A “No New Clothes” setback

No, I didn’t slip up and buy something new. But yesterday while editing the police briefs at work, I discovered that a manager of one of the Fort Wayne Salvation Army stores is facing theft charges for pocketing a couple of deposits he was supposed to take to the bank.

This bums me out, because when clothes at the Salvation Army or Goodwill are priced higher than my garage-sale calibrated target prices, I compensate with money from our charity fund, effectively converting part of the “purchase” into a “donation.”

So now I’m wondering: Did part of our charity money go to this thief? The police brief named the guy, but didn’t say which store he managed. At any rate, I’m not abandoning the project, though it is a blow to my morale.

Bracing for financial impact

We like to joke that Ben’s braces are worth more than either of our vehicles. Technically this is no longer true, since we upgraded our minivan this fall. But not by much: His braces cost around $3,000 -- so far -- while we paid around $4,500 for the van.

The second phase of tooth transformation will likely cost another $3,000 a couple of years from now, assuming we comply with his orthodontist‘s recommendation. Meanwhile, I find myself thinking: Why didn’t we get a second opinion on this expenditure?

The car dealer was willing to accept the fact that we wanted a mechanic to look over the van before we made a decision. Is there any reason an orthodontist wouldn‘t be willing to pit his or her advice against that of a would-be rival?

I’m embarrassed to say the thought never even occurred to me during our initial consultation. Unlike our vehicle-buying process, which was methodical and devoid of emotion, I was dodging all kinds of anxiety vibes that day.

An initial consultation with an orthodontist is usually free, but by the time they start taking X-rays and drawing up treatment plans, you're already in for several hundred dollars. So to start at square one with a second orthodontist would be fairly expensive.

You could ask to take copies of X-rays and the treatment plan to a second orthodontist, but then how do you know whether the second orthodontist isn't just trying to get your business?

Another option is orthodontic2ndopinion.com, which is run by a veteran Los Angeles orthodontist who will examine your X-rays and treatment plan and report back to you within 10 days, according to the web site. The cost: $175.

The orthodontist, Harry Aronowitz, DMD, gets a four-star rating from an L.A. doctor/dentist review site called doctoroogle.com, which notes that he is a member in good standing with the California State Dental Board.

You could also check with a dental school in your area, if you have one. If nothing else, ask your dentist what he or she thinks.

Feeding the budget symbiont

Our dining-out fund is like one of those parasitic creatures on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” completely reliant upon its host body -- in our case, the grocery fund -- for sustenance. The only time it gets “fed” is when we beat our weekly spending target. Then whatever’s left over goes to the dining fund.

Some weeks I’m the only one who pays much attention to this process, even though I post the figures regularly on our fridge “scoreboard.” But when the dining fund accumulates enough money that the kids foresee, say, a trip to the Chinese buffet in our near future, they become fixated on what we can do to chop our grocery spending. Instead of nagging me that we need milk or cereal, they’ll suggest we mix up a pitcher of powdered milk and offer to eat oatmeal.

This week we came in $12.08 under our grocery budget, which we set at $90 -- $15 per person per week.

One of the things we avoided buying was noodles, even though we had chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes for dinner one night. When Grandma Linda makes this traditional Midwestern dish (which Grouchy Dad calls a "starch-on-starch stockpot") she probably spends $10 on a big can of chicken meat, noodles and brand-name cans of chicken broth. We used two cans of store-brand chicken noodle soup, bullion cubes, and five leftover lasagna noodles.

My plan was to soften them up in the broth, then pull them out and cut them into noodle-sized pieces. But I left them in too long and they disintegrated into their own odd shapes. Ordinarily the kids would’ve rolled their eyes at this odd looking topping for their mashed potatoes, but not this week. This week everybody’s got their eyes on the prize.

Win free groceries for a year

Here's a contest you can actually feel good about entering: It's run by farmersfeedus.org, and to enter you have to watch a short video about a real farmer in your state. (Participating states: Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan and Missouri.) I watched one about Nathan Kuehnert, a Fort Wayne dairy farmer whose farm is now in its fifth generation.

Thanks to Dawn from our Live & Learn online homeschool users group for tipping us off about this contest

The Ultimate Cheapskate responds

In a previous post I reported on our failed attempt to boil eggs in the dishwasher, as described in Jeff Yeager's "The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches." He concurs with my speculation that while variation in water temperature may be a factor, the most likely discrepancy is simply personal preference:

"I like my soft boiled eggs cooked for 2-3 minutes, close to the consistency of the photo on your blog," Yeager writes. "Of course, I grew up in the rural Midwest, drinking egg in my beer, and I still love nothing more than cracking a raw egg directly into a bowl of hot soup and soaking it up with some stale bread. I'm sure health officials frown on all that, but it sure tastes good and it's an affordable, quality protein.

