# Housewifely Frugality **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 2, 2009, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046 "2009-11-02T13:34:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/181 "2009-11-05T12:35:03Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > Ah, the pantry. As a dedicated room, it seemed to be an “in” thing for those suburban homes with cathedral ceilings and “great rooms” and a bathroom for every bedroom - the sort of homes bought by people who don’t strike me as exceptionally frugal, quite frankly - but what do people do with them, I wonder? I dunno about other people, but I store shit in mine. Flour, rice paper towels, home-made and store-bought canned goods, beer and soda that won’t fit in the fridge, that sort of stuff. Of course, even though our house does have a pantry and a great room and an equal number of bathrooms and bedrooms, it’s not the typical house you find those things in, and we’re not the typical buyers for that sort of house. The house is 60 years old and the result of multiple renovations over decades, and it was one of only two we found that was in the area we needed to live in and had a place we could fence off for the dogs that was grass instead of mud. The other house was half the size and needed serious renovation, and the price difference was a whopping $10K, which wouldn’t have covered the renovations the place needed. Seems like a fairly frugal decision to me. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/182 "2009-11-05T13:00:04Z")
I have an upstairs pantry (a walk in closet thing in my kitchen with shelves - pretty much all the food in the kitchen is in the pantry - cereal, flour, rice, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (Halloween leftovers), canned goods. Spices are in the spice cupboard, the fridge is stocked…but everything else is in the pantry. (My cupboards are stuffed with small appliances and dishes - but no rice cooker. I do own a creme brulee torch, though. A set of cake pans for baking a five tiered wedding cake - which I’ve done several times.). I also have a downstairs pantry - with is shelves in the basement filled with jam, spaghetti sauce, chicken noodle soup, toilet paper, extra sugar. My Dad took my Mom’s laundry room/furnace room and covered the walls with cabinets - that’s her pantry. We do have a Costco membership - which means buying a LOT of chicken noodle soup at a time. So you need somewhere to stick it. Sometimes that’s a special closet called a pantry, sometimes that’s shelves in the basement. ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/183 "2009-11-05T13:07:00Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > That doesn’t always work so well for people who have trouble controlling portion sizes. That would certainly be a problem. I serve it out as a four-person dish too, which simply involves two plates and two plastic tubs. Once it’s all served up, the plastic tubs get sealed and put out of sight in the fridge so nobody’s tempted to go back for more! I would point out, however, that I am following Slimming World’s eating plan and as such, the majority of the dishes I cook are either low in “syns” or are “syn-free”. Technically that would mean that I _could_ eat two portions and it wouldn’t matter, provided I was still within my daily syn limit. ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/184 "2009-11-05T14:08:26Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > And, dammit, I meant to get a spice cake and pumpkin pie mix at Safeway this afternoon, but I forgot! (I usually walk over with my old granny grocery cart - good exercise, and costs us nothing for transportation.) Assuming it’s for the muffins, it’s just plain canned pumpkin, not the pumpkin pie mix in a can. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing it’ll come out way too sweet if you use the canned pie filling instead. ---
**Author:** ![slightly\_askew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@slightly\_askew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slightly_askew)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/185 "2009-11-05T15:57:00Z")
Mom is a great cook and taught me a lot. I was also in 4-H for eleven years, so I learned a lot of cooking, baking, knitting, crocheting and sewing. It’s nice to know that I could make a lined, tailored suit if I needed too, but sewing doesn’t interest me enough to do it. Also learned a lot in Girl Scouts. I’m in my 30’s and 4-H and scouting was popular where I lived. Do kids do Scouts/4-H anymore? Might be a good option for folks who don’t want to/have the time to teach their kids some of these skills. However, I am not a parent, so what do I know. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/186 "2009-11-05T16:03:32Z")
