$3 Holla!

I made a dinner so delicious, so yummy smelly, so damned cheap, I made it two nights in a row. And now you can too!

And yes, my cell phone photos ROCK. Trust me, I know how hard it can be to turn a beautiful plate of food into the blob you see above. Ahem.

So, the recipe.
1 boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced (You can use more, but I'm a cheapass)
1/2 bag frozen green beans, or ANY veg you like
1 prepared box of stuffing OR 3C stuffing OR 3C mashed potatoes
1 can cream of whatever soup OR 1.5C gravy
salt and pepper
1/8C butter

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Butter a casserole pan.
3. Lay chicken across bottom, then season with salt and pepper.
4. Add frozen beans or veg in a layer.
5. Pour over soup or gravy.
6. Add stuffing or mashed taters layer.
7. Optional- sprinkle on shredded cheese
8. Bake for 35-45 minutes. 35 to cook the chicken, 45 to really crisp the topping.

Be amazed, lol. This feeds 5 generous portions, or 6 if you're also having a salad.

Chicken- approx. $1.10
Beans - $.50
Stuffing- $.50, or homemade mashed, $.25
Soup- $.80
Butter and seasonsings- $.10-12?

Total: $3.00 ish.

Rndom Thoughts on a Sunday

Gender Roles

I don't believe in gender roles, gender specific behavior, or raising my child is a gender specific environment. My son is all boy, that's for sure. But when he asks me to polish his toenails, I do it. Some people in my life have issues with that. Frankly, that is their issue to have, not mine.

I only want 3 things from my children: for them to choose a path in life where they can support themselves and their lifestyle, for them to be honest and productive, and for them to choose a life that makes them happy. I don't care if that means my sons end up brain surgeons with wives and children, single Walmart overnight stockers, or have gender reassignments surgery to become housewives named Stella. Whatever makes them happy and fulfilled is fine with me.

I don't subscribe to boys being all blue and playing with trucks and girls shrouded in pink and bows and playing with Barbies. I let Liam, and will let Haven choose their own toys, their clothes, and make their own opinions without me shoving gender based ideas down their throats.

Someone on a forum I frequent was upset because her family has told her that she needs to be more feminine to raise a girl "the right way". What is the right way? And why does the physical appearance of a parent have any bearing on the well being of a child? In my eyes, physical appearance has no bearing on parenting ability.

I hope that my sons are able to grow up being confident and comfortable in their own skin, and are capable of making their own choices and forming their own opinions without their penises being a factor in that decision making.

Fall

It's officially FALL! The leaves are beginning to change, all things apple and pumpkin are out, and I am loving the chill in the air in the evenings. I can't wait for next month. Hay rides, pumpkin patches, and hopefully adding a new rabbit to our house. The farm we're going to for our Halloween festivities raises rabbits- and they have long hair rabbits. Weeeeeee!!! :-D

Pregnancy

I'm good, but boy am I ready for this to be over. I'm exhausted!!

Our Budget, exposed

This will be an incredibly embarrassing post for me. Our financial state is 100% decisions I have made. My husband is not blameless, in that he does allow me complete control of our finances. But, the mess we're climbing out of is indeed my fault. We do end up with 'free' money at the end of every month, and it is currently being applied to pay off credit cards, and prepare for the arrival of Haven in December.

Income: $4100 monthly

Expenses:
$1375 Rent
$ 276 Car Payment
$ 88 Car Insurance
$ 170 Cell Phones
$ 60 Internet and home phone
$ 150 NYSEG (utilities)
$ 200 Gas (because family is so far away as is my doctor)
$ 60 Bus Pass (Seth takes the bus to work)
$ 400 Groceries
$ 75 Melaleuca (cleaning products, toiletries, etc.)
$ 17 Hlu/Netflix (we don't have cable tv, and can't get over the air here)

Total: $2871, leaving a net amount of $1229.

The above expenses are every month until June, when we plan to move to a significantly less expensive apartment or house. We love where we live, but can no longer justify the cost. And with a move back closer to where we were before being in the realm of possibility, cutting expenses as much as we can is really important.

