Mini-Fridge: the results are in
My electricity bill was a whopping $68 and some change in new charges! I expected it would go down a bit, but that’s just ridiculous when you consider the charges for May last year were $130.
Going from a large full sized fridge did take a little adjustment. I can no longer buy and keep the giant containers of ice cream until we buy a drop down freezer. Which makes a good excuse to buy a better brand of ice cream in the gallon size. Or the gourmet brands in pint sizes.
The door configuration still annoys me a little, not all of it– just the can dispenser.
I am actually using the crisper (now that I have one that doesn’t freeze my veggies.) So far it’s had cabbage, celery, carrots, tomatoes, and spinach– no problems, wilting or funky smells.
Easy to clean (no more climbing in under shelves to get to that very back side, outside finish wipe clean with a damp rag.) Still adorable (who would have thought an appliance could be so cute?)
Filed under appliances, refrigerator | Comment (0)Under pressure– cooking
Pressure cookers are usually thought of one of those things that grandma used, dangerous and intimidating as it seemed, to store her preserves and can her winter veggies. Not quite an appliance on it’s own, not just another pot or pan, the pressure cooker is a must have device for any savvy and frugal cook.
Pressure not only injects fluid into the food and speeds up cooking time considerably, it also softens hard materials like seeds, bones, cobs, and kernels.
Not only will you have the assurance that you can store food for months, you’ll know exactly what went into that food. Things you may not have considered for canning: soup, stew, chowder, bone meal, sauces, gravy, sliced citrus fruit, salted meat, potatoes, carrots and homemade pet food are all good candidates.
And you’ll be able to prepare things like hummus, hominy, bone meal, berry syrup, and berry preserves on the fly (without hours upon hours of cooking and waiting) to store for a later date or to serve up the same day. You can also speed the preparation of foods for storage by giving them a run in a pressure cooker.
A few tips to get you started:
- Always read the manual before using your pressure cooker and follow the instructions for your model.
- Buy the smallest pressure cooker size that will accommodate your needs, filled with water and food they can be quite heavy.
- Do not try to recycle self sealing jar lids
- Keep extra jars, rings and seals on hand
- Look for sales on the produce your family prefers
- Pressure cook bones, cobs, shells, husks, pits and kernals before throwing them in the mulch pile (they will break down much faster)
- Pressure cook bones and corncobs for your pets to chew on (their teeth will thank you)
- Core and pressure cook apples and pears in a spiced or maple syrup for a sweet treat
I love it (Kitchen update)
We settled on the Magic Chef Model No MCBR415S and it’s love. We love it. The estimated yearly cost of running this 4.0 cubic ft. fridge is a paltry $24 and for less than $200- we paid cash.
In the picture (that I borrowed from the manufacturers site) you can see my only complaint, the door has a can dispenser. Since we don’t buy soda or canned juice I’m going to cut some plex-glas and form it into a more practical holder. I did rearrange the shelves and I’m happy to report that i can fit two gallon jugs of milk without cramming anything.
On top of everything– it’s super cute and it has a decent freezer compartment.
Filed under appliances, food | Comments (2)Scaling down in the kitchen
I resent the power company.
I do. It’s not that having electricity is a bad thing– indeed. Having electricity is a wonderful thing, it’s just that the power company represents exactly everything that is wrong with the way large corporations do business. Wasteful, bureaucratic, thoughtless, and just generally not nice at all.
Therefore, I do not wish to give them any more of my money than I have to.
Also, the customer service is very rude. In fact, so far at our power company the only nice people we’ve met are the service technicians. The service technicians are pretty good people overall, at least for our current company.
Anyway this has lead to a reassessment of what we really need plugged in and turned on. Do we really need a ginormous refrigerator with so many cubic feet of storage? Not really. It’s old and the fan turns on way too much, also I tend to walk to the store every other day or so for fresh goods since the crisper drawer collects too much moisture and would be more accurately labeled the “moulder” and the meats drawer gets way too cold and freezes meats solid. Also the freezer portion is really inconvenient, I have a small kitchen that is long and narrow– so opening the freezer when the stove burners are on just doesn’t happen.
Now the large fridge is awaiting disposal on the back porch and we’re awaiting delivery of a compact fridge. Benefits: save money, more space and stickin’ it to the man.
The water heater is next. It is another old appliance that just sucks juice, new electric water heaters are better insulated, so there’s less loss of standby heat. Also, we don’t need a large water heater, so the plan is to scale it down to a 28 gallon water heater and if it proves to be too little we’ll place an on demand water heater at one of the far points (such as the tub or washing machine.) Benefits: save money, more space and stickin’ it to the man.
Eventually we’ll do a built in convection oven and stove, but for now those are our big changes. It’s hardly going off the grid, still– deep down in the cockles of my heart there’s a little warm glow just from knowing that I’m going to give the electric company less money (and that I’m stickin’ it to the man.)
I’ll keep you updated as things progress and on how much electricity/money we save by scaling down.
Filed under DIY, appliances | Comment (0)