Pennywise Meanderings

or I'd be bald! Today was so incredibly busy at work! I clocked out a little after 1 this afternoon and I hurt so bad it's ridiculous. I guess because I spent almost 9 hours basically hunched over making drinks. I got a break and a 30 minute lunch but they didn't help much. At any rate, I think I still have most of my hair and for that I'm thankful. But if I hear one more screaming child, I might crack!

We're going to head out in awhile to do a little shopping. Yeah, the great deals are gone but we aren't after those, anyway. We just like to go out to eat and do some minor shopping in the evening on Black Friday when the crowds are gone or at least greatly diminished. There are still good deals around and those are good enough for us.

I woke up at 2 this morning because I have to clock in at work at 4 AM. Yes, its true, 4 AM! I detest Black Friday and the Christmas season but they're something I have to put up with since I work retail.

To wake up at 2 AM with sufficient sleep behind me I had to be asleep by 6:30 last night. I managed that with the help of 2 Advil PMs and a little night time cold medicine. By 6:15 or so I was sound asleep and this morning I feel refreshed. I'm not thrilled with the why of it all but hey, its one of the evils of my chosen field.

At any rate, I work 4 AM til 1 PM then will spend the afternoon/evening with my sons. We'll probably all go out for dinner and just enjoy each other's company and I'm looking forward to it.

Anyway, happy black friday to you all! Enjoy the deals if you get them but be careful...its nuts out there!

Or at least share with me what you think the most important aspects are. In lieu of that, URLs for websites with good information on the Solo401(k) would be helpful. I've been reading about them today and the Solo might be a good option for us. It's at least something to consider...

One thing I want to know is this - how does one go about finding an entity to set it up? That still has me a little puzzled.

I'm still working retail at the same place and the man person still has his business. It's grown quite a bit and although its a one man operation it pays the bills and then some. We left the envelope system behind some time ago but still have an emergency fund and some extra money saved. However, we still don't have any investments. Honestly, we don't know where or how to start and are afraid of making the wrong move so we've done nothing in that regard. Well, we did do something....

A Primerica rep visited with us last night and hopefully we'll have our financial needs analysis before too long. I've read good and bad about Primerica and although neither of us wants to be a rep/advisor/whatever they're called, their products might be good for us. I think we can do most of it on our own but again, we simply don't know where or how to start.

We need to change that but inertia seems to have us in its clutches. And I think we saved more and just felt better about money when we used the envelope system. Its simply too easy to overspend when we don't use it and we need to give serious consideration to going back to it. We've talked about it and agreed that we should do it but haven't actually done it.

We still don't have health insurance. DH had a heart procedure done recently and we got the bill last week. $47,000! Yep, $47,000 and that's just for the hospital. We haven't received the physician's bill yet. I haven't a clue what we're going to do about this new expense but we'll come up with something. I've already started putting pennies in a jar for it. Ha!

DH got a small life insurance policy on himself. It's only $15,000 but its a start and better than nothing. We're looking into larger policies but with his health history the premiums are outrageous. No insurance on me yet but that's coming soon, I think.

Last week I got a call to clean a house someone had bought and I earned some extra moolah. The job took a little longer than I'd expected but I did it on a day off the regular job and I made about $25 an hour which beats the $8 and 40 some odd cents an hour I make at my regular job. I really do need to concentrate on growing the house cleaning business. I don't know that I could do that only but two cleaning jobs a month would give me an extra $200 to $300 and that's nothing to sneeze at. Every little bit helps...

I'm still working on 2010 goals. I have a few cemented in my mind but most are still up in the air. I'll post about those when they're a little clearer.

In the meantime, have a wonderful Thanksgiving and don't overeat. Oh heck, go ahead and overeat. But get to the gym tomorrow!

My last entry was in May of 2008. I really am one of the worst bloggers on the planet, I think! At any rate, its hard to believe its been that long but apparently it has been. Please forgive me...again. If it will help any, you can give me 40 lashings with a wet noodle!

A lot has changed in the last year and a half, mostly for the better. I'll post more about that within the next couple of days. In the meantime, though, how does one go about finding a reputable financial advisor? No, I didn't win the lottery and don't have tons of money but it's past time I started thinking ahead and I'm kind of lost. And if anyone knows how to proceed, it would be you guys. Maybe I don't even need a financial advisor. Perhaps I can figure this out on my own. But I don't know where to start.

