this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

The word 'recession' seems to be latest buzzword, but what is a recession really? Well, it depends on who you ask. The popular definition is two consecutive quarters of negative growth of the GDP (gross domestic product - the total dollar amount of all goods and services produced in a certain time frame) growth. But the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) defines a recession as a "significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales."

What causes a recession? Essentially, companies' profits drop, they in turn lay off employees and people have less money to spend, and the cycle continues. In the current case, the housing boom started it all. Banks loaning too much money for mortgages, then deciding to cut back coupled with homes losing value (which causes homeowners to feel not quite as wealthy as they once felt) and less homes being built (less work available in the construction and related industries) pretty much resulted in consumers not spending as much as they once were. Thus, companies don't profit as much and the cycle goes on.

So are we in a recession? Are we headed there? That too depends on who you ask. For the first quarter of 2008, the US reported a slight GDP growth (0.6% - the same as the last quarter of 2007). So by that definition, no recession. But that doesn't stop some economists (and non-economists) from declaring the US economy to be in recession based on other factors, such as unemployment and the fact that people just don't seem to be buying much.

Recession or not, what's really important is how the state of the economy affects you. Unemployment rates are high, which means having savings you can use in case of lost income is important. Investments aren't doing so great right now, but chances are in the long term, they'll be okay. Prices on everyday products are going up, so save where you can.

Here are some other recession articles you may be interested in:

• ECON 101: Credit Crunch for Dummies


• Saving Money Is In! The Recession Diet and the Shift to Frugal Living


• Weathering the Storm of the Coming Recession


• Recessions and the State of our Economy

Last week, I received a notice in the mail that our checking account had been overdrawn.

Oops.

We don't keep a whole lot of money in this checking account. As quickly as it gets deposited, I transfer most of it over to our ING account so we can earn interest on it. Also, most of our bills are paid online through our ING checking account. So, yeah, not much there, thus it wouldn't take a whole lot to overdraw it.

So who's to blame? Turns out that The Tall One had pulled out some cash earlier in the week and that did us in. We had a large amount in the checking account a week prior, but then we ended up not writing a check we had planned to write, so back to ING it went. TTO didn't know I had transferred the money out. He admits to just "thinking there was enough" and not checking. I knew that he had taken some cash out, so I should have been a bit more on top of things and found out how much he pulled out, if I had, we could have put some back to cover us until he deposited his paycheck. Looks like some better communication between us in regards to our money is in order. So, we're equally to blame - though of course I like to say it's all his fault.

The story has a happy ending though. When TTO went to deposit his paycheck, he asked them to reverse our overdraft charge ($29.95) and they did. It certainly never hurts to ask.

The rising gas prices have me in a bit of a tizzy. I feel like I'm already driving as little as I can, yet I'm still filling up the tank twice a week. Most days I go somewhere, sometimes it's just to take Bug to school, but I feel like leaving the house is important for my sanity. I'm hopeful that with warmer weather, our trips out can simply be a walk around the block or to the park, as opposed to the trips to the mall across town (where I wouldn't buy anything unnecessary - thank you very much)to play at the play area.

In the past, The Tall One and I have discussed him taking the bus to work to save on gas. He sometimes does one way, if I'm needing to be out near his work at a time I can pick him up or drop him off. The bus route isn't very direct, though, and it'd take him an extra half hour each way. He gets home late as it is, we eat dinner and then the kids go to bed a half hour later. If he got home later, that'd mean a later bedtime. Perhaps a small sacrifice to same some money, but then there's that whole sanity issue. A later bedtime would no doubt mean less sleep for Bug, because the child does not seem to know how to sleep in. And less sleep for him, means a less pleasant day for me.

Maybe one day a week. We'll have to crunch some numbers and see.

Every weekend, I post a tried and true recipe (for my family at least) that has ten or less ingredients. Follow this link for more under 10 recipes

Mexican Pork

If I'm feeling creative and something's going on I'll title my link love post because, well, other bloggers do it and it keeps me from having a bunch of posts with the same name.  But tonight I can't decide.  The sick kids edition - because both my boys have been a touch under the weather this week at one point or another?  Or, it could be the cereal edition because I got some smokin' deals on cereal today.  The overdrawn account edition would work too, because well, we did that this week.  I could call it the canned beans edition because we plan on pressure canning a bunch of pinto beans at some point this weekend.  But I couldn't decide so it's all of those.

