While She's Away

If you’re like me, you’ve had to do some occasional business traveling through the years. Of course, when one is business traveling, it’s always a good idea to bring home gifts for the wife and kiddies. While that can get a bit expensive at times, it’s something that everyone expects. But, what about when your wife has to travel? Does that mean it’s your turn to receive a gift from her?

While there’s a pretty good chance that she’s going to bring you a gift back, that doesn’t mean that you should be expecting it. Expecting things is a good way to get disappointed. It’s better to not have any expectations, and be pleasantly surprised if she does it.

Of course, if you are expecting a gift and she doesn’t bring you one, you’re going to be disappointed. Since disappointments breed discontentment, that’s something you want to avoid. By the way, that’s not just true with gifts, but in all areas of your marriage.

Anyway, this blog isn’t about her being romantic to you (although I’ve thought about doing something like that a time or two), it’s about you doing romantic things for her. So, how can you use her traveling out of town as an opportunity to be romantic towards her? What can you do, to make her know that you’re thinking of her, and help her think of you at the same time?

There are actually several opportunities that her being out of town offer you, all of which are romantic and will make her feel your love while she’s away. Here are a few:

• Buy a small gift and hide it in her luggage for her to find when she gets to her destination.
• Make an “I love you” card and hide it in her luggage for her to find when she gets to her destination.
• Have flowers delivered to her hotel room. (Be sure to sign the card, so she doesn’t think that a business associate is making a pass at her.)
• Send her an old fashioned telegram expressing your love.
• Send a love letter to her hotel. Mail it early so that it will be awaiting her when she arrives.
• Contact the hotel and arrange for a fruit basket to be awaiting her in her room.
• Be sure to call her; don’t wait for her to call you. (By the way, hotels charge ridiculous prices for long-distance calls.)

As you can see, most of these ideas are merely a long-distance version of what you would do if she were in town. It might require a bit more planning, but it’s not that hard to be romantic by long-distance. Besides, you want her to be ready to be back together with you, when she gets home.

Take the Kids Out

One of the hardest things for a mom, especially one who has small kids, is having time to herself. Kids demand attention and they often make their demands known at the most inconvenient times. You think it’s bad when they interrupt you trying to give her a kiss; well, that’s nothing compared to having them interrupt you when you’re trying to go to the bathroom.

Thank God for women. I really don’t think most of the men that I know could put up with taking care of small kids all day. But God has put something in the mothering nature that gives them patience for all those interruptions, skinned knees, sticky hands, dirty diapers and all that rest that goes with little kids.

I know it may not seem to you like your wife has the patience of a saint, but believe me, she does. You see her after she’s put up with that all day long. What you don’t see is how well she deals with it when you’re not there. No wonder she’s pretty much at the end of her rope when you get home from work. Who wouldn’t be?

Okay, so here’s the cure for your wife’s nerves; give her some time to herself. Sounds simple, right? Everybody needs time that they can just spend on themselves, with no interruptions, no sticky hands, no fighting kids and no tripping over toys. So give her that. Take the kids out somewhere, so that your wife can have some time alone.

Better yet, stop and get her some bubble bath, give it to her, and then take the kids out. Women love to pamper themselves and love to be pampered. So, give her a hint by buying the bubble bath. Before you leave, tell her that your purpose in taking the kids out is so that she can have some time for herself, not so she can clean the house, and then give her the bubble bath. I’m sure she’ll get the hint.

You don’t have to go anywhere fancy with the kids and spend a lot of money. Take them to the park; that’s enough of an outing for them. Have some quality time with them, pushing them on the swing, catching them coming off the slide and helping them climb the monkey bars. Who knows, maybe you can get on their with them.

While this may not seem all that romantic to you, it’s really three romantic things, wrapped up in one. First of all, you’re showing your wife that’s she’s special, by giving her some time for herself. On top of that, you’re giving her a romantic gift. I’m not exactly sure why bubble bath is considered a romantic gift, but take my word for it, it is. Finally, you’re showing your wife that you’re committed to being a good daddy; that’s important to her as well. So, you’re getting a three-fer by doing this one.

