State Farm Neighborhood Assist Grant

April 17, 2013 By 1 Comment

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What is the State Farm Neighborhood Assist grant?

Do you have an idea that would make your community a better place to live, and would $25,000 be a game-changer? State Farm is here with the assist. Now through March 6, people from the United States and Canada can submit a cause for a chance to win a $25,000 State Farm Neighborhood Assist™ grant.

I was trying to think of my passion in our community and I didn’t have to think long. My passions in this community are around the kids. Friday is the first Math and Science Night at Grace’s school. Why? I asked why there were not family learning activities at the school. I said I would help plan and then I ended up planning the whole event. My undergraduate degree is an engineering degree and I LOVE to hear about activities around the math and science topics. I know our kids will have an introduction to math and science being fun but that needs to be an option for all of the kids in our community. Yes, math and science can be fun. Dancing Raisins … Catapults … you know you would enjoy those activities too. I am so excited to share these with the kids on Friday.

Now it is your turn to think.  How do you come up with idea? Think about areas of your town that need improved. Think about a subject you love … education, safety, etc.!

We were excited to see an effort local to us as a winner from last year’s program! The PACEM Shelter project is located in Charlottesville, VA just near us. Our church is part of the efforts to help house these men in our community during the cold winter months. Brian spent one night our church with these men and they are amazing. This program is amazing. “PACEM provided shelter for 229 people last year (2011) during the cold weather months when the chance of freezing on the streets was a very real concern.”

Was a there a winner in your community last year? Check out the list to see. Maybe even take a idea to expand it your to area or your loves!

Check out this overview video of the program:

Be sure to check out the State Farm Neighborhood Assist Website for more information on how to apply. Just ready to vote? Head over to the State Farm Neighborhood assist voting tab on Facebook!

What would you nominate for the State Farm Neighborhood Assist Grant Program? Leave us a comment and let us know.

NOTE: I wrote this review while participating in a campaign for Mom Central Consulting on behalf of State Farm and I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

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Happy Graduation Season … to ME!

April 2, 2013 By 16 Comments

Did you know graduation season is coming up? I am really excited about this year’s graduation season … specifically the May 18th day because that is when I will officially graduate from Virginia Tech … for the second time. This time I will have completed my Master of Arts in Education degree in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on Instructional Technology. whew! Did you catch all of that? yeah it is a lot of words for a degree that focuses in using technology for learning strategies .

For me this day in May comes after three years of hard work. You see, I think like an engineer not like a teacher. I don’t write ten page papers … I write bulleted lists and one sentence testable requirements! This degree has been a bigger challenge than I could have ever imaged when I took it on three years ago! So after all of that time, some celebrating might be in order. Maybe a backyard BBQ? Maybe a little afternoon party that obviously includes kids activities in the yard? I really don’t know but I do know that I have loved look at graduation announcements. Did you know that Tiny Prints  offers Graduation Invitations, Announcements and Gifts?

This is one of my favorites since I really don’t need my thirty-something face plastered all over my graduation announcement! What do you think?

Chalkboard Graduation Announcement from Tiny Prints

Remember that Tiny Prints Graduation Announcements and Invitations are quality you can feel! Oh and if you aren’t the graduate, don’t worry! Check out Tiny Prints Gifts that include personalized notepads, mugs, iPhone cases, notebooks, personal stationery!

We are excited to offer a giveaway to our readers for $50 off your total order at Tiny Prints! Good Luck!

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New Year’s Resolutions – The February Edition

February 13, 2013 By 12 Comments

It is the middle of February and it seems like a great time to check in on everyone’ New Year’s resolutions.  Did you make any?  Are you still on track for keeping them?

Our resolution was to lose weight. Well, that is nowhere near specific enough, so we resolved to eat better.  Specifically, we decided to go Paleo for the month of January.  Towards the end of the month, we had our little cheats (I ate a Dorito one day while getting a snack together for Matthew … shhh, don’t tell Beth!)  For the most part, we did pretty well, losing nearly 25 pounds between us!

Since then, though … well, let’s just say that our best foot forward has fallen behind a little. We have allowed more bread and dairy to creep back into our diets. Since we know that we can’t let bread go altogether, we need to make sure that we limit it and that we temper the extra calories with extra exercise. Maybe we need to set a mid-February Resolution to get ourselves back on track….

Another exciting side effect to our January efforts (besides the much needed weight loss) was the budget tightening that happened!  We focused and made sure that we were eating those healthy meals at home instead of heading out to the local restaurants for easier mealtimes.  While it means a little extra effort on our part, those meals add up quickly when we feed five us at even the simplest of dinners out!  Any efforts we can take to help stay on track with our eating habits and sticking to our financial goals are well spent efforts for sure!  What successes have you seen so far this year?

