Signup Now for 25 Dayz of Giveawayz – Signups Ending October 7th!

September 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Bloggers – the registration for November’s 25 Crazy Dayz of Giveawayz is nearing a close. The giveaway, sponsored by Coupon Cabin and hosted by Simply Stacie, Sassy Mama in LA and Makobi Scribe will close for  blogger registration at 11:59 pm EST on October 7th. So, if you would like your blog to participate in this giveaway event, please be sure to fill out this form (and don’t forget to say that Moms Living Thrifty sent you!).

This event is slated to break the record for being the biggest in the blogosphere. More than 400 blogs currently participating!

But that’s not all! Due to the response, CouponCabin has decided to add to BOTH the reader AND blogger prizes! We told you it was CRAZY!

CouponCabin is will be giving the following prizes away to 9 lucky readers entering the giveaway:

Grand Prize: (1) MacBook Air (11-inch, 128GB; ARV $1,199)
2nd Runner Up: (1) iPad2 (16GB, with Wi-Fi +3G; ARV $629) & (1) $200 Visa Gift Card
3rd Runner Up: (1) iPad2 (16GB, with Wi-Fi +3G; ARV $629)
4th Runner Up: (1) $300 Visa Gift Card
5th Runner Up: (1) $200 Visa Gift Card
6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Runner Ups: (1) $100 Visa Gift Card each

And here are the AMAZING blogger prizes!

The blogger who refers the most readers to the giveaway will win a MacBook Air
The blogger who refers the 2nd most readers to the giveaway will win an iPad2 & $200 Visa Gift Card
The blogger who refers the 3rd most readers to the giveaway will win an iPad2
The blogger who refers the 4th most readers to enter the giveaway will win a $300 Visa Gift Card
The blogger who refers the 5th most readers to enter the giveaway will win a $200 Visa Gift Card
Total Value of Prizes: $6614

Every blogger that joins and participates is eligible for the blogger  prizes – but that’s not all! Bloggers that refer additional blogs to the event will receive one (1) Target Gift Card (value of $20) for each and every blog that they refer who registers and participates in the event. Please keep in mind that you cannot use yourself as a referral (so be sure to list Moms Living Thrifty =)  – your referrals must participate in the event in order for you to be eligible to receive the gift cards. Coupon Cabin will be sending these out at after the event has ended in November.

The main event (the reader giveaway) will take place on the three host blogs (Sassy Mom in LA, Makobi Scribe and Simply Stacie) and there will also be a linky available so that all readers participating can easily hop to enter the other giveaways that are occurring on other participating blogs. Reader entries will begin on the 1st of November and will run through the 25th of November.

This event is extremely large. Because of that, the host blogs will be dividing up the linky between themselves. Each of the host blogs will  be featuring a different linky for readers to hop and enter. This will help to keep the linky a bit smaller, making it a little easier for readers to enter. .

How to Participate

Sign up on the form HERE (say Moms Living Thrifty sent you!) and send a $5 administrative fee (non-refundable) via Paypal to SassyScorpYM@gmail.com

When is the event?

November 1 at 12:01 am EST to November 25, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be announced during a live event on Twitter on November 28th. Further details will follow at a later date.

Requirements for participating blogs

Have a giveaway specifically for this event and cannot start before start time, or end before specified end time
Minimum prize/pack value of $25
Display the event button in your post so hoppers can easily identify it
Display the linky in your post to encourage hopping
Comply with proper disclosures, no entries that violate Facebook policies (i.e. requiring comments on walls), must follow FTC guidelines (no extras for making purchases, etc.)
Have your post up on November 1st at 12 am EST. We will be deleting blogs that do not have their giveaways posted at 12 pm EST on November 1 and this will disqualify you from your referrals.
Sign up for CouponCabin’s Blogger Email Newsletter. They will send you top coupons, promotion and giveaway announcements geared specifically for bloggers. There is no cost to joining their newsletter. By providing your email address at sign up, you will be automatically enrolled.
Since this event is sponsored by CouponCabin, we ask that your giveaway sponsor for this specific event not be in direct competition with them (ie. another coupon website).

