First, there’s the opportunity cost. To get the milk, I have to drive my car to the grocery store, find a parking spot, navigate the metal cart through the crowded aisles, wait in line at the register, tell my son “no” to the half dozen items he will beg me to buy, push the cart across the parking lot to my car while trying to keep my son from running off, load up the groceries, drive home, unload. This is one of my most hated chores and it takes an hour or two of prime weekend time. If I didn’t have to go to the store for the milk, I could be using that time to do something I enjoy. So, for me, there is a big opportunity cost attached to that gallon of grocery store milk.

Second, are the costs to the environment that don’t show up in the dollars I pay at the cash register: the pollution wrought by commercial dairy practices; the diesel fuel burned to move the milk across the country to my grocery store; the noxious chemicals used to create the molded plastic container that my milk is shipped in; the energy spent to deal with my discarded milk carton which will be picked up by a garbage truck, carted to a transfer station, put on a barge, taken out to the middle of the ocean, and dumped. When you consider those costs, it makes my glass of grocery store milk a lot more expensive.

Third, are the costs to my family’s health. Many commercial dairy farms think of animals as machines that can be turbo-charged to produce more. The pixie dust they use to shift their cow-machines into overdrive is called Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH). It’s a synthetic hormone that forces the cows’ bodies to produce more milk than is healthy for them. This puts enormous physical strain on the cow, which leads to infection which is then treated with antibiotics. The hormones and antibiotics get in the milk and end up in our bodies. Consumption of milk laced with hormones has been linked to cancer. Canada and the EU have banned BGH because of the significant health risks, but the FDA has not. So chances are good that it’s in my gallon of grocery store milk, and there is also a chance that consuming it could contribute to a life-threatening illness like cancer. If you factor in the health costs, the milk becomes prohibitively expensive. Can you even put a price on health?

Finally, there is the quality of the product itself. The milk in the plastic, or waxy cardboard container isn’t very fresh; wasn’t produced by well-tended cows; and is bland, and vaguely plastic tasting. So for all the effort, cost to the environment, and risk to my health, I’m not even getting a very delicious glass of milk.

But there is a solution – the milkman. I met Tom during a Saturday visit to the farmer’s market. His booth featured local milk in beautiful glass bottles. As I stood there wanting to buy the milk, but thinking about how heavy the glass bottles must be, and if I bought them, I’d have to bring them back the next week, and so buying the milk would mean that every Saturday morning I would have to get in my car and drive to the farmer’s market to exchange my empties for full bottles of milk. As I was wrestling with this in my mind – thinking about the hassle, but still wanting to buy the milk – Tom said, “We deliver you know.”

It took a moment for me to process the implications.

“We also deliver eggs, cheese, butter, and other local farm products,” Tom added. It was one of those moments where the clouds open up and a beam of sunshine emerges.

“You deliver,” I said, not fully believing it. “To my doorstep?”

“Every Wednesday morning,” Tom said, and he gave me the website address for his company, The Hudson Milk Co.. I went home and promptly signed up for my first delivery.

Now every Tuesday night I put a cooler on my front porch with empty glass milk bottles and on Wednesday morning it’s magically filled (Tom delivers at 4:00 in the morning) with farm-fresh milk, cream, eggs, and cheese. The milk has no BGH so it’s healthier for my family. It comes from a local farm, so it hasn’t been shipped thousands of miles creating a monstrous carbon footprint. The pretty glass bottles get reused, unlike their plastic counterparts that end up floating (forever polluting) the oceans. I don’t have to go to the grocery store as often, and when I do, it’s just to pick up a few things. It’s no longer an epic chore. And best of all – the milk is fresh and it tastes great! It costs a few dollars more, but if you factor in the other costs–opportunity costs, health costs, environmental costs–it ends up being the cheapest milk you can buy — and the most delicious!

If you live in Westchester, NY you can ask Tom to bring fresh milk to your doorstep too. Tell him I sent you.

I was thinking about the Americanized notion of la cucina povera one night a few weeks ago when the only fresh produce I had left in the house was an acorn squash and an onion (I live in a neighborhood with a dearth of decent supermarkets).

