Whole Grain First Ingredient

January 31, 2012 By

To help with choosing products with whole grain, General Mills developed “Fast Lane for Whole Grain,” an online educational game. Consumers can navigate virtual grocery store aisles and identify products that have whole grain as the first ingredient, with the option to enter a sweepstakes to win one of each of the 50 cereals with the white check.

Make a commitment to add more whole grain to your diet by simply pouring a bowl of cereal with the white check including Cheerios®, Lucky Charms®, Cinnamon Toast Crunch®, Honey Nut Cheerios® and Total®.


The Honey Nut Cheerios are my favorite for sure. My kids love them too though so we fight over who gets to that box first!
For more information on the importance of whole grain and a chance to enter the “Fast Lane for Whole Grain” sweepstakes, visit www.WholeGrainNation.com.

We are really excited to offer same gift packas a giveaway!!

Details:
This drawing will end Tuesday, February 14th at 11:59pm EST. The winner will have 48 hours to reply with their address. You must include your email address in the comment form so you can be contacted if you are a winner! You must complete the Mandatory Entry for the additional entries to count.

This giveaway is open to US residents only!

So how do you enter?

Mandatory Entry: Tell me what kind of cereal in the picture is your favorite!!

Additional Entries:

1) Follow us on Facebook HERE. Worth two entries so leave two comments here! (Psst … we love comments on Facebook so maybe you can leave us one!)
2) Follow BOTH SimplyBudgeted and This_Cookin_Dad on Twitter. Leave THREE comments with your twitter name.
3) Tweet about this giveaway with this tweet:

RT #Win a 5 boxes of General Mills cereal @simplybudgeted http://bit.ly/zK2I7N ends 2/14 #giveaway #cereal #myblogspark

Leave a comment with the URL for your tweet. (One Tweet per day until end of giveaway!!)
4) Follow us publicly through the Google Friends Connect in the footer. Leave a comment with your name that you subscribe with.
5) Subscribe to the daily email here at Simply Budgeted. It is at the top of the sidebar!;) Please leave five comments. (worth 5 entries!)
6) Like this post on Facebook (the like icon is up at the top of the post!) Leave three comments (worth 3 entries!)

Disclosure: The prize pack, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Filed Under: Giveaways, Promotional, Reviews, Simply Food Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pin It Tuesday #Pinterest – Homemade Valentine’s Cards

January 31, 2012 By 3 Comments

Are you addicted to Pinterest like I am? I have to pull myself away so I was excited to see this meme! Want more details? Find them here:

Crazy About My Baybah
These pins are from my Valentine’s Day board! I love the idea of homemade Valentine’s. I admit that Grace’s Valentine’s this year will probably be semi-homemade but these ideas might be possible next year … maybe you are ahead of the game this year and can wing one of these though!!

Lip & Mustache Lollipops

you make my ♥ GLOW! from theteacherwife.blogspot.com

Wheel Fun from familyfun.go.com

The Write Card from familyfun.go.com

 

Want to join Pinterest? Let us know in the comments, and we will send you an invite! Are you following me on Pinterest? If not, follow me so I can follow you back!!

What Valentine’s are you making this year?

If you are on Pinterest, what is your favorite pin right now? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Filed Under: Kids, Memes, Pin It Tuesday #Pinterest, Simply Family Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Cleaning Two Birds with One Stove: 5 Ways to Make Spring Cleaning Work You Out

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Spring time is like the Earth’s Sunday morning… a special time to float around idly while cleaning up the mess from the two nights before. However, the Earth doesn’t have any body fat that we’re aware of, so it has never had to choose between cleaning up the house or putting in time at the gym. Lucky for us though, there are ways that we can tweak them so that we can not only burn more calories while doing getting our spring cleaning done, but reduce our risk of injury while doing them as well. Here are five tips on making your house cleaning time feel more like your gym time.

1. Strive for large, circular movements.
For example, when cleaning glass, make the radius of your circle as wide as possible… this not only cleans your glass faster, but larger circles will work out your obliques and deltoids in addition to just your arms. Also, don’t be afraid to press down hard while “waxing on” and “waxing off” (I’m trying to be mature right now), because it will not only burn more calories but create muscle endurance as well, which will allow you sustain the same amount of exertion for longer periods of time, making you more of a spring cleaning machine.

2. Keep good form
One of the easiest things to do while cleaning (besides stopping) is bending your back. This not only will lead back pain, but doesn’t allow your body to work out as many muscles as it would have if you kept your back straight. If you’re mopping, keep one hand on top of the handle. Doing this not only looks more stately, but allows your body to rotate and transfer kinetic energy more smoothly down through your arms, core and legs, reducing strain on your muscles.

