REVIEW + GIVEAWAY: Alternative ABC's

Copyright: © 2010 http://www.ammobooks.com/

I was fortunate enough to be chosen by AMMO books to receive copy of the book "Alternative ABC's" to review.  I want to send a huge thanks to Business2Blogger for making it possible for me to find this opportunity.

I am a different mom....I am not a soccer mom.  My children consider tattoos and piercings normal.  I have tattoos. The girl has been known to rock out to Pink and Rage Against The Machine.  For example...on the phone one day with a friend of mine, I said I was going to get brownies out of the oven and finish dinner and he said "I just can not picture you being Holly Homemaker, baking brownies, wearing an apron and all of that."
Thanks Josh...really.

So, when the opportunity to preview this book arose I JUMPED at it because I love things that are "different" from the norm.   This book is such a fun departure from your typical kids ABC's book.  We all three LOVE this book.  We read it every night before we go to bed.

I love the fonts and colors that were used, I love the fresh take on the alphabet that this book has and I LOVE the choice of representative items!!! It's not just "A is for Alligator or B is for Ball!"   We have loads of those books and the girl gets bored halfway through them and ditches them...Instead we have "B" is for Boombox and "K" is for Kicks!!!

According to the AMMO books website:

Aesthetically borrowing from street, surf, skate, and music subcultures, the custom design and typography beautifully spell out this unique alphabet. From Calligraffiti to Pin-Striping, and from Goth to Punk, this little book crosses genres and is sure to create a buzz.

I agree, hands down!!!

The book is not only fun but it is educational!!!  My daughter now has sooo many more words that she can use for a simple item.  She brings her shoes to me and says "These Sissy's Kicks!" How cute is that???  Not to mention, the artwork is beautiful, colors are bright, bold and crisp and the subject matter is just plain creative!!

You know what I think but what do the kids think???

The kids reading in the tent. This is a very common sight at my house.  They climb in there and Sissy "reads" to her brother.  He was sick the day this picture was taken.  That's why he won the bottle battle ;)

Little Man and I were having a snack in the floor when he went and found this book, brought it back and started reading.  I just had to grab a picture of it.  My kids LOVE books, but this one is the current favorite!

If you are as taken by the colorful images and creative ideas that went into this book as I was then you may want to get a copy for your kids or to give as a gift.  What a cute gift for your favorite rocker or hipster kid!!! 

BUY IT:

You can buy the book online at AMMO Books HERE for $14.95

You can also buy the book online at Amazon by clicking on the book title here: Alternative ABCs (Chunky Edition).  It is $10.08 at Amazon.

WIN IT:

AMMO books has graciously agreed to give a book to one of my readers.  All you have to do to win a copy is follow Crazy Coupon Carol via Google Friend connect and leave a comment on this post letting me know that you are a follower.

This giveaway will end at 11:59pm Central time on Monday June 14th.  Winner will be selected by Random.org

Good Luck to all of you!!!
Disclaimer: AMMO books provided me with a free copy of Alternative ABC's and is providing another copy of the book to Give Away to one of my readers. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and not influenced in any way by anyone. Please refer to this site's Terms of Use for more information.

Giveaway: Cascadian Farms Live Green Together Prize Pack

Have you hopped over to Cascadian Farm fan page on facebook to Take a pledge with me yet?

For each person that signs a pledge now through May 31, 2010, Cascadian Farm will donate $1, up to $40,000, to the Organic Farming Research Foundation, which fosters the improvement and widespread adoption of organic farming systems.  I am pledging to be a better food planner.  You know that is one of my goals anyway. Some of their other pledges include:
Reusing old clothes (host a clothing swap for old out-grown clothing for kids.)
Beware of vampires (unplug electronics or shut off at the outlet)
Wash your car on the grass.
Hug a tree
and a few more.

Well..if you haven't yet - here is your chance!! Enter my giveaway and win some great products from Cascadian Farm!!

