I refuse to turn the heater on

Our electric bill was really high last month (almost $200), so I'm going back to being a thermostat nazi. After being 80 degrees yesterday, it is currently 36 degrees with a wind chill of 25. Gotta love Texas. In the past, I would get up in the morning and stay in my tank top and pajama pants and crank up the heat. I was just too lazy to get up and put on some extra clothes. I got up, and instead of turning on the heat, I put on an extra layer of clothes. Seriously, how hard was that?

Found money

That was a nice surprise! Yesterday, Michael and I were getting organized to go grocery shopping. I checked the budget so I could go to the bank and pull out cash for the grocery envelope. I had budgeted $180 for two weeks worth of groceries. Michael pulled out the grocery envelope and I guess I had forgotten that I still had $40 from December. So we only needed to budget $140 for the next two weeks. I've actually had leftover money the last couple of months, so I think I'm going to experiment with lowering the grocery budget.

Another cheap (not healthy!) dinner

Tonight we had grilled bratwurst and french fries. The package of brats were $1.99 manager's special at Kroger. I got a bag of French fries at the 99 Cents Only Store (we ate half the bag), and bought some buns at the Mrs. Baird's Outlet for 0.79.


Total cost for the meal: $3.28 or $0.82/serving, and we still have three buns for another meal.

One goal for the new year

No more library fines! I have been really, really bad about that this past year. Last month I had to pay a $22 fine. I get all my entertainment from the library, so I'm going to set a day that I go every week. Movies are due after seven days, and it's $1 per day late fine, so that's usually what gets me in trouble. And it's an easy enough thing to get online and renew things. It takes two seconds, but I'm often too lazy to do it.

Re-evaluating my health insurance to save money

Michael's work has crappy health insurance options. The coverage for him is freaking awesome, and they pay the whole premium for him. When you add family, the cost is ridiculous. They have one plan, and to add me to it would cost 1/3 of his income. I rarely go to the doctor. I'm very healthy, and I just prefer to treat things at home. However, I do want to have something in place in the event that I got some terrible disease or got into a car accident. A year and a half ago I purchased a crappy plan through BCBS that would cover that kind of thing. $5,000 deductible, 80/20 plan. At least we wouldn't be bankrupt if I got into a car accident or something. In 18 months I have not utilized that insurance at all. I paid $116/month for it. So I decided to re-evaluate. The whole reason that I want it is for hospital-type emergencies. I don't want to be saddled with a huge bill if I get into a car wreck, for instance. For doctor visits, I don't utilize the insurance that I already have--I have been going to the student health center at school for the few doctor visits I've needed in the last year and a half, and they wouldn't file with my insurance anyway. So I decided to go with a hospital-only plan, that is only $44/month. It only covers actual hospital costs, not physician costs. It's not ideal, but neither was the other one, and I figure if I'm going to have insurance that I'm not going to use, I want it to be as cheap as possible. I'm currently looking for a full-time job with health benefit, so I hope I'll be able to have "real" insurance again soon.

Cilantro White-Bean Soup

Our frugal dinner last night--YUM!

Prices are from my grocery price book.

Cilantro White Bean Soup
2 tsp. olive oil (15cents?)
1 c. onion, chopped (20 cents)
3 garlic cloves, chopped (15 cents)
1/2 lb. of white beans--I used great northern, you could use a combination of garbanzo, chick-peas, etc....if using cans, use 2 cans of beans and drain them (0.50 for the dried)
1-14.5 ounce can of chicken or vegetable broth (I use an equivalent amount of the stock that I make from scratch, so maybe 3 cents?)
1-14.5 ounce can of whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped (0.49)
3/4 tsp. dried oregano (pennies)
1/4 tsp. pepper (pennies)
lots of salt to taste if using dry beans (pennies)
1 bunch of fresh cilantro (0.50)
1 can of green enchilada sauce (0.75)

If using dried beans, cook until done and drain the liquid. In a skillet, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add to the pot with the beans, and add all other ingredients except the cilantro and enchilada sauce. Bring to a boil. Turn down and add cilantro and sauce, and simmer for five minutes. Good topped with cheese or with homemade cornbread. Serves 4 for approximately $2.86, or about $0.72 a serving.

What is left of it for lunch today:

Camping and New heights of frugality

We went camping with family last weekend. We don't take vacations since we're getting out of debt, but we do camp a couple of times a year. Usually we meet up with my family in Houston somewhere halfway between us. We budgeted $60 for Friday-Sunday of camping, including gas and the entrance fee. This time we met my Dad and sister at a place called Meridian State Park, which is just gorgeous. We liked it a lot better than our other usual place. One pic my husband took:


I bring the food for dinners, a few things for lunch, and my Dad brought breakfast stuff and the junk food. We also don't own a tent, so my Dad brings his. This particlar state park had great fishing, and we were so excited when Ethan caught his first fish! He absolutely loved it, and after he caught his first one he was hooking his own worm and actually had the patience to sit and wait for the fish to bite.



My Dad had also caught some fish, and one of our neighboring campers caught some catfish that they weren't going to eat, so they gave it to us. We decided we would have fish for dinner, courtesy of Ethan (he thought that was so cool). As my Dad was filleting the fish rather haphazardly and missing a lot of the meat, my frugal alarm bells were going off. I asked him if I could take the fish guts home with me. The look on my husband's face was priceless.

So I took the guts home and made stock out of them. For the feint of heart, I tried not to take pictures of their little fish faces in the pot:



The finished stock:



I read somewhere that fish stock is really good for a lot of health problems, including thyroid issues, which I'm pretty sure I have. I froze it all for later use. I haven't yet decided what I'm going to make with it--maybe some kind of chowder. With our 80 degree weather, it hasn't really been cold enough to think about soups yet.