How To Throw A Birthday Party On A Budget

Every child wants to have a birthday party, and every parent wants their child to enjoy their birthday and have the perfect day. The problem is, sometimes life can get in the way and make it difficult to do this. Financial stress can be a common burden to families that would cause you not to have an event. Having been in this situation myself, I have come up with a few tips on how to go about throwing a party for your loved one but on a budget that can make everyone happy.

Location

Have the party at home. Do not pay to have a party at a location. Many party venues charge hundreds of dollars to entertain your children. The common cost of having a party at a play space or party venue is between $300 and $500. Who wants to pay that? Just have it at your home and you can bring the cost down plenty.

Food

Keep it simple when it comes to the food, especially when it comes to kids. Kids could care less about what they eat. Pizza and pasta are your cheapest and easiest options. They are also the most commonly liked. Don’t go overboard with snacks either, chips and popcorn are where it is at. If anything, spend the money on dessert. That is the area kids most care about. Buy a nice cake or even cupcakes which can be inexpensively bought at the local grocery store.

Activities

Every parent thinks they need to entertain the children with new and different games and activities. Truth is, they are fine running around and just being kids. Put a short time frame on the party (2 hours seems to be the most appropriate) and it will go by quickly and the kids will have a blast. The best time of year to have an event is in the spring and summer when kids can be outside. It is easy to just put all of your outdoor toys out so they can enjoy. If you are having a party in the colder months than make sure your georgia gas is on for the heat to keep the kiddos warm! And whatever you do, forego the party favors. They are a waste of money and are commonly junk that the kids (or parents) throw out anyway. If anything get something that a child will actually use like a book, coloring book, chalk, crayons or markers.

So don’t let your child go without a celebration this year. Follow these tips and tricks to make it happen for them.

Email Spam

Email spam is something that affects everyone. Personally, you may have emails you are expecting or looking for  lost and not get delivered to you. Professionally, you may be responsible for an email campaign and get discouraged when it isn’t seen by your customers because it is filtered into spam. So how to spam filters work? Are there ways to get around them? What are the steps you can take? Spam filters were created to eliminate your inbox getting flooded with unwanted emails. Here are some of the reasons why your email may be marked as spam.

Permission

For a business to send out emails, the receiving end needs to sign up for it. Subscribing to an email list is basically the permission slip for a company to send an email to your inbox. There are specific regulations outline in the CAN-SPAM Act that require a business to follow specific rules and obtain permission before sending out emails. To eliminate this hurdle, make sure to obtain your audience’s permission before sending out your emails.

Physical Address

The CAN-SPAM Act also specifies that you need to include a physical address with your emails. This element can show you have a legitimate and credible business. By not including it than a SPAM filter may see it as a red flag and not think you are an actual business. If you are a small business you can always get a PO Box address instead of using your home address.

Open Rates

If your emails are not being opened by customers, spam filters can view you and your business as SPAM. Emails that have a consistently low open rate will eventually be flagged as spam. To avoid this happening you need to make sure that your emails are actually things that your customers want to read and include valuable content for them.

Subject Line

Suspicious subject lines could be flagged by spam filters and considered junk. What is considered suspect? Things like all caps and excessive use of punctuation can bring attention to your post but also be marked as suspicious.
So now you may ask yourself how can this be avoided? How can you prevent your emails being labeled as spam? The main thing is to make sure you are sending emails to those who have opted to receive them. If you purchase email lists from companies than they will definitely be picked up and have a low chance of actually getting delivered. It is also important when choosing an email service provider that you choose one who is credible and not associated with spam emails with other clients. So take all of these things into account when creating and sending out your blast emails.
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Eating Healthy without the Cost

Eating healthy is the one life-improving step that everyone can take, regardless of budget, schedule, or even tastes. If the body is thought of as a car, healthy foods are premium, high-octane fuel that helps you get through a busy day with less stress, less irritability and way more energy than fast food can deliver.

 
If you wince at the price of organic produce in the supermarket, however, you're definitely not alone: at first glance, eating healthy looks to be a very expensive proposition! Properly armed with a few shortcuts, though, you'll be able to save money and chow down without "stomaching" a hit to your bank account.

Think Outside the Grocery Store

When you're trying to spruce up your diet a little, fruits and vegetables are the first logical go-to. The problem is that they can really add up when you're grabbing from bins and baskets at the store. You've probably heard of fruit-of-the-month clubs before—they're a popular holiday present—but have you ever heard of CSAs?

Short for "Community Supported Agriculture," they're a local version of those often-pricey of-the-month boxes with a much lower price tag, and they're filled with locally-grown produce, many with robust organic options. Not only is joining one a great way to help farmers in your region make a living, it's also an excellent way to expand your culinary comfort zone. CSAs that use a "random" style subscription will introduce you to unique new produce as the mix changes every month, and will often include recipes or tips for the more unusual items like sunchokes.

