Q&A | Do I ever eat rice instead of potatoes?
I’m just wondering… do you EVER eat rice, instead of potatoes?
-Cindy
I do cook rice sometimes, like when I make bourbon chicken or some kind of stir-fry. And I cook rice when I make burrito bowls.
But I often get potatoes (white and sweet) in my Hungry Harvest boxes, so when I'm looking for a starch for a meal, I tend to grab the potatoes. Rice keeps forever, potatoes not so much!
I don't want to let my potatoes go bad.
Also: I feel kind of "eh" about rice when compared to other carbohydrate options, and I figure that all things being equal, I might as well choose carbs that I enjoy more.
I have a pair of Altra Lone Peaks that I love. I'd like to get another pair with a less chunky sole to wear to the gym. Are yours Torins? I've heard the Escalantes are most similar to Lone Peaks in stack height, but the Torins look like they have more cushioning, which might be a win.
I'd love your thoughts since you seem to wear yours both for walking AND the gym. 🙂
-Beth
I do indeed wear mine for walking and the gym AND 12-hour hospital shifts.
Being able to spread my toes out is amazing and I will never go back to non-foot shaped exercise shoes!
Mine are Altra Provision 7s and honestly, I haven't tried the other Altra styles! I should probably go to a local running store one day and try on some other Altra styles to see if they are even better than the Provisions.
But since I already know I like the Provisions, it has just been very easy to keep an eye out for deals on eBay.
I was wondering if you still compost? I’d love to find something to do with our compostable trash like produce scraps and egg shells, but we don’t have a city compost program. TBH I don’t garden to any sort of extensive level though, so I’m looking for a small and simple compost system. Do you or the readers have any advice?
-Andrea
You know what? I haven't composted since I moved here.
Initially it was because I thought I was only going to rent for a year, and that's because SILLY ME thought my divorce would only take about a year. Ha.
But here I am almost three years later*, so I don't know why I haven't started a simple bin. I should do that this spring!
(*my divorce was finalized last January, though.)
If I set something up, it'll probably be like this simple plastic bin that probably costs around $10 to set up.
I've enjoyed your posts on what you get from your Buy Nothing group. I have some things like 45-pound weights delivered to me by accident that I couldn't return that I'd like to give away on my Buy Nothing group. But how do I do it? Just set them on my front porch? I feel weird having people I don't know come to my house to pick something up. How do you do it and do you feel safe? Thanks.
-Melissa
I know this is a common concern (I've heard it ever since the days of Freecycle!), but I'm gonna be honest, I am always a bit perplexed by what exactly the worry is!
If we were having a conversation, I'd ask you to tell me more about what you are specifically afraid of. What do you fear will happen if someone picks up an item from your porch?
Here's what happens when I list something on my Buy Nothing group.
- I post, "I have such and such an item. Pickup near This Landmark." (landmark so they have a vague idea of how close by they live)
- Someone says they want it.
- I reply and say, "Sounds good! Message me for the address."
- They send me a Facebook Messenger message and then we coordinate pickup day and time and I give them my address.
- I set the item out on my front porch and someone comes and picks it up.
At the end of this transaction, the receiver knows nothing other than:
- a house exists at my address
- a person living at my address was giving away an item
They don't come inside my house, we don't interact in person, and it's really a low level of information exchange (particularly if your Facebook account has privacy settings enabled.)
So, my anxiety level about the safety aspect of this is at a solid ZERO. 🙂
I'm wondering if you might be able to address an issue I've had recently. I'm a generally organized person, but lately keeping track of coupons, discount codes, and gift cards has become an issue. I was very good at keeping track of paper coupons, but now some are printed on full sheets of paper, some are on apps, some in emails, etc. Then there are all the different apps with different offers I don't want to forget. I feel like it could be a part-time job just organizing it all. I have put a little pouch in my purse for the physical coupons and gift cards and have taken to attaching one I intend to use during an outing to my credit card with a binder clip, but how to keep track of the virtual ones?
Hopefully you and other readers might have a better handle on this than I do!
Thanks for your lovely corner of the internet!
Kate
I don't have a super method; I mostly rely on my memory. But maybe you use more virtual discounts than I do!
