How am I doing?

I've had several people ask how I've been feeling.

Well.... Pretty much like I've been run over by a Mack truck! The last two weeks have been pretty rough. We have shipped out over 3,000 books and it was just too much for me. So much so that I think we are going to not have major book sales that often, maybe once or twice a year.

I also think that we are going to put our focus into e-books instead. It's just too hard on me shipping books like that.

I've haven't been getting much sleep either because the office is in our bedroom. Mike has been working from 8-5 at the TV station and the comes home and helps me put the kids to bed and works from 7-10 or 11 p.m. on Living On A Dime business stuff. So even though I have been feeling "mostly dead" I can't go to sleep until he gets the stuff done.

It doesn't help that when I feel this way I don't care about much so my resistance to not eating sugar isn't going well. I am trying today to get several things fixed up like brown rice and sweet potatoes so I can at least have some food on hand.

I get so frustrated trying to figure out what to eat that I just don't eat at all and then I get really sick and will eat something like 2 or 3 cookies. I'm hoping that having stuff fixed ahead of time will help.

I am hoping that after this week, things will calm down.

We did get to do one fun thing this week. Mike called on Tuesday at 5:00 and said the station had extra Jim Brickman tickets if we wanted to go at 7. Augh! I was so dead tired but I do love to see him so we went. It was a great concert and even better when we found out the tickets were $55 each and we got them free! LOL

Well, that's it for now. Have a good weekend! Tawra

truffles

Our family has cut down on Christmas spending in the last few years, but we still have a great time!

This year my sister and I got together to make biscotti and truffles for friends and relatives. Biscotti are hard cookies/bread that are baked twice and traditionally dipped in coffee, but can also be eaten plain or dipped in hot chocolate. The ingredients are basic cookie ingredients. You can get great recipes just by typing "biscotti" and "recipe" into your search engine.

Type "truffles" and "recipe" in to find truffle recipes!

We planned ahead by choosing our recipes and then buying ingredients when they were on sale. Becky was able to get "fancy" chocolate cheaper than plain label by doing this and that made the truffles taste like they came from a specialty store.

We chose a weekend to do all of our baking and candy making, and our daughters helped, too. We had a great time! We created simple cards for each kind of biscotti, with the name of that biscotti, and packaged it in snack-sized zip-lock bags, two pieces to a bag. We included the label for the kind of biscotti in each bag.

We packaged it by putting about 6 snack-sized bags of biscotti, and 3 of truffles, in a green plastic Ziplock brand container, also purchased on sale. We didn't need to use any wrapping paper or ribbon or bow! We lined the containers with tissue paper first. The finished product looked like it had been professionally done.

We took the packages to our relatives when we visited last week for Thanksgiving. That way we avoided some of the "food" overload of Thanksgiving, and also saved money on postage, as we didn't have to mail them.

So, we spent less money, spent the weekend together AND made gifts that had a personal touch.

Here is our favorite truffle recipe:
DECADENT TRUFFLES

1, 8 oz. package of cream cheese (frequently on sale this time of year!)
2-3 c. powdered sugar
3 C. semi-sweet chocolate, melted
1 1/2 t. vanilla

For dipping; cocoa, sprinkles, chopped nuts, sugar, cinnamon, coconut

Beat cream cheese until smooth; beat in sugar and vanilla. Stir in chocolate. Refrigerate until firm enough to scoop out with a spoon and with your hands, roll into balls about 3/4" to 1" in diameter.

If desired, then roll in cocoa, sprinkles, chopped nuts, etc.

This recipe makes approx. 60 or more truffles, depending on the size you make them.

ENJOY!

Shelly Burke
www.shellyburke.net

Shelly Burke
Shelmar Publications
"Books to Inform, Inspire, and Encourage"
www.shellyburke.net

Car Buying.

I got this from Clean Joke of the Day. I just had to share considering our "white car" situation. :-)
Enjoy! Tawra

*Reasons You Should Buy a New Car*

Reasons You Should Buy a New Car:

- Your passenger seat is on the National Register of Historic Places.

- Instead of an air bag, there is a whoopee cushion taped to your steering wheel.

- You lose the stoplight challenge to a 14 year old on a moped.

- 15 minute Jiffy Lube needs to keep your car for 3 days.

