Broken Dryer

My electric clothes dryer broke yesterday, rompting me to finally put up a clothesline. I have been meaning to do this since I moved in here about a year ago, but somehow never got around to it. My craigslist dryer has been holding up quite nicely, so why bother?
Since a brand new dryer is not currently in the budget, it’s back to the basics for us. I am lucky that it is nearly Spring and this weekend was fairly warm and windy. I could even dry towels out there. I also have a large basement where the washer and dryer located, so I could hang a lot of things up there.
I stretched a clothesine from beam to beam along the ceiling in the basement, and hung up all the shirts on coat hangers. They dried in about 24 hours, even the heavier tee shirts. I was kind of suprised. I don’t know why I haven’t done this all along. the dryer is a huge energy-sucker. This is a money-saving basic. It’s just too easy to get lazy when the dryer is right there.
I also forgot how much I actually enjoy hanging things outside on the clothesline. It’s one of those slow down and focus on life things.
So when I find another great Craigslist deal on a dryer, I am still going to do it this way. Maybe I will really see the difference in the electric bill!

Easy Indian Food

I love indian food. I don’t like buying those little frozen dinners or those foil pouches that barely contain one meal for almost $5. I found a great recipe for a curry vegetable dish that goes with rice. It’s easy and a great way to use up odd veges you have hanging around. If you keep a few things in teh pantry, you can make this anytime. It uses curry paste and a can of coconut milk (lite or regular is fine), a can of chickpeas and a can of diced tomatoes. All are available at the local big supermarket around here, even the curry paste. Here’s the recipe.

Curry paste – whatever kind you like.
1 can of coconut milk – lite or regular
1 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes, plain (not italian seasoned)
1 14 oz. can of chickpeas
small chopped onion
a chopped sweet potato (or whatever fresh vegetables you like)

Cook the onion and fresh veges and potatoes in a bit of olive oil for about 3 or 4 minutes, until they start to get tender. Add scant 1/4 cup of curry paste and stir it in. Cook, stirring for about 2 or 3 minutes. Stir in the coconut milk, tomatoes and chick peas. Cook for a few more minutes, until the veges are cooked but not mushy.
Serve over rice.
This is great with naan or other warm flatbreads.

Free ebooks for the Nook

Were you fortunate enough to get a Nook for Christmas? The Nook is Barnes and Noble’s newly released ebook reader. It is similar to the Kindle that Amazon came out with a few years ago. It supports PDF, EPUB and PDB formats. You can purchase ebooks at the Barnes and Noble website or, in true budgetingmom fashion, look for free ones! Here are great websites where you can find free ebooks and magazines to download and read on your Nook.

• books.google.com
• fictionwise.com
• Project Gutenberg at gutenberg.org
• Wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/free_ebooks
• Free-ebooks.net
• bn.com  – the Barnes and Noble website has a free ebook section

Also, search any search engine for ‘free ebooks’ and find more sites. I’m sure there are many more. These are the ones I have tried and there are so many books to choose from here like classic literature, reference and textbooks, magazines and more, that I haven’t really ventured any further. The Wiki.mobileread site has a great list of other sites to link to also.

Surviving Christmas with Teens

Author: Eva-Maria

As we enter the festive season and the new year, this is usually the busiest time – Christmas and the festive season are coming up, and everyone is ready to arm themselves against the racket that will get put up by children and teenagers in the coming weeks, and are all wondering: will teenagers ever grow up?!

In recent years, the subject of teenagers, and inter-generational relationships has been a popular and booming subject in families. I mean, look what type of world we’re living in now – technology, global warming, and financial meltdowns: this is the environment our teenagers are exposed to every single day. It is also the type of world they have grown up in.

Based on my honest research over the past 6 years of being a teenager, and being exposed to teenagers and people in contact with them every single day, I have collected the most relevant information about how to understand, relate to, and generally build that better relationships with the teenagers in our lives – at home, at work, and anywhere else we encounter them on our journey through life.

