WFMW: Freezer Shopping

I really like a good excuse for take out.

I may menu plan and rant up and down about how we need to stay on budget, but really ... I am easily persuaded away from the menu (I'm working on it, I swear!) by the slightest inconveniences sometimes. The primary of these is the "6pm Dinner Despair" moment when I realize everything I'm supposed to have cooking is still frozen. Grr. This used to mean dinner was pushed aside in favor of sandwiches or food from a can (eeewww!) or in worst case scenarios: take out.

So often we get hung up on the same missteps over and over again. When this happens here, I like to walk backward mentally through the situation in an attempt to find the source of the problem. Then, rather than saying, "I really need to remember to defrost things in the morning" or "I wish we could get this dinner thing figured out", I can find the real whatever that needs adjusting. In this case, the problem was not taking things out of the freezer. Remembering to do this every morning, especially when my chest freezer lives in the basement of our detached garage because our ancient house's electrical cannot handle it and the washing machine, was nary impossible. Worse, in the winter. Who really wants to trek through 4 feet of snow every morning to find that night's dinner parts? Ugh, no, apparently not me.

The solution?

Freezer Shopping!

Every Sunday afternoon, after I write the menu out, I make note of what I need from the outside freezer on a sticky note, grab a grocery tote and the pair of knit kids' gloves I keep stashed in a cubby on my desk (because I always finish the menu at my desk ... logical next step location for them ... and no one else makes off with them that way), and head out to pull out the items I need. I grab everything we will need for the week, and bring it into the house. Meats go in the drawers in my fridge to defrost as the week progresses. Veggies go in the regular inside freezer because they get weird if they defrost for too long before cooking. As the week progresses, everything is at least basically defrosted enough to use when it comes time for dinner prep. I'm loving it, honestly.

Now, I will need a new excuse for take out. Any ideas ...?


Simply,

Em.

For more Works for Me Wednesday, check out We are THAT Family.

WFMW: The Back Up Box

I like free things. I especially like free things that come in the mail. Occasionally, I get wicket insomnia and sit in my computer into the wee hours strolling through the interwebs looking for freebies I can sign up for instead of staring at my ceiling not falling asleep anyway. I only go for the completely free deals ... no "sign up for 2 offers" or whatever nonsense going on here. Sometimes its a foil packet of a new shampoo or conditioner. Other times its a fancy schmancy granola bar I'd never pay full price for. Some weeks the mailman doesn't bring us any free goodies. Other weeks you'd think it was my birthday everday when I go out to get the mail.

Now, my love of free things does not override my love of organized, neat, tidy looking spaces. The stack of freebies almost immediately (and we're talking years ago now ...) outgrew the mail spot, the shelf in the bathroom, the kitchen counter, etc. We were living in a much smaller house at the time, and although I loved getting free goodness in the mail, I did not love having to move it, find it, organize it, search for it, or any other time consuming, sweat inducing, irritation creating endeavor. Alas, the Back Up Box was born.

It started as an empty case of Pepsi with the top pieces of cardboard torn off. It's what happened to be on the floor in my kitchen the day I nearly had a stroke about my freebie abundance and its plan to overtake my house with its foil packets and sticky glue dots. I simply tossed everything in the box, labeled it "Back Up" and started referring people to it (my family, not so many strangers wander in and ask if we have an extra dryer sheet ...) when they needed something we were out of. The Back Up Box predates the coupon stockpile in this house, so when we were out of shampoo on only the 3rd of 5 showers, we were simply out. There was no trip to the basement to find a new bottle on a well appointed shelf like here is now.

The Back Up Box to the rescue!

You could easily root around in the samples for a minute, find a tiny bottle or packet of shampoo, and be back on schedule. This happened when we ran out of bath products, snacks, and sippy cups (thank you, Juicy Juice and your free sippy cup sending). We once happened to have a formula sample (how, I have no idea ... I stay up late ... who knows how these things happen ...) when one of our friends came by with his kiddo and not enough powdered gold (yuck, fyi) for the kid and its enormous appetite. When Be had to hit the laundromat because our washer tried to die, we didn't have to worry about hauling our 1876 lb industrial laundry detergent along (ok, not really, but it is reaaaaaallly heeeeaavvvvy). I dug into the Back Up Box and out came a handful of detergent samples ... easy, breezy, lemon squeezy.

I love my Back Up Box, and time and time again, it works for me.


Simply,

Em.

WFMW: Condiments Galore!

For more WFMW, check out Rocks In My Dryer.

Photo: zen

In the past, when packing school or work lunches, I would squirt a bunch of the lunch-bearer's favorite condiments into tiny little plastic Tupperware containers and toss them in the bag. Nearly every lunch left the house with a wee fistful of those little buggers since we don't 'dress' sandwiches when packing them to prevent squishy nightmares at lunchtime. It's a good plan in that everyone can have what they want in their lunch, however it has failed us miserably on more than one occasion.