I would soon be setting off on a trip to the Piemonte region of Italy, and Piemontese cuisine was on my mind. In this mountainous region, which lies on the French and Swiss borders not too far from the Ligurian Sea, anchovies are a signature flavoring. I happened to also have a jar of anchovies.

After looking through a few of the books I’d been using to research my trip, this is the Piemontese-inspired pasta I concocted for dinner:

Rigatoni with Acorn Squash and Anchovy Sauce
Rigatoni colla Zucca e Salsa d’Acciughe

Makes 4 modest servings.

1 large onion
1 medium to large acorn squash
4 to 6 salted anchovies, sott’olio (preserved in oil)
1 cup of frozen spinach (or fresh, or broccoli or cauliflower, depending on your taste and what you have available)
2 to 3 Tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp chili pepper flakes
Rigatoni pasta
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Preheat oven to 350˚F

Put the pasta water on boil.

Cut the squash in half, and clean out the stringy, seedy middle part.* Stick the squash halves in a baking or roasting dish with the green rind side facing down (and the orange fleshy part facing up), and bake until the fleshy part is tender when poked with a fork. Remove from oven to cool.

When squash is no longer piping hot, peel the flesh away from the rind and cut the squash into bite-size chunks. Set aside.

Salt the boiling pasta water, and add rigatoni. Cook for the recommended amount of time (usually 8 to 10 minutes).

Next, chop the onion, and begin sautéing it in a medium-sized frying pan with the extra virgin olive oil. Avoid the urge to add salt.

Rinse the anchovies under cold water to remove some of their overwhelming saltiness (don’t worry, they’ll still be salty). Finely chop the anchovies, and then mash them with a fork until you create a paste. When the onions begin to appear translucent, add the anchovy paste to the sauté. Stir and cook the mixture for about 5 minutes on low heat (be careful not to burn it).

Add the squash chunks to the sauté, stirring and tossing.

Sprinkle the chili flakes over the squash, and continue to toss.

Add the spinach to the sauté; stir to mix it in. Turn the heat up to medium and cover for a few minutes so the spinach can cook.

Remove sauté from heat.

When pasta is ready, drain rigatoni and toss in a bowl with the squash and anchovy sauce. When the pasta and sauce are thoroughly combined, sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Mangia!

Regional wine pairings to consider: Arneis (white) or Barbera (red)
Non-Piemontese pairings: Sauvignon Blanc (white) or Sangiovese (red)

* Seeds can be salted and toasted for a snack, or sprinkled on top of the pasta.

Free Lose it! iPhone Application

After years of working on health and fitness websites, I knew the basic rules: eat lots of fruits and vegetables; more protein, less carbs; and nothing fried. I had already started cooking more, but I needed more help than that. I decided to use the extremely popular and free application, Lose It!, which I could download onto my iPhone as a guide. The Lose It! application simply enables you to track your calories eaten and expended through exercise. You enter your weight, how much you want to lose over a specific time period, and it gives you your daily calorie allowance.

Keeping track of your calories is very eye-opening! I always figured olive oil was healthy so I would generously use it for cooking and salads. One tablespoon of olive oil has 126 calories. I started to measure it out, and realized I really didn’t need more than one tablespoon. I began making trade-offs. I ordered egg-white breakfast burritos at my local café, got ridiculed for it, but later was able to have a chocolate chip cookie guilt-free. I still went out and went over my daily calorie allowance often, but going all out sometimes made the other days of the week that much easier. I exercised more, but then was able to eat more, too. And now, a couple of months later, it’s all unbelievably become habit and my new wardrobe is complete.

First, you learn to let go of the control over this part of your life, you learn to trust someone else (and pity them) to wash your smelly gym clothes. And then you do a basic cost-benefit analysis (Thank you, NYU Stern School of Business) that shows you that $.85 per pound, less than $10 – $15 per week (depending on your family size), is well worth it. (Here is where I will insert a disclaimer – kids are a game changer, where laundry can be almost a daily habit, and I can’t provide much guidance to those of you with kids!)

You must value these benefits: You don’t have to search around in pockets, purses and couches for quarters, and then spend these quarters for the machines, detergent and fabric softener. You also don’t have to hang out in a laundromat or laundry room for hours, worry if someone else is going to take your stuff out of the machine, or remember not to forget your stuff in the dryer causing your shirts and shorts to get wrinkly, and, most important, NO FOLDING!