The one time of year when I have a lot of discounts is my birthday month. I get a lot of email/app birthday offers, more than I can remember. So I do usually make a paper list of the discounts so that I don't forget they're there!
Other than that, I generally just look for the discounts when I'm ready to buy something.
For example, I open the Safeway app and give it a quick peruse when I'm about to go to the store, or I open the CVS app before I pop in, just to make sure I've added my ExtraBucks and any relevant coupons to my card.
There are three things I can comment about.
1) Rice vs. Potatoes. Ours was not a rice eating family, except on very rare occasions. And more often than not we ate it with milk and sugar or as pudding. Potatoes! We ate them a lot, in various and diverse forms. For myself, I like fried rice and just the other day I saw a recipe on Pinterest for butter onion rice that I wanted to eat off of the screen. But still potatoes rule. I think its our Scottish heritage. And I like sweet potatoes, too. Preferably baked and with butter.
2) Your shoes. Since I began nursing, I have worn two kinds that were good to me. Back in the day it was SAS and now I wear New Balance Walking. They are klunky, with a thick sole, but they do help align my back and are comfortable. I get them in wide width so there is plenty of room for my toeys.
3) Buy Nothing. We have a myriad of fb swapshop groups. And on any given day someone will post that they have left something free at the curb. If it's a lot of stuff, the owner asks for people to not leave a mess. We live in a ruralish community and so far it has not been a problem to also give an address or general location and then it's first one there gets it. I have picked up at least two "porch" chairs (for holding a potted plant) that were left out and unannounced.
I have a subset in my email labeled Birthday coupons for everything that comes in that month. I know in February I have lots of deals and if we plan to go out to eat I look through those for a good option. I also check at least weekly to see what needs used by when....
for other email discounts/coupons I leave them available on my INBOX so I see them.. If they are a big deal I make an effort to use right away..
I check Ibotta regularly and click anything that might interest me at the major local stores I frequent-this is a big bonus for me with adult kids who randomly shop for items.. I have received many fun surprises as they always punch in my phone number for the store discounts! So although I might not personally buy prepackaged cookie dough the kidaults might! lol
I also peruse my grocery store app and click any and all coupons that may appeal so I have those also
anything MAJOR I write myself a note.
If there are sales and coupons/ibotta that I want to definitely use I put these items in my store cart and either place an online order.. or stop in the store and grab those items clearing them from the cart.. before the sales cycle ends.
Regarding giving away stuff on Buy Nothing: a doorbell camera might help you feel better. Put away anything you’re not giving away, too. Lock your doors.
Giving away 45lb weights would make me assume that you were leveling up to heavier weights. When you write your BN post, maybe write it in such a way as to not disillusion anyone of the idea that you are actually an Olympic weightlifter.
PSA: if you buy things on FB Marketplace or similar, please meet in the designated spots at your local police or sheriff station. I work in criminal law and see way too many armed FB Marketplace/Craigslist.
@Tarynkay,
My small town has a nearby state troopers station that has a designated parking lot for FB Marketplace/etc transactions to take place. There are signs saying it's under camera surveillance, its reasonably close to the building, is wide open (no trees or shrubs blocking anyone's view) and is positioned right along a very busy bypass. I'm very thankful it's there; I rarely sell anything, but do occasionally buy something from FB Marketplace.
Yes, that's a great option for people who don't feel comfy giving things away from their homes, or for transactions that require payments!
@Tarynkay, Whoa! This is a news flash to me! I had no idea that spots like that existed. That's so cool! I'm curious now and will have to see if our police station has one.
I have a shoe-related question, and hopefully others in the healthcare workforce can help me out. I have problem feet, but am finding the zero-drop, wide toe box of the Altra Escalantes are so far working well for my feet as I recover from my accessory navicular syndrome.
I know when I take the required nurse aid training course I'll need to wear "nonpermeable" shoes, and the Altras I have right now are not, at least I don't think they are, as they can get wet. Does anybody know if Altra, or any other brand that is zero drop and has the wide toe box, makes shoes that would be acceptable in a nursing program?