Where does the net amount go?

$ 75 Care Credit - we used this card when we needed contacts and glasses.
$ 25 Maurices - will be paid and CLOSED next month.
$ 25 Capital One M - mine
$ 25 HSBC - Seth
$ 50 Eating Out
$ 60 Old Navy - will be paid off and then strictly budgeted
$ 60 Bill Me Later - still paying off last Christmas! Will be paid off and closed
$100 Amazon - mine. Will be paid off and left open but not used (to build credit)
$ 75 Capital One S - Seth. Will be paid off and left open (credit building)
$ 75 Bank of America - Seth Will be paid off and left open (credit building)

So, those are the minimums we pay on those cards right now. That's a total of $970. OUCH!


We're doing a modified snowball for these. Paying them off in order from smallest to largest, then rolling the minimums on the paid off cards into the next biggest. By doing this, we can have all of these cards paid completely off in under a year. We are choosing to leave some open, either based on rewards (Old Navy, my Capital One, etc.), or to build our credit. Quite honestly, our credit isn't so hot, and we'd like to fix that.

Additionally, Seth is taking a promotion at work. Whatever raise that comes with will also be thrown into paying these debts off, and when that is done, it'll be diverted into a separate savings account back home, where we'd physically have to go in to make withdrawals.

So, what's left? $259.

Right now, we don't budget it.

We have a baby on the way that we do need some things for, Liam is growing like a weed, and we're using the money to deal with both of those things. Additionally, Seth and I pull our spending money from that pile. It's not a system for everyone, but it works for us. Any 'extra' money we have left, including bills that were less than expected, goes right to paying down/off a credit card.

 So, there you have it. Ad it should be obvious as to WHY I'm working so hard to cut our expenses absolutely as much as I can. I don't want to drown in debt.  


Baby budget:
We've scaled this back. I've decided to buy a cheaper version of the bassinet I chose, for a nearly 50% savings.

I will buy the cloth diaper system I want- in pieces. In the meantime, I'll be scooping up what I can from the gently used $1,3,5 bins at our local baby store and making it work. I did prefolds with Liam, so the $1 bin fitteds will be a step up as far as I'm concerned.

We won't be buying a car seat. Liam's convertible is not even 2 years old. So, Haven goes in that. Liam will go into my niece's outgrown car seat, that is actually a better fit for his lanky body. That choice alone saves us well over $100.

I'm recruiting my mom and friends to scour yard sales for newborn and 0-3m footed pajamas and the like. At tax time, we'll worry about the rest. I'm just looking to get through until then. I figure he needs clothes, a bed, diapers, and my breasts to make it through. And a car seat for travel. We'll buy what we need as we need it. :-)

My one splurge has been an ERGObaby carrier with all the attachments and accessories. I literally cannot feel the 30+lbs. of Liam in it!



Here's a photo of my guys at my mom's over last weekend.

Kicked out of school! (YES! Really!)

So, I got informed yesterday that I was being dropped from my academic program. Why? Because LAST TERM I didn't complete enough credits to fulfill my school's requirements. It was nice of them to tell me 18 weeks later, when I'm already participating in this terms classes. The dean has the ability to overstep policy on a case by case basis and just issue me a warning that basically says to pass all registered classes and complete all remaining courses in a timely manner. I have seven courses left- and planned on 2 this term (with the baby), 3 in spring, and finish the last two in the summer.

The dean said no, student services won't help. I can't self pay because 1- we can't afford it, and 2- they won't let me enroll until I win an appeal- that I can't even pursue until November. I can't go to a different college because this academic suspension basically turns off my eligibility for financial aid until my school says I'm ok to return to classes.

How did this happen? No one bothered to actually send me the written warning, as per college policy, that this was going to be an issue. In fact, I specifically asked about this last term and was told my student services and my advisor that my academic progress and financial aid would NOT be affected, AT ALL, by me needing to withdraw from a curse last term. Apparently, that was a huge load of shit.

