The Reinvention Continues…

–by Carla

As Heather embarks on her new, fabulash career as an interior designer and Katy gets ready to start working on her latest Hollywood hit TV show, I’m here in suburban Dallas, trying not to eff up dinner each night. And so, the reinvention of Carla the Career Radio News Anchor continues…

Yay, the stove's right behind me....mocking me...can you hear it?

I have made a little headway in the kitchen, but not as much as I’d hoped by now. I mean, I was laid off 9 months ago. You’d think I’d have gotten the hang of being a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) by now. But I was “baptized by fire” for this venture, so I try to cut myself a little slack every now and then. It’s not like I started out as a SAHM with my firstborn, then eased into baby #2. I woke up one day and was all of a sudden a SAHM of 2 baby boys…with zero experience.

This week, I did manage to cook a few dishes that didn’t end up crossed out on my “Can Cook This Again” list. I whipped up a chicken and rice casserole Sunday that was inspired by the one and only Campbell’s soup can. Yup, I got me some inspiration at the grocery store last week. I thought, “This looks pretty easy…even *I* can’t screw this one up”. And it was pretty ok. My next bit of inspiration came at the checkout line and one of those little books about “fun cooking for kids” or something. You know the ones…food that looks cute and fun and MAYbe, just maybe, your picky, doesn’t-want-to- ever-eat-anything-at-all, toddler will actually want to eat this stuff. So I then cooked up some chicken strips breaded in crushed corn chips and some other stuff. The breading didn’t even smell appealing to me, but whatever, if Toddler Boy eats it…then fine. I also made some Italian breading-coated chicken strips to go with the giant batch of pasta and sauce I’d made earlier (bc I’m up to HERE with chicken most days). If you’re following along (and I am not), that’s roughly 4 semi-successful meals in about 3 days. I also whipped up my always enjoyable Mexican Casserole which is a lot like what ya get at Chipotle…and even *I* can’t screw up that dish. I’ve made baby Dean several home-cooked meals in the Magic Bullet (bless you, PopPop and Granny for THAT Christmas gift)..and last night I cranked out perhaps the greatest banana bread I have ever cranked out. (For the record, baking does not freak me out like cooking does, for some weird reason)

Success!

…Not really. See, my palate is accustomed to a certain level of yum that my current culinary skills simply cannot deliver. That is a terrible feeling. Talk about champagne taste on a beer budget. It stinks when you’ve eaten at some of the tastiest places on earth, yet you are serving up stuff that a 3rd grader could cook.

It is nice, though, to cook things that my family will actually eat. My very favorite morning this week was when Donald ate my banana bread for breakfast and Dean had a few bites as well, along with his standard baby grub. My heart was huge with joy. Still is.

And lastly this week, in an attempt to save a little money …since I was accidentally poking the boys with my crazy, out of control nails…I hacked them off myself. A good old-fashioned “Recession Manicure”…

Wow, practical AND sexy

…and the tips of my fingers are STILL numb. TOO SHORT. Plus I sliced open the ring finger on my right hand the other day opening the knife drawer. In all, I had 1 bum thumb and 2 bum fingers on the same hand…all while trying to do all of this cooking …just this week. Not to mention the vacuuming, dusting, laundry, laundry, laundry, baby care (all of it), play dates, time-outs, and the who-knows-whats.

Most days I feel like all the other moms are doing a waaaay better job than me…and that I should be waaaay better in the kitchen that I am, that my house should be cleaner, that I should get out more often and host play dates more often and try to meet other moms more often and lose more of this baby weight …and so on, but I also know that I am doing the absolute best that I possibly can.

I also know that I am having the time of my life. A lot of people really don’t understand that, though. I mean, how can you be happy about having lost your nearly six figure income? Easy…

…I feel like pinching myself because I am living my dream. So what if my cooking stinks right now and money is tight. I’ll learn to cook. In fact, one of my awesome girlfriends …who is very awesome in the kitchen…is organizing cooking classes at her  home coming up soon. I can’t WAIT! (I’m sure I’m not alone on that one…)

…and yes, I do know that there are about 14 different fonts on here. My eyeballs are glazing over. I need a font czar.

