It's late Wednesday night and we're hanging in there with our quest to get through the week on $54.It hasn't been easy, but in a weird way, it's been fun. Several things have helped us through:
1. None of the three of us has to go into NYC this week--until H. has to go for work on Saturday. He can drive in on the EZPass, and one car [the one our friends graciously lent us after we moved to Clifton] still has a good amount of gas in it because we filled it last week. The bus would have cost us $4.75 each way [$9.50 round trip] plus any MTA fares.
2. I found my little purple Coach handbag [bought at the Coach store at the World Trade Center not long before 9/11]. Lo and behold, $4.50 in change spilled out! Funny--some days you have so much money you can afford to toss your change haphazardly in your purse or car. Other days, you're counting pennies out of a baggie while the cashier and customer behind you wait patiently. God bless America.
3. I scored some change from Figgy's room too. If it's on the floor, minimal, and I'm picking up junk, I generally put it in our family change jar. Lord knows, we give Figgy lots of cash when we have it. [We used to give her $5 weekly allowance until recently, when she suggested we give her $20 on the understanding that she wouldn't be asking us for more day after day. It works.] Even today, we spent about $3.50, counting tax, on candy for her to bring into Language Arts tomorrow. She had it written down in her agenda--CANDY! The teacher planned it. I thought the $1.33 pack of 8 small Kit Kat Bars from ShopRite would be enough but Fig said she had to bring candy for the whole class. Too bad, budgetwise. So I sent her and H. to Dollar Tree [where everything is a flat dollar]. They got two 11-pop bags of Bursting Berry! Blow Pops to round out her contribution.
4. I found a $50 gift card to A.C. Moore [unless the website gave me the wrong balance when I checked online]. I received it a few years ago for my birthday. It's just too bad that we can't eat fake flowers and wired ribbon for dinner--there's an A.C. Moore right up the road. Still, Figgy will love this. I recently got her a new sketchbook and pencils there and she kept thanking me.
5. H. had already bought fresh mozzarella last week, and used that to make two pizzas yesterday, when Figgy's two friends ate over. I was able to bring more groceries back from our home, things I had in the cabinets....dishwasher detergent, a couple more large cans of crushed tomatoes and some scone mix [good if we get desperate, though need to add butter and milk]. Today I made a delicious pasta sauce by sauteing garlic in olive oil, adding the crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper and freshly grated Parmesan and letting it all simmer for a while. Yum! [For the first time, I used the Parmesan Rasp I saw at the Housewares Show in Chicago. Oddly, I've never used a rasp before--we have Grandma Hurley's old box grater, and it's a nuisance to clean. The rasp is from the company my neighbor Peter is with--Cuisipro*. I have to say it's awesome--sends a nice shower of the best cheese into your steaming pot of sauce or over your pasta. And economical, too, b/c you don't have to shave a lot off the wedge to generously dust the surface. Just saw the company's Fine Rasp on Amazon for $15, eligible for free Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.]
6. A lot of stuff is free here at AVE Clifton luxury rental residences. Carafes of Starbucks coffee, plus Tazo tea, Pepperidge Farm cookies [danger, danger] and lemon ice water down in the lobby all day, 6 A.M. to 10 P.M. Free breakfast from 6 to 9 on weekdays. What was I thinking? I haven't been down there one day this week to get it....and they have bananas and apples, which Figgy loves, and muffins [which, sadly, are bland and also fattening, as you might expect]. They're your run-of-the-mill storebought muffins--gummy giants and poor stand-ins for the "Big Blues" I've baked many times in custard cups, using an old recipe from the July 1993 issue of Glamour Magazine. Other free stuff: The New York Times [if you get down there early enough to snag one of the many copies] and the copy/fax machine. Immensely helpful when you have to fax stuff to mortgage company, insurance company, bank. Also: Cleaning lady, every Wednesday morning, and we don't have to leave a check on the counter. That's an enormous gift.
So we have about $3.50 left. The good part is, I think we will only have to buy dog food for Sug [about 85 cents for one small container, and she eats half per night] and maybe bread or milk again before Saturday.
I will keep you posted....meanwhile, will be checking every pocket and purse I can find in our condo. :)
*When the chips are down--and the piggy bank is empty--DIY kitchen products really step in. H. has also been using the Donvier by Cuisipro Electronic Yogurt Maker, a cute white plug-in machine that makes eight sleek little cups of yogurt. [Donvier is known for ice cream machines.] A lot of the mommy bloggers at the Housewares Show in March requested a yogurt machine to try out, and so did I. H. just made his third batch of little jars--it's nice and tangy, and sometimes he eats it plain, sometimes with some blueberry jam stirred in. I think I'll have one now. Writing about the yogurt is making me crave some. I just checked and it's $49.95 on Amazon's Home & Garden channel, with some "like new" models selling for about $42.
And earnest H. has been using the SodaStream [sodastream.com; Pure Starter Kit in black/silver, $149.95, amazon.com], which I also requested at the Housewares Show. He loves making his own soda, and adults and kids who visit are impressed and amused. [It's good for the environment b/c you're not buying all those plastic bottles.] It's a bit too much work for me. I prefer my Brita pitcher and don't like carbonated beverages much, anyway. But seeing H. proudly fill the bottles brings me back to the days when my Dad made his own cigarettes using a Laredo kit when we were kids. I can still smell the tobacco.
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