The Greatest Gifts for Grads at Best Buy

The Greatest Gifts for Grads at Best Buy



graduationIt’s that time of year again, summer is starting and seniors are graduating. This last Saturday we went up to Stevenson, WA and watched a niece graduate. I had never been to a small high school, so it was kind of neat to see how other schools do it. I am from the city, so we had a class of 500+ versus our nieces class of 60. No matter the class size, it’s always nice to see your family succeed in life. So very proud.

I think the hardest part about graduation is deciding upon what to get the graduate as a gift. Last year, when my youngest sister graduated, we bought her a laptop since she didn’t have anything like that. We figured it would help her out with future college classes. About 2 weeks after we gave it to her at her party, a dog sat on it and cracked the inside of the screen. Thankfully it wasn’t much more than that and was an easily replaceable fix, minus the $60 it cost. We have learned that even though insurance options seem like an expensive, additional charge at checkout, that it is needed as it could potentially save your butt, like in our case.

But, we’re still trying to decide what to get the niece since she hasn’t had her graduation party yet, in fact, it won’t be until next month, which gives us a month to figure it out. I figure either money or something electronic since teens these days need to be up to date on social media with the latest and greatest gadgets like the iPhone 5s. My 19 year old sister has been wanting that phone so I figure that would probably be an ideal option.

Some other great options for the networking graduate that we found at Best Buy are:

 

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Regardless of what we decide to get our niece, I am sure she’d be happy with whatever we chose.

 

Do you have any family graduating this year?

 

This post has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card.

Entertain Yourself with Budget-Friendly Options

Nearly every consumer has a different idea about what makes up a good time, so there is no single approach to saving money on entertainment.  On the contrary, individuals strive to assemble their own brand of fun, paying attention to the cost of entertainment as they set themselves up for a good time.  Music events, dining, and other cultural exposures each represent go-to leisure activities, representing life’s finer pleasures.  Unfortunately, each of these pastimes also carries its own cost – sometimes challenging fun-loving adults from enjoying the good times they seek. When in need, payday loans online can help.

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Luckily, there are savings to be had in the entertainment industry, including discounted ticket prices and admission fees, as well as dining deals that save money for food lovers.  Regardless of your tastes and pleasures, advanced planning and attention to your options are all that’s required to share the recreational delights you desire without wrecking your entertainment budget along the way.

Food Savings Help keep Entertainment Costs Low

Restaurant expenses add-up; even when your tastes don’t run to gourmet dining.  Simple meals out; especially when multiple family members are present, can be significant expenses for families operating on limited food budgets.  Thankfully, even the most popular restaurants need to fill the greatest number of seats possible, so they offer dining deals that help trim entertainment spending.

To stay informed about discounts and other special promotions at your favorite restaurants, sign up for email notifications and other preferred customer programs.  Commonly, restaurants reward their frequent customers by extending savings opportunities directly tied to the money spent in their establishments.  As a result, frequent diner loyalty programs can be a significant source of savings for those who tend to frequent the same favorite spots.

Dining in remains a budget-friendly source of entertainment for those keeping costs down, as well.  Instead of going out to eat, plan cooking events with friends – the overall cost is significantly less and good times do not suffer.  Plan your home-inspired foodie events in the ways that make most sense for you and your friends.  For some, that means having potluck affairs where guests each bring a dish to be shared.  In other cases, a revolving gourmet experience, moved from host to host, is a more realistic approach.

Local attractions Furnish Budget Outings

We often take our surroundings for granted, but the truth is; there are abundant opportunities for low-budget fun available in most locales.  Parks and other attractions, for example, furnish inexpensive alternatives to clubs and other expensive outings.  Whether it is a walk in a nature park, or a stroll through a local neighborhood, fun found close to home can be rewarding without a high price tag.

National museums and art galleries can also be explored for a relatively low price.  Those which are not free to the public offer low admission fees and the extensive collections are enough to keep you busy for hours.  Smaller exhibits are also shared by private and public galleries, so a little research is all it takes to open new vistas to the art world.  Weather permitting, outdoor art fairs and other regional festivals are prime sources of budget entertainment, and they usually include food options, so inexpensive meals can also be secured at these local events.

Major concerts are expensive, so music lovers working with limited budgets find significant money savings by attending performances by locally known acts.  Concerts, theater and other forms of regional entertainment furnish the same levels of enjoyment, but lesser-known acts and theater companies do not command premium prices for their performances.  Themed, guided tours are also available in some areas, undertaken on foot or by bus.  These low-cost entertainment options provide insight into your neighborhood and surrounding areas, highlighting features you may not even be aware of.

Low Carb Coconut Pancakes

I decided since I had gained about 15lbs back of what I originally lost 2 years ago doing Nutrisystem that I needed to start doing something about it before it gets more out of control than it already has this last year. My sister told me about this low carb high fat way of eating which intrigued me, and wasn’t too different than the paleo that I wanted to start. So I decided to get my butt in gear, bought all of the food I would need and gave it a go on May 31st. I have lost about 4.5lbs since then and all I did was cut my carbs down to 30g or less a day and get rid of sugar. This way of eating sends your body into Ketosis, which gets rid of the fat, rather than stores it.

Anyways, since I can’t have any bread, potatoes, or anything else with high carbs; I decided I better purchase some coconut flour since I love love love pancakes and anything with breading to satisfy my cravings without hindering my weight loss progress.