A Gift While You’re Away

I don’t know if you have to travel occasionally for your work, but I find myself having to leave my wife and kids behind every once in a while to travel. While the trips are generally worthwhile, I still don’t like having to leave my wife behind. It’s not like I married her so that we couldn’t spend time together; I married her so that we could.

Nevertheless, I find myself out on the road or above it in the friendly skies every once in a while. It’s even worse when I go out of the country, especially to places where I don’t have good Internet access. I mean, how can I tell my wife I love her, when I can’t even send her an e-mail?

Thanks to the miracles of old-fashioned communications, it’s still possible to let your wife know you love her, even when you’re away and communication is spotty. I say old-fashioned communications because it’s necessary to use something that has more than milliseconds worth of delay built into it; like a few days. That’s right, the slow pace of snail mail really does have a valuable purpose.

All it takes is to send a gift to your wife the day you leave. That’s it. Depending on where you send it from, it will take anywhere from a day to five days to get to her. That will make it arrive while you’re gone, giving the impression that you did it while away. More importantly, it will tell your wife that you love her, even though you’re away for the moment.

Another option is to have something delivered to her while you’re away. Many florists have delivery services that will deliver on whatever day you want. Another way is to buy a gift for her through the Internet, timing your purchase so that it will be delivered while you are gone.

It really doesn’t matter how you do it, or really how big the gift is. The important thing is that you’ve thought of her and done something to show your love, even though you are away.

Many women are plagued with thoughts about the possibility of their husband’s possible infidelity. Those thoughts attack them even more while their husbands are away on a trip. The possibility that they are with another women while on their “business trip” can be a real problem for many wives. Besides the obvious struggle with maintaining faith in him, she can also feel unloved, just because of those thoughts.

Well, receiving a love gift right in the middle of all that is a surefire way to dispel those thoughts and the negative feelings that they bring. A reminder of your love while you are away will help her tremendously and help make sure that she greets you with a hug and a kiss when you get home.

Start Her a Collection

Buying little gifts for your wife can be a bit of a challenge. At times, it can be extremely hard to figure out what women like (or what anyone likes for that matter). Even if you know your wife well enough to know what sorts of things she likes, thinking of that and then finding something in that category can be a challenge.

Fortunately for us guys, almost all women like some sort of trinket, decorative items. That helps quite a bit in the “find her a gift” department. When all else fails, you can always buy some sort of cute decorative item and know that it will be appreciated.

I’d like to stack the deck in our favor though. I mean, if we’re going to buy gifts for our wives (which we should), isn’t it better to have some sort of a plan to make sure that it’s going to work.

Okay, so how do we stack the deck in our favor? Simple, start her a collection. That way, when you need to buy her a gift, you can always buy something that adds to that collection. Not only does the collection grow and become more special, but you’ve created an instant win for every time that you buy something to add to it.

Now, not all women are natural collectors. I’ve known some that seem like they’ve been collecting the same thing for 30 years or more; and then there are others who are grandmas and have never collected anything. That doesn’t mean that your wife won’t appreciate you starting her a collection; especially if you can find something to help her collect that she can really identify with.

That’s the real key; actually it’s the real key for just about anything with women. A woman needs to be able to make an emotional connection with things. She’ll buy a car, because she’s able to connect with it. Same thing with a sofa or lamp or even clothing. So, you’ve got to pick out something that she can identify with; some category of thing to collect, which touches her heart strings.

You can get a lot of hints about this from things that your wife likes to do and things that she already has. For example, when my wife and I got married, she had a piano. Now, I’ll have to say that although my wife plays the piano rather well, she never has done so very often in our 25 years of marriage. Nevertheless, that piano is part of her identity. She minored in music (piano) in college and has a fairly extensive collection of music for it. There are classical pieces (she loves classical music) that she learned over 30 years ago, and can still play from memory.

So, a number of years ago, I had needed a gift idea for her and happened into a Hallmark shop. Lo and behold, they had a number of piano music boxes there on a shelf. Bingo! That became the instant start of a collection. Through the years, I’ve bought my wife a number of piano music boxes, adding to the collection bit by bit. It’s still not very large, but she has several there on the shelf with her music.