Back to the Basics

–by Carla

Happy Sunday, everyone! Today’s guest writer is Lydia, a friend from way back. She was a teacher of mine at the University of North Texas. We always called her “Aunt Lydia” back then, mainly because she was young and cool just like we were. She likes to say, “One of my claims to fame is that I taught Carla everything she knows about studio television…. which may explain why she pursued a career in radio…” Ha! We stayed in touch a bit over the years and reconnected recently. I found out that she is a big fan of saving money (love her!) and is now a big fan of RM (love her more!). So here is “Aunt” Lydia, in her own words:

In Proverbs it says – “The debtor is slave to the lender.” (Proverbs 22:7)  Anyone want to stand up and testify?  How many of us have felt like all we do is pay bills and wonder how we’ll do it again next month?  How many of us would like to know we have some money tucked away for a “rainy day”?  How many of you guys and gals have little ones that you’re worried about funding their college education? 

I love the RecessionMommas site, so in the spirit of cost cutting, I’m going to discuss some of the principles I learned from Dave Ramsey – the author of THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER and host of radio and television.  Dave’s advice is going to sound eerily familiar to those who actually listened to their grandparents on occasion. 

1. DON’T SPEND MONEY YOU DON’T HAVE.  Simple and to the point.  It also means we have to be mature (yikes!) enough to save up for something we want, not just run out and charge it.   

2. GET RID OF THE CREDIT CARDS – I know, I know!  For those of us who got our first credit card when we were in college, the thought of living without one sends a chill down our spines!  I have managed to cancel and cut up all but 2 of mine.  (One card gives me Amazon.com points!)  Seeing that when I started the “Dave Plan” I had about 8 cards, I have definitely made progress.  I pay them off each month, but that still goes against “the Dave Plan” because we do tend to spend more $$ when we charge things rather than forking over the cash. 

A side story (ADD kicking in) – I recently called Discover card to cancel my account with them.  They had sent me one of those lovely letters telling me they were raising my interest rate for no reason other than they wanted to.  So, I took the opportunity to sever my ties with them.  

When they transferred me to the correct department, the guy tried to talk me into staying with them.  No prob, it’s his job.  But, he keep warning me that my FICO score was going to drop, that I’d been a customer since 1988, since I pay off my card each month it really didn’t matter what the interest rate was… What finally got me laughing was when he said “We’ve had a very long relationship…”  I told him, “Relationship? It wasn’t like I was going to invite you to my wedding.” Ha! 

I tell you this story not only to amuse you, but to show you that the credit card companies will try to persuade you that the worse thing in the world is to cancel their card.  Always remember, these are the same companies that instantly slap you with late fees and jack up your interest rate if your payment arrives 1 minute after 12pm the day it’s due.  Relationship my big fat, errr, toe! 

1. MAKE A BUDGET – it’s not as horrible as it sounds!  If you will plan your spending each month, you will spend less.  A quick way to get started (and to figure out where you are bleeding cash) is to write down everything you spend.  It’s shocking how much stopping at Starbucks, or my personal favorite, Dunkin Donuts, a few days a week actually costs!  Buy the coffee at the store and make it at home.  It saves lots of $$!

 

Dave Ramsey says to spend your money on paper before you spend it for real.  For those of us “free spirit” “creative” types, that can be a little hard to do.  Try drawing doodles in the margins to illustrate all the money you’re going to save by doing your budget. J 

4.  BECOME A WISE SAVER AND INVESTOR.  We all need an “emergency fund” in a savings account where we can get our hands on it.  You must be wise about your definition of an “emergency”.  Sorry ya’ll, but Nordstrom’s shoe sale IS NOT an emergency…. 

Investing can be a bit intimidating, at least it was for me…  I kept thinking, “If I screw this up, I’ll be eating dog food in my old age!”  However, we can’t let fear keep us from educating ourselves and just doing it.  Our biggest asset is TIME.  The younger we are when we start investing, the longer the magic of compound interest works for us.  For those of us who aren’t quite so young, it means we need to be even more intense. 

