With $10 To Spare!

We are trying to save as much money as possible so we can buy a house.  I'm also trying to prove that we can handle higher payments.  My goal for the month is to see if we can put everything I make in savings and only live on my husband's income.

As soon as I made this goal, my car door handle broke, but then I went to a forum that talks about Mazda MPV's and these very helpful guys said it was only $12 to buy the part on Ebay and then it was an easy fix.  I was thinking that I would ruin my door panel trying to get into it, but it really is easy!  Turns out now the part is $8.23 with free shipping.  The part would cost about $75 from the dealership.  I'm looking forward to being able to get out of my van without climbing to the other side or rolling down my window to grab the handle from the outside.

My husband needs new tires for his truck soon, so that is another issue.  He's setting money aside specifically for that issue.  It's a big truck, so it has big everything.  It will be over $1,000 to replace those tires.

Payday is tomorrow and I forced myself not to use any of the money I made at the beginning of this month.  Once rent cleared, that would leave us with $10, which left me feeling extremely on edge all day, wondering if anything else would go through that we forgot about, but we did it!  I remember the days when we could get down to $5 or less in our account as every payday approached.  One time we had 75 cents left.

I'm hoping to find some especially awesome grocery deals this month and am shooting for dinners that cost $10 or less each.  Maybe my kids can help!  They will be happy not to eat quesadillas again tomorrow.

Price Per Unit

Sweet #2 wanted to buy me a treat at the store tonight.  He counted up his change and had a little over $3 and was hoping to buy me a small thing of ice cream.  There were some tiny ones on sale that fit his budget, but there were also bigger ones on sale.  So I showed him how to look at the price per unit on the tags.  The small ones were over $2 per pint.  The larger ice cream on sale was $1 per pint.  I told him I would make up the difference.  I was also very proud of him because when I gave him money for his field trip to eat at Dairy Queen, he only got a burger and a mini blizzard instead of a full meal.  He asked, "Didn't I budget well?"

On Valentine's Day, I gave him a coupon good for a night of doing a puzzle with me and we finally got around to shopping for a puzzle tonight.  Months ago we did a large and confusing 550 piece puzzle that we didn't especially enjoy looking at.  He chose a cute deer one that's 300 pieces.  So we'll watch a movie while we work on it.  During Christmas break, we stayed up until 3am working on a puzzle!  It was crazy.  I don't plan on staying up that late tonight.

We also bought 16 oz. boxes of penne for $1 each, so that was a great deal.  A large container of strawberries was $1.98 and I thought that was for the one pound container.  Although we technically have money right now, I am forcing myself to budget on just my husband's pay and see if we can stick everything I make in savings. 

When Life Gives You Asparagus On Sale, Make Asparagus

I know.  The title is pretty deep.

So I found asparagus at Fred Meyer last week for $1 something a bunch and it was a rather large bunch.  It was also nice and thin, so it's easy to sautee.  When I was a kid, I hated asparagus - limp, rubbery, bitter stalks of torture.  Then one night I tried the sauteed asparagus my brother made out of politeness and I was very surprised to discover I loved it!

Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat.  Add a few cloves of minced garlic and heat it about 30 seconds or so, just until the garlic becomes fragrant.  Burnt garlic will ruin a meal.

Add the asparagus, tossing pretty frequently.  I cooked it for about 6 or 7 minutes.  I like it slightly tender and crispy.  Limp asparagus is lame.

Move to a large dish so you can squeeze a pretty generous amount of lemon over it, then a dash of salt, a few grinds of black pepper, and fresh Parmesan cheese. 

We ate this just now with some magic chicken (cheap) and potatoes baked in the microwave (also cheap).  That was half a package of chicken thighs, which would be about $5.  The asparagus was about $1.38 and the potatoes were only a couple dollars for the whole bag, which we only used part of.  So the whole meal was less than $10.

Baked Ravioli

I used to go to a lot of trouble to make lasagna years ago and was so happy when they came out with no boil noodles.  Still, lasagna was a pretty time consuming meal for me.  A cashier at Top Foods asked me one day, "Do you want to know an even easier way to make lasagna?"

"Yes." I said.

"Frozen cheese ravioli."

OK, so it's not technically lasagna anymore ,but it tastes just like it and it's so easy!  Since there is ricotta in the ravioli, you can skip that step.  I used to have to slice the mozzarella too so it was easier to spread the ricotta on top, but now I can just buy a big bag of shredded mozzarella from Costco and then use it again for making pizza.  I still make a meat sauce myself, but all you do after that is a layer of ravioli, sauce, cheese, ravioli, sauce, cheese, little more sauce on top, and then some parmesan on top of that.  Use your favorite sauce if you like, but here is the recipe my mom uses.

Meat Sauce

1 pound ground beef (or turkey)
1 large can (28 oz.) stewed tomatoes (I use crushed in puree instead)
1 can tomato sauce
1 packet of Spaghetti sauce mix (I use McCormick's thick and zesty mix)
1 tsp. garlic powder

Brown the ground beef, add all of the other ingredients, and let it simmer 5-10 minutes in the pan.  Turn it on low unless you like sauce exploding everywhere.