Thoughts? Input? Thanks!

Since this week's check will be about half of normal (since I was out of town for 4 of last week's work days) we're eating from the pantry as much as we can.

The man person had a lunch of creole chicken and rice leftover from last night. I just had steak and gravy pulled from the freezer and some steamed green beans and a small salad. Tonight, DH will finish off that steak and gravy, probably putting it on bread, and I'll have green beans, a few slices of apple, and some swiss cheese for my dinner at work.

I just dug through the freezer and found some barbecued beef roast from two weeks ago and cooked, chopped chicken from three weeks ago so I'll thaw those and use them this week.

Tomorrow night we'll have thinly sliced roast with green beans and a salad. Thursday we'll have the chicken with pasta and alfredo sauce with carrots and spinach. Friday night we'll have more of the leftover roast, probably rolled into low carb tortillas with fresh vegetables, and Saturday we'll have 'everything but the kitchen sink' salads to use any remaining leftovers. Sunday we'll have a roasted chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes and any leftover chicken will be used in the coming week's meals.

That takes care of this week and we have more stuff in the freezer for future meals. There are distinct advantages to cooking more than needed and cooking ahead. I love being able to provide DH with a good meal even when I'm at work and it's good to take a decent meal to eat rather than just a sandwich. And it really saves on eating out expenses! We've spent very little at restaurants lately and having a freezer stocked with cooked food is one of the reasons for that.

Do you like to cook ahead? If so, about how long does something sit in the freezer before its eaten?

since I posted an entry here. Life has been crazy hectic but I wanted to take a few minutes to post and then spend some time catching up on other blogs.

Let's see..what's new with me? My oldest son graduated from University of Texas in Austin this last Friday. Woohooo! He's going to work a year or so then go back to school to work for his Ph.D. My mother, sister, other son's girlfriend and I rented a great little cabin near Austin and had a wonderful time. We had a nice party for the graduate at the clubhouse where we rented the cabin and had a marvelous day of it. We spent too much money but how often does one's oldest son graduate from college? This is the same son who is getting married in August so I'll spend a lot more soon.

On the job front, things are okay but very soon I have to make a major job related decision and am afraid I'll have to quit the job and find another. I don't look forward to that and am waiting to hear from the head of HR. In the meantime, I'm applying at other stores..just in case.

We completed Financial Peace University. It was a great course and we learned so much. I miss the classes now, though!

Oh yes, on the drive back from Austin my mom asked if I'd gotten my 'rebate' yet. I told her no, I hadn't filed. She asked why and I told her because I only worked about 3 weeks in 2007 and wasn't required. She then told me that I should have filed anyway so I could get the stimulus rebate. Duh! I didn't even think of doing that..I just knew I didn't need to file. Well damn, I missed that boat! Stupid tax on me, huh?

I just checked the IRS website and one of the qualifications is $3,000 of income so that disqualifies me. But at least my 'stupid mistake' wasn't!

That's about it for me right now. I'll post again later after I catch up with others.

I don't have much to say of a financial nature. The bills for the month are all paid except for one due on the 23rd but we have the money for it. I'll pay it Monday, probably.

My $20 challenge amount is right around $425, thanks to a little extra cash I got. Hopefully I'll soon be paid for the recipe work I've done and that should give me about $300 to put toward old debt.

On the job front things are going well. I'm working between 32 and 38 hours most weeks and would like to work 40 but am content with what I'm getting now.

We haven't spent much on groceries or anything else lately. We went out to eat tonight but haven't done much eating out lately. Instead, I've done a lot of meal planning and cooking which has saved us a bundle.

Today I bought some Biotin and Chromium Picolinate. When I was first diagnosed with Diabetes supplementing with those helped me keep my BG under control and I hope it helps again. We'll see.

I do plan to hit the stores this week for some good buys that are coming up but that's about it.

Ho hum...

So, it was a little under $50. Not a big debt and not a really old one but it was the smallest in our list of debts to be paid and now it's paid. Wooohooo! One down and ___ to go! Just paying off that one gives me a little more incentive to tackle the others.

So, I heard that starting today Target has Pepsi products at $15 for 5 twelve packs and you get a $5 gift certificate. Plus, Target's website had a coupon for $1 off 2 twelve packs of Pepsi product.