@Karen A., good question! My feet do well with Altras and Birkenstocks. As far as I know, Altras don't come in nonpermeable styles. Birkenstock makes a professional, nonpermeable clog that might be worth looking into.
https://www.birkenstock.com/us/profi-birki-polyurethane/profibirki-core-polyurethane-0-pu-u_6643.html?dwvar_profibirki-core-polyurethane-0-pu-u__6643_width=N&dwvar_profibirki-core-polyurethane-0-pu-u__6643_size=270
I ran into the same problem! I bought some wide-width Reeboks but they are not nearly as comfy as my Altras. I will be grateful to never wear them again once my clinical are over.
@Karen A.,
I gave my daughter (med school /now resident) a pair of Dansko shoes (clogs with a back) that are great for working in the maternity ward (fluids galore). They clean very easily. I got them from thred up for about 45$. You might try that type of shoe.
@Karen A., check out Anya's Reviews. https://anyasreviews.com She has a lot of resources for zero-drop, wide toe box shoes.
@Tammy, Thank you (and thanks to everyone else!) for the advice! I'll be looking at that site and checking out Danskos and Reeboks. I have worn Birkenstocks in the past, but mostly the sandals without heels, so I'll look at the clogs as well.
I use a paper agenda (private) as well as a digital one (work). Whenever I have a discount or gift card that will expire by a certain date, I note them in my agenda and if they are paper I keep them in a designated envelope at the back of my agenda.
You could also scribble interesting discounts on a post-it note and stick that to your preferred payment card. Just strike through when you've used one (I always keep a mini pen in my wallet so I can cross off or add to my shopping lists etc).
It is much more problematic when you live in a big city in terms of having people 1/have your address and 2/gain access to your building, because people have done this to merely gain entry to steal packages that were delivered to the building. You buzz them in thinking they are who they say they are and then they never show up but are elsewhere in the building, usually stealing packages.
We don't have a doorman and neighbors who know better still let strangers in when they open the locked door because they are intimidated.
I live alone as an older woman and I absolutely do not feel safe having anyone in my apartment. In the past, before I was in a wheelchair, I would have them text/call and let me know they were five minutes away. I would then go down with the item. The one exception: I had a smallish couch and it was a woman and her daughter who wanted it and I let them up but I had a neighbor come over (to also help get it out and in the elevator) .
On the other end, I sent a friend to pick up something from Craig's list, in the lobby of a doorman building, with the doorman standing right there, and the young woman who had the items was, how shall I say this, reluctant to give them to my friend. I had previously notified her that this was happening but I guess she had an issue with race (My friend is African American) and gave my friend a hard time until my friend got me on the phone to speak to the woman. I was SOOOO embarrassed for my friend.
There are so many stories in this city about pickups and dropoffs. It's just not the same as the suburbs or rural areas. We have SOOOOOO many people and so many bad actors as well with nothing better to do than scam folks. If they took that "creative" energy and used it for a good cause.
One thing we have here is that people just put stuff out on the curb and many take a photo and paste it up on several web sites that give you the general location (corner of W 84th and Amsterdam) so that no specific personal info is shared. This is usually furniture and other large items. Works for those who have help to cart it close by or to have a car/van to pick up. It is VERY competitive for some items and people have ended up arguing when more than one person shows up at the same time!
@Irena, I live in a rural area and my concern is that someone will see how private my house is and how far away my neighbors are and see my home as an easy target for a possible burglary or vandalism at a later time.
@Bobi,
There you go, you explained my issue better than I did. I live rurally too. My nearest neighbor is an acre away from me, at least, and my house is rather private, too. I don't want people coming all the way up to my porch to find that my dogs are not threats and my house is empty during the day. I'd rather donate to a thrift or set it out by the road away from my house. And yes, just such a thing as you described has happened in this little rural town.
I think that makes sense; and also, a Buy Nothing group is only going to be so useful in super rural areas anyway! They're more practical in heavily populated areas like where I live.
If I lived rurally, I'd probably opt to leave the item somewhere public for pickup. But also, yes, donating to a thrift store is a perfectly valid option!
@JD, @Bobi, @Irena, and others, I'm with you on Team Proceed with Extreme Caution about Buy Nothing/Freecycle giveaways. In particular, as a woman living alone, I'm not at all keen on inviting rando strangers up onto my front steps. Besides, I'm not on FB for multiple reasons, and the Freecycle around here isn't all that great. So I continue donating to the Salvation Army and the Rescue Mission's Thrifty Shopper chain, as I always have.
