not quite as easy as pie...

the incomparable "miss james" over at bleubird vintage (my new fav blog) made a post about these adorable pies in a jar and i just had to give them a shot. i needed something special for my clients that would be personal and yet easy on the wallet.

for the record, i am terrible in the kitchen. terrible. but i gave it my best shot:

i decided to make mine a mixture of pear and cherries. they didn't turn out as pretty as miss james' so i decided my packaging needed to make up for it. i've been on a pompom kick (as has every other crafty gal on the internet it would appear!) and used some of them to add a special something to my jars:

i also have been using my pompoms to spruce up my gifts! pompoms are the BEST!

i can't figure out why my pics are all going in sideways - ??? any clue? they are normal in the folder i upload them from....

Hey good lookin' -Whatcha got cookin'?

I may not have saved money up front by buying this book at TJMaxx last night:

($6 is still a great deal tho!)

but I am hoping that by making some tasty muffins I can have a healthy breakfast to-go in the mornings and I won't be tempted to pull through starbucks and get that awesome sugary low-fat cinnamon swirl coffee cake... Which I'm sure is only low fat when compared to the mcdonalds hashbrowns I kinds sorts wish I was eating....
I am not a cook. I am not a baker. I am not a candlestick maker. But I have tried my hand at all of these things and maybe this time I will actually make something edible in the kitchen.

The first batch are shredded veggie muffins made with whole wheat flour and included in the "healthy" section of the book.

The second batch are Brie & cranberry muffins listed in the "savory" section of the book.

I'll let you know how they taste!

-posted with help from my robot

still on track

here's a confession:

i do this all the time - the only difference is that *this time* i've got a blog. 

i go through these spurts where i try to be all organized and strict with myself and my spending but i secretly use it as an excuse to buy new pens, calendars to write down payment dates and due dates of bills, buy magazines or books about money, etc, etc, etc. 

i can usually keep it up for about 2 weeks tops and then i run out of steam. i know it's only been a few days but i really feel like this time it's going to stick... and honestly, i think it's because of the accountability the blog provides. 

thanks for checking in on me and lending me support - it's gonna be tough but i know i can do it!

this evening i spent time on mint.com updating my categories and really setting my monthly budget. i LOVE that site. if you haven't checked it out then do it now. it's scary to see how much i spend on clothing and magazines.... speaking of magazines, one of my clients gave me two of her old issues of Money Magazine to look through and I was so disappointed and overwhelmed. It seems like all of the info in those magazines is geared towards people in a totally different situation than I find myself in. They talk incessantly about 401Ks and stock options - I currently have neither. 

I've been thinking about hiring a financial planner but I want to see how it goes on my own first... see what headway I can make on saving a little money before I run off and spend said money for someone to tell me what to do with it - makes sense?

PROGRESS: 

today i ate both meals at home. faux-turkey sandwich/grapes/nuts for lunch and a faux-philly cheese steak sandwich for dinner - YUM! 

we have an appointment with the mortgage broker this friday and we'll see what that brings - fingers crossed. 

one small step for womankind

They say it's re little things that count and I'm counting on that.

One of the ways I think I'm going to try to save money (and probably the oldest and easiest in the book) is by eating out less and making meals at home. It's never to early or too late to start so today I made one of my favorite meals of all time:

the green plate special

It consists of a sandwhich made with toasted while grain bread, sliced avocado, sprouts, spinach, and lemon juice and a handful of grapes (instead of chips) on the side... who knows, maybe I'll lose weight on my money diet and end up rich AND thin!

Another stride I took today was an easy one: I set up Auto-Pay on two of my monthly bills. It's an easy way to insure you don't waste money on late fees but my biggest concern now is remembering when they will be autodrafted and making sure I don't accidentally overdraw my checking account- because those are some hefty fees!

Next, I went to myfico.com and I checked on my latest FICO score. I signed up for this service(as well as mint.com) quite a while back and I have found both to be very helpful. I have one remaining "Score Power Report" to view on myfico.com but for some reason it won't let me look at it - annoying. I need to see if an old credit card account has rolled off my credit history yet. I seem to remember that some old accounts will be removed from your credit history after 10 years and I am hoping this is one of them. If not, I probably need to just own up to the debt and pay it so that it will look better on my credit history when I attempt to get a morgage. Does anybody know the truth about that? Did I make it up? Does it only apply to certain debts? 

I need to go look in my Suze Orman book and see if she mentions it. She's not my favorite, but it's the only (or shall I say first of many to come?!) financial book I own. 

In other news, as I have been sitting around dreaming of ways to save money I got a call from a client who needs me to babysit this evening. I was really looking forward to a night in with my boyfriend but I think it was just too serendipitous that here I was thinking of ways to fatten up my savings account and a chance to make money landed in my lap - I couldn't pass it up. Normally I would've decided that my time was worth more than the little bit of money I would make in the few hours staying with someone else's kids but I guess it's time to rethink that whole scale. 

Every penny counts. Something is better than nothing. If you are thinking "something's gotta change," chances are it's you.