The following is a guest post from Jenna, a freelance writer who most often writes about personal finance, business, and investments. Jenna has been writing online for a few years now and loves to apply her financial knowledge to everyday things like families and small businesses. You can read more personal finance writing by Jenna at paidtwice.com. Consideration was received for the editing and publishing of this post.

The average station commitment for a military family is two years. This means that every twenty-four months (sometimes even more frequently than that), the family has to sort through, pack up, move, unpack and replace major possessions. It’s rough on even the toughest people. Here are some tips that will help you and your family get through it:

Minimalism Is the New PackRat

One thing that moving that often teaches you is how to stay detached from your possessions. Why not take that detachment even further and use it as an impetus to not buy things you don’t need in the first place? Living a minimalist lifestyle isn’t as difficult or as constricting as it used to be. Military families might find that, thanks to streaming media and extensive library systems, they do not need nearly as many things as they thought they did.

By only buying the things you truly need to survive, you won’t have to worry about sorting through and having to say goodbye to a bunch of stuff every time you move.

Storage Spaces Can Help Save Marriages and Money

If a military couple learns they are going to be stationed in say, Dallas, they could try a minimalist experiment. Instead of looking for a bigger home they could find some storage in Dallas and live in a much smaller home or apartment. This can help the family save money, have less clutter, and perhaps discover that they can live with less. Plus, everything in storage should be packaged already so the next move will be much easier.

Embrace the Internet

When talking about the constant moving that military families need to do, most articles focus on the mechanics of the moving process. We’re going to shift from that and talk about the emotional aspect of this nomadic lifestyle. Moving to a new place, finding friends, getting attached and then having to move is difficult on even the most stoic of individuals. But, thanks to the Internet, keeping friendships alive in spite of great physical distances is easier than ever.

Make sure kids understand and have access to email and child-friendly social media portals. This way they can stay in touch with long-distance friends quickly and easily. You might also introduce the idea of being “pen pals” via snail mail, which lots of kids still find fun. Create room in your budget for frequent phone calls and maybe even a couple of trips to visit or have old friends come visit in the new space.

Being in the military involves sacrifices. It is a noble lifestyle to opt in to and your country appreciates everything you give up to keep it safe. Still, having some tips (like those listed in this article) to help you with the practicalities of the lifestyle will hopefully make some of the less fun parts of the lifestyle more bearable.

The following is a guest post from Jenna, a freelance writer who most often writes about personal finance, business, and investments. Jenna has been writing online for a few years now and loves to apply her financial knowledge to everyday things like families and small businesses. You can read more personal finance writing by Jenna at paidtwice.com. Consideration was received for the editing and publishing of this post.

If you feel that your child is spending too much time watching TV or playing video games, you may want to get them interested in a new hobby. There are many different categories to choose from. Discuss with your child the hobbies that he or she might be interested in. Let’s take a look at a few of them:

Nature-related hobbies

Geology is a good way for children to learn about how the Earth was formed, as well as what lies beneath its surface. Boys tend to enjoy collecting rocks. Gardening is ideal for teaching children the benefit of hard work. If they take the time needed to tend to their garden, they can enjoy the benefits when it is time to harvest the food.

Collecting

This is one of the most common areas people think of when the subject of hobbies is mentioned. In recent years, comic books have exploded in popularity due to the big budget movies featuring comic book characters. Sports cards continue to remain common hobby, perhaps with less popularity than previous years. For girls not into sports or comic books, you can introduce dolls and stuffed animals as a safe hobby.

Music

This is a great hobby that has a potential to end up being a career. Many schools have a band program. This is a good way for a child to get started playing a musical instrument. For children who want to sing, there is always the school choir or glee club. You may consider signing up for private music lessons in the area of interest. For instance, TakeLessons is one of America’s top providers for in-studio and in-home singing and music lessons.

Photography and Videos

Modern technology now makes it easier than ever for a child to get started taking photos or making their own movies. Most cell phones have a camera inside them, even the cheaper models. There are also many cell phones that can record video, eliminating the need to buy the child an expensive video camera that could get lost, stolen or broken.

Science-related hobbies

Meteorology is the study of weather. It is a great way for your child to learn about our planet’s climate. It can also teach your child about being good to the environment. Astronomy can teach a child how to identify various constellations. It can develop your child’s curiosity about the vastness of space and what lies beyond the stars.

