Benjamin Franklin offered his two cents with “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Those who find this trying may look to his other saying, “Take counsel in wine, but resolve afterwards in water.” And those who take that quotation too much to heart should heed another Franklin observation, that, “Women and wine, game and deceit, make the wealth small and the wants great.” Your Mountain Times staff is considering adding “recession” to that last one, but that’s after the fact. Saving money is a proactive measure, so here are some simple ways to earn those pennies.

Melanie Davis: Bread, Bulk & Spices

Sure, homemade bread doesn’t look like Wonder Bread, but it’s the flavor that matters.

With the rising cost of, well, everything, we’ve come up with a few ways to cut costs around our household budget. Our favorite – the bread maker. I was fortunate enough to find a bread maker at a garage sale, unused, still in the box for $10. At first, it sat in the kitchen cupboard, remaining unused for several months. During a recent cleaning spree, the appliance was rediscovered and put to use. We pack lunches on a daily basis and can go through up to three loaves of bread in a single week. That can add up to almost $10 a week. With the bread maker, we can make our own with stock piled, inexpensive ingredients (flour and yeast aren’t very pricey, yet). Spices, such as garlic, basil or whatever we have in the cabinets, tend to get tossed in, and we have delicacy-breads for next to nothing. The appliance itself does all the mixing and baking, making it essentially effortless as a bonus.

A large freezer may be an investment, but saves big bucks in the long run. Every time I go grocery shopping I find whatever meats or vegetables might be on sale and buy in bulk. Once home, I separate into meal-sized portions and freeze. It is a little extra effort in planning a meal to allow thawing time. Generally, I plan the meal the night before and pull whatever I need and put it in the fridge to thaw overnight.

There is only one problem with buying in bulk. How much chicken breast can a person eat before it becomes bland and tasteless? Leading to the several other items I have purchased in bulk. Spices can make all the difference in the world to making chicken hundreds of ways. OK, that and a copy of “The Joy of Cooking.” Dried spices can really come to life when soaked in olive oil, or some cases, just water.

To avoid eating the same dish three times, it also helps to get creative with leftovers. Dice up the meat, add a few vegetables and new spices into a one-of-kind soup when you are tired of the same thing. Cans of soup are now up to $3 a serving.

I admit that I have had a few mistakes with all of the above. We skipped a couple ingredients in the first bread maker experiment because we didn’t have them. The resulting brick would have cost us hundreds in dental bills. The first soup I attempted was so bad, the dog wasn’t allowed to have it. I’ve learned to consult a cookbook for some basic ideas and build from there.

Next year, I plan to have a large garden and hone my canning skills to build my own stockpile of vegetables and sauces. I have made my own jams and pickles, so I am ready to expand my knowledge. My grandmother would be proud.

Scott Nicholson: A Fistful of Dollars

I’m not a budgeter, since I tend to keep a loose idea of my “worth” in my head at all times, plus online banking makes a balanced checkbook available with a few clicks of the keys.

But I’ve returned to an old habit that I’d abandoned once banks figured out my mailing address and sent me credit cards. I used to live out of my wallet (which was fairly cramped, but the coffee table doubled as a sleeper sofa) and I instantly knew how much I was spending and how much I had left. That made each purchase real, not virtual or theoretical.

When the banks started getting squirrelly and I began to see how the financial structure was built on the armies of suits that did nothing but steal a little slice of working-class money as the money moved around, I determined to keep as much away from them as possible. While my paycheck goes in as an electronic deposit to cover mortgage and monthly bills, most of my other income or spare money is turned to cash. It helps the businesses, who don’t have to give money to credit card companies, and it helps me see how much I am spending and shows the instant impact that each purchase makes on my ability to buy other things.

This isn’t a tip in the sense of “Bring a bagged lunch” or “Don’t tip your waitress,” but maybe you’ll be horrified at some of the things you buy if you have to pay for it. Kind of dampens the instant gratification.

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Frank Ruggiero: Shaving Costs

Remember: Happy beards make for happy people.

We men are money-saving machines. Thriftiness practically grows on us – not like some monetary fungus, but rather through an inherently masculine trait: facial hair. The beard and similar strategically grown tufts of hair not only offer an incomparable style of the ages, but also the warm benefit of facial insulation. A full-bodied beard can spare its bearer a muffler, some of which start at $10, and the seasonal discomfort of sleeping with a blanket over one’s face.

Savings also grow from the absence of shaving supplies. When razors are marketed as “shaving systems,” complete with five blades in one, the price usually reflects their extravagant features. Again with the $10, plus an eventual box of $20 razor refills. Unfortunately, shaving cream does not factor into the system and must be purchased separately, usually around $4. By this tally, the beard has so far saved $44.

Now, keep in mind that a beard is an investment. It requires effort, time and sometimes a little comb. Trimmers are also a wise option, with your average model starting around $20. With the money saved on razors and shaving cream, one’s investment should easily be returned, even at a profit.

And, like the beard, savings will continue to grow. Just be careful where you trim.

Jeff Eason: The French Can Can

Frenchman Nicolas Appert (1749-1841) is the father of modern canning methods. He once canned an entire mutton as a publicity stunt.

Two hundred years ago, in 1809, Frenchman Nicolas Appert received a patent for developing the method of preserving food that we commonly call today “canning.” Appert developed canning partially in response to Napoleon Bonaparte’s offer of a 12,000-franc reward to anyone who could devise a method of food preservation for French troops on the march. A year after developing his canning methods, Appert collected the reward. And a year after that, he wrote the scintillating book The Art of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Substances for Many Years (the chapters on root vegetables are page-turners in the truest sense). Remarkably, Appert’s canning methods were developed nearly a century before fellow Frenchman Louis Pasteur proved that heating substances to the boiling point killed bacteria.

Today’s canning is done much in the same way as it was done in Appert’s time, although Mason jars have certainly made the process a little more streamlined. I don’t know that I’ve saved a ton of money by canning, but it’s a lot of fun to make huge batches of marinara sauce when the tomatoes are ripe on the vine. Then I can savor that summer flavor all winter long. This year, my wife and I also canned borscht (beet soup) with beets from the garden and a lot of blueberry and raspberry preserves when the berries were ripe. We picked more blueberries than we could use for preserves, so we ended up freezing several gallons of them. A friend advised me that the best way to freeze berries is to throw them in a plastic bag without washing them, getting all the air out of the bag and throwing it into the freezer. That has worked like a charm, and we have enjoyed smoothies and blueberry muffins this winter with locally grown blueberries.