Going for Not Broke

As I'm sure is the case for most people this time of year, my schedule is very hectic for the next couple of weeks. Therefore, my next new post will be Jan. 2, 2013. In the meantime, feel free to browse through my other posts. "See" you all in 2013.

I've been looking for a tech toy for my daughter for a few months now, and yesterday, I stumbled across the InnoTab 2 Baby on Walmart.com. At $89, it's $10 cheaper than the regular InnoTab 2, but it's a Walmart exclusive, and yesterday, it was sold out online. The site also said that there weren't any available in stores in my area. So I tried Amazon.com, which had some through third-party sellers offering them at $125. Then, I learned through the website for Vtech, the manufacturer of the InnoTab, that they're sold exclusively through Walmart, which explains why the sellers on Amazon were third party. I thought I might be able to find one on eBay, but they were even higher than they were on Amazon. I still wanted my daughter to have the toy, but I didn't want to pay that much, especially since even $89 is higher than I'd like to pay. I figured that the people who were selling them, especially those selling them brand new, on eBay and Amazon had a f...

Back in September, I wrote about finding free podcasts , to which I listen when I'm walking for exercise or working on my beading projects. One of the ones I mentioned was "Tank Riot." I've since deleted my subscription to that one because it's very long; most episodes are close to three hours. And while it can be very interesting, the hosts kind of get off track several times during each episode. Their detours can be interesting, too, however, I'm more of a "make your point" kind of a listener. I found another, called "Who's Paying Attention?" hosted by Alonzo Bodden. I became a fan of Bodden's years ago when he was on "Last Comic Standing," but again, much like "Tank Riot," his podcast, while funny, is a little too rambling for my taste. I've only listened to a couple of episodes so far, and I plan to give it a little longer, but I think its time on my iPod is nearing an end. The good news is, there a...

A few days ago, I posted about our heating-and-air unit being on its last leg. The technician who came out thought that our electric panel had issues that made a new unit impossible until we had some major electrical work done. Well, an electrician came out to our house a few days ago and determined that our electricity is, in fact, up to code. As it turns out, our electric panel was just mislabeled. We will still have to shell out a few thousand dollars for the new heating-and-air unit, which won't be fun, but at least the whole project will not be as expensive as we had feared.

I still have not started actively working toward getting new freelance clients. I'm feeling a little frustrated at myself. Yesterday, my husband and daughter were both out of the house for a few hours, and it would've been a perfect time to get some work done. What did I do, though? I went back to sleep. In fairness to myself, the night before had been rather restless for all of us because our daughter's been sick and not sleeping well. But I still feel like I should be making myself get it done. I need a kick in the butt to get me going.

We got an estimate on a new heat-and-air unit earlier today. Turns out, whoever connected our current unit back in the 1970s took a few shortcuts. We cannot get a new unit without having some major electrical work done first. I really need to start making time for freelance work so that this home improvement project doesn't force us into bankruptcy.

Lately, I've been on a "buying" binge at MyCokeRewards. A few weeks ago, you could cash in your points for $5 gift cards to Domino's Pizza, so I got a few. Earlier this week, I got a $5 gift card to McDonald's, which should be arriving in six to eight weeks. Those, I believe, are still available. MCR is also planning to have other gift cards that members can buy with points through December 12, so there's still time for any interested readers to cash in their points, too.

As some readers may know, I decided to pull the cord on TV cable and get a Roku for streaming content. I have a subscription to Netflix and HuluPlus, and between the two, I've been able to watch MOST of the shows I'd like. What I can't get is CBS, and one of my favorite shows, "The Big Bang Theory," comes on that channel. I bought a digital antenna, but we haven't hooked it up yet. Hopefully, if HuluPlus never offers CBS, I'll be able to get the network via the antenna. We can also connect the computer to the TV to watch it that way, but that seems so time-consuming. I also have hopes that NokNok, a Roku channel still in beta form, might one day fill that void. I found out about it here . After I read the article, I was very excited to try it out, so as soon as I had the chance, I did. I was able to access NokNok, but not any of the content. On Monday, I tried it again. Good news! I was FINALLY able to access ABC and NBC content! Still no CBS, ...

Now that the most recent festival is out of the way, I'm going to start trying my hand at transcribing audio. I have the foot pedal for stopping audio; if it doesn't work out, I figure I can always sell it later. I still need to download the software to do it and find the sites that will give me a chance to practice. Hopefully, the work pays off and we'll be able to get some extra income in to pay down our debt. It looks like we're going to need a new heat/air unit sooner rather than later. We had hoped to limp it along for another year.

I took last week off from blogging to get ready for an arts & crafts festival. Had I known that the festival would have fewer than 50 attendees, I wouldn't have wasted so much time. I sold nothing, I earned nothing, and now I'm out $35 for a booth, $50 for gas, $25 for food and $53 for a hotel. Next year, I'm taking a pass on that festival.

I have a rather busy week this week, so I'm going to take a short vacation from blogging. My next new post will be Dec. 3. Have a good week, everyone!

I have an arts & crafts festival I plan to attend next week, so for this coming week, I'd like to spend all of my extra time working on my crafts projects. Hopefully, I can sell enough to make back the money I put into it. If not, that's OK, but I just won't sign up for any more arts & crafts festivals until I KNOW I have enough stock to make it work my time financially. After this coming week, I plan to shift focus to a different type of extra income. I'll start practicing transcribing audio. Hopefully, it works out, because the work does something like something I'd be interested in.

Have a great -- and safe -- time with family and friends today! I've checked all of the Black Friday preview ads for stores that might carry the items I'd like to buy, and none has them. So, I won't be venturing out for the Black Friday crush this year.

My husband recently read through a book that listed some interesting opportunities for extra income. One is limu.com , a site through which people can teach (or take) classes in a wide variety of subjects, or even offer tutoring. So, if any readers out there are handy with knitting or knows a lot about the history of Country music, or any other topic, they might be able to earn some extra income through the site. The other site is www.trialjuries.com . Through this site, lawyers can test out their case on real people. The people who sign up to review the cases can receive payment for their effort. The lawyers look for people from within their own districts, so I imagine that the opportunities to serve on one of the "trial juries" are few and far between unless you live in a big city, which I don't, so I'm going to pass on this one. I might offer some tutoring through Limu, though.

I've mentioned several times that one thing I'd like to start doing is unplugging the computer when I'm not using it. It's a habit I've been hoping to get into for months now, because I really think it would make a noticeable difference in our electric bill. Well, I go through spells where I remember. But quite often, I don't. And then, there are the times when  I get distracted while I'm working at the computer, so I walk away from it, leaving it on because I intend to come right back to it but don't. At these times, the computer winds up not only being plugged in when not in use, but even on and running. The monitor will fade out, but the computer is still drawing power. My husband, on the other hand, remembers to shut it down and cut the power to it most of the time he uses it. That makes me smile.

