Apron Full of Giveaways 03.31.09

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Amy

Welcome to the Apron Full of Giveaways where you can find all the best of the best in the giveaway world in one place.

This week we will be wrapping up our Quantum of Solace DVD giveaway. If you have not entered, please be sure to put your entry in by tonight at 8PM. We are taking a week off from giveaways to catch up on gathering all of our winners from the past two contests, but we will be back in full swing next week. In the meantime, be sure to enter the other great giveaways here!

Follow the links below to find out how to enter to win these fabulous giveaways!

Below are the contest links-if you are hosting a contest please link it up below. Sorry, we aren’t giving away the aprons just showcasing them! Please put your site name and then what type of contest you are hosting. For example, “MomAdvice (Children’s Movies).”

Please let me know if you have any questions and good luck to each of you!

(Photo Credit: fernfiddlehead)

At-Home Hair Coloring Savings

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Amy

I have been coloring my hair at home for years now, but only in the last year has it started to become more necessary. I will peek at my hair in the mirror or my hair will catch the light in the sun and I see those wiry gray hairs coming through. Ah, the signs of old age are upon me.

Hair color in the box has come a long way though and I have experimented with different brands and products that have come out when I have a coupon to go with them.

I have found though that I rarely have to pay for the regular price on my hair color though and let me share why:

1. Hair color is always on sale. If you look in CVS or the Walgreens flier, you will find that on almost any given week, they are running a special on hair color. Walgreens & CVS often will either give you a rebate on these products or some type of register reward. Wait for the sales on your favorite brands and try to stock up in conjunction with these.

2. Hair color coupons abound. Make sure to check your Sunday coupon inserts for coupons and cut these out to apply towards your purchase. If you can combine those coupons with a rebate/Extra Care Buck reward, you can often get your hair color for less than $5 a box.

3. Sign up for mailing lists. Sign up for the mailing lists for coupons and tips on coloring your hair. Clairol, for example, offers the Color Source Club where they send an email newsletter out with coupon savings towards your purchases and updates on their new products. By visiting the Garnier website, you will find they offer a newsletter with updates on free samples and special offers. Likewise, Revlon offers a website where you can sign up for a similar type of program and be notified of savings and samples.

4. Look inside & outside the box for savings. Often on the directions page, there is a coupon to take off money on your next purchase. Make sure to scan all over the outside and inside of the box for coupons and use these on your next color purchase.

5. Don’t forget savings in unlikely places. One week my hair color was not on sale and I was not stocked on any extra boxes. Our local Bed Bath & Beyond though recently added a beauty section that is fully stocked on all of my drugstore needs. I walked in with a manufacturer coupon and combined that with the 20% off a purchase coupon and was still able to score my favorite hair color for about $5.00. I don’t know if all of the stores offer this, but this is another option for coupon savings.

6. Check eBay for coupons. Coupons abound for the products that you use and it is a great resource for savings on the things you use most. When my children were babies, I often used eBay to get coupons for savings off our baby food. Now that they are getting older, I am now looking for hair color coupons. My, how the circle of life continues!

I recently happened upon a product though that has had me shouting it’s praises from the mountain tops and I doubt I will use anything else since I have become so spoiled. It is the Clairol Perfect 10 Hair Color.

I had a coupon for this product and since I have used it, I can never picture using anything else ever again. There are two reasons why I love it.

1. The applicator makes it a lot less messy. I am one of those people that is a constant disaster and I can’t tell you how many things I have ruined while trying to get hair color on my head. It almost became a joke because every time I would color my hair, we would have to buy a new shower curtain because I had slopped color on it.

2. It is done in ten minutes. That is it. By the time I get it on, it is time to rinse it off. It colors my hair that quickly.

It is not the most frugal choice always, but regularly priced at $12.99, it is still a huge cost-savings over the $50-100 charge that is being charged at most salons. If you can apply the cost-savings above, you can still get this hair color for the $5-8 price.

Too scared to color your hair at home? Don’t be! It is really hard to fail at at-home hair coloring unless you are trying to color your hair drastically. If the look is drastic, go to the salon and have them do it, but for just covering a few grays, it can be easy to do at home.

What if you fail or you get a bad color job at the salon? I have found the best product for you for that too!
I once had a botched color job at the salon and I was desperate to tone down my bright hair. I found this great product that you can buy at Walgreens called Color Oops. Within five to ten minutes of putting this on your hair, it will tone down your color. If you leave it on too long though, it will strip your hair down to your baby hair. I would be very careful using a product like this, but desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures and this will work in a pinch.

