I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes

Posted by Trent Hamm

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A few years ago, my wife bought me a copy of The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz. She knew that I loved to experiment with foods and unusual recipes and figured I’d enjoy digging into this book, especially since there was a long tradition in my family of making homemade sauerkraut.

She was absolutely right.

Making fermented foods and beverages has developed into a low-cost hobby of mine over the last few years. I’ve tried and failed and succeeded at making all kinds of strange fermented foods: some that were delicious, some that were not so delicious, and some that were decidedly strange.

After many, many experiments over the last several years, I’ve come to realize that there are really four things that come out on top in terms of things I’d recommend to others. These four items are often being made in our home. They perfectly balance flavorful and useful with being relatively easy to make. (I really enjoy a few other things, but they’re a lot of work – keeping a sourdough starter alive comes to mind here.)

Here are the four fermented food items that I think offer the most “bang for the buck” in terms of making them yourself. They’re easy to make, don’t require much equipment, and use pretty inexpensive ingredients. If you make these even twice, you’ve paid for any equipment compared to buying these foods in the store; if you make them several times, you’re saving a ton of money versus buying them in the store.

Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is simply finely chopped fermented cabbage. You simply take a head of cabbage, chop it up into small bits, add some salt to it, mash it around until a lot of the liquid comes out of the cabbage, and then store that juicy salty cabbage in a jar for a few weeks. That’s literally all you do. Sauerkraut is something of a family tradition for me, as my father used to make large batches of it every year in a giant crock in the garage when I was growing up.

My preferred easy way of doing this is to use a large wide-mouth quart Mason jar and put a simple air lock fermentation lid on top. Those are the only two things you need that you might not already have in your kitchen (besides the cabbage and salt). You might also want some glass fermentation weights, but they’re not essential, merely very useful.

The process is about as simple as can be. Go to the store and buy a head of cabbage – weigh it while you’re there and note the weight in pounds. When you get home, take the cabbage head and remove a few of the big outer leaves from the head and set them aside for the moment. Take the rest of the cabbage and chop it up into fine pieces – I usually aim for pieces that are roughly the size of a small matchstick and I discard a small portion of the stem.

To that chopped cabbage, add one tablespoon of salt for every two pounds you weighed in the store. Mix the salt in and let it sit for about 15 minutes, then start squeezing it with your hands or with a blunt instrument. Your goal is to try to get as much water out of the cabbage as you can, and the salt will naturally help with this; you don’t want to discard the liquid, but make a salty “soup” out of the cabbage. Do this for about 10 minutes or so. You’ll be left with a lot of salty liquid and a bunch of squeezed cabbage. Fill a jar about 3/4 full with the wet cabbage, then pour on enough of the liquid so that the cabbage is fully submerged. Take one of the leaves, cut a circle out of it that’s a little wider than the size of the jar, then stuff that cabbage circle down on top, pushing it down below the liquid level. If you have a fermentation weight, put that on top of the cabbage leaf to keep it weighted down so that it’s less likely that the sauerkraut will push up above the liquid level.

Then, pop on the fermenting lid and let it sit for three weeks or so. You might see a bit of white mold on the very surface of it if any of the cabbage is exposed, and that’s okay – you can just toss that part – but if you see any other colors, your liquid wasn’t salty enough.

After three weeks, it’s ready to eat! You can serve it as a condiment or as a side dish with many different meals. You can also experiment with future batches by adding other ingredients to the mix, such as shredded radish, caraway seeds, shredded beets, jalapeño peppers, or minced garlic.

Here’s a great recipe for homemade sauerkraut with more details.

Kombucha

Kombucha is fermented sweet tea. The fermentation process gives the tea a bit of a distinct flavor – it’s still sweet, but it has a hint of pleasant sour to it as well. I personally like to mix it with a small bit of fruit juice.

