Thinking about a lump sum for your structured settlement? Photo source: Wikipedia

There would certainly be many different reasons as to why you would want to get a lump sum money for the structured settlements that you have. You may wish to have the cash in order to pay for your health and medical bills, or perhaps you may want it so you would be able to pay off your college tuition fees; to pay out your existing debts; or you may need the cash to accommodate your immediate expenses. As you can see, there are so many reasons, but then again, whatever it maybe, it is a plain and simple fact that many individuals prefer getting a one time lump amount of cash as opposed to minute monthly, annually or quarterly payments.

However, the big problem is that most, if not, all of the firms that buy structured settlements are likely to charge ridiculous discount rates. The national standard for purchasing these settlements is around nineteen percent. Companies that purchase these structured settlements declare that they are purchasing a big risk from the owner of the settlement since there is no surefire assurance that the company responsible for paying the settlement will continue to exist for fifteen to twenty years and carry on to paying the settlement regularly.

If you just analyze the numbers after some simple calculation, you are bound to see that the structured settlement purchasing firm takes away a huge chunk from your structured settlement. Take this for instance; assuming that you are expected to receive two-hundred-thousand dollars in the next ten years (i.e. one-thousand dollars each month). With an existing price cut rate of nineteen percent, it will equal to around one-hundred-twelve-thousand. This means that the purchasing firm will get to receive nearly eighty-eight-thousand dollars more out of the settlement paying party, and that accounts to approximately forty-four percent of the gross payment.

If you get to sell the structured settlement that you have for a twelve percent rate, then you are bound to get approximately one-hundred-forty-thousand dollars, and that will be roughly thirty-thousand dollars higher as opposed the national standard of nineteen percent. Therefore, it would be best for you to negotiate for ideal rates. As a suggestion, look for a structured settlement purchasing firm that is willing to buy the settlement that you have for not exceeding ten to twelve percent. Any other figure than this, then you are bound to lose a large sum of cash. This is actually where factoring firms are heading henceforth.

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Gardening is a, “Frugal Approved,” activity!

While not quite from a backyard, this potted lime tree on my balcony, waits to provide a bounty.

If you find yourself with a bit of extra space in your backyard, a garden is an excellent way to fill it. You may end up with a great hobby, and produce delicious food from your own backyard. If you’re a fan of fresh cooking and in particular, great grilling, you’ll have no problem finding a way to use those vegetables. There’s something special about food that comes from your own hands and seeing it grow from the very beginning. It doesn’t matter how much you spend at a grocery store, no commercial produce ever tastes as good as food you produce yourself. Here are some quick tips to get your garden started and before you know it, you’ll be adding those veggies to your backyard barbecue menu.

Pick a space

- it’s important to be strategic about where you place your garden. You’ll also need sufficient space, and a plot of 16X20 should work for an average person. If you are a true beginner, you might want to start off even smaller with segmented beds that are easier to manage. There are other factors to think about such as how your garden will add to your overall decor, ease of access, and exposure during colder seasons.

The right crops

- one of the biggest mistakes beginners make is buying all kinds of seeds and planting them all at once. You don’t want to create a big buffet of seeds because otherwise, none of them will grow. It’s fine to have variety but you need to narrow down your choices as well. After doing some research, you’ll see that some vegetables work well together while others fight for the same nutrients. You should also think carefully about what you’ll actually eat because there’s no point in growing zucchinis if you can’t stand them.

Composting

- if you’re lucky, then your backyard soil will be ready to go from the beginning. But that’s more of a rarity these days especially with certain backyard locations. Soil needs to be properly treated and handled before it’s ready to support life. In many cases, you’ll have to add nutrients yourself which will usually come in the form of compost. It’s actually quite an interesting process once you get familiar with it. It’s also a great way to get rid of organic waste rather than throwing it into a landfill. Being able to successfully integrate compost into your soil gives you a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.

