Reading the Bible in Yup’ik.

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Yet another reason to be delighted by my partner: He reads the Bible in Yup’ik, the language spoken by indigenous folks in western and southwestern Alaska (and the Russian Far East). That’s because DF has been doing home visits for his church, and one of the parishioners is an elderly woman who is much more … Read more

Giveaway: Artisanal chocolate from Alaska.

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Not everyone gets a Valentine’s Day treat from a loved one. In fact, some of us don’t particularly want them. Still, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to feel a little bit special, so I’m having another Chugach Chocolates giveaway. If you didn’t get a Valentine, then treat yourself (or someone else) to this one.

Chugach Chocolates is a “bear-to-bar” that creates delicious (and sometimes scary-sounding) items here in Anchorage. Right down the street from us, in fact, which is particularly dangerous since they’ve opened a nice little coffee shop/retail space.

Since DF’s doctor wants him to eat an ounce of dark chocolate per day, we decided to support the local economy and buy solely from Chugach Chocolates. Happily, they offer a volume discount so we’ve taken to buying a dozen bars at a clip. It’s a health issue, you see.

About the “scary-sounding” chocolates: We’ve found that you don’t need to be afraid of confections such as Alaskan Kelp and Cayenne or Mat-Su Valley Potato Chip chocolate bars. They’re all good. Well, except for the Espresso Beans bars – I’ve never been a coffee fan. DF loves them, though.

The winner of this giveaway gets to choose from among: 

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Meet a reader: Ann from South Carolina.

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First, let me be clear: Ann is not a turtle. She’s a  camera-avoidant reader who requested that I use a photo she snapped of a turtle sunning itself.

There’s another reason for the turtle, though: Its slow-and-steady approach to life is analogous to Ann’s brand of frugality.

She’s in no rush to get the latest anything, has lived in the same house for more than three decades, and knows all the best thrift stores. Recently, Ann met a friend for lunch at a hospital snack bar, which she says has a “spa-like” vibe: “It’s got a skylight, it’s very sunny, they’ve got healthy food, it’s inexpensive, it’s fast.”

She drives a car “that no one will steal,” and specifically chose a job with a pension. Ann is lucky to live in a city where supermarkets “compete,” and she can turn those deals into comfort foods that cost way less than takeout.  “I feel rich if I’ve got cooked ground beef in the freezer…a perfect start for tacos, spaghetti, chili or nachos.”

Ann has been a reader since the MSN Money days, so it was great fun to attach a voice to the history. Please join me in congratulating her on her end-of-December retirement, at age 57. And enjoy the following conversation, which has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

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Colonoscopy prep: The true and simple rules.

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(Happy Throwback Thursday! Today I am having my every-five-years colonoscopy, so it seemed like a good time to re-run this piece from Dec. 5, 2018.)

Some people throw parties on their birthdays, or go out to dinner. This year I went with a butt camera.

It’s not that “colonoscopy prep” was high up on my birthday bucket list, but rather that the appointment was the first one I could get.

Lucky for me that it hadn’t been scheduled first thing on Nov. 30, when we had a nice big earthquake. According to a staffer at the doctor’s office, they’d just finished one procedure and were beginning to sedate another patient when the 7.0 temblor hit.

That poor guy had to reschedule – which meant having to re-do the colonoscopy prep. Ack.

For the uninitiated, colonoscopy prep is a full-scale cleanout of your colon: a combination of light diet, then liquids only and finally a seriously effective cleansing solution. Apparently one brand of industrial-strength laxative is available in tablet form, but the doctor I visited won’t prescribe it. He says the results aren’t always optimal.

(Eeeewww.)

This time around I was offered the option of a relatively new product called Plenvu. It’s so new, in fact, that my insurance would not have covered it. However, the doctor’s office had some samples to give and I accepted one upon hearing the regimen: two 16-ounce doses of solution over two days, each dose followed by 16 ounces of your clear liquid of choice. (Mine was iced tea.)

Previous preps had required two 32-ounce doses of solution followed by two 16-ounce glasses of clear liquid. No wonder Plenvu’s slogan is “success with less.”

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Found money 2023: Counting it.

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As regular readers know, I’m always on the lookout for lost change. All year long I save what I find, and the following January I count the found money, round up the total and donate the funds to a food charity.

This wound up being a decent year. In addition to the specie, I found a $10 bill and DF contributed $8 from his occasional survey-taking with the Nielsen* Company. His theory is that as a retiree, he isn’t looking for work. But occasionally work looks for him, in the form of surveys. Therefore, it is “found” money.

Whatever works. I just want to plump up the total, because it’s getting really scary out there, food-wise. As all of you already know. 

For years I’ve donated the found money to Feeding America or to the Food Bank of Alaska. More recently I’ve been sending the dough to the church I grew up in. That’s because the Fairton United Methodist Church, like so many other houses of worship, is making food baskets for locals who have more month than money.

