I’m honored to be included in Frugal Dad’s list of the Top Fifty Frugality Blogs. For new visitors, I’ve picked out some of my favorite frugal posts:
Washing Machines and Making Laundry More Frugal
Frugal Strategies for Young Children that Pay Off as Your Family Grows
How to Spend Virtually Nothing when You Have a Baby
Staying Home and Staying Sane: Tips for Balancing Your Needs with the Needs of Your Kids
Is Homemade Food Worth the Effort?
Tips for Starting a Cooperative Camp or Playgroup
Creative Cooking Using Leftovers: Chicken Casserole
If you’re interested in more personal finance from an American Orthodox Jewish perspective, also check out Orthonomics by Sephardi Lady.
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I wrote about keeping babies hydrated in hot weather at Green Prophet.
Squawkfox compiled a list of the best frugal advice from 41 bloggers, dividing them into categories and adding eye-catching graphics. You can see them all here.
And in the spirit of frugality, Batya at me-ander presents the “discount” edition of Haveil Havalim, the Jewish/Israel blog carnival.
In honor of Earth Day, here’s a water-saving tip from Paamonim. Paamonim, which I wrote about here, helps Israeli families in debt avoid poverty, and its website contains many money-saving tips. Saving water and energy is not only a personal financial consideration, as natural resources belong to all of us.
Some older washing machines have an option of using half the amount of water, saving 30 liters a load. As an added bonus, clothes come out cleaner. The site mentions that machines manufactured within the last three years already set the half-capacity as the default option, but I believe my seven-year-old Electra works this way as well.
How do clothes get cleaner when using less water? It turns out that filling the drum of the machine is unnecessary. As long as the clothes are wet, the agitation does the job, and better. Loose water only gets in the way, and also creates a need for more detergent.
The current water crisis in Israel makes this a good time to revisit the long-time debate of American immigrants over whether a top-loading Maytag with the door on top is preferable to a European front-loader, standard in Israel. The top-loader works by filling its large drum with water, and a central agitator spins to clean the clothes. Standard front-loaders don’t need an agitator, so more clothes can fit into the smaller drum. The clothes agitate as the drum in a front-loading machine moves back and forth, capitalizing on gravity.
Seven years ago, my then 15-year-old Maytag gave out a few days before Rosh Hashanah, and I bought the Electra for a price comparable to a new Maytag motor. I’ve had only minor repairs so far, but it’s largely a matter of chance. They are supposed to last about five years.
Below I list the main reasons immigrants choose to import a top-loading American machine, typically a Maytag.
There are several major disadvantages to the Maytag:
Update: Commenter Annie pointed out that a few models open from the top, yet operate like a front-loader.
What tips can you share for more efficient laundering?
This post originally appeared on Green Prophet, and is reprinted with permission.
(Photo credit: mwri)
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| chicken casserole |
I am enjoying Mimi’s challenge of cooking with whatever she has in the house. As food manager of a large family I have had to learn to keep well-stocked, but when I run low I try not to run across the street. We shop at a large grocery every three weeks or so, the shuk for produce once a week, and daily at the makolet (corner store) for bread and milk . I’ve talked with my husband about buying produce once in two weeks, but he fears we don’t have enough room.
We are enjoying the variety of inexpensive vegetables post-shmitah and I had put up a couple of batches of marinara sauce. I don’t know why fresh tomatoes are so cheap while canned tomato products shrunk in size and grew in cost. Last time I bought fresh chickens I cut off and cooked the white meat and saved the broth for soup, since most of the family prefers dark meat.
We usually eat Shabbat leftovers on Sunday and dairy the rest of the week, creating a problem when there is meaty food left over after Sunday. Sometimes I freeze it to add to soup or combine with other leftovers for a day I don’t feel like cooking.
This week I solved the problem by adding leftovers to a meat meal I prepared Tuesday. I chopped a large mushroom and some vegetables that never made it onto last night’s pizza. Then I added chicken breast cut in bite-sized pieces, marinara sauce, the last few tablespoons of cholent, two pieces of leftover cooked potato with the cooking water and voila, chicken casserole, served on top of plain rice. I would have added the roasted vegetables I’ve been making since Abbi mentioned it here, but some family members would have rejected the dish had they found bits of beet or turnip. So I served those separately.
Related posts:
The Day is Short and The Work is Great: Easy Shabbat Preparations
What’s There to Eat? Saving Time in the Kitchen
This post originally appeared on Green Prophet, and is reprinted with permission.
