Half-Assed Kitchen Nightmares

Last night while big chocolate was working out in the yard, I was inspired and motivated! I decided to make a chicken and rice casserole, rice krispy treats and homemade granola because I could get it all together pretty quickly.

I wanted to be extra efficient so I decided to double the recipe for the casserole. Bad, I repeat bad plan.

My head has been firmly up my ass the last few days and I don't know if I didn't double something right, or if you can't just double up on a rice casserole, but is was a train wreck. It took well over two hours to cook and I use the term very loosely.

Some of the rice was perfect and some of it was crunchy and it was way too salty. Needless to say it is now in the trash... Along with the granola I made.

You see since it took 2+ hours for the casserole to cook it was getting late and I thought I would just put the granola in the oven for a few minutes once it was preheated and let it cook the rest of the way after the oven turned itself off.

Lets just say it cooked the rest of the way and then some. It was the craziest thing. It wasn't burnt looking, but it tasted burnt. I officially give up. The only thing that worked last night were the rice krispy treats, so that's what I had for dinner (and ahem breakfast)!

Dear Money Fairy

Dear Money Fairy,

Why when you visit do you take the cash out of my purse? You are supposed to leave money. That's what fairies do.

Now granted you have to get the money that you leave for people somewhere, but might I suggest a job. I mean if this keeps up I am going to have to report you to the IRS for a thorough audit of your books.

Thanks in advance for your consideration of this matter.

Half-Assed Housewife

Amazon Gift Card on the Cheap!

There is an awesome deal on Living Social today. You can get a $20 Amazon Gift Card for $10!!!

Wordless Wednesday - OOPS

Saving Money Creatively

As you might already know, I am a value whore! In my effort to become even more slutty than usual, I have decided to start saving for a goal.

I want to do something special for Big Chocolate. Something that I did on my own. Not something that I use the money HE earns to do for him. But something from ME. Not really sure what it will be yet, but I want to do SOMETHING Special for the guy that does EVERYTHING special for me.

It’s not really what I’m saving for that matters, it’s how I am doing it and the level of focus I am applying to it. You see, I teach one class and bring in a whopping $800 a month doing it. I help Big Chocolate at the office, which saves us the cost of an employee, but doesn’t really bring anything in. Really when it comes to me personally saving money for something that “I” paid for I am going to have to get very creative.

So here is my plan and don’t laugh at me!!! I am going to maximize all of my points/rebates/Swagbucks. I am going to do it with reckless abandon.

Here are some of the ways I have already saved this month:

Swagbucks - $25 in Amazon gift cards.

Chase Debit Card Rewards – I have already cashed out $65 cash in rewards this year. I had some points carry over from last year, but I have cashed out $125 in the first 3 months with Chase, so I am thinking that I should be able to hit $400 by the end of the year.

Ebates- Order all of my stuff online through Ebates. $5 from a $500 purchase for the office. I’ve got to be better with this one. I forgot to order my OFFICE Max stuff through them and really missed out!

Misc. Store Rewards Programs – Best Buy, Staples, Office Max etc.: $160

Mystery Shopping: $55 reimbursement for shopping a restaurant!

TOTAL: $310

The secret is combining the point earning opportunities:

Buying Groupons through SwagBucks nets you 280 points each time which is about $3. Paying for it with my Debit Card earns me points.

I made a $500 purchase for the office this weekend. I bought through Ebates ($5) I used my Best Buy Rewards ($10) and I used my Debit Card ($5).

When I am earning gift cards or store credits, I am going to use them to buy things I need for the office or home and will reimburse myself into the account I am tucking the money away into.

Not Me Monday - Running Water is Not that Important!

Life has NOT been insane around here! Despite the fact that I actually had money in the bank, I did NOT forget to pay the water bill. The nice people at the city did NOT call to remind me AFTER it was turned off.

I did Not promptly pay the bill and have them come out the same afternoon. My children were NOT home alone when they came by to turn the water back on. My oh so well behaved 13 year-old did NOT slow-mo flip the guy off with his ring fingers while acting like he was in the movie the Matrix because he thought it was funny. He did NOT learn that move from Big Chocolate.

The dial on the meter was NOT spinning because we had been responsible home owners and left the faucets dripping so the pipes didn't freeze. This (and the flipping off I'm sure) did NOT prevent the water dude from turning the water back on.

This did NOT provide Big Chocolate the opportunity to repair the faucets in the two upstairs showers that have NOT had only cold water for a year and a half because Big Chocolate was NOT unable to figure out how to turn off the water. I am NOT a genius!!

We did NOT have to wait until 4PM the next day for the water dude to come back a second time! Big Chocolate did NOT Bitch for 23 hours straight!