Review:
Cascadian Farm was kind enough to send me the prize pack depicted above.  I was so excited to find out that MyBlogSpark and Cascadian Farm were teaming up to sponsor this giveaway on my blog!!!  I LOVE Cascadian Farm!!! Love their granola bars, love their cereals, love their fruits & veggies.  Love it all.  I am really LOVING the granola.  I am enjoying a bowl of the Oats & honey right now and am quite tempted to go back for another bowl of it. 

The Oats & Honey Granola stays crunchy in milk for quite a while and even though mine has currently been sitting in the milk about 10 minutes it still has a similar crunch factor to roasted peanuts.  It has such a great flavor to it and a wonderful texture/level of crunch.  I love granola anyway so this one is a winner in my book!

The Dark Chocolate Almond Granola is also quite tasty and has the same crunch factor as the Oats & Honey.  It has a terrific flavor.  I had a bowl of that last night at midnight.  (Why yes, I am gaining weight ;) Thanks for noticing!)  One bowl of this was VERY filling and it squashed my desire to go back and find something else to snack on  That was great!

The Cinnamon Crunch Cereal pieces are little crunchy squares with cinnamon and sugar on them.  These stayed crunchy in my milk for a long time.  My kids loved them.  This was their side item for lunch today to go with their chicken sandwich.  I felt great about that since they are organic and not full of sugar and chemicals. 

The Fruitful O's Cereal were my very FAVORITE! I may hide these from everyone else! As you might imagine these are little cereal bits shaped like the letter "O" with fruit flavors.  Taste wise these actually reminded me of a cereal from my childhood that isn't made anymore!  If you are my age or slightly older then you might remember the old cereal from the early 80's -  "Donkey Kong Jr"? These tasted quite similar to me.  Your experience might differ.  These will definitely go on my list of "Products I love and will buy whenever I have a coupon!"

Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars...I'll let my daughter review that for you.  Rather her behavior....My daughter is a picky eater who actually sat down last night and ate an entire chewy chocolate chip granola bar.  Normally new food receives the obligatory bite then she throws the rest of the food from her high chair as far as she can.   No matter what I do to curb it, that is her reaction to new items and she's 2 so I kind of expect it.  Then she will say "I don't yike it. It Gwoss mommy!"   She took one bite of her granola bar last night and said "Yummy mommy.  I yike it, I yike it! Happy! Happy!" When she finished it she wanted another one.  I was floored.  They are very tasty and chewy and it is a food I enjoyed eating very much.

Dark Chocolate Almond Granola Bars - I think this was my least favorite item that was sent to me.  It's not that I didn't like them.  These are actually quite good.  They are high in fiber which is a healthy way to go but high fiber food always seems to have a different texture to me and I am a very picky eater when it comes to texture.  Like I said, I still liked these but I probably won't buy this particular flavor in the store.  The rest of these items I will totally be on the lookout for!

BUY IT:

You can buy Cascadian Farm products at your local grocery store, and you can print a coupon for them HERE.  (Coupon is $1.00/1 Cascadian Farm Products) You can also Buy them on Amazon in bulk.

WIN IT:
Cascadian Farm is giving away a "Live Green Together" prize pack that includes Cascadian Farm cereals and granola bars, including: Fruitful O´s cereal, Cinnamon Crunch cereal, Chocolate Chip Chewy granola bars, Dark Chocolate Almond Granola, Dark Chocolate Almond granola bars, Oats & Honey granola, and an eco-friendly grocery bag.

So one lucky winner will receive the same array of stuff that I did to try.

The Rules:
For each entry please leave a single comment on this post. So if you choose to do 3 entry methods then you would leave 3 comments.  If you already qualify for one of the entries then just comment. Already a facebook fan? say that ;) You can earn several entries for this giveaway.

Giveaway ends 5/10/10 at 11:59 Central time.  Winner will be chosen  via random.org after the close of the Giveaway.  You MUST Leave your email address if it is not somewhere on your public profile.  If I cannot get in touch with you then you forfeit your win and I will choose another winner.  If the winner does not respond to my email within 48 hours I will choose another winner.

The Entries:

MANDATORY ENTRY: Visit the Cascadian Farm page, click the "Like" button and take the EarthDay Pledge!! Come back and tell me what your pledge was in a comment.