My youngest daughter is a ballerina. For a few years, she danced in the local production of the Nutcracker performance at Christmastime. Instead of bringing her flowers to her first performance, we bought her a nutcracker (that was almost a no-brainer). She now has nine different nutcrackers sitting on a shelf above her desk.

We have a friend named Cathy, who happens to love cats. Lo and behold, another collection opportunity. There’s a company which makes fine glassware and also makes glass cat collectibles as part of their product line. She started a collection of glass cats, which has grown to over 300 thanks to her husband, her family and friends. She is actually known by the name “Cat” and when she went to visit that company’s factory a few years ago, was received there like visiting royalty.

Another lady we know has a teddy bear collection with a couple of hundred “members.” Her collection isn’t as fragile as the glass cats, so she has seated groups of teddy bears all over her house. My mother has a Hummel figuring collection that my dad built for her. Another lady we know collects precious moments figurines.

You see, once you find something that your wife can connect with, you’ve got it. From then on, it’s just a matter of building the collection, bit by bit. That doesn’t mean that you only by those collectibles for her (please don’t do that), but that you have something you can use as a surprise gift or an additional gift at Christmas time, birthdays and when you’re desperate for an idea.

So, build her a collection, it’ll help decorate the house and every time she sees it, she’ll be able to remember that you did it for her. 

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I feel it's appropriate to mention that the picture for today's blog post was painted by Janet Kruskamp. To see this painting and other artwork by her, please click on the image.

Keep Your Eyes Open

One of the things that work great with romance is spontaneity. Now, you may not be the spontaneous sort of guy; you might be the type that plans everything out to the T. I mean, your vacations are even run by the clock. Okay, buy that’s not saying that you can’t still be spontaneous.

More than anything, being spontaneous means keeping your eyes open for opportunities to be romantic. You never know when you’ll see something or hear something that gives you an opportunity to do or say something to show your wife that you love her. Let me give you a few examples.

• You’re walking in the park and encounter someone selling roses; buy her one.
• You’re wife is bemoaning the bad things that people are saying about her at work; tell her a list of things that you think are great about her.
• You’re on your way home from somewhere; stop and eat, get an ice cream, or a latte along the way.
• You’re in a store and see some little doodad that you think she’d like; buy it for her.
• You’re in another store and pass by the greeting cards; buy an “I love you” card and mail it to her.

See? It’s really not hard to be spontaneous. More than anything, it takes an awareness of the opportunities that present themselves. Actually, it’s about thinking about your wife all that time, so that you see those opportunities that present themselves.

Once upon a time, you fell in love with your wife. In that time, you were thinking about her day and night. Well, what happened? Why did you stop thinking about her all the time? Probably because you started thinking about the negative things you see in her, instead of focusing on the positive ones. Since that’s nowhere near as enjoyable, you stopped thinking about her as much.

That’s easy to remedy. All you have to do is begin thinking positively about her again. Think of all the things you love about her. Think about how much you love to make love to her. Think about the things which caused you to fall in love with her in the first place. Think about the feel of her skin when you touch her. Think about how much of a blessing it is that God decided “it’s not good for man to be alone.”

Thinking this way about her will help you to put things into a positive perspective. You’ll start feeling more positive about her and react as if you do. You’ll also become more aware of those romantic opportunities that present themselves.

One other little detail. When you do those spontaneous romantic acts, present them as romantic acts. If you stop for a latte with your wife, don’t say “I want a cup of coffee” tell her, “I thought you’d like a latte.” See the difference? One is self-centered, while the other is her centered. She’s not going to see anything as romantic, as long as it is self-centered. It has to be about her, or it isn’t going to work.

What’s Her Romance Language?

Have you ever done something that you thought was supremely romantic for your wife, only to have your great romantic act ignored or even refused? It’s probably happened to all of us at least once or twice. 

There might be a number of different reasons why that happened; anything from it being the wrong time of the month to you having done that particular act too many times in the last month. Regardless of the reason, it always bothers us; the rejection of our act of love makes us feel as if we’ve been rejected.

Don’t let yourself get caught up in that feeling of being rejected; it’s dangerous! It will kill your desire to continue being romantic faster than anything. When it happens, just realize that there’s probably something else which is causing her to act that way, something that has nothing to do with you.

However, if your wife regularly overlooks a particular type of romantic act, that should be a clue to you, telling you that you’re not speaking her language. It’s about as if you were writing her love poems, but she couldn’t read. That wouldn’t work out all that well. In the same way, speaking romance in a different language than she understands doesn’t work out all that well.

You see, each of us has our own romance language. It’s both the way that we express love and the way that we understand it. When others speak our romance language, it’s like the words have been underlined, made bold and highlighted in yellow. Finding out what her romance language is will give you a great boost up in being able to get the most impact out of your romantic acts.

When I’m talking about romance languages, what I’m really talking about is love languages. After all, isn’t romance all about expressing love? Gary Chapman’s book “The Five Love Languages” does a great job of explaining those five languages and showing us how to use them. In case you haven’t read the book yet (you should), here are the five languages:

• Words of affirmation
• Acts of service
• Gifts
• Physical touch
• Quality time

Now, if your love language is acts of service, you’ve probably been trying to be romantic to your wife by doing things for her. That’s great, acts of service is a great way to be romantic. But, if your wife’s love language is words of affirmation, you may not be reaching her as well as you want to. She probably appreciates your acts of service, but it doesn’t have the impact on her that words of affirmation will.

That doesn’t mean that you should stop doing acts of service. By all means, continue doing them. But, at the same time, add words of affirmation to your vocabulary of romance. Find ways to tell her that you love her. Even more, find ways to tell her what a great woman, wife, mother and all around person you think she is. That’s what she’s craving and that’s what’s going to do her the most good.

After all, being romantic towards your wife is all about her anyway, so you might as well make sure that you’re really focusing on her and on what works for her. You can still use the other ways of being romantic, but use them to round out the basic expression of love, which is done in her love language.

Doing this will make every romantic act you do have all that much more impact? Why? Because you’re satisfying her most basic need for love. That makes everything else look that much better in her eyes. 

Never Enough Flowers

I like to go back to the classic romantic acts every once in a while. I guess they’re classics because they never really grow old; women never get tired of them and they always have the desired effect. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we can’t put a different twist on them. There’s nothing wrong with mixing a bit of originality into the classics, coming up with a new way of presenting them.

Take flowers, for example. While buying flowers for your wife every day isn’t going to be all that effective, there’s nothing that says you can’t buy them once or twice a month. The trick here is to find the balance between doing it so often that it becomes routine and doing it so rarely that it seems you’ve forgotten. That “window” of balance is actually pretty wide, so it’s not all that hard to find.

It never hurts do use a little bit of originality in your flower purchases either. Granted, red roses are the classic “I love you” flower; but they aren’t the only ones which can say that message. Pretty much any type of flower speaks the same language, so you don’t have to stick to just red roses all the time.

Okay, so what can we do differently with our flowers this time? How about a bit of a scavenger hunt? We don’t have to get real complicated, just enough to make her work at it for a few minutes. Buy some flowers, say a dozen of something. The actual number doesn’t really matter, just as long as you know how many you bought. Then prepare some little notes that say “1 of 12, where are the rest?” “2 of 12, where are the rest” etc. Attach the notes to the flowers and leave them in various places around the house.

Make sure you leave one of the flowers someplace where she’s definitely going to find it quickly. That will be the trigger to get her looking for the rest of them. The numbers will keep her going until she finds them all. Don’t get carried away hiding them, as you want to be sure that she finds them.

If you want to get really fancy, you could leave a couple of gifts along with some of the flowers. A small box of chocolates, a card, a book she’s been wanting to read, maybe some lace panties or a new CD. Romantic little things that she’ll enjoy. You don’t have to leave gifts with all the flowers or for that matter with any of the flowers; but doing so will just add to the fun. 

Another Mother’s Day

Okay, so you did your duty, right? Yesterday was Mother’s Day, so you bought your wife some flowers, maybe a card and took her out to eat. It’s done, so now things can get back to normal, right? Okay, so they can get back to normal, but that’s not going to help you be romantic towards your life or build up your marriage. You don’t get any points for normal.

