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Archive for November, 2007

How I'm Saving for Home Improvements

November 16th, 2007 at 01:36 am

Since I moved into my new house last May (my first time as a homeowner), I've been torn between wanting to save money and wanting to upgrade my house. I have been postponing the little upgrades that are purely cosmetic and unnecessary, like new bathroom fixtures and a new kitchen faucet. I just can't justify taking money from savings for things that aren't an emergency and don't NEED to be fixed.

I decided earlier this month to set up a new ING subaccount for home improvements. I also set up a bi-weekly $20 auto deposit. This seemed like painless way to save for those improvements. Once I have a decent balance built up, I can have more freedom to pull money from this account, and not feel like I am raiding my regular savings account.

Eating from my Pantry

November 5th, 2007 at 12:57 am

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).