We got snookered.

Oops! I'm sorry when I first posted this some how the first 2 paragraphs were deleted. Here's the whole story! :-)



For a long time mom and I have seen this stuff called TIPS on QVC. It's a nail oil that is supposed to make your nails really strong. The lady is always demonstrating how she can chip wood off with her fingernails and how she can bend them straight down and they don't break.

It's always sold out and has great reviews! We have both had problems with our fingernails breaking and we were really curious if it would help.

Well, mom and I wanted to try it so I got some for her for her birthday last week.

We get the stuff and it's two tiny bottles and a file for $30. There's maybe 2 teaspoons of oil in there.

The first time I go to use it, I see the ingredients on the back. The first one is soybean oil, the 2nd is fragrance and 3-5 was some weird long names and then it said "other ingredients". I knew that they have to post the order of the ingredients by the amount that is in there.

I knew what soybean oil and fragrance were so I looked up the long names and they are just preservatives!! Augh! I paid $30 for 4 tsp. of soybean oil which I can get at Aldis for .79 for 64 oz. (aka Vegetable oil)

We figured out that it's the fact that she just keeps her nails moisturized so they don't break as much. I will get an old nail polish bottle, clean it out and put some oil in there and do that instead and see if it works.


Oh well live and learn.

Tawra (hanging her head in shame. :-)

Gatorade Replacement

Wow! We got some very fast responses to our Gatorade replacement question on the newsletter. Thank you all for all the responses. Here they are. If anyone likes one better than the others let me know please. Thanks!

Tawra
http://www.LivingOnADime.com/



Cheryl G. sent in this one.

2 quarts water

1-teaspoon baking soda

1-2 teaspoon salt ( I use Sea Salt)

7 Tablespoons sugar

1 packet Sugar-Free Kool-Aid



From Barb
In response to the homemade Gatorade request, I post the following. I have always found that sports drinks taste better to me and seem to work better for me if I cut them in half with water. This is probably not as frugal as making something from scratch, but is a savings.


From Christy M.

Aha! I found some!

I found these by Googling "switchel recipe" and "electrolyte replacement beverage recipe"

Hay Time Switchel
2 cups sugar
1 cup molasses
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 gallon water.

Heat all of the ingredients in 1 quart warter until the ingredients are dissolved. Then add the remaining water. Chill and serve. Makes 1 gallon.

Haymaker's Switchel (similar, just slightly different proportions)
3 1/2 quarts water
1 cup molasses
1/2 cup maple syrup or honey
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 - 2 TABLESPOONS ground ginger.

Mix liquids. Add ginger and stir thoroughly. Take to the field in jugs.

Gatorade
1 pack unsweetened Kool aid (any flavor)
2 quarts cold water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup orange juice

Mix together. This equals the electrolyte replacement found in many popular drinks on the market.

Electrolyte replacement
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon orange juice or 2 tsp. lemon juice
1 Tablespoon sugar - DO NOT use a low calorie sugar sub.
1 pinch salt.

Add ingredients to water and shake well. Will keep at least 24 hours without refrigeration, weeks if kept cold For those who do not like citrus, use 3 oz. of cranberry juice cocktail in 5 oz. of water but do not add sugar.

Hope these suggestions help! I'm guessing this last mixture is similar to the homemade pedialyte for the mission field and that the one with Koolaid will be more to Kimberly's husband's liking. Sure don't miss that hot midwest weather (but that's to follow in my article!!)

Christy M.

Homemade Wipes

Homemade Wipes
from Dining On A Dime and Not Just Beans
http://www.livingonadime.com/ordering.htm


To make cleaning wipes. Follow the Baby Wipe directions to prep the
paper towels then just use either solution below. You can also fold
some paper towels and put them in a baby wipe container. I use the
window cleaner for wiping down my bathroom sometimes too. Tawra

Baby Wipes

1 ½ cups boiling water*
1 Tbsp. baby oil
2 Tbsp. baby bath or shampoo
1 roll paper towels

Mix the water, baby bath and baby oil in an empty round baby wipe
container. Cut the paper towels in ½ using an electric knife.
Remove
core from the center. Place paper towels in wipe container. Let the
paper towels soak up the water solution. Turn every few minutes to
allow the solution to reach the middle of the paper towels. If there
is still a dry spot in the middle, add a little more water and turn
until soaked through. Pull the wipes from the middle of the roll
through the top of the wipe container.

* Keeps bacteria from growing.
* An even cheaper baby wipe is to use wash cloths and wash with your
cloth diapers.


