Cereal Bags

StaceyMakesCents has an awesome post about ways to reuse cereal bags. With photos!   Awesome I tell you!

• to crush cereal
• to cover items you microwave
• to cover your counter if you are a messy cook
• to cover the plate when you are preparing meat to grill 

Composting, A New Spin

We have been composting for about a year, essentially what we have done is throw scraps into the dormant garden spot during the off season and during the season we toss them in a large spare pot and let it bake in the sun.  We periodically bury the contents in the garden.  My collection point is a old Quik Trip cup sitting on the counter--not terribly attractive.



Today I was preparing squash, asparagus and cantaloupe for dinner.  I ended up with a bunch of waste to compost.  I had the little food processor out because I had shredded some carrots for a salad and I thought to myself, if I shredded up all this waste, mixed it with some soil that would give it a start on the composting process.  I also thought since I am covering the weedy part of the garden plot with cardboard, wetting it down each day then letting it bake in the sun that I could toss the soil mixture on top of the cardboard which would help weigh it down, cover the cardboard and speed the process.





So sitting on my counter is a blue covered bowl with dirt and shredded cantaloupe rind, asparagus woody ends, a bit of squash, some egg shells, some coffee grounds and some orange peels waiting for my morning trip to the garden where I will pile it on one corner of the cardboard.  I will keep you posted on how this little experiement turns out.  Since I use the processor several times a week and have a large bag of soil leftover in the garage, I should be able to cover most of the weedy area by mid July.



I am hoping that I will be able to say that this little experiment panned out to be a success.  Wish me luck!

Nifty Ways to Watch TV & Movies on the Cheap

1. Netflix

Netflix is the go-to source for renting DVDs without leaving your home. A monthly subscription currently costs $10 in order to rent unlimited movies that will be delivered to your mailbox, and also to instantly stream movies from an Internet access. For $8 per month, you can have the option to only stream movies from the Internet.



You don’t have quite as large a streaming movie selection as you do by receiving them in the mail. But honestly, there are plenty — more than we can watch.

2. Hulu

Hulu offers hundreds of television shows you can watch instantly with an Internet connection. Typically, you watch the most recent five episodes of a series, though there are times when producers allow access to an entire season’s worth, so you can play catch up.



We don’t have Hulu Plus, but with this $8 monthly service, you can watch Hulu off your computer using different devices (see more on that below). This is a nice option when you want to watch Hulu without typing up your computer.

3. Amazon

With Amazon Video On Demand, you can both purchase and rent digital movies, and often their connection is faster than with either of the services above. Prices are reasonable, at around $1-$4 for movie rentals and typically $10-$15 for movie purchases.

4. Pandora or Last.fm

I love Internet radio. Love, love, love it. We have music on in our house all the time, and I listen to it when I work on all my writing projects. With Pandora (and Last.fm, particularly if you’re outside the U.S.), you can customize stations so that you listen only to music you like. The more you ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ songs, the most personalized your listening experience.

How to use them

1. Computer

You don’t really need any extra device save a computer for using any of the above services. If you’re not big on these forms of entertainment, watching or listening from your computer should be fine. You can even use a composite, VGA, or HDMI cord to tap your computer to your television (which ones depends on the type of TV).



The biggest downside to using a computer is that it ties it up from doing other things on it.

2. Roku

A Roku is a little box that serves as a portal to your digital subscriptions and channels them to your television. You simply plug it in to your television’s video-in port, and use the remote to add subscriptions.



With Roku, you can access our Netflix, Flickr, and Pandora accounts. You can also add You Tube, Facebook, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video OnDemand, and about 100 other channels. This frees up the  computers so that we can watch a show on Netflix without tying up our computers.  You can connect the Roku to your sound system, so our music from Pandora streams crystal clear.

3. Game Consoles

If you’ve got an Xbox, Playstation3, Wii, or some other digital gaming device, you can use the same features as a Roku directly on your console. We’re not gamers so we don’t have experience with this, but have a number of friends who take advantage of this nifty feature.

Sites to Check Out Periodically (non blog sites)

http://theprudenthomemaker.com/default.aspx


http://www.universalclass.com/index.htm

Frugal and Me

So, I've been trying to be more frugal of late.  This endeavor came about kind of backwards.  I am pretty ADD so I have lots of ideas but the follow through is greatly lacking because. . .well, I have another idea.  Anyway, I got really sick after years of not feeling very well.  The really sick period from October to March caused me to s l o w  w a y down.

 In slowing down,  I stayed home and did only the bare minimum in errand running. Like take son to school and do one thing -- replace the gallon of milk we needed, pick up a prescription or make a bank deposit. Then it was home and in bed for me.  By staying home, I had no need to run through the drive through for a diet coke (that can add up), no stops at Target or WalMart for "a few things" which ended up being $60.00 worth of stuff that we didn't necessarily need but was oh so cute, cheap, trendy whatever then stop in at a restaurant because I was hungry and hadn't planned to spend so much time out, hand nothing ready at home  s o o o o I'll just eat here or here or here.

We recently purchased a new car, I mean a NEW car with like 8 miles on the odometer when I drove it off the lot.  It was really hard to watch when the mileage turned over 100 miles, then 500 miles and now it is up to 1700 or so.  However, if I was not still staying home more as I learned to do when I was sick, I would have put SO many more miles on the car just aimlessly running hither and yon having fun running errands that really weren't necessary.

If anyone else has that, "I gotta get out of the house and do something feeling", you might want to look at how much money you are spending each time you go out.  You may very well be able to save enough money over the course of a few months to make a special and substanstial purchase you have been dreaming of, or you may be able to pay off a bill that has been hanging over your head, or start saving for retirement like you have been wanting too.  I know this has been a real eye opener for me.  While I am not glad I got sick, I am glad of some of the clarity that I gained during the time period.  Additionally, you know how much gas prices have gone up, I shudder to think I much gas I would have burned through!