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July 14, 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! When Funny about Money guest posted her Frugal Potato Salad Recipe, I asked for other easy recipe suggestions for a non-cook like me. I received several great suggestions, which I am looking into now, but I started by making Holly’s Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas. Man, they were good! They were so good (and inexpensive) that this really needed to be passed on in detail, so here we go with pictures, prices, and detailed yumminess! 
Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas
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2 or more pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts – thawed ($3.94 from Sam’s Club)
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8 oz. sour cream ($0.50 since we got 16 oz. from Kroger for $1)
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4-6 oz. picante sauce ($0.50 estimate since we bought the huge container for $5 from Walmart)
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1 can cream of chicken soup ($0.79 from Kroger)
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8 oz. shredded Monterey Jack cheese or mild cheddar – we used Monterey Jack ($2.00 from Kroger)
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1 tsp. chili powder ($0.10 estimate since I bought the whole container for $1 from Kroger)
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salt and pepper to taste ($0.10 estimate since we buy in bulk and didn’t use much at all)
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6 large flour tortillas – I used the same size we use for soft tacos ($0.45 since we bought 20 from Kroger for $1.50)
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Our Total Cost for 2 meals: $8.38 or about $2.10 per person per meal!!!
1. Cook chicken for about 10 minutes in boiling water. The chicken does not need to be fully cooked as it will be baked. Cut into bite-sized chunks and place in a large bowl.
2. Mix sour cream, picante sauce, chili powder, soup, salt and pepper, and ONLY HALF of the cheese in a bowl. Take half of the mixture and mix with the chicken. Reserve the other half of the mixture and the cheese for topping.
3. Fill 6 flour tortillas with chicken mixture and roll. Place rolled tortillas seam-side up in a 9″ x 13″ pan sprayed with Pam. I spread the mixture over the whole tortilla and then pushed the contents to one side and rolled – this helped the tortillas stay closed.
4. Top each with remaining mixture. Try to cover most of the tortillas with some to keep them from drying out. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. We baked at 355 degrees since our electric oven seems to run cool.
5. Uncover and top with remaining cheese. Bake another 10 minutes. Serve with toppings of your choice – hot sauce, sour cream, etc. We didn’t use any other toppings, but we did serve it with refried beans – $1 for a can that covered 2 meals. YUMMY!
My husband REALLY loved this and is waiting hungrily for me to test out one of your next cheap, easy, and tasty ideas! Do you have any other ideas for me to try? I’d appreciate it!
July 13, 2010, at 6:00 am
And the trick is…CLEAN THEM. Yeah, I was shocked too, lol.
After reading this post on Yahoo, I realized that we are way behind on appliance maintenance. Here’s their list of appliances and how they need to be cleaned occasionally:
Dishwasher: Take out the racks. Check the corners and the rubber lining around the door for cracks and food residue. Clean out both with a sponge and plastic-bristled brush (don’t use metal as it can damage the machine). Consult the owner’s manual and remove the spray arms and wash them with soap and water. If you’ve got a filter basket at the base of your dishwasher, carefully remove the filter itself and give it a rinse as well. Slide your hand in the filter hole and check for debris. Put the pieces back together and run the machine empty with a bit of detergent.
Refrigerator: The coils underneath the machine tend to get clogged with dust, which can make it hard for the compressor fan to circulate fresh air. To make sure they’re all clear, unplug the machine, get down on the floor, and pull out the vent plate that covers the coils. Then use a vacuum hose to clean the coils. It’s also good to wipe down the door gasket as with a warm damp cloth to make sure there’s no sticky build-up there, which can cause the gasket to tear (and inhibit your fridge’s ability to refrigerate).
Air conditioner: Similar to refrigerators, air conditioner coils need to be cleaned every once in a while—now, a.ka. the beginning of the season, is a particularly good time to do this. Remove the filter cover and run a vacuum brush over the coils. While you’re at it, pull out the filter and clean or replace it, depending on what kind of model you have.