Again, making kombucha is pretty easy. The only permanent equipment you need is a gallon glass jar, a clean cloth to cover the opening, and a rubber band to secure the cloth in place. If you want to individually bottle it and try to make it fizzy, you’ll need a few resealable bottles – I use these for all kinds of homemade beverages, including kombucha.

You’ll need to buy a bottle of kombucha at the store – this is the “starter” you can use to get your own batch going. I highly recommend the popular GT’s Kombucha brand for this because I’ve personally verified that you can get kombucha started from it. Don’t worry about which flavor to buy.

This part is going to sound crazy, but what you’ll want to do is simply open up the bottle of kombucha, cover the opening with the cloth, use a rubber band to secure it, and just leave it out in the open at room temperature. I’m not kidding in the least. You’ll want to leave it for about a week or two.

What will happen is that a small layer will form at the top of the liquid. It might look more like a small ball, or it might be a layer along the top – both are fine, and the one that forms depends entirely on the type of kombucha you have and the ambient air in your home. That layer or ball is called a scoby, and it’s a key ingredient in making kombucha. This can take a couple of weeks, so don’t sweat it if you don’t see any changes after several days.

Note that, as with any fermentation, if you see anything that looks hairy or black, there’s a problem and you should toss the mixture, but this is a rare occurrence and generally only happens when you’ve messed up a step.

Once that little ball or layer has formed, give it another few days, then you’re ready to make your first batch.

You’ll need 14 cups clean water, 6 bags of black tea, 1 cup of sugar, and your bottle of kombucha. First, simply boil the water in a large pot on the stove. When it reaches a boil, remove it from the heat and put the tea bags in. Let them steep for five minutes or so, then remove the tea bags and let the entire mixture cool to room temperature over a few hours. When it’s at room temperature, add the cup of sugar, stir it thoroughly, then pour it into the clean gallon jar. Then, pour the contents of the kombucha bottle right into the jar, scoby and all. Stir it for a minute or so, then put the cloth over the top of the jar and rubber band it in place.

Let it sit for a couple of weeks. What you’ll notice is that the scoby will grow a lot larger over this time. That’s a good thing.

When you decide it’s time to try it, you’ll want to remove the scoby and two cups of the liquid from the mixture. What you may find is that the scoby separates into multiple pieces or layers; that’s fine. Keep at least one scoby and the liquid. The rest of the remaining liquid is kombucha that’s ready to drink – be aware that it’s not carbonated at all and at room temperature. If you want to carbonate it and add a fruit flavor, add two cups of your preferred fruit juice to the jar, mix it thoroughly, then fill some of the resealable glass bottles mentioned earlier. These will carbonate over the next several days; leave them out on the table and check one of them each morning and evening by simply opening one of the bottles quickly and closing it. When you open one and hear a small popping sound, then carbonation is happening and I would recommend moving them to the fridge and drinking them in the next few days.

The scoby and two cups of liquid that you saved can serve as the starter for your next batch. Just repeat the above process, using your scoby and starter. If the scoby is getting really thick and hard to handle, you can easily divide it into smaller pieces; this allows you to start making multiple batches at once.

Here’s a great kombucha primer from Joy of Cooking.

Fermented Pickled Vegetables

There are a number of ways to “pickle” vegetables. Some of them involve vinegar as a way to introduce acetic acid to encourage the pickling process. Others simply use salt and allow the pickling process to occur naturally. In both cases, you can wind up with a delicious treat.

I personally like many different fermented pickled vegetables. Cucumbers are an obvious choice, but pickled carrots and pickled cauliflower and pickled peppers and pickled radishes are all delicious. I also like mixing vegetables in this process.