EXTRA ENTRY 1: Become a Public Follower of Crazy Coupon Carol & Leave a comment letting me know you are a Public Follower.
EXTRA ENTRY 2: Become a Facebook Fan of Crazy Coupon Carol & Leave a comment letting me know you are a Facebook Fan.
EXTRA ENTRY 3: Follow Me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway linking to this post.  Be sure to include @Caranya in your tweet & Leave a comment linking me to your tweet.
EXTRA ENTRY 4: Become a Subscriber.  Subscribe to get Crazy Coupon Carol in your Email each day. & Leave a comment letting me know your email address where you receive it.
EXTRA ENTRY 5: Leave a comment with a tip of one way that you live greener. Can do this up to 3 times.

Disclaimer: Cascadian Farm provided me with a "Live Green Together" prize pack and is sponsoring this giveaway to provide one reader with the same. They also provided me with some information for this post all via MyBlogSpark .  ALL opinions expressed in this post are my own and not influenced in any way by anyone.  Your opinions and tastebuds may differ.  I was not financially compensated for this post.  Please refer to this site's Terms of Use for more information.

I WON!

Check this out!

My new favorite pass-time is entering giveaways.

Here is why I enter....

In 2009 here was my loot:

1 year subscription to "All You" magazine. - Common Sense with Money

1 Box of Cereal + $25.00 GC to Barnes & Nobles + 5 books - I Heart Saving Money

3 Crayola Toys - Getting all my ducks in a row

In 2010 Here is my loot:

Little Pim GIft Pack (Includes spanish flash cards & spanish kids cd!!) - Modern Mami

If you are a giveaway junkie or want to become one - if you look on the main page of the blog at the far right side towards the bottom I have a big list of giveaway posts that people post on a weekly basis. They are organized by day of the week when the individual blogger posts their mclinky. Just scroll through the giveaways and choose the ones you want to enter.

I have commited to only submitting one or two easy entries to each giveaway because if I do all of the entries it's too much effort and I never finish or get to them all.

Kroger $25.00 Giveaway WINNER

I got up this morning and drew the winner of the giveaway for the $25.00 Kroger Gift Card!!!

The winner was drawn using random.org as you can see to the left :)

The winner is:

Jennireesa said...

I'm going to stock up on diapers!!

MARCH 9, 2010 7:24 PM

Congratulations Jennireesa!!! I have emailed her and she has 48 hours to email me back with the requested information or I choose another winner :)

Disclaimer: General Mills and the Kroger family of stores provided me with a $25.00 gift card for personal use, information for inclusion in this post as well as this giveaway through MyBlogSpark. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and not influenced in any way by anyone. Please refer to this site's Terms of Use for more information.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED NOW

I was contacted this week by MyBlogSpark on behalf of Kroger & their affiliate stores, asking me to do a giveaway for them to promote their CartBuster sale!!! What a Cart Buster it is!! I definitely plan to Bust my cart this coming week...Check out my favorite deals for my area!!

Kroger Deals for the Nashville Area March 7-March 13th

Beverages:
Pepsi Products 3/$9.00 (Good only when you buy 3 ...buy less than 3 and they are 33¢ more each.)
Kroger Orange Juice (Select Varieties) half-gallon - 99¢

Frozen:
Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers $1.28 each
-50¢/1 Printable here or here,
-$1.00/2 inside betty crocker products
-$1.00/2 tearpad
-50¢/2; $1.00/3 SS 2/21
-$1.00/3 Kroger home mailer

Grocery:
Betty Crocker Cake Mix 10/$10!!
Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks $1.79
50¢/2 printable here, here, here

Health & Beauty
Luvs Diapers Mega Pack- $9.99
-$2.50/1 Home Mailer

Produce:
Organic Kiwi - 44¢ each
Organic Navel Oranges - 99¢ / lb

Meat:
Boneless Pork Loin - $1.99/lb!!
Boneless Sirloin Pork Chops - $1.79/lb

Those are just a tiny portion of my favorites!!! I would match the whole ad for you but I have a very sick 2-year-old who woke me at 2:30 this morning complaining that her tummy hurt.

