Pennywise Meanderings

This is a great carpet freshener:

1/2 cup borax
10-15 drops essential oil or fragrance oil (I use Sandalwood)

Mix together in a container with a fork, then sprinkle on carpet. Let sit for 10 minutes then vacuum.

Something like Oxyclean:

1 cup hot water
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide

Mix well.

This stuff is great and even removed old blood stains from a pair of gloves.
Just soak the item in it for 20 minutes to overnight and then wash as usual.
This will not harm fabric like bleach and seems to be color safe, too.

Something like Febreeze:

1 1/2-4 tablespoons liquid fabric softener (any brand and fragrance you like)
25 ounces water
32 ounces spray bottle, new and clean

Mix in a bottle and use as you would Febreeze.

Carpet Cleaner:

1/2 cup liquid Tide
1/4 cup Clorox II
1/4 cup white vinegar

Add this to 1 gallon of hot water in machine.

If you need to pre-treat some areas you can mix this in a spray bottle and spray the area before you start.

Daily After Shower Spray:

Fill a spray bottle almost full with hot water then add:

1 teaspoon borax
1 teaspoon washing soda
1 tablespoon liquid Castile soap (Dr. Bronners)
1/2 cup vinegar

Shake well before using. Make sure you put the hot water in first or it foams a lot. If you can't find the castile soap, try a few drops of Dawn dish soap.

The repair on the truck was only $135 instead of being around $700 as we figured. Yippeee! While we were out this morning we bought the double minutes plan for DH's tracfone, finally! Last month we went over the 600 minutes on my T-mobile and we've done it again this month. I don't use the phone much but with our ISP down for 3 weeks, the T-mobile was all we had and DH has been using it for business when we're out on a job so the bill is way too high. Now that he has his Tracfone that should end. We paid $140 for the double minutes plan and that included 420 minutes. Those will last him 2 to 3 months, probably.

There is a bit of good news, though. He did two wireless jobs over the weekend and has at least one and possibly two scheduled for tomorrow so that's more money coming in. I'm taking a bit out of all that comes in and putting it away. No set amount yet - just a little here and a little there. It makes me feel better to have a little bit stashed away. But we absolutely have to get caught up and that's where most of what he gets for the next two weeks is going.

We have plenty of food to last us so that shouldn't be much of an expense. The wireless jobs are all fairly local so gas shouldn't be a major expense, either.

Hey, I think there's light at the end of that long, dark tunnel!

Last week DH earned about $1,100 doing the commercial and wireless installs. There aren't any more commercial jobs to do right now but he'll be called if and when more come in. That could be a week or months, no telling.

As for the wireless installations, he should be able to stay busy with those. The pay isn't great but it should be enough to keep body and soul together and allow us to save some money, too. If he gets commissions for sales that would help tremendously! All the details aren't worked out but there's hope on the horizon.

It feels great to have some work coming in and be able to pay bills on time!

Well, I got up early, made DH's breakfast, cleaned the kitchen, and checked email. DH has a couple of wireless jobs to do today (yaaay, more money!) and I have some things to do around the house.

Laundry is caught up but I'm going to clean the bathroom and the kitchen and work on the front porch a bit.

Dinner tonight will be turkey dressing with gravy, green beans, spinach and salad.

I'm going to cook 5 lbs of chicken today, debone it, and stick it in the fridge for the coming week. We eat a lot of chicken, more than your average bears, I think! We prefer it over most beef and at .49 a lb for whole chickens and .29 a lb for quarters it's hard to beat pennywise.

This week we'll have chicken pot pie, chicken and dumplings and probably some kind of chicken and wild rice casserole. Yummy!

Anyway, that's about it for today...

We've been doing a lot of commercial satellite jobs and they've taken us far from home. We're generally home each evening but on the road for hours a day. Well, because of that we've spent almost $400 on food so far this month! That might not seem like a lot to some but we generally spend less than $200 a month to feed 4 people so $400 by the 25th of the month, and a good deal of it fed only two people, is just outrageous! We have to put an end to that, period. We can't afford it. I don't think there will be more commercial jobs for awhile so that will solve most of the problem right there. But I need to come up with a back up plan in case we end up doing another one or two or twelve. The money is good so we won't turn them down but we need to not eat out every time we do those jobs!