Click to view over 70 comments (Haloscan).
A common misconception about breastfeeding and babies in general is that they require special equipment. But we already know on Green Prophet that a mom who buys less is by default acting in an environmentally-friendly way.
So what are the essentials, and what aren’t? This is your guide to making breastfeeding truly green. Products you don’t buy, won’t have to be manufactured, packaged, transported, cleaned, or disposed:
1. Formula. Parents are often advised to keep formula on hand “just in case.” But they are more likely to offer formula to a newborn when they have it in the house, which is why formula companies give out free samples. The first time baby won’t settle down, usually in the middle of the night, parents worry (understandably) that he is hungry and offer him a bottle.
But babies cry for many reasons, and parents need to know the signs that the baby is getting enough milk. Giving a bottle in the early weeks exposes the baby to infection and can interfere with the baby’s natural immune system. If a supplement is truly needed, the first choice is the mother’s own milk. And once babies are eating a variety of nutritious solid foods, formula (made from cow’s milk) doesn’t offer anything extra. It’s expensive, highly processed and overly sweet.
Paamonim is an organization, operating mainly in the national religious community, that helps middle class families manage their budgets and pay off debts. In Friday’s alon Matzav Haruach, Rachel Klein wrote about Paamonim and spoke with its director, Uriel Lederberg.
“Dina,” a single mother of three, covered her overdraft by taking out new loans. She contacted Paamonim when her debt reached NIS 45,000. Moti, a financial counselor trained by the organization, came to the house and helped her plan the family’s budget.
Dina reports, “In the first stage, we fired the ozeret (housecleaner, at NIS 800/month). The children cooperated and took on the various chores. We also restricted chugim (afterschool activities) to one per child. We stopped ordering prepared foods and pizza. We gave up on entertainment and restaurants. There were no more weekeends in hotels. Instead of the pool, we went to the beach. We discovered parks. . . I learned that NIS 70 face cream works as well as cream costing NIS 300. . . .”
(Our dermatologist friend recommends buying the cheapest face cream because glycerin, the most effective ingredient, costs the least.)
Dina began to have her clothes and shoes repaired instead of buying new ones, took a second job in the evening, blow-dried her own wig (saving NIS 70), and her daughter began babysitting to pay for her clothes. After two years she has paid off most of her loan and the bank account is balanced. She says, “Yes, I have a masters degree, and I work in a senior position. But I earned my true doctorate for life with Paamonim.”
Director Lederberg explains how Paamonim is different from most other charity organizations. The others look for an immediate solution for a needy family, providing a basket of food, a financial grant, or a school backpack. In another week or two, or a month, the family needs more help. One child needs dental work, the bank is calling about the overdraft, and the school trip is coming up.
Judging by recent phone requests, those kinds of organizations are popping up like snails after the rain. I just heard from one that provides hot lunches to schoolchildren. Charity organizations will always be necessary to help the truly needy, while Paamonim focuses on families that should be able to stand on its feet but aren’t. But everyone can benefit from Paamonim’s techniques.
Lederberg got the idea after helping to raise funds for a family whose utilities were being cut off, only to find the family in the same situation a few months later. When he spoke to the bank manager about lowering the interest rate on the family’s account and allowing an easier payment schedule, the manager asked Lederberg if he could refer other families to him.
Lederberg and his friends developed two parallel paths to financial solvency. First, they check all possible sources of income like national insurance, disability grants, and discounts. They negotiate with the banks for better terms, but never ask for debts to be cancelled. In the second, more intensive level of assistance, Paamonim examines the family’s budget, helping them track their income and expenses and become wise and frugal consumers. Paamonim has experts who advise the counselors on getting low rates for various goods and services.
Lederberg, like most of the thousand-strong staff, is a volunteer himself.
When a financial counselor is available to help, he or she asks the family to prepare its financial documents. At this point many families get cold feet, so Paamonim waits until the family reinitiates contact. The process is painful and requires full cooperation. The volunteer doesn’t instruct the family on which items to cut, but helps it prepare a balanced budget leaving NIS500-1000 per month to repay debts.
On Paamonim’s website, you can download budget spreadsheets, read articles about saving money, and learn how to train as a volunteer. (A friend who inquired said you need to attend a five-session course.) Unfortunately the English part of the site is not as rich (so to speak).
Just don’t go to the wrong site–paamonim.co.il advertises a fancy vacation getaway.
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