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.

Readers, how do you keep track of your discounts? And feel free to weigh in on any other of the questions as well!