Various Money Findings for the Week

I've had a few money-related things in my head for the past week, but none of them were enough to make separate posts for. So I figured I would just make a hodge-podge list of it all right here:

Things I've Thought Of
I've come up with two more ways to build up savings.

The first isn't my idea, it has been done by TONS of people. It's just that I thought of it again a week ago. Set up a reoccurring transfer from checking to savings. I used to do $100 a month, but when things got tighter I didn't think we could do that anymore. Now, I have it set to transfer $20 every Monday. That's almost $100 anyways, but it seems much less painful to transfer a $20 chunk instead of a $100 one. My thinking was that we can spend $20 on random crap, why can't we save it? Even $5 a week will get you $260 + interest in one year. You have to stop making excuses as to why you can't save money and just do it.

When you read or hear anything about saving money on groceries (or anything), why don't you actually save it? Figure out the regular price for your groceries, then deduct the amount you paid for it on sale. Take the difference and put that in savings. It might be as little as the $1 off coupon for the cereal you bought. But after awhile it will add up.

Things I've Found
One of my new favorite blogs is Get Rich Slowly. I've always been really good with money, but I love reading how other people do things and learning new tips and tricks. While browsing around on GRS last night I found some really good articles and a few extra links.

How to Get Out of Debt - A list of things that need to be done, and how to do them. We accomplished #1 awhile ago, are working on #2 and talked about #3 last night and thought it was a really good idea that we will most likely be putting into practice.

How I Cut 16 Years From My Mortgage in Just One Hour - A good article about how paying extra pays off. Our mortgage payment is $698.34/mo - this includes property taxes, and home and mortgage insurance. So our actual principal and interest house payment comes out to $481.80/mo. Every month we just round up to $700 and pay that. I was playing around in Quicken with the debt repayment tool and found that by paying this extra $1.66 we will pay off our mortgage 2 months sooner. If we pay $35 more, it'll be 4 YEARS sooner. $70 more, 7 years and $100 more will get 9 years knocked off. I was pretty stoked about that and can't wait til we have enough extra to throw at it. (For anyone looking to buy a house: She mentions a good suggestion about putting away the amount of a mortgage payment into savings each month. If you can't put it away, then you can't afford a house.)

How To Create Your Own Family Balance Sheet - I found the link to this somewhere on GRS. I've been doing this my whole bill paying life, but I liked the way she did it so I made up a sheet using her version. Now it's great for when we pay bills so we have a quick way of seeing balances and how much extra to pay toward our debt or savings. (Don't have a spreadsheet program? Google Docs gives you everything you need). I haven't had a chance to really go through it yet, but the rest of her site looks like good reading as well.

How My Family and I Paid Off $90,415 of Consumer Debt In Two Years: A REALLY awesome story at Trees Full of Money. In it I found a link to a spreadsheet he made to calculate how soon you could be out of debt with the snowball method. You can find it here. I've messed around with it and have been having a lot of fun trying different scenarios.

Favorite Thing Friday: Flowers

 

I think maybe I'm just desperate for spring and warm weather right now. One of my favorite things is flowers. The smells, the colors, the idea of life appearing after months and months of grey and dreary. Ben is itchin' so bad to get flowers in the front planter. I'm hoping we'll have some extra money soon for him to do that. My mom-in-law gave me a hyacinth on Wednesday. It has opened and has made the whole house smell GORGEOUS. It's sitting in our kitchen and I love walking in and seeing the beautiful purple/blue color of it. I hope we have lots and lots of flowers all over our property this year. 

The picture above is of a day lily we had in our planter last year. And I can't remember what those little blue flowers were called, but they lasted for EVER and were so pretty. I love plants that have little tiny flowers. 

Every time we go to Lowe's or Home Depot and walk in the garden section we talk about what kind of flowers we want to get. I can't wait!

FK: Little Hearts

Here's my knittery post I said was coming... Finally. I've actually been done with them for about a week now, but we were busy painting.

I don't usually get into decorating for holidays, aside from Christmas. I guess it's always just seemed like a lot of work that you have to clean up afterward. But... I got a wild hair to make a heart, for some reason. So I found  a pattern on Ravelry and made this:

 

Cute, yes? Adorable even. And ridiculously easy and fun to make. So I made another.

 

And another.

 

And then a few more...

 

 And even more still! They're like rabbits! I was a wee bit obsessed.

 

(Those front two aren't stuffed yet.) They took about 30 minutes each, depending on size. I would make one, stuff it, sew it up then set it on the desk with the others and giggle like a little girl. Then Ben would look at me and say, "Are you serious? Another one??" And then he would laugh at me because I'm a dork.*

 

This cup is now sitting on my desk, filled with hearts just like that. I think it's the cutest thing ever and I might leave it like that even after Valentines. I actually have four more, but the kids ran off with them - they like the "hairts" - and now I can't find them. Guess I'll have to make more!

Pattern: Little Hearts by Teresa Fox (find it here under "Free Patterns")

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver (100% acrylic) in "White", "Cherry Red", "Light Raspberry" and "Lipstick" and Lily Sugar n' Cream Stripes (100% cotton) in "Pinky Stripes" - Small bits of each.

