frugal – Page 5 – Luv Saving Money

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8 Ways To Save Money When Planning Your Wedding with Lance Advisors

If you’re planning a wedding you know how many expenses there are. It seems like nothing comes cheap and it’s more expensive that was originally figured. Some expenses usually incurred with a traditional wedding are:

wedding decorations
caterer
flowers
DJ
photographer
bridesmaid/groomsmen gifts
wedding dress
bridal party outfits
rehearsal dinner
and more

While there are some things that shouldn’t really be skimped on I have lots of ideas to save money on items throughout your wedding. Lance Advisors actually has a blog post about setting up checking and savings accounts before marriage too to help get your marriage off on the right financial foot.

While lots of people dream about their perfect wedding sometimes it’s better to scale back on the dream than to go into debt because a horse drawn carriage completed the dream. After all, money problems are one of the leading causes of marital issues.

Trim The Guest List

This one is pretty obvious. If you have 50 people at your wedding rather than 500 there’s only 50 people to pay for meals, you can go with a smaller venue, less alcohol, etc. Not to mention the smaller things that add up like needing less invitations, less stamps to send them out, etc.

Wedding Cake Alternatives

Have you priced out wedding cakes recently? I mean seriously, they’re expensive for something not everyone is going to eat. There are lots of great alternatives to traditional wedding cakes that can be more budget friendly. Here are just a few ideas:

cupcakes: you can even get cute wrappers to match your wedding. You can make different flavors, and even gluten free or sugar free options if needed. Easier to transport. Get the bridesmaids together along with the parents and soon-to-be-in-laws and have a cupcake baking party. Borrow cupcake tours or find them in thrifts stores or get ones from party supply stores like Oriental Trading.
Donuts: Who doesn’t love a donut? Order ahead from Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme and have someone pick them up or ask if they would deliver for a larger order. Still cheaper than a wedding cake! You can stack them neatly or see if your venue has towers you can use.
Rice Krispy Treats: You could easily mold rice Krispy treats into any shape you want. You can do one shaped like a small cake and have separate one that guest can easily grab. They even have gluten-free Rice Krispies available.
Fruit or cheese towers: This is something I’ve been seeing more and more of. People trying to be healthy so they have “cakes” made from watermelons decorated with grape cluster, pineapple rings, and more. Cheese wheels too thought depending on the cheese, it might not be any cheaper than a wedding cake.
Martha Stewart Living has an awesome alternative wedding cake idea slide show with pictures to show you just how nice they can look including items like waffles, crepes, ice cream and more!

Hall? We Don’t Need No Stinking Hall!

So yes, depending on what time of year your wedding is you may still need a hall. But for those with late spring, summer, or early fall weddings…depending on your area you can consider a picnic instead.

Lots of local parks and recreational areas have pavilions that can be rented more reasonably than a hall. Even if you have a lot of people they can spread out and it won’t seem as crowded.

If you’re lucky enough to have a close family member with a nice sized yard and parking available you can ask them. My sister rented a couple pop-up tents and had her reception in my parents’ back yard. They just had a speaker for some music.

Intimate Service, Bigger Reception

So you want people to share in the big day but you need to cut costs somewhere. Consider just having a small, intimate service with immediate family and then invite who you want to invite to the reception. In this way, you don’t feel the need to go all out with flowers, bridal party, etc.

Alternatives to Fresh Flowers

Fresh Flowers can also be expensive and end up getting thrown out most of the time.

This is another popular trend. Instead of carrying flowers brides are opting to to carry other items along with their bridal party. In my wedding only I had a bouquet while my bridesmaids carried votive candles in jars. The were extinguished once they got to the alter.

I had a cousin that made her own silk flowers for her bouquet and bridesmaids.

Bridesmaids can carry a small basket with silk flowers, parasols, light-up items. clutches, or whatever may go with the theme of your wedding. BridalGuide.com has a fun slide show of bridesmaid bouquet alternatives.

You’ll Be Amazed Where You Can Find Decorations!

There are lots of sources to find decorations for your reception, shower, and more.

Thrift Stores
Buyout and Surplus Stores
Borrow from family and friends
Marketplace and yard sale groups on facebook
Consignment sales
Dollar Stores
Yard Sales and Garage Sales
If you rent a hall ask if they have decorations that can be used
lots more

Skip The Formalities and Invest/Save

So this is another obvious one but you’ll often here “In the end the details don’t matter all that matter is that you love each other” In reality all you “need” is each other, a marriage certificate, and someone to marry you.