@Irena, @ Bobi, @JD, @kristen, @A. Marie
I was hesitant to use Buy Nothing for many of the reasons stated here. However, after reading so much about the group, I gave it a try. Now, it is one of my favorite frugal resources.
Buy Nothing in my area is incredibly community-centric. It only consists of people living within the boundaries of our little town. The administrators do a wonderful job of screening people before allowing them access to the group. They will also immediately remove people from BN who are unkind or break the rules. (Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist on the other hand are open to anyone.)
I primarily use BN to give things away. Since joining, I have given dozens of items away and only encountered one small issue. (Someone was rude and was quickly removed by the administrators) Although I don’t pick things up from BN often, the members of the group are incredibly generous and have a strong sense of community.
Agreed on Buy Nothing groups being a totally different animal than Facebook or craiglist!
@Bee,
This very much describes my local Buy Nothing group. The only members allowed are within our local school district's boundaries, with a very few exceptions (such as members who used to live within the school district boundaries, but moved such that they are still close by but outside the official school district; usually, they still work within the boundaries). I have met some truly lovely people, in addition to giving away a lot of things we no longer need (I'm very careful about what I ask for, but have been gifted some very useful things....like 4 bags of mulch yesterday!).
@JD, Heck, 30 years ago, when they still published deceased people's addresses in obituaries (i.e., "John Smith, of 30 Abbott Road"), my great-grandmother's rural house was burgled while we were all at the funeral.
Here's a compost bin I just made:
https://www.thespruce.com/compost-bin-from-plastic-storage-container-2539493
I already had the tubs I needed for it, so it cost me nothing out of pocket.
We only ate rice occasionall until we moved to West Africa where I learned the amazing sauces that can go over rice and now we eat it at least once a week! But I do love potatoes too!
Kristen, I wish I could send my potatoes your way. I'm 100% a rice girl! 🙂
Just a slightly different perspective on the Buy Nothing Group question: Are there any thrift stores you could take the weights to? I know TONS of people use Buy Nothing and similar without any problems, but it seems like when it goes wrong it's really bad. I have worked in and around the criminal justice/court systems my entire adult life, so I know my perspective isn't the best. At the end of the day, you need to feel safe in your own home, and to me, that's worth missing out on the perks of Buy Nothing Groups.
@Danielle L Zecher,
Another good thing about thrift stores: they support different charities. I like to give to thrift stores because it helps support such things as food banks, the battered women's shelter, services to senior citizens, Special Olympics, the Salvation Army, agencies that assist with rent and utilities, Habitat for Humanity, and Goodwill Industries' helping people get jobs and learn job skills. [Goodwill fixed me a resume (for free) prior to a big job fair, and a national recruiter saw it and said it was the best resume he's ever seen. I also got coaching as to job interviewing skills and a training on newer computer programs I hadn't used before. All free. You don't have to be disabled to use Goodwill's programs anymore; they've expanded their services to "disabled and disadvantaged" people; and they consider anyone who is un- or under-employed to be disadvantaged. ] Besides being able to support a good cause without spending money, giving to thrift stores means I don't have to wait for someone to come get the item and wonder when they're going to get here.
I'm trying to imagine what goes wrong with a contactless porch pickup or leaving something out by the mailbox/road. Are the issues more when people do in-person pickups, or go into someone's home?
@Fru-gal Lisa, I love community based thrift stores too. However, BN fills a different niche in many cases. For example, today someone requested batting. This member’s daughter was learning to sew and was making a stuffed animal. She needed stuffing. I had 1/2 a bag of leftover batting that I was never going to use, so I passed it on to her. If I had given it to any of the thrift stores in my area, it would have been trashed. By passing this item on, I helped a neighbor, the environment, and made a little space in my house. Wins all around!
@Kristen, for me what went wrong was the behavior of the people doing the pick-ups. Looking in my living room window, checking my mailbox, walking around the yard, trying the door to the backyard shed are not acceptable things to do when you're picking up an item even if you think/assume the homeowner isn't there. I live in a what is considered a "safe" neighborhood in a small, "safe" city and I only do pick-ups in public places now. There's a chain coffee shop about ten minutes away from me that is very popular for that kind of thing. They have a big parking lot and there are always people around.
