You see the cooking shows where they use fresh herbs and it makes the dish look so much more appealing and taste better. Growing fresh herbs is very easy and can be done anywhere. All you need is a container with dirt, seeds, water and light.
Cardboard egg crates make good containers. Place them in shallow trays to water them from the bottom. You can buy starter pots that come with their own trays at your local home and garden store. A small 8qt bag of potting mix should be enough to fill up tw…
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Added by Shelly on May 18, 2009 at 7:24pm —
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There are many ways to save on stamps, paper and a trip to the post office or billing site. Every stamp is worth about 5 miles of driving.
Online Bill Pay
If you have a checking account that offers online bill pay, take advantage of this feature. Some banks even offer to have your bills electronically delivered to your account reducing paper. You can view a history of bills paid and even keep a record of your bills. Some banks offer this feature for free and some charge a fee. Check arou…
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Added by Shelly on February 25, 2009 at 3:19pm —
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Take Advantage of Your Local Discount Grocery Store
They’re the ones that carry most off brands but feature a small variety of brand name products. At my Save-a-lot I like their brand of dairy, some of their canned foods and frozen foods.
Check your coupon organizer
When you run across name brand items, sometimes they are a spill over from a sale at other stores and will still carry the sale price or even less. Take advantage and stock up.
Test taste it
When you use ingred…
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Added by Shelly on December 5, 2008 at 8:00pm —
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I have experienced a stereotypical bad Thanksgiving meal where someone is ‘outed’, old wounds are rehashed and fighting ensues. I’ve also experienced a happy family affair with every one planning and preparing for the holiday weekend together. I think the secret to a good day is keeping your schedule open because sometimes not every thing goes according to plan.
Communicate with family about what will be on the Thanksgiving dinner menu. Offer up different versions of a recipe or have ot…
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Added by Shelly on November 12, 2008 at 5:05pm —
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I’ve always heard that you should pay yourself first before you calculate your monthly budget. I have always tried to set aside at least 10% each month but lately it has been pretty hard to put anything back without borrowing from it before months end. I have found some ways to put back what I need and in the process I have learned to live on a smaller budget.
Take advantage of your employer and enroll in direct deposit. Have a percentage of your paycheck automatically deposited into a saving…
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Added by Shelly on October 19, 2008 at 10:27pm —
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Exercise
I recommend the first thing you do in the morning is exercise. 10-20 minutes of something you can do to get your heart pumping and your adrenaline flowing. You can
burn 100 calories in a 20 min walk or
burn 73-225 calories cleaning around the house.
Do Your Chores
Clean your stove. In Feng Shui, the stove is the energy generator of the home. A clean stove reflects on t…
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Added by Shelly on October 1, 2008 at 9:00pm —
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Added by Shelly on September 26, 2008 at 12:35pm —
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Be Prepared
Being prepared for a trip can save you a trip back home or even a trip to the garage. Put the things you think you’ll need in a bag and toss it in the back of the car. Phone chargers, extra clothes, first aid kit, water and jumper cables can come in handy when you’re out running errands all day.
Don’t Leave Home Without It
When you’ve got something that needs to go to the car, take it to the car. If not, designate a spot somewhere to place items that need to go to the car. Hang a ba…
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Added by Shelly on September 25, 2008 at 11:00pm —
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My dog Diesel is my best friend and I would do anything for him no matter what the cost. If I can save a little bit here and there that’s always a good thing. Here are some things that I’ve learned about cats and dogs that have saved me a lot of money over the years.
