money saving tips for starving artists #4: 'plant' a weed garden

who says gardening isn't an expensive hobby? honey, here in new york, the mere act of walking five blocks could bankrupt you. so what happens when spring comes around and you just don't have the funds to buy any little baby tomato plants or new soil etc? embrace those weeds that start cropping up in last year's tomato planters. they are green and they are alive! there is even a huge element of surprise when they start poking their green shoots up--who knows what they will look like? endless hours of pleasure.

so jade started watering our weed garden. i thought it was cute. but hey, look at these pretty flowers! photo by jade 'the weed whisperer' townsend
i do realize this post could be construed in a completely different, more lucrative way. but being one who gravitates toward poverty, oh and fear of arrest and authority, that's really not the kind of weed garden i'm after...

money saving tips from starving artists #1: improvise household appliances out of your trash

so a key piece of our coffee grinder that makes it work has been coincidentally missing since our heinously unwelcome beast of a 5 week houseguest’s sojourn (or perhaps ‘rein of terror’ would a be more appropriate description). i’ve been too polite to do more hint than about that experience, (again, perhaps 'misery' would be a more appropriate word.

The chances that said housebeast was actually involved in the disappearance of aforementioned precious bit of plastic without which our daily beans are not ground, are actually slim to none. but it feels good to irrationally blame her.

so we’ve been rockin’ the pre-ground ‘chock full o nuts’ of late, a solution both practical and economical for broke artists. the leftover cans have so many uses, too! (just slow down before you pour what you think is laundry soap into the washer...)

but now, since jade’s non-existant 'disability checks' have totaled a big fat zero, nor has the ‘sick time’ that freelance work doesn’t offer kicked in, the budget, even for ‘chock full o nuts’ has evaporated, focusing our coffee-hungry attention squarely on the very exciting and fancy pound of free-trade beans my kind aunt liz sent in the mail.

it's been sitting on the shelf, forgotten and mournfully neglected in its whole bean state. UNTIL.

true poverty breeds creative innovation.

cut a slit in the top of the chock full o' nuts container and insert a braun multi quick or any kind of hand wand mixer and voila! before you can say burnt-out blender engine, you've got coffee grounds in every size and shape you could want. who needs consistency anyway--it's drinkable!

cheers.

disclaimer: don't try this without the lid slit. this product was tested in our high tech kitchen lab, and trust me, un-lidded tests yielded less than happy results for the broom-wielder.

this post brought to you once again, by my crappy but oh-so-convenient iphone camera.