Mar 20, 2012

For me, the month of March is the month of Birthday madness. It’s really worst than Christmas. That is because many significant people in my life have birthdays this month. How about 5 all in the same month????? This represents, in my opinion, not only an unreasonable expense bundled into the same month, but also a major headache to try to think about what unique Birthday gifts to get so many people!  What saved the day for me is a little planning:

First, write the names of the persons and the dates of the Birthdays.

Then think  about what each person likes. For example, reading, going to the movies, eating at restaurants, a particular singer, cooking, drinking wine, etc.

Next think about what you know they actually need. Maybe one of them lost their phone or their sunglasses, or perhaps needs some clothes for an upcoming interview, etc. You get the idea.

These two should give you a good place to start and help you begin to generate gift ideas for these VIP’s in your life.

 In my case, one of the people with Birthday this month is my sister. She is a difficult person to give to  not only because she has everything but also because she also always gives great gifts so you can’t really get away with giving her an itsy bitsy thing. But, the one thing she does loves for sure are books and specifically self improvement books especially if they are from an author called Wayne Dyer. My luck was that he had just come out with a new book called “Wishes Fulfilled”.  So, that’s what I gave her.  A very targeted, personalized gift if you ask me.  And to top it off, she absolutely loved it!

Another person with a birthday is my best friend. Although she is not as picky as my sister, I still had to come up with an original gift idea. But since she also loves self improvement books from Wayne Dyer. I said to myself, why not make it easy on myself? After all, she won’t know I already gave the same gift to my sister. And anyways, what would be the problem with that? It’s still a great, targeted, thoughtful gift. So that’s what I gave her too, “Wishes Fulfilled” two.  And she absolutely loved it! So far, so good! Two down, two to go…….

The third person with a Birthday this month is my mom. Now she is 89 years old but her mind is as quick as a whip and she LOVES gifts. In the past, I have given her clothes and she’s really liked those so I figured I would stick to the safe route. I found her a red really nice short sleeve shirt as she lives in the Tropics. And she wore it the next day. So I think I did alright by her too

Gift number 4 is for another very good friend. She has always told me that she hates when people forget her gifts on her Birthday. So I couldn’t possibly ignore that fact especially if I was going to see her for her Birthday lunch…! I ‘ve seen her wearing silver bracelets lately so I figured she would probably not mind another one. Bingo, she took off another bracelet and wore my gift as son as she opened it. I’m on  a roll! 

The last gift of the month, or gift # 5, is for my 11 year old son. He as been asking for a cell phone for  a while now and we have tried to hold back as long as possible. But it was getting increasingly difficult since all his classmates at school already had one and he also kind of needed one so we could contact him when he was sleeping over at friends houses. So we finally relented and gave him an iPhone.  must say that he was the happiest gifted of all. Happy as can be and  surprised as well. It doesn’t get any better than that.

So you see, with a little planning and a little knowledge about the people you are planning to give gifts to, you can also survive  a 5 gifts type of month!

 

Jan 7, 2012

After the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays after I overindulged in food and drink, I reluctantly got on the scale and oops had gained 10 pounds…..! So my top new year’s resolutions at the beginning of this new year, was to lose those pesky 10 pounds!!  Undoubtedly, I am not the only one whose new year resolution is to lose weight and start exercising. If you have a person whose Birthday is coming up and need to find a gift for, something weight-loss related could be an ideal gift. Obviously this needs to be a gift for a person you know who has said they want to lose weight. You certainly don’t want to offend anyone here. Some practical gift ideas could include:

If the person likes to exercise, for example, then maybe a gym membership to a national establishment such as LA Fitness or All Sports Clubs would be something they would love. If a yearly membership is too costly, then maybe the down payment and the 1st month’s quota, would be the solution.

Another personalized gift idea is to order as a gift some of the popular prepared meals plans available on the market such as Nutrisystem or Jenny Craig. A couple friend of mine both tried it and they did lose the weight, The boxed pre-prepared meals include a variety of delicious frozen foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner which are shipped to you directly. These diets has been made popular by celebrities that have successfully lost weight publicly. Some notable examples include, Valerie Bertinelli, Maria Carey, Janet Jackson,and Kirstie Alley, among many others. You could give one 28 day meal plan or a partial payment of a plan to jump-start someone’s diet in the new year.

Other ideas include giving meal replacement meals. This entails replacing two meals during the day such as breakfast and lunch, for example, with a delicious shake in vanilla, strawberry or chocolate flavors and eating a sensible and healthy meal for the third meal like dinner. Popular programs include Slim Fast or Herbalife. You could give a month long supply, for example. I’ve tried this and if you like milk shakes, it’s really good. The only drawback is that you get tired of having the same shakes for breakfast and lunch every day and I can’t say I lost too much….

Some people prefer guided weight loss programs which give you more flexibility such as Weight Watchers. In this program, you count the calories of the foods you eat and keep a diary. You can either join the online Weight Watches program, or if you need support, the program which enables you to attend weekly meetings. These are monthly programs so you could pay for the program for a month,or up to 3 months, depending on how much weight they would like to lose. I personally lost 10 pounds on this program over a 1 month period so I can personally vouch for it. However, you really have to be consistent with your food journal and write what you ate for every meal every day.

Other personalized gift options include giving supplements or weight loss aids such as Sensa. Sensa is very popular food additive which involves sprinkling your food with it. It activates your hunger control and thus makes you eat less resulting in weight loss. I tried it but couldn’t remember to sprinkle it on my food everyday so I truly don’t know how effective it really is. Alli is yet another popular weight loss pill that has gained momentum. Although some people complain about some of its side effects, it is deemed to be very effective. I don’t really know anyone who has done it.

Whichever program you decide to give, the key is to find out what motivates the person you will be offering the gift to. Are they into exercise? Do they prefer to eat really well but less, or rather eat of everything but with a lower calorie count or like the flexibility of an independent program such as Weight Watchers? Once you figure that out, you can give the wonderful, personalized gift of weight loss.

Happy New Year and Happy Weight Loss!

 

 

Sep 1, 2011

First of all, I own a Kindle and I love it because it is small & lightweight. I bought it so I could buy and read books on the fly and not worry about carrying them around all the time. It is crisp, readable, and comfy for lengthy-term reading. Additionally, there is not a glare problem when you are outside. However, if neither weight nor space is an issue, then there is nothing better than reading an actual paperback, in my opinion.

I also own an iPad but that tablet is a lot more than an electronic book which is basically what I use my Kindle for. It is more of a mini computer. Apart from my books, I have my pictures, my documents, all the applications I have on my iPhone and can do everything on it except make phone calls. I paid $800 with the extra memory and the 3G version but  a freind of mine bought the $400 version with only the Wi-Fi and reduced memory capacity.

The fact is I bought my iPad after my Kindle. Had I bought it before, I probably wouldn’t have a bought a Kindle because it is now redundant. I can read books on my iPad now too, see? So I never use my Kindle

What you need to consider is what the person you are buying the gift for will use it for?  Are they die-hard book lovers?  Then, they’ll most likely prefer the regular Kindle that retails for only $79. Do they want to watch movies, read magazines and books in color and want to surf the net a little bit then why not get them a color e-reader? Consider the new, full-color Amazon Kindle Fire tablet for only $199.

But if they will be reading through e-books with color illustrations and need a mini computer as well, reconsider and buy them the iPad.