THE 7 JOB ITCH

There is the “7-year itch” in marriage and now there is talk that employees will have 7-different jobs over the course of their working careers.

It has given me pause to reflect on my jobs over the length of my working career.

Volunteerism has always been part of me from the onset. Anyone remember “candystripers”? Young high school students who would volunteer in the hospitals during summers, but I also continued it through my school year on weekends as well. Looking back, I can’t stress enough how volunteer work has helped me in my career securing paid employment. It was the beginning of building my skill-set.

In college, I worked for a copper refinery in the Engineering Dept and the President’s Office. It was an excellent training ground for employment in the office environment. I found it by working for a temp agency. As I proved myself, I was offered part-time work and I left the temp agency. The full-time ladies took me under their wings and mentored me throughout my college years, during summers and winter/spring breaks. Phelps Dodge Copper Refinery was my first paid job. I had mentors before mentoring became a term used by Human Resources.

Upon graduation and marriage, I left home and headed off to begin my nursing career. The possibilities were endless in nursing. There was cardiology, medical units, surgical units, and the burn unit. There was geriatric nursing care and my favorite of all, urgent care. It was in nursing that I honed my multi-tasking skills. It was a matter of survival. Not mine, my patients.

The early years of nursing prepared me for the next job to come along, motherhood. It taught me setting priorities and how to do more things than I had hands to do, all at the same time. Someone wrote a book, if a woman could “manage” motherhood, she could “manage” anything.  Agreed. There’s the budget (living within your means); employees (spouse/children); deadlines (bedtime) and project management (homework, science fair projects, after-school activities, etc).

There was the brief attempt at being a medical transcriptionist, as mentioned in a previous post but since I didn’t actually work in the field, I’ll just consider that experience new training.

Returning to volunteerism in the 90’s, teaching a class on food budgets and college counseling brings me to today. I work at a college and I’m also writing a blog on being frugal. Counting them up, that would be job #6 and job #7.

The focus of the blog is to give “sound” advice (or making noise) for saving money while raising a family. Thus, the section of each blog post called “Sound the Bugle”.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Cook with 7-ingredients or less. The more ingredients you need, the costlier the meal. Your style of cooking will impact costs as well. Frying in oil is an added cost for the purchase of oil. Baking or broiling costs less and is healthier.

AS AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE AND ...

New England craft fairs in the autumn are, well, as American as hot dogs, apple pie and the 4^th of July. My DH worked for a company that hosted an annual employee craft fair every year in the fall.

The fair was open to the public, but only employees and family members could sell their products at the fair.

One year, I decided to enter the craft fair and convinced my BFF to join me in this insane adventure. We were going to sell pies, lots of pies. Made and baked from scratch. There was flour in the air, flour in our hair, there was flour everywhere!

 

 

There were two varieties: Apple and pumpkin. What was I thinking? Bushels of apples to peel. Well, that was how it felt. 

If memory serves me, the fair was held on Saturday and Sunday. We had to bake all day Friday and when we were done, there must have been several dozen homemade pies lining my dining room table.

The pies sold fast. But more than making and baking pies that day in New England, memories and a friendship were made that have lasted long after the pies were sold.

SOUND THE BUGLE: Today’s tip: Much like the pies, doing one task many times over saves time. Take half a loaf of bread and place the slices on a towel on your counter or kitchen table. In assembly line fashion, spread peanut butter on each of the slices. Proceed to add a thin layer of jam. Assemble your PB&J sandwich. Wrap. Store all sandwiches in the plastic bread sleeve and freeze. Use as needed for lunch, snacks before soccer practice or road trips. By the time you are ready to eat, the sandwich is defrosted.

 

 

 

 

This has worked well for guacamole sandwiches as well as grilled tuna melts and grilled turkey/Swiss. Enjoy your lunch, along with the time and money saved by trying this idea!

THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

Riddle me this. What do you get when you tie a rope between two trees? An Italian clothesline!

From the day I owned my first washing machine, I had to have an outdoor clothes line. The DIY stores refer to it as a “solar dryer”. And they’re green. No, literally. They are green.

Back home, it was two pulleys and a pole. In the summer months after the clothes dried, we’d hoist the garden hose over the clothesline; turn on the hose for some much needed wet relief from the hot, city summer sun.

I’ve had several varieties.

There was the “umbrella in the ground” type of clothesline.