Ok, this is enough for now.  I will leave you with the SEVEN BABY STEPS that Dave Ramsey teaches – 

BABY STEP 1 – $1,000 to start an Emergency Fund

BABY STEP 2 – Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball (see website for details)

BABY STEP 3 – 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings

BABY STEP 4 – Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement

BABY STEP 5 – College funding for children

BABY STEP 6 – Pay off home early

BABY STEP 7 – Build wealth and give!  Invest in mutual funds and real estate. 

For more info on Dave Ramsey, see http://www.daveramsey.com/ 

BIG thanks to Lydia for being our guest writer today!

Save Green, Go Green

–By Carla

Let me make something perfectly clear: I am not a tree hugger.

Ok so I did hug this ONE tree. Fine. But there was a perfectly good reason for it. It was a really beautiful day in downtown Dallas and my sweet Grandmother and I wanted to give this tree a great big hug, so we did. I mean seriously, look at that thing…it’s a monster. Gorgeous. Just to be clear here, actually wrapping your arms around a tree does not make one a radical “tree hugger”. I don’t go around keying Hummers and burning down new home developments like those crazed ding dongs. I’ve just always felt I had a duty to do my part, small as it may be, to not junk up my little patch of Earth.

Oh and happy Day!

My big brother and I were raised to “think green” even before being “green” was anything other than a queasy physical state. Best example: Mom made us bring our lunch bags home from school each day (do kids even use those anymore?)…and it really drove the nuns  at St. Pius crazy. After lunch in the school cafeteria, the nuns would go around to make sure we all threw our trash away properly but noooooooo, Carla had to neatly fold up her little brown bag and bring it back home. Drove the nuns insane. But that’s how Mom wanted it. And to this day I still cannot see Mom as an environmentalist. She’s not, I don’t think… I don’t really know what possessed her. But anyway, the seeds were planted years ago.

Using canvas bags at the grocery store is second nature for me these days. And because of  the loss of my income, I’m at the grocery store more than ever…picking out things that I actually cook now (and occasionally torch by mistake).

We used to buy packages of everything. If we wanted mashed potatoes, we picked up those plastic tubs of potatoes you stick in the microwave. (SO wrong on SO many levels, but that’s another story) If we wanted lemon or lime juice, we snagged those cute little plastic bottles of juice. Our orange juice came in gigantic plastic jugs. Soap Shower gel bottles clogged up our shower. We bought bagged lettuce and so on and so forth. We both worked crazy hours and figured this was the only way to go.  

Talk about change. Since my layoff…we do things quite differently when it comes to our groceries, mainly out of a need to save money. Then I started noticing the environmental impact of those changes. For instance,  if I’m going to whip up mashed potatoes, I now actually MASH potatoes. What a concept! That means no more plastic tub. We try to buy fewer of those shower gel products. A couple of bars of soap do just fine. That means no more plastic bottles. We now buy cans of frozen orange juice. Again, no more gigantic plastic bottles. And sure, most of those plastics CAN be recycled, but I think about it like this:  it took petroleum to make (some of) the plastics in the first place and it will take energy to recycle that jug or bottle into whatever it’s going to turn into. So we just skip it now, when possible.

Even though we are trying to save money, we do still buy quite a few organic products mainly for the boys, since they’re so little now. But you don’t have to buy EVERYthing organic…and that’s where you can cut corners.

As for beef and poultry, I actually buy raw beef and poultry now and (attempt to) cook it myself. Again, what a concept, right!? We used to buy meats that were prepared and packaged in their plastic tubs…the ones that you toss into the microwave. We’d also buy chicken that was pre-marinated. Now, mama’s doing all the marinating. I’m a marinating fool and I love it. I won’t lie, it was a HUGE adjustment for me to start cooking beef and chicken on my own. For the record, I honestly do not know one other girl my age who knows as little about cooking as me. No one. (I’m rollin’ out the bus…here we go) Up until just a few months ago, I, RecessionMama Carla, had a totally irrational fear of raw chicken. Just couldn’t bring myself to touch it. Not unless I was fully protected against our evil friends, Sal, Moe and Nella….

…but since buying a Hazmat suit was totally not in the trimmed down budget, I had to put on my big girl britches, ask Mom to step aside (yes, she was helping me cook chicken for a few weeks..I’ll admit it. Thanks Ma!) and just grope that chicken while trying to keep from fainting. But it got easier. Now I’m an old pro at it. I was tested recently however, when…covered in chicken juice…I discovered hundreds of millions of ants had invaded my pantry. The old me would have passed out, come to, then called 911, but RecessionMama stood firm, rinsed off, grabbed some ammo and opened a can on those pantry ants.  

