Tightwad Gazette | Should tuna go in soup?
Today in our intermittent series of Tightwad Gazette reviews, we are finishing up Book II!
Price-Book Hassling
A reader said that she got confronted by managers at grocery stores because she was writing down prices for her price book.
Mainly, she was getting accused of working for competing grocery stores. And this story made me laugh because with the advent of smartphones, the prices in stores (grocery and otherwise) are hardly a mystery! People routinely look at an item in the store and price-check it other places.
So, I can't imagine writing a price down would get you hassled these days.
"Bring something you can't buy in a store"
This bridal shower idea would not be universally well-received, but in this specific circumstance, I love it! The bridal shower guest list for a tightwad bride included people who didn't have a lot of money and also people of greater means.
So, the hosts asked people to bring a gift that could not be purchased in the store. I love this!
The bride was the sort that could appreciate homemade gifts or gifts from a garage sale, and the directions for "gifts not from a store" allowed people with less income to not feel embarrassed about their contributions.
Perfect.
Long-distance call bargains
Amy's article tackles long-distance phone calls, a happily irrelevant budget item.
I have said so many times that I am delighted long-distance call fees are no longer a thing and that is particularly true for me since Lisey lives in Hawaii.
She calls me most days of the week, and I would get to talk to her so much less if we had to pay for our calls by the minute.
Either that or we'd have racked up shocking phone bills. 😉
LPs vs CDs vs Spotify
Obviously, Spotify and other music streaming services did not exist when Amy was writing. 😉 So she was trying to compare the frugality of records and CDs.
She suggested snapping up cheap records and record players while everyone was upgrading to CDs, since used CDs were still running $8-$10 apiece at the time.
I'm so used to being able to find any music I want on Spotify or YouTube, I had kind of forgotten what it was like to have to buy individual albums!
While I know purists maintain that the best sound quality comes from a record player, I do appreciate the convenience of not having to own physical copies of music. And this is particularly nice when it comes to playing music in the car. Remember when we hauled discs around with us??
I used to have a portable Sony Discman that plugged into my car, and it worked pretty well until I went over a bump and then sometimes the CD would skip.
Ah, memories!
Tuna Cheddar Chowder
This is one of those cases where I wish I could taste a spoonful before attempting a recipe; I feel a little bit skeptical that this would be good, but Amy says it's one of the best soups she knows.
Someone did actually make it and post about it:
Not gonna lie, I do still feel skeptical. Have any of you made it??
Wealth and frugality
The last article in this section (which concludes Book II) covers the distinctions between wealth, poverty, and frugality.
Amy says (monetary) wealth is not how much you earn or spend, it's how much you accumulate.
To sum it up, frugality does not equal poverty, and extravagant spending does not equal wealth.
There are plenty of people who are high earners, high spenders, and low savers. Lots of money comes in, lots of money goes out, and at the end of the day, they are no better off financially than a low earner.
And conversely, there are also average-earners who spend very little and save a lot by living within their means. There might be less money coming in, but even less is going out, and at the end of the day, they are ahead of the former group.
Obviously, there are complicated factors that contribute to both earning and spending, and some of these are outside of people's control.
But I think Amy's point is this: we do not need to feel ashamed of our frugal habits, as though we are an economic failure when we are buying second hand, packing lunches, and mending our clothes.
This is not an essential message for a frugal blogger (Since when have I ever been ashamed of my frugal habits?? I've been writing about them on the internet for almost 17 years!), but it is a common struggle for people, especially if they are surrounded by people living an affluent lifestyle.
An affluent lifestyle looks rich, but simple low-spending habits are part of what leads to true financial wealth, which is an accumulation of money, not the acquisition of expensive clothes, houses, cars, vacations, and more.
(Note: obviously, if a person has unlimited wealth, they can live an affluent lifestyle while also having a lot of money in the bank. But this does not describe most of us.)
Alrighty, time to discuss! Any and all topics in this post are fair game.
(But I do particularly want to know your take on this tuna soup issue.)
P.S. Next time we will start with Book III!
I appreciate the access to music that the internet has brought, but our family still uses CD's as well. They are great for my kids because my kids don't have phones! My 11yo has a CD player that she uses for audiobooks and Adventures in Odyssey discs. We also have a number of CD's of children's music that they've enjoyed listening to over the years. I know that these are going away and that our next vehicle probably won't have a CD player in it, but we enjoy them for now.
@Ruth T, we still use CDs as well. We have old vehicles (02, 07, and 08) and I’m glad they have CD players! We like to get audio books from the library and listen while driving.
DVD players also play CDs, for anyone out there who didn’t know that!
@Ruth T, my daughter has a CD player as well and there are times that I will burn her copies of CDs so they don't get wrecked.
Right now CDs are dirt cheap at garage sales and thrift stores just like records were back in the 90s. My brother bought so much music when it was practically free and a lot of those records fetch much higher prices now.
All things created equal, I would take a CD over a record. Yes there are some gems only found on vinyl but even some of the best recordings of all time (RCA Living Stereo classical albums for one example) are all readily available on CD.
@Ruth T, I have well over a thousand classical music CDs, and a CD player, and I am keeping them all.
@JP, now that my new Mac Mini is up and running in my office, I plan to bring my old iMac desktop (which is such an Antiques Roadshow model it has a CD/DVD slot) down to the living room and use it as my CD/DVD player. My old CD player is on the fritz, and I just took my little old TV with a built-in DVD player to electronics recycling.
I don't have a regular TV/cable setup, but I do like my CDs and DVDs. And the iMac has a nice big screen--much bigger than the little old model.
@A. Marie, my old Macbook (a laptop from 2011) has a CD slot and I used it for music and occasionally a move. Alas, it stopped working. I bought a new Macbook in 2017 and I was horrified that it had no CD slot. So, I bought an external CD player from Mac that plugs into my “new” laptop.
My car (’96) has a 6 CD player IN THE TRUNK!! This is a nuisance when listening to audio books on CDs. But now my car is too decrepit for long road trips, so on road trips I drive our “new" pickup (an ’03) and can pop in one CD at a time. Fantastic!
@Ruth T, what a delightful surprise to find the first comment mentioning Adventures in Odyssey! Yay! I have my friend's old cassette tapes that we listen to on our home stereo system, but we do use streaming for car trips.
My frugal win last August was volunteering to help with registration for Odyssey's One Grand Party so that I could attend the massive event for free! Plus, I got to meet lots of cool behind the scenes people. Yay!
@Battra92,
I deeply regret getting rid of my stereo from back in the day, which my DH encouraged me to do, and also selling some of the records I bought as a teen for practically nothing (coughcough, 40-mumble mumble years ago). Fast forward 25+ years, when I decided to replace said stereo with one I found on Marketplace, as well as albums I sold and also albums I never had. Definitely not frugal! Albums are much more expensive now, but listening to them makes me happy. My new-to-me stereo system has a 5-CD player AND dual cassette players. Ha. My previous car - a 2007 Toyota Highlander - actually had a cassette player in it. I had an adapter to connect my iPod so I could listen to it in the car. 🙂
@Liz B.,
Meaning, I was a teen 40-mumble mumble years ago. I sold the albums for next to nothing many years after that.