- When you gas up, the attendant asks, "Can I re-duct tape that windshield for you?"

- Thieves repeatedly break in your car just to steal the "Club".

- While sitting at a stop light, people keep running up to you and asking if anyone was hurt.

They are here!

I got the washer and dryer on Tuesday. Of course I'm not sure how they work since I haven't been able to use them!

My 10 year old son is so fascinated with them that he has been doing the laundry ever since! LOL I guess a good way to teach them to do the laundry is to buy a new machine! :-)

So far they seem like they are doing pretty good. The noise is so quite that it's just WONDERFUL! I have problems with noise as it is, so this just made my day.

It is a tight squeeze in my small utility room but they got in there. We even have a 1/4 inch to close the door if we need to get in there for a tornado. :-) We might have to put Elly and David in the washer and dryer but we will fit. LOL (I'm just kidding, so don't send me nasty emails!)
In case you are new - our laundry room is abut 6 ft. wide and 10 ft. long and was built with 12 inch concrete walls all the way around. It has a sink, washer and dryer. So there is about 3 feet square of standing room. It's supposed to be a tornado shelter if we ever need it. Hopefully we won't have to find out if it works. :-)

So far I love them! Thanks for the recommendations! Tawra

Post Your Christmas Ideas.

I thought it would be fun for you to post your favorite Christmas ideas.

If you can't get on the blog then just email them to me and I will post them for you.

So... How are some ways you save for Christmas?

Favorite Recipes?

Craft Ideas?

Traditions?

I can't wait to read them! Tawra

Propane Advice Needed.

As you know we moved to the "country". We are on propane now and this is a new thing for us.

My question is: How much propane do you use in a season?

When I called the company they said the former family used 1,000 between August and March.

The only thing on propane is our heater and gas fireplace. Does that sound right? 1,000 gallons?

My neighbors (Hi, Tisha) said they used only 200 gallons for the entire season last year and their heater is set on 75.

We have only had ours on for 2 weeks and have gone from 80%-60% already.

Do we have a leak? Does the fireplace pilot light use that much propane?

We do know that the old part of the house only has 4 inches of insulation and so we are going to blow some more in this weekend.

Help! this just doesn't sound right!

Tawra

Truck Buying Advice Needed.

Ok, the white car is on it's way out. We have tried to keep it going as long as possible but it has no heater, no a/c, the seat belt is broken, the door handle fell off, the headliner is held up with push pins, the tires are bald, the alternator is going, the seat is broken down so you almost sit on the floor and about 20 other things are wrong with it. :-) It's 16 years old, had a good life but it's time to say good-by. :-)

So we need to start looking for a new vehicle. We would like a small truck that can hold more than 2 people. We would prefer it to hold six but I don't think you can find a compact truck that can hold that many people.

Any suggestions? Right now we are just trying to decide which model to get, then we will go shopping. We are going to try and spend less than $7,000 if possible. Of course we never buy new so it will used. Do you have a small truck that is not prone to breakdowns?

Thanks! Tawra

Try to fix it yourself first.

When we moved in the oven door would get caught on the counter edge.
It has driven me crazy! Well, the other day the screw fell out of the door and part of the door was falling apart.

I finally decided to fix it myself. Unfortunately I decided to do this 30 minutes before leaving to take the kids the to school. :-)

Well, took out the screw on the other side that matched to see if I could find one the same size. Unfortunately when I did the entire door fall apart. You can't see it well in the picture but there is a piece of glass in the middle that if I didn't keep holding up would fall and break.

So...I was in a pickle. Fortunately the kids are old enough to help with this kind of stuff now. So I had BJ hold the pieces while I went in the garage and searched for a screw the right size.



You can see in the picture my ever so mechanically inclined son trying to figure it out too. He always puts his hand on his chin when he's thinking hard about something. LOL

I did find one, Yeah!! So I got the stove back together and the kids to school and then I came home to try and fix the hitting the counter problem. I tried sanding the counter down and that didn't work. So then I tried putting a wedge between the stove and cabinet. That didn't work.

As I was looking I realized that the feet were adjustable so I tried turning the side that was rubbing to raise the stove. I had to use a knife to push it but I got it turned enough so that it doesn't rub now.

