Budget isnt a bad word part 3

Budgeting really helped me in several ways as I have posted about the emergency fund, and car repair fund. Today I am going to talk about having a clothing budget. Many of you may be thinking are you kidding me Clothing is one of my first priorities, and others may be thinking like i did "I dont have money for clothes" All the while spending money when you just have to have a new pair of jeans because the only pair you had left that fit got a hole in it.

I have been there, many times I have been there. When I went through the Financial Peace University class with Dave Ramsey I listened when he said clothing was a necessity. I kind of laughed at first because I thought we cant afford a clothing budget then I started to think of all the times I had to buy something and the money had to come from somewhere else. We were spending money we might as well budget for it.

That is when I started budgeting for clothes for the whole family! I didnt budget much and many would laugh at how little I budgeted. We have $30 a month for my husband and I each and $13 a month for the kids each. We shop at resale shops for the kids or catch really good sales at stores like The Childrens Place and Old Navy.

I will share more on shopping on a budget for kids later on!
But I encourage you check out your budget this week and make sure you have a clothing budget even if you have a closet full of clothes and your size never changes you might need socks or underwear one day! And if you don't use your clothing budget each month keep the money in your clothing envelope and save it. You can use it later to buy something fun.

Works for me Wednesday: Foaming hand soap and dish soap

I saw a post on how to make your own foaming hand soap and dish soap on idreamofclean.net and so I thought i would check it out.

I bought 2 foam dispensers and a large bottle of regular dial hand soap refill. I was curious of how clean the foaming hand soap really made your hands, but I would say it does a pretty good job!

Check out how to make your own foaming hand soap and foaming dish soap here.

I have a feeling this large bottle of soap refill will last me a very very long time!
Enjoy and stay clean on a Budget!

Recipe: Pigs in the Blanket

Today I made one of my favorite freezer recipes of all time, Pigs in the Blanket! Yes I know this may sound strange for a freezer recipe but It is totally yummy, and if you dont eat them all before they even get back to the kitchen, they Freeze and reheat wonderfully!

Pigs in the Blanket

2 pkgs dry yeast ( 2 1/4 tsp per pack* Buy in bulk it is much cheaper!)
2 c very warm water
2 tsp salt
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c melted shortening
1 beaten egg
6 1/2- 7 cups flour
2 pkgs 8 count hotdogs
about 1 c cheese

Combine first 2 ingredients, add sugar, salt, and 1/2 cup four and beat for 2 minutes.
Add egg and melted shortening, beat until smooth.
Add flour 1 cup at a time, about 5-6 cups. Knead until smooth!
Set aside in greased bowl, cover with towel, let rise until doubled in size. (this happens quicker on top of the stove if oven is on or put inside the oven after turning it on for about a minute and then turning it off.)
Punch down dough, divide in half
Roll out 1/2 dough into a large circle and spread with softened butter (about 1/4 stick per circle)
Cut with pizza cutter into 16 pieces
Sprinkle with Cheese
Place 1/2 hotdog on edge of each triangle and toll
Place on greased cookie sheet (or what ever you have that will work lol)
Let rise again!
Bake in oven @ 400 for about 12 minutes
Remove to wire rack to cool and then bag and freeze or eat them all up!


This recipe is great for crescent rolls also just omit the hot dogs and cheese! I havent tried it yet but I bet this would be great with honey drizzled on before cutting and rolling up the crescents!

Based on a recipe calculator spreadsheet I saw on moneysavingmom the bread part of this recipe costs $1.79 for 32 Crescent rolls! That is .06 a roll! add the hot dogs and cheese and it is more like .18 a Pig in the blanket! Pretty good by my book, and if you bought the cheese and hot dogs with coupons it would be even cheaper.

Budget isnt a bad word part 2

Last week I discussed how it was before I went to the Financial Peace University class, this week I would like to discuss how it has helped us to have an emergency fund and Car repair fund, and ways it has helped us with the rest of our budgeting.

