Debt Kid (who I just love, by the way, despite the whole thing with his mother) just tagged me; but instead of the usual, this time the rules are:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

I love books, so I can handle that. The nearest book that actually has 123 pages in it (we have a lot of Mini Me's books lying around) is How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else by Michael Gates Gill. Here's the excerpt:

"The corrider smelled of bull piss and human sweat. I could hear screams but also cheers behind me. I was not in the mood to play."

So now I'm going to tag:

We Need to Be Debt Free
Where's Mommy's Prozac
Give Me Back My Five Bucks
Thrifty Mommy
Frugal for Life

This month, I have managed to double my business income thanks to a huge project that I took on. This is a good thing since Christmas is coming. (It's also a good thing because I went a little wild last month and drained a savings account that I need to replenish.)

I also found out today that another huge project is coming my way in December, so it looks like the financial "fun" will continue.

I'm leaving next Wednesday for a chi-chi hotel with my husband and daughter. After a hellish Thanksgiving last year, we decided to blow off both sides of the family and create a new tradition that is simply ours. It won't be a cheap Thanksgiving, but then I won't end up in the mental institution or in jail for tossing a turkey at a relative.

As long as I'm babbling on about things that are not even remotely related, I'll continue....

I've been enjoying Broken Arrow's slow-cooker chronicles. Personally, I rarely use the slow cooker because I found that after a while all the meals that came out of it started tasting the same.

Which reminds me that I'm still enjoying the

Quick-Fix Meals cookbook that I checked out from the library. I did buy a copy for $5 on Amazon that was marked as "nearly new." It was pristine, so I decided to give it to my sister for Christmas. However, I'm still going to buy my own copy at a later date.

Last nights' meal out of the book was a chicken enchilada dish that was yummy.

Tonight I've been invited to play Bunko with some neighborhood moms. I've never played Bunko, but rumor has it money could exchange hands so I figured it was worth an evening out on the town.

If I should "strike it rich," I'll let you all know in the morning.

I made the seafood pasta dish from the Quick Fix book tonight and it was YUMMY! It was the same dish as my favorite pasta from Buca Di Peppo -- and just as good. The whole family loved it, so I bought it used tonight online. Well worth the $8.84 (the book plus S&H).

On another note, I actually bought just the right amount of candy to give away for Halloween tonight, so no leftovers lingering around for the next year. However, my daughter brought home a full bag of treats after making her rounds with my husband, sister, mother and Elvis (YES! THE KING LIVES!!!)

I am thinking about buying a cookbook. I never buy books. Instead I check them out from the local library. Every time I go to the library, I grab a new cookbook and try a few recipes from it.

Recently, I've been cooking meals from Robin Miller's Quick Fix Meals and I have to say it's one of the few cookbooks I've used in the last year or so that I think might be worth investing in. Everything I've tried out of it so far has been great, not to mention fast and easy.

Part of her schtick is that she starts with one recipe that includes cooking extra of something, which you then use for three or four other meals. Last night, I whipped up this incredible talapia dish with a sauce that I'll use later in the week with another meal.

Given how crazy busy I am, it might be worth having a book like this around for weeks like this one where I barely have time to sit down -- let alone stand in the kitchen for very long.

Tomorrow's big family Halloween dinner comes out of the cookbook. I've already prepared the sauce part of it. Assuming it's as good as the other recipes I've tried, I think I might splurge and invest in my own copy of the book.

(p.s. Checked PaperbackSwap.com and it's not available there for free, but I found it used -- but NEW -- for $4.85 on Amazon Marketplace. Definitely buying it at that price...)

Here's what I'm reading this week:

Black Monday by R. Scott Reiss.
A hold over from last week's list. ... When a plague attacks the world's oil supply, life as we know it comes to a screeching halt. CDC epidemiologist Gregory Gillette is on the case to save the universe.

Blood Makes the Grass Grow by Johnny Rico.
The raw, uncensored story of Johnny Rico's time fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan with just a touch of dark humor thrown in for good measure.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
Just started it, so all I can say is that it's the story of a boy soldier in Sierra Leone

and, now, for the financial-related part of the post...

Green with Envy: Why Keeping Up with the Jonses Is Keeping Us in Debt by Shira Boss
A not-so-in-depth look at how our neighbors and their luxury lives are keeping us in debt; and what you can do to avoid this ugly little trap. It's a fast read, but feels scattered and superficial at times. Yet, Boss dishes the dirt on her neighbors, which is always worth a listen.

As always, save your money and take advantage of the FREE resources available at your local library. Otherwise, you'll end up broke and in debt like me!

Two of my many jobs involve reading books for pay. Some of the books are new releases, some are upcoming releases and some are long-ago releases.

Even though this is a financial blog, I thought I would start a regular feature listing the books I'm currently reading -- as if any of you care. However, to keep this in the financial realm, I recommend that you borrow these books from your local library or go to someplace like

Paperbackswap.com instead of rushing over to Amazon.com or some other for-profit business to buy them.

So, without further ado, here are the books I'm currently reading:

Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic by John De Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor

Black Monday by R. Scott Reiss


Deception Point by Dan Brown