Huge Twilight Giveaway Results & Interview Tonight!

March 9th, 2009

Thank you to ALL who entered our Twilight Giveaway! We had over 1,100 comments which was so great to see the support for the movie and the podcast.

Prize Pack #1

Our winner was chosen at random and I would like to congratulate Holly Urbanek on winning.

Holly said, “I am a huge Twilight fan. Definitely Team Edward! I love Jacob, but Edward is beyond amazing. My favorite book was actually the first 12 chapters of Midnight Sun that I read on Stephanie’s website.”

Prize Pack #2

Our winner was chosen at random and I would like to congratulate Deenee on winning a copy of the movie!

Deeenee said, “”I am SOOO Team Jacob!! Hearing Taylor Lautner on blogtalkradio just now reinforced my love of alll of the twilight books, especially New Moon, where Taylor/Jacob takes center stage. I am soooo excited to see New Moon and I’m definately going to see it at midnight when it comes out. By the way, the interview was awesome and it was really cool to hear the real Taylor Lautner speak his mind. :)”

We can’t wait to send out their prize packs to our lucky winners. If you didn’t win these giveaways, don’t despair! We are giving away TEN more copies of the movie so please hurry over here and get your entry in today!

Tonight is the big night for our exclusive podcast with Taylor Lautner. I have partnered up with Walmart on this exciting project to interview one of the stars from the movie, “Twilight” based on the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer. I am going to be co-hosting this BlogTalkRadio show with Taylor Lautner, AKA Jacob, on a very special interview while the cast is on location for the second film (“New Moon“). I will be co-hosting this on the “Stardish Radio” program at 9 pm (EST) TONIGHT.

Speaking from the location of The Twilight Saga’s New Moon, Taylor will take questions from fans “logged in” to BlogTalkRadio with host Jo Ann Kubasek (Stardish Radio) and myself.


To kick off this exciting event, I am offering two exclusive giveaways this week to get your Twilight party started!

Prize Package #1– This prize pack will include all the fan gear you could ever imagine. This prize pack is valued at over $150!

Prize Package #2– Will include a $25 Walmart gift card that will cover the expenses so you can buy the Twilight DVD completely guilt free.

Your Multiple Entry Options. Choose one or Choose Them All!

For each item that you do, you can leave one extra comment to enter. Each comment is one entry.

1. To enter, please leave one comment and tell me which Twilight book was your favorite, or if you are on Team Edward or Team Jacob, or what super fan you would give this prize pack to (if you aren’t a fan yourself)!

2. Subscribe to my feeds. Subscribe to my blogs,(pick one or subscribe to all three) then leave a comment letting me know you have subscribed.

3. Follow me on Twitter. I need more friends and love seeing what you are up to. If you are unfamiliar with Twitter, read this entry for what it is all about and sign up for a free account. My Twitter name is @momadvice. Once you have followed me, leave a comment and let me know that you are my latest and greatest friend!

4. Tweet about this contest (include contest link, #11momstwilight and @momadvice in your tweet). Leave the link to the tweet in an additional comment. You get one additional entry per tweet. This can be done up to one time per day until giveaway is over.

5. Try a Notebook Experiment. Each Wednesday we post a Notebook of fun ideas from other blogs. If you attempt one of those ideas, and add your name on Wednesday to my linky list with a link to a Notebook Experiment that you tried, you can get an extra entry. This will be posted on Thursday so start your engines and do something creative with your families this week. Once your name has been added to the list, you can leave a comment and let me know what Notebook Experiment you completed. Here are some examples of my past Experiments and a link to all the notebook links that you can choose from.


Our winners will be chosen at random. Please leave your comments by Tuesday (03/17) at 8PM EST.

You can also enter to win this contest by visiting the other Eleven Mom’s websites! Good luck to all the fans and I look forward to sharing this interview with you tonight!

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Posted in Giveaways | 1,048 Comments »

CVS & Walgreen’s Deals 03.08.09

March 9th, 2009

I have been taking a break from my CVS shopping because I was fully stocked on everything and because of our No Spend Challenge. I wanted to hop back in the game with the hot Huggie’s Diapers deal this week and because I was running low on a few essentials.

Here is what I stocked up on this week for our family!