Just adding that my goodness, I am so sorry people behaved that way in your group! That is unacceptable and if that's common practice in your neighborhood, I can totally understand why you don't want to have pickups at your house.
@Fru-gal Lisa, yes! It seems like almost every charity has a thrift store, so you can support something you care about while getting rid of something you don't need.
@Kristen, it's more the possibility of someone having the chance to scope out your home/neighborhood for a potential burglary (or worse) on the pretext of picking something up. Or noticing if your house is isolated, it looks like you live alone, etc. Even if your house isn't isolated, if you regularly have random people coming for porch pickups, that makes it harder for your neighbors to notice someone who shouldn't be there.
I promise I am not trying to be obtuse here, but I guess to me having someone come pick up a bag of clothes from the porch doesn't feel more risky than having a package delivered to my door or having a door to door salesperson come by. Is the concern more if you are giving away things on a daily basis?
I'd say I give things away on Buy Nothing less frequently than I have deliveries come to the house (like Hungry Harvest).
That said, obviously everyone should do what feels comfortable to them, and what's wise will differ by location/neighborhood, etc.
@Kristen,
I have had BN members forget to pick up, or someone in their family (or they themselves) become ill and they forget to send an update, etc etc. I usually give a lot of grace, but my BN group also suggests you "turn in" repeat offenders who don't show up, don't communicate, etc. With enough complaints, they are banished from the group. I don't think anyone has lost group privileges because of that, but good communication has been strongly encouraged.
@Bee,
Yes! Or sometimes, people are giving away food that can't be donated to a food pantry - things like leftover birthday cake, frozen chicken nuggets, and the like. I once scored a delicious sourdough bread loaf, because the member disliked the one slice they ate of it. 🙂
I haven't used Buy Nothing but with Freecycle I have picked up and left items on the porch. You can say "contactless pickup" in your listing and setup a date/time. Freecycle also hides your email address and doesn't include any info except your username, they can message you and you can decide if you want to share further contact info.
If you don't mind meeting people but don't want them to come to your home, you could also meet the person at a busy place like a Starbucks/McDonalds - I have seen that recommended for safely selling items locally online.
You can also tell a neighbor, friend, or family member that someone is coming over if that makes you feel more secure.
I hope that helps, trading things with the community is great!
@Anna and everyone who suggested meeting in busy places- please just meet at the police station. They have parking spots just for this. If your local station doesn’t have this, pull around front. Armed robberies happen in broad daylight in “busy” places all the time. I guess it’s like drowning, it’s generally a quieter process than you might think.
Rice: I grew up eating a lot of rice, with gravy, in casseroles, with sugar and milk, with butter, with soy sauce, in puddings... I love rice. The French man who planted that side of my dad's family in the US settled in the Carolinas. The family stayed there for generations, and they ate rice, by golly. My family ate potatoes, too, yum, but rice was about as common as potatoes at my house.
Composting: I've tried composting a few times and even got a tumbling composter, but I always ended up with fire ants in the composts, which is about like saying I had a wasp nest in my compost. The only thing I've had much luck composting is plain leaves, and those sturdy little live oak leaves take a long time to break down. I admit I just buy compost at my natural food store, made from material brought in by the store's customers. My worm bin has, fortunately, been immune to fire ants, I don't know why. I'm sure grateful for that.
Buy Nothing: I don't have an active buy nothing group here, so the address issue is a non-issue for me. However, when I used to do a Freecycle group based in the town where I work, I met in places like busy Publix parking lots and only during the daytime. I'm also reluctant to have someone come to my house, whether that's reasonable of me or not. I will leave things out at the road's edge as a freebie to whoever wants it, but that is a good distance from my house.
Coupons: I don't really collect discounts and coupons these days, so I can't speak to that issue. The time it took to print, read, note dates, find them again, cut out (still a few of those exist) and so on just weren't worth it to me, especially since I buy very, very few things that coupons can be used for.
Shoes: I have nothing on that. I don't need an especially wide toe-box. I have very narrow feet and skinny-mini toes.
