budget – Page 13 – Luv Saving Money

5 Budgeting Tips for Living in Florida

Summer is coming up, so it’s no surprise if you are looking to save some extra money for a
vacation or simply looking to enjoy the season without financial strain.
Living in Florida, this can be a little tricky considering the inflated prices in wealthier or more
tourist-heavy areas.
To help keep your wallet from emptying, here are five great tips to budget well and save some
extra cash while living in Florida.

Publix Coupons
While Publix may not always have the cheaper options compared to places like Walmart, Trader
Joe’s or other on-a-budget grocery choices, knowing how to work their coupons can make a big
difference (and allow you to enjoy the Publix experience).

One of the most effective and modern ways to do this is to download the app where you can
plan your shopping trips ahead, browse coupons for inspiration, manage prescriptions and even
order online.
While the best part of downloading the app is giving yourself the ability to browse coupons and
deals at the tip of your fingers, the other features are a fantastic bonus.
Plus, Publix has new deals every week that can help you save money, and the way they
structure their shopping experience helps to give you a lot of inspiration on meals for the week
so that you can further plan things out according to your finances.

Beauty on a Budget
Summer is approaching, and it’s completely normal to want to start looking into beauty
treatments and options to get you feeling beach-ready.
For common skincare and spa treatments, you can save money on this by doing it at home and
avoiding high prices at salons and day spas.
For more complicated treatments that may require doctors or medical spas (laser hair removal,
vein treatment, etc.), you might have to put a little more effort into researching the places by
you.
The good news is that at this particular time of year, most medical professionals are really
pushing to bring in new clients since we are approaching swimsuit season, so it’s definitely
possible to browse available coupons on deals.
The most important thing to remember is that any form of beauty treatment is really about
feeling healthy and confident in the skin you’re in, so take a moment to really reflect on what
might help bring you closer to that and narrow down your options from there.

Vacation for Less

One of the perks about living in Florida is that you get “Florida
Resident” discounts on most theme park options, giving you a
range of choices for your next vacation.
Instead of splurging on expensive cruises or out-of-state
adventures, plan your vacations right at home and think ahead to
further save money.
Buying tickets ahead of time online, planning vacations for less
popular months like February or September, packing your own

meals and making sure to check out free attractions are all great ways to further make the most
of your experience.
Plus, you can have even more fun by investing in multi-day passes for most of the theme parks
to spend less on each individual day (especially if you were planning on a full week or weekend
anyway).
Above all, make sure you stock up on gas far away from places like airports or theme parks as
you plan out your road trip – these will have exorbitant prices in comparison to other locations.

Be Smart About Housing
If you don’t already have a permanent residence in Florida (or you are looking to move soon),
considering the location of your home can save you BIG bucks in the long run.
Living in downtown areas, picking locations close to the water or living in big-name cities can
cause your rent to skyrocket.
While the location will affect rent in any state, the range of prices is extreme in Florida. For
instance, if you are looking to live in the Miami area, you will pay a great deal more to live in a
suburb like Coral Gables or in Downtown Brickell than in areas that are even just a few blocks
away in some instances.
Definitely do your research beforehand and consider choosing cities that are on the outskirts of
bigger areas and that won’t have extremely high pricing.
After all, you will likely still be able to enjoy all of the same great things that Florida has to offer
without living smack in the middle of it (plus, it may even be a little less crowded).

Avoid Shopping in Those Expensive Areas
As mentioned, the cost of living can fluctuate wildly between different areas in Florida, and this
doesn’t only apply to housing.
One of the biggest things to remember about Florida is that it is a tourist state, so many places
(Miami, Destin, Tampa, Orlando, etc.) will have inflated prices to take advantage of that.
In some instances, gratuity will even be included on tabs, so you will have less control over that
part of bills and also will need to be careful about accidentally double-tipping.
Ultimately, you should try your best to avoid shopping, dining, stocking up on gas and generally
spending money in these more tourist-heavy areas so that you can avoid paying these tourist
prices.

By just enjoying all of your leisure activities in surrounding areas or generally less pricey
neighborhoods, you will realize that your financial stresses will decrease immensely.

In Summary
Everyone wants to save money, even in places like Florida that can have a wide range in terms
of cost of living.
By just remembering these five tips, you should have some extra spending money in your
pocket this summer:
● Become a Publix coupon expert
● Spend wisely on beauty treatments
● Save money on vacationing
● Choose a low-cost housing option
● Don’t shop in tourist-heavy areas
For more great budgeting tips to help you save money, be sure to check out our other fantastic
posts!

About Our Guest Writer

Katherine (Tori) Lutz is a graduate of Florida State University and current student at Columbia University. Professional, she is a writer and editor with a great deal of freelance experience surrounding articles, marketing, and other various areas. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, and hopes to one day be a journalist.