> [@slightly\_askew](#): > > Mom is a great cook and taught me a lot. I was also in 4-H for eleven years, so I learned a lot of cooking, baking, knitting, crocheting and sewing. It’s nice to know that I could make a lined, tailored suit if I needed too, but sewing doesn’t interest me enough to do it. Also learned a lot in Girl Scouts. I’m in my 30’s and 4-H and scouting was popular where I lived. Do kids do Scouts/4-H anymore? Might be a good option for folks who don’t want to/have the time to teach their kids some of these skills. However, I am not a parent, so what do I know. Kids do Scouts, but Scouts doesn’t spend a lot of time teaching housewife skills. A little - but the girls are self directed. So if they are interested in pursuing the sewing badge they can, but most girls are more interested in the horse badge or the swimming badge. And badge work is often self directed, so unless the whole troop goes after the sewing badge, you are going to be figuring it out by yourself or having mom help. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/187 "2009-11-05T16:25:18Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > Ah, the pantry. As a dedicated room, it seemed to be an “in” thing for those suburban homes with cathedral ceilings and “great rooms” and a bathroom for every bedroom - the sort of homes bought by people who don’t strike me as exceptionally frugal, quite frankly - but what do people do with them, I wonder? Our house is a farmhouse from probably the early 1900s (the village records were fuzzy on when that particular structure was built) and has both a pantry and 9-foot ceilings. 🙂 Our pantry stores the ferret cage and supplies, as well as household maintenance supplies and other non-food things. I wish I had more room for food as my kitchen is tiny, but that’s the place that the ferret cage works. A well-maintained, well-used pantry is a thing of delight, but I agree, there’s a lot of possibility that it will get overstuffed, ignored, badly organized, and be more of a headache than a help. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/188 "2009-11-05T16:39:16Z")
I wish I had a better pantry–mine isn’t very well designed and it’s difficult to reach about 1/3 of it. [Here is the pantry I covet](http://theprudenthomemaker.com/awellstockedpantry.aspx)! But I come from a culture that is very big on storing food and rotating it and so on. You can save a ton of money with a good pantry/storage system, but it’s also true that you can waste a lot. I love a good pantry.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/189 "2009-11-05T16:49:30Z")
I haven’t read the whole thread (yet!) but these topics interest me a great deal. So, please forgive me if this idea has already been mentioned. For those of you who like the steel-cut oats idea, you might like what I do for my husband and I (who work at the same place) — make up a batch to last a whole week. Seriously steel-cut oats are just as fabulous warmed up. I make a stockpot full on Sundays — four cups of oats and 16 cups of water. I often toast them ahead of time (just throw them in a heated dry skillet and stir them around until they’re nice and brown) and then cook for about a half-hour. I then bring the whole batch to work in either a large reusable container, or, more recently, a gallon freezer bag. I heat our portions in the microwave, and we top with applesauce and walnuts. I may have shared this at some time in Cafe Society too. ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/190 "2009-11-05T16:54:12Z")
**Ellen** , I do the same thing sometimes, but I do it in the crockpot overnight, and they’re fabulous for breakfast that first day, then re-heated the rest of the week. Sometimes I throw in apples and a cinnamon stick, or cranberries, or pumpkin, depending on what’s around the house. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/191 "2009-11-05T17:11:24Z")
> [@Lissla\_Lissar](#): > > **overlyverbose** , I want the chicken-rice-curry-rice-cooker recipe, if there is a recipe, and you’re not just winging it. Thanks. 🙂 Sure thing. Let me dig it out and I’ll try to post it today. I tweaked a recipe from the instruction booklet that came with the machine (it was a tad bland at first). ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/192 "2009-11-05T17:34:07Z")