The last tip I ever read in a Real Simple magazine recommended that you hire a cleaning person so that you can reduce stress, and I thought to myself, they just don’t get it – it’s stressful for some people just because they know they can’t afford to hire a cleaning person to reduce stress. I do get it, and the extra $5 – $10 it costs to get your laundry done will only provide you happiness and time to run your other errands, spend time with your family and friends, or write a blog post.

Here are my recommendations for having a successful laundry drop-off experience:

- Pick a laundromat that does drop-off/pick-up ONLY. You don’t want other people in the laundromat messing with machines and potentially taking your stuff.

- Round up the bill to include a tip. A tip is always appreciated and since the bill will be small, it’s okay if the tip is small, too. The tip will always pay-off in times of emergency when you need your stuff cleaned the same day, or you forgot your wallet or your receipt, or just because these men and women deserve it after cleaning your stinky stuff.

- Use a laundry bag that is recognizable. Makes life easy for you and the launderers at pick up if you can point out your bag. And if, like me, you sometimes forget your receipt, again, it makes life easier for everyone.

- Own more than one week’s worth of underwear. This holds true for do-it-yourselfers, and drop-offers, sometimes you just don’t feel like doing your laundry or taking it to the laundromat.

So release those laundry bag strings, and leave the laundry to someone else.

Blackberry Lavender Gelato with Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

Start by making the blackberry lavender simple syrup to flavor the gelato.

Boil:
1 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
1 box of blackberries

Reduce the liquid to a syrup, and mash the blackberries. Turn the heat off and stir 1 teaspoon of edible lavender into the syrup. Let sit for 15 minutes, and then strain out the solids. Refrigerate.

In a medium pot, warm:
2 cups of milk
1 cup of heavy cream

Remove from heat when foam starts forming around the edges.

In a large bowl, beat:
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup of sugar

Beat them until they’re frothy, and then gradually pour the warm milk/cream mixture into the egg yolks, while whisking constantly.

Return the mixture to the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the spoon. Remove it from heat. (Remove it immediately if you notice lumps starting to form.)

Strain the mixture into a bowl, cover it, and chill for several hours. When it’s cold, pour it into an ice cream maker with the blackberry lavender syrup and churn for approximately 30 minutes total. After about 15 minutes, add 1 cup of bittersweet chocolate chips and continue to churn another 15 minutes, or until thickened to gelato consistency.

Transfer the gelato to a container, seal and freeze it until firm.

And then, of course, eat it!

July has been my busiest month all year, and the fruits of my labor have required me to work around the clock, which is why I’ve been MIA on Frugaltopia the last few weeks. It’s great that I’m getting new gigs, and I’m fine with the decision I made to take on so many projects to make up for the recession-induced lack of work earlier this year. But after a month of many 12 to 19 hour days spent writing, editing, and project managing – plus working through my “vacation” – I’m left contemplating the virtues of self-employment. What’s so great about it?

My Summer Office

Maybe it’s the mildly entrepreneurial aspect of it. I like making my own hours, choosing which projects I take on and how many. I enjoy not being confined to a cubicle, and instead working from my home office, which sometimes means spending the day with my computer on my deck, or telecommuting from another location. And of course, I’m happy to skip rush hour commutes. But beyond the surface stuff, I also find my freelance work to be more fulfilling than much of the work I’ve had as a full-time employee. If it weren’t for that, I’d still be in the office.

Perhaps it’s also the perceived sense of freedom I’m attracted to, but sometimes that seems like an illusion – especially when I consider the price I pay, quite literally, as a freelancer for social security, taxes, health insurance, and the unpaid time off for my own vacations. Not to mention the fact that there’s no severance, Cobra, or unemployment benefits for the self-employed. And in times like these, when freelancers are slaves to a feast or famine mentality, it can really throw your work and personal life out of balance.

“Freedom” is the word I always equate with my decision to be self-employed, but other than the formalities of the corporate structure that I’m not bound to (i.e., strict hours, limited vacation time, etc.), there really isn’t anything genuinely freeing about working for oneself. It puts you at greater risk of being temporarily unemployed; the hours are often longer; and you have to put extra time, effort, and work into keeping your employment consistent.