Window Cleaner

½ cup ammonia
water
2 cups rubbing alcohol
1 tsp. dishwashing liquid

In a gallon container, mix together ammonia and rubbing alcohol.
Fill almost to the top with water. Add dishwashing liquid and mix.
Top off with water. Rated to work better (and much cheaper!) than
most commercial window and kitchen sprays by Consumer Reports
magazine. Alcohol is the secret ingredient-it’s what commercial
window washers use.
*Safe on most, but not all, household surfaces. NEVER mix ammonia
and bleach.


All Purpose Cleaner

1 gal. water
½ cup vinegar
1 cup ammonia
½ cup baking soda

Put in a spray bottle to clean showers, toilets, sinks and counters.
Great for most cleaning needs.
*NEVER mix ammonia and bleach.

Put things where they are easy to use.

I hate bending down. I hurt my back a while ago and even though it doesn't hurt now, I still favor it.

Because I hate bending down, I hate doing things like clean the bathroom because I have to bend down and get the cleaner from under the sink.

I hate to get a fresh washrag for the bathroom because I have to step 6 steps into the hallway to get them! LOL (that's what happens when you have CFS, 6 steps feels like 6 miles)

I decided to start making things easy. I put a baby wipe container of homemade cleaning wipes on the counter so all I have to do is wipe the bathroom down everyday or so and do a deep cleaning once a week. I will decorate the container later so it won't look tacky.

I put a basket on the back of the toilet to store my washrags and towels.

The point is, make things so they will work for you. If you need to put the cleaner in the medicine cabinet above the sink to get you to use it then do it! No one will see it there anyway.

Tawra

I had to buy a toothbrush.

I had to break down and buy a toothbrush. I have a ton of free ones from rebates, so many that I finally started giving them away. David has decided that he loves toothbrushes and keeps getting a hold of everyone's and chewing them to death. He just destoyed mine. Well, I ran out so I had to break down and buy one. It seems funny because I haven't bought a toothbrush in probably 4 years!
It's the small things.Hehehe

Tawra

Rags

Today I went to a garage sale that had a bunch of auto cleaning supplies and rags. They were all brand new.

I got several boxes of extra thick paper towels (they call them disposable rags) that I'm going to make into my own wipes and use as disposable bibs for David.

They also had some brand new white 24'x24" cotton cloth "rags". These were just like the flour sack dishclothes I use. I couldn't remember how much they were new so I only got 30 for $5. I called mom and she said they are normally $1.50 now at Wal-mart. She said she can find them on sale sometimes for $1.

I went back and got the rest 78 all together. We are going to split them. I will have flour sack towels until I'm dead but they sure will come in handy! Mine are getting all full of holes so this couldn't have come at a better time.

If you a needing some towels check the auto department and see if they are cheaper than in the kitchen dept.

Tawra

My lightweight vacuum decision

I have several ask me to them know when I made a decision and purchased a lightweight vacuum for my kitchen.

I ended up purchasing an Electrolux Pronto. It was more than I was planning on spending, $100, but it comes with an attached hand vacuum that I can use for the stairs and the car. It only weighs about 7 or 8 pounds and is bagless.

I am forever trying to vacuum the stairs with the big vacuum, trying to vacuum with my right hand, keep the vacuum up from falling down the stairs with my head and helping Baby Dave so he doesn't fall down the stairs with my left hand because I can't close the baby gate and he insists on following me down! I think the hand vac will come in very handy!

When you can't get something with the regular part, like a corner, you can take off the hand vac and use that. I know a woman must have designed this because it is the easiest vacuum I have ever used! It's easy to move around, easy to empty the stuff out and easy to put on the charger!

It is battery powered so I don't have to bend down, one more time, to plug it in.

It worked really well on the hardwood floor and for hair on the bathroom floor. It also works well on my carpets but it doesn’t work as well on my rug that has a raised pattern. If I go over it twice it gets it all but just not as well.

We have had it 5 days and so far I love it! I saw it featured on HGTV and when I called Lowe's they said if I hated it I could bring it back in 7 days with a receipt.

Anyway, I found a vacuum, finally!

Tawra

Leftover Ideas.

Here's some leftover ideas from Not Just Beans and Dining On A Dime.

Tawra
http://www.LivingOnADime.com/

Leftovers?

~Spicy Hash- Dice leftover roast beef, roasted potatoes, carrots and onions. Add bread crumbs until the consistency is such that you can shape into cakes. Cook over medium heat in a greased skillet until pancakes are light brown and heated through.

~Fried Meatloaf- Saute 1 large sliced onion in a frying pan. Add one 8-ounce can of tomato sauce, along with leftover meatloaf cut into bite-size pieces, plus a can of peas. Heat through.

