Don’t “Hog” All the Fun at Burque Bacon Week

Can you smell that? Yep, you guessed it: bacon!

Albuquerque is now home to lots of perennial festivals, but this inaugural event, the Southwest Bacon Fest should definitely be a crowd favorite. On November 2 at the Albuquerque Balloon Museum, The Southwest Bacon Fest will play host to local restaurants, food trucks, caterers, and culinary artist who love to showcase one thing: bacon! The event is part of the first ever Burque Bacon Week, a six-day celebration of everyone’s favorite pork product: “The Southwest Bacon Fest will showcase local food vendors and their incredible bacon creations, from grilled, savory bacon treats to bacon coffees, candies and sweets,” according to a news release.

Tickets to the Southwest Bacon Fest will be available shortly. For adults, admission is $7, which includes full admission to the famous Albuquerque Balloon Museum. Tickets for kids ages 4 to 12 will be just $2, and children 3 and under will be admitted for free.

And if you’re a professional or amateur cook, you can get your own vendor table for $150; sponsor opportunities are also available.

We’re looking forward to it! And we sure hope some of our residents bring home some tasty treats to share with the rest of us! (But we won’t blame you if you “hog” it all to yourself.)

Saving Money as a Student in ABQ

As you probably heard, we offer a rent discount for college students! But there are countless other ways to save money as a college student also—and, of course, living in a relatively cheap town like Albuquerque and going to a well-priced college like the University of New Mexico or Central New Mexico Community College doesn’t hurt either!

BeingFrugal.net has an awesome list of 51 different ways to save money as a college student. Here are some of our favorites:

• Bus it. Public transportation is one of man’s greatest inventions because it is cheaper than car insurance and history’s highest gas prices (which you won’t have to pay if you ride the bus/metro/insert other mode of public transportation here). All it takes is a small fare or your campus’s bus passes (some universities charge, others give them out for free for a limited number of hours).
• Don’t just leave those cans and bottles from last weekend’s party on the curb to be taken away by the garbage man. Recycle them yourself and get cash from a grocery store that provides this service. This method of recycling, known as the Bottle Bill, is only in certain state’s legislation so hopefully you live in one of those 11 states.
• Thrift stores, garage sales and second-hand shops are a college student’s best friend when old clothes wear out. It is a widely held belief that thrift stores are thee places to shop whether you are cheap or not, because there is such a wide range of clothing that fits anyone’s taste and it’s rare that you’ll see someone else wearing the same clothing item you’ve bought from a second-hand shop.
• At the beginning of every week buy enough food to last you one week in one meal. i.e. chicken and rice for dinner the next seven days. It lacks the variety one enjoys, but we’re in college so we’re aiming for cheap and edible.

Do you have any other ideas for how college students can save money while in school? Let us know, and post a comment on our Facebook page! And don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about our student discount program.

It All Starts with an Organized Kitchen

It takes lots of time and experience to get to know a kitchen inside and out. Sure, maybe your parents were used to cooking big meals for lots of guests, and somehow the next morning the kitchen was still in one piece. But if you’ve only been living independently for a few years, learning how to keep your kitchen organized and functional can be a challenge.

IdealHomeDecorTips.com has offered us some great ways to reduce kitchen clutter and make it overall more practical for daily use. Some of their tips included:

• Set your priorities: A very simple way to make efficient use of your kitchen shelving space is by organizing your dishes, cups and bowls by frequency of use. Store your everyday kitchenware on easy-to-reach lower shelves. Then place special-occasion champagne glasses, platters and other fancy ware on top shelves.
• Stash your stuff: Make a drawer specifically for plastic bags, aluminum foil and plastic wrap near the fridge to speed up the process of strong leftovers. Another smart idea is to keep a cabinet of Tupperware underneath this drawer.
• Throw it out: It’s always a good idea to go through your fridge every other week to throw away those food items that you or your roommates may have forgotten about. This is also a great time to organize everything in your fridge in a neat manner to maximize fridge space.
• Divide and conquer: Drawer organizers are one of the best ways to organize all elements of your apartment. Instead of a big glob of silverware all jumbled together you can easily separate and find your spoons, forks and knives in no time.

To read their full list of kitchen organizing tips, click here.

Move-in Blueprints for Students

As you might have heard, we offer a great discount for students at The Courtyards. (Stop by our office if you haven’t heard about it yet!)