I don't know why, but I like buying kids meals for my daughter whenever we go out to eat at a fast food restaurant. When I was a little girl, I loved getting kids meals, but my mom and dad hardly ever bought them for us. Perhaps that's why I buy them for my daughter even when I know she's barely going to eat from it. She eats just the bun off of a burger or other sandwich, just the hot dog out of corn dogs, and she's yet to finish a serving of Arby's mac-n-cheese. (She does, however, eat Chicken McNuggets like they're going out of style.) All she does is make a mess. She's also usually too small for the toy and she's too young to read the box it came in and play any games. At her age, it's just a waste of money. I'm vowing now not to buy her another. She can just share my meals with me.

I've been a little under the weather, so this blog will return Monday.

I've been doing some more thinking about transcribing from home. It turns out, Scribie isn't the only site available, so the potential to earn more is there. I just need to decide whether I want to invest in the equipment (a foot pedal to start and stop audio) to practice getting faster to increase my per-hour earning potential. I feel a little stressed in trying to decide whether to pursue it. While I do have an interest in transcription, I'd also like to eventually open my own craft shop, first as a part-time gig, then eventually -- and hopefully -- to replace my full-time income. The snag is that every minute I spent practicing transcribing (and eventually working as a transcriber) could be time spent working on crafts. However, if I try transcription, find some success at it, it could replace the other major freelance site I use that has dried up as a resource for me. I could create some "pay-it-down" money for me right now, as opposed to maybe one day in ...

Being cold is a weak spot for me. When I was a little girl, my mom and dad kept the air conditioner set high in summer and the heater set low in winter. I can remember my sister and me sitting on our bedroom floor, stretching our shirts down over our legs to get a little extra warmth. (In retrospect, we probably would've been better off putting our robes on over our clothes, but it didn't ever occur to us to do so.) Years later when I had my own place, I cranked up the heater whenever I got cold. And make no mistake, I got -- and still get -- cold often. I kept the thermostat set at 81 degrees in winter because that was where I was most comfortable. And boy, did I pay for it when my electricity bill came. Nowadays, my husband and I keep it set around 67 degrees in winter. That's mostly his doing. If I lived alone, I don't think I'd be willing to pay the bill that comes with an 81-degree setting again, but I'd likely still have it set above 70, and I'm no...

Yesterday, I came across another online work-from-home opportunity that I thought was a possibility. It doesn't pay great, but my thinking was that it would be good for extra income to help me pay down my debt. The site is Scribie, and it does transcription work. For each 6 minutes of audiotape, it pays $1. The quicker I'd be able to work, the more I'd be able to make, but at that rate, the most I could make is $10 an hour. Knowing myself and my tendency to double-check myself a billion times, I'd probably do well to make $5 an hour. But, like I said, I was interested in it as side income, not as a full-time job, so I thought I'd give it a shot. So, today I went to check it out. According to the website, Scribie currently has more than 2,000 applicants still waiting to hear word on whether they've been approved for the site. In just 390 days, the site says, I should get word back on whether I've been approved. Believe it or not, I'm still conside...

Homemade Frozen Dinners I go through spells when I look for new recipes to try, but for now, I'm out of new ones. I've decided to just do regular posts on Friday. I'll do homemade frozen dinner topics whenever I try another recipe or find one I'm interested in trying, or when I have another homemade frozen-dinner related topic. I still welcome recipes from readers who also make their own frozen dinners. Feel free to email the recipe here . Black Friday Sales I've never, never, never thought I'd get out of the house for a Black Friday sale. It's far too much crazy for me. This year, though, I have a couple of gift ideas that are out of reach unless I can get a darn good deal on them. (I can't say what they are because they're for my husband, and he reads this blog.) So, for the first time, this year, I'm going to scour websites and fliers to see if maybe one of them might be on sale this year. Extra Income Next month, I will attend a craft...

Today was grocery shopping day. I picked up the items I can't get at Aldi at Neighborhood Market, then went on to Aldi for the rest. I love to see what extras Aldi has. I've seen metal shelves, grills, inflatable mattresses, etc., but the store rarely has the same extras from shopping trip to shopping trip. Today, I saw a toy kitchen I think my daughter would love for $30. Walmart has one very similar that's $34. It's not a significant savings, but every little bit helps. After I do my checkbook and see if I have anything left over, I might just run back to Aldi and pick up her first gift for this holiday season.

My husband and I started a college fund for our daughter over the past week. We've had some money set aside for her account for several months now, earning a whopping 0.1 percent interest in our traditional savings account, as I tried to decide which investment option was best for us. Ultimately, though, we just went with what the financial planner recommended because the amount of information out there is just too overwhelming for me. As we reviewed the funds that the financial planner had prepared for us, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much we can see, eg., specifically what companies our money would be invested in. My retirement account doesn't provide information that detailed. After seeing what's available, I thought I might try reading a book like "Investing for Dummies" so that I can get the basics of investing down. I'd like to take a more active role in our investments. I had hoped I could borrow the book for free on my Kindle from Amazon, ...

One day last week, I read a headline for a column my local paper runs called "Everyday Cheapskate" by Mary Hunt, which focuses on living within your means and paying down debt. The headline mentioned using "unflinching determination" to reach your goals. I didn't take the time to read the article, but I like the idea of "unflinching determination." I was able to think of those words a few times when I wanted to buy something that I didn't really need. It also propelled me to take a walk (getting fit is another goal of mine). But as often happens, the words lost their impact. Perhaps I can get back the "unflinching determination" I had for those few days if I wrote the words on a piece of paper and posted them in a place I see often.

I went to an arts-and-crafts festival in early October intending to sell some of my beadwork. The weather, though, was miserable, and the festival goers were few and far between. I froze for about four hours and sold nothing. At that time, I made plans to attend another festival at the end of November. I wanted to have a lot more stuff on hand for it because it’s farther away and a two-day event, which means a possible overnight stay. That means that in order to recoup what I put into the festival and to come out even a little bit ahead, I’ll have to earn quite a bit. I thought by now I’d have a lot more pieces made, but I don’t. As a matter of fact, I’m still working on the same bracelet I was working on when I went to the early October festival.  Therefore, I really need to make time for my beadwork. It’s tough, though. My goal between now and then is to commit two full hours of beading every day. That’s not much, but with a full-time job and a baby, it’s what I think I can r...

I buy frozen cooked veggies because they’re handy to toss into my homemade frozen dinners as a side dish for an entree. If I make chicken, I can just shake some frozen peas, carrots, green beans, corn, etc., into the food container with each individual serving. I’ve decided to quit buying prepackaged frozen veggies, though, because I can get more food for less money if I buy fresh vegetables instead. I’d like to be able to cut up and cook the veggies, then freeze them in a bag, so that just like with the store-bought packages, I can shake out what I need as I need it. The problem, though, is I don’t know how to keep them from freezing together, which they’ll do if I cook them in liquid. So, I decided to try a steamer. I thought that unlike with boiling them, they don’t get dunked in the water, so maybe they’ll remain loose when frozen. So, on my last trip to the grocery store, I bought some carrots, green beans and yellow squash, and I spent a chunk of Saturday cutting up veggies...

Our shower faucet has had a drip over the past few months; it's been slow enough that I didn't really think it would have much of an impact, if any, on our water bill at all. But before it got worse, my husband took it apart and stopped the drip. Our water bill this month is down nearly $5 from the months before. Turns out those tiny drips really do add up.

