Adventures in Debt

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have noticed that I have leapt past M in the Change Challenge. This week has been particularly fruitful, where I found 50 cents last weekend, and then 35 cents at work by the vending machine. I was pleasantly surprised at the two quarters, as they were sitting on the floor just under the counter. This is an excellent place to search for change, as people often don’t realize they’ve dropped some change, or, in the case of pennies or nickels, often don’t want to bother picking it up. The 35 cents was a very pleasant surprise, as I found them in between the two vending machines at work. Somebody obviously didn’t want to try to rescue their quarter that had fallen there, but I reached in and grabbed it. As I was retrieving the quarter, I saw the dime as well, so it was even better! M is quite jealous at my big finds, and is anxiously scouring the ground in the hopes of catching up.

Yes! I managed to sell my unused window air conditioner this evening. A few weeks ago I attended a building tenant meeting and met a woman who lives a few floors above me. We started talking about our apartments, and she mentioned that she was frustrated that her current air conditioner no longer fit in her window (the building management is in the process of replacing all the windows, and her air conditioner was too big.) I jokingly mentioned that I had an air conditioner I wasn’t using, and she asked if I’d be willing to sell it. I was surprised, as I hadn’t actually thought about it, but after a few moments thought, I agreed. I wouldn’t be using it anyways, and it would free up space as well as earn me some money.

I asked for $75, more than I actually wanted for it.

She offered $65 instead.

I agreed.

She came by to pick it up tonight, and I am $65 richer. She’ll be more comfortable, and I’ll be $65 less in debt. I know it’s not a huge amount, but it’s definitely a good snowflake to have found!

In an effort to reduce my grocery bills, and also to start eating different recipes, I made the dreaded Experimental Meal tonight. Now, since I live alone this isn’t as daunting an event as in my sister’s house, where my brother-in-law will running screaming out of the house when she says those three words.

Tonight I took a look in my fridge and started searching around on AllRecipes.com for ideas. This site is my favourite one for recipes, as they’ve got such a huge database of them, plus users can also rate them, which is a bonus. There’s also a handy feature that lets you type in a few ingredients, and it will search for recipes with those ingredients in them.

On tap for tonight:

• pasta
• feta cheese
• garlic

My father used to enjoy making a variation of this meal, using olive oil, capers and hot peppers, which was not one of my favourites, as I don’t really like capers. But the idea is a sound one.

So I whipped out the frying pan, poured in a little olive oil, and tossed in a few garlic cloves. I sprinkled some dried oregano, basil and cayenne pepper. Then I cooked up the pasta and took out the garlic cloves from the pan. I dumped the pasta in the pan, and then transferred the whole lot back to the pot. I sprinkled in some feta cheese, gave it all a swish, and poured it into a bowl.

Voila!

Approximate cost for the meal:

• 50 cents for the pasta
• 10 cents of feta cheese
• pennies for the spices and garlic

Total: Less than $1! And it was tasty, tasty, tasty.

What are some of your cheap-o recipes? Leave a comment and let me know.