When my current husband and I got married we did talk about an actual wedding because he had never been married before. Some circumstances changed and we ended up getting married by a JP in a small court room in our small town. We had a dinner at a local restaurant, and THE END. We chose to save our money toward buying a house instead. Talking to a financial advisor like Lance Advisors can even help you plan for your financial future together.

I could not believe how much less stress my wedding to my current husband was because we didn’t have to coordinate near as much, the financial cost was minimal, and we just had immediate family so no family drama or guest list stress.

Saving Money On a Wedding Dress

This can be another huge expense. Some dresses can cost $10K or more. But even $500 is a lot of money. You can find wedding dresses in thrifts stores, formal wear consignment sales, use a dress from the family and just have it altered, or just buy a nice dress you really like at the mall. I bought a short white lacy dress from a department store for my JP wedding and I got lots of compliments on it.

This post is sponsored. Any opinions expressed are my own.

6 Tips on How to Get a Stunning Figure Without an Expensive Gym

If your goal is to lose weight, you don’t need to spend a fortune on a gym membership or some
fancy superfoods that have to be imported from halfway across the world. What you need is a
well-balanced and rather simple diet, YouTube, and a lot of motivation. As long as you provide
your body with all essential nutrients and burn off more calories than you consume in a day, you
will be able to lose weight and tone up your body as much as you want.

6 Tips for Weight Loss That You Can Afford

1. Learn to control your portions
One of the main causes of weight gain is overeating that occurs simply because people don’t
understand portion sizes well. Specialized (and expensive) weight loss programs come with
exact portion sizes included. However, you don’t need that guide to understand how much is too
much.
This or this portion size guide will teach you exactly how much food you should be serving
yourself.

2. Use foods to enhance supplements
Did you know that natural foods are the best appetite suppressants? Avocados, eggs, and flax
seeds are only a few of the bunch. Eating these foods at the right times of the day will help you
reduce your intake of supplements.
You might still need to get some pills that will help you kickstart your weight loss program.
However, in a few weeks a well-planned diet can help you deal with cravings just as well.

3. Make YouTube your personal trainer
YouTube is definitely the best source of all things fitness.
Free videos available there show exactly how you should be performing every exercise. Many
YouTubers are also open to sharing entire classes targeting different zones in your body. All in
all, this web portal gives you all the benefits of having a personal trainer except for their
assessment of your form.

4. Ditch red meat
Cheap weight loss tips do not only include advice on cheaper alternatives to a weight loss
program’s components. They also explain how you can save money in your daily life and
enhance weight loss at the same time.
Giving up red meat is one of the best methods as this meat is full of fats, even the ‘best’ kind,
which is lean beef. This will cut your calories and boost your overall health in one go.

5. Buy in bulk

Buying in bulk is always cheaper and using the portion size guides from above will ensure
measuring the amount of the food you need won’t be a problem.
In this case, ‘buy in bulk’ means the same as ‘not buy portioned’ which pertains to all kinds of
foods. Salads are a particular concern as salad bars overcharge for them quite a bit. You should
always buy whole fruits and vegetables and make the salad yourself. Not only will this be
cheaper, but you will also get a chance to use a low-calorie healthy seasoning.

6. Exercise at every opportunity
If your work keeps you so busy you can’t find time for a daily workout, you should get creative
with your exercising methods. Any activity can be turned into a mini-workout. And the best
thing is that both an hour-long training or six sets of 10 minutes will be effective for boosting
weight loss.
Go up and down the stairs, do sit-ups and standing pushups while in the office, or take a walk
during lunch.

Amazon Prime Hacks You Probably Didn’t Know

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Amazon Prime Hacks You Probably Didn't Know

Amazon Prime is a subscription-based membership program that offers amazing features and helps customers save a lot of money while shopping. So, if you already do a lot of shopping on Amazon, stop wasting money and become a Prime member!

For an annual fee of $99, members get awesome benefits while shopping for over 20 million items on Amazon. In general, the Prime members get free shipping and digital goods, and access to amazing deals and special promotions. But there are more perks that come with an Amazon Prime membership, and we lay them all out for you here.

1. Free Shipping

The number one reason most people become an Amazon Prime member is to get free shipping on all eligible items. Without Prime, you would have to order at least $35 of eligible items to qualify for free shipping within 4 business days. However, when you become a Prime member, you get access to over 20 million Prime-eligible items.

It’s important to know that Prime members will still have to pay a shipping fee for some items, so always make sure to check whether the item is eligible for free shipping for Prime members. You can do that by looking for a small Prime logo next to the item’s price. If you see it, there will be no shipping costs.