My process is simple. I just use a wide-mouth quart jar and a fermenting lid, as described in the earlier section about sauerkraut. I also use a glass fermentation weight or two, as noted earlier. I cut up four cups of vegetables that I want to pickle and put them in the jar – I’ll cut pickles into spears or carrots into smaller long strips or trim down cauliflower florets or cut peppers into strips. If I want to add some spices, I add them now – for example, I like to add peppercorns to many vegetables and dill to pickles. You’ll want to leave at least an inch and a half of space at the top of the jar, if not more. Then, I add three tablespoons of salt to the water and stir it thoroughly, then add that salty water to the vegetables, covering them completely in the salty liquid. I’ll put a fermentation weight or two on top to keep the vegetables down in the brine, then put on the fermentation lid and the ring.

Then, I just let them sit on the countertop or in the cupboard for a few weeks. I usually taste the vegetables at about the two-week mark and then weekly after that until I’m happy with them.

As I noted earlier, this is a delicious way to prepare cucumbers, cauliflower, peppers, carrots, radishes, and beets, among other things. For most of them, you don’t need to add any spices at all, though I like adding peppercorns and dill to pickles at least.

If you’d like to know more about making fermented pickled vegetables, this is a great guide.

Kimchi

Kimchi is a Korean condiment that is made up of a variety of shredded vegetables. I view it as being a “long lost cousin” of sauerkraut, because the two often remind me of each other. Kimchi has a particularly strong flavor, however, and that’s due to some of the more unusual ingredients.

The process for making kimchi is pretty similar to making sauerkraut, actually. You’ll need the things mentioned earlier (wide mouth quart jars, fermentation lids) as well as a blender, as the sauce in kimchi is made up of more than just water and salt. I like to make several jars of this at once, so what follows is a recipe for enough kimchi to fill quite a few jars.

Start with a head of cabbage, three large carrots, and a handful of green onions. Chop the cabbage head until it’s reduced to thin strips, then chop the carrots into long matchsticks. Add half a cup of salt to these vegetables in a big bowl and mix it thoroughly with your hands, then add enough cold water to cover all of the vegetables. Let this sit for an hour or two, then strain off the salty water and save it.

Meanwhile, chop off the green portion of the green onions (and save that green part), then dice them. Put the onions, half a cup of chili powder, 20 garlic cloves, four inches of peeled ginger root, a tablespoon of fish sauce, and four tablespoons of white miso paste in a blender and puree it. It’ll be a very thick paste – add water and re-blend it until it’s like a thin pancake batter or a milkshake.

Take the green parts of the onions, chop them into small pieces, then toss the cabbage-carrot mix, the green onion pieces, and the paste together in a very large bowl. Mix everything as thoroughly as you can; you can/should use your hands, but wear gloves!

Then, just start cramming this stuff into the jars, pressing it down as much as you can. Ideally, some of the thick liquid should move up to the top, covering the vegetables. If this doesn’t quite happen, add just a small bit of the saved salty water until the vegetables are thoroughly covered. I advise you to keep the top of the liquid about an inch and a half from the top of the jar. Put a fermenting lid and a ring on each jar and leave them out at room temperature for three days; they’ll probably start to bubble. When you start to notice bubbling, open each jar and press the vegetables down with a knife, releasing the bubbles. Do it again each day after that. After three days (at least two of which involve noticeable bubbling), put them in the fridge on top of a plate or a pan of some kind, because sometimes this stuff can bubble up and overflow the jar.

This stuff is delicious, but it has a very very distinct flavor that can be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of thing. I’m in the love-it camp.

Here’s a more detailed version of the above recipe.

Final Thoughts

In all four of these cases, these recipes are far less expensive than buying the equivalent amount of that item in the store, and the homemade version is usually tastier because it’s fresher and you’ve selected the ingredients to match what you like.

However, these food items aren’t for everyone. I encourage you to try these things before making batches of them at home to make sure you’ll even like the end product. I really like all four of these things, but I know that even within my own family, some of these things are… not well liked.

If you find these kinds of foods and procedures interesting, I highly recommend the book The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz as a great reference. There are a number of good books on fermentation out there, but that was the one that really “set the hook” in terms of my own interest and discovery.