I felt lucky to have consistent work the first few years I was freelancing, but this year has been a roller coaster – too little work; then, too much work. Of course, too much work usually feels like a blessing. Who wouldn’t want the extra money or the luxury to choose among the most desirable projects being offered? But it’s also a curse because turning down work is painful when you don’t know if it’ll be there again when you want need it. And if you accept it all, as I did this past month, you’re going to be holed up, day and night, for as long as it takes to finish everything, even if that means letting everything else – your relationship, your friends, your vacation, your laundry, your usual standards of personal grooming – fall by the wayside. That’s when you start asking yourself (albeit rhetorically, and in this case, publicly) why the hell you’re doing this.

When it comes right down to it, I think it’s because I’ve always secretly wanted to torture myself by being a writer. Not an editor. Not a producer. And somehow the experience of being a writer feels more authentic when I’m working for myself – even if that, too, is just another kind of torture illusion, since let’s face it, I’m not really working for myself; I work for my clients.

I suppose a career is a work-in-progress, and there is something inherently stimulating and hopeful about that, even when the economy remains uncertain and you’re worried about the possibility of your livelihood suddenly evaporating. At this point, I’m just glad that I have work for the rest of the summer (and a few things lined up for the fall) as I continue to move forward, frugally, and hope for more good fortune.

For mother’s day, my husband and son built a small garden for me. I’d seen videos like this one, about depression-era victory gardens and I wanted one of my own.

So Mike and Aidan built a small garden bed and I planted rosemary, thyme, basil, parsley, broccoli, swiss chard, lettuce, yellow squash, zuccinni, cucumbers, eggplant, and pumpkin. Yep, all that in a 5′ x 6′ plot. And yep, I don’t know what I’m doing.

In spite of my lack of skills, the garden grew beautifully.

Kim's Victory Garden

Pumpkin seeds

I’ve got three good reasons to be proud of my garden. First, the garden is economical. A packet of seeds costs about $2.50 and and I get about $10.00 worth of produce out of each packet.

Second, the garden is good for the planet. No fossil fuels were used to harvest, ship, or sell this produce. I simply walk out my back door with my kitchen scissors and “snip,” I’ve got veggies for dinner.

But the biggest bonus is the sheer pleasure of growing my own food. I had no idea it would be so much fun. The feeling of accomplishment when I harvested the garden’s first yellow squash defies description. I stir-fried it with garlic, butter, basil, and thyme and served it with angel hair pasta. Yum.

So, if you’ve got a backyard, plant a veggie garden. If you live in an apartment, put a pot of basil on your sunniest windowsill. It will be worth it. Trust me.

Basil

Yellow Squash

Red Leaf Lettuce (left), Basil (lower left), Broccoli (right), Eggplant (upper middle)

Cucumber

Brent Kessel

I thought it would be appropriate for a site dedicated to frugal living to hear a few words from someone who spends his days and nights advising people on their money–and helping them to use it better.

Financial planner Brent Kessel is the C.E.O. of Abacus Portfolios and President and co-founder of Abacus Wealth Partners. I met him at the Yoga Journal conference in New York in May, where he was presenting at the 2-day “business of yoga” workshop.

Kessel, a long-time yoga practitioner, has been able to combine his wealth of financial experience (pun intended) with the mental discipline and spiritual insight of his yoga practice to come up with some pretty fascinating theories on our relationships to money. And, some helpful techniques for taming the financial beasts within.

In his talk–and in his book It’s Not About the Money: A Financial Game Plan for Staying Safe, Sane, and Calm in Any Economy–he outlined 8 major money archetypes as he sees them: the Guardian (worry/prudence), the Saver (hoarding/abundance), the Innocent (avoidance/hope), the Pleasure Seeker (hedonism/enjoyment), the Caregiver (enabling/empathy), the Idealist (distrust/vision), the Star (pretentiousness/leadership), and the Empire Builder (greed/innovation).

I was so fascinated that I took another workshop with him a few weeks after the conference. I found out (no surprise for a Frugaltopian) that I’m a Guardian and a Saver—also, to my surprise, an Idealist and a Pleasure Seeker.

Brent was gracious enough to agree to an interview with Frugaltopia. So, I’m happy to pass some of the super interesting insights outlined in his book “It’s Not About the Money” (Buy it! You won’t be sorry!) on to you, dear readers.

