Frugality

Cinnamon Buns baked in the toaster oven!

Frugality is about a lot of things, the hardest of which is patience. Often times getting things immediately means paying a lot more for it. I hesitated as to whether or not to share this as I want to encourage you in your frugality, not discourage you. After some thought I decided it would probably be more helpful than not.

In September my husband's aunt and uncle stopped in for a visit. The kids and I made cookies for our time with them. As the oven was preheating it made a very loud bang noise! I opened up the door and watched as the convection fan slowly stopped. Those of you who know me are probably wondering what's up with her and ovens?? In my other house I went through three in a very short period of time! Anyways, long story short it turned out it was the control panel. The stove is only 5 years old. It's a Kenmore and I had really felt I had received pretty much new appliances when we moved in here last year. When I called Sears it turned out the part new was $300 plus dollars. We had already explored fixing it ourselves, which wasn't an option as it needed an electronics person, so I started calling around for used. I found an appliance store in town that fixes things and they thought they could get one for me. Turned out the cheaper way to go was send mine away to be fixed. This would cost $163. So, I took it to them and they said 2-3 weeks. My sister-in-law was kind enough to lend me her toaster oven(she uses it in the summer on the deck to cut down on the heating of the house). It is a bit larger than your regular toaster oven, you can fit a regular size pizza in it, it just hangs over the edge a little, so you just have to turn it once and awhile. For burners I use my plug in hot plate that I use on the deck in the summer. I learned(the hard way) that it does not heat as well as the burners on my stove! We were making a dinner of fried fish and chips and it just couldn't get the oil to the right temperature. Long story short, I am compromising with my cooking. We use the crock pot often and think about whether or not the toaster oven will work for our planned meals.

It is now December. A few weeks ago I phoned to find out why my part was not in yet, it had been a month. They said they'd call the suppliers to see what was happening. Later, I got a call from a mortified, very honest woman, telling me she found it on their back bench of the shop, it had never left! She said they'd send it right away as a rush and make it up to me in the price....

So, that long story to say what? Yeah, sometimes it's a hassle to only making 6 cookies at a time. The compromise? I babysat for my sister-in-law one night and she let me bake my heart out! Yeah, it's a hassle using the hot plate that doesn't heat up. The compromise? We don't do things that need that kind of heat. What have we learned? Again, we see it's about patience and creativity. My kids, my husband and I learn about delayed gratification. We get a small glimpse(very small as we have back up) as to what it might be like to not have an oven. We become more grateful for things we'd normally take for granted. In the end it's a happy story.

Cherry turnovers in the toaster oven!