~Grind leftover roast beef, stew meat, etc. in your food processor. Add to scrambled eggs along with cubed leftover potatoes for an easy and hearty breakfast.

~Use leftover pork and beans to make an open-faced sandwich. Put the bean mixture on hamburger bun halves or bread, top each with a slice of American cheese and broil until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

~Freeze leftover mashed potatoes in small portions in freezer containers or freezer bags. Use to thicken soups and stews in place of flour.

~Sundae Pie- Crumble leftover cookies, angel food cake, pound cake or brownies in a pie pan. Spoon vanilla ice cream on top. Spread on a thin layer of strawberry jam and cover that with chocolate and butterscotch ice cream topping. Freeze and serve for dessert.

Healthy Substitutions for Recipes

Since we are in the process of loosing weight I thought I would share some subsitutuions from Nt Just Beans and Dining On A Dime.

http://www.LivingOnADime.com/


Healthy Substitutions for Recipes

Instead Of Use
Bacon............................................................Smoke flavoring, ham,
Canadian bacon or bacon bits
Bread crumbs................................................French bread,
dried and crushed
Butter, margarine or
shortening in baking...........................Applesauce
Cream cheese.................................................Neufchatel or
low fat cream cheese
Canned Condensed Soup...............................White sauce made
with skim milk
Cream of Chicken Soup.................................13 cups white sauce +
1 Tbsp. chicken bouillon
Cream of Mushroom Soup.............................1 cup white sauce +
1 can drained mushrooms
Egg (one).......................................................2 egg whites
Ground beef..................................................Ground turkey
Heavy cream, for whipping...........................Evaporated milk,
freeze 30 mins., add
2 tsp. vanilla, whip
Heavy cream, in sauces and soups.................Evaporated milk
Ricotta cheese................................................low-fat cottage cheese,
pureed
Sour cream....................................................Yogurt
Whole milk....................................................Skim milk
White flour.....................................................2 white and 2 wheat
White flour, for thickening.............................2 Tbsp. cornstarch
White rice.......................................................Brown rice


~Cook chicken breasts with skin and remove skin just before eating. This helps the chicken stay juicy.

~Steam vegetables instead of sauteing.


~Low fat gravy: let meat broth stand in refrigerator overnight or put ice cubes in broth to collect fat. Skim off fat. Use 1 Tbsp. cornstarch to thicken 1 cup.

We made it back from vacation.

We got back on Sunday the 19th. ( I needed several days to recover from the vacation.:-) We went to Colorado. We stayed with my grandparents in a Boulder suburb.

The weather was wonderful! I got a bad cold and allergies so I was pretty much out of it the entire time. I am very thankful that I had 4 other people taking care of the kids.

We went to Estes Park 3 days and Mike and I got to go once buy ourselves.

I have decided that the next "vacation" I want to go somewhere with a pool and a playground and just sit all day. I still have yet to see the fun in driving all over creation with kids in the car but that's me.

It was really hard to come back especially since it's hot and humid again. We really haven't been able to go outside since we've been home.

When we got home a lot of my plants had died. We had horrible storms while we were gone and it just destroyed them. $30 down the toilet! I think I am just going to get some fake ones and at least put them by the front door and in my window box by the kitchen window. There are days when I wonder why I even try. Being worn out and tired all the time to put work into stuff like that even though I love it and then to have it die is very discouraging!

We would still love to move back to Colorado but the housing is high and I think it's just not the right time for us. :-(

We spent about $200-$300 total, I think. We haven’t checked the credit card yet. Mostly it was on food and gas. We ate out a lot when we were in Estes and Longmont has a really good Mexican food place that is cheap but we ate there 3 times. :-)

Anyway, I'm home and should be adding more as I can.

Tawra

We are going out of town.

We are going on vacation on Monday the 13th.

We are going to Colorado. We don't have the $ for a vacation with renting a hotel, eating out etc. so we are staying with my grandparents. There are times it's not really a vacation staying with family but I think with kids you don't ever get a vacation unless you can go by yourself!! I've never been able to figure out what the big deal is about "family" vacations. To me it just seems like a lot of work!

Anyway, I won't be around next week but will post when I get back.

Tawra(who may just stay and not come back! :-)

Finds and Food.

Hello! I'm sorry I haven't posted much this week. I've been really sick so I haven't got much done.

I was really excited because yesterday at a garage sale I found a bike trailer for David so we can ride bikes now! We had a bike seat but it's hard to balance with him in it. The trailer was only $20!! That was a great deal!

