Take Away the Stress of Gift Giving

Are you stressed out with the amount of gifts you need to purchase this summer?  Graduations, weddings, showers, and the occasional birthday party can put stress on a well planned out budget. Apartment Therapy  has some great tips on how to take the stress out of gift giving.

It feels great to give gifts, though we could all do without the financial stress that comes with it. But finding great gifts does not have to be a source of anxiety if you take some time to plan and think through your gifting strategies. Here are some smart strategies for saving money on great gifts!

1. Do your research. If you have a particular gift in mind that you want to get someone, make sure you do your research and cross-reference all the stores online to make sure you are getting the best deal. Don't hesitate to use a coupon code or take advantage of sales. Getting a gift on sale does not mean you are cheap, it means you are smart!

2. Think ahead. My sister has this brilliant strategy that I am trying to adopt. She knows who she needs to give gifts to in the coming year and she keeps her eye out for special things to gift each person when she is out and about. She is able to find wonderful and meaningful things in boutique shops and thrift stores alike. These items are tasteful and personal, like a unique ring or a funny book, but don't need to cost her too much. In lieu of money, she is giving her time and mindfulness in finding the gift, which is what gift giving should be about. The recipient of the gift can truly feel the love and care that comes from such a habit.

3. Buy in bulk. When you come across a great gift idea that you know you will probably use again and again, buy some of those items in bulk! For example, if you like the idea of giving personalized his and hers coffee mugs for a housewarming gift like the one here, buy white coffee mugs in bulk so that you can use them when you need to without spending the extra cash each time. They can also be used as gifts for your kids' teachers, filled with homemade biscotti or mini muffins. Ideas like homemade lip gloss or refreshing face mists are also great things to buy in bulk for and would make fun birthday presents. And while I'm suggesting great DIY ideas...

4. Spend time, not money. Don't be shy about making your gifts! There are so many great tutorials out there for making beautiful handmade gifts; take advantage of them and try your hand at a few. As a recipient of DIY gifts, I can attest that these types of gifts are just as appreciated as store bought gifts, if not more, because they are unique, thoughtful and personal.

5. Give in groups. I am finding more and more that if you have a group of mutual friends with the giftee, it is a great idea to get one gift all together. This usually allows for a bigger gift that the person may not have received from individuals, and it can cut down on the cost for the gift givers. For birthdays, my friends and I have started to all chip in for a gift card to a place where we know the birthday girl shops. It alleviates stress, is very cost efficient, and allows the friend to buy herself that blouse or dress that she has been eyeing. This also seems to be a good idea for baby showers and weddings, where there are often big ticket items on the registries. For an easy way to figure out the money, look to an app like Venmo, where you can easily make and share payments.

6. Re-gift. I am firmly on "pro" side of the regifting debate. If you have received an item that you know you will never use but could potentially be a great gift for someone else, pass it along! I don't think re-gifting is appropriate for personal items or gifts where the giver expressed to you their personal intention for you to have the gift, but anything else is fair game.

7. Don't underestimate the value of a card. A thoughtful card goes a long way. Especially in this age of texts and emails, a personal card with a handwritten and heartfelt message is a nice surprise and can be sufficient in sending your birthday love. If you need some help in this department, look to apps like Postagram which allow you to turn your personal photos into post cards that will be delivered by mail.

8. Go virtual. Giving gifts online can be both a time and money saver. There are apps like Gyft, which allows you to manage and send gift cards to your friends. If this doesn't feel personal enough to you, giving the gift of an experience can be a great gift for close friends or for people that are hard to shop for. Giftly is a handy app that can help you with that, and they offer a huge variety of ideas that range from low to high costs. Also look to places like Groupon or Living Social, where you can find some great deals for experiences to gift. Another simple virtual gift that goes a long way is sending an iTunes album. These cost between $8 and $15 and can be great gifts if you know the person will enjoy the album you want to share.

Comfort Food Tips

Do you enjoy comfort food? Here are some great recipes from around the world. Each of these recipes is considered a "comfort food" in their country. You can learn more at The Kitchn.


