We’re still in the middle of slowly landscaping our yard ourselves, but we decided to go ahead and start a small container garden on the porch. (Okay, dear wife did. Even weeds die when I touch them.) While doing research for this, I stumbled across the concept of “victory gardens” from World War II, where private citizens were asked to grow some of their own food in order to support the war effort.

During World War I and World War II, the United States government asked its citizens to plant gardens in order to support the war effort. Millions of people planted gardens. In 1943, Americans planted over 20 million Victory Gardens, and the harvest accounted for nearly a third of all the vegetables consumed in the country that year. Emphasis was placed on making gardening a family or community effort — not a drudgery, but a pastime, and a national duty.

The above was taken from ReviveVictoryGarden.org, which is one of many organizations which are trying to bring back victory gardens. There are many potential benefits, including:

• Financial relief from high food prices. (My favorite crops are basil and tomatoes).
• Healthier eating through less pesticides, chemicals, and preservatives.
• Environmental benefits from less energy spent on packaging and transportation.
• Physical benefits from getting more exercise, sunshine, and fresh air.
• Mental and patriotic benefits from being more self-sufficient.

The city of San Francisco has a Victory Garden 2008+ project with a goal of urban sustainability. There is even a campaign to convince the White House to plant a large Victory Garden on the First Lawn, with the produce going to the White House kitchen and to local food pantries..

Being a visual person, the motivational posters used at the time really caught my eye. I kind of want to make a large print and frame one. Here is one I found from the World War II poster collection at the New Hampshire State Library website:

And here are some more, click to see the full-sized poster:

“This poster was part of the publicity for a brilliantly mounted campaign to encourage the use of homegrown foods. Because commercially canned goods were rationed, the Victory Garden became an indispensable source of food for the home front. The Victory Garden was a household activity during the war and one of the most well received of all home front chores. At its peak, it is estimated that nearly 20,000,000 gardens were grown and about 40 percent of all vegetables produced in the U.S. came from Victory Gardens. By the end of the war the Department of Agriculture estimated total home front production of over one million tons of vegetables valued at 85 million dollars.

The Victory Gardens of WWII remain a vivid memory for many Americans who experienced them. Across the nation, home canning and preserving of farm produce flourished so that more supplies would be made available for our troops. The idea was simple in conception and inexpensive for the individual American at home to carry out. Of all the advertising techniques used to make Americans feel a part of the war effort, this was perhaps the most successful. The Victory Garden fulfilled the requirements of a good advertising campaign: that it attracts a broad and sympathetic audience at a reasonable price.”

Some foodies may turn up their noses, but say hello to my new lunch buddy! It’s a sandwich maker, which apparently have been around for decades. My wife introduced me to them originally in college, but we had to throw it away a few years ago because the cord was fraying and I thought it was a fire hazard. A few weeks ago I saw one on sale at Wal-mart for $9 and picked one up. I can’t find it online, but here is a close example. There is even a Hello Kitty version.

If you’re not familiar with them, they are similar to George Foreman grills. Plug them in, throw in two slices of bread and some filling, and in 3-5 minutes you have a hot, toasted sandwich. They’re non-stick, and you can clean it with a damp paper towel. It’s so compact (and cheap) that you can leave one at work and just bring it to the office kitchen when you use it. (You might even make a few new friends…)

For an easy and cheap lunch, simply bring a bag with bread, meat, cheese, or veggies. Here are several recipe ideas:

• Classic grilled cheese
• Ham and swiss, or turkey and swiss
• Roast beef and cheddar
• Tuna melt
• Cheesesteak – bring leftover steak, sliced thin and add cheese and peppers.
• Veggie – Add any of following to cheese: tomatoes, mushrooms
• Pizza pocket – Mozzarella cheese, pepperoni or salami, and bit of leftover pasta sauce.
• Italian Margherita – Basil, fresh mozzarella, tomato.
• Breakfast – Make an egg omelet w/ fixings on one side, make waffle mix or toast bread on the other.

Hot, melty, and delicious! Perfect for cold days. Throw in a $1 can of soup.

To reduce fat, you can cut down on the cheese to what is needed to keep the sandwich together. Shredded cheese seems to work better than slices in my opinion. Or pack some veggies like carrots and broccoli, or fresh fruit to round things out.

My friends and I were talking about CyberMonday and we started trying to come up with some gift ideas that might pay for themselves, beyond the usual rechargeable batteries or fluorescent light bulbs. Things we’d actually want to receive as gifts, or may end up buying ourselves with the inevitable gift cards. Here’s a few of them:

Emergency Hand-Crank Flashlight and Cell Phone Recharger – Keep one of these in the car, and your cell phone will never die. Just crank and recharge! This one is even solar-powered. Add in the fact that many old cellphones with no monthly plan still have 911 service, and you have another nice emergency back-up. I actually bought one of these – one tip is to make sure you have the right power adapter tips for your phone and keep it handy.

Ooma VoIP Phone System – This VoIP phone system that costs $210 upfront, but you don’t have any ongoing monthly fees for unlimited local and long distance calling in the US. I still haven’t seen one in action, but I keep hearing good reviews though this blog.

Wii Game Console – We were divided on this one (mainly between those who have one and those who don’t…). It can certainly produce less going-out and save money on movies/food/drinks that way, but all the little accessories really add up. Controllers, $50-$80 a pop since they have two parts. Guitar Hero will make you want two guitars. And now comes the Wii Fit! Still, I must admit I love those Raving Rabbids…

Crock Pot / Slow Cooker – Cold weather + recession = Increased slow cooker sales. At least that’s my theory. I saw this at Costco and they were selling fast. The actual crock pot is removable for serving and easy clean-up.

Some previous mentions:

Chest Freezers – Not really much of a gift idea, but still something to consider as food prices are still going up.

Kill-a-Watt Energy Meter – For some reason I bought one of these a year ago, took a bunch of data, and then promptly lost it when we moved. Arrgh. Need to dig this up again.

The Simple Dollar also has some other items in his list of gadgets that actually save money.

Any other ideas?

Another year, and I again have an enormous bounty of things to be thankful for. Okay, enough with that, now it’s time to buy stuff! To get in the proper mood, you should watch this video first…

At the airport right now on our way back. Even though Spain in general was not a cheap destination, the frugal traveler will always try to get the best bang for the buck. Since people love to eat out there, there were many affordable meals to be found.

Here’s what we had for lunch one day at a white-tablecloth restaurant. First course, second course, dessert, and a glass of wine. Try to guess the cost of this meal, before reading further.

All of this cost €8.70 = $11.25 per person, including tax and service (tip)! These days you can barely get one entree for $10 at TGIFridays.

You can usually find a great fixed-price lunch in many neighborhoods for under $15. Lunch is often the biggest meal of the day in Spain, and when we ate one of these we usually just ended up having a few assorted tapas for dinner.

The only catch is at the non-touristy places you have to be either fluent in Spanish/Catalan or be okay with making a fool of yourself… You should have seen the look on the guy’s face when I misremembered and asked for a plate of fire (fuego) instead of octopus (pulpo)…

A reader wrote in about using Skype as a replacement phone service. This was good timing because I also wanted to ask about using Skype internationally.

Skype While Traveling Internationally?
I’m preparing for my trip to Spain, and have the following plan for keeping in touch. All calls are routed to my cell phone, which doesn’t work abroad. I am bringing my laptop, so with WiFI I can use SkypeOut to call and check voicemail once a day, at 2.1 cents/minute. I can then make more calls to the US as needed. According to the Skype FAQ, it only matters where I’m calling to, not where I’m calling from. I can even call places in Spain for 2.1 cents/minute.

Am I missing anything with this plan?

My Experiences with Skype
I have used Skype for a few months during a remote work assignment when I had to take long calls that my cell phone plan wouldn’t support. I simply bought a SkypeIn number, which allowed me to take regular phone calls and participate in conference calls. The phone quality was good, but I used it only for a a few months, and always for scheduled calls and with a headset. I never used it with a regular phone, and never had to respond to incoming calls.

Cheap PC-to-Phone Plug Adapter
Here is a D-Link DPH-50U Skype USB Phone Adapter that only costs $10 after rebate ($20 before). It connects to your computer’s USB port, and creates two regular RJ-11 phone jacks that you can plug in traditional landline phone systems. Only works with Windows. The reviews seem to be positive overall. For those with problems, the general consensus seems to be that you need to install the newest Windows Vista drivers from the D-Link website (even if you run XP).

Anyone with experience using this product? I know there are other cool but expensive stuff out there like the Skype WiFi Phone.

If it works, you could replicate a landline for $8/month including taxes. SkypeIn is $60/year ($5/month) and gives you a phone number and unlimited incoming calls, and SkypeOut is $2.95/mo for unlimited calling to US and Canada. Just get one of those combos with multiple handsets and you can still have phones all around the house. (My favorite are Panasonics which take generic NiMH AAA batteries – cheap to replace!)