I had to give in a buy some new sandels (not flip flops) for BJ and Elly. They were buy one get one 1/2 off so they ended up being $10 each. We've been looking for 3 months and haven't found any and they really needed them. Of course, mom found some for Elly at the DAV then yesterday! Oh well, you can't win them all!

Here are a couple of stove top recipes from Not Just Beans and Dining On A Dime so you don't have to turn on the oven this summer. Tawra

Beef Stroganoff

½-1 lb. round steak ½ tsp. garlic powder
1 cup sour cream or yogurt 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 (10 ¾ oz.) can cream of mushroom soup 2-3 cups rice or egg noodles,
1 Tbsp. catsup cooked
1 tsp. onion salt

Cut round steak into small bite-sized pieces. In a large skillet, brown on medium high for 5-10 minutes (until cooked through). Add the rest of the ingredients and blend well. Cook only until heated through. Serve over rice or egg noodles. Serves 4.


Steak and Mushroom Gravy

1 Tbsp. margarine 2 cups water
½ onion, chopped 1- 2 cups leftover beef
5 Tbsp. flour 1 small can mushroom pieces
salt and pepper (to taste) 1 tsp. beef bouillon powder
5 Tbsp. dry milk

Melt margarine in a large skillet and saute onion. Mix flour, salt and pepper and dry milk in a jar. Add water and shake. Stir into onions until simmering and thickened. Add beef, bouillon powder and drained mushrooms. Reduce the heat. Simmer, stirring constantly, until heated through. Serve over noodles, rice or mashed potatoes or toast. Serves 4.

How we wrote a book.

I get questions all the time about how we self-published the book and how we wrote it in general so I thought I would put our story on here. I also received some questions from someone today so I put my answers in under her questions. Tawra

I self-published first. That means I did all the typesetting, editing, designing the cover etc. on my own. It also means I put up the money to pay for the books. We took out a low interest low on our credit cards for 3% interest since we had good credit. $9,000 for the 1st printing of 2500 books. (The 3rd printing was 30K for 11,000 books)

It's been 6 years since it came out and we still haven't seen any income from it. It pays for it's self but we haven't made any money yet. I say all that first so you know what it is involved if you self publish. If you are looking to make a quick (less than 4 years) income self publishing probably isn't the route to go.

I got a publisher to take it over 2 and a half years ago and the new edition just came out last Feb. It was supposed to be out Aug. 2003 but they have been messing around and just not getting it done. The publisher we chose was a really bad move on our part! (more about that later)

Basically if you want a publisher to do it and not self publish you have to send a letter to each publisher and just ask them to look at your idea. You can get a lot of ideas from the books 1001 ways to market your book by John Kramer and How to Jump Start Your book Sales. I think their last name is Ross.

http://www.bookmarket.com/ This is John Kramer's website and he used to have some good info on finding a publisher. I haven't been there for a while but I think it's still on there. If you do get a publisher they pay 10% of they price they sell it for which is 60% off to bookstores. So for the book that will be $20 in the store I will get about $ .80. Also if they get a "special" deal with places like Sams or the school book clubs then you get about .30 for each book. You have to spend the money to get publicity and pay for your plane tickets etc. for TV appearances if that is something you are thinking of doing.

The publisher paid to have the book re-designed. Then they paid for the first trial run of 5,000 books. A very large bookseller, Books Are Fun, wanted to do a trial run of 500. They are a huge company that sells to schools. Books Are Fun just ordered 103,000 copies 2 weeks ago. This sounds like a great deal but.....

Books Are Fun will pay for the printing and give my publisher 70 cents a book which I get 33% or 23 cents for each book. Even though it sounds like a great deal of books by the time we pay off the remaining books in our garage, 10K, and split the remaining money (14K) with my mom, my co-author, then we will have made about 7K or $800 a year for the last 8 years worth of work each. That's the bad news.

The good news is that I have a re-order form in the back and it is very good advertising so we should get re-orders from this. There is a possibility that Books Are Fun will order more so we could sell a lot more books over the 103,000 they already purchased.

Anyway, I am hoping this will help us turn the corner so we can actually make some money doing this. You will have to be patient. Even having "proven" myself that I can get a lot of media attention the publishers still rejected me so if you really believe in your idea then just keep sending them letters.

It is a lot of work, a full time job. I don't have the time or the energy (I have 3 kids, CFS and FM) so I can't sell them like I would like to. (Which is why we haven't made a profit yet.) I can't concentrate on it for any time at all at the moment. Unfortunately books just don't sell themselves. You have to spend a lot of time and money trying to get interviews and sending out free copies to the media. It's like any other small business it usually takes 3-5 years to start making money at it.