Anyone have ideas on something to take to eat other than sandwiches?

DH's aunt and cousin came to visit yesterday and brought us two boxes of food! They must think we don't eat enough, baaahahaha. Actually, they get a lot of poundage and give a good deal of it away and we just happen to be among the recipients.

We got:

6 large cans juice
16 cans of veggies (peas, mixed, carrots, yams)
a large block of Velveeta type cheese
a huge can of cooked and deboned chicken
2 lbs rice
2 lbs instant potatoes
Almost 4 lbs powdered milk
2 lbs macaroni
3 boxes cereal
3 pounds of quick cooking oats
5 cake mixes, including two of those fancy "ultimate dessert" type thingies, which I have never bought or tried before

Most of the stuff is too high in carbs for us to eat often but I do try to use it up. I think some of this last batch is going to the food pantry.

Today for lunch, though, I made homemade macaroni and cheese. DH doesn't eat it and I eat just a bit of it but the 22 year old son loves it so I made enough for him to take to lunch a couple of times over the next week. I think I'll make some goulash for the freezer, too.

Anyway, free food is pretty frugal, eh?

Today I'm going to clean the house, cook, wash some clothes and hang them on the clothes line. I have bread rising right now and plan to boil a chicken to be used throughout the week. I also have some ground beef that needs to be used so I'll use some in tonight's main dish. I'll put the extra in the freezer for some later date.

I'm also going to go over the budget spreadsheet again to see what we've spent that we shouldn't have. I know there's something!!

And I plan to clean out the truck. We're doing some commercial satellite receiver installation jobs and when we do that, we basically live in the truck so it's a mess. I need to get it all cleaned out in preparation for the upcoming wireless internet installations we'll do. Woohooo! I think that will keep us busy and keep the bills paid.

Anyway, I have a busy day planned and I hope it's a frugal one!

The spreadsheet DH helped me make for keeping track of expenditures is working like a charm. Daily, I go through receipts and enter the expense in it, place, purpose, amount, date, method of payment, and it gives me a nice running total for the month. It's very helpful so far, so helpful that I created another one for income! Not that there's much of that right now but hey, there will be and I want to be able to efficiently keep tabs on it.

Okay, the connection is back though it isn't the most stable one at this time. The new owner of the ISP is working on things so hopefully they will improve.

In the meantime, I need to get caught up on reading yall's entries. I'm so far behind! I hope I didn't miss anything really good.

We still have no internet access but should soon, I hope. I'm checking email from the computer of the friend buying the ISP and he says he isn't sure when the T1 will be put in but he thinks it will be soon. Since he's the buyer, he knows a lot more about what's going on than the rest of us do.

So, we still have no access but I thought I'd check in and say I'm surviving. Barely.

Moneywise, things are tight but they always are! Hope is on the horizon, I believe, though.

More to come later...

Our ISP is having major issues and is down totally and we don't know for how long. I'm using a friend's computer but don't know how often I'll be able to do that.

At any rate, I'm offline for awhile and will miss posting and reading other people's blog entries.

Hopefully, I'll have good news to report when I am back.

Here's a great mix I make up. It might be of interest to those of you with MSG issues. I use it for all sorts of things and it's great!

1/2 cup dried minced onion
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup chili powder
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp oregano
2 Tbsp cumin

Combine all ingredients. Run through a blender if you want. Store it in a canning jar or some other air tight container.

Use 2 Tbsp and 1/2 cup water to 1lb browned hamburger. Simmer 10 minutes.
Or use 2 Tbsp of this mix in any other recipe that calls for 1 taco seasoning packet.

DH is a FileMaker wizard. Me...not so much.

But he just helped me created a marvy database for keeping track of expenses. I can categorize them daily, monthly, weekly, etc and it will give me running totals. I'm so excited!

I've been keeping track of things in an expense book and while that's a good way to do it, I really prefer something on my computer and I really didn't want to use a spreadsheet because the functionality of those as opposed to a FM database is almost nil.

