December first is here and we’re still eating Thanksgiving leftovers.  The last of the turkey and a few slices of cheese from the meat and cheese tray went into a casserole yesterday with lots of rice, a can of black beans, a can of  tomato sauce and half a tub of aging salsa from the fridge.  Yes, a main ingredient here is white rice which is getting a bad rap all over the place but we’ll  be eating this with a serving of stir fry veggies from the freezer.   When you can’t afford a diet of nothing but lean protein and fresh vegetables, you can use your pantry and adopt portion control.

My wife has been checking into some healthy eating/living blogs for economical recipes and forwarded me 5 Ways to Stretch Your Food Dollar and Shrink Your Waistline on ronisweigh.com.  We’ve already been buying meat in bulk and bulking it up by adding veggies but I never thought to water down juices and dressings.  Genius! I already feel guilty when we don’t make our own dressing but I hate paying for a healthier ranch I can’t buy in bulk and having it gone in a week.  There’s one more thing we can stretch this month.

In case you haven’t been reading lately,  we’ve got just over two weeks until we fly home for Christmas (and to weeks of free meals) and we’re not buying any groceries in between.  This is both to save money and out of principle: we will experience restraint and our holiday snacking and home cooked meals will be that much more special.  There is ONE exception: we plan to buy just enough frozen and/or cheap fruit so our toddler can get enough fruits and veggies each day.  Plus, we’re still working on that mega bag of whey protein powder and blending it with frozen blueberries and milk is as close as we’re getting to dessert until the week before Christmas.

Speaking of which: 24 days and two paychecks ’till Christmas . . .

I highly recommend drawing names.  Last year, in the wake of more than a few layoffs, my wife’s extended family agreed to this.   Three of us (my wife, my son and I) will buy only three presents – our contribution to gifts for the entire extended family of seven aunts, two uncles, four grandparents and of course all the cousins.  They also set a modest $30 limit per gift.  I can’t tell you how it comforts me to know that her family is taken care of for less than $100.  If two of the relatives we drew weren’t under the age of 19, I’d be buying and giving everyone silver for Christmas like I’ve been saying since 2008.  I’m so glad we’ve spent the last two years building a security stash of gold and silver but I can’t project my worries about the economy onto an innocent kid.  I may be a softy but I know how I’d feel as a 10 year old tearing open the wrapping paper to see a couple hunks of metal.  Hopefully the family members reading my blog have already bought some.