Who knew that cutting corners would actually lead to 1) good things for our planet and 2) repeated examples of britch hitchin’.  

(Maybe I am a tree hugger after all…..)

–Carla

Tax Day In A Recession. Lovely.

—By Carla

So here it is, April 15th, TAX DAY…and I have another confession to make. This one may actually be a little more painful than telling the world that I recently started getting my eyebrows shaped at a mall kiosk in order to save money (and not even a Dallas mall…a suburban mall).

So here goes: I have never done my own taxes. That is actually quite embarrassing and hard to admit, being a grown woman and all and having (up until recently) had a thriving career, making very good money, and always surrounded by very smart people.

I told you up front that I was going to be brutally honest. That means throwing myself under the bus whenever necessary…and at times even kicking it into reverse and backing over myself a time or two. Well, fill ‘er up with diesel and fire up the back-up beeps because here we go…

In my (single days) 20’s, I used to pay someone to do my taxes. It always made sense to me to hire a professional to do the heavy lifting if something really boggled my mind …(see: hair nightmare). I simply cannot imagine myself hunkered down on the floor in the family room surrounded by piles of receipts and a giant calculator with a mile-long spool of paper, clicking away at the numbers. The same goes for health insurance paperwork…my brain just isn’t wired to handle that. I’d rather sit in an ant pile.

It’s not in my nature to be still for very long stretches of time. That’s why going into the news business was such a perfect fit for me. Like Katy’s career as a TV producer in L.A., no day in a newsroom is ever the same (and Heather knows this as well, being in the biz). I love(d) the action, the uncertainty of what might come during my shift. So sitting for hours on end…focused on one thing isn’t happening.

These days the hubby does the taxes and it seems that he even enjoys it. He does makes a good point (sorry accountant friends) when he says that the tax preparing people I used to pay are just plugging numbers into a computer program and we can do the same at home. Fair enough. Have at it…just leave me out of it.

That being said, (and I know..it’s never too late) I do wish I had learned or taught myself to do my own taxes. Because if this recession and my layoff have taught me anything, it’s that we are each in charge of our own destiny. That handing your fate over to someone else leaves you with zero guarantees and that taking risks and chances may actually pay off. Had I learned in my 20s how to do my own taxes, maybe I would have been more careful with my money during the rest of the year.

As for the big tax deadline, the hubby is always very much on the ball with that stuff (he has more patience than should be legally allowed) …and our tax refund is already in the bank. Thankfully, that is. Because some of our friends in other states may not be getting ANYthing back, thanks to this recession. Can you even imagine doing your taxes, thinking you have money coming back, then not getting any? Again, ant pile.

Like I said, we did get some back this year and this recession mama would, of course, love to leave that money alone, honey. But there is that old part of me that says “oh, come on…spend a little here and there, it’s fine”.

After all, I’d be helping the struggling economy right? RIGHT?

—Carla

I Am So Much Better Looking In A Bull Market

—By Carla

I cannot tell you how much money I’ve spent lately in an attempt to save money since my layoff. Unlike Katy, we don’t have a year’s worth of savings in the bank. Today I force myself to rationalize my “normal” expenses. At the very least, I can laugh at this. So here’s a little Friday fun…

Ok, so getting my highlights done at my fancy Dallas salon could wait. I’d simply color my hair at home, right? Probably not a terrible idea if you’re sticking close to your natural color, but not me. Nope, I was bored and wanted lighter hair. (Hair therapy. Y’all know what I’m talking about. Don’t act like you don’t) The box of color at the grocery store was about $8. Lovely, I ended up looking like a penny. Stupid copper hair. That does not look good on anyone. The next box..another $8, made things even worse. Now I was a borderline redhead. NOT a good look for a Lebanese girl with olive skin. So the third box was supposed to fix everything. Supposed to. “Born Blonde”, it was called. Cool. Ok. Let’s just say that this box was $10 because it’s all a blur at this point. And let me be the 1st to admit: I was not Born Blonde. Total disaster. Now I was begging for copper hair because my new bright orange hair was downright embarrassing. Stupid recession! I’d have to go to my fancy Dallas salon to have this fixed. I had no choice. So instead of just going to the salon in the first place to have my highlights touched up, I ended up spending $30-something dollars THEN going to the salon where I had to shell out around $150 to have it all fixed. For the record, I did call the hot-line number on the back of the color box. Not once, not twice, but about 5 times. They started asking me how the kids were doing after a while, we got to know each other so well. I did see a news story a few weeks back saying that the phones were ringing off the hook at the do-it-yourself hair color companies. I guess that means there are lots more copper heads out there wandering around wearing ball caps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried to hide it as best as I could for my trip to the salon that day.

