Cash Wallet-Product Review

So, any Dave Ramsey fans out there? Then this is the system for you. I haven't followed Mr. Ramsey but I have read lots of blogs from people who do. I do, however, love to pay cash for as much as possible. We don't use credit cards so we have only a choice of cash or debit card. Cash is much safer for me because I have been known to "forget" to enter debit card transactions into my accounting software which leads to less money than I think or the dreaded overdraft fee. So cash it is. Now, if you were to look at my wallet a few days ago you would have seen numerous bank envelopes spilling out. I had a different envelope, filled with cash, for the various things I pay with cash. My wallet had a hard time closing sometimes and, once when I was in the grocery store checkout line, I reached for my wallet and every thing spilled out onto the floor. Not cool.

A few months back, I was perusing a blog and she had a link to an Etsy shop for a cash wallet
system. I clicked on it and instantly fell in love with what was offered.

This lady uses laminated cloth to make her wallets so you can just wipe them off if they get grungy. The fabrics she uses are so cute, too. Inside the zippered wallet is a set of plastic tabbed dividers. You can put any category you want on them. They are roomy enough to carry not only your divided cash but I also have room for my driver's license, debit card, store discount cards, gift cards AND the matching change purse that you can buy separately! I.Love.It!!!!
I like that I no longer have to carry my regular wallet with me which was a bit bulky for my taste. This is streamlined and I only carry what I need.

The price was really good, too. $18 for the wallet and $7 for the change purse. I think I had them in my possession in about 10 days from when I ordered them so she ships them out pretty quickly. Remember, these are handmade, one of a kind items. It may be too late to order any for Christmas gifts but, really you could gift (or keep) these at any time of the year! Here is the link to her shop.

Budget Time

Geez, I can hear the groans through my computer!!! Why is it that every time someone mentions the word budget, people get all fidgety and try to get as far away from you as possible? Actually, I used to be one of those people. My husband would say that we needed to work on the budget and my eyes would glaze over and I would go into a trance. I hated that word. It meant limitations and accountability. I like limitations and accountability except when it comes to my cash. I want to spend what I want, when I want. Yeah, I'm such a grown up!

Nowadays, the "b" word doesn't bother me as much. Why? Because I have finally learned what works for our family and what doesn't. I also like knowing where the money is going and exactly how much I have to work with (i.e. spend like a mad woman!) Our budget system isn't anything fancy. It is actually a Works Spreadsheet with all of our bills listed according to date due. I have a column for budgeted amount and another one for actual amount. This helps me to see if we are getting carried away in a certain category or if I can reduce the budgeted amount to reflect the current amount due of a particular bill. I can plug in irregular bills whenever the need arises, say a doctor bill or repair. Because hubby gets paid once a month, I pay all bills at once. If a bill comes in after the day I have paid bills, it gets added to next month's budget. When he first started getting paid like this, I panicked! That tends to be my first response to change. Now that we have done this for a year, I kind of like it. I like the fact that everything is paid at once and I don't have to keep sending off payments all throughout the month. I scheduled all the payments I could to be automatically paid so, each month, I just go to my checkbook (Quicken) and plug in all debits. I keep track of any changes to amounts through email notices from creditors.

I also like the fact that I have to be diligent about the budget. If I get lazy and don't keep up with it, I know that I will run out of money before the end of the month and I will have no way of getting anymore. I don't like the feeling of being broke mid-month so I keep up with it as best I can. Nothing like a cash shortage to tighten you up!

If any of you read Stacy Makes Scents, then you probably already know this but Stacy's husband, Barry, is a financial planner and he did a post about budgeting. He even included a sample budget for you to add your info and design your own personal budget. Click here for that post.

The end of the year is the perfect time to get your budget done for the coming year, or at least the next few months. For me, this simply means printing out a report from Quicken showing how much I have spent in all categories for the year. From there I can see where we need to cut back and where we are right on track. Then I simply start separating what money goes where. For the coming year, I have some new categories that I will be contributing to such as bulk food purchases, vacation and hunting lease renewal.

Budgeting isn't horrible or scary. The state of your finances may be scary but the only way to get rid of the fear is to just dive in, see where you are at and create a budget. Oh yeah, and STICK TO IT!!!! I'm still working on that aspect!

