I hope you all are enjoying all of the bounties that fall brings! I have been busy writing a few other fun places that I wanted to share with you for your reading pleasure.

• You may not realize that Goodwill experiences a dip in donations around this time of year, but it does! When summer winds down people often do not donate as much and this creates a shortage of product for Goodwill. That is why I think it is the perfect time of year to discuss cleaning out your garage and making room for your cars before the winter season approaches, while creating donations that will help Goodwill thrive during this time of year. I am making my third haul from our garage and basement this week and wanted to share how you can reclaim your garage over at the Goodwill Tips blog.
• Over at the Kenmore Genius Blog,  I am disclosing just how much of a cheap date that I am. About seven years ago, we stopped being able to run out and have dinner out whenever we wanted to. My husband lost his job and it got to a point where we just didn’t have the funds to enjoy a night out on the town. As I became more acquainted with the kitchen, though, we soon realized that dinners out lacked the pizazz that we could easily get at home. In my kitchen, the food was a bit better, the atmosphere was comfortable, and we could spend a whole heck of a lot less and get a whole heck of a lot more out of an evening. Find out how you can have a great date night in on a budget too with my easy and elegant recipes.
• Also at the Kenmore Genius Blog, we are discussing healthy snacking all school year long. Now that our family is finally into the groove of school, I am really trying to challenge myself to be more innovative with our snacking in our lunches and for after school. Be sure to snag these recipes and share your favorite smart snacking strategies.

I am participating in a fun Crockstar Confessions campaign with Walmart & Rival this month. Each day of the month, you can view a video blog and enter to win $2,500.  Be sure to join their Facebook Page to jump in on all the fun.

You can watch my video below to learn how to make my Slow Cooked Pumpkin Butter and hear my own confessions about slow cooking in my home!

This week on Kenmore, I am sharing a few of my favorite wedding gifts to give that are both budget-friendly and are gifts that will be long remembered.  I hope these ideas can add a little inspiration to your end-of-season shopping for just a few items to tuck in your gift closet for any weddings you might be attending. Head over to this post to chime in on your favorite gifts to give (or that you received).

Goodwill shopping is one of my favorite types of shopping to do, but I still don’t love to do it by paying full price. This week I am sharing over at the Goodwill Tips blog a few ideas for how you can save at your Goodwill store. Our store offers so many ways that you can save and I am sharing a few of my shopping strategies for getting the best bang for my buck! Chime in with your shopping strategies and way you save at your store!  (photo credit: lululemon athletica)

If there is one thing that I know how to do well it is to throw a great backyard barbecue. This month on Snackpicks I am sharing some quick and easy tips for succeeding at outdoor entertaining. You are going to love these ideas for keeping guests entertained, inexpensive ways to decorate your outdoor table, and how to make the clean-up process go smoothly.

This week we hit 7,000 fans on our MomAdvice Facebook Community page and I just wanted to say thank you all so much for joining in on the MomAdvice community. If you haven’t joined our page, you are missing out on some really fun discussions on frugality, simple living, recipe sharing, and library reading!  This week’s hot discussion was discussing what you were going to do about those Netflix subscriptions and what you do to keep your family entertained on a budget. Head on over to our page and give us a Like to grow and share more on simple living topics!

Not only was my content on the move this week, but I just returned from the Savvy Blogging Summit after delivering a Keynote and sharing our Brand-Blogger relations with the attendees.

To say that this experience was life-changing would be putting it mildly. I have carried around our story in my heart for almost eight years and for the first time I shared it with the attendees of what life experiences lead us to the website and how we were able to run this site as long as we have. I promise to share the audio recording of the Keynote when it becomes available. I was so proud to be there  and how gracious and attentive everyone was when I shared our story.

The Brand-Blogger relations panel turned out to be a fantastic opportunity to discuss rates, how to begin working with brands, and how to write authentically awesome content that is sure to land you a job or two. I hope to take that show on the road and hit a few other conferences with this discussion since the majority of our income comes from working with other brands and writing content/doing spokesperson work for them. Audio recordings will also be available soon for purchase and I will be sure to let you know when they are!

I made so many new friends at the SB Summit. Lifelong friends.  Everyone wanted to help everyone and there was not a moment of anyone not sharing their knowledge. We shared into the wee hours of the morning and I know I walked away with so much valuable information on how to continue to grow my own business. It is a conference I would recommend to a newbie blogger or a seasoned pro that has been doing it for years!

(photo credit: Short and Hat)