Can you go TOO cheap?

As a poor student, I once decided to cook everything from scratch.  My reasoning was that I enjoyed cooking (well, baking), and it would save me money, plus I would eat healthier.  I also decided to buy local, in-season, or cheap food.  As a result, I bought cabbage, turnip, dried beans, etc.  You can already see the disaster.  My beans weren’t fully cooked (it takes hours to cook them!), and I never liked cabbage or turnip.  So the result was that I ate out almost every night that week.

Later, a few weeks older and definitely wiser, I bought food I enjoy: eggs, salsa, carrots, lettuce and avocados, tomatoes.  I made tomato sandwiches to take with me to avoid buying lunch, made a great salad to eat with an omelet spiced up with salsa.  Eventually, I learned to make my own salsa (tastes better than stored-bought, but not cheaper since I couldn’t buy tomatoes at a discount price), bought a bread-maker on sale to make my own bread (I still won’t make it completely by hand), and I can make killer salads and my own salad-dressings.  I learned that going too cheap can result in a larger expense to correct the mistake.

One of my friends once bought very cheap bed sheets; after a few washes, they were almost falling apart.  Same for socks, too cheap means holes for your toes.

However, there are some items that you CAN go cheap for, without much or any negative effects:

- Food close to the ‘best before’ date – that is what that date means: BEST before – not unsafe or unhealthy to eat after! As well, you can often freeze the food and eat it later.

- Trendy clothes – especially if it’s an item you know you won’t wear for long

- Formal wear, if you are buying for one event – such as a formal dress/gown

- An item on sale because it’s being discontinued; if it doesn’t work, the warranty should still be valid and the company will replace it with one of equivalent value.

- Decorative items; if their sole purpose is to look good and they won’t be handled much, they should last even if cheap.

What NOT to buy because it’s cheap?

- Anything you do not want or do not need: if you hate pink, do not buy a pink shirt because it’s cheap.

- Anything where you suspect the low price reflects the low quality

- Anything sold ‘as is’ if you are not prepared to fix whatever doesn’t work.

So, is it possible to go too cheap? Absolutely, especially if it will be costly to repair the mistake.  Be wise in your frugalness.

Batch Cooking

Batch cooking means just this: cooking in batches so you don’t have to cook as often because you have large quantities of food prepared.  This is typically a method used by larger families of at least a couple of kids – a parent makes 2 lasagnas at once and freezes one so there is one ready for next week.

However, batch cooking can cook for the single student too.  Say you would like to eat spaghetti; making an elaborate sauce for one serving does not make sense; you cook for 30 min and ‘inhale’ the result in 12 minutes! So you eat the sauce right out of the jar, letting the hot pasta heat up the sauce – yuk!  However, what if you spent 30 minutes making the sauce and had some for 5 extra meals? Now, that’s an interesting idea.

Depending how much you eat, a recipe for 4 or 6 may give you food for only 2-3 meals or for 5-7 meals.  It also depends if you like lots of sides to your meal: do you eat spaghetti with a salad and bread, or just a plate of spaghetti?

Pick something you eat often and you enjoy making: my example is spaghetti (sauce), but it could be something else, as long as it freezes well: Sheppard’s pie; chicken pot pie; quiche; chili; etc.  Instead of making only enough for 1 or 2 meals (or 1 meal with a bit of left over), double your recipe.  Yes, it may take and extra 10% time to cut more vegetables, but compared to making the entire recipe on a different night, it’s a very small amount of time.

Now you have two choices: either you cook the recipe as one (like chili) and save a few portions to freeze for later meals, or you divide the recipe in separate containers and cook separately (like for Sheppard’s pie). Either way, you end up with extra servings ready to freeze and eat on another day.

Now for the freezing part: you will need containers to freeze and a labeling system.  If you are sharing a freezer with others and they like to freeze food too (or keep some vodka in the freezer), you will need to minimize the space you use: square containers take up less space for the same amount of volume.  I like the disposable Ziploc ones (except I don’t dispose of them – I reuse them over and over).  Some people like to spray a light coat of Pam (an oil spray) to create a thin barrier between the food and the container so that the food does not stain the container (tomato sauce of any kind will do that); I don’t care about the stain myself.  Another space-saving method is to buy good quality freezer bag and to freeze the food in these – they can be packed almost flat in the freezer (do NOT try this with cheap sandwich bag – you can imagine the mess when they break).  If you have lots of space, empty 1 liter yogurt containers work very well!

