Palladium rings: More bling for your buck

The trend for white-colored metals doesn't seem to be going away, but maybe the high price tag associated with it is. Find out how you can get the look, rarity and durability of platinum at a fraction of the cost.

While hunting for the perfect wedding ring online* I came across a metal I had never heard of before, and I'm guessing that you've never heard of it either. Priced similar to gold, but more like Platinum in its strength and appearance, Palladium offers a little more bling for your buck.

Great marketing and more than a little love from celebrities has helped fuel the growing trend towards using white metals, particularly platinum, in high-end jewelery like wedding and engagement rings. But for most people platinum is a little more than they can afford, and the cheaper alternative, white gold, isn't nearly as desirable.

The problem with white gold is that it's not actually white. It's plated with another metal called rhodium, and eventually this plating wears off and a yellowish color starts showing through. In order to maintain the jewelry's white appearance, the wearer must visit a jeweler periodically to have the piece replated. This kind of maintenance can be a turn-off, especially when buying pieces you intend to wear everyday, like a wedding band. For those set on a durable, white-colored band the high price of platinum seems worth it.

But what if you could get the same look at a fraction of the cost and without the need for routine replating?

Now you can, with a metal called palladium. A newly rediscovered metal on the jewelry scene, palladium is a member of the same group of metals as platinum. It is just as rare, and even more durable. In terms of color, it is actually whiter than platinum. Probably the only difference you'll notice is that it is not quite as heavy. But for large rings and other bulky jewelry this might prove an advantage over platinum, rather than a disadvantage.

Of course, the really noticeable difference is the price! Platinum can cost two to three times more, and even gold is priced slightly higher (much to my dismay as I prefer the traditional look of yellow gold).

So why haven't we ever heard of palladium before?

Palladium rings originally came into fashion during the early 1940s, when platinum was reserved as a war resource. Later, when platinum became available again it was both cheaper and easier for jewelers to work with, causing palladium to fall out of fashion. However, by the mid-2000s, the price of palladium had dropped significantly lower than the price of platinum and new innovations in the casting process had made the metal easier to mold. These factors combined to make palladium a competitive option again.

Still, traditional jewelers seem to have been slow to catch on and the general public appears largely unaware of the new metal. The blogger at suit-swagger.com has an interesting theory for this. According to him, traditional jewelers don't stock palladium because it's not popular enough yet for them to charge a premium price for it, and it's still more difficult to work with than gold. As far as jewelers are concerned, palladium is still more trouble than it's worth.

But online jewelers are another story. As traditional jewelers catch up, the internet seems to be the best place to find a palladium band. No doubt prices will rise once the word spreads, but for now, you can find some awesome deals. Here are a couple places to look:

e-Weddingbands.com is offering 10% off all of their palladium wedding bands if you order before January 31, 2010. Use the coupon code PD950-10 (and maybe show Frugal Fanny some love by noting in the comments section that you found them from this site).

Larson Jewelers has a huge selection and offers a low price guarantee and free lifetime resizing - great if you're worried you might order the wrong size.

Unfortunately for me, my love for the traditional look rules out the white hue of palladium. But I've written this post in the hope that my wasted hours of research will benefit someone. Let me know if you find the perfect palladium ring and where you found it.

Wishing you all the best in your relationship, and hoping you find the ring of a lifetime at a price to remember!

-Fanny

*That's right; I'm getting hitched! And in typical, frugal fashion my fiancée and I are keeping it small. So small, in fact, that the ceremony will be more of a paperwork affair than a wedding. Still, there is one area where I'm not willing to skimp: the ring. That little hunk of metal is going to be sitting on my finger until I die, so as far as I'm concerned I need to like it as much as I like the groom - and that's a lot!

60 second DIY ironing board upgrade

I hate ironing, but I also hate wrinkles, so I'm always on the lookout for anything to make the task quicker. And it doesn't get much quicker than this!

The other day I noticed a special ironing board cover for sale at my local grocery store. It had a metallic coating underneath that reflected the heat from the ironing board back to the clothes, allowing you to effectively iron both sides of a garment at once. It also had some other features, like a color-changing fabric, but I figured I could duplicate the effect at home with a little aluminium foil.

How to do it:

1. Remove the fabric cover from your current ironing board, leaving the foam sheet in place.
2. Put a layer of aluminium foil, shiny side up, over the ironing board, on top of the foam sheet.
3. Put the fabric cover back in place.
4. Iron as usual.

Very simple, very cheap, very effective. Try it!

Old house gets an energy boost

We just bought ourselves a house and we couldn't be more thrilled. It's an old fixer-upper, so we were able to get everything on our wish-list (lots of square feet, a beautiful garden, great location) except for, of course, a home in mint condition. I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot of DIY home improvement themed posts in the future.

Anyway, last weekend's project was getting our heating bill under control. Our house is nearly 100 years old and has little to no insulation, especially in the attic. As a result, the furnace was working overtime and we were biting our nails, stressing about how much oil was left in the tank.

So, to keep all our precious heat from escaping through the roof, we spent the greater part of Sunday laying insulation on the attic floor. The idea is that the insulation will stop the heat from entering the attic and heating up a space we don't use. Luckily for us, our attic is high enough to stand up in, so laying down the insulation was a fairly easy task. On the downside, the attic is huge, so there was a lot of insulation to buy.

To keep our costs down, we spent a few weeks researching the prices at different local shops. Eventually we found some glass wool insulation on sale. Even with our large attic and the high price of materials in Denmark (everything costs more here, not least due to a 25% sales tax), this project cost us only a couple hundred dollars. It pays to look for discounts.

The hardest part of this project was lugging the big bags of insulation up the stairs. Laying it down on the floor was relatively easy and quick. But, as with all DIY projects, planning is key. Here are some tips you should consider:

• Measure the floorspace of your attic carefully so you don't buy more insulation than you need. Most stores will let you return unopened packages, but you'll waste time and money driving them back to the store.
• Clear a space in your house or garage to store the insulation before you bring it home or have it delivered. You may not be able to put the insulation in the attic the same day you purchase it and glass wool insulation takes up a LOT of space.
• If you don't own a trailer or truck to bring the insulation back to your home, make sure you factor the price of delivery into your total cost comparison between stores. We found a store that would let us borrow a trailer for free.
• Remember to wear proper safety equipment, like gloves and face masks. If you need to purchase these things, put them on the list now, so you don't forget and have to make another trip to the hardware store.

Since completing this project, we've noticed a huge difference in the temperature in the attic. Before, it was pretty warm. Now when I open the attic door a wave of cold air hits me. That's a lot of heat we're saving and the furnace can take a break.

All in all, this project was a success. Laying glass wool insulation on the attic floor is a cheap and cost effective way to make an old house just a little more energy efficient.

