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July 20, 2010, at 6:00 am If you're new to BFS, please subscribe to my RSS feed. It shows me a vote of support and keeps me motivated to keep your attention. If you have any questions or comments for me, please contact me and I'll get back to you asap. Thanks for visiting! Since the recipes have seemed to go over really well, I received permission from my husband’s grandma to release her ultimate sweet potato recipe. It’s super simple and cheap, but I warn you, they are unhealthy and addictive…dangerous combination. 
Betty’s Sweet Potatoes
- 5 medium or 4 large sweet potatoes ($2.93 at Kroger)
- 1 stick of butter ($0.40 at Kroger)
- 1 cup of brown sugar (about $0.30 at Kroger)
- 1/2 cup of orange juice (I’m rounding up to $0.20)
- Total cost was less than $4 or about $0.50 to $1 per serving depending on your personal serving size.
1. Place sweet potatoes in a large pot of water and boil for 30 minutes until mostly done.
2. Peel potatoes, slice them into sections, and place them in an 8″ x 8″ pan.
3. Cube the stick of butter and place evenly on top of the potatoes, sprinkle on the cup of brown sugar, and pour the 1/2 cup of orange juice on top.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the liquid looks thick and bubbly. Let them cool off a bit and enjoy!
These are soooo good!
Do you have any other frugal and tasty recipe ideas that even I could cook?
July 19, 2010, at 6:00 am
Okay, so I might have gone a little rewards-card-crazy, but I think I’m finally happy with my wallet by adding the PenFed Visa and the Citi Forward Visa.
As you may know, I love using rewards credit cards for all our normal bills and paying them off at the end of the month. By doing this, we usually get back $200-$300 every year in cash and gift cards. It’s a great idea for anyone who won’t go credit crazy and rack up debt.
Well, I wasn’t happy with the returns I was getting on two of our cards, so I replaced them last month. Now we seem to be averaging 2-5% cash back on the majority of our purchases and at least 1% on everything else.
We could have made that more by getting a Fidelity Retirement Rewards Card that would give 2% on absolutely everything and put in in our Roth IRA, but that seemed boring. We made the choice to go with cards that we could use to get gift cards to places we enjoy or cold hard cash. Yes, that is not the financially sound decision, but we want our “rewards” to be fun.
None of these cards have an annual fee and I’m only disclosing the APR’s for informational purposes – we don’t carry a balance, so I looked them up just for you. Please keep in mind, these APR’s are based on an “Excellent” credit rating and just get worse from here.
What Credit Cards We Were Using
Discover More
- 5% cash back on rotating categories every 3 months and 1% on everything else after you spend at least $3000 each year.
- We use the cash back rewards to buy gift cards at a discount – like a $25 Bath and Body Works card for $20 or a $50 Starbucks card for $45.
- Our APR is 12.99%.
Discover Open Road
- Was 5% cash back on up to $250 a month of gas and car-related expenses and 1% on everything else after you spend at least $3000 each year when I signed up in 2008.
- BUT it changed to 2% cash back on up to $250 a month for gas and restaurant purchases as the main deal. Yucky!
- Our APR is 13.99%.
Bank of America World Mastercard
- 1 point for every dollar spent, which meant 1% cash back after every $25,000.
- I never liked this card but only used it as a backup if a place didn’t take Discover.
- Our APR is 10.9%.
What Credit Cards We Are Using Now
(It’s the second one on the linked page)
- 5% cash back on gas, 2% on groceries, and 1% on everything else.
- Your bonus is applied at the end of every billing cycle automatically.
- You’ll need to become a PenFed member, which means you will need to meet one of these criteria and make a $5 deposit to your account.
- We chose to join the National Military Family Association for $20. You do not need to renew that annual membership to keep the account.
- The only drawback in my opinion is there is a few things of paperwork you have to sign and send back to get everything going…I hate extra stuff to do.
- There is a fee if you don’t sign up for paperless statements, but I’m a fan anyway.
- Our APR is 13.99%.
- I’d rate their online website as a 7 out of 10 for usability.
- 5% cash back on rotating categories every 3 months and 1% on everything else after you spend at least $3000 each year.
- We use the cash back rewards to buy gift cards at a discount – like a $25 Bath and Body Works card for $20 or a $50 Starbucks card for $45.
- Our APR is 12.99%.
- I’d rate their online website as a 10 out of 10 for usability.
