Holidays on a Budget & Ways to Make the Season Easy

It may be the most wonderful time of the year, but it can be stressful, too, since many budgets are squeezed to the max. Lifestyle expert, Emily Kaufman, has some tips on how to survive the holidays on a budget using the latest technology, apps, and some old-school ideas to make preparing for the season easy.

Smartphones Come to the Rescue During the Holidays.   Smartphones have become a part of our daily life and are a great tool to stay on top of your budget this holiday season. During the holiday shopping rush, mobile banking app alerts are a great way to stay on top of your budget. They can help you manage your accounts while you are on-the-go. In fact, according to Bank of America’s second annual Trends in Consumer Mobility Report, more than half of Americans have tried mobile banking and a majority of users are receiving mobile alerts that can flag a low account balance (which can help avoid overspending), unusual activity and deposits received into your bank account.

Bank of America is seeing an increasing interest in mobile alerts with customers receiving more than 1.5 million push alerts each day. You can download their app or find out more at BankofAmerica.com.

The report also found that nearly three-quarters of Americans actually sleep with their smartphones nearby and 35% say it’s the first thing they reach for in the morning which may be especially true if you’re traveling during the holidays and using your smartphone alarm to wake you up in the morning.

Ways to Save if You’re Going Home for the Holidays. Staying with family and friends is a great way to ease your budget if you’re headed home for holidays since staying in a hotel will definitely add your travel expenses. If you’re hosting guests during the holidays, you can give your guest room an easy and inexpensive spruce up that not only helps your guests get a good night’s sleep, but also protects your mattress and pillows over time. AllerEase zippered mattress and pillow protectors create a barrier between you and allergens like dust mites, pollen, and pet dander that can disrupt your sleep and collect in mattresses and plush bedroom surfaces. These protectors and pillows create a clean comfortable sleep environment, so guests rest easy during the holidays. They also make great gifts! Get them at Target, Kohl’s and Walmart and online at Aller-Ease.com.

How to Find Great Holiday Deals. A lot of deals can be found when you shop locally and YP has an easy-to-use app that is the “go-to” authority on the best local shops and businesses for holiday shopping at home or when you travel. You can maximize efficiency and do more in less time with all the info you need in any U.S. city or town right at your fingertips on your mobile phone. You can download the YP app for free at Google Play, Apple for mobile and the Apple Watch. You will also love the gas-finder feature that helps you find a gas station that has the cheapest tank of gas in your immediate area. You can find out more at YP.com.

Online Shopping Still a Great Source for Last Minute Gifts. If you’re short on time for holiday shopping, you can order great gifts online and a new trend you’ll see this season is companies that use a NOT-com web address.

Driftaway.coffee, (that’s dot-coffee, NOT dot-com) is perfect for the person who has everything. For as low as $36 for 3 months, Driftaway has a personalized coffee subscription that’s a great tasting gift and is customized to fit your coffee preferences. Also, check out Betterbox.life (that’s dot-life, NOT dot-com). BetterBox has gift box subscriptions specifically designed to inspire you each month and has themes like gratitude, mindfulness, and improved sleep – all designed to make life happier.

So don’t stress about the holidays when you have new ways to navigate through the most wonderful time of the year.

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Positive Changes & Fresh Start Solutions for a New Year and a New You

Each new year brings new opportunities for positive change and lifestyle expert, Emily Kaufman, has some ideas to get a fresh start with a brand new year from finance to health and other lifestyle changes for you and your family.

Get a Fresh Start on Personal Finances in 2015. According to the recent Bank of America & USA Today Better Money Habits Millennial Report, even though 80% of millennials 18 to 34 think they’ll be better off or the same as their parents, the majority say they are actually living paycheck-to-paycheck and many are falling short when it comes to saving. To get your financial life on the right path this year, Bank of America and Khan Academy have partnered to design a free website that takes the complexity out of personal finance at BetterMoneyHabits.com. The site has short videos that make personal finance topics easy to understand plus some hands-on tools for your personal financial goals. Content is organized around goals, such as reducing credit card debt or getting ready for tax season, so it’s relevant to what you want to achieve. You can get started on your desktop, tablet or mobile device.at BetterMoneyHabits.com.