My goodness, another year

Wow, it's amazing how a year passes... with no new posts. Somewhere along the line I drifted off into the abyss and left Frugal Fanny behind, as well as the personal blog I was keeping for family and friends. During that year I moved back to a first-world country with a decent internet connection and have subsequently been hassled by those same friends and family to start writing again. All their requests got me thinking, maybe people were still visiting Frugal Fanny?

And after a quick visit to Google Analytics, I can see that indeed you are. So I'm going to start writing again. I think I'll start with my little adventures into two controversial money saving techniques this past year: "No poo" (washing your hair without shampoo) and the BARF dog diet (feeding my dog raw bones). Both started off reasonably well, then turned sour. I've scrapped BARF but will try "no poo" again starting tomorrow. Full accounts to come :)

Poll: If it's yellow, let it mellow?

We all want to save money, of course. And saving the environment surely isn't a bad thing either, but would you go as far as flushing your toilets less frequently to save water?

I remember the first time I was invited to spend the night in a European's home. I was studying abroad and some friends of friends who lived a fair distance outside the city were hosting a party. Because they lived in such an inconvenient location, they were nice enough to let a few of us crash at their place for the night. After everyone else had cleared out, our host brought me a clean towel, showed me which door had the big dog behind it, and other such things. Among them was the house rule: If it's brown, flush it down. If it's yellow let it mellow. Actually, that's a pretty American way of saying it. When they said it, I think it came out more like, "Only flush it if it's solid."

It took me a minute to comprehend what they were saying, and I sincerely hope that my face did not reflect this or whatever was going on in my head. I was raised on penny-pinching, waste-not-want-not frugality but this blew my mind. As it was, I'd only just begun to think of the two-buttoned toilets I found in Europe, with a big-flush for solids and little-flush for liquids, as commonplace. The idea that there were actually people in this world who didn't flush their toilets every time in order to save water was still a little beyond me.

It's been many years since then, and I realize now that somewhere along the way I adopted a version of this rule, though saving water wasn't always the main reason. Maybe I didn't want to wake my sleeping puppy. Maybe I was just too lazy to pull the lid off the toilet and manually flush the thing because we still hadn't gotten it fixed. Maybe it's because I'm in a long-term, committed relationship with a man from that same country so all sorts of weird things don't seem weird to me any more. Whatever the reason was, I adopted it.

Would, or have, you? Would it make a difference if I told you that the average person flushes about 18.5 gallons of water a day and that those 18.5 gallons make up just over 30% of that person's indoor water use each day?

Vote in the poll to your right to find out how mellow we really are.

Fax For Free via the Internet

In my last attempt to be able to vote on November 4th (my absentee ballot came too late for me to send it off in time) I tried to fax a copy of my ballot to my city clerks office. Unfortunately, I don't have a fax machine. More unfortunately, I live in a rather third-world African city that just so happened to be experiencing violent demonstrations that day so I couldn't go out, not that I have easy access to a car or know where the heck I would have found a fax machine anyway.

I seemed to remember having seen once or twice, or two hundred times, annoying pop-up ads that said something about sending faxes through the internet. So I started browsing around online for other solutions. An initial Google search brought up dozens of sites offering this service, but, being me, I decided I was feeling lucky after all and typed "free" into my search bar and tried again. I got dozens more options, but what I was really looking for was advert-free, registration-free, no-strings-attached faxing services - a pretty tall order.

The closest thing I found was the free faxing service provided by drop.io. Drop.io allows you to upload files to a URL you specify, for example http://drop.io/whateveryouchose, so that you can pass the URL on and share them with other people or access them later. All types of files can be uploaded, not just a simple email message. You can also send people the files that you've uploaded, including by fax. It's completely free and while you do have to chose a password to associate with the URL you picked, you don't have to provide an email address or name, or register in any other way, making this an awesome choice. However, on further investigation, after uploading my files and going through the whole process, I discovered a glich. Drop.io has temporarily (I hope) suspended their faxing service. Their reason: unreliable service from their partners. They say that they are looking for other companies to team up with in the future so that they can start the faxing service again. I was disappointed to be sure, but happy to have found out about their file storage anyway; you never know when that might come in handy. And I'll keep checking back about faxing and if they offer it again, I'll let you know.

The next service provider I looked at was TPC, another totally free option, although they do ask for your email so that they can send you a confirmation notice when your fax is complete. I wouldn't be too worried about that though, as they're just a couple of really nice people who run the show for research purposes and out of the goodness of their hearts; I don't think you're headed to spam central, but that's just my judgment call. Obviously, you have to decide for yourself. My reason for not using their service was that I needed to send a copy of my ballot, not just a simple message. TPC doesn't allow you to fax files, only messages, so this wasn't going to work for me and, frankly, I can't see many uses for it as usually the whole point in faxing is to send a signed document and the like, not a simple message. But I guess if you needed to send a telegram-style message to someone living in the dark ages where they didn't have an email account but had a fax machine it might come in handy.

In the end, I had to settle for a free faxing service with adverts. I used faxZERO, and while I did have to give them my email address, I didn't have to register with a username and password and I haven't seemed to have gotten any more spam than usual (though I did use an alternative email account I created for these types of things just in case). With faxZERO you can only send one file less than 3 pages and the recipient will be shown an advert on the coverpage.

I sent my ballot off and hoped for the best. About 15 minutes later I got a confirmation email from faxZERO and shortly afterwards and an email from my city clerks office. They couldn't count my vote. Only absentee ballots arriving by hand or by snail-mail are considered valid in my state, but I was applauded for my efforts and can confirm that faxZEROs services do indeed work if you're ever in a similar pinch. Once again, thank you, Internet. At least now I can say I did everything in my power.

New Beginnings

It's been nearly a year since my last post. Life simply got in the way and I had to leave Fanny's Place behind in pursuit of other projects. I'm still in Africa, though now in another country, and in my efforts to keep up with the U.S. news these past few months I couldn't help but notice that for most families thriftiness and frugality are becoming more important and necessary than ever before. So, I decided to stop by the old blog, read any new comments, check the associated email account, and so on.

I'm amazed at the number of visitors the site is still receiving almost one year after my last post. In fact, more people are reading than ever before. The message was clear - I need to start blogging here again. So, of course, I slept on it, and then slept on it again until days turned into weeks and still no new posts. I probably never would have gotten back around here again accept for that this morning, when I woke up and read the news like every other day, I was greeted with a call for change. A call for hope. A call for new beginnings.

This is my own, personal, new-beginning. I'm starting over with Fanny's Place. I'm blogging again. What's your new beginning?