Good luck! Now, if I could just figure out how to keep a sourdough starter alive…

Read more by Trent Hamm: 

• 15 Seasoning Mixes and Sauces I Make at Home for Quality and Savings
• Saving Money With Homemade Pizza on a Family Movie Night
• My 10 Favorite Healthy and Inexpensive Foods (and a Recipe for Each One)

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Posted by Holly Johnson

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Life is full of surprises — some good and some bad. Most of us just try to ride the wave the best we can, making the most of what we have.

When it comes to our financial lives though, there are steps we can take to ensure life’s “surprises” don’t throw our lives into a tailspin. You can’t predict when your car will break down or you’ll face a medical emergency, but you can plan for those “what ifs” in a financial sense.

Unfortunately, not everyone who needs emergency savings has enough — or any at all. A recent survey from Bankrate revealed that only 40% of respondents could cover a $1,000+ emergency expense with savings. Everyone else would have to charge their emergency bills to a credit card, take out a personal loan, or find some other way to pay.

Four Reasons to Save Your Tax Refund This Year

With tax season wrapping up, you may want to consider throwing your refund into your emergency savings — then leaving it alone. The average federal tax refund in 2018 worked out to $2,899, while the average 2019 refund (for last year’s tax season) is still $1,949 so far this year.

That may not be enough to solve all your financial problems, but it’s a good start. Here are some of the ways saving your refund could leave you better off in 2019 and beyond.

You Can Reduce Money Stress

One of the worst consequences of not having any emergency savings is the money stress it adds to our lives. When you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck, even a minor hiccup like needing new tires or an emergency room co-pay can throw you off track. Then you’re left scrambling to figure out how to cover those surprise expenses while also keeping the lights on and food on the table.

Financial coach Anthony Kirlew of Fiscally Sound says that’s why he suggests his clients build up emergency savings in addition to paying down high-interest debt.

“It takes discipline to save money that you were not expecting to receive, but in the long run, saving your tax refund reduces your stress because it will help ensure that you have a financial cushion to cover an emergency without hurting your budget or racking up credit card debt,” he said.

Even if your tax refund is only $1,000, having that money set aside could help you sleep easier. And when the next random expense comes along, you won’t have to panic.

Make a Big Impact All at Once

Financial planner R.J. Weiss says one major concept in behavior science is the concept of willpower depletion — the idea that we have a limited amount of self-control which gets used the more decisions we make. In other words, making one good decision is easier than making multiple small decisions, he says.

Your tax refund is one of the few chances throughout the year where you can make one good decision with a sizeable initial impact. “Instead of saving, say, $200 a month for 12 months to build an emergency fund, which may require dozens of small decisions a month, you can simply save it all in one big chunk,” he says.

For someone who has struggled to build up emergency savings in the past, saving a tax refund in a separate savings account is a smart way to jumpstart a financial turnaround.

Improve Your Life in the Long-Term

CPA Logan Allec of Money Done Right says he has seen people make some big mistakes with their tax refunds during his career, from splurges on gadgets his clients don’t need to gambling it all away in Vegas!

For example, several years ago one of his clients used his refund to purchase a new PlayStation 4 and almost a dozen games. A few months later, the same client’s car broke down and he didn’t have an adequate emergency fund to cover the repair. Not surprisingly, he wound up charging the cost on his credit card.

“This sent him down a financial hole that took him years to recover from — and this recovery involved selling his beloved PlayStation 4 on Craigslist,” said Allec.

This just goes to show the importance of an emergency fund, and how wasting your tax refund could harm you in the short-term.

“Yes, you may have a lot of fun going on a shopping spree with your tax refund,” said Allec. “But sooner or later, some unforeseen expense is going to come up, and I guarantee that you will be kicking yourself for not having used that refund money to build your emergency fund.”

The bottom line: Save your tax refund in a high-yield savings account, and your future self will thank you.

