It’s not that you don’t want to spoil your girl. It’s just that Valentine’s Day can be expensive! After a gift, chocolates, AND dinner, it adds up. So, here are a list of gifts for her that were listed under $50 to help you not break the bank.
As you know, we love the cheesy stuff! Whether we deny it or not. This preserved red rose with a necklace to match will make her night! Not to mention it comes with a card and gift wrapping to make your life easy!
Here’s the deal, although fresh flowers are nice, there’s nothing like a flower that never goes away! Not to mention, this one’s dipped in 24 karat gold, which is pretty dang cool!
I’ve got another corny one for you. Although this is a little cheesy, okay maybe a lot cheesy… you can’t go wrong with a candle for Valentine’s Day. So, you might as well make it cute and lovey-dovey!
4. Antique “I can’t help falling in love with you” Music Box LINK
This is my persona favorite! They say the best gifts come in the smallest packages. This is a tiny little music box that sings the song “I can’t help falling in love with you” as you crank it.
This gift is definitely the most personalized of this list. So, if you’ve got a sentimental lady, definitely lean towards getting this engraved wooden box. Not only can you customize the engraving, but then you put whatever images you’d like inside that would be special to you.
Let me know in the comments if this list helped you out! There’s still some time before the big day, so if you comment your suggestions I can go out and search the web for more cheap ideas!
Whether you’re looking to grow financially, or get a grasp on your current income, tracking your finances can be an empowering tool to take ahold of something that runs many aspects of our society; money. It’s how we live, eat, and, in some cases, breathe. Therefore, ensuring your incoming cash flow is able to maintain the lifestyle you need or want to live is imperative.
Some links in this post are affiliate links that may help me earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Why Tracking Your Income Will Benefit You
“So, Paige, why would I need to track my income? Isn’t checking my paystub enough?” Great question! There’s a few crucial reasons I’d like to share in hopes to convince you to start tracking your income.
Payroll Errors
Remember, if you’re working for a company as of 2024, it’s being run by humans who make errors. Despite automation and the growing use of robots in businesses, payroll errors are a very real issue. It’s happened multiple times to me, personally, where I’ve seen an error in my paystub and thank goodness I caught it or else I may have never been paid what I was owed. It’s helpful to remember that most companies do not make payroll errors on purpose. But an even more comforting feeling is knowing you, personally, can calculate what you should be receiving each paycheck for consistency.
Recognizes Personal Financial Growth
After years of tracking your income, you’ll hopefully be pleasantly surprised by your growth. Or, on the contrary, you may come to the realization that it’s time to request a raise from your employer. Either way, being aware of your own personal income trend will bring to light your wins, or your needs for improvement.
Goal-Setting
Once you’ve recognized your income trend throughout your employment history, you can set financial goals for the future. Maybe you want to request a raise to help you buy a home, or afford that dream-card you’ve always been pinning for. Either way, it’s hard to set a goal if you don’t already recognize where you’re at.
Compare Income to Expenses
You’ve found trends in your past income, set goals for the future, but what about reality? You know, mortgage, insurance, car payments, etc? Well, tracking your income along with your expenses, see my post on #1 BEST Way to Organize Your Bills, will allow you to know your Net Profit. Your Net Profit, aka “Net,” is the total amount of cash you have left after you subtract Total Expenses from Gross Income. Knowing your Net tells you what you can spend on fun, entertainment, treats, fashion, or other things in life that are “wants” and not “needs.”
When to Start Tracking Your Income
Now that I’ve convinced you to track your income, is it too late or too early to start? Nope! You can start tracking your income at any time, at any age. Earlier is better, but it’s never too late. “But when do I have the time to track all this?” With my method, you can start tracking while waiting at the doctor’s office, in the restroom, or even on a road trip! The first step is making the leap to take hold of your finances, and from there all you can do is go up!
If you are feeling behind the curb and need to work through debt, try using Amazon’s Debt Snowball Tracker
Where’s the Best Place to Track my Income?
What you’ve been waiting for, where’s the best place to track my income? I’ll share with you the three methods I tried, why I liked them, disliked them, and why I eventually chose to stick with option #3: Google Sheets.
Option #1: Good Ol’ Paper – Soup is too cold
Now, nothing against paper lovers, but I just can’t stand having to carry more than I have to. And I’m not talking in a figurative sense, I actually have neck issues! So, carrying around books and books of the things I track from income, expenses, shopping lists, bucket lists… this list… becomes way too tiresome. Instead, I aim to track any and everything from my mobile devices that stick with me everywhere I go. So, I could go from the grocery store to checking flight destinations without ever having to run home to grab a list.