An all time favorite, “rope between two trees” clothesline.

There were wood racks when I lived in the Pacific Northwest. If you’ve never been, it rains there on occasion. Okay, somewhat understated. I needed a mobile clothesline to grab up the clothes rather quickly and move them indoors at the spur of the moment. Over the years, the wood racks have been replaced with plastic coated racks so the wet clothes don’t absorb the wood stain.

My current is the “tri-pod on the deck against subdivision rules” clothesline.

But over the past few years, I’ve discovered an indoor method of clothes drying without the full-on dryer effect. The door moldings in the bedroom. They’ve always been there, yet I’d never noticed them with an eye for drying clothes. They are in every bedroom, more than I care to count…or dust. I’ve now skillfully figured out how to hang the queen size sheets from a pair of pants hangers on the door moldings and dry my sheets indoors.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Mother’s Little Helpers used the dryer. DS2 thought of it as his iron too. I didn’t realize that I had a dual purpose clothes dryer. He now has his own electric bills to pay. An ironing board is permanently propped open in his bedroom.

SOUND THE BUGLE: Today’s tip: Remove your clothes from the washing machine and spin them in the dryer for 5 minutes. Hang to dry on your favorite type of clothesline. You will spend less money on your power bills; save energy and your clothes will last longer. My favorite part? No ironing required. J

 

TWENTY MEATBALLS FOR TWO

There is “Born Free”, “Born to be Wild” and “Born in the USA” and then there is me. I’m convinced the doctor slapped my bottom with an invisible stamp instead of the palm of his hand in the delivery room that read “Born to be Busy”.

It’s in my genes. Dad worked two jobs, waking at 4AM and returning home at 7PM each weeknight. To this day, my planner pales in comparison to his schedule. By the way, dad is 87 years old.

Mom, God rest her soul, first and foremost would not allow us to say the word ‘hate’. So let me just say that mom despised the phrase “I’m bored”. Being creative, I’d say “I have nothing to do”.

Same meaning to mom, different words with similar end results.

She’d run off a litany the length of her arm of things for me to do. There were dishes to dry; clothes to be ironed; woodwork and baseboards to dust and polish. Yes, mom had a recipe for boredom.

Mom also had recipes for cooking. The first time as a newlywed bride that I made her meatball recipe, I made 20 meatballs for the two. And so began the “cook and freeze” method of meal preparation in our home.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Purchase several pounds of your favorite ground meat. When you get home, divide it into family serving sizes for your family. Sauté one serving size for tacos or any recipe that calls for cooked ground meat. Cool and freeze. Take two servings and with the same recipe make a batch of meatballs and a meatloaf. Cook and freeze. Take two more servings and make hamburger patties: One batch of burger patties for the grill and one batch for Salisbury steaks. With 5 lbs of ground meat, you have a weeknights worth of meal ideas within reach of your freezer.

MOTHER'S LITTLE HELPER

Recorded in 1965 by the Rolling Stones, “Kids are different today, I hear ev'ry mother say”, Mother’s Little Helper had a meaning all its own. But has anything really changed in four decades? “Kids are different today” can be said of the generations that came long after that song.

There was a day when DD was a 7-year old. She came home from school, disappointed that her favorite after-school play clothes were not ready to wear. With feet spread apart and hands on her hips, out of her mouth spewed the words “what did you do all day”. It echoes in my memory to this day.

Not tall enough to reach the washing machine, I pulled up a Little Tykes step-stool. Thus began the first lesson in doing laundry for my 2^nd grader. “Intro to Laundry 101” and I never looked back. Indeed, her big brother was taught the same lesson and when her younger brother was tall enough, he learned the lesson as well.

It wasn’t until DS2 was in 4^th grade did he realize it was a mother’s “job” to do the laundry. Shocked that a classmate arrived to school ‘out of uniform’, JJ tried to blame his mother for not doing the laundry! [If you have children, you know that at some point, everything is your fault]. DS2 expressed surprise that JJ would place the blame on his mom. You see, all these years, he thought every child had to wash his own clothes.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Busy moms should avail themselves to the little helpers in their homes. If your child can toddle, your child can drag a mesh bag of laundry on the floor. After all, the clothes are already dirty! Elicit the curious nature of your pre-schooler to sort darks and whites or just fill a mesh bag with dirty laundry and drag it to the washing machine. Use the step-stool to have your child fill the washing machine. As your children age, add more responsibility, such as adding the laundry detergent on their own. What a time-saver, delegating a chore to Mother’s Little Helper!