Save Money Over the Long-Term

While you may not earn a ton of money in interest by stashing your tax refund in emergency savings, having the money to cover a pricey home repair or surprise medical bill could easily save you hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars over the long-term. When you cover emergency expenses with savings instead of a credit card, you’re saving big money by avoiding high-interest debt.

Currently, the average credit card APR is well over 17%, making credit cards one of the most expensive borrowing options available. Emergency savings can help you avoid this type of debt and all the interest payments that come with it.

The Bottom Line

Life is stressful enough without having some emergency savings set aside. You work hard all year long and you do the best you can, so you shouldn’t have to have your life turned upside down when an unanticipated bill is thrown your way.

Why is using your tax refund the perfect way to jumpstart your emergency savings? As financial coach Todd Tresidder of Financial Mentor so wisely puts it, “you don’t miss what you never had.”

Windfalls like a tax refund can easily be saved without any sense of deprivation. The money hasn’t been yours all along, so you may not even miss it.

Open a high-yield savings account or add your tax refund to the e-fund you already have. Then, no matter what you do, don’t look back.

You’ll never regret saving for life’s surprises, but you could very well regret it if you don’t.

Holly Johnson is an award-winning personal finance writer and the author of Zero Down Your Debt. Johnson shares her obsession with frugality, budgeting, and travel at ClubThrifty.com.

Related:

• Best Savings Account for 2019
• Saving for Tomorrow vs. Living for Today
• Beam Review: Can You Really Earn Up to 4% With This Savings Account?

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Posted by Mia Taylor

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While it’s far easier to simply renew an insurance policy year after to year rather than shop around for a new provider, it should go without saying that inertia can be costly.

Most industry experts suggest obtaining quotes from competitors every six months to one year, because the reality is that many insurance companies change their rates regularly and doing a little bit of research can save you quite a bit of money.

Cutting costs however, isn’t the only reason to leave one insurance company behind for another. We asked insurance industry experts to share some of the top signs it may be time to part ways with your insurance provider, whether it’s life insurance, home insurance, car insurance, or any other type of policy. Here are some reasons to cut ties.

1. Sudden Rate Increases

Unexpected and unjustified rate spikes should be a big red flag signaling it’s time to find a new provider, says Jonathan Fritz, who has more than a decade of experience working with property and casualty insurance and co-founded the site NoExam.com.

“It could be that the insurance company has recalculated their risk profiles and you have been grouped into a higher risk classification,” said Fritz. “At this point, it’s a good idea to start shopping around for the same coverage amounts with different providers.”

It’s expected that insurance rates will increase between 2% to 5% each year with inflation, explained Fritz. When price hikes approach 10% or more, however, it’s time to move on.

2. You’ve Got Renters Insurance, and You Just Bought a Home

Making the leap from being an apartment dweller to owning your own home is a major life change, one that may require finding a new, more appropriate insurance company.

“When you own a home, you need to protect both the physical structure and what’s inside, whereas renters only need to worry about protecting what’s inside, as the landlord has to cover building itself,” explains Fabio Fashi, property and casualty team lead at Policygenius. “If your carrier specializes in renters insurance and you buy a home, look into carriers with homeowners insurance coverage.”

• Related: The Best Homeowners Insurance Companies

3. Unfair Claim Denials

The essential promise of any insurance company is to be there when you need them, says Kathryn Casna, an insurance specialist from TermLife2Go.com. If the company is not living up to its end of the bargain, shop around.

“It’s what you’re paying for, so kick the insurance company to the curb if it’s not fulfilling its promise to you,” said Casna.

John Espenschied, and agency principal and owner with Insurance Brokers Group, offers similar advice, adding that if your company’s claims department can’t explain why a loss isn’t covered by your policy, it’s time to take your business elsewhere.

“There’s nothing more frustrating after having a loss than to find out it’s not covered by your insurance,” said Espenschied.

4. Increased Complaints from Consumers

A sudden spike in complaints about the insurance company, specifically related to how it handles claims, may also mean you may want to find a policy elsewhere.

