WSBT-TV: Easter on a Budget

March 18th, 2008

Today on WSBT, I shared some tips and ideas for making Easter special on a budget. You can even get a sneak peek at what our kids will be wearing and how we manage to dress them well on a budget. This discussion goes along with our article, “Budget-Minded Easter Celebrations.”

Thank you for all your great comments today. I have been out of town since 5:30 this morning (a business trip to Chicago for the day) and just got home this evening. I can’t wait to catch up on all of my blog reading tomorrow and share more tips and ideas for our spring cleaning too!

Progress Report: Day Two in the Bathroom

March 18th, 2008

Day two was much easier for me than day one in spring cleaning my bathroom. I am pretty good about keeping our medications up to date, but I did need to gather everything and get it back in one location.

My medications are grouped by types of illness. I started doing this after I had a couple of nights where I was trying to hunt for medicines and was having trouble finding what I needed. Our drawers are labeled for stomach medications, pain relief/prescription medication, and cold/flu medications. I use a three drawer container for these to make things easier to find. This is located in a dark & cool place in my linen closet on a super high shelf!

We also have a “sniffle kit” for when someone in our family comes down with a cold. In the kit is a little container of tissues, cough drops, Vicks vapor rub, nasal spray, and nose suckers (for little ones). The kit is put together in a smaller container for those occasions. I am, in fact, using it as we speak!

Sound Off: Do you have a system for organizing your medications?

Redbox Code 03.17.08

March 17th, 2008

Editor’s Note: For some reason, I am having problems with my email and have not received any messages since Friday. We are trying to figure out what the problem is so I apologize if I haven’t gotten back to you on a message. Please know that we are still trying to work out the kinks and I promise to reply to messages once this has been figured out.

Today’s free code for a Redbox movie is 92X7WF. This code is good for one free movie and you can use it until midnight tonight. Enjoy a free family movie together!

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.

Progress Report: Day One in the Bathroom

March 17th, 2008

Confession time! I hate throwing away things that I think are “perfectly good” especially when it comes to my beauty supplies. I have a feeling that I am going to be one of those kind of old ladies that saves a lot of “perfectly good” stuff that will drive my children crazy someday.

Needless to say, I had an entire trash bag of stuff to throw out, filled to the brim with old beauty supplies. I had saved stuff even from high school that I thought was worth saving. Obviously, the gravity of my drugstore addictions coupled with my need to save everything created a lot more than an hour’s worth of work for me.

Pictured above are my dish tubs that I have used to store everything. I have four of these- Essentials, Bath & Beauty, Hair Products, & First Aid. I had them labeled with my label maker, but the labels kept falling off and they didn’t look as pretty as I would have liked.

I used some ribbon and gift tags from my craft supplies and just used a hot glue gun to secure the ribbon around the outside of these. This was a practical solution for making them look cute, but didn’t require me to spend any money. I love the look of wicker baskets, but I wasn’t willing to spend the money on this investment right now. Besides, the dish tubs are so easy to rinse out if anything gets spilled or if they get dingy.

I made a commitment to myself that I would only keep products that were worth keeping and that would fit in my newly organized space. Three of the bins went into my linen closet, after it been throughly swiped, and the bin of my essential items (stuff I need for every day) went underneath our sink so I could grab it and get ready for the morning.

I refolded and sorted our towels while I was in there and relocated some towels that we didn’t need in our closet to make it a little more spacious.

I didn’t get to any of the extra credit work because the kids and I all came down with a nasty cold. I was just glad to have gotten these things done and I can’t wait to hear about your progress!

Spring Cleaning: Week Two, Days 1-3

March 16th, 2008

This week is a busy one for my family so I have been working all weekend on putting these printables together for our time cleaning in the bathroom. I thought I would post them three at a time (I am still working on the second half) and give you a chance to work ahead, or just give you a chance look ahead at our week.

Our next round of deep cleaning will occur in the bathroom. If you have more than one bathroom, you may need to spread these tasks out over two weeks time. Remember, you can do everything at your own pace- these are just suggestions to help make your life a little easier and to make manageable cleaning goals for your week.

We will be doing progress reports daily and I look forward to hearing how everyone is doing with their tasks. It has been so fun sharing with you my progress and has provided the motivation I need to make my home the organized space that I have always wanted.

