Thursday, October 22, 2009
Free Makeup at e.l.f. Cosmetics & Reduced Shipping
Use the coupon code LOYAL at e.l.f. Cosmetics website to receive a free 27-piece makeup kit with ANY purchase, and with items starting at only $1, I think this is a great deal. Pair this up with the reduced shipping offer by entering the coupon code SHIP198 to received shipping for only $1.98 for orders of $20 or more. This could allow you to stock up on some stocking stuffers or just some goodies for yourself!
Free Edible Arrangements Chocolate Dipped Fruit
If you haven't become a fan of Edible Arrangements on Facebook, do it now! After you become a fan, you can sign up to receive a coupon by email for a free 6-piece box of chocolate dipped fruit. I received my coupon yesterday, and picked up my dipped fruit today. I was unaware that you had to order it first, then go pick it up, so I just showed up to pick it up. Anyway, the sales woman was really nice and asked me to wait a few minutes and she would have it ready. That made me a fan of Edible Arrangements for life. Also, I was surprised at how big the fruit pieces were; they were a lot bigger than the picture made them seem. The chocolate layer was really thick on the fruit as well. I am definitely impressed and will definitely consider ordering from Edible Arrangements in the future!
Free Ice Cream at Marble Slab Creamery
When you sign up online at www.MarbleSlab.com to receive emails, Marble Slab Creamery will send you a coupon by email for a buy one, get one free ice cream creation!
Feet First into Couponing
I jumped feet first into the world of couponing. It was really exciting to be able to get about $58 worth of items for only about $19!! Had I been more experienced, I probably could have saved a few more dollars, but I am still a newbie and not yet confident enough to challenge the cashiers. I did this at Walgreens, and using store coupons on top of manufacturer's coupons, then partially paying with Register Rewards, I saved almost $40 on products we would have bought anyway! This is just the beginning for me too!
I plan on updating this page as often as possible, and possibly getting another website solely devoted to coupons, deals, and being frugal.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Free Activities for Kids
I am always looking for free things for my daughter to do. The most obvious for me was Story Time at nearby libraries. We are lucky enough to have two libraries within a decent distance. So every Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, my daughter has something free to do.
Another free activity my daughter absolutely loved was Gymboree. You can try out one free class of Gymboree; if you enroll the same day as your free trial, then you get a reduced monthly rate. I thought $72 a month was a bit much for an hour a week gym class. Instead, I have opted to become a lifetime member for $35, then go to Open Gym for $8 each time. **Although this is not totally free, you still get one free class out of it.
Another way to find free kids activities is to do a simple search. In the search bar enter: free kids activities in (enter your town here). I am fortunate enough to live in a large enough city to have lots of options.
Get together with other parents as well and pool your information. If all else fails, go to your local park and take a soccer ball or kickball with you.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Kids Eat Free or Reduced
Like most families, ours has been hit with financial difficulty. I have been scouring the Internet to find great deals whenever possible. I have come up with things to do and places to go where kids can eat free or reduced or try a free activity. Today I will let you all know some places where kids can eat free or reduced.
MONDAY
TGI Friday's - kids eat free
Joe's Crab Shack - kids meal $.99
TUESDAY
Spaghetti Warehouse - kids eat free for dinner
Fazoli's - kids eat $.99 from 5-8 pm
Denny's - kids eat free from 4-10 pm
Chick-fil-a - kids eat free 5-8 pm
Central Market - kids eat free w/ purchase of adult entree 5-9 pm
McAlister's Deli - kids eat free
Joe's Crab Shack - kids meal $.99
WEDNESDAY
Luby's - kids eat free after 4 pm
Central Market - kids eat free after 5 pm
Joe's Crab Shack - kids meal $.99
THURSDAY
Joe's Crab Shack - kids meal $.99
SATURDAY
Luby's - kids eat free
SUNDAY
Souper Salad - kids aged 3-5 eat for $.50; kids aged 6-12 eat for $.99
ALL WEEK
IHOP - kids eat free from 4-10 pm
Cici's Pizza - kids under 3 eat free
Souper Salad - kids eat free
Also, never hesitate to ask your local restaurants if they have days when kids eat free or reduced. I have made it a habit to always ask this question. FYI: Taco Cabana does not, as of this time, have any kids deals. Another helpful tip, go to restaurant websites and sign up for their e-mail lists. Sometimes you will get a coupon for a free appetizer or dessert.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
How to Check Young Children for Colorblindness
I was recently concerned that my daughter was colorblind. She could quickly name off some colors, such as orange, purple, brown, blue, and white, but was frequently mixing up red and green. I was searching online for ways to check to see if she was colorblind. I found the most common test which is a group of dots, some of which are colored certain ways to reveal a pattern of numbers. Since my daughter cannot yet recognized her numbers yet, I continued searching. I found the same test over and over again, then I found it once more except some wise parent had used shapes instead of numbers. I thought this was great because my daughter can easily name circles, squares, and stars. I showed her the test and I happily found out that she is not colorblind.