Walgreens

Huggies Jumbo Pack Diapers– $10 per package
Buy $25 of participating products, receive $10 in Register Rewards
Printable Coupon (can print 2)- $5 off Gentle Care
Printable Coupon (can print 2, used 1)- $3 off Natural Fit
Total Cost (minus $10 Register Rewards & $13 Coupons)= $7.00 or $2.33 per package

Garnier Fructis Hair Care– $2.99 each
$2 Easy Saver Coupon
$1/1 Garnier Style Product, exp. 3-15-09 (in 2/8/09 paper)
$1/1 Garnier Shampoo, Conditioner or Treatment (in 2/8/09 paper)
Total Cost (minus coupons)- Overage of $.01

Garnier Fructis Hair Color– $5.99
$2 Easy Saver Coupon
$2/1 Garnier Hair Color Product (in 2/8/09 paper)
Total Cost (minus coupons)- $1.99

Colgate Total Whitening Toothpaste– $3.49
$2.50 Easy Saver Coupon
$1.50/1 Coupon (March All You Magazine)
$.75/1 coupon (from newspaper)
Total Cost (minus coupons)- Overage of $.27

Coffee-mate Creamers– $2.49 each
On Sale B1G1 Free, Making them $1.25 each

Total Savings- $37.71
Total Spent- $25.62, $10 in Register Rewards
Final Total– $15.62


CVS

Diet Dr. Pepper (2 liter) $.74
Coupon for Free 2 Liter- $.74 (found in February issue of Maxim)
Total Cost- FREE

Crest Pro-Health Toothpaste– $2.99
Coupon $1/1 Crest Pro Health, exp. 3-31-09 (P&G; 2/8/09)
$2 back in ECB
Total Cost- Overage of $.01

Secret Flawless Deodorant– $3.99
$1 back in ECB
$2/1 Secret Flawless or Flawless Touch, exp. 4-30-09 (V 2/22/09)
Total Cost– $.99

Vaseline Lotion (10 oz- look for packages that say 30% more)- $3.69
$2 back in ECB (limit of 5 total)
Vaseline Printable Coupon
$1.25/1 Vaseline Lotion Product, exp. 4-26-09 (V 3/1/09)
Total Cost- $1.13 for two or $56 each

Schick Quattro Razor- $8.99
$5 back in ECB
Total Cost- $3.99 (note: there is a coupon, but I did not have it)

Palmolive Dish Soap– $1.49
$1 back in ECB (limit of 2)
Total Cost- $.98 or $.49 each (note: there is a coupon, but I did not have it)

Coke 12-Packs 4 for $13
$3 back in ECB (limit 1 per household)
Total Cost- $10 or $2.50 per 12 pack

Total Savings- $25.95
Total Spent- $41.67, $17 back in ECB
Final Total– $24.67

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Posted in Frugal, Money & Finance | 11 Comments »

Yummy Mexican Rice

March 9th, 2009

On our last chicken enchilada night, I decided I wanted to add a fun side dish to our meal.

What goes better with your homemade enchiladas then a little bit of Mexican Rice?

I can admit that the Mexican Rice is actually my favorite part of going out for Mexican food.

I found this little recipe and dug through our pantry for all of the ingredients.

The tomato sauce complimented the enchiladas that we dipped in that homemade enchilada sauce better than anything else and I was able to modify the spices to our taste.

I used white rice, but I may need to try my brown rice experiment and use that instead.

This is a fun and inexpensive side dish and even our rice-haters ate it with great enthusiasm.

I think this will be a repeat performer in our house!

Mexican Rice

1 cup uncooked rice (not instant rice)
2 tablespoons oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium white onion, chopped (omitted because of personal taste)
2 ripe plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped (I omitted this ingredient because I didn’t have any tomatoes)
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup chicken broth or beef broth (we chose chicken broth)
1 tablespoon chili powder (you can reduce this- I added 1 teaspoon)
3/4 teaspoon salt

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet. Add the rice and stir over medium-high heat until rice is golden brown. Add the garlic and chopped onion, and sauté until the onion just begins to brown. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken broth, chili powder and salt, lower heat and cover. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes until all liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and allow to sit, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve.

 

Rice is yummy and a frugal side dish! Do you have any favorite rice recipes you could share?