Your best bet if you get a botched job at the salon? Going back to the salon and asking them to put a little toner on it. They should do this for free for you and guarantee their color services so make sure you ask this before getting your hair done somewhere how long their color-guarantee is.

Don’t forget that no matter where you choose to color you hair, that the most important thing to do to maintain it is to use color-safe shampoos afterward. The same tips for savings on hair color apply to those hair color shampoos too. It has been a long time since I have paid full price for any hair care items by taking advantage of coupons and savings at the drugstore. If you are looking for an affordable brand option, Suave corners the market on inexpensive hair products. They have an arsenal of hair products that won’t put a dent in your wallet. For example, Nexxus shampoo would cost roughly $8.79 for 14.5 ounces. Suave makes a knock off of this same shampoo for $1.92-2.49 for 14.5 ounces. Combine that with a coupon, and you have practically free shampoo that will keep your hair looking great!

I hope these at-home hair color tips will help keep your lovely locks looking great for a lot less!

(Photo Source: Compact Collection)

Redbox Code 03.30.09

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Amy

Today’s free Redbox code is 89ZQJ3. This code can be used all day until midnight at any Redbox location.

You can’t beat a free movie rental so schedule some fun family nights and check out what Family Films are available.

Side Notes:

- If you want to rent more than one movie for free, bring more than one credit/debit card. You can use the same promotional code, you just will need different cards to charge it to. The charge will be zero as long as you return your movie on time for the next day.

- When entering in your free movie code, you need to enter it FIRST before picking the movie. On the very first screen, click the, “Rent with Promo.” Enter in the above code and then make your selection- the amount should then total zero.. This code can be used all day until midnight at any Redbox location.

Deliciously Light Banana Oat Bread

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Amy

When I feel like I have mastered a recipe, I often don’t go back and take a look at new recipes for that particular dish. After all, if you are making the best there is, why would you ever explore anything new? That is how I felt about my banana bread recipe. It was the perfect recipe and it has never failed me. It is not the most figure-friendly though and so when I ran across this recipe from Cooking Light, I knew I would have to try it. I modified the recipe to our taste and what we had in our cupboard and what came from that little experimentation resulted in this perfectly perfect absolutely amazing banana bread recipe that will be replacing my old version.

Despite using rolled oats, there is no weird texture to the bread, even without any soaking of the oats. The sprinkle of oats on top add just a little bit of chewiness and the bread is moist, but still light-tasting.

My husband likened it to a delicious oatmeal cookie and I was impressed with how clean it came out of the pans, how easy it was to cut, and the beauty of the light golden color with the dusting of oats on top.

The original recipe called for white sugar and had no spices. I substituted the white sugar with brown sugar and added cinnamon. I had half-and-half in my refrigerator and added 2 teaspoons of vinegar to it to replace the buttermilk.

Did I mention this recipe is also very frugal? No butter in the recipe and very little fat, bananas that were going to make their way into a trash can, and cheap generic oatmeal! And yet, despite all of those factors, it would make an amazing little gift packaged for a special person in your life!

The recipe that is written below is my adaptation of this bread and I hope you will enjoy it half as much as our family has!

Deliciously Light Banana Oat Bread

1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup mashed banana (approximately 2 1/2 per loaf)
1/3 cup buttermilk (I substituted with half & half with 2 tsp of vinegar to sour)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Combine dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Combine banana, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and eggs in a small bowl or measuring cup. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon batter into the prepared pan and bake for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack, in the pan, for about 15 minutes (I left mine in longer and it was fine). Remove the bread from the pan after 15 minutes and cool thoroughly on the rack.

Family Night Activity: Earth Hour

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Amy

Earth Hour 2009 is upon us and I wanted to encourage you all to enjoy a family night celebrating Earth Hour. Earth Hour is March 28th from 8:30 PM-9:30 PM this Saturday.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote.

Our family celebrated Earth Hour last year and my son still talks about it. It was definitely one of our favorite family nights ever and a great way to share about caring for the earth.

I had been looking forward to Earth Hour all week and sharing this experience with my family. We talked to Ethan about why we were celebrating Earth Hour and how much fun we were going to have. Since Earth Hour was between 8-9 PM last year, it was a special treat for the kids to stay up late and spend the hour with us.

