"How To" & Handyman $ Saving Tip For YOU!

The past couple weeks/months have brought some handyman challenges to my home (car brakes, garbage disposal, brake hose, garage door, etc).  I'd consider myself overall a little better than average for being handy around the house, but if you've never had to or tried to do something, well then, you just don't know.

Since I am pretty good at fixing things, it REALLY irritates me to pay some guy $75-100 just to tell me what's wrong with something and then fix it with little effort or skill involved.  I'm certain that we've all thrown money out the window for services like that.

OK, here's the tip that could save you money like it has saved me over the past few months.....

If you've never used the website YouTube, you need to make it a 'favorite' right now on your web browser.  Yes, it's got tons of silly stuff on there, but there are also literally countless "How to" videos on there that offer tips and suggestions for doing almost anything.


Here is how it has saved me $$ in the past month or so:

Just today I looked up how to repair a garbage disposal that isn't working (and yes, I already knew about the reset button on the bottom).  I had it fixed and running 5 minutes later.  Before I checked YouTube, I seriously thought I was going to be replacing it. 

A month or so ago I looked up how to change brakes.  I've heard they were easy to change and I've been wanting to learn a little more about car repair.  I ended up changing them myself for the first time and only paid for some lubricant and the brake pads....no service fees AND I learned something that will save me money for the rest of my life. 

Here's a "how to" example that my wife took advantage of.  A few weeks ago my wife watched a video about how to do a "frozen butter cream transfer" (it's OK, me neither).  It's a cake decorating technique that allows you to transfer just about any design onto a cake with icing.  The cake turned out fantastic! Way to go babe, I'm impressed!

Hope this helps and good luck!

Recipe RAVE! Delicious & EASY Fajitas!!!

You'll be putting this one in your cookbook for life....it's in ours and we LOVE it!

Grilled Chicken Fajitas

by: (I got this out of a Taste of Home magazine I think)

Serves: approx. 3-4 people

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breasts (boneless)
3 Bell Peppers (green, red, yellow)
1 Onion (med-large)
BBQ Sauce
1 pkg. Flour Tortillas
Sour Cream
Cheese (Mexican Style fine shredded)

Directions:
1.  Cut onions and peppers into strips (1/4-1/2in wide) and marinade in BBQ sauce (at least 30min).
2.  Clean chicken breasts and marinade in BBQ sauce (in separate bag at least 30min).
3.  Turn grill on medium/medium-low.
4.  Place veggies in a cheap tin pie plate.
5.  Cook chicken & veggies in tin stirring occasionally until chicken is done and veggies are still a bit crisp.
6.  Cut chicken into thin strips.
7.  Heat tortillas in microwave until hot.
8.  Assemble fajitas (chicken, veggies, cheese, sour cream) and ENJOY!

Possible Side:
Chips & Salsa

Like Azaleas?

Here's a picture of one of the three azaleas I've got in my back yard (east Tennessee).  It's a neat variety I got from Home Depot called "Encore Azalea" that blooms 3 times like this each year (spring, summer, and fall) instead of the normal one time.  I bought them fairly small and I felt they grew pretty fast with the help of some acid-based fertilizer.  If I remember correctly they need 4 feet of space and do well in part to full sun.

Do You Use PLASTIC? Here's A Thought...

I was listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio at lunch today and he had a good perspective about credit cards for a viewer who was very good about paying off the card each month and earned a couple hundred bucks each year on incentives.

After restating his stance on credit cards (which is "don't use them"), Dave shared results from a study that showed when people use credit cards they are much more likely to spend more money. I think if we were honest, we could all say that's probably a pretty accurate study (grocery shopping and WalMart trips are the worst!)

His point was this: If you earn a couple hundred "free" dollars in incentives, so what... You'll carelessly spend a lot more than that simply because you're using plastic.

I'd have to say that I'd be guilty of that myself. It's a lot easier to spend more than your budgeted $20 when you've got a credit line of $10,000. If you've only got $20 cash then it's pretty hard to get out of the store with $25-50 worth of merchandise.

A few weeks ago my wife and I decided to start using cash for everything but gas. That meant that we wouldn't be earning or investing with our UPromise College Savings card we had attached to our 529 Plan for our kids.

This segment of his radio broadcast was some great affirmation for our decision. In the long run, I believe making small, regular deposits into the investment accounts equal to those we were getting from the credit card will help us come out on top without the worry of a big credit card bill each month even though we regularly pay it off each month.

Think about this.... What if our government paid for everything up front without making more money each time they made a purchase??? What kind of debt would we be in then???

When Your Piggy Bank Don't Jingle (3 of 10)

#3: Be Savvy With Your Gas!

This is somewhat related to one of the other Piggy Bank posts, but not so much related to the 'cost' of the gas you buy as to how you manage what you've got in your tank.

With gas prices climbing each month, we are ALL (well most people) are going to need to be at least a little smarter with how we use the gas we buy. I don't think I've ever been at a point in my life when I've thought more about how much money I'm spending in gas each time I go somewhere and if the trip is worth the cost of gas.

Here's an article that gives some great ideas. Several other links in the article seem interesting as well.
23 Top Tips for Better Gas Mileage

A few of my favorite tips are:
1. Getting gas when the temperatures are the coolest.
2. Combining all your errands/shopping into one trip. Think ahead!
3. Drive slower (eee...that's a toughy for me).

I've read in several places that every 5mph over 60mph costs you A LOT in gas mileage. So does that mean that the manufacturers rate new car gas mileage when the car is traveling only 60mph or less to get the best possible numbers for advertising? Hmmm...