Do You Use Money To Discourage Bad Behavior? at Free Money Finance - An interesting discussion on whether or not you should tie behavior to a child's allowance

Make Your Own Scrubber at Stop the Ride! - Onions in the mesh bag usually cost more than they do individually, but if they didn't, I'd definitely keep the bag around to make this nifty little scrubber. Read the comments for another great idea.

Tips for Crafting with Kids from Design Mom - I especially love the glue tips, using a q-tip to apply glue is a good idea even if you aren't crafting with kids.

More Grocery Store Tricks and How To Avoid Them at Blissfully Domestic - Be smarter than the grocery store and you can save some money

Coupon Tips and Tricks at Digerati Life - Use this post along with the previous one and you're all set!

Financial Health at Remodeling This Life - Emily is so spot on with this post. Not that I'm an expert on anything, other than what I like, and this I like.

Happy reading and have a wonderful weekend!

Yesterday Bug wanted to make cookies. He pulled out a cookbook of his own and opened to a random page and began telling me what should go in the cookies. He was right about the eggs, but he wanted to add water "to the four" in his measuring cup. The recipe didn't call for any water, but he was very adamant that I put water in because that's what his recipe did. So I filled the cup to the four (1/2 cup) and let him add it to the batter. I then had to add a bit of flour to keep it cookie consistency. The finished product had a different texture, but they were awesome! And adding the extra flour and water stretched the dough and we had more cookies than normal.



Why was I so scared to stray from what I knew worked? How often do I do this in other areas of my life? What am I missing out on? Sometimes I need to just stop and realize that I don't have all the answers, that changing things up might work, and that even a three year old can teach me a lesson if I'm just willing to listen.

Photo by scubadive67

Every weekend, I post a tried and true recipe (for my family at least) that has ten or less ingredients. Follow this link for more under 10 recipes

When The Tall One was in high school, I believe, he had some wonderful green chile soup at a restaurant and then created this recipe.

It's that time again.

Here are some articles you may enjoy:

• Keeping Frugality Fun: Strategic "Splurging" at Money Saving Mom - Here are some great ways to help you feel like you're splurging without really spending too much, they are good ways to use up your spare change


• Unscrambling the Egg at brip blap - a good reminder that you should try and use your time wisely


• Better to Budget by Year vs. by Month at Free Money Finance - I think having the yearly outlook on it as opposed to the monthly outlook will ensure you account for irregular expenses such as Christmas gifts.


• It's Only $5.00, Geesh - A Story of Financial Peer Pressure at Gather Little By Little - It's important to associate with people who won't balk at your desires to not spend, spend, spend. And it is so easy to spend a lot of money even when you feel like you're just spending a little at a time!


• The Medicine Cabinet: What You Need, How To Store, When To Toss at Blissfully Domestic - Lots of good information in this post


• Customer Service: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly at Being Frugal - Keep on top of your bills! And hope someone doesn't hang up you when you try and find out why they're inaccurate.


• Another Non-Scrapbook Project with Scrapbook Paper at Simple Mom - Cute, inexpensive, and decorative, I love it!

Have you ever read this clever tale by Dr. Seuss? There are two varieties of Sneetches, those with stars on their bellies and those without. The star bellied Sneetches think they're all that and want nothing to do with the non-starred Sneetches, who long to have stars so they can be cool too. Along comes Sylvester McMonkey McBean, who for only $3 will allow the non-starred Sneetches to take a walk through his special machine that will put a star on their bellies - so they can be just like the Sneetches they admire so much. Then he turns to the star-bellied Sneetches and tells them that for $10 they can walk through his star-off machine. This goes on and on until the Sneetches have no more money and no longer remember who had the stars in the first place.
The moral of the story? There are many, but what caught my eye this time through was that the all too common "keeping up with the Jones'" syndrome will just get you in trouble. Why did the non-starred Sneetches want that star so badly? Why weren't they content to have their own parties and play their own games? Why did they want to associate with a group that didn't like them simply because they didn't have a star?