The Three Top Teen Tips for 2009:

You Shut Up!
Everyone loves to be heard.
Next time you’re talking to teenager, or even if there is an argument or misunderstanding, no matter how badly you want to speak over them, yell, scream or add your 2 cents in, take a breath and hear them out first. One of the following things may happen:
a) You may hear a story that can change your mind about what you were just about to say
b) They may blurt out some silly heat-of-the moment comment that you can share at dinner tonight
c) You would have given them the right of speech before you. This means they will immediately make a mental note of this, so when they’ve finished, they will subconsciously be inclined to listen to you without interruption. At the end of the day, you’re prepping them to let them listen to you, by psychologically respecting their right to speak.

By the way, did you know that the words we use when we communicate only influence 7% of the entire conversation? Tone of voice and body language make up the other 93%! So remember this the next time you’re talking to a teenager: watch out for your body language – it needs to be open, and your tone needs to also reflect the message you want them to take onboard: stop and think – is my tone reflective of the message I want to send?

Reason With Us
Whatever your point of view is, every time you make it, always follow up with the reason for your thinking.
This tiny, simple thing is so powerful! When you get into the habit of following up all your opinions and decisions with reasoning, it will encourage the teenager to develop the same habit. When making decisions in future, they will practice more effective decision making, given they have developed a habit to make informed decisions about their actions, having analyzed its reasons and consequences.

By the way, many parents are worried about teenagers trying drugs, well here we go: no one sticks drugs down a teenager’s throat (in 99.99% of cases) – it’s all a decision they make. If a well-informed, and decision-making-conscious teenager is ever put into this position, they would have the reflex to make their actions based on smarter decision making.

Responsibility is An Honour.
Put yourself into a teenager’s shoes for one second:
The word Responsibility is boring and restrictive. While the word Freedom is free, and good. The truth of the matter is that when one doesn’t carry responsibility, they have no freedom either. I can’t stress enough how badly teenagers need to understand this from the adults around them – it seems obvious, but it really isn’t!
Sit down, and have a talk to your teenager about the fact that, so example, they have the responsibility to have the car back at home by 10pm, and their rewarded freedom is the fact that they CAN in fact, take the car out.

By the way, make sure you AWAYS state the responsibility before freedom. If you give freedom first, and ‘mention’ responsibility afterwards, they don’t understand that the responsibility isn’t an option if they want the freedom. Literally tell them that this freedom just came with a responsibility – their responsibility.

Remember: teenagers are people too, and your trust means everything to us.

Trust Our Future, Trust Their Future, Trust Your Future.
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Want more tips on surviving this Christmas with teen?
I’ve had so many people writing in, asking for advice for the festive season that I decided to do something very special…

The 25 Day Countdown of Tips of ‘Surviving Xmas With Teens’!

Starting December 1st, we will be counting down the 25 biggest tips on how to survive these holidays, get your teens involved, and on top of all of that: do this without stress!

It’s absolutely free to receive these daily tips – just head to

www.eva-maria.co.nz

and sign up on the Home Page!

Tell all your family and friends about it, and together, I look forward to helping improve 1,000,000 adult-teenager relationships with you!

Happy Holidays!

P.S. See you at the countdown!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/teenagers-articles/surviving-christmas-with-teens-1519790.html

About the Author:

19 year old bestselling author of the book ‘You Shut Up!’, international speaker and family coach Eva-Maria on a mission to help improve 1,000,000 adult-teenager relationships around the world!
www.eva-maria.co.nz

Coupon clipping Service

I would love to know if anyone is using coupon clipping services, other than me of course. I tried one last week and was pleasantly suprised. It is Manufacturers Coupons and the coupons were up-to-date, inexpensive and arrived quickly. There is a $2.00 minimum that I didn’t notice at first, but she didn’t make me stick to it because it was my first order. She actually answered my email! I am impressed the first time through. I got 3 $2.00 coupons for 84 cents (including postage). Not bad. It was cheaper than buying the Sunday paper, in which I would have only gotten one of those coupons.

Has anyone else used this or another service?