I had a rather hectic Monday and Tuesday morning, so I took an unplanned break from blogging yesterday. Hopefully, I can keep up with it better from here on out. But that's not the only thing that I've fallen behind on. To help us stay aware of where we are debt-wise, my husband and I have a meeting every month in which we both look at what we still owe and see how much progress (and sometimes, I must admit, it is anti-progress) we've made toward our goal to be debt-free. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for the first of the month, though sometimes we have it on the 3rd, or 6th or whenever, based on when we're able to gather up everything and jot down the necessary numbers. Well, tomorrow is the date of our next "meeting," and we've yet to meet in October yet. Oh well. I guess next month's will be a double meeting. Happy Halloween, everyone!

I have a subscription to Reader's Digest, thanks to a gift card for Amazon I got for my birthday, that's delivered once a month to my Kindle. In the November issue, there is a list of things to buy this time of year because they're generally cheaper. Among them is frozen vegetables. I don't think I've ever noticed seasonal price fluctuations in frozen veggies, but I am going to keep my eyes open for really good sales.

Yesterday at lunch at work, I had taken one of my Rubbermaid containers with enchilada casserole , a dish I've taken several times and has always turned out fine. Yesterday, though, it burned. It smelled of burned food, and the plastic on the underside of the container melted. I tossed both dish and food into the garbage. Because I've taken it several times with no problems, I doubt the container was to blame, so for now, I think the microwave is at fault. I'm very annoyed that my container was ruined.

Today is a grocery shopping day, and as I looked through the refrigerator to see what we have and what we don't, I noticed that the veggies I bought on my last shopping trip still sit on the shelves. My plan was to cut them up, cook them and freeze them for use later, but two weeks later, I've yet to make the time. Based on past experience, I think the carrots are probably still OK, but not the green beans or the yellow squash. They're both on my grocery list again; hopefully, this time I get them cut up and stored early. Otherwise, it's all just money down the drain.

Late yesterday evening, our modem died. It had been coming for a while, because on more than one occasion, our Internet would stop and we'd have to restart the modem. I had hoped to limp it along for a little bit longer. I needed an Internet connection to complete a freelance project I was working on, so I ran out to the only store open at the time, Wal-Mart, which had only one option in DSL modems. Because it was late and I was tired, I bought it, shelling out $100 for a modem/wireless router combo unit. Had I waited until this morning, I could've bought a modem by itself at either Target or Best Buy for less. I know Target has them for less than $50 because just a few hours before our old one died, I had priced one there. I don't know why I didn't just wait. I chalk it up to being very tired. On the plus side, though, our Internet seems a lot faster than it had been. I didn't realize it would make such a difference.

Our plan has been to cut the cable, but we put it off until after the final season of "The Closer" was complete. Well, that show the season ended, along with "Major Crimes," the new show that TNT started to replace it, and our cable was still connected. Just this morning, though, my husband made the call to get our cable disconnected. There definitely will be shows we'll miss -- "Haven" and "The Walking Dead" are among them -- but we won't miss the monthly payment. Not even a little bit.

Balancing motherhood with an extra effort to pay down debt can take its toll on how much housework I can get done sometimes. I don't know how some women do it. I've yet to get up early to work on some freelance work like I had planned , but if I do get up early over the next couple of days, I think I'm going to spend the time cleaning. My house is not a sty, but I do have a lot of papers to go through, an inch of dust over everything and floors that could use a good vacuuming and/or mopping. After I get these things out of the way, perhaps then I can concentrate on earning a little extra. I have, however, done a little work toward earning money; I sorted through some of my freelance opportunities. Just sorting earns me nothing, though.

The last couple of recipes I've featured here were both dishes I had not yet tried. Since then, though, I have, and I think they're both very good. Pizza Bake Post with recipe here . I didn't make this one exactly according to recipe because I thought I had the ingredients on hand but I did not. I was missing the egg noodles and the pizza sauce. I made do with 10 ounces of elbow macaroni instead, but I had no substitute for the pizza sauce so I ran to Dollar General to get some. DG didn't have any, though, so I bought the stuff to make my own. (One 15-ounce can of tomato sauce, one 6-ounce can of tomato paste, a dash of paprika and and a teaspoon of garlic. I had the garlic and paprika at home, so I needed to buy only the tomato stuff.) The pizza sauce recipe makes more than a jar of sauce holds, but what was leftover didn't seem to be worth saving, so I dumped it all in the recipe. Bottom line, I really liked it. It reheated well as a frozen dinner, and i...

On a recent trip to the grocery store, I reached for a package of shredded cheese, but then I wondered, "Can I save money by shredding it myself?" So I walked over to the bricks of cheese and noticed that yes, the price was better, so I loaded up because I had a lot of dishes that called for cheese on the menu for the next two weeks. The last time I went to the grocery store, though, I noticed that I didn't look closely enough. Sure, the price for a brick of cheese is less than buying a bag of cheese that is already shredded, but the price per ounce is better when you buy the shredded stuff. I don't understand the hows and whys of that, but at least I know to look a little more closely when I'm shopping next time.

I took a couple of days off from blogging, thanks to a hectic schedule and hopes of earning a little extra money for debt repayment. I did earn a little, which is nice. $16 and change so far, but I'm hoping to add to that. My plan to get up early before my daughter hasn't worked out so far, though. When she has a bad night, my husband and I do, too, and it's just too easy to stay in bed longer. It's something I need to do, though, not just to get work done, but to have time for exercising, too. (I really need to get in shape.)

My husband and I are both trying to lose weight, and in looking over the foods I've made so far for frozen dinners, I see we're eating a little too high carb. Therefore, for future meals, I'd like to make relatively low-carb foods only. If I do make an entree that is high carb, I plan to pair it with veggies and fruit. I am open to any ideas for low-carb freezable meals, too, so if any readers have a favorite recipe they'd like to pass along, feel free. You can either use the comment field below or email it here , and I'll share it with others.

I think that in some ways, paying off your debt can be like losing weight. For me, when I had 100 pounds to lose, losing just one or two didn't feel like a big deal. It took my losing at least 10 pounds before I felt like I could really accomplish my goal. Similarly, paying an extra $20 toward tens of thousands of dollars' worth in debt feels like too little to make much difference too. Seeing a big drop of say, $5,000, might help me feel like I can do this and therefore spur me on to do what's necessary each and every day. However, it's tough to make the kind of "go-get 'em" effort on my current income. So, I'd like to make more. Since early this year when one of my sources for freelance work dried up, I've been focusing a little more on my hobbies, writing and beading. Both can be sources of extra income if I could just find the time to work on either one steadily. It's tough when you have a baby. I am amazed that there are so many mothers ...

This week is another grocery shopping week, and I'm dreading it. I had at one point managed to get my grocery spending under $175 every two weeks, the last few trips have not gone that well. They've all totaled more than $200, not including any supplementary trips I needed to make later. I'm not really sure what I can do to cut it more at this point beyond rethink what we've been eating. Over the past few months, the price of ground beef has gone up quite a bit, and much of what we eat has ground beef in it. I had been buying the leanest beef available, but on my last grocery trip, I bought 90/10 meat. Perhaps we'll need to eat more chicken.

