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Freebie Friday: November 12, 2010

Friday, November 12th, 2010

I have been busy preparing for the holidays and have a few great posts to help you get ready too! This week I am sharing easy make-ahead dishes for Thanksgiving that you can start preparing this weekend for your feast, a round-up of easy & trendy gifts to knit this holiday season, and our list of DIY crafts & food just perfect for the holidays. To get your home in order for the holidays we are giving away a Bissell Steam & Sweep to add a little sparkle to those hard floors! We also have over a hundred giveaways from other bloggers that you should definitely check out!

I am off to get those Thanksgiving dishes prepared this weekend and hope you have fun browsing the site and our freebie list!

Health & Beauty
Redken Time Reset (Facebook)
Hugo Boss Orange
Aveda Birthday Program

Food
Go Red for Women Light & Easy Recipes

Home
NASA Send your name to Mars
Sesame Street Math is Everywhere Kit
Barnes & Noble Online Storytime “The Mitten” by Jan Brett
Barnes & Noble Kids’ Club
Athenos Feel Good House Party

This Week’s Freebie Events:

NOVEMBER 12 – 18

12 – McCormick & Schmick’s: Free Entree for Veterans Appreciation make a reservation at participating restaurants.

13 – Lowes Build and Grow Clinic make a periscope 10-11am.

13 – Borders Kids: Build-A-Bear Workshop Party! Story time, games, crafts, and a special offer from Build-A-Bear at 11am

15 – Golden Corral Military Appreciation Day receive a FREE “Thank you” dinner.

16 – Jack in the Box 2 free tacos after 2 pm (no purchase necessary)

Tags: Freebies
Posted in Freebies | 4 Comments »

An Apron Full of Giveaways: Bissell Steam & Sweep

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

Mauby’s, $37

Welcome to our Apron Full of Giveaways! I hope everyone is having a great week this week! As we do each week, here is our round-up of giveaways for our readers. We hope that this is beneficial to you and your family! Please let us know if you guys win anything- I love to hear the success stories!

This week I am giving away a Bissell Steam & Sweep Hard Floor Cleaner (valued at $157) to one of our lucky readers! This Bissell Steam & Sweep clears hard floors of dry debris and steam cleans all in one pass. Now you can thoroughly clean your hard floors while saving time. It simply uses the natural power of steam for a total one-step, time saving complete clean. It would make a wonderful holiday gift for any mom, and we can’t wait to share this with one lucky reader of our site. Follow the link below to enter the contest. PLEASE NO ENTRIES HERE!

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!

Tags: Giveaways
Posted in Giveaways | 6 Comments »

Freebie Friday: November 5, 2010

Friday, November 5th, 2010

As always, I am sharing lots of wonderful things on MomAdvice that I think will make your life easier & more beautiful! This week we have a weeknight chicken noodle soup to tempt your tummy, four new books to add to your library wish list, a notebook of fun DIY crafts & food ideas, and cinnamon bun pancakes that are to die for! Looking for giveaways? We always round-up the best giveaways here each week so be sure to check them out!

New this month, I am offering tips for Easy Thanksgiving Entertaining Ideas on the Snackpicks site! Be sure to check out the fun recipes for stuffing and a snack mix to keep the little ones quiet while you are working hard to get that turkey on the table. Many more great tips for Thanksgiving planning will be in store this coming week!

You can also find me sharing a few ideas for frugal ways to give back to your community on Kenmore and my ideas for flying like you are first class when you are actually seated in economy over at SuiteTrip.

Well, that is all I can come up with for this week, but check back next week for even more great tips! Did I mention how lucky I am to have you all for readers? Well, I should! Thank you all!