Only bloggers who are participating in CouponCabin’s 25 Crazy Dayz of Giveawayz are eligible for the Blogger prizes (Macbook Air, iPad2 and VISA Gift Cards).

The Blogger & Reader Prizes will be open to both US & Canada.

Register for the Event

Please fill out the form (and say that Moms Living Thrifty referred you!) and submit your non-refundable administrative fee of $5 to SassyScorpYM@gmail.com You will receive an email within 24 hours to confirm your participation. Then please spread the word and tell others about this amazing hop and to say that YOU referred them!

Remember sign ups close on October 7, 2011 at 11:59 pm so if you want to sign up don’t delay! We will not be accepting any registrations after October 7th.
Filed Under: Building Your Blog, Deals and Steals, Legitimate Work from Home Jobs, Sweepstakes and Contests Tagged With: , , , ,
This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. In most cases, products are provided to Moms Living Thrifty for review. All product reviews are written according to the writer's honest opinion, experience or beliefs. Your opinion may vary. To see more on our disclosure policy, please visit our Disclosure page

Get Even More Great Coupons with Eversave!

September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Love coupons? If so, then you’ll love Eversave!

With tons of great coupons, helpful tips and more, Eversave plays a huge role in my shopping and meal planning. Plus, you can enter great sweepstakes and giveaways through the site on a regular basis as well! Who doesn’t like winning something?

It’s always great when you can print tons of great coupons from a single spot, get great recipes, tips and more!  I’ve been using Eversave as a source for coupons for years and with all of the other coupon sites out there, this site still falls into my top five favorites. If you haven’t signed up yet, get on the ball and start snagging more coupons for all of your favorite products!

 
Filed Under: Top Coupons, Top Online Coupons Tagged With: , , , ,
This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. In most cases, products are provided to Moms Living Thrifty for review. All product reviews are written according to the writer's honest opinion, experience or beliefs. Your opinion may vary. To see more on our disclosure policy, please visit our Disclosure page

One Day Deal: Emjoi Body Fat Monitor – Only $9.99!

September 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you’ve been looking for an easy way to closely monitor your body fat while you diet, the Emjoi Body Fat Monitor might just be your next favorite device! This handy monitor will show you your progress in a snap. Emjoi will measure your body fat using an infrared light beam. It’s really a pretty neat concept – and today you can get it for just $9.99!

Keep in mind that this is a one day deal, so get it while you can!

Emjoi Body Fat Monitor
Emjoi Body Fat Monitor

So how does the Emjoi Monitor’s infrared light work? Well, since fat reflects light and muscle absorbs it, the monitor calculates your body fat by recording the amount of light that is reflected back to it. Just point it at the part of the  body that you want to measure and start the scan. Your results will display instantly on the monitor’s LCD screen. You can also easily access your previous reading for easy comparison.


In addition, because the Emjoi Body Fat Monitor can be  programmed by age, gender, height and weight, the monitor will also compare your results to the minimum and maximum range standards for the choices you select. This monitor uses a single 9-volg batter, which is included. Better yet, it only weights 2.9 ounces and measures 4 x 2 x 1.6 inches, so you can take it practically anywhere. With its padded case and one year warranty to protect you against defects, today’s special price of $9.99 is a real steal!

Food Pyramid image courtesy of Phil Manker.

 
Filed Under: Deals and Steals, Family Health Tagged With: , , ,
This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. In most cases, products are provided to Moms Living Thrifty for review. All product reviews are written according to the writer's honest opinion, experience or beliefs. Your opinion may vary. To see more on our disclosure policy, please visit our Disclosure page

Moms Living Thrifty – 30 Day Blog Challenge – Day 30 – FINALLY!

September 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Well everyone, I’ve finally made it to day 30 of this blog challenge. Yes, I know I missed a few days, but I made up for them. I hope that my participation in this challenge has given you all a chance to get to know me a little bit better.

Let’s make it official – on to my final topic!