This morning my happy bottom was down there fairly early! I got 10 twelve packs of Pepsi products, one bottle of half and half, my favorite deodorant (had a $2 coupon for that) and two $10 gift cards for $25.60. Wooooot! That figure includes my discount but that was only 10% of the deal.

If you consider gift cards as good as cash, the Pepsi products cost me about $.06 per can. And I still have the cards to use.

And don't forget that there's a printable Dollar General coupon, expiring today, for a BOGO Coke/Diet Coke 2 liter deal. We have about 14 of those 2 liter bottles in the pantry, sitting next to the Pepsi cans.

Don't you just love a great deal?

Okay, not really my first trip ever but my first using coupons and a RR and trying to see what I could save.

I went there tonight and here's what I got:

78 ounces Sun detergent, on sale for $2
A 6 big roll pack of Charmin, $4.04 with a coupon
4 half gallons of milk, $1.99 each
2 13 ounce containers of Folger's coffee, $2 each (between them being on sale and having 2 coupons)
Aquafresh toothpaste, free after rebate
80 count Cuddle Soft fabric softener sheets, $2 on sale

I used the $3 RR I got the other day on the Pepsi deal and used the $5/$20 coupon good for today only plus coupons on the Folgers and Charmin.

I saved $13.90 all together and spent $15.

That wasn't bad considering I didn't know what the heck I was doing! It was fun, too!

Hopefully I'll get this down pat fairly quickly and will be ready for the CVS challenge!

I opened the java joint three days in a row then today worked 3 to 8:45, closing by myself. I work 7:30 to 3:00 tomorrow by myself then work in the other part of the store until 5:00. It's going to be a long day!

My feet hurt, my back hurts, I'm tired, and I just want to sleep! But I can't! Grrr, insomnia is NOT what I need right now.

I'm off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday but asked for some hours on Thursday so I get 9 more hours that day. I need to get as close to 40 a week as I can so although three days off in a row is a real blessing, it's one I can't really afford right now. I'll just have to be happy with two days off this week.

Tomorrow night is FPU. It starts at 6:30 and won't be finished until about 8:30 but maybe I can get to bed before 10:00 and get some good sleep.

Here's hoping...

Someone posted on the local Freecycle group that he has all 271 MASH episodes, all like new or never opened or viewed to give and I get to pick them up Monday! Wooot! DH is quite the MASH fan so this will be fun for him.

So they're VHS tapes but that's okay. We have a couple of those machines that work. However, we have no TV right now! I guess we'll have to work on that next. Ha!!

I just love Freecycle!

Alright, we'll soon start the process to settle the old debts we have. I'm very nervous about it, no..I'm downright scared. I have this fear that we'll wake the sleeping bears and they'll all come after us full force. I don't know that I can handle the stress of that right now. DH says he'll deal with them, though. He's much braver than I am in just about every way and I think he'd be able to handle it better.

At any rate, there's about $16,000 in old debt to tend to. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to approach this but I think I need to send them all VODs and go from there.

Wish us luck!

I haven't had much to say lately but that's because...well, I haven't had much to say!

DH's business is picking up after the pre-Easter slump. My job is going well. I really do like it now that I know what I'm doing. I still don't get enough hours, though, and that's my only real complaint. This week I get 23 hours. I picked up a 4 hour cashier shift yesterday, which was one of my scheduled days off, and hoped they'd call me today, which is another day off, to take one but they didn't. Ah well, such is life! We're still making it and things are improving.

We've had a few slips in the smoking cessation department but they're minor in the scheme of things. We've saved so much money - it's amazing. And we feel so much better, too!

The envelope system is still working beautifully for us as long as we stick with it. That's the hard part but we're still working it.

Financial Peace University is rockin' along. This week was the 'Big Bargains' lesson. DH is the king of bargains so other than one thing Dave mentioned, it was old news to us. It sure was fun to watch Dave talk about it, though!

So, that's about it for me for right now.

That's pretty much what I say when someone comes in and orders a decaf, non-fat, sugar free whatever. Whether it's a vanilla latte, a mocha, or a jazzed up coffee of the week, when I hear the words "decaf", "non-fat", and "sugar free" in the same sentence, my eyes glaze over, my tongue feels a little fuzzy, and the first thing that comes to mind is...what's the point?

If you're pregnant I can see it, maybe, but even that's pushing it. Apparently the common obstetric advice now is that pregnant women should go decaf. Okay, so order a decaf. But why order it non-fat and sugar free, too? Why not just drink water with splenda in it? Oh, it wouldn't taste the same, I know, but still...