Without further adieu, here are the first three printables for our bathroom cleaning agenda:

Today’s Printables

Spring Cleaning Your Bathroom Day One

Spring Cleaning Your Bathroom Day Two

Spring Cleaning Your Bathroom Day Three

In Case You Missed It (Previous Printables):

Spring Cleaning Introductory Page

Spring Cleaning Recipes

Spring Cleaning Your Kitchen Day One

Spring Cleaning Your Kitchen Day Two

Spring Cleaning Your Kitchen Day Three

Spring Cleaning Your Kitchen Day Four

Spring Cleaning Your Kitchen Day Five

Spring Cleaning Your Kitchen Day Six (newly updated with cabinet instructions)

Progress Report: Day Six in the Kitchen

March 14th, 2008


(Editor’s Note: I wanted to get this up for the weekend so you could see how awesome everything turned out. I am working feverishly on our next set of printables- happy weekend, everyone!!)

To say that I feel like I am about to burst when I look at my kitchen would be an understatement. I can’t believe how much I was able to accomplish this week and with only one hour for each day. This was as much of an experiment for me as it was for you. I don’t have a lot of time to devote during the week towards cleaning, but I was determined that I could make one hour each day (in addition to regular duties around the house) work for me.

The real challenge has been doing this AND putting together the printables for each assignment, while documenting my progress. I am planning to get a jump start this weekend because I want to continue supplying you detailed instructions and I want these to be reused and available to our readers all year long. We will be finding a spot for these, don’t you worry! The traffic on our site has boomed bigger than ever before so I know this is something that moms want!


I finished the day off by putting some pretty table linens on and bringing a little spring into our house. The flowers were already in our kitchen so I just added a white tablecloth, a sage green cloth napkin to center my cake stand, and then tied a green bow on the stand. This weekend I will bake something for our centerpiece.

If you have a computer in your kitchen, you could even put some super spring-y pictures up from Flickr and add even more freshness into your house. My husband finds the coolest stuff to put on there!

One of my proudest organizing moments, in my kitchen, was finally making space for my cookbooks. I love knowing that they have their own home now and that I won’t have to go to another room to get them. Getting rid of the clutter in my kitchen freed the space I needed to accomplish such a task. My clean fridge was also a highlight for me (as lame as it sounds) just because I don’t make the time to clean on top, the front, and inside of it the way I should. It is the little things in life.

My biggest challenge had to be getting started and tackling my pantry. I have so many other things that I was thinking that I could be doing if I wasn’t doing that. I am proud that I pushed myself, otherwise, I would have never appreciated my space half as much as I do now!


Finally, here is my reward for all of my hard work. A delicious and icy cold Diet Coke. Yum! I don’t drink a lot of soda and I rarely buy the brand-name stuff so this was a true delight. I zoned out and caught up on all of the blogs that I had been missing for an hour after I cleaned.

Life is good!

Sound Off: What was your greatest reward this week? What was your biggest cleaning challenge?

Spring Cleaning: Week One, Day Six

March 14th, 2008

It is the last day in our kitchen and I am so thrilled to see and hear about everyone’s results. This final day will truly showcase all of your efforts and I guarantee that you are going to want to spend oodles of time in your freshly cleaned kitchen.

Next week we will be tackling another hot spot for when you have guests…the bathroom! This is another source of embarrassment for me and I am looking forward to creating a guest-worthy space. I hope you will join me on our next mission.

If you want to work ahead, here is what I had in mind for our agenda for the bathroom:

1. Organize and inventory bath/beauty products (this is a big one for the CVS addicts, like myself).
2. Organize and clean out the medicine cabinet.
3. Weeding out the unnecessary items.
4. Caulk tub (if needed), clean hard water from fixtures (if needed), and wash shower curtain.
5. Repeat steps necessary in other bathroom(s) of your home (I realize this might take more than one hour, depending on the amount of bathrooms you have)
6. Final tidy- clean the sink, toilet, tub, mirror, and do a deep clean on your floors.

Please know that I am here for any questions, should they arise, and feel free to share your progress through your own blog or email your pictures to me and I will post them to share everyone’s hard work and progress.

If you haven’t joined in the challenge yet, it is never too late to start. Everyone can go at their own pace, you can print out the materials and tackle a one hour task any day of the week. The important thing is to just start! You won’t believe what a difference one hour can make in your home.