THE EXPIRATION DATE

As a Georgia transplant, I was relocated for 18 months. After nearly two years, it became abundantly evident that life existed beyond an expiration date. Roots were embedded, the family settled in and it was time to find a job and return to work.

Finding a job at a nearby urgent care center, the seeds were set to branch away from subdivision snobbery. “What can you do”?

Thus began the arduous task of explaining about life at “Annoy College” and my hard earned degree in Nursing. But no profession is recession proof. It was 1997 and changes were beginning in the health care industry. My facility was acquired by the ‘Brothers Four’.

One lawyer, one accountant and two physicians, our days were numbered when the cruncher realized less educated personnel cost less to pay. Here’s your pink slip.

After 20 years in the profession, what’s next? My BFF from “Annoy College” just happened to live nearby.  Together, we ventured into retraining but not before a road trip to the ever humbling Department of Favor office. If I enrolled in a training program, the state would pay my unemployment for a period of time without having to do an active job search.

When searching for a new career, tap into your existing skill set and expand upon it. I chose not to deviate away from the medical field but into a different arena. An honest, self-assessment of my strengths included a broad base of medical terminology; speed and accurate typist and good spelling skills. We enrolled in a medical transcription program.

Proud of my accomplishment, it was time to find a job. Quickly I learned one needed experience to be hired as a medical transcriptionist. But no one was willing to hire me so I could acquire desired experience. It was a vicious cycle of no experience and no one willing to give experience. Finally, a job interview and a job offer! I quickly came realize it was my nursing skills that were being solicited and the transcriptionist part of the job was filler. Being too far from home, not worth the time and gas for the salary being offered, I opted to decline.

Meanwhile, the PTA at the local high school needed volunteers in the college career center. Having already sent one child off to college, I knew my way around admission requirements and deadlines, so I signed up to help.

It was this one day/week volunteer opportunity that I placed on a resume when I applied for a temporary 10 week job at the local two-year college. Assisting high school seniors in their search and quest for a college education was really quite rewarding.

The other skill-set that I brought to the job interview was my nursing background. Confidentiality. Record keeping. Customer service. Team work. Dealing with parents of teenagers cannot be overemphasized enough for employment in post-secondary education! I was hired.

My part-time 10 week assignment evolved into a full time job with several promotions which has lasted more than a decade. Retirement is months away….

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: The expiration date on a product does not mean the product is all used up and ready for the trash. Many products can safely be used after the expiration date and articles are available online for which products you can safely use.

 

 

 

 

 

THE HAIRY 80's

The 80's were a blur of Sesame Street, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and Muppets episodes; big hair with horrible perms and potty training. I was married with three children.

The diaper budget became the pre-school budget. That in turn became the grade school tuition budget; which then became the high school budget and in four years that became the college tuition budget.

Well, with modest to severe increases in costs along the way. Each child had their own diaper budget. I recall the pediatrician promising the children would be out of diapers before graduating from college. She was right, they were. Their diaper funds however hung around for 29 years.

The 80's were also a time of corporate relocations. After leaving New York the day after graduation for married life, there were two tours in New England, short stays in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest before landing in the Southeast for "18 months", an assignment that has lasted for well over 20 years.

And that diaper budget? The first grandchild was born after our last child graduated from college. Every so often, I'll buy a box of diapers and reminisce on how it all began....

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today's tip. Bloom where you are planted! While planted, consider growing your own herbs and vegetables. It will yield a bounty of green and "greens" for your budget.

THE TWELVE YEAR ENCORE

While the rest of the world was panicked about coping with something called “Y2K” and the new millennium, my world had its own crisis to consider. Empty. Nest. Syndrome.

The year was 2000 and had been living for 8 years in Georgia. As each child left home, I decided to find an activity to consume my time in my child’s absence. I volunteered two Tuesday mornings a month teaching a class to clients at St. Vincent de Paul. The topics included how to create a budget; how to stretch food dollars and the value of couponing. I continued with my volunteer work for two years until my second child went off to college.

After a 20-year career in nursing, I had left the profession in the late 90s. My “encore career” took me into higher education. More than a decade into my second career, I found myself dusting off my old STVP notes and upcycle my old, yellowed newspaper article.