The one piece of advice someone gave me when I asked them what you asked me is "writing the book is easy. It's selling them that's the hard part." That has turned out to be the truth, so I give that advice myself now.

I don't do all the work myself. My mom helps me write and edit. My husband does all the computer work, editing, proofreading, bookkeeping and my heavy lifter for the post office. My brother draws all the art work. So there is a lot of work that is involved.

Now for the additional questions:

Tawra, Thanks so much for all that information. Very enlightening. I'm just the most curious (nosey) person in the world. I was interested in things like, were you and your Mom driving in the car one day and one of you said, "Hey, we've got all these recipes, and experience with scraping by. Let's write a book!"

Well, yes, sort of. I read the Tightwad Gazette years before around 1992 and thought "wow, we do that and even more". At the time I had no intention of writing a book. I went to school for horticulture and all I wanted to do was open my own greenhouse and herb farm.

I re-read the Tightwad Gazette when I was pregnant with my first baby in 1997. In there she said how everyone kept asking her to write a tightwad cookbook but she hated to cook and it would be too much work to do a good job. That is when I said "I could do that!"

I made the announcement to Mom and Mike that day and they both laughed and said "Ok". (Their enthusiasm was under whelming!) I was one of the worse cooks you had ever seen. I burned everything! Ok, I confess there some days I still do! I figured if I could learn how to do it then others could do it too! Mike confessed a few months ago that if he would have known then what he knows now he would have told me "no way!". He said he was just "being supportive" and didn't think I would really do it! LOL

From the time I came up with the idea and started writing until we got the book back from the printer was 2 babies and 2 years later.


Did you two sit at the table night after night hammering out the book?

Well, sort of. I started writing and Mom would call or come over (she lived across the street at the time) and say "you need to be sure and tell them this......." . That's why in the front of the book I say I was the typist. :-)

There were several times I printed it all out and we would sit and edit it and add more stuff.

How long did it take you to gather all the material?

50 years. We used several recipes from my grandmother and great-grandmother along with mine and mom's recipes and tips. It took about 2 years to get them all together in a book.

What was the thing that lit the fire under you to continue to pursue writing when road blocks came up.

I feel that this is a true calling from God for me to help others. I wouldn't still be doing it if I didn't have constant confirmation from Him that this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

While we were writing it I was just going to quit one night because it was so hard doing it all ourselves. (Mike was working 100 miles from home and only home on the weekends and I had 2 kids 6 months and 20 months plus CFS.) I received a Word from Him to keep going so I did and we got it done.

MANY times since then I have thought about quitting. Whenever I do I pray and ask if I am supposed to stop and EVERY TIME I get a verse from the Bible that tells me to keep going on and He will do the work I can't.

The time before last that I thought of quitting about 2 months ago (this was before the publisher got the order for 103,000 books) and I asked if I should keep going he gave me the verse "if you will persevere I will reward you".

The next day in the mail came a poster that said "Never Give Up" with a person hanging onto the side of a mountain at the top. I knew that I was supposed to keep going. That poster is now hanging on our office door!

The last time I wanted to quit (about 3 weeks ago), I found out some really stupid mistakes I made in the contract with my publisher and some not so great things about them. I was talking to the lawyer until 10 that night.

After I got off the phone I just started bawling and told Mike "I am so sorry I got us into this mess. We have 6,000 books sitting in the garage that we can't sell, working hard and long hours on this without seeing any money from it." He finally got me calmed down and we were able to sleep that night.

That next morning I was wondering again if I should keep going on and I sat down to do my Bible study and the very first verse was
Psl 37:7-9
7 "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret-it leads only to evil.
9 For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.

I knew again that I was supposed to just be still and wait. 6 hours later we got the phone call from the publisher that they got the order for 103,000 books.

Knowing what you, and your Mom did behind the scenes is more what I'm wondering. Personal experiences. Do either of you have a degree in writing?

No mom was a SAHM and I went to tech school for horticulture. I just felt like writing a book, did it and dragged the rest of the family right in along behind me! LOL

How did you find out exactly how to construct a professional looking book?

We looked at how other books looked, found some we liked and then just tried to make it look like that but our own style.

The book has had 3 different covers now. Basically we just learned as we went.

Thanks so much for elaborating on the ins and outs of self publishing, and signing with a publisher. Anne

I am happy to share our experiences. If nothing else just so people understand that it isn't even close to being as easy as it sounds. That even if Oprah does call, which they did call us, it doesn't mean you will get on and sell thousands of books. (They said our story was great but that people wouldn't want to do what we did to get out of debt.) Looking back we see that if I would have gotten on the show we wouldn't have been able to handle to orders or the work load it would have caused.