After a few months of year-over-year declines in our electric bill, it went up again. Once again, I've fallen out of the habit of cutting power to the home computers when we're not using them. I don't know what to do to make it routine, just like turning off the light at night or getting a cup of water for my bedside table. Hopefully, I can. I don't know how much doing so really trims from our power bill, but I know it's still better to cut where I can.

I spent much of last week working on beadwork to take to an arts and crafts festival. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but it didn't matter anyway. The unseasonably cold weather kept festival attendees from the event, and I sold nothing. *sigh* The good news is that I can still list them on Etsy and hopefully sell them that way. I intend to keep working on more this week but to also work on freelance writing projects. My husband and I have had one of those weeks in which it seems like at every turn, we have to spend money on something. Therefore, I hope to make some money in freelance work this week.

Here is another recipe I have not yet tried but will in the coming week. Like last week's recipe , this one comes from the Taste of Home Freezer Meals mini-magazine. I'll update with a photo and information on how well it reheats as a frozen dinner once I can. Pizza Noodle Bake 10 ounces uncooked egg noodles 1 1/2 pounds ground beef 1/2 cup finely chopped onion 1/4 cup chopped green pepper 1 jar (14 ounces) pizza sauce 4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese 4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese 1 package (3 1/2 ounces) sliced pepperoni 1. Cook noodles according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook the beef, onion and green pepper over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. 2. Add pizza sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Drain noodles. 3. In a greased 13-by-9-inch baking dish, layer half of the noodles, beef mixture, cheeses and pepperoni. Repeat layers. Cover and bake at 350 degr...

Being parents now, my husband and I have given some consideration to creating a college fund for our daughter. The numbers a friend of ours came up with stopped us in our tracks because it required making a $200 monthly payment into an account for our daughter. While we'd love to be able to do that for her, it's just not feasible, especially as we try to pay off our debt. What we had in mind was something we can contribute to on an irregular basis as we get extra money, such as if/when we get a tax refund or get some overtime. We've been hanging on to our initial investment for her college account for getting close to a year now. It's time to move on to something else, because the 0.1 percent annual rate it's earning in our regular savings account isn't going to help. All of the options out there are just so overwhelming.

For a few years now, I've had an idea for a small business. The idea is for a personal grocery shopper. For a fee, I would go to the grocery store for people, select items on their shopping list and deliver them right to their door. Normally when I'm kicking around this idea, I only get as far as thinking, "I wonder if it would work." I know similar businesses exist in other cities, so in some communities, it probably would work. I just don't know whether it would where I live. Yesterday though, I thought a little more of the logistics: Should I pay for the groceries upfront then have my clients reimburse me when I drop of their bags? If I do it that way, how can I guarantee that I'm not going to be stuck with a boatload of groceries I don't need because I get to their door and they don't have any money? How much would people around here pay for such a service? How would I charge, by the number of items they request? Would it be feasible to get two...

On Thursday last week, I made a hasty trip through Walmart to pick up items I can't buy at Aldi when I noticed a sign that said using a Walmart card at the Murphy Oil gas stations could net a 15 cents a gallon savings. Because I was breezing through the store on my way to drop my daughter off at daycare before I had to head to work, I just made a mental note to do a little more looking into it later. Well, I finally had the chance. The 15 cents a gallon saving lasts through Christmas Eve, and it's good only on a Walmart prepaid debit card or credit card. If the 15 cents a gallon were permanent, I'd consider getting the prepaid debit card. Because it's only temporary though, I've decided to try loading up Walmart gift cards instead, which gives a 10 cents a gallon savings at Murphy stations through Dec. 24. Hopefully, I'll make the time to fit it into my schedule because my car doesn't get the greatest gas mileage, and 10 cents a gallon could come in ha...

Back in the early 1990s, I landed my first full-time job at a newspaper. I used a Macintosh computer to build ads, and from there, my preference for Macs grew. I've owned PCs, mostly because they're easier on my pocketbook, but they get the job done too. I just like Macs better, so back in 2006, I bought one to use while I do freelance work. Now, it's 6 years old, a dinosaur in the tech world, so every now and then, I have to talk myself out of buying a new one; the old one does just fine -- for now. On Saturday, Woot had a good deal on a Macintosh computer -- roughly $250 cheaper than it would've been if it were being sold through Apple. It might've been refurbished -- I didn't hang around the site enough to see because the temptation to buy one for myself was pretty strong. It had the Lion operating system (mine has Snow Leopard) and more RAM than my current one. I told myself I'd go back to Woot at 10 p.m., and if the site wasn't sold out, I'd ...

This dish is from the Taste of Home Freezer Meals mini-magazine I mentioned in last Friday's post. It was submitted by a reader named Dorothy Wiedeman. I haven't tried it yet, but it's chock-full of ingredients my husband and I both like, so it's on my menu for the upcoming week. I'll post a photo soon. Layered Beef Casserole 6 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced 1 can (15.25 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained 1/2 cup chopped green pepper 1 cup chopped onion 2 cups sliced fresh carrots 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef (90 percent lean) 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce Salt and pepper to taste 1 cup shredded processed cheese (like Velveeta) In a greased 13-by-9-inch baking dish, layer the potatoes, corn, green pepper, onion and carrots. Crumble beef over vegetables. Pour tomato sauce over the top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for two hours or until meat is no longer pink and the dish reaches 160 degrees on a cooking the...

After much consideration, my husband and I have decided not to renew our Sam's Club card this year. When we first got it, we used it a lot, but not so much any more. I've been reluctant to get rid of our Sam's membership, though, because we could still fill up our gas tanks cheaper there. At least, that's what I thought. A couple of months ago, my husband and I both needed gas in our vehicles. I was on my way to drop our daughter off at day care, and he had to get to work early. We drove to our local Sam's -- which, by the way, is not en route to either the day care or where we work -- to get gas, and as we pulled into the lot, we knew we had chosen poorly. The line at each pump was super long. As we idled our engines waiting our turns, it occurred to me that the savings on fuel is not all that great. Gas at Sam's was 5 cents cheaper a gallon that day than it was at another station I passed. Because my car takes 16 gallons of gas, that means gas was only 80 ...