Your goals for the next 30 days…

I don’t really have that many goals for the next 30 days because most of my goals are long term. Still, I suppose there are some things that I could work on to challenge myself – and here they are:

  • Improving the look of this website. I don’t really like the look as much as I thought I did originally. So, be on the lookout for changes in the coming weeks. I’m getting antsy and the minute that I have time to focus on making the changes, I will.
  • Landing my first giveaway sponsor. Yep, I’m a giveaway hosting newbie, but I won’t be for long!
  • Getting me and my son on a normal schedule – I’ve been changing our sleep habits the past few days and it has been pretty effective so far, so I’m hoping that this can continue.
  • Better organizing my time. I’m going to try using the planner on my Blackberry to schedule myself to do a certain task every hour (or more, depending upon what the task is). I hope that this will help keep me on point a bit better, as I’ve definitely gotten away from organization.
  • Potty training my son – we’ve been doing this for months, and it’s getting better, but we have not achieved true completion yet. I’m considering just letting him run around in underwear during the day so that he can feel the wet sensation better. Any suggestions are definitely welcome!
  • Sharing more deals here on MLT. I’m all about deals, but I hardly have time to post them all.

That pretty much covers my goals for the next 30 days. What are yours?

Image courtesy of Randomosity
Filed Under: Mother Creative's Corner, Time for Mom Tagged With: , ,
This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. In most cases, products are provided to Moms Living Thrifty for review. All product reviews are written according to the writer's honest opinion, experience or beliefs. Your opinion may vary. To see more on our disclosure policy, please visit our Disclosure page

Skin Deep: How Safe Are Your Cosmetics?

September 25, 2011 By 3 Comments

We assume most products are safe, don’t we? After all, it seems like if something is being sold in our supermarkets or drug stores, it must be safe. Not true! The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) actually doesn’t have the authority to require companies to test their cosmetic products for safety. They only conduct reviews on certain ingredients and additives found in cosmetics.

It’s also easy to assume that companies wouldn’t risk using dangerous chemicals in their cosmetics. In truth, cosmetic companies may use any raw material or ingredient, except for a few banned substances, without FDA approval. Here are a few interesting statistics from the Environmental Working Group (EWG):

  • More than 500 products sold in the U.S. contain ingredients banned in cosmetics in Canada, Japan, or Europe
  • 22% of all personal care products may be contaminated with the cancer-causing impurity 1,4-dioxane, including many children’s products
  • 61% of tested lipstick brands contain residues of lead

Yet another assumption we make is that since personal care products are used on the surface of the body (skin, hair, etc.), harmful substances don’t get into our bodies and harm us. Put simply, this isn’t true because chemicals are breathed in, swallowed from the lips or hands and absorbed through the skin.

We also can’t assume that a product is completely safe just because it’s labeled “for children,” “hypo-allergenic,” or “organic.”

So, how can we tell if a personal care product is safe? I find the EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database to be an extremely helpful tool when it comes to finding personal care products that are healthy, safe and responsibly made. Items like makeup, skin care, shampoo, perfume and baby products can all be found in the database. You can browse by category or search by product, ingredient or company. Each item is given a “hazard score” from 1 to 10, which reflects the known and suspected hazard of a product’s ingredients. You can also find other helpful information on about products, such as whether the company tests on animals.


You might not think much about the safety of cosmetics, but with as many personal care products we use on a daily basis, both on ourselves and on our children, it’s important to understand exactly what we are putting on and in our bodies.

Go enter your products into the database, and see what you learn!
Filed Under: Family Health, Family Safety Tagged With: , , , , ,
This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. In most cases, products are provided to Moms Living Thrifty for review. All product reviews are written according to the writer's honest opinion, experience or beliefs. Your opinion may vary. To see more on our disclosure policy, please visit our Disclosure page

Indoor Water Safety Tips for Tots

September 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

During the summer months, there is lots of talk about water safety. The risk of drowning is always on our minds when we frequent swimming pools, lakes, water parks, etc. Now that summer is over, we don’t hear much about it. However, it’s important to remember water safety indoors as well as outdoors. In fact, bathtubs are the second leading place where young children drown, after swimming pools, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Drowning is the leading cause of accidental death among children 1 to 4 years old, so it’s something every parent and caregiver should be keenly aware of. Here are few safety tips from the CPSC when it comes to indoor water safety:

