14 Days of Frugality- DAY SIX

I love seltzer and I love mixing a small amount of juice with a lot of carbonated water. To me it is the perfect refreshment. A few years ago Jeremy and I would go through about 5 bottles of seltzer a week. The bottles cost around 70 cents each, so we didn't give it much thought. Well, that is $182 a year worth of seltzer. Then we saw this... the SodaStream Penguin Sparkling Water Maker at William Sonoma. It seems silly at first, but when we sat down and did the math, it made perfect sense. We paid $199 for the Soda Stream about 2 years ago and we have not had to purchase an additional C02 cartridge yet. The purchase of the Soda Stream in just two years has saved us $165 on carbonated water. Another plus for the Soda Stream is that not only is it more environmentally friendly than all those plastic water bottles, I can make the water as carbonated as I want. I also don't have to worry about that bottle that I just bought going flat in the fridge because I make it as I need it. $165 is not a lot to save in two years, but over ten, it is something quite impressive. One of the reasons we buy from William Sonoma is because we know they will stand behind our Soda Stream for life. Great companies with spectacular customer service are hard to come by, but when we find one we become instant lifetime customers. Other companies we love include, LL Bean, Zag, Roomba and Crocs.

Now onto the business of today. A typical Saturday for us would go something like this... eat breakfast at a diner, then maybe ice cream at the beach and take out for dinner. And Maybe fit in a run or some other kind of cardio so we can try to justify all the eating. Sad, but true. We figure that we work all week, I cook all week and we both deserve a break. We need to change that thinking. So this morning we played squash for the second morning in a row and then came home to make lunch. First though, I have to say that I feel bad. When we went to play squash Jeremy and I decided to buy a new squash ball even though we already had one. The reasoning was that the ball we were using was old and not very good, so in order to play well we needed a new ball. The ball cost us $5. So, I guess that is the first official breach from the rules. However, Jeremy said that he will eat less this week to make up for that $5 and I am going to hold him to it. Okay, now onto the amazing lunch Jeremy made us.

Jeremy woke this morning with a hunger for junk food, probably because it was Saturday and he is programmed to want junk on Saturday, as do I. He decided to make what he was craving. Burgers and chips. We don't have any potato chips, and they are not acceptable to buy, but we do have potatoes, so he sliced them up and pan fried them in canola oil with a few hefty cloves of minced garlic. When complete, while still oily and hot, he tossed them with salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder and blackened cajun spice.

For the entree, he cooked up a couple burgers we had in the freezer, left over from Max's birthday party, and served them up with caramelized onions and a special sauce containing mayonnaise, lemon juice, korean hot sauce, pepper and blackened cajun spice all mixed together and used as a topping for the burger, and a dip for the chips as well. He put all of this on a baguette (also from the freezer) with lettuce and tomato. It was so delicious and cost us $0! We gobbled our burgers down and then headed out to the beach for the afternoon.