Update and babblings on Thrifty Living

V and I are currently in Portland, Oregon. He's subcontracted here for four months. He has work til the end of December and then we'll see where we go from here. He might be asked to stay on another month or two to continue working on his current project. I did find possible work here in Portland. Actually there are some pretty exciting job opportunities for me here :), like teaching Spanish at the Community College level and other Spanish classes, perhaps teaching GED in Spanish, etc. However, since I would have to probably piece together 3 part time jobs to make a third of what Vuko makes in one job, we won't be staying here in Portland due to my work. At least not for now. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do meanwhile.

So, I've mostly been ama de casa since we've been in Portland, a job that's way underrated, might I add :) I made (Chilean) cazuela today! Yummy. With a brand-spanking new pot! A brand-spanking previously-owned pot, rather. I've decided that Goodwill is a great place to shop for kitchen stuff.

Why is this? If a pot or fry pan makes it to Goodwill, it's probably better than most of the ones Walmart sells. Because Walmart pans go straight to the trash after the first owners because they suck! hahaha. I bought the BEST pot at Goodwill the other day for $8. (At the kitchen store, a nice pot costs $125. Mieeeeerda!) The guy in line in front of me even commented on my excellent find. hahaha. He had a Goodwill discount card, so he knows Goodwill merchandise. I asked the cashier about getting a Goodwill discount card, if only to show it to people, hahaha, although I'm SURE I'd get use out of it. However, Goodwill no longer gives them out. :( oh well.

The idea of buying used cooking implements was first suggested to me in Kitchen Confidential. Bourdoin recommends that if you want to get good cooking supplies at killer prices, just wait for a neighborhood restaurant to go out of business and go make an offer on their cooking supplies. Well, if you don't know of a restaurant going out of business, Goodwill is a good place to check out.

Anything we leave Portland with must fit in our Toyota Corolla. hahahhahahahhahahahahahhahahahahhahahahhahahahhahaha! Packing will be a feat! Vuko's got a guitar and a pretty big amplifier as well as a long effect pedal. I've got a ton of clothes, my sewing machine, as well as some kitchen stuff. So almost everything we've bought since we've been in Portland will be left here. Thus we don't see most of our purchases as "investments". So we've tried to be thrifty about our purchases:

Our previously-owned king-sized mattress we bought for $100 at a mattress store. We also got a used futon there for $140. And free delivery, yay! I had about 4 hours to find us a mattress since I didn't want to be sleeping on the floor our first night in our new luxe apartment, haha. Otherwise you can get them for free off craigslist. In Portland anyway. Of course then you have to haul it yourself. And hope it doesn't have bedbugs, hahaha. Fortunately ours doesn't. But if you think about it, if you stay in a hotel, you're using a bed that who-knows-how-many-people have used, so it's kind of the same. Plus, my folks bought us a wonderful new king-sized bed upon our arrival to the States. It didn't fit in the Corolla, however. So it will be at my folks' house until we find a permanent home. So till like 2030, hahaha.

Other basic purchases:

A dinner table and four chairs (read: card table) cost $50 at walmart.

Our coffee table was $36 at the Portland garage sale at the Expo center here! I strongly dis-recommend going to the Portland garage sale at the Expo center. Parking was $8 plus $4 each to get in. I've been to better garage sales in my neighborhood! I've personally had better garage sales! Smaller, but better. What a ripoff! hahaha. But I did have to check it out. So the coffee table was only $20, but plus the $16 entrance fee, that gives us $36. And we bought it from people who have a used furniture store like a mile from our house. So there's a bit of a learning curve when moving to a new place.

I got a NICE mountain bike for $40 at a garage sale near our house. It has rock shocks even. It needed a little lovin', that's for sure. But V straightened the steering wheel and pumped the tire with air. I tried it out before buying it, and it works great! This bike's been a lifesaver for us since we only have one car. I use it as a main form of transportation. That way when we both need to go somewhere, V can take the car and I, my bike. I LOVE commuting on my bike. I always see how much car traffic there is and am so happy to be pedaling. And Portland is probably the most bike-friendly city in the United States, so biking here rocks!

But I digress...

So to wrap up this rambling post, I think I'm going to start posting on "thrifty living", as this is something that interests me. My first piece of advice would be to not move to the United States if you live elsewhere, hahaha.