Mulching

- in addition to adding nutrition through compost, you want to add a touch of variety to your soil and top layers as well. You basically want to turn your backyard soil patch into a hotbed of nutrition where vegetables love to grow. Mulching involves keeping the soil moist while adding bits of straw and hay. You can even start preparing a top layer of colder-growing vegetables to cover your garden during the fall season.

Pests

- this is a huge problem for most people because they have to decide if they want to use pesticides or stay completely organic. It really depends on the size of your pest problem. Some people are just lucky in this department and bugs don’t seem to come around. Other folks don’t really mind if their vegetables have a few bite marks on them. If you have a huge problem however, you might have to turn to commercial products, just make sure they’re natural as possible.

Harvesting

- gardening takes a tremendous amount of patience but all of the effort is worth it in the end. When the season is right, you get to harvest your vegetables, and nothing tastes better than something that comes right out of the ground. When it’s time to fire up your grill, remember that seasonal vegetables don’t take much time to cook at all. You should leave them for the end of the process, and let natural flavors come through with just a touch of salt and pepper. Vegetables tend to change texture by getting softer, so all you need is a light amount of exposure to the barbecue.

This article comes from Henry Warner, a contributor at gasgrillsandbbq.com where you can find outdoor grills for the home. For traditionalists who prefer more authenticity, you can also read these charcoal barbecue reviews.

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A pickled bell pepper recipe easy and tasty enough, you’ll make excuses to eat them.

The finished project ready to be used in pastas, pizza and more

Making your own condiments is extremely rewarding. Not only can you save a bit of money but homemade condiments allow you to add a bit of flair to food with a minimum of effort. These pickled bell peppers excel in that function in spades and what’s even better, they are super easy to make. After getting the recipe down, I began to look for all kinds of ways to use them.

The motivation behind creating these pickles was to replace the pepperoncini pepper which I cannot find anywhere in Japan. Pepperoncini and bell peppers are different varieties of the same plant. How close the taste is to the what it’s trying to replace, I don’t know but, they do go great on sandwiches, pizza, pasta and even plain. Let’s get into the recipe:

Here’s what you need:
Software:

Around a pound of bell peppers.
4 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of salt
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons black pepper corns
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (optional)
2 bay leaves
1000ml H20
1000ml Apple Cider Vinegar

Hardware:

One large glass container with lid
One large bowl and colander (a salad spinner works great here)
A serrated knife
A cutting board
A pot large enough to boil 2000ml of liquid (soup pot etc)

Let’s Get Started:

Assemble all of your ingredients. Place the peppers in the large bowl and wash and drain them. While the bell peppers are draining, dump the rest of the ingredients into your soup pot, cover and bring to a boil. While you’re waiting for the pickling mix to boil, cut up the bell peppers. With mine, I discard the tops and slice the rest into rings but you choose whatever shape you like. Deseeding is optional and I don’t bother. Place the chopped up bell peppers into the large glass container.

Everything assembled and nearly ready to go. Of course you can always add other spices.

That's three cloves of garlic crushed. In the background, that's a 3-liter jar filled to the top with sliced green bell peppers

Once the pickling mix has started to boil, let it continue to boil, on medium, for five minutes. Towards the end of the five minutes, put the lid on the large glass container and run the container under hot water for a few seconds. This is to help prevent temperature shock when we dump in the pickling mix. At the end of the five minutes, remove the lid from the large glass container and dump in the pickling mix. Don’t worry if the liquid doesn’t completely cover the bell peppers, the peppers will shrink down. You can occasionally stir the mix if it looks like some are still not getting into the liquid. After about a day, you can start to use your peppers.

The glass container was filled to the lid but after sitting for 5 minutes in the hot pickling brine, the peppers have shrunk a bit. These should be ready in a day and will improve with age (with in reason of course )

Some Thoughts:

In regards to the spices, I’ve found that pickling is really flexible so there is a lot of room for playing around. Add other spices and see how it turns out. Cut back on one of the spices above and see how you like that. The 1:1 ratio of vinegar to water though is important as well as the acidity should you decide to play around with other vinegars. Rice wine vinegar for example, is not as acidic as apple cider vinegar.

