The Advantage Advisor
Volume 4 / Issue 5/ 2009
This Issue:
Budget recipes
Watch out for foreclosure scams
Gardening on a budget
Recipes to fit your budget
In today’s economy, families are looking for ways to reduce expenses. One way is to cut back on eating out and start eating in. Cooking meals at home might seem more costly and more time consuming, but in reality you will get more for your money.
The numbers don’t lie. Take ordering pizza. On average, a medium, eight cut pizza from a national chain costs $10.99. If you had the pizza delivered, you would likely add on another $2.00 for the tip. For a family of four, you’re paying $3.25 per person. That may not sound like a lot of money (and it’s not a lot of pizza), but compare that with buying a frozen, delivery style pizza at the grocery store. The frozen pizza costs an average of $5.75. The per person cost is $1.45. The frozen pizza saves you a $1.80 per person and if you order pizza once a week, it saves almost $30.00 a month and $345.00 a year.
You can easily save money by cooking your meals at home and usually you’re saving calories too. If you’re new to cooking, the Internet is full of cooking web sites loaded with easy to prepare recipes. You can also check cookbooks out of the library.
Here are some recipes we found that are easy to prepare and budget friendly.
Overnight Pot Roast and Leftover Pot Pie
In this recipe you cook once and eat twice!
1 3-pound pot roast
1 can of beer
1 envelope Italian dressing mix
2 carrots sliced
1 baking potato, sliced into chunks
3 celery stalks, sliced
The night before you plan to have this dinner, place roast in crock pot. Add beer and dressing mix, then cover. Turn crock pot on high for about an hour, then reduce to low and let the roast cook overnight. The next morning add the veggies. Stir. Leave on low until ready to serve.
Leftover Pot Pie
1 pie shell
Leftover meat and veggies
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
A splash of milk
A handful of shredded cheese
Mixed vegetables (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, mix leftover meat and veggies with soup and cheese. Avoid adding too much au jus from the meat to keep the crust from becoming soggy. Add a little milk. Pour mixture into pie shell. Bake for 30 minutes.
Beefy Mac and Cheese
1 pound ground beef
2 tablespoons of butter or margarine
Small onion, chopped
1 box of macaroni and cheese, prepared as directed
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
½ cup of milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray. Cook beef, butter and onion until beef is brown and onion is cooked. Add soup and milk to beef mixture and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Layer beef mixture and macaroni and cheese, ending with beef layer on top. Bake for 25 minutes.
Chicken Noodle Casserole
2 cans of chicken breast meat, drained and flaked
1 12-ounce package of wide egg noodles, cooked and drained
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
2 tsp soy sauce
1/3 cup milk, water or chicken stock
¼ tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste
16 Ritz crackers, finely crushed
2 tablespoons melted butter
Cook noodles according to package directions. In a large bowl combine chicken, soup, cheese, soy sauce, milk (or water or stock), garlic and onion powder and salt and pepper. Fold in noodles. Grease 9x13 baking dish and pour noodle mixture into dish. Mix melted butter and cracker crumbs and sprinkle over noodle mixture. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
Monkey Bread
4 cans of refrigerated biscuits
1 ½ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
¾ c. butter or margarine
Preheat oven 350 degrees. Cut biscuits into quarters and coat with an extra mixture of cinnamon and sugar if desired. Melt butter. Once melted, stir in brown sugar and cinnamon. Place half of quartered biscuits into a greased Bundt pan. Pour half of butter mixture over the top and repeat with remaining biscuits. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.
Recipe source: www.betterbudgeting.com
Dear Debt Monkey
Q: I’ve been hearing a lot about the new government plan to help homeowners. How do I know if this plan will help me?
A: The “Making Home Affordable Refinance/Modification Plan” can help struggling homeowners who qualify to refinance their mortgage or modify the terms of their mortgage.
Here are some key criteria that homeowners must meet to qualify:
The home must be your primary residence and cannot be a second home or an investment property.
The mortgage must be owned by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to obtain a refinance. You may qualify for a modification if your loan is owned by another mortgage holder.
In order to qualify for a refinance, you must be current on your mortgage. If you are, or have been delinquent in the past 12 months, you may still qualify for a mortgage modification.
The best online resource is: www.makinghomeaffordable.gov. The web site has checklists to help you determine if you might qualify to have your mortgage refinanced or modified. It provides web sites to help you determine if your mortgage is owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The web site also links to other resources that may be helpful for struggling homeowners.
If you think you may qualify for the “Making Home Affordable” plan and would like to speak to a certified housing counselor, call Advantage CCS.
Tips
Many of us spend money on little items that seem inexpensive. But, over the course of a month or a year, those little expenses can add up to big dollars. Here are some tips to save big money on the little things.
- Make your coffee at home instead of stopping to buy it on your way to work. A $1.10 cup of coffee every day of the work week costs you $286 a year. Even if you buy high-end coffee to make at home, you can brew your own for just pennies a cup.
- Take your lunch to work. Spending $5 on a fast food meal each day of the work week can add up to a whopping $1,300 a year!
- Avoid the candy and pop machines at work. If you spend $1.25 on a drink each day of the work week, you’ll end up spending $325 over the course of the year. Instead, buy drinks at the store and bring them with you. Or, better yet, drink water.
Avoid foreclosure scams
With more and more people struggling to pay their mortgages, there are more and more scam artists out there willing to take advantage of people who are in a vulnerable situation.
If you are behind on your mortgage, or are worried you might fall behind on your mortgage payments, there is reputable help available. Watch out for these signs that a mortgage rescue company might not be legitimate:
Be wary of anyone who calls and offers you a rescue plan. The best option is to only speak to someone if you have initiated the call and know exactly who you’re speaking to.
Don’t pay fees upfront before any services are delivered. Remember, you don’t need to pay someone to tell you who holds your mortgage or to tell you if you qualify for a mortgage rescue program. There are trustworthy agencies that will help you determine these things at no cost.
he best course of action is to contact Advantage CCS, which is approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to provide foreclosure prevention counseling.