2. Share Your Membership

Prime Members are allowed to share most of their membership perks with household members (up to two adults). This “household member” term is just a phrase and you can actually share your account with anyone as long as you know each other’s birth dates. In addition, you’ll have to link your accounts in an Amazon Household and agree to share payment methods.

The shareable perks include free Prime shipping, exclusive offers and digital benefits, Twitch Prime, and Photos Family Vault.

3. Two-Hour Delivery

Amazon Prime focuses on products that customers need urgently. Prime members from certain cities can get two-hour delivery on some products free of charge, while customers from 14 metro areas are eligible for same-day delivery on more than a million items (on orders over $35).

These essential products include baby wipes, water filters, batteries, last-minute travel items like towels and sunscreen, and many others.

You can use this feature via their website or their Amazon Prime Now app (available for both Android and iOS).

4. Early Lightning Deals

Amazon Prime is built around exclusivity, and members get better terms and perks when accessing Amazon deals.

Therefore, you can get Prime early access to Lightning Deals – a section listing bargain prices on household and kitchen items, electronic products, tools, video games, sporting goods, and more. Lightning Deals are located on the front page of the Amazon Gold Box and are limited in quantity. You have to be quick – these deals disappear as fast as lightning.

With that being said, Amazon Prime members get 30-minute early access to Lightning Deals that enables them to shop before regular old Amazon customers.

5. Shop on the Prime Day

On July 15, 2015, Amazon launched Prime Day to celebrate its 20th birthday. This was a huge promotional event and had more deals than the Black Friday. As a result, all members enjoyed cheap prices and purchased many items.

With such a success, Amazon has decided to keep this special day. Each year they offer better and bigger deals. This event is only available for Prime members, and they can save more money than the cost of their yearly subscription. Make sure to mark your calendars for Prime Day 2017!

6. Unlimited Photo Storage

Another perk of being a Prime member is the unlimited photo storage where you can store all your photographs free of charge. You can upload your pictures through the Amazon Cloud Drive, your web browser, or the Amazon Cloud Drive Photos app (available for iOS and Android).

7. Music Streaming

CDs? No. Everyone streams music these days. And services like Apple Music and Spotify provide an unlimited library of songs for a price of $9.99 per month.

However, all Amazon Prime members will be able to access Amazon Prime Music and enjoy listening to over 2 million songs. In addition, there is even an Amazon Music app available for both Android and iOS devices.

8. Book Lending

Prime members can borrow free books from the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library for free. There are literally thousands of eBooks available to download to a compatible device that is linked to your Amazon account. In addition, Amazon Prime members can download one free Kindle book per month using Kindle First. They can choose one the following featured books to download before their official release date.

9. TV and Movie Streaming

In the past few years, Amazon made huge investments in streaming movies and TV and became one of Netflix’s biggest rivals. Amazon Prime Video contains thousands of movies and TV shows that the Prime members can access free of charge.

In addition, Amazon started producing their own original series’ that members can stream through the Amazon Video app (available for both Android and iOS), via their website, or through devices such as Fire TV Stick and Fire TV.

You should also know that Amazon offers video-only subscriptions for people who only want access to TV and movies. The video streamlining “membership” costs $8.99 per month — which turns out to be over $100 per year. Its annual price costs more than the entire Prime Membership. Therefore, simply pay $99 a year and enjoy TV and movie streaming perks, along with the other amazing Prime benefits.

10. Free Audible

Prime members also have a free access to short-form audio programming with Audible Channels and a rotating selection of more than 50 audiobooks across 9 Prime-exclusive channels.

The Audible Channel contains a refreshed selection of distinctive comedy, original programs, lectures, and audio editions of news and articles from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, McSweeney’s, Charlie Rose, Foreign Affairs, The Onion, etc.

11. Get a Free Month of Prime When Delivery is Late

Amazon is famous for its fast delivery, and they almost never miss a deadline. However, the delivery person is only human. Sometimes there can be a delay, and your item may not come on time. If that occurs, thanks to the Guaranteed Accelerated Delivery policy, you will get a one-month extension on your Prime membership free of charge. To activate this policy, you’ll have to locate your order in “Your Orders,” and report the problem.

12. College Student Perks

The Amazon Student program enables students to get a free 6-month Prime membership. You just need to sign up with your college email address (.edu) and you’ll become a Prime member free of charge. In addition, after the 6-month trial expires, you can purchase an Amazon Prime membership for 50% of the price.

13. Check Fake Reviews

If you are suspicious about a product and think that the reviews are fake (which is becoming a common thing), then make sure to check it via Fakespot . You just have to copy the Amazon link through Fakespot and it will show you a grade of authenticity and quality of the product’s reviews.