Here it is folks. You want to get paid to do your shopping online? Just click this link and sign up for an Ebates account. Ebates is an online shopping site where you can access coupons, discounts and cash back for 100's of popular stores. Once you pick the store you want to shop at, say Bass Pro Shops, you simple click on that store and you are taken to their website. You make your purchase and Ebates will rebate you a certain amount of money depending on what the agreement with that particular store is. It doesn't cost you any money and you aren't charged any more making your purchases this way as if you had just gone to the website directly. AND THEY PAY YOU!!!!! Some stores have bigger rebates than others, some offer better coupons than others but you still spend the same amount you normally would and then every 3-4 months, Ebates sends you a "Big Fat Check". I just got my latest one the other day. I do a lot of my shopping online because of where we live.

The stores that are on Ebates are all stores you have heard of like Walmart, Macy's, Dell, Verizon. Check it out.  I will get $5 for every person who signs up after they make their first purchase. Then you can refer your friends and make $5 for each of them and they can refer their friends....You get the picture. I have belonged to Ebates since 2008 and have never once had a problem or issue. Getting paid to shop. Me likey!

The Pool Deck

We have finally finished the main part of our pool deck. It felt like it took FOREVER but it actually only took about 3 weeks. Unfortunately, they were during the HOTTEST part of our summer. Between the heat and the bugs and the complaining...well, lets just say that I am glad it's over for now. I say for now, because we still have a whole addition to the deck to make. Hubs has a bbq pavillion and a fire pit area planned.
Here is where we are now:

This is shot from our existing deck which will eventually be turned into a laundry room. Where the new deck stops now will be where the additional deck will start. The top right corner will be where the bbq area will be. It will be covered and have some countertop space and a bar to sit at.

At the end of this deck is where the continuation will start. This corner is where the fire pit will go. By the time we are finished, the entire pool will be surrounded by decking. The next phase will be about 10 inches higher than the current one so we will have a step going up. At least the weather will be much nicer for the next construction phase!

It's a little hard to see but the black tar paper covered wall will house the outdoor bathroom/changing room. There will be a door but hubby hasn't cut it in yet. The windows to the right of the bathroom are my dining room windows. They will be cut out and the wall will be extended over our old deck to the new deck where we will have glass doors going out. This will make a nice addition to my dining room area! Where the double doors are now will be closed in to make my laundry room and the double doors will be replaced with a simple interior door.  For seven years, I have had to lug the laundry across the drive to the office where my washer and dryer are and then lug it all back to the house. I won't know what to do with all that "free time"!
This uses all of our old deck and turns it into house space that was desperately needed! Just out of the camera shot, to the right, is a double window that looks into our living room. The "window" is actually a double french door that was made into a window. I hate it. Always have. Don't know why the previous owners did that but I will be glad to change it. It will be turned into an actual doorway leading out onto the deck.  It will be nice to have an exit in the living room instead of having to walk through the house to get outside. Then, the grand finale will be re-siding the entire house. Since we are doing all of the other work ourselves, hubby said we could hire someone to re-side the house. WhooooHooooo!!!!!
This was the biggest project so far this year. It is a blessing and a curse to have someone who knows how to do all of this stuff. A blessing because we have saved tons of precious money by doing it all ourselves. A curse...because WE had to do it! However, the kids and I now know how to install a wood deck from start to finish. We can use hubby's tools like pros and we have the pride of knowing that this deck was built correctly, safely and with love for our homestead.

Sharing at The Prairie Homestead

Canning Tomato Sauce

Whew!! Today has been a busy day! After church, I came home and got to work on those tomatoes that have been sitting on the counter. I also went to the garden and picked every red plum tomato I could find (there was a lot!). I found a recipe for tomato sauce in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. It was pretty easy (thank goodness). I washed all the tomatoes then cut off the stem end and any yucky parts, quartered them, tossed a few in a large pot set on medium high and brought them to a boil. Once they started to boil, I used a potato masher to squash them and stir them up. I kept adding more tomatoes, squashing and stirring, until all of them were in the pot. I actually had to use 2 pots because I didn't listen when it said to use a BIG pot. Lesson learned. Once they were all in the pots, I boiled them for about 10 minutes to get them all soft and squishy. Next, I started to use my little fine mesh strainer to strain out the skins and seeds but, after straining FOREVER, I finally got smart and used the mesh strainer that I clean all my veggies in. It worked beautifully and I had the seeds and skins and pulp in one container and my tomato juice in another in a jiffy. I set the pot of tomato juice on the stove again and brought it to a boil over medium high heat, stirring frequently. Once it had reduced by about 1/3 to 1/2 I was ready to bottle. I put 2 tbsp. lemon juice, 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. dried seasonings (I used garlic, basil, oregano and rosemary) into each quart jar and then ladled the tomato sauce into the jar, leaving 1/2 " headspace. I wiped around the rim with a clean cloth, put on my lids and rings and processed them in a water bath canner for 40 minutes. After all that work, I only got 3 quart jars! Next time I will make sure to use pint jars. At least it will SEEM like I have more!!!

Sharing at The Prairie Homestead, Frugally Sustainable

Spring-y Apron

I have never really been an apron kind of girl until I started all my cooking from scratch. Now I can appreciate the importance of using an apron to protect my wardrobe. I can be a messy cook sometimes!
Here is a cute little apron that I sewed up in just a few hours. I am NOT an experienced seamstress so these things take me much longer than someone who actually knows what they are doing. This project was pretty easy for the novice like me.
Instuctions can be found here.

This is my finished piece modeled by my lovely daughter in her Aristocats PJ's!

This was seriously easy to do and you can change it up for different occasions by using different hand towels and fabric. The only change I would make to the apron is that I would make the fabric skirt part wider so that when it is gathered up and sown to the towel it is a bit more ruched. I am sure that is a word but not sure I spelled it right!
I plan on taking this apron to our UMW planning meeting for ideas for our Breakfast With Santa gift shop. This will be the first time I actually made something to sell in our gift shop. Yay me!

Being shared at Frugally Sustainable

What to do with all the zucchini I planted...

My name is Tracy and I am an overplanter.
There I admitted it. For some reason, I think that when I get a new packet of seeds, I must plant the ENTIRE THING! Because of this affliction, I have WAY TO MUCH stuff growing in the gardens. Yes, I said garden"s", plural. I couldn't fit everything I started from seed into one garden so I have 2...and a half. I could go 3 but, honestly, that's a bit of overkill. One of the most prolific growers in the garden is zucchini. I actually restrained myself this year and only planted 6 seeds. Ok, there was only 6 left in the packet. Still. They all grew. Sooooooo I have a ton of zucchini. I found a great recipe for it in a Cooking Light magazine years ago but never made it. Until now. YUM! The recipe is a lightened up version of zucchini nut bread. So far I have made 2 loaves and a dozen muffins. I like the muffins better. Easier to grab and go with a muffin than with a slice of bread. Anyway, the recipe is simple and light (bonus!) and I will be making a couple of batches today. It freezes well and I have zucchini coming out my ears!

INGREDIENTS

3 C. Wheat Flour
1 Tsp. Baking Powder
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/4 Tsp. Baking Soda
2 Eggs
1/3 C. Coconut Oil
1 Tsp. Grated Lemon Rind (I added about 1/2 Tsp. Lemon Juice because I have no real lemons)
2 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 C. Sugar (Sucanat)
3 C. Shredded Zucchini (Squeezed dry)
1/4 C. Chopped Walnuts, toasted

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Mix Eggs through sugar in a large bowl until all combined. Add the zucchini and mix well. Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in the nuts. You can either split this between 2 small greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes or put this into the cups of a muffin tin (makes about a dozen large muffins) and bake at 350 for about 30-35 minutes. This bread is so good right out of the oven slathered in butter!

Being shared atMrs. Dulls Nourished Kitchen and Frugally Sustainable

Project #1 Complete...Almost!

We have been SUPER busy around here lately. It seems that as soon as we get one thing done, 10 more things need to be done. It doesn't help that hubby has entered his busy season at work so he can't always help me with projects. He did help me with a few Saturday, though. This particular project has been on my mind for quite a few months and now it is done enough to use.

TADA!!!!!

I now have a clothesline to hang my wash on!!!! Hubby still needs to take off the stabilizing boards but I can now use it! I am more excited about that than just about anything else we have going on around here. I know, I'm weird.

I never knew how aggravating it could be to put up a clothesline, though. First of all, the ground was so hard that even using the auger on my BIG tractor couldn't penetrate through. So we started soaking the ground with a hose and wouldn't you know, the next day it rained. That helped tremendously. Then hubby wasn't happy that the poles weren't in EXACT alignment so we had to redo the middle hole a couple of times. I kept telling him that this line would only be here for a year or two, until we built our new house and then it would be moved. I wasn't looking for perfection but I guess he was! Anyway, we got it as close to perfect as it is going to get. I was so happy to get to use it finally. The only bad thing is that by the time I got to do a load and hang it, it was too late to do anymore! Imagine that, looking forward to laundry :)

Coming soon-project # 2....

Homemade Fabric Softener

Sadly, I am one of those people who love liquid fabric softener. Downy and Snuggle are my favorites. Why do I love them? The scent. They have some of the nicest scents and my clothes smell so wonderful after I use them. BUT they are ex.pen.sive! I came across many fabric softener recipes on the internet and I settled on this one from Becky at Petticoat Junction. It uses stuff I have here without having to make a trip to the store.

INGREDIENTS

1 C. Hair Conditioner (Cheap stuff is perfect for this!)
2 C. Vinegar
6 C. Hot Water

Whisk all the ingredients together until it is completely combined. Use as you would store bought fabric softener. This is soooooo much cheaper than store bought and, so far, my clothes smell and feel great. I used up some old conditioner that I wasn't crazy about for my hair, but smelled great, the first time I made it and I bought the cheapest (nicest smelling) conditioner at the store for this batch.

A Couple of Updates

Back in December, we decided that we would not be eating out the entire month of January. We almost made it. Twice, I took the kids to lunch when we were out grocery shopping, once my husband took our son to lunch because they had errands to run in town and once I picked up KFC just because I couldn't think of one thing I wanted to cook! Not perfect but we saw progress. I cook 3 meals a day, EVERY DAY so sometimes I just needed a break. The main thing I learned was that A) It isn't that hard to cook from scratch once you know what you are making and B) I kinda like my cooking better than any restaurant. I think we will be continuing this through February.

In January, I tried the no-poo method of washing my hair. After 3 1/2 weeks I am dropping this for a couple of reasons. First, I really don't like the smell of apple cider vinegar. Even though you cannot smell it in your hair once it is dry, it really stinks up the shower while you are in there! Second, part of the idea was that I would be able to only "wash" my hair a few times a week. Nope. I had to do it every single day or the greasies took over. Third, I am not quite happy with some of the results. I do love that my hair is much fuller at the crown (usually that only happened when I colored my hair) and that I wasn't using anything toxic on my head. However, my hair never really felt clean. There were a couple of times when I had to put my hair up because it just looked a bit greasy even after I showered. My ends are also in serious bad shape. Not because of the no-poo, though. They were rough when I started so I will be going and getting a bunch of it cut off :-( I think I will look for a shampoo/conditioner that doesn't contain harmful chemicals and that doesn't stink like ACV!!!!

Our goal for February is to continue eating most meals at home as I really love saving the money! I will get hubby out for a date night once in awhile, though! This is also the time to begin starting my seeds and prepping the garden. I want to grow 75% of our fruits and veggies this year. I will be doing MUCH canning and preserving over the next several months. I CAN'T WAIT!!!! Funny how, at the end of the growing season last year, I was so happy for it to be over and now I can't wait to get my hands dirty again. Go figure.
This month I will also being trying a new recipe using a familiar meat in a new way. Nothing ground breaking for those of you that are used to eating wild game but quite a first for me. I have used venison ground, cubed and stewed but never have I used the tenderloin. I tasted it once, years ago, and hated it. But then again, I hated venison period at that time. Since hubby hunts a lot, deer is our main meat source so I am giving it another shot. Plus the tenderloin steaks will be wrapped in bacon so how bad could it be??? I am thinking of making them for Valentine's Day so I will post about it then.

On the cleaning front, I have journeyed into making my own laundry detergent. Just started using it this week and, so far so good. I'll post the recipe I am using for that later once I use it a bit more. The real test will be when we start working outside again and get all dirty, smelly and grimy. As far as household cleaners, this is what I use:
Granite counters- combo of castille soap, hot water and tea tree oil all mixed together and kept in a squirt bottle. I have read some blogs that use vinegar on their granite but I have been told that, over time, vinegar will pit granite and I am NOT taking any chances!

Sinks, showers, tubs, toilets- Good ol' vinegar and baking soda. Honestly, there isn't anything better! Plus, no bad chemicals to mess with the delicate balance of organisms in our septic tank! If you have ever had septic tank trouble you can appreciate that!

Carpets- To freshen, baking soda mixed with some essential oil, sprinkled all over and later vacuumed up.
To clean- Baking soda and tea tree oil mixed with hot water and poured into the cleanser dispenser on my carpet cleaner. Makes the whole house smell fresh and my carpets are clean and oh so soft!

Mirrors/windows-I just use vinegar in a spray bottle but some people say to mix either water or alcohol with it to keep it from streaking. I haven't had a streaking problem so I am sticking with it.

Hand Soap- I ran out of my chemical filled hand soap refill so I made my own using a grated bar of Ivory, glycerin and water. It is a bit runnier but works just fine. I'll post that recipe soon.

Facial Cleanser-I still have some of my oil of olay left so I will use that until it is done then I will use what my kids use which is the cleaner I use on my counters. I LOVE things with multiple uses!!!

As soon as I use up my chapstick (I am an addict to them!), lotion, moisturizer and deodorant, I will be making those myself too. I will post those recipes as I make and use them.

Well, that is about it my friends. Things are getting pretty busy around here. Just the way I like it!

Candle Wax Fire Starters

Since it is the season for fireplaces, I thought I would share a recipe for fire starters that I have been using. For the life of me, I cannot remember where I got the original 'recipe' from. I would never claim someone else's work as my own but I am going to share it with you and give credit to whomever posted this on her blog and gave me a wonderful idea. We used to buy starter logs but, at $20 for 6 logs, it just got to be too expensive. Then my husband would hold one of those long lighters to lightard wood and get it going that way but it got to be expensive buying new lighters all the time so this idea came along and I thought "What the heck?". I had everything on hand so I made a dozen of them and boy, do they work GOOD! Hubby was so impressed with them. All you do is light one, stick it under the wood and watch your flames come to life.

You'll need 3 simple household items:

Old candles or broken crayons (with paper removed)
Paper egg carton (do NOT use styrofoam)
Dryer Lint

Take your egg carton and cut off the lid. Then put a small amount of dryer lint in each hole.

Set on a piece of wax paper (I forgot to do this and wound up with wax all over my counter). Then
take a small pot and fill about 1/2 way with water. Set it on the stove to heat. Once water is hot (mine was boiling) put a heavy glass jar (I used one that had come with a candle in it) and stick all the candles/crayons in the pot and let the water melt the wax.

This time I was using a good sized pillar candle so it took at least 30 minutes to melt down. Stir every once in awhile to break the wax down. Once wax is all melted, CAREFULLY take the jar out of the pot. The first time I used my jar lifter from my canner but this time I used 2 oven mitts. This way seemed to work much better and I had more control over the jar. Pour the melted wax over the lint but don't over fill or it will run all over the place (don't ask).

Let them sit on the counter to harden. Once they are hard, cut them apart like so.

Keep them near the fireplace and when you want a nice fire, just light the corner and stick them under your wood.

*NOTE*
How many you get will depend on how much wax you use. This pillar candle was almost new (yikes!) and it made enough for 36 lil' starters.

January = No Eating Out

Because we are trying desperately to get on top of our finances and eliminate all debt, we have set aside January as our month of no eating out. Before, hubby and I would have date night on Friday nights, then maybe grab pizza on Saturday after working on the farm all day. Then Sunday after church, we would all be starved so we would grab some sandwiches. All of this would add up to over $100 just on the weekends. Then there would be times during the week when we would need to be in town around lunch or dinner time and we would grab something quick. That would equal quite a bit of income spent on something that wasn't doing our bodies any good. Ok, I must admit that SOMETIMES I do enjoy not having to cook something and having a restaurant clean up and wash the dishes but lately I have gotten to the point that I just don't want to spend the money on food that may or may not be healthy/tasty when I can make all kinds of goodies right here that I know taste good and are good for us. So January is our month of no eating out. That being said, I already had to break that rule. The kids and I went to a town 35 miles away to do our monthly grocery shopping. I thought that I had planned the timing right and we would be home in time for lunch. Well, that just didn't happen and the twins and I were starved (note to self, NEVER grocery shop when you are hungry!) so we made a swing through Chik Fil A. Not going to beat myself up about it, just gonna move on!
I do actually have a point to this post. If I am going to be cooking 3 meals a day, everyday, then I need to have a stash of recipes. I get bored with food very easily and do not like to have the same things day in, day out so I am constantly ripping out recipes from magazines. Until recently, those 100's of recipes were in different areas around my kitchen , dining room, bedroom, bathroom (don't ask). Whenever I wanted a certain recipe, I would spend half the day searching for it. Then I came up with, what I would call, a pretty doggone good idea.

This is simply and old milk crate that we no longer used and hanging file folders. Now, all my ripped out recipes have a place to go. I still need to work on the categories because some are too big and too vague but you get the idea. Now when I want to make Pork for dinner, I just go to the pork file and see what looks good. I had thought about scanning all the recipes into my computer but honestly I haven't figured out how to do that yet I just don't have the time and I usually have the laptop off when it's cooking time so paper recipes are the way to go for me! Usually, before the monthly grocery shopping, I will look through several files and make sure that I have the ingredients on my list so, during the month, I can make a wide variety of food and not be stuck making the same things over and over again. Now if I can just get the twins to do the cooking and the cleaning up and maybe the bringing it out to the table for me, I would never have to eat out again!


This is being shared at theprairiehomestead.com blog hop