In an effort to help you keep those tough resolutions and make 2013 your best year yet, we are excited to announce that Visa Prepaid has created the Build Your Best Year instant win game.  Keep up with resolutions or create new February edition ones – you  can set goals for the year for the chance to win Premium Headphones or a $15 Visa Gift card. Additionally, every game play gives the user an opportunity to win the grand prize of a Tablet PC with kickstand and touch keyboard.

So what are you waiting for? Get back on track with your New Year’s Resolution or make a February Edition Resolution! Leave us a comment and let us know what your resolutions are!

I am blogging on behalf of Visa Prepaid and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa’s. Discover more at http://www.VisaPrepaid.com or join the Visa Prepaid community at http://www.facebook.com/VisaPrepaid.

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Why Do We Blog?

December 15, 2012 By

I posted on Facebook today that I was surprised the Keurig winner just wrote “thank you” in the email they sent me. Maybe it wasn’t fair to compare that to the email we received earlier this week from a coupon winner that wrote two paragraphs thanking us for the $5 free product coupon but I did compare. I shared what I thought and what so many bloggers feel yet fail to share when a giveaway winner just doesn’t share their excitement for a prize.  I hope that everyone knows and understands that if we blogged for thank yous, I would have given up the minute I started way back in 2009! We, as so many bloggers, just hope to see the same excitement we have carry over to our winners because we are truly excited about what we do and the opportunity to offer giveaways. All that being said since so many of you are new here, I thought I would share why we write.

We write because we love to write.

I know that sounds silly but if we didn’t love writing, we wouldn’t be writing here at Simply Budgeted. The fact that we get to share our lives, our finds, and so much with you is a wonderful blessing that we never expected to have!

Then why do we offer giveaways?

We do this because we like to show our appreciation to our readers. Many veteran bloggers have stopped offering giveaways just because of the amount of added effort and frustration they cause. I will admit we have discussed drastically reducing the giveaways we offer for just that reason and it is still on the table for discussion.
We offer the giveaways for YOU not because they make us money or even for the products. A giveaway for a coupon is honestly not worth the time I put coordinating the giveaway, writing the post, promoting the post, and closing out the giveaway. I should probably be cleaning … or organizing the basement … or maybe I should just take that time and read but I love the opportunity to share with others and I know in some cases that coupon makes a big difference for the winner. If you knew how many giveaways I had to turn away this month, you might be shocked. This is the first time I have had to turn so much down. We just didn’t have the time to even start to offer them all and with each one I turned down I felt a little guilty as I am sure it is something that one of our readers could have really used. But our time for Simply Budgeted is very limited.

Oh and the giveaways we offer with other bloggers generally cost us money out of pocket to offer. We participate in those giveaways because we love the prizes being offered and want to offer a FUN giveaway instead of a work giveaway. The Keuirg giveaway was just that, a blogger coordinated giveaway that did not involve the brand at all. Each participating blogger PAID to participate because they wanted to offer that giveaway to their readers before the holidays. That is a bloggers way of say thanks.

But this is your business …

Yes, it is. We made the decision in July 2011 that Simply Budgeted would be a part time business. Brian runs the business … he has the business major so it fits. I essentially work for free just because I love the writing and organizing of blogging. For now, this fits in our life because he can run this business as he has time … not sure how he has time as a stay at home dad to three kids but he finds the time to manage the business side. This isn’t a dream come true though as Brian’s dream job is teaching high school social studies and that hasn’t changed. He isn’t in a classroom because there are no local jobs. We saw an opportunity though and Simply Budgeted became a HUGE blessing to our family just when we needed it. Simply Budgeted lets us make ends meet while we are paying off debt … because at the end of the day we are a budgeted family. If you are here reading this then you understand that you do what you have to do as a family to make your budget work … we just happen to share how that happens here in a public space. (Psst … you can too if you want!)

We know we are blessed. We are very blessed in what we have here at Simply Budgeted. We appreciate each and every one of our readers. You make this site what it is. But honestly, if we didn’t have you or the business side, we would keep writing just because the opportunity to share with everyone is a unique gift we have with today’s technology. We wouldn’t be offering giveaways  for sure or even posting as much but we would still be here because it is our place to write and share.

I haven’t decided if the comments will be left open on this post or not. If they are closed, it isn’t anything personal but is because this is an explanation … not a debate.

Thanks for being one of our special readers. We enjoy interacting with you on an almost daily basis!!

 

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

The High Calling Weekly Newsletter

December 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

Details …

Every week, the editors at The High Calling send out a newsletter pointing more than 20,000 subscribers to the most encouraging faith and work content on our site, in our community, and on the web.