@Liz B., Yeah, sometimes it's worth it to spend money and have fun with something. I feel like too many people miss out on affordable fun when striving to be frugal or minimalist.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, Oh that’s funny! I had forgotten about CD players IN THE TRUNK! No young person today would believe you!!
I don't think tuna would be good in soup but then I dislike tuna and soup, so it's kind of a moot point!
I have CDs of my favourite music because I don't want to lose access to it, should it somehow be removed from streaming or if I cancel the service. I do the same with my favourite films and TV series; I have all of those on DVD.
Ha; yes, not liking soup in general makes it impossible to determine if tuna soup is an acceptable option!
@Sophie in Denmark, I agree! So many things I like disappear from streaming -movies as well as music. With physical media it's available forever.
@Kristen, It reminds me of a scene in Friends where Monica asks Joey what he thinks of the salmon mousse and he says 'we're talking whipped fish Monica, it's lucky I'm just keeping it down!'
Sadly, that was from memory lol.
@WilliamB, Exactly! I understand that streaming saves a lot of storage space (especially if you live somewhere small), and I appreciate it for things I'll only watch or listen to once, but I don't understand people throwing out their collections. You are essentially paying to watch or listen to your favourite media which could be deleted at any moment! With physical media you pay once and it's YOURS.
@Sophie in Denmark, When we did one of our moves we assessed our huge collection of DVDs (kids movies, sci-fi shows, and the like), and while a lot of it is available on streaming, DH and I agreed we should keep them, in case of internet outages, or the movies being removed from streaming, which happens regularly. We can still play them on an elderly Playstation 3. So I got two of those large disc "binders" and moved them from their boxes into the binders. It's proven very handy on occasions when we want to watch a classic movie that we would have to pay for to rent online. And they're a lot easier to move when they're not in bulky boxes! We still have boxed sets (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc), but I prefer to keep those in the boxes and they stay together nicely on the shelf.
@Sophie in Denmark, this is exactly my problem with "buying" digital media. It can be taken away at any time. Having a "hard copy" in hand means it is mine.
@Denise, I find it so frustrating when media I like is only available in digital form.
@WilliamB, The media maybe available forever but will there always be working devices/equipment that can play them? That's my concern.
@Bobi, I have a portable dvd player because my laptop doesn't play them. I once knew someone who tried to watch a dvd on a playstation when he moved into a new house and didn't have the wifi set up yet, which ironically wouldn't play because the internet wasn't connected!
@WilliamB, just like apps for computers. I paid big money for Photoshop, and when it stopped working (because the computer had to be updated, over and over and over), I couldn’t buy it any more—only subscribe. So now I have to pay over and over and over, and eventually the continual updates mean that Photoshop (and Word and InDesign and. . .) will stop working on my MacBook Pro, and I’ll have to buy yet another laptop.
Expensive, exasperating, and exhausting.
@Sophie in Denmark,
Secondhand CDs and DVDs are readily available. Most in my area are only $1. I purchase them just for the reason that you mention. Buy once and enjoy often. I have a collection of holiday DVDs because the streaming services charge per view at Christmas.
@Bobi,
There seems to be an abundance of VHS and DVD players available still, both new and secondhand. Many types of electronic equipment seems to have made a comeback. A decade ago, you couldn't purchase a turntable new and now they are readily available. So who knows what the future holds!
@Sophie in Denmark, I too buy CDs and DVDs of favorites - because I own them. Subscribing to streaming services is really just renting.
@Karen A.,
My DH is a HUGE Battlestar Galactica fan. I wonder if we have it on DVD? I need to check.
@Karen A., As someone who owns an Atari 2600 the idea of the PS3 being elderly makes me recoil a bit. 😛
@Liz B., If not, currently it *is* available on Amazon Prime, and since we still have a subscription, that's how we're watching it. But those DVDs were very handy when DS was in the hospital; DH brought in a DVD player and TV so DS was spared the dreck that is hospital television viewing! He watched a lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as Battlestar Galactica.
@Battra92, Obviously I'm being sarcastic...we also have a PS2 that is somehow still functioning! To my kids those are relics, something they played with when they were young and have now outgrown! Seems like everything is meant to become obsolete very quickly these days. My parents didn't allow us to get an Atari, but i remember playing with one at a family friend's house.
@Denise, Exactly! Having your own physical copy also means that you have the original and no one can delete it, change a scene, edit something out or give you a nanny message. I have 0 interest in paying to rent something that doesn't really exist. We have a couple of streaming video channels only because our adult son added us on. If he canceled his account, we'd move on to something else. I simply won't pay for those services. If I was making the decision, I'd probably cancel our internet, even though I use it a lot, and it would be an adjustment.
I, too, appreciate being able to listen to almost any music on demand nowadays! But I lament that the sound quality really isn't as good. And I like to listen to my music loud, but Spotify to my car's Bluetooth doesn't quite cut it. Maybe I'm losing my hearing from listening to music too loud. If anyone has tips or workarounds, please share!
I made a soup before with a chicken broth/coconut milk base (for some reason, I truly can't remember what else was in that soup or any other flavor profile!). I was planning to use canned chicken but we were out, so I threw in canned tuna. It wasn't as good as chicken, but was pretty good! Just the smell of reheating I don't think is too appetizing.
With the exception of tuna casserole, which is its own odd thing, I think hot canned tuna is just questionable. Although Hot Tuna was the name of a band in the 60s, I think.
I feel like canned tuna was really having its heyday at one point in the past, like when tuna casseroles were common fare.
I do remember craving tuna casserole once when I was pregnant! lol
@Bell, Tuna melts are delicious, though.
@Karen A., This IS a tuna melt. In the form of soup.
@Kristen, I love tuna noodle casserole! But not really feeling it in soup.
@JDinNM, That sounds really tasty, though. I'd dip a grilled cheese sandwich in it! 😉
@Kristen,
I still make tuna casserole and we love it! Whole wheat pasta, reduced fat cheese, extra tuna, chopped veggies and high quality canned cream of mushroom soup from Whole Foods 360.
It’s more costly than the traditional recipe, but still a very good bargain and healthy!
@Kathy, with smashed potato chips on top??
@Kristen, one of the meals on heavy rotation in our house is tuna bake. It includes - obviously - tuna, cheese, mushroom soup, macaroni, chopped onion, garlic, whatever veg diced small (sweetcorn is ideal, so are peas), heavy on the mustard powder and it is all baked and delicious.
But soup... hmm..