Yeah!! A fixed stove in $30 minutes for $0. It would have cost me at least $75 to call a repair man to look at it.

You can also check out repairclinic.com

Tawraw

Ha! So True!

Ok, normally I don't get into this kind of stuff but after all the whining people we've had lately with people telling us how they can't afford Christmas gifts, food or clothes as they are talking on their cell phone at Applebee's I just couldn't resist.
Being frugal means using your money wisely and making the most with what you have! In a America that is a lot, even for the poorest of people.
Tawra

The ant and the grasshopper

OLD VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

************************************************************
MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, "It's Not Easy Being Green."
Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome." Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share. Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote.

Crying Uncle.

I decided on a new washer and dryer. I am going to buy the Whirlpool Duet and I decided to get the set. Several people really love theirs and it seemed like the best fit. I also would love to have a dryer with an automatic sensor turning it off when it's done.

It is going to be a tight fit in my small laundry room but I think it will work. I will have to walk in the room first, open the door, unload the clothes and put them in the dryer and then close the washer door before I can get out but I think it will work.

Now, the good part. After I decided which one I wanted I went to Lowe's. I started there because they will match any price plus give you 10% off if you find a better deal in town.

I went and they were $998 and $898. They had $100 rebate plus free delivery and removal of your old set.

So I started with basically $1700 for the set.

I then called 4 other stores in town, the biggest: Sears, Home Depot, Best Buy and a local appliance shop.

Best Buy had the same deal. So I then decided on an off chance to look online. I found www.pricegrabber.com

I typed in the washer and dryer I wanted and found places online. I made sure that I had the price with the shipping added in since Lowe's was giving free shipping.

Believe it or not I found a place that had it for $1732 including shipping!!

So, I printed out the info. and took it to Lowe's. I found the salesman that I used that morning and said "I'm back to get my washer and dryer and I've been working hard". He just laughed.

I then told him that I found a set online for $1732 including shipping and they also gave the $100 rebate. He took a few minutes to ask his supervisor if it was ok and he said yes so we were working on the deal. They had a problem with the computer taking the lower price so they gave me an even lower price of $1709!

So... I got my washer and dryer for $1609!! Almost $90 less for about 1 hour's worth of work!! (That's how much Mike makes in a day at the TV station!)

Mike came stopped by on his way home from work to see if we were still there. I told him "I've been earning my keep! hehehe" The salesman said "She sure has! She has us pinned on the floor crying "Uncle". LOL I said "well, I run a frugal living website so I better practice what I preach".

So, we went home excited about the new washer and dryer. I am going to have them deliver it on Tuesday to give me a few days to try and sell our old set. If I can't sell it then I will have them haul it off.

But... there's more.....

Today I woke up and Lowe's had their sets for 20% off! Ugh!!!!!! That was another $40 off the price that I got!

So... I got in the car and headed over to Lowe's. Just for asking they gave me a refund for the difference so I got my set for $1565 total!! YES, YES, YES!! Now the total was $135 below the "sale" price at Lowe's to start. Not bad for about 1 1/2 hours worth of work & about $2 in extra gas money for the refund.

So... on Tuesday I am going wash, wash, wash away!

Tawra

A Reader's Candy Wreath

Hello!

Wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your video on the Candy Wreaths. I have attached a picture of the wreaths I made because of it! I love curling ribbon and buy tons of it every year after Xmas for pennies. I used it to tie the candy up and then curled the ends. One wreath is made with curling ribbons and midget tootsie rolls and one is made with smarties and tootsie rolls. All candy was left over from Hallowween.

they were a huge hit in the family! Thanks again and I love the newsletters, keep up the good work!

Silvia H., Santa Fe, Texas

Reader Tip

Shorten rising time.
We use method 2 all the time and it works great! It's the only way I use to rise my bread.
thanks dd!
Tawra

Method one....When dough is thoroughly mixed, oil bowl and cover dough with plastic. Fill sink or larger bowl with about 2 inches of hot water or enough water to come about half or three-fourths the way up the outside of the bowl. Place bowl of dough in bowl of water and allow to rise until double in size.

