The Motherload Blog

Monthly Archives: September 2006

Monday WAHM Spotlight: Heritage Makers

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Name: Melinda Steadman

City/State: San Antonio, Tx

Name of Company: Heritage Makers

Two or Three Sentences About Your Company:

This is an online publishing company that lets customers create different books, brag books, photo journals, scrapbooks, etc all online and then hit publish and we send them a hardback library bound book in 2-3 weeks. This is a brand new company that not many people have heard of and our mission is to strengthen families by helping them save their memories forever.

Two Tips for Moms Trying to Work-At-Home (these tips can be how you stay organized, how to be successful, how to get started- anything that you feel would help someone just starting out):

My first tip is to find something that excites you, don’t sell a kitchen product if you don’t like to cook, look for the business that you want to buy from and run with it.

Tip number two: Stop when it ceases to be fun and make a schedule of work hours and stick to those hours.

**If you are interested in being featured, we will be selecting a mom for each Monday of my blog. You can read more and apply. Email confirmations are sent to each mom if they are chosen. Please remember to do your own research on these companies. If there are obvious red flags on BBB, I do not post them. Check my scam article to find out more about the potential dangers of work-at-home businesses.**

Freebie Friday: September 15, 2006

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This is a great week for freebies- I hope that you enjoy them as much as I enjoy sharing them with all of you. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Try two new Huggies Supreme Diapers. Click on the free sample link to the right. Currently available only in a Size 3 diaper. Please allow up to four weeks for delivery.

Fill out the short form to receive a free sample of Mocafe Coffee. Flavors are chosen randomly. Please allow four to six weeks for delivery and a limit of one sample per household.

Get your free sample of new Advanced Radiance Age-Defying Liquid Makeup from Cover Girl. Look for your sample in about six to eight weeks. You will receive one of their most popular shades- Buff Beige or Soft Honey.

Receive a free bottle of Booster Water Brand Premium Drinking Water.

Receive a free OxiClean Detergent Starter Kit (this is valued up to $6.99). Print out this coupon and take it to your local discount store to get this freebie. The coupon expires on 01/31/2007.

Try a free sample of Pledge Wipes. Please limit one sample per household and allow up to four weeks for delivery.

Get a free one-year subscription to Horse Illustrated by completing this form.

Register for a free subscription of TeacherEase. The first three teachers in a school to register receive a one year free subscription. Any teachers after the first three, receive three months for free. No credit card is required.

Get a free sample of Dove Body Lotion and receive a coupon good for one dollar off Dove Body Lotion when you buy one Dove Body Lotion.

Sign up to Maybelline to get your free sample of pure.makeup with your choice of shades. You will also receive a coupon for two dollars off any pure.product or Maybelline New York foundation, powder, concealer or brush. Will receive this freebie within four weeks of ordering. Offer is limited only to the US and one free sample per household.

ABC & iTunes are giving away one million free downloads of last season’s finales of Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and Lost. They are also offering unlimited free downloads of special highlight shows for each of the three series, featuring commentary from show producers and the expert editors of People Magazine & Entertainment Weekly. Once they hit the one million download mark, the finales will no longer be available.

Fill out the form to receive a free sample of Kotex Ultra-Compact ultra thin pads. Limit one sample per household and allow up to four weeks for delivery.

Receive six free issues of MacWorld Magazine (for Apple customers only).

Claim your free subscription to Tips & Tricks magazine (this magazine is full of video game tips for every system through expert strategy guides that are easy to understand and follow). The survey is long, but you can click through quickly by saying “No” and “No, thank you” to all offers.

Get a one-year subscription to Premiere Magazine (gives you behind the scenes looks at the stars & creators of today’s top films by focusing on the art & commerce of the film industry). This survey is also long, but you can click through quickly by saying “No” and “No, thank you” to all offers.

Sign up for the monthly Orville Redenbacher’s newsletter and receive fun family activities, promotional offers, and news from Orville. You will also receive a Blockbuster coupon good for one free movie rental (it is a buy-one-get-one-free coupon). This offer expires on September 30, 2006.

If you are a DirectTV customer, you have a Starz Free Preview weekend (for Family Choice, Total Choice, & Total Choice Plus packages) this weekend from September 14-17. Lots of good family films (and date night movies!) are available. If you have a DVR, it is time to put it to good use!

Past Freebie Offers:

Last Week’s Samples

2 Weeks Ago (note: the Crest offer has expired!)

3 Weeks Ago (note: be sure to print out those FREE MUSEUM PASSES! They are good for a one time use on September 30th!! Just wanted to remind everyone since that is a really great freebie.)

WFMW: Easy Carrying & Storing

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Good morning and welcome to this week’s edition of Works For Me Wednesday where hundreds of mommies share solutions for their families. Be sure to stop by Miss Shannon’s blog to read all of the entries!