4 Fastest Ways to Save Money in January: Eat Simply

I always think of January as the great month of purge. Armed with our New Year's resolutions, we march into battle, trying to fight off the consequences of our excessive holiday consumption. Our wallets feel thin even as we struggle to squeeze them into the pockets of our tighter-than-ever jeans. Everything seems stacked against us, from the temperamental furnace in the basement to the balding all-weather tires on the car. It's not exactly an encouraging month.

And yet, there are simple things we can do to keep our money in our pockets so that come the end of the month we can pay off those bills. Over the next few days, I'll be posting 4 of the simplest and fastest ways to save money this January.

The first one is to eat simply. After weeks of cookies, candy, pies, and roast turkey with gravy, it's time to stop. Not only does holiday food pack on the pounds, it takes a serious bite out of the budget.

Planning and making your meals yourself really pays off. As hard as it is to go to the grocery store instead of the restaurant, especially if you did all of the holiday cooking, there's probably little else that will turn your financial blues around faster. Remember how you planned out everything you needed for your holiday meal, wrote it all down on a list, and then cooked it up yourself? See, you have the skills already. All you have to do is transfer them to your day-to-day life for one month. Just remember to:

1. Set a budget.
Before anything else, you should set a budget for your meals. Know the maximum amount of money you want to spend on food each week and be prepared to stick to these spending goals.

2. Write a meal plan.
Plan out what you and your family are going to eat for the week by writing down the details of every meal, including the exact foods you will eat, how many people will be at the meal and where/when you intend the meal to be. When you've finished, make a quick list of the ingredients required to make each meal, keeping in mind the number of mouths you will be feeding. This will help you later when you make your shopping list and it gives you the opportunity to estimate the cost for each meal and revise your plans accordingly.

Remember to portion correctly. There should be no food left over when the meal is finished. Making extra food tempts you to eat more than necessary and/or risks that you will forget about the leftovers and end up throwing them away. If you want to make a lot of food so that you will have left overs for another meal, schedule the leftovers meal into your weekly meal plan in advance. Make just enough food for the two meals and then immediately store half of the cooked food in the refrigerator. Do not put all the food on the table, or you risk over eating and not having enough food left for the second meal.

Once your meal plan is complete, compare your estimated costs with your budget and revise your plan until these match. If you have scheduled to eat meals at restaurants or cafeterias, you can save money by planning to make your own foods. If the meals you have planned to make yourself are too expensive, choose different recipes, avoiding special ingredients, spices you don't already have on hand, and processed, pre-packaged foods. Base your meals on staples like pasta, potatoes and rice and inexpensive meats like ground beef and chicken thighs/legs.

3. Make a shopping list.
Once you know what you're going to eat and what you need to buy to prepare your meals, make a shopping list. The longer your meal plan and more comprehensive your shopping list, the fewer trips to the grocery store you will have to make, saving you gas. Another way to limit transportation costs is to avoid going to more than one store, if possible. If not, make separate lists for each store you intend to visit, so that you are less likely to forget something and need to return.

4. Don't shop when you're hungry.
If you skipped lunch and are heading straight to the grocery store after work, watch out. Everything looks tastier when your hungry and you put yourself in danger of buying things that aren't on your shopping list.

5. Skip the snacks.
Feeling hungry? Try chewing gum instead of picking up a bag of chips at the fuel station. If you're a constant snacker, you'll do best to schedule snacks into your food plan that way your mini-meals are sure to be cheap and fit into your budget. Even better, just drink water when you feel the urge to fill your stomach between meals (from the tap, of course). Many times, a glass of water can curb the munchies.

Applying the same forethought we applied to the holidays, we can make January a budget-friendly food month by eating simply.

Bon Appétit!

Is It Okay to Re-gift?

The holiday season is officially over. I hope you got, and were able to give, everything you wanted.

For me, the holidays were anything but typical. Accustomed to extreme cold and snow, I felt a little out of place surrounded by palms trees in African heat, but it was still the holidays. The essential elements were there: good food, good humour, good people. If there was one thing noticeably lacking, it was gifts.

Now I'm not the material type, a fact which makes living the frugal lifestyle infinitely easier for me, but I do like to have something for people to unwrap come late December. Like they say, it's the thought that counts, and if you don't have anything to give, it's a good reflection on the fact that you probably haven't done much thinking. I pride myself on coming up with thoughtful gifts that don't break the bank but this year was particularly challenging. I became very aware of how disconnected from the rest of the world the tiny West African country I currently call home actually is. Simply put, there's nothing to buy here and even the best online deals turned out too expensive when delivery costs were calculated in. So I had to get creative.

Instead of buying too many gifts, I made my own. Basically, I hit the kitchen and baked - cookies, cakes, pies, anything I could find the ingredients for. This approach had three affects. 1: It really started to feel like the holidays; there's something about cooking that gets me in the festive spirit like nothing else. 2: I saved a lot of money on gifts and was able to give my friends something novel they could really use and enjoy. 3: I put on those holiday pounds! (Which means there will be a few inexpensive exercise and diet ideas coming your way in the next couple of days...)

In my struggle to find suitable gifts I found myself reviewing and reconsidering my approach to gift-giving in general and the practice of re-gifting fleetingly danced through my head. I have never, ever been a proponent of re-gifting, or giving something as a gift that was once given to you as a gift (usually something you didn't like or ever use). If it's really true that it's the thought that counts, then what kind of thought goes into re-gifting? But in a place like Africa, where there's simply nothing to buy and it's too expensive to order anything, or in other such unusual situations, is it okay?

Personally, I'm still inclined to think not, but I started to wonder how often the practice really occurs and what people actually think about it. So I've decided to issue a poll (in the far-right sidebar) to see what you all think. Is it okay to re-gift? Did you see or experience re-gifting this year?

10 Tips on How to Select a Good Wine within Your Budget

New Year's Eve festivities are all about sparkle, glamour and class - right down to the bubbling champagne we drink to mark the occasion. But there's nothing classy about spending your whole January budget on champagne and cocktails. And no matter how you look at it, beer just isn't glamorous. So what's the budget-conscious party-goer meant to do? More often than not, we end up in the wine aisle of the supermarket, wondering if we should take our chances with the $6 bottle with the fancy label, or splurge on the $20 bottle just to be sure we aren't the laughing stock of the party.

Buying wine doesn't have to be so difficult or expensive. Believe it or not, I've found some pretty decent bottles around the $5 mark (and spent $15+ on some pretty awful ones too) and every time I go to buy a bottle, I find it's easier and easier to spot the gems among the disappointments. I've never taken a wine-tasting course or moved in the circles of swirling glasses and slurping sips, but I've collected enough tips here and there over the years that I almost always end up with a respectable bottle at a respectable price.

