Who knows more about grilling…and beer…. than Homer Simpson?  Parade magazine recently asked Homer for his top tips for a tasty Summer BBQ, and he was more than willing dish up some hot tips.  For some reason, I do not recommend trying these at your next BBQ…or at all.

1. To make great food taste fantastic, Homer recommends adding beer.  Drink 72 ounces, then start grilling!  He also says that adding half a pound of real meat really makes a veggie burger much tastier.
2. To keep the bugs from  biting, and so Homer can be a good dad who watches his children nap, he brings his grilling indoors.
3. He keeps kebbob skewers handy for guests like Ned  Flanders.  He gives them out as “special party favors” for his most annoying guests.
4. Make sure you have some veggies to grill for the no-meat eaters in your family like his kid, Lisa, but Homer says no matter what you do that veggies taste bad.  i wonder how he knows after that 72 ounces of beer?
5. Give your party a fun theme.  Some of Homer’s most fun get-togethers have been his “Quadruple Bypass Anniversary Party”  and his “Great Flanders’ Smoke Out”!
6. He’s heard about other people’s struggles with leftovers, but Homer still isn’t sure what a leftover is so he can’t help you there.  He says if you cook, you don’t have to worry about it. 

i couldn’t really resist posting this one when I saw it as I was cleaning off my kitchen table.  Yep, that came out awhile ago and I’m just now getting to it but life gets hectic around here:)

I don’t think I”d take Homer’s advice at Face value but if you think about ithe does have some pretty sharp  tips!   We use our grill 5 out of 7 days a week probably, whether we’re just using the side burner for some mac and cheese and grilling some hot dogs, or cooking up my favorite turkey burgers.  The house doesn’t get any hotter, the food is leaner because we don’t use any oil or grease of any kind when we grill even though the pros do, and I have yet to find a food that can’t be grilled. 

One of my favorite things to do is take a yellow squash, cut it in half lengthwise, sprinkle a little parmesan and a little garlic on it and grill it.  OMG it is soooooo good!  I think  that’s kid-speak for you should try it ) Have a great week.

I’m not sure about the rest of the country, but I think those of us living in the South can honestly say this is the hottest Summer we have had in many, many years.  Considering the fact that it is only the end of July, the heat and humidity we’re facing in August is frightening.  What is even more frightening is the electricity bill we’ll be paying that month.  Our Summer bills are always higher than the rest of the year, of course,  because my husband and I tend to tolerate cold weather better but our July bill was, ahem, more than I ever anticipated.  Luckily I left enough wiggle room in our budget to handle it, because we would have been in quite the bad situation otherwise.  But we discussed it nd even though we can (barely) pay a bill that large, we’re going to have to start doing other things rather than keeping our A?C at full blast all the time.  We’ve done them before, but I think it was a casae of us taking for granted having a true central A/C for the first time that causaed us to do this.  I thought I’d share with you some of the things we’e doing to beat the heat- and the sky-high electric bills that come with Summer:

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  • Usae ceiling fans.  When we moved in, we installed new, nice ceiling fans in every room (that made sense) which cool the house off without using so much energy.  Sit right under one with a cool drink and you’e set!  At the end of the season, which is probably considered right now you can get them at very reasonable prices for very nice fans to fit any budget!  We got smaller fans for smaller rooms of our home, and they were nowhere near as nice as the ones we got in the rooms that are seen by visitors.  Keep in mind the size of your home when you buy them.  You don’t want massive ceiling fans for a tiny room but you want everyone in the room to be cool.  If you have a lage room, such as my parents’ living room, it may call for 2 fans.
  • Use boxed fans and oscillating, stand fans for extra cooling.  Our home is a small, brick house that gets H-O-T in the daytime, and our bedroom soaks up that heat, so the ceiling fan just is not enough.  We had to start using those fans plus a few other measures to keep the room cool.  I also use an oxygen machine and a CPAP at night which dries the room out, which calls for the extra air.
  • Drink double the amount of ice cold water you’re supposed to.  I do not like water.  Flavor the stuff with those mixups from Walmart or use Cystal Light.  Whatever you have to do, drink it ice cold and drink as much of it as you can.  Lime water tastes great, believe it or not, and if you can use lemon and lime it’s a lot better than the chemicals in the other things.  I’m not a Dr, I choose flavor over chemcicals
  • I try to overshoot each of my bills, at least the household ones, by $10-$20 each month so that if one of them is high one month it won’t break the budget.  I then try to figure out why it ws high and what we can do to keep it from happening again. 

These are just small things we’ve done to make sue we rely on ways to stay cool other than our A/C.  Of course, we’ve put it in a reasonable temperature and ome days it still won’t go off which should give you some indication of how hot our house is! A programmable thermostat is next on our list, although I have yet to price those and price what goes into installing one.  Does anybody have any ideas?

I have to admit I am not one to sweat.  It may come down to ice cubes and wash cloths, which I’ve relied on in past years to stay cool, but I am not a happy girl when I am a sweaty girl.  Since I happen to love and adore my husband, I prefer to stay cool so I can stay (semi) nice.  I’m hard enough to live with already, aren’t  I Sweetie?

Those of you with larger incomes than ours may not need to cut back on their electricity use, and some of you may cut back during other months of the year specifically to deal with this one.  Winter may be the rough season for some of you.  Whichever your situation, look for alternate ways of keeping warm or cool rather than so much energy usage.  Even if you don’t HAVE to save money, why wouldn’t you want to?  I wish I had all of the money I’d foolishly spent during my lifetime.  I’m only 30 but I could honestly probably have much, much more than I do now.

I started writing here because I hope that young people who are starting out, or their parents, will see the mistakes i made when I graduated from high school throughout my college years and hopefully not mke those same mistakes.  It’s one of those “Do as I say, not as I did” situations that although highly hypocritically sounding is truly a message I try to send out of love. 

 There really should be a course given to high school seniors to prepare them for life in the real world, because they’re sent so many mixed signals.  They aren’t old enough for alcohol yet they can die in a war.   They cannot smoke but they can vote for the leader of our country; I wonder how m any even know the names of all of the people running or anything about them?

That was completely OT and I apologize.  My final say is just that you can find ways of cooling off without using your central A/C.  I know because I went almost 5 years without one.  Granted they weren’t fun,   but I’m still sitting here.  Popsicles were dinner fo many meals when the weather became too hot to bare, but the kid in me never minded!

Enjoy your summer, all!

   Personal Photo Credit Michael Thompson

We have had a lot of drama around our home lately over the poor, innocent creature you see in the picture.  He is  a 3-legged, sweet angel named Buddy.  We met Buddy at a gas station about 2 minutes from our home, where he’d been hanging out and also chasing people for days at a time.  He’d been there for 2 or 3 weeks, said the owner of the store, apparently abandoned somewhere near there or a runaway.  Apparently, the owner of the dog either decided they were unable to keep him or did not give him proper attention and he ran away.  The dog proceeded to follow us home, and almost became a part of our family.  That’s another story for another day, but I will say that my husband and I did find Buddy a forever home with people who will love and care for him throughout his life.  Unfortunately I just can’t keep every stray I see, but I guess with me being an amputee I felt a sort of kinship with him.  How could someone spend a fortune having a dog’s leg amputated just to let him roam away or dump him out?  Whatever the circumstance, I truly believe that if people would consider more factors when deciding what kind of pet to add to the household.

Personally, I wish that everybody would start their search for a family pet at their local humane society or pound.  Shelters of every kind are full to the brim of animals that have been disguarded and have no r oom for more, so find out if they have a good fit for your family.  They have dogs and cats, sometimes other things, of all ages and sizes.  You can go to www.Petfinder.com and easily search for available animals.  Don’t see what fits your family?  See if they have a waiting list.  You could even offer to become a foster family. That’s another post,. again, for another day.

If you exhaust your search at every single shelter and foster agency, call to your local veterinarians to see if they have any abandoned animals that fit your family’s needs.  Often they have pets they take care of that you can get for free or a nominal fee, and the pet will have up to date medical care.  I’m sure by now you’re onto the fact that I really wish people would “shop” for their pets at shelters. 

When none of these avenues have found your family tht perfect pet, and you decide to go with a pet store or a breeder do your homework.  Choose someone who can provide proof that the animals have had the proper veterinarian care such as immunizations, and are free of or being treated for any disease.  Heaartworns are a big, huge deal, and if left untreated will lead to death.  Look at the animals.  Are they healthy looking, without fleas or mange or sores?  Do they have ample space to live?  You see where I’m headed- steer clear of puppy mills.  You can definitely find many more tips online on how to pick a pet store or breeder but it’s common sense.  Don’t go where they don’t take care of the animals and/or they price guage.  A local pet store that used to be open near me changed ownership before they closed, and they were known for being extremely high on their prices for mixed-breeds and even pure bred dogs, and they charged a fortune for plain ol’ cats.  The animals were covered with fleas and were dirty, they had tiny, dirty cages that hadn’t been changed in ages.  It was heartbreaking yet maddening.  I was glad they were closed, I only hope they did not open somewhere else.

But before you’ve done anything else, make sure you have a clear idea of the ideal pet for your family.  Be realistic, if you’re getting a single pet or adding a pet.  You may have your heart set on a bull dog but they might not have the best temperament with children.  Some dogs take huge amounts of mintenance, like poodles and other small dogs.  Do you have the time and finances for that upkeep?  Also keep in mind the medical issues that are typical of particular breeds.  For instance, pugs often have  many different issues with breathing, sitting, need eye drops, and several othe things that are costly each month.  Make sure you can aafford what your pet needs, because if it’s typical of the breed you may as well go into the situation expecting it.

Unwanted pets, or pets that don’t fit a family’s needs any longer end up being strays or surrendered to shelters.  We, in general, are the reason there are so many unwanted pets waiting for forever homes.  I admit I have had to surrender a cat I could not fford to tke care of when my leg was amputated.  It was one of the hardest things I have ever done but he was sick and we had no income.  Sometimes, things happen but do everything you can to prevent them by getting the right pet(s) for your home.

Small considerations can lead to finding a companion for your family who will be loving nd suppotive and playful for a lifetime for your family.  I do not know what I would do about my “babies”. 

I don’t mean to be preachy.  I live in an area with no humane society, and you can’t go a mile without seeing a dead animal in the road or a stray.  Until those few days we had Buddy, I’d always cared about strays but never realized that  perfectly wonderful pet could be thrown away like dirty trash.    Please don’t let that happen.

I found a site last week that I just love, and it so makes me wish we lived closer to the bigger metro areas during the summer time.  It’s called Living Social, and it’s super neat especially for you parents who will be having kids at home with you day after day for the next 2 or 3 months!

Living Social is just so super cool!  Here’s how it works in a nutshell

1) They e-mail you offers for various things; one per day, and it could be anything but it’ll always be local.  I love that because it gives local businesses a chance to get business plus it emphasizes local fun!

2)  Buy only the ones you want, but make sure you share!  If 3 people buy your deal, then guess what? YOURS is free!  You’d better hone thos retail sales skills from high school, kids.  Cheap is good, free beats the heck outta that.

3)   If I understand correctly, then your deal will arrive the next day.  You’ll be able to fit in so much more fun, local, frugal activities with your kids, and you won’t have to hear “Mom, I’m BOOOOOOOOOOOORED every. single. day. over. and. over. again. 

I was one of those bored kids.  I got a job when I was 15 because of that reason, if that tells you anything.  I have way too much to even think about being bored now, thank God, but this is one thing I’m so excited about.  I have another one to tell you about tomorrow, too, that I think you’ll be almost as excited about!

I am trying to play catch up from my lack of internet and being sick, plus the bad weather we had over the last 2 days so please bare with me a couple more days of light posting.  I pray to God that I’m able to get back to normal and start posting like normal again.  Considering our weather and the happenings of things over the weekend, which you can see in my prior post, I will have giveaway winners chosen by tomorrow.

Anyway, I have a tip for you that I just remembered!  Have you ever gone to the websites of your local TV and radio stations?  Local radio and TVB stations will have sponsors, typically local businesses, who provide them with gift certificates to give away or sell at a significantly reduced rate.

In Alabama, some of our local radio stations and our local TV stations advertise special certificates and discounts they are able to offer for a limited time through their websites.  For instance, our local country radio station offers gift certificates each week (different ones) for 50% off their face value, bu tthe business accepts them for the face value.  So you’d pay $10 for a $20 gift certificate.

Next time your TV station or radio station advertises their website check them out!  You might could get a nice dinner for 50% off! 

I’m going to put together a list sometime this week, when the rest of my to-do list is finished, of the Alabama websites that offer those are taken care of.  If you’d like to add any for your state feel free to leave a comment!

This can be a truly awesome resource because the gift certificates can be for oil change services, hair cuts, dry cleaners, and tons of other services other than dinners out.

It appears that maybe our internet issues are, for now, easing up so I can post a little more.  I will be, but I’m also extremely far behind doing grocery match ups, choosing giveaway winners and all those other things I could not do without any internet service.

All that is just to day that I’m back online but I will still only be posting a little bit over the next few days as I get back to work.  I have to do these store matches by tomorrow to keep on schedule (God willing!- it will be a 1srt!), and I also absolutely have to choose the giveaway winners for my sponsors. This is something that should have been done right before our internet went out, but it just didn’t work out that way. 

My days and nights are still backwards so I’m going to have to sleep for a bit, then when I wake up I’m going to first of all complete the grocery match ups I have to do and then worry about the rest of it all. 

I will contact giveaway winners via email tomorrow.  You will have 48 business hours to return my e-mail before another winner must be chosen. Since most of these giveaways, if not all of them (I can’t remember right now) are sponsored by someone other than myself I cannot guarantee when the prizes will be mailed out.  i can only ask for your address an dprovide it to the company.  Therefore, please allow 6-8 weeks for your prizes to arrive. They always get there fairly quickly so I don’t think you will wait long but I doubt they will arrive within a week’s time.

I will have those ads up soon, hopefully! I hope you have a great day!

When I was a kid, going shopping with my dad was not a fun excursion.  He’s a homebody, which I completely admire but is my complete opposite, and I can honestly never remember a time when he has enjoyed going to Walmart or any other store that doesn’t specialize in sporting goods- and you can just forget the mall because you just don’t want to go there with him.  I can count those trips on one hand!  My dad is the most frugal person I grew up around, and thankfully he taught me a lesson that has kept me from making some terrible financial mistakes at times when I honestly couldn’t afford them.  Of course, I thought he was being mean and stubborn and impatient; that was probably a part of it, too!  He always told me that if it was something I was not going to buy I had no business touching it.  

This was awesome parenting on so many levels, and if we were ever to have kids it would be one of those things I would definitely say that I swore I never would.  It’s amazing what 20+ years does to a person other than greying hair and wrinkles.   His lesson taught me so many things, and I think a lot of parents could benefit from it.  I’ll be the first to admit that since I don’t have kids, I don’t know a lot about raising them but I do know what my parents did that I would repeat given the chance.

The lesson  taught me to leave things alone that I would have probably picked up, carried around the store, and put down in a terrible place for somebody to have to come along and pick up.  I worked retail for may years and I found it obnoxious for parents to let kids run around the store, unattended and wrecking havoc on everything.  Kids will be kids, but teaching your children to respect their surroundings and others is something that my parents did very well.  I was not always perfect, but my brother and I both knew at an early age how to act in public.  We always knew we’d get in far less trouble by acting out at home rather than in public.  Plus, by teaching us this lesson our dad taught us to respect the jobs of those retail workers.  Learning the importance of everyone’s job at an early age is very important.  I cannot stand to hear a parent tell their child, “It’s their job to put that up for you, they don’t mind’, when in fact that parent has no idea what the retail associate’s job really entails.  Picking up after lazy customers, honestly, just adds more to an already hectic day that person likely already has going.  I am sure no malice was ever intended when I heard those words but children don’t have the ability to know the difference.  They’re taught that they can run around and do whatever they want, and that those associates are their personal maids.  It teaches a child that those people don’t deserve the same respect someone in another job deserves, and that’s not something I feel like we should be teaching the future leaders of our country.

When I was taught not to pick things up in stores that I had no intention of buying, it taught me to also think about my purchases.  I think I blocked this out throughout most of my 20’s, at least when it suited me, but it taught me to really think about the things that end up in my shopping cart.  These days, if it goes in my shopping cart it typically means I’m buying it.  Of course if it is a necessity, or a freebie, I often don’t think twice about it unless it’s a necessity that I can get cheaper at another place I am going that day.  But other than that, if I’m unsure about the item I often don’t put it in my cart.  It reduces the likelihood that I spend money on something that I don’t need, and it also means that if i were to change my mind about the item later on when we’re in the store (as I often do) then I don’t end up having to go across the store to put an item up.  Again, having worked retail so long I’m not going to set something down where it doesn’t belong.  My husband has the patience of Job when it comes to me most of the time but when it comes to shopping patience is not a virtue he possesses.

I can honestly say that I wish I’d always taken my father’s advice regarding every financial endeavor throughout my entire life.  That being said, I pray he does not read that because he doesn’t need to hear that he was right so much   because it’s just not good for his ego.  All kidding aside, I’m grateful for my upbringing and I DO wish I’d listened to him more often.  When I see children in public now, and hear them I can’t help but be thankful for being taught respect, manners, and that tiny lesson not to touch things I wasn’t going to buy.  I really don’t think he meant for it to be a financial lesson.  I think honestly that it was meant to be something that kept me in line and behaving. Thankfully, I don’t always take things the way they were meant to be taken.

What lessons were you taught as a child?  What are you trying to teach your children now?

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My new series, Only Alabama, came about a few days ago when I was thinking about where in the USA I would live if I had the money to buy a house and live just anywhere.  Honestly, there are many places I would love to vacation, maybe even take an extended vacation to some places, but in the long run I belong in Alabama.  The biggest reason is that I  have lived as far away from my parents and grandparents as I ever intend to live, which is about 2 hours!  To say that I’m a Daddy’s girl is an understatement of the century.  My Paw Paw….well, he’s right up there with him.   Alabama has a serene beauty and tranquility that isn’t found anywhere else, and those native to this state have a genuine honesty to them that’s so unique in this day and age.  When I’m home, it’s almost as if I’m world’s away from anything bad that could ever happen.  In order to truly pay homage to my home state, and my home in general, I wanted to take a few chances to show you all of the beauty and splendor of which you may not be aware if you live somewhere else.  Next time you plan a vacation, or a daycation if you’re close, consider Alabama.

Lake Guntersville is a large man-made body of water in north Alabama.  Probably one of Alabama’s most known-for landmarks, it’s also where hundreds of thousands of people go each year for vacation, fishing tournaments, food festivals, art festivals, camping, boating, and so many more activities.  Ages young and old bond over Lake Guntersville and it’s splendor, because it’s a place provides frugal family fun and even a place where friends can either take their own or rent a boat for some cheap weekend fun.  The possibilities for having fun are endless at Lake Guntersville, and one look at how beautiful it is when you’re crossing the bridge in Guntersville or looking at it in pictures and you’ll be amazed that such a beautiful, peaceful place exists.  I’m not much of a fisherman, but I love to go early in the mornings with my husband and sit and read while he fishes, or waits for them to bite anyway:)  It’s so peaceful sitting on the pier, so quiet we can almost read each other’s minds and sometimes even hear the fish flopping around in the water under the pier. 