So, now I have a great way to keep track of expenses!

Next is a better way of keeping track of income.

Our ISP has been having major trouble. They're in the process of selling but the trouble has been going on almost since day one of our time with them. Anyway, our connection hasn't worked properly for a long time but the last few days have been horrendous so I haven't been able to do much at all online.

At any rate, a friend of ours is buying the ISP and he's asked my DH to go to work for him! He'll more than likely be doing sales and installs but the chance for a partnership is there, too. I'm thrilled, just thrilled!

Maybe there will be some work for me, too, but if not DH should be able to do fairly well in this business. It's the only wireless provider in our area and they have a stack of site surveys they haven't done because they were having so much trouble and didn't have the time or people to get to them. So, the work potential is very good! If we can just pay bills on time and save some money, I'll be overjoyed! Sad but true..

I'm not sure when the sale will be final but it should happen quickly.

Please keep us in your thoughts.

Ahh, apparently it's a homemade outdoor wood furnace.

We have a central heat and air unit that also can function as a heat pump. We don't use the heat pump function as it just doesn't seem to warm up the house. The air that comes from the vents is simply cold air. So instead we use the central heat to heat the house. Now, part of the house is about 55 years old and not well insulated. Another part, added later, is pretty well insulated but still stays cold.

Even if we turn the thermostat up to 72 the house is pretty cool. We usually keep it down, though, and just wear layers when we need them. But we're looking into other methods of heating as a $250 to $300 electric bill (specially when the house stays cool) is just ridiculous! We've thought about putting a fireplace in the living room but don't really have room for that.

So, to the point...

DH went to play guitar with a guy last night who built a very interesting heating contraption for his house. He's a welder and he put together this huge heavy gauge steel cylindrical tank which sits outside the house. In it is another cylinder in which a fire is built with whatever kind of wood he can find. There's a smoke stack going up about 15 feet and the heat is piped, via insulated pipe into one room of the house. There was just a small fire in the contraption last night and DH and the guys were playing two rooms away and he said they had to open the front door after awhile to let some cool air in because the place was burning up!

We're going to talk to the man to find out what it would cost to build us one of those. Have any of you heard of one of these? If so, do you know what it's called and do you know much about them?

but had to borrow $500 to do it. I didn't want to do that, Lord knows I didn't, but we can't rent a place for less than our house payments. The car and bike haven't sold yet but if they do, we'll repay that $500 right then.

We now have about $35 and that's it. The electric bill and a house payment are due late next week but we're dealing with that. Fortunately, we have a well stocked pantry and just paid the water bill.

Now that this major hurdle is over we have to work on the smaller ones. Neither of us have found a job yet, but I'm sure I can find something in retail, even if it's just part time. If I can make enough to cover the house payment, I'll be thrilled.

So, yeeeehaw (sort of!), we saved the house!

Man, this is exhausting...

Well, we ended up having a very boring but very cheap dinner. When we got home from running errands DH had two pieces of bread with two turkey franks and some dill pickle relish. I had the last of the taco soup from last night and it was very good with a few fritos in it.

DH then left to go pick guitar with some people and I've been lying around doing nothing but watching movies and being a bum.

Oh yes, I did record today's spending in my log and updated the January records. Hey, I might be getting the hang of this!

We had to run to a nearby town to pick up some checks and cash them - another $150 toward the money we have to give the bank tomorrow.

We had to put gas in the car so we spent $17 for that. But even though we were both very hungry and wanted Chinese food at our favorite place, we passed and waited until we got home to eat. That was $13 we didn't spend eating out!

While there I called my Dr's office and found out my Novolog insulin was in so I went to get it. The pharmaceutical company sent me 4 boxes of Novolog Flexpens. That's about $720 worth of insulin at no charge! That's good news, indeed! Thank God for Patient Assistance Programs! And if that's not good enough, the needles I use on my Byetta pens fit on these, too, so I didn't need to buy needles!

I also heard from the bank and they don't need $1200 from us tomorrow, they need $1033 so that's a little less we have to pay them. That's good news, too.

Now I'm tired and about to go watch a DVD and probably fall asleep on the couch.

