Recession Busters #60: Food, Fun & Frugality

I watched one of Clara's videos and then searched the web for depression recipes and found one for pasta.

Savory Spaghetti

• 1/2 pound spaghetti
• 1 can #2 size tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 1/2 green peppers
• 2 onions
• 3 slice bacon, cubed
• 1/2 teaspoon rumford baking powder
• 4 stalks celery, diced
• 1/4 pound cheese

Make sauce of the juice of the tomatoes, strained and seasoned. Chop onions and cook in the fat obtained from frying the bacon. Add bacon cubes, 2 teaspoons flour and blend. Add tomato juice and baking powder. combine with green peppers, celery, and cheese. Add spaghetti, previously cooked. Combine thoroughly and cook in casserole one and half hours.

I found several summer recession busters for families on the local level. Sonic Drive In is offering customers a free Root Beer Float on June 3rd from 8PM to midnight. No purchase necessary. Rave Motion Pictures is hosting a Free Family Film Festival every Tuesday & Wednesday at 10AM beginning June 9. The Houston Symphony brings its Sounds Like Fun! performances this summer. The no charge program offers children a first encounter with classical music. Each program last 1 hour and features pre-concert activities such as the instrument petting zoo. Redbox DVD Rental has changed to a free one movie rental on the first Monday of each month starting today.

Here are tips that I have discovered to save money: Take advantage of the early bird specials offered at local restaurants; go to an afternoon movie or look for $1 movie special; check Sunday's newspaper for lunch and 2 for 1 dinner coupons; clip store coupons and use them at grocery stores that double and triple the coupons; shop around for the lowest gasoline prices; cut the cost of doing laundry by washing your clothes in cold water; replace incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient compact florescent bulbs.

Money & Finance #59: Credit, Money Management, and Saving

I read the article How Credit Scores Work and learned that insurance companies use our credit score to set our insurance rates and that the number of inquiries and new loans actually lower our credit scores. I took the Credit Score Quiz and found it reiterate what I had just learned from the article.

We never had a spending/budget plan, but have always lived within our means, never made extravagant purchases, saved regularly and always paid our bills. This method has worked very well for us.

The TCDRS Service Center has very useful information. Since I do not have a pin, I wasn't able to access my personal account but was pleased to see that my account has predictable security with 7% interest regardless of the market ups & downs and that the account retains its value no matter what happens in the investment market.

Money & Finance #58 Banking, Budget & Spending

My bank offers online banking and I have been using it for 3 years. This feature has simplified my life and my bookkeeping. I enjoy the convenience of paying my bills online anytime and being able to transfer funds between accounts. I can schedule one time or recurring payments and never have to worry about mail delays or late fees. The online monthly statements are quicker and more secure and are available for up to 7 years. There's no monthly service charge if you have an eligible checking account or keep a combined minimum balance of $5,000 in qualifying accounts at all times, otherwise the fee is $6.95 a month.

My bank online security guarantee begins with a unique username and password, timed log-off, 128-bit encryption, a powerful firewall, technology updates and continuous surveillance.

I can safeguard myself by using a current web browser, changing my username and passwork regularly, protecting my passwords by not writing them down, and closing my browser when I am finished.

I did take a look at the budgeting tools but was reluctant to put personal information on another website; therefore, I would not use them. I feel that we are doing a good job ourselves.

My husband and I engage in many of the ways suggested to cut spending. We watch weekly sales, buy bulk at Costco, clip coupons & redeem them at stores that double & triple the coupons; shop around for lowest gas prices, and my husband is a handy man on doing basic maintenance & repairs. I would like to shop around for insurance rates when our auto & homeowner policies come up for renewal.

To Tweet or Not To Tweet...Twitter #56

I was clueless to Twitter until this exercise although I had heard the word mentioned numerous times. I now know that it is a communication technology consisting of microblogs of 140 or less words.

After browsing a couple of different profiles, I personally would not adopt Twitter for my use although it was interesting to see what others are saying.

I used the search feature to find hundreds of tweets on the Obamas' new dog and the current swine flu outbreak. The results were varied.

Getting the Most Out of Facebook # 55

Although I did not have a Facebook account prior to this iHCPL exercise, I am familiar with Facebook and its applications as my daughter and son have accounts and have shared information and pictures they have received with me.

It was very simple to sign up for a Facebook account. I decided to search my high school for classmates and since we had graduated in 1963, I didn't expect to find anyone. What a surprise! I was delighted to find 6 of my classmates. I added a friend and received an invitation to take a quiz. My son has been ill, so I used the application to send him good karma.

Facebook is not something that I will continue to use but I did enjoy the experience.