Sure, this story had a happy ending (they all became friends since they didn't really know who was who anymore), but they sure did loose their identity all because they were after something someone else had, not to mention their money.

Photo from Amazon.com

I have a guest post up at Remodeling This Life today.  Click on over and check it out.  While you're there be sure to look around Emily's great site, she posts some great stuff!

Welcome to The Make It From Scratch Carnival and This Wasn't In The Plan! If this is your first visit to my site, I hope you'll take some time to browse. There are links to recent posts on the left sidebar, and should you enjoy what you see, you can subscribe to my blog via email or RSS feeder using the links on the right. Both are free and will allow you to never miss any posts.

I love this carnival because using what I have on hand to make great things is my favorite way to be frugal and this carnival gives me such great ideas! I hope you enjoy these wonderful submissions.

Things To Make

Cindy from My Recycled Bags has a pattern for her messenger bag made from recycled plastic bags (pictured)

Shannon Cole from The Cole mine presents Felt Board & Volcano Rhyme

Madoline Hatter from Our Fourpence Worth presents Sewing: A Frugal and Fulfilling Hobby | Our Fourpence Worth She says, “This is an article on the benefits of investing in a sewing machine and learning to sew, and how you can save money by making an entire outfit for as little as $2.00-$3.00 and mend old clothing or bedding to extend their period of usefulness.”

Heather L. from It's all for the best presents A Basic Pillow

ChristineMM from The Thinking Mother presents Playing With Needle Felting

Becca from Unplugging the "Stuff" Machine presents Now, that's better! She made dryer sachets out of some vintage linens and doilies

Things to Eat

Kate from Our Red House presents Apple and Rhubarb Crumble (pictured)

Robbyn from The Back Forty presents Quickie CSY and Water Purifier Update she says, “First try making Caspian Sea Yogurt, a no-heat yogurt made at room temp!”

carrie from with all that I've been given presents Make your own mix: chai

Chief Family Officer presents Mock Fried Zucchini Strips

Heather L. from The Fat Bottomed Girl presents Chicken Fajitas

Kris from Cheap Healthy Good presents The Power OF WORDS: Cheesy Eggplant Bake

Marsha from BeetleEyes presents Rosemary Dinner Rolls

Heather from Home Ec 101 presents Tightwad Triumph: Beans and Rice

Stephanie from Stop the Ride! presents Beans and Wieners

Other

Blue from Money Blue Book-Personal Finance Blog presents How To Repair Your Car With Used Junkyard Parts

Jake Riley from Free MAGIC TRICKS presents Magic Tricks- Power of Gravity

Kelsey from Vanilla Joy - Family Games and Fun presents Use a Butter Knife For what you ask? Better click through and find out!

Next week's edition will be hosted by Midwest Neurotica. Don't forget to submit your posts!

Photo credits: My Recycled Bags, Our Red House

Every weekend, I post a tried and true recipe (for my family at least) that has ten or less ingredients. Follow this link for more under 10 recipes

Amazing Apricot Chicken
8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 (8 oz) bottle Russian salad dressing
1 cup apricot jam
1 package dry onion soup mix

Place chicken in greased 9x13-inch baking pan. Combine the dressing, jam, and onion soup mix and pour over chicken. Bake uncovered at 350 F. for one hour. Makes 8 servings.

I normally half this (it can be tricky to half a package of the soup mix, but I try my best), or sometimes just half the chicken portion but not anything else to make it a bit more saucy. This recipe comes from The Essential Mormon Cookbook

Did you try it? Let me know what you thought.

On Tuesday, I'll be hosting the Make it From Scratch Carnival. Which means that you'll see bunches of links to other blog posts that are about things made from scratch. "Scratch" can mean a variety of things, from grinding to your own wheat to opening your own box of cake mix. If you have a blog and have recently written about something you made, I encourage you to submit your post (either using this form or you can send me an email with a link to the post you want included).

This week's Make it From Scratch Carnival was over at The So Called Me and included my most recent Under 10 Recipe. These posts were among my favorites:

• Homemade Gift Basket Ideas for all Occasions at Homemade Gift Basket Ideas


• Instant Creamy Garlic Herb Noodle Mix at Country Magpie

• Homemade Bread Crumbs at Make and Takes - I always feel a small pang of guilt when I toss perfectly good heels from a loaf of bread. I know I can use them for bread crumbs, and this post gave me the kick in the pants I needed to just do it, because really it is pretty easy.