A very important part of this system is labelling: if you don’t label your food, A. someone else may eat it if you share your freezer; B. you will not know what is in the container (chili looks a lot like spaghetti sauce once frozen); C. you may eat someone else’s weird concoction!  What I find works for me is masking tape (not the one from the dollar store though – the good quality stuff from a hardware store), about ¾ inch wide.  If you stick masking tape on a warm and dry plastic lid, it will stay on, even after you freeze the container.  However, do not try to label an already frozen container like this: the humidity on the container and the cold will prevent the glue of the masking tape from working properly.  On the piece of masking tape, I would write my name (if sharing the freezer), the name of the dish, the number of servings (in case I freeze in different quantities), and the date (so I don’t forget about a dish made 6 months ago).

In my kitchen batch cooking, I have found a huge number of dishes that freeze well, and a few that don’t.  For example, soups are great if frozen with the pasta a bit undercooked (you can remove the soup to be frozen from the pot before the soup is ready, and then continue cooking the portion you plan on eating now), but cream soups tend to have the milk separate during the freeze-thaw process (it doesn’t alter the taste, just the texture).  My favorite scone recipe does not freeze well baked, but the raw dough freezes will so I will make twice the recipe (I only thaw a half recipe at the time), form into four dough shapes and bake one and freeze three.  Most of my muffin recipes freeze very well so I will make a double batch (24 muffins), freeze 18 (I can eat 6 muffins in a week), and put a frozen muffin in my lunch bag every day after the first 6 are eaten for breakfast; the muffin thaws between breakfast and lunch and keeps the rest of my lunch cool.

You may wonder why I love batch cooking so much. It’s not the cooking as much as the lack of need to cook on other nights – it’s great to take out spaghetti sauce from the freezer, cook some pasta and TA-DA! Dinner is ready!

The Housemate Agreement

Unless you are a very lucky student who is not sharing living space, most likely you have to put up with other people where you live.  One great way to make the process less painful for everyone is to come up with a good Housemate Agreement – this way, everyone is on the same page and agrees to the same ‘rules’.

Cleaning: obviously (or not – you may want to point this out!), each person should clean their own room and clean after themselves in the kitchen and bathroom after they use it.  However, there is lots of clean up to be done in common rooms, such as the entry way, the hall, the kitchen (just cleaning after cooking and eating is not enough), the bathroom, etc.  Make a list of what should be done weekly (including shoveling the snow and mowing the lawn if you are responsible for some outside areas) and divide it up.  A tip: if everyone chooses to be in charge of cleaning the room/are they are the most ‘picky’ about, the cleaning will be done very well.  For example, I’m picky about bathroom cleanliness; I don’t like touching the toilet seat if there are any hair around or on it.  I don’t like the soap muck around the sink.  Therefore, in a shared house, I’d be happier cleaning the bathroom, not for the act of cleaning it, but because I trust myself to do a job I can be happy with.  Make sure people are accountable for their cleaning: once a week should be a minimum (since many people are sharing these spaces) so a check list is not a bad idea – put a check mark after your chore when you are done.

Bills: it’s not a good idea for one person to have his/her name on all the bills and for others to give that person money each month to pay the bills.  Why? Because every time someone is short of money, the same person suffers.  Have each person handle one bill and have one person calculate who owes what to whom every month.  Or even better, find a place that charges rent inclusive of everything1

Noise: if you know the people who are sharing a house/apartment well, you probably know how much noise these people make.  Sometimes though, we know people a bit and have to make a quick decision about sharing a home.  Have an honest discussion about noise: would it be all right if everyone tried to be quiet (in case someone is trying to study or sleep) after 11pm and before 8am?

Food: decide together if you want to share some food (such as salt, pepper, flour for baking) or if should all foods should be individual.  It can be a little silly to have 6 salt shakers in the house; however, it can be frustrating to want an omelet and find no eggs left.  A bit of both is probably best.  Share what lasts a long time should be shared (you can share the cost).  And label what is yours or others won’t remember if they finished their chocolate chip cookies bag and they will eat yours.  A tip: buy plastic bins, label them with your name, and put your food in them in the fridge, freezer and pantry.  You can also keep some pantry-type food in your room if there are no issues with pests.

Car: if one of you has a car, find a way to get a ride to the grocery store without taking advantage of the person who owns the car.  Let’s say Bob has a car.  Yes, Bob would be paying for gas, maintenance of the car, insurance and such even if nobody else ‘bummed’ a ride to where Bob is going.  However, it’s not fair that everyone gets the convenience of the car but nobody except Bob pays for it.  Put a jar in the kitchen and put in $1 or 2 whenever Bob gives you a ride.  He’ll appreciate it and will be more likely to make a small detour to drop you off next time he goes out.  And make sure the responsibility of shoveling the driveway is not added on to Bob’s list: he should not have extra work to do when everybody gets rides.

