Family & Friends
This week, I asked Erin Chase, a fellow blogger and the author of The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook, to join us with a guest post. She’s a master at putting inexpensive – and easy – meals on the table, and offered to share two of her favorite recipes.
When it comes to making dinner in my kitchen, I’m always on the lookout for the easy, convenient and of course the least expensive way to get dinner on the table. I love this White Chicken Chili recipe because it is made from scratch, it slow cooks all day, and it satisfies the hungry masses come dinner time!
Making your own sauce from scratch saves both time and money. I recommend making up a large batch of homemade white sauce and freezing it in plastic containers, in 2 or 3 cup portions. I substitute 1 can of “cream of” soup for 2-3 cups of homemade white sauce.
Also, cooking dried beans in large batches, then freezing in meal size portions, adds to your time and money savings. Rather than cooking 1 cup of dried beans at a time, prepare the entire bag, drain, cool, then freeze the cooked beans in 2 cups portions. I find that 2 cups of cooked beans is the equivalent of 1 15 ounce can of beans. Cooking dried beans costs 50-75% less than buying canned beans.
By making your own sauce and cooking dried beans, this White Chicken Chili meal comes in well under the $5 mark! More…
I have credit card debt of $80,000 after helping to support a family member in need. In the past, I haven’t had problems paying the required monthly payments. However, a promised company bonus did not come through and credit card companies have doubled their interest rates and monthly requirements, making it difficult. I can pay each month, but money is really tight now. I want to pay these off, and wonder if I should just keep plugging along, or try a debt settlement arrangement. What do you advise? – Allison, Wisconsin
It’s hard to pass on helping a family member or friend in a time of need – but sometimes, it can have a major impact on your own life. That means making a choice about the type of changes you are willing (and able) to make in your life. Below, I’ve listed your three main options – and given you some insight into the pros and cons of each.
Cutting down. When you have debt like this that you need to repay, sometimes it’s possible to slow your spending and free up some additional money each month.  Now, that’s not to say it’s easy. Making lifestyle changes like this one can be a challenge – but you’ll save your credit score, and learn some new budgeting strategies that will stay with you and keep you out of debt in the future. More…
“My husband and I have been the victims of 8 fraudulent credit cards, embezzlement and forgery committed by his former secretary and her family. We are in dire need of your help. The bank that allowed her to get away with this has now put us in collections for a fraudulent credit card.” - Jean, New Hampshire
I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this – many people don’t realize, but about a third of identity theft cases are committed by friends or family members of the victim, making your situation all the more common. The first thing you need to do, if you haven’t already, is file a police report. This is important, because you may need a copy of a police report to legitimize your claims. You should take that to the FTC to file a complaint there — which can then be used to make debt collectors stop collecting on those fraudulent debts. More…
Women have — for generations — had the stigma of being bad with money. Â Lucy begged Ricky for her allowance. Â Carrie Bradshaw blew her retirement fund on shoes. Â Even now, many of us can name at least one girlfriend who splits a purchase between cash and credit so she doesn’t have to own up to the cost to her spouse.
Women are getting a bad wrap. These days, more and more of us are taking charge when it comes to our family’s money. At the end of last year, a study by FindLaw.com found that 37 percent of married women between the ages of 18 – 34 handle all of the household finances, compared to 30 percent of married men. In a 2006 study by Money magazine, 60 percent of women said they’re responsible for budgeting, bill paying, and day-to-day spending in their households. More…
When I was in cooking school, the instructors made a point that when restaurants want to boost their margins, they cook omelettes, crepes and the like – made with cheap ingredients like eggs and flour. Â In other words: Â Brunch. So last week, this post by Eric Wahlgren at DailyFinance caught my eye. Wahlgren reports that brunch at restaurants is up 8.2% for the year, while traffic was actually down 1% for breakfast, 2% for lunch and 4% for dinner.
Brunch has always been a recession-friendly meal, even when we weren’t in a recession.  Not only is it typically inexpensive – you can take your family out to brunch for half the cost of going out to dinner, and solicit less glares over your high chair, to boot – but, as the name implies, it combines two meals into one, lowering the strain on your wallet even further.
More…
Did you know that the average American household spends a whopping $2,200 on electricity each year? Using a power monitor can slash your bill by nearly 20%. Watch the video below to see how much I was able to save on my electricity bill by using one.
Question: My wife’s birthday is coming up and she asked that I donate to a charity in her name instead of buying a gift. How can I be sure that the charity I choose is legitimate?
-Jack, Connecticut
Answer: Despite tough economic times, Americans are still finding ways to donate to charity. According to the Giving USA Foundation’s Annual Report on Philanthropy, Americans donated $229.3 billion in 2008.
Unfortunately though, there are a number of false charities looking to capitalize on the good nature of those looking to donate their hard earned cash. Thankfully, there are websites out there designed to help you vet charities you’re considering donating to. Here are a few of my favorites:
Charity Navigator: An independent charity evaluator, Charity Navigator offers information on over 5,400 charities in the United States. Charity Navigator assesses charities based on two factors: how responsibly it functions from day to day and how they expect the charity to be able to sustain their programs in the future.
Guidestar: Guidestar combines information provided by the actual charities with data from several other sources. More…
Photo by Gil Vaknin
If you lost a job, how long would your nest egg hold out? For six in 10 Americans, the frightening answer is less than 90 days. For four in 10 it’s an even more frightening less than 30 days.
And how would your family fare in the process? That’s the question posed by a prime-time special from the folks at Sesame Workshop in collaboration with David Letterman’s company Worldwide Pants and Lookalike Productions. Families Stand Together, hosted by the husband and wife team of Al Roker and Deborah Roberts – in which I was fortunate to play a role — airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. on PBS stations across the country and will be available at SesameWorkshop.org thereafter. It takes a look at the experiences of five families who have experienced job loss or other economic setbacks. More…
Elmo and I joined Bob Shieffer on Washington’s Unplugged a few days ago to talk about our PBS special, Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times. You can catch it on Wednesday, September 9th at 8pm EST. In meantime, check out our chat with Bob:
Watch CBS Videos Online
A confession: I am one of those parents guilty of not always giving my kids their allowances. Â I know the disturbing lesson this teaches them — that when they grow up and eventually have bills and debts of their own they really don’t have to pay them on time. They can slide. Little will happen. Â Of course, when the mortgage or utility company and not your teens are the creditor, that’s absolutely not the case. Â
For the past two years, I have “promised” that this year will be different. Â It hasn’t been. Instead, there will come a week when one of my kids (or both) will say, Mom, you owe me 4 (or 5 or 7) weeks allowance. Â And not knowing if they are right or — perhaps — giving themselves the benefit of the doubt (that’s parental guilt working in their favor) — I pay up. Â More…