"BTW, I came up with the idea of cooking eggs in the dishwasher many years ago, when I was traveling in Japan and heard stories of how, in days gone by, Japanese wives would bring a mesh net filled with eggs to the communal, hot spring baths in the morning, and soft boil the eggs for their families as they bathed. As a result of mentioning the dishwasher method in my book, I get a fair number of people who write to me to say that cooking eggs in the dishwasher is 'disgusting.' I feel like saying, 'If you think that's unappetizing, just be glad I don't cook them in the bath tub with me.' "

If you want to read what Yeager is up to these days, check out his weekly "Green Cheapskate" blog at www.thedailygreen.com.

Do-it-yourself dishwasher soap

We tried a homemade dishwasher detergent yesterday, and it worked just as good, in this one test, as what we normally use. Haven’t yet calculated the cost, but since I was able to make it with materials we already had on hand, it was worth it if for no other reason than it saved me a trip to the store. It was easy to make, and easy to use.

The recipe, which I got off a website called thriftyfun.com*:

Mix 2 cups Borax with 1 cup baking soda, and store in a container. I filled both compartments with this mixture, then filled the “rinse aid” portal with white vinegar, as instructed.

*Recipe was posted by user Nelliemary from West Virginia, who cited Mary Janes Farm magazine as her source. Here's where I saw it, and here's where you can check out the magazine.

Fired any groceries lately?

In an era when office cutbacks mean those employees still on the payroll must now be able to do two or three other jobs in addition to their own, it’s time to take a look at your pantry and ask: Are your groceries earning their keep?

Take cooking oil. Whether it’s canola, corn or the murkily labeled “vegetable oil,” this is one grocery item that does its job and then some. Pour it in the cake batter, then use it to grease the pan. You can also whip up a salad dressing, oil a squeaky door hinge or deep fry just about any food that you think would be improved with extra crunch and calories. Don’t know what to do with those leftover Halloween candy bars in the freezer? Plunge them into a vat of boiling oil and hawk them at a festival for 10 times their original cost. Then recycle the used oil into biodiesel fuel.

Now compare that pantry performer with another item taking up shelf space: say, Pop Tarts. You can eat them, if you want to start your day with a sugar rush devoid of nutrition. They can quiet a whining child. If they get stale enough, I suppose you could use them to shim a wobbly table. But after that, their versatility begins to wane.

As the kitchen boss, which of those two would you keep on the pantry payroll?

Here are some other All-Star Pantry Performers I’d keep on a skeleton crew:

Graham crackers make a great low-calorie snack Can also be used for:

·s’mores
·graham cracker dessert crust (just crush them in a plastic bag)
·sandwich cookies (fill 2 halves with peanut butter or a simple icing of milk and powdered sugar)

Oranges are juicy, tasty and so full of Vitamin C they ought to be stored in the medicine cabinet. Other uses:

·Scrape off the orange skin (but not the white part, which is bitter) to make orange zest.
·Once the oranges are gone, toss the nylon mesh bag in the drawer where you keep kitchen sponges and pot scrubbers. Next time you need to scrape dried crud off a pot, just ball up the bag, scrape off the gunk, then either toss it in the trash or run it through the dishwasher to use again.

Corn Flakes are one of the least expensive cereals around; my target price is 99 cents a box, and when I find them at that price, I stock up. Other uses:

·A teaspoon of sugar transforms them into a lighter version of Sugar Frosted Flakes.
·Crushed flakes can do the work of bread or cracker crumbs in most recipes.
·Substitute for Special K in Special K bars.

Powdered milk is a great substitute for regular milk, if you happen to run out. Just make sure you chill it firstt. It‘s also convenient for baking, so that you don‘t use up the milk supply in the fridge. Other uses:
·Mix 1 dry cup with 1 cup rolled oats and half a cup each of peanutbutter and honey to make a fantastic trail snack we call honeyballs.
·Paint.your house, using the recipe in “Paint Your House with Powdered Milk,” by Joey Green.

Vinegar is great for cleaning your coffeemaker, and when you’re done, you can pour the hot mixture down the kitchen sink to knock loose crud buildup that can lead to clogs. Volumes have been written on this pantry performer’s versatility, but here are some of the things I count on vinegar to do for me:
·Convert regular milk to “sour milk” or “butter milk” for certain cake and pancake recipes. Just add a teaspoon to a cup of milk.
·Turn regular old cooking oil into a serviceable salad dressing.