• Frugal Tips: How to Make 10 Ordinary Things Last Longer at The Digerati Life - Great tips to get more soap out of a soap pump, among other things


• Rainy Day Frugal Activities for Kids at Remodeling This Life - Emily has put together a wonderful list of indoor activities to do with your kids.


• Tightwad Triumph: Beans and Rice at Home Ec 101 - Oh how I wish I hadn't tossed the ham bone! I knew I could cook with it, but was too lazy to find out how, how very un-frugal of me!


• Seven Ways to Get Free Shipping Materials at Wise Bread - If you keep an alert eye, you may never need to pay for shipping material or even moving supplies, well except for maybe tape


• The Hour: How 60 Minutes a Week Can Save Hundreds of Dollars on Food at Cheap, Healthy, Good - Here are some good ideas for organizing your menu plan and grocery shopping

The Tall One is a watchmaker. He works at a jewelry store repairing high-end watches. Tonight the store held a "trunk show". A rep from one of their lines brought in a bunch of new pieces that the store does not normally carry. This particular line is my most favorite and I was looking forward to attending (I wasn't feeling well and didn't make it). I had no intentions of buying anything, I know I won't be receiving any of this particular jewelry anytime soon, but I was thinking it would be fun to browse, to try it on, and mingle amongst people who (I'll give them the benefit of the doubt here) have managed their money carefully enough that they can now spend it on extravagant things. I want to get to that point someday. I want to have my future be secure and have enough left over to take cool trips, donate massive amounts to charities, and buy me some bling.

Honestly, who can resist fifty cent cake mixes? Anyone?


I am so far over my grocery budget right now it isn't funny. I don't have exact numbers, but I'm somewhere around $40 over where I should be. Our local Smith's is having (what appears to be semi-annual) a case lot sale, meaning the lowest prices you'll see on lots of canned goods. I know they had it last October and the previous October as well (and I vaguely remember one last April, though I was out of town this time last year, so I can't be sure). I have a pretty good idea of how much I need to buy now to last me six months, and that's what I got. Well, I didn't buy a six month's supply of cake mixes (because, um, in reality, that'd be a lot, way more than the three I did buy), so I did show some restraint.


It is probably of little interest to you all, but blogging this will help me cut down on my grocery expenses for the rest of the month, seeing as I now feel some sort of accountability to a few hundred people I've never met. So, I will. I will probably be over, but it will not be by $40 (or $50 or $60). Unless of course Smith's tries to thwart me and puts more pantry staples on uber-sale.

Within reason, of course.

I tend to go through phases where I just want to save, save, save, and spend nothing. Which is okay, but really spending can be okay too. Perhaps there's a bit of a hoarder in me. I want to hoard all the money for later I guess. But why? Obviously saving for future needs is important, but what about current needs. Life isn't all about the future after all. In my post about TTOs raise, I wrote about the struggle between actually saving some more money because we're bringing in more and allowing for some wiggle room. I've been thinking about this a lot today and decided to think in terms of the following - realistically, what do I want to spend money on (because if not talking realistically, then bring on the day at the spa). I'd like to have enough warm weather tops to be able to wear a different shirt each day of the week. I'd like to finish landscaping our backyard. I'd like to get a cherry limeade at Sonic once in awhile. Are those things going to break the bank? No they're not. The budget will let me do those things and that's okay. There will be enough money for the future and enough money to enjoy today.

photo by DSC-N1

Remember this post? My gas/electric company was offering a rebate when you purchased a water heater blanket. Yeah, well I put the form aside so I could photocopy the receipt and apparently never got around to it. And now it's too late to send it in. Had I been a bit more organized, this wouldn't have happened - and I'd be $10 richer.

Every weekend, I post a tried and true recipe (for my family at least) that has ten or less ingredients. Follow this link for more under 10 recipes

Chicken Marinade

1 part soy sauce
1 part oil
2 parts 7-up*
garlic powder
chicken

Put all ingredients in a bag or bowl. Refrigerate (the longer the better!). Discard marinade and cook chicken using desired method - this time of the year, fire up that grill!

*I usually use lemon juice, lime juice, and little bit of sugar in place of the soda

I'm tired tonight, much more so than I usually am by this time. So I'll make my little intro short and sweet and get right to the posts

• 25 Ways to Simplify Your Life with Kids at Zen Habits


• What Budget Does it Come From? at We're In Debt


• Unboxing Adult Education at Frugal Hacks


• Meal Planning without a Menu at Stop the Ride!


• What Do You Think? Should You Discuss Finances With Your Children? at Gather Little By Little

We've been in the process of getting some life insurance. Today we found out that I got the "hooray, you're healthy, here's our best price" rate, but The Tall One got the "you're healthy, we'll still cover you, but you'll have to pay a bit more" rate. Why you ask? His cholesterol levels and all his bloodwork came back a-ok, he does have a touch of asthma, but we was also docked for his build. Yes, not only is TTO tall, but he's skinny too. So much so that it is apparently a health risk of some sort and the insurance company says we need to pay more because of it. So next time you're yearning to fit into those teeny tiny jeans, just remember what it may do to your life insurance policy.

So, um, last month we spent a lot of money. More than we brought in, in fact. As I've mentioned before, we bought plane tickets (about $2000 worth) for traveling this summer. And then there was the carseat, and a car needed repair, and both cars needed oil changes, and the sprinklers needing fixing, and we bought a dining room table. I hate to say "but if", because it feels like I'm just making excuses, but if we hadn't bought the plane tickets, we would still have ended up $44.13 in the positive. That's good. I'm glad we were able to stick to the budget to help cover the costs of all those unplanned (and some planned) expenses.

The good news is, of course, that we had enough saved up to cover these expenses. We had money saved for travel (and The Tall One's grandfather is kind enough to help offset the costs of some of our plane tickets since one trip is for a family reunion) and we had money saved for the dining table (we were just waiting for the right one to come up).

But want to know the best news? I came in under in groceries (sixty four cents under, but under is under).

We got this shelf when Bug was born and used it to store his clothes in. Later it became toy storage. It used to be in his room, and then it was downstairs, but the other day I decided it was taking up too much space there and I wanted it back upstairs (but this time in Monkey's room). It seemed like the bins often migrated upstairs anyway. But all the food for the kitchen was in one of them, and the kitchen was definitely staying downstairs. I didn't have a good sized alternate storage solution for the kitchen food. So, I channeled the small bit of genius I have inside of me and just took the shelf part upstairs to Monkey's room while leaving the bins downstairs. Yes, theoretically the bins still pretty much take up the same amount of space, but now they aren't tied to the shelf. And the best part? The bin that was holding the toys on the shelf is now empty and free for another use!

It wasn't until recently that The Tall One and I had any really concrete savings goals. As long as we didn't run out of money and living below our means life was good. But in the past 6-9 months or so we've tried to organize our savings a bit (okay, I like to organize our savings, he thinks I'm a bit fanatical about our ING subaccounts). I like this for two reasons, it keeps us focused and helps me not freak out when we spend a chunk of money at once.

Back around President's Day - the day to buy new furniture apparently - TTO was trying to convince me to go out and use our tax refund to buy a dining set. I was surprised with how easily he gave up the convincing. Later he told me it was because I had reminded him of what sorts of things we were saving for and how the tax refund money would help us get there faster. The savings goals kept us focused on a bigger picture. And, coincidentally, we just recently purchased a new to us dining set from craigslist for exactly what TTOs grandpa sent us for Christmas.

Last week we bought plane tickets so that we can travel to TTOs family reunion in July and travel to the beach to spend some time with my family. Plane tickets are expensive and it was hard to click that submit button when we reserved the tickets. But then I realized that we had saved up money specifically for travel expenses, so why should I think twice about spending money on what it was intended to be spent on? One of our savings goals was to save a certain amount of money for irregular expenses such as travel expenses. We reached that goal rather quickly (thanks to the tax refund) so now it's ready to be used.

Setting goals of any kind is always a good thing and I've found that setting even small term financial goals can be extremely helpful to keep us in control of our money.