Here are 10 tips that have helped me:

1. Make a wish-list.
If you've got the time to do a little research before you hit the store, do it. Making a wish-list of wines you'd like to try is a great place to start. Visit sites like Wine Spectator to get an idea of what's out there and read reviews of particular wines. About.com also has a good list of value wines you might want to consider. If you're new to wine or are selecting a bottle to please a large crowd, it's probably best to go with tamer, more universally-liked varieties like Merlot for reds and Riesling for whites.

2. Learn the vocab.
While you'll probably find something off your wish-list at your local supermarket, there's no guarantee that what you've written down will be there, so it helps to familiarize yourself with wine jargon so that you can make some educated guesses based on the descriptions on the bottles.

Most wines will have a short paragraph describing the wine's flavour on the back label, usually placing it somewhere on the continuum between sweet and dry and/or the scale from thin to full-bodied. If you know what these terms mean, they can really help you pick out something you'll like. The term sweet isn't a huge mystery and dry is pretty much it's opposite - a wine without a lot of sweetness. A little more mysterious are the terms thin and full-bodied. Full-bodied generally implies a heavier wine containing more alcohol and usually having a stronger flavour, with thin at the other end of the spectrum. In addition to these terms you'll probably come across a whole range of descriptive words, from berry to oak to leather. If you're interested in these sometimes over-the-top adjectives, check out this glossary of wine-tasting terminology for explanations.

If you're buying wine for a large crowd or simply aren't sure where to start, I suggest going for something that falls in the middle range of both scales, that way everybody's fairly happy. Another tip is to learn which wines different regions of the world are famous for. If a certain area is famous for a certain kind of wine, there's a reason for that. Also, don't assume that all wines get better with age. Some wines are best when they're young and it helps to have an idea about a wine's lifespan before you buy.

3. Ask the store reps for help.
If you're short on time, you'll probably end up going straight to the store without a plan or a clue. If you find yourself in this position, fess up to it and ask for help. If you're really short on time, your best bet is to go to a wine speciality shop. Their knowledgeable staff will be more than happy to help you find something in your price range. Don't be embarrassed to say that you want a decent bottle of wine that most people will like with a price tag around $10. Chances are, you're not the first one to come in that day with the very same question.

Speciality shops do, however, have higher prices, and you can find knowledgeable staff at small grocery stores too. I've even found some good advice at large supermarkets, but remember to use common sense regarding who you approach for help - the 16-year-old boy stocking selves probably doesn't know much about selecting wine.

4. Go for small vineyards.
If you're buying wine for a party or a gift and have gone to a speciality shop, ask the store clerk for something a little unique, new or unknown. It's always more exciting to try something new and this way it's less likely that people will recognize the name and know that you only spent $10 on the bottle. If you're on your own in the grocery store, consider being adventurous and grabbing a different bottle.

5. Look for award labels.
A different approach is to place your faith in award labels. Vineyards that consistently win awards year after year produce reliable, decent wines. You can be certain that whatever you choose will be drinkable and there are always a few decent, award-winning wines under or around $10 to pick from. The downside is that you probably won't win any points for creativity, and it will be obvious how much you did (or didn't) spend.

6. Decant older wines.
If you're serving the wine yourself, you can help it out by pouring it into a decanter an hour or so before you plan to drink it. Decanters are designed to let air flow over the wine. A little breathing time can work wonders (particularly on older wines) and investing in a glass decanter can add value to an indefinite number of bottles for years to come. Decanting is generally considered only necessary for older wines with sediment, but I've found that it can also have positive effects on the flavour of younger wines, plus it just looks classy!



7. Serve at the proper temperature.
Make sure that you're serving the wine at the recommended temperature. The proper temperature for each wine is usually written on the back label. You can purchase special wine thermometers or just approximate. It will probably be difficult to get the wine to the exact recommended temperature anyway, but getting it in the right ballpark can make a difference. Reds are generally served warmer than whites.

8. Invest in proper glasses.
Wine does not taste the same out of a plastic cup, so if you can, try to invest in some proper glasses. Your guests will be more much impressed with whatever wine you decide upon if it's served in an appropriate glass. Whatever glass you choose, remember never to fill it more than half way so that you leave room for the drinker to swirl the wine and fully enjoy its aroma.

9. Start a label collection.
When you find a wine you like, keep the label or write down the name and year so that next time, you can just throw the labels or notebook in your pocket and consulate them at the store. Also, it helps to write your own notes about a particular wine on the back of the label or in your notebook to help you remember what you thought of it. It might also be wise to make note of wines you disliked so that you're sure not to buy them again. Once you've collected a handful of labels or notes, reviewing them can reveal patterns in your preferences regarding variety, vineyards, sweetness, body and other descriptions, helping you determine which kinds of wines you might want to try in the future.

10. Keep a stash on hand.
Finally, avoid last minute scrambles to the store by keeping a few bottles in storage at home. Store the bottles on their sides so that the corks do not dry out, otherwise you risk spoiling the wine. The ideal storage temperature is around 55 degrees Fahrenheit, so a dark closet is usually a good place to keep your spare bottles.

For a great introduction to wine selection, storage, serving and drinking check out these wine basics.

Wishing you 365 days of better wine, starting tonight!
HAPPY NEW YEAR

Resolute in 2008

The New Year is approaching fast and amidst the party plans, as always, lurks the nagging notion that we ought to start thinking about those annual resolutions. Secretly, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with New Year's celebrations. I love to reflect on the past year's successes and imagine another 365 days of accomplishments, but more often than not, I find myself dwelling on the failures instead, both those past and those yet to come.

Thinking about this last night, I realized that my propensity toward the New Year's blues might run a little deeper than I'd previously realized. I got the sneaking suspicion that it's really the culmination of an entire year of downplaying my accomplishments and focusing too much on unfulfilled goals and ambitions. So this year my resolution is to acknowledge and celebrate my successes and do the same for those around me.

Of course, one of my main goals is to continue living the frugal life and encourage others to do the same. Therefore, I'd like to start posting success stories as they come in throughout the year. If you've managed to reach your saving/spending target or discovered a great new way to make your life a little simpler, share it with me and I'll post it for everyone to celebrate with you.

Success is contagious. Nothing is more inspiring than good news from those who share your values. Let's make 2008 inspirational!

I'm back!

It's been about a month and a half since my last post. I have no excuses, only reasons. I guess I can say I was busy learning to be frugal with my time, and blogging just didn't fit into the schedule. Truth be told, I was frantically finishing my Masters thesis so that I can get my degree next month and put my studies behind me for good (well, at least for now). Sorry for the silence and I hope your holidays were full of simple joys.