The jar in the photos is for making umeshu, which is a homemade Japanese liquor. The capacity is three liters so if you have an Asian market, you might try to find one, but really any large jar will do. Also, the three liter capacity is part of the reason for the amount of vinegar and water in the recipe as well as the amount of peppers I use. Smaller jar? Reduce those ingredients.

Now I’ve got Pickled Bell Peppers What the Heck Should I do with Them:

Use em how you see fit. I’ve put mine in ham and grilled cheese sandwiches. I’ve also made a very simple pasta. Chop up your peppers—maybe half a cup—toss in some thinly sliced salami, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese and extra virgin olive oil to your pasta. Toss to coat and mix. Serve on a plate and garnish with parmesan cheese and a few rings on your pickled peppers. You can also use the pickling mix to add a splash of zing to salads or over steaks. Really the limit is your imagination.

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Bread Maker Udon Recipe—Is it possible to have homemade Japanese noodles with little fuss?

Yes you can make udon with your bread machine. This bowl of noodles cost less than sixty cents.

One of the nice things about living in Japan, is that recipe books come with ideas geared towards Japanese people. I’m not talking about cookbooks you get at the book store but the rather the ones you get when you buy cookware like pressure cookers or bread machines. That’s exactly what happened when I bought a bread machine—you can read my T-Fal Bread and Baguette Review here. Many of the recipes are for western-style bread, but interestingly it also had this recipe for udon. I’ve heard that making udon can be hard because of the stiff dough and most people throw the dough into a zip-lock bag and a towel and stomp on it with their feet. Using the bread machine though, it was pretty easy and the results turned out fantastic.

Before getting into the recipe, I want to talk flour for a moment… Udon is a wide, wheat flour udon. Most recipes I’ve seen call for flour with a protein content between 9-15 percent and in the grocery stores here, there is a flour specifically for udon. If you’re having trouble finding the right kind of flour, I think you can get by with all purpose flour since most of them are in the 9-12 % protein range, or in other words, don’t think you need fancy flour to tackle this recipe. And speaking of the udon recipe…

You will need:
Software:

830 grams of flour 9-15% protein
1 egg (that’s probably not traditional but maybe it’s needed for the bread machine)
9 grams salt
370 ml of water
Cornstarch for dusting

Hardware:

Bread Machine
Cutting Board
Rolling Pin
Knife (there’s a specific knife for cutting udon, mostly you want the blade to have as little curve in it as possible and longer is better)
Plastic wrap or zip-lock bag
Trays

Mise en place. All ingredients ready to go into the bread machine. The blue and white bowl on the right was made by high school students at a school for the disabled. Really pretty!

You’ll want to follow the loading instructions for your bread machine but generally, the salt and wet stuff go in first and the flour on top. After that, run your machine through it’s dough cycle. If it has a setting just for pasta, that’d probably be better. When the dough is done (about 15 minutes) take it out of the machine. If your machine’s dough setting has a rise cycle, you won’t need it so take the dough out when the kneading is done. Form the dough into a ball and wrap with the plastic wrap and let it set on your counter for two hours.

Ding! Udon dough ready to take a 2 hour nap.

After the two hours, unwrap the ball of dough and divide into six portions. We’re going to work with one portion at a time so put the other five back under plastic to keep them from drying out. Now we start the kneading and rolling the dough out, which is probably better explained with video. This video also shows the cutting. Also note, that she is being very generous with the corn starch for dusting. Skip ahead to 3:23 mark to get to the end of the two hour rest.

During the cutting I was wondering how many noodles she cut before putting them on the tray. It’s arbitrary but 12-15 seems to be a good number. I did stop the video to count and it looked like she was doing 13 but that’s unlucky Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the other five balls of dough. I should mention that you have a lot of leeway in how thick you roll the noodles out as well as how wide you cut them. I thought mine ended up a little wide, and they were compared to store bought, but my wife said they were typical for restaurants that make their own udon noodles.

