Works for me Wednesday: Regifting parties

I still hang out on a somewhat regular basis (every month or two) with a group of friends I met at my last job. We always try to get together for Christmas, but we don't exchange gifts. With there being 3 of us (plus spouses and a kid now) it would get too expensive.

A few weeks ago as I was making my daily blog rounds I found a great gift idea that we're incorporating into our Christmas party this year - regifting! Our instuctions for our gift exchange was to find two things around the house that you'd like to get rid of (there are three of us getting together). Since there are two guys they are just doing one each.

Scavanging for a piece of junk...erm...gift to get rid of is a lot of fun. Plus you get the fun and excitement of opening something new (to you).

For other great tips and tricks, head on over to Rocks in my Dryer for Works for Me Wednesday!

Works for Me Wednesday: Taco Bell

I tried to be a good meal planner as Mr. Right and I were closing on our new house. I did pre-cooking prep work on several different items (browning ground beef, cooking noodles to be reheated, cooking rice). And for the first week everything went well. Then Mr. Right started getting busy with his job (he works for himself so his hours are whenever he sets them). At that point our days over at the new house became very inconsistent. On days that he has clients interested in looking at property, I can't expect him to go over to the house and paint all day.

Making things worse, from day to day he's not sure when we'll be at the new house. Thankfully we have appliances now (the first week I was cooking on an electric skillet) but he's got the kitchen a mess from his painting that I wouldn't eat anything that was prepared in that disaster area.

Which brings me to what works for me - the Taco Bell value menu. I had asked him to get a frozen pizza out of the at his place freezer on his way to the house. But with a few things on his mind (like one contract he's writing up and another he's trying to finalize) he forgot to get our food. So instead, we stopped at Taco Bell. He got 3 $0.99 bean burritos and I got the $0.79 nachos and a $0.89 burrito (which was actually more than I could eat).

Not quite the $2.50 we would have had in our frozen pizza, but it was a good hot meal with no effort. And when it comes down to it, I'd rather spend $6 on fast food than loose several thousand on a contract falling through.

For more tips and ideas, check out Works for me Wednesday.

Works for Me Wednesday - Reusing containers

I would love to claim that this is all in an effort to "reduce, reuse, recycle" and it has that added benefit too. But I really get my motivation from being cheap.

Since Mr. Right is an only child of a SAHM, and he moved 6 hours away, when she comes to visit she loves to do things for him to show how she misses him. Service and Gifts are her two love languages. Every time she comes for a visit she leaves a stockpile of gatorade and snacks. Mr. Right LOVES gatorade. Soon-to-be-Mrs. Right has a grocery budget of less than $100 a MONTH, which does not leave room to give Mr. Right a gatorade (or two) for every day. And while he does like kool-aid, it doesn't offer the convience of being able to grab a bottle from the fridge on the way out the door.

Which brings me to my "green" tip. Once the gatorade that my dear future MIL purchased has been consumed, I load it in the dishwasher. I take the newly clean bottle and fill it with kool-aid. Even though Mr. Right knows that its kool-aid in the gatoraid bottles, he swears it tastes better like that than in a regular glass.

My MIL to be also got me started saving glass spaghetti sauce jars. She used them for leftovers, but I repurpose them a little differently. I have one glass jar that I use for milk. I never get up in time to eat breakfast before I leave the house, so I have my cereal (free cereal thanks to www.moneysavingmom.com links to coupons and deals) sitting at my desk as I'm going thru emails first thing at work. So I just fill the jar up with milk, that way it doesn't take up as much room in the cramped office fridge.

If I have extra of the glass jars, they are also perfect to drain the grease from browning hamburger meat. Just cap it and toss it. No need to worry about the garbage leaking because the lid is secure.

And that's what works for me. Check out more tips at http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com