Funday!

We were just a few feet away from the drivers at the start of this race!

I took a little trip with my hubby on Sunday to Lockhart, Texas. We went there to watch the Lone Start Grand Prix (www.lonestargrandprix.us).

When I got up on Sunday, I had no plans to go to watch super fast go-karts, but an idle comment by Joe that he wouldn't mind going had me saying, "Well, let's go!"

My husband loves watching Nascar and thanks to him I know more than I ever planned to about Jeff Gordon so I thought that if he wanted to go see these races, why not? The races were free so they were certainly within our price range! After a few moment's discussion we packed a cooler with drinks and snacks and off we went!

Lockhart is only twenty minutes from where we live and very familiar to us. We had a resale store there from 2003-2008. It is a charming small town well-known for their excellent barbecue. My favorite place there is Smitty's, but I digress (as I so often do).

Back to the races-some of these go-karts go up to 130 miles per hour! They are quite loud! Check out my very amateur video.

I met a seven-year-old boy who was racing in the Cadet division (ages 6-11 if I remember correctly). We saw a boy and girl in the next age division have a little wreck where they hit the plastic barrier so hard it moved a good 4-5 feet!

I was surprised how fast these go-karts went!

It was nice to get out of our rut and do something different for a change. I encourage you to find some free or inexpensive activities to do with your husband or family. It isn't the money you spend, it is the memories you make that your loved ones remember.

Super Saver Saturday

Ingredients for Chicken Santa Fe purchased on sale and markdown at my favorite grocery store. 

                                                     Home Cooking Saves Money!

I made an enjoyable meal last night that was delicious, healthy, and inexpensive. We had a pork stir-fry with rice. My hubby had bought two packages of pre-cut stir fry vegetables that were marked down to 99 cents each and a package of thin sliced pork for $3.00 and it was my job to turn it into a culinary delight.

The vegetables in the stir fry were chopped cabbage, broccoli, carrots, and snow peas. I added a bit of broccoli, carrots, and onions, and garlic that I had in the fridge. I made my own sauce from cornstarch, soy sauce, water, and seasonings and served the stir fry over medium grain white rice that had been purchased in bulk.

The whole meal cost around $6.00 and fed three of us very generous helpings. If there had been any leftovers, they would have been recreated as fried rice for the next day's lunch.

Being able to cook and bake has been a huge boon to my budget! It allows my family to eat a variety of healthful foods. I am constantly adding to my skill set in the kitchen. Just this past week I made hummus, which is pricey to purchase but quite affordable to create at home.

If you do not currently cook for your family, I encourage you to start. You will quickly see an impact on your food bill and free up funds to use in other areas of your budget.

I will be sharing more on this topic of cooking from scratch in coming posts. Not only does cooking at home save money, homemade food promotes health which saves on trips to the doctor and lessens healthcare costs.

Chicken Santa Fe ready to eat. I serve it over rice with tortillas and a salad or garlic green beans. 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Here I am with our onion harvest in May 2012!

I live in central Texas where it is possible to garden pretty much 365 days of the year (smiling broadly as I write this). My husband and I have had a garden the last 14 or so years and I have slowly been working on my front yard landscaping as time and budget allow.

We are working towards the goal of our garden supplying the majority of the fruit and vegetables we consume. My husband has more time than I do to work in the garden right now and has been planting tons of items. We do the planning together and I assist with weeding, watering, and harvesting.

Late fall harvest of okra, green peppers, tomatoes, Chinese long beans, and chard. 

Currently we are growing: potatoes, turnips, beets, radishes, Oregon peas (edible pod pea), yellow and white onions, Romaine lettuce, asparagus, strawberries, blackberries, green onions, a variety of peppers, cherry and Roma tomatoes, fennel, red cabbage, and regular cabbage. We plant our onions in December and when we begin harvesting in May they are softball sized!

My hubby, Joe, pulling onions.

In two weeks we will be able to plant Chinese long beans! These beans are really long-last season I measured one at 22 inches long! We save and dry some of the mature bean pods to have seed for the next season. These beans are great producers and grow from spring until the first frost.

Chinese long beans! I don't have to pick many  to have plenty for our evening meal!

By the time we have spring in full swing, we will also have planted tomatillos, watermelon, cantaloupe, yellow squash, zucchini, butternut squash, pattypan squash, a variety of herbs (thyme, rosemary, basil, mint), and probably at least one new fruit tree (last year we planted dwarf pomengranates and two pear trees in the front yard).

I will continue with gardening info and updates because I love gardening. Tell me, how does your garden grow?

Super Saver Saturday

Today's Super Saver post is about what we gain by not spending. As I have stated previously, we have a tight budget and we live within that budget. I like to view this challenge as a game that I want to win.

We do not have cable television or Internet at home though we do have six computers. I will allow that to sink in for a moment as you process that strange piece of information. When I tell people this, they look at me as though I just announced that I gave birth to quintuplets (while I do have five children, I had them one at a time, but I digress).

