Sorry I have not posted in a while after promising to post 2 times per week.
We now have chickens, 13 in fact, 10 hens and 3 roosters. They are only babies now and we call them our experimental chickens. Even here in Louisiana the autumn can be cool at night. We were keeping them in a small cage in the laundry room at night for warmth, but my son has allergies. Today we moved them to the big pen in the yard. I hope they survive.
Next, I suppose we will get some cattle. Probably only 2 calves for beef. Hunting season is almost here and Mr. Sullivan is sure to harvest a few deer. I apologize to animal rights people and respect your opinion I just do not share your opinion. Here is this week's recipe. I hope you enjoy this tasty and economical dish.
Today's Recipe: Stew
INGREDIENTS
1 pound cubed beef stew meat, or venision, or pork, or whatever meat you happen to have
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups water
1 onion, finely diced
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
3 carrots, quartered
3 potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
DIRECTIONS
Dredge beef in flour and then, in a medium stock pot, brown beef on all sides in shortening. Add salt, pepper, water, onion, paprika, garlic, and bay leave. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 2 hours or until meat is tender.
Add carrots and potatoes and simmer for 45 minutes or until tender.
Remove bay leave and meat from stew, add 1 tablespoon flour or cornstarch and mix, in order to thicken stew. After mixing let sit for a few minutes to thicken, if not to desired thickness add more flour or cornstarch and repeat.
Once thickened return meat and add corn to stew, heat through and serve.
Money saving no-brainer: Enjoy your leftovers. Most homes and offices have a microwave for reheating dishes. Double your recipes and freeze individual servings for a quick grab and go lunch. For beverages, put in freezer the night before. This will serve as an icepack to keep food cold and will be thawed by lunch time.
Thanks for reading,
Mrs. Sullivan
Monday, October 20, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Make One Small Change
How many bad habits can one person have? I have many.
First of all I am a smoker, this is bad for me, my kids, and the environment
Second, I love magazines. I can hardly make it through the checkout without at least one.
Third, McDonalds, I work the night shift aren't I entitled to an iced coffee every night
on my way to work usually with fries. ($20 per week).
That's all I can think of for now. I am depressing myself with all my expensive vices.
For now I will start with the 2 easiest ones. (I know I said one change, but I have already solved the 2nd one and am now on to the third.)
As for the magazines I did not quit cold turkey, I chose my 2 favorites and purchased a 1 year subscription. It is alot cheaper than checkout price.
Now I am working on my mcdonalds addiction. Last night when I stopped I only got the coffee. No food. Baby steps.
I am going to need your help and moral support to beat these demons. I in turn will help you.
How, you might ask, does this apply to getting back to basics? Saving money is what it boils down to.
TIP OF THE WEEK:
Cheap and easy Halloween Costume:
Sweat suit ghost
White sweat shirt (with or without hood)
white sweat pants
baby powder, put in hair
white pancake makeup, put on face
Best of all sweats can be worn again and again. If costume is for a baby get sweat shirt a size or two larger for a cute spooky little ghost.
Mrs. Sullivan
First of all I am a smoker, this is bad for me, my kids, and the environment
Second, I love magazines. I can hardly make it through the checkout without at least one.
Third, McDonalds, I work the night shift aren't I entitled to an iced coffee every night
on my way to work usually with fries. ($20 per week).
That's all I can think of for now. I am depressing myself with all my expensive vices.
For now I will start with the 2 easiest ones. (I know I said one change, but I have already solved the 2nd one and am now on to the third.)
As for the magazines I did not quit cold turkey, I chose my 2 favorites and purchased a 1 year subscription. It is alot cheaper than checkout price.
Now I am working on my mcdonalds addiction. Last night when I stopped I only got the coffee. No food. Baby steps.
I am going to need your help and moral support to beat these demons. I in turn will help you.
How, you might ask, does this apply to getting back to basics? Saving money is what it boils down to.
TIP OF THE WEEK:
Cheap and easy Halloween Costume:
Sweat suit ghost
White sweat shirt (with or without hood)
white sweat pants
baby powder, put in hair
white pancake makeup, put on face
Best of all sweats can be worn again and again. If costume is for a baby get sweat shirt a size or two larger for a cute spooky little ghost.