Needles: US size 8/5mm and US size 6/4mm for varying heart sizes

YTD mileage: 0.05 miles

I think I might enlarge the pattern to make a pillow... or two. And I remembered I have some mohair remnants. I think I'll make a few fuzzy ones. ;)

*Funny story: One of the guys Ben works with is engaged to a knitter. So Ben tells him stories about my knitting or shows him pictures that I might send him and they talk about their crazy knitting women. Nice to know he has someone relate to.

What's Cookin': Carbonara

 

I love pasta. Deep, passionate love. I would eat pasta every day if given the chance. And this recipe is one of my favorites. I got this from Rachel Ray's Classic 30-Minute Meals and have adjusted it to fit our family and budget. In the book she calls it "The only recipe you ever need." And I think I might have to agree with her. Incredibly easy and tasty, it's a good meal for special nights but quick enough for hurried ones.

Carbonara - makes 4 - 6 servings

1 lb rigatoni or penne pasta - .89

1/4 C olive oil - .66

1/4 lb bacon (3-4 slices) - .62

1 tsp garlic powder - .03

1 tsp red pepper flakes - .06

1/2 C dry white wine - 3.20

2 egg yolks - .28

1 C grated Parmesan cheese (the stuff from a block) -  .88

Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt well. Cook pasta until done. Meanwhile add olive oil and bacon in large skillet and cook until just crispy. I know, it looks like a lot of grease and fat, but trust me. You need this for the sauce foundation. When the bacon is just about done add the garlic powder and red pepper flakes. Pour in the white wine and scrap up all the "tasty bits". Let reduce a little bit. Beat egg yolks in a separate bowl. Add about a 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water to the egg yolks to temper them. This is important - if you dump the egg yolks straight onto the pasta they will just cook as a scramble and you'll have chunks of egg yolk.

Drain pasta and return to pot. Pour bacon & wine mix over pasta and stir. Pour egg yolks in, add Parmesan and stir to coat everything. Salt & pepper to taste.

Total: 6.62

Notes & Variations: The original recipe calls for Pancetta, but I chose bacon for availability and price. Make sure you pick a wine that you like. It's an important flavor in this dish and that flavor will concentrate with cooking. I like Robert Mondavi Chardonnay. Use it in everything that calls for wine. It's not the cheapest at $20 a bottle, but it is a cheaper one and good for the price. Plus we don't drink it, just use it for cooking so it lasts longer. For the love of sheep, please don't use anything that says "Cooking wine". I've found them to be very salty and not very good tasting. 

If I had fresh garlic I would use that. 1 or 2 cloves should do, depending on how much you like garlic. You can also adjust the heat by adding more or less red pepper. I wound up using parm from a can last night because I realized half way through that I didn't have a chunk in the fridge. It really changed the taste. I would highly suggest using freshly shredded Parmesan if you can swing it. It was OK with the green can stuff though so if price is a factor then just use that.

Ben rating: 4. Whenever I tell Ben we're having Carbonara for dinner I get an "Ooooh. Good." out of him. I think it's the bacon. ;)

HouseWorks: Master Bedroom Redo

Our home was filled with lots of changes this weekend. My littlest baby boy moved into a crib into the boy's room Saturday night. As much as I wanted our room back, it was harder for me than I thought it would be to have him farther than two feet away. But it was time. He wasn't fitting in his bassinet anymore. He seems to be having fun with this brothers. The past two mornings have been filled with quiet giggling from all three of them.

Anyways. You don't want to hear my sappy story about how much I miss my little man. I know you're here to find out what we did this weekend. And boy, did we DO something.

We have been talking about getting chair rail in the house since we moved in. For Christmas, I decided what I wanted was to redo our bedroom. Well, things happen and we got busy and didn't have the extra money for it so it got put off. This Saturday Ben was talking about how he didn't have any projects this weekend. So I suggested we could do our bedroom, thinking I would just get a "yeah, maybe." Apparently it was the magic word though, because we packed up the kids, went to Lowe's and got trim and paint. So, here's what we did. First, the before so you can see just how plain it was. WARNING: This is a VERY picture heavy post.

 

 Our whole house is yellow. Inside and out. The color we chose for the walls is called "Cottonseed" and when we put the paint chip to the wall when we bought the house it looked like a nice cream color. 

 

 Apparently though, the light we get into the house makes it all look yellow. Very yellow. 

 

We're not into yellow.

 

Don't let the pictures fool you. It's yellow. (Why yes, those are fairies. I have a thing for fairies.)

 

We hauled everything out.

 

Taped off the wall where the chair rail would go. We decided to to a darker color underneath and a lighter color on top. So our line was where the middle of the chair rail would hit. The bottom of the railing is 36" from the floor.

 

We painted. I know, it looks purple here. Just stick with me. It's a blue-grey. It'll be good. I promise.

  

My sexy man nailing up the railing and base moulding.

And now.

The Afters....

We LOVE it. It's so GORGEOUS. 

 

We finished around 9:00 last night, moved everything back in, and just stared. And stared. (Please ignore the mirror. That will be changing.)

 

And "Oooooh"ed.

 

And "Aaaah"ed.

 

And there was a whole lot of "Holy crap that looks NICE!" It's so relaxing. And we kept saying how it looked like a nice hotel. And how we were glad it wasn't yellow.

 

And then we went to bed. Because we were pooped. Haha. 

What do you think? Just have to get some decorations in. Now we can't wait to do the rest of the house!