- 5 points for every dollar spent for dining, books (including Amazon), and movies (including rentals) and 1 point for everything else.
- They also give you 6000 points for making at least $250 in purchases within the first 3 months.
- You also can get 2500 points for signing up for paperless statements within the first 3 months.
- You will get 100 points every billing cycle for paying on time and staying under your limit.
- They also reduce your APR 0.25% (up to a total of 2%) for paying on time and staying under your limit 3 months in a row. We don’t care since we don’t carry balances, but it is good to know.
- The points are redeemable for cash back, gift cards, and merchandise, but based on the return, I’d only use them for gift cards. It seems to work out to getting 4%-5% back on dining, books, and movies and 0.75%-1% on everything else.
- Our APR is apparently 0%…I didn’t know that until I checked our statement, so apparently there is a sign-up special.
- I’d rate their online website as a 5 out of 10 for usability.
We’ve had these cards for one month and already received $5.71 cash back on the PenFed Visa for our gas and groceries and 11,214 points on the Citi Forward Visa since we paid the last grad school payment and signed up for paperless statements. It will probably net us about 400 points a month from here on out.
Well, if anybody here was looking for a little change, I hope this helps! I am in no way profiting from this post…I even grabbed the links to the cards by Googling them. I just switched and thought this info might help anyone who’s thinking about changing their cards too.
Do you have any other great rewards cards suggestions?
July 18, 2010, at 6:00 am
BFS is a member of the Yakezie Alexa Ranking Challenge! My ranking last week was 94,534. Now it is 88,995! This is freaking fantabulous!!!
The original goal was to be in the top 200,000 by July 4, 2010 and you helped me blow that out of the water in 2 months…a whole month early! Then we were shooting for 100,000 by July 4th and we hit that goal too!!! Now I’m starting a new goal of 75,000 by the end of August. Moving up is getting harder and harder, but I want to see how far we can go!
I would like to sincerely thank all of my readers and the members of the Yakezie Challenge. Obviously, this would have been impossible without all of you. Thank you all so much!
In case you didn’t know, Alexa traffic rankings are determined by the numbers of hits a site gets by people with the Alexa toolbar. If you want to be part of this ranking community, you can download the Alexa toolbar here.
If you are a Yakezie member and don’t see yourself on my member list, please send me an email or leave a comment here to be added. I copied the list originally in early March and updated it in mid-June. Please let me know if you are still missing. Thanks!
July 17, 2010, at 6:00 am
My Favorite Posts this Week
Guest Posts on BFS
Thanks so much for the day off!
If you would like to submit a guest post to BFS, please shoot me an idea or the actual post. I’d also appreciate a one or two sentence introduction for the piece. I’ll get back to you quickly and will give you as much advance notice as possible on its posting date.
Blog Carnivals that Featured BFS
Thanks for putting your time into this! I truly appreciate being chosen each and every time!
Carnival hosts, please email me if BFS is in a carnival you are hosting so I can be sure to add it to the list. Thanks!
Other Info
Feel free to email me if you have any suggestions. I’d love to add a few more blogs to my regular reading list or at least give a shout-out for great posts or contests.
As always, thanks to all the bloggers that teach me something new every day. Thanks to all my commenters for making this blog the community I want it to be. Thanks to all my lurkers too. I hope everybody is enjoying this as much as I am!
July 16, 2010, at 2:13 pm
As of 1:48pm, Mr. BFS and I paid off our car loan!!!
We just have a mortgage left!!! NO OTHER CONSUMER DEBT!!! WOOT!!! YAY!!! YIPPEE!!!
July 16, 2010, at 6:00 am
This guest post is contributed by Jena Ellis, who writes on the topics of Online Certification Courses. She welcomes your questions and comments at her email Id: jena.ellis20@gmail.com.
Most American families are on some kind of budget these days. There’s a budget for food, gas, living expenses and especially luxury items like entertainment. But why does fun have to be sacrificed for the sake of maintaining our ever shrinking wallets? The good news is – it doesn’t! There are tons of inexpensive and even free activities to explore that will keep you and your family sane and entertained all summer long.
For a dash of culture, consider taking your family to a local museum. Many offer family discounts, periods of free admission or do not charge admission at all. In Houston, for example, both the Holocaust Museum and the renowned Menil Collection are esteemed cultural centers that do not charge an entrance fee. They are open most days of the week and often even provide you with a free tour if you’re interested. Stay as long or short as you would like while beating the heat outside and learning something new.