The kids took a bath by candlelight, which they thought was a super fun treat! We filled the tub with lots of bubbles and threw in a couple of whisks and spoons from the kitchen. They whisked up bubbles to their hearts delight and sang fun songs by candlelight.

Ethan thought he looked pretty cool in front of the candles so he took some time out of his busy schedule to pose!

After our baths, we enjoyed a yummy snack while Ryan & I made shadow puppets on the wall for the kids. They thought these were hilarious and super cool!

Ethan had so much fun, he asked if we could celebrate Earth Hour every day! This gave me an opportunity to share with him easy ways he could celebrate AND save the earth. We talked about doing our recycling, turning the lights off when we aren’t in a room, and not being wasteful. Since this family night was such a hit, I hope we can do it with the kids again. Not only did the kids have a blast, but it was super frugal, while being extremely memorable for all of us!

Freebie Friday: March 27, 2009

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Amy

Another big round of thanks to Heather, from Freebies 4 Mom, for helping us this week with our Freebie Friday list. Heather has a great new list of fresh grocery coupons to help save on your grocery bill this week. She also has highlighted a great list of sweepstakes where the odds are good that you could win a coveted prize. Thanks, Heather!

Don’t forget to visit the Apron Full of Giveaways for over a hundred great contests on the web where you could get lucky once again!

Health & Beauty

Old Spice Body Wash (Walmart)
Dove Hair Therapy
Roots of Nature Haircare (Walmart)
Zyrtec (Walmart)
Being Girl Tampax & Always (for teens)
Origins (when you recycle)
Eucerin Plus Soothing Essentials (Walmart)

Food

Juicy Juice Shining Moments House Party
All-Bran Pink Lemonade Fiber Drink Mix (Walmart)
Bruster’s Free Baby Cone (for children under 40″)

Entertainment

Storyline Online (children’s books read by actors)
Seventeen Magazine 6 issues (StartSampling)
Ioda SXSW Opening Day Bash Sampler (11 free song downloads at Amazon)
Grey Gardens Advanced Movie Screening (select cities only)
Canon Try My Photo
Interview Magazine (1 Year)

Home & Garden

Cottonelle Toilet Paper & Wipes (Walmart)
Gain (Sam’s Club)
Chore Wars (try the free version)

Upcoming Freebie Events:
Please call your local store or restaurant to confirm they are participating in these freebie events.

MARCH

28 – Lowe’s Build and Grow Clinic – Yard Mobile 10 to 11am
28 – Lakeshore Crafts for Kids – Royal Crowns 11 am to 3 pm

APRIL
4 – The Home Depot Kids Workshop - Make a window birdhouse 9 to Noon
4 – Michaels The Knack – 3D Monsters vs Aliens crafts for kids 5-12 from 10 to 2pm
4&5 – Museums on Us – Free admission for Bank of America account holders
6 – Seattle’s Best Coffee (and Borders) – free small coffee
7 – Seattle’s Best Coffee (and Borders) – free medium coffee for all 39-year-olds
11 – Lowe’s Build and Grow Clinic – Birdhouse 10 to 11am
15 – Taco Del Mar Free Taco
15 – MaggieMoo’s Free Single Scoop of Ice Cream
18 – Michaels The Knack – Spring Critters for kids 5-12 from 10 to 1pm
23 – Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day
26 – National Pretzel Day – free pretzels at Pretzelmaker and Pretzel Time

Simplifying Home Organization Resource List

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Amy

A big thank you again to Stephanie Vozza, from The Organized Parent, for joining us today for our show. I hope you got a lot out of it and we can’t wait to bring more great guests to you on our show!

Here is the resource list from today’s podcast:

The Organized Parent- Be sure to check out Stephanie’s website for oodles of smart & stylish organizing tools for moms. Stephanie said her top seller is this chic File Tote that was featured in Family Circle Magazine.

Wuduplz- This is text messaging service that Stephanie uses to get her older child motivated to help. You can text your children and let them know what you need assistance with around the house. Now that is a brilliant way to send a chore list!

Organize Your Week- This was one of the original articles I wrote when we began the website five years ago. Although I have tried other methods of organizing my week, I always fall back on this great plan and I definitely recommend trying this in your house!

Free Weekly Planner Download- Be sure to visit our Resources section for your printable needs. In addition to our great Weekly Planner Download (filled with loads of room for all your most important engagements), you will also find a great Menu Planning Sheet that would be a lovely addition to your fridge!

