Right now [restaurant.com] is selling $25 gift certificates for $10, which isn’t a bad start, but from now until Halloween, entering TREATS at the checkout applies a second 80% discount to the sales price. The result is a supremely cheap $25 gift card for just $2. Want to aim higher? The same discount applies to more expensive gift cards as well, so you can snag a $50 gift card for $4, $100 for $8, and so on.

Energy bars are great for munching on between classes, but they usually run upwards of $1 each. That can be a serious blow to any student’s budget so here are some recipes to make your own:

Classic Energy Bars

Materials:

• 3 cups wheat cereal
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or other)
• 1/2 cup chopped pitted dates or raisins
• 1/4 cup chopped dried cherries
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup agave nectar (found at health food stores; can use honey instead, but not as good)
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• a little extra margarine for pan

Procedure:
Spread margarine in a 9 inch by 9 inch glass pan using a piece of kitchen paper and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix cereal, walnuts, dates, cherries in a bowl.

Mix peanut butter, agave nectar, and corn syrup in a saucepan and bring to boil. Stir constantly afterwards for about 1 minute.

Put peanut butter mixture over cereal mixture in bowl, and stir. Put in baking pan. Bake 10 minutes.

Once done, let the mixture cool, cut into squares, and either eat or store in a zip-lock bag at room temperature for later enjoyment.

[Nutrition Facts: serving size: one bar | 180 Calories | 4 gr. Protein | 8 gr. fat | 22 gr. Carbohydrate]

Granola Bars

Materials:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 cup agave nectar (found at health food stores; can use honey instead, but not as good)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 ounce unsalted margarine (get the healthy kind, it is worth it)
• a little extra margarine for pan
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 1/2 ounces chopped dried fruit (apricots, cherries, blueberries, or a mixture)

Procedure:
Spread margarine in a 9 inch by 9 inch glass pan using a piece of kitchen paper and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Put oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, and wheat germ in a half-sheet pan. Put in oven for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Mix agave nectar, brown sugar, margarine, vanilla and salt in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the sugar has dissolved.

When the oats are done, reduce the oven to 300 degrees F and add the oats to your saucepan. Add fruit. Spread this mixture into the margarine-ized pan. Bake for 25 minutes.

Once done, let the mixture cool, cut into squares, and either eat or store in a zip-lock bag at room temperature for later enjoyment.

Protein Bars

Materials:

• 1 cup soy protein powder
• 1/2 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup dried blueberries
• 1/2 cup dried apricots
• 1 package soft tofu
• 1/2 cup unfiltered apple juice
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup applesauce (can also use 2 smashed bananas)
• 2/3 cup natural peanut butter
• a little oil for pan (Canola oil will work fine)
• parchment paper

Procedure:
Put parchment paper on the bottom of a 13 inch by 9 inch pan and coat with a small but of oil. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine protein powder, bran, flour, wheat germ, and salt in a mixing bowl.

Chop all the fruits (minus the bananas which if you are using them should be smashed) and set aside.

Whisk the tofu until it is smooth in another mixing bowl. Add the following one at a time while whisking: apple juice, brown sugar, applesauce (or smashed bananas), and peanut butter. Add this mixture to the protein mixture in the first bowl, mix. Add the fruits (you will need to fold them into the mixture). Bake for 35 minutes.

Once done, let the mixture cool, cut into squares, and either eat or store in a zip-lock bag at room temperature for later enjoyment.

Fig Bars

Materials:

• 2 dozen dried figs
• 1/3 cup agave nectar (found at health food stores; can use honey instead, but not as good)
• 4 tablespoon orange juice
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon oil (Canola oil will work fine)
• 1/4 cup dark corn syrup
• 1/2 cup applesauce (can also use 2 smashed bananas)
• 1 cup oat bran

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix figs, agave nectar, orange juice, and lemon juice in a food processor or blender.

In separate container, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, oil, corn syrup, and applesauce.

Combine both mixtures, roll into about 20 balls, and coat with bran. Place in glass pan and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

Once done, let the mixture cool, cut into squares, and either eat or store in a zip-lock bag in refrigerator for later enjoyment.

[Nutrition Facts: serving size: one bar | 150 Calories | 4 gr. Protein | 1 gr. fat | 36 gr. Carbohydrate]

[Recipes modified from Good Eats and About.com. Photography by vigilant20]

Obama

McCain

The Old Fashioned Way

That’s right, bust out that pencil, paper, and calculator. Write down everything you can remember that you spend money on and try to estimate how much you really need each month. A more effective way to do this is to calculate how much you estimate you are going to spend each year on each category and divide by 12. This is better because it takes into account holidays, birthdays, and other events that do not necessarily occur every month. Think about it for a bit and try to think of everything. Looking at recent credit card statements may help you tremendously so start there if you are having some problems. You can always come back and rebudget if you miss something.

Excel Your Budget

Excel (or if you’re poor: OpenOffice.org Spreadsheet) is one of my favorite tools. I use it for just about everything — from tallying how much running I do each day to organizing my recipes. It is also a great tool to use for budgeting. I just organize all my expenses and list things as categories, amount spent, location/store, etc. It is a great way to organize what you are spending money on especially if you have multiple credit cards or use a lot of cash (just remember to keep receipts or you will forget what you have been spending money on). Once you have organized you expenses take advantage of the nice graphing functions so you can visually see how much money you are spending on each category.

Free Online Tools

Just a few days ago Intuit released their online Quicken version for free. I have not had the chance to test it out yet, but there are many other options that I think are great. Both Mint and Wesabe are also great online money managers. They link to you bank accounts and take the information from all your accounts and display them all in one place. They both use high-level encryption and do not allow transferring money or similar actions so you are pretty much solid on the security front. Mint is what I personally use and I love it due to the great support from the staff and how much they actually listen to the users. I highly recommend them! (And they are not even paying me to say that…)

Saving Money

A great thing you can do is to have a special saving money category in your budget. I generally like to save at least 20% of my post-income and I split that into short term goals (e.g., “I really want a new pair of jeans!”) and long term (i.e., for retirement or emergencies). You can also include a miscellaneous category as a kind of buffer in case you go over somewhere else in your budget.

Stick to It

No matter how much of a hard time you are having with your budget you should stick to it. If you see you forgot about something important when creating you budget, go back and redo that part, but don’t discard you budget completely. That is like giving up.

Conclusion

I hope this helps some of you with your addictive spending habits. I always need to get better, but without blocking Amazon, Newegg, and other stores, I will need some of your suggestions to help me manage my money. Let me hear them in the comments below.

Photo credit: Low Budget by ADVerteaser | No Money by Jeff Keen

Mead Map is revolutionary mind-mapping software used to organize your class notes, projects, etc. You will be able to easily link ideas together and share your notes with classmates or partners. It is worth giving a try and you do not need to use a credit card or download anything (the whole thing works from their website). Just use the promotional code “cbeing” when signing up.

[Go here for a video about how Mead Map works.]

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