Low Carb Coconut Pancakes Recipe

 

coconut pancakes

Ingredients

 

  • 1/2 Cup Coconut Flour
  • 4 Eggs
  • 1 Cup Coconut Milk
  • A pinch of Stevia or more for desired sweetness
  • 1 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
  • Coconut oil or butter for cooking.

 

Directions:

  1. Preheat griddle/pan on medium heat.
  2. Crack eggs into bowl and mix completely until whites are not seen or until frothy. Mix in milk and stevia.
  3. Add Coconut flour, baking soda and salt and whisk together until all clumps are gone.
  4. Grease pan with coconut oil or butter and ladle a few scoops of batter into pan for each pancake. The pancakes will be thick so you may want to flatten them down with a spatula if you prefer to have them cooked all the way through.
  5. Once you start to see little bubbles appear on the top of the pancake, its time to flip it and cook the other side for a couple minutes.
  6. Top it off with some sugar free syrup, butter and what have you.

So yum and very coconut-y!

I added 3 strips of bacon to get in some fat for my breakfast.

low carb coconut pancakes

 

Ninja Ultima Blender Review

Ninja Ultima Blender Review

I’ve always wanted a Ninja Ultima Blender ever since I seen how effortlessly it blended ice beverages at a friends house. My current 15 speed blender didn’t blend ice all the way, which made me realize I needed to upgrade in order to have my morning smoothies ice chunk free. I have mainly just used the Ninja Ultima for my smoothies, but I am interested in trying out other things like salsa, guacamole, puree baby food (when the time comes), almond butter (not sure if its capable, but I am surely going to try since this stuff is pretty spendy at the store), ice cream using frozen bananas, soups, and much much more. As you can see, the possibilities in creations are endless with this fabulous blender.

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I loved that it came with 3 personal 16oz travel cups with sip & seal™ to-go lids, which means my husband and I can make a smoothie of our choice in the morning and not fight over whose using the to-go cup when we leave the house. The best part about them is that they have a screw on blade attachment for when you need/want to make a single sized serving. Just screw on the blade attachment and lock it into the ninja blender and press pulse. I noticed that the personal travel cups don’t work on the regular blend setting, you have to use pulse and it CAN be pretty loud (24,000 rpm). At first I was a bit scared by how loud it was, since I wasn’t expecting it. I mean, it does have 1500 watts in this bad boy, which is equivalent to 2.5 horse power. (Think table saw or air compressor.. lol)

ninja ultima review

The blender features a 72 ounce pitcher, but for my morning smoothies, I find it more efficient to just use the smaller 16oz travel cups. Less clean up and less wasted ingredients. The pitcher is one of the biggest blender pitchers I have ever seen and can accommodate quite a bit of items. It has a convenient pour spout for easy pouring and less mess. I don’t know how many times I have had the smoothies pour down the side of the pitcher in my previous pitcher since it didn’t have that great of a pour spout. It is definitely convenient.

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I have used frozen fruits, ice, yogurt, protein powder, milk and juice in this blender and have had every smoothie be absolutely creamy and ice-chunk free. The blades are sharp, so I advise being awfully careful when cleaning this device. I recommend rinsing it out right away and letting it soak if extra messy that way the contents can soak away before you start scrubbing away at the blades.

I love love love this blender.

There is one thing, however, that I wish was different and that’s probably its size. This thing is tall and huge! I can’t fit it on my counter underneath the cupboards since its too tall. I have probably average sized space between the counter and cupboards so take that into consideration if you have no room. I just store it on my fridge. A little annoying to pull it down from there every morning, but I’ll live.

It also has convenient suction cups on the bottom so it doesn’t slide everywhere while its powerful motor blends away. The lid I found to be kind of awkward to get off. It has suction so you have to pull a little bit to get it off, which may or may not result in a messy facial explosion from the inside contents if they happen to be sprayed on the underside of the lid. This happened to me once. lol

If you’re a smoothie fanatic and looking for the perfect blender, this is it and at a fraction of the cost of Vitamix.

Ninja Ultima

 

Need recipes or ideas for the Ninja Ultima Blender? Check out their recipes.

Caught Me Some Clams for Clam Chowder!

I went clamming for the first time in my life down in Coos Bay, Oregon. The drive is a little far, but its a FREE place to stay and I am all about the frugal living if you haven’t gathered that by now. Once I started getting the hang of it, I enjoyed it… but apparently you’re not supposed to crack the shells, or at least try not to. Let’s say about 1/3 were cracked by me, at least the big ones were. The razor clams were a little bit more tricky to get to and get out since they can move and bury their selves deeper into the sand. Those tricky little bastards! So we didn’t get our limit on those ones, but I think we did well overall since we all got about 8 or 9 each.

The worst part about it, is their neck or breathing tube, whatever you want to call it (reminds me of a nasty looking elephant penis)… and cleaning them. Oh god the cleaning is so nasty. I just stood there for a good 20 minutes allowing the men to do 4 buckets full of clams, but they weren’t going to let me gawk for very much longer. I did not want to squeeze their poop sacs or cut them open and remove the tendons from the shell. I will tell you this, its a lot easier to get the meat out of these clams than it is crab. Not sure if i like the taste as much but we have about 3, 1lb bags I can use for clam chowder.

I love me some clam chowder, so I guess it was all worth it in the end.

Next time, I’ll catch em and the men can clean em.

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My husband all elbow deep