Laundry: if you are lucky enough to have laundry facilities in your house or apartment, be considerate of others and only start your laundry if you can take it out promptly and dry it, so you can leave the appliances empty so others can use them.  It is frustrating to always have to take one housemate’s wet stuff out of the washing machine on a regular basis.  Make sure you empty the lint catcher (on all dryer, and some washer) so that the appliances run efficiently, saving you money; as well, you landlord may not have to replace an appliance if it was not used properly or if it was neglected.

Overall, be kind and put expectations forwards so that there are no misunderstandings between housemates.

Top Four Reasons Why You Should Hang Dry Your Clothes Outside

I like drying my clothes outside after washing them.  There is an old-fashion pleasure in hanging clothes outside.  Of course for the less romantic students who are short on time, I’d better make my choice better-justified.  So here are three reasons you should hang your clothes to dry outside:

1. It’s economical; the clothes dryer is one of the most power-hungry appliances in your house.  Drying outside is free.  In winter, I hang-dry inside (it’s dry in most houses in winter; air-drying your clothes balances that a bit, and the clothes take less time than you’d think to dry indoors).
2. It’s more efficacious way to dry:  clothing drying outside airs out more than in the machine and therefore it will smell better – less smoke, less perspiration, etc.
3. It’s better for your clothes: clothes get damaged with high heat (from the washer and the dryer), from movement and friction (think of the washer and dryer) and from chemicals; if you can reduce the heat and the movement (from the dryer), your clothes will last longer.  Elastic and spandex are especially sensitive and should never be in the dryer – the elastic gets dried out and starts breaking.
4. It’s better for your health; spending a few minutes outside hanging your clothes is almost a meditation exercise; you cannot go too fast (or you’ll drop everything), the action does not make much noise, and it is outside.

Now that you are totally convinced that you want to hang your clothes to dry, you may be concerned about the lack of space you have; here are a few tips on HOW to do it:

• If you live in a house, ask your landlord for a clothes dryer tree – they run about $200 but last for years – and it will make his/her house easier to rent later.  The trees are sturdy and can easily take two loads of clothing to dry.
• If you cannot get the house owner to pay for it, consider sharing the cost between housemates
• Another, much cheaper alternative is a small metal dryer – these also fit on a balcony if you do not have a yard; as well, they can be taken indoors in bad weather.
• Hang a rope – make sure it’s high enough that you won’t decapitate anyone walking by, or make it removable at one end – you only have it strung when you are using it.
• If you only have a balcony, go with the small metal dryer – for indoor and outdoor.
• The most obvious place for a hanging dryer is in your laundry room if you have one and it is large enough.  Remember though, that the top of the dryer is a great space to put a drying rack.
• Inside your home, in winter (unless you are in sunny Victoria or Vancouver!), you need to find space to set up your dryer.  If you do a load of wash late at night, you can hang your clothes inside your bedroom early in the morning, before leaving for classes.  By the time you get back home, they will most likely be dry. 
• After everyone’s had their shower, announce that you need to use the tub to hang your clothes – unless you have roommates who shower continuously, this should not inconvenience anyone – set the dryer in the tub.
• Hang some towel bars on the ceiling for an easy way to dry shirts: hang the shirts on plastic hangers (in case you get rust from the metal ones) and hang the hangers from the towel bars for maximum air flow.  You can do this in your bedroom or in the bathroom (or the laundry room). 
• Towels can often be dried directly on the towel bar they usually hang from – we dry our tea towels (that we use to dry our dishes) in the kitchen on towel bars.
• Most horizontal banisters are great hanging spots for damp clothes.  In summer, you can use the one on the balcony.
• Sheets are hard to dry because they are so large; if you have a spare set of sheets (so you can change your bedding without washing your sheets right away), wash EITHER the top sheet or the fitted one in a load (not both) so you only have to dry one at the time.  With a large banister you can hang-dry your sheet indoors; otherwise, a few hooks high on your walls/ceiling should let you hang the drying sheet ‘from the ceiling’ for a day – that should be all it takes to dry (you can do it at night when you sleep as long as it’s high enough – and you’ll sleep better in a slightly less dry room in winter).
• If you find your undies a bit stiff after slow air drying, put them (once dry) in the electric dryer for a few minutes – they just need the agitation to regain their softness.  Stiff towels dry your skin better, and exfoliate at the same time, so enjoy!

Yes, hanging clothes is a bit more work, BUT… it’s SO MUCH better!

