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Cloth Diapering 101

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

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!

Tags: Baby, Frugal, MomAdvice News
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

One Club for Games & Movies

Thursday, September 7th, 2006

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.

Tags: Reviews
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

Comparing Gas Prices Made Easier

Tuesday, September 5th, 2006

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.

Tags: Frugal, Reviews
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Monday WAHM Spotlight: My Plush Friend

Tuesday, September 5th, 2006

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.**

Tags: WAHM Spotlight
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

WFMW: Find Just What You Are Looking For

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006

I am stumped for ideas on what to share with you this week for the official Works For Me Wednesday segment (sponsored by my blogging friend, Shannon) so I have decided to take a different approach this week.

Here are the top twenty keyphrases, that people have searched under, and happened upon our site. Maybe one of these links will answer a question that has been pondering your mind. Or perhaps, you will think I am a lazy lady today who is stumped for ideas. Hmmm? I believe that both of these statements would be true!

1. Motherload- This would be the name of my blog. That you are looking at right now. We have had 179 hits (just this month) searching for this keyword.

2. Aldi Supermarket-I write frequently about Aldi Supermarket because it is my favorite store. In fact, if you type in that keyphrase, my site is now one of the first things to pop up on the search engines. In some cases, our site pops up before the official Aldi Supermarket homepage (which really cracks me up). This is why I get tons of emails complimenting their products, requesting refunds, and I have even had one poor lady email me that she would like to know if I could check my North Carolina store for her wallet that she happened to leave there. If you want to know more about Aldi, here are some links to some important Aldi information.

Aldi Supermarket: The Real Deal?
Aldi Fall/Winter Menu Planner
Aldi Menu Planner
Aldi Price Sheet

3. School lunch ideas- I actually had a blog entry on some frugal ideas for school lunches. I also had included a link to my free lunchbox love notes. These can be printed out for your sweet child or hubby (whoever is being nicest to you!)

4. Mom Advice- That is the name of my website, which is not to be confused with the name of my blog (The Motherload). Trust me, it confuses me too! In the beginning, I didn’t really want my blog to link to my site because I was blogging about personal things in our life. I have changed it to just ideas for saving money & time. It seems to be working better for me and that is why we have joined these together.

5. Freezing zucchini- This was never written by me, but was posted on my forum. I guess a lot of people have questions on how you can freeze this vegetable. If you are looking for recipes or trying to find a way to use up zucchini, please check out this thread.

6. Gap Love Beads- Again, this one was not posted by me. This was a freebie that someone shared with us on the freebie section of our forum. If you are looking for some Gap Love Beads, check out this thread. I am known to share freebies though, each Friday of my blog, and if you are looking for free samples check out this past week’s post.

7. Swiffer Coupons- We had a link to this on our forum. If you go on the Swiffer website right now, they have tons of coupons. $1 off on the Swiffer Sweeper, $3 off on the Swiffer CarpetFlick, $5 off the Swiffer WetJet, $5 off the Swiffer Sweeper+Vac, and $1 off the Swiffer dusters.

8. Eat Free On Your Birthday- This is becoming a popular link on our blog. I put together a list of all the places you could dine for free on your birthday. If your birthday is coming up, take advantage of some of those freebies and read my post.

9. Diaper Bag Essentials- I wrote an article on everything you should keep in your diaper bags. There is also a diaper bag checklist that you can print out and hang on your fridge. You must SAVE it first and then print it. For some reason, this one shows a blank page, but when saved & printed it works fine.

10. Mom Groups- I wrote an article on all of the national mothers groups out there. I would be nothing without my mom’s group. If I had not had their support, I would have never been able to do this site or to have felt so good about making the decision to stay home with my children. If you are looking for a support system, please read this article.

11. Dinner Ideas- I have an article called, “Picky Eater Dinner Ideas.” If you can’t think of something to fix for your picky children, you should read this article. Recipes are included!

12. Pizza Dough Recipes- I love pizza. I also love talking about pizza. I wrote a blog entry on how to make your own pizza at home, hoping to save our family some money. I then revisited pizza dough and reviewed a new recipe that I really loved.

13. Aldi Supermarkets- Plural of entry #2.

14. McDonald’s Birthday Party– We had our son’s birthday party at McDonald’s and it was the best one EVER! I shared this as a frugal party option (when you don’t feel like hosting a party in your house).

15. Aldi Phone Number- There is no phone number for Aldi. They do not have a listed number that you can call. People are always looking for this, but no Aldi has a listed phone number. You need to go to the store to find out information.

16. Free On Your Birthday- Visit keyphrase #8 for all the freebies that you can receive.

17. Mother Load- Same as keyphrase #1

18. McDonald’s Birthday Parties- See keyphrase #14 and take your kiddos to the dang McDonald’s for their birthday!!

19. Aldi Recipes- Lots of those listed under keyphrase #2

20. Moms Advice- That’s what I give- hope you like it!

Past WFMW Entries:

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 Snac
k
Weeding Through Your Child’s Art Work Creatively
Using the Coffee Maker With Ease
Making Your Spice Rack Usable
Maximizing Space

Tags: MomAdvice News, Works-For-Me-Wednesday
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

This Week in Festivals & Carnivals

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006

The Festival of Frugality is over at Blogging Away Debt.
MotherLoad Article: Aldi Supermarket Price Sheet & Store Information
Must Read Article: Frugal Cooks

The Carnival of Debt Reduction is located at the Mighty Bargain Hunter.
Must Read Article: War of the Off-Brand Sodas

The Carnival of Personal Finance is currently at My 1st Million at 33. They are taking votes on your favorite posts so feel free to leave a vote for whose article you enjoyed the most.
MotherLoad Article: Aldi Supermarket Price Sheet & Store Information
Must Read Article: Selling My Books on Ebay (be sure to read the comments!)