Now, the notes app on your smart phone is a step in the right direction, but this still wasn’t enough for me. On iPhone notes app, there’s no filtering or equation abilities. Meaning, I couldn’t filter out expenses only or sum my entire list of income earned in one year. Another issue I’ve ran into with my Notes App is its collaborative ability. I’ve noticed improvement in recent years, but back when I added my husband into my finances sharing that note with him made the app glitchy and slow. And for those that know me, patience is not my strong suit.
Option #3: Google Sheets – Soup is just right!
After exhausting the two methods above, I finally discovered Google Sheets. Well, I knew of Sheets, but didn’t understand the capabilities of it in regards to finances. I can create complex equations, averaging out my commission and bonus earnings since the beginning of the year without pulling out a calculator. It’s got color-coding capabilities, infinite cells (as far as I’m aware of), and so much more.
So, if you’ve got a GMail account, let’s get moving on to the next step. However, if you prefer to use Excel you are completely welcome to, just know that the verbiage I’ll be using will need to be translated to Windows capabilities.
You’ve signed into GMail, opened your Google Drive, and created a blank Sheet. Now, it’s time for the fun part!
Tracking Income for Hourly Wages
If you work an hourly paid position, you’ll want to start by calculating how much you make per hour after taxes. You’ll find this by checking the net amount received on your paystub or in your bank, and divide that number by the amount hours you worked during that pay period.
Net Payment Received / Hours Worked Within that Pay Period = Net Hourly Wage
Remember that taxes are not generally withheld at an exact amount. So, you will want to remember that this amount can vary slightly each week. My suggestion would be to track this Net Hourly Wage amount for 3-4 paychecks to see how variable your Net is. Then, when planning ahead on your income, use the lowest number. The reason I use the lowest number is that anytime you are dealing with finances, you want to plan for the worst case scenario. If you plan for best case scenario, but end up earning the lower amount, you will feel the affects of not properly planning ahead.
Within your spreadsheet, it may look like this:
Now, you can multiply this Net Hourly Wage by the amount of hours you generally work in a month (which you can also track on this spreadsheet) to find your general monthly earnings. You can do the same for annual, weekly, etc.
Tracking Income for Salary Wages
Tracking Salaried income is generally easier than hourly, especially if you seldom take time off without PTO available, since that negatively affects your income. Each pay period, notate the Net amount you received. When planning ahead for savings goals or large expenses, you can base your expected income off of either the lowest amount or average.
The reason I say salaried individuals can base their income off of the average instead of the lowest earned amount is that a wage based off of salary is generally more consistent than wages based off of an hourly wage.
Tracking Income for Salary + Commission & Bonus Wages
Commission and bonus’ included in one’s wage can also pose an obstacle when calculating income, but it’s not impossible. The way you document your income in your spreadsheet will depend on how frequently you get paid. For example, if you get paid once a month including your base salary, commission, and bonus’, you can track your salary the exact same as above. The only change I’d make is basing your future goals and plans on a lower amount, since commissions and bonus’ can vary quite a bit.
However, if you’re paid twice or more a month, you’ll want to separately track your payments. One based on base salary, and another based on your commission, bonus, and potential base salary earnings (if they’re all grouped together on one of your paychecks and not the other). This way, you can see the wage you can steadily plan for (base salary Net amount) and the wage you know may give you a “bump” here and there (commission, bonus). Again, if you’re making future plans or are preparing for a financial adjustment, you’ll want to plan based on your lowest commission and bonus earnings in the past 12-24 months.
I’ve Tracked My Income, Now What?
The world is your oyster! (I’ve really never understood that phrase, oysters are quite small….) Find trends in your income, set goals for the future, and work closer and closer to becoming financially free!
Create good habits with the Habits Tracker in this SUPER CUTE 52 Week Planner off of Amazon
Alright ladies, the time has come where you will get spoiled with flowers, chocolate, dinner, and more (at least you better… if you don’t, reconsider that man!)
But, how do we return the favor? Don’t our men deserve to be spoiled as well? Of course they do! But here is my problem, what is the equivalent of flowers for men? What kinds of gifts do they want on Valentine’s Day?
So, in order to figure this out I have asked a group of men what they would like to get on Valentine’s Day besides, well, you know… the *spicy* stuff.
Here’s what they said!