We don't have room in our budget for cable and Internet so we don't have them. We actually have a more peaceful, intentional life without them, in my opinion.  We watch movies and tv shows we deliberately chose to watch by ordering them from Netflix or Redbox. We don't sit in front of the tv scrolling through 100 or more channels of stuff to fill our time. We do have dtv converters on our television sets so that we can watch over the air broadcasting.

When we had the Internet at home, we had one computer and my kids had a lot of arguments over just how long one of their brothers or sisters had spent on the computer. I sure don't miss that!

We go to our library to use the Internet or take our laptops to one of the MANY places that offer free Wifi. We enjoy a trip to Starbucks or perhaps Chik-fil-a if the library is closed. Again, we don't sit on our computers for hours at a time distracting ourselves from more productive activities. We do not have to pay to update our software or clean up viruses when using the library computers as the tech department does that for us. ; )

Our library is very generous with the amount of time available to each patron on the computer-we have up to 8 hours a day! So, if I have a big project to do I can actually do it at the library and complete it.

The nice thing about going to the library or another facility to use the Internet is that I do not have the distractions I do at home. Multi-tasking is great for some activities but I have discovered that I am more efficient by concentrating on one thing at a time for the most part.

So, for us having less really is more. We have gained peace and productivity by eliminating cable and Internet. How about you? What have you given up or done without and discovered that it actually added to your life?

Computing problems

I was all set to post a pithy little post yesterday when my computer decided to behave strangely. It showed me a weird screen with a bunch of dire sounding warnings and gave me two choices of things to do. I chose the first and couldn't get out of the loop to use my computer.

I was frantic and worried. I love my little Acer Netbook that I got for Christmas from my youngest daughter! I couldn't wait to go home and have my resident computer expert son take a look at it.

Two minutes after we got in the door, he disappeared into his room with my precious purple baby. Five minutes later he found me in the kitchen and informed me that all was well. Happiness!

I asked him what he did to get it out of the loop in which it had been stuck. He said, "Do you remember where it gave you two choices of things to do?" I nodded that I did and told him I had chosen the first item.

He said, "Yeah, well that was the wrong choice."

Glad he knew what to do and got me back in business!

I Love Couponing!

I do what I call "Semi-Extreme Couponing". I don't get cartloads of items for pennies on the dollar like the folks do on the "Extreme Couponing" show. But, I do get real life great deals that anyone with a pair of scissors, a newspaper, and a sharp eye can get anytime, anywhere they are shopping.

I almost always take my coupon box with me when I leave my house just in case I see a coupon opportunity.  Yesterday I went to Walgreen's to purchase some Arizona drinks that were on sale 2/$1.00 and while I was there I walked the aisles to see what was on clearance as is my custom.

Many people don't realize that coupons can be used on mark down items. I absolutely LOVE using coupons this way as it is a huge bang for the buck!

In the shaving aisle, my Walgreen's had some Gillette Fusion Shave Gel marked down to $2.49 each. That is a very good price as at full price this item is around $5.00 for one shave gel. I got into my envelope marked Shaving Items to see if I might have a coupon or two on this excellent product. I pulled out Gillette Fusion coupons- one that was buy one, get one free and one that was $1.00 off the purchase of one Gillette Fusion shave gel.

End result was that I paid $1.49 for two name brand shave gels. They ended up being 75 cents each and a better price than generic. My husband and sons were really happy to see what I got and my budget was happy too! We didn't need shave gel for a few more weeks but if I had waited until it was needed I would have spent a lot more to get a lot less.

If you haven't tried couponing because you think it will be a huge hassle or it isn't worth it, keep on checking back as I share more on this topic. At the very least, get a Sunday paper this week and see what you can do to spend less on items you are already going to have to buy!

Super Saver Saturday

I have wanted to go to my favorite thrift store for a couple of weeks now and I finally got to go there today!

Sawyer (my 18-year- old son) needed a pair of gray slacks. We found a pair in his size that he liked. Because all long pants were on sale at half off we were able to get the pants for $2.00! Yes, you read that correctly-the original price was $4.00 and we only had to pay half today.

I also bought a lovely set of books for my 5-month-old grandson, Liam, for Easter. This Brimax board book set titled My First Prayers contains 8 very sweet books and is in a nice little case. It only cost $3.00! I am ecstatic over this find. Take a look at these hastily snapped photos and see if you don't agree.

I love these titles!

Isn't this adorable?

I also bought Liam a baby swimsuit and an adorable Onesie-type outfit for his Easter gifts from his Gigi and Grandpa. 

My son found a movie he really liked for only $4.00 and I purchased a beautiful copy of The Night Before Christmas that will surely find its way to a deserving niece or nephew this coming Christmas.

Some of you may remember my recent post on Valentine's Day where I had a mini-rant about people being unprepared for holidays and how despite a very limited income I manage to provide gifts to make the holidays special for my family. 

Thrifting is one of my best weapons in my quest to provide while living within my means. Try it, you might like it!

I would love to hear about your great deals so please share by commenting!