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The Perfect Gift For Her

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Source: Unsplash | Lazar Gugleta

Picking the perfect gift for your girlfriend can be hard. You want her to be surprised and love the gift. It’s difficult to figure out what to get her without asking. Here are some tips that will make it easier.

Know Who You Are Shopping For

It is important to know the person you are giving the gift to. You need to know their personality and the things that interest them. Knowing what they like will make it easier to find a gift they will love. You can pick their gift based on knowing their favorites and then proceed from there.

Think Practical

Knowing someone can help you pick a great gift, but it can also cause you to pick the same gift. You know what they like so you are going to pick that same thing every time. You know they will like it because they liked it before. You can play it safe without giving someone the same gift every year for their birthday. Get a practical gift that will last for a long time and is hard not to love. A gift like this would be some cowgirl boots from Ariat. These boots are durable and stylish. They come in all kinds of designs and can be worn with almost anything. A gift like this can be used many times and used for multiple reasons. It’s the perfect gift if you don’t know what to get your girl.

Gift Certificate

Gift certificates are great gifts because you can get gift certificates for anything. Some people might think gift certificates are a bit impersonal, but buying a gift can be tricky at times. Men don’t want to go inside the girly stores that have the things their women like. If they do build the courage to go inside, they don’t know what to buy. Gift certificates and gift cards solve this problem. You can give your friend a gift certificate to their favorite place or the place you know has the necklace she wants. If you don’t know where that is, you can give your friend a card with money in it that isn’t limited to a specific place.

Clothes

You can’t go wrong with buying clothes. You see her enough to know what kind of clothes she wears. If you are nervous about her liking the clothes, get her something simple. You can get her some jeans. They never go out of style, and you can never have too many. If you want to make them a more exciting gift, you can buy jeans and some cowgirl boots to go with them. The jeans paired with cowgirl boots are always a flattering look. It takes your plain gift and gives it a little something extra. All she needs is a cute top, and she has an outfit ready to wear.

Consider The Occasion

Some gifts are more fitting for certain occasions. Anniversary gifts should be more romantic. Wedding gifts are something for you and your bride. Birthday gifts should be all about the persons whose birthday it is. It should be a gift just for them on their birthday. It could be an outfit for them to wear that day or money for them to go shopping. Birthday gifts should be special and appropriate. Your birthday gifts should make the person feel special and remind them that it’s their day.

Get The Right Gift

Sometimes it is easier to ask the person what they would like for their birthday. Of course, they could always answer back, “Suprise me.” Your gift will be much more exciting if it’s a surprise. The gift will be thoughtful and she will love it even more. The task may seem impossible at first, but it’s not. The right gift will make her birthday a day to remember. You can feel great about knowing you are the reason for that. Consider all the facts and put some thought into it. You will come walking out of the store with something she will love. Use these tips as a guide to the perfect gift.

What to Write in Wedding Thank You Cards: A Guide

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Your wedding is over, so it’s time for the final task: the wedding thank you cards. Learn how to make your thank you cards amazing with our guide.

Wedding thank you cards are a must but they can be time-consuming. Besides for being time-consuming, you may be at a loss for what to say in your thank you cards.

How much is too little? And how do you put your feelings into words? Unless you’re a professional writer, it can be difficult to get the words you want to say to someone on paper.

Simple Tips for Writing Wedding Thank You Cards

Whether you’ve made free thank you cards or you’ve bought expensive thank you cards from a fancy design company, it’s what’s inside that really matters.

These tips will help make sure your thank you cards show just how grateful you really are.

Know Who Gets One

Before you start mailing out thank you cards, make sure you know who gets them.

The general rule is anyone that gave you a gift or did some sort of service for you should get a thank you card. While the obvious people such as your parents, the officiate and wedding party likely have a place on your list already — you might even send thank you cards to vendors that made your event extra special.

When Should You Send Them?

You’ve just got back from your honeymoon and the last thing you feel like doing is tying yourself to a desk and sending thank you notes. How long do you have before it’s too late to send your thank you cards?

The sooner you can send the thank you cards, the better. A rule of thumb is to send the thank you cards right away or anywhere up to one month after your honeymoon assuming you went on a honeymoon right after your wedding.

Keep It Simple & Sweet

When you’re writing your thank you cards for your wedding, don’t overcomplicate it. The people getting these cards know you and they know you’ve just got married and have your mind on other things.

Here are some things you do need to keep in mind though.

Every thank you card should be signed with both of your names. You can pre-print this signature if you want to save time and keep from hurting your wrist.

Use a good pen. Even if your invitations are nice if you’re using a cheap pen, it makes a difference and not in a good way.

You probably don’t want to do all of your writing in one sitting so make sure that you plan out time to get these done.

Add in small things that you remember about each person to make it even nicer.

You might say something like:

“We remember the times we went out on double dates — it was always so fun. We look forward to more.”

These personalizations make the card very special.