Some links in this post are affiliate links that may help me earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
OK, I’m not going to claim that I am a professional in the PC realm. In fact, I’m pretty uneducated. So, this might be a good gift to actually ask your partner about to make sure you get him the right one. For some that may be taboo, but if you’re going to spend that much, you might as well get the right thing, right?
“But my significant other isn’t a Seahawks fan.” Well, don’t worry, there are a bunch of other Lego sets that you can get for both of you to put together. Lego has finally moved past just star wars and lego Batman, and now there’s houses, flowers, figurines, etc that you two can build together!
This was mentioned multiple times so ladies, let’s not let this idea slide! Here’s a link for a lucky plant! Talk about being a “green” thumb! LINK
This may be a bit expensive for a Valentines gift, but depending on your situation, you might want to get your significant other gun to protect both of you or even just to go to a shooting range together. I also am not a gun expert, but according to my husband, this is a decent one. This was another item that the men mentioned more than once.
So it might just be because I’m in Utah -boo- but I can’t find a alcohol that you can buy from Amazon. So, grab a nice whiskey from the liquor store, or an 6 pack, and complement it with this old fashion mix or custom beer mug set!
It’s hard to go wrong with food for gifts, especially something like beef jerky! Get him this set of 10 different beef jerky to try, and then you can lockdown his favorite for road trips in the future!
6. Something to compliment one of their hobbies
This was a pretty general suggestion, but definitely a good one. Think, if my significant other had all the time in the world, how would he spend it? Here are some hobbies and gift suggestions for each one!
Is Valentine’s making you question your relationship? Check out my blog post 3 Attachment Styles and how to Overcome Them to learn more about why you love (or struggle to love) the way you do!
Honorable mentions from the ladies:
Here were some suggestions from the gals that were worth a mention!
I hope that this list has helped! It’s worth mentioning that I had more women responding asking for this list rather than men responding with what they wanted! Let’s help them feel like they deserve to get spoiled too this year!
What are my top favorites from Amazon? Well I’m so glad you asked! In this post, I’ll go over my top Amazon products from 2024. Some are for health, others are decorative or just for day-to-day use. Either way, I hope something on this list helps you out!
Are you tired of getting sick? It’s that time of year where kids will be returning back to school and we are all spending lots of time outside in the cold. I’m not kidding when I say I used to get sick between three and four times a year. It didn’t really matter what it was, stomach bug, cold, flu, tonsillitis, mono……. I just got sick a ton! That was, until fire brew! I truly have gotten sick once in the past two years since taking fire brew. Sold yet?
Now, I’m not going to hide that this stuff is STRONG. My husband took it on an empty stomach and ended up in front of the toilet. So, make sure to eat a couple of crackers before taking a couple of tablespoons. During the winter months, I take 2 tablespoons in the morning and 2 tablespoons at night. That should do the trick! And throughout the rest of the year, if you start feeling sick, just take a couple tablespoons and you’ll feel the magic!
Are you ready for your house to smell AMAZING? OK I know, I can be a bit dramatic. However! These inconspicuous, wireless oil diffusers have absolutely changed the game for smells in my home. I have two cats and we are in a pretty small space, so you can only imagine!
Depending on the setting you have them set to, the oils will diffuse for up to six seconds every 10 to 17 minutes. The batteries last about three months, and one oil refill will last me for just over a month!
For those working women out there, I’ve been wondering for two years how in the HE11 to carry around my 17 inch work laptop?? I mean, this thing is huge!! I truly started taking a carry-on bag JUST for the laptop.
However, thanks to an amazing coworker who found this laptop bag, my neck and back are saved! Not only is this bag large enough to hold my laptop, iPad, multiple books, water bottle, everything that was in my purse, and even more… but you can wear it like a backpack!
Actually, on top of storage, this bag also has a portable charging port and a retractable O-ring that I use for my keys and wallet. What’s not to love?
Shout out to my brother-in-law who got me this for secret Santa! And since then, I’ve practically used it every single day in my car. Imagine, you wake up tired and sore, but get into your car to get a literal back massage, for free! Well, almost…
5. Adjustable Measuring Cups LINK and Tablespoons/Teaspoons LINK
Now, for those that know me, they know that I am not a huge cooker or baker. However, this holiday season I have had a chance to practice my skills, or start growing any skills as I should probably say… I can now vouch for both of these products because holy cow they save me so many dishes and so much storage space!
I hope that you have resonated with some of these products! Comment below what you got!!
Are you the type of person that can’t choose just one style for your home? A mix of two home-decor styles is a common challenge that multiple home-owners run into.
I, personally, bounce between a “Modern” and “Rustic” look. I love the cozy-ness (is that a word) of the Rustic style, but the simplicity and cleanliness of the Modern style.