Desperation

How do you know when you are desperate for money? When do you consider yourself poor enough to ask for help?

My first answer is: it depends.  If you are the type of person who finds it a need to download a new song from iTune, I’d answer, ‘later than you think’.  If you are willing to go hungry in order not to burden anyone, I’d say ‘earlier than you think’.

So what does real desperation look like? As a student, it looks like the following:

- You do not have enough money to buy food so you are not eating (and I’m not talking eating out, but you are too poor to buy noodles from the grocery store).

- You do not have enough money to access the material you need to study (you can’t get the textbooks you need or the drafting tools you are required to use).

- You do not have secure shelter, warmth, clothing to keep you healthy in the weather you face every day (could be rain boots, could be a winter coat).

We are therefore describing basic student needs, not anything extravagant.  Notice that I have not mentioned tuition – more about tuition in a later post.

If you are in any of these situation, please speak up – and get help.  Here is where to get help.

- The Financial Aid Office – every university and college has one.  They will work on strategies with you so you can get money that you need (it could be in the form of a loan).

- Your parents – they may be broke, or unwilling to help, but they may have $25 that will help with groceries for 1-2 weeks.  Beware: they may not be keen on helping you if you spent all your money on clothes, partying, and electronics and now have no money left.

- The Food bank: some universities have them just for students.  Most cities have them.  At city food banks, you can usually get one week’s worth of non-perishable groceries per month and they help a large number of people.  Do not feel that you should not use food banks: they are for people who have fallen on hard time, just like others in your situation.  Once you have a job and are making money, you can donate to the food banks that have helped you.  Use the food bank if you need to.

- ‘Soup kitchens’ are organisations that prepare and serve meals to people in need of a hot meal.  Check your phone book.

- Some organisation will GIVE you clothes if you are in need (of course the Salvation Army has some for sell at very low prices as well); St-Vincent of Paul is one.  At our local one here, you can get a loaf of bread and clothing for free.

- Use your university; stay at the library for studying (free internet and warmth and quiet); plug in your computer and phone to charge them; use the textbooks on reserve at the library or another textbook on the same topic to study.  If you need to, ask the secretary for left-over food after a seminar – tell her you are short on money and could use a bite (administrative assistants have lots of experience with students struggling – they may even save you a piece of pizza after a meeting!); check out events with free food.

- Use your social circle to let people know that you are looking for a few items: a winter coat and boots, for example.  It’s unlikely that nobody you know will have an extra item.  Many colleges and universities have clothing drives to help students with warm clothes when winter is near – check out if there is something like this around you so you can get warm clothes for free.

- If you have lost your shelter altogether, go immediately to the Office of Financial Aid; this is a crisis and you need help right away.  Ask a friend for shelter (in exchange for chores around the house and/or tutoring).  Go home (if you can afford it) for a week or until you can figure out what to do.  Do not live homeless; it is dangerous.  You may need to forfeit your semester in order to stay safe.  However, most likely there is an emergency solution to your problem.

Of course, the best idea to avoid a financial crisis is to budget well and to be conservative in your spending, but sometimes there are unexpected problems that come up: your parents suddenly withdraw their financial support; your apartment burns down and you need a new place to stay; you suddenly get ill, withdraw for a semester and need to do an extra semester that you had not budgeted for, etc.  As an adult with a job, you are expected to have some emergency savings; as a student, it is very difficult to do that because your budget is tight with no extra money to put aside (unless you have more money than most – in that case, save!).  However, if you are spending on unnecessary items, keep in mind that whatever reason you have a larger-than-most cash flow may not last and be smart about having a contingency fund or plan.

Also, be aware of precursor clues that you are getting in financial trouble: you money is running out faster than you had expected; you are dipping in your ‘emergency food supply’, etc. 

 

The bottom line: if you are in a desperate situation, ASK FOR HELP; there is help for these situations and the help is designed to help YOU.  Do not feel bad as there will be opportunities for you to ‘make up’ for the help later in your life.  Right now, you need to stay afloat and stay healthy.  Help is there; use it.

Your New City (or Your Old City Rediscovered)

If you have moving to a different city to study, remember that your new city is your home now, whether it feels like it or not.  This means that you can enjoy all the commodities it offers, just like any other resident.  You may need to get a few things organized first, but you are entitled to these.