Think Inside Your Pantry

The best way to save money is to not spend any. A great idea for those times that you are staring into your pantry or refrigerator and seeing pieces of a meal puzzle that don’t quite come together, is to put what you already have into an internet search. Have artichokes? Look up artichoke recipes. Have rice and beans? Look for creative ways to jazz up that staple dish.

Apps and websites like SuperCook will let you enter all of your ingredients (for example: chicken, onions, olive oil, vegetable broth, carrots) and generate possible recipes for you, and let you know if you are missing any of the ingredients!

Sales + Kitchen Appliances = Success

When the growing season arrives, fruits and vegetables are available in abundance from local producers, driving the wholesale cost down and triggering more produce sales so that you can shop smart. Thinking ahead about future expenses can be one of the best ways to make money by actively saving money.

This doesn't mean that you need to pay more to indulge in those amazing flavors once the temperature drops. Take advantage of farmer's markets, sales at your local stores, and even pick-your-own farms to get all of your favorites at the peak of ripeness. Then, take a few hours or even a day to process your bounty for use throughout the winter.

For berries, wash and dry very well, remove any stems or leaves, freeze on sheet pans, then pop the whole frozen berries into airtight zip-top bags for use in smoothies, baking and more. For vegetables like tomatoes, consider making a puree or sauce and either freezing or canning the result in mason jars—just leave a little room for expansion when freezing. Pickling, stewing and dehydrating are other methods that can help preserve flavors and nutrition to keep your diet healthy and affordable in colder weather.

Try Out a By-Mail Meal Kit 

Getting takeout every night is a cost that really adds up—both health-wise and wallet-wise. For some individuals, meal kits—special subscription plans that mail you a chilled box of ingredients and recipes for several meals—can be a wiser way to spend that hard-earned money.

If you'd like some menu-planning and cooking guidance along with a healthy dining option, these kits are an excellent way to broaden your tastes and pick up a few new kitchen skills in the process. The best part is that the ingredients are carefully proportioned to prevent waste—which is more than can be said for those "fallen produce soldiers" in the crisper drawer that prompt questions like, "When the heck did I last buy okra?"

Your health doesn't need to come at the expense of your budget or your taste buds if you shop smart and keep an eye out for deals. From the "scratch and dent" produce section of your local market to farm share subscription boxes, a little savvy shopping and careful meal planning will keep food bills low and your nutrition balanced—all without breaking a sweat.

Booking the Hottest and Best Night In Town: A How To

Let’s assume that if you’re running a night of music in your home town and you are in charge of music, you have at least some idea of what kind of musical acts you enjoy and think others would enjoy, and so you know whom to book and whom to pass on. Please let’s hope that’s true. Good, glad we got that out of the way. You have a roster of special singers and songwriters ready to further their careers and win the hearts and fandom of the area hipsters. But how do you get people to your night? You can’t just rely on the performers bringing their friends – this is an outdated way for clubs to run, because in this day and age, people don’t want to leave the house for just anything. You have to get people out and you have to do it in a way that works. Here’s how.

1. Make It Seem Cooler Than it Is

The least successful way to get people to come to your night of music is to beg them. The second least successful way is to guilt trip them. So don’t say things like Please Come out tonight and see some awesome music. That’s begging. And definitely don’t say Support Local Music because that’s focusing the onus of the music scene’s success on the listener, not the performer, as if it’s the listener’s fault for not coming because they’re not being supportive. No – you have to make your night of music seem incredibly cool, so cool that folks would be foolish to pass up on this seemingly once in a lifetime opportunity. There are many ways to make it look cool, like with external decorations or pop up display banners that can be had for cheap at thedisplayoutlet.com. Plus the one time cost will be insignificant if spread over the night’s many nights of shows. Be cool and others will think you’re cool.

2. Drinks for Free

You can’t really give everyone free drinks because you need them to pay for drinks in order for the bar to want you to come back. But you also can give some sort of drink specials. Performers, for example, should definitely get at least 2 and preferably three free drinks. They are artists who deserve the respect of a few free cold ones. But maybe there’s a drink special where your first drink is 50c or something like that – get a ticket at the door and your first drink is cheap. Who can really get away with just having one drink? Most people won’t, and it’s well known that after two drinks, people often are irresponsibly ordering third and fourth drinks, even on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

3. Be Professional

The worst thing in the world for your night of music at an area club or café is for it to be amateur hour. We’ve already determined that you have a good roster of actually talented musicians playing the music so we have that covered. (If not, please go to our other article: why you shouldn’t book bad bands). But if you have a makeshift or terrible sound system, it doesn’t matter if Sir Paul McCartney himself comes to play your show, it’s going to sound bad and people will focus on that. Give them the opportunity, and people will call attention to the negative. Don’t let them. Please get a decent sound system that will allow the performer to sound their best.