food waste "friday" #2

a month later, i cleaned my fridge for the second time.  ahem.  i think i keep telling myself that if i don't clean out the fridge, that the stuff moldering in there isn't *really* there.  i'm sure there's stuff that we threw away in the interim, but i tried to restrain myself until i was ready to take a picture, so hopefully it's fairly comprehensive.  (i did have a few failed cooking nights, which i don't think i'd necessarily count as food waste.  the saddest was 6 potatoes, 1 onion, and 2 bell peppers that turned into glue rather than hash browns for breakfast burritos.  there's just nothing you can do with that.)

not as bad as i thought it might be!  we have a cup of sauteed mushrooms that matson didn't like and that i couldn't find a cover for ($1), so they shriveled in the open fridge (whoops), a cup of cut up mango with wheat germ that mats wasn't in the mood for and that i forgot to address later ($1), a container of bitter quinoa because i forgot to rinse it before cooking ($2), some bits of baby finger food that mats kept not eating and finally got stinky ($negligible), month-old pureed spinach ($1), leftover rice ($negligible), a bit of steak fajita that got shoved to the back of the fridge ($2), and some leftover ground beef that HAD been in the freezer but was thawed for mac n cheese but not used in full and left in the fridge ($1.50).  the beef didn't stink, but it's been in the fridge for long enough that i wasn't going to risk it.

on the plus side, i get a lot of leftovers containers back!  on the down side, according to my ball-park estimates, that's $8.50 wasted.  i just checked my last post, and would estimate that one at about $6 wasted, which brings us to:

2012 cost of food waste: $14.50

score one for frugal

not in the food waste category - i haven't cleaned out my fridge since that first post three weeks ago.  oops.  coming soon, though.

in the clothing category, though, yes!  scott carries a soft leather briefcase to work and school - he has his laptop in it daily, and schoolbooks to read on the train on class days, so it gets a workout.  we got him a nice leather bag a few years ago, and it was working great until a few weeks ago when the little leather tab that holds the d-ring for the shoulder strap snapped.  not so useful without a shoulder strap (it does still have handles, but super cumbersome, especially on school/train days).

we went back to the outlets this weekend, were totally misled by signs that said, "final clearance!  70% off lowest ticketed price, whole store!"  sounds like that'd be 70% off of everything, right?  nope, just clearance items.  the first bag scott picked out was $120 after any discounts, the second bag was $70 but on the verge of being too small.  we went ahead and got it, but my thrifty self wasn't thrilled with the solution - why were we paying so much money for a bag that may not even be a good fit?

i was looking at the old bag when we got home, though, and got to thinking ... might this be fixable?  i took it to the tailor across the street from us on monday, and lo and behold - yes!  but at what cost?  $14.  kid you not.  (i had to run home to grab the d-ring, and when i got back the guy said, "okay your total will be $21."  since he had told me $14 literally 5 minutes before, though, he honored his original estimate.  i felt kind of bad because i want to support a local business and i know they need to earn their living ... but you can't change your price like that.)

so, after this fix and a nice polishing by me (the leather's looking a little worn), his old bag will be good as new, for a savings of $56 over the price of the new bag!  holla!

scott's party input

scott got home around 10pm last night from class, and as i was telling him that i had started brainstorming time for matsy's party, he very helpfully said, "i was kind of thinking a south pole theme.  bring in a couple dozen penguins.  some artic icecaps."

to which i replied, "oh that's good.  except that arctic means north.  antarctic would be south."

"it's ice, the penguins won't know the difference.  maybe some polar bears, too.  hmm, except that polar bear eat penguins."

me, "also north, so no they don't."

scott, "what, really?  you always see polar bears and penguins together.  they don't eat penguins?"

quick google break in which i confirm that i am correct - polar bears only live in the north, penguins only in the south, and that polar bears eat seals, not penguins.

scott, "well then, we won't have to worry about the penguins being eaten!"

so helpful, this husband of mine.

party planning

matson turns one (can you believe it??) in a mere two and a half month!  being a planner, i've already started brainstorming what kind of first birthday party i want for him.  philosophically, though, i'm not into crazy huge extravagant themed events.  okay really, i'm not into themes in any facet of life - even with his nursery i really just wanted a cozy, cheery space and decorated it accordingly.  nor do i have any intention of doing a big birthday party every year for him (or any kid) - i think a big celebration for the milestone birthday like 1, 5, 10, 13, etc sounds good, with the in-between years just being fun, special days.

but i digress.  what do i want in a first birthday party?  i want it to celebrate matson making it to a year and all of the firsts that we got to enjoy with him this year.  i want it to be fun, festive, cheerful, but not stressful, over-the-top, or expensive.  i want it to be a celebration of his life, not a venue to get more toys.  i want it to be personal and colorful and exciting and to be a way to show our friends and family all of the things we love about our little man.  he's curious, and active, and sweet, and charges head-first at life.  he's our little dinosaur!  (he actually responds to dino as much as he does to his own name - haha.)

so ... how do we get from here to there?  we have friends over all the time, and while that's fun and all, i want to make this somehow separate from that.  some pinteresting, some googling, and then i discovered young house love's post about their girls' first birthday party.  perfect!  it's festive, it's personal, it's cheery and fun, and it's theme-free.

my takeaway ideas from yhl:

• post our matson-by-the-month pictures for viewing pleasure
• balloons!  colorful balloons!  (okay, i had this one down without them.)
• finish his first year video before the party to share with everyone
• share foods that are special to us - like pizza since that was my major first trimester craving, or steamed peas since that's matson's favorite food.  (hmm, might need to figure out a more fun food for him!)
• work the dino thing in there somewhere fun but subtle ... maybe little plastic dinos as a party favor for the kiddos?
• start a simple tradition that we can carry forward even in non-party years

so much brain food!  now to go get my real dino some real food.

food waste friday #1

my friend kelly and i decided to take the frugal girl up on her invitation to join her on food waste fridays, wherein you clean out your fridge/pantry each week and take a picture of the food that has gone bad that you have to toss.  the idea is that by taking a picture and sharing it, you'll be motivated to waste less food - and also that you'll be going through your fridge regularly enough that you'll find food to use before you waste it.  perfect in keeping with my #7 resolution to finally get my grocery budget under control!
anyone else care to join us on this endeavor??

without further ado:

in sum: a few random black olives from a looooong time ago, half a container of homemade pesto from one of my sisters-in-law (it was so good, too!  darn me), a bit of vanilla yogurt still lingering from my friend alison's visit when mats was 6 weeks old, some gravy from thanksgiving, half of a lime, a bunch of cilantro (let's be honest, who can ever finish one of these bunches??), one crunchy taco shell that i was going to save but that got cracked when i was wedging it back into the pantry, and the saddest part: most of a container of goat cheese.  (i got two containers from whole foods as a topping option for grilled pizza bar for tapestry lunch a few weekends ago, we used one, and while i tried mightily to use this one on subsequent dinners, it was blue and just smelled off this evening when i went to use it for salad.)

really, not nearly as bad as it could have been!  i did discover a few lurkers in the back corners of my fridge, though, so hopefully i can stay on top of it and have a good showing next week!

(this is also a good motivator to get my kitchen cleaned up!)