Low Budge
I long ago mastered the art of draining pasta (aka “$0.50 dinner!”) without a collander: you simply hold a cheese grater against the draining edge of the pan. It works perfectly. Except the cheese grater broke a few months ago. So now I’ve learned a new trick: simply drain the water very, very slowly from the pot. If you go slowly enough, the pasta doesn’t slide out into the sink.

And instead of grating cheese, I just cut it into very fine strips.

Living this low budget has its ups and downs. Yesterday I didn’t leave the house all day, which was kind of depressing, but I did acheive my goal: I did not spend a cent! I have money on the way from Amazon (money I should have received exactly a month ago, if not for an address typo), but for now I eat only at home and do my shopping at Safeway instead of Madison Market. I eat a lot of pasta and pre-bagged salads (there was a 2-for-1 special on them this week!). I only talk on my cell phone after 8pm (I don’t have a landline). I write in my journal, read “Our Bodies Ourselves,” and try to avoid feeing sorry for myself.