@JD, I sympathize with you re: the fire ants in the compost. Although we don't have fire ants here in Central NY, my good old Earth Machine composter (now RIP) was once invaded by a colony of ants that could and did administer nasty bites when disturbed. And one of my most enduring memories of my first week of college in Florida was stepping unawares into a nest of fire ants while I was wearing sandals. Ouch ouch ouch!
@JD, Rice and gravy a Southern tradition!
@Kate, I don't like a ton of apps on my phone, so when I download coupons to my various loyalty cards, I snap a quick pic of the coupons and send to the email on my phone using the store name in the subject line. Most coupons are good for a few weeks so I only need to do this once or twice a month. As for physical gift cards or paper coupons (which I rarely see/use any more), I keep a credit card holder in the glove compartment of my car and they stay there and are always available. This is really handy if you just decide to stop somewhere randomly. I also keep my loyalty card key tags on a separate keychain attached to a small change purse which also lives in my glove box and contains a small amount of cash for emergency purchases. Kind of like a Shopping First Aid Kit! 😉
I don't get the people afraid about their address either. With cheap stuff I just put it outside and tell the person to use my country's equivalent of Venmo and send me the money. So far I have lost a total of $5 on this method. I would way rather do this than hang around waiting for someone to pick up something, rescheduling, etc.
Regarding Buy Nothing, I go through periods where I'm all in and other times where a bad experience keeps me from using it. I live on a dead end street in a neighborhood, so we generally know the cars coming down by our house and sometimes neighbors get jumpy when unfamiliar cars linger. (I realize how privileged that sounds.) But most of my bad experiences are things like no shows or people coming wayyy later than they promise. I don't like people I don't know coming up near our house in the dark. My ideal Buy Nothing situation is leaving things down at the street but that doesn't always work because of things like trash day or the rain. Overall though, I do like Buy Nothing and the concept of passing along unwanted things to others who will use them!
In the last week or two, there was an article in Women's World Magazine that said potatoes (as long as they aren't fried in oil like potato chips or French fries) are a lot better for you than once thought. It says that the chemical makeup of potatoes has some of the same stuff in it as those weight loss drugs people are injecting, and spuds also give you fiber and Vitamin C. It recommended eating baked potatoes -- both Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes -- and mashed potatoes several times a week, if not almost every day. It said reheating the taters releases even more of the weight loss chemical. Since potatoes are more filling than a lot of foods, and therefore help suppress your appetite/keep you from getting hungry again, they are good for dieting. The article featured a woman who had lost a bunch of weight by eating potatoes every day, and it also had recipes. After reading that article, I had a baked potato for supper and I was not hungry all evening. So I think I will try this more often.
@Fru-gal Lisa, culinary whiplash! Remember when butter, bacon, and eggs were going to kill us? The contradictions about food are exhausting.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, if bacon, eggs, and potatoes are going to kill us, at least I'll die well fed and happy. 🙂
“I am always a bit perplexed by what exactly the worry is”
lol. After a privileged, sheltered, white life and going to bed with the chickens you now work at a job that puts you out in the public after dark and a profession where assault is on the rise, even addressed in the show Pitt. Surely they teach self defense in nursing school.
Porch pirates are real, houses being targeted is real, people with bad intentions are real. Go with your gut, if you have any qualms donate somewhere or know the world won’t end if you put it in the trash.
Stay safe.
I love my buy nothing group.I have received a baby monitor for free when I had a sick family member and needed to be able to listen in.When they bot better,I put it back up and passed it along to a new Mom. I have received a bread maker, a curling iron/hair dryer combo, some light weights for exercise, and more!
I ALWAYS make a point to go through my house/closets to see what i can contribute and have given away some “STUFF”taking up room in garage: I gave away a popcorn maker, an area rug, some dishes,pots and pans, and flatware, some vitamins my son bought and then said he could not use, I have given away a foot spa, books, and more.
I have never had an issue with privately exchanging addresses and picking up or having someone come to get their items. It’s so easy! AND it’s only your NEIGHBORS!!
Because I read about you getting your Altras on ebay,I went and found I cioiuld get my expensive BROOKS and VIONICSon ebay too! For LESS than half price, the sneakers and one pr. of Vionics were new with tags!!!!! YAY! Once you know your brand and your size, it’s so easy!!
