Going for Not Broke

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