Today’s Printable

Spring Cleaning Your Kitchen Day Six (newly updated with cabinet instructions)

In Case You Missed It (Previous Printables):

Spring Cleaning Introductory Page

Spring Cleaning Recipes

Spring Cleaning Your Kitchen Day One

Spring Cleaning Your Kitchen Day Two

Spring Cleaning Your Kitchen Day Three

Spring Cleaning Your Kitchen Day Four

Spring Cleaning Your Kitchen Day Five


MomAdvice Weekly Recap 03.14.08

March 14th, 2008

I am so happy to announce that I am officially a Domestic Diva and have joined the team over at Blissfully Domestic. I am honored to be working with some of my favorite writers and will get to share more tips with you, covering the topic of family/parenting. This is a great online magazine of all things domestic and they have a hopping community already going. If you haven’t visited the site, I know you will be extremely impressed with the content and design. It is wonderful!

Featured Article:

Budget-Minded Easter Celebrations- Easter is one of the holidays where you just don’t need to spend a bundle to have a memorable celebration. Take a few hints from us and learn how to have a budget-minded Easter celebration, while celebrating the holiday in style… Continue Reading

Blog Entries for Fun & Discussion:

Tooth Fairy Economics- We got a great reader letter inquiring what the going rate was for the tooth fairy these days. Come join us in a fun discussion on Tooth Fairy Economics… Continue Reading

Travel Trips from Tracy Gallagher – Tracy Gallagher, from the Travel Channel, joins us for an interview and shares some really great tips for traveling with your children. We covered everything from saving money to saving your sanity to keep your children safe… Continue Reading

Spring Cleaning the Kitchen- We are breaking the spring cleaning down into smaller and more manageable task for moms and even providing personal coaching and encouragement through free printables. Learn how to clean anything and everything in your home and check in with us daily for some motivation… Continue Reading

Thank You Writers Strike Part III- We did it. We got rid of the extended package, after our rates were raised again. Join us in a discussion on whether or not cable (or satellite television is worth it) and how you got around paying THE MAN…Continue Reading

Don’t miss a single entry and subscribe to my feeds! We have made it easy for you to do it- you are just a click away!

Giving Away the Mother Load!

The Geek Squad is offering one lucky reader a gift card for $169 to be put towards the Geek Squad helping put in a wireless network in your home! How cool is that? To enter this giveaway, please leave us a comment by March 19th at 8PM on The Motherloot. In your comment, please share one thing you would like our new resident Tech Mom to cover about computers– ANYTHING you are struggling with understanding is fair game for discussion on future features… Enter To Win!

Today is the LAST DAY to enter our Horizon Organic Milk giveaway!! Why buy milk when I could just give it to you for free? Hurry over to The MotherLoot for contest details on a giveaway for three containers of Horizon Organics Plus with DHA!

Featured Recipe of the Week:

Apple Pie Muffins

Forum Discussions:

Does anyone know of a site where there are any coupons for Crayola, my kids love the Color Wonder products but there are very expensive, Target has them on sale and I am just trying to find a way to make the deal sweeter!… Join the Discussion

I LOVE my crock pot too! Unfortunately, only after 8 years my crock pot just went on the fritz. It was a Rival, which I thought was the original…do you have a brand you like? I’m going to be buying a new one soon and could use some suggestions! It’s funny, I had my mom’s that she had received as a wedding gift for years, and it was still working after 37 years but I donated it since it was small and the crock didn’t come out. That is what I get for wanting the added convenience!… Join the Discussion


Play it Again, Momma! (A Spring Cleaning Edition)

Did you miss these posts the first time around? Here they are for your reading pleasure!

Displaying a Collection

Get Yourself Organized

How Do You Organize Your Pantry

Getting the Car Organized

Free Up Pantry Space & Make a Snack

Maximizing Space

Not enough of me yet?

WSBT: The Amazing Dishwasher

Frugal Hacks: Frugal Momma in Overdrive

Blissfully Domestic: Fun Family Game Nights

Freebie Friday: March 14, 2008

March 14th, 2008

We have a whole bunch of freebies for you! A big thank you to Heather, from Freebies 4 Mom, for fattening up our list this week! Heather was very busy serving up some very crafty posts on her exciting Craft Week. Be sure to browse her crafty archive for lots of great ideas for projects to do around your house!

Health & Beauty


Entertainment
HP free instructor-led online classes (digital scrapbooking, photography, software, etc.)