Raising Chickens for Fresh Eggs

I know,you think I’m getting a little crazy now, but chickens are cute! They are easier to raise than you think, and fresh eggs are delicious,cheaper and healthier than what you get in the store. Grocery store eggs can be weeks old by the time they hit your fridge.

All you need is a place to keep them safe from predators, a compost pile for the litter and food and water. If you live in the north, you will probably want an automatic watering system, but they don’t cost that much.

The key thing for budgeting moms to watch out for – don’t spend more on the set up than you will save on eggs. Build your own coop or chicken tractor ( a portable coop that will have your chickens digging up a garden for you) or get someone to help you build one. Find scrap wood for at least part of the project. Here are some easy plans to start with – modify them to fit the materials you have.

A Different Kind of Checkbook Register

I have thrown away my old checkbook register and now use a system of tracking deposits into certain categories to cover all my bills. Take a look at the ehow article I wrote that shows how to do it.

How to Budget your Bill Payments Right in Your Checkbook
http://www.ehow.com/how_5614090_budget-bill-payments-right-checkbook.html

It’s the equivalent of putting money into separate envelopes to save up for everything you need, just like in the old (really old) days when everything was done with cash. You split up your deposit into categories on a spreadsheet and then pay bills the same way.
Check it out and get a grip on your bills!

I love this item

Buffalo Chicken Pizza Thrills Hungry Teenage Boys

If you have teenage boys in your house, you are no doubt spending more money on food than you are on your mortgage. I am always looking for inexpensive recipes to feed the masses on Saturday night. I will share my favorites in the ‘Hungry Teenagers’ category.

Starting with the family favorite: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

1 pizza dough - $1.50 from the bakery, bravo if you can make your own and it comes out as well. I haven’t found a recipe I can make that is as good as the bakery stuff.

1 boneless chicken breast – purchased on sale, of course (I never pay more than $1.99/lb. for boneless chicken)

Frank’s Hot Sauce. – I buy this by the jug at BJs Wholesale Club, but it is available at the grocery store

Blue Cheese dressing – I have substituted other creamy dressings in a pinch, like ranch or ceasar.

8 oz. Shredded cheese – almost any kind of cheese works well, so whatever is on sale. BJs also sells large bags that freeze well for about $1 less per pound than the grocery store and it’s already shredded.

Chop up the chicken into ½ inch pieces. Saute it in a little olive oil and butter until it is cooked through. When I can cut through it easily with the wooden spoon I am using to stir, I know it’s done. Drain out the liquid. Add about ¼ cup, more or less to taste, of hot sauce. Stir.
Spread out the pizza dough on a greased pan.
Combine ¼ cup dressing and hot sauce to taste. The more hot sauce, the spicier the pizza. Spread the mixture on the pizza dough. Sprinkle the cheese over it. Arrange the chicken pieces on top of the cheese.
Bake at 400 for about 10-13 minutes until the cheese is cooked and the bottom is starting to brown.

Stress Relievers

Being a budgeting mom is stressful. Ok, being a mom is stressful, but when you have to watch every penny, it’s even worse. Find some stress reduction and relaxation techniques on the web and use them. Feeling good is worth it and you will be more productive and able to handle more. You know you’ll need it.

Make a Budget Spreadsheet

Excel is really the only budget spreadsheet tool you need. Make a chart that lists all of your monthly auto-withdraws along the dates they are withdrawn by the bank. Below that, list all of the payments that you make online, again along with the due dates. Then list the payments you make by check, along with the due dates. This can be extended out with a column for each month so you can see the entire year. Leave enough space for changes and print it out. I keep it with my bill-paying checkbook. Then when I get paid, I write in all the things due that week that are automatically withdrawn and pay the others. I mark them off on the list. I never pay a late fee.

This system works well for planning out the whole year also. You can really see what you have, what you owe, what will be paid off, etc. Planning is key, as always. You can do a budget forecast, increasing what you plan to pay on a credit card, for instance, as you pay off another thing.

Take the time to make a budget spreadsheet, and your budgeting chores will be simpler every month.