Each week, The High Calling promotes the newsletter on Facebook with a shareable poster style image that contains a nugget of encouragement. Here is a beautiful example …

Our Thoughts …

With all of the junk that we get daily in our email, an inspiring and uplifting email is needed sometimes. It is wonderful to have that available with the weekly emails through The High Calling. I love how the stories relate directly to your life with topics around work and family. I don’t need to search for topics that may fit where I am right now … they are just there for me! Plus I might not have time to read a book right now but I can check our a short article on a topic that will make me think about my application of my faith in my daily life.

The October 24, 2012 weekly newsletter had a topic of Lending a Hand at Work. How many of us think about being the one that gives help instead of just asking for help? Do we remember to give thanks to those that we do help us when we are on the receiving end of help? The challenge in this article to be the helper is very appropriate at this time of the year as we look to share and give what we have and in some cases it may be as simple as knowledge we have or an extra set of hands to make a task come to completion faster.

Want to receive these emails yourself? Sign up here.

What inspiring messages do you like to see your email inbox? Leave me a comment and let me know!

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Boostcase Smartphone Battery Life Extender

December 12, 2012 By 20 Comments

We are excited to share our thoughts about the Boostcase!

Details …

What is the Boostcase?

A detachable battery sleeve charges your phone all day long, doubling battery life for longer on-the-go usage. Works with any Hybrid Snap-On case (sold separately).

The Boostcase is designed to be ON all the time because when the iPhone is 100% full (such as after recharging), the iPhone will draw power from the boost battery first. Once the battery in the case dies then the iPhone will finally use its own battery, otherwise it will be in standby and will not be used. This means that you will recharge your iPhone about half as much as you normally would, hence it will double the life expectancy of the battery. There is nothing wrong with leaving the case OFF and not using it until you want it, as this will also achieve the desired effect of doubling the amount of time to use the iPhone. However just note that to also increase the life expectancy of your iPhone battery we recommend leaving the case ON (it automatically turns on when you connect).

Boostcase has an internal battery about the same size as the iPhone, so it will take around the same time to fully recharge the case as it would your iPhone (2-3hours). We recommend charging both case and iPhone together at night so when you wake up you are fully recharged both case and iPhone ready to go.

Our Thoughts…

I love the Boostcase!  Beth thinks it is too heavy and too big, but I have to roll my eyes at her a bit because she keeps her iPhone in her purse all day.  I tend to keep mine in my pocket and, while it does give the phone a bigger footprint, I am more than willing to make the trade-off for all day Twittering, Facebooking, texting, etc.

I recently went to the Mixed Conference, a weekend retreat for food bloggers.  The signal at the hotel, when it did decide to show up, was extremely weak.  That means that my phone spent the entire day searching for a signal.  Normally, that would completely drain my phone.  Instead, the Boostcase kept my phone charged all day.  I was up and moving at around 7 that morning and did not go to bed until around 1 the next morning.  When I finally plugged my phone in for the night, the phone still had half of it’s battery left!  That was after all day on Twitter, taking pictures, texting, and searching for the elusive signal!  The best part was that, the next morning, it was all completely recharged.  That’s right!  The battery and Boostcase were almost completely drained and it took less than a full night to completely recharge them both!

All in all, I fully recommend picking up one of these.

We are excited that the folks at Boostcase have offered  to give a Boostcase to one of our readers too! Are you excited?! Good luck!!

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Does Your Car Make You Ready for Holiday Travel?

December 5, 2012 By 3 Comments

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Content and/or other value provided by our partner, Kia Motors

Are you headed out on the road this holiday season? #kiaholiday We will do some traveling but not as much as in years past. We feel as though we have started to master the routine of traveling with three kids (and sometimes one dog!) Of course there are the potty breaks but even before you think about that, you need to make sure that everyone can get out of the car quickly. Packing items under kids feet seems like a great idea until they step on grandma’s present! oops!

Drinks and snacks are also key. The kids all have cup holders in their car seats … thankfully. But even at that, we end up using all built in cup holders too so the kids have back up drinks they can reach! I have learn your can NEVER have enough cup holders. Never. The snacks are tucked into the car seat pockets or if they are lucky I will chuck a snack back to them (here is where I should mention that aim is horrible so I really try to avoid this task!)

Entertainment is the next factor we have to keep in mind that anything beyond a one hour car drive needs to have entertainment. We seem to be passed the days of where a DVD made everyone happy. Now Grace wants to  watch where we are driving or endlessly talk about gosh know what. Sophie and Matthew prefer to fight over what movie is playing and who is touching who at that moment. Oh the joys of three kids in one vehicle … I think they need ear phones … or maybe I need ear plugs!

What are your must have road trip snacks or entertianment? Leave us a comment and let us know!

