Homemade Pancake Mix

I was really craving pancakes but realized I was out of my homemade pancake mix. I decided to make another big batch to store in the fridge. I love making the mix. It is so simple to make, and it saves so much time because I just add water to mine! The actual recipe suggests adding 2 eggs and 2 tbsp. oil but I think it tastes fine without.

HOMEMADE PANCAKE MIX (makes about 5 batches)
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour (NOTE: you can substitute for all-purpose flour)
2 cups powdered milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup baking powder
1 tablespoon salt

Mix mix mix! I just throw it all in a ziplock and shake :) When you are ready to make pancakes, add desired amount of mix with desired amount of water. So easy!

A Home Phone for $20 a Year!

I still love Page Plus Cellular and am keeping my cell phone to use when I go out but I knew there had to be a cheaper option out there for as much time as I spend on the phone at home. That is when my mother-in-law and brother told me about Magic Jack! The name makes it sound kind of phony and I was skeptical at first but after talking to my family about it, I realized that people have had really great experiences with it. The initial cost of the Magic Jack device was $45.00 on Amazon and then I also purchased a basic cord phone for $10.00.



All you have to do is plug the usb part of Magic Jack into your computer and plug the regular phone into the other side. It works through the internet signal on your computer and the first year of the service is free and then it only costs $20.00 per year!

It is still in-transit right now but I will post an update on how it works as soon as it gets here!

Free Household Products!

Lately I have been working on a project to earn free household products! I no longer have to pay for laundry detergent, body wash, deodorant, dish soap, face wash ect. ect. I know I have posted in the past about where to buy these items cheaper, but free is much cheaper! It has done wonders for our budget! I also found out my hero Dave Ramsey does the same thing! If you would like to know more about the program, email me at renaehall675@gmail.com

Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix Recipe

Tonight we had homemade chili cheese fries for dinner and I was really craving some hot chocolate. We didn't have any mix left so I used this recipe:

3 cups nonfat dry milk powder

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

Just mix it up and store in an airtight container! Use 1/4 cup mix to 1 cup water. (We use milk for a richer hot chocolate) It tastes just like the stuff from the store and is much more economical!

Healthy Monterey Chicken

I made this slightly healthier version of the Pinterest recipe tonight. My husband said it was the best chicken he has ever tasted! It came out so moist and there were so many flavors bursting in our mouths. MmMm good!

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup bbq sauce.
1/4 cup turkey bacon bits
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 14 oz can tomatoes with green chilies
sliced green onions
pepper

3-4 sweet potatoes
spray butter
1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut chicken breasts in half and season with pepper. Grill chicken till no longer pink (I put them on my George Foreman) and place on baking sheet covered with foil. Top each chicken breast with 1 tbsp bbq sauce, 1/4 cup cheese, 1/4 cup tomatoes, green onions and 1 tbsp bacon bits. Place in oven and bake until cheese is melted (about 10 minutes)

Beforehand, bake sweet potatoes at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until done (while preparing and cooking chicken.) While hot, cut in half and spray with butter and top with brown sugar. DELICIOUS!

Swim Diaper Savings

My good friend, Melissa told me this cool tip over the weekend:
All of us with babies know how expensive swim diapers are. Last time I bought them I think they were $10.00 for the small package and I about croaked. This tip I learned could save you money this summer!



 Swim diapers are reusable! You just carefully take the diaper off, rinse it off, and hang it out to dry! (As long as there are no surprises in them of course!) We figure that the chlorine does a good enough job killing the germs and yes, the diaper will have chlorine in it when you reuse it but the baby is just going to be swimming in it agan anyway.

I am not sure if that methodology is proven science but hey-- I will do whatever it takes to save a little more money : )

Budgeting for Gas

It is always hard to know how much to budget for gas. Then, whenever my husband gets a new job or a new school schedule and consequently changes his route, we are forced to change our gas budget allowance. We love using the website: Cost 2 Drive.

You enter the year, make, and model of your car and then your start and end location. It will figure the cost to drive based on current gas prices in your area. We will then take that amount and multiply it by the number of days in the month that my husband will be driving to that particular destination. Then we add them all together and add $20 or so (for miscellaneous errands) to give us our monthly gas budget. This is also great if you are trying to budget for a family road trip!