If you're overly worried about giving someone your address, you can always pick a public spot to meet up. I've done that a few times, but honestly, I do porch pick up for almost every thing I sell (or give away, but usually I just donate at the thrift store unless it's a large item). True story: one time someone I was communicating with over a sale did not use any punctuation or capital letters in her texts. Everything was one long sentence. So I decided she must be dangerous, and I chose a spot to meet up. I laugh now that that was my gauge of how dangerous someone must be. hahaha
@Andrea, re:compost—On my kitchen counter is a container for kitchen waste (not eggshells, which take too long to break down) with a lid that has a charcoal filter so it doesn’t stink. When it is full, I dig a hole in the garden, dump the stuff in (it REALLY stinks!), rinse the container and pour the water in the hole, cover it with dirt, and turn a pot upside down on it so I know where to not dig for awhile. There is room to rotate about 6-8 digging spots there, and I keep moving ahead in the loose circle of upside-down pots. The only things that don’t disappear in a week or two are avocado peels and seeds, citrus, and eggshells.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, I can see how well this works for you and it is encouraging. Three years ago, I broke my arm when I tripped and hit the side of my nice wood compost bin, and my husband immediately got rid of it. I'll be on the lookout for a kitchen counter waste container and try your bury-nutrients-in-the- ground right away method.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, this composting method is well known in the UK, where it's called "ba***rd trenching." 😉
@Kristen, very frugally wise to only check your coupons and discount offers when you are ready to buy something. If you keep checking them before you have a need or a want, it will tempt you (read “me” here) to spend on unnecessary items, fueling the myth of “the more you spend, the more you save!"
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, This is why I stopped using Ibotta. The offers were always for name brand items that I normally don't buy! Fetch is a little easier, I just snap a pic of my receipts (or it automatically loads receipts from Amazon) and I still get points, just not as many, which is fine.
I've bought/sold on Marketplace, Craigslist, etc. for years and have never had a bad experience. Like Kristen said, the person knows little about you. I think it's easy to weed out any potential weirdos by their messages and you can always look at their profile if it's open and see if they look sketchy. For items I'm actually selling, I'll meet at a local grocery store or other public place. Even some electric items I can plug into an extension cord so they can see it works on my porch. I mean, there's always a chance that you're the weirdo and some nice person just wants to pick up a free pie dish. It goes both ways. And I think that as long as you're not getting rid of anything crazy, you likely will get a normal person. Another option is to have a neighborhood garage sale and put out items then.
As far as the coupons: Envelope in purse always because I forget to bring them and I write them on my paper grocery list (butter. Kroger brand. Expire 3/12) so I can know which brand and if I need to buy then or can wait. Same with digital- Daisy sour cream 30 oz. It's not perfect, but it's better than the time consuming system I used to have.
@Shelly,
People set up fake profiles and hack real profiles to sell stuff on these platforms. I’m not just being paranoid, I’m just in court all the time.
I like rice but am in a Team Potatoes household. My guys will not eat them mashed but are on board for roasted, baked and fried.
My mother was a little girl in the depths of the Great Depression and refused to eat rice as an adult because the children were fed so much rice with gravy instead of the meat reserved for the working members of the family. It was not safe to get your hand in the way when chicken was being served because nothing stood between her and spearing the biggest piece with a fork.
Beth, I tried the Torins but thought they didn't have the wide toe box of a Lone Peak. I currently use a Xeroshoe Speedforce for the gym (and every day, even my hospital shifts now...but I only do 8 hours). However, they are a very minimalist style so it might be something you'd have to ease into.
The type of rice you cook makes a huge difference. We now buy high-quality sushi rice from a Japanese store or H mart, and it's so much better than anything in a regular grocery store.
We like to rotate our starches every week, so we will have a rice day, pasta day, potato day etc.
For Buy Nothing Facebook groups, the idea is to connect people who are all local to your area, and when I look up the person on their profile I often find out that we often have mutual friends or that they are clearly enmeshed in the community. I don't have qualms giving my address privately to that person, but do set out my stuff on the curb by the mailbox just to make it easier and faster for the person picking up the stuff without needing to come into the yard.
