The Stages of Saving

Guest post

I have been thinking a lot lately about the things that people save money for. Depending on what stage of your life you are in, the purpose of your savings can be pretty different. When you are in your teenage years, you are probably thinking about saving for a car. If you are somewhat financially independent, you are probably also thinking about saving for college. When you are in your twenties-thirties you are thinking about saving for things like a house and/or a wedding. When you are in your forties-fifties the cycle kind of starts over, only this time you are probably saving for your children's first car, and their college funds. Hopefully, you are also able to start putting some money away for your retirement. This is probably the most important thing, especially in today's economic climate. I know many people of the baby boomer generation who have had to put off their retirement for years because they had not saved money and banked on pensions and 401k's that have lost money or are no longer available to them and they didn't have the savings to make up the difference. Then, once you are retired, if you are like my grandmother, you save up to have extra money to spoil your grandkids with! Me, personally, I am twenty something and not interested so much in saving for a house or a wedding (thought I guess that would be the responsible thing to do) but more interested in saving up to be able to take a trip some place really awesome. I am not talking about a short vacation here either, I am hoping to put away enough money to stay somewhere for 6 months to a year. Depending on where I decide to go this could mean a substantial amount of savings, but I know it will be well worth the effort!

Sponsored Post Rules

Just in case you think I've gone barmy when you read the first sentence of my last post, I'll tell you the story and what I've learnt from it.

I wrote that post in the week before Christmas and  submitted it to Social Spark2.  If you are not familiar with that site, it's one that puts advertisers and bloggers together for sponsored posts.  After a post has been submitted it has to be approved by the advertiser before it is published on the blog directly from Social Spark, provided the blog meets certain requirements.

When I reread the terms of service, I found that they include a rule that the post before the sponsored one has to be made within seven days, and has to be "of a reasonable length, at least one (1) paragraph, three (3) to five (5) sentences". So I guess it was no coincidence that, although I submitted it before Christmas, it didn't appear until after I posted on Monday this week.  The one before that was a Wordless Wednesday, and then I took a blogging break of more than a week.

I guess I'm lucky it appeared at all.  But it is still early January and I hope all of you in the UK will still be able to buy your Cadbury Wishes and help make some terminally ill children's wishes come true.

Proving Love in the Morning

Image: www.freeimages.co.uk

It’s years since I had breakfast in bed. I’ll never forget the lovely surprise on a Sunday morning when hubby left me to sleep late. The noise of his juggling a tray full of a sizzling fry-up and china while opening the door woke me, and the delicious scents of the coffee, bacon, eggs and tomatoes drew me out from under the bedclothes. It wasn’t a special occasion; it was just a spur of the moment decision on his part. For me, this was what was special, that he’d decided to do something to make me feel good and prove that he loved me.

Nowadays I am woken every weekday morning at 6.30 with a cup of fruit tea and a biscuit. This is just before my taxi driving hubby leaves for his second job of the morning and it means I can accompany my morning read in bed with a refreshing drink and snack that wakes me up properly. I have plenty of time left to enjoy my cosy duvet nest before I need to be up and making his bacon butty when he comes back at ten to eight.

What inspired me to write about this was finding out about a super soft Spundown Duvet that could make those kind of moments even more enjoyable.

These duvets are light but warm, and washable at 60°, which is the temperature that kills dust mites. They are made from polyester microfibre so are just the thing for anyone who is allergic to feathers and suchlike. They are available from Pure Living Collection in London, UK.