Things to do in Columbus

I have lived in Columbus for a while and thought I would compile a list of fun things to do in the summer for families, or really anyone who likes these kinds of things (especially OSU students who get discounts on admission - check out http://www.explorecolumbus.com/).

First of all, I would like to recommend the Topiary Garden. Number one reason: its free! It is essentially just a pretty park at the old Columbus Deaf School in downtown Columbus. It is a topiary garden shaped to look like Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon at the Grand Jatte, and if you go to the top of the little hill and look at it from the perfect angle, it is truly impressive (National Geographic for Kids a couple months ago recommended it). Also, the little pond has weird fish and cute duckies in it, and children can run all around the garden. Information about the park can be found at http://www.topiarygarden.org/
Note: it is located in a neighborhood that is a little hit or miss, so I would recommend going when the sun is up.

Other great options:

The Columbus Zoo. What I believe is the best zoo in the country (sorry San Diego - but the votes are in), is located right north of the city. They have a vast array of animals including manatees, elephants (I think there is a baby right now), monkeys and [new!] polar bears. It has a great set-up and lacks that nasty zoo smell. Normal admission is $12.99 , children 2-9 and seniors over $60 are $7.99; parking is $5. I also think that if you show your AAA card, you get $1 off each admission (not verified). OSU students can buy their tickets at the Ohio Union with a valid student ID for $5 each. If you plan on visiting the zoo several times this year, becoming a member would be more financially prudent. More information is available at http://www.colszoo.org/

COSI (Center of Science and Industry). A great interactive children's museum (but really interesting for adults as well), COSI spans a giant space that includes their regular exhibits such as Space, Ocean and Time, as well as an IMAX theater and rotating exhibits (right now is the return of the Titanic exhibit). Admission is not cheap - for regular exhibits only (no IMAX, no visiting exhibits), it is $13.75, ages 2-12 are $8.75, ages 60+ are $12.75. Membership is a deal if you have a several person family and plan on visiting more than once. I probably saved over $150 with my membership last year. OSU students can get tickets at the Ohio Union for $5. More information available at http://www.cosi.org/

The Columbus Museum of Art is housed in a beautiful building on East Broad Street. They have a fairly good regular collection, and get in some very interesting exhibits. Admission is affordable at $10, students with ID and seniors over 60 $8, kids 6-17 $5, under 5 is free. OSU students can get free passes at the Ohio Union. Best deal: I believe the entire museum is free for everyone on Sundays. More information can be found at http://www.columbusmuseum.org/

The Franklin Park Conservatory is also located on East Broad Street- just much farther east. It is a lovely set up of different climate zones and the different plants that live in each. Additionally, there is a giant Palm House where some people have events, and a cafe and gift shop. I would recommend going when they have the Butterflies and Blooms exhibit in the spring, but it is lovely year round. Admission is $11/$9 for students and seniors/ $6 for children age 3-17. OSU students can get $3 passes at the Ohio Union. Parking is plentiful. More information can be found at http://www.fpconservatory.org/

Those are my summer recommendations. There is also Zoobezi Bay, which is adjacent to the zoo and looks extremely fun, but I have not been so I can not say from personal experience. Additionally, it is very expensive. But if you are looking for a water park, this has to be the best in Columbus and their pricing and more information is at http://www.zoombezibay.com/

Email me if you have other recommendations and I will post them.

Groupon

Oh...I also wanted to let everyone know that if they have not signed up at http://www.groupon.com/, do so immediately. All they ask for is your email address and your city, and they email you a fantastic local deal everyday that you can take advantage of (they offer the deal, you purchase it, and once a specific number of people have committed to doing so, "the deal is on" and you get your groupon). It can range from things like $10 for $20 worth of items at a bakery to 70% off boot camp to a huge discount on a spa day. It is great for people who don't get out much because they are on a tight budget.

Note: Best to keep a lookout for something you may be spending money on anyway (your favorite restaurant perhaps), rather than the mistake I made of thinking $25 for $149 worth of ballroom dancing lessons would be a fantastic idea. I am sure for someone who is not a single parent and has time to have leisure activities, that would have been a fantastic deal, but as it stands, I really just donated $25 to the dance studio (although they were nice enough to say I could use the $25 I spent to to pay my daughter's preschool ballet registration for next fall, so it may not be a total loss).

Grocery Coupons

As I have admitted, I am fairly terrible at saving money. I am a careful coupon cutter and such, but I do not plan meals well and I tend to buy a lot of things I don't need when I am at the store because my eyes wander. However, I think I had two fairly successful grocery store trips this week. The first was to Kroger:

Where I bought all of this for $4.11. Now I actually made a mistake buying the peirogies. I wanted to get them and had a $1 off coupon, but when I got to the register, I realized the coupon was actually $1 off 3. I bought them anyway because my daughter wanted pierogies. So, with a BOGO on Sobe Lifewaters that were on sale for $.88, a $1 off 2 bags of lifesavers that were on sale for $1 each, $2 off a Loreal children's shampoo (bonus that it was Toy Story themed), and the $3.99 pierogies, once I used a $3 Catalina that I had obtained from my last shopping trip, it came to a whopping $4.11. Notice that if I hadn't bought the pierogies, everything else would have been free.

I also went to Walmart today. I love the deals at Walmart, but hardly make it out there because it is 5 times farther away than my local Kroger. But since I am trying really hard to watch my money, I thought I would make the effort to go out there. This is what I purchased there:

With coupons and roll-backs, all of this ended up being $31.94. Even though I was trying to keep my shopping to under $30, I think it ended up well. I purchased:

Strawberries (roll-back to $1.47)

Bananas ($.47/lb.)

