Homecoming Kickback

My kids wanted to have a "kickback" (get-together) after their Homecoming dance last night because nobody usually go straight home afterwards. While most people wait for a table at Applebees or Aurellio's Pizza Parlor, their friends had an open door to come to our house and "kickback".

I prepared some snack food; mostly store bought, so it was no time to pull together, I just had to prepare the buffalo wings. The menu consisted of: assorted soda and bottled water, cupcakes, a variety of cookies, Flammin' Hot Cheetos, Tostado Tortilla Bowl chips, 7 Layer dip, buffalo wings with ranch dipping sauce and celery sticks. The recipe for my well-loved buffalo wings is:

My Buffalo Wings
a bag of chicken fryers
flour
egg
Lawry's seasoning salt
black pepper
Adobo
Garlic Powder
Red Hot Louisiana Hot Sauce
butter
lemon juice
Ranch dressing
grease

I heated the frying pan of grease on medium heat. I then cleaned the chicken fryers then seasoned them with Lawry's,pepper, Adobo and garlic powder. Then dipped the seasoned chicken fryers in egg then in flour. I placed the chicken fryers in the hot grease for about 6 minutes on each side or until golden brown. When done, I took the fryers out and placed them in a strainer that was on top of a paper towel covered plate.

I used a sauce pan for the buffalo sauce. I took about 2 tbsps of butter and melted it in the sauce pan. Once melted I added about 2 cups of hot sauce and a teaspoon of lemon juice. I stirred consistently and cooked on low heat for about 5 minutes.

I placed the chicken fryers in a big stainless mixing bowl and poured the buffalo sauce in. I made sure that every chicken fryer was covered with sauce then I plated the buffalo wings on a plate. I poured Ranch dressing in a small bowl and placed it on the plate as well. There you have it, my buffalo chicken recipe! I wish that you can taste it but maybe one day you will!

September Length Check

Do you see how much this chik's hair is growing and how fast? I'm starting to regret cutting off her blonde ends before taking this picture though. We cut the remaining of the blonde hair over a week ago, if we would have left it then her fro would have been even bigger. We weren't thinking about these length checks at the time though. Oh well, there is still a difference in length nonetheless.

How to Significantly Increase Your Income Without Working Harder (Part 1)

Many times, I’ll receive emails from people saying how they wish they could be in the financial position we’re in but it’s just not possible because they only make $20,000 per year. Not too long ago, making $20,000 per year would have been a significant pay increase for us as we were barely eeking by making $600 to $1,000 per month.

We knew that we needed to increase our income if we were ever going to get financial traction, but we decided to go about it in non-traditional way: instead of focusing all of our time and energies on getting a better job with better pay, we looked for ways to build additional income streams outside the 8 to 5 traditional job. This has been the key to our financial success. The 8 to 5 jobs have helped to pay the bills, but the nontraditional income streams have allowed us to save aggressively and give generously.

In this series, I’m going to share some things we’ve learned over our eight and half year journey of entreprenuerial endeavors and failures. My hope is to help you see that you’re not stuck, no matter how bad of a financial situation you may feel like you’re in right now. There is always hope–especially if you’re willing to think outside the box.

READ MORE. Also, be sure to check out Part 2 and Part 3.

I don't know why I didn't think to price match fruit at Wal-Mart.

I am so going to do this on my next grocery shopping trip (Tuesday).

Tip on the Cheapest Rate to Buying an Airline Ticket

I just saw an expert on the Nate Burkus Show saying that if you want to pay the lowest price for an airline ticket you won't find it online and you definitely won't find it over the weekend. Airline tickets are at their highest over the weekend.

The best time to buy is at 12:01 AM on Wednesday morning in your time zone. The airlines lower their ticket prices at 11:59 PM Tuesday night and will be available to us at 12:01 AM.

Also, for the best rate, pick up the phone and call the airline to speak directly with an agent. They only release the prices that they want you to see on the web. They have so many more choices over the phone and you will be surprise how much you save by doing so.

The Real on Couponing

The new show "Extreme Couponing" on TLC has shocked everyone with the incredible potential of coupon savings. It has also exposed the dark side of couponing.

