Lifestyle

Top posts in Lifestyle:

It’s cheaper to stay in and entertain. Are you prepared?

Here’s one of my occasional “lifestyle” posts (just to give you a break from the relentlessly fabulous fashion). Most of us are eating out a lot less often, and since it’s more fun to eat with friends, a lot of us are probably thinking about entertaining at home more than we did before. If you do, you’ll find that it’s not just good for your budget, but good for your body.

Does the very idea make you look around your kitchen wondering how on earth to do that? Be bold, fellow budget girls. Cooking is not difficult (I promise!), and you can equip your kitchen like a pro on a tiny budget.  more…

I am a budget wine crusader. You should be, too.

 Good wine is a necessity of life for me.
~ Thomas Jefferson

It’s good for your heart, it’s loaded with antioxidants, French women drink it daily and stay thin, and it tastes so, so good. What’s not to love about wine?

And why aren’t you drinking it more often? If you do drink it often, then just consider yourself part of the choir as I preach on.

Far too many people are intimidated by the very idea of wine, either because they don’t know much about it, or because they think the only good wine is expensive wine (not true). Or if they aren’t intimidated by it, they’re unimpressed with it, because they’ve just grabbed random bottles on sale at the supermarket without understanding anything at all about wine.  more…

Keep these two items on hand, and you are entertainment-ready

And, naturally, that’s entertainment-ready on a budget. Even if you don’t cook, I promise you you can whip up amazing and impressive appetizers and tarts with just minutes of prep time. No, really. Are you capable of cutting a sandwich in half? Chopping up some fruit or vegetables? Grating some cheese? Those are all the skills you’ll need.

What, and why? Puff Pastry. Go. Get some. Keep a package or two in your freezer. It’s in the freezer section, probably near the bags of frozen fruit and frozen, pre-made pie shells. You can pull it out, thaw it, and use it to make an almost infinite variety of appetizers both sweet and savory, or larger-format tarts and galettes.

And when I say “cook” for these things, all you’ll have to do is cut up the puff pastry, and pile it up with whatever you choose to go on it; consider the pastry your pallete. Depending on what recipe you grab in a panic, you might have to saute some vegetables before spooning them onto your puff pastry squares, but that’s about the maximum effort here. See? Told you it’d be easy.  more…

When was the last time you took a vacation? – Part 1

Here’s a pot-kettle-black moment for you, because I’m the world’s worst at never quite getting around to taking time off work, even though I know the break will refresh me mentally and emotionally and keep my stress at healthier levels. I do try to get away on weekends whenever I can, though, which is easier on the budget, and still rewards me with some much-needed stress relief.

With the economy floundering and so many people un- or under-employed, it’s not realistic to suggest that somebody hop a flight to Europe and get away for a couple of weeks. Most of us are in no position at all to take a vacation like that, but if at all possible, we should still make an effort to take some kind of break, even if it’s just for a weekend.  more…

When was the last time you took a vacation? – Part 2

Now that I’ve gotten your attention about the importance of taking time off from work once in awhile, let’s expand a bit from super-inexpensive weekend getaways to something a bit more ambitious.

Think package deals and discount offers, because you can save huge amounts of money by going that route. But how do you find out about them? Especially the super-secret, really great discount offers for airfare and hotels and package deals? Email, of course. If you google “discount travel website,” you’ll get more than 5 million results. Not all of those are going to be discount travel sites, obviously, but it does give you an idea of what’s out there. Take a look around using a search engine, and find a few that offer email lists you can subscribe to. The two primary newsletters I keep a close eye on are Travelzoo and Vacations to Go. The first is a kind of clearinghouse for every manner of travel or vacation deal you can imagine, and the second is all about cruises (and more about that in a moment).  more…

A serious post about the economy, and what this blog is all about (and a request for your input)

You may have seen the April 27 edition of Time magazine and their cover story about “The New Frugality,” which examines how dramatically the current recession (or is it a depression?) has affected all of us. They feature 15 people who’ve been affected in some way by the economic crisis in their “Thrift Nation” piece, and the stories are excruciating to read.

In short, a lot of us are in a lot of pain, financially and emotionally. And we’re reacting by undergoing a collective sea-change in consumer habits. According to Time’s poll, 48 percent of us think the economy has gotten worse, and a combined 50 percent of us think it’ll be at least 1-2 years before things improve. Whether it’s that gloomy outlook or just downright dire financial circumstances, we’re all reacting to the current economic climate.  more…