July 23, 2004

Baked Spaghetti with LeftoversIf you have leftover spaghetti, brown some ground beef and add your favorite sauce. Mix in the spaghetti and season to taste. Put spaghetti in a casserole dish and top with Velveeta cheese. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes until cheese is bubbly. Yum!

 

Paid off home 8 years early, small payments add up.When we were just buying our first home, we made sure it didn't have any pre-payment penalties, then I ordered an amortization schedule from the mortgage co. I could see that we were paying just a pittance on the principal every month, but lots on the interest. By sending in small amounts every so often, we paid off our loan 8 yrs earlier and saved thousands in interest payments. You can send an extra principal payment every month or 2 & 3 principal payments once every so often. If you just make monthly payments, you will not break even (pay the same on principal & interest) until year 23 on a 30 year loan, so you can see that almost all the money paid out every month is the interest to the mortgage co. This tip is easy to do the first several years when the principal payment is small. Harder to do on the back end of the loan when you pay a lot more of the principal off. By Linda from OKC

 

Garlic VermicelliI came up with this recipe because my kids loved the Vermicelli with Garlic and Olive Oil box mix you buy at the store. This is so much cheaper to make and they can't tell the difference.

 

More Mac and Cheese without an Extra BoxWhen my kids were small but growing up, one box of mac and cheese just wouldn't stretch anymore, but felt it would be wasteful to fix two. I just added some more pasta and a little extra milk to the cheese mixture...

 

Wait a Week to Use Your CouponsWhen you get your coupons, in your local weekend paper (Sat./Sun.), don't use them that week. Nine times out of ten, the coupon item will go on sale 1-2 weeks after the coupon appears in your local paper. This will allow you to save even more money, when you use your coupons. By LM in NY

 

Looking for Maroon Tulip Wallpaper?I am looking for wallpaper that was carried by Sherwin Williams about 4-5 years ago. I believe the designer was Julian Davis and the paper had a maroon tulip design - sort of contemporary - on a faux crackle background of a sepia tone. thanks, kat

 

Frugal Couch Repair?I have a question for you guys, my friends dog chewed up the corner of my couch and I am just wondering if you guys might know how to repair it while being frugal. Thanks for any help you might offer. Jamielj