Regretfully, I did not save the website on which I found the picture, but I did save part of the picture; I have included the picture below. Feel free to copy and paste it into Word to make the picture larger. I found it helpful to put the document into landscape view (File, Page Setup, Margins tab) to be able to make it large enough.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Dollar Menu's a Waste of Money
Although most moms wish they could be super moms 24/7, the reality is, we can't. We are stressed, low on time, and the kids are hungry. Sometimes we slip and run through a fast food restaurant. We think we are saving moving with dollar menus. The truth is... we really aren't.
In most fast food restaurants, a large size is equivalent to two or even three small sizes. For example, a small fries for a dollar sounds good, right? Wrong! At McDonald's (inventor of the dollar menu), a large fries costs about $1.69. If you buy two small fries, which would be about the size of a large, that would cost you $2.00 plus tax! This may not seem like much but it adds up.
It may be convenient to you to buy separate fries for each kid, but not to me. Just keep a few zip bags in your car and next time you settle for fast food, divide up one large portion into smaller portions. So next time you think about the dollar menu versus the regular menu, take a minute to add up the difference you could save if you split large sizes. Even if kids aren't in tow, this is a good way to save money on a quick lunch, especially since a lot of fast food restaurants are now incorporating healthy options onto their dollar menus.
Along with McDonald's, Sonic has also introduced a dollar menu with good sized portions. Chick-fil-A also offers a free kid's menu on Tuesday's with the purchase of an adult meal.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Sesame Street Live
Last night we attended Sesame Street Live. It was so much fun watching Abbie have fun and sing and dance along with the characters. My favorite part was when Big Bird was talking and Abbie would say, "Hi Big Bird, Hi Bird Bird!!!" It was ridiculously cute!
We also noticed a family in front of us that I though had a really great idea. Their child was maybe 12-14 months and they had brought their portable booster seat. They set it up in the chair and the child had a boost to see the show; and they used the tray to give him snacks. When I saw this, I thought to myself, they have done this before.
Intermission came after about forty-five minutes. Since Abbie did have a bit of a cold and didn't feel very well, she was started to give out, so we decided it was time to go home. This was the most fun I have had in a long time!!
Edible Play-Dough
I was browsing through the Internet and came across a recipe for edible play-dough that I wanted to share. This is actually Kate Gosselin's recipe (Jon & Kate + 8) but I thought the more mommy's that have this secret weapon, the better.
Just mix equal parts honey, peanut butter, and powdered milk; you can also add a little bit of flour to thicken. This serves as an activity and then as a snack. But watch out for peanut allergies, and don't give it to children younger than one year old since babies shouldn't have honey until that age.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Entrepreneur Mommy
I have now added a new page to my site. It is called Entrepreneur Mommy. Take the initiative and start your own business!!! What better time than the start of a new year? You can click on the link at the top of the page to check it out and see what it's all about!!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Party Time
Today was my grandmother's 65th birthday. I made an entire cake, frosting included, from scratch. It was an excellent attempt at a red velvet cake with butter cream frosting. Then we had fantastic barbecue for dinner. I haven't had red meat in quite a long time, so the barbecue was exceptionally good to me.
My daughter is about fifteen months old right now and is currently loving the fact that she can drink out of straw. She is also mastering unscrewing the plastic cap off of a bottle. She has some of those giant foam puzzle piece mats that are currently built into a house for her to play in. She loves sitting in there. She has also done the sweetest thing... I was laying down on the floor and she brought me a pillow for my head.