Also, had they told me last term- I could have taken CLEP exams (exams that show you have the knowledge the class taught), or credit by evaluation (same thing almost- you write one bigass paper) for 4 classes I KNOW I would have passed- and then taken the final 3 courses this term! But since no one gave me the warning that is school policy to give, that is no longer an option.

Oh, and the big EFF YOU! I am sitting on $400 worth of books that I applied towards my financial aid to pay for. So I owe the goddamn school for those! Resale value for the entire lot- $50. For brand new, never been opened books.

So, I get to spend the fall 2012 term twiddling my thumbs and eating up my loan deferment. Then trying to convince them to let me finish my degree. I guess it'll give me a lot of time to work on our bare bones budget, figure out how to cheaply provide for the babies, and crochet? Felt some wool? Stare at the wall? I spend a lot of time with Liam (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) but he likes his independent time....

Ugh.

We live here...

And I'm hoping to do a home tour next week sometimes. :-) If you're interested in learning more about the community, the website is here.

27 Weeks

Tomorrow, I hit 27 weeks into this pregnancy. Based on the likelihood that I'll be induced 2 weeks early, I only have 11 weeks left. It's so crazy to think that its coming so fast. I'm not ready, lol!

Really, I'm not. We haven't bought anything, and probably will not until October. We know this baby will cost us about $500 in supplies, and we have about $5000 of our stupid high deductible to pay. Those bills will start rolling in sometime in December. My hope is to make arrangements to pay with next year's tax return. So, financially, no worries.

Emotionally, I'm doing better. Liam and I have been having less stressful days. At least once a week, I say 'screw the housework!' and we just play all day. The dust bunnies and dishes don't mind. Liam can now get into the fridge. It was cute when he'd bring the gallon of milk for a refill. Not so cute now that I'm finding fruit, butter, syrup, etc all over the house. So, I'll be installing fridge and cupboard locks this weekend. He's also refusing to wear pants, so he's pretty just been in a diaper and t-shirt if we're going to just be hanging out at home. I'm usually in my pajamas most of the day, so whatever.

Physically, I feel good. The sciatica is gone, thankfully. I'm massively huge, but that comes along with being pregnant I suppose.

Husbandly... eh.. Same old. Minimal physical contact, not much communication. I guess on the positive side, we're not fighting. I hate feeling like I'm just raising my kids with my best friend... but I guess it's better than raising them with an enemy or something.

School starts Monday. Wish I had thought this one out. I'll have a month of classes after Haven is born. I'm going to email my instructors this week because they are able to issue me an 'incomplete' at the end of the term and give me something like 17 weeks to catch up the work. If I can do that with essays and stuff, that would be ideal.

I am now a Foodie Pen Pal! I'll explain all that in my next post. ;-)

Food Poisoning? Really?!

As effortlessly as I seem to handle pregnancy (*snortsnortsnort*), sometimes situations arise that even I can't handle. Today was one of them. I found myself projectile vomiting across my living room around 11 am.

Liam. Walked. Through. It.

I manage to clean it, and him, up.. just in time to vomit again - in the SAME SPOT!

I started having some cramping. My brain immediately went to "OH SHIT! KIDNEY STONES!". And then we calmed down and remembered that kidney stones HURT. So, I clean up, put Liam in the car and head to meet up with Seth for lunch and go to Target to get my FLYlady control journal supplies. Well, we made it the 1/4 mile tothe gas stattion, got gas and left. Then proceeded to pull over twice in as many miles for me to open the door, pray to God a car wouldn't take my head off, lean out the door and vomit.

Repeat in Target parking lot, so we skipped that. When we got to Seth's work, I called my OB. They recommended being seen if I threw up or had more pain. I hung up, and started cramping. So, off we went.

The visit went fast. I'm fine, baby is fine. The DR believes it to be food poisoning. Greeeattt. So, I'll be tossing my V8 and onion dip since they were the only things I had eaten.

Seriously, whats next?? So far it's been placenta previa (fixed), diabetes, sciatica, migraines, weird shoulder/neck pain, something wonky in my right foot, a bartholin cyst, and now this. How about I just fall and break my leg and call it good? Sigh...