10/30/2010

SAVE money


Opt out of overdraft charges with every checking account

Join a credit union to get one of their cheaper rate VISA or Mastercard

NEVER pay for a service to follow your credit

Pay a bank to run your tri-merged report to prepare to refinance or buy

Work on improving your FICO score by reallocating debts to less than 69% of line

Opt out of credit card offers 1(888) 567-8688

Refinance with little cost while the rates are down

Cut US stock market exposure and sell some

Trade/ bargain/ stop buying

10/29/2010

Halloween Dinner

Easy Fall Dinner before Trick of Treating


2 Tablespoons good olive oil

Chopped fine 1 onion ( maui sweet if you can find)

6 smashed plum fresh roma tomatoes

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

2 teaspoons dried oregano (or 1 ½ fresh)

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

6 cups chicken broth

2 cups coarse corn meal (polenta)

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

12 sausages- I like the turkey ones but mix sweet/hot/flavored

Get your grill hot and throw on the sausages whole . (Ten minutes)

In a large skillet medium heat warm the olive oil add onion and sauté about 4 minutes

Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, fennel seeds raise heat cook abou

7 minutes.

Have one of your children get the sausages off the barbeque and place them in an oven proof pan.

Put them in the oven to stay warm on lowest temperature (200)

At the same time in another sauce pan heat the chicken stock to a boil. Wisk and stir the corn meal into

The hot broth and lower heat to lowest setting. Stir about 14 minutes.

Add the tomato sauce into the creamy thick polenta.



To serve- the polenta is spooned on the plate and the sausages are cut in half.

The polenta will be somewhat orange- you might want to add orange bell pepper on the grill if you really want to be fancy (sliced and rubbed with olive oil grill in about 4 minutes)
Salt and pepper to taste - red chili flakes if they will eat hot

10/25/2010

Drip Mail Campaign

Direct mail used to be the mortgage standard to connect with our farm list. However, the cost to mail in printing, paper organizing and United States postage has increased not proportionate to how income has fallen. I miss my junk mail.


I received few or no direct mail campaigns with this last refinance interest rate drop. Is it because so many of the thousands of Mortgage Companies in Orange County have closed? Perhaps this is a contributing factor. Why do the remaining banks and direct lenders in Laguna Beach and Newport Beach no longer even drop me junk mail in a plastic zip lock bag?

I saved all the offers for mortgage rates that arrived in my mailbox, door jam and thrown on my front pergola. Why would I save the papers? Quarterly I laid them all over my living room floor and asked my two best consumers (my teenagers) which ones were visually appealing. I gave the remaining pile of four winners to my Mom (a generation above consumer) to pick her top two. This provided market information. Most of all it gave me what to copy. Is not that what Pablo Picasso said? “Combining the best from smart artists gave him creative input.” So please put me back on your mailing list. I am preparing my next advertising campaign and with so few competitors, perhaps my neighbors in Beacon Hill will actually call me.

Drip mail campaign- will Dana Point residents hate it if I put in a baggy and put them on every drive way?