Method two....Just before mixing dough, turn oven on lowest possible temperature. When dough is thoroughly mixed, place in oiled bowl. Cover dough with plastic; Place in oven, with pan of hot water on rack under dough. Turn oven off, shut oven door and allow dough to rise until double in size.

Trees!

I can't find your email address, would you please email me?
It's so great to hear from you!! I heard from Pia not to long ago and I was wondering how you all were doing!

Tell, Nick and Diana "Hi"!!

Tawra
editor@livingonadime.com

Popsicles.

Hi Tawra,

In the spirit of frugality I thought I'd share a neat little idea God HAD to have dropped in my mind. It's just too funny for it not to be him. :)

In anticipation of my new baby's birth and the impending bottle feedings, I bought a Playtex Nurser Starter Set and 2 extra boxes of drop-ins. My sister also gave me an extra box of drop-ins that she didn't use. Since my baby is still nursing exclusively and is already eating table foods we've had no need for any of the bottle supplies! You can imagine that I am inundated with these neat little pre-formed plastic bottle inserts!

The other day my 8 year old son came running in the house to tell me about the "Cool Cups" that the little girl across the play ground was selling for 25 cents. It's just a styrofoam cup with frozen cool-aid (a great idea as well!) but he thought it was the neatest thing and wanted to try his hand at making his own.

Well, being out of styrofoam cups (who'd have known?), I began looking around my kitchen for something to freeze the cool-aid in. As I began opening cubbards I came across my collection of plastic inserts and the open air bottles sitting next to them. That's when it hit me. I laughed out loud and told my son the idea. He thought it was GREAT!

Soooooo.....the point of the story is this....if you put the insert in the bottle like you are about to pour formula in it but instead pour your favorite flavor of cool-aid (already mixed according to directions) and then just set that little sucker in the freezer, you not only have a neat ice pop in the making but a disposable container for the pop AND a ready made holder in the hard plastic bottle part!! lol. Once it's frozen just run the sides under a little warm water and twist the drop-in so they can push the pop up as they eat!

I hope this helps all the mommies out there satisfy the need for a popsicle AND get rid of those pesky leftover drop-ins you had no idea what to do with! This is great for mom's with babies and older siblings.

Laughing all the way,
Baune A,
Willis, Texas

Stocking Stuffers

Hi....good housekeeping magazine has a candy garland, kinda like the wreath idea, thought you might like.....

Also....a few years back I realized we were spending a lot on stocking stuffers...that were basically junk.......anyway.......some things we do now....toothbrushes, (fun ones), snacks for them to eat (bread store.....pies, granola bars, fruit snacks...etc)...juice boxes.....things like that....all things I wouldn't normally buy...the kids love it.....pretty cheap too....
take care...dd

We do this to, as a matter of fact just today I found some books the kids might like at the thrift store for stocking stuffers. We also give things that we normally don't buy like drink packets, special foods like fruit gummies, coffee for BJ who loves it, or cocoa packets. Things like microwave popcorn and gum go in the stockings too!
Tawra

Reader Tip

First, I would like to say, I love your website and the newsletter. I also bought Living On a Dime book and love it. I actually made window cleaner using the recipe in the book. My 1 year old daughter was asleep and I was taking advantage and cleaning the house when I realized I didn't have any window cleaner! I thought I had seen the recipe to make it in your book, so dug it out of the collection of cookbooks and sure enough, there it was! Works like a charm!


My tip is for making toddler friendly food.
I made spaghetti and wanted to give my daughter some for dinner as well. She still isn't chewing great, so I wanted to chop it up into little pieces. The small food chopper I have chopped too much and I didn't want to stand there with a knife and fork. Then I thought, pastry blender! I dug that out of my drawer and the way it is curved fits nicely in a bowl and does wonders for chopping spaghetti for little mouths! I have used it for several other projects like that since then. Love a multi-tasking kitchen tool!
Thanks again!
Betty

Making money selling books.

I've had several people ask "why aren't you making more money selling books?"
Here is a great article that explains why.

Right now we are earning about $1500 a month from books for Mike's salary. Not much but we hope to get that higher soon doing more Internet stuff and less book peddling.

Tawra

HE Washer Help!!

While I was gone yesterday my wonderful hubby decided to do 5 loads of wash for me and clean up the house.

