Another Dinner Update - Seriously?

I'm on a roll, people.

Chicken Nacho Bake

Total Cost: about $10.00 What am I? Richy McMoneyBags? What's with these expensive meals?
Verdict: YUM. The kids mostly scraped everything off the top and just ate the chicken, but whatever.

I also made SuperDad take really gorgeous pictures of this so I could post them. Instead, I accidentally deleted them from the camera. Because I'm cool like that.

Finally - A Dinner Update!

BBQ Chicken
1 lb. chicken breasts ($5.91)
1 c ketchup (? .50)
10 oz. Diet Coke (.50)

I dumped this all in the crockpot at about 10 a.m. yesterday, cooked it on high for 2 hours, then low, and served it shredded at 5 p.m. yesterday. We also had leftover cooked carrots (.35). The kids got GF bread (.50) and we ate it on buns ($1.50).

Total cost: $9.26, with lots of leftovers. This was a pretty expensive meal!
Verdict: This is basically the first time the kids have ever had soda, if this counts. Also, don't tell SuperDad what was in it, because he'd really think it was gross. But, actually, everyone loved this!


Note: Someone at Weight Watchers gave me this recipe.

Better Budget Challenge #3: That's Too Much

This week, Kacie at Sense to Save asked us to take a look at what expenses we could elminate from our budgets. As I've mentioned before, I've examined and re-examined our budget endlessly. Believe me, I have considered getting rid of Netflix and cable TV and cutting back on our Internet. But the truth is, we're about as bare-bones as we're going to get unless we meet some financial crisis in the future. BUT, I can share how I did cut our expenses to get here.

Cable
Our cable bill is $93 a month. Yikes, right? However, it includes:
Television - $15
A few years ago, we were paying about $35 a month for about 40 channels. Or something. And the cable company decided to introduce digital cable. Which required rental of some kind of converter box and whatever else, and would just about triple our bill. Uh uh, I don't think so. So I called and, after asking, "So, do you have anything cheaper than basic cable." Oh, you do? So we have a "limited basic" package, 22 channels for $15. Just right for us!
Internet - $45
SuperDad insists on having cable Internet, and this is what it costs. The end.
Local phone service - $33
I've tried and tried to shop around for this, to see if we could get a cheaper deal anywhere, and have even switched three or four times, but the bill is always within a dollar or two of this no matter what. It seems to be mostly taxes. :(
I realized we could "bundle" these services. I think for $99 we could get the Internet and phone and a bazillion TV channels, but we've decided we just don't really want those channels. I'd rather save the six bucks, honestly.

Utilities
This one is a biggie. We live in a big old house with big old windows. Our gas/electric bill is $243 a month. That's down from $293 the year before. We did the following things this year to lower it:

• Sealed our windows with plastic film and bought thick curtains (from the Salvation Army for $3 per pair) for over that.
• Bought new air conditioners.
• Bought a new fridge.
• Put in energy-efficient light bulbs, as we could afford them.
• Started being much more diligent about turning off lights and unplugging appliances.
• Living at more uncomfortable tempeartures. We've been keeping our house at 66 degrees this winter. If you come over, bring a sweater, I'll make you some hot tea. I can't remember what we kept it at in the summer, but I can tell you I don't have as much tolerance for heat. I'm guessing 72 or so. Maybe 74.

I had hoped our bill would go down further than this. Maybe next year.

Car Insurance
Our car insurance is $93 a month. I know we could pay less for this, but this is one thing we are not willing to compromise on. We've had great customer service from our insurance carrier, and we have decided they are worth it.

Netflix
Worth the $18. Just worth it.

That's about it for our monthly expenses. Over and over, I've considered cutting Netflix and TV, but upon evaluation, that $33 just doesn't speed up our debt repayment enough to justify it.

We keep plugging away at the Debt Snowball.

