Small Moment

Back in November, I wrote about a lunchtime meal thrown together from the ends of a loaf of bread and the remainder of a block of Velveeta cheese stuff that had been lingering in our refrigerator since Ramona's visit in early July.

Friday evening's meal was right up with there on the Frugality + No Food Waste scale. Behold the homemade pizza. Dough: made myself (maybe 50 cents worth of flour bought on sale with a coupon and yeast with a drop of olive oil and a sprinkle of sugar—maybe). Topping: about a third of a jar of Prego tomato sauce bought on sale for 99 cents (33 cents), 1 onion (one of four from a 2 pound bag of sweet onions for $1.59, so another 40 cents), the remains of a bag of shredded mozzarella bought months ago with a coupon during a sale (the whole bag, which was 16 ounces, was 75 cents (it was a good sale and a great coupon) so the approximate fourth that went into the pizza was 19 cents), miscellaneous spices (10 cents would be ample), about a fifth of a can of parmesan cheese from Aldi (it being Aldi, the can was $1.79, so another 36 cents), and—wait for it—the last of the pepperoni that her parents bought Ramona when she was here (free and leftover to boot). So for a whopping $1.88, we dined well. Heck, add another 50 cents for the small salads and the can of pop ("soda" to you all) Warren had and we still ate well.

The savings were even sweeter because while the dough was rising, Warren and I went out in search of something he could mount his new CNC machine on. A sheet of plywood priced out at about $49.99. So we went to ReStore, the retail arm of Habitat For Humanity, and looked for a solid core door, which would have been about $15.00 or $20.00. No luck. But ReStore did have a brand new pallet, of thick plywood, for $3.00. Actually, $2.25 because everything was 25% off, but Warren was so thrilled with the pre-sale price that he donated the change back to Habitat For Humanity.

I'll be writing a longer post about money: what 2017 looked like and what 2018 holds. But if this is what it holds, we'll be living high on the hog for pennies.