Cutting the noodles. Play around with the width and thickness.

Lastly you’ll want to cook em up or put them in the fridge for keeping. I don’t have any guidelines at the moment on the best way to store them or how long they’ll keep. On the cooking though, you’ll want to do it just like the video except I found the 13-15 minutes to be too long so start checking for doneness around 10 minutes. Your noodles should be slightly chewy.

A big ole mess a noodles!

Making your own udon noodles isn’t as daunting as it seems. And does it save money? Yes it does! The total cost, at Japan prices, came to $2.10. Yesterday, I dished up seven servings and though I’m not positive, I think there’s another seven servings, at least, left, which comes to about $0.15 per serving. Of course how you serve the noodles will change the price but the way we had it yesterday (mentsuyu, satsumage, green onion, tempura) comes to less than $0.60 per serving. Give this bread maker udon recipe a shot, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Oh! And slurping noodles is good manners in Japan

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T-Fal Home and Baguette—Dumb Name, Good Bread Machine

Love or hate the styling, here is the T-Fal Bread and Baguette in all it's glory.

I recently purchased the T-Fal Home and Baguette bread machine, known in the United States as the Emerilware Bread and Baguette. I had been wanting to buy another bread machine since my Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme rusted to death, but around town, the T-Fal was selling for 27,000 yen or $350 US, and other bread makers were too small. The local department store, unusually—unusual because Japanese companies are stingy—discounted it 64%  to 9800 yen, so snapping one up was a no brainer. The machine has been in use now for a couple months, so time for a review.

Baking Snobbery:

People that really get into baking like to wax poetical about the magical connection to Mother Gaia, that can only be obtained through crafting something wholesomely good, from ingredients that are only a couple steps up from the dust of the Earth. “There’s nothing more stress relieving than kneading dough,” they say. They fail however to talk about the stress relieving benefits of scraping dough out of your fingernails, or cleaning up the mess of dusting flour that gets all over everything during the kneading process. Don’t get me wrong, I love baking, in fact, there are several strains of sourdough cultures kicking around in my fridge, but sometimes you just want a sandwich loaf without it turning into a production. Besides, in Japan, oven’s large enough to bake a sandwich loaf are rare, otherwise I’d have one.  It’s ok to use a bread machine. Your bread will really be homemade.

T-Fal Bread and Baguette Review: Description:

Bread pan and baguette trays. The baguette trays let you make four mini-sized baguettes at once.

The T-Fal Home and Baguette is a pretty big machine at 17.5” x 10.75” x 12.5.” Mine lives on top of the fridge between uses, which is 2-3 times per week. The pan size is 9.75” x 5.5” x 5.75” excluding the coupler that connects it to the machine, and it uses two kneading paddles. T-Fal claims the viewing window of the machine is the largest of any bread maker on the market. I can’t attest to that but it is larger than the Zojirushi. I’m pretty sure the window is made of plastic. A set of two trays and a rack also come with the machine which allow you to make baguettes. Inside the machine, there are two levels of heating elements. There are 14 menu options, three size options and three crust options, plus some delay timers. Other than that, it’s your basic bread machine.

The inside of the T-fal bread maker

Using the T-Fal:

Using the T-Fal Bread and Baguette machine is really easy and it’s even easier if you’ll use a electronic scale. Using an electronic scale, with a tare function, allows you to measure ingredients with any dish. Need 13 grams of salt? Put on a small bowl, hit the tare button to zero the scale out and pour in the salt until you hit 13 grams. Now you need 30 grams of sugar? Hit the tare button and add your sugar in with the salt. Anyways back to using the T-Fal bread machine… for their basic loaf recipe, water, milk, sugar, salt and butter go into the pan first. Dump on the flour and finally the yeast. Select the loaf size and crust you want and hit the on button. The machine’s menu option default is set for the basic loaf. After a couple of seconds, the machine will pulse to life, and when the countdown timer gets to the one-hour-remaining mark, the smell of fresh baked bread will start filling your home. Total time on the dark crust setting, 2:46 minutes with about 10 minutes of prep.