I do a lot of cooking for other families because that is how I feel like I can help in crisis situations and to show my appreciation to people. Since I take meals all over, I have gotten the whole process down to a science. Because balancing and carrying items was hard, I did finally invest in a serving tray that I could carry everything on, but I had a creative solution before which worked for a long time. This solution works really well, in particular, for those flimsy aluminum pans. Just invert a lid of a 9×13″ pan and rest your dish into that. I used the edges of it as a handle for carrying the dish and it made it easy to put it in the car.

This also works really well for stacking casseroles (until they become frozen or until you remember you put it in there) when you are freezing multiple dishes.

I also find, when I am running meals, usually the space in my fridge is limited. I just use my cooling racks and stack using those. I can usually get two or three stacks going, which saves on space.

Past WFMW Entries:

Find Just What You Are Looking For
Target Pharmacy
Say No to Hand Cramps
Foamy Soap
Adventures in Shipping
Frugal Exercise Solutions
Microfiber Obsessions
Sand Between Your Toes Blues
Giving the Gift of Magazines (Frugally)
Solution for Cheap Trash Bags
Programming Your Cell Phone
Free Up Pantry Space: Make a Snack
Weeding Through Your Child’s Art Work Creatively
Using the Coffee Maker With Ease
Making Your Spice Rack Usable
Maximizing Space

Monday WAHM Spotlight: Daydream River Gifts

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Name: Kristy Pruitt

City/State: Jefferson NC

Name of Company: Daydream River Gifts

Two or Three Sentences About Your Company:

Daydream River Gifts offers home decor, gifts and much more. New products are added frequently.

Two Tips for Moms Trying to Work-At-Home (these tips can be how you stay organized, how to be successful, how to get started- anything that you feel would help someone just starting out):

1. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

2. To do lists are a must if you want to get anything done!

**If you are interested in being featured, we will be selecting a mom for each Monday of my blog. You can read more and apply. Email confirmations are sent to each mom if they are chosen. Please remember to do your own research on these companies. If there are obvious red flags on BBB, I do not post them. Check my scam article to find out more about the potential dangers of work-at-home businesses.**

Cloth Diapering 101

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Just wanted to let everyone know that I have written a new article on cloth diapering. If you have ever entertained the idea of cloth diapering or are just wondering what it is all about, please visit our Cloth Diapering 101 article. To someone who has already taken the cloth diapering challenge, it will be old news to you, but to someone just starting out…I am hoping it is a goldmine of information.

Feel free to sound off in our comments section on cloth diapering. What is your favorite kind of cloth diaper? Where have you gotten the best deals? (No advertisements please- just personal experiences!)

If you are a cloth diapering distributor and would like to be listed in our Cloth Diapering Resources links, please send a $15 PayPal payment to advertise@momadvice.com with a name & link to your company. We would be happy to include you as a resource for the moms who visit our site!

Freebie Friday: More Free Samples

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Here are your freebies for the week!

One free sample of Sensodyne toothpaste. Please allow up to four weeks for delivery.

Complete a few questions and receive a one year free subscription to Family Fun Magazine from Sylvan and the Sylvan Successful Student Online newsletter.

Cut your cleaning time in half! Enjoy a free copy of Laura Dellutri’s latest book, “Speed Cleaning 101.” Simply complete the form to receive your copy, courtesy of Frigidaire and Lowe’s.

Receive a free sample issue of Home School Enrichment Magazine. Limit one sample per family.

September 18-22nd is National Recess Week. This is a part of Cartoon Network’s Rescuing Recess campaign to keep recess a part of the school day. Register to receive a free recess kit and participate in the recess campaign (might want to send this to a fellow teacher in your life!) The kit includes a recess game poster, red playground ball, sidewalk chalk, rescuing recess tattoos, jump ropes, recess whistle, recess monitor buttons, recess rally flyer template, and volunteer recess monitor certificate template.

Receive a free cocktail shaker from Kahlua, just for registering.

Register for a free sample of Playtex Sport. Please allow four to six weeks for delivery.

Receive a free sample of the Healing Garden Skin Organic Moisture Lotion. Please allow four to six weeks for delivery.

One Club for Games & Movies

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Here is my secret confession… I love to play video games with my husband. My love for this started when we were in college at Purdue University. We would go bowling and they had an arcade next to the bowling alley. My husband thought it would be fun to challenge me in a game of Tekken. I ended up beating him in the game and then beat the arcade game itself. I had a crowd of guys surrounding me, whispering in awe that they couldn’t believe how good I was. They all became witness to my gaming glory days. Many of our date nights consisted of playing a video game and just spending time together.

Now that we are supposedly “grown-ups,” we haven’t gotten a chance to share our hobby as much as we used to. A few weeks ago though, we did get an opportunity to do this when our kids were enjoying an evening at grandma and grandpa’s house. We picked up a game and two movies from Blockbuster for the evening. I pulled a ten out and the total bill came to sixteen dollars! I had that cold sweaty feeling (only a truly frugal person can relate to this) and felt a little sick as I handed over my debit card. I figured that I would be able to make the correction once I had a glance at the receipt, but no such luck. The cost to rent a game at Blockbuster is a whopping eight dollars. I was pretty upset that we had spent that much and it took a lot of reassuring from my husband to convince me to let it go and enjoy the evening. He kept pointing out that we hadn’t been able to do this since college and to try and not let it ruin our night.

