I'm So Excited and I Just Can't Hide It (Since a Blog Is Public Domain)

Well folks, here in the Seward house we FINALLY have Internet. I cannot tell you how sad it is to go without Internet this long. You know, since it's been a week and a half. There are plenty of sacrifices I can make to save money, say the fact that we haven't had cable for over 3 years (except for the time we lived with the in-laws), and I am all for covering up windows and putting things at the base of doors to keep the draft out, even if it means I only save $5 a month on my electric and gas bills. But I am here to tell you about some money saving tips for television and movies that can make you oh so happy!

Television: Like I mentioned, we haven't had cable television in 3 years. We did away with Cox back then and we were paying around $50/month just for the basic channels. That was difficult for the hubby since he really wanted to go up with our cable package and get digital channels. We also had a TiVo machine which was costing us $12.95 a month in service to record our favorite shows. This was also at a time when I wasn't in school and we didn't have an active toddler who only can stand television if Nemo is swimming around on it or the Bubble Guppies are singing their catchy little songs. Now that we live on our own again, we do need a little bit of entertainment so we decided to try out Hulu Plus. After the one week trial, we will be paying $7.99 a month for all the television shows (except for Happy Endings, which they don't have and which happens to be a HI-LARIOUS show) we normally would watch and record. So let's do the math:

What we used to spend:

Cable: $50/mo

TiVo to record it: $12.95/mo

What we spend now:

Hulu Plus: $7.99/mo

Savings:

$54.96/mo or $659.52/ year!!! That's a nice little vacation!

Movies: Movies here is Wichita are expensive. $10 for a ticket and then if you want food, you have to donate your left lung for a plate of fries and a sip of Diet Pepsi. Rentals aren't too bad, with the Redbox and Blockbuster Express kiosks everywhere, but Redbox upped their price from $1 to $1 and some odd cents and that just doesn't fly with me! Family Video isn't too bad with their prices and tend to have a decent selection, but if you are late returning your movie, after two days you could have purchased the movie for cheaper than the late fee you are paying. Justin and I suck at returning things on time. Like movies. And library books. And items we borrow. So Netflix has been a decent choice for us. We just get the streaming selection and pay $8 a month for that. So for our movies, documentaries, and some tv shows, we pay less than going out to the Warren! Not too shabby.

How do you save money on your entertainment?

Adrianna

Chicken Dorito Casserole

Doritos for dinner? Sounds bad, huh? Well, it is. But oh so delicious! I found the original recipe at plainchicken.com. They have some awesome sounding recipes and I plan to try a lot more. I changed the original recipe a little.

Ingredients:

1 bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos, crushed (I used a whole bag but I think you could get by with half a bag. It was almost too much.)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can rotel
1 can corn, drained well
1 cup shredded mexican cheese, divided
garlic salt, pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray. Pour crushed Doritos into the pan.

2. Heat olive oil in a skillet and grill cubed chicken with garlic salt and pepper. Cook until completely done.

3. Add soups, rotel, corn and 1/2 cup of cheese.

4. Pour the chicken mixture over Doritos.

5. Bake for 20 minutes.

6. Top with remaining cheese (extra if you want) and bake for another 5 to 7 minutes or until cheese is melted.

I used Clancy's Nacho Cheese chips, which taste exactly like Doritos. The original recipe calls for a cup of sour cream, but I forgot it. I also cut the cheese amount down a little because I felt so guilty about having Doritos for dinner. And I also served it with broccoli to at least make it look some what healthy. But it was fabulous!

Sherylyn