Yesterday, my husband and I stopped by Target to pick up a few needed items ahead of our bi-weekly grocery shopping trip. Every time I shop at Target, I get the same offer from the cashier: “Would you like to save an extra 5 percent and apply for a Target REDcard?” Just in case he/she forgets to ask, each check-out line sports an advertisement for the card. Because I don’t want to accrue any more debt, in the past, I’ve given neither the signs nor the cashier’s question much thought. But yesterday, I noticed something on the sign I hadn’t before: REDcards can be credit cards or debit cards. I have no interest in a credit card, but depending on the terms, a debit card that gives me a 5 percent discount on all purchases at Target might come in handy. I didn’t want to hold up the line asking the cashier questions, so when she asked whether I wanted a REDcard, I said no. When I had a chance later, I went to the company website to see if the card’s for me. My answer: Probably no...

that there are so many free podcasts that fit my interest. When I first got an iPod, I put music on it only, until a co-worker pointed me in the direction of one podcast I like, "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me," which is a news quiz show from NPR. I like that it makes me laugh. The co-worker also mentioned "This American Life," which holds my interest sometimes. On my own, I found "Selected Shorts," which, like "This American Life," is hit and miss with me. Lately, I've been listening to podcasts a lot more often, both as my husband and I work on home improvement projects and as I've been trying to get more beadwork done so that I can (hopefully) sell it on Etsy. As a result, I now have more listening time than I have podcasts. First, I looked for podcasts that were humorous. I found I had trouble finding any that fit my humor and didn't annoy me by using f-bombs in every sentence. (That just seems so high school to me.) ...

One of my hopes for making a little extra money is to see some of my handmade crafts on Etsy. I have a few items I'd like to list -- a couple of bracelets -- but the beads on them are so small that I'm having trouble getting decent photos of them. Hopefully, I'll have something usable by the end of the week.

I can be a sucker for magazines when I'm in the checkout line at Dollar General. I never buy magazines at any other store, but for some reason, I can't seem to leave Dollar General without one. One day last week, I saw a Taste of Home magazine called "Freezer Meals" in the racks, and before I knew it, I had it in my hands to purchase. I haven't had a chance to go through it yet, but I hope to find quite a few options for my homemade frozen dinners, because I feel like I've gotten stuck in a rut. We most often have stew. I also welcome any ideas from readers who also make their own frozen dinners, and I'd be glad to post their contributions here for others to read as well. Just email them here . (P.S. Be sure to include how long you reheat the dish in a microwave.)

Back in July, I posted  about the possibility of earning extra money by selling photos. Well, I've found I'm really not much of a photographer. I haven't submitted anything yet, but I also haven't taken a photo of anything yet that I think the photo database websites would be interested in using. Perhaps getting a book or two on photography from the public library would come in handy.

When buying gifts, whether for the holidays or birthdays, I like to find a good sale then buy a bunch at once. A little over a week ago, I got a circular from Kohl's for 30 percent off of everything starting Sept. 12 and ending about a week later. I used it to buy six birthday presents for friends and family and a couple of clothing items for my husband, my daughter and me. (My husband and I could use some new clothes; the clothes for my daughter were just because I felt a little bad buying something for my husband and me but nothing for her.) I bought $155 worth, and the 30 percent off took off $47. In addition to that, I got $20 in Kohl's cash, which I'll use to buy a Christmas gift or two. The downside: To get the savings, I had to use my Kohl's charge card. I'll make an equal payment to the card right away when I get paid for freelance work later this week, but it always makes me nervous adding that much to my card. What if something breaks and I need my f...

We were able to get quite a bit of work done on our house last week, but nowhere near as much as I had hoped. We spent very little out of pocket, shelling out about $50 for paint and painting supplies. Everything else we were able to get with a gift card for less than $25.

I bought my daughter some fruit snacks made by Gerber the last time I went shopping. My little girl loves them, but there are only five in the package. She went through three in one day. Had I known they would go that quickly and there were only five in the package, I wouldn't have bought them. I'm glad she likes them, though. I like to see her eat fruit.

(Sorry, folks, no photo this week. I'll post one as soon as I can.) This is another of my husband's favorite dishes. I found the original recipe in an old issue of Cooking Light magazine a few months ago and modified it, eliminating ingredients my husband wouldn't like and bumping up the quantity of the ingredients he DOES like to keep the dish filling. (In short, I doubt that the recipe as I make it would qualify as "light.") Enchilada Casserole 1 pound ground beef 1 package of taco seasoning 2 (15 ounce) cans of black beans, rinsed and drained 2 cups of shredded reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend 4 (8 inch) flour tortillas Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brown the beef in a large skillet. Add taco seasoning according to package instructions. Stir in beans. Spray a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with no-stick spray. Arrange two tortillas on the bottom of the dish to cover the bottom as much as possible. Cover the tortillas with 1/2 of the ground b...

My husband and I had another work-filled day yesterday. It feels good to make progress on the home projects that have been in limbo for quite some time now. We made another supply run, getting a few wall patches and an electrical box for a ceiling fan we're going to install. Thankfully, we were able to pay for all of those supplies with a Home Depot gift card we have had for a while.

The building supply salvage store didn't pan out as a good place to buy paint. It has paint, but our choices were salmon (orangish pink) and terra cotta (an even orangier pink). Because the paint is going in my husband's home office, neither choice would do. However, the prices were definitely good. A 5 gallon bucket of paint was only $29.95. The store didn't have any interior paint in a smaller quantity, though. We wound up going to Walmart to see what options it has. I was surprised we were able to buy flat paint for $10 a gallon. Not too bad. Hopefully, any other supplies we need this week will be inexpensive, too.

The consignment sale has now passed, so I went online to check my total. My husband and I should be getting a check for $37. It's not as much as I had hoped, but extra cash is extra cash. That $37 will go on a credit card, so it will be $37 less we're paying interest on.

Well, my week off has arrived, as I thought, the delay in the freelance project I was working on means I don't have extra cash on hand right now for our home improvement list. Therefore, I plan to buy as we go along, which will save me from overbuying. For today at least, we shouldn't need to buy anything. My agenda calls for clearing out a bedroom, removing border paper and filling in holes in the walls to prep for painting -- all projects for which I have the supplies already. Hopefully, tomorrow we'll be painting, and then the buying starts.

Unlike the other foods I've listed so far, this one takes a while to make and I've never actually frozen this. I make it one day, eat some, then have the rest over the course of my next lunches and/or dinners, so I've never had leftovers around long enough to make freezing necessary. I'll try freezing it in the future then update this post. Below is the crust recipe as I make it, but it's based on one from AllRecipes.com. To see the original recipe, click here . Ingredients 1 teaspoon of white sugar 2 1/4 teaspoon (or one small packet) active dry yeast 1 1/2 cups warm water 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 teaspoon salt 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour Directions In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top. Let stand until foamy (about 10 minutes). Stir in the olive oil and salt. Mix in 3 cups of the whole wheat flour until the dough starts to stick together. Tip dough out onto a surface coated with the remaining flour, and knead...

I've been fighting the urge to buy for the past few days. I've found myself searching online for the following: A dishwasher. We have one, but it's old, noisy and unreliable, so I've been doing them by hand ever since we moved in. Until my daughter was born, that worked fine. Now, though, I feel like I just finish them, and within hours it needs to be done again. As I stood in the kitchen this morning looking at the dishes that have accumulated, I found myself thinking, "Boy, it sure would be nice if the dishwasher worked." A free-standing pantry. My kitchen is small and my cupboards are full. Therefore, I have a few appliances, such as a bread maker, that are stored on the countertop. I don't know that we have enough items to put in an extra pantry to justify the expense, but it sure would be nice to have some more counter space. Birthday and Christmas gifts. Five or six years ago, I would be out with other last-minute shoppers on Dec. 24. Over the p...