  • ALWAYS supervise young children when they’re in the bathtub. If you have to leave the room, take your child with you. It might be a pain, but it could prevent a tragedy. Also, don’t leave an older sibling to look after a younger child in the bathtub.
  • Don’t leave young children alone near any standing water. This could include landscaping features and buckets of water. Children can drown in only a few inches of water. Toddlers, especially, are top heavy, and they can fall into buckets and drown. Be sure to empty buckets when you’re finished using them. I always store mine upside-down just in case.
  • Put a cover on anything outside that could collect rainwater and become a drowning hazard.
  • It’s a good idea to put locks on your toilet seat lids with toddlers in the home.
  • Don’t assume your child is too old to be at risk of drowning indoors. While the majority of incidents involve children under the age of two, many involve children through age five.
  • One of the most important things you can do to help keep your children safe is to learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). It can truly be a lifesaver!

Photo courtesy of Miss.Libertine
Filed Under: Family Safety Tagged With: , , , ,
This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. In most cases, products are provided to Moms Living Thrifty for review. All product reviews are written according to the writer's honest opinion, experience or beliefs. Your opinion may vary. To see more on our disclosure policy, please visit our Disclosure page

Moms Living Thrifty – 30 Day Blog Challenge – Day 29

September 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Well, it’s been 30 days, but I got a bit behind, so we’re finally officially at post 29 of this blog challenge. Yeah, I screwed up and skipped two days, but I’m determined to finish. So, on to the post topic of the day!

 

List 10 people, dead or alive, you would invite to dinner. Include the dinner menu…

 

Lots of people would probably invite famous actors, singers or politicians. I suppose that would be cool (providing I actually liked the person’s work), but there are a lot of other people that I would much rather enjoy spending time with. Here are the people I would choose:

My maternal grandfather – he passed in 2000 and was probably one of the most generous people I’ve ever known. He was a talker too, so there’s no way that we would sit in silence during dinner. I would love to be able to talk to him again, tell him how much I love and miss him and thank him for everything he did for us. He was a great man and I’m thankful to have had him as a grandfather.

My significant other, Rusty – I can’t imagine having a special meal without him being present. Aside from that, I would have loved for him to have been able to meet my grandfather. Unfortunately, grandpa passed just months before Rusty and I went on our first date.


My son – I can’t fathom the idea of him not being by my side and being able to meet his great grandfather (who would have been so very proud that he finally got a great-grandson).

My maternal grandmother – to be able to have her and grandpa together again for just one evening…well, I think it would be fantastic and heartbreaking all at the same time, but I think she would appreciate the chance to say all the things she didn’t get to say before he passed.

My stepdaughter – I’d love for her to meet my grandfather and for him to be able to meet her.

My sister – a family get together just wouldn’t be the same without her there and considering that she showed up just minutes after my grandfather hit the floor and performed CPR on him until the ambulance arrived, I think they would both have a lot to say to each other.

My brother -  I can’t imagine my brother not being present if we all had one chance to see our grandfather again.

My mother – I’m sure that my mom would love to be able to talk to her daddy one more time and tell him how much she loves and misses him. I’m sure that she would thank him for everything he did for her while he was alive and everything he did for us.

My niece, Daisy – She was the only grandchild at the time and grandpa just adored her. I’m sure that she would love to meet the man that she had so many pictures taken with as a baby.

My niece, Krysten – Although Krysten was born a little over a year after my grandfather died, I’m sure that she would love the chance to be able to meet him. Like all of the great grandchildren, Krysten has been told stories about “Great-Pop” ever since she was a baby. I’m sure that he would like to meet her as well.

I wish that the number was 12 because I would love for my other two nieces, Ally and Abby, to be able to be there as well. It doesn’t matter I suppose, because it will never happen, but it’s a nice thought.

