Welcome to day four of the June Food Stamp Challenge. Today's focus is on food waste. With food prices so high, there's simply no excuse for food waste in the home. Regular readers of The Non-Consumer Advocate already know that the food waste issue is near and dear to my heart. Two years ago, I...
I am an independent person. I like to do things for myself, and can become quite bristly when others try and take over on my tasks. I do believe that this tendency has stood me well through the years, and has been a key aspect of my successes in life. My husband and I have...
It's time again for Non-Consumer Mish-Mash, where I write a little bit about this and a little bit about that. A New Discovery My son and I were driving home yesterday from finally ordering his glasses, (yay!) when I noticed a store that had somehow escaped my notice. Not only was the parking lot full...
The following is from an e-mail I sent to Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish in relation to an article she's writing. It's in response to a Marketplace radio piece about how green products are now being marketed as money savers and good for you, rather than the traditional "good for the planet." It's a bit...
The last couple of weeks have been fairly hectic at casa Wolk-Stanley. House guests, staycation, a debilitating heat wave and work have meant that I haven't been as focused as normal. (And keep in mind that I'm a bit spacey to begin with!) A direct result of all this was a fair amount of food...
I should come as no surprise that I kind of groove on the phrase "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." This phrase, which I believe to be a depression era saying pretty much sums up how I want to be living my life. Here a a few examples: Today...
Sometimes I wonder if there's any separation between regular Katy and Non-Consumer Katy. Is there anything I do that is unrelated to my Non-Consumer lifestyle? My days off are spent cooking from scratch, hanging laundry, finding free or cheap entertainment, playing with my kids, puttering in my garden of free plants and partaking of the...
I have written before about how I keep an eye out for certain items, but I haven't connected how the manufacturing glut makes this task as easy as throwing together a batch of my black bean burgers. A prime example came this weekend while perusing a neighbor's garage sale. My mother had asked to me...
Today was a pretty typical Saturday. I didn't have anything planned, but I still did a lot. In the morning, my 11-year-old son and I went to the large appliance store to get a refrigerator box to convert into a play house. He's been bugging me to do this on an almost daily basis for...
When I started up the waste-no-food-challenge last May, I had no idea how much food waste I would be able to divert from our well fed compost pile. No longer do my leftovers languish in the back of the fridge. Gone are the days when my heads of lettuce transformed to liquid. (C'mon, admit it....
When I read about frugality, one tip that I see repeated over and over is weekly menu planning. And yes, I see the appeal of knowing that Sunday is pot roast, Monday is spaghetti, and Tuesday is pizza. But I don't buy it. I consider myself to be the Queen Empress of frugal cooking, yet weekly...
There's a certain phenomenon that seems to be starting to occur with regular frequency. People are sending me things in the mail. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving this occurrence. Sure I'm trying to declutter my house, but who doesn't love boxes of gifts that magically appear on the porch?! It started innocently enough with...
I had written about the Consumer Product Safety Commission lead and phthalates safety legislation that was to go into effect on February 1st. The initial ban has been delayed, but some of the rules are to take immediate effect anyway. I have tried to keep up on this issue, as I am both a proponent...
Burritos, chili, soups. You guessed it, my family eats a lot of bean based meals. They're cheap and tasty, healthy and easy. (Pretty much everything you can ask of a food product.) I try to be forward thinking and fire up the slow-cooker early enough in the day so that I don't have to...
Welcome to day two of Thrift Week. Today's topic is food waste. With food prices so high, there's simply no excuse for food waste in the home. Regular readers of The Non-Consumer Advocate already know that the issue of food waste is an issue near and dear to my heart. I issued a Waste No...
I just got back from visiting my sister Jessica in Seattle, which was a lot of fun. We wandered around area museums, watched stupid library movies, and cooked and ate a number of delicious meals. Even though I've known her for 40 years, there's always something new to learn about her. For example: During...
I didn't know what would happen when I first presented my Waste No Food Challenge in May. Sure, I figured I might end up tossing less food into the compost, but I've actually learned how to almost completely stop food waste in my home. We cook and serve smaller amounts of food, eat...
Enjoy having people over but dread the expense of entertaining? Do you shudder at the word potluck? It's time to get over that, toot-sweet! There are so many different ways to entertain within a budget without sacrificing anything. And no, you don't have to throw a potluck. (Unless that's what makes your heart...
Life as The Non-Consumer Advocate often involves doing without. For example, I choose to not buy anything new, make meals from random bits of refrigerator contents and mend/repair instead of replace. Please don't think me a total practitioner of self-deprivation. I treat myself very well indeed. My latest self indulgence? Chocolate covered digestive biscuits. (More British...
I wrote a few days back about how I have an embarrassing tendency to let perfectly good food go to waste. I'm so good about being the queen of frugal with my grocery purchases, but it doesn't take Allen Greenspan to see that it's not exactly good money management to allow your leftovers to rot...