Dear loyal readers,
One of our goals in the making of this site was to provide a place where people can get things without having to take any money out of their pocket. One way we do this is through our feature box at the top of the site, which tells you about sweepstakes, good deals and free stuff you can get online. Another way to get things for free is to visit our Barter Corner tab, on the left side of our main page.
At the Barter Corner, we have two book exchanges, a Cook Book Exchange and a Book Club Exchange. There are lots of posts in both sections, including Williams-Sonoma cookbooks and best-selling novels like Eat, Pray, Love. Our own book club would love to trade with you and we hope that we can get YOUR book club to post a set of books online to trade. We’d also love to see your cookbooks that have been collecting dust in our Cookbook Exchange. Don’t forget, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure!
If you have a friend who you think might be interested in one of our swaps, please forward our URL or our newsletter to them. We hope our Barter Corner will become a place where all of our readers will be able to give a little and get a little, for pennies on the dollar!
Yours Truly,
Darcy Ratner and Julie Arnheim
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At Pandora.com you can create personalized radio stations and listen to the music when you’re online. For those in our families that get tired of music quickly (teens), you can listen to new music and avoid paying $1.29 per track for the songs.
www.pandora.com
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My 8-year old son says this is his favorite homemade meal ever! Easy and filling.
1 loaf frozen white or wheat bread dough, thawed
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 – 14-oz. can of tomato sauce
1 lb. ground beef or ground turkey
¼ cup brown sugar (makes the tomato sauce taste like ketchup)
2 cups shredded Cheddar or Colby cheese
2 ripe tomatoes, sliced into thin wheels
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brown ground beef or turkey and break it into crumbles. Coat your pizza pan with olive oil on the bottom and sides.
Bring pizza dough to room temperature. Give it a good stretch and then flatten it out to match the shape of your pan. The larger the pan, the thinner your crust will be. If it isn’t stretching well, wait 15 minutes and then try again. The dough will rise a little and be stretchier.
Whisk the brown sugar into the tomato sauce. Set aside.
When the dough is in the pan, spread the tomato mixture evenly over the dough. Top with the browned meat, the cheese and then the tomatoes. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges of the crust are browned.
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The recipes in this section have been written for those of you who are used to dining out but have decided to cut back on your food budget. They include recipes for an entire gourmet meal, and assume that you know your way around the kitchen, have the cookware and gadgets you need and are willing to spend some extra time cooking these dinners. Our guest writers have developed these recipes with wonderfully fresh and nutritious ingredients and there is a price list at the end of the article. Bon Appetite!
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Like many Americans, some of us here at Rubbingnickels.com bought our homes before the downturn. It was tempting, in the Spring of 2009, to wallow in self-pity as we watched our property values tumble. Instead, we decided to see what we could do to remedy the situation. There were three money-saving strategies we pinpointed:
- Re-assess our property value so that we could decrease our property tax;
- talk to our mortgage broker about the chances of re-financing and decreasing our mortgage interest payment; and
- see if we can find way to lower our utility and home insurance payments.
To undertake the first strategy, I enlisted the help of our friend, Greg Goumas, at 2GConsulting, who has a business that helps people work with the County Tax Assessor to get their property values re-assessed, and hence, their property taxes reduced. He worked with us to decrease our property assessment by about $200,000. He only makes a profit on the transaction if he saves you money so it’s a no-risk transaction. We are very excited about the savings.
Next, we called our mortgage broker. He is a great broker in that he is always on the look-out for better deals, especially in the year following the purchase of a home. If you want a new loan, it is probably best to work with someone who represents numerous lenders, rather than going with a specific lender. Our broker found a loan that saved us half-a-percent for only one point. Over the life of the loan, that is going to save us tens of thousands of dollars!
The last strategy was to see how we could save money on our utilities and decrease our outgoing payments each month. We spoke to our gardener regarding our water usage and where we could cut back on watering. We also decided not to use the air conditioner this summer to keep our electric bill in line. That one decision can save over $100 a month if you tend to use the a/c during the summer. If you need help decreasing your utility bills, there are consultants popping up all over who will do a utility audit of your home. In the Bay Area, our friend, Greg can help you out with this. Greg’s contact info is: Greg@2Gconsulting.com and his website is www.2Gconsulting.com.
Happy savings!