3. Use music
You don’t have to do a Tom Cruise from Risky Business, but many experts agree that music distracts your mind from more painful tasks at hand, which will make time feel like it is passing faster. It doesn’t have to be some loud, high energy techno song like you hear at the gym… it could be a slow, mellow song, but as long as it puts you in a trance, it’ll make your workout less painful.

4. Make sure you’re lifting
Almost any type of cleaning involves lifting. Recent studies have shown that moderate to intense workouts burn more calories than moderate to light workouts for an extended period of time. In other words, if you’re doing the laundry, try to carry as much of it as you can at one time instead of little amounts over a longer period of time.

5. Choose which days to do what wisely
If you have a particular set of muscles in mind that you think need a “tone up,” do tasks that work out the same muscles consecutively to maximize exertion. For example, if you’re washing your car, also clean the windows and scrub the floors to build more muscle in your arms and core muscles.

If you were wondering how many calories exactly does spring cleaning burn, a recent study found that a person weighting 150 lbs. doing 30v minutes of exercise would burn about 127 calories doing “general cleaning,” 133 doing the laundry, 123 vacuuming, and 92 cooking. Considering that cooking makes it too tempting to eat food as you do it, it’s probably to say that this is the least optimal household task that one could do.

 

 

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

Meatless Monday: Black Bean and Rice Burritos

January 30, 2012 By 4 Comments

So we are officially into Week 5 of our New Year’s diet plan.  That means that we are still on a vegan diet, but we can eat bread and actually feel full from time to time.  That’s kind of a nice feeling.  The problem is that we are both quickly getting a bit bored and the comfort foods that we both love, (i.e. pizza, hot dogs, mac & cheese) are all off limits.  It can be a little frustrating to be craving chips and cheese dip and just know that you cannot have it.  More than once, we have considered giving up the whole thing.  Thankfully cooler heads have prevailed and we are still on track for meeting our goals.  The real trick right now is to put together foods that are comforting, remaking them so that they are a bit healthier.

This week, we decided to make some burritos.  For me, burritos are that slightly sinful food that I often feel bad about eating even while I am scarfing it down.  Cheese, meat, sour cream, and who knows what else crammed into a tortilla and wrapped up for easy carrying and consumption.  We just took that happy idea and fit it into our diet plan.  The great thing about this was that it was so easy.

First, we cooked the black beans in the slow cooker using Betty Crocker’s Slow Cooker Cuban Black Beans and Rice recipe.  These beans and very tasty and definitely worth a look.

Next, we sliced up some onions and peppers (green bells and red, orange, and yellow sweet peppers) and sauteed them with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little cumin.

Then, we cooked up a little rice in the standard method.  We took 1 cup of white rice, 2 cups of water, and a dash of salt, brought it all to a boil, lowered the heat to medium-low, covered it, and waited 20 minutes.  We then mixed in a little lime zest just for some extra flavor.

To put it all together, we laid down a large tortilla, spread out some vegan sour cream (in the produce section of our mega mart), and added some rice, beans, and peppers and onions.  Then, we topped the whole thing off with some chopped cilantro, diced red onion, and a little squirt of lime juice.  Fold the ends, roll it up, and enjoy!  Delicious!

Not counting the beans, the whole thing took less than 30 minutes from the time I started chopping to the time I started eating.  The kids loved it and there were plenty of leftovers (this is even better the next day).  All in all, it was a great little pick-me-up from our diet doldrums.  We hope that you give this a shot and let us know how it turns out.

Have a Meatless Monday experience, recipe, or request?  Leave us a comment and let us know what you’re up to!

Meatless Monday, a national nonprofit public health initiative, is all about incorporating more vegetables and less meat into our diet.  It’s about moderation, just one day a week, cutting down on meats high in saturated fat and increasing protein-rich plant-based foods — good for personal health and good for the planet.

Filed Under: Meatless Monday, Memes, Recipes, Simply Food Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Car Insurance on a Budget

January 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Car insurance is one of those items in your budget you don’t think about until you need it. We have only needed to file a claim with our car insurance a couple of times but every time we did, we have been thankful that we had it! The main issue with car insurance is that many people find it complicated. Is there a difference between cheap car insurance and expensive car insurance? What should your deductible be? What discounts are there? Should you compare rates at different companies? The list could go on and on.