Mrs. Sullivan
Friday, September 26, 2008
Helpful Hints--Budgeting
If you are swimming in debt or maybe just wading try this:
list the balances on ALL of your accounts from least to greatest. Make only the minimum payments on everyone except the smallest. On this one you pay as much as you can until it is paid off.
Here is a sample budget for the Scott Family
Bill brings home (net pay) $1987 per month.
Judith's net pay is approxiamtely $1550. She is paid hourly and has taken an average of the last 2 months to get this figure.
All this money goes into a joint account: $3537
Mortgage payment $580
Auto Payment $420
Insurance (Home & Auto) $187
Credit cards (min pay) $65
Utilities (phone, electric) $350
Personal Loans $300
Total expenses $1902
Disposable (free-range) income 3,537 - 1,902 = $1,635
There are 5 members in the Scott family. The children are all in public school and are eligible for free lunches and breakfasts. This helps.
Judith has to budget $1,635 for the month. She knows if they stop eating out she can feed her family for $14.30 per day (that is 9 meals on school days and 15 on non-school days). Judith and Bill pack lunch and have breakfast at home. For a 30 day month they budget $430 for groceries.
This decreases the free-range income to $1205
Judith is looking for a job closer to home but for now is commuting 80 miles a day round trip they are saving money by dropping Bill off and picking him up as his job is on her route. Her car gets about 16 mpg. Gas is currently $3.70 per gallon. She works 20 days per month. That brings the total miles driven per month for work to 1,600. Divide this by the mpg and the Scotts use 100 gallons of gas going to and from work each month. At $3.70 per gallon the gas bill is $370, but of course they do their grocery shopping on weekends and visit family and go to church on Sunday. They decide to increase the gas budget to $420. This also allows a cushion for price increases.
Free-range income is now $785.
Children do grow fast and wear clothes out and lose things. Judith and Bill budget $100 per month for clothing and incidental fees such as club dues, lost binders, etc. But they agree if they only use a portion of the $100 whatever is left goes immediately into a savings account on the last day of the month. In addition Judith has budgeted another $75 for savings.
FRI = $610
Household and miscellaneous items this is the catergory for laundry soap, grandma's birthday gift etc. You may chose to break this catergory down even further.
Judith dedicates $50 per month for household items and $50 for miscellaneous items.
FRI= $510
Judith is surprised to see she has more FRI than she realized and decides to put another $150 into savings.
They now have $360 to pay down there debt. You may wonder why they are putting $225 in savings instead of paying down debt faster. They could do that, but Bill pointed out that having no savings in the first place is why they have a pile of medical bills (teenage boys). There employers offered health plans, but the premiums were $358 per month for the family.
Here is there list of bill balances:
Dr. Myer $ 115
Lakewood Imaging $230
Bill's Uncle $300
Visa $400
Dept Store Card $450
Mastercard $930
Personal Loan $1,760
County Hospital $2,847
Auto Loan $16,000
Mortgage $70,000
Beginning tomorrow Bill and Judith are going to write down every penny they spend for the next week. This is an exercise so they know exactly where there money is going. Next month the they will use $360 to pay in full Dr. Myer and Lakewood Imaging. They will then pay at least $15 to Bill's uncle.
Now there are two less creditors to worry about. That will make it a little easier to pick up the phone without checking caller ID first. Bill and Judith canceled this feature because it cost them $75 per year. They also used their income tax refund to pay for one year of basic cable in advance. By doing this they saved $100 over the monthly rate for the same service.
Spend wisely,
Mrs. Sullivan
list the balances on ALL of your accounts from least to greatest. Make only the minimum payments on everyone except the smallest. On this one you pay as much as you can until it is paid off.
Here is a sample budget for the Scott Family
Bill brings home (net pay) $1987 per month.
Judith's net pay is approxiamtely $1550. She is paid hourly and has taken an average of the last 2 months to get this figure.
All this money goes into a joint account: $3537
Mortgage payment $580
Auto Payment $420
Insurance (Home & Auto) $187
Credit cards (min pay) $65
Utilities (phone, electric) $350
Personal Loans $300
Total expenses $1902
Disposable (free-range) income 3,537 - 1,902 = $1,635
There are 5 members in the Scott family. The children are all in public school and are eligible for free lunches and breakfasts. This helps.
