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Guest Authored By Alicia Rockmore and Sarah Welch.

Here’s a scenario: you come home from work to find a “past due” cable bill in the mailbox. You could have sworn that you had paid it two weeks ago, but your checkbook says otherwise. Still hoping you just forgot to enter the payment in your checkbook register, you rummage around your kitchen, home office, purse … and everywhere else you have little piles of mail stashed. Sure enough, you find the original bill, unopened, under a pile of clutter. Sound familiar? You are not alone. Many people who have problems paying bills on time aren’t necessarily cash strapped, but rather, just need to get more organized financially. We’ve got a few tips to make the dreaded chore easier for you that will save you hours and stress wrinkles.

Alicia on “Why it’s crucial”
“Late payments can harm your credit score, and ultimately make you appear riskier than you might otherwise to lenders and even auto insurers. That can cost you money, or worse, compromise your ability to get a loan when you really need one. Worse, many credit card companies have instituted severe rate hikes – often to levels above 30% APR – for customers who have missed a payment on any of their accounts. Not that credit card companies are making it easier to pay on time. In addition to strict hour deadlines, bills are now mailed closer to the due date, leaving customers with one week less to submit payment than a decade ago. So you must be vigilant.”

Sarah on “Establishing a bill routine”
Paying bills may be the last thing you feel like doing after a busy day. However, without a routine for organizing your bills, it’s just too easy to miss payments. Your routine doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, you only need to establish a designated day and time each week to pay bills. Pick a spot where you feel comfortable and make it your permanent bill paying perch. I pay my bills every Monday evening while sitting at the kitchen table. On that night I get a “free pass” from the dishes so it’s easier to get over my tendency to procrastinate. I like the kitchen table because I still get to interact with my family – I’m not locked away in another room, suffering through the chore.

Once you have picked a day and time for bill paying, follow these simple steps for organizing the process:

1. Go Electronic
   
   Computers can practically do everything for us these days, including bill paying. You can automatically pay bills every month by setting up electronic bill paying with your bank. All you have to do is enter in the information of who to pay and when, and with a quick confirmation your bank will write a check and deduct money from your account every month. This is so simple that in 2005, 24% of bills were paid electronically. So jump on the bandwagon and you will never have a late bill again!

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a friend

This recipe is certainly meatless but it has good protein sources from the half and half, pecans and goat cheese. It is also a perfect side dish for Thanksgiving dinner.

2 tablespoons butter
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup half and half
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into slices (You may, alternatively, use 2 bags of Trader Joe’s peeled and diced butternut squash for a big time saver)
1 cup of pecans toasted and coarsely chopped
4 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled
3 tablespoons chopped, fresh, flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 9-by-13-inch gratin dish.

In large sauté pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Add half and half, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Add squash and half the pecans and return to boil. Lower heat and simmer gently 5 minutes.

Transfer half the squash mixture to prepared gratin dish. Dot with half the goat cheese. Cover with remaining squash mixture and sprinkle remaining goat cheese over the top.

Place gratin on sturdy baking sheet. Bake until squash is very tender; cream is mostly absorbed, and top is golden brown, about 45 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with remaining pecans and with parsley. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

a friend

If you’re anything like me, Morgan Spurlock of Super-Size Me made you think twice about drive-thru hamburgers with his bulging belly and listless lifestyle. And my favorite nutritional watchdogs, The Center for Science in the Public Interest, have “outed” all our restaurant favorites like Fettucine Alfredo and Sweet and Sour Chicken with their stinging press releases, which have exposed to us how heart-stoppingly fat-laden our favorite restaurant entrees can be. For these reasons, not to mention frugal living, many of us have retreated into the kitchen. So what tools can you use to make sure that what you’re cooking is tasty AND nutritious?

What’s In The Foods You Eat Search Tool, 3.0 – The US Department of Agriculture has a tool that you can use, though it’s not the most user friendly software (surprise, it’s the government). With this tool, you can find nutrient profiles for 13,000 foods commonly eaten in the U.S. To help you put the right info into the tool, familiar portion sizes are included for each food and you simply need to check the box and let the computer know the amount that you’re serving.

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a friend

Last year, I purchased a Panini press. It was a $100 investment, but my family loves the warm, toasty sandwiches on Burger/Panini night. If you don’t have a press, melt these sandwiches in a skillet brushed with olive oil, on the stove.

1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
8 slices sourdough bread
8 thinly sliced pieces of Monterey Pepper Jack cheese
8-12 slices of deli roast beef
8 thin slices of tomato
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 cup boiling water

Place the bouillon cubes in the boiling water. Dissolve the cubes and stir. This will be the dip for your sandwiches. Place in four small “dip” bowls.

Heat your Panini press to at least 350 degrees. Brush the press on both sides with the olive oil. Place four slices of the bread on the lower press. Top with cheese, beef, tomato and cheese again, in that order. Close press and grill for 4-5 minutes or until the bread is nicely browned and the cheese is melted.

If you are grilling on the stove, make sure that you turn the sandwich over at 2 minutes. Enjoy!

a friend

Who wants to spend money this year on plastic or rented Halloween costumes? Not me! I DO still want to dress up, though, because being silly is the best part of Halloween. My husband and I have Star Trek costumes, disco outfits, and tons of wigs and hats (Samurai and Superfly) that we’ve been known to wear when it’s NOT Halloween. If you don’t have a costume box like we do, there are lots of great costume ideas that you can make. Check out these sites …

parents.com – This website has ideas for kids that you can whip-up with supplies from around the house. They include a scuba diver (swim mask and fins), crayon (colored paper party hat and one-color outfit), weatherman (raincoat, umbrella and fake microphone), and a piece of sushi (all white outfit with an orange pillow pinned to your back).

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a friend