1. There are Few Things in Life Better than a Good Gumbo

    January 15, 2013 by Daniel V

    There is nothing better in life than a good gumbo.  I’m pretty sure that cooking a chicken and sausage gumbo for my wife, then fiancée, is one of the reasons I’m a married man this day.  Vegetables mixed with a roux, the grease from the meat, and the sharp prick of Tabasco (personally, I prefer Louisiana) against your lips will make any mouth savor.  The best thing about a gumbo is that if you make the roux right, then you can put pretty much anything in your gumbo (of course that does not mean you should, however!).  If you are looking to save money, then I would seriously suggest that you look not only at soups, but good soups.  I’ll admit, I did not have many good soups growing up (although, I did love hot borscht and  chicken and dumpling), but after expanding my palate, we make a pot of soup about once a week.  This in itself has cut off about thirty dollars on each week’s spending.  It also can pack an amazing amount of nutrition and vitamins   Thus, if you still have your turkey frozen and are wondering what to do with it, here is a recipe for turkey gumbo.  If you don’t have a turkey and are wondering what to do, instead, simply substitute the turkey with chicken.

     

    It was good enough to get my wife, picky daughter, sister, and priest to all have seconds.

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  2. Why to Work Hard: Your Reputation Means Everything.

    January 14, 2013 by Daniel V

    I was about seven or eight years old, living the typical middle class life provided by my White Collar parents.  We were rolling out in our fixed up . . . Dodge Shadow, down the main street of our suburb.  They had been doing renovations on that street for past two months and when I saw the construction crew, I made a nasty comment or joke to my father.  I really don’t remember the exact words, but I still do regret them.  It was on the lines of how much better I was than them and how bad their lives had to be.  My father then made a comment to me and I still have not forgotten those words.  He stopped the car when we came to the red light, put the stick in park, and turned around to me and said, “Daniel, you never make fun of someone who is earning an honest living.  It doesn’t matter what they are doing, as long as it is legal and ethical, we should always respect a man who is trying to support himself by hard work.”

     

    Take a minute and re-read those words.  There’s a lot within that phrase.  When I mentioned that even to my father about that event a year ago, he had no recollection of its happening.  He did remember, however, hearing the same thing from his father.   It’s probably something that you too heard from your father, mother, grandparents, great uncle, etc.  The part, I want to focus on in this topic, however, is working hard and respect.  Of course, hard work does earn more cash.  This does not mean, however, that its return will be immediate.   This is important to remember to those of us coming out of the recession.  It is especially important to the millennials (Wikipedia will answer what a millennial is) who are affected most by the Great Recession.  Hard work can often be the secret to getting a job, keeping a job, and getting more pay long term.  This is all because when we work hard, not only are we trying to build our equity, but we are also trying to build our reputations.

    Our grandparents (or in some cases, parents or great grandparents) often took jobs that were not always the most desirable.  From working two shifts in the office, to waiting in line to have a shot at the assembly line, they were anxious to prove they were hard and reliable workers.  To do so, it showed that the work would be completed well and with quality.  It showed that they would finish the work, be there on time, and put a human quality stamp in an age where things already began to become more mechanical.  It gave the worker an edge when there was a surplus of labor.  It also helped the worker keep a good reputation to find work elsewhere.  In this, I am often reminded of a movie scene (which I can’t remember the name, hopefully someone else does!) where a child complains about the menial labor his father does and how embarrassing it is.  An adult then responds to the child to say, Your father has that job to support you and your family and refused to declare bankruptcy when everyone else did.  In other words, he had a reputation as an honest and hardworking man.

    This is perhaps, then, something essential for our day and age when it seems that every Tom, Dick, and Henry is declaring bankruptcy.  It is also important to remember that reputation still matters.  Every job I have had was due to a reputation of hard work.  My first jobs I got based on my father’s reputation to be a hard worker and then what I had done around my parish.  When I was in university, I was an RA based on my reputation.  I was turned down my sophomore year, so I took another job with Residential Life and worked my tail off.  I took shifts other people often did not want.  In turn, the next two years I was offered a position, which basically allowed me to go to university for free the last two years and saved, $40,000.  When I student taught, my reputation as a student teacher got me recommendations to take my pick of the litter.  Even, when I lost my job due to low seniority and lay offs, I was hired literally the afternoon of the same day I was laid off.  How?  Due to my boss recommending me to another employer.  Reputation means everything, especially in the days after the Great Reputation.