Judith has to budget $1,635 for the month. She knows if they stop eating out she can feed her family for $14.30 per day (that is 9 meals on school days and 15 on non-school days). Judith and Bill pack lunch and have breakfast at home. For a 30 day month they budget $430 for groceries.
This decreases the free-range income to $1205
Judith is looking for a job closer to home but for now is commuting 80 miles a day round trip they are saving money by dropping Bill off and picking him up as his job is on her route. Her car gets about 16 mpg. Gas is currently $3.70 per gallon. She works 20 days per month. That brings the total miles driven per month for work to 1,600. Divide this by the mpg and the Scotts use 100 gallons of gas going to and from work each month. At $3.70 per gallon the gas bill is $370, but of course they do their grocery shopping on weekends and visit family and go to church on Sunday. They decide to increase the gas budget to $420. This also allows a cushion for price increases.
Free-range income is now $785.
Children do grow fast and wear clothes out and lose things. Judith and Bill budget $100 per month for clothing and incidental fees such as club dues, lost binders, etc. But they agree if they only use a portion of the $100 whatever is left goes immediately into a savings account on the last day of the month. In addition Judith has budgeted another $75 for savings.
FRI = $610
Household and miscellaneous items this is the catergory for laundry soap, grandma's birthday gift etc. You may chose to break this catergory down even further.
Judith dedicates $50 per month for household items and $50 for miscellaneous items.
FRI= $510
Judith is surprised to see she has more FRI than she realized and decides to put another $150 into savings.
They now have $360 to pay down there debt. You may wonder why they are putting $225 in savings instead of paying down debt faster. They could do that, but Bill pointed out that having no savings in the first place is why they have a pile of medical bills (teenage boys). There employers offered health plans, but the premiums were $358 per month for the family.
Here is there list of bill balances:
Dr. Myer $ 115
Lakewood Imaging $230
Bill's Uncle $300
Visa $400
Dept Store Card $450
Mastercard $930
Personal Loan $1,760
County Hospital $2,847
Auto Loan $16,000
Mortgage $70,000
Beginning tomorrow Bill and Judith are going to write down every penny they spend for the next week. This is an exercise so they know exactly where there money is going. Next month the they will use $360 to pay in full Dr. Myer and Lakewood Imaging. They will then pay at least $15 to Bill's uncle.
Now there are two less creditors to worry about. That will make it a little easier to pick up the phone without checking caller ID first. Bill and Judith canceled this feature because it cost them $75 per year. They also used their income tax refund to pay for one year of basic cable in advance. By doing this they saved $100 over the monthly rate for the same service.
Spend wisely,
Mrs. Sullivan
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The Beginning
I once realized Iwould never (in all probablity) be filthy rich. I just wanted to be at peace with my family's situation and make it as happy a situation as possible.
We were living in a subdivision Alaska, making mortgage payments, car payments, and many other payments. I finally realized at 32 years old what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be with my family on a piece of land somewhere that I could someday watch my grandchildren play.
Alaska had been our dream and we were fortune to get to have that dream realized, but the time came in April 2008 to return to our home in Louisiana. My father had left me just over 2 acres of land. We began our journey to become self sufficient in the manner of our great great grandparents.
Of course we still have our bills, but with a few simple changes we will be able to live by what we can grow and make ourselves on our terms.
This blog is not going to be about simply farming. I will share information I have picked up over the years on making the most from a modest income. I will try to post at least two times per week. At the bottom of each post will be money saving tips followed by at least on recipe that doesn't call for some exotic ingredient.
I hope you enjoy the adventure we are about to have together.
Mrs. J. A. Sullivan
We were living in a subdivision Alaska, making mortgage payments, car payments, and many other payments. I finally realized at 32 years old what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be with my family on a piece of land somewhere that I could someday watch my grandchildren play.
Alaska had been our dream and we were fortune to get to have that dream realized, but the time came in April 2008 to return to our home in Louisiana. My father had left me just over 2 acres of land. We began our journey to become self sufficient in the manner of our great great grandparents.
Of course we still have our bills, but with a few simple changes we will be able to live by what we can grow and make ourselves on our terms.
This blog is not going to be about simply farming. I will share information I have picked up over the years on making the most from a modest income. I will try to post at least two times per week. At the bottom of each post will be money saving tips followed by at least on recipe that doesn't call for some exotic ingredient.
I hope you enjoy the adventure we are about to have together.
Mrs. J. A. Sullivan
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