Are salads necessary year-round? (a Tightwad Gazette post!)

We’re starting on page 520 of the Complete Tightwad Gazette today, and here we find an article with a, “Salads aren’t necessary year-round” thesis.

Save Money, Toss the Salad

Her main point is that it’s possible to get your nutritional needs met without purchasing salad ingredients; more wintery vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes can provide lots of nutrition, and so can frozen vegetables (which obviously make for very poor salads.)

Amy points out (rightfully so) that in times past, people ate more seasonally out of necessity. Salads happened in the summer, but in the winter, people ate carrots, squash, potatoes, and cabbage.

I will say: I’m always a little hesitant about arguments based on past human diets/behavior; just because people did it in the past doesn’t mean it was ideal. I mean, people survived on salt pork and beans in the winter, but I personally would never choose to do that kind of seasonal eating!

Still, I do agree that if winter salad ingredients don’t fit in your budget, it is still very feasible to feed yourself nutritiously by buying hardier winter veggies + frozen veggies.

Dry-Cleaning Costs

Is it just me, or was dry-cleaning more of a “thing” back in the days of The Tightwad Gazette? I feel like putting, “Pick up the dry-cleaning” was a more common item on housewives’ to-do lists in the past! 😉

Amy shared some tips for saving on actual dry-cleaning, but the two main ones I use are these:

1. Don’t buy things that need to be dry-cleaned

If I look at an item and discover it does actually require dry-cleaning, I generally won’t buy it. The only exceptions: things like outerwear. I don’t mind dry-cleaning a coat once a season; coats don’t sit on your skin so usually they don’t get funky in a hurry.

2. Ignore dry-clean-only instructions

Honestly, I think sometimes manufacturers put “dry clean only” instructions on tags just to avoid liability. I have bought multiple items over the years that said “dry clean only” but I looked at the fabric and thought, “Nah, this is gonna be just fine on a delicate cycle with line-drying.”

And so far, I have ruined nothing by my judicious flaunting of cleaning labels (key word being judicious; you can’t just throw a pair of leather pants in the washer!)

I am particularly prone to taking a “try it and see” approach if I’ve gotten the item for free or cheap. I figure there’s so little to lose!

DIY hair perms

A reader wrote in to say she’d mastered the art of giving herself a perm at home, which I imagine was a significant savings.

But I am grateful that perms are largely out of style now; leaving my hair texture as-is requires zero time and zero money.

My girls have definitely saved themselves money on hair-color this way, though; they’ve given themselves lots of at-home coloring jobs for way less than the salon charges.

Wedding Roses

Ok, I really love this idea! A reader took her sister’s wedding bouquet home, rooted the roses, and gifted the 12 rose bushes to her sister on her anniversary.

Would I ever sucessfully pull something like this off, given my black thumb? No.

But I think it is such a beautiful and unique idea!

One of you needs to go do this, ok??

“Whoopee, we can spend again!”

I know I’ve mentioned this article on my blog before, but a search turned up nothing.

Amy says people tend to scrimp when money is tight and spend when they come into some money; it’s essentially a feast or famine method of money management.

But those times when you have more money are perfect times to continue living frugally! That’s when you can make some real progress.

As you all know, I spent the years of my separation living pretty close to broke, especially as the legal fees mounted. I maintained my frugal ways, and amazingly, I survived without going into debt. Whew!

Now I have much more financial margin; I don’t have a lawyer anymore (yay!), and I got my payout from the equity in the house.

I suppose I could take this as permission to go into a, “Whoopee, I can spend again!” mode, but I am still living the frugal life. I want to use that money to buy a house down the road; I don’t want to spend it.

I see this time in my life as an opportunity to get ahead and build some margin. A divorce is a big financial hit no matter how you slice it; I’m gonna work hard to build back my financial life now.

Also, it’s not like I feel deprived; living frugally feels as natural as breathing to me and I know how to live a good life while spending very little.

And that’s why I pack my lunches for work and school even though I don’t have to. 😉

Readers, the floor is yours! What are your thoughts on these Tightwad Gazette topics?