TOP ROW
1 How to Make Fried Rice - China
2 Cuban Black Bean Soup - Cuba
3 Korean-Style Steamed Eggs - Korea
4 African Beef & Peanut Stew - The Congo and Ghana
5 Gluten-Free Dessert Recipe: Marking's Bibingka - The Philippines

Authentic Spaghetti alla Carbonara


MIDDLE ROW
6 Vegetarian Pho (Vietnamese Noodle Soup) - Vietnam
7 Shepherd's Pie - Ireland
8 Lamb Korma - India
9 Authentic Spaghetti alla Carbonara - Italy
10 Slow-Cooked Boeuf Bourguignon - France

How to Make Baklava



BOTTOM ROW
11 Enchiladas Verdes - Mexico
12 How To Make Baklava - Greece
13 Sauerkraut, Potato & Cheese Pierogi - Poland
14 Thai Green Coconut Curry with Chicken and Zucchini - Thailand
15 Recipe: Salmon and Black Sesame Onigiri (Japanese Rice Balls) - Japan

Making the Arts Festival Green

The Green Crew at Penn State is turning the famous State College Arts Fest into a zero-waste event.  Every year the borough takes on an additional 75 tons in trash from the event.   They are adding recycling and compost bins in the food areas to cut down on waste this year.  For the group to be more affective in the future, it also involves vendors changing how they serve their food at the festival.  This knowledge they will gain this year will hopefully help reduce waste for years to come.  You can learn more at Statecollege.


No disrespect to the unglamorous job the Trash Crew has done over the years keeping our streets clean during Arts Fest, but I'm happy to report that a more relevant group is taking its place: the Green Crew.

The Green Crew grew out of a group that started meeting back in February with the goal of helping the festival become a zero-waste event. I've been following its progress with great interest.

Like many locals, I count Arts Fest as a highlight of my summer. My first stop typically has nothing to do with music or art. It's the food. But I've always been troubled by the waste. Somewhere there's a landfill straining from a mountain of plastic cups built on the purchases at Arts Fest. In fact, the entire borough takes in an extra 75 tons of trash during the festival.

This was equally troublesome to Brad Fey, a local musician and entrepreneur. But instead of complaining, he acted. He contacted the Centre County Recycling & Refuse Authority to see if his goal of a zero-waste festival was even feasible. After a positive response, he approached Carol Baney, director operations for Arts Fest and a friend from Rotary Club. "I thought Brad wanted his band to play [in Arts Fest]," she recalls of the initial conversation. "But he said, 'I'm here to talk about trash.'"

Baney was sold, and took it to the board, which set a goal to refine the initiative in time for the festival's 50th anniversary in 2016.

Fest Zero was born. The group isn't a non-profit, although that's a goal. For now, it's simply a group of volunteers from the community, local government, and university working around a common cause. The biggest changes from last year will be a recycling can at every trash receptacle and compost bins near all the food vendors. "So if you're eating chicken on a stick on a paper plate, you can just toss that right into the compost bin," Fey says. (Assuming that stick is made of wood, he adds.) And members of the Green Crew will be on hand to make sure you know where to dump your items.

The borough will audit its trash during Arts Fest so the group has a starting point to measure its impact. If all goes according to plan, in future years they'll transition to where all the trash cans are just compost cans.

For that to happen, vendors need to change. As a first step in that process, the group is compiling a database of all the materials brought by food vendors. Fey envisions Fest Zero as a partner in guiding the vendors through the potentially costly transition to compostable items. If the group becomes a non-profit and receives grants, it can even offer the vendors these materials at a discount.

While making changes with vendors is still in the future, the group has plenty it can focus on right now. It's meeting with local restaurants, encouraging them to cut back on their waste. Fey happily discovered that Dante's recently launched its own sustainability initiative. In April the restaurant group enrolled in a commercial composting program with the Centre County Recycling & Refuse Authority.

Initiatives like these send a powerful message to others who visit our town: If they can do it do, why can't we? "People are looking at us," Baney says. "This is great opportunity to spread the word." A powerful incentive: That 75 tons of extra trash equates to about $5,000 in added costs.

As for those lemonade cups? It's complicated. The plastic cups can't go in the traditional recycling stream because they're miscellaneous plastic. And if the lemons remain in the cup, they mess up the sorting process at the county level. At a minimum, someone from the Green Crew will be nearby trying to capture the lemons for compost. And hopefully some day we'll be drinking that lemonade from a compostable cup that can be tossed — guilt-free — into the compost bin.

So while you're enjoying the Arts Fest food this year, stop by the Fest Zero Education Booth, which will be manned by student and university representatives from The Sustainability Institute. Even better, join the Green Crew by visiting Fest Zero on Facebook. They'll need a lot of volunteers to make this initiative successful.

We've nearly conquered cleaning up our streets. But our Arts Fest footprint transcends what we can see — and what's too easy to ignore.