I have been so sick that the house has just gone downhill this week. Well, after using our washer he has decided it's time for a new one! LOL Ours leaves horrible lint and doesn't clean that well but now it's making this HORRID screeching noise when it spins.

He spent the day looking for washers for me but we can't decide which one to get. We want a high efficiency one because we have the septic tank but we want one that will clean well and isn't noisy.

Help!! Which HE washer do you have and do you like it?

When I look at consumer reports the ones the recommend all have bad reviews by actual customers. Help!!!

Tawra

Back from KC

Well, I made it back from KC yesterday.

He said that I'm just really sensitive to sugars and grains so I need to lay off of them totally. I can make some whole wheat homemade bread but that's about it. I must be really sensitive because yesterday all I had was chicken vegi soup for breakfast, then a bacon egg and cheese at McD's on the way and a salad. Supposedly you should be able to eat a small amount of "white" stuff with protein so that's what I did but when he tested me my numbers said I had had a huge amount of carbs that day.

I am feeling better as far as my fibromyalgia is concerned. Not cured by any means yet but much better. I can at least sleep without pain now.

Now I am having some "female" problems which is causing me to be so tired I can hardly stand up! I slept 14 hours on Sat. and Sunday. This is different from my CFS. With CFS you feel like you have the flu but this is just plain tired and I just really don't care about much but sleeping.

I hope I can do this. My strength is so zapped right now that the thought of trying to figure out what to eat feels like it's going to send me over the edge. Some days I just wonder if I'm a hopeless case! LOL I get one thing figured out and then another pops up!

Oh well, I guess it will be a turkey and salad for me on Thursday. Oh yum... I can hardly wait. :-(


Tawra

Dryer down the street

I just couldn't resist taking a picture of Mike hauling the dryer that we got from the neighbors. What we will do to save money! LOL Tawra

Turkey and Tomatoes

Just so you can see, this is how the butcher will cut the turkey in half for you. My family can't eat an entire turkey at once so we have them cut it in half. Sometimes they will wrap both halves together but just ask them to do it separately and they will. At .69 a pound that's a great deal on meat!

Here is a picture of the tomatoes that I got from my neighbor on Halloween. They are ripening very nicely. I put them on a try lined with newspaper and then put a newspaper on top. It keeps the gases in so they ripen faster. They don't taste as good a vine ripened but they sure taste a LOT better than the store tomatoes!!

Tawra

Bricks, Bricks and more Bricks!

Well, all the bricks and cinder blocks that they
were going to deliver to mom's for us didn't happen but they said we could come get them if we wanted. Well, my brother, his wife, 2 kids and us all went over and started loading.....one car load at a time! It took us a little over 5 hours total to do them all but we got over $600 worth of new bricks and cinder blocks for free!

You can see mom "supervising" in the left picture. She and I just couldn't do it. It was just way to much for us. Poor Mike did the last 2 hours almost all by himself. I told him to quit but he just couldn't let that great deal pass us by!

Now, we just have to do it again and get them all to our house! No wonder we are tired all the time! :-) Mom said we should call our reality show "Blood, Sweat and Tears". hehehe

Tawra

Kids recliner

Bj's decided to make a recliner out of the boxes that we used to to ship books in. I always think it's so funny how little money it takes to entertain them!! Tawra

Back to KC

I'm headed back east of Kansas City tomorrow.

I am going back to see Dr. Robertson. He has helped a lot although in the mean time I have had some other things come up so it will be interesting to see what he advises.

I have been really sick the last couple of weeks. Most days i feel like I could just sleep for hours on end. Hopefully I can start feeling better soon.

I won't be posting anything on Monday but check the blog on Tuesday and I will update it then.

Tawra

God's Favor

God's favor sure was on us yesterday.

Mom lives across the street from a building where they are doing construction. They have been throwing away bricks and cinder blocks like crazy! We finally went over and asked a couple of weeks ago if we could take some out of their dumpster and they said "sure take all you want". They even put a pallet of them next to it for us to take! So we all went over and loaded them to mom's house.

Every time we go to her house or she comes to ours we bring some bricks out. There are over 400 of them so far but it will be great to line my garden!! I am so excited!

Well, yesterday they came and knocked on her door and said "would you like any cinder blocks?" Mom said "yes, we sure would!"