Good Health is About Much More Than the Scale. Losing weight is always one of the top resolutions on everyone’s list whether it’s five pounds or fifty, but good health is more than just diet and Sam’s Club wants you to take control of your health this year. That’s why they’re offering a free health screening open to the public on Saturday, January 10th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. to help people keep their New Year health goals. The free screening is valued at $250 and tests health indicators like your blood pressure, body mass index and cholesterol levels. This is one of 10 free screenings that Sam’s Club offers nationwide throughout the year from now through October that cover a wide range of tests to help assess and manage your health. You can find out more at SamsClub.com.

Get Kids on Track to Healthy Eating with Fruits and Veggies Disguised as Snacks.   New Year’s resolutions for better health are not just for adults. Most parents want to make sure that they’re kids are eating more fruits and vegetables in the New Year and what better way to that than to give them fruits and veggies disguised as snacks. Bolthouse Farms Kids™ Fruit Tubes are real fruit puree blends in squeezable, slim tubes with no added sugar or preservatives. You can eat them chilled or frozen and they come in two flavors: Mango Meets Banana & Pineapple and Strawberry Meets Banana. You’ll find them in produce sections at grocery stores nationwide including WalMart and Giant Eagle for just $3.99 for 10 fruit tubes. Bolthouse Farms Kids™ also has fruit smoothies and veggie snackers that have NO added preservatives, high-fructose corn syrup, or artificial flavors. You can find out more at Bolthouse.com.

Finally, don’t forget that the most important secret for succeeding at your new year goals is to get started and stick with it. It’s the sum of the little things you do everyday toward your goals that help you achieve your plans.

New Year: Positive Solutions for Busy Lives

Jodie Watson

It’s a new year and it’s time to focus on making some positive changes to our busy lives.  Instead of letting life control you, it’s time to take control of your life and achieve the goals to improve your health, career, finances, self-esteem and more.  This is the time of year that everyone looks for solutions to everyday issues and problems that can make you healthier physically, financially, and more in the coming year but have fun too. Author Jodie Watson has some helpful tips today in all these areas so let’s start with fun

Make travel easy with new App from Expedia. If you’re looking to save time and money when making travel or vacation plans, think about travel the same way you bundle your phone, internet and cable together to save money.

At Expedia, you can book your flight and hotel at the same time and save up to $525. Another tip for taking the stress out of our busy lives is to take advantage of the chance take a short trip when travel deals come up.  Expedia’s mobile app makes being spontaneous easy by helping you find a hotel for that weekend getaway quickly and saving you up to 40 percent on your room. Go to Expedia.com for all the details.

Don’t let a busy schedule derail your weight loss goals.  With the new year, almost everyone has a resolution to shed a few pounds and Atkins is an option for quick and easy weight loss.

Atkins is the leading low-carb eating plan that provides quick, satisfying weight loss with an easy to sustain approach to stick to those goals in the New Year. The New Atkins Made Easy book simplifies the traditional diet with tools like its Carb Ladder that helps navigate through the plan ensuring weight-loss without feeling hungry. If you’re on-the-go, the book has shopping lists, easy recipes, and meal plans plus tips for dining out.  They also have new low-carb, sugar-free, bite-sized Chocolate and Chocolate Peanut candies so you can satisfy cravings without the guilt. For a FREE Quick Start Kit and download the app for smartphones and iPads Go to Atkins.com.

New tools to mange your personal finances. You can get simple tips for better money management with easy to understand videos at BetterMoneyHabits.com, a site that Bank of America and Khan Academy have set up to help you better understand your credit, saving, budgeting, and more.

You’ll learn that it’s all about taking small steps, like paying those bills on time!  This habit will strengthen your credit score, which is your financial identity. A better credit score makes things like getting a car loan easier and less expensive.   Also, set a budget. This sounds simple, but so few people actually put a budget together and live by it.

Jodie Watson is single working mom and an organizational expert who knows all about helping clients with a fresh start by advising them on how to let go of the old systems that aren’t working and usher in new solutions. She is the Founder and President of Supreme Organization and was a regular on Real Simple, Real Life, a lifestyle make-over show on the TLC Network where she helped women identify their day-to-day organizational challenges. Jodie offers realistic solutions that save money, save time, clear the chaos, and make lives less stressful and more manageable.  After working in the entertainment industry for many years including Joan & Melissa River’s Rugby Productions, she launched Supreme Organization in 2005.  She’s a member of the National Association of Organizers (NAPO), Vice President of the Los Angeles Chapter of NAPO, & has a roster of celebrity clients.