Danielle Tate

5 Ways to Steer Clear of Unnecessary Holiday Highway Frustrations

Tis the season for holiday highway frustrations. There are two ways to look at this holiday season- 1. If you’re staying home and don’t have to travel, lucky you for avoiding the traffic troubles, but then your concerns lie with having to be the host, and cook for family and friends. 2. If you are the ones making the trek over the holidays to visit family, then fortunate for you someone else will be doing the cooking this year, but unfortunately you will need to cope with the hustle and bustle of fellow travelers!

Since my husband and I have not yet been promoted to the hosting position yet, we are the ones that are traveling around visiting our families during the holidays. Because of this, we have had to come up with a serious system; a time and money-saver system, and a try not to strangle each other in the car system. So, if you’re one of the millions of people that have plans to be traveling in the next months, here are some tips to help make it a more pleasant, enjoyable experience with your spouse!

Pack the night before. If you don’t have kids yet, you’re still going to find that you are packing for more than yourself, if you catch my drift, so make sure to get the laundry finished ahead of time so that you can pack the day before your trip!
Be cash conservative! Tolls are out-of-control expensive these days, so conserve your spending money elsewhere by packing a cooler with some H20 and a few snacks for the ride. This will also save you a few minutes of your time sitting through the drive through!
Music is key! Make sure to have your music selection ready-to-go, especially if you get stuck in some heavy traffic on the way, you will need something fun to take your mind off of your situation at-hand!
Find your alternative route. You never can be sure that you’re not going to get stuck in a detour or have to stray off of your course due to an accident. Although your GPS can help with this situation, they’re not always 100% accurate, so printing off an alternative route from Google Maps isn’t at all a bad idea.
Avoid the rage. It is so easy to lose your temper and become frustrated, so if someone flips you the bird, wink, smile or wave back. It’s so much more fun and may help to calm down the other party involved!

What are your best tactics to ease the holiday highway frustrations when traveling, and maintain your holiday spirit!? Please share!

Newlywed in Bed: What’s Your Temperature

Newlywed in bed? Don’t you just love climbing into bed with your beloved after a long day and drifting off into a peaceful slumber side by side? I think it’s one of the best things about being married! However, there can be a few things to discuss to achieve perfect slumber for both parties in the sack…who sleeps on what side, who’s closest to the window, how many pillows, room temperature etc..

Knowing what kind of sleeper you are can be very helpful in resolving newlywed bed spats.

The Inferno – this newlywed is like a living heat rock that pumps out heat all night long
The Ice Cube – this partner is cold all over all night and may need an electric blanket to be comfortable
The Bulldozer – this individual starts out comfortable, gets hot in the middle of the evening and then bulldozes their covers onto their partner to cool off
The Hog – unglamorous as it sounds, they’re out there, the people who slowly accumulate ALL of the covers and leave their spouses freezing
Snow Toes – this spouse is toasty everywhere but their feet, and looks to warm up those toes on their partner
The Sweater – this is usually an Inferno forced to sleep under a thick down comforter, resulting in a lot of perspiration

Have you identified yourself and your partner? If so, you can start to see how two radically different sleep types might have some trouble getting a good night’s rest in the same bed. For example, if you’re both inferno sleepers that radiate heat as soon as your heads hit the pillow, than you can probably agree on sheets and maybe a light blanket. If one of you is an inferno, but the other is not there will need to be some compromise. Layering on blankets for the colder sleeper can result in the inferno partner sweating throughout the night and creating more laundry for morning.

Lucky for you there is a simple solution to any couples’ sleep combination. Sleep Number has teamed up with MissNowMrs.com to offer one of our newlywed blog readers the chance to win a completely customized Create Your Perfect Comforter (A $280 value)!

The Sleep Number Create your Perfect Comforter is the ideal solution for couples who disagree on bedroom temperature as each side of the comforter can be customized. You get to choose the fill, customize your warmth level and then relax with your perfect comforter. Say goodbye to sleepless nights and blanket wars!

Ready to win our cozy December giveaway? Leave a comment on this, or any of our Newlywed Bed Posts on Mondays this month and you’ll be automatically entered to win. Tell us all about why you and your spouse should win this custom comforter. We’d love to know what lengths you’ve gone to to solve your temperature differences. The randomly selected contest winner will be announced on December 31st!! If we don’t hear back from the winner within 2 weeks, we will randomly select a new winner to make sure someone ends up with this great goodie!

**If you tweet this giveaway by clicking the green retweet button below, you’ll receive an additional contest entry!**

Also, if you’re in the mood for newlywed in bed giveaways, you can win a memory foam bed, a Flexfit adjustable base, and $500 in Sleep Number bedding through Sleep Number’s holiday sweepstakes at: www.sleepnumber.com.