Health & Beauty
Donate to WomenHeart for Free
Schiff MegaRed

Food
Extra Dessert Delights Gum (on Facebook)
Folgers Coffee (on Facebook)
Gift of Goodness Holiday Recipe brochure

Home
2011 Pillsbury Calendar
2011 Betty Crocker Calendar
Tom’s of Maine Wicked Fresh toothpaste
Renuzit Adjustable Cone (on Facebook)

Pet
Purina One Dog or Cat Food

This Week’s Freebie Events:

NOVEMBER 5 – 11

6 – Home Depot Kids Workshops build a Spice Rack 9am-12pm

6 – Toys R Us “Ultimate Kickoff to Christmas!” 12pm-3pm

10-12 – Sam’s Club: FREE Hugo Canes for Veterans

10 – Free Military Bed & Breakfast Stay to observe Veterans Day

11 – Applebees: Free Entree for Veterans Day

11 – National Parks Free Entrance Day

Tags: Freebies
Posted in Freebies | 3 Comments »

An Apron Full of Giveaways 11.02.10

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

4RetroSisters, $32

I hope everyone is having a great week this week! As we do each week, here is our round-up of giveaways for our readers! We hope that this is beneficial to you and your family! Please let us know if you guys win anything- I love to hear the success stories!

This week I am taking a week off form hosting a giveaway so I can gather all of our winner information from our past three Better Homes & Gardens Pots & Pans sets. We would like to congratulate Becky, Kristina, Karen, Sarah, Laura, Erin, Jessica, Jeanine, & Jill on winning these sets of cookware. What an adventure and fun set of giveaways that was. Thank you all so much for your participation & votes. We hope to offer many more in the future!

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

Tags: Giveaways
Posted in Giveaways | 6 Comments »

Freebie Friday: October 29, 2010

Friday, October 29th, 2010

Happy Freebie Friday, everyone! We are so lucky to have Freebies 4 Mom share their list of the best freebies of the week with our readers each and every Friday. Please visit her site for fabulous freebies and sweepstakes information every single day! Heather is running a TON of great giveaways this week so feel free to head over there to enter to win some fabulous prizes! I have my eye on this $100 holiday card gift certificate for myself!

This week on MomAdvice you will find a delicious recipe for a frugal meal of lentil soup and homemade whole wheat bread, our round-up of great giveaways (including our own three pots & pans giveaways that end on Sunday), & a notebook full of crafts & DIY projects for the autumn season.

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Halloween!

Health & Beauty
NasaFlow Neti Pot (on Facebook)
Sinus Rinse (on Facebook)
Tom’s of Maine Toothpaste
NasalCease
Playtex Sport (on Facebook)
Dove Clinical deodorant (BJ’s members)

Food
Thomas Coffee
Food Should Taste Good Crackers (on Facebook)

Home
2011 Oriental Trading Calendar
Komen $1 Donation by Breast Pumps Direct (on Facebook)

This Week’s Freebie Events:

OCTOBER 29 – NOVEMBER 4

29 – Bass Pro Free Halloween Events: Make a “Peanuts” Trick-or-Treat Bag 4-6pm

30 – Disney Store: Toy Story 3 Storytime! starting at 11am and 12:30pm

30 & 31 – Bass Pro Free Halloween Events: Make a Pumpkin Birdhouse 2-4pm

30 – Toys R Us Halloween Celebration 12pm-3pm

Free Cookies During National 2010 National Book Drive (Great American Cookies)

Free Financial Planning Days in October

Target Free Arts & Cultural Events

Nov. 1 – Redbox Free Movie Monday when you subscribe to text alert

Nov. 2 – Lego Store Mini Model: build a Thanksgiving Turkey starting at 5pm.

Tags: Freebies
Posted in Freebies | 4 Comments »

An Apron Full of Giveaways: BHG Pots & Pans Giveaways Conclude (10 Winners)

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

I just wanted to personally thank each of you for all of your votes and participation in the Better Homes & Gardens Cook-Off that I got to be a part of. I returned from Des Moines on Friday and have to say it has been one of the most enjoyable trips I have ever been on. It is rare to go on a trip like that and have oodles of time to lounge in my hotel room, catch up on work, and eat all day long, but that is exactly what I did. Oh, and there was a little cooking too involved too, but no one whining for food… it was lovely!

The judges and the whole team were so gracious and appreciative of our cooking. They said if they had to choose just one winner that they would have had a hard time because everyone offered such unique and delicious dishes. I have to say that I was drooling over everyone’s dish.

I, of course, brought out my most competitive spirit by baking and making an extra batch of everything I made so I could make sure that all of the contestants had full bellies while they worked hard to prepare their dishes. What can I say? I would not last a day in a reality series!