Using the baguette trays are nearly as easy, but with a couple of extra steps. For one, you start the dough in the regular pan but after the kneading finishes, you remove the pan and the dough for shaping. Your shaped dough goes into the baguette trays and the trays go into the machine. All of this is, of course, a different menu option. Using the menu is simple though, you press the menu button until the machine displays the menu option indicated by the recipe. The end result reminded me of the, “symphony of crackle,” line from Ratatouille.

Clean-up Time:

Clean up is also easy, as long as you take a few steps as quickly as possible. After removing the baked bread and pan from the machine, use a towel to hold the pan and shake the bread out. It’ll take a bit of shaking because the kneading paddles will want to hold it in. Once the bread is out, fill the bread pan with hot water. If the kneading paddles were stuck in the bread, remove them, with the wire tool and place them in the hot water. Let the water sit for a bit and then rinse out, no soap, and no scrubbing necessary. In fact, I’d recommend against using anything other than your fingers inside the machine. Take care adding the ingredients and you can avoid having to clean the inside of the machine.

Minuses

Are there any downsides to the machine? So far, there has only been one and that’s the lack of customization options in the menu. You get the menu options and that’s it. With the Zojirushi, you could pretty much customize to your hearts content. “Customize what?” you may say… Well specifically, how long the dough sits around before it gets baked. Why’s is that important? It’s not if you’re just wanting to bake breads leavened by baker’s yeast, but it is important if your wanting the machine to bake sourdough loaves which often have variable rising times depending on the health of the culture, type of culture etc. There may be a workaround but I haven’t had the machine long enough, nor enough free time to play around with it. Also, the biggest loaf size, produces a slice of bread too tall for a toaster. So you’ll have to flip your toast and do a partial toast to get everything even.

In Summation:

So far, my favorite recipe is a variation of the basic loaf, 155g rye flour, 155g bread flour, and 310g all purpose, plus a tablespoon of caraway seed. Total cost per loaf, $1.60 which is a huge discount over similar but inferior breads available at the store and the taste is well above average. Overall, even just for making sandwich loaves, the T-Fal Home and Baguette was a great purchase, and with the additional baguette option, it’s even more so.

Even slightly blurry pizzas taste good. This pizza, which is on it's way to a date with an oven was created using the dough cycle. Homemade pickled green bell peppers are the bomb!

Pro Pur BIG Review—Is it worth the price?

The BIG made by Pro Pur is a new comer to the world of gravity feed filters. Does it stack up against the competition? Yes

Clean drinking water is important to say the least and the best and cheapest way to have it readily available is to filter it yourself. When it comes to water filters though, the gravity feed filters, like the Berkey filters (which I do not recommend) and the BIG (being reviewed today), are the most attractive option. For one thing, they’re usually rated around 3000 gallons per filter so in a two filter setup, you get 6000 gallons of water for a little over $100 (price of the filters only) shipped. This is accomplished by the fact that the filters can be washed.  Also gravity feed filters are able to filter out more contaminants than faucet mounted filters. This probably isn’t a BIGeal if you’re using tap water as the source, but in case of emergency, you increase your sources of potable water because any fresh water source, like rain water or river water, can be filtered and consumed. Faucet mounted filters also don’t work when there is no water pressure.

Previously, I had purchased a Berkey and you can read my Berkey Light review here. In the past, I had great luck with Berkey filters but I can no longer recommend them due to quality-control issues with the filters. The main issue was the filter elements becoming separated from their mounting bases which allowed water to bypass the filter element and flow directly into the bottom chamber. The company I bought the Berkey from had great customer services and after contacting them about the problem, they promptly sent two new filters free of charge with no shipping. After a couple months though, the new filters had the same problem. So goodbye Berkey, hello Pro Pur.