No really, I don't mind that people order that...I just can't help but think of it as a "what's the point" and then call it that. The customers think it's funny which is a good thing. I doubt that the muckety mucks would like it, though. Huh...

And what does this have to do with personal finance? Not much, though water with splenda would be a hell of a lot cheaper, but I wanted to share my thoughts on it with yall.

Hoping everyone has a great Sunday!

When did Easter become the disgusting display of commercialism that it is?

Yesterday I cashiered and somewhere along the line lost track of how many people spent over $300 on their purchases. I start conversations with customers and at some point they generally tell me why they're buying what they're buying. What I heard all day yesterday was comments like, "Easter is so fun! I just love wrapping presents for my two kids!" as she swiped that Discover card to the tune of $384. And "Next year I'll have to be more prepared. The kids asked for a lot of things for Easter this year." as he plunked down four $100 bills.

I've worked in retail off and on for years but my last experience with it this time of year was 3 years ago. Granted, I worked at a store that wasn't quite as classy as where I work now but the customers didn't spend like they are now. Ehhh, okay..it was a dollar store!

For the retailers, it's all about money and they're turning the holiday into another Christmas. But why on earth do the adults buy into this? I suppose for the same reason people buy into the commercialism of Christmas.

I celebrate neither holiday but loved them both once upon a time and I didn't go into debt for either one. Easter had some commercialism but it didn't seem to be so intense as now. When my kids were young they got a grass-filled basket with some candy and maybe a very small toy or two in it. That's it. No bathing suits, no electronics, no tapes, no jewelry. I spent less than $20 for two kids most years. And yes that was awhile ago but not so long ago that that $20 is now equal to $300 or more!

Is it just me or do y'all see this, too? I might be a stick in the mud but what I see going on is ridiculous and I can't help but wonder...what are the parents teaching these kids? The kids whine and cry through the store, screaming for "a Starbucks" (oh, don't get me started on that tangent!) and this candy and that toy, throwing tantrums because they want blue grass in their basket, not green, and they don't want a little chocolate bunny, they want a big one.

I don't know..maybe I'm just too old fashioned but something is very wrong here. Very, very wrong. And it has me deeply concerned.

Okay, I'm off to brood over it now.... ha!

Well, let's see. Financial Peace University is going very well. This week we had the "Buyer Beware" lesson. I enjoyed it a lot but that's really only because I'm such a Daviac. We also talked about our March budgets and cash flow sheets and how we're all doing on saving vs. spending.

DH and I have most of the money ready for the next round of bills. We're short on one or two but have time before the payments are due so we aren't sweating it too much.

On the work front, things are going pretty well. Most of my hours are spent at the java joint but I have some hours as cashier, too. I enjoy cashiering sometimes - it makes for a nice break from the other. This week and next week I'm working close to 40 hours so my next check should be fairly good. Also, the company my sister works for is paying me to do some work on their site. Nothing fancy, just some additions and revisions of things. I won't make a killing doing it but should bring in a few hundred dollars and that's always a good thing. I'd like to be able to add three hundred or so to savings and hopefully between the hours at my job and the free lance work, I can do that.

So, that's about it in my world. I don't have a lot of time for blogging lately but try to catch up with everyone once or twice a week...

The sale started Tuesday and I wanted to get there earlier but we didn't make it until tonight so there's a lot of stuff that was gone. But here's what we got at the first store:

10 cans salmon for .64 each
2 boxes of Panburger Beef Partner (for those nights when I just can't handle much cooking!) for .49 each
3 cans mixed vegetables (we use them only for soup or chicken pot pie) for .25 each
1 bag of beef jerky (their brand is the best!) for $1.19
18 small pizzas for when the kids are around for .44 each
Bottom round steaks for 1.99 lb

We also got some sour cream and three 20 ounce drinks not on sale. The total at the first store was $35.27.

At the second store we got:

3 bags of blackeye peas for .39 each
1 bag of large limas for .64
1 bag of baby limas for .96
2 bags of navy beans for .46 each
1 bag of great northern beans for .99
4 bags of kidney beans for .49 each
1 bag of black beans for .49
2 jars of DH's instant coffee for 2.68 each
3 jars of my coffee for $2.89 each
3 chicken gravy mixes for .16 each
3 sloppy joe mixes for .16 each
9 cans of chopped chiles for .59 each
8 cans of mixed greens for .37 each
7 cans of chili (my favorite breakfast!) for .69 each
3 boxes of chopped frozen broccoli for .25 each
34 cans of stewed tomatoes (I love em!) for .41 each
1 roasted chicken, not on sale, for $4.99

We spent $60.18 at the second store. We spent a little over $95 total.