I have a 1988 Yugo GV that I got in lieu of wages some years ago. It needs a new engine and I'm not going to do that (again) so I'm selling it. It won't bring much but it's hard to sell it, anyway. I've had it so long and it's been a great car, getting 40+ MPG and being something of an oddity on the road. Ahhh well, the decision is made, it's listed on a couple websites and I've gotten some inquiries about it, already. I mentioned it to someone this morning and he said, "Wow, you're selling your car?" He knows how I feel about it but such is life.

I'm also going job hunting today. I'm going to look for a retail job in the little town we're near. Even part time will be okay for now. DH is okay with it, finally. He knows it has to be done and he says he'll work his schedule around mine.

He also said that he's going to look for a job in the optical field in about two months. This is the worst time of year to look for a job in that field and he still has two books to get out so he'll do those and by the time he is finished, spring will be around the corner and he should be able to find a job.

This is hard, admitting that the business has failed, but at least he's coming around. He hurts but he knows what has to be done. We both do.

So far this month we've deposited $1,618 into the bank. The balance in the account and the expenditures for which I have receipts total $1,599.19 so somewhere out there $18.81 is unaccounted for. Argggh, I wish I knew where it went!

But considering that this is my first attempt at a zero based budget, that isn't too bad, I don't think.

Is it?

It's great being able to see just where our money has gone - at least all but that $18.81!

Alright, this might work for me..it might just work.

Well, DH is feeling much better today so off he went to town to try to collect payment from a couple of advertisers. I stayed home because I don't feel too chipper and I'm just tired and cold today.

In the crockpot I have Taco Soup and we'll have that tonight with cornbread, unless one of the guys picks up corn chips or tortilla chips today. If they do, we'll have the soup over those but if not, cornbread is great. I baked a few chocolate chip cookies so if they aren't gone by supper, they can have those for dessert.

Someone in the local Freecycle group offered some cat food and cat litter and I claimed it. Yippeee! She lives not far from me so I need to get to her house today or tomorrow to get it. That's a few dollars I won't have to spend and I'll add those to my challenge money. I just love free stuff, even if it is free stuff for my cat!

Okay, I'm cold and need to warm up. I'm going to climb into bed for awhile and hopefully that will help me warm up.

Well, the big payment to the bank is due on the 28th which is Sunday so we need to make it this Friday. We're almost there. We're a bit shy of the $1011.94 that's needed but we'll get it by Friday, I believe.

We've sold what we could, saved where we could, and done everything but sell our vehicle to get the money together. I'm still holding my breath and will be until the bank is paid and I have a receipt from them saying so.

I hadn't tried this before but since I'm not feeling too chipper I didn't want to go to a lot of trouble to make dinner. Here's what I ended up making tonight.

I opened the can of beef luncheon loaf (similar to Spam I correctly figured) and chopped the contents into small pieces. I skillet fried the pieces in canola oil spray and boiled some penne. I also set about 2 cups of broccoli in a colander in the sink to thaw and drain. I dumped the drained penne, the meat, and the thawed and drained broccoli in a lightly greased 2 quart casserole.

In a small sauce pan I made a sauce with one cup reconstituted powdered milk, one cup of water, and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. I stirred that over a medium heat until it was thick then added some grated parmesan cheese, a bit of salt and some freshly ground pepper. When it tasted cheesy enough, I poured it over the contents of the casserole, mixed it, covered it, and put it in the oven at 300. I baked it for about an hour and when I took it out, it smelled very good. Leftover salad, buttered bread, and green beans were eaten with it.

I ate just a bit of it and it was actually quite good! The "boys" finished most of it off and said they wouldn't mind eating it again sometime.

I'll try it another time with different vegetables. I also think it might be very tasty with smoked sausage rather than the spam like beef stuff. Yuck! I don't eat things like that and don't buy them but that can was given to us so I figured I might as well use it somehow. All in all, it was a successful dish!

For November 2006, the USDA's "Thrifty Plan" for a family like mine of three men and one woman, is $571. Wow, that seems like an awful lot of money for groceries to me. Or is it just that I'm so accustomed to spending less that it seems too high? Granted, we live in an area with a lower cost of living but I work hard to buy and cook on a very limited budget.