The most attractive feature to me about the Pro Pur BIG water filter was the fact that the filters were shorter and wider in diameter 4” x 4”. With the Berkey light, the 2” x 9” filters seemed to flop around with the slightest movement, which is what I think caused them to break away from their bases. At any rate, the filters Pro Pur sent me were their new 2” x 9” filters, which was disappointing at first because I thought I would have the same problem as before but once mounted, the filter elements were really solidly made. If I have problems though, I will get the shorter, wider elements.

First Impressions: To be honest, when the BIG arrived, I was not impressed. In addition to not getting the 4” x 4” elements, the build quality seemed to be pretty shoddy. The finish of the two chambers appeared uneven and mottled. The cover, came with a dent in it and the metal spigot had some chrome missing from the spigot handle. Inside the chambers, the metal appears to be pitted.

Some minor quality control issues here, like the chrome missing on the spigot handle

Here we can see pitting in the top chamber. The bottom chamber has the same pitting.

Things did improve though after giving the chambers a through cleaning. The finish on the outside cleaned up well so maybe there’s something in the manufacturing process that explains why the unit ships with an uneven finish. The filters are also very solid once installed. The plastic used to mount them is more stiff than the material Berkey uses.

Using the BIG is identical to the Berkey Light. Water goes into the top chamber and drips into the bottom chamber. The filters Pro Pur make, drip a lot slower than Berkey’s so it’s best to fill it up and let it drip overnight. Because the BIG is stainless you won’t be able to easily observe the water level in the bottom chamber. My work around for this was to fill the bottom chamber up with water and pour it into the top chamber and mark the water level on the outside with a permanent marker (hint to Pro Pur, add a witness mark to the top chamber). Every time I refill the top chamber, I empty the bottom. Which leads me to another tip. The base Berkey uses for the Berkey light comes in handy with the BIG. The base is hollow so it gives you a place to rest the top chamber and by resting it on the base, I can fill the top chamber using my sink faucet.

Overall, I think the Pro Pur BIG is a good purchase but only time will tell. Here is  a summary of the good and bad points:

Pro:

• Filters are solid and mount solidly

• Filters don’t mold—a problem with the Berkey filters

• Water tastes great

Con:

• Some quality control issues, I.e., chrome missing from the spigot handle, damage during shipping, pitting inside the top and bottom chamber.

• Slow order processing

• Spigot is really slow, regardless of the water level in the bottom chamber

It might seem that the quality-control issue would damn the BIG from any kind of recommendation. The thing is, a gravity feed filter is basically just two pots and a filter so in reality the filter is the star of the show and so far, these are living up to Pro Pur’s claims. A little chrome missing off a spigot handle doesn’t interfere with the operation and otherwise the construction is solid. So, like I said, I’m happy with my purchase.

Computers are all about speed. Computer geeks would laugh at you if you have a computer system from more than five years ago. If you have a computer that you bought just two or three years ago, then you can always upgrade. For systems bought more than four years ago, you may not be able to upgrade them at all. At any rate, the first thing that you should ask before buying any computer parts is whether your motherboard can handle it.

Compatibility Checks

The first thing you should check with your motherboard is whether it can handle newer processors. For instance, if you have a Pentium 4 processor, then the most you can do with it is get a 4-core processor. If you have a Core 2 Duo processor, your motherboard may still likely support the newer string of processors, such as the I-series from Intel. If you’re gunning for the newest processors, say, the i5 or the i7, then you’ll need a motherboard that was at least manufactured about a year ago. You can always download and run a program called “CPU-Z” to check the model of your motherboard, and just use Google to see whether it supports newer processors.

RAM

RAM, or memory, phases out quite quickly. A couple of years ago, you’d be fine with a DDR3. These days, you have DDR5. Now, besides the speed boost the newer RAM sticks give you, they are different as well when it comes to fitting in motherboards. In a RAM stick, there is an indentation, and it should fit nicely with the right motherboard RAM slot. Different types of RAM have different locations for the indentation, so you’re going to make sure that the motherboard you have supports that type of RAM. Simply put, if you have a DDR3 now and you don’t want to change your motherboard, then you’re going to stay with a DDR3 RAM. Just add more sticks if you have more slots.