I would highly recommend visiting all of the contestant’s site! Dan from Consumer Queen/King, Jenny from Picky Palate, , Kate and Sara from Our Best Bites, Aly from She Knows were some of the coolest people I have had the pleasure of hanging out with. I felt privileged to be among such great company and we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly!

All of the cookware giveaways close on Sunday at 8PM EST. I am offering FOUR lucky winners 10 piece Non-Stick Porcelain Enamel Pots & Pans sets. Each set is valued at $159 each and is just another example of the great cookware that Better Homes & Gardens is offering at Walmart right now! This beautiful set can be purchased in both the red color or black. Entries will be taken through 10/31 and remember that you can vote daily for me to gain extra entries into the contest.

As a reminder, don’t forget that we have two other giveaways of cookware also running. We are giving away 3 sets of the 10-piece Stainless Steel Tri-Ply Clad Pots & Pans set (each set is valued at $159) to three lucky readers. This is just the beginning of the giveaways we will be offering over the next couple of weeks so please check back each Tuesday for a new giveaway. Better yet, by participating I will have more giveaways to offer you when the cook-off concludes.

Our giveaway is also running for the 3 sets of the 13-piece Non-Stick Hard-Anodized Pots & Pans (each set valued at $159) to three lucky readers as well. This giveaway will close on 10/31 so make sure to get those entries in! Remember that you can vote daily and get an entry into the contest for our dish. NO ENTRIES HERE WILL QUALIFY. PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW TO ENTER!

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!

Tags: Giveaways
Posted in Giveaways | 13 Comments »

Freebie Friday: October 22, 2010

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

Happy Freebie Friday, everyone! We are so lucky to have Freebies 4 Mom share their list of the best freebies of the week with our readers each and every Friday. Please visit her site for fabulous freebies and sweepstakes information every single day! This week Heather is running a BabyPop Superhero Cape & Mask Giveaway . I love the idea for this challenge because the more entries, the more that Heather can donate to The Princess Alexa Foundation, a worthy and wonderful organization. She is also giving away a Border’s Kobo eReader. Who wouldn’t want one of those? Good luck, everyone!

I am flying home today after participating in the Better Homes & Gardens Cook-Off. I can’t wait to share with you guys how all of that went, but you can get sneak peeks on our Facebook Fan Page with You Tube videos sharing everything from the judges feedback to the initial interviews about me and what inspired my particular dish. I am so thankful for all of your support and would like to thank Better Homes & Gardens for being one of the most gracious hosts as I made myself at home in their kitchen. And make myself at home, I did…boy, did I make a mess in there!

This week on MomAdvice we have an easy weeknight dinner of baked ziti with turkey meatballs, a real mom’s review of Alice.com online shopping services, our notebook of weekly inspiration with fall craft & food projects, and our round-up of almost a hundred giveaways that are being offered all over the internet.

Don’t forget, you have until 10/31 to enter ALL of our BHG cookware giveaways (each valued at $159). Enter to win the stainless steel set, the non-stick porcelain set, or the non-stick hard anodized set today. We have ten sets total to giveaway. Good luck to each of you!!

Health & Beauty
Crest 3D Whitestrips and Vivid Toothpaste
Colgate Health Habits Free Toothbrush
NeilMed NasoGel Spray (3 free after rebate)

Food
Taco Bell Orange ‘n Creme Swirl
Beech-Nut Starter Kit
Open Pantry Free Palermo’s Pizza

Entertainment
LeapFrog Tag Book
RadioShack Orange Flashlight
Pledge Time to Read, Target Donates a Book
“Where The Wild Things Are” Online Storytime

Home
Office Depot 25 Free Copies
Tide plus Febreze
Huggies Donate 1 Diaper (on Facebook)
Donate $1 to Save Wildlife (with codes on Dawn bottles)

This Week’s Freebie Events:

OCTOBER 22 – 28

22 – Bass Pro Free Halloween Events: Make a Pumpkin Mask 5-7 pm

23 – Barnes & Noble Halloween Storytime: “Scaredy-cat, Splat!” 11am

23 – Lowes Build and Grow Clinic make a ‘Flapping Bat’, 10-11am.

23 & 24 – Bass Pro Free Halloween Events: Make a Pumpkin Mask 2-4pm

25 – FREE Pasta at Buca Di Beppo for “World Pasta Day” with entree purchase.

