The Best Articles on Wine Appraisal

Short of Money for Chrismas Gifts, Great Food & Fine Wine this Year

It?s this time of the year that the shops start to put their decorations up, and you start getting thousands of mail-outs in the post (or thousands of emails from online shops).

It?s a great time of the year ? isn?t it? Or is it? Well - for some people it?s not so great. It?s the time of the year when you have to fork out a lot of money (for gift shopping, for food shopping or for decoration shopping) ? and if you don?t have the money ? you can really get yourself in trouble. Especially ? if you need to be paying the bills at the same time (and the bills always seem to come right when you don?t need them!).

You want to be able to give your kids, your friends, & your family the best Christmas possible. You want to be able to shop for awesome gifts that will make their mouths fall open. You want to be able to lay out the best service possible ? turkey, ham, roast meats, roast vegetables, trifle, pavlova, the works? And most importantly ? you want to give them a Christmas to remember.

But ? the power bill & the phone bill are also due this week - so? what do you do? Well of course you have to pay the power bill, so the decorations, food & gifts will just have to wait?

There are some ways to get around the problems though:

They always say you could get the kids involved ? get them to make their own crackers, & decorations. But - I'm not going to pretty this "saying" up - generally this method will cost you more. You will pay around $2 for a six pack of crackers down the road. If you do this separately - , you have to buy the snaps (the centre bits that go BANG) , the paper for making them, the trinkets to put inside them, the paper to fill the crackers out etc?? Sure - you can get the kids involved - just do it wisely - they can make cards out of paper (with felt-tip pens etc) - but fancy things are generally more expensive than at the shops - remember that.

You could get cheaper meats (chicken instead of turkey etc..), sides (potatoes instead of kumara), and deserts (bread & butter pudding instead of trifle) ? but is this something you want to do? If you normally have a ?traditional Christmas?, it is sure to be a let-down if you have lesser foods.

And? you could get smaller pressies ? there is nothing wrong with this ? you could buy a whole sack of $2 pressies (or even $10 pressies), and the kids would enjoy them (maybe not your teenagers ? but the young ones will never know the difference).

So ? what do you do? You just have to spend the money unfortunately. There are two ways to do this:

a) Get your friends & family to contribute some money and have a co-joint christmas experience (we personally do this & it works out great ? we have a ?family? Christmas where everyone contributes something).

b) Get a loan, or a cash advance. There are several companies that will do this - so you can do plenty of online shopping for gifts, food & decorations. Just do a google search for "apply for loan online" or "apply for cash advance", and you will see lots of companies willing to help you out. Of course, you should try to avoid this measure. It's just going to end up getting you in more debt. If you are just looking for something to tide you over (until you get the next pay cheque), by all means - go for the cash advance. But the loaning of money is dangerous, so be very careful!

So in closing, yes ? there are options for xmas! Just make sure you make it a good one, and most of all - enjoy it!

A synopsis on Wine Appraisal.

Short of Money for Chrismas Gifts, Great Food & Fine Wine this Year


It?s this time of the year that the shops start to put their decorations up, and you start getting thousands of mail-outs in the post (or thousands of...


Click Here to Read More About Wine ...

Recommended Wine Appraisal Items

Personalized Chateau Rug - "W" Initial


These personalized rugs are perfect for your wine cellar kitchen foyer or entryway to your home. Fun colorful images of grapes wine corkscrews and cheese surround a bold initial or your own “Chateau” name up to 14 letters. For the Initial Rug select from A B C D G H J K L M R S T or W. Both are hand-hooked of 100% wool and have a non-slip backing. Initial Chateau Rug (allow 1 to 2 weeks for delivery)


Price: 69.95 USD



Headlines on Wine Appraisal

Hidden animal ingredients in your beer and wine and salad

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 09:09:27 PST
Why white sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and all sorts of beer and wine are NOT vegetarian. And this is the last day to enter the contest to WIN a box bulging with FREE health food store products.

Quick & Easy Hors 'd Oeuvres

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:20:50 PST
Wine Blogger drdebs has a great hors 'd oeuvres that can be made from ingredients you purchase and keep on hand this holiday season. Perfect for those last minute drop in guests.

Chicken Stroganoff (Continental): recipes from around the world

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 07:48:11 PST
Chef: Niru GuptaIngredients: 250 gm chicken breasts-boneless, cubed 1/2 cup white wine 2 tbsp butter 1 tsp oil 2 tbsp refined flour 1 cup chicken stock salt to taste 1/4 tsp black pepper 1 cup sour cream 200 gm dried noodles 1 tbsp butterMethod: Pierce the chicken pieces with a fork, on all sides and marinate in the wine

Myfountain: The Robotic Bartender

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:14:02 PDT
The Virtual Bartender.What's better then not having to mix your own drinks? Having a robot slave doing it for you! You have the ability to create any recipe you can imagine, entirely unique to you and available at the touch of the LCD screen. You are able to store and keep chilled up to 16 different ingredients including wine, beer, concentrates

Jason Vale refutes anti-cancer pills

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:48:21 PDT
The Juice Master, Jason Vale, speaks out against the idea trying to create "pills" derived from ingredients such as sticky-rice, red wine, berries and spice, that could reduce the likelihood of cancer, when we could just eat and drink these foods in their natural form!

Low doses of a red wine ingredient fight diabetes in mice

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:50:40 PDT
Even relatively low doses of resveratrol - a chemical found in the skins of red grapes and in red wine - can improve the sensitivity of mice to the hormone insulin, according to a report in the October issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication. As insulin resistance is often characterized as the most critical fa...

ONLamp.com: Creating Google Custom Search Engines

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 16:25:47 PDT
It's early in the evening and some old school friends just called unexpectedly. They'll be at your house in 90 minutes and you want to make a quick meal with what you have in the house. Where do you find an easy to make recipe using the ingredients you've got to hand (chicken pieces, onions, potatoes, cream, wine, and seasonings)?


Summer Wine
Wine Expert
Jordan Wine | K&L Wines

Labels: Beer Basket

&type=page">