Tag: Spending Money

Tasty Low Calorie Recipes

There are so many websites and cookbooks focused on offering low calorie recipes, there is anything but a shortage of meals to try. However, just because low calorie recipes are healthy, does not mean they are tasty! Many of those recipes featured in various places taste like cardboard! Worse yet, they call for a bunch of ingredients that you and your grocer have never heard of! Where can you find tasty, low calorie recipes with all the ingredients you can pronounce,

The palatability of any meal is most often based on what you are accustomed to eating. If your primary food staple has been fried chicken and bon bons for the last few decades, you will likely have a hard time altering your eating habits or accepting low calorie recipes. Unless you can find recipes that call for bon bons, which is unlikely, you will have to make some sacrifices. If this is the case, you would be better off, instead of jumping headfirst into diet world, by gradually altering your diet by adding low calorie recipes and slowly removing the fatty foods. If you jump in to it too quickly, you are more likely to give up and go back to old habits. Another consideration, if you are making a drastic change, is to try to make the foods you already like in a different, healthier manner. You can broil meat instead of frying it, use fat free salad dressing, and other low calorie alternatives.

Once you ease into healthy eating, then it is time to really start making low calorie recipes. As stated earlier, there really are a lot of recipes available online and in cookbooks you just have to find some you like. You should start on the Internet and look for recipes with ingredients that sound good. Most likely, if the ingredients are good, the finished product will be good. When you are first starting out, you may not want to go out and buy a stack of cookbooks. You should get an idea of what you like before spending money on something that may very well end up collecting dust. Besides, individual recipes seem less obtrusive than bulky cookbooks that tend to always seem to big too read. No one wants to spend three hours looking through a book to decide what they want to eat. You can scan online and find something a lot faster.

Tips on buying cheap party favors

With the rising costs of goods, it is impractical to even hold a party but would any parent sacrifice their kids; special birthdays? The answer to this is to not, NOT hold a party but to do it as cheaply as possible so as not to affect the household budget. And you dont really have to scrimp on the food or even on the party favors which is actually the most often item that is cut off from the list of must haves. Party favors can actually come cheap if you know where to buy and what to do. Here are some tips for you.

1. Recycle

Why buy if you can take items that you dont need from your house and turn them into party favors. You can use plastic bottles of mineral water to make toy telescopes or pencil holders. You can turn paper plates into masks for the party. You can get some old boxes from your garage and make photo frames where guests can put their photos during the party. The list is as endless as your imagination. It will take some work yes but you will not be spending money and if you spend, it will just be minimal.

2. Do a gimmick

No one will really care about the gift, its how you present it and how you use it during the party that matters. No one ever used party favors really unless people are made to use them. For instance, with the photo frame idea, why not set up a photo place as guests exit the party. They can have their pictures taken and then printed with a handy photo printer. Then, they can immediately place them onto their photo frames. With the telescope, you can hold a treasure hunt and have the kids use them. With the mask, you can hold a masquerade ball. Its the activities in your party that guests will care about and will eventually remember, not the party favors.

3. Buy in bulk and buy early

If you do not have the time not the talent to do some crafts and would rather buy the party favors that make them, you can save money by buying in bulk and buying them early. This means you should be planning your kids birthday parties months in advance and take advantage of sales and discounts that will be offered during holidays. If you can buy a year early and do some shopping after some seasons like Halloween or fourth of July. That way, you can enjoy larger discounts and better promos.

It is not really so hard to plan a birthday party and include some party favors in the process. You can scrimp yes but the sign of a master planner of events is to scrimp without making it so obvious. You can do that with a little imagination, some cunning and a lot of planning. After all, even in these times of hardship, your kids still deserve a birthday party they can remember.

Personalized Party Favors

If you are one of those people who are depressed just by thinking of how much money they need to spend in buying party favors for their party, then this is the best time to consider giving personalized items.

It is best if you stop feeling low because you dont have much money to spend in buying expensive party favors for the people who will be attending your part. But, you really need not worry so much because there are so many party favor ideas out there perfect for all occasions. All you need to do is to make a list of the people whom you’ll give the items to and jot down at least one or two of their interests or favorite activities.

After doing this, you can now visit various department stores, specialty shops, novelty stores, and craft shops to find the perfect party favor item for your friends without having to spend so much money.

Unisex items as party favors

While giving presents such as party favors would really touch your guests’ hearts during a special occasion, it is important to remember this should not rob you off your money. Instead of spending money in buying items as party favors, why not try to create your own “gift” using your creativity and resourcefulness? If you have the time and the talent, ideal party favor ideas perfect for any occasion might include:

1. Personalized items. These can be considered as the most inexpensive yet valuable item to give out in almost all occasions. Personalizing items does not only save you some money, time, and effort in strolling shops looking for that perfect item because you can do in inside the confines of your own home. This is actually one of the best party favor ideas out there because you can literally personalize just about anything. All you need to do is to ask the person about his or her favorite item or interest and create your own masterpiece out of it.

2. Sweets and treats. For people with sweet tooth, sweets such as chocolates, cookies, and sweet breads are surefire hits. If you that knack for baking, you can bake your own goodies and wrap them in a special colorful box or jar to make it presentable.

3. Custom-made stationeries made at home. For those who are into writing letters, one of the best gift ideas for them is a collection of custom-made stationeries. What you can do is to collect all unused envelopes, specialty papers, and unique items to come up with a custom-made stationary set.

The good thing about this is that it will not only help you save money by buying cheap materials for the party favor but can also serve as a bonding activity for you and your family members or friends. Aside from that, the process of making the items itself is fun and easy. While doing the items, you and your friends can squeeze out your creative juices and each other to explore different possibilities of the craft to make it more beautiful.