Having said all that. If God wasn't in all of this, we would be nowhere today. It's only through Him that we could have done this because I had no clue, not to mention I am horrible with grammer and still burn things!! LOL

Tawra

Part of the intro to the new organizing book.

www.LivingOnADime.com

Mom got part of the intro done on the new organizing book so I thought I would share her thoughts on the subject.
Tawra



I know it’s tempting to jump ahead and start reading the lists and how-to sections, but what I talk about in the next few pages will make or break how you organize your home. It’s like a door and its hinges. A door is large and a necessity to us. It protects us, gives us privacy and keeps out the elements and intruders, but the most important part of a door is its two tiny hinges.
Without those hinges, the door is of no use. So, everything you read in the next few pages is the “hinges” for organizing your home.

Our homes should be beautiful, peaceful, inviting and welcoming places. But so many of us fear going home because of the mess we will face when we get there. We’ve pretty much just given up on our homes. I’m not sure at what point in history it happened that the places we live in went from being a home to a just a place to sleep and change our clothes. It went from a place where we could find peace, relax and renew our bodies, minds, souls and spirits to a place of confusion, disorganization, frustration and continual fighting and bickering. We went from the home being the place we could hardly wait to get home to at the end of the day to one of dreading what we’ll find when we get there.

We don’t know where or how to start, but we need to realize that in the same way we work for other things in our lives, we need to work to have peaceful homes. We work hard to earn money, to have a good marriage, to be good at sports, to have the perfect figure or to get a good education. How many of us spend more time at learning a new craft or working out at the gym than we do cleaning or learning to clean our homes?

Why is it we take better care of the environment than our homes? Because society has made a clean environment a noble cause. Having a warm, inviting, organized home isn’t a noble cause anymore. If you don’t believe me, think about being at a large office party. Someone comes up to you and asks what you had been doing that day. If you answered “Saving the environment,” they would probably be so impressed that they would ask you to tell them all about it. On the other hand, if you said “Cleaning the house,” there wouldn’t be one person who would ask you to tell them about it. I’ve always had this uncontrollable urge to say: “I’ve been saving the environment.” “Oh! Really? Tell me about it.” “Well, I shoveled the trash from my daughter’s bedroom, cleaned the air by emptying the diaper pail and washed the pile of blankets and sheets the toddler wet on last night. I also helped save the fish of the world by cleaning out Lee Roy’s (our goldfish) tank and took care of the world’s wild animals by feeding my children and teens their dinner. The hardest part of the day came when I tried to train a Homo sapiens by explaining to my husband how to put his dirty socks in the hamper. This was quite challenging because we’ve been trying to master this trick for about 10 years now.”

We work harder at having a clean environment than we do at keeping our homes clean. If you don’t believe that to be true, walk into a few homes and look at the dirt and clutter. Compare that to what you see on our highways. We don’t dream of throwing our garbage out the car window, but we throw trash all around our homes and leave it lying about for extended periods of time. Even the air in most homes smells worse and is more impure than outside. Most smells in homes come from improper cleaning or no cleaning at all.

We live in a world where housekeeping is usually the last priority on everyone’s list. But I believe we need to wake up and smell the coffee. (If you can find the coffeepot!) We worry so much about doing healthy things—from the food we eat to the air we breathe to exercising all the time. But we aren’t using common sense. Many people wouldn’t dream of drinking anything but bottled water for fear of the bacteria in tap water. But those same people use tap water to brush their teeth, wipe their counters or wash their vegetables. Then, they take their bottle of water and set it in a refrigerator that hasn’t been cleaned for a couple of months—or more—and is full of all kinds of bacteria and germs. They think nothing of grabbing a damp sponge that has been sitting on the counter—growing bacteria all day (or week)—and swiping the counter with it. They take that same hand that has touched the sponge and stick their fingers in some frosting that then goes in their mouths. I’m glad their water is bacteria-free because that’s probably the only thing in their homes that is.

We rant and rave about our children breathing secondhand smoke (I don’t smoke and don’t recommend that anyone should), but then we turn around and don’t change our children’s sheets but once a month. We’re not realizing that they can develop extreme allergies from dust mites.

We shower ourselves silly every day and are obsessed with clean bodies, but we stand in a shower we never clean. Then, we walk across a dirty floor, picking up all kinds of fungi on our way. Then, we proceed to use a sink and toilet that has who knows what growing on it.

We become totally unglued when our child touches the doorknob in a public restroom, but in our own home, we leave piles of dirty, filthy underwear and sweat-soaked clothes lying around our bathroom or bedroom to be stepped on and touched.

