Change Is Coming Soon!

I am so excited.  There is change and a new adventure coming soon.  I love change.  I get so bored with the same old thing.  I need change, and adventures, well, everyone needs a little adventure in their life every once in awhile.  


I have a little business that hopefully I will be starting soon. It probably won't make me a millionaire, (HaHa, my son's Spelling word this week.) but it will keep me busy and bring in a little extra money.  So easy and fun, I will let you know what it is soon, I promise.


No particular reason for this post.  Lol  I'm just really excited.  Like I said, I love change and adventures.  They are so exciting!

Update On July Experiments And What's Going On In August?

Last months experiments were cleaning out my freezer and putting some money in savings.  I was able to get a lot of the freezer emptied out.  The holiday and birthdays helped out a lot.  So I am really happy with that.  Putting some money in savings did not work out like I wanted.  I wasn't able to save any money.  I'm a little disappointed, but it happens.  I'm not beating myself up over it.  I'm just more motivated to make it happen.   


I think that it is important that when you make goals and don't succeed at them, to not let it get you down.  Stay positive. Things happen.  The most important thing is that you learn from the experience and try again.  Figure out why it didn't work and change it next time. 


I don't have any "experiments" for August.  We are ten days into the month and I just figured out what I want to focus on.  This month, I'm focusing on getting my son started in school (which is next week).  We are starting virtual (online) schooling this year and I want to put a lot of my attention on that.  I also want to plan a new attack on saving money for September.  I'm not doing it this month because we have to fix our car and need money for that.  


I want to start focusing on my blog more and I have a couple of projects that I hope will turn into a small business venture for me.  At the very least, bring in some extra money.  


So, that is what is going on this month.  Do you have any goals or "experiments" for this month?

Back To Basics Cooking & A Little Note From Me (Original Post 05/30/2009)

The past week I was in a pretty bad funk and didn't feel like doing much of anything, so that explains my lack of posts.  This week and next week, I am trying to get myself and my son ready for the new school year.  We are beginning a new school venture this year.  He will be starting online schooling and I will be his "learning coach".  This is so very new to us.  I plan on writing about our new journey, but need to experience it first. LOL   In the meantime, I'm going to just re-post some stuff so you don't start to miss me.  XOXO




Today, I started thinking about when I started cooking. When I was younger, my mom worked two jobs and I was left to make dinner for the family. As a teenager, I didn't want to spend time in the kitchen cooking, so I made really quick easy meals. Why don't I do that know? I think it is because I am an adult with my own family that I feel the need to cook a nice dinner every night.

Well, I don't. Why can't I make meals like I made when I was younger. It is OK, and it is also a wonderful and easy way to get my son involved in helping to cook meals. So, I am going back to basics. I am going to start making those meals that I made when I starting cooking. Now, I won't make these every night, but it will be nice and it might give me inspiration to simplify other meals.

For my meal tonight, I am going to make English Muffin Pizza. I am going to toast the english muffins in the toaster, so I don't have to turn the oven on and then melt the cheese in the microwave. Totally Old School cooking.

Other things I use to make were chicken nuggets, corn dogs, sandwiches and actually one of my favorites, cereal for dinner. When did that become wrong to do? I don't feed it to my family every night.

So, if you have back to basic recipes or ideas, please share them with me. I would love to have more suggestions.

Update~How Are My Experiments Doing? 7/11/2011

I'm a little less than halfway through my experiments and I have to tell you, not doing as well as I wanted to. 


I'll start with Experiment #1, which was living off my husbands part time pay. I have not saved any money.  I know, I am terrible.  I'm an emotional shopper.  I know I am.  The first step to recovery is admitting it right?  The past couple of weeks have been pretty emotional and I think a lot of the money I spent was during my birthday weekend.  I was so frustrated and upset, I bought things for myself and my family, took them out to dinner and basically said f*uck it.  So all the money I should have saved the first half of the month, I spent.  I'll be honest, not too broken up about it.  I'm a little disappointed, but I'm not beating myself up.  


Experiment #2, cleaning out the freezer is actually going really well.  The first week, we got rid of a lot of food.  We had a BBQ, so that helped out.  I have cleaned out all the TV dinners that I had, and most of the other pre-made frozen foods.  I made pork chops in the crock pot.  (See my Epic Crock Pot Fail blog post)  This week, I have a few more crock pot meals planned, Beer Brats in the crock pot and Spaghetti in the crock pot.  I have two meals that involve chicken, just not sure what I'm going to make.


All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with the way the experiments are going.  The next half of the month, I predict will be better for saving money.  I don't think I will save as much as I originally wanted to, but even if I just saved a couple hundred dollars, I will be happy.  Something is better than nothing.  The second experiment I think will stay pretty strong.  I found some steaks, more ground turkey and fish.  I plan on posting more recipes for you.