Frugal Efforts

Despite some jitters and apprehension, Scott managed to take care of Robby by himself during my recent trip to Missouri. I arrived home from my trip to an intact, albeit chaotic, home and two happy "boys." Robby did enjoy Doritos for breakfast and ice cream for lunch, but I suppose it is a father's right to indulge while Mommy is away. I have been able to whip Robby's nutrition back on track, but I am struggling to convince him to wear pants. Apparently the "pants are optional" mentality which I predicted became a reality.

I had planned on spending the weekend cleaning the house and doing the laundry. I must admit that I am astounded by the amount of laundry two pant-less individuals can accumulate in three short days! My kitchen was not the disaster I feared, but the rest of the house looked like it was struck by a four year old tornado. Cars, trains and plastic bugs littered the floors in every room of the house.

Saturday morning Scott set out for cleaning supplies. He ended up coming home with 35 pounds of tomatoes. He found a bargain on vine ripened locally grown tomatoes but they had to be processed quickly. I scrapped the days plans and decided to make sauce.

Scott and I spent several hours peeling, chopping and seeding tomatoes. We loaded up my roaster oven, set the temperature to low and enjoyed the aroma. I seasoned, pureed and stirred the sauce throughout the day. It made our house smell like an Italian restaurant.

I underestimated the physical demands of canning large quantities of food. I have a deeper appreciation for the efforts of my Nan who used to can a variety of foods every summer. I felt very domestic and proud of our frugal homemaking efforts as we worked on our project throughout the day.

Thirty-five pounds of tomatoes made twelve jars of spaghetti sauce. We figured it costs approximately $3 per jar and we were both proud of our efforts. Eager to determine how much money we saved by doing it ourselves, we scoured the grocery circulars for spaghetti sauce. It's on sale for $1 a jar.

The shelves in my garage are now filled with jars of delicious, albeit expensive , spaghetti sauce. It took me several hours to scrub the tomato splatters that seemed to reach every corner of my kitchen. My back ached from standing on the hard tile floor for hours.

Scott, seeing that I was in pain, offered to go pick up Doan's backache medicine for me. He returned from the grocery store with 5 dozen ears of corn. Again, he found a great deal and thought we could easily put it up for the winter. His "bargain" equates to a lot of work for me. I really need to stop letting him go to the grocery store unsupervised, at least until the produce sales end!