Cost or Convenience

I have to confess, one of my weaknesses is popcorn. I love popcorn! I could eat popcorn every day. However, the challenge is balancing cost, convenience and taste.

For a while, I was buying popcorn bags for the microwave in bulk from Costco. It was convenient, but to be honest, I did not like the taste.

Before that, I had been using a popcorn maker that worked on hot air. It was good, but I found the popcorn a bit dry. It didn’t match the taste of homemade popcorn made on the stove. The popcorn maker also burnt out after a while.

I then returned back to making popcorn on the stove. It is the taste that I like, but of course it is not as convenient as making it in the microwave.

Finally, I spotted an interesting item at my local London Drugs: a Nordic Ware Microwave Popcorn Popper.

This popcorn popper can be used with or without oil. I prefer using oil as it makes popcorn that tastes exactly like mom used to make it or as I make it on the stovetop It is also convenient: I put it in the microwave for 3.5 minutes and the popcorn is ready.

My only concern: cost and durability. The cost at London Drugs is $11.99 plus taxes. It is not cheap, but this popcorn maker is durable. It is made of Gemstone (still haven’t discovered what exactly that is) and the bowl itself is unbreakable. As for the cost, it has the convenience of popcorn bags, but I am certain that I have paid for the popper by now: it is a lot cheaper bying popcorn and oil as opposed to microwave popcorn bags.

All told, trying to find a right balance between convenience and cost can be a challenging process. I am happy that I have found a good solution to feed my popcorn habit

Soap Sacks

I have found another way of saving some money: soap sacks. Before, I used to buy body wash and body puffs for the shower. The body wash is extremely extensive: $3, $4 or $5 dollars. I like the lather that the body wash produced and preferred it to washing with a regular bar of soap, which was much cheaper. However, I came across soap sacks which are a nice alternative. You put the soap inside the sack and you can lather up the soap, creating as much lather as a body wash.

The soap also dries nicely in the soap sack which does not leave it soft and slimy as soap usually gets in the shower. Simply put, it allows me to enjoy the benefits of body wash at the cost of cheap soap. This is not the brand that I have (I bought a cheap version at Wal-Mart), but this ad will give you a general idea of what a nylon soap sack looks like.

Canadians Rediscover Frugality

This just in from the Globe and Mail:

Canadian retail sales registered their steepest monthly drop in 11 years in November, dropping 2.4 per cent to $34.9-billion on a seasonally adjusted basis. The decline stemmed mostly from lower gasoline prices and unit sales of new cars, Statistics Canada said Thursday.

The carnage was worse than expected, as the average forecast by economists called for a 2 per cent drop, following a 0.9 per cent decline in October.

“With a recession in full flight, Canadians are rediscovering the virtues of frugality, much to the chagrin of retailers,” Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce economist Krishen Rangasamy said in a commentary on the StatsCan report.

Cooking Restaurant Meals at Home

Slate has an interesting piece by Lauren Shockey as to whether it is feasible to cook restaurant meals at home using the cook books restaurant chefs author. The article “Cooking Their Books: Trying to re-create restaurant dishes at home” has the author cooking dishes from the cookbooks and then going to the restaurant to eat the same meal prepared by the chefs themselves: “In the spirit of frugality, and for the sake of experimentation (not to mention my hearty appetite), I put my culinary degree to use by preparing recipes from three recently published cookbooks before sampling each dish at its respective restaurant.”

In reading the piece, the one thing which the author keeps mentioning is that all the three dishes looked like the foods in the photographs and all that she had prepared was delicious. However, she keeps highlighting that the meals were not identical to what she ate in the restaurants:

All of the recipes I tested resembled their originals, but none perfectly recreated the restaurant version—not an entirely surprising verdict. As Kenny Shopsin writes in Eat Me, “My regular customers know that if they order the same thing they got last week, there is a good chance they won’t even recognize it. I don’t do it differently on purpose. It’s just that everything I cook, every time I cook, is an event in and of itself.” Variable factors like ingredient quality, temperature, and timing will ensure that a dish is different every time it’s prepared, whether at a restaurant kitchen, or a home kitchen, or even from one day to another at the same restaurant.

Nonetheless, is it worth the price of a high end restaurant in New York to achieve the exact same dish? The author notes that the cookbooks she tried out did produce good results:

Besides this cheat-sheet function, restaurant cookbooks help us tap into a chef’s creative genius—they help us understand how a handful of ingredients can be transformed into a restaurant-worthy meal. When we rely on regular cookbooks, we at best become good cooks; with Eat Me or Carmine’s Family Style-Cookbook or Chanterelle, we become pseudo-restaurant chefs.

