How I Keep House

So a few people now have asked me how I manage to fit in all the cooking and cleaning and general housewifery that I (try to) do while being out of the house 40 hours a week, doing my hobbies, maintaining a social life, sleeping, and writing in the blog.

In my head, my first response was "gosh, I dunno. I feel like I waste a lot of time doing nothing, to be honest."

As I've thought about it more, and sort of analyzed my day-to-day methods, I've come to realize that, in fact, I've picked up a lot of small habits that help.

Recipe: Pasta

I recently got a pasta recipe from my old friend Liz, who writes the blog Slow Home Grown. I fiddled a bit with the proportions, put on my apron, rolled up my sleeves, and went for it.

Well, I'm happy to tell you that it worked really, really well, and I am here with photos to prove it, and a recipe so that all of you will immediately follow suit and make yourself some pasta from scratch. It was delicious. Neither Mr. Scrimp nor I had eaten all day and we ended up wolfing down pretty much all that I made... but that's ok, because it was also very easy.

If you own a pasta maker of some kind, well, good for you, and I'm envious. I don't, so my directions include how to make noodles without a pasta maker.

Five Dollar Decor - Tape

Every Friday, I'll be posting Five Dollar Decor--five ideas for interior decorating that can be achieved by spending only five dollars. For five dollars, you can add one new element to your in-home design. For twenty-five, you can revamp an entire room around a new theme. Hmm... a trip to Starbucks, or a weekend redecorating proje

Geeks, mechanics, theater people, and college students the world around know the value of a good piece of tape. I use tape way more than I should, probably, but I can't help it. It has everything going for it--it's sticky, it's decorative (if used properly), it's versatile, it's cheap.

Today, I'd like to feature five decorative uses of regular old tape. Prepare to have your mind blown.

Unpackaged, London

So I got a link today to an article about a small grocery shop in London that doesn't sell packaged food. Just about everything they have is sold in bulk, and customers are responsible for bringing their own packaging, eliminating waste and long-term plastic storage of food. This is brilliant, and I desperately want a store like this to open here in Ohio so that I can shop there.

In the world of my daydreams, someday shopping will universally go back to this--recognizable food, sans plastic or styrofoam, that you can buy in exactly the increments you need, no more, no less, from a small store.

Totally apart from whether hardcore environmentalists have got it right, it seems to me that this is just a more desireable way to live, and it's what really lies behind the Scrimpalicious ethos. I have no problem with home-processed, dried, frozen, or otherwise stored food, but it's time to do away with all of this fake, processed stuff, wrapped in plastic, sterilized, and totally disconnected from its source.

You can read the full article about Unpackaged and see more photos at the Inhabitat website.

Link: I Heart Switch

I got an email from a friend of mine with a link to a great techie craft blog called I Heart Switch.

What are techie crafts? Think LEDs, scarves with built-in electronics, and DIY glow-in-the-dark sketch walls (paint on your wall with glow-in-the-dark paint, and then draw on it with LEDs).

It's definitely worth a read if you're even a little bit of a geek.

Wearing the Uniform

Pretty much the only gift I specifically requested for Christmas this year was an apron.

Many years of life experience have taught me that sometimes it's a lot easier to do a job when you're wearing the right uniform. For me, those jobs are cleaning and cooking, and the uniform is an apron. I love aprons--partly because I tend to get things all over myself when I cook and clean and prefer to keep my clothes clean, but partly just because they are a uniform that add psychological ease to a job I don't always want to do.

Reminder

I'm working on getting some new links up in the sidebar--will probably get on it tonight after I get home. In the meantime, don't forget to visit the Scrimpalicious facebook page and become a fan. Help spread the word to your friends that it's easy to live well, be healthy, and still save money.