Want to Learn More About Important Life Issues?

Now you know how to write wedding thank you cards that people will love. Why not keep learning about other important life issues?

Navigate through our site, find your favorite section, drop a bookmark and come back later for more great reads.

How to Prepare Your Child for University

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Source: Unsplash | Element5 Digital

Sending your child off to university is a major milestone in life. Ideally, they’ll graduate, land a good-paying job, and become independent. However, dropping out of school or failing to make the right choices can handicap them personally and professionally. Here are a few tips on how to prepare your child for university and make the most of their educational experience. We’ll also explain why these tips benefit your child, even when they may seem counterintuitive at times.

Step Back and Advise When Necessary

You aren’t raising a child to be a dependent creature forever. The goal is to raise a competent, capable and independent adult. If you haven’t stopped hovering, you need to do so now.

Do give your children input on the selection of a university and a course. Be available for questions on how to handle homework, difficult professors or disputes with peers. When your kids move into their accommodation, let them settle in. Let them know you’re available if they want to reach out to you, but don’t call, email or constantly demand check-ins with you. Remember that they may not be with you, but they are not alone. They have classmates, professors and others to reach out to for help.

Learn Everything You Can About Your Financial Options

First, talk to the student finance staff to learn everything you can. Determine how everything is going to be paid for. For example, learn how much it costs to live on campus versus at home and how much to expect to pay in living costs.

Furthermore, learn about scholarships, grants, and on-campus jobs. Anything you can do to reduce the cost of your child’s education reduces how much you have to pay or borrow. One major change on the horizon is the reintroduction of maintenance grants for poor students. Loan Pig has a nice piece on new student finance proposals that covers this and other Department of Education proposals that will affect the total cost of university. You can find out more at loanpig.co.uk.

Create a budget for the costs you have to pay. Talk to your child about how to live within that budget and how to track their spending. Then help them set up their own student bank account. Let them take charge of the budget but check back with them periodically. After all, this is a critical life skill they need to learn.

Offer Adulting Lessons

If you’ve been doing everything for your children up to this point, you may have to give them some quick lessons on life skills they need to successfully live on their own. A surprising number of college students don’t know how to make spaghetti, boil an egg or make a cake from a box of mix. Give them cooking lessons so they don’t blow their grocery budget on eating out. You can encourage them to make their own meals by helping them buy cooking utensils and cookery. You may need to teach them how to do their own laundry or properly clean things too.

Keep on Top of Deadlines

The university application process is complicated. There are deadlines for everything from applying to the university to accommodations. There are deadlines for paying for courses. This is only the start since there will be coursework deadlines throughout one’s academic career. Help your child get organised and to stay on top of their deadlines. This is another critical life skill as anyone fired for failing to finish a project on time can attest.

Conclusion

Parents need to help their children enter university and manage their studies. However, they need to do it the right way if they want their children to be able to stand on their own after graduation.

Quick Ways to Save More Money for Your Future

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Source: Unsplash | Sabine Peters

When you’re young, life is easy.

The chances are that you spent most of your teenage years enjoying the present, not worrying about what you were going to do with your pension, or how early you’d be able to retire. As you get a little older and start earning a monthly wage, concerns about finances start to creep in. Eventually, you realise that the quicker you start preparing for the future, the better off you’ll be.

If you’ve recently taken a look at your bank account and you’re starting to think that you should have paid more attention to your savings 10 years ago, don’t panic. There are plenty of ways that you can start saving more money quickly from today onwards.

1. Start Budgeting, Immediately

The best way to get more control over your money, is to understand how cash flows in and out of your life each month. The first time you create a budget, the chances are you’ll discover money that you didn’t know you had going towards a subscription or service that you don’t need. Without a budget, it’s easy to spend cash carelessly, because you have no idea how much you’re really using each month. However, when you start to watch your cash, you can find a way to make the most out of every penny.

With your budget, concentrate on giving every pound a purpose. Start by dedicating as much cash as you can towards necessary costs, paying off your loans such as those offered by HappyPenguin.com, and filling your emergency fund. After that, you can split whatever you have leftover into future savings, and present “wants”.

2. Pay Closer Attention to your Bills

There are specific bills in our lives that we have to deal with, whether we like it or not. You can’t cut “food”, or “electricity” out of your budget just because you want more cash to spend on entertainment. However, you can take a closer look at those essential expenses and find out whether you could be spending more than you need to be.

A lot of us sign up for things like gas and electricity deals or broadband packages and then forget all about them. However, there are new offers arriving on the market almost constantly. Every few months, check out your average expenses for monthly essentials, and see whether you could save by switching to a different provider or package.

3. Make the Most of your Skills

Even if you’re lucky enough to have a job doing something that you’re passionate about, there’s a chance that you might not be making the most of your skills. If you have a talent that you can teach or share with someone else, then you could have an extra source of income that you’re not taking advantage of. For instance, there are countless eLearning and webinar platforms available online today that allow would-be teachers to create lessons that they can share for a price online.

