Better Know a Cupcake

This is the 1st installment of my 75 part series, Better Know a Cupcake. Today I am featuring Pineapple Right-Side Up cupcakes. The fighting Pineapple!
These are vegan, and they are delicious. My husband bought me a FABULOUS new cookbook for Christmas. 75 yummy vegan cupcake recipes. 75! WOW! I have lots of baking to do. The book is written by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I have a girl crush on her. Her writing is so funny and clever. I highly recommend her first cookbook Vegan With a Vengeance. It is the only cookbook that has ever held my attention for more than 2 minutes. And it taught me how to bake. That is an impressive feat.

I know what you're thinking Why would I buy a vegan cookbook? I am not vegan. Because the recipes taste delicious! Shit, every meal you eat doesn't have to be loaded with animal products. It is good to have diversity in your life. And wouldn't it be great to have cupcake and cookie recipes that you could make, even if you were out of eggs and milk? The answer is YES.

Up next, Chocolate Mint Cupcakes.

Woe is me

It turns out that paying off debt is really hard - especially when you start a new payment plan a week after Christmas. My husband's paycheck was deposited into our account on the 1st of January. By the 2nd, we had paid all of our bills (a considerable portion of his check went directly to our credit card). When the dust had settled, we had a whooping $150 left over. That money needs to last us until the 15th. Oh shit! Maybe we are being a little too aggressive with our new budget.

I usually spend about $150 at the grocery store very week. And $50 more at Target. Fuckity, fuck, fuck. This is going to be hard. I know we can do it, but I am not looking forward to it. We are going to be eating lots of beans and rice over the next few months. And I am going to attempt to potty train both of my kids next week. That alone will save us at least $40 a month. I know Porgie is ready for this obstacle, but I am a little worried about Izzy. I have nothing to lose, so we are going to try anyways.

I know that every month won't be this hard. Due to Christmas spending, our checking account was practically empty when John's paycheck was deposited. That is not the norm. Next month will be better. But regardless, THIS month is going to be really tough. Be expecting lots of complaints and whining for the next 27 days.

I love 2011!

I am not really a resolutions type of girl, but this year I have a goal I am striving toward. Namely, I want to be debt free by the end of 2010 (excluding our mortgage, of course). No credit cards, no auto loans, no dental bills, NO DEBT!

Although I wouldn't say that John and I are bad with money, we could certainly be better. On the pros side, we always pay our bills on time, John loves donating to worthy causes, and we even manage to save a little money every month (not much, but we do save a little). On the cons side, we spend way too much at the grocery store, I have an addiction to Target, and my husband loves those no interest/no payments deals. He will buy anything if they offer him no interest for a year.

In the long run, there are so many things we want to achieve financially. We want to save more money (so we don't have to rely on credit cards anymore). We want to start college funds for the kids. We want to put more money in our retirement account. We want to refinish our basement. We want to remodel our kitchen. But we can't do any of these things until we pay off our credit cards.

We have discussed our options and have figured out a budget for the upcoming year. According to our plan, we will only have to pinch pennies for the next 10 to 11 months. This means no big purchases, no new clothes, no eating out. If we can follow through with our plan, we will be debt free by the end of 2010.

Basically, 2010 is going to be a crappy year. But 2011 is going to be AWESOME!