Eco-Friendly Valentine’s Day Date

This morning my husband and I decided on our tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day date. We’re hoping to tire out the kiddo by eight, so we can have the rest of the night to ourselves.

For dinner we decided to stay in and enjoy a healthy home-cooked meal. It’s nice that we don’t have to leave the house for our date, we don’t have to hire a baby sitter, deal with traffic and spend gas.

I’m going to make sushi. Sushi is basically raw fish wrapped in rice and sea weed. Fish and sea weed don’t require any hot cooking, so no electricity or gas is spent. Rice does require cooking, but it cooks fairly quickly, in about 15-20 minutes.

I love candles, so I’m planning on setting the mood by lighting some candles and turning off all the electric lights. Lastly some Michael Buble on the background should do the trick!

We decided not to get any cards, since they can be pricey and they will end up in the garbage eventually. I feel it’s more personal to voice the appreciation for one another, than to write it on a card. And a card is such a cliche. It’s better write a poem or a song and then recite or sing it to your loved one.

I’m not sure if my husband is going to get me flowers this Valentine’s day. I’ll leave it up to him. All I know is that most commercially grown flowers require fertilizer. Fertilizer is made out of chemicals like sulfate, phosphate, urea, ammonia and it requires energy to produce. Another thing is, if you do get the flowers, try to get as minimum of wrapping as possible. Potted flowers might be a nice alternative, since they last a heck of a lot longer.

I already know what my favorite Valentine’s day gift is going to be. My husband is going to help me redesign my blog to better reflect its theme. I’m so excited!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Save Money By Making Your Own Personalized Greeting Cards


This year we decided to make personalized greeting cards for our family and friends. We weren’t going to use the photo studio since they are more expensive than we were willing to spend. So we made our own cards. It is an easy and practical way to put a personal touch on your season’s greetings.
Here is what you need to make your own greeting cards this season:

Confession Of The Gift Wrapping Cheapskate

By Malika Risley

I love giving gifts!  I feel good when I see the excitement on the recipients’ faces as they are about to find out what they got.

Mystery is an important part of gift giving.  We conceal the gifts before we give them away.  It’s the feeling of surprise and anticipation that gets everyone so excited about getting a gift.  Wrapping a gift is not a matter of practicality, it’s a matter of delivering emotion.

But paying for something that is going to get torn apart and thrown away just doesn’t seem right to me. At the same time I don’t want to look like a total cheapskate when my present is being unwrapped. So I still wrap my gifts and make them presentable. I just improvise on the materials.  Here is what I do to save money on gift wrapping:

Are LED Christmas Lights Worth The Investment?


My next-door neighbor invested in new LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights this Christmas season.    So I started thinking whether we should do the same.  I decided to do my own financial analysis comparing the initial cost, energy cost and the replacement cost between the two kinds of lights. By the way, the inspiration for this analysis came from Jessica Knows who is running a Nickelodeon Holiday Money Saving Contest for $500 Wal-Mart gift certificate.  (I hope I win!!)

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