So, let’s review some Amazon finds that satisfy the Rustic (or Western)/Modern home style, while also on a budget!
Some links in this post are affiliate links that may help me earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
1. Simple-Yet-Western White and Brown Entertainment Stand LINK
This Modern/Rustic TV Stand adds a cozy-Rustic feel to your home with its barn-style doors. To further the look, I add a woven basket with a blanket to the middle section. The Modern look of this stand can be explained by the simplicity. We’ve had this stand for a few years now, and it’s held up great! Being that the price of this TV Stand is under $200(!!), it’s well worth a try!
2. Sleek, Grey Decorative Entertainment Stand LINK
We’ve got an awkwardly-shaped living room. So, we actually have room for two entertainment stands. The one sits below our TV, and this TV Entertainment Stand has a cute circular mirror above it. Similar to the TV stand above, this one features the barn-like doors, and then you can add whatever Rustic or Modern-styled decor on the left shelves.
My only complaint with this stand is that the middle of the stand does not have as much support. So, we just set a small wooden block underneath the middle of the stand, and that works great!
Sitting at under $170, this White & Grey rug can add a neutral style piece to your home. This rug doesn’t necessarily belong to one type of home-style, it can work for any theme you’re aiming for. I chose this for my Modern/Rustic home due to its neutrality.
Though this rug has a tendency to crumple up, we couldn’t resist the price! I mean less than $75 for a rug? That’s a must-have for new home-owners. If no one’s ever told you, rugs are WAY more expensive than you think they will be.
We set this underneath our favorite “Circle Chair” that you can see on #9 below.
For LESS THAN $500, you can get this Grey L-Shaped Sofa that pulls out to a mostly-comfortable sleeper bed, tucks into an L-shape, AND has storage! What more could a home-owner want? Well, one trade off you’ll have to come to terms with is comfort. This couch is pretty stale (can that word be used to describe comfort? Oh well. I’m going for it).
However, 2 years later and my husband and I still have this couch. We just use a fluffy blanket (ever heard of Minky Couture?) that costs less than $100 to cushion our buns and voila! Cheap comfort!
Do you ever sit back and think: I have SO MUCH to store, but so little space? ME TOO! And one thing I’ve learned is to use tall spaces. If you have a room that you need to store a LOT in, but don’t have a lot of floor space, this tall Pantry Cabinet is perfect for you.
I’ve placed this in my guest room, which is even more perfect because it comes with a power strip! Yes, I know it’s meant to be a food pantry buuuut I don’t care! If it fits, it fits!
As for the Modern/Rustic feel with this piece, I love that it’s got the simplicity of modern furniture, while repping the classic barn-style doors. Can you tell I’m a sucker for those?
This black and white Faux Cowhide Rug is definitely more on the Rustic side. However the simplistic coloring of just black and white help to tie in the Modernistic style as well.
This C-Shaped Sofa Side Table fits PERFECTLY with the L-Shaped Sofa in #5 above. You may want to tuck this side table away when you’re not using it, but personally I keep the side table out at all times. It’s our “designated remote spot” so that we don’t lose our TV remote (seriously, when are the geniuses going to get rid of the need for remotes?)
I also appreciate how mobile this C Shaped Sofa Side Table is. We can move it from either side of the couch, as well as in the front if I’m feeling really lazy about reaching for my drink (lol).
Oh yes, you know the one. The infamous “Circle Chair” that I feel like we’ve all run into at one point or another in our lifetimes. That’s the beautiful thing about adulthood, I can buy whatever kind of chair I want for my home! (Don’t ask about the beanbag…).
The actual name of this chair is a “Papasan” chair. And it is truly the most comfortable chair in our home. It’s my favorite coffee-sipping chair in the morning, or bundling up on a winter night with a hot chocolate. Whichever suits your fancy, I definitely wouldn’t pass up on this chair.
Now, one warning I have to give is that the ball-bearings on this chair don’t tend to last very long. However, once we replaced the original with this stronger swivel, we’ve had no issue!
Plants can belong in Modern/Rustic style, right? Well, if not, I’ve made it so!
This is one of my most favorite plant hangers. It lets the plant speak for itself, while also having a neat and simplistic shape. Tie this in next to your circular mirror, and you’ve got a slew of eye-appealing shapes!
I hope you’ve moved forward with some of the items above to help advance your Modern/Rustic in the cheapest way possible!
If you purchased one of the items above, let me know in the comments how you’re liking the product!