Another example is that when we don’t take care of our cars, they won’t function properly or do the job we bought them to do. In the same way, our homes can’t do what they’re meant to do if we don’t give them proper maintenance and care. If I don’t keep good tires on my car, the chances are pretty good that I’m going to get a flat. Do you know how much discomfort a flat in the dead of winter will cause me? What about the extra work and being late to everything for the rest of the day? Compare that to if I had kept good tires on my car. I won’t be stuck in the freezing cold trying to change a tire or be late to where I’m going. Having a home that’s not properly cared for will cause you the same problems, discomfort, extra work and to always being behind on your schedule.


www.LivingOnADime.com

Long Distance Calling

Long distance can get expenisve. It is much cheaper now than it used to be but it can still add up.

First, if you do a lot of long distance calling there is an unlimited plan. We pay around $55 a month for it. It is very much worth it because we were spending around $300 for the business calls.

Second, this is a trick my mom and I have used for years. My grandmother has free calling so when my mom wants to talk to her she just calls and lets it ring once and then hang up. That way she doesn't have to pay for the call and they can talk on Grandma's free calling.

Tawra

www.LivingOnADime.com

Meatballs and Mushroom Gravy

Roxie sent me this recipe. I haven't tried it yet but it sounds yummy! Tawra

Meatballs and Mushroom Gravy

any basic meatball recipe will do, but I make mine with
1 pound ground beef, 1/4 cup bread crumbs (dry) 1 egg beaten, 2 tbs finely chopped onion, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Mix all together and form into small balls about 1 1/2 inches each. (I form mine in a teaspoon) and bake at 400 for 10 -13 minutes. This makes about 40 meat balls.
When they are cooked I take one can of cream of mushroom soup and 1 can of milk. I whisk these together and pour over the meat balls. I then bake this for about an hour at 300. I serve over mashed potatoes.

I have also made this with cheddar cheese soup. Just as good, only a different taste.

More popsicle ideas.

Moo fruit Freezer Pops from Roxie

1 bag (16 oz.) frozen fruit. (I used some strawberries I had frozen)
1 1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of sugar or Splenda

1) combine the fruit, sugar, and 1/2 cup of milk in a food processor and process for 5 seconds..add the rest of the milk and process for 15 seconds more. Mixture should be smooth and almost frozen
2) scoop 1/2 cup of frozen mixture into 5 oz cup or pop molds...insert sticks and freeze until firm.

Banana Pops- From Lisa
1. get some bananas, slice them into disks (we have bananas on sale this week for $.29/lb)

2. roll them into PLAIN yogurt (you can use vanilla yogurt, but I used plain because that's what the recipe said, and that was back in my super healthy days)

3. add any kind of topping you wish. We rolled our disks in chopped pecans. I know that's expensive, but we love pecans so much. After freezing these we ate them AND YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE THE TASTE! It was like eating a frozen candy bar. Okay, maybe not that good, but they were sweet and refreshing, and I didn't have to put a limit on how many the kids could eat.

4. other toppings to choose from: chopped raisins, granola, any kind of nut (cashew, peanuts, almonds), peanut butter (this would be without the yogurt), and of course, melted chocolate or chocolate chips. My son is not a fan of bananas, but he really liked this treat. You can even eat them plain. Oh, yeah, another topping we did was a cinnamon/sugar mixture. Believe it or not, it was good too!

I will warn you that it's messy because of the yogurt. And super messy if the kids help! But you don't have the guilt of giving them something unhealthy, and it's a cheap "popsicle."

Rebates

Today I filled a rebate for Ace Hardware. I got over $40 in products for free. I don't do a ton of rebates but I do Walgreens monthly rebate and the Ace one which is once a year or so. I usually get between $10-$100 worth of products from Walgreens. I buy for mom, my sister in law and myself. Then we each take what we can use.

From Ace this month I got
4 paintbrushes
6 rolls of landscape fabric
8 light bulbs
caulk
garden gloves


For Walgreens I am always getting
toothpaste
toothbrushes
shampoo
hair remover
body wash
hair color
make-up
deordent
styling products
school supplies
They have a ton of stuff we can use everyday.

Is it worth all the time and effort? Yes, it takes me about 15 minutes to fill out the forms. I also had to go somewhere to get a copy for my records in case there was a problem. I usually just did it when I went to the grocery store or library. $100 for 15 minutes worth of work, three .37 stamps and a .60 in copies is great pay!

Tawra

Popsicle Paradise!

http://www.LivingOnADime.com/

The day moms dread all year long has arrived: the last day of school and the first day of summer vacation. To help moms keep their cool by helping their kids chill out, here are some recipes from www.LivingOnADime.com.