For a natural twist, take a drive to the beach, lake or state park. While you might spend a little to fill up the gas tank, you can save money by packing a picnic lunch and bringing your own water bottles and snacks. Also, avoid the popular, overly crowded sections of beaches and lakes that can often charge parking or entrance fees and opt instead for a more secluded section that is free and just as nice. For even more fun, bring along Frisbees, footballs or volleyballs, and challenge other family members to a friendly game. Once again, fun entertainment and great family bonding for free!
If you have a little extra money in your entertainment budget, there are many options that won’t break the bank. For example, many sports teams, both professional and amateur, are offering discounts on tickets due to poor sales and the poor economy. From package deals that include dinner and admission, to group rates and even a fireworks show, sports teams are doing more to entice more families to attend their events. Take advantage of these deals and you’ll be the one that scores big with your family or friends. Other places are also offering discounts on their tickets for the same reasons, poor sales and the state of the economy. Many theatres and performing arts centers are offering patrons half priced tickets for matinees and other less popular show times. The production value is still of high quality, but attending a play at 2 pm on a Sunday, rather than 7pm on Friday evening can save you a bundle.
If you like the movies search your local paper for a selection of discount theatres. While the movies they show are several weeks away from being brand new, they can provide you with a chance to catch a flick you meant to watch but missed and for a lot less money. Many discount theatres offer dollar days or half prices on matinees and even senior and student discounts on already inexpensive tickets. With such cheap tickets you can even splurge for the soda and bag of popcorn.
So get creative with your family’s summer activities. Just because you’re living on a budget doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice the fun. Get out and about while saving money and be proud of yourself for accomplishing both at the same time!
July 15, 2010, at 6:00 am
There is an article on Yahoo Finance, 10 Things We Can’t Live Without, that named off the surprising American ”necessities” even in the face of unemployment or just a tough economy in general. Here’s their list and my take on it:
1. Portable computers – I understand needing a computer for job applications, but I don’t understand it needing to be portable. Normally a laptop is the inexpensive choice, but in our case, we have two laptops and a regular comp as well. If one of the laptops die, it would suck, but if we were fiscally stressed, I’d just use the other computers around the house.
2. High-speed Internet access – I do actually consider this very important for job hunting. Also, most of our financial lives are kept up with online as well as my blog. It would probably be my last bill to cut.
3. Smart phones – Hubby and I don’t have these. I just can’t justify the extra monthly expense. Don’t get me wrong, they’d probably be awesome, but not necessary.
4. Education – I’d understand finding the money for education to help myself find a job, but I don’t understand continuing paying for your kid’s college classes when you are on the brink of financial disaster. Isn’t that a perfect time for your kid to rely on scholarships, grants, part-time jobs, and student loans?
5. Movies – This made me sigh…if we were broke, we wouldn’t be going to the movies. If I just had to have a movie fix, I might be persuaded to splurge $1.50 at the discount theater down the street…maybe. If you really have a deep movie addiction, I’d suggest Netflix or Redbox before theaters (we have been happy Netflix members on and off for 6 years).
6. TV – My husband agrees that keeping cable is pretty important to him since it’s a comparably cheaper form of entertainment. It would be cut in dire financial circumstances but that’s about it.
7. Music downloads – Even though I do own an Ipod (thanks Mom), I have yet to pay for a music download. Mr. BFS burned all my CD’s into my Ipod and I haven’t added anything else except for ebooks from the library.
8. Pets – Our dogs would be the last thing to go, but they would go if it were a choice between homelessness and pets. Of course, we have family and friends that we could depend on, so I doubt this could ever be an issue.
9. Booze – I barely spend $100 a year on alcohol as it is…it would not be a problem to give it up completely.
10. Coffee – I love the smell but cannot stand the bitter taste. Mr. BFS can tolerate it, but doesn’t drink it more than once or twice a year. Coffee is definitely not one of our normal expenses.
Would these 10 things be the last thing on your list of stuff to go?
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DISCLAIMER I am not a professional or a financial advisor. BFS posts are informational opinions only. Please make your own financial decisions based on personal research or see a financial advisor.
Also, there are paid links on this site. There is no obligation on your part to purchase any products advertised on this website.
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