25 – Free Green Mountain Coffee (or K-Cups) and Travel Mug *First 2,500* (on Facebook)

Free Cookies During National 2010 National Book Drive (Great American Cookies)

Free Financial Planning Days in October

Target Free Arts & Cultural Events

Tags: Freebies
Posted in Freebies | 6 Comments »

A Real Mom’s Review of Alice.com: Drugstore Shopping Simplified

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

Since becoming a mother, I have become much more strategic with my shopping time. Ideally, it is time spent after my husband gets home and I can shop by myself without two wildly crazy children distracting me from my list of tasks. Let’s face it though, the idea of spending all of my evenings in a store sounds mind-numbingly boring and I would much rather spend my time with a good book or with my family.

In past articles I have shared ideas for fantastic places to online shop including those dreaded trips to the grocery store and wholesale club. Today I want to share with you my new favorite place to shop for my drugstore deals. It is a little website called Alice.com that has simplified my shopping time and has still allowed me to get great deals.

You see, there was a time when I coupon clipped, organized rebate forms, saved those drugstore receipts with money back, and horded a large wall full of toothpaste for our family of four. You could say that I have gotten lazier in my old age or that I realized that I was spending too much money and time in our local drugstores, but I knew that something in my life had to change. I realized that I was buying items just because they were “free,” but the items really weren’t free when I thought of all of the impulse splurges and the space that they took up in my home.

Alice.com has provided me with online access to managing my household items and supplies online. You basically tell Alice what you typically buy and Alice (yes, your very own Alice just like the Brady Bunch) goes to work for you. The site organize all of your products, finds coupons and deals for you, reminds you when you might be running low, and helps you order just the items you need so you can avoid that trip to the corner drugstore or the big-box store.

Here are some ideas for how to shop on a budget with Alice.com:

Say goodbye to those paper inserts, scissors, and wasted time clipping coupons. One of the best things about Alice is that there is no coupon clipping involved. If there is a coupon available on the product, it will automatically be applied to your order… no clipping necessary. Alice also has relationships with the manufacturer’s and many times offers coupons that aren’t available in your newspaper’s coupon insert. It is important to note though, that they offer a specific amount of coupons on each product. For example, your favorite shampoo may have only fifteen coupons available. You will need to snag that coupon before the coupons are no longer offered to get the savings.
Shipping is free on your first order, regardless of the number of items that you buy. After that first order, there is no minimum amount of spending that you need to do to qualify for the free shipping,but you do have to have six items in your cart for the free shipping. This can easily be met with smaller items like toothbrushes, dental floss, or other “filler” items if you are unable to meet the six item requirement.
You always know if you are getting the best deal. Comparison shopping in fliers can be time-consuming, but Alice will actually tell you who has the best deal on the product you are looking at with comparisons between drugstore.com, cvs.com, Peapod, Safeway, Walgreens, Amazon Fresh, and diapers.com. This can be found by scrolling below the item you are looking at and clicking on the, “Price Comparison,” link. You could also use this price comparison when doing your local shopping without ever leaving the comfort of your home.
Shopping for the best deals is easy to do if you familiarize yourself with the website. Under the, “Other Ways to Shop,” category, you will find a, “Shop the Best Deals,” link. That link will direct you to the top fifty deals that the site is currently running with the coupon prices included. Sticking to the top fifty deals will insure that you get the very best deal for your money. These deals also will be great to add as filler items or for donation items for the local homeless shelter and charitable giving.
Orders are fulfilled very quickly. The official amount of time that Alice will give you is between one to six business days. I have placed three orders with the company and they have all arrived the next day (if I placed the order before noon eastern time) or two days later if I happen to order in the afternoon. Lucky for me, I live in the Midwest and Alice is Midwest-based so orders are shipped very quickly here.
You will no longer have to worry about embarrassing drugstore shopping. I thought when I became a grown-up I would no longer care about what was in my drugstore cart. Thanks to living in a small town, there are few moments of privacy shopping anywhere. To top it off, I now have two inquisitive children asking loudly at the checkout counter what I am buying. I love that I can now buy those items with confidence, in the privacy of my own home, and not face the embarrassment about those unmentionable items. The items all arrive in a beautifully packed blue Alice box with minimal packaging that reminds me a lot of the great packing strategies that Amazon.com uses.
The site offers great reminder features. Just like any smart business, the company wants to insure that you will be a repeat customer for them and they do it through a targeted email that reminds you when you are getting low on an item. When you order an item, you can tell Alice how often you buy that item and an automatic reminder will be sent out when you are getting low. That doesn’t mean that it will be automatically ordered for you, it just means that a reminder will be sent to have you come back and reorder. Thanks to this feature, there are no more late night runs to the drugstore for forgotten items… At least, they are fewer and farther between!