Darcy Ratner and Julie Arnheim
Founders, Rubbingnickels.com
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Don’t you love the closets in the California Closets ads? I do. All the clothes follow a theme and there’s hardly anything in the closet. Realistic? No. But here’s a simple (albeit disappointing) fact about closets. The fewer clothes you have in your closet, the easier it is to find something to wear. Cleaning out your closet can actually lead to less spending on clothing and decrease your stress in the morning. Why? Decreasing the number of clothes in your closet and sorting them properly helps you put outfits together and shows off the clothes that you like to wear.
Here are five steps to getting your closet quickly in order:
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Make some rules. – The most important rule in my closet is that if something comes in, take something else out. Another rule is that if I don’t wear something within a 9 month period, I put it in the Goodwill or Yard Sale bag. Other rules can include not having more that “x” amount of the same item (i.e. black pants, brown flats). These rules help you keep only the items that you truly value.
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Pull out your “go to” pieces and make multiple outfits with all of them. – Each of your favorite pieces should have multiple outfits that revolve around it. If you have a fabulous pair of shoes with a wild print, make sure that you have 2 or 3 outfits that complement them. Sorting your clothes this way will help you find the pieces that don’t really work with other things in your closet. Feel confident in donating or selling all of these uncoordinated pieces. I promise you won’t miss them.
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Want to watch shows like
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This recipe has a lot of ingredients but is SUPER easy to make.
1 pound broccoli
¾ pound cauliflower
1 red pepper
¼ cup peanut oil
1 ½ tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons peanut butter
¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, optional
½ cup vegetable broth (chicken broth may be substituted)
14 oz. firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
Separate broccoli and cauliflower into florets. Seed and de-vein pepper and cut into strips. Heat a wok or deep, heavy skillet. Add oil and heat until very hot. Add broccoli, cauliflower and garlic, and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Stir in red pepper.
Whisk together oil, garlic, sugar vinegar and peanut butter in a small bowl or measuring cup. Add to the pan. Stir in the broth and tofu. Cover and let simmer for 2-3 minutes, until vegetables are desired tenderness. Serve with rice.
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Save yourself beacoup bucks when you buy textbooks for the upcoming school year. Simply get the ISBN for the books on your required school list, and search online for the exact same books at used or discounted prices. You can also re-sell your old textbooks at cash4books.net to put some money in your pocket.
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Perhaps it is the old SUV sitting in my driveway, but I had heard the term “Cash for Clunkers” enough that I decided it was time for me to learn about this new program. Cash for Clunkers is the government’s “Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS)”. The program provides a monetary incentive to car owners to scrap their gas guzzlers in favor of a new car. If your new car gets 4 mpg more than your trade-in vehicle, you get a $3,500 credit. If the new car gets 10 mpg more than your trade-in, you get a $4,500 credit.
Sounds like a good deal, but what other conditions must be met?
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The purchased vehicle must be new not used.
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Your clunker has to be less than 25 years old and in drivable condition.
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You have to have owned the car for a year and show continuous registration and insurance for the clunker you trade in.
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Generally, trade-in vehicles must get 18 or less MPG (some very large pick-up trucks and cargo vans have different requirements).
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The trade-in vehicle must have a clear title; no liens.
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The person on the title of the clunker has to be the same person who is buying the new car.
Determining if your trade-in vehicle and new vehicle qualify, and if so, how much your trade-in is worth, is easily done at the official Government site: http://www.cars.gov. This program runs through Nov 1, 2009 or when the funds are exhausted, whichever comes first.
The RubbingNickels.com opinion of this program is that you can get an unexpected windfall for that clunker sitting in your driveway, but the program is not beneficial if your car is worth more than the $4,500 trade-in credit. Most importantly, you need to ask yourself if you can you afford a “new” car since this program does not apply to used car purchases. The good news is that if your car is worth significantly less than this amount, the credit is not considered income and will not be taxed.
Happy Driving!
Julie Arnheim and Darcy Ratner
Founder, Rubbingnickels.com
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It’s time to reap the benefits of your own garden or pick up a few fresh items from your local farmer’s market.
1 ½ lbs. tomatoes (red or yellow)
1 carrot
1 small cucumber
1 green bell pepper
1 lemon
1 clove garlic
½ onion
1 tablespoon parsley leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, optional
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
½ pepper
3 cups Low Sodium V-8 or tomato juice
Peel tomatoes by dropping them in boiling water until the skin cracks. Then remove and the skin will easily peel away. Coarsely chop carrot, cucumber and pepper. Squeeze the juice from the lemon. In a blender or food processor, mix all the ingredients together in 2 batches until almost smooth. Refrigerate until cold, about two hours. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.
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a friend