We recently received our latest electric bill, and unlike last month,  our year-over-year comparison doesn't look so good. Last year, we were bill $145 and some change for mid-July through mid-August. This year, we were billed $151. The good news is that our usage is down by nearly 100 kwh, so that means that this uptick in our electric bill is likely due to a rate hike (I can never figure out how we're billed). However, little by little over the past month, I've gotten away from turning off the power switch to the desktop computer and unplugging the laptop when we're not using it. If I can make these actions a habit, hopefully our year-over-year bills will be lower, regardless of what the utility company does.

On Friday when my husband and I were dropping off items for the consignment sale, I drove past a place I haven't thought of in years. Back when I was a teenager, my mom used to get home improvement supplies from a store that sells salvage building materials. Amid moulding, beams, 2-by-4s and wall board, the store used to have wallpaper and carpeting too. It occurred to me as we drove by that I could check there to see if they have paint and other items we need for our weeklong plan to whip our house into shape. I want to get an idea of how much paint is at Walmart, Home Depot and Lowe's first, so I know if the salvage store's prices are really cheaper.

Since Thursday, I've finished a freelance project, finished getting stuff ready for the consignment sale, got most of the for-sale items dropped off, and I chopped, cooked and froze a bunch of fruits and veggies so they wouldn't spoil. I had hoped to get some frozen dinners made and put away as well, but hopefully I can tackle that today. I thought about gathering up the items for the consignment sale that my husband and I forgot to take with us, but I think I'll just plan to stick them in the next sale. I also need to bill my client for the freelance work I did; hopefully, I'll get my check before I need it to buy paint, but I'm not holding my breath. I'd rather not take the funds out of savings, but I will before I'll charge it.

In an effort to save money, I've been making my own frozen dinners by making foods in bulk. Here are the links to my past posts. This list will update often. Recipes Eggs and taters Hamburger stew Macaroni and cheese (version 1) Related posts Rubbermaid entrée trays Up & Up entrée trays Precooked chicken and veggies

As the picture shows, I pair this with frozen veggies to make the overall meal a little healthier. This recipe came from allrecipes.com. (The direct link to it is here .) First I will list the recipe exactly, then I'll show how I altered it (only partly on purpose). Baked Macaroni & Cheese 2 1/2 cups elbow macaroni 1/4 cup butter 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 4 cups milk 1 pound shredded cheddar cheese 1/4 cup butter, melted 1 sleeve buttery round crackers, crushed Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill a large pot with lightly salted water, and bring to a boil. Stir in the macaroni, and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally until the pasta has cooked through but is still firm (about 8 minutes.) Drain well. Combine 1/4 cup butter, flour, milk, salt and cheddar cheese in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir until the cheese is melted and the mixture thickens (7 to 10 minutes). Add the macaroni, and stir to coat. Pour the macaroni and cheese sauce mixture i...

I just completed a large freelance job. I had hoped to get paid for it before my week of home improvement projects arrives in a couple of weeks, but because I got a later start on it than normal, whether that happens is iffy right now. I hope to complete some additional, but much smaller, projects between now and then. Otherwise, I may be relying solely on overtime money from my full-time job, which isn't enough. If that's the case, I will have to scale down my want list.

Since my pregnancy, I've had a problem with my weight. It started during the pregnancy, then accelerated while I was on maternity leave. Now, despite going on a new diet practically every week, I haven't made much headway in getting the weight back off at all. During maternity leave, I had bought three or four winter shirts for when I went back to work. At the time I bought them, they fit, but by the time I went back to work, they were snug. Now, I am determined to get into them this winter. It would be cheaper than buying new clothes, and let's face it, being at a healthy weight typically means fewer trips to the doctor and fewer co-pays. Winter shirts collecting dust in my closet, here I come.

I've mentioned in past posts that my home computer is old (technology wise), which, I think will start affecting my ability to do freelance work before long. I have upgraded it some, but I can't any more without rendering my current desktop publishing software (Adobe Creative Suite 2) unusable. Upgrading my CS to version 3 or 4 would cost as much as the freelance client I use it for pays me in a year. Upgrading to the current version, 5.5, is totally out of reach without some new clients to make it practical. After doing some online searches, though, I found a free open source program that I'd like to give a try. It's called Scribus. So far, all I've done is download it and do some minor exploring, and it looks rather different than the Adobe software I'm used to, but I'm willing to give it a shot. If it can perform as I need, I will be able to further upgrade my home computer and use Scribus instead of Adobe. I've got my fingers crossed. Next on m...

One of my good friends gave my husband and I her children's high chair once her youngest outgrew it. And it has been great not having to buy one ourselves. However, my daughter is the third child to use it, and because babies can be messy, its cover has been washed a few too many times. I had hoped I could find a replacement cover on the manufacturer's website or somewhere else online, but the best I could do was order a handmade one on Etsy. The sellers charge a little more than I'd like to pay, but it would still be cheaper than buying a whole new chair. (One of the Etsy sellers, though, has hers priced high enough that I'd buy a new chair before I'd pay that much for just the cover. Don't get me wrong, I know how much work goes into handmade items and her covers are adorable and worth the money, but for someone in my financial situation, high chair covers are functional, not fashion statements.)

Readers who stopped by this blog  Monday  know that I got a free rotisserie chicken at Sam's Club on Sunday (a very nice surprise.) Here's where the chicken is now: I took the meat off the bones,  tore it into chunks, boiled some veggies in chicken broth, then put chicken chunks, veggies and broth into some of my frozen dinner containers. I poured the broth over the entire dish because in the past when I've microwaved chicken to reheat it, it's been tough and dry. I've never tried adding broth to it before to keep it tender. Hopefully it works. If any readers have their own tips about how to keep chicken from getting too dry and tough during microwaving, please feel free to share them in the comments field.

Back in June, I signed up for GoDaddy's data storage service, thinking it would be a good replacement for Apple's iDisk, which Apple discontinued on June 30. It turns out, it didn't work as I had hoped so it won't do. Here's why I liked the iDisk: I paid for the service, and in turn, I got access to X amount of online data storage (I no longer remember how much) that was automatically divided into several folders, one of which was labeled "Public." I had the option to password protect the public folder, which I did. Then, I could send a link to whomever I wanted to allow access to the folder. The recipients could then login from anywhere, whether they use a PC or a Mac, and both download and upload files and folders. They could see and access anything within that folder. This allowed me as a part-time freelancer to move files back and forth between myself and my clients, without requiring them to buy or sign up for anything themselves. Als...

My husband's birthday was back in April, but his mother recently brought him a late present that includes a stack of books on money-saving ideas. In just flipping through one of them, I saw a few tips I've known about for years, such as you can watch some TV shows for free online via Hulu. I suspect that any idea I would try, I already know about, but I'm willing to give them a chance to wow me. I'll still go through them to look for new ideas to try and let readers here know if they work and how well they work.