Hobbies are a great way for a child to learn, relax and have fun. Find a hobby for your child that they will be passionate about. With any luck, it will be a lifetime love affair.

The following is a guest post from Jenna, a freelance writer who most often writes about personal finance, business, and investments. Jenna has been writing online for a few years now and loves to apply her financial knowledge to everyday things like families and small businesses. You can read more personal finance writing by Jenna at paidtwice.com. Consideration was received for the editing and publishing of this post.

Nothing beats a gift that is just for you. It is a great feeling to see your name on a gift, but once you tear off that wrapping paper many forget who it was from. Make this Valentine’s day a personal one. Find ways to remind friends and family of all the good times that you have had together and how much you truly cherish the life that you have with them. This Valentine’s Day can be a great time to purchase personalized gifts. Let those around you know that they are worth your time and effort, by finding them a gift that is just for them.

Personalize a Tote Bag

What better way to show some of the girls in your life how much you care than with a cute personalized tote bag? If you have multiple nieces this can be a great gift, especially if they live in the same house. With each of their names and own designs on it, you can help them avoid a fight for what belongs to who. A personalized tote bag can even be customized with a picture of nearly anything. You can get a picture of you with each of your nieces and put your picture together on each of their bags. There is no confusing this gift with another one.

Get Personal Through Shared Memories

Nothing can beat the memories that you share with your parents. As you have grown, you all have shared many special moments, none of which can ever be replaced. A great way to keep those memories is through pictures. Although they may not seem like much at first, they are records of moments in your life. A great gift could be collecting as many memories as you want and displaying them. There are many ways you can do this. One is through making a book. Putting together a book can bring something new to a normal scrapbook. Make it fun and turn your life into a story.

Another option is a picture frame. But, thanks to new technology a picture frame does not only hold one picture. There are now electronic picture frames. Due to this new gadget, you don’t have to spend time and money going to get pictures printed either. No matter what you choose to do, be creative and make it fun.

As life goes on, you will forget about all the presents you have ever received. All that lingers in the memories of our past. Choose your Valentine’s Day gift so that people remember you as being a thoughtful giver. And by taking some extra time to find gifts that are personal to the one you are giving it to, they may remember your gift for years to come too.

The following is a guest post from Jenna, a freelance writer who most often writes about personal finance, business, and investments. Jenna has been writing online for a few years now and loves to apply her financial knowledge to everyday things like families and small businesses. You can read more personal finance writing by Jenna at paidtwice.com. Consideration was received for the editing and publishing of this post.

Sports are popular among people of all ages, but people often wonder what the best time of year to purchase sports equipment is. It’s always ideal to be able to find the best deals possible for the equipment you will need. To do that, you need to know the best times to find equipment on sale. There are so many popular sports right now; and for each sport, there is an ideal window of time to purchase those sport-specific items.

Here are a few tips for the shopping-weary and sporting-crazy:

Tracking Price Patterns

To land the best deals, you need to know when the equipment you want will be at its best price. You have to look at the price fluctuations throughout the year for the equipment in each sport. Being able to find cheap equipment on clearance is what you are after, as you will get high quality equipment at the most affordable prices of the year.

Take-away: Look for clearance sales.

Winter Equipment Deals

For the most part, winter is the time of year you should be purchasing your equipment. But during this season, there are certain pieces of equipment you should and shouldn’t buy. Playing football, basketball, and baseball is not very common throughout the winter in most American states. This means that those sports will have affordable equipment and items to be purchased during the cold season.

Take-away: Winter is the best time to buy equipment for most American sports.

Practical Applications

The application of how prices work is rather easy to comprehend, but what are some real examples? In the summer, when hockey is off-season, that pair of skates that cost $299 in the winter may now only cost $150. Makes sense, right? Finding great deals on sports equipment is all about understanding how consumer patterns match the respective sports season and off-season. A child wanting to play basketball should purchase his equipment during the winter and save 30 percent on them. As crazy as it might seem, a baseball bat costing $250 can cost $100 in the winter.

Take-away: Buy equipment during the off-season.

Winter sports have their best prices in the summer, while non-winter sports have their best prices during the winter. While none of this rocket science, each sport does have an ideal window when you can save literally hundreds of dollars. As a whole, winter is a time of year where most of the big sports will have their best prices of the year on equipment. So save yourself money and stress by shopping preemptively.