Warm weather means slipping on the sandals or the flip-flops. It also means that our feet and toes are on full display. One way to get perfectly groomed feet and nails is to get a pedicure. And you don’t always have to spend a lot of money to achieve the perfect look. Here are some tips, product recommendations and my step-by-step guide to getting a pampering pedicure at a Budget Smart Girl’s price. Let’s Get Started My philosophy is if your feet feel good, the rest of you feels pretty darn good too. And one way to make your feet feel great is to soak them in warm, fragrant water.…

One day I was in the middle of making dinner when I realized I was preparing carrots and broccoli. That shouldn’t sound too alarming. After all, they’re good for us. However, the scary thing was I’d served those same two vegetables almost every night that week. I only hoped that no one else had noticed how repetitious dinner had become. It’s all too easy to fall into a routine of cooking the same foods and making familiar dishes that we could throw together while wearing a blindfold. And nothing shouts budget food more than serving the same old, same old, over and over again. My epiphany that day made me…

Anyone watch Good Morning America this morning? I don’t usually watch TV in the mornings, but I just happened to tune in today while I was getting ready to go out. Not being a regular watcher of GMA, and judging by the segment I watched, they’d obviously asked viewers to send in their tips for saving money on food. One lady was an avid coupon clipper. She only bought an item if it was on sale and if she had a coupon for that item. It looked like she was a pro at it. She had a file folder full of coupons and when she left the store she actually…

Sticking with a budget, no matter how ‘good’ you are, can be stressful. And if you’re like me, someone who’s running around trying to do a hundred things at once, it’s nice to unwind now and then. A favorite way to do just that is practicing yoga. In fact, I’ve given yoga a couple of attempts. I’ve signed up for classes only to find that most of the poses are beyond my range of motion and I’ve given up. And yes, lost the money I paid for the class. I then decided to give yoga a try at home. There’s less embarrassment for me and it costs a lot less…

One of my favorite summer activities is packing the picnic basket and heading to one of the local parks. And apart from the cost of the food, it’s free entertainment. Whether you’re planning a picnic or a cook out, here are some of my favorite picks for summertime budget smart food. Hamburgers with a Twist Everyone loves a hamburger and they’re easy on the budget. However, the biggest drawback is a plain hamburger can be shall we say, tasteless. Think about all the new ways you can serve a hamburger. How about putting the topping inside the hamburger before you cook it? I’ve tried filling them with foods like blue…

I was chatting with one of my cousins the other week. He always has at least one great story to tell me about his daughter who is almost ten. My cousin and his wife are trying to teach her about saving money and just opened a savings account for her at the bank. He took his daughter along there one Saturday and it just so happened that they took a short cut through a store and she noticed they had the stuffed animals she collects. My cousin said his daughter stopped and said she’d like one, so he reminded her she had her own money with her. With that, she…

The Internet has been abuzz with tips for trimming your food budget. An idea that seems to show up regularly is using up all the items that are sitting in your pantry. It’s a great tip but as we Budget Smart Girls know, stocking the pantry in the first place plays a major role in saving money. Here are some items to keep on hand for those impromptu meals. Pasta I keep a couple of different types of pasta on hand at all times. It might be spaghetti, penne, even a box of lasagna. One of the quickest meals to put together is any type of pasta dish. And I…

It’s garage sale season again. You might be the buyer or even the one holding the sale. Either way, here are some tips for successful bargain hunting or selling. For the Buyer Scout the Papers Most people place ads in their local newspapers the week before their actual sale date. This gives you plenty of time to look through the listings and see what’s being offered and if it’s even worth the drive to the neighborhood. If anything does catch your eye, make a note and plan your route starting with the most promising sale first. Don’t Impulse Buy I’ve done this myself and it’s tempting…buying items you don’t really…

If you live near a Trader Joe’s store and haven’t shopped there, do so. There are two Trader Joe’s about ten miles away from where I live and while I’ve shopped at both of them about four times, the other day I realized I need to go there more often. So what brought me to this conclusion? My mom went shopping there and bought me back The Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer. It’s part sales flyer, part culinary diary. It doesn’t just tell you what’s on sale and how much, but offers you a detailed and mouthwatering description of each item. I tell you this for two reasons. One, you won’t…

These days you can’t miss the commercials for the mineral makeup products that have hit the market in the last few years or so. My first reaction was it’s a fad, a craze, and just another reason to take our money. However, I started to do some research and heard only good things about this type of makeup. The only problem was when I looked at the prices they were almost double the amount of their regular counterparts. As you know all us Budget Smart Girls like to get our money’s worth. So I set out to find if 1) mineral makeup is really worth the extra money. And 2)…