 

 

 

Don’t miss these other great posts from MomAdvice.com:

 

 

The Best Taco Meat on the Planet

 

 

 

Pressure Cooker Korean Tacos

 

 

 

Mexican Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

 

 

 

Marinated Grilled Shrimp with Perfect Margaritas

 

 

Sign up for the MomAdvice newsletter

 

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Posted in Desserts | 10 Comments »

Freebie Friday: March 6, 2009

March 6th, 2009

Happy Freebie Friday, everyone! A huge thanks to Heather, from Freebies 4 Mom, for helping us with our freebie list this week. Be sure to check Heather’s list of Cellfire coupons that can be used for your Kroger shopping this week and check her mail-in rebate tips for scoring some additional great deals on your grocery shopping.

Don’t forget to enter this week in a contest for a case of the new V-8 V-Fusion and a great little L.L. Bean V-Fusion tote bag and check our Apron Full of Giveaways for links to contest all over the internet. Enjoy!

Health & Beauty

L’Oreal Paris EverPure Hair Care (log-in or register to request)
Gas-X Thin Strips
Kotex (Walmart)

Food

Bob Evans Caramel Mocha
Good Times Burger
Ted’s Montana Grill Burger
Splenda
Dr. Pepper
Betty Crocker Warm Delights Minis

Entertainment
Baltimore Orioles free ticket (during month of your birthday)
Mountain Homes magazines (1 free issue)
Saveur magazine (12 digital issues from StartSampling)
MotorBoating magazine (12 digital issues from StartSampling)
Yachting magazine (16 digital issues from StartSampling)

Home & Garden

Step into Spring Gift Pack (Right@Home)
100 Photos Scanned at iPreserve (short survey to qualify)
Ziploc Fresh Shield (Costco)
Juicy Juice Sippy Cup
Tide TotalCare
TBS MyBoys House Party
Hertz Weekend Day Car Rental

Upcoming Freebie Events:

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


MARCH
7 – Bruster’s PJ Day – Free single scoop waffle cone if you wear your PJs
7 – The Home Depot Kids Workshop – Make a HD Raceway 9 to Noon
7&8 – Museums on Us – free admission for Bank of America account holders

10 – FedEx Office (formerly Kinkos) 25 Free Copies of your Resume
14 – Lowe’s Build and Grow Clinic – Make a Tabletop Basketball
26 – The Home Depot Do-It-Herself Workshop – Floor Tile Basics 7 to 8:30 pm

APRIL
4 – The Home Depot Kids Workshop – Make a window birdhouse 9 to Noon

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Posted in Freebies | 9 Comments »

Simplify the After School Chaos Resource List

March 5th, 2009

Thank you again to Mary Lou Retton for joining us for our podcast today. If you missed the show, please feel free to listen at your convenience and hear some of Mary Lou’s great ideas for managing the chaos, after school snacks, and how she makes family time a priority in her house.

Here are a few of the resources that were highlighted in today’s episode:

A Few Words About Convenience Foods– We talk a lot about how to save on convenience foods on our site. This post will showcase some of my ideas for making your own convenience foods and a few recipes to get you started. I have even explored if baby carrots are a convenience food because I love to maximize those grocery dollars as much as I can.

Schedule a Day in Your Kitchen– This post shares my idea on how I try to keep our grocery budget low by scheduling a baking day or prep day in your kitchen.

2008 Online Calendar Round-Up– This post is full of great online tools you can use to manage your day and/or your home business. Online calendars can be a useful tools for minimizing the stress of planning your day and your after school time.

Thank you to Tyson Foods for sponsoring a giveaway for our listeners and I loved getting to share some coupons with those of you who listened in. I am hoping to offer more fun giveaways in the future so please make sure to tune in live to take advantage of these fun giveaways!

On next week’s show…

I have two exciting podcasts happening next week that I would like to share with you about. I am partnering up with Walmart on a very exclusive and exciting project to interview one of the stars from the movie, “Twilight” based on the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer. I am going to be co-hosting this BlogTalkRadio show with Taylor Lautner, AKA Jacob, on a very special interview while the cast is on location for the second film (“New Moon“). I will be co-hosting this on the “Stardish Radio” program March 9, at 9 pm (EST).