The lunch box gets left over the weekend in someone's desk with remnants of mayo left unused and forgotten ... a joy to clean out on Monday night when it finally makes its way home. The condiment containers have spilled, both because the lids didn't make it on tightly and because they simply bumped up against too many other things and came loose ... another evening spent trying to scrub mustard out of a nylon lunchbag. Or, my personal favorite, the person will not grab the containers, which have inevitably (and magically) wandered off in the middle of the night to some back corner of the fridge to party it up with their full size compadres ... leaving a complainy lunch eater with a dry sandwich or salad.

At the same time, when ever we got take out there would be a massive pile of those little packets of whatever sauce or substance is supposed to go with your food. There were always approximately 843 more of them than any one person needs in one meal, and at the end of the night they would make the trip from the counter to the trash can with the rest of the 'dishes'.

Then, it kind of hit me one night ... wouldn't it be fun to have those little packets in your lunch instead of potentially spilling, woefully oversized, and requiring a utensil to use containers? Ah ha! It's the simplest thing, really. When we get take out, the leftover sauce and condiment packets go in a plastic shoebox sized container on a shelf in the pantry. When I make lunches, they get tucked inside. Easy peasy! Plus, it's kind of fun to have mini-sizes of things you wouldn't think to pack in a lunch ... hot sauce, soy sauce, relish, and the like. It makes lunch more interesting, it keeps the lunch eaters in this house happier, and it saves me from doing extra dishes. Oh, and did I mention that the whole endeavor is free?! Hooray all around!

I mean, really, have you ever tried to scrub mustard out of nylon webbing?


Simply,

Em.

Welcome to Works-For-Me-Wednesday: Wrapping Paper Edition!

For more WFMW posts, check out Rocks In My Dryer.

Every year on the morning of December 25th, my heart sinks a little. I love seeing pretty presents stacked under a tree. I love taking the time to make them crisp and clean looking with modern papers (always found on clearance after the holidays) and hopefully not too squished bows. Wrapped presents make my (semi) OCD very happy indeed.

Then tragedy strikes, because eager present loving people that they are, my family is not the nicest or gentlest group when it comes to unwrapping gifts. They don't slip the tape off at the seams. They don't slide a package out at the ends. Nope. Every one of them tears the living goodness out of my precisely selected gift wrap.

And my crunchy-green-hippie-frugal self dies just a little.

Not only do I hate to see beautiful boxes torn asunder, I really cringe every time I think of the money spent on wrapping paper in the first place ... only to have a giant pile of it labeled "trash" at the end of the day. I could, like many a frugal present wrapper, attempt to convince my family to calm it down a bit so that I had a chance at saving and reusing the paper next year. I could, indeed, but this presents a number of challenges.

1. My family is still a bunch of very eager present loving people. They are not easily convinced of anything, most especially that one should not tear wrapping paper to bits.

2. My (quasi) OCD does not like trying to puzzle piece old wrapping paper onto new gifts which are invariably different sizes than the paper was cut for leading to pithy looking edges or an inevitable waste of paper from cutting things down to size.

3. I already have a stash of cardboard tubes, glass jars, styrofoam trays, and empty butter bowls to rival a recycling plant. They come in handy for an infinite number of projects and do-dads. Adding wrapping paper to that stash would possibly push my (lame/limited/failing) ability to keep what I already have organized over the edge. I wouldn't be here to blog for you as I'd be buried under a pile of pretty bow paper and cardboard boxes in my basement.

... but what is a crunchy-green-hippie-frugal girl to do?

This year, I have found the solution. Staring at the pile of crumpled paper, then staring at the woefully inadequate packaging in my holiday decor storage tub, I had an epiphany.

Wrapping paper is like tissue paper with a couple more layers. Aha! Instead of trying to salvage the years old, fraying, likely no longer useful as cushioning tissue paper in the ornament boxes (buying new tissue paper is of course out of the question, haha), we wrapped up the ornaments in the used gift wrap. I put the white side in as to not get any color transfer just in case, and it worked sublimly. I think I like it better than tissue paper honestly, and short of surrounding them all in bubble wrap (which is an expensive plastic nightmare), it's a pretty rockin' solution. Wooohooo!

Dillemma: Resolved.

I get to wrap pretty presents. My family gets to tear them apart like rabid wolves. I don't have to cry about killing trees for fun AND my tree ornaments don't get broken justling into each other on their yearly trip up from the dark reaches of the basement. Everyone wins! Yay!

What works for you this Wednesday?


Simply,

Em.