Hotel Chocolat, a select ‘origin chocolatier’, own the 140-acre Rabot Estate in St Lucia, which allows Hotel Chocolat to produce exceptional chocolate with unique characteristics and taste derived from the environment in which the selected cocoa trees are grown.

For birthday gifts Hotel Chocolat has a wide range for different budgets. For a classic boxed chocolate gift there’s a little bit of everything in ‘The Sleekster Hand Piped Selection’, a best-selling collection of thirty of the finest hand piped chocolates – from luscious brownies, to amaretto with a whole cherry. Sleekster boxes are designed to slip through most letterboxes so are an excellent choice for delivery with your own personal message.

An unusual gift for an adventurous couple is the ‘Mini Chocolate Dipping Adventure for Two’. Every flavor and nuance of the smooth melting chocolate can be brought out with sweet and savoury dipping items.  The dipping adventure includes white and milk chocolate pots, marshmallows, breadsticks, fudge, and gianduja cubes, and is also available as the ‘Large Dipping Adventure’ for sharing with friends.

For chocolate hungry kids, there’s a range of flavours of Hotel Chocolat’s ‘Giant Slabs’ each with over 1lb of fine cocoa luxury milk chocolate.  The classy ‘Triple Chocolate Wham Bam Giant Slab’ is a luxurious blend of milk, mellow caramel and creamy white chocolate.

Hotel Chocolat specialise in chocolate gifts, with their website organized to easily search by many categories. Luxury Chocolates for every occasion that you can think can be found on the site with Christmas gifts being their specialty. They also have a special range of Corporate gifts that be personalised with branded packaging and attention grabbing designs.

Top corporate gifts include ‘The Signature Collection’ – a collection of twenty-four beautifully hand finished fine chocolates featuring the most prized, new season recipes. Within the stunningly-presented collection are zingy fruits, mellow caramels, and champagne truffles. Hotel Chocolat have over 20 years experience working with clients on marketing campaigns, providing chocolate gifts for some of the world’s largest brands, full details can be found at their website.

When you create your family’s budget, you should start by listing all the bills that have to be paid each month. Include any credit card bills, car payments, utility bills, cell phone bills and your house payment or rent. List the minimum monthly payment, as well as how much money you actually owe. Once you know how much money all of the bills are, start to add in the necessary expenses, like groceries. Finally, list how much money you have coming in each month. It’s important that this amount is more than the amount you have to pay out. If it’s not, you need to cut down your expenses so you can pay the bills.

Once you have created your household’s monthly budget it’s extremely important to stick with it. Give each family member an alloted amount of money they can spend each week. As you pay off some of your debt, and you have a better flow of money this amount can be increased. However, you shouldn’t forget that the goal of every budget is to save money. You need to put a specified amount in a savings account each week. Don’t touch this money unless there’s an emergency that requires it. Before you know it, not only will you have money saved, but you’ll have less debt as well.

So I have to work harder, because expenses seem to be non-stop, and I really want to be able to buy new furniture and appliances for our new place.