My dinner menu? Well, considering that the guest of honor is my grandfather, I suppose I would have to serve Fig Newtons (one of his favorite cookies) and Russell Stover chocolates as an appetizer, along with a holiday-style family meal that would includes turkey, baked ham with pineapple and cherries, roast beef, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, corn on the cob, cranberry sauce, carrots, Waldorf salad, freshly baked dinner rolls, brown gravy, turkey gravy and sweet cream butter. For dessert, we would have our choice of blackberry cobbler, apple pie and cherry pie with vanilla bean ice cream.

Grandpa was an insulin dependent diabetic and he had a wicked sweet tooth, so I want to make sure that he is able to satisfy that on the one night that we would get to see him again. I would also set up the entire dinner at a pavilion next to the lake and bring all of his fishing gear so that he could cast a few lines before he sat down to dinner.

What ten people would you invite to dinner?

Photo Credit: thskyt
Filed Under: Mother Creative's Corner, Time for Mom Tagged With: , ,
This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. In most cases, products are provided to Moms Living Thrifty for review. All product reviews are written according to the writer's honest opinion, experience or beliefs. Your opinion may vary. To see more on our disclosure policy, please visit our Disclosure page

Moms Living Thrifty – 30 Day Blog Challenge – Day 28

September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Today’s blog challenge post topic is…

Something that you miss…

One of the things I miss the most is the society that I grew up in. When I was younger, we didn’t worry about locking our doors, locking the car while we shopped or walking home in the dark. Those things were still relatively safe to do – and I’m only 33, so it wasn’t all that long ago. What happened to our world?

As I watch my son grow, I think about all of the things that I got to do as a child that he probably won’t be able to enjoy nearly as much due simply to safety. When I was young, we knew our neighbors and our neighbors knew us. Kids in the neighborhood were looked out for by everyone in the neighborhood.

If you lived on one end of the street, but flew off your bike and did a chin dive into the street, someone would come running out of their house to care for you and call your parents. We didn’t have to worry that they might have other intentions in mind. Our parents didn’t tell us to stay on the block, they told us to stay around the neighborhood. That covered about a three mile radius.

We waded through creeks and hunted for arrowheads. We saved animals on a regular basis – my grandmother always had a hard time telling us no, so we had lots of pets. We walked to the milk store and filled our bags with candy, but we never dropped a wrapper on the ground on our way home. We lived simply, happily, adventurously and faithfully and life was good.

I miss those simple times and I regret that my son won’t be able to fully enjoy a lot of the things that I was able to when I grew up.

What do you miss?
Filed Under: Mother Creative's Corner, Time for Mom Tagged With: , , , , ,
This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. In most cases, products are provided to Moms Living Thrifty for review. All product reviews are written according to the writer's honest opinion, experience or beliefs. Your opinion may vary. To see more on our disclosure policy, please visit our Disclosure page

Sickness Soup and Other Natural Remedies

September 23, 2011 By 1 Comment

My little girl was coughing as she tried to fall asleep last night; a cough woke her up today, too. What to do? I went for my first line of defense:  I made her a cup of peppermint tea with lots of honey in it. When she gets home from school, we’ll have chamomile tea with honey and lemon. It’s a fun treat for her, and the warm tea with honey will soothe her throat and maybe help abate that dry cough.

When I start to get sick, I’ve taken to making a little something I call Sickness Soup. Maybe it should be called “Fighting Sickness Soup” instead—I’ll have to work on the name. Anyway, it really seems to boost my immunities and ward off impending sickness. Practically every ingredient is linked to immunity-boosting. I would suggest using it as a complement to the traditional chicken noodle soup, which is also a winner. Here it is:

  • Sauté a chopped onion in a long drizzle of olive oil in a soup pot. After it begins to soften, add fresh, minced garlic (1-2 cloves)
  • Add chopped red bell pepper and a handful of chopped mushrooms
  • After the vegetables are soft, add a quart of chicken broth (home-made is best), some thyme, salt, and pepper. Bring it to a boil.
  • Add a tablespoon of red wine and a tablespoon of barley. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.
  • Add ½ cup of chopped spinach and one egg. Stir constantly until the egg has cooked.