I think we did pretty well and we certainly won't go hungry or thirsty any time soon.

We really enjoyed this dish, though I changed it some last night. It turned out more like Chicken & Dumplings but that's okay because we love those. This is very good served over a little wild rice with a salad and fresh green beans. My notes on the changes I made in last night's version are at the bottom.

2 cups cooked chicken
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 soup cans water
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
16 ounces buttermilk biscuits (8)

Combine all ingredients in crock pot except biscuits; blend well. Cut biscuits into quarters, stir into mixture. Cover; cook on Low 4 to 6 hours stirring occasionally or until biscuits are cooked.

Denise's notes -

I used 4 thighs I'd slow cooked the day before. I didn't measure the chicken. I just de-boned the thighs and chopped the meat into small pieces. I also used 1 can of milk and 1 can of water rather than 2 cans of water and ommitted the chicken bouillon granules, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. I threw in freshly ground black pepper, crushed garlic, and dehydrated onions and cooked it on high for about 3 hours. I like the changes I made and we'll have this again...and soon!

I'm off today and have a few errands to run. I'm going to the bank to get cash to fund the envelopes for the next two weeks and will talk to them about opening a savings account with them. Then off to the washateria to do laundry. Oh joy!

After that, I'll head to work and pop in and say hello to our DM who will be there conducting a two hour training. I won't stay long, maybe 5 minutes. I just want to meet the man and get a quick look at the training stuff. While there, I'll check out the 75% or more clearance items and see if there's anything we really need. I doubt there is but I like to look, anyway. Just in case.

From there, I'll come back to the shop and when it closes tonight we're headed to the local grocery. They're switching to a new store brand and all items of the old brand are 50% off! Hopefully we'll find some good stuff at great prices.

Dinner tonight will be Slow Cooker Chicken and Biscuits with salad and fresh green beans. I made the chicken and biscuits last night and there's plenty left for tonight. It's a good recipe and the dish is quite tasty!

We decided to go with Provident Direct for our savings account. Their interest rate is slightly higher than the others and we've read and heard good things about them.

So, I've been trying for three days to open an account with PD. When I completed the online application I got a message saying the application couldn't be processed and to call them. I did call and leave voice mail, thinking they would return the call the next day. They didn't so I called them again, got a different department and left them voice mail. No call. So I called them again yesterday and talked to a woman who said she could take the application over the phone. Wonderful! But there's a problem. Our driver's licenses don't have issue dates on them. I don't recall ever seeing a Texas license with that information on it and apparently it's required to open the account. The rep I talked to insisted that the account simply can't be opened without that information. I asked her if they have other people from Texas with savings accounts and she said, "Oh, I'm sure we do!" and when I asked her how they opened their accounts without that required information she got a little hostile with me, told me someone would call me today, and ended the call.

Okay, so someone will call me today. We'll see if that happens. In the meantime I still have money I'm burning to get into a savings account and don't have a license with the issue date on it... ugh!

DH has eye problems yet again! We just went through this in mid January and here we are, going through it again. Yesterday he called a different doctor, a local ophthalmologist he trusts, for an appointment.

She examined him and told him he has

'recurrent corneal erosion', a long term problem and not an infection, dilated his eyes, gave him artificial tears to put in before bed to help keep the eye moisturized, talked to him about the condition then presented him with the bill of... $215! Gulp! We didn't expect it to cost quite that much but are thankful we had the money for it. We didn't even have to take the money from the EF but we would have if necessary. He has a horrible time working when his eye is giving him problems and that constitutes an emergency to us!

Anyway, we'll see how the artificial tears work. If they don't do the trick, some kind of laser treatment is a possibility. We don't have the money for that so here's hoping the artificial tears help.

Keep us in your prayers, please...

Oh, while I waited in the waiting room for him to come out, I got some great sounding recipes from a couple of Diabetes magazines. I'll try those next week, probably. And I found a quarter lying on the floor. Cha-ching!