Speaking from the set of The Twilight Saga’s New Moon, Taylor will take questions from fans “logged in” to BlogTalkRadio with host Jo Ann Kubasek (Stardish Radio) and myself. We are very excited about this opportunity and I am particularly excited because I am a mom and also a super fan of the books and I am so happy to represent the mom community and share about my own adoration for the books and the film Twilight. I hope you will be able to join me for that and again, it will be airing March 9, this coming Monday, at 9PM so be sure to mark your calendars.

On MomAdvice Simplified, next Thursday at 2PM EST, Aviva Goldfarb, Author and Founder of “The Six O’Clock Scramble” will be joining our show and sharing some of her tips for making dinnertime healthier while saving time and money along the way. She is the author of the book, “The Six O’Clock Scramble” and founder of TheScramble.com. She will be discussing time-saving tips for planning your dinnertime meals in advance, how to maximize your time and budget at the grocery store and how to waste less food each week. I am really looking forward to sharing that interview with you!

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Posted in Family | 5 Comments »

MomAdvice Simplified: Simplify the After-School Chaos

March 5th, 2009

On MomAdvice Simplified, my weekly podcast for moms, I have a very exciting episode scheduled and a guest that I think you are really going to enjoy hearing from. Olympic gymnastic champion, Mary Lou Retton, joins our show to discuss how she simplifies and deals with the after-school chaos in her home. As a mother of four girls, she offers helpful real-life tips she uses with her family, and supplies a game plan that will help you conquer after-school chaos. I would love if you would join us as we discuss making after-school time easier for your family.

Just as a reminder, you can listen to the show live every Thursday at 2PM EST or you can listen later right here on my the left sidebar! Check back after the show for our resource list so you can explore all of the great links to book and advice that we share during our half hour.

I hope you will join me and feel free to chat with me in the chat room or you can even phone in your questions. During this episode, we are going to also be doing a giveaway with Tyson Foods that you will not want to miss!

I think this is going to be an invaluable episode for moms and I am really excited about the information that we are going to share in this half hour.

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Posted in Family | No Comments »

Post No Spend Challenge Confessions

March 4th, 2009

There was a lovely and thoughtful discussion over at Northern Cheapskate on the difficulties that people would have had with the No Spend Challenge. I want to stress that it was a completely voluntary experience and that while I committed to a no spend month, I wanted people to modify it to their lifestyle and what they felt comfortable with. If a day was what you were comfortable with, if it is a habit you are trying to break, if a week would shed light on your finances- then those were all great and wonderful ways to implement a challenge in your life.

Most of the comments said how difficult it would be to not go on a spending binge after the challenge was over. What a valid point that is! I have also received some comments and emails since the challenge was over wondering if I was having problems with spending and if it will have saved me money in the long run.

The weird thing for me is that other than my little $15 in yarn excursion for some gifts I am working on, a hair cut (which typically happens each month), a necessary birthday gift for my husband, and my $1 Diet Coke that I buy myself after grocery shopping, I had no inclination to run out and spend loads of money.

Here is the weirder part… My husband’s birthday is this week and I got him a watch for his 30th birthday (a killer deal that I scored off of eBay). I took it to the mall to get it engraved and they told me it would take an hour before it would be ready. I had all of this time to shop and instead, I took my daughter over to the play area, whipped out my knitting project, and just sat and knitted while she played for an hour.

She was so happy running around and talking to the children and counting the blocks on the floor, and reciting her 1-2-3’s at the top of her lungs and I drank all of that in and worked on my project. There was no tug to shop… although I did feel a tiny tug to get a cup of coffee.

What did change is that the challenge did shed light on some problems that I have with my spending.

I now know that there are a couple of days that are harder for me with my work and I am trying to get dinner prepared ahead of time or work on slow cooker meals for those nights to reduce our eating out.

I realized that I need to scale back on outings that cost money and so I am choosing to do one thing a week instead of a few.

I am entertaining more because, frankly, my house looks better when I know I have people coming and it breaks my day up.

And most of all, it has made me conscious of my spending habits and how I can improve them. Even a money-savvy gal like myself, needed a little wake-up call into how we could improve our financial situation.