Lake Guntersville is just one of the amazing reasons I love Alabama, and back when I was commuting to college I used to love going over the bridge in the morning when there was a light fog over the water.   The air was moist and the water was calm, and pillows of clouds were setting atop the water.  It truly was a beautiful sight for sore eyes.  I don’t miss the 8 AM classes, of course, but I do somedays miss that peaceful drive.  Those were carefree days in so many ways that I never appreciated, but now that they’re I am left with many happy memories.  I hope you’ll all take a look at all that Lake Guntersville adds to the beautiful state of Alabama, and I hope someday you get to visit and view for yourself it’s beauty and amazement.

What makes you love your state, or could you adapt and live anywhere?  If you’ve moved around a lot, where is your favorite place to live?

 Photo Credit

OK first of all,  I apologize for my lack of posts during the last week.  Our internet is still awful, but it’s been up for the better part of today.  I’m sick, though, so I’ve been in bed.  Figures, right?  Hopefully tomorrow will be better, as there’s a nother Charter tech coming out to fix our internet and I’ll be able to get an antibiotic.  Fun times!  Oh and I have a “Not Me Monday” story for you that’s going to knock your socks off.  It’s so hilarious, or maybe disturbing, that I’m going to write it tonight to ensure it posts.  Let’s just say this: I should not be let out of my house, even with supervision, on a bad day.   All that is completely off topic so please keep reading.  I apologize!

I turn 31 at the end of September.  I remember when my mom was in her 30’s, and it sounded O-L-D.   Oh how I wish I could go back and slap the younger version of myself!  Then again, today I feel O-L-D!   But I have one thing at 30 that my mom didn’t have, and I’m sure I would have given her an even harder time if she had. (Aren’t you glad you don’t have a daughter like me at a young age?)   I have hair that is turning white.  I say it’s turning grey, but my husband and everyone else tells me it’s turning white.  He’s gone so far as to show me the proof, I just choose to remain ignorant.   It is so hard to face how quickly the aging process has started with me.   Either way, I do not look 30. Between the um, ah, life experiences that have taken their toll on my face and my un-styled, greying hair, I look far older than my almost-31 years .  So what’s an old woman a girl to do?   I need some feedback from my wiser readers here please!

If I start to color my hair now, at 30, it’s a cycle that I would have to continue until the day I decide to just let nature take it’s course, and face the world with whatever color I have.  I may not ever turn all the way grey, but if genetics have anything to do with it I will.  Better grey than bald, right? At least a little?  I have to weigh the feasibility and the practicality of designating a portion of my budget to my hair.  As a couponer, I’m sure I could get color kits at a super cheap price to do it at home so the only major costs would be the haircut and whatever else I would need to make it look right.  I may and probably am overthinking this but I do realize that this won’t be a one-time thing that I do and never think about again.

My income will not allow for me to get this done professionaly and have it professionally maintained.  I might be able to get it started professionally, and get the occasional haircut, but the touch up coloring would be left up to me.  I’m not even sure how much a decent salon charges for a coloring, this may be out of the question as well.  I’m not sure I can, as cheap as I am, justify spending a significant amount of money on my hair when there are other htings we need or want that would benefit both of us.  I just can’t be sure I wouldn’t regret spending the money on my self simply for the purpose of making myself feel good.  As a matter of fact, i know i would regret it, but would I regret not doing it?

So readers, will you weigh in with your opinions here or catch me on Twitter?  What do you do and what would you do if you were me?  This is definitely not a necessity, but it is something that would make me feel less ugly and frightful.  I just don’t know if it is a cycle I want to start.  My husband prefers that I not color it, believe it or not, but has said to do whatever makes me feel good.

So readers weigh in.  Color or no color?  What do you do and if you do, how do you do it frugally?  Is this something you allow yourself to splurge on?  I think I can make mountains out of molehills but this really is a commitment, and well, this one is hard for me to make