My Challenge: Spend Nothing August
August 3, 2008 | 10 Comments
I found another blog I enjoy and her recent challenge to spend nothing in July got me thinking.
Of course, unless you own a farm and don’t use fuel, it’s probably impossible to spend nothing… but the point is to spend as little as possible and really question all your spending for a time.
I’m going to do this in August.
I have an important goal for October, and this will help me get there a little more easily.
I have set a goal of moving out October 1st.
For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been living in my parent’s home since December 2006. It’s been a blessing to be able to stay here for more than one reason, the least of which is being able to save money, build my business and meet some financial goals (like getting out of debt. Woohoo!).
But it’s time to move.
You know that old saying about leaving the party while you’re still amusing?
My parents say they like having us here and feel safer with us nearby, but they’re just being nice. They deserve to have more peace and quiet, their own routine and alone time (no matter what my mom’s comment says below. lol!)
So No Spend August will help me meet some goals. For one, I have my security deposit and first month’s rent set aside in savings, but I also want to have an emergency fund. My emergency fund got eaten up a couple of months ago when I dropped a grand on car repairs.
The awesome back to school sales going on right now will tempt me! And in fact I may take advantage of all the .01, .05 and .09 deals I’ve seen at the drug stores, office supply stores and etc.
I’ve set a budget for $10 a week.
Outside of food, petrol and bills (like business expenses), I can only spend $10 a week.
The kids don’t need any new clothes or shoes.
I don’t need any new clothes or shoes.
I don’t need any new household items until I move.
I can (gulp!) live without Starbucks for a month.
I can do free entertainment. Helloooo library books and DVDs!
Want to join me?
Seafood Salad
August 2, 2008 | 2 Comments
Each Saturday I’ll post a free salad recipe from my new salad cookbook. It ha
s over 365 recipes, so you can either buy it now or just hang around here for the next 6 years. LOL!
Catfish and Crawfish Mold
1 Cup Chopped parsley
1 Cup Cream cheese
1/2 Cup Dry white wine
Sea Salt, to taste
1 Tablespoon Lemon juice
1 Pound Catfish meat, cooked
1 Teaspoon Louisiana hot sauce
1 Pound Crawfish meat, cooked
1 Tablespoon Lea & Perrins sauce
Chop catfish and crawfish in food processor. Add wine, parsley, lemon juice, and salt. Mix real well. Add hot sauce and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce. Mix well. Add cream cheese. Mix well.
Refrigerate overnight in a mold. Serve with crackers or on a bed of lettuce. You can use shrimp if crawfish aren’t available.
California Chicken Salad
July 26, 2008 | 1 Comment
Each Saturday I’ll post a free salad recipe from my new salad cookbook. It has over 365 recipes, so you can either buy it now or just hang around here for the next 6 years. LOL!
California Chicken Salad
2 cups cooked chicken — chopped
1/2 cup Monterey jack cheese — shredded
1/2 cup cheddar cheese — shredded
1 avocado — diced
1/2 cup olives — chopped
1 tomatillo — chopped
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onions — chopped
black pepper
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon green chiles — minced
2 teaspoons sun-dried tomatoes, oil-packed — minced
* A tomatillo is also known as a Mexican Cherry tomato.
** Use a dash of onion juice instead of minced onions if preferred.
Lightly mix the first 10 ingredients together. Moisten with mayonnaise, using more or less as desired. Mound in 4 decorative serving dishes, sprinkle the minced green chilies and minced sundried tomatoes on top. Chill for 1 hour.
Serve with corn chips or crisp-fried tortillas as a light lunch.
Calico Salad
July 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Each Saturday I’ll post a free salad recipe from my new salad cookbook. It has over 365 recipes, so you can either buy it now or just hang around here for the next 6 years. LOL!
Calico Salad
1/2 cup Rapadura or Sucanat
1/2 each Green pepper — chopped
1/2 cup Salad oil
1 each Med. onion — chopped or sliced in rings
1/2 cup Vinegar
1 can Cut green beans
1 teaspoon Salt
1 can Red kidney beans
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
1 can Yellow wax beans
Wash and drain kidney, green, and wax beans. Add chopped pepper and onion. Mix sugar, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Pour over salad. Chill.
Natural Product Bargains Can Be Found
July 11, 2008 | 2 Comments
Every once in awhile a reader emails me to ask how to find bargains on natural products. The sometimes frustrating thing about using non toxic skin care and other products is that they’re more costly.
True enough.
Good stuff does cost more. But, if you’re a savvy shopper and willing to do a little digging, you can find bargains on natural products. Here are some tips on how to do that.
- Be alert to clearance bargains. In just the last week I’ve snagged some great deals on a couple of natural beauty products at my local Publix grocery store. Not exactly a health food co-op, it’s the closest grocery store to me (a 4 minute drive) so it’s the place where I do the bulk of my shopping. They always have a few shopping carts full of clearance items and I always check it out.
A couple of recent finds: Burt’s Bees Pomegranate Shampoo and Conditioner for $3 each (retails around $8 each). I bought several of these! I found Burt’s Bees lip gloss for $2 too.