There’s an easy way to solve this problem; all you need to do is not let things get back to normal. Who wants normal anyway? It’s boring and it’s usually not all that loving. So, how can we keep things from getting back to normal? Simple, just have another Mother’s Day.

Yep, that’s what I said. Who ever said that we can only celebrate Mother’s Day once a year? Who ever said that you can’t treat your wife special every day? Who ever said that she can’t be treated special more than one day per year?

So, all you have to do is do everything again. Granted, you should mix it up a bit. If you bought her flowers yesterday, don’t buy them again today, buy her something else. Don’t go to the same restaurant, or maybe fix her a special dinner at home, instead. Don’t make it a copy of yesterday; just make it another day to celebrate her.

Get the kids involved too. After all, she’s their mother. They’ll probably get a kick out of surprising mom. That way, it’s more complete. Do the whole bit, starting with breakfast in bed and finishing by washing up the dishes, so that she doesn’t have to.

What? You say that it’s too late? You can’t serve her breakfast in bed, because you’ve already eaten? No problem, you’ve got six more days this week; pick one of them to be your second Mother’s Day. It doesn’t matter which one, just that you have one. After all, she’s special every day, isn’t she?

Love Coupons

Okay, so this idea isn’t all that original; that doesn’t make it any less valid than other ideas which I’ve presented in this blog. In fact, many ideas which last do so simply because they work. Well, this is one of those ideas that work.

Nobody really likes to have to ask their spouse for what they want. That’s especially true for women. They feel that if their husband truly loves them, they’ll know what they want. Of course, that doesn’t take into consideration the fact that men and women think differently. Maybe if we all thought the same, we could figure out what our wives want, without having to ask them. So, most of us end up being guilty most of the time, for not being able to read their minds.

Well, love coupons can help you out of that predicament. Not only do they provide your wife with a non-threatening way of asking for the things she wants, but they also provide you with a way of finding out what it is that your wife wants. If you give her a stack of 20 coupons, and she uses only ten of them, then the other ten probably aren’t all that important to her. Even more than that, the ones which she uses first are probably the ones which are the most important to her.

You could just give the coupons as a romantic act, and not pay any attention to how she uses them; but I’d rather learn what I can from the opportunity. That way, I can get that much closer to being the ideal husband that I’m trying to be (I’m not there yet).

Start out by making a list of what you’re going to put on the coupons. You could just make them, but you’ll want to save this list. It’s going to become your checklist of when your wife uses those coupons. You need it, in order to get the most out of this exercise. You can then copy and paste the ideas from this list into your coupons on the computer.

Make the coupons cute, not boring. Use a floral border on them and find some clipart. Maybe you can find an image or two, which will be appropriate to the item on that coupon. If not, hearts and flowers always work out well.

So, what kinds of ideas should you put on your coupons?

• A free back massage.
• Take over one chore of her choice for a week.
• An afternoon off; you take care of the kids.
• A new dress (or other article of clothing).
• Shampoo her hair.
• Give her a pedicure.
• Go to a chick flick with her, without complaining.
• A slow dance.
• Going out for dessert.
• Going out for dinner.
• Breakfast in bed.
• A walk by moonlight.
• An evening of conversation, without interruptions.
• 24 hours of no arguments, no matter what.
• Be her personal servant for one day.
• Special delivery of one late-night craving.
• A morning of sleeping in late, with no complaints or interruptions.
• An activity of her choice.

Remember, if you give her a coupon that says you’ll do something for her, you’ve got to do it. Not only do you have to do it, but you’ve got to do it with a good attitude. Doing something for your wife, while you’re grumbling about it doesn’t win you any points.

Don’t limit yourself to this list of course; you can let your imagination run free. Pretty much anything that I’ve posted on this blog would work as a love coupon. More importantly, make coupons for things that you think she would like, but aren’t sure. That gives you a way to find out if she’d like them or not.

Don’t limit yourself to one copy of a coupon either. Some coupons, like a massage or an activity of her choice are definitely worth creating multiple coupons for. That would help keep her from hording those coupons till a time when she absolutely needs to use them. You want her to use them, because you’ll still receive points for doing what the coupon says, even though she’s asking you to do it. That isn’t normally the case. Usually, if she has to ask you, you don’t get any points.

