Archive for September, 2007

Wet Cat: Funny

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: September 30, 2007 (8:39 am)

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Photo Credits: photo by: Kevin Clark capped and submitted by: Jim Balogh

Weekly Round Up: September 29

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: September 29, 2007 (8:56 am)

I can’t believe that October is 2 days away already! A lot of this week’s posts were interesting and I continue to like the variety that these bloggers offer.

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Photo Credit: Williac

That’s it for this week’s weekly round-up. Yee-haw!!!

Sunset Picnic

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: September 28, 2007 (12:24 pm)

Ah, what a nice and romantic idea. I want to thank Leo for the suggestions on how to be romantic while not spending too much money.

 The headache is that it takes effort, right? No, it doesn’t take a huge amount of work to set up and execute. It does take some time, but if you’re griping over ½ hour of work, then my friend, you’re not a romantic.  Relationships take some effort. The key is to be balanced.

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Photo Credit: daveyll  

Here’s an easy menu for a sunset picnic.

It’s really a sweet gesture and it’ll definitely make your day end on a high note and your evenings start on the right foot. The great thing is that you give your spouse what matters most (your time and attention) and you don’t stress out with the mundane things (how much you’ve spent).

Consumerist Asks: Is Fuze Violating Labeling Law By Making Bogus Health Claims?

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: September 27, 2007 (10:29 am)

Consumerist asks about the validity of Center for Science in the Public Interest’s claims that Fuze is engaging in false advertising.

Photo Credit: foTommEn

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The question here is whether Coca Cola(owner of Fuze) is stating that the drinks themselves prevent the health problems listed or is Fuze saying that the vitamins inside the drink could prevent some health problems. I’ve had some bottles of Fuze’s Orange Mango drink. I’ll grab it if I need a drink quick from 7-11, but it’s not my favorite.The label is not the sleekest in advertising, but most consumers could take away from it two things:1. The drink has vitamins.2. These vitamins have been known to help with resistence to some conditions.I wouldn’t put Fuze on a pedastal and say it was doing a great job with marketting, but it’s not false advertising. What do you think?read more | digg story

Clean Apartment: Less Effort

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: September 26, 2007 (1:03 pm)

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Photo Credit: Wools

Do you hate doing a big clean up every week? I know I do.  I’m busy and I don’t have time to clean as well as I like. We get guests over and it can be a hassle to scramble before they come.

Tips for keeping your apartment looking clean, quickly

  • Make your bed after you showered and get dressed. It keeps the appearance neat and gives the bed a chance to air out. Remember to change your sheets once a week.
  • Have one basin filled with soapy water and put dishes in there to do later. This is a source of stress for many couples as one wants the dishes done right away and the other takes their time. A compromise is to have the dishes ‘soaking’ in one basin. That person can come back to it later. If dishes are in the second basin, then it’s time to do all the dishes.
  • Clean as you use in the bathroom. This room can get messy quick, so it’s best to wipe the sink off when your finished and clean around the toilet. When you wait a week to go back and clean, it’s usually disgusting and you put it off more.
  • Throw away excess paper around the front of the apartment. Throw the junk mail out as soon as you get it. By just doing that, it’ll make the apartment seems tidier and more organized.

There you go, just 4 quick things that will make your apartment seem cleaner without scrubbing or toiling a whole day. Little by little helps out more as well.

Quick and Easy Dinners: Stir-fry

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: September 25, 2007 (11:49 am)

Sometimes the best way to save money is to do it yourself. The problem is many of us are crunch on time and believe that it would take an enormous amount of effort to do something well. That’s not true many times and cooking can fall in that category.

Photo Credit: Billingham

Stir-fry is something easy, quick, and usually healthy. If you’re pressed for time, this allows you to have an easy meal usually within 20 minutes and the minimum of effort. Here’s how I do it:

  • Put the meat you picked into a heated wok. My husband doesn’t care for chicken, so we usually have beef with this. Cook it until it’s almost done. Put it on a plate for later. (This minimizing how many dishes have to be clean later.)
  • Boil some water and add the rice in a bag. Keep an eye on it while you move on to the wok.
  • Grab a bag of frozen mixed vegetables from the freezer. Wal-Mart usually has them for 99cents and it’s pre-mixed. My personal favorite is the asparagus stir-fry.
  • Put some olive oil in the wok and and add the vegetables in. Wait until the vegetables are starting to get tender to add the meat. I usually put some soy sauce with the meat and veggies and mix. You want the veggies soft to eat, but not overcooked.
  • Take the rice out of the bag and serve the meat and vegetables over the rice. There you have it; a quick and easy meal!

It comes out to less than $5 for a meal that can feed six people. (I tried it for a small party with friends this weekend.)

Some suggestions on this basic recipe are:

  • Change the seasoning and sauce.
  • Replace the meat with shrimp.
  • Fry some fish and have the veggies as a side.
  • Put some pasta with the vegetables

What quick and easy dinner to you know how to make?

Rich College Student: Saving on Your Grocery Bill

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: September 24, 2007 (10:39 am)


 

 

After last week’s post, I decided to look into ways that my husband and I save money on our grocery bills.

  • Sit down and make a shopping list. This seems really elementary, but it is the most important step. Can’t figure how to make a good food list? Try working backwards. Think of the meals you like to have this month. Do you like spaghetti, chicken wings, or tacos? Break the meals down until you have a list of items.
  • Buy for the month (or longer). Our goal is to go a big grocery shop once a month. We’re not crazy about grocery shopping, so we try to make this as less painful as possible. Wal-Mart typically has the cheapest prices on our core items.
  • The shopping list is king. A shopping list can be tedious at first, but once you get used to it, you’ll save money. You’ll buy what you need to and are less tempted to pick up extras along the way.
  • Buy meat in bulk and freeze. We try to get a huge chunk of ground beef on sale. That tip drops the cost per pound down. When we get home, I immediately portion the meat into several meal sizes.  Bags and freeze it.  I have broken it down for meatloaf, spaghetti, tacos, hamburger helper, etc.
  • Take advantage of sales that you’d actually buy without the sale. Sometimes I want to buy something because it’s on sale. It’s not something that we use a lot or even at all. When you do that you’re not really saving money, you’re spending more. It’s not bad if you do this once a shopping trip if you want to expand your menu, but since you’re on a budget, save it for after graduation when you have more income to work with.
  • Making it yourself can save you money. We do grab a few prepackaged meals for when we’re time crunch, but otherwise we just cook it ourselves.
  • Cut the junk food snacks down. Sometimes grabbing 5 cans of Pringles is a bit too much. Don’t completely stop getting them, just cut down. Your waist and wallet will be grateful.
  • Eat leftovers. Some of the best food I ate was leftovers; pastas taste better the next day. Be reasonable, though, and don’t keep things in the fridge until they grow stuff. Be safe and eat it within the next 2 days. If not, dump it.

As always, please leave your thoughts on how you save money on groceries.

Photo Credit: Jeff Keen

The Top 5 Reasons to Be a Jack of All Trades

By: GreenPanda | Date posted: September 22, 2007 (12:16 pm)

Photo Credit: Zoonabar

I saw this and I immediately had to put this up on the blog. I can relate to wanting to explore different options in life. I switched majors (twice) and while I’m happy with my current major (Business Management), I don’t want to limit myself to just that identity. He brings out some good points and I hope you take time to read this article.

Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek offers his take on the upside to being a jack-of-all-trades.

read more | digg story

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