Thankful Newlywed Thoughts

Are you struggling to find thankful newlywed thoughts? As a newlywed, it is easy to get caught up in the holiday rush and the aspects of how to juggle whose family to do what with, when. My advice to you: take a moment and realize how fortunate you are.

If you can keep the things that you are thankful for in the forefront of your mind, you’re guaranteed not to miss the reasons for the seasons that are upon us.

Ideas for Thankful Newlywed Thoughts:

Your Spouse – Not only have you met the person of your dreams…you married them! I can’t think of too many other things that are as amazing as being married and madly in love.

Security – You now have someone to have and hold in sickness and in health till death do you part. Just knowing that someone is going to be by your side for long haul is incredibly comforting.

Friends – There are people in the world that know all of your flaws and faults (some since childhood) and still love you. How great is that?

Family – Whether you’re working on making your own or thinking about your parents, family is a gift to be treasured. These are the people who have loved you before they even met you and want only the best for you.

The Holidays – While they may be stressful, holidays are the times we get to spend with all of the people we are thankful for. When you look at them this way, it’s much easier to stretch a bit to make sure you see everyone and celebrate together.

What are you thankful for this holiday season? Do you have a creative way to see all of your family members while remaining sane? We’d love to hear about it!

Planning for Life Emergencies

Are you planning for life emergencies as a married couple? After the honeymoon and your return from worry-free wedded bliss, it’s time to start thinking of other matters. That doesn’t mean returning to the real world is the end of the fairy tale – quite the contrary. Handling specific emergency money matters early on will help to ensure that the fairy tale lasts as long as it possibly can.

No one likes to think about the “what ifs” and the “what might happen” aspects of life. It’s uncomfortable. But planning for emergencies is important. Things do happen, so having everything prepared beforehand can make life a lot easier afterwards. After all, even with a great career, something might happen within the company that leaves you jobless. Or that person on the highway was on his cell phone and you find yourselves looking for a new car.

Since we all know money doesn’t grow on trees, it’s important to stow some away for the unexpected, should it ever occur. So how much should you hide under the mattress (actually, it’s better that you hide it in a bank with good interest rates)?

The best approach is to have at least 3 to 6 months worth of living expenses waiting in the wings. Put the money into a money market account because these typically have higher interest rates than a basic savings account. You could put some of the money into a CD for an even higher interest rate, but it is important to remember that CDs are meant to last for a specific amount of time (anywhere from 3 months to 24 months) and removing money early could result in a penalty. So if something should happen (heaven forbid) during the time your CD is accruing interest, you would actually lose money in the deal.

Knowing that you have money available for emergency use will help give you peace of mind. That way you won’t suddenly find yourselves living paycheck to paycheck or worrying about losing your home, filing for bankruptcy, or any other seriously stressing issues. You’ll feel a lot lighter and with the added interest on your deposited money, you will be gaining a little extra cushioning each time.
If you have questions about the best possible way to save your money, head off to a bank with a good rating, good interest rates, and talk to someone about your goals. They can help you find the best solution to saving money for emergencies. Just remember to read all the fine print with anything you decide to do!

How are you planning for life emergencies? Hopefully you have one or this post prompted you to put one together!

Newlywed Love, Life and Family

Newlywed love, life and family… it’s so much to think about! You’ve said yes, you’ve said I Do, so what’s next on your life agenda? For some of us, it’s a promotion, a new job, a new home, or a dog, or maybe; dare I say it, becoming parents?! Whatever the case may be, we all have things on our list of “to-do’s” and we as women create a pretty picture in our minds of how things are going to be as we get older.

Falling in love, getting engaged, your wedding day, your marriage, being a wife, becoming a mother, and the list goes on! Obviously we all know that things don’t always work out just as we have planned, and that’s just life. If you think about it, it wouldn’t be half as interesting if things in life worked out ‘by-the-book’!

Having a few friends in the same boat as myself now, where we’ve now been married a few years, we’re finding that the number one topic of conversation is starting a family. Other popular topics of conversation also include: moving to a different location, purchasing a bigger home, trips that we want to take with our spouses, and so on!

So now we’re looking at our list of “to-do’s”, deciding what we would really like to accomplish before having kids, and re-structuring the remaining items based on finances and a more realistic time frame. In my opinion, it is most important to be on the same page as your spouse when planning to start a family. Make sure it is something you are both ready for in your life and that you have taken time for yourselves, to build on your relationship as a married couple!

Please share your thoughts with us! We would love to hear how your handling newlywed love life and family.