For a Facebook Marketplace sale, I recently sold an item to a person who was not local to me and their profile was set to be so private it looked blank (I could see that it was not new profile and had many friends, however). In that case, I asked some follow-up questions to find out the person was real and had normal intents, and we met up in a public place with my husband with me, just in case.
I LOVE rice and would gladly eat it most days a week. It's so comforting...
I think that Buy Nothing Groups (and FB Marketplace) work best for people who live in houses, in areas that are drive-able. For me, that's either small cities or suburbs. You have enough density that the community is big, it's generally driveable, and the distances are not too long. But in my condo-centric neighbourhood in a big city, unless it's in my building, it's a real pain to pick stuff up! Driving is awful, parking is non-existent, and buildings are all accessed with keycodes. There's no porch pickup option. It's rarely worth it for me.
I give a lot of stuff on Buy Nothing (a lot!!). My way of doing it is that I choose the person, notify them on the Buy Nothing group, then right away I send them a message (on Messenger) telling them where to pick up. I put everything in a bin on my front porch. I don't not bother with day and time of pick-up, they come whenever works best for them. I must have given over 1500 items so far and had a problem maybe twice (someone taking someone else item).
Here in Canada (to my knowledge) we don't really use coupons. They exist but I don't often see them.
I also feel 'eh' about rice! Potatoes every time!
Giving/selling things on FB -
I usually "view profile" before sending an address, checking to be sure they've been on FB longer than just today, and isn't a fake account.
I will add: I'm not a single female living alone and there's almost always someone home at the house. My next door neighbor lives alone, and she will have me list items for her on marketplace and do porch pickup at my place, since she's gone a lot.
Potato family here, I like regular potatoes and sweet potatoes. HB not so much a fan of sweet potatoes, so I put them in casseroles like stews, aloo gobi (cauliflower sweet potato curry) etc. My most common way of cooking potatoes and sweet potatoes is cutting them into french fry shapes, coating in 1 tbsp of oil, sprinkle with Montreal chicken spice, mix and then roast in oven. (homemade oven fries).
The only rice dish I make is from a Canadian cookbook author named Mairlyn Smith, PHEc. It is called Whole Grain Side Dish, and is made with pot barley, wheatberries (also called Hard Wheat Kernels) and Long Grain Brown Rice. I love it, I usually make it when I'm having some sort of casserole, etc, see above.
I have Altra Torins and love them! They are a neutral shoe with medium - high cushion. They are great for my half marathon training and work (daycare).
I also have Altra Escalante. They are a neutral shoe with lower cushion than Torin. I wear them when I need something comfy, but won't be walking as much (short errands or a sporty outfit).
I believe the Provision is a "stability" shoe, which helps with under or over pronation.
Last I knew, the Altra website had a shoe finder to help with comparisons / deciding what type to get.
Regarding comfy shoes for working those 12 hour nursing shifts….when I was about 30+ years into my career, and my feet began to seriously pain me, I decided to splurge on a really good pair. I got Brooks Ariel, wide. As Kristen says, it’s great to be able to spread and wiggle your toes a bit. I ended my career in a pair of Hoka, which honestly, I wouldn’t buy again. I only wore my work shoes to work, replaced them every year, and the used pair became everyday shoes. Take care of your feet! They hold you up and put the miles on! I won’t tell all the issues I had, but ended up in surgery getting my Achilles tendon lengthened, bone spurs removed, blah, blah. No one needs to hear all about it, but my feet are a constant source of discomfort. Sigh.
I love my local buy nothing group. When you are active in it names that are active become familiar. I’ve had repeat pickups and gives. I find that once the money aspect is removed it is a very pleasant experience. I give things of value, and I get things of value. I don’t sell items anymore. Marketplace is full of scammers, but in my experience, buy nothing groups are a nice group of locals who care about their community. It is very convenient to put something on your front step. The group is about not wasting resources including gas. People in the group should be your neighbors.
maybe you haven't started a bin because you are in nursing school and you are a blogger and you do a zillion other things.
Haha those are fair points!
I put a list of discounts and when they need to be used on my paper household calendar. I don’t have a ton, but if there’s an influx I write it down. That helps me.