How to Be Both Cheap & Trendy for the Holidays

Everyone wants to look their best and in our attempts to do so, most of us spend a whole lot more than we realise. With the holiday season just around the corner we'll be thrown together with people we only see once or twice a year, or only once or twice a year outside of the office, so we really want to look our best this season. I'm sure you're already worrying about your holiday spending - the presents, the decorations, the travel, the food - but have you thought about your wardrobe? Thanksgiving dinner, the office Christmas party, that New Year's bash - what are you going to wear?

If you're like me, this is something you never think of until the last minute. Or maybe you're a shopaholic who loves clothes? Either way, I bet you spend more on your holiday wear than you realise. For one thing, once you start spending, it gets easier and easier to keep spending and during the holidays we spend a lot. We start swiping that plastic and when it's all nice and warm, we see that amazing dress or that spectacular belt and we think, "Oh, what the hell. I've already spent so much, what difference does it make?" Well, a lot, actually, because that thought will keep crossing your mind and your plastic will stay warm in your pocket and come January your New Year's resolution will be to pay off the credit card before next year.

No one wants the hangover of last month's festivities following them into the new year, but we all want to put our best foot forward at the holidays. So what to do?

Start by taking an objective look at your current wardrobe. Separate it into two piles: the clothes you do wear and the clothes you don't. Now examine what is in the piles. I'm willing to bet that the clothes you do wear are the basics - basic pants, skirts, and simple shirts in neutral colors or classic, understated prints. The clothes you don't wear are probably in last year's (or one of the previous 10 years') bold colors, cuts and prints. So what does this tell you? When buying clothes, stick to basic, timeless styles and colors. If you buy things that are too trendy, you'll want to throw them out next season.

You can still be trendy, just keep the trends in the accessories. The thing about accessories is that they are usually must cheaper, and you can keep them until they come back in style again because they don't take up a lot of space in your closet and you don't ever have to worry about "growing" out of them. If you really can't live without this winter's hot color, buy a $5 necklace in that must-have hue. If you've got to wear that special print, get a cheap scarf to wear with your basics, or a funky hat.

If there is a particular style all the hip crowd is wearing and keeping the fads to your accessories is just too limiting for you, make sure you shop at cheap stores specializing in trends and only buy one or two articles. Also, make sure these new items go with what you already have in your wardrobe of everyday basics. H&M has a large collection of cheap clothes and accessories in the latest trends. Target's collection by Isaac Mizrahi is also a good place to look. But be sure that the majority of your clothes are timeless and in neutral colors. Buy the basics at a higher quality, so that they last and the trendy things at the cheapest possible price as they will probably be obsolete in a few months' time anyway. Also, make sure that what you buy can be combined with lots of other items in your wardrobe, so that you can get many new outfits with just one addition to your clothing collection.

The trick is to get as much mileage out of each piece as possible. That's why accessorizing the clothes you already have is such a good idea. Switching your basics up and topping it off with a new accessory for each major holiday event will give you the extra sparkle you're looking for without breaking the bank.

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The Hidden Costs of Buying in Bulk

I'm starting a new, weekly series of posts called "Cheaper isn't always better" and it starts with this one. The goal is to point out money saving myths that can actually end up costing you more. The first myth I intend to bust is the one about buying in bulk.

In college, a few friends and I split the cost of a membership to BJ's so that we could buy our groceries in bulk. Instead of buying the campus meal plan, we did all of our own cooking to save money and eat healthier foods, so a bulk store membership seemed like a good idea. The idea was that we could stock up on basics like pasta and rice and get a lot more for the same amount of money. I have to admit I was a little reluctant to join (there was something about the $40+ membership fee that put me off), but the excitement of my fellow house-mates who'd had memberships in the past finally won me over.

I should have listened to my gut, though. While it is true that per pound, shopping at wholesale stores saves money, do you really need to buy your ground cinnamon by the pound? We ended up buying things we never would have bought just because they were such a good deal. My friends would come home with 3 pounds of Pop Tarts, a 5 pound block of cheese, and a pantry's worth of microwavable Easy Mac. By the end of the week, the Pop Tarts would be gone, the Easy Mac boxes were nearly empty and the block of cheese was basically untouched. In another week the cheese would be moldy and thrown out.

When I went shopping I tried to restrict myself to the basics and buy the smallest quantities available, like we had originally planned, and for the most part I was able to do it. But still, I ended up buying more than we needed and sometimes more than we could eat before the food went bad. As a result, we ended up eating more so that we wouldn't have to throw things away.

Buying in bulk has it's hidden costs. One is that when you have more, you use more. This goes for food, cleaning supplies and toiletries. Where you used to be always looking for ways to cut back, you get comfortable and stop paying attention. If you've got a big box of cereal, you'll pour a little more in your bowl in the morning or even have a second bowl. And when you go to brush your teeth, you'll find yourself squeezing a little extra toothpaste onto your brush because you've got another giant tube in the medicine cabinet.

This backfires in two ways. First, when you use more, you have to buy more. You'll end up buying another giant box of cereal before you know it. Secondly, when you have more food around to eat, you'll find yourself eating more. This can destroy your diet and your health. You might be eating more because you don't want food to go bad and be forced to throw it out. You might be eating more because you bought a giant box of junk food because it was on sale. Either way, when you've got a lot of food in the house, especially unhealthy foods, it's easy to fall into bad habits. And I noticed at BJ's that the foods they carried weren't very healthy. What I remember most is the frozen pizzas, potato chips, 2 gallon tubs of ice cream, hamburger patties, éclairs from the bakery, and super-sized bags of M&Ms - and I've always been a healthy eater inclined to ignore such foods. Maybe Sam's Club is different, but I doubt it.

In the end, we stopped going to BJ's all together. The store was in an inconvenient location and the money we were spending driving back and forth and the kinds of foods we ended up buying when we were there finally persuaded us to see past the allure of bulk purchasing. Actually, most of the time we had been buying our groceries at the local grocery store, which was within walking distance, anyway because it was more convenient and allowed us to get something we needed right away (we weren't very good meal planners back then). When all was said and done we probably did save enough money on our wholesale purchases to pay for the membership fee, but I'm certain that we actually ended up spending more than we would have otherwise. And I'm positive that we would have been eating much healthier and we would have saved ourselves the hours at the gym we spent working off the mistake.

To me, this is a myth busted. Maybe for the very diligent shopper with a gigantic freezer and lots of mouths to feed wholesale clubs are a blessing, but for most of us, rarely does buying in bulk pay off. We either end up throwing food away or simply eating more.

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Shampoo Every-Other-Day for Healthier Hair and Healthier Wallets

The first time I heard that washing your hair every-other-day was actually healthier for it and could reduce grease build-up I didn't believe it. For as long as I could remember I had been shampooing my hair twice during my daily morning shower to get it really clean. I would switch from one cleansing shampoo to the next in a never ending rotation and I went through bottles of shampoo like it was my job. Finally, it got to be too much and frugality made me give every-other-day shampooing a try.