This month, we repaid $230 to the emergency fund, leaving us with only $145 to go until we hit our $1000 goal. Let's say we hadn't had the emergency fund when our car broke down in December, AT CHRISTMAS. First, we would have had to take the car to be fixed at a place that takes credit cards, instead of taking our neighbor up on his great offer to fix it for the cost of parts only. Because that's cost-effective, sure. And then, since we had a balance on the card anyway... well, it *is* Christmas, and... Yeah, I know where we'd be, right up to our eyeballs in credit debt again.

This month we also paid down $261 of our debt. Which is zero dollars above the minimum payments, but it still goes down. I find the more that I keep track of my debt, the more of a thrill I get with every dollar that it goes down.

Better Budget Challenge

One of my favorite blogs, which I love because it's so honest and frugal and positive, is Sense to Save. Kacie at Sense to Save is having a budget challenge. At which I'm mostly failing.

But, here I go. The first part of the challenge asked about our budgeting experiences. It took me just a couple of months, at age 18, of blowing my entire paycheck on paint and cookies to realize that I did not make enough money to not have a budget. So I just simply started writing down what "bills" needed to be paid. Which was rent and car insurance. That was my first budget.

A decade later (or more, gah! shhh!), I pretty much do it the same way. The list is longer, the income is bigger, but other than that, it hasn't changed much.

The second part of the Sense to Save Better Budget challenge was to, um, start budgeting! Well, I'm an old-fashioned girl, so I just write out my budget, by hand, on the back of a used piece of printer paper, every two weeks. Then I three-hole punch it and put it into a binder. That's what I do. I find that this hand-written thing is important to me, the same way that using cash is, it just feels more real. Plus, writing it out by hand every two weeks makes me think. For example, we used to have a "clothing" category, but I just realized that was useless and encouraged shopping-for-entertainment, rather than shopping-for-necessity. So when I write out the budget, I think whether there is something in the clothing area that is needed. And then that category becomes, "Socks for D" or whatever, and is adjusted accordingly.

So that's how my budget works!

P.S. - for my GF readers, I'm hoping to have some more food-related entries soon!

Pay Bills Day

I pay my bills the day before pay day. I would love to some day have enough money (or enough self-control) to pay my bills the day they arrive rather than when they're due. I don't see that happening anytime soon.

So I paid bills today.

The actual "bills" portion was 39% of my paycheck. This included our student loan payments, utilities, insurance, and Netflix.

I'll take out 23% in cash, and put into our Food, Gas, and Books budget envelopes.

That leaves 38% of my paycheck. All of which went into savings, in various categories. I'm thrilled with this number, it seems great. Of course some of that is just saving up for bills that don't come every month (or to balance out the bills so that we have enough from each paycheck to pay them), including Water, Taxes, Preschool, Car Registration.

We're also saving in the following categories:
General Savings (I always blow this, I should call it blow money, but I don't), Christmas (2008), New Car!, and Kids' Birthdays

We're getting closer to paying back our emergency fund. It should be back up to $1000 by the end of January.

The Blessings of Being Gluten Free

Finding out that our daughter was gluten intolerant when I was 8 months pregnant was more than a little overwhelming. But, almost two years later, I can see the many blessings that have come along with the diagnosis.

1. Firstly, we figured out what was making my little girl so sick. She started gaining weight and absorbing the food that she ate and she's been happier and healthier ever since.
2. When our son started showing the same symptoms, he didn't suffer for two years before we figured out what to do.
3. Our kids both eat healthier than they would have otherwise. They get whole foods like fruits and vegetables, meat, and dairy. Many, many gluten free products are also hormone-free and dye-free and preservative-free. There is just less junk food in our house, overall.
4. Many gluten free products also happen to be organic, which is better for the environment. Bonus!
5. We've learned how to spend a little more money to get better quality food. As Jennifer commented earlier, cheap food is filled with cheap ingredients. The extra money is often worth it!

I'm sure there are more! Anyone want to share?

