6 Tips for a Thrifty Christmas

6 Tips for a Thrifty Christmas 6 Tips for a Thrifty Christmas If popular song is to be believed, Christmas is simultaneously the most wonderful time of the year and the season to be jolly (fa la la la la, la la la la). As such, you’ll probably be wanting to let loose and have a good time with friends and family. Doing this on a student budget isn’t easy though. One way to make sure you don’t get left out is doing a Grinch and stealing Christmas from everyone else. Before you start breaking and entering, however, it might be worth trying our tips for getting into the festive spirit without breaking the bank. 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Make a Budget It’s easy to get carried away over Christmas, so it’s important to set a budget and stick to it, including for cards, gifts, ornaments and food. If this doesn’t sound suitably festive, you can always try it while wearing tinsel and drinking egg nog. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Start Shopping Early It might be a bit late for this year by the time you read this, but if you start your Christmas shopping early you can save a lot of money. One good option is to have a â€Å"Christmas Cupboard† for storing any festive bargains you spot during the year. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Get Crafty If money is really tight, making your own gifts, ornaments and cards is a great alternative to splashing the cash. Again, this might require a little planning, but a handmade gift or card can be a unique way of proving that it really is the thought that counts. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Wrap Up Warm! Not strictly a Christmas-themed tip, but if you wrap up warm rather than blasting the central heating all day throughout the winter, you’ll save a fortune on your fuel bills! 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A Festive Feast (And Beyond) Yuletide wouldn’t be the same without eating so much you feel slightly unwell, but Christmas dinner can be expensive. Making your own treats will definitely help here, as it’s usually cheaper than buying them pre-made. Christmas dinner can even keep you fed beyond just Christmas day: using your leftovers cleverly is delicious and a good money saver. 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Memories, Not Materialism Despite all the bustling malls, shiny lights in shop windows and excitable commercials on TV, Christmas really should be about more than just money. Spending time with your friends and/or family costs nothing, providing memories that will last a lifetime (or far longer than it takes for your average Secret Santa present to be re-gifted at least).

How to Make a Cloud in a Bottle - Science Demonstration

How to Make a Cloud in a Bottle - Science Demonstration Heres a quick and easy science project you can do: make a cloud inside a bottle. Clouds form when water vapor forms tiny visible droplets. This results from cooling the vapor. It helps to provide particles around which the water can liquefy. In this project, well use smoke to help form a cloud. Cloud in a Bottle Materials You only need a few basic materials for this science project: 1-liter bottleWarm waterMatch Lets Make Clouds Pour just enough warm water in the bottle to cover the bottom of the container.Light the match and place the match head inside the bottle.Allow the bottle to fill with smoke.Cap the bottle.Squeeze the bottle really hard a few times. When you release the bottle, you should see the cloud form. It may disappear between squeezes. The Other Way to Do It You can also apply the ideal gas law  to make a cloud in a bottle:PV nRT, where P is pressure, V is volume, n is number of moles, R is a constant, and T is temperature. If the amount of gas (as in a closed container) isnt changed, then if you raise the pressure, the only way for the temperature of the gas to be unchanged is by decreasing the container volume proportionally. If youre not sure you can squeeze the bottle hard enough to achieve this (or that it would bounce back) and want a really dense cloud, you can do the not-as-child-friendly version of this demonstration (still pretty safe). Pour hot water from a coffeemaker into the bottom of the bottle. Instant cloud! (... and a slight melting of the plastic) If you cant find any matches, light a strip of cardboard on fire, insert it into the bottle, and let the bottle get nice and smoky. How Clouds Form Molecules of water vapor will bounce around like molecules of other gases unless you give them a reason to stick together. Cooling the vapor slows the molecules down, so they have less kinetic energy and more time to interact with each other. How do you cool the vapor? When you squeeze the bottle, you compress the gas and increase its temperature. Releasing the container lets the gas expand, which causes its temperature to go down. Real clouds form as warm air rises. As air gets higher, its pressure is reduced. The air expands, which causes it to cool. As it cools below the dew point, water vapor forms the droplets we see as clouds. Smoke acts the same in the atmosphere as it does in the bottle. Other nucleation particles include dust, pollution, dirt, and even bacteria.