I'm really glad I did. My hair is healthier than ever and I've cut my shampoo use and costs in half. My locks are shiny, not greasy like before. It turns out that all those super cleansing shampoos and double washes had back-fired over the years and created a mess of my scalp. Washing your hair every day can dry out the scalp, causing it produce more oil and make your hair look greasy very quickly.

To stop the cycle, switch to an every-other-day washing routine. Shampoo one day and simply rinse your hair the next. You may have tried this before and had disappointing results, but try again because you probably didn't give your body enough time to adjust. It will take a week or so for your scalp to notice your new routine and slow down the oil production. In the meantime, you'll have very greasy hair. There's no way around it; you've just got to live through it with confidence that things will be better on the other side. Trust me, it's worth it. A good trick is to try this when you've got a week's vacation and/or when you're travelling. This way you won't have to go into the office and you'll be unlikely to meet anyone you know so you won't be tempted to go back to your old over-washing habits.

Some things to note: On the days that you don't shampoo your hair you still need to rinse it. Water won't strip as much oil from your hair as shampooing, but it does remove some and it's just enough to keep your hair from looking greasy. If you skip showering all together, your hair will always be oily. Also, I always use conditioner, even on the days when I haven't used shampoo because my hair is very fine and brittle and tangles easily. However, I don't have to use as much on the days I've "skipped" because my hair isn't so dry.

It's hard to ignore all the smart advertising out there telling us to buy "daily cleansing shampoo" and "repeat, if necessary, " but those of us who manage to break the habit never look back.

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Thanksgiving on a Budget

Hosting a Thanksgiving dinner can be a stressful and expensive activity, but with a little foresight and planning it can also be one of the most rewarding and budget-friendly holidays of the year. Yesterday, I wrote about the most efficient way to invite guests to your Thanksgiving dinner and how you can leverage their generosity by creating a Thanksgiving day wish-list of items you would like to borrow or foods they can bring. Today, I'm tackling the daunting tasks of grocery shopping, cooking, serving, and cleaning up after it all. Whew! I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

Shopping

This is where you can really kill your budget. The trick is to buy the proper amount of food for the number of people coming. It's easy to go overboard for a holiday that's historically all about tables laden with food, but is it really necessary? Are you really feeding an army? Then why try to look like it? When buying a whole turkey calculate 1 pound of uncooked turkey for each person and you should have plenty. If you are a small group or if you and your guests only like particular parts of the turkey, the breast for example, then just buy that part instead of an entire turkey. If you only like breast meat, it's quite silly to buy the entire turkey and throw half of it away. But what about that picture of the beautiful turkey on the table? Forget about it. Actually, even if you do plan to buy a whole turkey you should still forget that image, but I'll get to that later. However, sometimes it's actually cheaper to buy an entire turkey because grocery stores run big discounts on turkeys this time of year and these discounts don't always carry over to turkey cuts.

Which brings me to my second point on grocery shopping: start looking for discounts in your local papers now, if you haven't already. Most grocery stores will take major losses on their turkey sales in order to get you into their stores. The idea is that once you are there you will do all your Thanksgiving Day shopping in their store. They make their money on the other items they expect you will buy. With a little planning and patience you can make the most of these sales by getting your turkey early and buying the remaining items you need wherever they are cheapest. If you wait until the last minute, you will probably end up buying all your Thanksgiving Day items in the same store and paying more than you would if you had been better prepared. Also, buying your turkey early means that you will have the pick of the litter; waiting until the last moment means you have to buy whatever size turkey is still available and usually these are the bigger, most expensive turkeys that take up more space in your refrigerator and freezer and take much longer to defrost and cook. That reminds me, before you go shopping for your turkey make sure that you've got room in your freezer or refrigerator for the bird. They take up a lot of space!

The other area where you can really trim back the costs is in cooking supplies. Like I said yesterday, ask around and see if you can borrow things before you go out and buy something you'll only use once a year. Some things you may need are: a large roasting pan for the turkey, a baster, a meat thermometer (though you really should get one of these for everyday use), a large serving platter for the turkey, and additional serving dishes, plates or silverware.

Cooking

Once you've done all the shopping, what you want to save is time. If you spend the whole day in the kitchen, Thanksgiving won't be a lot of fun. It also won't be a lot of fun if you manage to burn or under cook the food, or make the turkey fly. The trick is to get as much done as you possible can before Thursday morning. This means less work for you while everyone else is enjoying their holiday, and fewer surprises regarding forgotten ingredients and supplies. Plus, if you make a mistake, you've got a little more time to fix it.

Perhaps your earliest task will be defrosting the turkey. Ideally, this should be done in the refrigerator and will require around 24 hours for every 4-5 pounds of uncooked turkey meat. If you forgot to take the turkey out of the freezer you can speed up the defrosting process by placing the turkey in a bath of cold water, with the plastic wrap still on. Calculate 30 minutes in cold water for every 1 pound of turkey, so if you have a 12 pound turkey this will take approximately 6 hours. However, you will have to change the water every 30 minutes so that method requires your constant attention. Also, make sure that the turkey is completely covered in water. Do not thaw the turkey at room temperature on the counter. The outer parts of the turkey will be warm enough for bacteria to grow for hours before the center of the turkey has thawed, putting you at risk for food poisoning. No one wants to be sick on Thanksgiving.

On Wednesday, do as much chopping, peeling, slicing and dicing as you can. Put everything in the refrigerator and cook it up the next day. You can make the stuffing the night before to save time but do not stuff the turkey until you are ready to put the bird in the oven. You cannot leave stuffing in the turkey for any length of time at all without the risk of bacteria growth. You should cook the bird immediately after stuffing it. Also, a little tip my mother taught me was to use dental floss to tie up the bird. It's strong, clean and you probably already have it on hand. Certainly cheaper than buying special cooking twine! If you're making homemade cranberry sauce, it is often better on the second day so it makes sense to cook this on Wednesday as well. In addition, you may want to make your pumpkin and apple pies the night before so that the oven is free the next day. Plus, it's simply less stressful to do your baking the night before and you'll have more fun doing it.

When it's time to cook the turkey, the trick is to get it to just the right temperature and then stop cooking so that you don't dry it out. To do this, use a meat thermometer. You can buy thermometers that can be left in the turkey while it is cooking (a pager beeps you when the correct temperature is reached) or you can use a regular thermometer and start checking the turkey about half an hour before you expect it to be ready. Calculate around 15 minutes of cooking time for each pound of uncooked meat. The turkey is done when the thermometer reads 175 degrees Fahrenheit when inserted into the thickest part of the breast. Make sure that the thermometer isn't touching any bone to get an accurate reading. Stuffing should be heated to 165 degrees Fahrenheit before it is eaten. If the turkey is finished before the stuffing, take the stuffing out of the bird and put the stuffing back in the oven in a separate dish until it is the correct temperature. Wait about 30 minutes for the turkey to cool before carving it.