Tags: Carnivals, Festivals
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Monday WAHM Spotlight: Sprezzatura Systems, Inc.

Monday, August 28th, 2006

Name: Ellen Ferlazzo

City/State: Pleasanton, CA

Name of Company: Sprezzatura Systems, Inc.

Two or Three Sentences About Your Company:

I write web content (copywriting) for high tech companies. At various times in the past I’ve also worked as a user interface designer, on both Windows and web applications.

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. Set a schedule and keep it! I like to keep my work hours as close to a normal workday as possible now that my kids are older and off to school most of the day.

2. Have an office space of some kind and a separate phone line that the kids know not to answer. I’ve gone from the dining room to a spare bedroom, but always have a space of my own.

Tags: WAHM Spotlight
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

What Do You Use Your FoodSaver For?

Thursday, August 24th, 2006

My recent trip to Goodwill was well worth the effort. While browsing through the housewares, I ran across a donated FoodSaver. I paid my five dollars, picked up some bags at Walmart, and brought it home.

I am looking for any ideas for how you use your FoodSaver- conventional & unconventional. If you have one of these handy little gadgets (and would like to share), please click on the comments and share your FoodSaver experience.

I would greatly appreciate it!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

WFMW: Target Pharmacy Works For Me!

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006

Welcome to this week’s edition of Works for Me Wednesday. As always, I am honored to participate in this, each week, and encourage you to swing by Shannon’s blog for more great tips from moms just like me!

This week, I just wanted to share with you all my favorite place in the world to get prescriptions- Target Pharmacy. If you are already a Target Pharmacy customer, please disregard this post because it is all about how wonderful it has been for our family.

Pictured here is their redesigned bottles. Notice that they are clear (making it easy to see how much/how little of a medication you have) and that they have a handy little ring around them. This ring is color coded and each family member gets a color for their prescriptions. This makes it easy for me to find my son’s medication (he is blue) versus my daughter’s medication (which is purple). For a my tired eyes in the morning, this has prevented us from a lot of medicine mix-ups.

You can also see that this bottle is flipped on its head. This helps to get all of the information on the front of the bottle and to make it easier to read. Tucked on the side, (see that little flap) is the little sheet with all of the side effects. Don’t know about you, but this usually gets thrown into the trash.

The best part for me, as a mom, is giving the medicine to my children and how they have improved this little factor. Anyone who has had a screaming & tantruming child who hates to receive medicine, knows that the teaspoon just doesn’t cut it. Target has also introduced bottles for liquid medicines that include a syringe dispensers that fits tightly into a specially designed cap on the bottle. To dispense liquid medication to a child, one can easily insert the syringe, turn the bottle upside down, and fill the syringe with an exact dose rather than the messy alternative of pouring into a teaspoon. This cuts down on the mess and I also am able to make sure that I get every last drop out of that bottle because it is inverted.

Other services that I have also appreciated are that they automatically refill my medication (if I request it), contact my doctor if I need a refill (which doesn’t involve me calling the doctor and then calling the pharmacy), and I can request refills by telephone or online (how convenient!)

If you have the choice of where to get your prescriptions filled, I highly recommend getting them there. The new bottle is just one part that I love about it. The other part is the shopping I can do while I am waiting for my prescription.

What is not to love about Target?

As always, I am including links to my past entries. Feel free to browse around and leave your comments. I really, really love the comments!!

Past WFMW entries:

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

Tags: Works-For-Me-Wednesday
Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments »

Doesn’t Free Just Taste Better?

Monday, August 21st, 2006

We went to a family picnic at my father’s work and had a great time this weekend. They supplied all of the food and entertainment- all for free! The food was great, but the best part about the meal for me.. Real soda! Not the generic version, but an actual Diet Coke. The real deal. The enchilada of sodas. Yup, I am really that pathetic.

Brand name soda doesn’t get purchased in our house. I might regret saying that when Coke approaches me to represent their product, but I must say that Coke is just a tad out of our price range.

Since we do not purchase regular soda, I have been on a quest to find the best generic soda out there. I have tried every kind of generic that you can imagine- Aldi, Walmart, local store brands, etc.. and they have all fell short of my expectations. If you like regular ol’ soda, like lemon lime or orange, this is a great option for you. The problem is that I like the more obscure types of generic. I like diet orange, diet lemon lime, diet cream soda- and these options are hard to come by. After much hunting, I have finally found the generic that stacks up the best- Meijer brand. They actually have all of these obscure types of soda! Currently the pricing is at $1.99 for a twelve pack so I feel like this is a fair deal and it even comes in those handy fridge packs. If you are not in the Midwest region, Kroger makes a great off-brand soda with a fair price too.

Now even though I have found the almighty supplier of generic sodas, even I will not turn down free brand name soda (and neither should you). Right now CVS & Pepsi products are running a deal where you come out with four 12-packs of soda for absolutely free. Really!

Check this week’s flier and on the front page it should show you that they are currently running a sale on their soda for four 12-packs of Pepsi products for ten bucks. Flip the page and you should see a handy little rebate form…for ten dollars back on your purchase. Simply attach the receipt & UPC codes and keep on checking your mailbox for that ten dollar check.

You can imagine how good that soda tastes when it is free. No longer does my husband have to endure the commentary of his horrible off brand soda at work (Mountain Lightning? What the heck is that? Big K Soda? Where did your wife pick that stuff up at?) I picked up three cases of Mountain Dew for him and a case of Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi for me. You would have thought it was Christmas in our house!

Don’t miss out on your free soda- check your local CVS for a rebate form or your local paper.

Tags: Freebies
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »