Getting ready to go to pamida for printer ink and paper. Came out to beautiful layer of snow!!!

Another benefit of getting off the computer is tea with my kids. And getting picked on by Jeremy.

I have done pretty good at not getting online to play. I got on today to work. My page views are up! That is good. My fishville article is doing quite well! I am going to post another article today and i will probably log onto facebook long enough to add it to my status (its part of my work) and post the montanian article. I am going to work on Demand Studios too and SEED too.
Also, i get a paycheck today from my irl job! Yippee! Gotta say though- i am having fishville withdrawals lmao!

I just remembered that taking a picture on my phone will give me 1000 characters That I can type. It won't be huge updates but it will keep me off the blog.
I will have to pop in to add tags but if you are all patient I can do that next wednesday after 1 PM.
1000 Characters may not look like a lot, but i can update a lot with 1000 characters. I'm at 367.
BTW, that bowl of muffins in the picture is a batch made from the muffin mix. I added a little bit of boysenberry syrup and a sprinkle of sugar on the top. They are very good!That isnt the whole batch. Only a half batch. And i am not done baking either.
I better go get ready for work now.

No Computer Week

So I've decided to have "No Computer Week" and see what I can get accomplished. It won't be completely computer free... I have to make money writing on other websites for my income.

Facebook, Myspace and Twitter and this blog can update by phone.

So here are my self imposed "No Computer Week" rules:

1. I can't go on Facebook, Myspace or Twitter to update, play Fishville or anything else (I must use my phone). 
2. No updates can go to my phone either. I'll be without all the computer fun for the whole week.
3. I can come here to this blog to add tags ONCE A DAY! And then I have to get off!
   
4. I can post ONE update to the Home Education blog, the Review blog OR the wordpress blog a day (but probably won't). Oh crap! I forgot about typepad. That's in the blog list too.
5. I can go on Associated Content, Demand Studios, SEED, Bukisa and other writing websites that I actually use for income. Those are excluded from the "No Computer Week." since I have to be able to pay bills and feed my children.  
6. No computer Week starts  on Wednesday 27th of January at 1PM... that's the start of each of my weeks... and ends one week later on 3 February at 1 PM. (You can bet I will be sitting there waiting for the clock to hit 1:00 LOL)

I'll be updating here through with pictures. You may post comments. I'm leaving them as unmoderated so anyone can post a comment at any time. Please be nice though.  

I will have a friend monitoring comments. If they get ugly, she'll inform me and I'll come on here long enough to delete or edit rude comments.

Sky has an idea!  lol

ABC Muffin Mix: Breaking Down the Cost

     I got curious about how much each muffin would cost if I made the ABC muffin mix and then made every batch of muffins. I made a list of everything I would need and assumed that I had nothing on hand. I also assumed that I made the muffin mix and muffin batches according the the ABC Muffin Mix directions. Here's what I have...

The short answer:  
 Each muffin will cost .19 if you make 24 muffins. If you make 42 muffins like my batch did then the muffins will cost .11 each.



The Long answer: 
Breaking it down by ingredients and using Amazon.com for pricing...



18 cups of flour. 

There are about 4 cups of flour to 1 pound of flour. So you would need a 5 pound bag of flour. The cheapest I found it online is $3.75 for a 5 pound bag of Hodgson Mill flour.

5 cups of sugar.  

The best answer I can find is that there are about 2 cups of sugar to a pound. So a five pound bag of sugar will make 2 batches of muffin mix. Since we're only making one, we'll only need 1/2 the bag. The best price on Amazon is $2.75 for a five pound bag of Domino sugar. 



2 1/4 cup powder buttermilk or powdered milk.

I found this bag of instant Non Fat Milk Powder from Barry Farm for $3.99 and the extra can be used for other cooking projects. While I don't like the taste of powder milk as a drink, it works fine in cooking.



Baking Soda and Salt


  I can find baking soda and salt for about $1 a box. This is about all you will need for the recipe.


Cinnamon and nutmeg are a little pricier but I found them at the Dollar Store for $1 a bottle. You won't need that much of these 2 items.

The cost to make the mix: About $16 to make.

Let's Make MUFFINS!

For actually making your ABC muffins (just plain old muffins, nothing fancy, no toppings) each batch of mix will make 5 batches of 24 muffins each.

Let's pretend I got motivated and made every batch! I would need:

20 eggs (4 eggs per single batch). You can buy 20 eggs for $4 (expensive eggs) at the grocery store. I don't have a good picture for eggs, sorry.


15 tsp vanilla extract. I highly suggest NOT using imitation. It tastes better with the REAL vanilla extract. That being said... Vanilla extract is a bit pricey so we'll go the poor people route and use imitation vanilla extract for $1 a bottle at the dollar store. I think I used 2 bottles. So $2 is the total.


A side note: When out of vanilla extract, I have been known to use whiskey, vodka, other extracts or Disarono Amaretto Alcohol (The Disarono was the best muffin batch I ever had!). 

