Getting back on the frugal wagon when I happen to fall off.

www.bankrate.com/dls/news/pf/20070501_spending_money_challenge_a1.asp

Spending too much? Try the 7-Day Challenge. :)

So, I am going to start this 7 day challenge. I am not sure if I caught this on frugal village or if I just happened upon it. I was doing this before but since falling off of the frugal wagon I have to make this a habit yet again.

I find that alot of frugal habits are easy once you get into the routine but once you stray for whatever reason it is like starting over again. For me it is like playing a game, one that I love to win at lol.

Here is the link to the 7 day challenge, common sense really but it is nice to have that reminder

On the second page you will see close to the bottom of the page the 3 rules, as I mentioned it is common sense lol.

Thank you all for the well wishes with dd. It sure means so much to me

Blessings To Everyone

Posted: 12:34, 2007-Jul-7

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Popping In :)

I havn't been spending much time on the computer at all over the past couple of months. We have had so much going on.

The investment property finally closed this past week, it seemed to take forever. We needed a lawyer here and he is french as well as we needed a lawyer down in Nova Scotia and he is english, needless to say there was a bit of miscommunication going on. We had extra fees here and there so now our savings etc is zilch so we are having to start over from scratch. Was it worth it? Yes, my parents now have a real home to live in which is much better than the house they owned. They are getting their house ready to sell so that will give them hopefully a few extra $ to tuck away although they had refinanced a couple of times in the past so it was far from being paid off. Once they sell their house they will pay the mortgage on our investment property which is less then what they were paying for their home.

Ds moved back home, he is waiting for his unemployment to kick in, his 22 month contract with honda had finished and he is hoping to get called back for full time employment with them. We are helping him with his bills etc until then.

We had a "crisis" with dd 15. What a nightmare that was, I didn't even reconize her with her behaviour. Hopefully we won't have to ever go through anything like that again. All I will say on that is I had not cried so many tears in my life at one time and I had lost 9 pounds. Seems to be going ok now though but I seem to be on guard constantly still.

So, our savings between the investment property,helping Ds and everything else is now zilch,nadda,gonzo. It is ok though, with our frugal ways etc we will be just fine.

We also put our house up for sale. We put an offer in on another house closer to our dds school. It is only a 15 minute drive but where we live it is hard for me to drive up there in the winters especially around the river. I find that we are driving anywheres from 2 to 5 trips a day to take the girls to their friends,sports,school etc.... it is a 1/2 hour round trip so it works out to 1 to 2 1/2 hours of driving every single day, not very frugal. So, here is hoping that our house we live in now will sell so we can get the other one....the mortgage will be the same as we are paying now.

I am going over our finances again, havn't done that in 2 maybe 3 months. I need to cut back and find out what bills we can get rid of or cut back on. Insurances are a big thing, we have soooooooooo many. We have our regular life insurance plus seperate life insurance on each house. Dh and I have been discussing getting rid of his van. We have my car and only need one vehicle, especially if we live closer to the girls school as they also have transit bus service to take us into the city if need be in that area whereas here they do not.

Well, guess that is it for now. I am hoping to start blogging more as it is good for the soul lol.

Blessings to All

Posted: 03:38, 2007-Jul-4

Lots going on with Us.

Well, Dh and I have been busy. We found an investment property which is in my hometown in Nova Scotia. My parents will rent the house for the cost of the mortgage and we will pay the taxes and insurance . The basement is a walkout and we will be making that into a one bedroom apartment to rent out to a senior. The house needs cosmetic work which isn't in need to be done immediately. The asking price for the house was $95,000 and we managed to get it for $82,500. We have had a house inspection done already which went great and the property is assessed at $124,000. We need to get an appraiser next this coming week. The owners we bought the house from are retired and are going to travel in their RV for a year.

Here is the listing with some pictures http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?PropertyID=5613045

Well now with all of that going on I also had a chance to meet with my father for the first time in almost 30 years! It was wonderful. The girls and dh really enjoyed meeting him too. We went for a Sunday brunch this past Sunday and spent about 3 hours together. We met him at the walmart in the city , he left his car there and we drove in our van to a nice restaurant for our brunch. I had forgotten to ask him what he was wearing so when we got there to meet him I said to dh "Where is he?" Dh said that there was a man standing by himself by the doors and that was probably him, I wasn't sure but went to go see while dh parked the van. I stood to the side of him for a second and he turned to look at me, as soon as I saw those big brown eyes of his I said "Dad?" He said "Yes!". The last time I saw him he was in his 30's and now he is 68 years old so I guess that kind of threw me on why I didn't reconize him lol. I gave him the biggest hug! When it was time for him to leave after everything I hugged him again and said "I love you so much! I am so thankful for this time together." my dad said "Yes, this has been a long time coming". He also invited us to visit with him anytime, we can stay with him.

Also, my son called and said that his contract is up June 1st with Honda in Ontario and he might be moving home, so that is exciting as well!

Well, I have to sign off for now, just had to share all of the excitment around here lol.

Hugs and Blessings to All

Posted: 03:14, 2007-May-3

This Post is More of a Vent if Anything lol.

Lately I have been doing terrible with spending, my weakness are my two dd's. It just seems like everytime I turn around dd 15 is saying Mom, I need money for this or that. My other dd 14 isn't too bad but when I give to one I have to give to the other and it is adding up like crazy!

I never use to be this bad, where did I go? Who am I becoming, what about my dd's? How will they be with their money when they are out on their own?

I have come up with a solution, well, sort of. I am going to write down every penny in which they get so that I can go back and refer to it and show them.

The bank of Mom and Dad is now Officially Closed!

Still waiting on dhs commission....his boss went to Flordia this week on holidays and said he would pay dh when he gets back........UGH!!! I need to get that Emergency fund fully funded and the verandah up to par. Not to mention he is slack when it comes to paying dh his Pretaxed retirement money to put into our retirement plan. We are losing "Compound" interest while we wait and wait The thing that really upsets me is that if dh hadn't of had that taken off of his pays to begin with his boss would have had to pay the gov't taxes and dh his pay right away.

I work for him once in awhile and I am going to go in there when he gets back and let him know how I feel about this. I have to or else I will go completely insane!

Well, I am off to read a few pages in a financial book.....

Happy Thursday Everyone

Posted: 09:45, 2007-Apr-12

Focusing on One Goal at a time from here on out.....

There really isn't much to report of late. It has been snowing here and I wonder how late I will be in getting my veggie garden started.

I think that I do however need to focus on one goal at a time. There is so much in which I want to accomplish but I am starting to feel like I am all over the place. Saying that, I am going to focus on the emergency fund, get that fully funded and then I can move on and focus on another goal. Dh is getting some commission next week so part of that will be going towards the emergency fund. Not sure how much he will be getting but we also need to get our verandah up to par.

I am thinking that $10,000 to $12,000 would be a nice goal. That amount would keep us going for quite sometime.Dh feels that we have enough now with the $5200 and with his military pension that amount would last us for about 5 months of living expenses but I just keep thinking if anything were to happen and if we ever needed to get out West to dh mother we will need that extra for flight tickets etc. I just want to be prepared.

After that I think that we are going to focus on paying down the mortgage. We still however have to keep adding to our retirement as well. Every bit helps that is for sure.

So that is my goal , to focus on one goal at a time until it is completed from here on out....At least financial goals

Happy Easter Everyone

Posted: 05:56, 2007-Apr-6

"The Automatic Millionaire" by David Bach

So, I picked up this book and started reading it last night. Some interesting thoughts to ponder in this book. I had read his book the Canadian version "Start Late Finish Rich" and really enjoyed it. The Automatic Millionaire book is the American version, I forgot to check before I picked it up however, still a good read and I found that the only part I skipped past was regarding the retirement funding which was ok as I had already picked up on that in the other book of his.

I found interesting on page 75 The "Pay Yourself First" Formula . He mentions how over the years he has received a number of e-mails asking him for a Pay Yourself First formula. People would ask him if 10% was enough, some people would say that they had heard that they should save 12% and wanted to also know about saving even more then that.

Here is David Bachs formula which he uses now and he mentions how everyones life is different, but this should give a benchmark to shoot for or plan around;

Dead Broke: Don't Pay Yourself First. Spend more than you make. Borrow money on credit cards and carry debt you can't pay off.

Poor: Think about Paying Yourself First, but don't actually do it. Spend everything you make each month and save nothing. Keep telling yourself, "Someday...."

Middle Class: Pay Yourself First 5 to 10% of your gross income.

Upper Middle Class: Pay Yourself First 10 to 15% of your gross income.

Rich: Pay Yourself First 15 to 20% of your gross income.

Rich Enough to Retire Early: Pay Yourself First at least 20% of your gross income.

Another part which I found interesting was on page 65.

