The Sweet Life On A Budget

The Sweet Life on a Budget Making small changes that have big results. On Friday’s I share 5 frugal ideas to help you maintain The Sweet Life on a Budget.   These things will have money saving ideas and/or a way to enhance your lifestyle for very little money. When the opportunity to attend a program from the Columbus Zoo for free, I took it. Our local scout troop had the Columbus Zoo visit its pack meeting with their animal ambassadors.  My son was attending his pack meeting last week which included the Columbus Zoo program. I was fortunate enough to have attended this event and experience the Zoo’s program.   It was fabulous. If you ever have the chance to attend a program like this, please take advantage of it. In addition, there are always discounts available for zoo tickets, so take some time and check it out.   Zero Waste exercise was a success.  We had some bananas whose skins were turning very black on the counter, so I turned them into B

December Joy Slowing down and taking the time to enjoy our surroundings is essential to Living The Sweet Life On A Budget.  Whether it is enjoying nature or the beauty of city architecture, taking time to stop and appreciate beauty wherever you find it is important.   Our Rich Backyard Life series looks at the beauty that is surrounding us, whether it is animals, flowers, buildings, locations, or anything else that we can appreciate in our daily travels.  Let’s take a look at the beauty of December in the Mountz House. December has the shortest day of the year and tends to be dark and a little gray.  However, our neighborhood has gas lights that lines the street and tends to light up the evening sky with holiday lights.   Sunrise over the lake with holiday lights Neighborhood house lights We also enjoy lighting up our space with our Christmas Tree, Village and fireplace. Christmas Tree 2018 Our Fireplace I fell in love with the Christmas Vill

Zoo Ambassador Program Slowing down and taking the time to enjoy our surroundings is essential to Living The Sweet Life On A Budget.  Whether it is enjoying nature or the beauty of city architecture, enjoying a community program, taking time to stop and appreciate beauty wherever you find it is important.   Our Rich Backyard Life series looks at the beauty that is surrounding us, whether it is animals, flowers, buildings, locations, or anything else that we can appreciate in our daily travels. Let’s take a look at a local program that we had the privilege of attending. Zoo Ambassador Program My son and I were attending his pack meeting last week which included the Columbus Zoo Ambassador Program.  It was a nice December treat. The zoo personnel shared with us that the animals are specially cared for as soon as it is safe to seperate them from their mom.  In order to get the animals comfortable around people and in a variety of different physical spaces, the

Making small changes that have big results. On Friday’s I share 5 frugal ideas to help you maintain The Sweet Life on a Budget.  These things will have money saving ideas and/or a way to enhance your lifestyle for very little money. Neighbor Gifts- I spent 1 afternoon baking and putting together a few neighbor gifts to share the holiday spirit.  Since, like everyone else, I am on a budget, I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on this project, so I made some of our favorite cookies and put them on a plate with a little candy I picked up last week on sale.  This made a thoughtful gift for my neighbors who really enjoyed it. I made a big pot of Chicken Noodle Soup using the leftover vegetables from the week, homemade stock and chicken from the freezer.   Dinner for next to nothing. I shopped at my local discount grocery store for the monthly stock up items. This is always tricky because I need to set a strict budget and stick with it, but now there is n

Winterizing Your Home on a Budget Week 4 Winter has arrived and trying to keep your home warm is quite the challenge.  If you are not planning on how to heat your home efficiently then you are planning on failing at the job.   Just think about it. If you are heating your home to 70 degrees and it is 20 degrees outside then you will be heating the outside and your furnace will run non-stop resulting in higher heating bills.   This series is geared towards simple things you can do to help eliminate heat from escaping and keep your heating bills in check while on a budget.   This week’s focus is on your Preparations for Winter.   Take care of your Water Heater.  It is time to flush out your water heat and check it for leaks.  When I have my furnace services, my technician also checks my water heater.  In addition, several people have suggested turning down your water heater a few degrees and/or wrapping it, since during the winter time warm water seems

Quinoa Salad ($.66 per serving) Potluck Lunch on a Budget My husband’s group is having a potluck lunch this Thursday to celebrate the holidays.  He was assigned a side dish. Unfortunately I am working all week, so in order to provide a reasonably priced dish which is fresh and yummy, we choose a salad.  A Quinoa Salad--- Yummy. I had downloaded this recipe from a website a while ago and not planning on posting it, so unfortunately I do not know where to give credit for this recipe.  If you know, please comment below. Quinoa Salad Servings = 8 Ingredients 1 ¼ cup of Dry Quinoa 1 Can of Black Beans ¼ of a Red Onion 2 Cups of Corn 1 Medium Sized Tomato 1 TBSP Finely Chopped Cilantro 1 Lime Juice Directions Cook the quinoa and place into a big bowl or Tupperware container.     Caramelize the corn by roasting it in a frying pan with a bit of olive oil and garlic for flavor.                        Add all ingredients together into the bowl, squeeze lime juice

The Sweet Life on a Budget Making small changes that have big results. On Friday’s I share 5 frugal ideas to help you maintain The Sweet Life on a budget.  These things will have money saving ideas and/or a way to enhance your lifestyle for very little money. I downloaded my Free Friday coupon from Kroger, looked for couponing opportunities and picked up  some free toothpaste, cheap Eucerin lotion  and learned to hold a few coupons for next week.                                                               We had some success and epic failures with our event planning this past weekend.  I packed a large number of snacks for my son’s swim event and lunches for Saturday, but didn’t pack anything for Sunday.  In addition, my son misplaced his Sunday snacks for Sunday and we needed to stop at Walmart for more snacks. However, even when we were paying our “stupid tax” , you know the price of not planning well, we looked for the best value for our money focu