Dave Ramsey suggests you start with $1000 in an account that you can easily get to (but not too easy) for an emergency fund. If you have debt you are to make minimum payments on these until your $1000 emergency fund is in place.

An emergency fund is just that for emergencies, things like a death in the family and you have unexpected traveling, get laid off from work. Christmas is not an emergency, neither is that new outfit you have been wanting that went on a drastic sale.

When we put our $1000 into the account we did not want to have to touch it. So we kept it in there even when things came up that seemed like emergencies. One time our car broke down and we did not yet have enough in our car repair fund to fix it (more on car repair funds later) and so we decided since we had two cars we would just wait until we had the extra money in our car repair fund. We were patient and when it was time we got the car fixed.

You could argue that needing a car fixed was an emergency, but we did not want to pull from that account if possible so we waited.

Car repair Fund:
In Financial Peace University Dave Ramsey talks about having a car repair fund. This is for things like oil changes and other normal repairs. We did not have a car repair fund really, yet we were taking in one of our two cars in for a repair about every 3 months. Both of our cars have high millage and are older cars with quiet a few miles on them so we expect repairs need to be done on a regular basis.

This is how our car repair fun works for us. We set aside $100 a month for car repairs, taxes, ect. if we do not use the money that month it stays in the envelope. It amazes me that as I think we are getting quiet a bit of money in there something always comes up. But it is no longer an emergency. It turns into an inconvenience. It is inconvenient to take our car to the shop and use only one car. It is a blessing that we do not have to stress over little repairs.

It is amazing to me that we did not have this in place before, we have always had repairs that needed to be made on cars, yet it was not budgeted in our budget it was always an emergency. Not anymore! Thanks to our Car repair Fund Car repairs are not an emergency for us anymore.

The emergency fund and car repair fund bring a peace when it comes to the rest of the budget. Knowing that we have those there really help when I think we are extra low on money that month at least I know we are taken care of in a real emergency.

So I encourage you to reevaluate your budget and set aside some time to figure our how you can get an emergency fund and car repair fund going for you!

Frugal Friday!

Do you love to eat out but want to do it cheaper?
Find out what restaurants do special kids nights, or buy one get one nights.

Fazolis (in Pueblo Call for your local restaurant deals) Offers .99 kids meals on Tuesdays. We also have a local High school card that allows us to get a free spaghetti with the purchase of an entree, so we combine the tow to get a cheaper meal on Tuesdays, and with the unlimited free bread sticks we are always full when we leave.

So I will be highlighting special deals as I see them, but be on the look out for cheap nights to eat out and enjoy them when you can!

Free Amazon MP3 Credit

Get a $2 amazon mp3 credit just by going to AMAZON here and entering this code VDAYMP3S. Use this to send 2 songs to a Special person or persons in your life.

They will walk you through it and all you have to do after you pick out the song is put in the email to the person you want to send the song too, as well as a message if you would like. They will send out the link for them to download the song free!

Enjoy and share some Music with someone you love.

Thanks to Moneysavingmom for Posting this awesome deal here

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Recipe: Creamy Crock Pot Chicken

I tried this recipe I saw on a comment on Moneysavingmoms blog and I added few variations of my own and it turned out wonderful!

Creamy Crock Pot Chicken

6 chicken breasts (I used frozen)
1 Bottle of Italian Dressing
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1 pkg Cream Cheese (room Temperature)
1 cup Chicken Broth


Cook chicken in crockpot with entire bottle of Italian Dressing for at least 6 hours on low. ( I left mine all night and we had it for lunch)

Remove chicken from crockpot and shred with 2 forks (reserving the liquid for later use). Add the soup, cheese, and broth. Mix well, add some of the reserved liquid the chicken to taste and desired consistency. I added probably about 1/4 cup of the liquid.

Serve over rice and with Green beans.

Budget isnt a bad word part 1

When my husband and I first got married, we decided then I would take care of paying the bills and dealing with the finances. I had paid small bills like insurance and a phone bill, but never budgeting for 2 people and lots more bills.