Serving

To maximize the amount of meat you get off the turkey, carve it before you serve it. I know, I know, it goes against every image of Thanksgiving you've ever seen, but it's much easier and more economical this way. Think about it. How much meat is usually left on that carcass when you throw it in the bin? Probably a lot, but you're right in the middle of a tryptophan crash when you've finally decided you can't put off cleaning up any longer. If you carve the turkey when it's just cooked and still slightly warm, it's much easier to get the meat off the bone and you can really pull up your sleeves and get your hands dirty when you're carving in the privacy of your kitchen. This means that you can get more meat off the bone and cut more even and appealing slices because you don't have an audience so you don't need to worry about being graceful. And it's just as elegant to serve your turkey pre-sliced on a platter - even Martha Stewart says so. As you carve, put the nice big slices on the platter for the table and have a Tupperware container ready for the small pieces you'll use later in soups and casseroles.

Clean-Up

The last thing you want to do when you've got a belly full of turkey is clean up. A painless way to deal with this is to prioritize what really needs to be done - you need to get all the leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer. Do this before you hit the couch, other wise you'll get up five hours later and wonder if you still can. The rule is 2 hours on the table and then you're pushing your luck, so just get it in the refrigerator the first time. Also, if you don't think you'll use something within 3 days then put it straight in the freezer. Besides, after 3 days of eating turkey will you even want to see it? It's better to put it in the freezer and forget about it for a couple of weeks. Turkey soup really does taste better when you haven't just eaten a roast from the oven.

That leaves the dishes. The easiest thing to do is to have a large bucket or sink basin ready for soaking them. Throw out any bones and scraps left on the plates and then just put them in the soapy water. If you wash by hand this will make it easier later. If you put them in the dishwater you will use less water this way than you would rinsing each dish. Just leave them in the suds and go relax with your guests. This is the best part of Thanksgiving; you don't want to miss it doing dishes! Plus, there's nothing more annoying than listening to your host clank dishes around the kitchen or the hum of their dishwasher running. If your guests let you borrow any dishes, wash these immediately so that they can take them home, but leave everything else.

Good luck with your Thanksgiving Day celebrations and remember it's always better to start early!

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Two Weeks to T-Day: Planning Thanksgiving on a Budget

A quick glance at my calender tells me it's exactly two weeks to Thanksgiving, one of my all-time favorite holidays - a day to rejoice with family and friends and be thankful for everything we have and all the good things that have happened in the last year. But for too many of us, the financial burden of hosting Thanksgiving dinner turns our attention to all that we don't have rather than all that we do. In an effort to have a little more left on Thanksgiving to be thankful for, I've put together a two part check-list of things to make Thanksgiving Day preparations cheaper and easier. The first part is about arranging invitations and getting your guests to bring the things you really need. Tomorrow I'll post the second half which will cover everything to do with shopping for and cooking the food.

T-Day Part One: Invitations

If you're hosting a small dinner just for immediate family or a few friends, consider yourself lucky! There's less food to buy, less food to prepare, and less to clean up when it's all over. Last year I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for 28 people - never again! (Or at least not too soon. I need a few years to forget.) You can probably manage inviting everyone by phone or in person. Chances are, it's probably already clear who is eating where.

But if you're hosting a dinner for a large number of people you probably want to send formal invitations with RSVP requests. Send them now! You'll want to set an RSVP date by next Thursday (at least one week in advance) so that you have enough time to buy the necessary amount of food. I suggest sending your invitations online. It's cheaper, faster, and your guests can RSVP immediately. You can either send out a regular email or be a little more fancy and set up a free account at sendaninvite.com where you can make a custom invitation with maps, "what to bring" lists and use of their online RSVP management system.

About that "what to bring" list, I've always felt it was a bit tacky to ask people to bring something to a Thanksgiving dinner, but at the same time, I've always felt it was even tackier to attend such an event empty handed. As the host, you don't want to be rude, but you also don't want to be stuck with a big hole in your budget and 10 bottles of red wine when you really only drink white. So what is the frugal host to do? Is there a polite way to leverage your guests generosity without being pushy?

Last year, when I did dinner for 28 people, I was lucky enough to be in Denmark where it is customary for guests to share the costs of a dinner party by giving their host a set amount of cash, determined in advance. It's a strange custom and it took some getting used to, but come Thanksgiving, I was happy to take part in it. Obviously, I'm not suggesting you ask your guests to fund your grocery shopping, but you can take people up on their offers to bring things. Undoubtedly, your closest friends and family members will ask you if they can bring anything; it's just polite. But instead of saying, "Oh no... maybe just something to drink" like you usually do, have a wish list ready and pick something off of it. Maybe they can bring salad, a pie, or they can lend you a roasting pan so that you don't have to buy one. Or maybe you could use some extra serving dishes?

A lot of the costs of hosting a Thanksgiving dinner go into buying kitchen items you don't normally use, like a roasting pan, meat thermometer, or 5 extra serving bowls. Borrowing these things from friends and family can cut your total costs and keep your kitchen clutter free after T-Day. So sit down, make a wish list, and this year take your guests up on those polite offers. It might surprise them a little at first, but if they've bothered to offer it's because they're going to bring something anyway, and, believe it or not, your guests would rather lend you their pan and feel truly useful than buy you a bottle of wine.

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Make your Own Movie Projector

How great would it be to watch movies on the big screen (aka. your living room wall) without spending $500-$1000+ on a projector first? If you're like me, the idea of having a home movie projector is a luxury hardly worth contemplating... until you hear this:

Thanks to the geeks at Inventgeek.com even frugal people can plunge into the home theater craze. All you need is a little creativity, a DIY attitude and this tutorial and you can build your own projector.

Contributor Jared Bouck lays it all out for us and does it in a budget-conscious way. He discusses different methods for building the project and compares the price of each method to the quality of the finished product it produces, helping us pick out some of the cheapest component materials possible and still put together a quality picture. The option he determines best balances cost and quality is to combine an used overhead projector, an LCD projection panel from ebay and a commercial home movie screen. Bouck estimates the total cost of all the materials to be somewhere around $175, but the price really depends on the deals you find on the overhead projector and the LCD panel. You can also skip the commercial movie screen and knock $110 off your total project costs. According to Bouck, the whole project can be put together in less than 5 hours.