I don't comment nearly as much as I should, but today it's like you called on me to speak up! YES I MADE THE TUNA CHEDDAR CHOWDER!!! It was a really long time ago (1998?), and I only made it once, but I do remember that it was pretty good. I feel like I need to revisit the recipe to confirm. The reason why I haven't made it since is that I'm really iffy on tuna.
My other TWG cooking hits were the apple oatmeal bars and her pizza dough was a staple in my house for many years. I found that the dough was better if I made it the day before.
Long distance calls and physical media for music are two things that I am glad are in the past. What a world we used to live in.
Oh my goodness, we found a tuna chowder maker in the wild! Thanks for letting us know. 🙂
@Birchie, I too am "really iffy" on tuna (and not that fond of cheddar either), so I commend you for trying the tuna cheddar chowder! But I've found the TWG "universal muffin" recipe quite useful over the years.
@Birchie, since you've gone first in admitting you made the soup I confess I tried it as well. Let's just say it was not a hit in my house. I think there was a bit too much cheese for us--and we're big cheese lovers. The soup was too greasy and it was too "thin." We like rice or noodles or potatoes or beans in our soups. I wrote my comments in pencil next to the recipe in my copy of the Tightwad Gazette: Greasy, thin and No!
For the record, we do like tuna melts and tuna squares.
@A. Marie,
I used that muffin recipe a LOT during the kids' school years. They loved hot muffins for breakfast and a fresh muffin as a treat in the lunch box.
@A. Marie, I made the TWG breadcrumb cookies once, years ago. They were the worst cookies I ever ate.
See, this is why the tuna soup worries me. I dunno if Amy’s palate is the same as mine! lol
@A. Marie, I used the universal muffin recipe quite a bit also along with the granola recipe. I loved her lentil and rice casserole too, but it was not a family favorite. I'm married to a carnivore.
@Bee, I **am** a carnivore. But I recall Amy saying that even lentil haters didn't mind that casserole, so I may have to give that recipe a try.
@Bee, The granola recipe was nice and simple! The lentil and rice casserole was a staple for us during our vegan years. I even served it to company sometimes, with extra cheese on top.
@Karen A., I didn't think vegans ate cheese. It being a dairy product...
@Kate, Me too. They we're bad, but I still make her Turtle cookies (like mini chocolate waffles with icing) and we love them!
@Birchie,
Same about being "iffy" about tuna. Not really a fan of tuna salad. I made tuna noodle casserole once, and while it was good, it wasn't something I wanted to eat for multiple meals. (TNC was not something my mom ever made when I was a kid. Never had a tuna melt, either).
@JDinNM, I would usually make two casseroles, one for us vegans and one for guests, with cheese, so they wouldn't faint from the idea of a meal with no animal products. 😉 When it was just us, we'd eat it as is, or make the vegan cheese sauce from one of our hippie cookbooks.
@Bee,
Universal muffins-perfect
Lentil/ rice casserole- super yummy!
Great side dish!!
@Birchie, my pizza dough page is a mess, I made it so many times. 🙂 And so are muffin pages (466-467)
@Kristen, I've made it, too! It was one of the recipes that got us through college -- because it was cheap and tasty on a chilly night in Ann Arbor. I did use sliced celery, instead of celery seed. I also drained the tuna; maybe that would keep it from being too 'greasy.'
Another version, same recipe, was in 'How to Live on Half Your Income.' (I can't find the book to show you, but she said her version came from the New York Times cookbook.)
Cheddar cheese is important -- so is the chicken broth. (I used bouillon cubes.) Amy's got another soup recipe, using leftover baked beans, that was surprisingly good.
Now I've got to go make these again.... 🙂
Tuna decidedly does not belong in soup.
@Kaitlin, But there is such a thing as fish chowder. Why not tuna?
@JDinNM, Of course, there's a difference between a tuna steak and canned tuna fish ...
I mourn the loss of not having a CD player in my car. I recently got a cell phone and don't know how to use the music thing-y in it, and would much prefer to play the CDs I already have.
Some aren't music, but are sermons and recorded seminars and stuff. Most are my favorite albums, and some are obscure CD recordings I got at Goodwill -- a recording of the BeeGees when they were young teenagers performing in Australia; a concert recording of Burton Cummings (former lead singer for "The Guess Who" rock band, that was the group's actual name); Herman's Hermits; etc. -- that I doubt would be on a streaming service.
It's especially sad around Christmas time because I try to block out the dumb holiday music. I don't celebrate the secular aspects of Christmas at all anymore because my family is all gone and it just stirs up sad memories and makes me feel all the more lonely. I don't observe the religious holiday until right before the 25th ; my (Episcopalian) church does not start doing Advent and Christmas until fairly late. Sadly, one of the local stations becomes the "Christmas station" early in November (Veteran's Day weekend this past year!) and others start their Yuletide carols on Black Friday. I would greatly prefer to spend December listening to my favorite non-holiday CDs of the Beatles and "British invasion" groups, all the old rock'n'roll songs I love. Good antidote for Christmas blues! But since totaling my old car and having to get a new one, there is no CD player. RATS!
I wish I knew how to install a CD player in the car, but with the radio all intertwined with the backup camera and such, it'd probably be hundreds of dollars to do this -- not frugal at all.
@Fru-gal Lisa,
My 2018 Ford still has a CD player. I don't look forward to a vehicle without one.
@JD, My 1997 Ford Taurus station wagon (that I kept going for 25 years) had a cassette tape player. I recently "upgraded" to a 2008. My sister called it my "back to the future" purchase.
@Fru-gal Lisa, I'm not a fan of Spotify but they do have a pretty massive catalog. I know they have Herman's Hermits (always loved that name!)
@JD, upgrading to a newer car has many aspects which I do NOT want, and not having a CD player is one of them. Sigh. Good to know I might be able to go as new as 2018 and still bring my own physical tunes with me.
@Fru-gal Lisa, I’m with you completely on the secular Christmas music, and NEEDING a normal radio and CD player in the car. Shoot, my car still has a tape deck (cassette, not 8-track—I’m not that far behind!)
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, you'd be surprised... if you buy a car from a dealer, they can often install a CD player. Or some models still come with a CD player. Our 2024 Subaru Outback had one model that still included a CD player!
@Fru-gal Lisa, Just a thought: Find a younger person to show you how to hook up the music on your phone and play it in your car and at home.. it is sooo much fun and easy once you learn. Sometimes it just takes a 30 minute session and willingness to learn something new..I know I did it and am soo happy, now I can play my spotify in my car and not have ads on radio.So worth it to take time to figure it out! My son loves to teach me,because I WANT TO LEARN and don’t complain.My husband, on the other hand, seems to resent having to use tch and so it is harder for him to learn, and the sessions with our son are not fun for either of them. You can use any music app available to you—spotify,apple music etc.Just learn one, and then you’ll have it.Good luck!!
@Heather, our 2022 Subaru ascent has a CD player and I just realized it a couple months ago! Granted, it is my husband's work car, lol.
@Fru-gal Lisa, I kept my old Samsung phone when our sons updated mine and use it for music and memo files (I have over 50 folders with things like birthdates, shopping lists for each store, frugal hints, scripture passages, etc.) and a couple of games. I put 0 apps on the new phone.
The music is in my Samsung music folder and was downloaded from our pc. Over the years I've bought used CDs and uploaded them to a music file on the pc, but still kept the CDs. I have hundreds of songs in different categories rock and roll (chronologically from the 50s on to the 80s), standards, old country, classical, American composers, 1930s dance music, 1940s; so I have music for whatever mood I'm in.
Then I copied some of it to my old Samsung into folders. Our son put new radio units into our 2003 car and 2001 truck, so when we're out, we listen on bluetooth. No ads. Yea!
Having grown up listening to the radio, I'm very sensitive to versions of songs other than the versions that were released onto 45 records. A lot of what my son listens to on spotify is not the original, and I almost always prefer the original.
My Christmas folders are divided into about 3 categories: carols only, fun songs and a mix. Recently, I bought a Best Of CD of Gary Lewis and the Playboys and one of the Eagles on ebay and added them to the mix, along with a best of the Guess Who. Hopefully, since I won't have to buy any other form for the music. I've bought the Guess Who on vinyl, cassette and CD. Enough is enough. I'd love to have a Herman's Hermits album.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, my 93 Camry has a cassette player too. I would so love a cd player.
Tuna melts are good. I like soup. I will make the soup! Thanks for the recipe. I think we'll like it.
@April, be sure to report back to us. “Greasy, thin, and no”? Or like a tuna melt in a bowl?
My 7yr old daughter loves pringles right now, and I was trying to explain to her that one can of them is as much money a whole bag of chips at Aldi. She concluded that her classmate must be rich because they bring pringles every day! I had to laugh at that one. Hopefully over time she will understand that just because someone looks “rich” doesn’t mean they are wealthy!
@JP, I think it's so interesting to hear the childhood opinions of what makes a family "rich".
When I was a kid, it was central air conditioning and a paved driveway. We had window units and a gravel drive. Boy, did I think we had made it when my dad had AC installed when I was a young teen!
When my husband and I got married in 2011, we bought an older home (that had been my grandparents'). We sat on our COVID-era stimulus payments, and finally had an AC system installed last year. Still have never had a paved driveway, though. I might never be what my younger self considered "rich"! Ha!
@geewhiz50, I thought the kids who had LLBean “duck boots” were rich. I now have the ankle ones & the regular ones & get a dopamine hit every time I wear them!!!
@geewhiz50, cable TV and name brand tennis shoes was my definition of rich when I was a kid! I had neither, but remember a friend of a friend asking if we were rich because we lived in a house and not a mobile home. Definitely shifted my perspective at a young age.
I can't help you with the soup: I can't stand cooked tuna. Putting on my "experienced home cook" hat, I think soup w canned tuna would be OK but not great. Fresh tuna would be better.
Another reason to own physical media, in addition to not losing it if/when it leaves streaming, is there are places that don't get cell coverage. No coverage = no streaming. I just spent a weekend driving around one such area and it's more than a little jarring to listen to music 10 seconds on, up to several minutes off.
Does Amy talk about accumulation vs. utility? Or to put it differently, about spending carefully as opposed to being so anti-spend that you deprive yourself in an extreme fashion?
The first price book that I put together with sale flyers and little notes I wrote at the store. I started a new price book when inflation started really hurting and used the interent for researching it.
We still have CDs and a very nice Bose radio to play them. Great sound. But my son has a family Spotify plan and we all pay him $5 a month to be a part of that. No record player.
Tuna chowder? Since the first time I read this all was seriously turned off.
I think that one of the hardest things we do is deal with people who don't understand what we are doing. The difference between true wealth and affluence is a good point.
@Amy cheapohmom,
In the early 90's, I did the same thing to start my first price book. My food budget stabilized and I knew a good deal when I saw it.
After a decade or more of not really tracking food prices, I also started a price book again in 2022. It was much easier this time around, because I was not feeding a growing family with voracious appetites.
@Bee, I have also left off a bunch of items we used to think we couldn't live without. Cheez its and Oreos...high blood pressure and diabetic.
I read Amy’s books from the library back in the day when I was trying to get my spending under control. I tried that “soup.” I have a recipe binder where I used to write down recipes & saved them under categories (before the ease of online recipes). I just got up to check what I wrote- I knew it was dramatic. It has a X through the entire page with the title YUCK!!!!!!underlined several times. It’s still in the binder because there’s a recipe on the back. Funny memory!
Thank you for including the discussion of Wealth, Poverty, and Frugality. If you read the books by Thomas Stanley (his famous one was The Millionaire Next Door) you become well versed in the difference between income and wealth. He found, thirty years ago, that most of those with wealth were frugal and not showy. I love the title of his book Stop Acting Rich ... and Start Living Like a Real Millionaire.
I agree that it is not so cut and dried but he gives this a lot of food for thought.
@K D, One of our relatives married a millionaire. She and her mother both shop at thrift stores. They also buy nice, new stuff, but are in no way embarrassed to say "I got it at Goodwill".
Tuna in soup - I just can’t imagine it! Maybe some brave soul could bring it to the next FG meet-up & everyone could have a “small smackerle” (a Winnie the Pooh book term).
@Theresa, lol! I don't eat tuna, but what a fun idea for the FG meetup!
1.) Tuna only belongs in tuna sandwiches. It's the only way I eat it. I've heard that it's good in onigiri and I might try it but otherwise, no it's too fishy for much else.
2.) I still buy CDs but I'm getting to the point that I have almost all the music I want. In general, newer stuff is all trash (old man yells at cloud) and I think the idea of paying for streaming or listening to commercials is even worse. Also, data plans are expensive.
3.) One thing I don't miss about the mom & pop stores is how much of a hassle they could be at times. Some store owners were really protective of their turf and yet the Walmarts and the Krogers and the Wegmans of the world steamrolled them anyway.
4.) I save on phone bills by having no one who would ever call me. I don't think I ever made a long distance call as a teenager. Heck, I've not made many phone calls in the last few years outside of calling to set up appointments and such.
@Battra92, I really agree with your point about the new "music" (old woman screaming at cloud), particularly at church. The mom & pop stores, yes. We moved out to a rural Texas county almost 25 years ago and I had a hard time adjusting to the casual attitude of some of the storekeepers. A couple of the stores I never entered again after being ignored, but I'm so glad I gave the local hardware store another chance. The clerk who ignored me the first time (I found out later she was going through a very public and ugly divorce) turned out to be the nicest lady in our town and has been very good to me. We went to a local appliance dealer to get a new dishwasher. The owner trusted us enough to let us write him a check (with our old address on them) and drive away with a $600 unit. Amazing.