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Giveaway: Alaskan art jewelry (Valentine’s Day, anyone?).

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Welcome to the first giveaway of the year! This time around, it’s jewelry that I sure hope the U.S. mail can deliver in time for Valentine’s Day. Three winners will have a shot at three pendants made by my friend Linda B.

Her jewelry is always a hit, and for good reason: It has style, energy and personality. If I wore jewelry, I’d definitely be wearing hers.

This is also part of my ongoing “support the local economy” efforts. Sure, I give away a lot of gift cards, because they’re useful to readers. But I also like to focus on local artists and retailers. (Watch this space for an upcoming Chugach Chocolates giveaway.)

Valentine’s Day will be here in a month, and these pieces would make great gifts. Each one is unique, i.e., she has never made and will never make another one exactly like it. 

Or the winner might choose to keep the prize, in order to brighten up their winter doldrums. I chose fun, specific designs rather than abstract ones. Here’s what’s up for grabs:

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Always check the register receipt.

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Recently I wrote a piece about why you should always check the clearance section. The other day, DF and I were reminded why you should always check your register receipt, too.

While shopping on Senior Tuesday (10 percent off all Kroger brands), we noticed that boneless, skinless chicken breasts were on sale at an almost agreeable price. Since I wanted to try a new recipe (butter chicken in the slow cooker), we decided to spring for a package rather than buy a whole chicken and cut it up.

(Maybe not the most frugal move, but he recently had a major health issue and since then we have sweated far less small stuff. Besides, it would be loads cheaper than going to an Indian restaurant.)

Generally I do check the register receipt; in fact, I tend to watch items as they get rung up, to make sure that sale prices show up correctly. On that day, however, we were both a bit distracted. At one point he did glance at the electronic readout and said, “Wait – did that say 99 cents a pound? … No, I guess that was the discount per pound.”

When we got home I checked the receipt to see how much we’d saved overall – and noticed that the boneless, skinless chicken had indeed rung up at 99 cents a pound. D’oh!

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We ring in the new year, cautiously.

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Some believe that whatever you do at the start of the new year, you’ll repeat all year long. DF and I made sure to ring in the new year with moderation and frugality. This wasn’t exactly a stretch, since we tend to live moderately and frugally all year long. We aren’t particularly superstitious people anyway.

Still: Why take chances?

It started the morning of Dec. 31, when he dumped the boiling bag in the slow cooker along with some vegetable cooking water from the freezer. By midday he had a very savory-smelling broth cooling outdoors. In the evening he put some black-eyed peas to soak overnight.

This morning, he caramelized onions and some garlic scapes from our garden (which made the house smell divine), then dumped them into the slow cooker along with yesterday’s  broth, sliced carrots, dehydrated celery leaves* (also from our garden), frozen green tomatoes (from a not-successful-enough** foray into frying) and some ham chunks. That’s because DF’s mom was born in Texas, where hoppin’ john is a New Year’s tradition alleged to bring prosperity for the coming year.

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Our Christmas miracle.

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Early Wednesday afternoon, DF went to the medical center for a stress test. Generally, a Christmas miracle story doesn’t start that way but bear with me.

Lately, he’d been plagued by serious fatigue and breathlessness, and working his way through medical testing (blood work, EKG, etc.). The stress test was just the latest arrow in the quiver. Or would have been, if they ever did it.

But before they could get started, the medico noticed that DF’s heart was beating as few as 20 times per minute. The average adult’s resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 BPM. Into a wheelchair and off to the ER in the adjacent hospital, from whence he called to report that nurses and doctors were “swarming him.”

Soon after that, he called to say they wanted to implant a pacemaker –and they’d given him the option of doing it then and there, so he could sleep in his own bed that night.

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Do we need a little less Christmas?

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santa-claus-for-christmas_w128(Happy Throwback Tuesday! It should be “Throwback Thursday,” but I’m in charge here. This Christmas article originally ran on Dec. 27, 2012, and I believe its message is still relevant. In these inflationary times, it might be more relevant than ever.)

A reader responded to “I’m dreaming of a stripped-down Christmas” with a description of her 7-year-old’s Yuletide experience:

“There are so many gifts from extended family, it actually stresses him out to open them – usually there’s a good one in the first two or three and he wants to stop and play with it, not have it taken away and have to open 10 more things.

“It looks like ingratitude, and that’s a little of it – we’re lucky to already have everything we need and most of what we want, so he’s not that into new stuff – but it’s mostly sheer overwhelm at being the center of attention and having so many people around and then having to switch focus every moment.”

I saw a bit of that myself on Tuesday as I watched a young child open a massive pile of presents. He was a little stressed and cranky by the time he was through. In fact, he had to be coaxed into opening the last few packages.

When my oldest great-nephew was a toddler he was well-nigh buried in loot on Christmas morning. At one point he was nearly in tears, saying “No more!”

No more. Would that have happened when you were small?

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