I'm not great with numbers but can handle a checking account with no problems as long as I actually stay on top of it. But there's something going on with our account right now that I simply don't understand. If I check it online or call the automated number, the balance will be $XXX.XX. I find out what credits and debits there were, add deposits that don't show yet, subtract payments and such and get a new balance. So far so good. The next day or two days later, I call and get the balance and transactions again. But the numbers don't jive. The transactions that came through don't explain the balance. Does that make sense? I'm quite frustrated. Yesterday, the balance was over $1,300 and I made a $55 deposit last night after they were closed. Today I called and it's a little over $600 with only $400 some odd dollars in transactions coming through after the $1,300.

What am I missing, y'all?

I'm off tomorrow so I'm going in to talk to them about it. But I am puzzled and very frustrated!!

Thoughts on this?

Okay, I figured out part of it. The only other online banking I've done had the pending transactions right there on the main page with everything else and they were visible at a glance. I've gone months without any kind of online banking and am just getting into it again. I realized, while standing outside fretting over this, that there must be a link to those pending transactions so I looked and sure enough, the balance the bank shows is *after* those transactions. Whew! That explains most of it. The rest I'll figure out in the morning. My brain is fried from worrying over this!

My youngest son, the OTR truckdriver, is in town and since I was off Monday I decided to spend the afternoon with him. I picked him up around 1:00 and he treated me to a great lunch in Tyler at a Tex Mex joint called Cancun. I'd not eaten there before and it was a nice restaurant. He had enchiladas and I had beef fajitas. And to have my son pick up the tab! Oh la la, it was great!

We then went to the washateria and washed clothes together. We both needed to tend to that chore so it made sense to do it together. While the clothes washed and dried we talked about his girlfriend, money, Dave Ramsey, money, his job, money, and such.

He heads back out on the road Tuesday morning and I won't see him for another 5 weeks or so but before I dropped him off he had me take him to an ATM where he got money. And he gave me some! He gave me $300 toward about $500 he owes me. I've tried to tell him he doesn't have to pay me back, that per Dave and many other finance gurus the money was something I could do for him, not a loan. But he wants to give it back. He's anti-debt in a big way and I understand why he feels as he does. But really, he doesn't have to give that money back to me.

Since he insists, though, I took it. There are a lot of things I could do with $300 but these $300 are going into savings. What a nice cha-ching!!!

We went to the grocery today and spent $74.20. That was more than we'd planned to spend but since we'll have two bottomless pits in and out over the next week, that's fine. We'll need it all and then some!

So here are the meals we'll have for the next two weeks. The menu might change a bit if we go out to eat a time or two (we do plan for those) but this gives the general gist of two week's meals. There are too many carbs in most of the meals but darn it, it's hard to eat low carb on a budget! I just won't overeat..or will try not to. *sigh*

Beef tips and wild rice made with a couple of the charcoal steaks, served with a salad and green beans

Breakfast of turkey sausage, eggs, and toast

Slow cooked beans

Turkey chili with corn chips, crackers, or tortilla chips and salad

Pressure cooked hen with carrots, potatoes, onion, and green beans

Slow cooker chicken and rice made with leftover chicken and wild rice,
probably served with salad and a green vegetable

Breakfast again of french toast and turkey bacon

Skilletini with a salad and whole wheat rolls

Quesadillas made with leftover chicken, low carb tortillas, and served with salad

Pressure cooked beef roast (Ray's 3 envelope roast) and vegetables

Beef vegetable soup made with leftover beef roast and vegetables

Slow cooker chicken and biscuits made with leftover chicken (a new to me recipe I want to try)

Red beans and rice with salad

Leftover beans with more salad! lol

I love to cook. It's one of my all time favorite past times. I check out cookbooks from the library, haunt garage sales for deals on them, and am just generally obsessed with cooking and books about it.

Unlike so many fruglies who give up all subscriptions, I subscribe to three magazines - National Geographic, Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country. The three of them are worth every penny to me - NG for the sheer pleasure I get looking at the breathtaking photos and reading the stories of far away places and CI and CC for the kitchen knowledge they impart.

But over the last month I've gotten away from cooking so much and I really have to find my way back.

I have absolutely got to get back to planning meals at least a week in advance. Without that, we eat out too often, and that's a real budget buster! Spring Break is here so the 16 year old male bottomless pit is visiting and his 15 year old sister, almost as bottomless, will be here for a few days, too. In light of these facts, I need a little help planning meals. I've done it for years so I know how but my brain is tired of doing it and I need a little push.