Cons are that you’d have to connect it to a computer that is turned on all day. Another disadvantage would of course be the inability to make emergency calls. With Skype, you will not get any 911 service – not even the e911 available with some VoIP providers – nor will it work without power and internet access. Not a big deal for the many of us who have already gone cell phone only.

I don’t know if I have the flu or not, but I still feel awful. If you qualify, I’d say it is a wise investment that I shouldn’t have put off. Ironically, since I have a fever I shouldn’t get a flu shot. *sniff*

Here is a flu shot finder, or contact your insurance carrier.

This post is part of WiseBread’s Best Cheap Eats group writing project. I chose to write about Portland, Oregon, because I recently left and I miss these spots! What’s cheap? I’m saying under $10 for breakfast/lunch, and under $15 for dinner. This gives me more interesting options, because when I eat out I like to have things that I can’t make myself.

All of these are no more than a 10-minute drive from downtown Portland, and many are clustered around close-in Southeast Portland where I used to reside. You can either interpret this as either (1) I am lazy and only eat near where I live, or (2) I only live near where there is lots of good cheap food nearby. 🙂

Zell’s An American Cafe – Breakfast
No website (Yelp) / 1300 SE Morrison St / (503) 239-0196

It’s a chilly weekend morning and your friends want to get breakfast. When you arrive, there’s already a line, so you go to the waiting coffee pot outside and pour yourself a mug while you wait and talk (will be added to your bill later, free refills continue inside). If you feel creative, there is a big bucket of street chalk that you can use on the sidewalk. How Portland is this?

After you get inside, you pick up the menu and peruse the huge list of specials on the wall. You consider getting one of their famous Bloody Mary’s but remember this is a frugal visit so you lay off. As you wait to order, the friendly waitperson drops off complimentary scones that are still warm from the oven. You add some softened butter and homemade jelly that’s already on the table.

What to choose? Good bets are their creative omelettes… maybe Greek this time? Or fresh mushrooms? Perhaps German pancakes with a pear-ginger topping. Maybe splurge on a side of chicken-apple sausages.

New Taste of India – Indian – Lunch
Website / 340 SW 5th Ave & 1810, SW 4th / (503) 888-0489

Although this is a lunch cart, it is my favorite Indian restaurant in Portland at any price. Two locations, I usually go to the one by the Portland State University campus. They have a daily $5 lunch special: rice, naan, and 3 different entrees (meat or vegetarian) that is always popular. So much food, I can never finish it. I prefer ordering off the North Indian menu, but each dish is well under $10. I still dream about their Chicken Khorma…

Apizza Scholls – Pizza – Dinner
Website / 4741 SE Hawthorne Blvd. / (503) 233-1286

My vote for best pizza in Portland. This is where pizza purists go when they want pie that you might have found in New York City’s Little Italy in 1905. Charred, crispy, thin crust and high quality toppings only. This ain’t Pizza Hut. In fact, you can only get 3 toppings max, and only one can be a meat. My pick is the Apizza Amore – classic Margherita plus capicollo.

The dough is handmade once every day, and when it runs out, it runs out. Could be 9pm, could be 7pm. So go early or risk being disappointed. A (16″? 18″?) pizza runs about $20-$25, which can satisfy 3 medium appetites, or 2 larger ones. They have a nice beer selection too, but the pizza is so good I’m happy with tap water.

The Italian Joint – Italian – Dinner
No website (Yelp) / 3145 SE Hawthorne Blvd / (503) 234-3004

A tiny neighborhood restaurant, this place will never win any foodie awards and is not fancy at all, but it has a great charm to it. The pastas are simple and solid. If you arrive before 6pm, they have a happy hour menu where the pastas are really cheap (less than $7). My favorite is actually their clams with white wine sauce and bread though. You can also get a large carafe of decent house wine to share for only $9, which contains at least 4 glasses worth. Filled with regulars and and wine that’s as cheap as soda, it feels very European.

Saburo’s Sushi House – Japanese – Dinner
Website / 1667 SE Bybee Blvd. / (503) 236-4237

Sushi as cheap eats? Stay with me. Saburo’s is also small, unpretentious, and usually packed. However, the fish is good and their portions are huge. Two pieces of nigiri here have literally the same amount of fish as four pieces at any other Japanese restaurant. Rolls are ginormous as well.

I love the underappreciated saba (mackerel), and at only $2.50 for two mega-pieces, it rocks. Salmon or tuna is $3.50. You can get 8 pieces of California roll for only $3.25. Don’t like sushi? A full combo dinner with miso soup, rice, pickles, gyoza dumplings, tempura, and teriyaki chicken is only $11.

Any Portlanders out there?