I am looking forward to hitting Kroger this week in a major way. I have big plans for cleaning out the freezer and stocking it with some pork loin - that is a wonderful price (in my opinion!)

As I said way back at the beginning of this post - MyBlogSpark contacted me and will be sending me a $25.00 giftcard to use during the Cart Buster savings event to help me in Busting my Cart (And BOY Do I plan to use that puppy!!) They are also going to send one lucky reader a giftcard as well!!!

The giftcard is not just for Kroger stores! It is for the Kroger family of stores!! This includes Kroger, Ralph´s, King Soopers, City Market, Dillons, Smith´s, Fry´s, QFC, Baker´s, Owen´s, Jay C Food Stores, Hilander, Gerbes, Food4Less, Pay Less Super Markets and Scott´s Food & Pharmacy!!!

How to Enter the Giveaway:

Be sure to leave one comment for each entry into the giveaway as the winner will be chosen this friday (march 12) via random.org Be sure to include a valid email address so that I have a way to contact you!!!

1. Leave a comment on this post, telling me one of the following (1 entry)
--What you plan to stock up on while the prices are so low
--How close you have come to "Busting your Cart" during the sale so far
--What items you were surprised to see included in this sale
--What you are EXCITED about being on sale
2. Tweet about my giveaway linking to this post. Be sure to include me in the tweet @Caranya http://bit.ly/dx8261(1 entry)
3. Blog about this giveaway linking to this post. (2 entries) Link me to your post in one of your comments)
4. Become a public follower of my blog (1 entry)
5. Grab my button and display it on your blog (1 entry)
6. Become an email subscriber (1 entry)
7. Fan Crazy Coupon Carol on facebook - leave your facebook name (1 entry)

That gives you 8 possible chances to win $25.00 of FREE Groceries from MyBlogSpark and The Kroger Family of Stores!!!

This giveaway will end at Midnight Central time on Friday March 13th.
Good Luck to all of you!!!

Disclaimer: General Mills and the Kroger family of stores provided me with a $25.00 gift card for personal use, information for inclusion in this post as well as this giveaway through MyBlogSpark. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and not influenced in any way by anyone. Please refer to this site's Terms of Use for more information.

Win a $25.00 Publix Giftcard from Iheartpublix.com

Wanted to let you guys know about a contest out there for some free grocery money!! I have meant to write about this since I saw it but man....Sick kids are good at keeping me from remembering things :)

Also every time I sit down one or both of my children wants my attention!

So quick! go here and enter the giveaway!!!

She is choosing a winner tomorrow (Monday) around 11pm Eastern!!

Win a $50.00 publix giftcard!! also - SNOW WHITE!!!

Yeah I know some of you scroll through giveaway posts but if I were you I would totally stop!!!

If you are one of the folks who i have talked to recently who were sad about missing out on the Snow White Deal- I have a super Deal for you!!!!

Michelle over at I heart saving money is having a giveaway and is giving you the Snow White DVD!! If you remember I won some books and a gift card and some cheerios over on her blog a few days ago - so people DO win!!! Go HERE and enter her contest - leave a comment on her post :) You have until Sunday December 13th to play!!!

Are you running low on grocery funds? Michelle is also giving away 2 $50.00 Publix gift cards on her blog!!!! You can go enter this contest here!! This contest ends December 10th!!!!

Hurry hurry - it takes you maybe 5 minutes of your time to enter those giveaways and i'd LOVE for one of my readers (or THREE of my readers!!) to win these prizes!!

I'm not entering either giveaway because I already won something this month from Michelle's blog.

I am entering plenty of other giveaways though!! If you are interested in trying your luck at some giveaways then scroll down and on the right hand side you will find a new feature ALL about giveaways. It has a listing of everywhere you can go and find people linking up their giveaways!!

If you would like me to start posting the giveaways i'm entering so you can see the variety I will be happy to post links to them!!

In the past few days here are some i've entered:
3 carseat giveaways
12 or so toy giveaways
cloth diaper giveaway
giftcard giveaways
a ball pit giveaway
a toddler mp3 player giveaway
a few double stroller giveaways

I'd really like to find someone giving away tires!!! that would rock my face off!! (as my cousin would say ;) )

Now to quote another famous person...