“Are customers leaving bad reviews online about your insurance provider?” says Fritz. “It may be a good idea to check and see if people are having problems. A few good places to check are the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Consumer Affairs. If bad reviews are flying in, it may be time to shop around.”

5. Your Insurer Isn’t Keeping Up With the Times

The insurance industry isn’t known for being particularly innovative, says Casna, especially life insurers.

“Some companies are better than others, but if your company doesn’t have a user-friendly app, lacks online claims options, or still asks you to fax documents, it may be time to drop that dinosaur,” said Casna.

A 2018 J.D. Power study found that insurance companies by and large are falling short on digital customer engagement. However, a few leaders are already establishing best practices in this space. In particular, Allstate was ranked well for the digital shopping experience it offers consumers, according to the study, offering ease of navigation, availability of key information and clarity of information.

GEICO, meanwhile, sets the bar for digital service experience, according to J.D. Power. The company outranked all of the competition thanks to strong performance in all five of the study’s key barometers – ease of navigation; appearance; availability of key information; range of services; and clarity of information.

6. You Don’t Understand Your Coverage

Most consumer-oriented policies are fairly straightforward, and it’s an insurance company’s job to help you understand any part of the coverage that may be confusing, says Quinten Lovejoy, an insurance risk advisor with Crane Agency.

“Helping a client understand what they’re buying should not be beyond the reach of a competent insurance professional. If the company is not able to help walk you through a policy’s various provisions and clauses, look for a company that is willing to do so,” says Lovejoy.

In addition, consumers should always carefully examine policies that seem “too good to be true,” added Lovejoy, and be wary of an insurance product that seems “out of the ordinary” in terms of promises made juxtaposed to the price quoted.

“Whether it’s base limits within a policy, deductibles, claims handling, exclusions, or other factors, consumers may be surprised at the time they least need surprises,” said Lovejoy.

• Read more: Five Things Your Life Insurance Agent Won’t Tell You

7. Poor Customer Service

This is fairly straightforward: If your insurance company makes communication challenging, they don’t deserve your business.

“In this day and age, communication…should be the least of your concerns,” said Lovejoy. “If you’re waiting more than 24 to 48 hours for a return call, email, or text message, it might be time to find (a company that) is willing and able to provide timely responses to your questions or concerns.”

8. Financial Vulnerability

It’s a good idea to keep an eye on your insurance company’s financial strength ratings via industry reports like A.M. Best, Moody’s, Fitch, and Standard and Poor’s.

Espenschied suggests finding an A-rated insurance company in order to be sure you’re dealing with a quality provider on firm financial footing.

A company with this rating is generally one that performs at the top of its industry in terms of creditworthiness and financial profile when compared to competitors. Ratings range from A to D, with D being the worst.

“The reason you buy insurance is for the unexpected losses and you want to know your company is going to be there in a time of need,” said Espenschied.

9. It’s Not You, It’s Me

Sometimes the need to shift from one provider to another is about you, and not the insurance company, noted Casna.

Insurers offer pricing and coverage options based on the particulars of your situation, Casna explained. “So, if something big changes in your life such as you buy a home, start a family, develop a health condition, or retire, then it’s time to shop around,” she said.

Similarly, if you move to a new state, the insurance company with the best coverage for you could change, added Fashi, of Policygenius.

“This applies to all types of insurance, like homeowners or auto insurance,” said Fashi. “For example, the best homeowners insurance company in Colorado could be much different than the best one in Georgia, as they specialize in different coverage types for different environments.”

Mia Taylor is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades of experience. She has worked for some of the nation’s best-known news organizations, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the San Diego Union-Tribune. 

Read more:

• The Best Car Insurance Companies for 2019
• Road Outrage: Low-Income Drivers Are Charged More for Car Insurance, Even With a Clean Record
• Five Home Improvements Worth a Discount on Your Homeowners Insurance

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