It really works! Another tip: if you make your own chicken broth in bulk from left over chicken bones, it is supposed to be really good for boosting immunities. You can make it and freeze it; then it’s ready-made when you feel yourself coming down with something.

Yet another tip is to up your garlic intake in general. Garlic is fabulous for fighting sickness. Try experimenting with raw garlic, too. We make a raw garlic white sauce over pasta that is really fabulous.


A final tip: the trusty green smoothie. If you haven’t heard of the green smoothie yet, you’re in for a delightful surprise. Did you know that if you throw spinach in a blender with a bunch of fruit and water, you can’t taste the spinach after it’s blended? It’s true! This is the best way I know to get kids to eat spinach. We have green smoothies on a regular basis, but I go out of my way to make them when somebody is sick around here. Try this recipe for starters:

  • A handful of frozen strawberries
  • ¼ cup of yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon of honey
  • ½ a can of pears, pineapples, or both
  • 1 frozen banana (just let it sit in warm water for a few minutes, then cut off the end and it will slide right out!)
  • 2 handfuls of fresh spinach
  • Enough water or orange juice to blend

Blend until entirely smooth. Enjoy!
Filed Under: Family Health, From the Kitchen, Home & Family, Made from Scratch Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes Tagged With: , , ,
This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. In most cases, products are provided to Moms Living Thrifty for review. All product reviews are written according to the writer's honest opinion, experience or beliefs. Your opinion may vary. To see more on our disclosure policy, please visit our Disclosure page

Moms Living Thrifty – 30 Day Blog Challenge – Day 27

September 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Well, if you’ve been following me, then you know I’ve been slacking. For that, I’m sorry. We’ve been trying to get ready for our yard sale and I can’t tell you all how happy I am to have such a great guy – I’m not even being sarcastic! He’s done more than I have to get this yard sale ready. I think he’s just happy that we’re getting rid of some stuff. I am too. We’ve really needed to for a while.

Anyway, on to my two day late challenge posts!

Yesterday’s blog challenge post topic is:

A problem you have or have had in the past…

My biggest problem is clutter and it has been for a while. Appropriate, right?

Seriously though, I have been a clutter-bug for years. I can’t help it. My mind is always on work or my kids or dinner or…something else other than tossing stuff out. I swear, it’s not that I like the clutter, but I do tend to occupy myself with other things and avoid facing the facts and cleaning up the clutter.

Rusty (my guy) recently started watching that show Hoarders (or something like that) on television and now he turns it up so that I have no choice but to listen to it while I’m working. The thing is, I’m not THAT bad. Yes, it takes me a while to toss out the junk mail, but I have no problem doing it when I sit down to do it. The problem is that I don’t do it often enough.


My biggest problem is hoarding clothing. I keep telling myself that I’m going to lose the fifteen pounds that I’ve wanted to lose for years and get back into a couple of pair of my old favorite jeans and be able to wear my cute little shirts again. Fifteen pounds – that’s it. Have I done it? No. Have I tried? No. But I’m not gaining any weight either – and that’s why I continue to hang on to them,  Well, really it’s because this little voice in my head keeps telling me, “Shawna, you’ll be kicking yourself in the butt in a couple of months if you get rid of those.” And I would if I lost the weight. But am I really going to try to lose it? It’s doubtful. So, I did the next best thing – I gave them to my stepdaughter. She can fit into them and they look great on her. If I lose weight and want to borrow them, I can.

The other clothes? Well, I’ve decided to give a lot of them up. I had two closets and two dressers full of clothing. It’s about time I said goodbye to some of it.  So, some lucky ladies are going to get some great clothes if they come to our yard sale.

Anyway, that’s my problem. What’s yours?  :)

Photo Credit: Sean MacEntee
Filed Under: Mother Creative's Corner, Time for Mom Tagged With: , , , , ,
This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. In most cases, products are provided to Moms Living Thrifty for review. All product reviews are written according to the writer's honest opinion, experience or beliefs. Your opinion may vary. To see more on our disclosure policy, please visit our Disclosure page
« Older Posts