“Remoted” – Workday 59 / Day 79 (Wednesday)

There is an ex-husband out there in the world who used to call me “The Frugal Finn” (ok, there are two ex-husbands, but only one did this). What he called “frugal” I called “fiscally conservative.” This probably came from one of two semi-official family mottoes I grew up hearing – “We can’t afford it” – which was the answer to nearly every question that was not already answered with a flat “No.” Before a question to a parent could even be completed, “Can I get …” the answer was already being issued in short form,  “No,” or long form “No, we can’t afford it.” If we could have afforded it, these would probably have been commissioned as stained glass panels or embroidered on a pillow.

For the record, my frugalness is neither universally applied nor evenly distributed. I track expenses on a spreadsheet and save with great discipline. Occasionally, efforts are undone by draining the checking account or boosting a credit card balance with a spontaneous, unplanned purchase like a bike (which was used once), new laptop, or flashy pair of boots (or two) that deep in my wretched little heart I knew even before the transaction was completed will never, ever be worn. But they were so pretty.

The original baked seafood dinner.

The tendency is to be more generous with gift spending than spending on items for myself. For myself, it’s store brands for most things and secondhand over new. It’s possible that just maybe there was a week or so recently where coffee filters were reused to conserve supplies, while also observed carefully for an adverse effect on taste that would prevent continuing the practice. Just maybe. Note: There was no difference in taste observed. It was equally crappy either way.

My aversion to wasting food is deep. It causes me pain to witness  food waste, and also means I'm not afraid of leftovers (I know some people who are). 

The leftover haddock.

A recent baked seafood dinner delivery lasted for several meals/snacks. This is a true story. The night it arrived, I ate something of everything – haddock, scallops, shrimp, fries, and onion rings. The next night, the remaining shrimp were cut and tossed with pasta and vegetables. Then the remaining scallops were paired with a broccoli cauliflower salad. The remaining haddock was had with angel hair and a mango tomato salad. There was a lunch of onion rings with a salad. There were evening snacks of French Fries and/or onion rings. There are still more fries in the freezer. 

We used to tease my Mummu over how she could eat for a week on one overstuffed sandwich from lunch at a certain restaurant. I get it now. There is almost no such thing as “not enough to save.” Half a sausage? Freeze it. A quarter of a chicken breast? Freeze it. One meatball? Freeze it. Basil or mint you can’t use right away? You guessed it – freeze it. Soon there will be an interesting assortment of freezer tidbits that can be diced and combined with other odd bits and used in a soup. When I lived with my Mom after moving back from Tennessee, we had a new household mantra – “Don’t throw that out, we can make soup!” It’s nice that we’ve grown and adapted.