Some of my friends and I are taking a girl’s trip to Orlando soon. I am so excited–the weather at home is dreary, and I am ready for a sunnier clime. I am also looking forward to having fun and relaxing. I just can’t seem to do so at home–too many responsibilities keep hitting me in the face, and all I see is the housework that needs to be done. Get me out of here!

We have started looking for affordable airfares and hotel rates. We may not all be able to fly together, but hopefully we can agree on a hotel. Something nice but that won’t break the bank.

I am very excited about going to Orlando–I haven’t been there since shortly after college. and so much has changed. One thing I really like to do is go out to eat. I don’t have to eat at a fancy restaurant every night, but I do like fine dining at least a couple of times while on vacation. I have been researching Orlando Restaurants and have found a number I would like to try. I might want to go to Tommy Bahama’s and have their coconut shrimp again, the award winning Emeril’s restaurant, the Bull & Bear Steakhouse (sounds yummy!) or hearing some good music at the House of Blues Orlando. And who could resist going to Bubba Gump Shrimp at Universal Orlando?

Eating out is an important part of a trip for me. You get to try new dishes, soak up the restaurant’s atmosphere, and relax and talk with friends. I know we will have a lot of fun dining in Orlando.

I now have a dependent–a relative who is a minor moved in with me. I am thrilled and am enjoyig the life we are creating together. But I am also nervous about finances, since I have trouble paying for myself, and now I have to pay for two. So, I am looking for ways to save and ramping up again to cut coupons (haven’t used them in years, but now have a reason to start again). I am also looking for other ways to save money.

I am not wanting to buy a lot of things right now, but am searching for websites where you can find good deals on products when you do need to get something. There are websites out there to find deals on everything from skincare to dishes to collectibles to western saddles (not that I would ever need that–I don’t ride horses!) But you know what I mean. Sites that are aggregators of sorts and list sales prices.

But for the time being, I want to be in frugal mode. Now, if I can just get my niece in that mode too.

I had a little VW bug that I totaled last summer. It was so upsetting.  First, I felt that I did not take care of it well enough. (This was not my first wreck in the car.) I rear-ended someone on the interstate. It is not as bad as it sounds, as the traffic was backed up and cars were only going about 15 MPH. But that was enough to total my car. Good grief! Then, the traffic became backed up even more, because I had to stop and so did the car I hit, and we had to wait until the highway patrol showed up. I hated getting looks from the other drivers, like “What were you thinking? Look at that stupid person who had a wreck.” But I was asking myself the same question.

I didn’t have anything like Good Sam Roadside Assistance, but the highway patrolman was so nice and helpful. He made the tow truck driver stay with me and help me clean out my car. He then asked the driver to take me to get a rental car. The patrolman was so nice–just unbelievable. The best part of the bad story is that I did not get a ticket. I guess he realized it was a hard section of driving, even though the wreck was my fault. That is good, because my insurance hardly went up at all.

Everyone likes a gift, right? Even customers. So one way to make your company memorable is to give a corporate gift, either at the holidays or during a conference/meeting. They don’t even have to be expensive gifts–some nuts, candy, cookies, mugs, or chotskies will do. Something with your logo on it will help keep your company fresh in your customers’ minds.

Our company has given client holiday gifts for the last few years. We may cut back next Christmas, but I hope not.  Gifts can really keep your company in the forefront of your customers’ minds. I would even like to give corporate gift baskets to our best clients. After all, they have helped to keep us in business all of these years.

Guest post written by Maxine Rogers

I really love picking out what I’m going to wear. But I only like doing it the night before because I can never seem to find anything that I need in the morning in a hurry. So I decided to finally do something about it because it meant more often than not that I would end up wearing something that wasn’t anything cute at the last minute because I couldn’t concentrate on putting together something that I really wanted to wear.

I thought that it wouldn’t hurt to go online and find some good tips on how to organize my wardrobe. I’ve just had so many pieces of clothing for so many years. When I was online looking at that, I ran across some info on tv and internet packages and after I showed it to my boyfriend, we decided to change over our apartment’s service to one fo those packages.

I was really proud of my newly decluttered closet. It just has made such a huge difference when I’m getting ready in teh mornings. Plus, I have more room in my closet for other pieces of clothing that i love!

I have a full-time job but also have a couple of irons in the fire on the side. The biggest one is my part-time law business, which for the most part consists of disability law. I also have my freelance writing gigs. Not sure if at some point down the road, I will go totally out on my own. Make law my primary career, supplemented by my writing. Sounds nice, if I could get it worked out.

If I went out on my own, I would want to make a go of it. I have been reading up on how to start a small business and hwo to fund it. I would prefer not to take loans–I have had too much personal debt in my life to want to add professional debt to it. I have heard that you can can get small business grants, which you do not have to pay back.  Any thing you don’t have to pay back would be ideal!

I have looked online for information about small business grants, and there seems to be a bit out there.  I am raring to go about this. I need to make more money and be financially secure. It seems to me that the only way to do that in this economy is to start your own business. But the scary part is the financial part–you don’t want to lose your shirt. If you can keep overhead down and cash infusion low,  and get small business grants instead of loans,  you may be a winner.

You just want to make sure that in case the business doesn’t succeed or take off like you want, that you haven’t lost that much. Minimize your losses in other words.

Now that I am a woman of a “certain age,” I want my skin to look better. Even though I have taken good care of my skin in recent years, as a very young girl I didn’t. And yes, it has to do with laying out in the sun too much. Oh, those wonderful days at the pool. At least I don’t look as bad as some women my age.

I do, however, want to do some skin remedial work. I used to be up on all the latest anti aging creams, anti aging light treatment, and other such topics. But I have fallen behind on my reading in this area. I need to get some books and go online and find out what is good for skincare right now.

 I do go to a dermatologist, but not for this reason, and I suspect whatever he would want to do for me would be very, very expensive. So I need to find out for myself what is new in the cosmeceutical world and get back to looking my best.