I would love to have them to make some raised bed gardens. He said "I have 800 of them on a pallet!"

We could not believe it!! We could make a playhouse or shed or anything with that many! The bad news is he said that they have been trying to get her all week but she's been gone. She was here helping pack orders. He said they threw away 7 full construction dumpster loads!! Augh!!

It would have taken us forever to get that many here but still to have all that go to waste!

Oh well, at least we have a great start on the raised beds!!

I was then talking to my neighbor (Hi, Tisha!) and she said how her washer died and they were going to dump it and Freecycle the dryer because it still worked great. I said "WAIT, my dryer is dying can I have it?" She said sure!! So we are going to take the dolly (sp) down this evening and pick it up! Now I don't have to buy a new dryer!!

God is soooooo good!!!

Tawra

BJ's Cake

I made Bj's cake for his birthday. The cost was about $1.50. He wanted an airplane cake so I took this airplane that I had and put it on there and then decorated around it. I would have normally used white frosting with blue or red edging but he wanted a super duper chocolate cake so I did it with chocolate frosting. The only problem was at first when I put it on there it sunk into the cake.



I took some cardboard , wrapped in foil and then put the plane on it and set it on the cake. Then the plane kept sliding off. Next time if I do something like this I will hot glue the plane to the cardboard and then put it on the cake.

You can use this with anything. I made a Swan Lake for Elly one time, a mermaid cake and car cake are just a few. Just find a toy they like, put it on there and decorate around it.

Tawra

Great Deals

I am just now able to post my after Halloween deals. I stopped by our local grocery store the day after Halloween to see what deals they had. They had everything 75% off! I was so excited. They had ALL their fall stuff including these plates which I got for .25 EACH!! yeah!! I have been wanting some new plates and these will match the chef plates that I've asked for Christmas. I love the little chef guys but the kids needed smaller plates so these will be perfect! The only problem is all three of them always want the red one!


Then after I got home there was a message from my mom on the answering machine. It said "call me back quick. " Well, she was at her Walgreens and they had all their Halloween candy on clearance for .50 a bag!!!! We got candy for the next year! I got it for the school parties, stocking stuffers, Valentines Day and Christmas baking. The I got a couple of extras for birthday parties and other times. I was so excited! Most of it was $5 a bag to begin with! Buying candy for the school parties alone would cost me $15 for all three kids if I got the "cheapy" stuff and this was the "good" stuff! :-)

It doesn't look like much here but I think I ended up with around 25 which will last me most of next year! Yeah!! I am going to make sure that I use the stuff that is perishable first the gummie bears and save the hard candies for later. Tawra

Sorry I've been gone.

Well, we have been working hard so I haven't be on the blog this weekend. The books finally came in and we are packing like crazy! As you can see our packing department (aka, the living room) is full!



You can't see me because I'm in the office (aka our bedroom) printing up labels.
I just thought you might get a kick out of seeing our "big" operation.


Who knows maybe that's one of your books in the mail bags ready to go out today! :-)
Tawra

Pampered Chef Stuff

Well, I got all my Pampered Chef freebies and I have to say so far I love everything!

It's a good thing they came when they did because look what I did to my rubber scraper. It's heat proof too! LOL

I turned on the wrong burner and this was sitting on it. Of course it melted. Mike and mom just laughed! I'm known in my family for all my burned stuff in the kitchen. It's not that I can't cook, it's just that I get distracted.

The other day I made some oatmeal and Mike came in and it was a big glop. He took the potato masher and saved it. He said "Dear, it's not that you can't cook... it's that when you put it on the stove you expect it to take over and cook by itself!" LOL

The only bad thing about my new Pampered Chef stuff is that I almost cut my finger off with one of the knives. I sliced my thumb and couldn't get the silly thing to stop bleeding. Finally I got it pushed together enough that it stopped and healed very nicely! Yeah!!

I better run, I've got biscuits in the oven and I hear they don't take themselves out of the oven! hehehe
Tawra

My great deal.

I went to Lowe's a 2 weeks ago and they had fall bulbs on sale for 75%. That was about $5 for 50 of them. That was the week we ran out of money so I didn't go ahead and buy them even though that was a pretty go deal.