It wasn't Always Like This. He mentions how the government didn't always grab a chunk of your paycheck before you even saw it. He says that up until 1943, people got their money when they earned it and weren't asked to pay their income tax until the next Spring. The gov't found that there was a problem with this system and that People coudn't be counted on budgeting enough money to be able to pay their taxes when the bill came due.

Basically I am reading that the gov't changed this system and made sure that they (gov't) got paid first Automatically out of Peoples paychecks.

Bach says that we need to do the same , "You need to set up a system that guarantees you'll get paid---a system in which you Pay Yourself First Automatically."

When I read Bachs book "Start Late Finish Rich" he had mentioned about a "Pretax Retirement Account" , dh and I had never heard of that before so we did some checking around and sure enough, like in America, Canadians have that option too, even our Boss had no knowledge of that at the time, his accountant found out all of the information so that we could get it set up.The only problem which I do have is that because we do not have direct debit for our pays, dh gets a check once a month to take to the bank to deposit into our retirement fund and sometimes our boss is a bit tardy so he might not get it for a couple of months thus we are losing some of that compound interest but all in all Since doing this,and we have been doing this for about 1 1/2 years now, it certainly does add up quickly and we are having fun watching our money grow.

I will post more on his book later as there are other topics which I find interesting as well.

Happy Tuesday Everyone

Posted: 10:31, 2007-Mar-27

This has Been a Frugal Week

Well I have been doing great with cooking from scratch and baking this week!

I have put in my freezer: leftover veggies in my container,a leftover cooked roast beef bone with roast beef to make homemade soup, homemade leftover Yorkshire Pudding to go with a future Roast beef dinner, terriyaki pork ribs, another meal of veggie rice. Last night I made Sheperds pie and I cooked up enough hamburger for two more meals. Tonight I am making homemade Pizza and I will do a double batch of dough to freeze 1/2 for future rolls or pizza etc....I have also been making sure that their are homemade cookies for lunches and after school snacks. I think today I will bake up a cake for over the weekend.

Dh took our old van to the garage where we had originally bought it and we are getting $400 for it today! Yup, that is great considering that the van was giving us heartache with having periods of not starting etc...and it was 17 years old. Out of the $400 we will put an additional $250 towards the mortgage (Principle ) sooooooooo by next week we will have put additional on our mortgage this month a Grand Total of $750! The $150 that is left will be $50 fun money and $100 towards Ds birthday. It seems like alot for his birthday but he lives away from home in another province and I know that his car registration/plates are due.

It is so nice to get extra money to help pay towards ones debts.....Next week we will be $750 closer to freedom.

Dd 15 has a basketball game tonight so we will be heading off to watch the game at her school. Dh won't be able to go however, he is Vice President of the Soccer leagues here in our Town (plus he has been coaching for 5 years) and he has to go and help with registration this evening, actually he has been there every evening this week except for Tuesday night. He has been Vice President now for 3 years, he puts alot of time into this and I am so proud of him......Because the board/commitee volunteers, and puts so much work into keeping soccer going etc...the board members as of last year have free registration for their children up to two children......this saves us $190 a year for both of our girls. Talk about frugal for us! When we have games we always pack a homemade picnic lunch too.

Happy Frugal Friday Everyone

Posted: 09:25, 2007-Mar-16

Our Goals, Dh says he doesn't think so, I say "Oh Yes We Can!" :)

Our goals are really helping us along. Next week is payday and Dh will be calling our Mortgage Company on Monday to ask them to take out another $250 on Friday to go towards paying down the Morgtgage, this will be 2 paydays now in which we will have done this....I am really excited and with this being our 2nd time doing this I can see how very doeable this is........by the 3rd time(which will be 6 weeks by then since starting this) it will become a habit.

The problem is, my Dh doesn't think that we can do this , not every payday anyhow, I on the other hand am Optimistic! I Know in my hearts of hearts that this can be done! You see, I really have caught on to this "make it automatic" way of thinking.....along with knowing that: (1) Pay ourselves first, even just a little is a Wonderful feeling (2) Pay our can't live without bills like Mortgage, hydro etc(3) cover our food and transport for work (4) Finish covering all other bills eg: cable,phone etc....although ours is automatic debit, they are a "luxuary" to me as I know that if worse case scenario we can cancel these. (5) Look at what will be left over either from that pay or for the whole month and this is when I start dividing it all up! I have a pretty good idea on what can go into: Freedom account,emergency fund,fun money etc...