I think the people on that show are likely not as extreme as they were portrayed (it is television after all), however the show has given people unrealistic expectations for couponing and given couponers unfair representation.

If you want to learn to coupon and save 50% or more on your grocery bill, then I can certainly help – and you won't need to spend 70+ hours a week on couponing!

Realistic Time

Realistically I spend 30-45 minutes a week clipping coupons and putting together a shopping list. This is typically for shopping at 2 stores – 1 grocery store and 1 drug store. How long you spend on this depends on how many stores you shop at and how long you have been couponing. My couponing grocery trips rarely take longer than a trip where I don't use coupons (scanning coupons really only takes a few minutes in a normal shopping trip).

After you set up a coupon system like a coupon binder, there really isn't that much to it! Coupon sites like mine even match up coupons for you which saves you a ton of time! Just pull the coupons you need, print your list and go!

Realistic Spending

Sure the people on that show save a ton of money, but how much are they spending to get that savings? I also consider my time valuable. If I'm taking away time from my family then the cost is too high, regardless of the savings.

I think it is entirely possible to save 50% or more on your grocery bill. The savings will vary depending on your family size and eating habits. I do think that everyone can use coupons though. There is a myth that there are no coupons for healthy foods and it is simply not true. They are not quite as common, but nutritious deals are definitely available.

Realistic Stockpile

Okay, 1500 sticks of deodorant? 40 years worth of toilet paper? That is just not realistic to me. Sales come in cycles and you should definitely buy a few months worth of the items your family will use or eat, but there’s no need to buy more than that. A good rule of thumb is to buy one newspaper per family member. Then when your favorite pasta goes on sale, you buy more than one box because you have multiple coupons.

For our family of three I used to buy three newspapers per week. Now that I've been couponing for a while (and the cost of newspapers has gone up), I have cut back to just two newspapers per week. This really is plenty for our family! We have an extra shelf in the garage to store our stockpile (I could probably eliminate this too if I were more organized), but everything else is just stored regularly in the pantry or cabinets. I am also able to donate on a regular basis, even with my relatively small stockpile.

Realistic Expectations

Please don't expect to save 98% on your very first coupon shopping trip. Yes, it can happen, but it takes some time and work. You have to collect coupons every week and build up your stockpile. Once you've done that, you have the freedom to "cherry pick". That means you only go to the store to buy the freebies and cheapies.

I am not trying to discourage you at all, I just want to make sure you have realistic expectations. Couponing really is a blast, so I completely understand how some people can become addicted to it!

Couponing can be a great way to save your family money, and it doesn't have to be an obsessive hobby!

What's For Dinner? Italian Sausage and Eggplant Parmesan

It was a big hit, "Go Nik! Go Nik!"

Ingredients

Not pictured:Italian Bread Crumbs, olive oil, white wine, eggs, seasoning and other misc. little things that I used to complete this meal. Charge it to my head and not to my heart but these are the items that I bought from the store today for tonight's dinner.

Pan seared Italian Sausage

I cut them in halves, put a little olive oil in the bottom of the pan and seared them for about 8 minutes on each side. I cut up some red peppers, green peppers and onions for added flavor. I deglazed the pan with a little white wine and poured it over the Italian Sausage when I put them in the glass dish. I then added marinara on top and threw the peppers and onions on top then boom! We like to use white bread or buns for Italian sausage.

Eggplant Parmesan with Mostaciolli

Eggplant is very absorbent so after I peeled and sliced the eggplant, I sat it in ice water for about an hour to keep it from soaking up all the grease when I fried it. I then dumped out the ice water and seasoned the eggplant, dipped it in egg then covered the slices in Italian Styled bread crumbs. I fried it for about 3-4 minutes.

I made the mostaccioli with red marinara (pasta sauce), green and red peppers, onions, mushrooms, garlic and seasoning. I mixed the egglant in while the mostaccioli was still on the stove top. I poured half of the pot in the foil pan and topped it off with a 6 cheese blend of Italian cheese. I poured the other half of the pot in the pan then put the other half of my cheese blend on top. I popped that baby in the over for about 30 minutes in 350 (or until golden brown) then bang!

I think I just made my son's day today. It feels darn good too! :-D