I tried for several years to come up with a budget that worked for us, and have failed many many times. Last year I took the Financial Peace University Class offered at our church. After starting with that Our finances have drastically changed.

Before the class we did not currently have very much of an emergency fund, we had nothing for car repairs or even a clothing budget. All of that changed when I did a budget based on what Dave Ramsey recommends.

Next week I will discuss more in depth why having a budget will help and how we budgeted.

Groupon Deal: $20 Barnes and Noble Voucher for $10

Right now at Groupon you can get a $20 Voucher for $10 to spend at Barnes and Noble.

Just head to this link to purchase your $20 Barnes and Noble Voucher for $10. It will show up in your Groupons list Print it out and take it to Barnes and Noble or use it online!

Use this in conjunction with the clearance section to get an even better deal!

$10 Starbucks card in the Mail

I got a $10 Starbucks card in the mail today from Shop It To Me! I was super excited, I immediately added it to my other Starbucks card online to make sure I am still earning free drinks from Starbucks.

Works for me Wednesday: 19 Uses for Flour tortillas

For years I have been getting my tortillas from Sams Club, yes that's right Sams Club. My Family really enjoys many things that you need tortillas for and I need a way to get them without paying so much for them.

I went to Sams Club one day I believe getting milk (at the time the cheapest place) and I walked by the tortillas and I saw the price and thought why am I paying for more?

So I picked up a package which is really 3 packages together in another plastic bag. Can you believe I can get 3- 8 inch, 12 tortillas packages for $3.06 every day not on sale. Then I began finding things to do with Flour Tortillas. There are so many fun things to do with tortillas! Let the fun begin here are 19 tasty options to use up your tortillas Yum!!!

1. Burritos
2. Soft Tacos
3. Enchiladas
4. Pinwheels ( cream cheese, sandwich meat, seasonings, tortillas rolled up refrigerated then cut.)
5. Cheese Tortilla Pizza (speghetti sauce, cheese)
   
6. BBQ Tortilla Pizza (bbq sauce, cooked chicken, cheese, red onion and jalapenos)
   
7. Loaded Tortilla Mexican Pizza (beans, cheese, hot sauce or salsa, bacon bits)
   
8. Tortilla and Bologna Roll ups (we like to fry the tortillas on a skillet with butter then assemble with bologna, cheese is good in there too!)
   
9. Cheese Quesadillas
10. Meat Quessadillas
11. Dessert Tortilla (honey and butter warmed up on warm tortilla)
12. Lunch meat wrap
13. Chicken tender wrap
14. Hamburger wrap
15. Breakfast burrito (sausage, potato, green chili and cheese)
16. Breakfast Burrito (eggs, sausage, cheese) or any meat and add potato if you would like
17. Make chips!! (I am going to try this and post the recipe and results soon!)
18. Fajitas (steak, chicken, pork, shrimp... yum)
19. Fish tacos (grilled well seasoned fish, cabbage, mango salsa)
    

The list could go on and on! Enjoy your tortillas, and if you bought some and need them to last more than 5 days put them in the fridge they will last up to 60 days in there!

Stock up time!

One great way to lower your grocery budget is to stock up when prices get low on certain items. This week at King Soopers stores there is a sale on Del Monte Canned vegetables. They are on sale for .49, for some that may not be very low, but for me to get name brand canned vegetables it generally costs .65 or more.

When I have it in my grocery budget to stock up on food that is on sale and especially when it is canned food which will last a long time I go for it. If I just bought 10 I would save $1.60 Which may not seem like a lot, but some weeks having that extra $1.60 is much needed to help buy milk, or bread.

Here are some other great deals that is See this week at King Soopers!

Del Monte Vegetables (11-15.25 oz) – $0.49

Heinz Ketchup (40 oz) – $1.49

Ro-Tel Tomatoes (10 oz) – $0.42
Use $0.30/1 Rotel Diced Tomatoes – 1/23/2011 SS Insert
Net cost at checkout: free



Check out more great deals at Springsbargains.com She has some great coupon match ups and Ratings to help you see what is the best deals!