I got a bit side tracked on the way to motherhood.

But I am back now.


My Goal is to have my husband 'retired' in five years. To do this, I just need to manage our monies to pay off our bills. Of course he will have to get a semi part time job at say Wal-mart or flip burgers for spending cash.


But we will be totally debt free.


This year, we paid off: car note, credit card debts (left over from Lisa's long term illness) and cut back expenses.


We went from owing 90K plus in 2006, to owing just on our house 57K this year. Mind you, I am a SAHM (stay at home mom) and do draw a retirement check from the VA.  Now, after thirteen years of gentle feminine wiles *****NAGGING**** My hubby is ready to tighten our belts and pay off our mortgage.

When he found out that just an increase of $100 towards an additional principal payment each month (only 5 years) would cut down our loan by 9 years.  Yes NINE years with a savings of $46,920. 

So, here we are onto a new decade.  I plan on spending only $4,179 for a family of four to eat healthy.  The additional monies I earn from rebates, coupon savings, surveys, and other small renue raisers we will deposite for 2010 as an extra whammy on the mortgage.

I HATE OWING MONEY

It is my personal goal and mantra:

My husband makes the money; I inturn will save the money and make it work for us.

Watch out E.F. Hutton, I will figure your job out next.

Steps off...............................................

New Trading website here

Here is a forum for folks to exchange use items or no longer needed new items.

Advice and other such ideas:

http://forums.delphiforums.com/shoestring1/start

Creator NBNB gotta love a redneck woman and co-neck Saenzmom

RULES:
Person with item is contacted by person wanting item.
NO DRAMA
ITEMS offered are AS-IS
NO PROFIT MAKING ALLOWED just a place to help each other and hang out.

Nekkid Chicken

Fish on the Cheap Veruka_dolls

So made a fish tonight - my family likes some fish now and again, and I don't really mind, I don't eat meat but sometimes I'll have some fish - so this is with a Pollock - which I had never eatten before, it said it was similar to Cod (a popular fish around where I live but increasingly scarce). I think you could use the sauce with any sort of fish or Vegetables - I'm thinking I'd LOVE this with an Eggplant or something .. everyone else seemed to like it with the fish.


I sliced a sweet onion and 2 small cloves of garlic and sauteed them in olive oil; while that was cooking, I took the pollock fillets ($3.98 for a pound and a half) and soaked it in the juice of a lime. When the onion and garlic was soft and translucent I added a small can of tomato sauce (I think it was 8 ounces), spices, and a can of coconut milk. I let the sauce cook for a while, maybe 10 minutes. I fried the fish for a couple of minutes on each side - its one of those white fish that flake easily. I added the fish to the sauce and cooked it for a few minutes more (don't wanna cook fish too much). I cut up a tomato into thin slices and chopped some cilantro as a garnish.. I served it over rice.

This is the pot of the stove:
















More of Veruka's lovely work can be found here:

http://blogs.ebay.com/veruka_dolls/entry/Fish-dish-great-sauce/_W0QQidZ472220015#comments

And her My World Page:
http://myworld.ebay.com/veruka_dolls

I love her dolls and the little buttocks are my favorite features. I own two of her creations.

Sweet Potato Bisque, Veruka_Dolls

SWEET POTATO BISQUE


I think thats a misnomer - 'cause there's no dairy, the cream-y taste comes from coconut milk. You could add what you like, this would be a vegan version, delicious and Very Cheap to make. People say sometimes its real expensive to eat good food, but its ready-made food that's expensive. I spend less than I did before, even with the higher prices.



I took: 3 nice sweet potatoes and peeled them (i think it was about a pound) and boiled them in water with some seasoning - I would use at LEAST salt, chili powder and tumeric, I used one of those inexpensive seasoning mixes - I think this one's called "Soul Seasoning" Marcum Gourmet Spices - its like a buck per 8 ounces, its mostly salt I imagine so I use it sparingly. It doesn't say exactly what's in it, but it tastes like it has celery, pepper, chili powder, and cumin in it - then it mentions having red pepper, onion and paprika.

I let a good amount of the water boil out (maybe a quarter to half), and mashed the potatoes with the water that was left when they were soft, added a can of coconut milk, and ran it through my blender to make it smooth. Its a lovely colour, too. I guess you could add butter if you eat butter.

3 sweet potatoes, peeled
about 6 cups of water
3/4 teaspoon of soul seasoning
1 can coconut milk.
so that's about $2.50 for the four servings...

Found Here:

http://blogs.ebay.com/veruka_dolls/archive/2008/06
or
http://myworld.ebay.com/veruka_dolls

Apple Wine from Veruka_dolls

Apple wine

It seemed to come out pretty good - my father had this AWESOME idea, I guess they used to put balloons over the tops of the bottles! How clever is that? No air getting in, no chasing corks all over creation and scrambling to get 'im back in afore the air sours things - it doesn't look classy, but its working out pretty good. He was thinking I would have had a problem 'cause I didn't add yeast, but the balloons are filling up, so it must be fermenting - I had to have been successful in attacting wild yeast. I ended up with a decent amount. I guess it'll be a Merry Christmas as there should be enough wine for a nice party.

I think I might try lemons next - actually lemons are kinda dear, maybe i should consider orange or grapefruit. The book was talking about an orange wine (that took a year or so before it was ready to drink) but the author was saying she used to get the oldest, mouldiest oranges she could find - her green-groccer would just give them to her. The worse-for-wear the orange the better the wine, apparently. I don't have enough tea or dandelions yet for either of those wines. I think one of those will be the third batch.

http://blogs.ebay.com/veruka_dolls/archive/2008/05/_W0QQpageZ3

and check her creations out:

http://myworld.ebay.com/veruka_dolls