We've had a crazy last couple of weeks. My daughter, my husband and I have all been sick, with my daughter getting the worst of it. We've been short staffed at work, I've had a freelance project to get done and my daughter turned a year old. Amid all of the extra running around, we've spent some extra money: I wasn't able to shop during Aldi's store hours, so I wound up doing all of our grocery shopping at Walmart, which costs more. We've had a lot more meals on the go (fast food). Hopefully, everything goes back to normal for a while. At first, the frozen dinners I had stored in the freezer served as not only work lunches but also as home meals -- until I started running low on them; that's when we started eating out more. Having the stockpile, then, worked to our advantage. I just need to find a way to keep a bunch of them handy even when things get crazy. I don't know how to avoid having to do all of my grocery shopping at Walmart, thou...

Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated our daughter's first birthday by taking her to the park and letting her swing. It started raining on us, though, so we headed to the mall so she could try out its play area, then we had a little pizza for dinner. Afterward, we stopped by Sam's Club to buy gas and some trash bags. It was close to closing time when we left, and on our way out the door, one of the workers asked us if we'd like a free chicken. Apparently, about 20 of the rotisserie chickens had reached their sell-by date, so the store was giving them away for free. I think it's wonderful the store did that! Of course, I took one. Years ago, my mom worked at a senior center as a cook. She and the two other workers there cooked up meals for the elderly. If there were any leftovers, they were required to throw it away. I think that's just insane. I figure the management probably didn't want the workers to intentionally make extra every day so they could take s...

It was a splurge, I know, but I decided to replace a few of my old frozen dinner entree trays with these. The old ones, made by Target's Up & Up brand, were OK but thin. The plastic seemed to have some minor bubbling in a few of them, so I decided to see if I could find something thicker. These, made by Rubbermaid, are sturdier but pricier. I don't know how well they'll hold up compared to the Up & Up ones, but just based on thickness, I think they're a good choice.

Not too long ago, I'd buy a 5 to 10 pound bag of potatoes and other produce items every time I went grocery shopping, and by the end of the two weeks between grocery trips, more than half of the package would be spoiled. I hate wasting food, but I also didn't want to have to drive to the store every few days to buy more produce. Is it really cost effective to buy fewer produce items at a higher price several times as opposed to buying them in bulk and losing half the package? I don't know. I have tried "green" bags, which are supposed to keep veggies from spoiling so quickly. Either I didn't use them right or they don't work because I didn't notice any difference in how quickly my produce spoiled. These days, though, I try to schedule a cutting session during which I peel and shred as many veggies as I can, chop them up and freeze them for use as needed. This works great for onions, carrots and bell peppers but not so well for potatoes, whi...

Sorry, folks, a little later than usual posting today. I have several nephews who are in to sports, and when I can, I like to go watch them play. I also get a kick out of reading about them in the local paper. My subscription expired back in April, but by then, my nephews were done with all of their sports. I decided to let it lapse and thought I'd be fine without it. Now that the school year is starting up again and football season is right around the corner, I couldn't help myself. I spent another $29 to renew it for a year. I decided that it's worth the expense to me. However, now I have to offset the cost in my budget.

This is another grocery week for us. Last time, we went overbudget to the tune of $60. Wow! I haven't done that since I was doing the bulk of our shopping at Walmart. I keep hearing how the drought is supposed to start driving food prices up; I don't know if the increased cost last time was at least partly to blame on higher prices or if something else was to blame, such as running out of a lot of high-dollar grocery items -- laundry soap, other cleansers, toilet paper, etc. -- at the same time. Hopefully, this week goes a lot better, but perhaps I'll start hanging on to my receipts so that I can know exactly why we might have future bill surges and may be able to predict and offset them so that I don't have to take from another budgeted item to make up the shortfall.

Last week , I said I didn't really get a whole lot of tips from watching shows like "Princess" and "Til Debt Do Us Part," but this past Saturday, I think I did. I'm sure host Gail Vaz-Oxlade has asked the people she's helping to set goals and create a plan for what they want to do, but perhaps I've never noticed until the most recent show. Therefore, that's what I'd like to do. Set goals -- beyond just a vague have it paid off by the time my daughter starts school -- and develop a plan for how to get there.

Another simple but hearty dish to turn into frozen dinners. (I hardly ever make anything that's complex. I have a lot of admiration for women who work full time, take care of their children, yet still find the time to spend an hour or so in the kitchen.) Hamburger Stew 2 pounds of lean ground beef (or ground turkey) 3 cups of chopped carrots* 2 pounds of potatoes, cubed* 4 cups of beef broth 1 tablespoon of tomato paste Salt and pepper to taste 1 small can of peas Brown the beef. Add the carrots, potatoes, broth, salt and pepper. Heat to a rolling boil, and allow to cook until the vegetables are tender and the broth has boiled down to below the top of the veggies and beef. (I like my stews thick.) Add the tomato paste and the peas. Let simmer for about 5 more minutes. This dish makes about 10 frozen dinners at 1.5 cups each. Reheating Microwave for 4 minutes on high. How is it as a frozen dinner? As expected from stews and soups, it reheats very well. Ot...

One money-spending habit I've been reluctant to give up is dine-out Fridays, which is basically just what it sounds like. Each Friday -- for years now -- my husband and I have dined out rather than sit in the breakroom and have sack lunches. Fridays can be rather hectic days, and getting out of the building just seems like more of a break to me than sitting in the breakroom. Over the past week, I've been thinking about cutting it back to just one Friday a month, because each time my husband and I go out to eat like that, it costs us roughly $25, or $100 a month that could be going toward bills. Add to that the fact that my husband and I both need to lose weight, and dining on a more nutritious meal that I can control the ingredients in just seems to make more sense. I've pretty much decided that tomorrow will be our last dine-out Friday until September. Hopefully we can stick to that, because an extra $75 in our pockets each month can go a long, long way.

I've worked a little overtime this week, which will help with buying supplies to fix our house. When I was younger, I loved working overtime and getting a bigger check. These days, I'd really rather stay home and be a mom. However, I just keep telling myself that by going in on my day off, I'm helping my daughter, too. It reminds me of my husband: Last year, I spent seven weeks on maternity leave while he had to go back within two weeks of our daughter's birth. During those weeks when I was off and he wasn't, he, too, was feeling very much like he would rather stay home. To remind himself of why he was going, he clipped a photo of me holding our baby in the hospital in the days after her birth, and put it on the viser of his truck. Family can be a great motivator.

Few things inspire me more to do the work to get my debt paid off than seeing other people do the same thing. Sometimes on Saturday nights, I get a dose of inspiration through watching a show called "Princess" on CNBC. The premise of the show is that a woman who spends like there is no tomorrow gets a series of challenges designed to get her on track financially from Gail Vaz-Oxlade, a financial expert. I've seen Vaz-Oxlade in a similar series called "Til Debt Do Us Part," in which she helps couples do the same. I can't say I really get tips from the shows, but it does help to see others who owe large debt start feeling empowered to take control of it.