    Now, this does not mean that one should not be a push over.  To do something for free, that someone else will pay you for is a bit moronic.  Especially, in these economic times!  If we do extra work and it is appropriate, by all means, ask for the extra dinero.  When, I ask about doing extra work now, I always add if there are funds for it.  Please respect yourself as a professional.  On the other hand, do not go to the other extreme and start slacking off.  Do each job with quality and attention.  Not because your boss will come in and start gloating over your work.  Rather, because, you are only enhancing your reputation as a hard worker which later will mean more income and life security later.

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  3. Your Weekly Reader

    January 11, 2013 by Daniel V

    This is a collection of sites that stuck out during this past week.  Most should be recent, but a few will be backdated,  They are, however, still worth reading.  If you ran across something that would be interesting to share with the public for the next weeks, shoot me an e-mail.  I’ll look at it and if it seems worthy, link to it.

    StateLibQld_1_201763_Elderly_woman_reading_the_newspaper,_1930-1940

     

    Americans collectively hold about 14 trillion dollars of debt, can this change? . . .Will free online courses change higher education . . . Signs to watch for in the housing market . . . A well written blog from Yorkshire . . . How much should starving students (and for that matter your indebted family) tip? . . . I see you’re golden dollar and I raise you a trillion platinum dollars!

     

    • Christmas always tends to be an expensive financial category for us.  Part of the reason is, as many people do, we save on gifts, but splurge (or use it as an excuse to splurge) that day.  Even though this site from England, there are many ideas that work on both sides of the pond, so I am taking notes here.  Also, it is very well written.  Please take a look at Miss Thrifty’s Packing up a Thrifty Christmas 
    • The new movement of online learning is quite fascinating.  For a long time we have seen long distance learning mature, but the idea of online learning from prestigious universities is a bit novel.  I think it is only a matter of time until it is profitised, hopefully not at the expense of the consumer, but until then the New York Times offers a perspective.
    • It’s an interesting perspective and both sides are weighed on How to Tip as a College Student.  However, my advice is the same I followed in College and Graduate School.  If you can’t afford to tip and pay the worker his or her fair earnings, then go somewhere else.
    • I don’t know why, but I find the conversation of the Platinum Coin fascinating!  Maybe it’s the history parallels  perhaps the ridiculousness, or maybe I expect Mr. Burns to be running away with a 1 trillion dollar check in the background.  Nonetheless, here are some of the finer points of this . . . . entertainment until Monday!  Some of the other ideas include: the platinum coin, Scrip (IOUs), or maybe just compromise.

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  4. Test

    January 11, 2013 by Daniel V

    Well, this is awkward.  Please forgive me sending you this post.  Don’t worry, your feed will give you the real post in about five minutes.  As Living in the Great Recession is expanding it’s web presence, some sites would prefer that I show the blog is mine, so I am doing this by publishing this:  YURKW9BKA5GR

    It’s not spam, it really is not.  In fact if you add the numerical letters up and subtract them in a certain order you get 42.  Now, your actual daily post will arrive in just five minutes.

    5, 4, 3, 2 . . .

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  5. What’s This Blog’s Purpose?

    January 10, 2013 by Daniel V

    evans1“Believe me, though, I don’t think your generation could make it.  IF what happened to us, happens to you, America is doomed.” If you want something that will kill a buzz, these words are it.  I had heard them a few times, from a good friend retelling a conversation he once had with his grandmother.  I reflected on it, while starring at my slowly warming pint of Guiness.  When he and I resumed the conversation, after a few awkward moments of silence, we both nodded our heads in agreement.  She was clearly right.

    We all remember the stories and tales reiterated to us by our relatives and friends from the Great Depression.  If we are too young (or were too disconnected when we were young) perhaps, hopefully, we can still remember the vivid scenes in the Grapes of Wrath and pictures of the Dust Bowl in our American History textbooks.  I know that I can still remember such stories.  Elder neighbors making one pot stew (throw what you have in the pot and see what you get).  An older worker catching the back of the trolley to go to the minor league games in Oak Cliff after begging for a nickel.  Threats from my Polish grandmother reminding me how lucky I am and that I better not leave a morsel of my steamed cabbage on my plate.  You probably have your own and they seem so distant.

    Taking a step back from the smaller stories during the Great Depression, we then see the larger picture.  What we often call the Great Depression, was in reality two separate recessions, with a short recovery period.  It was not all doom and gloom.  I had one grandmother who came from a more well to do Southern family and hardly felt the effects (or so it is claimed).  We then compare it to today.  Yes, the recession technically ended two years ago.  Each news story, however, claims that we are only a moment’s notice from being launched back into another recession, therefore another depression.  The Fiscal Cliff, the never ending national debt limit debacle, the end of Twinkies (something truly depressing).  Then we look at our own lives.  We all know a few people who have lost their jobs due to the economy, both public and private.  Many of us have had to contend with rising inflation, but static wages.  Personally, I feel that at times, each time I’m about to have a break, something disastrous happens that sets us back financially.  Thus, I return to my friend’s grandmother’s words.

