Is it really her fault though, or did her life style given to her by her parents rob her from a sense of reality? After all, she doesn’t need to make ends meet with her own pay cheque.

Perhaps it is easier to be financially compatible once you can be financially realistic. Nothing gives you a better sense of reality than living on your own, without financial help from mom and pop.

This is without a doubt an interesting topic that can be explored endlessly!

After reading this article, and hearing many other similar stories, I’m starting to think financial incompatibility is almost as detrimental to a relationship as sexual incompatibility. At least in finances you can learn to moderate your spending, without feeling a pinch. However, with sex there really is little you can do to change your tastes. Having said that though, money habits can be as hard to break as a ‘undesirable’ mating ritual…

With tough economic times pinching the budget, at-home dates are bound to grow in popularity. However, you don’t want to sit on the couch staring at each other either.

Keeping your date indoors isn’t the only way to save money at home, but it’s a great start when you need to save money or reduce your debt load.

Here are some cheap indoor dates

• Not great in winter, but when weather permits stargazing is a great opportunity to just be silent, or talk about whatever is on your mind. In winter, take out a blanket and sit by your fireplace.
• Get a DVD at your local library or Blockbuster, and have a movie night at home. I prefer this to going to the theater anyways, because I love snuggling up on the couch with a blanket and some good food.
• Hold a poker night or play a (sexy) board game.
• Hold your own wine & cheese tasting: instead of shelling out big bucks, get a variety of different cheeses and some different wines, and set up your own wine tasting. Light some candles, and you’ve got yourself a romantic, and relatively cheap, evening.
• Pamper each other with a foot massage or back rub. Get some nice massage oil, light candles and take a relaxing bubble bath together. Life is stressful enough, just taking your time to unwind together can really help set a great mood.

An evening in doesn’t mean you are not having fun. I can think of many times I’ve gone out, spent money, and had a lousy time. Staying home, and setting up an evening filled with activities you like, you can have a load of fun, while taking the pressure off your pocketbook.

Of course there is nothing like balance. You can’t stay home every single date-night, and you can’t expect to go out every night either. Tipping the balance a bit more towards the home-front, can definitely save you a bundle of cash.

What do you like to do on an ‘at-home date’? What is your main reason for going out instead of staying in?

The website features a blog with dating tips, daily love affirmations, and information on Dr. Kirschner’s upcoming book, appropriately titled “Love in 90 Days”. Lovein90Days also has features a dating forum. Currently it has twelve topics posted, and only a handful of responses. Clearly this should grow as the website becomes better known, but it looks like the discussion might have certain overtones: the book and the website cater exclusively to people (mostly women) who are currently single and looking for a meaningful relationship. It doesn’t address any concerns women have who are already in a relationship. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is important to note that the website focuses on one particular aspect of dating: finding a partner. 

One area where Dr. Kirschner could improve is her response time on the forum. It seems from the Blog that she has a blogging assistant, so although we do not expect Dr. Kirschner to respond to all discussions herself, it is too bad that one woman with a dilemma posted her problem on the dating forum on October 24th, and has yet to see any response from either the community or Dr. Kirschner herself. As mentioned before: we do not expect Dr. Kirschner to be able to respond to all questions, but at this stage of her website where the forum community is remarkably small, it would reinforce her image as an expert if she would address these questions personally. This would encourage these posters to come back and actively participate in the discussions to come.

Dr. Diana says, “I’ll be posting the latest techniques, dating tips and relationship advice for successful online and off-line dating, research on love relationships and up-to-the-minute discoveries that can help you create the love you want. I invite you to become regular readers of my dating blog. Most importantly, I want to have a dialogue with those of you who are courageous enough to make a love relationship a high priority in your lives. My purpose is to help you on your journey as I’ve been helped on mine.”

If you are interested in Dr. Diana’s book, the website offers a great opportunity to pre-order it at a discounted price. Visitors can also sign up for free for the Love in 90 Days e-tips, which deliver Dr. Diana’s tips to your mailbox. As far as the website goes: it is an interesting tool for people currently looking for a partner. The blog offers very general dating advice geared at people who are single, and the website itself focuses very much on Dr. Diana’s upcoming book. All in all it is a good resource for this niche of the dating market, keeping in mind that the website is build to promote the book and Dr. Diana herself. She offers some good advice in the blog, but the overtone of the advice relates to ways you can feel more confident and better about yourself. There is no active discussion, yet, of how you could find your dream partner. For this, perhaps you would need to look at the book.

