One of the things that has always fascinated me most about life is relationships. All relationships interest me from sibling relationships to friendships but it’s the way that romantic relationships work that really captures my fascination.

I entered my first long-term relationship when I was fourteen. Ever since (for more than half of my life) I have been trying to figure out who I am inside and outside of relationships and how to make mine work best. What I’ve learned over the years is that relationships require a lot of hard work but they’re also the best thing that life offers us and one of the greatest ways to learn about ourselves.

I believe, in the end, that the best part of relationships is the day-to-day stuff that we do for each other when we’re in them. It’s those little moments of tenderness and kindnesses and ways we support each other and be there for each other that really make all relationships worth it.

My belief in that is why I’ve written a guide on how to make your spouse feel special every day. It’s not because I think that this is something we have to do in a long-term relationship but because it’s something that I think we should do if we want to have happy, positive, giving and loving relationships. I hope that I keep wanting to do the little things for someone for the rest of my life … and that I keep learning more and more about how relationships work because I really think that’s one of the most important things we can learn in this lifetime.

Tags: ehow, how to make someone feel special, little things, make feel special, marriage, nice things, Relationships, spouse, tips

One of the topics that I write about regularly is personal finance. Specifically, I write often about frugal living and the tips that I have for saving money even though you have to spend on a regular basis. As a freelancer writer who lives in one of the most expensive cities in the country, I regularly have to work at balancing my saving and spending to make sure that I end up without debt at the end of each month.

There are many different things that I do to make sure that this happens including sticking to a personal budget, tracking my own spending and generally just being aware of what’s going on with me and money. I also try to be really careful about shopping. This isn’t to say that I don’t shop but rather that I try to be smart about my purchases and to not spend impulsively.

Among many different things that I do to reduce my spending when I do shop is that I use promotional codes for all online shopping. I do a decent amount of shopping online because it’s convenient. And before I hit that purchase button on anything, I always check if there’s an online promo code. I especially use these when renting cars, ordering photos from Walgreens and buying things on Amazon since these are places I regularly make purchases and there are almost always promo codes for them.

I believe that the current economy is a great time to use promotional codes for a whole slew of different reasons. You can learn about my reasons in this week’s article titled Why Promotional Codes are Great in Today’s Economy.

Tags: Frugal Living, online shopping, Personal Finance, promotional codes, save money, shopping, spending, tips

I am usually really good at sticking to a budget. However, there are always those big expenses that come up that throw me off of my savings plans. The one that always seems to get me is travel. I absolutely love San Francisco but I enjoy getting away now and then to other (sunnier!) places.

I like to go back home to Arizona and to LA and to Ohio, all of which are places where I have family, because I like to get the chance to be around the people that I love. I also like to travel to nearby places within California for short little getaways – last year I went to San Luis Obispo and San Diego on different trips, both of which were wonderfully enjoyable. And I’d like to travel further if money would allow.

But sometimes we have to convince ourselves not to travel because it’s not cheap. So I have a lot of little tricks for curbing the travel bug. I do what I can to make it feel as though I’m traveling in my own city (easy enough in San Francisco but possible anywhere). I work on travel-related projects and enjoy travel-themed parties. And it helps me feel like I’m living an exotic life even when I can’t get away. Those tips can be explored in my weekly financial advice column if you follow the link in this paragraph.

Tags: Frugal Living, frugal travel, Personal Finance, saving money, tips, Travel, travel on a budget, travel tips