Don’t forget to keep track of what she uses and when she uses it. That’s what you kept the list for. That information is going to help you know what romantic acts you can do in the future, which will really mean something to her.

Panty of the Month Club

Gosh, it’s been a whole month now since Valentine’s Day. Let me ask you something. How many romantic gifts have you given to your wife since Valentine’s Day? Or, are you like most guys and think that since you did such a good job on Valentine’s Day, you get to take a ride for a bit?

Careful about that. An attitude like that can quickly drag you back into the ranks of the unromantic. Yes, Valentine’s Day is extremely romantic and I’m sure you took care of your wife on that day, but that doesn’t mean you should go on vacation from being romantic. Instead, you should use that day to spring you up to a higher level, and then continue to build upon your wife’s new, more romantic image of you.

Building upon that new image is easy; it just means that you keep being romantic towards her. You don’t have to do bigger things or more complicated things, you just have to keep doing things. Whatever you do, don’t let that slide.

There are five basic categories of romantic acts:

• Words (saying “I love you” calling her by a pet name)
• Gifts (flowers, jewelry, trinkets)
• Special Times (date night, meeting at your coffee shop)
• Special Days (anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, Christmas)
• Acts of Service (helping with the dishes, giving her a massage)

It’s important to keep the mix going and get all of these in as part of your romantic strategy. Leaving one out can be devastating. In fact, it can be sufficiently devastating that it annuls all the other romantic acts you’ve done.

So, here’s a gift idea that will keep on giving. There are several companies which offer a “Panty of the Month Club” service. A quick search on the Internet will reveal them to you. All you have to do is to sign up for the service, and every month, they’ll send a nicely packaged sexy panty to your wife. You get points for sending her a gift a month, even though you aren’t having to go shopping once a month. How’s that for a deal?

Now, you want to be careful about this. Don’t overdo it. Most of these services offer a variety of options, specifically on the types of panties they send. If your wife doesn’t wear thongs, don’t have them send thongs. That won’t come across as a romantic gift, but rather that you’re trying to be pushy. Be sure to get the size right too, or they won’t do her any good. You can check her size by checking what she’s currently got in her drawer.

While some may think of this as a strictly self-serving gift, I’d have to disagree. Granted, I’m sure you’re going to like seeing her in those sexy panties. But, she’s going to like seeing herself in them too. All women want to be pretty, and sexy panties make them feel prettier. Even if she would never spend that much to buy them herself, she’ll enjoy how she thinks of herself in them.

Can’t afford those services? I can understand, they can be a bit steep. Okay, so don’t despair, just do it yourself. Go buy the panties yourself and mail them to her once a month. You won’t get the convenience of not having to think about it, but you will save money. Just be sure to wrap it up very pretty, and make it look like it came direct from the store. With a few minutes at the computer and a little bit of creativity, she won’t be able to tell the difference. 

Traveler’s Advisory

Everyone knows the classic idea of bringing home gifts for the family, when you have to go out of town on a business trip. Tourist traps and especially airport shops depend on this; knowing that business travelers who are going away can be expected to be a little freer with their gift buying money than they would be otherwise. So, they jack their prices up to take advantage of that feeling of moment’s desperation when we say “oh no, I’m heading home and I don’t have anything for my family.”

Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be willing to buy nice gifts for the kiddies and especially that you shouldn’t be willing to buy a nice gift for your wife. After all, she’s had to put up with the kids and the problems all by herself while you were gone. She’s definitely worth whatever you’re going to spend.

I just came home from a 10 day trip out of the country. In the airport I bought my wife a piece of jewelry (always a good gift idea). It was a rather unique necklace, in a Victorian filigree flower design, which definitely spoke of her personality. Not only was it a nice gift, but it was something that was definitely made for her. Had it not been so special, I probably wouldn’t have been willing to pay airport prices for it.

On the other hand, remember the scoring rules for this game; if you buy your wife an expensive gift, you get one point and if you buy her an inexpensive gift you get one point. Of course, if your gift is too cheap or not a romantic gift, you’re not going to get any points at all.