Well, I went back on Tuesday after Mike got paid to see if they still have some and the price went up to 50%. I asked why they had gone up and he said the head office put them higher for the weekend. I asked if he knew when they would be going down again.

He said "let me ask because I think they might be marking them down right now." So he called the manager and sure enough he was getting ready to mark them down to ONE DOLLAR!
I got 50 bulbs plus a cute tote for $1 each bag!!

So I got 400 bulbs total! The next weekend I spent most of the day planting them. Come spring I am going to hopefully have a beautiful bed of Tulips, Daffodils and Crocus! I have always wanted Tulips but never had the $ or stayed in one place long enough to enjoy them!



Tawra

Ear Piercing Shock

Elly has wanted to get here ears pierced for a while but was to chicken to do it. Her cousin decided to go Monday and she wanted to go to so I said yes. She said she was about "70% sure" that she wanted to do it.

Well, we get there and her cousin had it done and she decided to do it too! She looks great but they almost had to pick this mom up off the floor when they told me it was THIRTY EIGHT DOLLARS!!! Augh!!

I know it was 20 years ago but when I had it done it was $6! Good grief! That about sent this tightwad to the ER with a heart attack! I was expecting $20 but not $38!!

Of course we did have to laugh when BJ was so fascinated by going to the mall. This is the first time my 10 year old has been to the mall! (That tells you how often I go! LOL) I kept thinking the entire time that we needed a TLC crew there for one of their reality shows! He just wanted to ride on the see through elevator the entire time. hehehe

We could call it "Tightwads in the Real World" LOL I keep thinking we need to have them come tape our lives. I think people would just laugh at some of the silly things we do to save money sometimes! :-)

Tawra

Gardening with Drywall.

We are trying the drywall thing in the garden. My brother is sheetrocking his house so we got the leftovers and put them in the garden. I just laid it down, put some garden trimmings on top and then Mike put compost on top of that. We are going to leave it for the winter. I don't know if it's going to work but it's sure worth a try! This soil is HORRID so I figure it can't hurt!

Tawra

Who needs a pool?

Ha! The kids just love the new tub. You can see why above. They would take a bath in it everyday if I let them.
Tawra

53 degrees is our limit

We decided to see how low we could go and 53 degrees is it! We made it to November 7th without turning on the heat! Notbad.

We did decide that when Mike came to the table wearing this for breakfast that it was time to turn on the heater.



Now, please remember he is from Texas so he doesn't have the cold stamina of most of us here in Kansas so go easy on him. LOL

Some ways to warm up with the heater off:
Drink warm drinks in the morning, coffee, tea, cocoa
Bake breakfast, we make muffins, coffee cake or biscuits
Put on some clothes. Get dressed right away.
Open the blinds to let the sun in.
Use an electric blanket
Use a space heater to warm up one small room like the bathroom.
Those are a few ideas to help lower your bill.

BTW, we did this because we really messed up the budget the last couple of months. We thought we had more money than we did and we overspent. It was a stupid mistake on our part but we are re-working the budget again and going to start over. It's always hard with a new house to get the budget right until you know what the expenses will be on a normal basis.
Tawra
P.S. I just had to take this one for "effect" hehehe

Reader tip and question.

From: JANICE B.
HAVE YOU EVER ADDED STOVE TOP STUFFING TO YOUR MEATLOAF RECIPE. TODAY I DID, ALONG WITH A PACK OF MUSHROOM SOUP MIX, IT WAS DELICIOUS!!! I USE GROUND VENISON INSTEAD OF GROUND BEEF.


From: Judy

Question : Can you expand on how you freeze the peppers? I just bought 3 green peppers at Aldi's but I know they'll go bad before we can use them all. Thank you! Judy

Judy,
I just chop them up, throw them in the bag and then freeze. You can lay them on a cookie sheet, freeze and then put in the bag if you don't want them to clump together. I just whack the bag on the counter before opening and it breaks up the clumps. Tawra

Buster

Our new dog Buster is doing well. We are still fighting fleas but they aren't too bad now.

I think the allergies were due to the cat food he kept sneaking! When we put her food up higher he stopped the constant scratching. Yeah! I'm glad we got that one figured out!