GPU

Graphics processing units, or graphics cards, provide nice graphics for video games, mostly. With compatibility, there really is no issue. However, it is best that you make sure the GPU you get came out about the same time your processor did. This way, you can maximize the GPU output. If your processor is an older model than your GPU, it may not handle your GPU’s speed. This is called “bottlenecking”, and you’ll still get lag with your video games. When buying a GPU, try to always look for those models that are compatible with linking. In NVIDIA cards, it’s called “SLI”. With ATI cards, it’s called “CrossFire”. That way, when you need to upgrade your GPU in the future, you can just get another of the same type.

Power Supply

If you want your computer to pack a lot of hardware, then you have to make sure your power supply can handle it. The safe zones these days would be a 750-watt power source.

Buying new computers are always costly, and to save a bit of money, try upgrading your current desktop instead.

I’ve talked about the solar panels in a couple of my previous posts, and I never got around to talking about the wind turbine. The reason is that the wind turbine is a totally different entity – in approach, practicality, and difficulty – when compared to the solar panel. So before you jump into the whole wind turbine project in the name of frugality, you have to know that it may not be frugal in the end run.

Cost

Make no mistake, making your own wind turbine can save you hundreds of dollars. In fact, buying a whole wind turbine can cost you around seven hundred bucks minimum. Making your own, on the other hand, will cost you about two hundred dollars tops; perhaps more if you want the wind turbine to store more batteries and whatnot. What differentiates this from the solar panel is that it requires a lot more work. You really have to be a handyman and an electrician to minimize the costs. Otherwise, you can just purchase separate pieces and put them together.

You can also find a few wind turbine kits online, so you can just purchase the kit and assemble them. How do you know they’re good? Most times, the bulkier they are, the better wind turbine they become.

Work

The only thing that makes the wind turbine complicated is the fact that you need a control panel to turn it against the wind. Unlike the solar panels, which captures and stores energy as long as the sun hits it directly regardless of where the sun’s position is, the wind turbine needs to be turned against the wind to maximize the fan rotation. The faster the fan blades rotate, the more energy you pick up. With that said, you’re going to need to have a controller to turn the fans against the wind. Now, the controller is a complicated electronic setup. It’s easy to place everything on a piece of wooden board, but you’re going to need to place it in a waterproof casing afterwards. If you can do that, then you’ll save a lot of money from buying the controller; plus the money you save by making your own renewable source of energy.

Efficiency

Two of the most asked questions about the wind turbine are whether it is better than the solar panel and whether it is powerful enough to be free of your electric company. The answer to both questions is “it depends”. If you’re in an area where you don’t get a lot of shade, then the solar panel would be better. If you’re in a really open area without any adjacent taller buildings, then both would be better. In terms of power, a turbine wouldn’t be enough to power the whole house. It comes in handy for situations where you need an extra power source, however. Also, if you can easily assemble and disassemble your turbine, you can bring it along on camping to, say, power up a laptop.

If you want to really replace your electric source, then you’re going to need a lot of turbines. The tricky part is getting enough wind to make them turn. For this, you can always build your turbines big and tall so as to stand above the trees and taller buildings around your homes. Still, a single well placed turbine can save you a bit of electricity. It is a just a little, but as frugality goes, a little goes a long way when you look at it in long term usage.

One good way to stay frugal with your meals is to create a kitchen that just forces you to do so. With a frugal kitchen comes the need to be a frugal cook. With that said, here are a few things that you should put in your kitchen.

Less Processed Foods

Processed foods always cost more than all natural ones. This goes most true for drinks. If you feel the need to make orange juices, buy fresh oranges and squeeze them yourself. If you are a tea person, grow the herbs yourself. Chamomile is easy to grow, and not only can you make teas with it, it can be good for other things as well; mostly therapeutic. All natural foods aren’t limited to juices, however. This also means that you should get fewer convenience foods and cook your meals yourself. But since we’re talking about a frugal kitchen here, then you already know that.

