Operation $40K

I have a little girl and yes, that means she is a fashion junkie! Little people grow so fast that what fit them LAST summer no longer fits THIS summer...everything from sandals to swimsuits needs to be replaced. Granted, stores have sales, but resale events and garage sales are SOOOOO much cheaper! When your kid is only 3, they grow so fast that things don't really have time to wear out...so used clothing is usually in pretty decent shape. You can SELL your outgrown items and then take that cash to invest in new things to wear. This weekend is the Half Pint Resale event in Madison. It is like a children's consignment store that is only around 2x a year - and just for the weekend. I hang and tag a bunch of Sarah's outgrown toys and clothes to sell (this year, five bins full!) and refresh her wardrobe with larger sizes. When you sell something, you are letting the organizers have 25-35% of the purchase price. Keep in mind two things: you can price things higher than you would...

Checking out all the sales fliers this week, chicken looks like the big deal. Hyvee has split breasts for $.88 a pound which hands down, beats the other stores! What to do with chicken? I plan on getting about 20 pounds of it and doing the following: Make a light breading of flour and seasoning salt. Rinse off 5 pounds of chicken breasts, pat dry, roll in breading and place on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for about an hour. You now have plenty of baked chicken for lunches, picnics or a nice Sunday dinner! Keep in mind, depending on the size, this could be 4-6 breasts as they are bone in. We aren't talking about 20 breasts cooked and staring at you in the fridge :) Bake five pounds of chicken breasts on a jelly roll pan with a little water in the bottom. Cover with foil and bake at 300 degrees for about 2 hours. Remove from oven and let chicken cool. Pull off skin and take a fork, shred chicken off the bone, and put into a Thatsa Bowl. Package in Medium Shallow Vent ‘n Serve container ...

I told you I would get to this...LOL! This is right off of their website: The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,775 groups with 7,090,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, go to our website (http://www.freecycle.org), find your community by entering it into the search box above or by clicking on “Browse Groups” above the search box. Have fun! Basically, there are four types of posts: Offer, Curb, Pending, Taken. Offer is when you have something you want to get rid of, you add the name of the item, details and city it's located in...people reply directly to you and you choose who it goes to. Curb is when you have something on your curb - like someone who cleaned out a rental unit. Again t...

This recipe came to me from a neighbor who treated us one night, but she used canned chicken...real shredded chicken or ground beef really take this to the next level! A few weeks back, boneless skinless chicken breasts were on sale. I threw it all in the crockpot, added a small can of lemonade concentrate and let it rip on low for 8 hours. Then, I shredded it and broke into smaller packages for the freezer...tonight I pulled one out and made dinner! Take a couple of cans of enchilada sauce (or make your own)...I like this brand and like to get it at the local Mexican grocery. Take 1 can, and stir into the chicken. I used 1 large breast, shredded - which was about 2 cups of chicken. Take a tortilla, add some shredded cheddar and a row of chicken mix down the center. Roll up, tucking the ends in as you go and put into the baking dish. I can usually squeeze 8-10 into a 9x13 pan. Cover with the remaining can of sauce, add a hand full more cheese and bake at 350 until bubbly on the top. We...

This is a fun, and simple gift to give for Easter -- we did a half dozen of them this year. I get the jars from freecycle (you will learn about that soon!) and the Peeps are 75% off clearance from last year. Keep in mind that they are basically just marshmallows and keep beautifully in Tupperware! The rest are simple - you need: 1 sleeve of graham crackers (or about 1 + 1/3 cup of crumbs) 8 Peeps 1 + 1/4 cup M&Ms 1/3 cup brown sugar Turn the graham crackers into crumbs, layer 2/3 of them in a 2QT canning jar (wide mouth works best. Place peeps, standing up, facing outside around the inside of the jar. Press them up against the glass but don't squish them. Carefully spoon remaining crumbs in the center of the jar to support the bunnies, pressing down to keep it snug. On top of this pour 1-1/4 cup Easter M&M's, then spoon the brown sugar into center of M&M's, gently pressing with a spoon. Dress up the jar how you wish - we just added Easter fabric and make a...