Affordable Home Renovations To Consider As You Get Older

Blogging is my side-gig, my day job is actually a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant at a local hospital. I’ve been working as a COTA for about 18 years. One of the many things I do is to make recommendations for home set up when a person is discharged home to make their home safer so they can stay in their home longer. I recommend home health Occupational Therapy comes in because they can actually see the home and make specific recommendations for a person’s specific medical needs and of course their home.

When my husband and I bought our most recent home about 3 years ago I was already thinking of things that will need to be done and things that will help us when we get older.

There are often simple changes people can make in their own homes that don’t cost a lot of money. From preventing falls, to making it easier to get around these are things you can do fairly easily.

Remove throw rugs: This is a big one we recommend to elderly patients, patients with frequent falls, and gait problems. The reason being they’re easy to trip on, can move, and tend to bunch up.
Add hand rails to stairs: One of the first things i noticed in our home when we bought it was there was no handrail to go upstairs. I told my husband we will definitely need to add one. Not just for when we’re older but for the kids safety too.
Switching out door knobs: For those with arthritis or grip issue a regular round door knob can be hard for people to grip. Switching door knobs to a lever door handle can make it so much easier to open door. This can be done for entry doors and interior doors.
Create clear walking paths throughout your home: moving furniture and decor to create a wider, clear walking path throughout the house can make it much easier to navigate through your home, especially if you’re going to be using a walker or another type of device in your home.

Unfortunately, not everything is a quick or cheap fix. For some things like getting a lift chair or an elevated seat on the toilet insurance can help some. Then there are things such as adding a bathroom to the first floor or creating a ramp into the home that may take more financial resources. The Associates Home Loan of Florida can help you refinance, get a home equity loan, or get a home improvement loan if needed.

This post is sponsored by Diamond Links.

Getting My Gardens Ready for Spring

When we moved into our home about 4 years ago, we had some beautiful perennial gardens that were already started. I was excited to have some gardens to work with, more land to plant trees, and for the kids to run and play. Keeping up on the maintenance of 3 large perennial gardens definitely keep me busy but it’s so work it to drive up to my house and see the beautiful colors.

I’ve acquired a collection of gardening tools to help me with weeding, pruning, and prepping. One of the things I MUST have is a good pair of gardening gloves. A good fitting pair of gloves with latex grip protection has saved my hands more than once. Between these aweful prickly weeds to protection against bug bites, garden gloves are essential for me. I like Kaygo because they are flexible, puncture resistant, durable, breathable, and affordable.

I have no idea what this tool in my hand is actually called but it’s works the best for these prickle plants and dandelions. I just plunge it into the dirt at the root and then pull up with my gloved hands and these bad boys come right out. Kaygo makes an awesome and affordable pair of gardening gloves with rubber grips. And if you use code: LUVSAVING you can save 20% off too.

So after weeding I decided to lay down weed block this year to hopefully cut down on the amount of weeding I’ll have to do this year. It’s a bit of a pain to lay out when my gardens are as oddly shaped as they are and as big as they are but I know in the end it’s going to end up savings me some work. Work I won’t want to be doing when it’s 90 degree is 80% humidity outside.

Then we got mulch. We found it’s more affordable to just get the mulch by the scoop and use my father-in-law’s truck than to buy it by the bag or have it delivered. Plus, my father-in-law’s truck we could drive the truck to each garden and unload it.

I think the gardens turned out great. We still need to get a couple bags of mulch for touch up and I have a little pruning to do but it looks so much better than it did.

We’re also working on fixing the steps up into the yard this year. I can’t wait to see how those turn out too. We’re adding a handrail to make it easier for our older relatives to get up into the yard for picnics and parties.

We also planted a cherry tree this year. I just love gardening!

Tools I used on my gardens:

Kaygo gardening gloves – save 20% off with code: LUVSAVING

Weed block fabric

Weeding tool

This post does contain affiliate links. I will earn a small commission from sales made through these links at no extra cost to you.

Affordable Family Fun: Johnstown Tomahawks Games + tips when attending the game

A couple years ago, I was looking for something to do with the kids. I asked the little ones if they had any interest in going to a Johnstown Tomahawks hockey game. They said, yea sure. For some reason I found that the tickets were actually cheaper through Tickemaster than buying them directly from the 1st Summit Arena site, like half the price cheaper.

I was able to get really good seats, 2nd row from the glass seats, for $13 for adults and I think it was $10 for the kids. I wasn’t a huge hockey fan, but it was something to do. I could not believe how much the little ones and I enjoyed the experience. They really knew how to make it fun. The kids were cheering, there was a lot of action, they got the crowd involved, it was really a good time. Even the refreshments were reasonably priced. The experience made me a Johnstown Tomahawks hockey fan.