Next … the clothing fiasco. Again, trying to save money has cost me so much damn money lately…because I’m just not used to it! I’d buy whatever I wanted (within reason, or course). A few weeks ago I saw a table of $6 clothes at a store that specializes in Gardens and Ridges, not clothing, but hey… $6 sounded good. Until, that is, I brought them home, forgot to read the labels, plopped them all in the washer on the totally wrong settings and ruined not just the NEW clothes, but all the existing clothes that were in the wash. DAMMIT! So, now my $6 clothes had turned into $12 clothes because you better believe I went back to buy the same clothes I’d just ruined. Arrrrgggggg!

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is nothing wrong with your computer. The blouse and pant should be white. And see the string on the other one? Said Hand Wash. They clearly meant that.

Then there’s the mani/pedi crisis. Shelling out $35 for glorious toes and another $30 or so on lovely hands had to end. I gave myself my OWN “Recession Manicure”. Honey, I just cut those nails OFF. The toes are a different story. With a 2-year-old and a baby, it’s hard to find time to kick back, clean ’em up, slap some paint on there, then wander around like a penguin with those toe separators until they dry. It just isn’t happening. I HAVE decided to scrape together my pennies and get a pedi, it’s just a matter of finding the time to go do it.  Plus, if you have 1 good pedi, you can keep up the work at home with some easy touch-ups. I happen to be way past the touch-up point.  

And don’t even get me started on eyebrow maintenance. I do those myself now. And of course it’s had disastrous results. It looks like half of my face was singed in the oven. (I’m an over-plucker, what can I say.) Shortly before I was laid off, I started feeling guilty about spending $30 every 2 weeks (or so) on eyebrow shaping. So I cut back. Instead of going to my OTHER fancy Dallas salon, I found a place at the mall. There, I said it. The mall. And it wasn’t even a salon. It was….ready? A kiosk. I had started getting my eyebrows done at a kiosk in the mall because it was much cheaper than the fancy salon. But even now, it’s too much to spend on a regular basis. I see that money and all I can think about is how much food I can buy with it. I will go every now and then because after all, I am Lebanese and we like to grow hair and if I don’t keep up with it, I WILL end up looking like Chewbacca.

 

 

 

 

 

 

...I'm just sayin'....

Yes I will be getting those bad boys worked on. And again, when you have it done once and done well, it’s easy to keep it up at home.

Unless you’re an over-plucker.

Meet Carla

I was supposed to have my hair done at my fancy Dallas salon just before Christmas, 2008. In fact, my appointment was for 10:30 the morning of December 12, 2008. Cut, color, style, the whole mess. I would drop about $200 including tip that morning. But the universe had other plans for me that day. I was called into the office (a major radio chain) for a 10:00am meeting on the last day of my maternity leave with Dean, my 2nd son. My highlights would have to wait. My “position had been eliminated”. I had just been laid off. And just like that, in the snap of a finger, my life was sent spinning. Everything was up in the air. And since no one is exactly handing out radio news anchor jobs right now, for the first time in my life, I’ve joined the ranks of the unemployed, just like millions of other hard-working Americans.

I’m Carla Marion, wife and mom to 2 super cool baby boys. I’ve never had to budget or save money a day in my life. Until now, that is. And boy what a learning experience this has been so far! (Coupons, seriously…? And I have to cook my own meals now? Lovely)

I will, at times, be brutally honest about this new journey … but most times I try to laugh about it all. So join me on my penny pinching adventure as my family and I learn how to make do with the money we do have.