EXISTING ECONOMICALLY

I was in Barnes & Nobles the other day and I saw these beautiful leather bound journals for $30.00. I was so tempted to buy them, but then I remembered my birthday is only 26 days away. So I added it to my birthday list.

Do you have a celebration coming up? Birthday, anniversary etc. Just wait & see. If anyone asks what you want, tell them. No one likes to hear "I don't know" when they ask what you want.

My plan to spend $0.00 this week has been going quite well.

This is working for a number of reasons.

1. Tell People.
Ever since I've made it public that I'm trying to save money (instead of feeling embarrassed by it), it has been going much more smoothly. It seems that when my friends know I'm trying not to spend money they don't ask me to go out very often. Also, now that they know I have no money, I don't feel weird telling them I'm broke.

2. Visit Family
If you have great family like mine, visiting is a great way to save money. If you live close, you can go home for weekly family home cooked meals (which are always better than going out) or you can visit for a weekend, like I'm doing now, and spend virtually nothing. Every time I go home my parents buy my dinners and they entertain me so I don't feel the need to go spend money on movies or clothes.

It is 6:21 PM and I have officially spent $0.00 today!

Usually by this time I've spent at least $10.00 on food or groceries. However today I am a frugal girlie! My plan was to stay in all day and catch up on sleep, but that never works.

Today I've planned on going out to restaurants with friends for lunch and dinner.

Save Money at Restaurants
1. Find restaurants that offer free chips. Today, after playing tennis with some friends, I was invited to a local Mexican restaurant. At first I told them I couldn't go because I didn't want to spend any money. However, my friend Heather told me to do what she does: drink water and just eat the free chips. So I did. Total Bill: $0.00

2. Go for the specials. Tonight (Mondays) is $1.00 Taco and $1.00 Beer night at Firebelly's (a local downtown restaurant). I usually can only eat 3 of their tacos and since I'm not 21 yet (37 days to go!) I can't drink the beer. Total Bill: $3.00

I have never been one to clip coupons, but as I mentioned in a previous post (Harris Teeter) I would love to learn how to clip coupons and get money back.

I found a wonderful website that lets you print coupons which is much easier than searching through newspapers and magazines. (Coupon Suzy)

You can search for specific product brands or product types or you can browse a list of all offered coupons.

After spending about 5 minutes browsing all the coupons, I clipped 11 of them from products that I buy frequently.

Total savings: $12.10.

That may not seem like much, but on a triple coupon day at Harris Teeter, with just 11 coupons you could save $36.30.

In the fall I had a decent job working as a waitress for a pizza place. Unfortunately, the management there was not quite up to my standards and I was taking a full load of classes, so I decided to quit.

Recently, after starting my blogs and finishing up some other classes, I decided to figure out how to make money online.

So far I've found two ways.

1. Google Adsense.
This is not for everyone. Adsense so far has been very hard to make money with because I'm not getting enough traffic to all of my blogs. Adsense is a program set up by google. It lets companies and other sites advertise by paying an advertiser for each time a person clicks on their ad. I guess you can see how this would be problematic since most people rarely do that. So far I have made a total of $16.87. This is not much, and google only pays you after you reach $100.00

2. KGB - Text/Answer Program
An even more recent venture of mine is KGB. You might have seen commercials about it. Any one can text a question to KGBKGB (542542) at the cost of $0.99/text. The person responding is the special agent. I recently took the special agent challenge and passed after a few tries. Yesterday I got an email letting me know that I need to go to training, but all the classes are full at the moment. I guess they will get back to me.
KGB pays agents $0.10/answer and $0.05 for an answer that has already been asked and just needs forwarding.


I will keep you updated on both of these methods on online money making.

Let me know how you make money online!

Thanks for reading; If you'd like to read any of my other blogs here they are:

A 3x5 Life
My Roommate Eric
Straight From My Imagination
Website Scrapbook

You know those pretzels you buy for like $4.00 at Pretzel Time or Auntie Anne's? I found a wonderful recipe for the same type of pretzel except homemade from AllRecipes.com.

The great thing about this recipe is they taste just like the ones in the store, but for a lot less.

Almost anyone who has ever baked anything has the majority of these ingredients in their pantry already.

The only things I had to go out and buy were flour (because I was almost out), active dry yeast, and kosher salt.

Total this cost me $6.73.

To make 12 Pretzels I used:
About 1/3 of the flour: 2.59 @ 1/3 = $0.86
About 1/2 of the yeast: 1.79 @ 1/2 = $0.90
About 1/100 of the kosher salt: 2.35 @ 1/100 = $0.02

The overall cost of 12 pretzels is $1.78

That is over half the price of just one pretzel made by Auntie Anne's or Pretzel Time.

With this method, one pretzel costs around 15 cents

Total Savings: About $3.85/pretzel
-------------------------


Ingredients

4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups hot water
1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping


Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.

4. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned.