For those of you who eat rice often, a bad bowl of rice can often spoil an entire meal. Some might say that “rice is rice, whether you cook it stove top or in a pot, it’s all the same”. I beg to differ.

Being of Japanese descent, I grew up on short/medium grain white rice. Japanese / Cal-rose rice is still my favorite. But lately I’ve been trying a variety of rice and grains thanks to my new fuzzy logic rice cooker. I’ve tried brown rice, jasmine rice, Italian risotto, pilaf, steel cut oats, and even tapioca.

I gave away my rice cooker to my roommate before I moved to my new apartment, and so I was in need of a new rice cooker. I debated for a long time whether it was worth it to spend $100 for a fuzzy logic rice cooker, or if I just needed a plain rice cooker with a single on/off switch.

Ultimately, I decided to go with spending the money and I am very happy with my purchase. Since Zojirushi was so expensive, I went with a less popular brand and model: Sanyo ECJ-D55S. I paid a little less than $100 for it, but I am impressed with its features and capabilities. The best thing about it is the various cooking settings the rice cooker offers: white rice, brown rice, porridge, stew.

If you do pick up one of these rice cookers, make sure to also check out The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook. This cookbook covers a wide range of recipes and dishes you can make in a rice cooker. Many of the recipes require a “porridge” setting available on fuzzy logic rice cookers. I’ve made an amazing Takikomi-gohan (Japanese steamed rice with chicken and shiitake mushrooms) and I’ve also made a chicken and mushroom risotto.

I love the fact that you can make a whole meal in the rice cooker. It’s kinda like an Asian version of the crock-pot. I’ll keep trying different recipes to see what else I can make. But the best part about this fuzzy logic rice cooker is that my Cal-rose rice comes out perfect every time!

I read something interesting over at Boston Gal’s Open Wallet. It looks like the governor of Oregon challenged the whole state to try living on $21 for one week for all food expenses. In an effort to bring awareness about hunger and the reality of many who live off of food stamps, even the governor took up the challenge.

Here’s an article from the New York Times with even a list of the food items the governor purchased to live on $3 a day of food. Looks like he ate some chicken and a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

One of the trickiest part of this challenge is that you have to start with an empty cupboard. So even basic things such as salt and pepper need to either be purchased or sacrificed.

I think this is a great idea, something I would definitely want to try with my fiancée. Maybe I can get my whole church to try it as well.

I’ve had the privilege of traveling through China the past five summers and through each experience, I’ve gained valuable insights and life-lessons. Particularly, I’ve gained unique insights about economics, finance, and wealth that I could have only gained overseas, outside of the U.S.

In this three part post I hope to share the lessons I’ve learned and how it has changed my perspective and mindset.

Mark Twain once said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Story 1: Fast-food

For most Americans, fast-food is something that is quick, easy and most importantly, inexpensive. In our busy life we rely on it to be there for us when we’re grabbing lunch on-the-run or “taking care” of dinner on the way home from work.

For anyone who’s visited the big cities in China, you might assume that eating fast-food is common for a typical China man as well. Yet if we look at the economics we can quickly see that this is simply not the case. Let’s take McDonald’s as an example. A typical value meal will cost about ¥24-32 RMB, which translates to $3-4 U.S. Dollars. To the Westerner it’s comparable to prices back in the states, yet for the national, it is very expensive.

When I’m in China, I feel like a king. Wow Niu Rou Mian (Beef Noodle) for only 50 U.S. cents! What a deal! I love to eat good food and I love a great bargain. I’m so pleased to find this to be true all over China.

But economics can be deceiving until you put them into perspective. As I travel through China, I often equate the value of $1 U.S. dollar to be about the same as the value a national places on ¥1 RMB. So in reality, this would mean to the national, the McDonald’s value meal is equivalent to us paying $24-32 U.S. dollars. When’s the last time your fast food meal has cost you that much? It’s no wonder that for most nationals consider eating at McDonald’s or other fast-food restaurants to be an expensive luxury.

