My kitchen is very small. I have a good amount of cabinetry but I need some more space.

I found a pie safe type cabinet at a yard sale for $3. It looked like it would work so I took a chance. I brought it home and discovered that the bottom was all rotted out. (Note, check before buying!

I decided to cut off the bottom and then paint it. I had to use 2 cans of spray paint for $6 to get the outside covered. I ran out of paint and didn’t have enough to finish the inside but I think I am going to wait and not spend more money on it now. The door will keep it covered so you won’t see it most of the time anyway.

For $9 and about 20 minutes worth of work I have a new cabinet for my kitchen! Yeah! It will give me the extra space I have been wanting for a while.

Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

We are working on mom’s story about living on $500 a month and how she paid off 35K in debt in 5 years earning 12K a year.

Would you prefer and e-book or printed version? It will be about 50 pages long.

Please email us or add a comment to this post and let us know your $.02.

Thanks! Tawra

editor@livingonadime.com

Acres of Apples, Frugal to the Core
By Jill Cooper
www.LivingOnADime.com

I’ve always dreamed of having an apple tree in my back yard. You know the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for?” Now that I actually have my own apple tree, I stand in my yard watching the apples piling up around me thinking, “Oh no — What do I do with this mess now?” If I could make gasoline out of apples, I could retire, but since that is not an option and my frugal mind will not allow me to waste one apple, I have had to come up with some yummier “apple disposal” methods. If you find that you have a few dozen more apples than you know what to do with, these recipes from LivingOnADime.com will help settle your frugal dilemma.

Other Uses:

~When you have a partially eaten apple, save the good part and chop into pieces. Place in a microwave safe dish. Blend together 1 tsp. each brown sugar, flour, oatmeal and margarine and a dash of cinnamon. Top the apple with the topping and microwave until tender.

~Core and slice apples very thin. Dehydrate and use in granolas, eat alone or soften in warm water to use in recipes.

~Slice and use in Pancakes or waffles.

~Freeze. Peel, slice and core and then store in 2 cups portions in freezer bags.

~Use soft apples in cooking.

~Cut into small pieces and add to salads with a fruit based dressing.

Apple Butter

9 to 10 apples, cored, peeled and chopped
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. cloves
1/8 tsp. salt
Place everything into a crockpot. Stir, cover and cook on high 1 hour. Cook on low for 9-11 hours or until thick and dark brown. Stir occasionally. Uncover and cook on low 1 hour longer. Stir with whisk until smooth. Refrigerate or Freeze. Makes 2 pints.

Apple Pie Filling

9 cups baking apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
5 cups water
2 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg

Toss apples with lemon juice and set aside. Combine the rest of the ingredients in Dutch oven and bring to a boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add apples and return to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until apples are tender (6-10 minutes). Cool for 30 minutes. Then ladle into freezer containers or bake immediately. Makes two 9-inch pies.

Fried Apples

4 large apples, cored and sliced
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Cut apples into 1/4 inch slices. Heat butter in a large skillet. Put the apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon in the skillet and cover. Over medium-low heat, cook apple slices 7-10 minutes or until they begin to soften and the syrup thickens. Serve coated with excess syrup on top. Serves 4.

Baked Apples

apples, cored
raisins (optional)
1 tsp. margarine
dash of cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1 Tbsp. honey or brown sugar
(These amounts are per apple.)

For each person use 1 apple. Fill the center of the apple with all the ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees until tender or put in a Dutch oven on top of stove and simmer on very low until tender.

Apple Snack

2 qts. apples, peeled, cored and halved

Coarsely grate apples. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 225 degrees until dry. Remove from cookie sheet and break into pieces. Store in an airtight container.

Apple Crisp

6 apples, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. cinnamon and/or nutmeg
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange apples in well-greased baking dish. Blend all remaining ingredients except water. Spread evenly over top of apples. Pour water over the topping. Bake 45 minutes until apples are tender and top is crisp. Serves 6.

Peach Crisp
Use peaches in place of apples.

Jill Cooper raised two teenagers alone on $500 a month income after becoming disabled with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. To read more of Jill’s articles and for free tips and recipes visit http://www.LivingOnADime.com/ .

Well, we did it. We missed a credit card payment while we were on vacation last month.

We got the bill and when the interest was $200 for that month instead of the $20 it was supposed to be I about passed out!

Come to find out I had put our credit card bill under some papers that didn’t get moved and lost it.

I called the company to see if they would change us back to 2.9% and take all the fees off for us since this is the first time we were late on a payment.

First they “submitted it” for consideration for a mangager. After 2 days I called back. They took off the late fee but didn’t give me my 2.9% back. So I asked if they would take it off.

She said they would have to “submitt it” to a manager again. I asked how long it would take. 48 hours. So I call back again.

Still it wasn’t back to 2.9%. I was not about to give up and pay the 23% that the rate went up to so I asked to have them take it off again. She said she would have to “submitt it” to a manager. I said that it had already been done and could I please speak to a supervisor. She said yes.

The supervisor took all the fees off and put us back in good standing again!

After waiting a week and making 4 phone calls I finally got my good rates back. I saved $200 for 20 minutes worth of work. Yeah!!

