About Me

I am a twenty-something suburbanite working in the field of finance. But long before I worked in finance, I was interested in personal finance. I grew up in a multi-generational household in the Greater New York City area and we all knew the value of a dollar. Frugal habits were not just for fun, they were a necessity. As I got older, I turned to the internet to learn about investing and paying for college without losing my shirt. This blog is my attempt to give back to the online community that taught me so much about personal finance. You can stay sassy while staying in the black!

Popular posts from this blog

How to Re-Upholster Dining Room Chairs

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Re-upholstering chairs be a great way to change the look of your whole dining room just by changing the color or pattern of your seats. Once you are confident in how to re-cover chairs, you can buy a dining room set secondhand or re-vamp an inherited set rather than paying retail for new furniture. While you could certainly take the chairs to an upholsterer, it is much more economical to complete this project on your own. A professional upholsterer will likely charge about $40 to re-cover a dining room chair, which you will see is quite a simple task. Your kitchen set of 4 chairs would cost you $160 in that case, and a dining room set of 6 would cost $240 to re-finish. You will also have to go through the hassle of finding the right professional, and possibly transporting the chairs to and from their establishment. The finished products Re-Upholstering Made Easy You'll need just a few materials to get started: A staple gun (with staples, of course) Several yards of u
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Meatless Meals: Greek Spinach Pie

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This spinach pie recipe has been passed down through my husband's family. My husband's Greek family is from Ioannina, a city in northwestern Greece. The Jewish community in Ioannina prepared a number of unique dishes, mostly focused on vegetarian foods containing dairy products in keeping with Kosher dietary rules.  Other Jewish families in Ioannina add feta cheese to this recipe, which I think sounds delicious, as well. The original version, which uses plain unseasoned matzo meal, get most of its flavor from the spinach and grated cheese topping. Personally, I use seasoned breadcrumbs and add garlic and onion powder to taste to bump up the flavor. This pie has no crust, which saves you the trouble of buying or rolling out a pie crust! Ingredients: 2 packages (10 oz each) of frozen chopped spinach, drained 2 eggs, beaten 8 oz farmer cheese (or cottage cheese) 4 oz cream cheese 1 tsp salt Handful of matzo meal (I always use Italian seasoned breadcrumbs) Grated cheese
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What to Do with Stale Bread

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Sometimes you find yourself with an abundance of stale bread. For me, this happens when I've baked a loaf or two, or after going to the bakery, then life gets in the way and we haven't been able to eat it all. This is also common after setting out a bread basket for a family or holiday dinner. There are some thrifty dishes you can make to use up that stale bread without letting it go to waste. Waste not, want not! Some leftover bread from Christmas Dinner. Panzanella Salad This Italian salad uses chunks of stale bread almost like croutons. The delicious ripe tomatoes and dressing rehydrate the bread. Since it is a style of salad, I would say you likely don't need a set recipe to put it together, but here are some suggested ingredients: Tomatoes (cut cherry or grape tomatoes in half to release juices) Cucumbers Stale bread (recommend French, Italian, or Portuguese bread) Pepperoncini Basil leaves Dressing of your choice (I would use extra-virgin olive
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