Another find: California Baby Diaper Rash Cream for $3 each (normally retail at around $10). I don’t have a baby in diapers, so I plan on giving these away here sometime soon.
I’ve also snagged some Burt’s Bees lotions on clearance at CVS. There are always products being discontinued and such and since a lot of the more natural products don’t sell as well at larger drugstore chains, you can find them marked down occasionally.
- Check company websites. I am frequently able to print off valuable coupons for products I use regularly or want to try, just by visiting the company’s website. Sometimes you have to sign up for their newsletter, but that’s ok because then you’ll get more coupons straight to your inbox.
Ditto for grocery store websites. Again, Publix sends me their print magazine in the mail and today I got about 20 $1 off coupons for natural/organic items, including one for the Clorox GreenWorks line which I really like. So before you buy a product, take a minute to check out the website and see if they’re offering any coupons.
- Visit frugal/coupon/freebie websites. There are quite a few blogs I visit regularly to check out the freebie and coupon postings. Just to name a couple that have give me valuable info recently: Money Saving Mom, BeCentsAble and Freebies4Mom
I have these 3 on my RSS reader and check them daily. They all turn up some great deals, including this one: Walgreens Saturday event with Yes to Carrots coupons and freebies. It just so happens that I will be passing by Walgreens Saturday on my way to another errand so I am absolutely going to drop in and grab a free Yes to Carrots Lip Butter!
It was one of these sites that alerted me to free coupon booklets for organic products that were distributed several weeks ago in grocery stores and health food stores. I’m still using these up, and most of them for $1 off various organic food items.
- Check here. I post discount codes for online retailers like Amazon and other sites as often as I get wind of them. It seems that about once a month Amazon has a percentage off sale on organic and natural product lines.
Make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter because I send them out there too (enter your name and email in the box on the upper right hand corner of the site). I also get discount codes periodically from some of my guests who have ecommerce sites. In a few weeks I’m featuring a company that sells frozen organic baby food (they ship!) and they’re offering a freebie, so stay tuned for that.
- Contests and giveaways. Winning free stuff is cheap. You can sign up for newsletters like Ecobunga to get wind of the best giveaways and contests for natural and organic products all over the web.
So those are a few of my strategies. Of course, some of the best ways to save money are to minimize the number of products you use in the first place and make your own stuff as much as you can.
What are some of the ways you save money on natural/organic skin care and other products?
Quick and Easy Simple Dinner Recipes
July 8, 2008 | 1 Comment
A few days ago I asked you smart home economists to participate in an easy quick dinner recipe challenge. Here are your contributions.
Quick & Easy Simple Dinner Recipes
I’ll go first.
Fried Rice
I don’t know about you, but I find it nearly impossible to cook just the right amount of grains around here. It’s always too little or too much. If I have a ton of leftover rice for dinner one night, serving fried rice for lunch or dinner the next day is frugal, easy, and nutritious. It goes something like this:
In a large saute pan heat a little oil and saute chopped onion (green or white or yellow, doesn’t matter).
Add whatever veggies you like (diced carrot, diced onion, sliced celery, corn, peas, snow peas, really anything).
Add an egg and scramble among the veggies. Add diced leftover meat like ham, chicken, or tempeh or tofu if you swing that way.
When everything is hot, it’s ready. Serve with soy sauce. You’re done!
I love fried rice because you can literally have dinner on the table in about 10 minutes. So next time, go ahead and cook a double helping of rice and plan on having this the next day.
Now for Your Quick & Easy Dinner Ideas:
Amanda shared her Grilled Veggie Sandwiches - sounds delicious! I’m all for sandwiches for dinner
Annette posted one of her family’s favorites - Chicken Fajitas - yum, I love Mexican food.
LaTara wants us to try her Easy Cheesy Vegan Potatoes - umm… how can you go wrong with potatoes? Love them - cheap, filling and healthy.
And finally Cara suggested Tuna Casserole (I’ve only made this once and I loved it - and so did the kids, so I’ll definitely try it again).
Thanks everyone for playing. Let’s do this again, shall we?
The Meal Challenge; Should You Choose To Accept
July 2, 2008 | 4 Comments
I’m putting together a Blog Carnival of sorts in the upcoming week.
What I’m asking for are your:
Quick & Easy Dinner Recipes
(Simple recipes - ideally 5 Ingredients or less!)
I want to start a collection of super quick (20 minutes or less) dinners that don’t break the bank, are kid friendly and easy to throw together.
Oh and it needs to be healthy too of course! Meat, veggie, vegan, it doesn’t really matter to me. (Although, I don’t eat soy. So don’t suggest that please.)
Here’s where you come in:
* Post such a recipe on your blog and link back to this post.
* Leave a comment here and let me know you did such (and where).
* I will add the link to your recipe on a future post when everybody (who’s anybody!) has participated.
Deal?
Ok.
Here It Is: Smoothie Cookbook
July 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Smoothies are awesome. I don’t have to convince you of that because you’re probably already making smoothies all the time now for your self and your family. The fact that many people pay $4- $5 for a fancy smoothie testifies to that!
