Ice rinks top attractions in desert holiday outings

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Ice skating and festive lights mark the start of the holiday season in El Paso in two popular locations. WinterFest is an ongoing event in the Downtown Arts Festival Plaza and surrounding areas featuring lights, food, holiday shopping, festivities and  an new outdoor ice skating rink located near the Plaza Theatre. “As San Jacinto Plaza once again lights up for the winter season, we wanted to enhance the downtown visitor’s experience and create a new holiday tradition,” said Bryan Crowe, General Manager of Destination El Paso. WinterFest runs until Jan. 8.

Sassil Ayala uses the “match your price” strategy to buy groceries and save money. (Selene Soria/Borderzine.com)

Consumers apply shopping strategies that won’t bust stretched budgets

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EL PASO – Buying the staples we need and the things we want has become a bit of an art in the weak economy following the Great Recession and folks are applying many different strategies to stretch their dollars as far as possible. The effort to acquire the supplies needed to live a decent life has become harder in the last few years. The essentials are more expensive than ever and luxuries are ridiculously expensive. Sometimes, though, there is a very fine line between what people need and what they want. In order to maintain a normal existence in our consumer society, people must be able to buy their basic needs and incomes have not kept up with the cost of goods.