Now, some months I put more $ into say the Freedom Account opposed to the Emergency fund etc.... but it all works out in the long run.

Dh and I don't always make the right choices, but when we do make the right choices for us it outweighs the bad, if I dwelled on the wrong choices I don't think that I would have any hope for the future and would revert back with thinking, we will never acheive our goals...there is just no point. I always get so excited knowing that we are still not living from Pay to Pay like we did for so many of our precious years. There is always something there for a rainy day, emergency,and for when those irregular expenses come upon us.

This works for us, what works for You? I would love to know as I can always pick up more ideas.

Blessings to All and Happy Thursday too

Posted: 02:48, 2007-Mar-15

I started freezing leftover veggies in a container again....YAY!

So far I have in my container left over peaches and cream corn nibblets and tonight I added to it 1/2 a can of peas and carrots with the juice....I am thinking that by the way I am going maybe next week I will have enough food in this container to whip up a tacco soup of sorts although I have never made that type of soup yet it does sound good! If all else fails it will be homemade veggie soup, next time I will go for a stew or pot pie.

Well, I hauled out my Complete Tightwad Gazette today, I am soooooo going to go through this. Right now I am going back over her pantry staples and tomorrow I will check out again what all she keeps in her frugal fridge.

I was also going over an old cookbook of mine and there are some recipes in which I want to try. I have my own bread dough recipe in which I use but there is one in this cookbook which makes 6 loaves of bread, I will post it here tomorrow , it is really similar to the one I use , just adding a bit more of everything lol.

The snow is finally starting to melt here......we still have about 3ft plus everywhere "Ugh", I just want it to hurry up and leave, I want to get my veggie garden started!

Tonights supper I made terriaki (Sp?) pork ribs and veggie rice.....it was soooooooooooooooo good, I hadn't made it in awhile. If anyone wants the recipe for the sauce let me know and I will post it......the recipe came out of my old cookbook and boy is it ever easy and Good. I also made homemade chocolate chip cookies from this book tonight, they are also really good. My dh at first said "why are you trying a different recipe when the one you always make is great?" I am funny that way, I like to try new things and usually you can tell anyhow by the ingredients if it should turn out of not lol! I will post that recipe tomorrow too as it is right up there with the top 10 :).

Well, it is starting to get late, I will post tomorrow or maybe I should say later today , gosh, it is after midnight here already.

Have a wonderful Evening Everyone

Posted: 12:09, 2007-Mar-14

My Goals For The Month of March

My Goals for the Month of March are;

(1) Put an extra $250 a pay towards paying down the mortgage

(2) Put an extra $300 in our Freedom Account

(3) $325 for groceries this month

(4) Be more concious of spending and have more "no spend days"

(5) Make up the frugal mixes in which I usually use but havn't replenished in awhile.

Ok, it is one week into March and so far I have accomplished;

(1) Dh called the mortgage company yesterday to take an extra $250 out of this pay towards paying down the mortgage.

(2) I transfered $202.48 into our Freedom account yesterday. I have had that money since the 1st of March but kept it in our account with our fast cash emergency fund, sort of scared to let it go lol. Well, it has been put into our Freedom account so it is done :)

(3) Groceries---- I am not doing too well on this but now is the time to become creative if I ever saw one. This is only the 7th of march and I have left only $82.63 left. I can do this!

(4) Our dd's are on their March break and this has been a toughy, I have only had 1 no spend day so far, hoping for another no spend day today. It isn't even that I am spending alot, it could be $2 for that one day but it is still money spent and it all adds up quickly.

(5) I wanted to do up some frugal mixes yesterday but it didn't get done, hoping either today or tomorrow.

With all this we have in our account $6.11 till this friday payday( the grocery money already set aside), and whatever is left from payday after putting extra on the mortgage, retirement plan, etc has to last for 2 more weeks.

I know that we refinanced our house and took some equity out ,a good size portion of that went into our retirement plan , bought ourselves a few things, put $3700 into the emergency fund. So, with what we already had in there and what we have put in over the last month ,our emergency fund is up to $5135.45. The Freedom Account now has $957.90.We still have $500 from prior in our regular bank account incase of a fast cash emergency, we have our change jar too which is building up nicely. We also still need to have a few extra $ in the house incase of power outages/no ATMs available etc.......

I need to start beefing up the emergency fund too. All is good though, it sure feels G-R-E-A-T to start saving and planning again

Happy Wednesday Everyone

Posted: 10:11, 2007-Mar-7

Picked Up Some Seeds Yesterday For When I Start My Veggie Garden...

I am really excited, I picked up seeds for; Green onions, Carrots, Lettuce, Green and Yellow beans, Sunflower Seeds and I also picked up some Pumkin Seeds! We are also going to plant Potatoes this year but we will do that with potatoes we have at home, I want to pick up a tomato plant too. This list is actually ongoing as I want to pick up a couple of blueberry bushes along with a blackberry bush and some strawberries to plant even though it might take a year or two to actually get any fruit, I think anyhow.

I might also pick up a herb starter kit for inside the house and keep it outside on the front verandah once the weather is warmer....I will have to study up on that as well!:)

I am soooooooo excited as it has been awhile since I have planted a veggie garden, I have $ signs in my eyes with just thinking of the money we will save.....I can't wait for soccer season too, nothing like having a picnic with homemade bread , your own grown lettuce ,Potato salad with your own potatoes etc......Oh yes! I will pick up some merrigolds to plant in the garden to help keep the ants/bugs away.....I have heard this works and notice the Oldtimer down the street from us does this every year as well.

Our garden is about 15'x 25' so I might be adding a few more things to it like cucumbers. The sunflowers I line around the garden between ours and our nighbours fence and on the front end of the garden towards our driveway.

Happy Monday Everyone

Posted: 10:29, 2007-Feb-26

Having Emergency Money In Our Home....

I read on a message board where someone keeps around $200 in $50s and other smaller bills in case of an emergency such as if an Ice Storm or any other natural disaster etc strikes and the ATM machines will not work. For Some reason, I had never thought of that! I don't know why as it makes perfect sense.

I have taken pride that Dh and I have a $500 "fast cash" emergency fund at our regular branch....our debit card does not work for this account but I can transfer the money into our chequing or savings account by either using the internet or phone. However, what if the power went out and the phone lines were down? I just wasn't thinking about that.

So what I am going to do is this......I havn't worked in a bit but every now and then I pick up a couple of shifts here and there. This coming week I have been asked to go into work for Tuesday,Wednesday and Thursday soooooooooo, there will be our Emergency Money to keep at home! Hidden of Course .

Also, I would like to fill up my car everytime the gas gage goes down to 1/2 full, I don't drive it everyday so this should also be very doable

Happy Saturday Everyone

Posted: 10:34, 2007-Feb-24

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Old Time Lemonade

For Autumnlynn and anyone else looking for a Lemonade Recipe.

I found this recipe at Amazon.com from a cookbook called " The Beverly Lewis Amish Heritage Cookbook". I am going to order this one as it has lots of Wonderful sounding recipes in which I would love to try!

Old Time Lemonade

3 lemons

1 quart of water

1/2 cup of sugar

Wash lemons. Squeeze juice from lemons into a large pitcher. Add sugar; fill pitcher with 1 quart of water. Chop rinds into 8-10 pieces and let soak in lemonade.

Stir well until juice gets syrupy. Strain rinds out of juice and refrigerate. ( The chopped lemon rinds make all of the difference!)

I really can't wait to try this recipe , it sounds so good

Posted: 08:48, 2007-Feb-20

I have been busy with laundry, puttering around the house and looking for recipe ideas online.

Today went by like a shot! I also spent sometime on amazon.com and looked over the recipe books for Amish and Mennonite recipes. Does anyone else ever do this? Where you can look inside a book and go to the surprise me pages? I found recipes today for the following:

Chicken Rodeo

Baked Chicken

Crisp Baked Chicken

Old time Lemonade

Chicken Salad

Brocolli and Cauliflower Salad

Cucumber Salad

Old Fashioned Sour Cream Dressing

Salmon (or tuna) and Egg Salad

Baked Potatoes ( I had found a couple of tricks in which I had never thought of lol)

Delicious Baked Sweet Potatoes

No Bake Granola Bars

Perfect Pumkin Bread.

I already of course cook baked chicken etc but thought I would try a different approach with some new ideas . There is however one of the books in which I am going to order called "Beverly Lewis Amish Heritage Cookbook" that is where I found alot of those recipes.

Anyhow, I had fun!

Happy Monday Everyone

Posted: 04:14, 2007-Feb-19

Heading off to Value Village Today.

I am down to about 5 forks. Odd how they just disappear like that, seems like I can keep them around durring the summer but once school starts up they tend to find new homes.

I am going to check out their books too as I am out of reading material.

Not too much is going on around here. I have been organizing and staying inside as much as possible with it being so cold and all.......oh yes, we also were hit with tons of snow as well.

I found a couple of frugal recipes online , I tried the Paprika Beef Goulash the other night and it was really good! I will be trying the Paprika Baked Chicken this week too. http://rangylil.iwarp.com/recipes.htm

Have A Wonderful Weekend Everyone

Posted: 08:00, 2007-Feb-17

It Has Been Too Cold To Go Outside

So that means it is a great time for cooking up comfort foods for suppers.

Two nights ago for supper I baked a pork roast tenderloin (bought 6 this past summer on sale). I took one pork tenderloin and basted it with catelina dressing, put in a roasting pan in oven for 1/2 an hour @ 350 with about 3/4 cup of water. I then quatered up some onions, potato and added baby carrots to a bowl and added about 1/4 cup of catelina dressing and sprinkled some parsley in with it and mix it up really good then add it all to roasting pan with the pork tenderloin. I baked it up for about 2 more hours and it was sooooooooo good! the amount of dressing you would use would depend on how many veggies you used, they don't have to be drenched in the dressing, just coated. I had found that recipe in a kraft calendar which I had but I couldn't find it so I just went by memory although I am sure I had forgotten some of the ingredients in which the recipe called for but it was still sooooooooo Good!

Last night we had chicken burgers and I made a Ceasar Salad to go with it.

Tonight I made another really easy supper. We had rice/veggies/left over pork tenderloin with finely chopped up onions in one pot cooked in a veggie broth. I melted 2 tbsp of butter in a big pot, sautee the onions, add 2 cups of long grain white rice and stirred to coat in the melted butter and sauteed onions. Add 4 cups of hot tap water with 3 tsps of veggie boullion powder mixed together to the pot of rice. I then added about 2 cups of frozen veggies( I used broccoli,cauliflour,carrots), add cut up meat and bring to a boil. As soon as it starts to boil reduce heat to minimum and cover for 25 minutes. Remember, no peeking as if you take off the cover on the pot your rice won't turn out. We also had egg rolls with it but I didn't make those, I buy the noname brand and really like them. You could also halve the ingredients......I cooked up lots as we will have that for our lunches tomorrow. It is also great to freeze any left overs for lunches or another quick supper down the road.

Tomorrow nights supper will be a breakfast night. More than likely I will be frying up some homemade bread dough , it is so frugal and tastes great with pancake syrup added on the top. I will also have bacon and slices of cheddar cheese for on the side.

Have a Wonderful Evening Everyone

Posted: 10:16, 2007-Feb-6

Easy Lasagna Rolls And A Couple Of Cake Ideas

I didn't do the whole menu OMAC yet but tonight I thought that I would try the Easy Lasagna Rolls. I had some left over homemade spaghetti sauce and I also used spinich lasagna noodles. It was sooooooooooo Yummmmmmmmmy! I halved the recipe as it was just Dh and I home for supper tonight but I did cook up alot of noodles so I will freeze them until I pick up some more ingredients. I also baked mine opposed to putting in the microwave but I think that the microwave would have been just as good not to mention quicker.

Here is the link for the recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/131058

Not too much is going on here right now. Dd will be 14 tomorrow, her friends birthday is today so she is there for the night .Tomorrow I will be picking her up a MP3 player for her birthday and baking her a plain yellow cake which is a big hit at our house. The recipe for the cake is here: http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/plainyellowcake.htm . My other dd 15 is going away for the weekend tomorrow morning for a basketball tournament, the place in which they are going to is about 1 hour and 20 minutes away but they are staying there. Dh, dd 14 and I will be going to watch her games on Saturday.

I have made this recipe and added jello. I bake the cake and let cool a bit. I then take a wooden/plastic mixing spoon and poke the end of the handle into the cake about 1/2 down, I do this all over the cake. I then take a package of jello and mix it well with 1 cup of hot water and 1/2 cup of cold water then pore into the holes of the cake....put in the fridge for an hour or so till cooled and then I frost mine with a white frosting or you could use cool whip. I usually use a couple of different jello colours like cherry and lime.

Another way I have made this cake which is Super yummmmm is after I pour the batter into my pan ( I usually just use a glass baking dish) then spread a can of blueberry pie filling on top, careful though that you don't mix it into the batter, then pop it into the oven and Boy oh Boy is it ever tasty! You could also try lemon pie filling,cherry,strawberry etc....

Hope Everyone has a Wonderful Evening

Posted: 06:41, 2007-Feb-1