Nonetheless, as a food writer, the author could not end the piece informing her readers that they are better off preparing their meals at home:

Of course, a restaurant cookbook is still, ultimately, no more than a collection of bound pages. At home, Kenny Shopsin didn’t insult me (which is really an integral part of the Shopsin’s experience); I missed out on people-watching at Carmine’s (enthusiastic hordes devouring heaps of pasta); and while my salmon resembled Chanterelle’s, I didn’t get to taste the complementary deviled quail egg canapés and homemade rolls with two types of artisanal butter. At home, I had to play the part not only of chef but of waiter and dishwasher, too, with no chance of a tip.

As a frugalist, I prefer to keep my pennies and not be insulted and if I really want to watch people there are many ways of doing this for free. As for not getting the tip, I prefer this to having to pay a tip on a meal that will certainly be outrageously priced. If I can get the same meal at home, even if the color of the potatoes are not perfect, then I will prefer to eat at home to save the money.

Greed

An interesting case is before the courts in Canada. A woman who lived common-law with the father of her children is suing for alimony to top up child support. This from the Globe and Mail:

The woman, who split from her ex in 2001 but has shared custody of the children, receives $35,000 a month in child-support payments. But she wants a separate sum of $56,000 a month in spousal support for herself.

Under cross-examination, she admitted to the court that her former partner was paying for a new $2.4-million home for her and their children in upper Outremont, along with $500,000 for her to furnish and fix it up. He was also paying for a cook, two nannies, and the children’s private schooling.

We have a woman whose ex-husband paid for her house, pays for a nanny, pays for schooling, paid half a million for furniture and renovations and pays for $35,000 in child support, yet this is not enough? Keep in mind that child support is not taxed in Canada, so this woman receives more money in a month as child support than most families earn in a year, and effectively does not have to pay anything out of pocket (all her housing expenses are paid for along with most of the expenses tied to her child care). Yet, it is still not enough. She wants another $56,000 per month. Is this not just a tad greedy?

Tipping

I hate tipping. To be honest, I consider it a Medieval anachronism. Why should some professions be tipped and not others? Yes, I know, servers and others who are tipped are hardworking people. They certainly deserve tips. But, why do they get tips and other hardworking folk have to get by with just their salaries?

Now, with the financial crisis and the recession, people are tipping less according to the Globe and Mail:

Chloe Tse loves it when customers smile and compliment her on a superb dining experience.

But she loathes when the grins are meant to compensate for a measly tip – an age-old cheapskate manoeuvre that’s been making a comeback since the economy went into freefall.

“It’s garbage,” she says. “We’re basically working twice as hard for half the amount of money.”

Ms. Tse has worked as a server for three years at a restaurant steps from the sports arenas and the CN Tower in downtown Toronto. She’s never seen her tips drop to such levels, she says.

“Leafs crowds are usually pretty good, they usually give about a 20-per-cent gratuity,” she says. “Lately, the servers have found it’s been about 10 and 15 per cent on a good night.”

Ms. Tse’s not alone. Servers, bartenders, coat checkers, doormen, cab drivers and hairstylists are saying that since the stock markets plummeted and Canadians started feeling the pinch in the pocketbook, they’ve experience an increasing ripple effect themselves.

The hurting economy is slicing into their income as customers get haircuts every six weeks instead of four, skip on the bottle service or tip 5 per cent less after a business lunch.

Tipping is yet another reason why I prefer dining at home. It is also another reason why I am happy that my wife cuts my hair. I can forego the tips and the taxes on top of what I save by cooking for myself and having my wife take care of my coiffure.

Hard To Empathize

MSN Money has a feature on divorce and the financial impacts this will have on one woman. To be honest, I have some problems empathizing with her plight. In the video, she explains that she will be receiving alimony and child support after the divorce. How will she suffer? She will have to move from a house with 3.5 bathrooms and 4,000 square feet to one that is only 1,200 square feet and one bathroom (the horror of it all!). She also has to downgrade her expectations: she won’t traveling 2 or 3 three times a year to exotic locations, she won’t be buying her children all that they want, she won’t be getting her nails done weekly, and she won’t be going to eat out as often! Oh, the misery of poverty! [Yes, I am being sarcastic ]

In any case, feel free to watch the video and come to your own conclusions. I, for one, won’t be crying a river of tears for her.