The best bet you have is to shop around though. Find a website that will price compare for you or start looking up insurance companies and price compare on your own. One tip when you price compare is that rates generally have a set time they are valid so make sure you plan to get all of your estimates in a short period of time. When you look at the estimates, you will want to make sure they are comparing the same coverage so you can compare prices. I learned that lesson first hand a number of years ago when I decided to price check our car insurance with other insurance companies. I had a great rate come back from a company that many friends raved about to me. The rate was great … until I looked at the coverage and they were offering me half the coverage I had on my car for a small savings over six months. The lower coverage was not worth the savings to me .

So while it is up to you to decide what coverage is right for you and your care be sure to check around.

 

Filed Under: Budgeting Advice, SimplySaving Tagged With: ,

The Financial Fit College Search Method

January 28, 2012 By 2 Comments

We are excited to provide a guest post from Frank Palmasani on the topic of financial aid for college students!

It’s that time of the year for families to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. This document is used by colleges to which the student has applied and been accepted. The colleges review this information and include it with other data (like student grades, composite test scores, and interests) to determine that family’s net price.

Net price is the comprehensive cost of a college minus what is provided to that family in grants and scholarships. Colleges, as they present net price to families, might also include a student loan and a campus job. With the costs of education as high as they are today, this is what families want to know –
their net price.

In the past, net price was not known until March or April of senior year when colleges released official award letters. This year, for the first time, families have an opportunity to learn their net price at any particular college through the use of a new U.S. Department of Education initiative – net price calculators.

Every college, as of the end of October 2011, had to post a net price calculator on their website. These calculators allow families to learn an estimated net price much earlier than when the official award letters are released.

High school counselors across the country have been developing strategies and programs to help teach parents and students how to maximize the use of these net price calculators. After 25 years of delivering seminars to parent groups on the Challenges of College Costs, I developed a program to do just that – The Financial Fit College Search method.

This method begins when the family systematically assesses what they can afford to pay for college yearly. This assessment is based on an analysis of tax credit eligibility, cash flow, savings, and reasonable parent borrowing.

Once this assessment is complete, the idea is to choose a college in each of 7 college categories. Using each of those school’s net price calculators, the family would determine that college’s net price and compare it to their affordability. Does that college appear to be affordable or does it not? If it does
not, then one or more other net price calculators from schools in that category would be chosen. If it is obvious that none of the schools in a category are affordable, that category of colleges gets eliminated.

If a family finds a category of colleges (from this group of 7) or categories of colleges where the net price of the school matches their affordability, that category or those categories are the ones the family should focus on. The family then avoids the distinct possibility of having no college choices that are
affordable.

When families learn in March or April of senior year that all of the time, energy and money devoted to exploring and applying to colleges that seemed most appropriate and suitable to the student are all unaffordable, disappointment sets in. Too often this disappointment has superseded pragmatism. Much of the reason why we have a huge student debt problem is that families have chosen these unaffordable options.

The Financial Fit College Search method is designed to help families avoid this disappointment, learn how to find the affordable college options and manage their college costs without excessive debt.

These ideas are developed in much greater depth through the videos, articles, and software available at managingcollegecost.com, myfinancialfit.com, and collegecountdown.com.

Frank Palmasani is in his 36th year working in education as a High School Counselor or College Admissions Director. During that time he has delivered seminars to more than 200,000 parents, visited with thousands of families one on one, presented at numerous counselor conferences, and appeared on several Chicago area media outlets. His topic at all times has been helping families conquer college costs. He is the founder of an educational website, a software program, and will have a book published and released this fall. His innovative method of Finding Financial Fits has been utilized by high school counselors in schools across the country.

Filed Under: Budgeting Advice, SimplySaving Tagged With: , , ,

The Prescription for Saving Time and Money

January 28, 2012 By 1 Comment

We are excited to bring you a budget saving guest post from Brad Bangerter, CEO of LowestMed!

What if you had to actually to go to the airport and stand in line at each airline counter to get the prices for an upcoming trip? Of course not. It’s so easy just to get online and look up the prices of various airlines. Until now, in the world of prescription drugs, to get a price for your medication at various pharmacies, you had to physically go there and submit your prescription. Not anymore, thanks to a free app from LowestMed.

Budgeting for prescription drug costs can be difficult and frustrating. No one should ever pay retail prices; yet pharmacies can’t tell you what your insurance card or discount card price is until they fill the prescription. So how can you budget for medications and make sure you’re getting a good price?