In my freezer, I have a couple of whole hens (tough when baked or roasted but I can use the pressure or slow cookers for stewing), a package of charcoal steaks (5 small steaks), some ground turkey and turkey breakfast sausage, a package of beef smoked sausage, a dozen chicken tamales, lots of vegetables, and plenty of cheese.

In the fridge I have a dozen eggs but will get more today. I need to buy milk and bread, too.

In the cupboards I have plenty of canned vegetables, rice, beans, pasta, flour, salt, all those necessary things.

I have three slow cookers, a microwave, a digital pressure cooker, and an electric skillet. We have no oven or grill right now so baking/roasting/grilling are out.

Here are some thoughts I have on meals I can make this week:

Cut one to one and a half of the steaks into bite size pieces and use it to make 'beef tips' and rice. Rod and Stephen both love that. Serve it with a salad and a green vegetable.

Have breakfast one night, using ground turkey to make turkey sausage and have that with eggs and toast.

Cook beans in the slow cooker one night.

Make chili with ground turkey one night.

Cook a hen in the pressure cooker and use that for a few dishes. I have a few stand bys we like with cooked, cubed chicken but need some more ideas. If you have something you make with cooked chicken, please let me know!

Any other ideas?

We're finally over the flu. Well, we still have horrible coughs and off and on headaches but that's it. I have to say that was the worst virus I recall ever having. It was horrible and it seemed to take forever just to feel human again!

I've missed reading all the blogs so today I'm trying to catch up on them. I'm off today and tomorrow and though I don't feel really chipper (I stayed up too late last night) I'm going to get some cooking done today for the coming week. We're eating out too much again and better meal planning is necessary to put an end to it.

Hey, guess what? Today is the 9th of March and our rent, electric and phone bills are paid already, two of them well ahead of their due dates! How is that for progress, sports fans? I say it sure does sound like progress! We have a storage bill due on Tuesday and my car insurance is due next week but that's it for this month, I think. Yep, the envelope system is definitely working for us. Except we do have one snafu. One day last week, DH needed change for a hundred dollar bill a customer gave him. He didn't have it in his money so he took the $80 from our food envelope and gave it to the customer. And he didn't replace that money yet. But that's okay as long as he pays for whatever food we buy for the next week, up to $80. But he agreed to get change from the bank and stop using the envelope money, which was good.

Anyway, I'm off to catch up with y'all. By the way, thanks for the well wishes and notes of concern while I was sick. I appreciate them! But for the most part, I was too sick to respond to them.

So forget that I haven't seen my Dr. since coming down with the flu. I know what he'll say so there's no reason to go spend money to hear it. And I won't take antibiotics for an infection that *might* develop as a result of the virus. It's still expensive, this bug.

I couldn't cook for four days so DH bought several meals. He also bought me a few meals, which all tasted like the same mushy cardboard, by the way. The cost? About $65.

We pillaged and plundered local cold/flu sections of stores twice to the tune of about $25.

I couldn't do laundry but needed it done by this morning so I could go to work if I felt up to it so we dropped it at the washateria last night and paid them to do it for us. I've done that one other time in my adult life, also when I was ill. The cost for that was (gasp!) $24.36! Outrageous! But it's nice to have it done.

But wait, there's more! Either a weird lower back ache is part of the bug or I pulled muscles coughing and if that doesn't right itself soon I'll see the chiropractor next door. That will cost $35.

So, my getting ill cost us about $115 and might cost more. Now DH has it. He's running about two days behind me in this and today is feeling very, very poorly. I'm going to work, though, and I hope I make it through the day. If I do and am not totally exhausted when I get off, I'll make him a nice dinner of something healthy...and frugal!

Last night's FPU class was cancelled because only one couple showed up. Everyone else phoned or sent the facilitator email letting her know they were sick. With what? This flu bug I have!

This is day four and it's kicking my butt. I can't stay awake for more than 30 or 45 minutes, I toss and turn all night with the body aches, sweating and freezing, and I've missed two days of work. I need to be at work tomorrow morning but don't know if I can handle it. In the meantime, I hope I can rest well tonight and be there bright and early tomorrow to do my job. I detest calling out even if I am sick and I need all the hours I can get.

Anyway, back to bed with me. I hope the rest of you stay flu-free!