Okay, okay, I can tell you now!

[conuly]

JENN GOT A NEW JOB!

We aren't out of the hole yet, but with this new source of income we can start paying off all our old bills, including the mortgage. (And the gas, and the electric, and the phone and cable, and the godawful water bill, and the bay window roofs, and the main roof, and the plumbing....) I'm still going to be budgeting our menu pretty tightly (well, with a few exceptions for lamb tonight and pecan pie at some point in the future) and looking for my own paying work, but this helps. A LOT.

On that note, is it wrong of me, when in the grocery store, to consider getting jelly or pickles or spaghetti sauce based on the jars? I put everything in jars - beans, rice, oats, spices - and I can always use more of them, especially larger sizes, but I don't usually need to buy the things that come in jars, which is a problem. I oughta ask on freecycle.

Comments

[crystalpyramid]

Yay! That must be such a relief!

I totally get what you mean about the jars. And $3 or whatever for a great jar isn't so bad. The pickles or whatever are extra.

[conuly]

It's a very pretty jar I got, vaguely designed to emulate a pickle barrel, and I know what I'm going to do with it. I'm going to buy a couple of pounds of peppercorns instead of a three ounce container like I can get at the supermarket, and put the ones that don't fit into the peppermill in the jar.

[siderea]

Oh, phew!!!

Re jars: can't you just rummage the neighbors' recycling bins?

[conuly]

I feel skeevy enough poking through their cardboard to get the box tops. I guess I *could*, but if I were going to do that it'd be better to just ask them directly.

[siderea]

Oh, well. If you want to drain all the excitement out of it, sure.

[conuly]

I'd rather have them think I'm crazy than think I'm even crazier than they already think.

[conuly]

Also, sometimes I want pretty jars, and my neighbors, not shopping based on how the jars look, don't usually have those.

(Wanting pretty jars is totally reasonable. Isn't it?)

[siderea]

I have no idea. You're talking to the woman who wrote a fan note to Folgers for their new ergonomic plastic instant coffee canister. I am so not in a position to judge. Validate maybe, but not judge.

[conuly]

How are they going to know how awesome it is if you don't tell them it changed your life?

[steorra]

Yay!

[conuly]

I know! Forget the budget, we're getting new stove knobs! Because ours are totally fucked!

(It's sad that this is the highlight of my day.)

[ancarett]

That's fabulous news in so many ways. Yay for job success!

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Uh, you can buy jars for forty cents each at the goodwills around here, plus canning jars brand spankin new are less than ten dollars a dozen. Storebought jelly? Ew.

[conuly]

I don't think our thrift stores have that many jars, when it comes to that, and not in the sizes I always want. But we have universal mandatory recycling, so maybe that makes a difference?

What I want are baby food sized jars (for ground spices) and huge gallon sized jars (for sugar, pasta, and other things I buy in large bulk).

Bought jelly of decent quality is a lot less gross than any jelly I am likely to make, I'm leery of making my own long term food storage.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

If you seal it in a hot jar while it's boiling hot, it will stay good. I've eaten ten-year-old jam, by which time it did indeed taste like something from the store. ;-) Which should tell you something about how much better it was when it was only two or three years old.

For half-gallon canning jars, you get only six to the case. (I think half-gallon are the largest size I've seen marketed.)

[conuly]

We've got two gallon-sized jars that I think held pickled vegetables originally, not sure where my dad picked them up. I want more in that size, but all I can find on google are canning jars and I want regular screw-tops.

Can't get jelly by the gallon anyway, but sometimes I also want pretty jars, and jelly is most likely to be sold in pretty looking jars. (This is actually practical. If I have similar looking spices that I use frequently, it is better for them to be in jars that look different so I am less likely to mix them up. Just last month we ended up with chili powder in the oatmeal! And every time I reach for thyme or cumin I end up with the wrong one....)

[marveen.livejournal.com]

I, uh, think most canning jars have screwtops. Not sure where the disconnect is happening.

[conuly]

Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but google is showing me mostly jars with the already attached lids that flip and are just a little impractical for my purposes.

And calling them canning jars, so if they aren't, don't blame the messenger here!

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

You're looking in the wrong places. I can fix this for you.

[conuly]

Thanks, Jenn. Our priorities for that first paycheck are jars, jars, and more jars :p

[(Anonymous)]

Mason jars. And don't buy them mail order , the s&h will kill you.

[conuly]

That's not quite as helpful as you think.

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

Congrats! :)

[conuly]

Thanks!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Woooo! Congratulations to Jenn (and the rest of you, too)!

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Whoo, congratulations!

My mother buys things in jars all the time for that very reason. A little while ago Giant (grocery store chain here) had fruit slices in syrup, like the canned kind, but in very nice little round jars that fit in your hand. I couldn't believe they were $1 each; the jar itself looked worth more. And indeed we didn't eat much of the fruit. The jars are now spice jars.