This point was made clear to me the first time I was in China. I was teaching English in Gansu province (one of the poorest provinces in the West) when I realized how “rich” I was compared to my students. I went to lunch with some of them and ended up at an “American” fried chicken restaurant (similar to KFC). My students and I each purchased a combo meal for probably around ¥18 RMB. But one of my students left our group, telling me that he wanted to get his lunch from somewhere else.

He came back with 2 pieces of mantou (steamed bread) which probably cost him ¥0.50 RMB. The other students laughed and commented that this particular student always ate mantou for lunch. He replied by saying that he loved to eat mantou, but I quickly realized that in reality, mantou was all he could afford. Even in the U.S., most junior high students don’t typically spend $18 for lunch.

How did this experience change my perspective? I had taken my fried chicken lunch for granted and the reality that it was inexpensive to me. I wasn’t necessarily apologetic about the fact that I could easily pay for it, but I was sorry for being insensitive and unaware. From that point on I wanted to eat what the locals ate whenever I traveled. I wanted to eat what my students usually ate. Frankly, I don’t even know why I was eating fried chicken in China.

I vowed to become more like one of the locals. I realized that eating what they ate, shopping where they shopped, and spending the way they spent gave me a better understanding of who they were and what it meant to be a local there. The deep glimpses into the life of another culture has been great reminders for myself to count my blessings I have received from the Lord.

I echo the sentiments of the Apostle Paul when he said in Philippians 4:12 “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

Me: “Hey ___ whatcha doin?”
Fiancée: “Hey, I’m getting coffee at Starbucks.”
Me: “What are you getting?”
Fiancée: “I’m getting an Americano.”
Me: “Hey how much is a extra shot of espresso?”
Fiancée: “It’s 65 cents.”
Me: “You know what I was thinking the other day?”
Fiancée: “What?”
Me: “What if I walked in with a thermos with hot water and asked for just a extra shot of espresso?”
Fiancée: “Um…I don’t think that’s going to work.”
Me: “Well if a shot of espresso is 65 cents, then they’re charging $1.15 for a cup of hot water.”
Fiancée: “Hah, you’re the only person I know that would even realize that.”
Me: “Well it’s because I’m always looking for ways to save a buck.”
Fiancée: “Well for Starbucks that’s how they make money, because people are willing to pay for it.”
Me: “So true.”

There are two books I recently read at my local library:

Frozen Assets: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month

The Freezer Cooking Manual from 30 Day Gourmet: A Month of Meals Made Easy

Both books discuss plans to cook all day over one weekend and freeze all the meals in Tupperware, freezer bags, wax paper, etc. Then for the next month you have various meals to eat. All you have to do is either pull it out and let it defrost the night before, or heat it up in the microwave depending on what type of dish.

Everyone is so busy these days that its tough to come home and even think about preparing a whole meal for the family. That is why fast food such as pizza or fried chicken is so convenient. But its also the reason for our countries health problems. How can we eat healthy and save both time and money? By consolidating your cooking times. Personally I think trying to cook for one whole month is pretty tough, but one week is definitely reasonable. I wrote down a couple of the recipes and tried it out. Even if I make a meal for three of the seven days that saves me a lot of time and money.

Check out these two books at your library or bookstore.  Although the recipes aren’t particularly exciting, they will give you tips on what types of dishes hold up better in the freezer.

Also check out this link over at The Simple Dollar for similar ideas.

At my work there are a number of vending machines that are scattered at various locations on campus. They are well stocked to gratify the desires of hungry engineers. Chips, candy, soda, juice, milk, ice cream, coffee, hot chocolate; we have a plethora of choices. Often times when I am walking in the halls around 3 or 4 in the afternoon I see people eyeing different snacks and spending their spare change for a quick fix. I just want to yell, “Don’t do it!” Why? Because its a waste of money to spend 75¢ on a small bag of chips or anything else you might get from the vending machines. Instead, if you are prone to snacking, buy it at the grocery store and keep it at your desk. Some, might say its unprofessional, but I don’t think so. Just hide it in your file cabinets or something. Anyways, let’s see how it actually adds up:

75¢ for soda from vending machine –> $18.75 per month –> $225.00 per year
16.5¢ at supermarket (12-pack = $1.99) –> $4.13 per month –> $49.50 per year

That’s a $175 savings every year!