A few years ago, I read that knowing where you stand financially will go a long way in helping you pay down your debt. After that, my husband and I started having a mini-meeting at the end of every month during which we look at what we owe. My thinking is that maybe seeing the total number would spur us to focus more on paying it down. We've seen a decrease every year since we've been doing that, though not as much as I would hope. Since our daughter was born, the meetings have been more and more spaced out until we wound up skipping them altogether from April until just yesterday, when finally, we sat down to get another glimpse of it. Over the past few months when we haven't been looking at it, we haven't done as well. I think in our case, it really helps to keep abreast of where we are. Because we made the time to look at it yesterday, I'm hoping we continue doing so from here on out.

Here's my first recipe offering. It's very simple, which is what I look for. I welcome suggestions from readers as well. It's loosely based on one of my favorite frozen dinners made by Smart Ones. Eggs and Taters (Make 6 frozen dinner) 2 pounds of potatoes* 2 cartons of egg substitute Salt and pepper to taste 1/2 cups shredded cheddar Cooking spray Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel potatoes, and cut into cubes. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange potato cubes in a single layer on cookie sheet. Put the potatoes in the oven and set a timer for 20 minutes. When the timer goes off, flip the potatoes with a spatula, but allow them to continue cooking while you cook the eggs. Pour both cartons of egg substitute in a bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir. Spray a large skillet with cooking spray and heat to medium temperature. Pour in egg mixture, and stir occasionally until all liquid is solid. Remove potatoes from oven. Divide eggs into...

As I mentioned in a previous post , I have a week off coming up, during which I'd like to get through quite a few home improvement projects. To make that week as productive as possible, I'd like to spend time between now and then getting some of the prep work out of the way. I also need to work on a freelance project due around the middle of the month, plus I'd like to spend time on other less-pressing freelance endeavors to earn more money so that we can pay for the home improvement supplies without whipping out the charge cards. Add to that the upcoming consignment sale, which I need to prepare for by going through my daughter's clothes and pricing them. Oh yeah, I also have regular household chores to do. I don't know how I'm going to manage to do all of the above between now and then, but I do have a plan, of sorts. Each Sunday, I plan to make myself a list of daily tasks for the coming week. I hope that will keep me on track and help me to keep my wis...

I've been noticing over the past few months that I found fewer and fewer coupons that I can use. I attribute this to a couple of things: With the exception of just a couple of grocery trips, I've been doing the bulk of our grocery shopping at Aldi, which doesn't accept coupons. Because I've been trying to cook more and in bulk, I've been buying more ingredients and fewer prepackaged foods. Coupons still come in handy for things like makeup, hair coloring and baby products, so I still look through the fliers every Sunday when I get my paper. However, most weeks, I don't find anything at all to clip. The good news is, though, that we're paying less for groceries anyway. I am a big fan of Aldi.

I've taken a week off in September to finish some home improvement projects that have been in progress for far too long. My challenge between now and then will be to both set aside and earn enough to buy the supplies without having to charge anything. Our biggest expense will be paint. We've got to paint our living room ceiling, living room, kitchen, two bedrooms and one bathroom to have our home "finished." Hopefully we'll be able to get that far with it, but my fear is we'll need longer than a week to complete it all because several walls need to be repaired in places first. I've got a freelance project in progress right now that will give us the bulk of what we'll need, but I don't think it will cover everything. Plus, I have to make sure I don't spend any of it between now and then on "wants."

I've registered to be a consigner at the upcoming consignment sale . I have about a month to get everything ready and to decide what's going and what's staying. It really has amazed me how quickly my daughter has outgrown her clothes and even some of her toys.

Starting today, each Friday I'd like to talk about the homemade frozen dinners I've been making. Some weeks I'll give recipes and reviews of how they fared as a frozen entree and other weeks it might be on a related topic. This week, I'd like to showcase the storage containers I bought. They are made by Target (the chain's Up & Up brand). They came in multi-packs (I think there were four in each, maybe five) for less than $2. I love the price, and I  like their shape, because its similar to that of the dishes in store-bought frozen dinners. So far, they've worked out pretty well, although I've since read some reviews online that say that they don't hold up well in a dishwasher. (We have one, but it doesn't work well so I do all of my dishes by hand.) What I personally don't like about them is a problem I anticipated: Once you put something with tomato sauce in them, they are permanently stained red (as you can see in this photo). ...

I cashed in a bunch of my My Coke Rewards points. I got a bookmark with picture frames in it that we'll give as gift to one of our daughter's grandmas, though I'm not sure which yet. I also bought a couple of extras for myself, a light that I can use while I'm beading and a steamer for healthier cooking. My Rewards Points are at a very low level right now, but I'm hoping that I can build them up and that a few more items that would be good for gifts might become available between now and the holidays. For the past few years, I've been trying to get as much shopping done early as possible, which means I'm typically done before Black Friday, but it's worth it to me to beat the crowds.

The last time my husband and I had a garage sale, it went very well. It was in a parking lot of a local church, held in conjunction with about 10 other families. We came out with a couple hundred dollars in our pocket, but it was hot and a very long day, and we decided that was our last. Luckily, though, my sister-in-law gave me a heads-up on an opportunity to unload some of the baby items and clothes my daughter has outgrown. (I am just amazed at how quickly she outgrows things!) Hopefully, I can get everything rounded up in time and make a few bucks (which will likely go toward more things for her.) I've thought of taking stuff to consignment stores before, but when I look at my own clothes, I can't think that anyone would want to buy them. Baby clothes, though, should sell pretty good. I just need to make the time to go through it all.

As I mentioned in last Friday's post , our electric bill has been less than it was a year ago since February.  After reading about it, my husband asked if the difference each month was about the same, so I got curious about the same thing and what the overall total difference is: February 2011: $167.67 February 2012: $154.66 Difference: $13.01 March 2011: $110.34 March 2012: $105.50 Difference: $4.84 April 2011: $99.56 April 2012: $65.46 Difference: $34.10 May 2011: $125.07 May 2012: $71.08 Difference: $53.99 June 2011: $128.07 June 2012: $113.97 Difference: $14.10 July 2011: $144.71 July 2012: $129.16 Difference: $15.58 Year-over-year difference so far: $135.62. I realize that the bulk of the difference could be attributed to a number of variable -- the weather this year compared to last, the rate the electric company is charging us, etc. But, because it is consistently lower, I think the changes we've made do factor in some. I feel good!

Because I worked a few extra shifts recently, my check was a higher than usual. I haven't seen a whole lot of overtime since I had my daughter -- maybe an hour here or an hour there -- so it's nice to have a little extra on my check. It allows me to send an extra $175 to one of my credit cards. It's too bad I don't get that kind of extra on every check.

But I was still hoping that our electricity bill would drop a little this month. Our billed amount, however, is $129 and some change, higher than last month's $114. To try to keep this in perspective, though, I scrolled back through my older bills. Last year for the same time period, we were billed $144 for our electricity, $15 more than our current bill. As a matter of fact, I can see that we've had a year-over-year improvement for every month since February, which is when I started trying to focus on paying less. Maybe the changes we've been trying to make have been helping more than I realize. It's not as much as I had hoped, but that means we're still better off than if we'd made no changes at all. Just recap for new readers what those changes are, my husband and I have: Unplugged the landline phone, which was cordless and required an electrical charger. Unplugged the answering machine. Without a landline phone, this was no longer necessary. Switc...