Anyway, the USDA's info is here for those who haven't seen it:

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodPlansCostofFood.htm

I'd like to know what others think of the federal government's ideas on how much money it takes to feed a family.

we need spending discipline!

I'm watching the state of the union address and he's talking about how the U.S. needs to budget better.

Wow, novel concept, huh?

Okay, I'm up to $21 now! And no, DH won't get it. He'll have to find his own $20.

While I was in the process of cleaning and organizing the cupboards yesterday, I updated my inventory. I didn't include the freezers, fridge, or outside pantry, just the kitchen cuboards.

I got to thinking of what a boon a well stocked pantry is. I haven't had to run to the store for one or two things for a meal in many, many years. If I don't have it, I substitute and if I can't do that for some reason, I don't make the dish. I just prepare something else and move on.

I truly believe that being well prepared is one of the things that's enabled me to feed 4 adults on $200 to $250 a month, most months for less.

So, what's in your pantry?

Here's part of what's in mine:

1 jar of garlic parmesan sauce (which we love over chicken and broccoli)
1 can spaghetti sauce
3 bottles misc. hot sauces
1 bottle worcestershire sauce
1 jar mayo
1 16 oz bottle honey dijon dressing
17 cans green beans
7 cans ranch style beans
2 cans sweet potatoes
10 cans corn
5 cans sweet peas
10 cans spinach
2 regular cans black eye peas and 1 6 lb can of black eye peas
1 can kidney beans
7 cans Bush Vegetarian baked beans
2 cans asparagus
1 can mixed vegetables
3 cans saurkraut
7 cans potatoes
2 1 liter boxes of Creamy Chile Poblano soup (anyone have ideas what to do with that?)
1 can bamboo shoots
3 cans tuna
1 can beef in juice (will be used in stew at some point)
1 bag Szechwan Chicken
1 can beef luncheon loaf
1 large can enchilada sauce
1 can black olives
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can mushrooms
1 can apricots
1 can mixed fruit
1 can cherry pie filling
1 can pumpkin
2 cans pineapple
3 16 oz bags of instant potatoes
2 26.5 oz bags of powdered milk
1 quart of low fat shelf milk
8 cans milk
6 lbs rolled oats
10 lbs farina
15 lbs white flour
10 lbs whole wheat flour
3 lbs soy flour
3 cake mixes
1 container of frosting
1 box dates
1 bag chocolate chips
8 lbs white sugar
4 lbs brown sugar
1 jar molasses
1 bag splenda
lots of spices
baking goods like yeast, baking powder, etc
teas and coffee
7 bags beans, misc. varieties
8 lbs rice
4 large bags of pasta, misc varieties
2 6 lbs cans whole tomatoes (what in the cat hair do I do with those? I'm thinking homemade spaghetti sauce for the freezer)

The 21 year old is moving out tomorrow. He is not moving with our blessing. In fact, for reasons I won't go into here we think it's a foolish thing for him to do but he's determined so out he goes.

There will be one less mouth to feed, less electricity used, less water used, etc. but there will also be one less smiling face each day and that makes me sad. He's a great young man and we get along very well.

I'm sorry to see him go...

When I went to get my son from work, I picked up some Immodium AD and Pepto Bismol for my man person. Those two items cost $6.75 so that was my spending for today. Drats, I so hoped for a no spend day!! Finding those is rare for us.

Today's been a no spend day so far and should continue to be one. DH's cousin who visited from Louisiana a couple days ago left something with us... a virus! DH is sick with it and I pray I don't get it!

I've spent most of today working in the kitchen, cleaning and organizing the cupboards. I do that every few months, clean them out, put down fresh shelf liner, re-organize the items in there, etc. When I woke up this morning I wanted to work on that today so I have been. It might take me a couple of days to do the entire kitchen as we're having bug issues so I'm also spraying after the cleaning and then I have to let the spray dry and that takes a little more time.

At any rate, the food the cousin brought is now neatly in the cupboards with the rest of the stuff and the cupboards look nice!

I thought a couple of pictures would be good.