Obviously the best thing to do is to not snack at all during the day. You will spend $0.00. But for the most of us, we want something in between meals to keep us going. So, if you know its gonna happen, might as well prepare for it.

My current stock includes:
Pop-tarts, oatmeal, pita chips, pretzels, popcorn, trail mix, coffee, diet Coke, green tea, English breakfast tea, and an emergency 4-pack of Red Bull.

Just don’t go overboard or your co-workers might mistake your cubicle for a snack-stop.

I am a avid coffee drinker and I usually splurge and get Starbucks once or twice a week. I usually purchase on the weekends because I brew my own coffee at work during the weekdays. Over my lifetime, I’m sure the dollars add up, but at least I only drink drip coffee or Americano. So I spend no more than $1.80 each visit. When I brew coffee at work it probably costs me about 25¢, maybe 50¢ because I’ve been drinking Kona coffee recently. Well I was searching around the internet about the profit margins at Starbucks and came across this article over at MSN. It has some interesting statistics on why Starbucks is so profitable and successful. For example, for those that purchase caffè latte or cappuccino, your milk is costing you an extra $1.50! Why? Because like this article mentions, The espresso will cost your about $1.80, the rest of the cost is to steam the milk. This translates to $250 an hour the baristas make for Starbucks. Wow! “And that goes a long way to explaining why the company’s profit margins come in around 11.5% pretax.”

So what do I think? If you are addicted to coffee like I am, either drink black coffee or Americano like I do, or use the free milk at the counter. Is it really worth it to pay the exorbitant premium to have them heat milk? You could even carry a frother with you to frothe your own milk.

For some unknown reason I have been blessed with an abnormally fast metabolism. I don’t know why, maybe because I am fairly active. But whatever the reason, I find myself constantly hungry. To the point where it’s not only annoying, but costly. Let me give you an example: I’ll order a foot-long combo from subway for around $7.00 and eat the whole thing for lunch. By 4:00PM I am famished. And I eat breakfast everyday too. On top of that I am snacking throughout the day on cereal, pretzels, pop-tarts, etc. I am spending way too much money on groceries and eating out. Now granted, I do eat out more often than I would like. I know that I should be cooking more often and bring lunch to work. So this is what my food expenses look like so far this year:

———– As of 10/20/06 —– Projected 2006
Groceries –- $1355.41 ——– $1694.26
Eating Out – $2562.90 ——- $3203.63
——————————————————–
Total –——– $3918.31 ——- $4897.89
So this comes out to a daily average of $13.67 that I spend on nourishing myself. Ouch, something needs to change in 2007 because I can’t keep spending this much on food.

Over at the Fatwallet Finance Forum, there was a thread about saving money on groceries and there were some good tips people gave. One of tips that I read was to try shopping at a food warehouse. I have always seen them while driving around town but never bothered to give them a try. I had no idea that food warehouses could be such a good bargain. The store looks kind of like 99¢ store and has that “ghetto” feel to them too. Its definitely not a Whole Foods type setting, but who cares, I don’t come to supermarkets for the ambiance. So off I went bargain-hunting at Valu-Plus Food Warehouse. Here’s what I came back with:

- Pork Loin
- Ground Pork
- Spinach
- Celery
- Bananas
- Hot dogs and Buns
- Loaf of Bread
- Onions
- Spaghetti Sauce
- Spaghetti Pasta
- Canned Tuna
- Canned Vegetables
- Aluminum Foil
- Suave Conditioner

Total Price $20.21

Awesome deal. I got home and made a huge batch of Tonkatsu to celebrate, one of my favorite dishes.