"You can't always get what you want...."

So how would you like to win $150 this holiday season?

I am on a giveaway kick these days. I drive my friends and family crazy over on facebook because I am a fan of big prize giveaways and I enter every giveaway they have and then I publish it on my wall because then if one person enters for me and they win then I win too - ya know ;)

For those of you who may be new to the game or may not know me very well let me explain briefly what life is like for me. I have two beautiful children (almost 9 and 26 months) I am raising them alone. We live with my dad which is awesome but I don't want to be a burden to him so I try to pay my own way. In the current economy it is very difficult to get a job that pays well without having to go pass a credit check. For some reason potential employers do not look favorably upon foreclosure being on your credit report.

SO I am left to work from home... There are a lot of needs that come up for us that are not urgent needs. It's something I need but we can survive a little longer without that. For instance - larger cloth diapers for my son who developed an allergy to dispo`sable diapers last month. A good friend of mine gave me some diapers for him (Thank you Tessa!!!) but he is rapidly outgrowing some of them so that is a need that is not urgent - got it? good!

When I have a need like that I start searching for giveaways.

So imagine my joy when I found this info today...Jolly Mom has a giveaway for 10 of her readers to all win $50.00 American Express giftcards. You can go enter that here. It is sponsored by AmEX and they are the ones giving away the gift cards.

Oh yeah - if you'd like to win $100.00 then you should enter American Express's Twis the season Twitter Giveaway. (Details can be found here.) From the American Express Website:

American Express wants to make your holiday shine even brighter this year with the ‘Twis the Season $100 Gift Card giveaways on Twitter!

Each business day between December 2nd and December 15th, 2009, American Express will randomly select three winners to each win a $100 American Express^® Gift Card.

To enter, just tweet @americanexpress any holiday gift you want, up to a $100 value, using the following format:

Hey @americanexpress. I have _________ on my holiday list. Pick me! #amexgiftcard.

It can be anything from a new bike helmet to a cashmere scarf for Mom. You can enter once each business day between 12/2/09 and 12/15/09 for multiple chances to win!

If you are a lucky winner, @americanexpress will tweet your name at 9:00am Eastern Standard Time each day, Monday – Friday, and direct message you with details on how to claim your prize. To receive direct messages from us, please make sure you are following @americanexpress.

..

Blastoff Review

Oh look!I had five minutes continuously together so I could draw a winner out of my blastoff giveaway. (actually - i evidentally don't have that...since i have two babies crawling all over me. One is sick and whiney and the other one is just little and needy :) He is also mad at me because I will not allow him to type his 40 page discertation on important baby information that he is trying so desperately to type!!

i hope you guys enjoyed the giveaway as much as I did. I really really enjoyed your comments. i especially enjoyed the comment from someone who said "thanks for a social networking site that work hasn't blocked yet." that comment made me laugh :)

Unfortunately I can only have one winner. And the winner is....

My favorite thing about this website is the concept. I hate having like 10 tabs open and moving from one to another. Everything in one window is smart!! Looking forward to it! THANKS! --blogattoday@xxxxxx.xxx

An email has been sent to her and hopefully she will email me back within 48 hours and i can get her prize to her - Congratulations Michelle! :)

Blastoff Review and $20.00 Target Gift e-card giveaway

I am super excited to share this with you :) If you are over on facebook at all then you may have seen where I shared with you that I have had the opportunity for six weeks now to use and review a brand new site called Blastoff.

What is Blastoff?

According to the website information under the tab of "What is Blastoff"...

Blastoff Network is your launch pad to the internet which can be customized
with your favorite news, music, videos, blogs, social networks and shopping, all
in one place! Blastoff Network also pays you when you shop online. (You get
varying %'s back depending on where you shop - Starbucks 6%, Target Up to 2%
plus they have a special where you get free shipping on certain toys!!)

The concept of a rebating web portal is not new!!! We've already got ebates.com and mypoints.com and swagbucks.com all of which give you SOMETHING for shopping through their portal. Cashback is not a new concept - it's not even unique to the web.