Yes, I shop at Walmart and Sam's, but I try to buy locally whenever I can.
@Carla in Texas, Most of the music I listen to predates me though I do occasionally find some new stuff. It's not super often and usually soundtracks.
@Battra92, Same here. I particularly like the Big Bands and 1930s dance music. Especially Ozzie Nelson. When I was a kid watching Ozzie and Harriet, I had no idea he was a band leader or that when Cass Elliot came out with Dream a Little Dream of Me in 1968, that Ozzie was the first to record it in 1931. I thought it was a new song.
I think the tuna soup would be just fine--but I like tuna casserole, which used to be a "special" meal my mom would only make when my dad was gone (he didn't like tuna). If you follow the principle that nearly any casserole can be made a soup and nearly any soup a casserole it seems less crazy.
I do still pay for international calling. I have a couple of friends in West Africa who have cell phones, but don't have internet apps (like WhatsApp), so I use Rebtel.
But everyone else I can talk to with WhatsApp, signal or messenger. And I can do it as a video call if I want!
That Tuna-Cheddar Chowder sounds like a tuna melt sandwich. But soupy. Someone in the Commentariat should make this and report back.
I refuse to use Spotify or anything similar. To me that is like paying for the same music over and over, and over again. I still have CDs and am planning to buy a multi CD player. I'd rather choose what I want to listen too. I also still have my old iPod. It has to stay plugged in to work, but that's fine with me. I bought a tiny rechargeable speaker that it plugs into so I don't have to use earbuds. The sound is great!
As for the tuna cheddar soup, I would be willing to try it. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and we were on a super tight budget while my mom was working to earning her PhD. My dad often made creamed tuna with peas on biscuits for dinner. It fed the five of us real cheap. I still make it from time to time as it's a comfort food for me.
@AnnieH, My mother called it Tuna Gravy on biscuits and I love it. And I agree completely about owning my own music. I grew up listening to AM music on a transistor. It drives our son crazy when I listen on any device he thinks is inferior.
@AnnieH, Oh my gosh! I forgot about creamed tuna and peas! We had it on toast. Thanks for the memory.
So back in my younger mom-centric days money was t i g h t , and I relied on tuna casserole to get us thru dinner several times each month. I remember it had shell macaroni, and was finished with bread crumbs on top. Would I make it today? Um, no. I don't cook from cans anymore. But back then we all liked it because our taste buds weren't as refined in the 80's!
So trying to imagine my tuna casserole stalwart as a soup . . . I think I would have probably given it a try back then. But probably only once!
@Tamara R, Necessity is the Mother of Invention ... of tuna casserole soup. Give it a try! Report back! Maybe croutons on top....
I have all three of Amy's books but I never tried the tuna cheddar soup. One reason is DH would have got up and left the table if I set it in front of him - he only ate tuna salad, and not much of that - and the other reason is, although I will eat tuna casserole, I'm not sure how tuna soup would hit me, and I don't like to waste food.
However, I eat other soups with fish and/or seafood in them, so I'm not sure why tuna sounds so odd. I'm not fond of tuna and cheese together, though, so maybe that's it.
I had a price book for years, and was never confronted as a spy, but I can believe that it could happen back then. Stores did sometimes sent spies to competition stores back then, as I learned during the brief time I worked at a grocery store. One of DH's friends ran a gas station/bait shop/convenience store/deli in the woods on a lonely stretch of highway. (The penned up feral hogs and loose turkeys outside the store and the chicken and golden retrievers inside the store were not for sale, alas.) The nearest gas station used to send a "scout" in the mornings to check his gas prices so they could lower their price to a penny less than his. He sometimes raised his price on his sign by a dime or quarter in the morning, then lowered it back to normal in the afternoons, just to mess with them. His regulars knew what was up and always fueled up with him no matter what the sign said. They knew he would charge them the actual price at the register.
I have known people just like Amy describes in the wealthy/poor article. There are, as Kristen said, other factors that can affect that situation, health being a huge one, but I know people who are comfortable now because they always lived frugally. I've also known people who lived large, and came to regret it. They might have made good salaries, but they spent every penny of it, and often, more. I like frugality and I'm not ashamed of it. It's saved us many a time. Besides, frugality is what led me to this blog!
My 5yo daughter really enjoys her cassette player to listen to all my cassette audio books from when I was a kid lol. The new thing for little kids is a Yoto or Tonie but why pay $100+ for yet another device and more for each book when my mom kindly hoarded them for 30 years?
I do still own quite a few CD's and DVD's but I admit I don't use them much now. It is far easier to use our YouTube Premium subscription to stream music and I rarely watch movies. To someone's point about not having service, YT Premium allows you to download which keeps me from using as much data out in wild as well. It's worth paying for in our family because my husband especially watches a lot of YT. We don't pay for cable, or any other streaming service. Plus my kids can watch their (limited) screen time with no ads.
@Carla G, no ads are a really huge benefit to me so I also pay for YouTube Premium. It's a guilty pleasure.
@Book Club Elaine, no guilt! Creators get more income from Premium subscribers than from ads so you are also helping support the content you enjoy!
These are bringing back memories of my college years … pre-paid long distance cards to call home and portable CD players! I remember someone once gifting me one of those CD mail-in subscriptions for me “to save money”. I had to cancel after the initial gift or be stuck paying for more. It was a pain! After cell phones came along, we still paid for a certain amount of phone minutes, then paid per character to text.
The thing I like least about all these digital music, movie, and computer storage services is that you never truly own anything. You pay the subscription fees forever or lose access. The best option for me was my old iPod. I could download all my music without having to carry the CDs. No monthly fees, but I did occasionally purchase a digital copy of a song, which I owned until my iPod broke.
On the topic of wealth, I admit I feel somewhat rich being able to be a stay-at-home mom. Obviously it’s a privilege to be able to afford that option, but it seems like many people I’ve known have had twice our income and can’t afford to only have one adult working. I’d have to make a lot of money to pay for the daycare, summer day camps, after school programs and sports to keep the kids covered during work, plus the extra costs of wardrobe, gas and car maintenance, and convenience items due to lack of time. Obviously there are other advantages to working, but it wasn’t going to be beneficial money-wise while the kids were young. A financial planner once told us that most clients, regardless of income, spent most of their paycheck every month.
@JenRR,,
I think one of the Tightwad Gazettes did a deep dive into being a SAHM vs working, and the verdict was that the second working spouse's income mostly was spent for all the incurred expenses (daycare, meals not prepared at home, commuter costs such as gasoline, career wardrobe, makeup, hairdos, etc.) with very little left over. I think she ran a calculation and the working mom had very, very little to show for her 40 hours away. Meanwhile, the stay at home mom was able to do a whole lot of frugal stuff around the house to save a lot of money, and this added to the family income, plus it was tax free. However, that was before there were work at home jobs via the internet, and things may be somewhat different today.
