Money Matters

I love salsa! Homemade salsa with fresh ingredients is even better!

My salsa though, is not chunky... It is more smooth.

Simple Salsa Recipe:

1 Medium Tomato, 1 small white onion, 4 small cloves of garlic (NOT 4 WHOLE HEADS), 2-4 small peppers of your choice for flavor, dash of either a chili hot sauce or a dash of a mix of chili-powder and cyanne pepper.

To mix it all together, I am lucky enough to have a small handheld Cuisine Art Food Processor. You can use a blender, Magic Bullet, etc to blend yours together. Blend to desired consistency. As I mentioned, mine is usually pretty fine, which makes it great on top of things as a spread.

In particular: Baked Potato. Use the salsa and forgo the salt, pepper and butter. Delicious!

So yesterday I mentioned that I had made a couple burlap bags for produce. I made one more bag with some slight modifications to make it a handy grocery backpack for the wheelchair, but it is also a good produce drawstring bag. These ones take a little longer to make because I use yarn for the thread for incredible strength, but it is well worth it.

One bag takes me about 3 hrs to make just the main portion of the bag. The drawstring took about an hour because I wanted to hand-weave a cord, but I could just as easily use a shoelace.

The nice thing with this bag for shopping is that it rolls up very small so it is easy to store.

Last week, Portland OR passed the plastic bag ban for major companies in the area. While I love the ease of use of the plastic bags because of the wheelchair, I understand the impact that they have on equipment when they are not disposed of properly (And on the environment). I myself have been trying to use reusable bags more and more, but it is still difficult.

Primarily, all of the bags that I have gotten so far are not easy to store. Some of them are very sturdy, but in being very sturdy they are very rigid, and do not fold down well. I have found some free patterns online for reusable shopping bags and I am going to try to make some that work well specifically with my wheelchair so they are easy to carry around.

I think that while I am doing this, I need to also make a "Master Bag" that will hold the other bags. Kinda like the bag that hold a sleeping bag. I think they are also called "Bag cozies" or something like that.

Admittedly, I spent more than I needed for my initial supplies, but part of the goal is to build something that will last a long time, so I don't mind spending a little more up-front to get quality material.

I ended up getting a medium weight Poly thread, 100% Organic Cotton Canvas (1 Yrd), and 3 yrds of a heavy nylon webbing. All told the materials cost me $13.05 and I expect I will get 2-3 bags out of this.

For the last couple years I have really been trying to change some driving habits get better mileage on my van. Since I got the van on November 22, 2005 , I have averaged 18.4 MPG.

Since I actively started changing my driving habits, I have brought that average up to 20.4. More than a 10% improvement from before! This van (The 2005 Toyota Sienna, FWD) average was listed between 18 and 26, So I still feel that there is more that I can do to bring my mileage up further, but it is a good start.

One major change is allowing the van to coast (NOT NEUTRAL GEAR... As far as I know, that is illegal in most/all states.. at least it is here in Oregon) whenever possible on downhill slopes while maintaining the speed limit.

The other major change is that if I can help it, I try not to go more than 55 on the Highway. On places like I-5 this means staying all the way to the right behind some trucks sometimes... but of course if that is not possible, I once again go the full 65.

Trying to find the right balance is especially important on my van since it REQUIRES premium fuel. I did a test a couple of tanks ago with actually getting regular fuel and I only got 280 miles for the tank (15.5mpg).

That's all for now.

So, when I started "Money Matters" the goal was to spend 10% LESS overall this year. as it stands, I am currently about 4% over what I spent last year in bills and such. Inflation and a green lawn is making things a bit difficult.

I need to do a shout-out to my friend Ben, who introduced me to Mint.com . This site is free to use and was developed by Intuit. It is great for breaking down current transactions and helping with budget creation. I have only been using it for a few weeks, but it has been a great tool for helping me analyze my spending and break things down... all without a lot of effort on my part. This allows me to spend more time on other things.

One thing I have noticed over the last few weeks as I have been doing more BBQing is that the leftovers tend to stay preserved slightly longer than normal cooking, especially if frozen afterwords. This has led to me BBQing more at once and then freezing the leftover.  It is also nice because I can buy a lot of food that is either in bulk or clearance and cook it up while it is still good, for up to 50% off the regular price!

I am expanding upon my garden this year as well. As soon as my new planter box is done I will be checking out the clearance plants at the local stores to see what needs help. I am hoping to have a good yield this year, if I can ever get the stuff planted.  Otherwise, everything will be ready for next year, or I may try to make a clear cover for my new raised bed that I can do some winter gardening in.

One nice thing is that all medical bills are paid off. Luckily I have good insurance so it wasn't that much to begin with, but it is nice to know that I do not have major medical bills looming overhead.