Piggy Paint Review

September 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I recently had the chance to review Piggy Paint. They sent me the Girls Rule! (aka “purple” to my girls) Piggy Paint and the nail polish remover. This is the first time my girls have had their nails painted. I wouldn’t paint them with regular nail polish since their hands all over their mouths and well they don’t need to eat regular nail polish! I was really pleased to find Piggy Paint since their product is all natural and perfect for kids.

The paint goes on super easy. The directions say to put on 2-3 coats and to dry with a hair dryer for maximum chip protection. My girls are tiny (and impatient) so I just put one coat on a time. Check out of their details about the product ingredients, application, and even how to use it as a learning tool here!

Piggy Paint offers a great Fight Breast Cancer 2 Pack set where a portion of their sales go to the Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure Research fun. This is not only a great gift but a great way to support a wonderful charity organization!

There is only one problem I see with Piggy Paint … my girls now want it on all of the time. OK that isn’t really a problem for the company but more for me and my persistent little ones!
So would I recommend this product? Yes! My girls love having their nails painted and I don’t have to worry about them having this on their hands. I definitely foresee Piggy Paint being on my girls’ Christmas lists.

On that note, Piggy Paint has offered my blog readers a discount code for 15% off anything on their website (including sale items!!) The code is SIMPLY15 and is good through November 30, 2009. So my tip is to buy now for a great stocking stuffer or just an every day gift for the little ones in your life or even yourself! Remember if you spread out your holiday and gift buying over time, it is much healthier for your budget and wallet!
Filed Under: Kids, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Family Tagged With: , ,

Photo Collage Review and Giveaway!

September 25, 2009 By

I recently had the opportunity to order a photo collage print to review thanks to PNI and The Product Review Place. In doing this I learned that the same company supports many of the online photo ordering processes. It isn’t a big surprise but something I never thought about. PNI supports the on line ordering for CVS, Sam’s Club, Walmart Canada, and Costco.

I have never order a collage print before and didn’t know how it would turn out at all. I thought it might look a little cheesy all being on the same print but found the opposite to be true. It looks fabulous.

I ordered my collage print through Sam’s Club. I already had pictures uploaded to Sam’s Club so I just had to select the pictures I wanted for my print. I then selected the size and layout of the collage print. I was very impressed with the pricing. I then kept shuffling the pictures until I got the layout I wanted. I would have liked to been able to place the pictures where I wanted to put them but the shuffle finally got me to a layout I liked. The picture quality is really great. I will note that I did have to cut the edges off my 12″x16″ print since it was printed a larger sheet of paper on and not trimmed down to size.

So without further ado, here is the [edited] print I created and ordered:

Why is this budget friendly? Printing a collage print like this is a great savings over the collage prints that picture studios offer. I made this collage a print of newborn pictures of Little Dude to frame and hang in our stairwell. I am convinced it is going to look just as good as the picture studio prints of his sisters and no one will be the wiser!

Links to PNI sites:
Walmart Canada – http://www.walmartphotocentre.ca/
Costco – http://www.costcophotocenter.com
CVS – http://www.cvsphoto.com/home.aspx
Sam’s Club – http://samsclubus.pnimedia.com/album/home.aspx
Ellen Marden has also been posting a bunch of how-to videos at http://todaysellen.com/.

PNI has offered one of my blog readers the chance to order a custom product too! The winner will be able to order a collage print from Costco or Sam’s Club (you have to be a member to do this and they are in store pick-up only) or a poster from CVS.

Details:
This drawing will end Wednesday, October 7th at midnight EST. I will pick the winners using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to reply with their address. You must include your email address in your comment or have it in your profile so you can be contacted if you are a winner! Please make sure I can see your email address!!! You must complete the Mandatory Entry for the additional entries to count.

So how do you enter?

Mandatory Entry: Tell me what you will make into a collage or poster if you win!

Additional Entries:
1) Follow me on Twitter. Leave a comment with your twitter name.
2) Tweet about this giveaway with this tweet:

RT: Win a collage or poster print! http://tinyurl.com/ycz735z @simplybudgeted #giveaway ends Oct 7th Enter daily!