I’ve tried doing oats in the crockpot, but they come out too overcooked-tasting for me. Perhaps I undercook them a little; they’re still slightly grainy, which is just how we like them. My mom bought in bulk and had a basement cabinet dedicated as an overflow pantry, so doing the same seems natural to me. My husband loves to buy in bulk for the simple reason that you don’t have to buy so often; paper towels is a good example. I spend a lot of time wondering why I manage to work full-time and make a sit-down dinner six nights a week, as well as prepare lunches in advance for both my husband and I (most weeks). I had about decided it is mostly because I like to cook. Now I’m seeing that it partly may be due to the fact that I merely know how. I’m thrilled my older children are interested in helping in the kitchen now. They sporadically helped at younger ages but now, at 12 and 14, they’re actively interested in helping out. My son, the 12-year-old, last night cut up and cored the green peppers for stuffed peppers, as well as minced the mushrooms for the stuffing. He also halved the little golden potatoes for oven-roasting (I forget what they’re called). My daughter emptied the dishwasher and set the table. All I really had to do was prepare the stuffing, stuff 'em, and snap and steam the green beans. Beverage duties were also attended to by one or the other of the kids. I love having slaves. I mean adolescents. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/193 "2009-11-05T17:37:01Z")
> [@tacoloco](#): > > Now that you mention that stuff, I guess I do know my way around the kitchen pretty well. I’m 48, so I guess between my Mom and my wife, I’ve absorbed more than I knew. I also had Home Economics classes in middle school, which I doubt the typical curriculum even includes today. They do, actually, at least at my kids’ school. Though it’s an elective, not mandatory. Both of my kids (one boy, one girl) have taken the “Family and Consumer Science” class which involves a bit of different things including cooking and sewing. My son is also enrolled right now in a gourmet foods class where they’re cooking slightly more adventurous stuff. I’ll admit, I rarely sew on a button. This is partly an overreaction to having been pushed into learning to make clothes, when in high school; I never really enjoyed that so now it’s like pulling teeth to get me to pick up a needle and thread. I do know how, though, I’ll have to make sure my kids know how also. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/194 "2009-11-05T17:44:12Z")
I do have to admit to being clueless about some cleaning tasks though. In all seriousness, my mind shuts down when I need to clean a bathroom. Mom always had a cleaning lady when we were growing up so she never made me learn, and we also have a cleaning lady (under the argument that we both work full-time, I have medical issues that make me tired ALWAYS, and this is one area where it makes sense to delegate). I _can_ manage the task if we’ve got company coming over, but I know I’m doing things inefficiently and taking 5x as long as I should. Maybe I should offer Mrs. L. an extra 30 dollars each visit if she’ll make the kids do the work for her :D. Win-win - kids need to know the skills, I can’t teach them well, and Mrs. L. gets to relax. Whatever could go wrong with this plan? ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/195 "2009-11-05T18:00:43Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > … > Hell, some frugalities actually _save_ time, on balance. Since daycare costs took a 20% chunk out of our budget, I was looking for places to trim a bit of fat from, and realized that my daily Tim Hortons breakfast regimen was costing me $160/mo. Now, I make my breakfast sandwiches in the morning and bring coffee in a thermos, and this brings my cost for the same things down to well under $30. You’d think that this would be a trade-off on convenience, but now that it’s habit, it’s clear that it’s actually much more convenient to do this at home. The detour to Tim Hortons every morning added almost a half hour each day. Going over there, waiting in line, waiting for them to prepare my order, going back… This all takes much longer than the couple of minutes it takes me to do it myself. By making my own, I save $130 \*and \*ten hours per month. > > I think that most of the time you hear people declare “I haven’t got time for that!” it’s because they either don’t have a clear idea of how little time it actually takes, or because they haven’t actually tried to find a way to fit it in before declaring that it’s impossible. And I think it’s a now-vs-later time planning thing, also. With your example, if you buy breakfast, you’re saving 5-10 minutes at xx time (the night before, during the morning out-the-door craziness etc.) and spending 10-20 at yy time (the wait at Tim Horton’s). To change that, you have to plan on having the ingredients at hand (30 seconds per week), purchase said ingredients (another 2 minutes per week during your grocery run), etc. In other words, PLAN. Which is something a lot of folks aren’t too good at (myself included) and it costs us money and often time. I’m eating a peanut butter sandwich for lunch today. Cheaper, faster, and healthier than walking across the parking lot to McDonalds. But if I hadn’t taken the extra minute at the grocery to buy the PB, and the extra minute this morning to grab bread from the loaf to bring to work… Big Mac to the rescue (blech). If I could do even better with the planning, I could have a really nice cold-cut sandwich, or even some yummy leftovers. But there’s that mental block - that doesn’t free up enough time at 7:30 AM to pack a lunch. It’s hard to change habits. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/196 "2009-11-05T18:25:22Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > When I was a kid, I thought I only liked rice at Chinese restaurants. Later, I figured out that my mom bought Minute Rice, and that’s why I didn’t like rice at home… Sisters separated at birth! My mother raised us on Minute Rice. I was an adult (well, college-age) before I realized rice could actually be enjoyable, as opposed to simply a conduit for gravy (which was from a can or a packet of mix also). Mom actually cooked a lot of stuff from scratch, I guess she just never learned to make rice when she was growing up. For some reason, I also had a lot of trouble learning how to make real rice. Always burned it, or whatever. I got a rice cooker… and have used minute rice perhaps twice since then (when I forgot to start the real stuff and we didn’t have time to wait for it). Even the spendy Basmati stuff is cheaper than the store-brand instant rice. My kids will hopefully never use the instant stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/197 "2009-11-05T19:33:03Z")
We always had Minute Rice when I was growing up. (My dad also preferred to use Potato Buds [eccch]; luckily my mom made real potatoes when she cooked.) When I left home I decided I wanted to try cooking different things than the folks did, including the “real” versions of many of the fakes they preferred because they were cheap. One of those was real long-grain rice, and I never went back. Until . . . . . . we moved into this house and had only minimal appliances for a while, so for some reason I bought some Minute Rice because I thought it would be easier or something. Made one batch and threw out the rest of the box. Yucko. (My folks were usually pretty frugal and cooked from scratch most of the time, but occasionally they made some very odd choices, like the Potato Buds. And don’t get me started on my mom’s homemade sugar-free cocoa mix. It was vile.) ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/198 "2009-11-05T19:36:15Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Maybe I should offer Mrs. L. an extra 30 dollars each visit if she’ll make the kids do the work for her :D. Win-win - kids need to know the skills, I can’t teach them well, and Mrs. L. gets to relax. Whatever could go wrong with this plan? My mother - who is a SERIOUS cleaner (not OCD level, but one of those 'cleans the entire house in three hours people) was my nanny this summer. And since the kids had Grandma - who will yell at them and who doesn’t let them do fun things until everything is tidy - they actually did a lot of housework. My son cut the grass every week, his sister handled the weedwacker. They cleaned the basement and had a garage sale. They kept their rooms picked up and helped vacuum, dust and clean bathrooms. They helped with meals. Next year my mother said “you’ll learn to do laundry!” ---
**Author:** ![Snowcarpet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowcarpet/32/257_2.png) [@Snowcarpet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowcarpet)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/199 "2009-11-05T19:37:43Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > It’s funny how that “crafty and impractical” homemaking stuff comes in cycles - a few weeks ago I saw a _darning egg_ at Wal-Mart, because knitting socks has become fashionable. A darning egg! Which I’m sure was a staple of the 19th century big box store equivalent, but has been unheard of for decades. Not in my parent’s home 😉 The darning egg-on-a-stick-thing lives in the kitchen in a little glass (for bigger heel-holes) with it’s accompanying needles and threads. My father darns his socks, and has for all of my 30-some years… Yes, he is a freak. In his defense, he wore steel-toed boots for years, and they were hell on his socks. He would have lost several pairs a week, all for a few minor holey-toes. My mom is a seriously BAD seamstress, despite her mother’s guidance. I think this is natural lack-of-talent though, she knows HOW, she just doesn’t like to, and she’s not talented at it. She can’t be trusted with the socks, she makes lumps. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046/200 "2009-11-05T19:39:53Z")
I suspect that for some of us “of a generation” real rice was an “ethnic” food in an era where there wasn’t a lot of ethnic foods on the average American table. And where the modern science of convenience trumped the old fashioned. Minute Rice is superior science, it must be good. (see also: Potato Buds, Bacon Bits, Carnation Instant Breakfast, and baby formula as a standard way to feed kids). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/housewifely-frugality/516046.md?page=11)