@Fru-gal Lisa, You brought up some memories for me. When I was laid off from my job in 2010 and had a one-year old, I discovered this blog and first found The Tightwad Gazette at the library. I remember reading that article and calculating our costs to figure out how to make it work. I was so much happier buying secondhand, cooking from scratch, walking my son to the park or going to the library for entertainment, making new things out of old things, etc., than I was working to pay someone else to do these things.
@Fru-gal Lisa,
I used this article to convince my husband that it was beneficial for me to be home with the children. 35 years ago, this was especially true. Women were not paid equitably in comparison to men. Clothing and upkeep were much more expensive in the "dress for success age." Child tax credits were nonexistent. Staying home with a sick child was a career killer in many fields, and Dad's basically were not given any parental leave. Thank goodness times have changed!
The one thing that she did not consider in her calculations - how a woman's career could be impacted by staying home with her children. It was hard to re-enter the workforce once you left. It was as though giving birth caused brain damage. No one considered all the skills that a woman had to have to run a household..
Although I like seafood chowders, the tuna cheddar version does not sound good to me. It reminds me of tuna casserole recipes that were popular around the same time.
I believe that the internet has provided support for the frugal lifestyle in many ways. The growth in the popularity of thrifting and reselling outlets has increased the availability of high-quality secondhand goods. There is ready access to pricing info as well as a myriad of thrifty and delicious recipes that are not tuna casserole. It's certainly much easier to be comfortably frugal than it was 35 years ago.
However, I must say that Amy D. Introduced me to the world of frugality which changed my life completely. We would have never been able to accomplish all that we had if she had not banged on her frugal drum.
On another note, the advances in telecommunication may be one of the things that I love most about the technological revolution. Although my children and family have lived all over the world, we have been able to share our lives with one another with photographs, videos, facetime, texting and talking.
Tuna, hot in ANY form=gross.
Tuna salad on a delicious bread or roll=excellent!
Hot tuna (especially with milk and in liquid form) is a hard no for me!
Yet I love seafood soup?!
I'm out on the tuna soup. I've never made tuna casserole, although my mom made it a few times in the 80s. I am fine with a tuna sandwich (cold), but not a melt, and eating it warm is a no. But, if I were at a friend's house & they served tuna casserole, it would be okay. If they served tuna soup? I think it would be a struggle for me.
Now that we have a young child, our family is purchasing more physical media. Our daughter enjoys selecting CD's. When she is old enough for screen time, we have a selection of DVD's to choose from.
I'm an 80's kid and I loved the comfort of rewatching favorites.
That soup is going to be a hard no for me! I prefer my tuna cold, as a sandwich or a salad.
I do have a DVD player - and have collected a few favorite movies over the years at yard sales thrift stores (less than 20, as i don't want to store a lot of stuff) - mostly Christmas classics as they no longer show all of them on regular TV, and i refuse to pay for them...I am looking at YOU Apple TV for bogarting my Peanuts classics!
Our vehicles are a 2002 F150 truck, a 2012 Sprinter RV, and a 2014 Toyota Venza. They are in great shape and their average mileage is under 100k. They all have CD players, so we still use the shiny discs, most of which I get free after library book sales. (Volunteers can have anything that's left over.) We also have a DVD player in the rig, which still comes in handy.
We are on a trip in the RV right now. Because we're out of range a lot, we use a combination of YT downloads and CD's.
We are heading to see our grandkids and their parents, who live in an uber expensive resort town three states away from us. It's a solid two-day drive. We pack meals from home, use a gas app to find the best diesel prices, boondock overnight, and listen to free music. I volunteer at a thrift shop, so I have loads of high-quality clothes for the grandkids stashed away in the rig. It's kind of like Santa's sleigh right now.
When we arrive to their notoriously non-RV friendly town, we park in their driveway, or at a kind neighbor's (when they're out of town in their RV). The town is so RV unfriendly that it doesn't list a single RV dumpsite anywhere. Fortunately, by asking around and keeping our eyes peeled, we've located two, and they're free, yippee!
We always hit up the town's thrift shop (not the fancy-pants consignment places). We also love the "mercantile" at the town dump. So much so, that when the kids were there last week, the staff asked about me. Squee!
I've been an Amy D. fan since her early days. I still flip through the Big Blue Book once a year. So much is hilariously outdated, but it's still full of inspiration. I'm loving this series!
@Dicey, I wish our dump had a store! Ours won’t let you take anything. I don’t understand people who drive good stuff to the dump, when it would be just as easy to drive it to goodwill.
@Ann on the farm, it's kind of ironic that one of the most chi-chi Colorado resort towns has such a cool operation. It's called the "Motherlode Mercantile." It began when locals started separating their "good stuff" when making dump runs and leaving it in one place for others to find. If you're ever in Pitkin County, CO, check it out!
Funny. My dh is from a tuna casserole family, and serving tuna casserole is one of the compromises I made when I married him. (I did improve the recipe and don’t just slop a can of gelatinous gray soup into the casserole dish, like my MIL does!) I’ve struggled to enjoy tuna casserole, even my new-and-improved version.
I guess what I’m getting to is that the chowder recipe looks dreadful, but I think dh would LOVE it! I won’t tell him that such a thing exists!
Also, I think I can produce a soup I like for less money.
I think I’m not embarrassed by my frugality because we went through a “high earner high saver” phase, and that’s how we were able to buy a farm. It’s hard to feel embarrassed when you have a tangible result. I think, for some, it’s easier to save if it’s towards a goal. At this point, frugality has become such a habit that I don’t need a goal. I hope that makes sense.
About long distance phone charges: when I was in college 300 miles from my parents, I used the one-ring method. When I drove my horrible ’68 Ranchero back to school, I’d call home, let it ring once, and hang up. When they heard the one ring, my parents knew I’d cheated death again, making it safely back to school in that terrible car. (I think my parents must have secretly hated me to let me drive that POS.)
'There are plenty of people who are high earners, high spenders, and low savers.'
I've been looking for this description for a long time....thank you. I have friends who sometimes ask me for financial advice, even though their households make substantially more money than I do. Their issue is usually that they spend every penny and more than they make every month. They never catch up, they never save. They cant figure out how to change their spending and the cycle continues.
It sometimes hurts my feelings because two of my friends have often told me they dont have money but want to go out and have looked to me to pick up their tab or treat. When I suggest that we have lunch or a game night at one of our houses they never offer to host and it seems hosting, cleaning, organizing, and providing food and snacks always falls on my shoulders. They are married stay at home moms with kids that are teen and older, and their husbands make roughly three to four times as much money as I do yet they are unable to reign in any of their spending.