Interview with Brent Kessel

Frugaltopia: Do many people avoid looking frankly at their financial situation? If yes, do you know why?

Brent Kessel: Almost everybody avoids looking at some part of their situation. I call it their Money Mask. This is the part of us that hopes the world will see us a bit differently than we know ourselves to be. Most want to appear to have more income and assets than they do, primarily because in our culture, that’s synonymous with approval, success, praise. They are like a drug fix that allows us to avoid emptiness, restlessness, or sadness. However, because they’re ego-driven, they’re completely impermanent. So the only lasting solution becomes an addiction to more and more.

Frugaltopia: How did you come up with the idea of the 8 archetypes that best describe most people’s money issues?

Brent Kessel: Mostly just by observing the patterns that people get stuck in year after year, even if they sell a business or get a big inheritance. And these patterns are almost entirely based on past conditioning. It seemed an easy way to give us a common language for identifying our weaknesses and strengths, and to cultivate more balance.

Frugaltopia: Is there one archetype that seems to do better financially than others? Why is that, in your opinion?

Brent Kessel: It really depends how you define better. If it’s defined as increasing your net worth or financial security, it’s likely the Saver, or sometimes the Guardian. If it’s defined as voluntary simplicity, it’s probably the Idealist. If it’s using money to ease the most suffering in the world, then it’s the Caretaker.

"It's Not About the Money"

Frugaltopia: Frugaltopians–the 4 of us who run Frugaltopia–are most likely Savers or Guardians, according to your system. (I’m both!) Are there any downfalls to being frugal?

Brent Kessel: The biggest downfall is when we believe that we can obtain ultimate security from our frugality or savings. They are impermanent too. It’s imperative that we stay in touch with our mortality, with the preciousness of life and how quickly security can vanish. This elicits compassion, which is the best antidote to the extreme Guardian (who’s overly anxious about money and safety) and to the Saver (who never gives money away for fear that they might need it one day.)

Frugaltopia: If there’s one piece of financial advice you could give to everyone, no matter what their archetype, what would it be?

Brent Kessel: Look beneath the surface. Your financial life is not dictated by interest rates, investment returns, or budgets. 99% of it is dictated by the unconscious beliefs you have about money. Use my book, or the Cure for Money Madness to uncover the parts you’re not yet aware of.

Thank you, Brent! Learn more about Brent and his work at his web site www.brentkessel.com.

Aidan's Independence Day Decorations

As Matt Taibbi’s article points out, the problems in our banking system aren’t anything new. In fact, the system has been corrupt since…the beginning. Andrew Jackson said this about it: “If the people only understood the rank injustice of our Money and Banking system, there would be a revolution before morning.”

Now consider the origins of our July 4th holiday. One of the biggest problems the colonists had with the King was that he taxed them excessively and didn’t give them any say in how that tax money was spent. In 1773 they dressed up in disguises and dumped over-taxed imported goods (tea) into Boston harbor. That touched off the Revolutionary War which ended in the birth of our nation. Of course, the war was about more than just money, but my point is that Boston Tea Party was to the Revolutionary War what Rosa Parks was to the Civil Rights movement. Someone finally did what everyone else had been afraid to do, and that ignited the courage and resolve of the less bold.

So this 4th of July I’m looking for, hoping for, a hero who confronts the economic tyranny we are under. But I don’t see any heros on the horizon. The new government hasn’t done anything to hold banks accountable for their monumental swindle mistake. The previous administration did even less. Maybe we need a grass roots movement? But short of pulling our money out of the banks and stuffing it in our mattresses, what can we do? I’ve been writing this blog thinking that the little things would be enough. That if we could learn to consume less, then our greed would atrophy and our culture would shift its focus. But when I think about the enormity of the problem and the powerlessness of “ordinary people” like me, I get overwhelmed and discouraged.

The Declaration of Independence

I know this sounds boring and kind of depressing, but that’s what I’m thinking about on this July 4th – economic freedom – how do we get it? I’ll take heart by reminding myself that against the odds the founders of our country declared their independence from tyranny, won that independence, and started a new kind of nation.

We need a new declaration of economic independence. Anyone have ideas?