Are you a writer or  expert looking for an additional outlet for your work? We are welcoming new talent onto our team, and would be happy to hear from you with article ideas or submissions. Send your thoughts to datingsos [at] gmail.com

Cheers,

DatingSOS editorial team

Let us know what you think of the new lay out and color scheme in the comments section!

Happy dating!

Advertisement: Mail Order Brides Services Quality international dating service for singles

Dance Break

Dance Break is a membership program that allows you to buy tickets to the National Ballet for $20. It is accessible to 16 to 29 year olds, and completely free to join. As long as you are one of the ticket holders, you can also purchase an additional ticket at the same price for your date, regardless of his or her age.

Extra bonus: you get the best seats in the theatre, excluding the Grand Ring. Regularly, you would have to pay over $100 for some of the seats you can access at only $20.

The catch: you can only purchase tickets on the day of the performance, so they are subject to availability. But really… there’s always some extra room!

For an overview of the 2008-2009 program from the National Ballet, go here.

T-Soundcheck

The Toronto Symphony (TSO) has organized a program called T-Soundcheck. If you’re between 15 and 29 years of age, you can sign up to buy tickets to the TSO for only $12! Sometimes there are even special promotions that are cheaper. Right now, you can buy tickets to Mendelssohn & Haydn at $6 a piece!

In addition, there is also an option called Tsoundcheck plus. These are ticket packages where you get to choose four concerts to go to. These packages are available if you are between 15 and 34 years of age. You get to pick between main floor, mezzanine, or balcony seating for the concerts, and you are automatically assigned the best possible seats.

Dating someone older than 29? Not to worry; as long as you are below the age of 29 you can purchase an extra ticket, at the same low price, for anyone else accompanying you. Regardless of your date’s age! If you can’t find a date, you can even take your mother instead, and just pay $12 for the ticket.

You can find an overview of the 08-09 concert season here.

New Age: Canadian Opera Company

Although at the Canadian Opera Company everyone under the age of 30 can purchase $20 tickets as well, it appears from their website that each ticket holder has to be under the age of 30. This is a considerable difference between the other two programs mentioned before.

Nonetheless, it is still a great deal and if you must take someone who is older, you might be able to get a rush ticket on the day of the performance for the same price.

Benefit: You can buy your ticket a week before opening night. For each performance about 150 seats are reserved for the New Age program. The seats are in sections 3D, 4C, and 5B.
The Catch: If you are on a date, both of you have to be under the age of 30 and bring valid photo ID.
Because the seats available are restricted to certain sections, you have a better chance at getting a great seat with the t-soundcheck, or Dance Break, programs.

Opera for a New Age tickets are available in person at the Four Seasons Centre, 145 Queen St. W., Toronto, or through COC Online using the Promo Code “DEAL.” Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m.

Have You Attended?

Have you gotten cheap tickets through any of these programs? Where you happy with your seats, and which one is your favorite?

Tantra is over 1500 years old and originated in India. It is a set of teachings and exercises that are supposed to help you feel more increase your awareness of your own energy and the energy around you. Tantra uses sexual energy to achieve this, and is meant to create an unbreakable sexual bond between partners. Remember the Sex and the City episode where Charlotte takes a ‘sex class’, which turned out to be a lesson in tantric sex…?
The result was a pretty remarkable massage she performed on her date afterwards.

The Goal of Tantric Sex

The goal for tantric sex is actually not necessarily orgasms. Instead, it is meant to enrich your entire sexual experience, and feel more breadth in your sexuality. Essentially, this tends to lead to better orgasms though.

Tantra is not a Religion

Although Tantric teachings refer to things like “universal energy” and “a higher power”, it does not stick to a set of rules or religious beliefs. Tantra refers to sexual expression bringing you closer to a higher power, but this can be loosely interpreted. You don’t have to follow any religion to create a better sexual bond with your partner. Tantra uses techniques to do exactly this, improving your sex life.