But for students among you who will be taking advantage of our 3% monthly rent discount, we found some nice pointers for students moving into their first apartment. If you’ve never lived away from home before, it can be a challenge to tackle every single item on that ever growing to-do list (and we’re not even talking about the beginning of the semester!).

MainStreet.com offered some excellent advice, for the first-time renters among us:

Don't pay for packing materials.Your possessions may be precious, but you don’t have to spend money on packing peanuts to protect them. 

“Consider what you already have around,” Farestad-Rittel says.  For instance, he suggests using dish towels, T-shirts and pillows to fill the spaces in between items. You can also stop by your local grocery store to get free cardboard boxes to transport your stuff or buy cheap blankets at a thrift store to cover more delicate furniture. 

Shop around for moving trucks.Professional movers can cost anywhere from $500 to $6,000, and rental trucks can cost just as much. To find the option that best suits your needs, you have to shop around on websites like Moving.com or Movers.com, which help you compare quotes from reputable movers, rental companies and storage providers in your area. 

Leverage other student discounts.Moving companies aren’t the only ones that will knock a few bucks off the bill for young academics. College students have been known to get discounts on software, electronics and, even trips to space (which admittedly won’t help with the move, but could be useful if you need to get away for a while.) 

“Whether you're picking up packing supplies, a new couch or just some snacks, there's no harm in asking about a student discount,” Farestad-Rittel says.

We hope these tips are a good welcome “gift” for those of you who are students. If you know of a student looking for a place in Albuquerque, tell them about us and mention our student discount! For more information, call The Courtyards at (505) 881-1377 or click here to send us a message!

Get Your Kicks, at Route 66 Summerfest

New Mexico residents have been “getting their kicks” on (or near) Route 66 for decades. This coming weekend, the historic highway lends its name to a perennial favorite in the area: the Route 66 Summerfest.

From Friday, July 19 to Sunday, July 21, Albuquerque’s historic Nob Hill neighborhood will play host to a street festival and live music (presented by the New Mexico Jazz Festival).

Over the three-day festival, in addition to the musical acts, there will also be a Food Truck Rumble, where local food trucks will compete for Albuquerque supremacy, a “Cork & Tap” beer and wine tasting event, a Cork & Tap Carnival (costumes encouraged!), a car show, a scooter raffle, and more!

For more information about Nob Hill and the Route 66 Summerfest, click here. Hope to see some of our residents there!

A Week of Rainbows in Albuquerque

We’ve certainly been having some funky weather patterns strolling through the area lately. Between hail storms leaving feet of ice on our roads and intense thunderstorms, always be wary of weather hazards on the road and at home.

One silver lining in all this extreme weather is the beautiful calm that often comes after the storm. Here are some of the great shots and videos of the rainbows from different vantage points around town last week.

One local Albuquerquian was able to get a spectacular video of the entire rainbow across Albuquerque:

Carrie J. Ryan posted a beautiful shot right after the rainstorm on July 3:

Another local resident submitted this excellent photo to ABQ Newscastic that highlights the rare double rainbow formation, taken on 8th Street, right near the bridge:

And on the Albuquerque forum on Reddit, a user shared this wonderful scene from San Mateo and Central:



One of the things we love about our town is how everyone’s always willing to slow down and appreciate the beauty of our area. Did you yourself “slow down” and snap a shot of rainbows or any other natural phenomena last week? Post it to our Facebook timeline!

Free Art Friday Becoming an ABQ Staple

Albuquerque is known for its eccentric art scene. And with so many galleries and museums to choose from, the city’s art aficionados have lots of amenities to choose from. But who says you need to buy a ticket to see some of the great work created by our neighbors? You might’ve noticed some interesting public art around town on Fridays as of late.

Coined by an English artist in 2006, “Free Art Fridays” have hit many cities throughout the world—Albuquerque being one of them. The local iteration of the initiative is being run by Stephanie Galloway, who recently did an interview with Alibi.com, where she explained why she started the program:

Actually, the idea of artists leaving art out for free in a public space is not really a new concept. There's an English artist by the name “My Dog Sighs,” and he was the artist who coined the phrase “Free Art Friday,” which has spread around the world. His Flickr group started in 2006. People got inspired by what he was doing and started chapters internationally. I felt that Albuquerque had a very vibrant, creative artist's scene with a lot to offer, and this creates an atmosphere for them to share their work with the community.

Have you seen any of the public artwork on Free Art Fridays? Don’t forget to take a photo and share it on our Facebook page—and to follow Free Art Friday Albuquerque’s page as well, for great photos and clues!