My goal this month is to eat strictly from my pantry. I've got a lot of food sitting around that I should eat up. I'm really bad about stocking up when I see bargains, and then not eating those things. So, I'm clearing some things out this month.

Tonight, I made a great rice and bean casserole with one of the two open boxes of brown instant rice I have. I was surprised this turned out so tasty, as I wasn't working from a recipe. I just cooked the brown rice and mixed that with canned red beans, canned tomatoes, and some frozen corn. I also threw in a little bit of shredded mozzarella cheese I had left over. Spiced it with a sample of Old Bay seasoning I got from work and baked it for about 35 minutes.

I'll probably be eating this for most of the week since it was a huge batch. Next time I make this, I'll use less rice (2 servings instead of 4).

August was my first month drastically reducing my spending, and my monthly report in MS Money shows progress:

-Reduced Fuel costs 25% (No road trips this month and 3 "no gas" days)

-Cat food expenses decreased 50% (I have been buying from petfooddirect.com when they have 20% off offers. I can get 2 cases for about $10 more than the cost of 1 case at Petco.)

-Household expenses decreased 86%. This was obviously my big money drain the last few months.

-I had 14 "no spend days" in August

September Goals:
-5 "no gas" days
-Continue tracking every cent spent
-$150 or more to ING
-Look into cost of Dish or DirecTV in order to reduce that $86 cable bill