BecomingFrugal.com

Today I decided to give this recipe I saw on moneysavingmom.com a try. I love my bread machine and am always looking for new recipes to try so this one looked promising. I used the recipe Crystal posted here:

http://moneysavingmom.com/2010/01/bread-machine-cinnamon-roll.html/comment-page-1#comment-300985

Since it’s just me and my husband, and that would be way too many cinnamon rolls for just the two of us, I decided to divide the finished dough in half, and make half cinnamon rolls, and half dinner rolls. Happily, both turned out delicious!  My cinnamon rolls didn’t look as pretty as hers because my icing didn’t melt well (I skimped on the butter) but they tasted great. The dinner rolls were also excellent with butter.  Since we had plans for the rest of the weekend for dinner, I cooled and then  froze most of the rolls for later use.

I was delighted these turned out so great because to be honest I let the dough rise a little too long in the bread maker. I had company and didn’t take it out for about 20 minutes after the machine beeped, but they still came out great!  Too bad I was so busy scarfing that I forgot to take a picture!

Okay so I admit I have been seriously slacking on setting solid long and short term goals for myself. This past year I just sort of kept the goals in mind while trying to save money to achieve them, but since I’m a numbers kind of girl, I’ve decided I need to set real numeric goals for myself.  Here’s a first stab at some goals I’m hoping to accomplish this year:

Long term (one  year goal)

• Pay off my car. As of this month I still owe just over 14,000.
• Do not go into any consumer debt (I paid off my cc’s last year and I am determined to only use them when I need to and pay the balance in full each month)
• Reduce clutter in my home
• Lose 20 pounds (a year is plenty of time to do this, but I want to do it slow and steady to keep it off!)

Okay that’s it for long term goals so far, it might  not sound like much, but the first one is a whopper! Here are the short term (monthly goals) I am setting to accomplish the year long goals:

• Reduce grocery bill from 500/month to 400/month
• Spend less on eating out (limiting myself to 100/month) Sounds like a lot I know, but sadly I’ve been spending more on this.
• Make homemade items when possible (gifts, cleaners, etc)
• Walk at least a mile a day
• reduce my misc. spending. (limiting to 200 a month, I have a home which always seems to need something!)

Well, to other frugals I know I am an amature, these amounts I’ve set would be a piece of cake to many frugals, but for me it’s a second step toward becoming more frugal.  In case you’re wondering, here are some goals I reached last year:

• Reduced grocery budget from 600 to under 500
• paid off all credit cards
• brought lunch at least a day or two a week (I used to eat out for lunch daily)
• Quit a stressful but high paying job for a lower paying job and made it work financially

Those were small goals I set when I first started my journey, but reaching them has really motivated me and convinced me that I can get out of debt and live more simply to live better!

For those that know me, it’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Friends of the library bookstores.   You just can’t beat buying books for anywhere from 5 cents to 3 bucks. I pick up anything from fiction to cooking for pennies on the dollar. Cooking magazines that are $4 at the checkstand are only .25 or less. The books they sell are either donated books/magazines/movies or old stock the library needs to clear out. All book donations get a first pass from the library to see if it would be better to keep the books for patrons to check out, or go to the friends store.

My local library has an excellent friends store that is open as long as the libaray is, but most friend’s stores have limited hours. Check your library’s web site or give them a call to see if your library has one of these stores, not only will it save you money, but all profits go to supporting the library as well!

Okay so I started this blog over a year ago, and have really slacked off on updating it.   I am going to dedicate a little more time to my website this year, so I’m adding this blog post to help keep me accountable, lol.