Vacuum: This is one of the most oft-neglected household gadgets. Filters and bags need to be swapped out at least annually. If you have a bagless model, wipe out the canister with a sponge. Test it’s suction power: try to vacuum up a bit of sand, and see if your vac sucks up the majority of it (if so, it’s in good shape—if not, take it to a local repair shop to see if it’s just a question of changing out a part. If you’ve got motor issues, it’s probably more cost effective to buy a new vacuum).
Ceiling fan: If you notice the blades on yours are wobbling, you’re in for trouble—this wears out the motor a lot faster. Dust off the tops of the blades and tighten the screws to make sure everything is locked into place.
Stove and oven: Gas stoves in particular need to be kept clean to ensure burners and igniters will keep on for years. A warm cloth and a bit of dish soap is all you need to get them spic and span. Mr. Fleshman from Fleshman Appliance Repair tells The New York Times that the self-cleaning feature should be avoided, since the super-high-temperature can be hard on your oven’s wiring and electrical components. Instead, after you’ve used your oven, wait until it’s cool enough to touch but still warm, and wipe it down with a moist cloth. Fleshman also says not to worry about stains, “always tell my customers, if people are looking in your oven and complaining about it being dirty, you shouldn’t have those people in your home.”
Here’s how we stack up after living in our house for 3 years:
Dishwasher: I’ve never done anything with it except add soap and Jet Dry (which seems to be useless).
Refrigerator: I’ve been meaning to do this since last year. We have two dogs and the sheddy Mr. Pug stays in the kitchen at night (he snores too loud to come upstairs)…I’m surprised our fridge hasn’t died yet.
Air conditioner: My husband’s grandfather occasionally checks our A/C since he used to work in that field. I should pay attention to what he’s checking…
Vacuum: We change the bags pretty often but I hadn’t thought of the filter for a while. I know we changed it about two years ago, but since we got wood laminate floors downstairs, we barely use the thing. Yes, I know I only said “downstairs”, but just don’t go upstairs, okay?
Ceiling fan: I only dust the blades every year or so, but none of our fans are wobbly.
Stove and oven: We have an electric oven/stove combo and our housekeeper cleans the outside every two weeks. I don’t see any problems on the inside…
How do you add up? Anybody have any ideas on motivating me to take care of the things on the list that I obviously need to get to? I hope that by the time this post pops up in 3 weeks that I have some better news about the refrigerator at least…
July 12, 2010, at 11:59 pm
Check out the $25 Visa Gift Card Giveaway happening this week at Rainy-Day Saver! Simply leave a money saving tip in the comments of her post by 11:59pm on Friday, July 16th for a chance to win!
July 12, 2010, at 6:00 am
This article at Yahoo Finance, When Fights Over Money Ruin Marriages, brings up different money problems that arise in marriages. I know that money can be an instigator occasionally, but some of these problems sound like symptoms of bigger issues. Here’s what they listed and my personal take:
1. Paycheck Envy – I don’t know about you all, but my husband would dance a jig if I made more than him. If you and your spouse truly see your money as joint money, than who makes more wouldn’t matter, right? Feel free to explain something I’m missing…
2. Debt – I can understand fighting if one person keeps accruing debt while the other keeps trying to pay it off. In that case, I’d have to leave…I can’t stand lies and fighting joint progress feels like a lie of some sort.
I can also understand a general feeling of helplessness that leads to lashing out at each other. Both of these scenarios sound like a living nightmare to me. If hubby and I had high interest debt, I’d probably get a little pissy in general, but we’d sit down and make a payoff plan. Taking action sounds way better than fighting about it.
3. Bills – The article says that fights occur because one person usually pays the bills and is unhappily surprised by the other one’s spending. I can tell you from a recent personal experience, this does happen once in a while for us. I’m the bill payer since hubby had no interest in the details, but that means that the weeks he splurges on fast food annoy the crud out of me. I am slowly learning to ease up on the control freak behavior…hubby is a patient man.
4. Saving – A thrifty person married to a spendthrift is going to lead to problems. Even though hubby spends more than me, I can easily say he is no spendthrift. Thankfully. I just don’t see how it would work out very well. Does anybody have any personal experiences with this? Did any of those end well?
