Going for Not Broke

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.