Let’s apply a little strategy to this gift-giving issue and see if we can maybe come up with a way of getting a little more bang for our buck.

First of all, I’d suggest avoiding all those cute little trinkets that they sell in the tourist traps which say “Miami” or “San Francisco.” Not only are they really cheesy gifts, but they’ll serve as a constant reminder that you went someplace interesting without her. Not a good plan. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t buy her something with a regional flavor, especially if it’s something that you can’t get at home.

It helps to make sure you put shopping time in your schedule. Now, that’s really easy for women to do, but rather hard for us guys. We’re missing that shopping gene, which automatically attracts us to stores. However, you’re going to spend much less money in a regular store, than you are in the airport.

It always helps to keep a list of romantic gift ideas in your personal organizer. That way, when you’ve got to find a gift in a hurry, you don’t have to worry about your brain lock. Little things that your wife has mentioned she’d like, things that you’d spotted before and know she likes, and classes of gifts which have received really good “reviews” from her in the past are all good candidates for this list.

Another way that you can save yourself time and money on this gift buying spree is to pre-buy your gifts. Now, I realize that some women might consider this cheating, but who says she ever has to know? I’m a big fan of shopping on the Internet. Not only does it save me time in the stores, it saves me money as well. So, all I have to do is pre-select the gift I want to buy for my wife (and even for the kiddies), and have it shipped to the hotel where I will be staying. That way, when I get there, it’s waiting for me.

I suppose an alternative to having the gift shipped to your hotel would be to have it shipped to the office and pack it in your bags. That would save the same amount of time and still insure that you have a gift ready when you come back. Just make sure that she isn’t packing your bag for you.

Remember, this is supposed to be about thinking about her. So, it’s important that you choose a gift that shows that you’re thinking about her; otherwise, you’re not going to get any points in the romance department. 

Take Advantage of the Sales

You know guys, we tend to complain about our wives and their shopping, but there are times, actually many times, when they are a lot wiser in the shopping department than we are. Take sales for example. We guys don’t pay a whole lot of attention to sales that are going on. When we need something, we go out and buy it; either we can afford it, or we just don’t buy it.

Well, I have to tell you a secret; I’m a cheapskate. I like getting a deal whenever I can. I guess it comes from the years when I didn’t have much. I learned the true value of sales during that time. It saved me and is still saving me a lot of dough.

So, how is this romantic? It’s really rather easy. All you need to do is keep your eyes open for the sales where you can buy gifts for your wife. That way, when you need a gift, you’ll already have something ready.

Now look, we all like buying nice stuff for our wives; but let’s be real, sometimes that nice stuff has some not so nice price tags on it. Let’s say you want to buy your wife some nice gold earrings. Well, you know as well as I do, that real gold has skyrocketed in price. So, what do you do; buy her something cheap, or skip lunch for a month?

Now that’s where the sales come in handy. If you keep your eyes open, you can occasionally catch a really good sale on gold jewelry. I’ve seen jewelry sales with as much as a 70% discount. So, when I catch a sale like that, or even at 50% off, I can buy something really nice for my wife, much nicer than I can afford otherwise. She doesn’t care, because she doesn’t know what I paid for it. She just sees it as a nice gift.

The other side of this, besides buying really nice gifts for her is to be able to buy more gifts that you can give her at miscellaneous times. Let’s say that one of the gifts you buy for her from time to time is lace panties. Well, those can get kind of expensive too; not like the gold earrings, but considering how little fabric is in them, they can get a bit high. So, you manage to catch a sale and pick up for pair for the price of two. Great! Now you can give her twice as many gifts.

Don’t get this wrong now. I’m not advocating being a cheapskate. What I’m advocating is being able to buy more and nicer gifts for your wife than you could otherwise. After all, little trinkets like that are the kinds of gifts that are romantic; much better than buying her something practical.

Hey, we need every advantage we can get. This isn’t doing anything to cheat our wives, it’s using a little wisdom to be able to be a blessing to our wives. So, quit drooling over the computer and big-screen TV ads in the Sunday paper long enough to see if there is something else on sale. Be ready to buy gifts for your wife, so that you can keep romance going all year long.