Getting Thrifty: Losing Cable TV

Because we use an astounding amount of internet bandwidth we used to have a package deal that gave us unlimited internet bundled with phone and full cable television.  At the time it was the only way for me to stop paying overage fees, and actually saved us money. But as the world moved on our internet service provider added internet plans for people with very high usage and made them available without a bundle. 

We killed the landline phone that we never used any more, and got a great price on what we needed for internet throughput at a higher speed.  They still try to get you to bundle: for cable internet you either must have cable TV or pay a $9.99 "cable access fee". I decided I wanted to keep the local TV channels and chose their smallest TV package (all the local stuff plus 60 channels of music we never used) with an extra converter for upstairs to the tune of $33.06 per month.  Our overall savings was $60 a month including Netflix and the occasional Redbox rental, and we were pretty darn happy with that.  The moral of that story is call your provider occasionally and see if you can improve your services and what you pay. But I missed another savings opportunity.

The two GE antennas that worked for us.

What I misunderstood during the whole Digital Television Conversion a few years back was that television is still available for free over the air.  I somehow got the impression that you had to plug into cable TV to get it.  It's probably mixed up with the fact that in the old days this condo was in a TV reception hole and could only get two channels.  But when I saw a digital TV antenna on 1saleaday the penny dropped and I started researching. Several really good Amazon reviews and websites like killthecablebill helped me make my decision.

We can't have outside antennas here, so we needed something like rabbit ears.  I started by buying a $15 antenna just to see if we got any reception here, and to my joyful surprise it worked beautifully! The downstairs TV was harder to tune in so I bought a $20 antenna for that one.  I figured if needed I could return them for a slightly better one until I found an antenna that worked.

I paid $35 for two low-end GE antennas, and will save $23 a month in recurring cable costs.  And here's a bonus:  there are extra channels tucked in on the digital signals, so we actually gained channels. 

The little black square to the right is the antenna.  For some reason it works best with its back to the room.

Try it.  Go buy a cheap antenna and see if it'll work at all.  You can get help fine tuning your reception from this guide.  If it works you can join me in returning all the rented equipment to the cable company.

A Little Chubby

When you're on a budget it's hard to pass up inexpensive meat, especially when you can stretch a small amount into a family dinner. One of those odd things you'll find good deals on is turkey chub, which can be an affordable substitute for any unseasoned ground meat. This comes up because our local Safeway had a buy-one-get-one-free deal on them making them $1 per pound, so I've got some in the freezer now. You might see them in the meat department, but they are usually in the freezer section with pre-formed beef patties and frozen turkey breasts and such.

You may be thinking, "Okay, sounds good, but what is turkey chub?" Gee, I'm glad you asked!


"Chub" is the sausage-like packaging. You'll see ground beef in this kind of package too. Turkey is, well, turkey. A closer inspection of the package reveals that this is "mechanically separated turkey". Well. That doesn't sound very comfortable. Or appetizing. According to the USDA, mechanically separated meat is "a paste-like and batter-like meat product produced by forcing bones with attached edible meat under high pressure through a sieve or similar device to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue." They further note that beef processed this way is not approved for human consumption, but pork, chicken, and turkey are. Meat must be labeled "mechanically separated" if processed this way, I supposed so you don't think it's ground from identifiable parts. My friend Hez would probably say it's "reclaimed meat".

So you get past the name and forgive me for giving you way too much information on mechanically separated meat, and bring some home. If you're defrosting it in the microwave, remember to cut the little metal clips off each end of the chub first. It thaws pretty quickly: I can take one out in the morning and it will thaw in plenty of time for dinner, even in the fridge.

It really looks like gray-pink paste (actually, the color reminds me of the fish sausage Pikko uses to embellish her bentos). Throw it in a pan and brown it to crumbling like you would hamburger or ground pork, because it looks much better cooked. It doesn't have a strong turkey flavor, and this brand is lightly seasoned. What it doesn't have is the rich flavor you would expect with pork or beef, so I recommend adding it to anything you might use ground beef crumbles in. I've put it in spaghetti sauce, chili, casseroles, and even faked a stroganoff with it!

Don't be shy about this budget meat. Turkey is full of lean protein and this works great in all your stretching the budget type recipes!

Next blog: Something just as cheap (or cheaper) but less gross.

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

I was wanting some chocolate. Of course, we're broke, there's no money for non-necessities. But I have cocoa! And as I'm thinking on what I can do with it I recall one of my earliest favorite recipes, Hot Fudge Pudding Cake.

The original recipe, to me, is the one out of my Betty Crocker Cook Book for Boys and Girls. I think my Mom or Nana got it for me when I was in grade school. Mine is the 11th printing of the 1965 edition, not the facsimile of the original in the link, but that matters less than these marvelous, simple recipes with easy to follow instructions for kids. Just for fun I scanned the original.



If you like those molten lava cakes, or hot fudge brownie sundaes, you're gonna love this. Here's the thing: Somehow during baking, the cake and pudding reverse themselves and the sauce ends up under the cake.

The nice thing about this recipe is that if you bake you're likely to have everything you need on hand - nice for unexpected company and chocolate emergencies. The only thing I'm missing is a 9 x 9 square pan, which for some reason I've never added to my baking stuff. I use my 9 inch round cake pan, which is too too small, but my next up is too big and makes the cake to thin. I put a cookie sheet under the pan in the oven, mourn the lost sauce, and swear (again) I'm getting a square pan.

There's a lot of variations on this recipe, it's been around approximately forever. I recall a phase where I was looking for the best recipe for both the cake and pudding parts, mixing and matching to make the ideal Hot Fudge Cake recipe. Darned if I know what combination was the best, but I remember that my original recipe uses all white sugar in the sauce, which makes it grainy, so I went looking for a recipe that uses brown sugar.

The recipe I used is Hershey's version, which isn't in my Hershey's Chocolate Cookbook
but is online.

Hershey's ® Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder
• 1 1/4 cups hot water
  

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Combine 3/4 cup granulated sugar, flour, 1/4 cup cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, butter and vanilla; beat until smooth.
2. Pour batter into ungreased 9-inch square baking pan. Stir together remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar and remaining 1/4 cup cocoa; sprinkle mixture evenly over batter. Pour hot water over top; do not stir.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Remove from oven; let stand 15 minutes. Serve in dessert dishes, spooning sauce from bottom of pan over top. Garnish with whipped topping, if desired.
   

And here's what I'm eating as I blog:


Actually, I'm on my second bowl. Heaven!