20 Tips for Finding Your Routine With Kids- I had to highlight Tsh’s excellent article this week, on Simple Mom, because it falls in step perfectly with finding organization in your week. Be sure to read this article to give you more great ideas for establishing a good routine!

On next week’s show…

Next week on MomAdvice Simplified we will be discussing how to simply capture great photos! I am so excited to be joined by photographer extraordinaire, Mishelle Lane, who blogs at Secret Agent Mama. I had the great pleasure of meeting Mishelle at Blissdom ’09 and couldn’t wait to have her on our show as a guest.

Mishelle will be sharing her tips for purchasing the right photography equipment, some ideas for capturing our busy children, and how to get out of the manual mode on our cameras.

This episode will air next Thursday (April 2nd) at 2PM EST.

MomAdvice Simplified: Simplifying Home Organization

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Amy

This week on MomAdvice Simplified, my weekly podcast for moms, we will be joined by Stephanie Vozza, the Founder of The Organized Parent and organizational expert, and she will be giving us simple and affordable techniques and tools that moms can used to stay organized in our home.

Stephanie knows that most mothers have been in the workplace (or still are) before their “mom lives” began. She also recognizes that in corporate and home offices, there are tools and standard practices to structure a workday. But when it comes to organizing your personal life, it’s every mom for herself!

Stephanie is going to guide us in this journey towards getting our mom lives as organized as our corporate lives were. That podcast will be airing today at 2PM EST so if you are looking to get your life organized again, be sure to tune in for that episode.

Just for our listeners, we will be giving away a product from The Organized Parent to one lucky caller. Please tune in for this fun and exclusive giveaway!

Notebook Experiment: Can I Make a Delicious Oatmeal Cookie?

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Amy

Experiment: Can I make a delicious oatmeal cookie that the kids will love?

Experiment Taken From: Notebook Entry 02.05.09

Materials Needed: Please see don’t call me becky for specific directions on how to make these Oatmeal Jumbo Cookies. I was able to find a package of pretty pink M&M;’s that support breast cancer awareness at our local Aldi. I also added peanuts for the nuts in the cookie, as was recommended by this blog entry.

Results: I really stink at making cookies. For some reason, no matter what I do, they always end up turning out horribly. Ask me to make you an amazing four course dinner though, and I will shine like a superstar. I guess you could say that Rachael Ray & I are very similar as I recognize that I am not a very good baker.

I decided to make the jumbo version of this cookie and it failed miserably. It got crunchy on the outside but never set up firmly in the center. The second batch was done by the teaspoonful and turned out pretty perfect except for the flat as a pancake look, even after refrigerating my dough. One peek at the expiration date on my baking powder made me realize that it might not be my cooking skills that are lacking, but instead the leavening agent was a little flat.

Regardless of this small detail, these cookies are absolutely delicious! They have no flour in them, but loads of oats, peanuts, peanut butter, and a little chocolate to satisfy your sweet tooth. These cookies were excellent and I can’t wait to try making them again with a fresh batch of baking powder.

If you are ever in a pinch though, I did find a great substitution for baking powder. You can substitute 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar plus 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch to substitute for your baking powder.

Conclusion: These cookies will make a fun lunch box treat for the family and I love the flavor combination of the chocolate and the peanut butter! I hope you can give these a try the next time you need to satisfy your sweet tooth!
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I am so excited to open our Notebook Experiments up to everyone and I hope that you will be able to participate this week or in weeks to come! I will be posting this each Wednesday so please mark your calendars if you plan to participate. You can post your entries at any time throughout the week and then leave your entry in the links below.

We have this handy banner that you are more than welcome to use, but it is not a requirement! It is just something you can add to add a little sparkle to your entry.

Rules for Participation:

1. Choose anything from any of our notebook entries (past or present) to do with your family. We have hundreds of bookmarked links of crafts, ways to save money, and organizing ideas.
2. Complete an experiment from the notebook and share about it on your blog or website. We would love to see pictures of what you accomplished or a detailed description of how your projects turned out. Please include a link to this entry, a link to the original posting of the entry (at the original craftster’s blog), and (to help us relocate the project) the date or link of the notebook entry where you found it. You can use the same formatting as our entries or you can just include that information in your post in your own unique way!
3. Post a link below. Please include your name or blog name & a fast description of your project. Example- MomAdvice (WHO bread)

I can’t wait to see what you create and what you find inspiring!