This is a collaborative post. All opinions are my own.

Most everyone has experienced a restless night at some point. Many people experience the frustration of tossing and turning with sleeplessness several nights per week. Sleep is essential for health and wellness; you need to be able to catch a full night of Zs if you hope to be effective at work and engaged at home. But, if you can’t sleep (and none of the other insomnia solutions seem to be working) you might turn your attention to your bed. Not all beds are created equal. You need to build your bed around your body size, shape, sensitivities and sleep style, and if any one element of your bed is off, you won’t be able to relax and feel as rested as possible. Here are a few common complaints about beds, and how you can change them to improve your sleep.

Your Bed Is Too Small

As it turns out, a bed can’t be too big for a person...but it can definitely be too small. It should go without saying that if you have a larger frame, you probably need a larger mattress. The same goes for if you are sharing your bed with a partner, or with your pets or kids. When your bed is too small, you could feel cramped into certain uncomfortable sleeping positions, or your sleep could be disturbed by others moving around in the night. A larger mattress will give you more space to spread out without bumping into your bedmates, helping you achieve a better sleep. You should always try to get the biggest bed possible for your space, so you can obtain the highest level of comfort.

Your Mattress is Old and Lumpy

Believe it or not, your mattress has an expiration date. If you are taking impeccable care of your mattress (flipping and rotating it on a schedule, using a mattress protector, cleaning it every few months, etc.) your mattress will last a maximum of 10 years. An old mattress past its prime could be interfering with your sleep for a variety of reasons, such as:

• Lumps and bumps. The cushion of your mattress will wear down in the shape of your body, creating uncomfortable high and low points that can put stress on your joints.
• Allergies. As you shed dead skin cells into your mattress, your mattress will attract dust mites, which produce feces that can irritate your skin, airways and eyes. 

If the time for replacing an expired mattress is nigh, you might as well upgrade to a luxury mattress to give you the best chance at a restful night’s sleep.

You Have the Wrong Mattress for Your Sleeping Style

Different sleeping positions demand different types of support from your bed and bedding:

• Side sleepers need soft mattresses that allow their shoulders and hips to sink in without creating pressure points that cut off blood flow.
• Stomach sleepers need especially firm mattresses to support their midsection, which shouldn’t be allowed to sink into the mattress to pull the spine out of alignment.
• Back sleepers need medium-firm mattresses, which should cradle the back without permitting excessive sinking.

If you can’t sleep because you can’t get comfortable in your bed, you could be suffering from a case of improper mattress. You can take note of your most-used sleep positions and use them to guide you toward a better bed.

You Are Allergic to Your Pillow

After just two years of use, your pillow is 10 percent heavier due to the excess skin cells you shed into it every night. As with your mattress, your dead skin attracts dust mites, which chow down your shed cells and drop feces in their wake. Though you might not be able to see the mites or their droppings, your body is almost certainly reacting to them with a typical allergy response: runny nose, itchy, watery eyes, red, irritated skin, sneezing and coughing — the works. If you notice that your allergies are particularly bad in the morning, just after you wake, you probably need to toss your pillow and buy a new one. The best pillows are made of natural, non-allergenic materials, like natural latex or organic cotton.

Of course, there are a tremendous number of reasons you might not be sleeping as well as you should — but making your bed a more inviting place is a good way to start addressing and sleep struggles you might be suffering. The perfect bed for you is waiting, and with it, the perfect sleep.

This is a collaborative post. All opinions are my own.

With our minds fixed on the big stressors and uncertainties in the world right now, like the coronavirus and its effect on our economy, it sure would be nice if we could get a break from any other problems...like if we could be guaranteed that our faithful appliances would keep working perfectly. However, the reality is that, even when we have bigger things to worry about, we still have to prepare for smaller things too--like those dreaded appliance breakdowns. Many people get stuck with appliances that go “on the fritz” seemingly overnight, and they face the prospect of having to replace them in a hurry. But if you're paying attention, most appliances put out warning signs that they need help ahead of time. If we can catch those early warnings, we can arrange for repairs ASAP and help extend the life of our appliances. These are some of those symptoms to look out for.

1. Not Turning On

The first obvious sign of a problem with an appliance is if it simply won’t turn on in the first place. Many repair people get called out to homes to look at appliances and find the issue is that it’s not plugged in or is switched off at the power point. However, if you know none of those things is the case, and you can’t get the machine to switch on at all, it may need special attention.

Sometimes appliances won’t power on because a circuit has tripped (although usually in this case you’ll notice many machines have died) or because they have an overload feature that shuts them off automatically when their motor becomes overloaded and hot. If there’s a reset button on the machine, try this before calling in a repair person.

If you still can’t get an appliance to turn on, it could have a burnt-out motor, bad electrical connection, blown fuse, broken compressor, or there might be an issue with the machine being out of balance. This is especially common with washing machines. Also, the coils, such as those found on a fridge, may be clogged up (particularly when people have shedding pets in the home), or a gas burner may refuse to light due to a food spill plugging up the burner hole. 

2. Not Doing Their Job

Many people find their machines are still working but not adequately. For instance, perhaps your dishwasher isn’t cleaning your dishes, your dryer isn’t drying your clothes, your refrigerator isn’t keeping your food cold enough, or your air conditioner isn’t cooling your home. These are prime signs that appliances are on the way out. 

Also, you may notice that machines give you the right results sometimes, but not all the time. Appliances aren’t meant to change their behavior out of the blue, so if you fail to get consistent outcomes from the white goods in your home, investigate further. 