So these folks at Blastoff had better have a good deal going right? Well they do!! Part of the exciting thing about blastoff is that they actually give you a commission when people you refer buy stuff. Let's say you are signed up as a Blastoff member and you refer your best friend. Any time your best friend buys something online through the blastoff portal you get paid. Sure it's a small amount of money but in this economy - if you hand me a penny - i'm seriously keeping that bad boy!!!

This can actually be a way for non-profits to earn money for upcoming events or for uniforms or whatever is needed. (I see enormous implications with Mission organizations, high school bands, etc.) The non profit would sign up first and then all members of the nonprofit would sign up as referrals of the non-profit. Then any time the people who were referred by the non profit purchase stuff online using the website - the non profit gets a little bit of money.

One thing that impresses me about this is that it's not just you and your friends that you get cash back from. You get cash back from as far away as 10 degrees of separation. So when your cousin's - neighbor's - mother's - second-cousin's - hair dresser's-sister's-college roommate's - high school BFF's sister gets married next fall and goes on her honeymoon and pays for it through Blastoff as a part of your network - you still get paid and so does everyone in between. Everyone makes a comission. It's about time corporations started giving back to the little guy - right?

Other really cool things about Blastoff.

It is fully customizable. What you see above is my "information" section. You can customize the photo that shows up behind each section but I like the standard wallpapers so until I get bored I'm not going to mess with it :). I chose my news that I wanted to receive and even chose which order to display it there on my screen.

It is rumored (and I have even seen screenshots!!) that you can put facebook and twitter side by side but I haven't found that yet. To be honest it may not even be active yet since the site doesn't even launch for another 2 weeks!!

If you are a Prepaid legal member you can print off all kinds of legal forms for free!! (that's in the top section) If you aren't a prepaid legal member you can pay $19.95 a year to have access to the legal forms.

You can watch Youtube or Hulu or listen to radio stations.

You can even play games right there on the webpage. It's like a one stop shop for time wasting!! And we all like to waste a little time - right?? :)

The only thing I do NOT like about the site is that it is VERY memory intensive and locks up every computer I have in the house. (That's not as hard to do as it sounds though - I've locked up every computer in the house with only blogger and gmail!!!) As long as I don't try to multi-task too much then it's fine.

My very favorite part about the site?

It's FREE!!!

Now that i've had a few weeks to check this website out and see how cool it is I want to share it with you.

The only problem with that is that the official launchdate is yet to be determined but I think it's 2 weeks away...It's still in "beta" if you will. But.....If you are invited by someone within the prepaid legal network you can get an advance peek starting on 9/27....Well...I am someone within the prepaid legal network, and i'm inviting you! It costs you absolutely nothing - I just love my readers and want to share :)

If you are just excited to look around the website then please feel free to head on over to http://ppl.blastoffnetwork.com/checkitout and see what it's all about.

Before you do that though....I have decided to do a giveaway for a Target gift card so you can have a chance to shop through the portal and see if you like it risk free. One Reader will win a gift card.

How does this work?

The contest will run until 11:59pm Central time Sunday 11/1/9. You may leave entries between now and that time. Any comments left outside of that time frame on this post will be deleted.

After the closing time I will consult random.org and post the winner. Each entry/comment must have a valid email address contained within the comment or your profile or it won't be counted. I will email the winner and the winner will have 48 hours to email me back to set up the sending of the gift card.

How do I enter?!

There are several ways to enter...please enter even if you never win anything. You won't know unless you try :) The mandatory entry must be completed before any other entry.

Mandatory entry: Visit Blastoff and sign up so you can look around. Be sure to look in the mall. Come back here and tell me in separate comments because it's worth 2 entries !!! (A) Which store in the blastoff mall you would choose to max out a $1000.00 giftcard (mine would be kidsurplus.com they give back 3% and have all sorts of clothes and toys and such!!!)

and (B) Tell me your favorite feature on the site.