I am now a super fan of Alice and love having the time to spend with family and not having another item on my list of errands to do. I hope you can check it out and consider giving online drugstore shopping a try!

If you would like to give Alice a try, feel free to visit through our link. In full discretion, this is an affiliate link, but we rarely ever refer you to anything ever unless we truly and actually embrace or use a product or service! We love our readers and aim to only offer the best information on saving money that we possibly can!

Have you ever tried Alice.com or any other online shopping service? We want to hear what your thoughts are and how you choose to shop to save your family time or money! Please share here!

Tags: Frugal, Grocery Shopping, Shopping, Things To Do
Posted in Frugal, Money & Finance | 14 Comments »

An Apron Full of Giveaways: BHG Non-Stick Porcelain Enamel Pots & Pans Set (Valued at $159)

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

lover dovers, $28

It is a busy, busy week in giveaway land this week! We have one more round of pots to giveaway in conjunction with my cook-off happening this week at the Better Homes & Gardens headquarters. As we do each week, here is our round-up of giveaways for our readers! We hope that this is beneficial to you and your family! Please let us know if you guys win anything- I love to hear the success stories! As always on MomAdvice, we love to share giveaways with our readers and we hope that you will enjoy entering our giveaways as well!

To add to our fantastic giveaways that are happening this week, I am offering FOUR lucky winners 10 piece Non-Stick Porcelain Enamel Pots & Pans sets. Each set is valued at $159 each and is just another example of the great cookware that Better Homes & Gardens is offering at Walmart right now! This beautiful set can be purchased in both the red color, shown here, or in black. Entries will be taken through 10/31 and remember that you can vote daily for me to gain extra entries into the contest. Good luck, everyone! NO ENTRIES HERE WILL QUALIFY. PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW TO ENTER!

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!

Tags: Giveaways
Posted in Giveaways | 3 Comments »

Freebie Friday: October 15, 2010

Friday, October 15th, 2010

Happy Freebie Friday, everyone! We are so lucky to have Freebies 4 Mom share their list of the best freebies of the week with our readers each and every Friday. Please visit her site for fabulous freebies and sweepstakes information every single day! This week Heather is running a Squiz Cards Giveaway coming up Friday between 1 and 2pm CT – the first 1,000 win a free set of Squiz Cards (like mini business cards).

This week on MomAdvice we are sharing eight fun pumpkin recipes to try, knitted hats and free hat patterns to attempt for those winter hats, a notebook of DIY food and craft inspiration, and our weekly giveaway round-up with almost a hundred giveaways to enter this week. While you are entering, be sure to get those entries in for our Better Homes & Gardens Non-Stick Cookware Set (3 winners) & our Stainless Steel Cookware Set (3 winners) all valued at $159 each!

Health & Beauty
Vaseline Intensive Rescue
John Frieda hair care
Viva la Juicy fragrance (at Sephora inside JCPenney)
Eau Duelle fragrance (on Facebook)
Dove Clinical Protection (BJ’s Members)

Food
Extra Dessert Delights gum (on Facebook)
Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream (on Facebook)
Baskin-Robbins Birthday Club
Zaxby’s Free Meal Deal
Jason’s Deli $5 Coupon for Birthday

Entertainment
Walmart two 5×7 Greeting Cards
Redbook Magazine
People Country Music Sampler

Home
Donate $1 to City of Hope from Sutter Home (on Facebook)

This Week’s Freebie Events:

OCTOBER 15 – 21

23 – Lowes Build and Grow Clinic make a ‘Flapping Bat’, 10-11am.

Free Cookies During National 2010 National Book Drive (Great American Cookies)

Free Financial Planning Days in October

Target Free Arts & Cultural Events

Tags: Freebies
Posted in Freebies | 9 Comments »