14. Use Paribus or Keepa

In the past, Amazon had a policy that enabled customers to get a partial refund when a price drops. However, with this policy out of the picture, it is even more important to start paying attention to prices when they change.

Paribus is an amazing app and a website that keeps track of the price reduction of many online retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, BestBuy, Sephora, Target, and others. Simply put, it scans your email for receipts and tracks the item’s prices. If Paribus discovers that the price went down, it will alert the retailers on your behalf and ask for a refund. And in return, they take a 25% commission off of your refund – which is a fair deal.

Keepa is a modern Amazon Price tracker that has been optimized for Chrome and Firefox. It is efficient, elegant, and easy to use.

15. Subscribe to Washington Post

All Amazon Prime members receive a free six-month digital subscription to the Washington Post and a 60% discount after that. The digital access costs $10 per month, so after free six months, you’ll only pay $4 per month.

16. Save 20% on Diapers

If you are a Prime member you can sign up for Amazon Family to receive a 20% off diaper subscription. This can help parents save a lot of money while purchasing only the best diapers for their loved ones.

Takeaway Notes

If you are a regular Amazon customer, then getting a Prime Membership is a no-brainer. You’ll be eligible for free shipping on most items, enjoy photo storage, music, video, and audio streaming, and many other amazing perks mentioned in this article. And when you become a member, make sure to pay attention to the early Lightning Deals and the Prime Day when you’ll be able to save the most money.

This Is How We Do Football Game Parties Frugal Style

My family is a big football family. So the “Big Game” is a a big event in our family. Every year we have a Big Game party no matter what teams are playing. So the Patriots vs Falcon game was no different. Each year our parties consist of family, significant others, and a few friends. No less than about 18 and have been upwards of 25 people. This year, if my count was right, we had 22 people at our house for the Big Game. So how do we throw big game parties that makes them ask “Can we have it at your house again this year?” and not break that bank doing it? I’m here to share some tips.

Facebook Events

LOVE using Facebook events pages to invite people, keep people up to date, and keep track of info. No having to buy paper invites for an informal party. Facebook sends them event reminders when the event gets closer and people are more apt to RSVP I’ve found. AND…it’s free

Cover Dish

Don’t spend loads of money and stress out for two days over a big party. Tell everyone it’s cover dish and ask them what they’d like to bring. If people aren’t sure what to bring you can either appoint them items or give them a choice of a couple things to bring. I know my dad doesn’t cook much but usually has a steady supply of drink boxes and soda on hand so I usually appoint him that. Some have signature dishes like my cousin’s vegetable pizza or my aunt’s cheeseball. You can even tell people to bring chips and pretzels if you know they’re probably too busy to make anything or don’t want to put a more expensive item on their plate. If you take the Facebook Events tip and use it, you can create a “cover dish” thread so people can see what others are bringing and have an idea of what’s needed instead of getting phone calls asking what they should bring or ending up with 3 people bringing buffalo chicken dip.

We chose to supply the beer, buffalo chicken dip, and cupcakes.

Party Supplies and decorations

Sure you don’t have to have decorations but things like plates, napkins, utensils, and cups might be a necessity. I’m a couponer so coupon for some stuff. BUT I like to give those little extra touches that make the day seem a little more special. You can see in the picture in the cover dish section. I found super cute football plates, napkins, and cups at Oriental Trading.

I also got some paper football straws at Oriental Trading. The kids loved them. I think all the kids had them in their drinks.

The thing that got the most comments was the super cute football stadium cupcake stand I got from Oriental Trading. It was only $9.49, sturdy enough to hold 2 dozen cupcakes, and I’ll be able to use it again. I’ve made cupcakes for events before but they never went as fast at these did. I really think it had something to do with the presentation!

I also got the matching football cupcake wrappers and chocolate footballs from Oriental Trading! I got a big roll of disposable table cloth that looked like a football field too. It covered 2 – 6 ft tables plus the little 3 x 3 table we had and I still have plenty left for another football themed party or too. It made clean up so much easier too!

So to recap, I got: football field table cloth roll, football field cupcake stand, a big bag of chocolate footballs, football cupcake wrappers, 2 packs of football straws, a pack of 24 football cups, 2 packs of football napkins and 3 packs of football plates for $60! They have team specific supplies as well if your having a party when your favorite team is playing.

With the cost of the food/drinks we supplied and the party supplies from Oriental Trading we were able to host a great Super Bowl party for 22 people for about $125. That breaks down to only about $5.69 per person for what came out of our pockets!

I received the above mentioned products at no cost in order to complete an honest review. Any opinions expressed are my own.