Free magazine subscriptions at lowpricesubs (Family Fun, Wondertime and others)

HOME magazine subscription (from RewardsGold for completing survey)
Hallmark magazine subscription (from RewardsGold for completing survey) OR

Hallmark Magazine subscription (from Free Biz Mags)

Today’s Diet & Nutrition magazine subscription (from Mercury Magazines)

Getting to Know: Breaking a Stubborn Habit book

DVD for Teachers (can get a new DVD every year that you teach!)

Horton Activity Book & Tip Sheets (sponsored though Energy Star- these are on backorder, but you can place your order for when they come in or download them)

Sport Diver Magazine

Free admission to Adventures in Travel Expo (Enter promo Code: NGFREE. This is at the Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C from 3/29/08-3/30/08)

Two Free Tickets to a March 22nd New Jersey Nets Game or a March 26th Chicago Bulls Game (you will want to pick the tickets up to guarantee your seat)


Home & Garden
Pet Care
Start Right water conditioner (for pond or aquarium owners)
Doggie Delightz

Mark your calendars!! FREE Photo with the Easter Bunny at Walmart on March 15 & 16

Mark your calendars!! See your local JC Penney advertisement for details. They will have free chocolate candy bars at the door on March 15 and 16, and included is a coupon for 10%, 15%, or 20% off.

Mark your calendars!!
YMCA Healthy Kids Day on April 12

Mark your calendars!! Receive a one-on-one beauty makeover from ULTA’s beauty consultants and learn how to get the latest looks with some of the best brands. Plus, you’ll receive deluxe samples from participating brands* to help you start off the season in style. Book your appointment now.
March 28 • Smashbox & NeoStrata
March 29 • Bare Escentuals, MD Formulations & Murad
March 30 • Stila & Fusion Beauty

Mark your calendars!! Starting March 4, 2008, bring the April 2008 cover of Seventeen or a printout of the seventeen.com home page to any Aéropostale store to receive one (1) “Miss Save the World” tank top (approximate retail value: $19.50 each). Forty thousand (40,000) will be given away. One per person. Giveaway ends April 8, 2008. While supplies last.

Mark your calendars!! Free ink refills will be available at Walgreens on April 2, 2008. They do not refill any Epson or Canon cartridges, but they do fill a number of Lexmark, HP, and Dell. Call your local Walgreens to find out if they fill your cartridge. You get 1 color OR black free refill per person so if you need two cartridges filled, bring a friend or you have to pay for the second one. Also, this deal is VERY popular, so don’t go in on free day thinking you’ll get your cartridge back soon. It’s usually returned to
you later that day, even up to 24 hours-3+ days for busier stores. (Thank you My Coupons)

Here’s to the Heroes!!
Complimentary admission for active duty military representing all five service branches, active members of a reserve or National Guard unit, and/or up to three direct dependants. Valid for one complimentary single-day admission per person, per year, to one of the following Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks:
o SeaWorld Orlando, San Diego, or San Antonio
o Busch Gardens Tampa Bay or Williamsburg
o Sesame Place
o Aquatica
o Adventure Island
o Water Country USA
Offer valid between 1/1/2008 and 12/31/2008. Operating days and hours vary by park.
Please check with specific park for current operating schedule. Visit their site for more details!
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Don’t forget to enter our own personal giveaways! The Geek Squad is offering one lucky reader a gift card for $169 to be put towards the Geek Squad helping put in a wireless network in your home! How cool is that? To enter this giveaway, please leave us a comment by March 19th at 8PM on The Motherloot. In your comment, please share one thing you would like our new resident Tech Mom to cover about computers– ANYTHING you are struggling with understanding is fair game for discussion on future features… Enter To Win!

Today is the LAST DAY to enter our Horizon Organic Milk giveaway!! Why buy milk when I could just give it to you for free? Hurry over to The MotherLoot for contest details on a giveaway for three containers of Horizon Organics Plus with DHA!

Progress Report: Day Five in the Kitchen

March 14th, 2008

I got rid of one bin of stuff and one trash bag full of items to donate. My tote was full of baby feeding supplies, a surplus of sippy cups, extra cookware, and a few duplicate items in my kitchen.

I was able to clear out enough stuff in one of my cabinets that I am now able to tuck my cookbooks in one of them. Before my cookbooks were shoved in a corner gathering dust and creating clutter in a corner in my kitchen. It is so nice to have them accessible and easy to get to.

I also was able to clear out an entire junk drawer (which produced several great finds that will save me some money this month, like batteries for my garage door opener!) and now I can open the drawer without it getting stuck on papers and junk!