Pears ($1.47/lb.)

Breyers Ice Cream ($1.98!)

Minute Maid Lemonade and Limeaide (2/$2)

409 Cleaner & Clorox Cleaner with bleach ($4.69 & I had a $1 off coupon)

Bandaids ($1.50 & I had a $1 off coupon)

Olay face wash ($4.47 & I had a $1 off coupon)

Dove Deoderant ($2.47 & I had a $2 off coupon)

Sour Cream ($1.44)

Lender's Bagels ($1.43)

Maple Syrup ($1.98)

Mustard ($1.28 & I had a $.50 off coupon)

Bic Soleil Razors ($3.97 & I had a $2 off coupon)

Red Baron Pan Pizza ($4.98 on roll-back and I had a $2 off coupon)

Trix 6-pack of yogurt ($1.96)

2 Taco Bell meals ($1.50 each and I had a $1 off 2 coupon)

Michelina's Breakfast ($1.00 & I had a $.50 off coupon)

Pierogies ($2.16)

Now, I got different Pierogies (we usually get Mrs. Ts), so I hope they are good. Also, the price of Mrs. T's Pierogies at Walmart was $2.98 I think (non roll-back), so they are substantially less expensive than Kroger (which prices them at $3.99 I believe. But I was still unwilling to buy 3 boxes to use my coupon, so I decided to try the less expensive brand. You may think I am pierogie obsessed, but the truth is that my daughter just discovered them and is a big fan.

I could have saved a bit more money had I purchased some of the personal care items at Walgreens, but dealing with their incompetence (I will have to write a whole different post about that when it is resolved) was unbearable, so I figured spending the extra dollar at Walmart was worth it.

More Free Stuff...Maybe?

I spent a good chunk of today trying to send out items I sold on EBay. While I have actually had quite a lot of luck in my auctions, and all of my buyers have been extremely prompt in paying, it seems that PayPal enjoys keeping my money for as long as humanly possible. I have to actually call them on the phone every time I get positive feedback to ask them to release the money that was paid to me the moment I made the sale. And then they take their good old time transferring it to my bank account (curious that they can take it out instantaneously). Nonetheless, I have great hopes that everything will work out. But a warning to those of you who have never sold on EBay: selling large quantities of items is incredibly time consuming (even more so if you have not already amassed a horde of shipping supplies).

Also, an update on swagbucks: I have made 105 swagbucks in two days. I don't know if this is a lot or a little, but most of these have been awarded simply by installing the swagbucks search bar and using it. I think that a $5 redenvelope.com gift card is available at 140 swagbucks, so thats not so shabby for essentially no work. I will keep you posted on how many I can acquire with zero effort.

So my new (and hopefully not just temporary) obsession: being a very careful spender. I recently stumbled across a blog called http://moneysavingmom.com/ and I was inspired by the way she can save money. I mean, it is truly ridiculous. Just as an experiment tomorrow, I am going to go to a few stores and see how much stuff I can get for no money (or pennies on the dollar). From what I can tell, I should be able to walk away with a bottle of Bayer, a bottle of BenGay, 2 reach toothbrushes, a bottle of Vaseline with Aloe lotion and Dove deoderant all for free because of strategic coupons and deal watching. I additionally am going to try and score 2 SoBe Life Waters for $.44/each (usually $1.50), some Bic Soleil razors for $1.49 and 2 bags of Lifesavers for $.50/each.

I will let you know how it goes. Money saving for me is usually an epic fail.

Free Stuff

I really like getting something free (even if it is something I don't really need), because it makes me feel like I have beaten the system. However, Gillette is giving away something that people can really use: their new fusion proglide razor if you register with proglidechallenge.com. You need a pin if you are a new customer and you can automatically get one if you enter the sight through here: http://www.brownsgab.com/2010/05/28/get-a-brand-new-gillette-fusion-proglide/ There are limited supplies and they are going fast.

Trying Something New

I hit a wall today when I realized that I really have no money. I have spent my entire life in school or with a full time job. My decision to take the last three years to go to law school has not yet seemed to financially pay off. So when I ran a budget for what I need to survive even through the summer, the impact was pretty bleak. My absolutely necessary expenses are three times what my income is. As I said, pretty bleak.

So I have spent the day on the internet. First I was really just applying for jobs (this activity is not unique to today - I spend most of everyday looking and applying for jobs). Then I started looking for coupons and other ways to save money on household necessities. This was a fun activity (well far better than being rejected from job after job)! I found some very useful tips on saving money and realized that I have been unintelligently grocery shopping my entire life. Do you know that there is such a thing as "stacking" coupons? Meaning that you can use several coupons for the same item? Apparently there are people out there that do this quite successfully - sometimes either getting things for free or even making money.

Anyway, from that point (gaining coupon expertise) on, I started looking at other opportunities. I have started selling mass amounts of my personal items on ebay (which is not as lucrative as I had hoped, but it is something AND it makes my house feel bigger now that a lot of the clutter is gone). Monitoring my auctions on ebay has become one of my favorite activities. Lame. After this, I was somehow pointed in the direction of swagbucks.com, and hope to see how that turns out (apparently doing certain things can earn you swagbucks that you can cash in for gift certificates and other items). http://www.swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-register&rb=1956592

Now I am starting this blog. I decided it would be an interesting way for me to keep track of my experience trying to make it through - essentially working part time, studying, and trying to keep a roof over mine and my daughter's head. Maybe through maintaining this log, I can prevent you from making some of the mistakes I make and tell you what has worked for me.