There are many possible reasons, so call in a dedicated repair person, such as those found via Canduhome.com, for an inspection and fix as required. Some quick fixes exist, such as cleaning or replacing a filter, changing out a hose, unclogging a drain, replacing a coil, or changing hot water settings so water heats quickly. 

Other times appliances require major work, which a tradesperson can quote on for you. For instance, when ice forms inside a freezer, this is often a sign that the cooling system is malfunctioning. 

3. Leaks

It could happen in one massive pour, or it could happen with a slow and steady drip; either way, if you have any leaks coming from your appliances, get this seen to ASAP. Many of these leaks are highly visible, particularly when they occur as burst pipes and water floods an area. However, sometimes you’ll notice a moisture-ridden wall, ceiling, floor, or another area, with the problem stemming from a nearby leaky appliance. 

Furthermore, if you notice significant moisture around vents on machines, even after you’ve cleaned filters, this is a sign you need a repair person on hand to examine matters. Similarly, steam escaping from dishwashers or other machines where you don’t expect to see steam, indicates a seal is damaged, a door has warped, or some other issue needs repair. 

Other common signs to look out for regarding your appliances are:

• Machines suddenly or increasingly becoming very noisy
• Odd sounds, like squealing, banging, grinding, etc. that are unlike typical sounds for your appliance
• Strange smells, especially burning or strong, funky odors that could be caused by mold, food build-up, or internal leaks 
• Increasing power bills for no other reason 

If you notice any or multiple of the signs mentioned above, it’s wise to contact a professional straight away. The sooner you can have your machine inspected, serviced, or repaired, the less likely it is that the appliance will fail altogether and require replacement.

This is a collaborative post. All opinions are my own.

I have become one of those weird people who enjoys saving money and talking about it. Who wants to hang out?? I'm sooo much fun! ;D

To spare my friends, I'm taking it to the internet where I can post whatever I want, and you're not obligated to read it (but maybe you're secretly interested in money tips too?). What has made this fun for me is thinking of our finances like a strategy game...trying different things to see how much we can save without feeling deprived. The last part is key, because in order to stay motivated, it has to feel like we're still living a good life now instead of sacrificing everything we enjoy for the sake of a better future. It's like how some people never travel because they're waiting for retirement, then by the time they finally retire they're too old and sick to do the things they dreamed of. We don't want that. But at the same time we don't want to live selfishly, doing whatever we want and buying things on impulse, at the expense of our future selves. After all, we also want to create a healthy financial future for our family. We want to experience awesome things now, while we're young and our kids are little...but also set ourselves up to keep doing awesome things in retirement. Oh, and preferably we'd like that retirement to be before we get too old (yeah, I know, we want to have our cake and eat it too). Here are five things that have helped us to increase our savings without feeling deprived.

Source: Pixabay

1. Find your why. 

You're never going to stick to an aggressive savings plan if you don't know why you're doing it. I'm actually grateful (in some ways) that the housing prices in Seattle kept climbing while we lived there so it always felt out of reach. Wanting to buy a house kept us diligent about saving during that time when we were both working. Otherwise I think we might have wasted a lot more money on clothes and eating out. Whether your goal is saving for a house, paying off debt, or early retirement, having a specific reason for saving will keep you motivated and on track.

2. Figure out what brings you joy.

It sounds cliché, but the Marie Kondo method works just as well for your expenses as it does for your closet. Go through your spending from the last few months and think about what purchases actually brought you joy. Obviously some joyless things are necessary, like buying toilet paper and paying for electricity. But for your discretionary spending, what was actually worth the money in hindsight? Once you've narrowed that down, structure your budget so it matches those priorities. Maybe treating yourself to lattes a couples times a week actually does bring you $40 worth of joy. If so, you don't have to cut it out. Personal finance is personal. We all have things that are worthwhile to us, and things that we don't really care about. If you can find some things to cut out that you won't really miss, then you can still enjoy little splurges, guilt-free.

3. Do a spending freeze.

Trying to cut something out forever can feel very daunting and impossible. Instead, try a spending freeze for a limited amount of time. It's kind of like Whole 30...you're more likely to stick to a strict diet if you know it's only for one month. And it helps to have other people doing it at the same time for moral support. A strict budget is similar! Make it like a game, see if you can get some friends to do it with you, and you might even have fun. Pick a month, and challenge yourself to spend nothing on purchases that aren't necessities...no home decor, no new clothes, no duplicates of items you already own. By going cold turkey for a short period of time, you can reset your spending habits. And you might be surprised by how much you save in that one month!

4. Create a budget.

A goal without a plan is just a wish. In order to increase your savings, you have to create a budget to control and direct your spending. You can download a budgeting app to make it simpler for you, create an Excel spreadsheet, or work it out with a good old-fashioned pen and paper...whatever method works for you, just do it. Make sure your budget allocates every dollar of income...starting with how much you're going to put into savings every month (aka pay yourself first)! Then track the rest of your spending throughout the month, checking in as you go to make sure you're sticking to your plan.

5. Seek financial help.

As with so many things in life...if you're struggling, don't do it alone. Speak to friends or family members who are better with money than you are, and ask for their advice and support. They could have ideas that you haven't thought of (for example, now could be a good time to refinance your house with the extremely low mortgage rates). A conversation with an accountant could be very helpful and insightful, especially if you own investment properties or a small business. And of course, you can find a lot of information online too. Use websites such as Rate Rush for advice on all kinds of money-related topics.