Savory Bread Pudding

I got this idea from making a sweet bread pudding to use up whole grain bread ends.

I had about a third of a load of rye bread and a half of a bunch of broccoli, and I thought that I could make a bread pudding out of it with eggs and cheese.

What I used:

broccoli (about three cups cooked and chopped)

rye bread (about five slices cubed)

three eggs

a cup and a half of milk

grated parmesan cheese (about four tablespoons)

three slices of swiss cheese chopped

ground garlic pepper

I put the bread in a baking dish

mixed the rest of the ingredients together and covered the bread.

I baked at 350 degrees for an hour.

It was pretty good, but I think that maybe it would have been better to use chicken broth than milk for the moisture.

Update on this:  My husband didn't really like this very much.  I will probably find a way to use the rye bread for a type of stuffing in the future, or modify this recipe to see if I can get him to like it better.

Not Getting The Kindle

Thank goodness that I had a whole week to come to my senses about whether or not to purchase the Kindle.

I found a website where you can keep track of the books you are reading, Shelfari, and it gave me new strength to resist the urge to buy the Kindle.  Shelfari is like a social networking site for people who read.

I don't travel often enough to need to lug 20 books at a time along with me, so I don't need a Kindle.   I don't need to have the instant gratification of downloading a book to read within minutes of hearing about it.  I can wait for a month or more for it to become available at the library.

My Dishes

I have only had one set of dishes.  I bought Pfaltzgraf dishes because I wanted to be able to buy items from stock to replace broken dishes.

I have spent a lot of money on specialty pieces, but I figure that is cheaper than changing my pattern periodically as many people seem to do.

A few years ago they stopped making my dishes and I was really upset, but recently they have started to produce them again in limited quantities from China.

The other day I broke down and ordered over a hundred dollars worth of dishes.

Still Resisting Kindle

I am still resisting buying the Kindle, but I might give in.

I decided to look into ebook readers for the iPhone and I downloaded two of them for free.  I also found that I was able to download free ebooks directly onto the iPhone using my home network.

Kindle

I saw the Amazon Kindle on Oprah on Friday.   I would really like to buy one but I know I shouldn't.

The device costs more than $300.00 even with the $50.00 discount they are offering Oprah viewers.  She says the device pays for itself, but that is assuming that you are going to purchase brand new hard cover books at the cost of $27.00 each.

I see this device as a great convenience, but as creating a new expense I don't currently have, namely new fiction books.  At nearly ten dollars each and probably a new book once every two weeks this could create a new $260.00 expense each year.

Of course it would be nice to actually read the books that people are talking about.

I have seven days to consider the purchase with the discount.

Considering that this is a new cool technology, this is a battle that I might lose.

Hair

Saving money on my hair has probably been the easiest and most dramatic savings I have been able to achieve.

I used to get my hair professionally dyed and cut once a month for a cost of nearly $100.00 a month or $1,200.00 a  year.  Considering that I did not always cut my hair when I had it dyed I would say it was closer to $1,000 a year in total cost.

When my husband lost his job a few years ago and we were looking at ways to cut costs the first thing that came to mind was my hair.  I didn't balk.  

I went cold turkey and grew the gray out without resorting to expensive salon treatments to ease the transition.  I just did it.  I also cut my hair short.  This meant that it had to be cut every month because it grows so quickly.   My hair expenses went from $1,000 a year to $456 a year.  Since growing out the gray completely I have gone to a longer cut that only needs trimming three times a year for a yearly cost of $120.00 a year.   

Total savings of $880.00 a year.  If I can find a cheaper hair salon I can save even more.

Trying To Be Frugal

This blog has been created to document my struggles with frugality.   Some cost cutting measures will be easy.  Some will be difficult... and some will seem impossible.

What feels like a wasteful purchase to some might feel like a necessary expenditure to others.   This is going to be the place where I hash out my decisions about how to save money.  It is where I will celebrate my victories and admit to my failures.