One friend shops compulsively and is a hoarder. She often wants to do things that are extravagant for herself but then goes cheap on her only child. Example she had a party for her birthday, she didn't want to rent a place, and couldn't have it at her home due to it's hoarded condition. I let her use my house with it's large patio for her party, I also contributed food and more, plus the use of my house to maybe 40 people throughout the evening. She went all out with expensive food, decorations, a new music sound system, alcohol bar and more. She claimed she spent about $700 on the party. Although many people also contributed with food items and gifts. The next morning we cleaned up and she talked about returning balloons and other disposable items she decided were defective due to normal wear and tear during use. She also has gotten into the habit of overbuying food items at stores with generous return policies like Costco, and then returning items claiming they weren't good. I used to go to lunch or dinner with her until I realized the trend that she would complain about her meal and asked to be comped every time. Finally one restaurant seemed to remember her and stopped comping her meals. She put up quite a fight once they finally said no to comping her, and we stopped going there. It was embarrassing. She also would leave me to pay the bill and tip which never contributed to even though she would get a soda and a free meal, she did no contribute. In stark comparison she went very cheap for her only child's party by again not having it in their home, she hijacked a pavilion at our local park that is supposed to be rented, it also rained and was not a great day for the pavilion, she bought two Costco pizzas, provided no drinks, then had four kids go to the roller skating rink where she did not get a party package or table or cake, and made a very cheap and bad looking cup cake dessert that the kids declined to eat. I'm thankful we were there as the kids didn't want to ride in her car due to it's condition of dog hair and possibly urine smell, unfortunately her hoarding and disorder tendency spill into her vehicles. I transported six kids to the roller skating rink from the park. She never told me the price of her child's party, but it was cheap, awkward, and not a good time. Suffice to say, I take long breaks before hanging out with her, and she suddenly takes interest in our relationship it's usually for her own purposes. Her husband is an engineer.
My other friend's husband makes 3 to 4 times what I make, she stays home. She has two adult children and one teenager. They have filed bankruptcy twice and are heading right back into extreme debt. She often talks to people about this issue. They dine out two to three times a day with take out meals, drive through drinks, and snacks. They spend about $500 a week on groceries for four people, and three dogs. She makes large contributions to two non profits financially and with purchased goods on a weekly to monthly basis, she could lower her contributions and still contribute but doesn't want to change anything. She goes over the top for her children's birthdays often spending 2k or more for hotel stays, and video game rental buses, and more. Shopping is her only hobby and interest. She justifies this by doing a lot of second hand shopping. They go on at least one vacation a year for a week to a theme park with hotel stay and eating out for the entire week, and treat everyone including adult children and their significant others. One time when talking to me about finances she asked if I ever wished I went on more vacations. I pointed out that I've left the state to visit family and gone to different destinations typically flying about a dozen times in the last two years including sight seeing and doing meaningful things and activities with family members. I didn't register to her that those are vacations for people, she seems to only think long stay theme park stays are vacations. It felt like a put down to me as well, or how we vacation or our lifestyle. She gets her hair and nails done at least once a month and often treats her daughters too, if only herself she spends about $300 a month on this even though with the hair, it could probably be less frequent. She seems trapped in a cycle of buy, declutter/sell, buy, with very little back financially in the declutter sell phase. Her husband has now taken out some kind of life insurance where he gets the money before he dies and has to make a payment in perpetuity. He has used this to pay for a fence and pay off a car. He also gambles with the stock market and is very secretive about it and how much he spends. They agreed to a set amount a month he could invest in the stock market, but she discovered he was creatively financing more, and with that I call it gambling. With all of this they are now payment poor and argue about spending but both wont change their spending. They often resent each other but continue to spend recklessly for example treating all children and their so's to dinner at fancy restaurants and spending over $500 on one meal.
I try to never say too much to them, because I've already said what I can, and people will do what they want with their money. But, it's not always how much you make, it's how much you spend.
I make a modest income as a single parent and take free clothes from friends, drive a vehicle over 20 years old, and shop sales and coupons and utilize rebate apps. We often go on traveling vacations to see family and stop and see things along the way to integrate them into our trips. I'm not perfect financially. But, I'm stable.
Sorry for the venting session. It seems all my friends are living luxurious lifestyles and desire to be the Joneses.
@Ashley Bananas, with all due respect, I have one question: Why are all these "friends" not ex-friends? Me, I'd tell anyone who took advantage of me in the ways you describe to take a long walk off a short pier.
@A. Marie, Thank you. Maybe I need to hear (read) that.
@Ashley Bananas, I agree with A. Marie (as usual). If I wanted to stay friends with them for other reasons, then I would be very upfront about saying, "Your turn to pay." Or "I cannot fund our lifestyle and yours, so time for you to contribute to our outings." Whatever emotional return you are getting for putting up with them would not be worth it for me, but it may be for you so equalizing things by insisting they pay their fair share might be a way to salvage the friendship without going broke.
I am obsessed with that weird-sounding tuna cheddar chowder soup recipe now! Come on, PLEASE will you try making a batch and report back, Frugal Girl??? Would make an awesome Tightwad Gazette post, IMO. Inquiring minds want to know . . . 🙂 For the purpose of better knowing our frugal history, of course.
Maybe I’ll take one for the team and make a batch….
@Kristen, after you are a nurse of course. and THANKS.
I am very curious about the soup. I love soup and I LOVE tuna but I have definitely never tried the two together.
I haven't had tuna casserole in well over a decade, but tuna melts are a beloved favourite in my household. Yum.
Tuna soup: Not likely to be made by me. My parents and one of my brothers liked/like oyster stew and that's a difficult one for me. I do like scalloped or fried oysters. I liked tuna casserole, but if I'm into pasta, I'd just rather spend the time making garlic butter pasta or pasta with egg and cheese. I do like tuna salad especially in the summer with a fresh wedged tomato. Like many things, quality has changed. I suspect tuna was better quality and not in so many varieties. ( Less pollutants, too.)
While I'm no longer into 8-tracks, I do wish it was not so difficult to be able to play VHS tapes. My vehicle is old enough to play CD's and I'm glad. I do not have ear buds, or ear phones, nor do I have a speaker for my laptop or phone, so any music I listen to is not the best.
Wealth and frugality. I just like finding vintage, quality things. There is a certain patina with age. Plus, I enjoy the hunt.
I'm grateful to no longer have to deal with long distance. I have friends in Indonesia that I text occasionally. I have a sister in Virginia, When my parents were living, my Mom and I could rack up quite a bill. I think I've shared before that when we would leave each other's company, Mom would say, "Send the signal." That meant that once you got home, you'd call and let the phone ring once and she would know you got home safely. We still say it amongst us siblings even though it's not as necessary.
I haven’ttried tuna soup, but I imagine it might taste similar to salmon chowder. Which I do like.
I grew up canning fresh caught tuna, canning the dark portions for pet food. Still do it, only every other year.
Mom would never waste the albacore in a casserole. I tasted my first tuna noodle casserole in college and vowed to always be working on the nights that my room mates cooked it.