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Hotel Review: Checking In at the Hotel Helix

November 17, 2012 By 8 Comments

When Beth and I were up at the DC Metro Cooking and Entertaining Show, we had a great opportunity to stay at the lovely Hotel Helix.  This quirky little hotel is located right in the heart of the Arts District in Washington, DC in the Logan Circle neighborhood.  When you drive up, you don’t really feel like you are coming up to a hotel.  It feels more like a little apartment building.

The first thing you notice is that the Hotel Helix is very conveniently located.  It was less than a five-minute taxi ride from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.  The next morning, I went for a nice little 3-mile run down to the Washington Monument and back and Beth and I walked to breakfast and then even walked back to the cooking show for the second day.  Even with luggage in tow, the walk was a great way to get up and moving on a Sunday morning away from home.

The hotel itself was just a neat experience.  The front desk area was very professional and on the way to the elevators, we passed the bar and dining area, which looked like it had a pretty fun vibe to it.  If we stay here again, we’ll have to make sure to take better advantage of it.  The room itself was decked out in this cool, funky decor.  Wrap around couches, fun wall coverings, even the sheets were something that i just don’t usually see in a hotel room.  Since we were looking for things to be wrong, we found a couple.  That’s just part of me and the way that I review things.  Some of the wallpaper was starting to peel and the toilet paper holder was starting to come out of the wall.  I see these as little maintenance issues that are easily addressed.  In no way did they take away from the overall experience of the hotel.

The best thing that I can say about this place is that the Hotel Helix is definitely family- and pet-friendly.  The neighborhood seemed very safe and they offer many different types of rooms, including some with bunk beds!  Seriously!  When was the last time that you went to a hotel with bunk beds?  We even got on the elevator with one lady who was taking her dog out for a walk.  When you add in spa services, the cool lounge with an evening bubbly hour, and great coffee in the morning, the Hotel Helix is really a kind of escape in the middle of Washington, DC.

If you are headed to DC this holiday season, you might consider staying here so that you can get away from the craziness of your family. What do you think? Does Hotel Helix sound like a great home away from home for you in the Washington, DC area? Leave us a comment and let us know!

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Just Jen Blogger Shirt

November 9, 2012 By 16 Comments

Maybe you aren’t a blogger but you have a business or maybe you have something you love to say. Just Jen is place to start looking. You may remember the 6th birthday shirt I feature earlier this year. I was beyond excited when Just Jen offered me a blogger shirt for the Metro Cooking Show in DC. So here is the shirt I wore the first day …

I would introduce myself to businesses and they would repeat “Simply Budgeted” then look at my shirt and say “oh Simply Budgeted”. I honestly have no idea why it made sense when they saw my shirt but I loved that it made a connection for them, who knew that was possible with a shirt?

Another picture of me wearing the shirt shows the side a little better …

Overall, I love this shirt. I will admit I didn’t wear it at all until the event. I was afraid I would mess it up. Then I went to a food show and got it dirty. I can tell you though it came nice and clean in the wash. I have a feeling this shirt will get a lot of wear around town which will be a big step for me since I don’t generally wear anything that Simply Budgeted on it. I can’t leave this shirt in the drawer though … it must be worn!

What do you think? Did I do good with the green letters on the white shirt? What shirt would you pick? Well it is your lucky day! I have been offered a giveaway to our readers so good luck picking a shirt you love! The giveaway is for one Just Jen shirt with a custom or existing design, excluding custom logos and hoodies!

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Friday Favorite: Moo Cards

November 2, 2012 By 1 Comment

Moo what? Moo Cards! I love these little business cards. I have been longing for a reason to get them so when we decided to head to the Metro Cooking Show in DC this weekend, that was my opportunity!

Why Moo Cards? I love the color pictures and the unique size. I hope that we can hand out a lot of these cards and you will some great food content coming up on Simply Budgeted as a result of these Moo Cards!

With Moo Cards, you can a different picture on the back of every card printed! I picked my favorite food pictures we have taken and Brian helped me narrow it down these nine!

The cupcake is my favorite … what is your favorite?

Oh and this picture show the front of the cards:

I made a logo using the fonts from our blog and then we added our contact information to the bottom. There was a BIG debate on what went on there but you can see we left off a phone number but added our Facebook ID and the primary Twitter account for Simply Budgeted. I am sure everyone will have a different opinion on what should have been on there but we love the way they look.

The funniest reaction so far was my dad. He says these cards aren’t for old people since they are small but honestly the font size on them isn’t that different than my traditional business cards. He then tried to fit them all together like they were a puzzle to make a bigger picture. Sorry dad, I wasn’t that creative when I laid out the backed of the cards!

What is Friday Favorites?

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.

What do you think of Moo Cards? Leave me a comment let me know!

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