Food
To help maintain good digestion it’s good to stay with the same brand but sometimes I can use a coupon and get another brand cheaper per lb than my usual brand. I just mix a little bit of the new brand into his normal brand an…
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Added by Shelly on September 19, 2008 at 8:45pm —
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Sautéed Greens
1 slice bacon chopped or ¼ c bacon bits
¼c oil
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1/2 lb collards with 1” stem left on
2 c water
1 tsp white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
In a large skillet cook bacon in oil. Add garlic half way through cooking bacon. Cook till every thing is brown. Add greens and toss until coated. Add 3 cups water, cover and simmer 20 min until stems are tender and water is almost gone. Add vinegar, salt and pepper and simmer 2 min more to cook off excess water.…
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Added by Shelly on September 13, 2008 at 12:05am —
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Losing weight is one of the hardest things for me to do because I love to eat but I was able to do it with a few simple modifications to my daily life. I tipped the scales at 276 lbs and was miserable. None of my clothes fit and I couldn’t breathe. I was uncomfortable no matter where I sat. I looked at all the people smaller than me and cried, thinking “I could be like that one day”. I was so uncomfortable in my own body that I didn’t want to be me. I had tried several diets and taken pills and…
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Added by Shelly on September 12, 2008 at 10:15pm —
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I’ve taken the advice given and tracked my spending. I figure out my monthly budget before the month even begins to get an idea of what else I can pay for besides monthly bills. I come up with the money to do other things but when it comes time to do them I never seem to have the money. Whenever my monthly bills come in they are always more than what I budgeted or something happens and I need to use the money on something unexpected. I decided it was time that I dig a little deeper and really ta…
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Added by Shelly on August 26, 2008 at 9:03pm —
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My stepmother had a plentiful harvest of cucumbers this season. So many that she sent me home, from a Sunday visit, with 2 plastic grocery bags full of cucumbers. I had enough to share with 4 neighbors and make cucumber soup. I made my own twist using the recipe that I found at CookingLight.com.
Cucumber Soup
2c pealed seeded cucumbers (4- 5” cucumbers)
1 1/4c cucumber juic…
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Added by Shelly on August 19, 2008 at 9:00pm —
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Recently I tried to change my own oil but the thought of getting oil on his perfect driveway, my dad crawled under my minivan and changed it for me. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it myself, I had done it many times before, but my father insisted and it was his driveway. When it comes to your car you should ask yourself “how long do I plan on driving what I have?” If you plan on keeping your vehicle for a while then you should treat it like one of the family because it is what your family depends…
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Added by Shelly on August 13, 2008 at 1:48am —
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August seems to be the worst month for sunburns and it has been a long time since I got one but this year I think I asked for it. I knew I needed to put on sunscreen but I didn’t and I paid for it. I would think that I’d have learned by now after spending every summer as a child with a sunburn which now as an adult has turned into sun damage. There are a few things that I have learned over the years through pain and suffering on how to make myself comfortable for those few days that I walked lik…
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Added by Shelly on August 12, 2008 at 9:52pm —
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I pretended to not pay attention to my parents when they would yell “turn the lights off when you leave the room!” But when I started paying my own electric bill the only thing I knew to do to conserve energy was to turn the lights off. Now that technology has advanced and there are more ways to save electricity, I’m learning to appreciate the way they can also save me more money.
I live in an older house and it has ceiling radiator heat with thermostats in every room which lets me close off any…
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Added by Shelly on July 16, 2008 at 2:00am —
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I remember back from years ago seeing coupons lying on the shelves at the grocery store and they weren’t the ones that you pulled out of the coupon dispenser. They were ones that had been cut out of a flyer or magazine. I had even used one or two over the years. I thought to myself, every time I saw one lying there, what the story was behind the person who left it there. Did the person carelessly toss it there because they couldn’t use it and didn’t want to have to carry it around anymore or did…
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Added by Shelly on July 15, 2008 at 9:30pm —
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Love those manicures and pedicures. With a little practice you can save a lot of money by doing it yourself. What it cost for one trip to the salon you can buy all the tools that you need to do your own. Of course you don’t get the massage chair or the leg and arm massage but you can save up to $65 for every trip to the salon. All you need is a really good manicure set, one that has a big toenail clipper, a metal nail file with a point, cuticle scissors (buy one that doesn’t scare you), a razorb…
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Added by Shelly on June 17, 2008 at 2:00am —
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