Leave a comment with the URL for your tweet. (One Tweet per day until end of giveaway!!) Another Twitter entry option that is DAILY!!! Get tweeting for these entries!
3) Blog about this giveaway and provide a link to the blog post. Leave a comment with the URL to the blog post.
4) Add my blog to your blog roll call. Leave a comment with the URL and where to find the link.
5) Follow me publicly through the Google Friends Connect on my side bar. Leave a comment with your name or account name.
6) Subscribe to my blog using the Subscribe To option on the sidebar. Leave a comment stating you subscribe.
7) Enter one of my other giveaways or leave a comment on one of my other posts. Leave a comment here letting me know which one. (Must be a new entry/comment dated after this is posted but it can be on any post.)

Check out the other giveaways going on right now. Also keep an eye out for another tip … it is a free one at that!

PUR Flavor Options Water Pitcher ends Sept 30th

Harry Conick Jr’s Your Songs CD Giveaway hosted at One Bored Mommy ends Oct 2nd

Vote and Comment Giveaway ($10 Target Gift Card) ends the day after 500 comments are made or Nov 1st, which ever happens first!!

Note: PNI provided me with a print to review the order process and quality of the print.

Filed Under: Giveaways, Home & Garden, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Life Tagged With: , , ,

Freebie for all …

September 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

This is a freebie you don’t have to sign-up, donate, make a phone call, or even mail anything to get. It is a freebie we all already have but don’t take time to use these days. It is so simple it is going to annoy you.

What is it you ask?
The freebie I am talking about is MANNERS!

Yup, those kind words your parents taught you to use “please“, “thank you“, “you’re welcome“, “excuse me“, “pardon me“, etc. You know them but do you use them? Do you teach your kids to use those simple phrases?

I went to the grocery store by myself last week. I can’t even remember the last time I went let alone went alone so it was extra special. Yes, you are in motherhood when a trip to the grocery store by yourself is enjoyable!

I walked out of the store behind a mom who had three kids, all elementary school age. She reminded them to look for cars before walking out (so many adults need that reminder!!) She then had them wave as a thank you for the car that stopped. When was the last time you did that? I hope you do that and aren’t one of the annoying people I mutter to under my breath who don’t wave thank you.;)
As they walked out their van, she was talking to them about making sure they don’t walk behind cars that are getting ready to back out. You know the people that do that and how much that annoys you. So do you make sure not to it yourself?
All of this made me want to give her a hug (no, I didn’t). It seems all too often we focus on the negative and forget about all of the great things parents are doing. This mom was taking the time to show her kids how to be polite to drivers and be safe around cars through simple conversation! Big kuddos to her and the polite kiddos she is raising!!

My kids are all three and under but you can bet your bottom dollar that they use the simple manner phrases I said above. The added bonus for your parents is that when your toddler says “Thank you, mommy” without being prompted to do so after getting her sippy cup filled up it will seriously melt your heart.

So take a minute today to be sure to tell someone “thank you“, wave to someone who lets you cross the street, or hold a door open for someone. Your mom will be proud and you will feel an incredible sense of satisfaction. I promise! Plus, tt is all FREE so you can find how addicting it is and hopefully pass the habit along to those around you!

Love this tip? Or are you annoyed I led you on with the title? Leave me a comment either way!

Filed Under: Kids, Simply Family Tagged With: , , ,

Winner of Flirty Apron Giveaway Announced!

September 24, 2009 By

Congratulations to Jessilyn82 who won the Flirty Apron Giveaway provided by Flirty Aprons! Jessilyn82 picked the Women’s Original Sassy Black Apron! Jessilyn82 won with the extra entry option to tweet about the giveaway on Twitter. Are you Tweeting about my giveaways?! It is an easy extra option since I even give you the text to tweet!

The winner has 48 hours to reply to claim their prizes. An email has been sent from simplybudgeted at gmail dot com to notify you that you are the winner! There were 332 comments and comment number 271 was the random number generated by random.org.

There THREE other giveaways going on right now so be sure to enter them too!

PUR Flavor Options Water Pitcher ends Sept 30th

Harry Conick Jr’s Your Songs CD Giveaway hosted at One Bored Mommy ends Oct 2nd

Vote and Comment Giveaway ($10 Target Gift Card) ends the day after 500 comments are made or Nov 1st, which ever happens first!!

Filed Under: Giveaways, Promotional Tagged With: , ,

Vote and Comment Giveaway! ($10 Target Gift Card)

September 22, 2009 By 329 Comments

** This giveaway has ended. Thanks for all of your votes! My husband’s recipe ended up being #44 out of 2438 recipes! **

My husband has submitted a recipe to French’s Cook-off 2009 Contest. You might have seen my Tweets on this already.
Part of the contest is getting votes for your recipe. The recipe with the most votes every week gets a prize. Plus the top ten recipes with votes get to move to the semi-finals automatically! It just takes a click to vote and you can vote every 24 hours! (UPDATED: I updated this from it saying daily to be more specific. Thanks for the clarification everyone!)

Why should you vote for my husband’s recipe?
I told him my online networking can get him some votes so help me prove myself in this! This is the first time I have convinced him to enter a contest like this. So I am hoping to show him that he is awesome at making up recipes from scratch with more than just me saying it!

My husband is showing off his Beef Skewers with Mango-lime Rice and Peanut Dipping Sauce dish that we devoured the night he tested making it in an hour!

Vote here: http://www.frenchs.com/Contest/recipe/beef-skewers-with-mangolime-rice-and-peanut-dipping-sauce-1214.html

This giveaway is going to be different than all of my others so keep reading!

There are four ways to enter daily (only four entries per person per day!)
** Leave a comment to tell me you voted. (Honor system)
** Leave a comment that you tweeted about voting with your tweet url. You can use this text:

Vote for @simplybudgeted ‘s DH’s recipe! http://bit.ly/iK7dV Then enter the
#giveaway: http://bit.ly/QWMQo

** Leave a comment that you Facebooked about voting with the direct link to his recipe. (Honor system)
** Leave a comment that you emailed 5 friends. (CC or BCC me on your email: simplybudgeted at gmail dot com)

Giveaway prize is a $10 Target Gift Card that I bought and will mail to you if you are the winner!!

When will a winner be picked?
I pick a winner on which ever comes first: the day after this post gets to 500 comments or on November 1st when the voting has ended. I will take the total number of comments and use random.org to pick a winning comment number. *If this proves to be a success, then there may be more giveaways in this format in the future!
NOTE: Please ensure your email address is in your profile or leave it in your comments so I can contact you if you are the winner!!

Thanks for indulging me!

Small Print but in not so small print … I reserve the right to discontinue this giveaway and not award the prize at any point if I feel that the honor system isn’t working.

Filed Under: Giveaways, Promotional Tagged With: , , ,

Harry Conick Jr – Your Songs CD Review (and Giveaway!)

September 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I have had the chance to listen to Harry Conick Jr’s new CD titled, Your Songs, and wanted to tell you about it.

I put it in the laptop as I was doing work the other day. It isn’t the type of music I normally listen to while tapping away but I was surprised at home much I liked it. The romantic songs reminded me of sitting in a great little Italian restaurant. I actually hit play two more times and listened to the CD three times in a row!

Your Songs Album Tracklisting (Originally performed by):

  • All The Way (Frank Sinatra)
  • Just The Way You Are (Billy Joel)
  • Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (Elvis Presley)
  • And I Love Her (The Beatles)
  • (They Long To Be) Close To You (The Carpenters)
  • Besame Mucho
  • The Way You Look Tonight
  • First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flack)
  • Your Song (Elton John)
  • Some Enchanted Evening
  • And I Love You So (Don McLean)
  • Who Can I Turn To? (Tony Bennett)
  • Smile (Charlie Chaplin)
  • Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole)

If you are planning a date night soon or just love Harry Conick, Jr’s music, this is a must have for you. You will thank yourself for the great purchase each time you listen to the album!

Also check out Harry Conick Jr’s website and Facebook page!

Now for the giveaway part …

I have partnered up with One Bored Mommy’s Blog on this. She is giveaway a copy of Your Songs on her review of this CD so be sure to check out One Bored Mommy’s Review and Giveaway of Harry Conick Jr’s Your Song CD!! (Let her know you came from here if you remember!;)) Giveaway ends Oct 2nd and is open to US Residents only. Good luck!!

    Filed Under: Giveaways, Lifestyle, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Life Tagged With: , , , ,

    Healthy eating for the whole family

    September 21, 2009 By 1 Comment

    Do you eat your fruit and veggies? Do your kids?

    We love fruits and veggies at our house. Awhile back I wrote about Community Support Agriculture (CSAs) and how our membership in one keeps us eating our fruit and veggies in my post titled, Fresh Veggies on a Budget.

    We have made fruit and veggies a centric part of our kids diets from the beginning of their solid food eating days. As a result, we don’t have to hide fruits and veggies in food but include them in our regular meals. They are gobbled up as a result. We try to include a vegetable with dinner. My middle child loves peas and broccoli and corn and well just about any vegetable you give her. She isn’t even two and I often give her seconds of the vegetable! My oldest has her moods about what she wants to eat any way so we work with her on getting her to take a few bites of whatever we have.