Most consumers don’t even realize that prices vary from one pharmacy to another. But prices do vary and sometimes significantly.

For example, you might pay $43.88 for Azithromycin, a popular antibiotic, at one pharmacy or as much as $100.69 at another pharmacy for the very same drug. And this is if you use a pharmacy discount card. Retail prices are much more.

Finding alternatives to name brand drugs can also help save money. For example, you can pay $100.22 or more per month for Zocor, a cholesterol lowering medication or $4.00 per month for a generic equivalent, Lovastatin. Savings like these are abundant to savvy shoppers who can now use a convenient app to find the prices of prescription drugs before going to the pharmacy.

LowestMed has now made it simple to budget for and save on prescription drug purchases. With the new app and website, consumers can compare prices of the most commonly prescribed drugs and use an electronic discount card on a mobile device to get instant discounts. Just like shopping for travel deals, LowestMed makes it easy for you to shop, compare and save. Simply download the LowestMed app from the Apple App Store or Android Marketplace and begin saving each time you need a prescription drug.

How do you save on your prescription costs? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Filed Under: Budgeting Advice, SimplySaving Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Save the Dates

January 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

My sister is still fresh off the wedding planning roller-coaster from her wedding last year. She started thinking about her Save the Dates early because she wanted a picture of a heart on the beach in them. She had to plan to take the picture during on her planning trips to her wedding location. Thankfully, she did plan early enough and she got the perfect picture to add to her save the date cards. She went with beautiful cards after much debate of if she should use cards or magnets. The hardest part of the save the date process is planning so just start early to keep it simple and stress free!

Probably what confuses couples the most is what information should go on a save the date. Here is an easy list …

  • The first name of the bride and groom
  • The wedding date
  • The wedding location (city and state are fine … yes, be sure to include the state as some cities are in more than one state!)
  • A note that the invitation is to follow (An older relative will be convinced your save the date is the invitation and will call your mom to RSVP. It happens every time, just accept it will happen for you too!)

That is it. It is that simple. The best part of save the dates is that they don’t have to match your invitation. So pick a save the date it truly you as a couple!

 

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Simply Life Tagged With: , ,

Basic Couponing

January 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Couponing can be scary … especially if you sit and watch Extreme Couponing. Couponing doesn’t have to be extreme. The best couponing is basic, simple, and not a full time job! I love my coupons but I could never get up at 4am to cut them out. That task is set aside for completing when I am watching informative television such as American Idol and House Hunter International. You know you have a favorite show that you could cut coupons during so just admit that you do have time.

Now that you know when you will do this added task, where are you to get the coupons? The two best places for coupons are Sunday newspapers (you can get a Sunday only subscription to most papers!) and online. Many blogs and even company Facebook pages announce when coupons are available. To cut your work down even more, look for sites that pre-match sales and coupons for grocery stores, mall stores, and even everything stores like Target and Walmart!

Now remember coupons aren’t just for groceries. Sometimes the inserts have coupons for board games and even online codes for items like sending flowers. For even more online codes, visit CouponChief.com during a commercial break to that show you are watching to find online coupons, grocery coupons, and printable coupons!

Filed Under: Budgeting Advice, SimplySaving Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Friday Favorite: Logitech Wireless Mouse M305

January 27, 2012 By 2 Comments

Friday Favorites is another almost weekly feature here at Simply Budgeted. The whole point of this feature is to share some of our favorite finds. Anything is game. Food. Cleaning supplies. Kid stuff. Garden favorites. Recipes. Anything that I really like and want to randomly post about.

Reminder/Disclaimer/Whatever: Everything in Friday Favorites is something that we use and bought on our own.

Details …

The Logitech Wireless Mouse M305
offers exceptional comfort and cordless convenience. It is part of The Fantasy Collection from Logitech. Fanciful patterns, dreamy colors: the style of imagination.

  • Ergonomic design and soft rubber grips give you extra comfort
  • Plug-and forget tiny nano-receiver stays in your notebook. Plug it in once and forget about it
  • 2.4 GHz wireless connection to your Windows PC or Mac

Our Thoughts …

Brian has the green version. I have the pink version on my desk at work. I love that it is pink and screams GIRL! I bought these awhile back on a sale a Staples. The green version is the same price I paid. Actually all versions are different prices so look around!

Brian’s favorite part is the super small USB wireless receiver.  I have learned to love that as it is in my laptop and left there. Plus the batteries last a long time it which is way better than my last mouse where they would die all of the time.

We both would highly recommend this product if you are looking for a new mouse!

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