Books, Readers and Beyond: #54 Social Networking Through Books

1. I have not had an opportunity to join a book club for lack of time. I love to read and our library has several book clubs which seem very interesting, however, I would prefer joining an online book club that I could enjoy at my own leisure.

2. I would like to see our library implement a mothers/daughters book club. I think it would be nice to read books where the relationships between mothers and daughters are a theme and then discuss it. ReadingGroupGuides suggest
THINGS I WANT MY DAUGHTERS TO KNOW by Elizabeth Noble, THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB by Kate Jacobs or THE REST OF HER LIFE by Laura Moriarty. Beverages and lite snacks to nibble on would also be nice.

3. I searched for THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE on Goodreads which gave the book a 3.78 average rating. Reviews gave the first 500 pages a 5 Star and the last 66 pages only 1 Star. Most readers considered the book a tragedy - what you might get if you crossed Hamlet with Old Yeller and they felt cheated by the ending. Shelfari gave the book a 4 Star. Reviews here too said the writing was good but the end was disappointing. They also compared it to Hamlet. As I read these reviews, I agreed with some and since I have not yet finished reading the entire book, the reviews gave the ending away - much too my disappointment.

Books, Readers and Beyond: #53 Finding Books

1: Katy Budget Books, Half Price Books, and Barnes & Noble are the three booksellers that are conveniently located in my area. All three sellers have very nice online presence but only Katy Budget Books and Barnes & Noble sites have search capabilities. They also offer memberships that give a discount on purchases.

2: I searched for Nicholas Sparks' THE NOTEBOOK and was able to find the book new at Barnes & Noble for $14.40. Katy Budget Books' price for the same book was $20.00. Both sellers had THE NOTEBOOK in compact discs. Neither seller had the title in ebook format.

3: I searched HCPL ebooks online and was able to check out a copy of THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE which I am currently reading in hardback. After installing the software, I downloaded the book onto my computer and read 20 pages of the book online. It was nice to be able to find this bestseller available without a waiting list in the comfort of my own home, although I missed not being able to curl up with a book in hand. Reading from the screen is not quite the same and after awhile the eye strain sets in too.

Books, Readers and Beyond: #52 What to Read

1. I chose THE NOTEBOOK by Nicholas Sparks to search for read-alike. In Novelist, Sparks' read-alike are: Emily Grayson's THE GAZEBO, James Michael Pratt's THE LAST VALENTINE, and Richard Paul Evans' THE LAST PROMISE.

Fiction L recommended Richard Paul Evans' THE CHRISTMAS BOX, Emily Grayson's THE GAZEBO, and Lorina Landvik's PATTY JANE'S HOUSE OF CURL.

When I tried What should I read next, I got an internal server error 500; so I went to Library Booklist If you like and found read-alike in the HORSE WHISPERER by Nicholas Evans, THE LAST PROMISE - Richard Paul Evans, THE GAZEBO - Emily Grayson, A MYSTIC LAKE - Kristin Hannah, SUZANNE'S DIARY FOR NICHOLAS - James Patterson, THE LAST VALENTINE - James Michael Pratt and BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY - Robert James Waller. Recommendations from these three sites were overlapping with one or two new titles. I have read and thoroughly enjoyed BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY and SUZANNE'S DIARY FOR NICHOLAS but I now additional titles to explore. I didn't encounter any problems researching this information other than the internal server error. These resources have a wealth of information which will be very helpful in recommending books to library members when they have exhausted their reading list.

2: For the fourth grade girl, I went to Library Booklist Chapter Books Animal Stories and found THE TROUBLE WITH TUCK BY Theodore Taylor, a young girl who trains her blind dog to follow and trust a seeing-eye companion dog; and BABE, THE GALLANT PIG by Dick King-Smith, a piglet that arrives at the farmyard, is adopted by an old sheepdog, and discovers a special secret to success.
Novelist helped me find DEEP AND DARK AND DANGEROUS by Mary Downing Hahn and RESTLESS: A GHOST'S STORY by Rich Wallace for her 13 year old brother who was interested in ghost stories.

3: Dean Koontz writes novels of many genre, combining suspense, horror, fantasy and sci-fi thrillers. I used the Library Booklist to find Stephen King, John Saul and Peter Straub for the customer who needed read-alike for Koontz. Novelist recommends Greg Bear, Dan Simmons, and John Saul.

4: Mid-Continent Public Library helped me with the Juvenile Series and Sequels: Song of the Lioness
Book #1. Alanna: The First Adventure
Book #2. In the Hand of the Goddess
Book #3. Woman Who Rides Like a Man
Book #4. Lioness Rampant