For example, the public library of a city is a government program offered to anyone who has an address in that city.  Therefore, if you have just moved to Ottawa, you are entitled to use the Ottawa public library (all its branches) for free.  In order to get a library card, you will need to register with the library by physically going to one of its branches (locations are typically displayed on the library’s website) and show proof of residence (an official bill with your address in your new city on it).  If you are moving from a small town to a large city, you will be amazed at the resources you can access at your new library, including having items ‘shipped’ to the library branch closest to you and making reservations.  My library includes audio books, downloadable books, movies and even video games (for various systems!); all these are free to borrow and I can renew them online.

It is often difficult to find a new physician in a new city, but thankfully, most universities offer medical service to their students (you still need to show your medical insurance card, from your home province, to use the service) and these physicians are specialized in all the medical problems that university-age students encounter most frequently (birth control and sexual health; addictions; depression and anxiety) and they can write you medical notes if you need to miss school (including exams) and give you referrals to a specialist in the city. 

Your new city most likely offers some museums and/or galleries.  Take advantage of their newly-found proximity and the cheaper rates you can often get with your student card. 

Take the opportunity to enjoy what your new city offers: remember that you may not be able to live there after your degree: if you find a job right after school, it may take you somewhere else; you may choose to move back home for various reasons (including needing time to find a job while not paying rent); you may want to pursue more studies that are in a different city or you may even want to move to follow the love of your life.  Regardless of the reason, recognize that this time may be temporary and enjoy the festivals that are offered around you, often at very low cost, and definitely at lower cost than later since you live nearby and can enjoy a student discount.  Moved to Calgary? go see a Stampede; moved to Montréal? enjoy the Jazz Festival; new to Toronto? you’ll have to pace yourself and spread the entertainment over a few years!! 

Finally, remember to enjoy what is local; going downhill skiing if you are at the University of Regina is not frugal, but enjoying seafood in Halifax is a great way to take advantage of local opportunities.

Wherever your post-secondary education takes you, be part of your new town!

Choosing a College or University Well.

Many of you will be either returning to post-secondary education, or starting in it this September.  Not only is education after high school very different from high school, but the social scene is different, especially if you will not be living at home.  For international students (anyone changing country to study, even if the change is ‘only’ Canada-USA), the change is even more important: a new culture, new weather, often a new language, new foods, new social cues, and new legal, financial and red tape structure.  Queen’s University, in Kingston Ontario, has a special program called Atlas which helps international students welcome these changes.  I’ve stolen their diagram of what constitute all the health issues you must monitor when making the changes to post-secondary education.  If you change the middle bubble to ‘success in post-secondary education’ or even ‘success in life’ , you’ll get a good idea of what I mean.

(http://quic.queensu.ca/international-students-and-staff/welcome-and-orientation/international-orientation-fall/aculturation-and-transition-to-life-and-academic-success-atlas/ )

To be successful in university, you can’t just count on academic success; obviously this blog is about doing it cheaply, but you also need to come out unharmed, healthy, and happy.  This is why I promote cutting down the fancy coffees, but not your meds; why I recommend jogging over club hopping, and why choosing a university close to home has lots of advantages. 

When studying more independently than in high school, you may end up meeting lots of different people.  You will be exposed to many different opinions, takes on life, philosophies, ethics, morals and religions.  It can sometimes feel a little overwhelming, especially if you are not sure what your beliefs are.  Luckily, university is a great place to do a few ‘taste-tests’ to solidify your beliefs or to find a philosophy that meshes with you. 

Where I wanted to draw your attention is to a couple of the bubbles:

The Emotional and Mental Health bubble: this is an extremely important one that many people ignore.  If you are treated for a mental illness or emotional problem or both, and that your team is a good one, consider not moving away for post-secondary education.  Two benefits will come from this: 1. you will keep your team of professionals assisting you.  In emotional and mental health, having a team that we are comfortable with is more important than in physical health because so much of mental and emotional health is talking about problems that are very difficult to talk about and because measurement methods involve divulging personal information.  The second benefit of not moving is that the cost will be less, so the stress of being able to pay for your years of studies will be less.  For anyone, with or without mental health problems, this stress can be enormous.  If you are dealing with mental health problems, this stress is by definition something you want to avoid.

The other bubbles I want to draw your attention to are the Social and Interpersonal Health bubble and the Socio-Cultural and Spiritual Health bubble.  Both of these rely heavily on finding peers you can relate to and develop meaningful friendship.  If your culture and religious background are very important to you, finding a city and a university where these are strongly represented should be a priority when choosing a school to attend; you may feel lost without them, and you may feel that you have no one to relate to if you are the lone person of your ethnicity or religion.   So make sure you can feel at ease where your study; it will be your home for a few years, so choose it well.

Remember: choosing an establishment of education should not be an academic decision alone; it should be a mental health and cultural decision as well.