If you can create videos that teach someone how to code, play the guitar, or even cook, then you could make some money from that. Just make sure you advertise yourself properly on social media to boost your chances of supplementing your income.

4. Make One Big Change

One reason that people often struggle with budgeting, is because they tell themselves that they need to change everything about their life to become more frugal. However, the truth is that most of the time, little changes, like saving your spare cash after you pay for a meal or investing pennies rather than letting them gather dust in your home can make a huge difference.

If you want to feel like you’re doing something significant to change your financial strategy, then don’t try to change too much at once. Instead, focus on one big thing. For instance, maybe you’re going to commit to only driving 3 days a week instead of using your car constantly. This would mean carpooling more often with friends, biking, or walking to work. The result could be some significant savings in petrol and car maintenance.

5. Focus on One Goal at a Time

Finally, the right attitude can go a long way when you’re working on your savings strategy. If you get carried away thinking about all the things you could do if you just a had a bit more money, you might lose your motivation if you’re not moving towards your goals as quickly as you would like. With that in mind, think about what you want to accomplish with your savings right now.

Focus on one little goal at a time, like cutting your spending on food by $20 each month or getting rid of at least 3 subscriptions in the next 6 months. This way, you’ll only be giving yourself small, manageable challenges, rather than trying to tackle too much at once.

It Might Be Time For A New Mattress

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Source: Unsplash | Ty Carlson

Imagine you and your spouse coming home tired from work every day, only to carry on that fatigue to work the next day. In this case, you should ask yourself, “Are you waking up more tired than you actually were before going to bed?” If your answer is yes, then this is a sign that your mattress is taking a toll on your health. As with many things in life, your mattress needs an update. But sadly, according to many Americans, changing mattresses is one of the most neglected tasks. Most Americans just don’t see the need for a new mattress and they begin to take their sleep quality for granted.

Just because most of the life you spend on your mattress is your unconscious life, it doesn’t mean the effects of poor sleeping do not extend beyond your sleep life and ultimately affect your breathing and overall health. The consequences of sleeping on a poor mattress include a wide array of symptoms (discussed below) with chronic back pain and allergies being the most brutal of all.

On average, mattresses must be changed about every eight to ten years. If they’re overused beyond the recommended period of use, they’re likely to become a host of dust mites, bed bugs, and whatnot. Getting rid of a mattress in the US is a matter of concern for many as they find the task quite a hassle. There are rules in place for mattress disposal. Some donation centers just won’t take them. Find out what you need to know about getting rid of your old mattress. Seeking proper guidance makes every hassle easier.

Symptoms of Sleeping on an Old Mattress

Body Pain

Over time, a mattress forms indents wherever the weight is put on the most. This usually creates pain in the body from bowing into these recesses or notches. As a result, you may wake up with muscle soreness and stiffness. If you’re constantly waking up with fatigue, you might want to consider changing your mattress. Allowing these symptoms to persist can cause your pain to become chronic.

Back Pain

Back pain is the most common problem that results from using old mattresses. This also interferes with your overall sleep quality and prevents you from sleeping well. For those of you who already experience back pain from other causes, there are mattresses which are specially designed to provide more relief to back pain.

Allergies

Old mattresses accumulate debris in the form of dust and other particles which might as well be alive and breeding. Beg bugs, dust mites, and other microscopic creatures feed on the dead skin cells that you shed as a part of your body’s natural mechanism. These conditions contribute to health issues and provoke allergies in people. Not to mention, over twenty million Americans are already allergic to bed bugs. Whereas, dust mites tend to irritate your airways, possibly causing snoring and making breathing difficult.

To prevent allergens from getting into your system, it is best to dispose of your mattress every 6 to 8 years, depending on the life expectancy determined by the company.

Eczema

Poor hygiene is definitely the culprit causing eczema in many cases, but sometimes the causes are rather invisible and you may not suspect them at all. Your bed traps dust mites, pet dander, dust, pollen, and other deadly creatures and exposes them to your skin. The accumulation of all this can irritate your skin to the point you may develop eczema. You may also develop respiratory conditions as dust and pet dander itself can be a constant source of aggravation for your lungs.

Microorganisms

The fecal matter of microorganism is the real culprit that causes skin irritation, eye itchiness, and difficulty in breathing. Not to mention, an unhygienic pillow or mattress may also attract mold and mildew. These things build up insidiously over time and are overlooked due to their invisibility.

Replacing your mattresses on time demonstrates your commitment to cleanliness. It also carries an aesthetic benefit as it transforms your home, making it look well maintained. Not every home renovation process has to be exhausting involving construction and labor. Sometimes, the simplest changes can do the trick just fine. Doing it yourself, when it comes to home renovation, saves you a ton of money that you can spend on necessary needs such pillows, blankets, and mattresses.

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