As for the economy and the negative impact I had on it by challenging others to a No Spend Challenge… well, I won’t apologize for that and I know that might anger some people. I live in a part of the country that is particularly plagued with job loss and I am doing what I can to prepare our finances and make our situation stronger. My husband lost his job for a year and it took us five years to recover from that. I want to build a safety net for my family and not spending helped us gain perspective on how we can make that happen.

I might not have the influence of Oprah, but I still hope I made a difference on how families can improve their finances. And can I say to Oprah, I thought of the No Spend Challenge first? You know, just in case someone needs that information for historical purposes.

Are you reducing your spending to protect your family or are you increasing your spending to protect the economy? Do you believe it is an either/or philosophy?

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Posted in Money & Finance | 22 Comments »

Notebook Experiments: Can I Make My Hotel Stay Better?

March 4th, 2009

Experiment: Can I make my hotel stay better?

Experiment Taken From: Notebook Entry 10.30.08

Materials Needed: Please see Digital Bliss for the full instructions. This post was written by Angie, over at Blog Coach, so please be sure to check her site for additional great blogging resources!

Results: This month I have had more travel than I could imagine in one month for a busy momma. I have had this list bookmarked for a year now and while I was in New York last week, I knew that I would try out some of these tools to make my stay better.


iSerenity was perhaps my favorite resource on that list because I hate all the sounds from my neighbors and out in the hallways of hotels. In our house, each of us has a sound machine in our rooms so I really love having some type of white noise when I sleep. I tuned into the sounds of the ocean and it helped so much to cut down on the background noise so I could get some sleep. This would have been a great resource too when my children were smaller to help them sleep better too.



The other site that I used was Kukuklock. Is it just me or does anyone else have trouble figuring out how in the heck to set these alarms in the hotel rooms? A little manual would be helpful! I set my alarm on my phone in my room, but I like to have a back-up alarm just in case. I went ahead and set it to the rooster setting and it was as easy as pie to set.

I headed to bed and woke up to the sounds of the ocean with roosters crowing over the waves. Yeah, it was pretty freaky and I thought I fell into an alternate universe for a moment there, but it worked like a charm.

Conclusion: I plan to use these sites every time because it helped me sleep better knowing I would wake up on my time and I could eliminate the background noises in my room. I hope you can check these out on your next trip!

**********************

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!

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Posted in Amy's Notebook | 5 Comments »

Amy’s Notebook 03.04.09

March 4th, 2009

I really love this post on the importance of family traditions (@ Pensieve)

This is the cutest princess birthday hat (@ Skip to My Lou)

These crooked coasters are beautiful (@ the long thread)

This zippered bird pouch pattern is too cute (@ betz white)

I love this post on gaining the motivation to exercise (@ Sparkle Power)

Making suncatchers in the wintertime sounds like a wonderful craft to do with the kids (@ Way Up High in the Monkey Bread Tree)

This shamrock brooch would be festive for St. Patrick’s Day (@ A Fanciful Twist)

My family would go nuts for these meatball sliders (@ Smitten Kitchen)

I love this magnetic chalkboard made from a thrifted mirror (@ say YES! to Hoboken)

I want to make these bathtub crayons with my children (@ Pepper Paints)

This chandelier makeover makes me think I redo a lot of the light fixtures in our house (@ Vickie Howell)

This maple white bread sounds wonderful (@ The Wednesday Chef)

This 5 minute kite would be a great way to keep my kids entertained this spring (@ chica schmica)

This door organizer is a great way to keep things organized in your house (@ design sponge)

These leg warmers refashioned from a pair of knee high socks are so cute for your sweet babies and toddlers (@ My House Boutique)

I want to try this speedy sweet and sour chicken (@ Divine Domesticity)

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Posted in Amy's Notebook | 6 Comments »

Depression Era Cooking: The Poor Man’s Feast

March 3rd, 2009

My husband sent me the link to this series and I can’t stop watching. Clara is an amazing woman who shares her tricks and tips that they used to stretch a buck in the Depression Era. Her stories are beautiful and her cooking tips are wonderful. I hope you can take a moment to enjoy this Poor Man’s Feast that she shares in this episode and visit the Depression Cooking Channel to see more episodes!

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Posted in Frugal, Money & Finance | 14 Comments »

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