Today I was REALLY craving chocolate, but of course wanted to keep this as a no spend day. So I looked through my stockpile to see what I could come up with. I came across the box of Brownie mixes that I'd bought from Sam's club back in November (my class was having a bake sale, and I needed something really quick - no thinking.) The box came with 5 mixes (worked out to maybe $1.15 per mix when I bought it I think.) I used two of them to make 40 brownies for the bake sale (got lots of compliments on them -- all of them sold at $.50 a piece.)

So, anyway, I decided to make up one mix of brownies. I had two eggs leftover from when I made the Aebleskeber's for the party last week, so I used those. I also have a gallon? bottle of vegetable oil that I bought maybe 4 or 5 years ago that's only half-used, so I used some more of that. So, at no cost to me, I was able to satisfy my chocolate craving for today, plus have enough brownies left over to take to school on Monday for my students as a nice little treat. I probably should have put together a roast or casserole at the same time since I was heating up the oven, as well as getting the kitchen messy anyway. Oh well, will do that next time.

Oh! I received my latest electric bill today. I put myself on the budget bill system. When I first started with it about 15 months ago it was at about $74 a month. It's pretty much been steadily decreasing every month since then. I think there was only two or three times where it jumped up by a few dollars. Anyway, today's latest bill (budget bill) was for . . . . . 58.55!!

Since I live alone, I essentially never turn on the heat or the a/c. During the winter I just majorly bundle up, and use an electic blanket on my bed (with a few quilts on top of it to keep the heat where it belongs!) It really doesn't make much sense for me to turn my heat on usually, because my downstairs NEVER gets warm no matter what, and usually if I'm upstairs, I can snuggle up in my bed. I rent a townhome and their a/c / heat unit gauge thingy is NOT very accurate. I SO look forward to the day when I own my own home and can install one of those programmable thermostats and do all those things that you can do to save on energy costs.

Keeping It Frugal in Texas,
Laura