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Health & Fitness

Budget Mondays

Monday 3/3//2014

It’s Monday – a painful day for most people, yours truly included. Sometimes it is made even more painful as we remember just how much money we ended up spending over the weekend.

Budget

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It’s one word that can make people cringe, angry and sad all at the same time, a rare occurrence indeed. There are plenty of reasons for this – people are told at work that their budgets are being cut, their ideas cannot be funded because they are not in the budget, and in our personal life, our budgets don’t usually quite match up to our desires.

As another snow storm batters the Northeast this week, and as much of the country continues to remain encased in snow & ice, the concept of outdoor entertaining seems a distant dream to many. Outdoor barbeques, backyard volleyball, and just sitting outside to relax in the great outdoors are things that many people enjoy. Often, however, the amount of work, effort, and money that is spent on prepping the yard for spring/summer usage can be quite extensive. As the saying goes, an ounce of preparation is worth more than a pound of cure.

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There is no reason why prepping your yard for spring, which will be starting this month, has to bust your budget. Let’s take a look at two great tips to help prepare for spring:

1) Make your own compose – everyone who has a lawn obviously wants a lush, green yard. Making your own compost, using fruit scraps, leaves, twigs (which are abundant during spring yard cleanups), and a little dirt, is a great way to help your yard for grass seed. Keep it damp, turn it over once a week, apply, and seed.

2) Use a rain barrel – using a rain barrel to help correct rainwater is environmental friendly and can help ease the burden of daily watering on your budget. There are various types of barrel/hose setups that are available online and at hardware stores for $50.

3) Get seeds for free – use sites like Freecycle, Cragislist, and community sponsored events to obtain seeds for your vegetable/fruit garden for free. Eco-friendly, budget friendly, and you are able to grow your own food!

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