I have been turning the house upside down searching for anything and everything I can list on eBay. (Search seller ID texas_cowpoke if you are interested) I have done really well selling my old college books on eBay. It has been a fast money maker.
I have also discovered Amazon Mechanical Turk. I have made quite a bit of cash with that as well. To sum it up, people list tasks for you to do; you pick from the lists of hundreds of tasks that pay anywhere from $0.01 all the way up to $20.00 per task; if the person who listed the task likes your work, the accept it and pay you. It is actually pretty simple and easy to do. I have made a pretty good chunk of money relatively quickly doing this. Five minutes here and there really add up.
If you know of any other quick money makers, please leave a comment and let me know about it. Anything to make the ends meet, ya know?
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Sarah Palin for Vice-President
I consider myself a conservative Democrat, or maybe a liberal Republican; they are about the same to me. Anyway, for me it has never really been about the political party, but for what the candidate is representing in themselves.If Hillary Clinton had been nominated, I would have voted for her. She has the political experience, plus the inside information to the presidency because of her husband, Bill Clinton. I do not believe that Barack Obama has enough experience to run our great country. Maybe in another eight or twelve years.
I see the point of view about John McCain's age. But I also, with age comes great wisdom and experience. McCain has been through many trials and tribulations throughout his 72 year lifetime. While this may seem old, remember back when the American people elected Reagan as President. I was as fairly shocked as a great many people about John McCain's vice-presidential pick. The only way I have heard of Sarah Palin was because Craig Ferguson had fantasized over her on his national television show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
Pretty much all that has been on the news and media channels today has been about Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska. After knowing more about her (nothing as of yesterday), I have begun to really like her. She has children of all ages, so she will represent the mother's perspective and she has run the state of Alaska as Governor so she has political experience. Plus, from her interviews, she just seems very genuine and un-corrupted by Washington D.C. politics. I mean how much farther away from D.C. can you get than Alaska? She is all-American and can stand up for the everyday American a whole lot better than the other possible vice-presidential candidates McCain could have chosen. Sarah Palin fights for what she believes in. She wants to tap into Alaska's gas and oil resources so the United States can be more independent. She is just a regular person, with five kids to boot, who knows the day in and day out struggles of the rest of us.
Needless to say, I will be voting for John McCain and Sarah Palin this November and I invite the rest of you to join me.
Friday, August 29, 2008
New Blog Postings
I am now not only writing about mommy-related stuff, but now whatever else that pops into my head. After all, if it catches my attention, isn't it going to catch other mom's attention as well?
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Pulling Up
Abbie has kind of done things backwards these days. She went from kind of scooting around to pulling up and standing with support, to crawling fast as lightning. She definitely keeps us on our toes.
In other news, I will be getting to see a lot of my friends next week. It is spring break for most of them so they are coming into town, and with it being my birthday next week, we must celebrate together!! I haven't seen some of them for about six months, but others, it has been almost a year. I miss so many of them so much.
We got a new car seat for Abbie a couple days ago. She is finally outgrowing her infant car seat/carrier, so we went ahead and got her a new one to be prepared. I really like it because it will last all the way through to a booster seat, up to 100 pounds. Hopefully, we won't need to get another one.
Also, it is quite difficult to find great Raffi CD's, ya know, the old ones that were so great. I remember listening to him when I was little and I wanted Abbie to be able to listen to him as well. So far we have only found one of the great CD's we are looking for. The search will continue.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Long Time, No See
I have been working on (and finishing!) my cookbook. I am so excited that it is finally complete! You can go to the Yummy Recipes portion of my site to order your copy. It is full of 260 fantastic recipes that everyone can enjoy. It has twelve different categories and each category has at least one full page of helpful hints. Not to mention... general helpful hints for cooking, equivalent charts, and substitution charts. As my editors were proofreading it, they kept commenting on how they couldn't wait to try so many of the recipes. : )
As for Abbie, she is becoming very mobile. We think she is going to skip the crawling stage and go straight to walking. Instead of crawling she scoots and rolls everywhere.
Christmas was a hoot! My aunt and uncle came to visit with their kids and during those few days I had a *crash course* in baby proofing the house. It was a lot of fun having the family here for a few days.