Could not imagine it in a soup. I do make salmon chowder and fish head soup.
My daily driver is a '64 ford 4x4 w/original radio. But my inherited big truck has cd's. I picked up some classical music CDs for a quarter each last weekend.
My oldest brother did well in his business and built generational wealth, he & his family still pack lunches. My middle brother made good money and spent even more.
I saved, lived in simple homes, drove old cars and went camping instead of trips all over the world. We are equally happy with our choices. Great post!
My father was very frugal. We lived in small houses, had few clothes, and only took one major vacation in all those years. It wasn't until I was 18 that I learned he had been saving diligently to put us three kids through college.
About wealth and frugality :
A couple years ago a former 'mom' friend (who loved to brag about her 100 000$/year job and complaining having to support her husband, who ''only'' made 70 000$ - the shame!) was telling me about an opening at her school, for a position that might have interested me, and said : ''Also, it probably pays much better than your current job''... Looking it up I said ''No thanks''.... The pay was actually HALF of my current job!
But we are not spenders, so we have nothing to show off. So, for them we were probably in the ''poor'' category, I guess?
I mean, she did gift me with ''new towels'' to replace the ''old'' ones my daughters dared showing up with when going to their place to use the pool (probably thinking we are too ''poor'' to afford a pool too? Lol). Just to spite her I kept the new towels and still sent the kids to her place with the old towels, aha!
They make more money than us, yet we are the ones with zero debts (house paid, car paid, etc), while they are still paying those bills + all sorts of extras. So technically they are wealthier than us (salary wise), but in reality, we are wealthier than them.
Notice I said ''former friend'' here... I dislike show-offs and superficial people very much.
Husband LOVES tuna chowder or tuna cheese (as in Velveeta) soup. I like making the tuna cheese because I start out by boiling cauliflower in chicken broth and then use an immersion blender to pulverize the vegetable. Then I add the tuna and small chunks of potatoes. When the potatoes are done, I add the cheese. Cheap, easy to make, and this is the way husband prefers his vegetables. Personally, not a favorite of mine, but he likes tuna in his mac and cheese, and I don't understand that either...
We never listen to music, although husband sings with a group so has music that way. We like our house quiet and are not in the car long enough to turn on a station. If it is a longer trip, then audiobooks not music. I stopped listening to music after college, so my tastes are either the classical music I was raised with or early country music. (I was in boarding school when the Beatles appeared but we were not allowed to listen to the radio so I only know a few of their songs.) In fact, I hate music being forced on me in stores, the dentist's office, and other places of business. It is one of the reasons I love having the husband cut my hair, no hairdresser music (or chit-chat).
I have never been ashamed by our frugal ways. I was embarrassed, however, the time I ran into the market while grubby from working in the garden in the oldest clothes I owned because my appearance apparently gave the egg stocking guy I was extremely poor, maybe even homeless. I was looking inside cartons to make sure I didn't buy broken eggs and he walked up and quietly gave me a coupon for free eggs, saying not to lose heart that things always get better.
One of my mom's favorite bridal shower gifts (to give and one she received though she got married with just the two people who stood up for them) was a bag of rags/cleaning cloths. She said as a young housewife she hadn't used anything up enough to turn it into a rag and WHO had money to buy cleaning cloths. She spoke of that handy gift for decades, though after a while it wasn't something you'd gift, she said. But when I first moved out, she gave me a bag of cloths and my dad strung up a clothesline to remind me to stay thrifty!
As to tuna in soup, I'd be a hard pass on that. But vegan so take that for what it's worth. I did used to eat a tuna sandwich for Friday dinners for eons growing up.
For some reason, I can eat cod in a chowder, but I certainly cannot eat tuna. I think it’s just too fishy. And it sounds revolting.
Pretty. much NO! On the Tuna soup.I don’t like any kind of hot tuna! I like regular tuna sandwiches or a scoop of tuna on top of my salad.
Frugality vs poverty,etc: I think I am lucky that I am easily pleased, so I never developed horribly expensive “tastes.”Although I do like “nice things” I can always find quality clothing at my local consignment store, and I love used furniture,I found a leather library chair for $50 at Goodwill that fits my sitting room perfectly.Who needs Ethan Allen?? I like that my Mazda CX5 was thousands less than the CRV everyone was buying.. and I like it’s style much better. I enjoy lazy beach towns and airbnbs vs far flung islands that takes days to get to and lotsa $$$$
In retirement, we have enough to be more “spendy” than we are, but why??????
I have friends who have less MONEY but have more and nicer THINGS than I do,such as Lexus cars, designer handbags they bought at retail, and trips to Maldives.But they are in debt and/or are living paycheck to paycheck.That’s just not my style.OR COMFORT ZONE!!
MUSIC is super duper important to me so I bought a nice Apple speaker and I pay for the no ads spotify so I can also make playlists,etc and that is a small splurge I get a lotta pleasure from.
I also pay for NO AD youtube..I learn so much on the youtube videos, and my husband does too..We have date nights where we each have had to find 1-2 small youtubes to share with one another..something funny (SNL reruns) or educational ( cooking,history,etc)
So, we don’t deny ourselves, but we are very MINDFUL of where the $ goes/how much fun we get out of the expenditure.
LOVE YOUR BLOG SO DARNED MUCH!!
I think tuna in soup might be a polarizing topic...my vote is NO. I am a fan of LP's and CD's. You cannot always get exactly the song you want otherwise. Analog for the win.
ok, the amount of things you've taught me are probably beyond comprehension, but the main question I have is WHAT IS THAT LUNCH?
So, I know for 99 percent of the world, my struggle is not real. However, it is the truth. I grew up in fairly wealthy household who hated food. We ate at truckstops, out of boxes, and my mother actually said that produce was bad for us.
In college, my roommate had to send me with photos to understand the produce section. I've come a long way and really really trying to make sure produce and veg is the mainstay of my meals, but it still just doesn't occur to me. Your meal photos mean so much because I was just .. patterned.. to believe it was difficult to eat healthy.
I literally didn't know I could just peel an orange, steam some broccoli. But I'm learning.
Thank you so much Kristin, for just showing me how it works. At 6o, I still feel like a babe in the woods when it comes to healthy eating.
And I am trying. I actually, post divorce, told my real estate agent that I had to be less than a five minute walk from my local beloved produce market so I wouldn't be tempted to go back to boxes (or box stores. I have a phobia) so now I live above it. It is so hard to figure out how to make it a part of every meal!
Just thanks.
I’ve had my book for at least 25 years!!
I must have made the soup at some time, because I wrote “pretty good” in the margin. I don’t remember making it, so I doubt my kids agreed. 🙂
I want to try the soup. I've developed an allergy to shellfish as I've aged & really miss chowder. Could this be a good substitute for me?
Can you eat clams? Zoe is allergic to shellfish, but since clams are in a different family, she can tolerate those.