Baked Ravioli

1 bag Costco Cheese Ravioli (you will be able to make it twice and have some leftover)
Meat Sauce
2-3 cups Mozzarella cheese, grated
Grated Parmesan cheese

In a 9x13 casserole dish, drizzle a little olive oil or spread a small amount of sauce on the bottom.  Add a layer of frozen ravioli, sauce, cheese, repeat, add more sauce, and then sprinkle parmesan on top.

Bake covered with foil at 350 for 45 minutes and then uncovered for another 5-10 minutes.  Let sit for about 5 minutes before serving. 

Is it cheaper to make lasagna the old fashioned way?  Possibly.  But one thing I have learned in my quest to budget is that I have to have some easy meals or I will cave and order pizza when things get hectic. 

How I Make Orange Chicken

Two of my sons love Panda Express.  I don't love it.  When we were at Costco one day, #1 begged me to buy the Panda Express orange chicken sauce and I had no idea what I would do with it.  I combined ideas from a couple recipes to produce a pretty yummy dish and my son was happy with it even though it didn't taste like Panda Express exactly.

Orange Chicken

3-4 chicken breasts, cut into cubes (1-2 inches)
1/2 cup corn starch
1 cup flour
3 eggs, beaten
1/4-1/2 tsp. salt
4 cups stir fry vegetables (or a couple heads of broccoli cut up)
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
Panda Express orange sauce, 1/2 to 1 cup

In one bowl, mix the eggs and salt together.  In another, mix the flour and cornstarch.  First coat the chicken pieces in the egg and then in the flour mixture.  Heat oil in pan on medium heat, making sure it's plenty hot before you add the chicken.  Cook until browned well on both sides.  Set it aside and keep warm in the oven while you fry the vegetables.  Add a little more oil to the pan and cook the vegetables until tender.  Put chicken back in the pan, stir it all together, and add the orange sauce.

One of these days I'll learn how to make an orange sauce from scratch and I'm sure my kids will think it's disgusting. 

Raspberry Cream & Ganache Cupcakes

Thanks to the inspiration of friends, I came up with these delicious cupcakes.  Not that this saves you money, but it's probably cheaper than buying cupcakes from a bakery.

Using the end of a wooden spoon, poke holes in the center of the cupcakes.  I like to buy the 99 cent cake mix.  After you make the ganache, let it cool a bit.  Ganache is basically melted chocolate and it's way better than butter cream frosting (to me).

#2 stirring ganache for me before church

Puree some raspberries and freeze what you don't need for the whipped cream.  I like to use it to make raspberry lemonade.

Put a wire strainer over a bowl to remove the seeds.

Whip the cream, add sugar until you reach the desired sweetness, and then enough puree to make it pink.  Awkwardly put it into the pastry bag and when it oozes onto your hands, wash it off.  (Or lick it!)

 Squeeze the raspberry cream into the holes.

Drizzle the ganache slowly over the cupcakes.  It will run over the wrappers a bit, so you might want a pretty outer wrapper.  A friend of mine bought silver ones that were gorgeous!  You could probably also remove them from the wrappers and let the ganache run all over the sides, but I didn't do this because I was pressed for time.  I definitely will next time.

Put them in the fridge and let the chocolate harden.  Add some more raspberry cream for beauty and deliciousness.

So I suppose you will want and exact recipe.  Let's say you are making two dozen cupcakes. 

For the cupcakes

Follow the directions on any package of chocolate cupcakes or use your favorite recipe.  Allow to cool before you poke the holes in them.

For the ganache

1 cup of whipping cream
1 tablespoon of butter
10 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate (I use about 1 1/3 cups chocolate chips)

Over low heat, put cream and butter in a double boiler.  When the butter is melted, add the chocolate and stir until completely melted.  Allow to cool until it has thickened a bit.  You want it to adhere to the cupcake.

For the raspberry cream

1 cup of whipping cream
2-3 tablespoons raspberry puree
3-4 tablespoons sugar

Whip cream with beaters until thickened, add sugar, beat some more, and make sure it's plenty thick before you fold in the raspberry cream.  You don't want runny cream in your cupcakes.

Fill the holes with the raspberry cream from a pastry bag, add ganache, put in the fridge for a while (until the chocolate is hard), then add a little more raspberry whipped cream on top.

My non-foodie Mom LOVED these and has already requested them for her birthday in July.

#2 Wants a New Violin

#2 spent most of last year begging for a violin because he was starting orchestra.  We weren't sure if he would really love it or not and we ended up checking out a student violin from the district for a maintenance fee. 

He loves the violin.  Before orchestra started, he watched his instructional DVD and was soon explaining to me the proper way to care for and position the violin and bow.  It was definitely challenging in the beginning, but he didn't give up.  One day he told me amusingly, "I am never quitting, so you will keep buying me violins!"  He needed a 3/4 size, but they only had half size.  That's getting a little uncomfortable for him, so next year he will grow into a full size one.  I think the rentals were $25 per month and the guy at the music store said we should spend about $700 to get anything decent, so we could rent to own.  That would take at least two years to pay off.  Of course, he strongly cautioned me against buying anything used because it might have some defects we aren't aware of, but I think we could manage to find a good one with some help.

#2 has to return his violin after orchestra ends and he really wants to have something to play over the summer.  That presents quite a budgeting challenge for us because we are trying to buy a house.  How to get a house and a violin?

Our farmers market allows people to do some busking with their permission.  He's very excited about this idea and is already telling everyone about his plans and has an offer to make some money washing a car.