Filling my freezer little by little

One of the things I've been doing lately to combat my Weakness for restaurant food is trying to put up fully cooked meals in my freezer for days when I just feel blah and don't want to cook. My husband is a big fan of once a month cooking and all its variations, but I tend to get overwhelmed by big projects and making two gallons of chili, a lasagna, and a big pot of beef stew in one day makes me nearly want to crawl under my bed and hide. So, instead, I've been babystepping towards a freezer full of meals.

I was reading Love food, hate waste a lot lately and the obvious idea occured to me: freeze my leftovers. A lot of the meals I usually make tend to be too much for just the two of us, and then the leftovers go in the fridge and I have to either adjust my meal plan or end up throwing out the food when it finally goes bad. Instead, unless I have a specific plan for the leftovers, I'm popping the 1-2 extra servings of dinner into my freezer so I'll have it for another day. Right now, I have two servings of chicken taco meat and a container of barbecue pork (both from my crock pot). Since I also have rolls, tortillas, and shredded cheese in my freezer, it sounds like I have two easy dinners already taken care of. I'm hoping to save them for the first few weeks of school when I'm tired and cranky and overwhelmed.

Now that I also have all my beautiful CSA vegetables, I'm going to have to double time at getting things into the freezer in order to prevent food waste. Anyone know the best way to freeze or preserve summer squash?

<3

Today is my two year wedding anniversary. How should we spend our afternoon? (G-rated please, and the answer is not "writing a blog post.")

Book Review: How to be a budget fashionista

How to Be a Budget Fashionista by blogger extraordinaire Kathryn Finney of The Budget Fashionista is a fun little book on how to dress well without spending too much money. Targeted at young professional women, this book carries off it's casual, slightly irreverant tone without ever coming across as silly or offensive. Instead, it breaks down buying clothes to its most basic components so that the fashion-challenged (like me!) can learn to dress well for less.

Budget Fashionista is broken down into three parts: Know your budget, know your style, and know your bargains. It begins with a simple discussion of budgeting and ways to save and earn a little extra, to scrape up a good pot with which to update your wardrobe. While this may be useful for a lot of women, and while it was quite pleasant to read, I found it a little basic. The heart of the book is in the section on style. With lighthearted quizzes, descriptions, and exercises, Finney helps the reader to define her personal style and then gives recommendations of what to buy for each style type. This gets down to specifics (with a chapter called "Clumpy, Frumpy, and Lumpy: The importance of good undergarments" how can you go wrong?), explaining what articles of clothing are staples and what are just extras. The overall message is to invest in some good basic timeless articles and then to buy a few trendy items for fun, on clearance or deeply discounted, since these items are less likely to last in your wardrobe.

The third section on where and how to find bargains gets into the detail and nitty gritty about everything from sample sales to yard sales, and how to get the best deals at each. These are really practical tips, no hypotheticals just actionable points ("join the mailing list," "shop in the children's department").

I think this book would be particularly great for young women who are just out of college and trying to figure out how to wardrobe themselves for new professional jobs - without going into debt trying to do it. It's also got useful tips that just about anyone could use, along with fun tools, resources, and quizzes. It's a great, quick read for anyone who wants to know how to buy great clothes for less.

The fast pace of life

I can't believe how fast the summer is going by. Hubby and I just got back from spending 10 days with our families and while that usually seems like the upper limit we can tolerate, it seems to have just flown by. Still, by the end, I was ready to be home and to sleep in my own bed again.

So, for the past ten days I haven't worked at all and haven't made a penny. Plus, since we went to another wedding and I had to buy a dress and a gift, we spent a chunk more money. The only thing keeping me from feeling panicked is that I know that I have a somewhat large summer emergency fund sitting in my ING account - which is I guess the best reason to have it.

And life continues to go by. I realize that every time I write about simplifying my life or talk about the little things that bring me joy I say that I want to sit on my porch in my pajamas, drinking a cup of coffee and reading a good book. And yet I don't think I've done that all summer long. So, I'm going to brew myself a nice cup of french pressed organic coffee and spend my afternoon engrossed in a good book (I finished all of One Hundred Years of Solitude during my vacation, and let me tell you - wow is all I can say. Anyone have thoughts or opinions on The Namesake?) Because while I understand living like no one else so that later you can live like no one else, if there's no little joys in your life, it's hard to understand what's worth saving for.

Save the world for free by playing games!

Just a short post to let you know about two new sites I just found. If you love Free Rice as much as I do, check out these similar sites.

Free poverty is a geography game that donates to the UN's program to increase clean water. You have to locate places on a map of the world and the closer you get, the more water you donate.

Save the world with music is a music trivia game that also donates to clean water charities. This one works with an organization that provides well pumps to villages.

If you know any other similar sites, let me know!