To make a long story short, we rent a lot of movies. I do try and get them from the library, but the ones that I really want aren’t there and it is usually after library hours when I want to pick one up. We decided to try out a movie club. We originally signed up with a two week trial using Blockbuster. I loved that you got the movies and two coupons for in-store rentals. I thought this would be perfect because we could rent two video games and movies for ten bucks a month. When I went to cash in my coupons, however, I discovered that Blockbuster would only let me use the coupons for movie…not for games, as I had intended to use my membership. I sent a note of complaint and cancelled our subscription. I do know that if you buy the higher plans, that you can use the coupons for both games & movie rentals. I did not want to spend more than this and was disappointed with how slow their service was (only received one movie after sending it back the next day during the entire two weeks).

I decided to do some research to see if I could find a plan that would fit our needs a little better. I ran across a great company called GamezNFlix.com and I decided to give this company a shot. They had a great plan where we could get any game or movie, two out at a time (unlimited) for $12.99 per month. We decided to give it a shot this month and have been extremely pleased with how timely the movies have come to us and the selection that they offer.

If you are looking for something like this, I highly recommend this company. If you use the provided link, I do get credit for a referral, but promise that I wouldn’t refer you to something I wasn’t proud of.

If you have had an experience (either positive or negative) with a movie club company, please share away by clicking on the comments button.

Comparing Gas Prices Made Easier

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In one of my past blog entries, I talked a little bit about GasBuddy and how this program allows people to share low gas prices that they spot in their local areas. I have used this a few times, but found it difficult to find the best price close to me. At times, I would go to the gas stations, only to find out that the price was inaccurate. Then I later blogged a bit about ways you can keep your gas consumption down. This is something that I am still trying to do.

Now I want to share with you another great site for comparing prices on gas. Leave it to MSN to come up with a better way of tracking gas prices! According to MSN Auto, they check every night and analyze prices from over 90,000 gas stations and you can search in your local area for the cheapest gas.

On their homepage, they have listed where the cheapest gas is (today it is Morehead, KY at $2.04! Lucky!) and the highest price for gas (listed today is Kanukakai, HI at $3.93 per gallon- ouch!)

I typed in my zip code and found a close gas station that is selling their gas for $2.59 a gallon, which is a steal these days!

In our area, $2.59 is the lowest, $2.69 is the highest, and the average price per gallon is $2.64.

Check this site out for the best prices in your area and feel free to sound off, in our comments section, how much you are paying for gas & how you save money.

Monday WAHM Spotlight: My Plush Friend

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Name: Kelly Dash

City/State: Orangeville, Ontario

Name of Company: My Plush Friend – an independent rep for Bears N Buddies AND Stuff A Friend.

Two or Three Sentences About Your Company:

Stuff your own animals at home! There is no better reward than seeing the joy in childrens faces when you have them make their own special friend!

Two Tips for Moms Trying to Work-At-Home (these tips can be how you stay organized, how to be successful, how to get started- anything that you feel would help someone just starting out):

Definitely make time for YOUR business! At least twice a week I have my husband take the kids out (or occupy them at home) for me to completely devote time to my business. As for staying organized – don’t try to do too much at one time! If you are working on promotion – do one thing at a time…. working on preparation, same thing! As soon as you try to multi task too much, you are asking for trouble!

**If you are interested in being featured, we will be selecting a mom for each Monday of my blog. You can read more and apply. Email confirmations are sent to each mom if they are chosen. Please remember to do your own research on these companies. If there are obvious red flags on BBB, I do not post them. Check my scam article to find out more about the potential dangers of work-at-home businesses.**

Freebie Friday: Free Samples

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Fill in the form to receive a 12-count sample pack of Baby Wipes from Playtex®. Playtex® Baby Magic® Baby Wipes are formulated with the special Baby Magic® Bath cleansing formula, which cleans thoroughly after every diaper change. You should receive your baby wipes in six to eight weeks.

Receive a free sample of Amazing Goop. Just click the skip button (if you don’t want to take their quiz) and it will redirect you to the form. Please allow six to eight weeks for delivery.

Free Disney Vacation Secrets Revealed DVD. You can view the movie online or request a copy of it (which should arrive in ten to fourteen days).

Free sample of Herbal Essence shampoo in Hello Hydration or Body Envy. Please allow six to eight weeks for delivery.

Free full size Crest Pro-Health toothpaste from Procter & Gamble. Limit one sample per household.

Fill out this form to receive a coupon good for a free BD Logic Blood Glucose Monitor.

If you place an online order with Albertson’s Grocery, they will give you a ten percent discount or a free pizza. Visit their site for more information.

Receive a free Kashi Chew Trail Granola Bar. Expect to receive this freebie in four to six weeks.