2 Cups water... If you really want to get picky and break it down for the price of tap water, feel free. Mine is added into my rent so it's free!

1 cup Vegetable Oil... 

 
If I bought this bottle of vegetable oil, there would be 24 cups of oil. If we divide $11.54 by the 24 cups, then our 1 cup of oil is .48


Of course if you are frugal, you probably won't be spending that much money on vegetable oil.




This brings our total (rounding) to $23 for 120 muffins. Or a cost of .19 (nineteen cents) per muffin.



While making the first batch of muffins, I managed to make 42 muffins instead of the 24 they say the batch makes. That means all 5 batches will make 210 muffins total. For a cost of .11 (eleven cents) per muffin!


If your ingredients cost less, then each muffin will cost less. With my last batch of muffins, I managed to get the cost of each muffin down to 7 cents each. Not bad! And very frugal!

Proud Daughter Moment!

My dad, David F Latham, has completed his new book Homeland Security. I can't wait to read it! If you want to check it out, it's for sale at Amazon! Enjoy! And let me know what you think.

Frugal Living

One of my friends asked me what websites I use for saving money and being frugal. She is attempting to learn to be frugal. So here are some of my favorite sites on living frugal in no particular order...

For general money saving...



Living On A Dime is pretty good. Has some great advice. And if you want to impulse buy one last thing before being frugal, they offer e-books and real paper books series on living on a dime.

All Things Frugal is pretty good too. I use it but not as often.

Menus4moms Menu Archives. if you are learning that a making a menu will help you save money, then here is a menu plan for you. It has 5 dinner menu plans that come out each week on Thursday. Sometimes I post them here. You can follow the link and browse the menu plans for a better idea of what she offers. She also has a $5 a month frugal menu plan.


Speaking of food! You have to have the A-B-C muffin mix recipe! You start with one big batch of muffin mix and you can make any muffin from A to Z! How frugal does that get?


And if you're in a time when food prices are killing you, Hillbilly Housewife (stop laughing and look at the site) has an Emergency $45 menu that feeds 4 to 6 people. 

If you want to spend a little more money you can try the less frugal (but still frugal) $70 Low Cost Menu for 4 to 6 people. I prefer the $70 menu. The $40 menu is more for when we are completely broke and drowning in debt.  

The best part is that they assume you have nothing in your cupboard and that you aren't growing carrots in the garden. So there is no hidden crap like "Next, pluck two heads of lettuce from your garden".



Interesting bit about Hillbilly Housewife... Awhile back while we lived in Tennessee, I used the $40 menu (back then it was $30 a week) to feed our family of 4 for TWO MONTHS! I got a little creative and then found Angel Food Ministries to help stretch our frugal wallet. Hillbilly Housewife is my hero and my favorite frugal site because it has SO much information. Check out the old website... it's a lot more tempting to the frugal eyes and a little more exciting too.



If you are in an area that has Angel Food Ministries, I highly suggest you try them! They help tremendously! And if you aren't sure what to do with all that food, Menus4Moms has a Ministries Menu that will help you figure it out for only $4.95 a month. Honestly, with the money you'll save by buying Angel Food, it is worth it! Just start scrolling down. You'll see what I mean.



Hopefully these sites help someone out. Enjoy... and if you find a site that you like, let me know and I'll add it.

At Mama's Mug.

Miles sitting in the tire shop.

Mendel sitting at the light coming to pick us up.

How to Set Up Gmail in Microsoft Outlook 2002 (Without the Test Email Failing)

I finally got fed up with trying to get Outlook 2002 and Gmail to work together. I found the directions years ago and had to play around to get it right. I figured I would share my frustration with all of you to spare you the urge to toss your computer out the window. Here is a blurb from the article:

While trying to set up my gmail in Microsoft Outlook 2002 I ran into the problem of my "test email" failing every time. Sound familiar? I went to my online Google email account for help but the walk through they gave me had the same result with "test email" failing.

How to Set Up Gmail in Microsoft Outlook 2002 (Without the Test Email Failing)

Symptoms of Pityriasis Rosea (AKA Christmas Tree Rash)? - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

Everyone is asking "What is Pityriasis Rosea?" So I wrote an article on the symptoms and added pictures (5 of them). Here is a blurb from it.

I had never heard of Pityriasis Rosea when my youngest son came to me complaining of a spot on his neck. I thought it was eczema but it didn't look like it after 24 hours and two days later he was covered in a spotted rash that looked like the bastard children of contact dermatitis, chicken pox and zits. The rash spread over the next three days and took on a Christmas tree shape on his back. I called the Doctor and made an appointment hoping he wouldn't erupt in tinsel, lights and ornaments.

You can read the rest of it here:


Symptoms of Pityriasis Rosea (AKA Christmas Tree Rash)? - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

We are back. Mendel 2.0 is fine.

He has pityriasis rosea. It's a skin condition that is common in young adults. 


Here is a link for you about the condition.

Sitting in the ER Still