    As for fruits, my kids love fruits (as do I!) We generally have fruit in a big bowl on the dining room table. The kids can now crawl up on the benches and get fruit out at their choosing. Yes, at 3 and almost 2 they actually do this when they want a snack. Last night, my daughter wanted an apple and there were none in the house. Sadly for the first time in what seems like forever the fruit bowl was empty. She was going nuts for an apple. Thankfully, my husband dug a bag of freeze dried apples out of the pantry for her and that made her happy. I think she is going to be in pure heaven tomorrow when her preschool class goes apple picking. I foresee an apple tummy ache in her future! LOL

    So my tips on keeping your family eating healthy, included those little ones:
    Don’t make fruit and vegetables any different than any other food.
    Offer fruit and vegetables often.
    Go outside the box and try different fruit and vegetables.

    My budget saving tip:
    Fresh fruit makes an awesome dessert. Yes, dessert. Cut it up and serve it plain Jane. Spruce it up into a cobbler or something else. Find the best in season fruit and add a dessert to your dinner tonight!

    This post is part of the Twitter Mom’s blogging contest you can check it out here. Horizon is the sponsor of this contest. Check out their new Little Blends product that combines fruit and veggies together!

    Filed Under: Home & Garden, Promotional, Simply Life Tagged With: , , ,

    Reminder: Dick’s Sporting Goods Twitter Giveaway Ends 9/22

    September 21, 2009 By 1 Comment

    If you entered my Dick’s Sporting Goods Gift Card Giveaway awhile back, you should remember this but I have had a lot of new blog readers show up since then so take this as a reminder!

    There are two days left (today and tomorrow) in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Twitter Event. If you are following Dick’s Sporting Goods on Twitter (@dickssportcmo) then you should be seeing their daily tweets for the contest. All you have to do is follow them and then reply with your answer to their question of “What would you get at Dick’s with $100? “. How simple! If you follow me on Twitter (@simplybudgeted) then you have probably noticed that I am entering too!

    So take a second today and tomorrow to enter in the last two days of this big giveaway hosted on Twitter by Dick’s Sporting Goods.

    More tips and review/giveaway post coming this week!! YAY! Have a great Monday!

    Filed Under: Giveaways, Promotional Tagged With: ,

    Are you saving on your monthly bills?

    September 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

    Every payday, I get excited that it is payday. Then I remember it is bill paying day too and that puts a damper on the payday excitement.

    As we have tightened our budget to be a family of five (with three little ones!) that lives on one full time income and a little bit of part time income, we have learned to watch our monthly bills.

    So how can you save on your monthly bills? Most people say they are set and you just have to pay what the bill says. That generally is true but it is up to you ensure that is the case. Here are a few easy tips:

    If you can choose your service provider, make sure you are getting the best deal. For example, we just switched trash service because we could save $48/year AND the new company picks up our recycle which we were having to plan bi-weekly trips to take (that was getting hard with the kids and our schedule.)

    Conserve. If you have a beautiful fall day like we do here, open your windows up. Oh don’t give me that allergy excuse. I am the allergy suffering queen. Fresh air will help air out your house and save you a ton on your energy bill! If you don’t have ceiling fans, think about install some to help you keep your house open even more. Only run the dishwasher and washer/dryer when you have full loads. This saves on energy and water (good if you pay for water!). To save even more energy, dry your rugs and anything else you are willing to outside. I hang our bath rugs on the front railing to dry all of the time.

    Use credit card offers wisely. If you have to make big purchases such as an appliance or electronic item, go some where that you have the in store credit card and they are running a credit card offer. The no interest over a period of time (6 months, 12 months, 18 months) are our favorite offers. We just look at the total and divide by the period of time to make sure we are paying the right amount each month during the offer. If you don’t’ pay the purchase off in time, you are charged the interest for the FULL time period so double check your math and save a large amount on interest payments and use what you need during that time. We have use this on our dishwasher, washer/dryer, and computer when the old ones all went out all of a sudden!

    Use coupons and referrals. Seriously. When we switched our trash service, I had a coupon to get the first month of service free. I just had to fill out form. I also gave my neighbor a $10 credit on her bill just by writing her name down on my sign up form!

    Sign up for electronic bill pay, email lists, or automatic payments. Some companies give discounts for these options that honestly just make your life easier so take them up on this savings. Student loans often offer a lower interest rate if you sign up for automatic payments. The grocery store we shop at the most, Harris Teeter, offers special deals only to those that sign up to get their weekly emails! So check for these offers.

