). I am going to have them all packaged up fancy with cellophane and ribbon like the one in the picture in the bottom right corner. Doesn't that look like an elegant little gift for 25 cents?

My dad and grandmother will both be receiving photo calendars that I bought through an excellent deal on Groupon (I got two high quality calendars for a total of $20, including shipping!). They will also be getting copies of my book, of course :) I have been making each of them a gift basket of baked goodies and canned goods for years and years, so this year will be no different in that regard (the top right photo shows one of the baskets from a couple of years ago). This year's baskets - which are usually repurposed clementine orange crates - will include Sweet Potato Pound Cake, Cran-Raspberry Jam, dill pickles, sweet pickles, salsa, Candied Peanuts, Coconut Neapolitan Candy and Christmas Granola.

Most of my friends and I don't exchange gifts through mutual agreement - we'd rather just enjoy each others' company, and relax with some cookies and hot beverages! We also stopped buying gifts for our nieces and nephews a couple of years ago since we all felt the kids already got way too much "stuff" and we didn't need to add more. Since we've scaled down the gifting, I've noticed that our gatherings feel more relaxed and enjoyable without the present-opening frenzy - and the cousins have plenty of fun just spending time together.


I do have one close friend that I've maintained a gifting tradition with, and we also buy gifts for each others' kids as well. I always do up a big food basket for her and her family, and usually give her a modest personal gift or two. This year, it will be my book plus a basket of assorted personal care goodies - some Apricot Citrus soap from the Guelph Soap Company, plus homemade lavender-grapefruit sugar scrub and a little sample size of my homemade deodorant (which I'll also do in the lavender-grapefruit scent). For her kids, I have some good hardcover books plus some Christmas activity and colouring books. 

Wow, I think I am actually almost ready for Christmas - I still have a couple of things to whip up in the kitchen, and I haven't started wrapping yet, but I definitely won't be running around in a last minute shopping frenzy!

If you still need a few ideas for easy and inexpensive gifts, check out my Ten Quick and Easy Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas. And my book is now available on Amazon.com (still waiting for it to go up on Amazon.ca - sorry, fellow Canadians, I'll keep you posted!) 

Are you "ready" for Christmas? What's going under your tree this year?