    “Believe me, though, I don’t think your generation could make it.  IF what happened to us, happens to you, America is doomed.”

    Perhaps, then, we need to stop living like the 90s or 20s.  perhaps, we need to revisit history and see what our ancestors did.  IF I don’t change, if I don’t try harder to live better I am doomed.  Perhaps you feel the same.  What did your grandparents say and do?  What did they face?  What are you facing?  How do we make it and leave consumerism and live better, but simpler.  That’s what we’re writing about here.

     

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  6. Let’s Talk Turkey about Saving and Eating

    January 8, 2013 by Daniel V

    This guy wants to save you money

    This guy wants to save you money

     

    One of the largest spending categories in many of our budgets is most likely the grocery store.  Americans tend to have very particular eating habits that tend to be wasteful.  Yet, when we try to save money by frugality, we often end up with something we’d rather not eat.  This is your series of how to stop worrying about that and come to love a type of frugal eating.

    For years, I tried to convince my mother, and now I try to convince my wife, to have something other than turkey for Thanksgiving and / or Christmas (I still refuse to cook it for Christmas, but I am sometimes overruled).

    “What about Tamales?” I ask,  ”We live in Texas!,”

    -“No.  Turkey.  And besides you’re Polish and I’m Peruvian”

    -”What about ham?” I quickly respond.

    -”Do you even like ham?”

    - “Well, no. . . . I do like honey baked ham!”

    - “Enough, for left overs?”

    -“No . . . “

    Thus after such conversations, turkey it is.  The beauty of turkey, though, is that it’s the gift that keeps giving, and if you do it right, quite tastefully as well!  Now, if you were like me, you may not be a big fan of turkey.  That’s probably because it was dry, unseasoned, and thus tasteless.  Well, my friend, let me give you some tips in a recession way.

    Step One:

    Cook it right.  I have to admit that this is not my recipe, but used from the Pioneer Woman.  Use her recipe for the brine and you’ll be quite happy.  Also, while you’re looking over there, be sure to jot down her other recipes for your cooking.  They’re delicious, tasty, and I’ve never had one that’s bad.  Back to the topic at hand, however, her brine works well.  Also, I’d say don’t worry too much about the salt concentration she worries about.  After making one turkey with half the salt content, and then a second turkey, later, with the amount given, I didn’t see any problems.  In fact, I prefer things a bit saltier (my doctor does not).

    So, try to find a cheap turkey.  IF you have a deep freezer, you  can often get one on sale around February, but also take a look around as well at local stores anytime of the year.  We found a turkey at Albertson’s, frozen, for 40 cents a pound.  Now, to make it recession wise, do get a big bastard turkey.  I’m not talking about something tiny, to save money.  No , señor, get a 20 lb. + freak of natural! (Once you make six figures you can get a free range normal sized thing, but until then, big is good!).  Our 22 pound beast cost us $8.80.  Now, please tell me where you can find 22 pounds, a stone and half, ten kilograms of meat for less than ten dollars!  Stick in the refrigerator about six days before you’re going to eat.  Around the fourth day, you’ll still have fears, most likely, of it not defrosting.  Don’t worry, just wait.  Brine it the night before.  New worries my approach about flipping the turkey in its brine when you get up to go to the restroom in the night.  Please don’t.  From my experience, the brine is strong enough to affect all the turkey.  In addition, if your wife is like mine, she will probably not appreciate your failed attempt to flip the turkey, while leaving salt water all over the floor and refrigerator.

    Now, you should put it in the oven earlier than all the wrappers say, especially if there’s stuffing (and make stuffing, please remember we’re looking for ways to cut money, and a good flavored stuffing is a great way to do it).  Finally, once you finish your turkey, go ahead and carve it.  Now, it is entirely possible that you may be unsure how to attack such a fearsome creature with your sharp knife and rusty prongs.  I would recommend saving embarrassment by reading over, “How to carve like a man,” or do what I do and ask someone else who enjoys doing it, to do it.  While someone is carving it, go ahead and make your gravy to which again I reference you to the Pioneer Woman.  Then, enjoy your Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years Meal.  Afterwards, go ahead and freeze or fridge the rest, because there are about two weeks of meals you can make from this that will have everyone (or you, if you’re selfish, and then you can probably stretch it out to two months) raving over its qualities.  So stay tuned to Turkey Gumbo, Disney Turkey Sandwiches, Turkey Tamales, and Turkey and Dirty Rice.

    In other news, we’ll forgo a post tomorrow as my daughter will be having an operation.  Be sure, however, to check back in on Thursday.

     

     

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