It’s now 2013. Well into the new millennium, everything has moved to technology. I had to recreate my notes into a Power Point Presentation. Find cutesy “Clip Art” to jazz it up. Make it look and sound entertaining yet educational. Save it to a thumb drive and have it appear on the BIG SCREEN for my students…aka “my coworkers”.

My “Frugal Bugle” newsletter had gone high tech.

SOUND THE BUGLE: Today’s tip: As the expression goes, never let a good crisis go to waste. For that matter, never let food go to waste either. If you are not eating those leftovers within a day or two, put them in the freezer or transform that food item into a new, different meal. In future blog posts, I’ll demonstrate some of my more creative uses for expiring milk and repurposing leftovers. To throw away food is throwing money into the trash. To save money, save your leftovers.

 

 

FRUGAL GETS PUBLISHED

While living in Oregon, the state newspaper ran an article soliciting ideas for a consumer column on saving money for groceries. Much to my surprise, not only the ideas but my entire article was supplanted into the newspaper. I had my first byline.

The newspaper sent a photographer out to my home and I gave a demo on how a family of five could eat a 10 lb turkey for a week.

The demo included how to debone a turkey and meal ideas once the turkey was cut into parts.

The next thing I knew, “Woman’s Day” was calling for a quote! It was then that I realized that I must be really onto something even though my newsletter was a flop.

SOUND THE BUGLE: Today’s tip: Purchasing a “whole” chicken or turkey is one of the most economical purchases one can make at the grocery store. If you ask the butcher, he will cut a fresh chicken into parts at no additional charge. The same principle can be applied to a whole boneless pork loin. The savings will astound you!

AFFLUENZA 101

The number “13” was a lucky one for me. During that year of marriage, our family moved to Oregon where I found that folks were down to earth and my frugal lifestyle and I fit right in.

There were local events such as Portland’s “Saturday Market”, grocery stores with great sales, grocery stores where I could buy bulk items out of a large barrel; and a grocery outlet store with deeply discounted food/grocery items. The outlet was selling “brands” that I recognized from other areas of the country at a fraction of the cost.

During those years, “Donahue” was the king of daytime talk. He interviewed a family on his show that had been featured in “Parade” magazine, the weekly news magazine featured in most Sunday newspapers. Amy Dacyzyn raised her family in Maine on her husband’s Navy pension with six children. She wrote a newsletter called “Tightwad Gazette” and several books. I could not get enough of her writings.

Amy was an inspiration to those living a frugal lifestyle during affluent times. After all, these were the early 90’s, a time of prosperous dot.com industries. In 1991, I first scribed “Frugal Bugle”, the newsletter. Frugal Bugle version 1.0 was a flop. Or was it? Maybe it was just a little ahead of its time.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Be willing to try new brands or generics! What may be unknown to you, may be “brand” elsewhere in the country.

 

 

 

BACK TO MY FUTURE

My birthing years we so last century, or so I thought. Yesterday, I birthed a blog, 40 years of gestation is a long time. My past has catapulted me into my future.

I spent the 1970's getting an education in high school, was an editor of my (defunct) Catholic high school newspaper and a nursing student at a Catholic women's college.

Nursing instructors were a different breed. "Hard core", "badass" and "mean girls" were theoretically part of their teaching philosophy, long before those term became part of today's vernacular. They preferred to call it the "weeding out process".

One spring semester, the nutrition instructor tasked us to feed a husband and wife on only $50/week. We were assigned to log "three squares a day" for a week, keeping to religious and cultural traditions for meal prep. Mine? Italian wife, Jewish husband. I grabbed my dad's weekly store ads and did my homework.

And so it began, my journey into frugality. It was the most useful college assignment in all my college years.

Pouring hours and hours into nursing care plans on weekends has morphed to pouring over store ads on weekends to maintain living on a food/grocery budget for years to come. Thankfully, the later was much more fun and requires much less time than those care plans!

SOUND THE BUGLE!  Today's tip is to find the "lost leader" item in your store's ad. Usually located on page 1, it is an item or items the store is willing to sell for less to draw you in, to shop at their store. 

Welcome to Frugal's Bugle, a blog for readers who want to be frugal with their finances and their time. Being frugal has been a lifestyle choice for over 35 years and with time, has come wisdom. Follow me here or on my Facebook page, "Frugal Bugle" for tips on saving money on your food/grocery budgets and time in your kitchen.