Sesame Seeds, Sez Me

I was cooking some ancient Greek recipes last night, so, obviously I needed the all-important ingredient of toasted sesame seeds. I went to the gro sto to buy some. One tiny bottle of regular sesame seeds cost $3.99. One tiny bottle of toasted sesame seeds was $4.59. Whaaa? This was way outta my frugal livin price range, so I walked over to the organic hippie bulk aisle. Poured a jar's worth of sesame seeds into a bag, weighed them and printed out the sticker. Cost: 58 cents. That's a cost savings of $4.01 going straight into the Tuscany fund. Oh yeahhhhhhhh! (I toasted them in the oven all by myself, and they came out just right.)

Christmas Pad Thai

When I heard about the snow that was supposed to come, I asked my driver to take me to the little grocery store near PML headquarters. I didn't need bread (cuz I'm gluten-free) or milk (cuz I don't do dairy).

I bought peanuts for a veggie pad thai dinner. And some cauliflower for a soy "cream" soup I found in my Marilu Henner cookbook. (If I were human, I would want to be Marilu because she's amazing.) And a box of generic hot cocoa. And a bag of tiny marshmallows. Cost: $11.23. I reckon I could've been more frugal, but something about a snow forecast turns me into a spendthrift.

I settled in for the evening, catching up on "Dexter" episodes. After Dexter had gotten rid of all the bad people for the season and the credits rolled, I turned out the lights and opened the blinds and watched the snow fall. I checked my phone to make sure it was really Jan. 11, because it sure felt like Christmas. All was calm, all was bright. It was evening, but it looked like morning. As I curled up in bed to read a few pages of "East of Eden" before dozing off, I couldn't help but think that, at that very moment, all was right in my world.

Hot Rollers & a Math Problem

Y'all know I'm saving my money to go to Tuscany in 2012. So, I try to live frugally most of the time. Before each purchase, I ask myself, "How does this help me get to Italy?"

I've used the same set of hot rollers for years. (Yes, I roll my fur every morning.) There are 12 rollers, but somewhere along the way I lost 3 of the clips that hold the rollers in place. A new set of 12 clips costs only $3.59 at Sally Beauty Supply, but I can't bring myself to buy 'em. (Sure, I'll spend $4.82 on a soy chai latte at Starbucks weekly and not even blink, but the clips just seem so decadent.) Well, I've managed to make myself look stylish using only 9 rollers for this long. Boom, there's an extra $3.59 for the Tuscany fund!