I must admit though it would have been cheaper to just get a dog from the humane society. We've spent about $150 so far just getting him healthy again! Oh well, he's worth it! :-)


So far he is "mom's baby" and just stays by my side 24/7. We really love having him. I'm glad we were able to get him!
Tawra

Kids Fort

I had forgot that I didn't put a picture of the fort finished on here. The kids just love the fort! I think we made a good choice! Next spring we will add on swings.
Tawra

They are almost here!

Hi everyone!

I am so excited! The new books are almost here!

Due to several newspaper articles we have a lot of new people to our
site and I wanted to give everyone a chance at our great price for
the new books before they arrive.

I wasn't able to change the info. on the sales page but this is going to expire Friday morning so it's just for 48 hours!! Mike (hubby and my web man) is working overtime and couldn't change the info. It is NOT for one week!! It will expire on Nov.9th at 10 a.m. CST.

Since the printer was delayed we just wanted to give the new people and anyone else who missed it one last chance at this great deal!!

We will start shipping on Monday!! Thanks so much for your patience everyone!! Tawra

Ok to use Credit Cards? Yes!!

Check out this great article on using credit cards for Christmas!

I like to use this method because we pay our off and then I get free reward points to use on stuff I want later! :-)

Nothing like free stuff to make a tightwad happy! :-)
Tawra

Pan Problem

Well, I figured out the non-stick pan problem!

I wasn't heating the pan before putting in the eggs. Ok, I admit I really didn't want to learn how to cook growing up so now I'm paying for it! LOL No wonder mom never had any problems and my eggs always stuck like glue!

She said she thinks she will write a book on the how-to of cooking next. :-)

For those of you who don't know the reason I first wrote Not Just Beans was because I couldn't cook worth anything when I first got married and figured I needed to learn to quick! When I found out it was easy if you followed the recipes I wanted to tell everyone! LOL

Anyway, HEAT YOUR PANS FIRST!! Then the eggs won't stick.

Tawra

Operation Christmas Child

Suggestion for your readers:

With Christmas approaching we want to teach our children to think of others. Here is a great way. -
THROUGH Operation Christmas Child.

This is where a child packs a simple shoe box with simple toys, school supplies and hygiene items such as soap, toothbrush/paste and includes a letter. This shoe box gift is dropped of at a local drop-off point during National Collection Week which is November 11-19th. You can go to www.samaritanspurse.com and type in your zip code. It will list all the local drop-off points in your community. This is nationwide. These gifts will then be distributed around the world to children suffering in war-torn countries, poverty-stricken areas, refugee camps and orphanages. There are 50 million reasons to be involved... and counting. This year the goal is 8 million shoe boxes world-wide. Last year 7.6 million were delivered. Children around the country are participating.

For additional information, go to www.samaritanspurse.com or call 1-800-353-5949. While 50 million shoe boxes have been distributed, there are millions more children still waiting to hear that God loves them unconditionally--and it all starts with one person packing one shoe box gift.

Katherine Q.

Dyson Vacuum

Ok guys, what is your two cents? I hear these things are great or horrible. Do you like yours? I was going to try and get one around the Christmas sales but now I'm not so sure.

If you like another kind of vacuum what it is? I would prefer something lighter weight so I was going to go with the Dyson canister but now I'm not so sure.

Tawra

Hi Tawra:

I just wanted to let you know that you might want to reconsider the vacuum cleaner that you want...my dad bought one a couple of years ago and I have to say that I am not impressed with it at all...it is awkward to use and I don't think it does a good job of vacuuming at all, so unless they have significantly improved on the design, I would reconsider...I think that there are others out there that do a better job for less money....

Reader Holiday Tips

I have some ideas for the holidays that we have used for many many years at our house that fits the living on a dime subject really well.

First: on Thanksgiving, I have everyone at the table list 5 to 10 things they are thankful for. I want a few material items from each, but I require those things that are not just material in their Thanks list.

Christmas: At Christmas at our house, it's for the kids. All the adults buy presents for each others kids, and the grown-ups, well, their grown-ups. The kids always make a present for the grown-ups. Every year, it's bath salts for the moms, grand moms, aunts, etc.

This year, we are adding, a coconut and sugar hand scrub, we added a few years ago, a honey body scrub that is so easy for the kids <