The Dollar Food Pantry

From MSN Money. I strongly DO NOT recommend you follow any of the suggestions for saving food money in this article if you have sodium or other dietary restrictions--pre-packaged food at dollar stores or other places can be overloaded with sodium, sugar, fat, calories, and god knows what else.

Being broke doesn't mean you should slack off on nutrition! If anything, it counts more now, since you don't have money to waste on avoidable doctor visits.

If you buy dried legumes, low-sodium pastas, brown rice, and maybe oatmeal, you should be okay, but READ THE NUTRITION LABELS BEFORE BUYING and BEWARE ANYTHING IN CANS, BOTTLES, OR BOXES, such as tuna, salmon, condiments, canned fruits and veggies, crackers, breads, etc. BTW, there is no such thing as a safe pickle for sodium content--the last manufacturer of them went out of business about three years ago.

This is what I recommend for safer, cheaper food sources:
Cheap Eating with Cost Per Serving
Comparing the Cost of Canned and Frozen Meat to Fresh
Portion Control and Cost per Serving
Meat Manifesto
Filling Up on Fewer Calories with Less Food
How I Create (and Re-create) My Own Kitchen Convenience

You ask me, this author is committing the cardinal sin of food shopping--buying by price per item instead of price per serving. Think of how much more she could be saving by buying her food by price per serving!

Her method may indeed be used to stock an emergency stash of food for hurricanes, earthquakes, or whatever emergency makes you have to bug out with about a weeks' worth of food supplies, or even just for camping trips. As a long-term practice, I do not agree with it, though.

It would be cheaper (and healthier) to grow a garden via dollar store SEEDS rather than buying the pre-packaged foods.

An Open Letter to Our Nation's Leadership

From Glenn Beck. A viewer expresses her views and feelings about the current leadership--if you feel the same way, and would like to sign her letter, go here.

Just When You Thought You Ran Out of Hope

"Learn to be subservient to the king, and you won't have to eat lentils," said the Roman soldier to Aristippus. "Learn to eat lentils, and you won't have to be subservient to the king," said Aristippus to the soldier.

Come what may with Obama--I'm off to buy enough Liberty Lentils to last me until 2013.

One More for the Efficiency Train: Electric Utilities Fail to Promote Energy-Efficiency Initiatives

From CNN/Fortune.

So now, not only are we flooded with poor-but-highly-decorative appliance choices, and ghastly-restrictive off-peak hours, but the electric company itself is rigged to run against us! We may as well go back to caves and campfires.

Rerun: Avoiding the Obama Tax-Us-to-Death Agenda

Avoidance tips.

Beating the Efficiency Dead Horse

I went to my electric company's website to find out what exactly made up "peak" and "off-peak" hours, because apparently this is a hot topic on chatroom boards, and this is what I found for my area:

"DETERMINATION OF ON-PEAK AND OFF-PEAK HOURS (for use in 2009)

1. For the period of June 1 through September 30, on-peak hours are: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.

2. For the period of October 1 through May 31, on-peak hours are: 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.


DETERMINATION OF ON-PEAK AND OFF-PEAK HOURS (Continued)

1. Off-peak hours are defined as all hours other than those listed above.

2. The following holidays are observed as off-peak: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas."

There is quite some disparity around the country (as well as in other countries) as to what qualifies as "peak" and "off-peak" time for power usage,even to the point that some areas just have flat-rate pricing only. This information is very useful, along with knowledge about appliance efficiency, in determining how to cut down energy usage, as well as power bills and the type of appliance that would be right for your conservation efforts.

In my area, it looks like I'd have to live the life of a vampire (up all night, sleep all day) during the summer, cram all my chores into weekends and holidays, and do everything between noon and 4 from October to June to save the most money. I guess super-efficient appliances really don't even enter into the equation for me, but I would definitely seek out the most efficient American ones with time delays (so they can be set to run after we've gone to bed, or when Hubby gets out of the shower in the mornings--he's up by 4:30 to avoid commuter traffic).

If I lived in a "flat-rate" area, I'd definitely be looking at long-cycle European models with an eye to reliability over the long term (if it could be found).

I WOULD STRONGLY ADVISE YOU TO GET YOUR AREA'S PEAK AND OFF-PEAK INFORMATION FROM YOUR ELECTRIC UTILITY--THIS COULD HELP GET YOU THROUGH THE RECESSION, AND HELP YOU MAKE BETTER ENERGY USE CHOICES IN THE FUTURE!

Annual Rerun: Frugal Emergency Preparedness

Since the hurricane season officially began, I'm bringing this old thing out: frugal emergency preparedness

Examining Efficiency One More Time with Wall Ovens and Cooktops, Ranges, and Refrigerators

The MySimon/Consumer Reports pages for wall ovens/cooktops, ranges, and refrigerators.

MySimon makes it easy for you to get CR info without having to become a member of CR. Maybe one day they'll come out with a cars and trucks page!