Museum of Fine Arts now offering discounted admission

The MFA has finally joined the Museum of Science and the Children's Museum in offering free or heavily discounted admission to EBT card holders. I'm not sure when they started doing this, or why it wasn't announced (I seem to recall writing to them maybe a year ago and asking why they didn't do it, and getting an e-mail back explaining that they don't have a lot of extra funds), but it's here now. On the "visit" page, buried toward the bottom, it says that if you show your EBT card at the admissions desk, you can get four $3 tickets. Youth 17 and under are always free. It's a nice respectful space for people with disabilities, particularly on weekdays. Something about the quiet and still art museum atmosphere means that staff and other visitors don't tend to do the whole running up and making patronizing comments, which is a plus

UPDATE: You'll have to bring cash if you want to buy discounted tickets.

Grrrrrr...

I took one week off and didn't check the coupon deals (sick kids, low on cash, friend in town, etc.) and I missed an incredible deal. Right now on the various coupon boards, the Starbucks $4 off two products ($4.99 or more) coupon is all the rage. It isn't a coupon that would make sense for me to use on a full-price item, because even though $2 off a $6 pack of Frappuccino is a good deal, I'm not spending a dollar per bottle on a junk food item that I can make for a few cents at home. It isn't worth it for the bagged beans either unless they're way on sale, because while it's amazing coffee, but it would still be at least $7.99 a pound -- imma stick with Cafe Bustelo. BUT, apparently last week Stop and Shop had four-packs of iced coffee on sale for $1.99 each. I have four of these coupons. I could have gotten eight four-packs of Starbucks iced coffee for free. FOR FREE, PEOPLE. Thirty-two mo effin' bottles of iced coffee. I really enjoy deals on these sorts of brand-name products because I can store them and use them if I need a quick thank-you gift or don't want to show up at someone's house empty handed. I may be broke, but I'm just not going to take my free jars of pasta sauce or packets of noodles to the office holiday swap, ya know? Ah well, I'm on the lookout for more Starbucks coupon deals before these bad boys expire.

Bread is ridiculously expensive. Making it is easier than I thought.

I've been experimenting with Artisan Bread in Five Minutes lately. I've been using the basic recipe from food.com, but I really should buy the book at this point, because I looked through it at a book store and it has other recipes and a lot of great advice. It's been out since 2007, so there are used copies on Amazon for a couple bucks. There's also a new a new version out that has even more recipes, though it's expensive and there aren't very cheap used versions out yet.

I haven't calculated the cost of making bread, though I seem to remember the book getting into that. Just roughly estimating it, the recipe requires 6.5 cups of flour (about 1.5 pounds) and two packets of yeast. Oh, and 1.5 tablespoons of salt. That's like $1.50 worth of ingredients without getting them on sale and/or couponing, and it makes four one-pound loaves. So, about 50 cents for a loaf of nice bread, which can be three or four dollars at a bakery or supermarket. The thing with this method is that you make a giant batch of dough that you can keep in the fridge and use for a week or two, so you can also pull out a chunk and make pizza on it.