Smoothies are great because they’re:
- made from the most basic of ingredients
- take minutes to whip up
- can be endlessly customized for your needs
- taste delicious
- are very nutritious and can be chock full of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients
- an easy way to get said nutrients in your kids without them knowing.
Smoothies can even assist in weight loss efforts, help you have a more frugal kitchen, and of course improve your overall health.
Here is where the Simply Delicious and Nutritious Smoothie Cookbook comes in!
Here are just a few of the yummy recipes the ebook includes:
- Sweet and Sour Smoothie
- No Need for Pancakes Smoothie (I know you’re curious about this one!)
- Cheesecake in A Glass (great for those cravings!)
- You Could’ve Had a Smoothie (lots of veggies)
- Greener Side of Fruit Smoothie
- Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie
- Green Pineapple Paradise
- Raspberry Cream Smoothie
- Pineapple Banana Mama
44 smoothie recipes in all!
The ebook also has tips on: boosting your weight loss efforts by drinking smoothies, adding more nutrition (including sneaking health infusing ingredients that your kids may refuse otherwise!), and saving money with smoothies.
I am offering this recipe book as a “Thank You” special to my subscribers, listeners and blog readers. Once I launch this to the general public it will be priced higher.
You can get:
Just The Smoothie Recipes for $5
(That’s about the price of ONE of those fancy schmancy smoothies that have too much sugar anyway!)
- OR -
The best deal - my Ultimate 365 Salad Cookbook (named such because it has 365 salad recipes) along WITH the Smoothie Recipes for the super low price of:
Smoothies AND Salads for $11.97
The Salad Cookbook is $11.97 so you’re basically getting the Smoothie Recipes thrown in for FREE.
Sound good? Click one of the links above and get your cookbooks instantly.
P.S. As a customer of either of these cookbooks, you’ll also get lifetime updates for free! As I add more recipes I will release a new version once a year. You’ll get free access to these new improved versions.
Thanks so much for being a listener!
Salad Saturday!
June 14, 2008 | 3 Comments
Each Saturday I’ll post a free salad recipe from my new salad cookbook. It has over 365 recipes, so you can either buy it now or just hang around here for the next 6 years. LOL!
Broccoli Cauliflower Salad
1 bunch broccoli (separated into florets)
1 head cauliflower (separated into florets)
8 strips nitrite free natural bacon (fried and crumbled)
1/3 cup of chopped purple onion
1 cup chopped seeded tomatoes
1 cup natural mayonnaise
1/3 cup Sucanat or Rapadura
2 tablespoons vinegar
1. In a large salad bowl, combine the broccoli, cauliflower, bacon, onion and tomatoes. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, combine the mayonnaise, sugar and vinegar – mixing until smooth. Combine.
3. Just before serving, pour dressing over the salad and toss.
Good Yard Sale Day
June 13, 2008 | 2 Comments
Last Saturday my Mom and I headed to a town about half an hour from here in order to go Yard Sale shopping.
This part of town is well known for its awesome yard sales. I took the middle seats out of my van so I could fill it up, lol!
Yard sales are one of those things I do, like thrift store shopping, to save money and help the environment too.
Yard sale prices are generally even better than thrift stores, but they require more digging and more effort.
I am going to share my finds from about 4 hours spent yard sale-ing. At the end I’ll share how much I spent.
First, I’ll share some of my best yard sale tips.
- Start early. We head out at 7:30 because in this area, dealers come buy up good stuff from yard sales to sell at their stores. The early bird gets the worm… plus you can quit when it gets too hot.
- Bring small bills. Don’t make the host of the sale give you all their change. Bring lots of ones. These make it easier to bargain too. If you buy several items, you can ask if the seller will give you a deal. This will work much better if you take out what you’re willing to pay and start handing it to them.
- Don’t be afraid to dicker. Yard sale hosts are expecting it. Don’t be insulting though. If you buy something for .50, don’t ask if they’ll take a quarter. But if you’re buying several items that total, say, $7, ask if they’ll take 5. Sellers are more likely to dicker on the second day of their sale, and later in the day - they don’t want to pack it all up and take it back inside their home!
On to my finds.
For the girls:
6 Dressy Dresses - (These were the best find of the day, at $1 each.
More skirts, dresses and skirt/top outfits - most were .50 and $1 each set.
Casual shirt and skort sets (two of these had tags still on)
Casual separates: shirts, shorts (and a brand new bag with 10 pairs of boy’s undies)
For the Boys:
A Spiderman backpack (my 7 year old has been asking for one for months), two pairs of shorts and two pairs of pants, two pairs of dress shoes and a dress shirt.
Books books books! (Not all pictured - actually a large box full)
Also a new mouse pad with a cool gel thing for my wrist - I love it! Stationary and journals and notebooks for the girls (they go through these like crazy).
And finally,
For Mama:
Two new purses, 5 summer tops
Jewelry: Sexy leather choker, black beaded necklace, red beaded earrings, black earrings, red watch, more..
Some of the stuff I got isn’t pictured, like more of the clothes and a brand new IKEA Fisk hamper.
Guess how much I paid for all this great stuff?
$39.
Do you do yard sales?
 
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