5. Investing – Okay, I can totally see this as being a little problem. I don’t personally care much about the specific stocks we are invested in, but I much rather invest in target date mutual funds than individual stocks anyway. Hubby rather invest more in high dividend equities. We have reached a compromise that works for us – my 401(k) and our Roth IRA are in target date funds and we have a Scottrade account for specific equity investments that my husband is in charge of. So far, this is working out really well. Have you ever had these types of issues? How did you work it out?
6. Differing Expectations – This isn’t just a fiscal problem…if each spouse has different expectations, there will be fighting. Hubby and I met when we were 18. There is nothing more eye-opening than developing into an adult while being engaged for 4 years. We have learned over the years to voice our opinions and expectations instead of assuming the other one will just know. See, you’d think that would be obvious, but selfish kids do not understand that everybody doesn’t think the same way they do, lol. Ah, the importance of communication.
7. Secret Stash – This screams “issues” to me. I would understand squirreling away money for a surprise gift or something like that, but just having “backup” cash seems hinky. Again, if there’s something I’m missing here, please give me a heads up.
What do you think? Any suggestions or comments about the above?
July 11, 2010, at 6:00 am
BFS is a member of the Yakezie Alexa Ranking Challenge! My ranking last week was 97,347. Now it is 94,534! We just keep getting better and better!
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! Then we were shooting for 100,000 by July 4th and we hit that goal too!!! Now we’re just getting better and better just to show off, which I think is AWESOME!
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 10, 2010, at 6:00 am
My Favorite Posts this Week
Guest Posts on BFS
Due to my post-vacation loopiness, I had a lot of assistance this week. I would like to sincerely thank everybody who helped me out!!! These are the awesome people who helped me to cover this week while I was unpacking and catching up at work:
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
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 9, 2010, at 6:00 am
Some of my most vivid memories of childhood are road trips with my mom or with the whole family as I got older. Road trips are not just any vacation. They are the vacations that almost take longer to get to than the actual time spent at the destination. They are those trips that start before the crack of dawn and usually end with somebody yelling, “I will never do that again” or “STOP TOUCHING ME!”.
I know that doesn’t sound like fun, but stories are told, junk food is purchased, and road games are played. You suck on juice boxes while eating 16 hour old peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. You see mountain ranges and beaches and sometimes stay in the weirdest “hotels”.
The road trip I currently have in mind is the one that my family took to Punta Tombo, Argentina in 1998. We were living in Bahia Blanca, Argentina for 2 1/2 years while my dad was relocated for his job. I was 16 and my little sisters were 8 and 3. Mom had found out that Punta Tombo had warm weather penguins (Magellanic penguins to be exact) that we could walk around with, so we loaded up into the car and started the drive.
We drove for about 8 hours and stopped in Puerto Madryn for the night. Mom and Dad found out that we could take a catamarran tour to see Right Whales the next morning. It was amazing. At first you think you won’t see anything at all, and then all of the sudden, there are whales right off the side of the boat! Even a moody 17 year old can enjoy that! To this day, I enjoy those pictures and remember how amazing that was.
The next day we drove the remaining 4 hours to Punta Tombo, parked, and literally walked maybe 20 steps before we were surrounded by curious penguins. Apparently, people break the park rules and feed the buggers because they would not leave my little sisters alone. It was hilarious! Shoe laces were pecked and the 4 year old was chased around a little before Mom told the birds to scoot.
We stayed in the park for at least 3 hours and just walked around taking pictures. The birds were nesting in holes under bushes, so we could see the eggs every once in a while. Magellanic penguins don’t have to keep the eggs warm like cold weather penguins, so sometimes you could see a whole nest of eggs with an early hatchling just coming out. It was literally a once in a lifetime experience. Thanks Mom and Dad!
When we did finally have to leave, we were exhausted. We stopped at another hotel after 6 hours of driving and enjoyed the pool. We had left Thursday and got back late Sunday night. Altogether we had driven for about 24 hours of the 4 day trip. Exhausted doesn’t cover how we felt, but it’s as close as I can get.
BUT, that was still the BEST road trip ever!
Do you have any awesome road trip memories? Are you planning one anytime soon?
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