Freezing Leftover Wine

May20

Have you ever wondered what to do with your leftover wine?
(I know what you’re thinking: “What leftover wine?!”)

Well, this past Saturday was my mother’s wedding. Rather than pay $20 per bottle through the caterers, we bought two cases of wine through a friend for less than $3 per bottle. Pretty sweet deal, eh?

The unfortunate thing was that the caterers uncorked all 24 bottles before placing them on the tables. At the end of the night, there were about a dozen perfectly good bottles of wine that would have been thrown out because they were opened.

Rather than letting good wine go to waste, we collected the remaining bottles and brought them home. We drank some at the after-party, gave some away to friends… and yet we still had MORE WINE.

So what did we do with the leftovers? We froze it!

I don’t know how many times we have had a recipe call for wine – usually in small amounts. Many stores sell “cooking wine,” but it’s expensive and usually not very good. Therefore, we usually end up opening a whole bottle just to use a few tablespoons. But never again! Soon, we will have several dozen cubes of delicious red and white wine to use as needed.

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Does Everyone Need Life Insurance?

May13

I don’t know what it is, but the past few weeks, I feel like every finance writer has been hitting me over the head with this advice: “Buy life insurance or you’re totally f*cked!!”

Here are a few examples of such articles:

7 Fictional Characters Who Could Have Used Life Insurance
How Insurance Saved These Families
Dear Mom, I Wish You Had Life Insurance
Seven Absolutely Necessary Insurance Policies
Young Adults Need Life Insurance Too

But does everyone really need life insurance at our age? Here’s a basic run-down of reasons you may or may not need it at this time:

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Vegetable Gardening for Beginners

May3

Are you thinking about starting your first vegetable garden this year? Or maybe you have tried gardening in the past with limited success? Here are a few tips for beginning vegetable gardeners:

Start small.
Choose a few basic vegetables to focus on the first year, then expand your selection as you gain more experience. Some good choices for beginners are tomatoes and peppers, since these plants are hardy and prolific. They’re also pretty difficult to kill, even if you neglect to water them for several days at a time. (Hot peppers would actually prefer it.)

Prepare your soil.
Some people have fantastic soil that’s ready to go with very little effort. However, if your soil is like ours (lots of clay), you may need to till in some top soil in order to make an area suitable for vegetable gardening. If the area is small, you can probably till it by hand. Otherwise, you may need to rent or borrow a tiller. While we’re at it, we also usually mix in some Preen, which is an amazing organic weed preventer. The less time you have to spend pulling weeds, the better… right?

Protect your harvest.
If you have a lot of small animals like rabbits in your neighborhood, you’ll probably want to put up some sort of fencing around your garden to keep your plants/vegetables from getting eaten. Deer will require a much taller fence, since they can theoretically jump as high as 6 feet. However, if you don’t like that idea (or have strict zoning laws), you could also try surrounding your garden with marigolds or clumps of human hair from the local salon in order to keep the critters away.

Note: Many garden/home improvement stores sell animal repellent sprays, which are effective but smell absolutely horrible. I got a drop on my hands once and almost threw up. So unless you plan on staying several feet away from your garden at all times, I don’t recommend this.

Monitor your garden.
The most common mistake beginning gardeners make has to do with neglect. Vegetable gardens don’t have to be super high-maintenance, but they do need some regular attention if you want a good harvest. Assuming you don’t get rain on a daily basis, make sure you’re watering the garden regularly. You should also check for weeds and remove any dead leaves/stems from your plants, as needed.

Experienced gardeners: What other advice would you offer a beginner?

2013 Resolution Update

May1

We’re officially five months into the year, and I believe it’s time to update you on how we’re doing with our New Year’s Resolutions.

I know what you’re thinking: why only five months? Wouldn’t six months be a more logical time frame to report progress? Perhaps this is true… but the truth is that I was way too excited and couldn’t wait another month. So here we go!

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Foods You Can Grow Indoors

Apr30

As the weather gets nicer, those with a reasonable amount of yard space start planting vegetable gardens.

But what about those who want to live a more sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle but lack the yard space? Or those who want to grow their own food year-round but can’t because it snows for half the year?

There’s a simple solution: Start growing food indoors!

Don’t know where to begin? Here are a few examples of what you could grow indoors:

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New Home or Fixer-Upper?

Apr27

With home-buying season well underway, many first-time home buyers are deciding how much house they can afford – and how much of a commitment they’re willing to make to maintaining it. Here are a few things to consider when choosing between a newer home or an older home (fixer-upper):

BENEFITS OF BUYING A NEWER HOME

  • Few to no maintenance/repair costs upfront
  • Consistent monthly expenses, no “surprises”
  • Requires less time and effort to maintain
  • More modern in functionality and decor

BENEFITS OF BUYING A FIXER-UPPER

  • Significantly lower purchase price
  • May be able to afford more square footage (room to grow)
  • More likely to afford a 20% down payment and avoid PMI
  • Lower assessment = lower taxes
  • Ability to customize as you work on the house
  • DIYers can save a lot of money on maintenance/updates
  • Home value likely to increase significantly over time

In summary, if you prefer consistent expenses and are unlikely to put in the time and effort necessary to maintain a fixer-upper, your best bet is to buy something newer. On the other hand, if you enjoy DIY projects and would find satisfaction in transforming an older home to suit your needs, you may be able to save a lot of money on a fixer-upper.

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Hotels & Motels on a Budget

Apr26

With wedding season quickly approaching, it’s possible that you will be doing a lot of traveling in the next few months. Assuming the location of the wedding is too far to drive there and back in one day (or you don’t have a designated driver), you’ll probably need to find overnight accommodations for at least one night.

Let me start by saying that hotels can be ridiculously expensive. Honestly, the idea of paying $250+ per NIGHT for a single hotel room when you can rent a decent apartment for $600 per MONTH is completely mind-boggling to me. But I digress.

Often, the bride and groom will reserve a block of rooms at a group rate (a very thoughtful gesture). However, for penny-pinchers like myself, even the group rates can end up being far too costly.

So here are a few suggestions for saving money on your next hotel or motel reservation:

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Why We Chose Auto-Debit

Apr22

Today’s post is the last in our week-long series on student loans. If you would like to see any other topics featured in future posts, please feel free to make suggestions in the comments section!

Student loan consolidation is not for everyone, as evidenced by yesterday’s post. If you’re concerned about your current interest rates and/or keeping track of multiple loan payments, here is another option you might consider: auto-debit.

We currently use auto-debit for all of my husband’s student loans (both federal and private) and it has worked out really well for us. Here are a few reasons why we like it:

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Intro to Student Loan Consolidation

Apr21

If you hold several different federal or private student loans, you may be wondering if consolidating would be worthwhile. In all honesty, there’s no good answer to this question since everyone’s situation is different… but here are a few possible pros and cons to student loan consolidation:

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