Is Tantric Sex Good for Me?

Tantric sex focuses on steering away from your physical appearance, put less importance on the labels you own or the celebrity hairdresser that does your hair. Instead, it dresses sex down to the pure elements to explore sexual fulfillment.

If you want to add a new dimension to your sex life, or improve your sexual connection to your partner, Tantric sex is worth trying.

What is Tantric Sex like?

Sex the way most of us experience it is like a book, with an introduction (arousal), some chapters in the middle (penetration), and a plot or conclusion (orgasm). Tantric sex is different. In Tantric sex you don’t follow this sequence of events. With Tantric sex penetration does not have to happen, and that does not make it ‘not sex’. The whole point of Tantric sex is one thing, and one thing only: to feel. The goal is not orgasm, but the goal is to feel.

Without focusing on orgasm, Tantric sex can teach you much more about your body and sexuality. By taking the focus away from orgasm, it also becomes more important to keep things interesting for your partner, and sex becomes less of a mechanistic ritual. For many people who have trouble reaching orgasm, using Tantric sex eventually solves the problem altogether by taking the pressure of reaching orgasm away.

Orgasm does exist in Tantric sex, but there is no obligation to ‘perform’.

Tantric sex is different in practice for different people. It is taught by thousands of teachers around the world, and each one will have an approach influenced by their own experiences and culture. A common feature of Tantric sex is the importance of breathing, and slowing down sex compared to the orgasm-focused sexual routines of the western world.

Solid perfume used to be far more popular in the old ages than it is today. You’ll be hardpressed to find it at your local department store, but not having it was unthinkable for women like Cleopatra and Nefertiti.

If you decide to make solid perfume for yourself, or even as party favors, you can personalize it by packaging it in monogrammed pillboxes, vintage compact boxes or any other original little container you can find!

Oil based perfume

Although any perfume can be made into a solid, oil based perfumes will last far longer. You can experiment with essential oils to create your own signature blend. Just take a few essential oils you like, and that match well together, and mix some drops of each together in a small bowl or container. Mix well, and stake a whiff. It it smells fabulous, take note of the proportions you used (for example, 2 drops lemongrass oil, to 1 drop orange blossom).

Matching scents

It is fairly simple to figure out which scents go well together: they generally belong to the same category. For example, different citrus-based oils will match. Such as lemongrass, orange blossom, and lemon.

Ingredients

Here is what you will need to make your own solid perfume:

- 1 tablespoon beeswax (grated)
- 1 tablespoon almond oil
- 8 drops of essential oils (blended)

Directions

Blend your essential oils together, below are some suggestions for an exotic blend, a spicy and a fruity blend.

To make the perfume, heat the beeswax gently in a small saucepan or heat-resistant container. Make sure it is fully melted, and add the almond oil.
Stir in the essential oils, and pour the mixture into a clean container with a lid.

Allow your mixture to cool completely. It will be solid, and you can rub it onto your skin using your fingers. You can also use a lipbalm tube for easy application, just don’t mix it up with your regular lipbalm!

To extend the life of your perfume, make sure your container is completely clean. If you are using a container from an old solid perfume, clean it out with soap and water. Let it dry fully, then use rubbing alcohol to disinfect it completely. Dry again, and now it is ready for reuse.

Essential oil blends

Fruity Scent
- 3 Drops of peach oil
- 3 Drops of sweet orange oil
- 2 Drops of chamomile oil

Spicy Scent
- 3 Drops of clove oil
- 3 Drops of sandalwood oil
- 2 Drops of cinnamon oil

Exotic Scent
- 5 Drops of vanilla oil
- 3 Drops of ylang-ylang oil

The easiest lip balm recipe involves using petroleum jelly as a base. For a lip balm even men like, keep it simple and stay away from berry flavors:

Honey Lip Balm

Make your own honey lip balm by melting three tablespoons of petroleum jelly (vaseline) with one teaspoon of honey. You can combine the ingredients and melt it in the microwave, for thirty seconds at a time, until fully melted. You can poor the honey lip balm into a cool looking pill box as packaging, and let it cool.

If you want to add a little something extra to your homemade lip balm, add a few drops of peppermint oil for a refreshing tingle.

The pill box in the picture can be bought here