Living the Life

There has been a trend lately, of bloggers taking a year (or more) off from unnecessary spending. Some of my personal favorites are:

Consumption Rebellion,
Bye Bye Buy (just finished),
(just beginning) A Year Off

I've thought about doing something like this. But honestly? We never have enough money to do any unnessary spending. We drink soda, which we could give up. And we eat out at McDonald's once a week or so. Maybe once every other month, SuperDad and I are able to order a late night pizza or go to a restaurant. But that's about it.

For the most part, our clothes come from consignment stores or are hand-me-downs from generous friends. We don't, as a rule, get our hair cut professionally (I cut mine every other year or so to donate to Locks of Love). We've been in our house for two and a half years and haven't decorated yet, except to frame photos of our kids. Our cars are old. Our furniture is old. I sell Avon and use the profit to buy our shampoo and lotion and whatnot (of what there is not a lot, since I don't wear makeup and I'm too lazy to do anything except wash myself).

There just isn't a lot of unnecessary spending going on at our house. I'm always debating whether to cut cable ($15 limited basic package) and Netflix ($18.01 three-at-a-time plan), but I think those are both exceedingly worth the money.

I'd love to have a little extra room in the budget, but I'd love to have found that room myself. The joy I get from saving money on something and reallocating it far exceeds any purchase I could make. And that's partially why going gluten free was hard for us. I was used to choosing the .89 bread over the $1.12 bread and feeling great about that. Paying $4.89 for a tiny loaf of bread was... cough... difficult. ;) But we're making it work. And we will make it work, not for a year, but forever.

Financial Shape in 2008 Challenge: The Budget

Here it is folks, as inspired by the Money Saving Mom.

$702.83 The mortgage
$93.00 Phone/Internet/TV
$8.00 Car registration
$213.26 Minimum student loan payments
$70.00 Preschool
$243.00 Utilities (a $50 decrease from last year, despite a 5% increase in gas cost)
$93.00 Auto insurance
$18.01 Netflix
$57.00 Water
$75.00 Christmas (no firm decision on this yet)
$9.00 Lawn care
$20.00 Taxes
$25.00 General savings
$473-ish Debt snowball (clearly, always less as there is some unexpected expense every single month)

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$505.00 Food
$170.00 Gas
$40.00 Books and clothes
$25 Fun
$60.00 Gifts

Everything above the line is managed within our checking account, including a separate register that includes all of those savings categories. Everything below the line is on a cash system.

Tutorial for Newly-Diagnosed Food Allergy Patients

Someone recently asked me, "Where do I begin?" Well, probably where we all begin. Completely freaked out.

1. Take it slowly. Don't expect perfection and don't beat yourself up for not knowing sooner. Especially when it's your child, you suddenly feel guilty that he or she suffered, and that you didn't know. Understand that, as we learn, we make mistakes. And that's okay.

2. Figure out what you/they can eat. With *most* allergies, you will be fine with fruits, veggies, rice, potatoes (white and sweet), chicken, beef, and pork. Go out and stock up. Buy raisins for snacks.

3. Ask around about the rest. Find a bread that works for you (you don't have to start out making your own, there is likely a frozen variety in your local natural foods store), a pasta, maybe some cookies.

4. Add other things slowly. Work up to making pizza crusts. Find out what you really miss and Google recipes for it.

5. Remember cross-contamination. Clean the crumbs out of your silverware drawer. Don't put GF bread in your regular toaster. If you haven't completely eliminated the allergen from your home, then be sure to use separate utensils, maybe separate butter containers (or squeeze variety is helpful), make the GF version first. Some people go as far as having separate pans for GF foods, but I've found that if I can really wash something, it's safe for us.

6. Hit your library. Check out books that will help you learn more about living with your particular allergy.

7. Find a vitamin. I think Target brand children's chewables are wheat and dairy free. They do have dyes in them, though, so I don't give them to my kids. Any suggestions?

8. Which brings me around to my next point - keep asking for help. The best thing about this blog is all of the advice and comments I've gotten.