School starts up again next week. I will be taking a ridiculous 23 hours. Yes, I know, I'm crazy, but I just want to get it over with. Besides most of the classes are online anyway. After that semester is over with, I will be transferring to a four-year university, with the entire program being online! I am super excited about that because I will get to stay home with my family.
Within the next day or two I will be posting a link for the most fantastic shopping cart covers. Although I think the one that I made is the best, these definitely have major ranking too. They can be customized by fabrics and several add-ons. They also make twin-sized too. If you are in a hurry to get one though, you can click on the "Cool Mommy Blog" link at the top of the page. That will take you to my BlogSpot page, where the shopping cart cover link is already near the top of the page. I highly recommend them.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
American Made
I recently ran across a website through BabyCenter that listed some products that they sell that are American or European made... NOT "Made in China." I was so happy to find out that Abbie's exersaucer was on the list! It is the Evenflo Exersaucer Mega and it is circus themed. I offer it in my Mommy Store if you are looking for something that is not made in China.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Wave Bye-Bye
Abbie waved bye-bye for the first time yesterday!! It was so exciting! My mother's birthday was yesterday as well; she kind of thought of Abbie being able to wave as Abbie's birthday present to her. Since it was my mother's birthday, the whole family went out to eat. It was only Abbie's second time to go out and eat. We took her along some green beans so she wouldn't feel left out, but more of it ended up on her because she was constantly looking around at her new surroundings. We all had fun though. As a result of going out to eat, and Abbie having to sit in one of the restaurants high chairs, I intend to buy one of those high chair/shopping cart covers.
My personal accomplishment of the day was that I figured out how to list some of my favorite products in my online store. The Fisher-Price Booster Seat is a particular favorite because it is really portable and folds up really well. Plus the tray (and its cover!) are completely dishwasher safe. Such a plus! I also highly recommend the SwaddleMe blankets. It velcro's around itself so that way there are no loose blankets with the baby when baby is sleeping. It is really great because it is not easily kicked off either.
Friday, November 23, 2007
New Invention
Abbie had a lovely first Thanksgiving yesterday. She slept through the entire cooking process, which was only about an hour and a half anyway, which helped greatly! When she finally woke up, she joined us at the dinner table and had green beans, sweet potatoes, and bananas... all the pureed baby version of course, but I just thought she should have some Thanksgiving food too.
Abbie is currently teething and has been for awhile. Just to keep her occupied during a diaper change, I put her socks on her hands. It seemed to entertain her pretty well so I just left them on, plus it kept her hands warm. Well she started putting her hands with the socks still on them in her mouth, as all babies put everything they find in their mouths. I found that it greatly sopped up the drool caused by teething. So now she wears the socks for a good portion of the day, to sop up the drool and to keep her hands warm. Just wanted to share my Ah Ha! moment of the day.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On
My aunt gave us a lot of clothes that her girls had outgrown, including the cutest ever pair of blue jeans. Since Abbie has so many clothes now and she is growing so fast, she gets dressed up everyday!
In other news... pureed baby food was introduced today. Abbie has been on rice and oatmeal cereal for the past few weeks so we figured it was time for some real food! So far we have started out with squash and she absolutely loves it!! After the 3-5 day allergy test period, we will probably be moving on to carrots.
I printed off some suggested menu charts for "independent sitters" and one of the snacks it lists is saltine crackers. Am I just crazy or is it ridiculous to give saltine crackers to a six month old?!?
Oh and I bought a box of the "pocket bibsters" and I already know I won't be buying them again because Abbie has already figured out how to take them off because of the extremely light velcro fastener. But they did work really well before she started taking them off.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
New Adventure
Hey Everyone,
This is my first post. I have a xanga, myspace, and facebook, but this is my first blog that I can make money with. That is super exciting for me considering I am a full-time student as well as a new mom, which all mothers know is a full-time job in itself! So this extra income, even though scanty right now, will surely be appreciated!!!
As for the actual mommy blog... today was the first day Abbie sat up on her own!!! Such a milestone and super exciting for me to see! And to listen to her giggling is the most rewarding thing ever!! Just to know that something as simple as making a silly face can make her laugh really reminds me of how simple life really should be.