Remember when you used to sit on your front steps on a hot summer day eating a popsicle? It was usually red or purple and on special occasions you got a fudgesicle. Remember how you tried to lick the drips faster than the sun could melt them? Sometimes the drips would roll down your fingers, forcing you to make the mind numbing decision whether to lick your fingers or the new drips forming on your popsicle.

Every once in a while a few drips would get out of control and fall on your bare toes. Remember how your dog’s tongue felt like sandpaper when he licked the sweet gooeyness off of them?
It’s funny how we try to make drama and expensive memories for our children when it’s the simple everyday things we remember the most.
Use some of these ideas from www.LivingOnADime.com to keep the kids entertained this summer.

To find popsicle molds, look at discount and mail order stores or garage sales. If you don’t have any molds, use small paper or plastic cups. Put a wooden stick or plastic spoon in the center.
For mini popsicles, pour orange, apple or grape juice or flavored drink mix into ice cube trays. Partially freeze and then place toothpicks in the center of each cube (or place plastic wrap over the top, secure and insert toothpicks through plastic wrap).

For non-traditional popsicles:
~Freeze applesauce in popsicle molds.

~Mix fruit or jam into yogurt. Freeze in small, snack sized Ziploc bags for frozen yogurt on the go. Cut a hole in the end of the bag for easy access/eating.

~Mix gelatin and freeze. Add gummie fish or worms before freezing for added fun.

~Freeze syrup from canned fruit.

~ Add food coloring or sprinkles to yogurt or softened ice cream for added pizzazz. Then freeze in popsicle molds.

~When you have leftover jam or jelly, put ¼ cup of hot water in the jar and shake well. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

~If jelly or jam doesn't set up well, use for popsicles or add more water, boil and make syrup.

~Make a batch of pudding. Add coconut, nuts, marshmallows, crushed cookies or sprinkles if desired. Pour into molds. Freeze several hours until firm.

~Stick a toothpick in the center of blackberries, strawberries, raspberries or sliced bananas.
Dip in chocolate if desired. Freeze on a tray. Once frozen, store in freezer bags.

~For easy snow cones, freeze orange juice (or any other flavored juice) in ice cube trays. Store frozen juice cubes in a plastic bag. Blend 5 cubes in the blender until they have a shaved ice consistency. The shaved ice will keep its consistency if kept frozen in a container.

~For watermelon popsicles, blend one cup each watermelon chunks (seeds removed), orange juice and water. Blend well. Then pour and freeze into molds.

~For strawberry popsicles, blend 2 cups strawberries, 1 cup vanilla ice cream or yogurt, 4 cups orange juice and 2 tablespoons sugar. Blend smooth. Pour into molds and freeze.

~For banana popsicles, dissolve one 3 oz. package strawberry gelatin with one cup boiling water. In a blender, mix gelatin, 1 banana and 1 cup yogurt or ice cream. Blend well and pour into molds.

Pudding Pops

1 pkg. pudding (not instant*) 3 cups milk

Combine 1 large package of pudding with 3 cups of milk. Mix only enough to blend well. Quickly pour into popsicle molds and freeze. Chocolate and vanilla pudding may be layered for a fun treat. Makes 8-10 popsicles.
*Regular homemade pudding may be used instead of store-bought pudding mix.



For more refreshing summer ideas visit http://www.LivingOnADime.com/ Tawra Kellam is the author of the frugal cookbook Dining On A Dime, Eat Better Spend Less. Dining On A Dime Cookbook which has over 1200 recipes and tips.

Popsicle storage

We buy the stick popsicles (100 for $2) and they are always falling out of the freezer. Last year I put them in a shoe box in my freezer. This year I didn't have shoe box that fit so I put a 4lb. strawberry container with the top cut off in there this year instead. BTW, I after they freeze I go through and pull them apart. It makes it much easier for the kids and they don't break in half as much.

I need to start making some fudgesicles, I need to see if I can find my molds. I posted some recipes that may help give you some ideas for homemade popsicles.

Tawra

Milk for $1 a gallon.

Mom called yesterday and her grocery store had milk on clearance for .50 half gallon. It expired today. I told her to go buy as much as she could and she got 9 gallons. I drove down there for $2 worth of gas and got them right away. I brought them home and put them in the freezer. Even though they expired today, milk is good for 1 week after the experation date if unopened. We are going through about 1/2 gallon every 4 days or so now so we will be able to use it up before it sours.

If you find a great deal get as much as you can or have room to stock up on it.

Tawra