    Hopefully you can use one or two of those tips and fall into some savings. OK, corny but I couldn’t pass it up since it is an amazing almost fall day here!

    Let me know if any of those tips help you or if you have any of your own to share about how to save on those pesky monthly bills!
    Filed Under: Budgeting Advice, SimplySaving Tagged With: , , ,

    PUR Flavor Options Water Pitcher Review and Giveaway!

    September 18, 2009 By

    I am excited about this review and giveaway! Why? We all need to drink more water. We know it yet we don’t do it. I have tried carrying around a bottle of water. That is best bet for me to drink water but bottled water is expensive. So to get to the budget saving tip early, filtering your own water and putting in it your own bottles is not only cheaper but better for the environment. Less plastic bottles that don’t get recycled, the better, right?!
    PUR offered up this statistic to me:

    Switching from bottled water to filtered and a reusable bottle can eliminate up
    to 3,200 plastic bottles and save one person up to $600 annually.

    We only buy bottled water when it is on a super sale but even at that we can probably save a fair amount by putting filtered water in a reusable bottle.

    So we have been trying the PUR Flavor Options Water Pitcher for a couple of weeks now. We started out with the raspberry Flavor Option. The pitcher was easy to put together and get started using. You just add your water and let it filter down. As you pour the water out, you can decide if you want to add flavor or not. You also get to decide the amount of flavor you want to add. We have found out that I like a little bit of flavor but my husband likes more. I am impressed that you can change out the Flavor Option without finishing it. So if we want to switch over to lemon, we can do just that.

    The details on the PUR Flavor Options:

    • PUR Flavor Options is the first and only filter for tap water that lets you add a touch of sugar-free, calorie free fruit flavoring to your water.

    • PUR Flavor Options was named the “Household Product of the Year” by Product of the Year USA in January 2009 and comes in raspberry, lemon, grape, and strawberry.

    All that being said, we have really enjoyed using our PUR Flavor Options Water Pitcher. I do believe it has found a permanent home in our fridge. I have even started filling up my reusable water bottle before I leave for work with a splash of raspberry as an added treat. We have found that having the PUR Flavor Options Water Pitcher in our fridge has really increased our water drinking habits and anything that will keep us drinking more water is good stuff! So with all of that being said, I certainly recommend this product and hope you give it a try too. To think ahead a little, it would be a great holiday gift to either put on your wish list or give to someone else so keep that in mind.

    Now for the really good part … I have the privilege of being able to offer one of my blog readers a PUR Flavor Options Water Pitcher.

    Details:
    This drawing will end Wednesday, September 30th at midnight EST. I will pick the winners using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to reply with their address. You must include your email address in your comment or have it in your profile so you can be contacted if you are a winner! Please make sure I can see your email address!!! You must complete the Mandatory Entry for the additional entries to count.

    So how do you enter?

    Mandatory Entry: Tell me what you think your favorite flavor would be: raspberry, lemon, grape, or strawberry. I can’t make it any more simple!

    Additional Entries:
    1) Follow me on Twitter. Leave a comment with your twitter name.
    2) Tweet about this giveaway with this tweet:
    RT: Win a PUR Flavor Option Water Pitcher! http://tinyurl.com/pnctj3 @simplybudgeted #giveaway ends Sept 30th Enter daily!
    Leave a comment with the URL for your tweet. (One Tweet per day until end of giveaway!!) Another Twitter entry option that is DAILY!!! Get tweeting for these entries!
    3) Blog about this giveaway and provide a link to the blog post. Leave a comment with the URL to the blog post.
    4) Add my blog to your blog roll call. Leave a comment with the URL and where to find the link.
    5) Follow me publicly through the Google Friends Connect on my side bar. Leave a comment with your name or account name.
    6) Subscribe to my blog using the Subscribe To option on the sidebar. Leave a comment stating you subscribe.
    7) Enter one of my other giveaways or leave a comment on one of my other posts. Leave a comment here letting me know which one. (Must be a new entry/comment dated after this is posted but it can be on any post.)

    Note: PUR provided me with a PUR Flavor Options Water Pitcher to do this review.

    I am hoping to get another tip posted this weekend.
    Plus don’t forget about the Flirty Apron Giveaway that ends Sept 23rd!

    Filed Under: Giveaways, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Food, Tips & Techniques Tagged With: , ,
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