We had such a good time I had to tell my husband (who couldn’t go because he had to work). We decided for the whole family to go, even take my older boys girlfriends. That was 8 of us going and it still was under $100 for all 8 of us to get tickets when buying through Ticketmaster. To be clear, this was for regular season games not playoff games.

The Johnstown Tomahawks do theme nights. We planned that big family trip for the Star Wars themed night. All kids 12 and under received a free Star Wars light saber toy. They had tons of costumed characters and lots of vendors set up.

Since then we’ve made it a point to try to get to a couple games a year at least. Season ticket are still a little out of our reach for a family of 6 but there are definitely perks to getting season tickets.

We hadn’t made it to a game this year and we actually won a 4 pack of tickets from a facebook giveaway thanks to Pennhighlands Community College. These weren’t just any tickets though, they were Robertson cup playoff tickets! The first time we had a chance to go to a playoff game. A lot of action at this game. I have no idea how much playoff tickets usually run since we won our tickets. We had a good time though. My husband and I have talked about doing a couple Tomahawks games for a date night here and there.

Tomahawks hockey season runs from about the end of September and can run into April with playoffs. Get a Johnstown Tomahawks schedule to see when their theme nights are. They have lots of them: Star Wars, hero and princesses, and more to get more bang for your buck for the kids.

Tips for going to the game:

You can purchase blue and red hockey pucks for a small donation. These will be thrown out onto the ice during an intermission. If you hit the target they put on the ice you can win big money!
There are tons of food vendors all around the building from funnel cakes, to shrimp and fries, to dippin dots ice cream. Some vendors are more affordable than others so shop around.
There are always lots of marketing tables with raffles to win things like hockey sticks, jerseys, gift cards, tickets, and more. Some are for a fee and some are free you just have to check.
There are always vendors giving away free stuff. The kids got yoyos, we all got free raffle tickets for a chance to win a hockey stick, I got chapstick, and a sunglass pouch. All free.
The Johntown Tomahawks merchandise is more affordable than you would think. The kids can easily get a souvenir like a branded cowbell, foam hand, and more for $5 or less.
PARKING: The 1st Summit arena itself doesn’t really have it’s own parking. There are many local businesses that open up their lots for parking for a fee. This usually ranges anywhere between $3 – $5. If you can find meter parking it’s free after 5 pm on week days, on Saturdays and Sundays, and federal holidays. You can see this info on the city of Johnstown website
Get a schedule so you can see when theme nights are scheduled for even more fun for the kids and bonus freebies.

Which Is Really Cheaper, Uber or Lyft?

Which Is Really Cheaper, Uber or Lyft?

As a mom trying to make each penny count, rideshare costs can be one area you can save some money. In fact, if you use ridesharing as a way to avoid the need for a second or third car you can drastically cut down on your monthly expenses.
Uber and Lyft have been in a heated rivalry for years now, and one of the ways they compete iswith price. That’s a good thing for us, and even though the prices in general may rise one day, currently they are cheaper than renting a car, taking a taxi, or in some cases driving your own car.

Uber and Lyft Pricing Comparison

Airport Trip – To see which service offers the best price we ran a comparison test with both
apps to see who could get us to the airport the cheapest. The trip would be almost 26 miles and take 28 minutes. The basic Lyft service would cost $39, while the UberX service would cost between $34 and $44.

The Results – That’s quite a range for the Uber estimate, and likely it would fall somewhere in
the middle, so very close to the $39 rate quoted by Lyft. In this case they are very comparable
and since one would get there in four minutes and the other would get there in three minutes
it’s almost a negligible difference. It is interesting to note that the same taxi ride was estimated at $65.70, so either way you’re saving quite a bit compared to a taxi.
Shorter Ride – Not satisfied with this longer ride example, we also calculated a shorter trip from the house to the grocery store to see if that made a difference. Again, there wasn’t much difference, with Uber saying it would cost between $6 and $8, and Lyft saying that they do it for $7.

Surge Pricing

Ridesharing is great during the day when there’s plenty of drivers available and prices are at
their lowest. Both Uber and Lyft have surge pricing, but Lyft’s is not as steep as Uber's so if you find yourself needing a ride after a girl’s night out, Lyft is most likely your best bet.
Cost vs. Riding Experience Much has been said about what it’s like to ride in an Uber versus riding in a Lyft. In this regard, Lyft seems to have the edge with more people rating their ride higher than with Uber. When you consider that the prices are so close to each other, it comes down to which ride will you enjoy more for the price.

Which Is the Best Value?

It may come down to which service works best in your local area and can pick you up the
fastest. Depending on which city you live in, or if you live in a more rural area, there may be
more Uber drivers or more Lyft drivers to be able to get to you more quickly.
With each app you can get an idea of how much the ride will cost and see which one will pick
you up the fastest to determine the best value in your town.