Americans Americans Are Saving Once Again

The Globe and Mail reports that Americans are once again saving money. From a negative saving rate earlier in the decade (i.e. spending more money than they earned) and a zero savings rate in 2008, Americans are now saving more. In other words, more Americans are becoming frugal whether they want to or not. An excerpt from the article:

In one of the biggest and most misunderstood changes in modern economic history, citizens of the largest economy in the world are suddenly doing something they haven’t done in years: They’re saving money. It is having myriad consequences, including a tsunami of money in one part of the world, and an air pocket in demand in other parts of the world, especially China.

Americans are suddenly spending less than they earn. While that might not sound heretical or surprising – how long can you go on spending more money than you earn? – it is an epochal moment for the free-spending United States. After saving an average of more than 7 per cent of disposable income until almost 1990, the United States went into a savings tailspin. Savings rates fell, in fits and starts, from 8 per cent, through 6 per cent in the early 1990s, to 2 per cent around 2000, to the ignominy of a negative savings rate by mid-2005.

Now, however, that is changing rapidly. November economic data showed U.S. savings spiked to 2.8 per cent of disposable income, up from zero at the beginning of 2008. Is it that Americans have suddenly figured out that saving is a good thing, or are they taking some sort of moral stand against profligate spending?

Be serious. Americans remain the wild-eyed spenders of the world, and that was never likely to change without external pressure. They have, however, been forced into this, with their equity investments and real estate investments all sliding into nothingness, and with the economy in a deep recession. They must repair their broken personal balance sheets, and so, as painful as it might be, they are saving money.

No More Easy Money

The Globe and Mail has an interesting piece detailing the end of easy money. The main point: consumers are retrenching, renting, and paying off debt. This is a good strategy.

“Easy money is over,” says Dan, who predicts that Canada’s real estate market will follow the U.S. market’s dive with about a 30-month lag.

He’s thankful that the sellers didn’t even counter his lowball offer of $425,000 for a house listed at $495,000 back in September. According to Dan, the house sold in December for $412,000. He’s planning to rent for the foreseeable future.

Debt is suddenly an obsession in North America. According to the pundits, consumers in the United States and Canada are now recoiling from the weighty mortgages, credit card balances and home equity lines of credit they used to shoulder so effortlessly.

If that keeps up, some predict, the housing market will not rise significantly for years.

Renting is not necessarily a bad strategy: if the cost of renting a home is much cheaper, then it is better to rent than buy. Given that housing prices are going down and won’t be going up anytime soon, better to pay off debt than rush to buy a house.

Lowbrow Food

According to the Globe and Mail, people are eating more at home and “lowbrow” food is gaining in popularity.

Despite foodies who declared it dead a decade ago, “lowbrow” food is making a comeback.

Preferring to stay in instead of eating out, some Canadians are returning to nutritionally dubious “comfort food” such as mac and cheese and Jell-O, a trend that is being mirrored around the world – and worrying health experts and Food Network stars such as chef Jamie Oliver. Last month, Mr. Oliver warned the British Parliament that the financial crisis would drive families to cheap food and worsen the obesity epidemic.

Wal-Mart Canada saw its sales jump 9.4 per cent between late August and Oct. 31. The numbers were largely driven by higher sales of food at Wal-Mart’s 39 supercentres, which include grocery stores.

At $4.96 for a box of about 15, Wal-Mart’s breaded hors d’oeuvres (think Jalapeno Dippers with Spicy Thai Sauce) have been selling well, as have two-pound bags of cooked shrimp priced at $8.88.

At Kraft Foods, macaroni and cheese, Delissio Pizza, “processed cheese product” Velveeta and nostalgic favourites such as Jell-O and Kool-Aid are enjoying strong sales, spokeswoman Lynne Galia said. Kraft’s net revenues increased by 19.4 per cent between July and late September.

“We certainly are benefiting as consumers eat at home,” Ms. Galia said. “We feel that in this challenging environment we’re well positioned to win.”

Of course, the article drips of elitist pretension. Rather than seeing it as return to lowbrow, I see it as a necessary transition to eating more at home and learning more cooking skills. A year ago, I relied to a much greater extent on “lowbrow” foods, but now that I am learning how to cook, foods such as Mac and Cheese play a smaller role in my diet. As they say, you have to learn to walk before you run, and cooking a Kraft Dinner may be the first step to preparing gourmet meals at home.