Blog Posts by All You Magazine

Make 2013 your best financial year ever with these month-by-month tips!

Making resolutions is a great way to improve your health, your finances, and to better yourself as a person. Yet it's odd how many people only make resolutions for the first of the year. The sad truth is that most lose motivation after just a few months, and all good intentions go out the window. Unfortunately, this not only means they don't reach their long-term financial goals, but they may also lose the confidence to try again in the future.

This year, resolve to make simple monthly resolutions. They're easier to achieve, and serve to break your larger resolutions down into doable goals with concrete timelines.

Related: Want to Save $10K? Never Buy These 14 Things

January: Create or Update Your Budget

How do you make a budget? Start by determining two things: your monthly income and monthly expenses (including debt payments). Once you know these, you can group expenses into monthly budget categories of like items, such as food, gas, entertainment, and

Avoid unsightly teeth stains and other faux pas with these tips!

The holiday season is full of late nights and early mornings (so many parties, but you still have to be at work on time!), which means lots of coffee, tea and wine. You know all of the secrets to maintain your trim figure amidst all of the party favors, but your teeth are probably getting neglected.

Related: How to Look Good in Holiday Photos

Any number of things that pass your lips on a regular basis can stain your pearly whites, but if you follow these simple tips from Dr. Irwin Smigel, President of the ASDA, you'll have the whitest smile this Christmas.

Avoid White Wine
White wine can actually stain teeth worse than red wine! It's the high acidity in white wine that make teeth more susceptible to stain from tea, coffee and anything else you eat or drink at the same time that has color. Typical teeth-stainers include ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, spaghetti sauce and all berries.

Get Some H2O
Drinking water in between sips of white wine and while eating

Avoid taking photos you'll end up regretting (or un-tagging on Facebook) with these easy tips!

'Tis the season for holiday parties, which means lots of holiday pictures uploaded to Facebook. Follow these tips to make sure you won't need to "un-tag" any photos of yourself this season.

Related: Keep Your Smile Party-Ready This Holiday Season

Photo-perfect makeup

When you're applying your makeup beforehand, don't forget these three flattering essentials: Mascara, concealer and blush. Mascara to look awake; concealer to appear fresh-faced; and blush to give your cheeks a pop of color. Check out these budget beauty buys if your makeup bag needs an update!

Before you leave the house, slip lip balm and blotting papers into your purse so you can freshen up if you need to. For lip color, we like Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm- it's sheer enough to apply easily without a mirror, but will still brighten your face. Use Boscia Pink Peppermint Blotting Linens ($5 at Sephora) to quickly eliminate any shine (plus, they smell like candy canes!).

Related: Pump Up Your Holiday Makeup

A red wine stain doesn't mean the end of the party.

Don't let your holiday party clothes succumb to spills. Take quick action as soon as the accident happens, then follow up with the right tactics when you get home. Use these cleaning tips to keep spilled wine from ruing your event this holiday season.

Related: Don't Skip These Important (And Easy!) Cleaning Tips Before Company Arrives

The culprit: Red Wine
At the party: Blot stain with a clean damp cloth. Pour white vinegar onto a sponge or a clean cloth and blot stain. (If stain is still wet and you don't have vinegar, use white wine instead to neutralize.)
At home: Apply liquid laundry detergent to stain and let sit five minutes, then rinse in cool water. Apply laundry stain remover and launder.

The culprit: Oil
At the party: Sprinkle some cornstarch or baby powder onto the stain to absorb; shake off excess.
At home: Apply stain remover and wash in the hottest water appropriate for fabric. Inspect before drying and repeat process if necessary. Do not put an

Save some money this year with these gift ideas from All You readers.

During our Facebook party with Coinstar last week, we asked All You readers to share their favorite frugal gifts. Their ideas were too great not to share! Here are ten meaningful holiday gifts that won't break your budget.

"I make my own grocery tote bags and give them away. It saves others money and saves the environment!" -Judy

"I make candy wreaths. They're cute and save money! I make them for everyone and they always want to know where I got them. I use a craft ring, some curling ribbon, Jolly Ranchers and just tie them on piece by piece. I've been making them so long it only takes me about 15 minutes each to make. So worth it!" -Chris Shari Alligood

"Make jars filled with either brownie mix or cake mix. Layer the mix and top if off with a bow. On the gift tag, you could add directions as well as a quick little greeting. Put a pretty bow." -Michelle Johannik

Related: Shopping Secrets to Save Your Holiday Budget

"For my adult children, I give goodie baskets

Bring all of your once-white shirts back with this simple solution!

Ever notice how short of a lifespan white tops seem to have? They never quite manage to stay white! Honestly, I usually don't realize it until I pair them with another, noticeably less dingy article of light colored clothing and see the startling, embarrassing contrast.

Related: We Tried It: Chocolate DIY Dry Shampoo

Since white camisoles are a staple in my wardrobe, I've spent many a morning staring at my reflection in the mirror hoping that I can trick people into thinking that my shirt is not so much faded but intentionally gray… and that the coffee stains are, uh, tie-dye accents?

Related: 45 Genius Uses for Vinegar

Since no one seems to be falling for this, I finally let my roommate talk me into trying the miracle DIY solution she found on Pinterest that she swears is capable of restoring even the dullest tanks to their formally bright white selves.

Related: The New Way to Haggle Online

All you need to do is combine 1 teaspoon of Dawn dish

Use our savvy saving tips when shopping for tablets this holiday season.

Searching for the perfect tablet to gift this holiday season? Look no further than our side-by-side comparison guide that walks you through the need-to-know info on the hottest tablets.

From iPads and Kindles to Nooks and Transformers we've listed them all out and included the most important specs so you can match the right table to each person on your gift list.

Related: 2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Give with Style This Year

With brand new tablets flooding the market, now is a fine time to find a deal on an older version-or trade in your current model. Use these strategies to reduce your spending.

1. Trade in old gadgets. Turn last year's cellphone or tablet into cash or credit. Ebay Instant Sale pays a respectable rate via PayPal. Some retailers (including Amazon, RadioShack and Walmart) offer store credit. Apple also accepts trade-ins.

Related: Earn Cash This Holiday Season by Selling Your Old Electronics

2. Consider refurbished models. Many manufacturers

If you bought your sofa before 2005, you could be at risk from hazardous chemicals.

The startling answer is, possibly, yes.

Two studies, one focusing on sofa cushions and the other on household dust, found flame-retardant chemicals linked to cancer and hormone disruption that are "probably present in nearly every American home," Time reports.

Related: How Safe are Your Pork Chops?

One of the chemicals the studies detected, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) has been described by the Environmental Protection Agency as possibly causing "liver toxicity, thyroid toxicity and neurodevelopmental toxicity" and has been phased out of manufacturing since 2004. A banned insecticide, DDT, was found in the household dust samples since it can cause cancer and disrupt reproductive development. And finally tris, which according to Time is an "agent known to break up DNA in chromosomes that was banned from children's sleepwear because of its cancer-causing potential" was also detected along with newer chemicals being used in place of the harmful PBDEs, which have