More Staples

One thing you need to remember about cooking frugally is to have less meat. This doesn’t mean you have to forgo meat. This means you have to find other alternatives in your meals. If you were cooking whole chickens before, you’re going to need to cook just a few parts; take just breasts, for instance. Then, you’re going to find a pair for the chicken. Staple foods are always good. The top three staple foods are as follows:

Rice

Rice is the staple food of Asia. The good thing about white rice is that you can get a lot of meals with just a few kilos of it – even more if you’re not a heavy rice eater. Two cups of white rice can yield about three or four cups of cooked rice. What’s so good about rice is that it is a good taste neutralizer. In Asian cooking, the meat is cooked with explosive flavors. As a result, more rice is consumed to neutralize the taste. If you can cook a really tasty chicken drumstick, for instance, you can eat the two cups of cooked rice with it.

Bread

If you’re not a fan of rice, you can always go for bread. Bread is as filling as rice. Try imagining eating everything in a burger without the bread – it won’t be as filling as eating the buns. The good thing about bread is that you can pair it with pretty much anything. You can pair it with pasta, for instance. You can also pair it with vegetables. Make sandwiches with them. Make garlic bread.

Potatoes

Another very filling staple is potatoes. The good thing about potatoes is that it doesn’t have to be a staple food, it can be a side dish or the full meal. You can really go nuts with what you can do with potatoes. You can make French fries with them. You can make mashed potatoes with them. If you make mashed potatoes, you can turn them into pancakes come morning.

Frugal cooking is healthy cooking, so you’re going to have to start choosing dishes with more variety in it. Simply put, just find dishes with less meat to cook with and more staples or veggies in it.

Now this is real Mexican cooking! It says so, 3 times

This post is going to be a rant of sorts but before I get into the rant, I realize this whole thing could have been avoided by not purchasing Casa Fiesta’s, “guacamole.” Live in Japan awhile and sooner or later, you’ll start trying to hunt down some of those treats from home, as was the case here. Now usually, I make my own guacamole. It’s not that hard although it’s impossible to find fresh cilantro where I live. When I make guacamole, the list of ingredients is very short, avocados,  tomatoes, chili, onion and salt. Mash it all up and you’ve got something pretty decent.

Opening up the jar, the first thing you notice about this mockamole, is how watery it is. It’s almost like sour cream. You can almost, just pour it out of the container. Second, the taste is horrible, with only a mild hint of avocado. I realize that’s subjective but turning to the ingredient list, you find out why. Thirty six ingredients! To make guacamole! That goes beyond just adding some citric acid to preserve the color of the avocados. This is a science experiment. Don’t believe me, here’s the ingredients:

mmmm.... Xantham Gum

Water, canola oil, food starch modified, concentrated crushed tomatoes, maltodextrin, Contains 2% or less of: Avocado powder, dehyrdated onion, jalapeno pepper powder, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, garlic powder, dehydrated red bell peppers, spices (whatever that means), whey protein concentrate, salt, natural and artificial flavors, corn syrup solids, caramel color, soy sauce (naturally fermented wheat and soybeans, salt, maltodextrin, caramel color), citric acid, lemon juice concentrate, lemon juice solids, sugar, glucono-delta-lactone, xanthan gum, sodium acid pyrophosphate, datem, lactic acid, monosodium glutamate, yellow #5 and blue #1

The blue sticker says avocado but don't you believe it! Less than 2% of avocado powder is more like it.

Geesh! Talk about freakish and did you notice the part about less than 2% of avocado powder? What the hell? Making it even worse, they go through the trouble of putting a blue sticker on the label that says avocado, in Japanese. The phrase, “Authentic Mexican Food,” appears on the label three times. What authentic Mexicans are out cooking with sodium acid pyrophosphate? Anyways, in an unfrugal move, the whole bowl got tossed into the garbage where I assume, some rats are turning their noses up at it.

So kids, the moral of the story is, no matter how homesick you get, stay away from processed foods. Casa Fiesta, your labeling is dishonest and your product disgusting!