How to Save Money in the Kitchen | Part 2: Eating & Living Well

I hope ya'll picked up some good tips from the Part I: Grocery Shopping and from my post on eating healthy at an affordable price. Today for Part II of saving money in the kitchen, I'm here to talk about eating and living well on a budget. One of the easiest ways to save money, is to use your kitchen! My dear friend (wishful thinking), Carrie, from Sex & The City not only eats out for every meal, but she uses her oven for storage – do not be Carrie Bradshaw in the kitchen! The last time I used an oven for "storage", I was a toddler and melted my brother's Hot Wheels car. Now that I'm an adult, I've discovered that kitchens aren't just for destroying toys and eating spoonfuls of sugar.

How To: Save Money at the Movie Theater

You know that feeling you get when you see an awesome movie trailer that you've been dying to see? 

In the heat of the moment, I dash online to check out the showtimes and before I know it, the hefty ticket prices smack me in the face, forfeiting my desire. Depending on how bad my husband and I want to see a movie, we "rate it's worth" on the "scale" of: redbox rental (est. $1.35), video store rental (est. $3) or movie theater (est. $9.50). While it's always cheaper to watch at home, it's fun to have a movie date night out every so often! In this post, you'll learn how to affordably go to the movies and get your popcorn too. And by that, I don't mean smuggling it in your purse…

How to: Eat Healthy at an Affordable Price

Recently I went on my big grocery shopping trip to fill the kitchen with good food and to take advantage of sales. I always love loading up my cart with good deals, but I will tell ya, nothing will get you out of a grocery store faster than a 16 year old boy behind the meat counter hitting on ya. I'm sure my face turned as red as the raw meat and I ducked out of there so fast that I missed out on the $1.99/pound chicken breast sale. I would trade a compliment for a good deal any day. ;)

How To Save Money in the Kitchen | Part 1: Grocery Shopping

Saving money in the kitchen can be one of the easiest ways to make room in your budget. I'm not going to just tell you to stop eating out all the time like most money saving articles, but I will tell you how to save money each month by grocery shopping smart, cooking efficiently, while eating healthy and living well. The things we do in the kitchen are so normal to our daily or weekly chores, it's oftentimes something that we don't even think about. Once you have "saving money in the kitchen" on your mind, you will realize how much money you can actually save every month just by making conscious choices! Personally as a bonus, I have started eating healthier as well – fruits and veggies are SO much cheaper than processed food.  

While the cost of living varies wildly from area to area, every single one of these tips apply to anyone who's looking to save money in the kitchen each month. Soon enough, you'll be eating steak and asparagus (insert your favorite meal) on a rice and beans budget. Just because you can afford to spend $10+ per steak at the grocery store, doesn't mean you need to! Put your savings to good use elsewhere!

11 Reasons :: Why You Should Study Abroad!

A few years ago, I had the dream of studying abroad on my bucket list, but I thought it was just that – a dream. I wanted to immerse myself in a different culture, but I knew that dreaming versus actually living it out is two totally different things. I knew that no one was going to help my dreams come true, unless I took the initial step towards them. This led me to the day I decided that I was not only going to study abroad, but I was also going to go on an international mission trip (more to come on this!) 

I had no plan, I had no budget and I barely had any savings as a poor, college kid. I ended up going to the study abroad office and grabbing some material on the upcoming trips and found out that they had more options than I ever knew about. I decided that a semester long trip was a bit too long for me so I settled on a 2 week excursion to Paris and London. While I am in love with different cultures and exotic places, I figured these two miraculous cities were a great start to international traveling, which I had never done before. Before even leaving the United States, my “class” met every week to complete coursework and to learn about the countries we would be visiting. Therefore, no coursework during the trip was involved!

Only a few months later, in the Spring of 2010, my small class and I were off on a plane to the UK for an experience of a lifetime. I was a mixed bag of emotions, I was excited and I knew a few other people going, but I was nervous as well. I didn’t own a smart phone with a SIM card, I didn’t have any clue how to speak French and all I had was American money, etc. Needless to say, it was a life-changing experience - and I learned a lot. I think I learned as much about myself as I did about the UK and France. I believe that it's extremely important to follow your dreams and I wanted to create this post to let you know why you should study abroad! 

How to Save Money Post Wedding :: The 5 R's

REGISTRY, REBATE, RETURN, REWORK & REGIFT

REGISTRY

Did you know that most stores offer a registration completion discount? All of the things you wanted or needed off your registry, that you did not receive as a gift – you can purchase with a discount! We found that the average discount was about 10% off everything. Beware though, some stores may offer this on only one transaction, so pile up everything you need and get it in one shot! (It's even more fun, when you get to pay for it in all gift cards.) 

Save Money :: Weekly Ad Coupon Match-Up

Today I unexpectedly came upon a handy page on the Hy-Vee website, called Helpful Ideas. I originally thought that perhaps it was something like a suggestion box or had meal plan ideas, but to my surprise it was something better. This "Helpful Ideas" page pairs their weekly deals with current coupons on the same product – how awesome! Who doesn't like double savings? 

7 Reasons Why You Should Love Shoveling!

Living in Iowa has its advantages and its disadvantages. I love the fact that living expenses are cheap, the air is clean and the fact that we get to enjoy 4 seasons! That also brings me to a disadvantage – SNOW! I think the only people in the world who love snow are children, teachers (snow days) and people from warm, southern states that get snow once every 5 years. Don't get me wrong, I love snowy days where you can look outside and see your beautiful snow covered neighborhood and frost on your windows. But…I mean BUT, with snow comes shoveling. Unless you're fancy smancy and have a blower or plow, but us newlyweds are definitely not keepin up with the Joneses. We do have a beautiful forest green, plastic shovel passed onto us by my old roommate. I think I took a few winters off of it's life last snow storm though by trying to push it with my foot and I broke off the top edge, poor shovel. It wasn't my fault that it "felt like –21 degrees" and my cheapo plastic had to bust! While I could go on and on, what I'm here to tell you is why you should love shoveling! Okay, maybe love is an overstatement and should only apply to spouses and desserts, but I am here to tell you why shoveling is beneficial to you! 

How to :: Save on Vehicle Maintenance!

After dragging my feet for about 100 miles over the 3,000 mile marker, I finally took my car in for it's well-due oil change. While sitting there, bored, I was thinking that there's a bazillion more things that I would rather be doing than sitting in a dirty chair in a cold waiting room listening to country singers wail through the radio. Even worse, I knew they'd try to sell me on replacing every wiper, belt and filter in my car, but I understand business is business. And the only business I'm interested in is saving money!

Super Bowl Party the EASY Way!

For about 95% of women in the US, the SuperBowl only means one thing – Party! Personally, I enjoy watching football, but considering my team didn't make the cut this year, my main priority for SuperBowl Sunday is good food! While Pinterest has a bazillion cute ideas for SuperBowl parties, that's not the route we're taking here folks. I'm talking bout plain, easy snacks that hack what Pinterest people take hours to make. We all know…"nobody ain't got time for that!" 

70 Ways to Brighten His Day!

© Sweet Light Studio

Most people have probably heard the saying "a happy wife is a happy life," but what about the husbands? Does this mean that the husbands are supposed to put forth all of the effort to make the woman happy??? Know what makes me happy? -- Making my husband happy! I know, I might be just plain weird, but I LOVE doing things to make my husband happy. Whether it's something small like leaving his slippers by the door for him to put on after work or planning a big surprise. I know that my friends also love doing special things for their husbands/fiancés/boyfriends as well, therefore I have complied a list of 70 thoughtful things to do for your man to brighten his day! And I promise, it'll brighten your day too!

Fashion