Signs that you are economizing on food

[PopsicleToze]

I'm economizing more lately and love it. A New Year's resolution was to eliminate food waste. I do not scimp on ingredients and want only the best of them, but spending as much as I do on meals only to find them fuzzy in the refrigerator and throwing them out just got to be more than I can handle. It just makes good sense to be more frugal as you get older.

I can remember when I first set up housekeeping at 21. I would invite people over and spend over $100/$150 -- whatever it took for that meal. Then I wouldn't even have anything to eat in the house until I went grocery shopping again. That is NOT the way to live.

A fun thing to do is to look at your pantry and fridge and create something from whatever is on hand. Of course, fun when I was 21 was skipping dinner and going to the clubs

[ExtraMSG]

I bought a bunch of those gladware cheap-tupperware-like containers and freeze leftovers (that freeze well, like pasta and rice dishes) for my wife to take for lunch. (I work from home.) Better than Budget Gourmet and a hell of a lot cheaper than eating out everyday (where she just ended up going to McD's or Taco Bell anyway).

[Raynickben]

I always laugh at people in bars getting mixed drinks and specifying top shelf liquor. If you're drinking a SeaBreeze I defy you to tell me you can tell the difference between rotgut vodka and stoli underneath the grapefruit and cran. I buy good bourbon because I sip it on the rocks, I buy gordon's vodka ($13 for a 1.75L) to put in my Vodka TOnics.

Hey JPW: Try a night of drinking the cheap stuff and then a night of drinking the top shelf. After which night do you feel better the next day? The purer, high quality liquours tend to not leave quite the hangovers the cheap stuff does.

[JPW]

I always laugh at people in bars getting mixed drinks and specifying top shelf liquor. If you're drinking a SeaBreeze I defy you to tell me you can tell the difference between rotgut vodka and stoli underneath the grapefruit and cran. I buy good bourbon because I sip it on the rocks, I buy gordon's vodka ($13 for a 1.75L) to put in my Vodka TOnics.

Hey JPW: Try a night of drinking the cheap stuff and then a night of drinking the top shelf. After which night do you feel better the next day? The purer, high quality liquours tend to not leave quite the hangovers the cheap stuff does.

That's a crock of *&^(.

There are certain things that will make you more or less hungover based on amount of alcohol -- mainly how much non-alcohol liquid/other nutrients did you consume with the booze.

But I defy you to show any proof at all that "premium" booze leaves less of a hangover. If i'm drinking bourbon with my FIL, I feel just as crappy if I drink Maker's Mark or a single barrel batch as I do when I drink the generic crap he does out of a plastic bottle. I do feel less bad if I stop at 4 or 5 intead of moving ahead to 8 or 9

Now if I was hanging out in a Less Developed Country, I would probably avoid the cheap local stuff.

[slkinsey]

It depends laegely on which top-shelf liquors you're talking about. Raynickben's assertion is based on certain assumptions about congeners. Congeners are non-ethyl alcohols (amyl alcohol, propyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, etc.) and other "impurities" that inevitably find their way into any distilled beverage.

The theory is that top-shelf liquors cause fewer or less severe hangovers, or more specifically headaches (there are many components to a hangover besides headache), because they contain fewer congeners. There is a certain element of truth in this, and there is evidence that congeners do play a role in hangover headaches. That said, there are several problems with this theory:

First, headaches are only one component of a hangover, and congeners only play a partial role in headaches. Dehydration caused by excessive alcohol consumption also leads to headaches and overall discomfort. Then there's the fat that drinking leads to an acid stomach and other gastrointestinal problems. Excessive alcohol consumption also disturbs the drinker's REM sleep, leaving him tired and sluggish. And, of course, there's the bad breath and waking up next to some hideous person who you could swear was super-hot the night before. None of these things are related to congeners.

Second, there is the problem that different liquors contain different levels of congeners. The congener-hangover theory also hinges closely on the consumption of vodka. Vodka tends to be very low in congeners, and the more refined the vodka, the lower the lower the levels of congeners. So, in that sense, if you are going to drink 4 vodka martinis, you'll experience less of the congener-induced aspect of hangover headache by drinking Skyy instead of Popov. Won't help you much with the other stuff. Furthermore, most other liquors, like bourbon or rum for example, are chock full of congeners. So, drinking top-shelf rum in your rum and coke won't make one bit of difference.

[Raynickben]

Thank you Slkinsey. And for the record I am a vodka drinker and I can tell the difference during the drinking and the morning after if I have had the good stuff or not. It's not a crock of *&^ for everyone.

[JPW]

I'd like to first apologize to the list for my vulgarity. I generally abhor poor manners and am kicking myself for reacting to what I viewed as an attack in such an uncouth way.

Sam - thanks for the explanation. I'd like to download your brain so I could carry it around with me.

My apologies to Raynickben and his liver as well. If you can tell the difference then you can. I myself fail to notice any difference at all.

[yslee]

JPW - you're not married to David Sedaris' sister, are you? Have you read the last essay in _Me Talk Pretty One Day_? I defy anyone to read that without weeping either from hilarity or nausea.

[JPW]

JPW - you're not married to David Sedaris' sister, are you? Have you read the last essay in _Me Talk Pretty One Day_? I defy anyone to read that without weeping either from hilarity or nausea.

Never read any of his stuff, so joke is lost on me.

[Raynickben]

JPW - you're not married to David Sedaris' sister, are you? Have you read the last essay in _Me Talk Pretty One Day_? I defy anyone to read that without weeping either from hilarity or nausea.

It's about their dad who eats anything, no matter how old or expired it is. It starts out with the dad finding a "brown thing" in an old suitcase and he put it in his mouth and started chewing...without a clue as to what it was. He thought maybe it was a cookie...but he hadn't packed any cookies. And so on and so on.

[JPW]

Now I see.

Thanks for the explanation.

I'll have to get that for my wife. She'll find it funny (if hitting a little too close to home).

My FIL, however, sees nothing unusual with his food habits so would probably miss the point.

Have a good weekend all.

[uberleet]

JPW - you're not married to David Sedaris' sister, are you? Have you read the last essay in _Me Talk Pretty One Day_? I defy anyone to read that without weeping either from hilarity or nausea.

Amy Sedaris is the coolest!

[ronnie_suburban]

JPW - you're not married to David Sedaris' sister, are you? Have you read the last essay in _Me Talk Pretty One Day_? I defy anyone to read that without weeping either from hilarity or nausea.

Amy Sedaris is the coolest!

I loved Strangers With Candy...her short-lived series on Comedy Central.

=R=

[maggiethecat]

What an interesting thread!

How I'dI long to "notice" that I'm ecomomizing more! I buy what's cheap and good, and plan menus from what gets unpacked from the grocery bags. Except for a once-a-year- blowout, I never think: "Boy, I'd love a good porterhouse---or shrimp, or blood oranges" and just walk out and buy it! These items appear on my table when they are affordable enough, and/or seasonal enough to buy. Yeah, it has a lot to do with not having much disposable income, but it usually spurs some culinary creative thinking.

If the food was good the first time, it's often as good---or even better---in leftover form.

Fresco: You are so right about the dishwasher detergent. It makes me crazy to count up what I spend on it, and we're a two person household.