Tawra

From a Reader:

Dear Tawra,

I recently came upon your website and newsletters, which I find very useful.

In a recent issue you mentioned the cost of food that gets thrown away, especially when parents offer their children more food that they can eat. One of the examples you gave was that of soggy cereals.

Here is my suggestion for making the most out of soggy breakfast cereal:
Collect letftovers in a bowl (with lid) and keep it in the fridge until you have about 1 cup of it (you can also store it in the freezer if you think this might take more than 2-3 days). On a day when you have time (like on weekends), prepare a batch of your favorite pancake batter, then add in the saved soggy cereal mixture. Cook as usual (you might have to add milk or flour to adjust the consistency of your batter). It will make for heartier pancakes and – if you use whole-wheat cereal – it can also increase your family’s fiber intake without anyone noticing. My kids find that my “Mini Wheats” pancakes are the best!!!

Take care!!!

Sylvie, Montreal, Canada

I made some homemade ice cream and in one of my sick moments when my brain was dead, I put it in the fridge instead of the freezer.

Thankfully it was in a leak proof container.

I could re-freeze it but I think I am just going to use it as French toast batter instead. I think that will pretty yummy French toast!

Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

Persistence pays off.

Mike left yesterday with his dad to go to San Antonio for a reunion of WWII veterans that his grandfather was a part of.

They were having a formal dinner and needed a coat and tie. Mike has a lot of dress shirts and ties from working at the church but we never got around to getting him a jacket.

Well, we looked at our favorite thrift store 3 times with no luck. Finally we hit a different thrift store the day before he left and found one. It was half price day so it was only $3! Yeah!!! He’s going to look real snazzy even if I do say so myself!

The point is to keep looking usually you can find anything you need used if you keep at it.

Tawra
www.LivingOnADime.com

http://amfilms.hash.com/search/entry.php?entry=539

I thought I would put a link to my favorite song. This is hilarious!

A friend of mine sent it to me in 2000 after our move from H*#@ from Idaho to Kansas.

First our house had been on the market for 3 years and we couldn’t sell it.

Mike lost his job and hadn’t found work in Idaho for 9 months so we decided to just leave our house vacant to move back to KS.

We rented a U-haul, loaded all our stuff and then it was too small.

Since we were in no man’s land Idaho we had to wait 4 days in an empty house to get another truck.

We then had to unload the first U-haul and put it in a hanger at the airport across the street because it was pouring down rain and we had to take the first track back to get the 2nd.

Then we re-loaded the new truck. We only had my mom, my SIL, Mike and I to move all that stuff plus watch 4 kids. (My niece and nephew were there too)

We got started towing a pick-up truck and driving 2 cars. (One was my SIL’s.)

About 2 hours from home we hit a spot in the road where there was no road. In the mountains in Idaho they decided to tear out the old road and put in a new one. It took us about 4 hours to go 20 miles on a one-lane “road” that had a huge drop off on the side.

We get past that and we start having car troubles. So we pull over, take the 73 old beater pick-up (picture Beverly Hillbillies) off the tow bar and put the car on there.

We finally get to Boise (4 hours from our starting point) 10 hours later.

I might add that during this entire time my Elly (1 at the time) kept throwing up about every 30 minutes. She was in the car with just me driving. Try cleaning up barf while driving, that’s a neat trick! LOL

We were all so excited to get into the hotel and into the pool. About 5 minutes after we got in there Elly had diarrhea and it leaked out of her swim diaper. So we all had to evacuate the pool. So much for unwinding.

The next day we get up, get all packed up, go out to McD’s to eat breakfast. Get in the vehicles to get going again and the pick up won’t start.

We spend the next 5 hours at McD’s with 4 kids waiting for the truck to get fixed.

We finally leave Boise and make it to somewhere in Utah about 8:00 p.m. We just spent 2 days and we were about 7 hours from our house in Idaho.

We finally made it to Colorado the next (very long) day, with Elly still barfing.

We got stuck in Colorado for 2 weeks because she got so sick and dehydrated that we couldn’t go further. She was car sick.

After she got better we then had a big family fight right before we left. (Why does it always happen when your stressed out anyway?

Finally we decided to go ahead and head to KS. My grandparents ended up coming with us to help us out.

We had more problems along the way but finally made the what should have been a 10 hour drive to Kansas 19 hours later at 1:00a.m.

We pull into the driveway of the house that I had rented over the phone in Idaho. (NEVER, EVER DO THAT. IT WAS A VERY DUMB THING TO DO!)

There was pile of trash about 9 ft. wide and 4 ft. wide in the front yard. The white bathroom was literally black it was so filthy!

We couldn’t spend the night there like we had planned so thankfully my grandfather, ex-military was able to get us a place to stay that night on base at Ft. Riley.

I just sobbed and sobbed that night when I was outside getting Elly out of the car.

The next day we had to spend cleaning up the nightmare of a trailer house that we had rented.

After all of this, I was telling my friend in Idaho what had happened and she sent me this song.

Now it’s my theme song.

I thought you all would enjoy a good laugh and understand why I appreciated it so much after all that.

Tawra