The Pros and Cons of the Inventgeek model:

Pros:

• You get a cool movie projector at a fraction of the cost, and your total price depends on your bargain finding ability.
• Replacement bulbs are much cheaper (as much as 10 times!) and may last longer than the special bulbs commercial projectors require.
• You'll have fun making (or trying to make) it.
• You can consider yourself a geek!

Cons:

• It could end up costing more than you expect.
• As Bouck warns, the overhead projector may be noisy.
• The unit will be larger than a commercial projector and probably not very beautiful.
• It does require a little technical knowledge and you may not be comfortable with the directions.
• Most LCD projection panels on ebay are sold "as is." I think that pretty much says it right there.
• You won't be as geeky as the guys who came up with the idea, but you'll be close.

If you slept through woodshop and/or you don't consider yourself all that tech savvy, you may be interested in Lumenlab's DIY builder guide and ready-made parts store. It all seems a little more polished, though also more expensive. But I kind of prefer the trail-blazing excitement, not to mention the additional cost control, in the Inventgeek project.

I'm dying to try this project, but, alas, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that shipping an old, used overhead projector to Africa probably wouldn't be too thrifty, even if I found it on ebay or a friend got it at a garage sale. For that matter, just shipping the LCD projection panel would cost me a pretty penny. So I'm going to have to wait, for now.

But in the meantime, I'd love to hear about stories and suggestions from anyone who has tried this. And to all others who might give it a try, good luck and keep me updated! Just remember, even if you can get it down to around $70, this is still an expensive project, so make sure it really fits into your budget before you try it.

Related Posts to make movie night more frugal:
Free Movies! : Money Saving Tip #6
How to Make Perfect Stove-top Popcorn: Money Saving Tip #7

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Say Goodbye to Grease Stains on Clothes

Have you ever had to retire a nice shirt because of a grease stain? Well don't buy another! Dig it out of the "painting day" pile and try this.

Dish soap is formulated to cut grease and works on clothing too. Saturate the stain with liquid dish soap and let it soak in. Once it has soaked through the stained area, wash the item as you normally would. You can throw it in the washer immediately or days later, whatever you would normally do. It doesn't seem to make a difference. Once you've washed the item, check the area that was stained. The stain should be gone or greatly reduced. If some grease remains repeat the process. Each time you repeat the process the stain should lessen.

I've found this trick to be surprisingly successful and it works on all stains that are greasy or oily. Even if you have washed the item before, you can still have success with this method, so give it a try. It certainly beats spending money on new clothes or fancy stain remover!

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The Absurd Wastefulness of Meat Recalls

Why does it seem like every time I read the news, Americans are throwing another million pounds of meat away? I know we don't want people dying from E. coli infections, but something seems terribly wrong when in a world where 854 million people are hungry, we're throwing away a year's worth of meat production. It doesn't seem ethical, and it certainly doesn't seem frugal either.

A herd of cows walking the West African coast with their herder. Something tells me the people here wouldn't throw the meat from these cows away just because it hasn't been tested for E. coli bacteria. (Sorry about the photo quality, I took this from the back of a bike.)

In fact, it makes me really angry, and not just because I'm in Africa where I see hunger everyday. It's because there's hunger at home too, and someone's got to pay for all that wasted meat. Maybe we didn't buy the ground beef in question, maybe we filled out the necessary forms and got our reimbursements, but we're all still paying for the waste.

We pay for it in two ways. First, we pay for it with our reputation. How can we be surprised that we're considered the most wasteful country in the world when we throw millions of pounds of food away because there is the possibility that it might contain bacteria that could make people sick if it isn't cooked properly? Secondly, we pay for it when production facilities are forced to shut down and people lose their jobs and when meat prices rise because of shifts in supply and demand and increased costs of doing business in the industry.

Two things need to happen. Proper meat production procedures need to be firmed up and followed. Companies need to protect themselves from mass losses by preforming frequent, scheduled contamination tests and keeping proper records of them so they can at least identify bad meat later if it comes to that. The grocery supply chain shouldn't be a guessing game. This isn't the Price Is Right. Imagine... Spin the wheel and land on Clean Meat, E. coli, or Possible Contamination... Good luck!

The second thing is that people need to learn to be responsible for themselves. Cooking meat properly kills E. coli bacteria. Now think what it would mean if everyone cooked their meat properly. Or if the people who didn't took the blame instead of pointing fingers everywhere else. It would be a very different world. It makes me sick to think of how much food we've thrown away because we can't trust people to take responsibility for their health and follow safe cooking practices. And we need to remember that for most people, E. coli isn't that dangerous.

So what can we, as individuals, do to help fix this problem? First, we can make an effort to help ourselves by buying a meat thermometer and making sure our ground beef reaches at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit before we eat it. Here are a few good choices available from Amazon, all with free shipping for orders over $25: The RediFork Pro LCD Matrix, Rapid Read Tip has a grill-fork tip great for burgers on the BBQ. The Remote-check ET-7 Wireless Thermometer with 2 probes can be left in the meat (even in the oven!) and a wireless pager will beep you when your meat reaches the right temperature. If you're looking for a more basic thermometer the Taylor High-Temperature Instant-Read Pocket Thermometer is a great choice because it offers digital accuracy.

Next, we should focus on lobbying for better meat testing procedures rather than crying about how long it takes the USDA to pull meat off the shelves. Remember, the goal is to keep meat on the shelves, not to pull it off. There is a good reason why the USDA is reluctant to throw away millions of pounds of beef at the first sign of a scare. It's expensive and it's wasteful. People need to realize that there is a high price for their laziness in the kitchen, and sometimes that price is lives (though very, very rarely - only approximately 60 people die from E. coli in the U.S. per year and that's nothing compared to heart disease, lung cancer and traffic accidents. Really, walking down the street is probably more dangerous). They're the ones paying it, because they're the ones buying when they don't take the necessary steps to safe cooking.

Yes, I'm doing it. I'm making the very, very controversial suggestion that maybe all this beef doesn't need to be thrown away. Some of it certainly does, but maybe the hype and worry has gotten a little out of control and forced more meat into the trash than really needs to be there. I'm not an expert so I'm only questioning. This is just a suspicion; that's why I say maybe. If you know better, tell us so and comment!

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Ever wondered how many cows it took to produce all this meat? Listen to what this guy has to say about cow weight/cow meat ratios.

Just in case you've been under a rock, here are some collected news articles on the most prominent ground beef recalls over the past half year or so:

• Cargill Recalls 1 Million Pounds of Beef, from ABC News Nov. 3, 2007
• Topps Meat to close down after meat recall, from msnbc Oct 5, 2007
• Recall of meat tops 21 million pounds, from The Chicago Tribune Sept 30, 2007
• Meat recall expands again on E. coli fears, from msnbc June 9, 2007

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