You can also earn up to 14 additional entries

Additional Entries:

** Blog about my contest. Link both to this entry and to blastoff using the url that you select from your home page which is YOUR personal link!!! Please don't use mine!! I want you to use your own :) Leave the URL to your blog post in a comment then leave two additional comments. This is worth 3 entries.

** Follow My blog publically and leave a comment telling me you are following. Worth 1 entry.

** Subscribe to the RSS Feed of my blog and leave a comment letting me know you subscribe. Worth 1 entry.

** Become a fan on facebook and leave a comment letting me know you are a fan. (If you are already a fan then woo hoo! leave your comment :) ) Worth 1 entry.

** Share my giveaway with at least 3 other people via facebook or a chat room or just telling people about it. Come back and leave me a comment telling me what you did. Be sure to include the link to my post. which is this: This is worth 1 entry.

** Tweet about the giveaway:

Come #blastoff with @Caranya over at http://bit.ly/CCCBlastoff and enter to win a $20.00 Target Gift Card.

You can retweet this up to once a day - please leave a comment here with your username on twitter each time you retweet. worth 1 entry per day. (Up to 7 entries)

Good luck!!

Thursday around the blog-o-sphere ALSO you can comment on my posts now!

I know that you have been dying to share your wisdom with us about my posts so now you can. The comment functionality works again. IT does pop a window up but I think it can get around pop up filters since it's not an ad...And here is info around the blogosphere :)

Great deals:
Cheap sense & sprays - Money saving mom has the scoop.
Under $1 deals at Publix. (Thanks Crystal the coupon momma)

Freebies :
Saturday is FREE Museum day (9/26/9) around the country. Go here and see which museums are participating and to print your card for 2 free admissions. (moneysavingmom rocks!)

Do you scrapbook? I wish I were that creative! Go here and become a fan of Lettering Delights on facebook and get a free $10.00 coupon code good for anything in their online store. No minimum purchase required. (Thanks moneysavingmom)

Have a Keurig coffee maker that uses single k cups for brewing?? go here and read how to get two free including shipping. (crystal the coupon momma)

Mercedes over at CSWM has the scoop on getting two free calenders for 2010!

Printable Coupons:
Crystal aka Money Saving mom has a printable coupon post up here. Included in her post?$1/2 Suave shampoo/conditioner (super doubles should be up next in October.. at Harris Teeter), 50¢/1 Mt. Olive Pickles (these are on sale at Publix THIS WEEK!) 75¢/1 Foster Farms B/S chicken breasts, $1/1 French Meadow Bakery Gluten-Free product. $1/1 Wheat Thins,

Musselman's applesauce $1/1 (thanks MSM!)
Huggies wipes and more here.

Giveaways:
Just for me...and You is giving away a pair of shoes from musthaveshoes.com (She is a major shoe addict. go here to check it out

Reading material:
Money saving mom did a worth reading round up - you can find it here.
How to save money on groceries WITHOUT coupons. (msm)
How to save money by getting almost everything free (MSM)
Very interesting approach to trash and recycling. click to read more.

2 cool giveaways from Faithful Provisions

So i'm sure you guys have seen me talk a lot about Kelly from Faithful Provisions. If you watch Fox17 in Nashville in the mornings you will see the hosts talk with a pretty, petite blonde woman named Kelly who has a blog called Faithful Provisions. She really IS that nice in person. Well being such a sweetie that she is...Kelly has two giveaways she'd like me to share with you today :)

The first giveaway is for Dave Ramsey's EntreLeadership!!! These tickets are 400.00 each and she is having a giveaway for them. The conference is this tuesday september 22nd in Franklin, TN. If you own a small business or know someone who does then you need to enter this giveaway!!! Go here for more info and to enter. PLEASE share this with anyone who could use it!!!

Perhaps more exciting for those of you NOT into the small business thing is the cereal she is giving away. Mom's best Naturals is giving away some cereal on Kelly's blog. Go here for more details Interested in trying the cereal and don't wanna wait two weeks for the contest to be over? Kroger is selling it for a 1 month period for 1.99 a box :)

WIN a $50.00 Publix Gift Card!!!

Hey!! How would you like to take the skills i'm teaching you and USE them to stretch a $50.00 gift card to publix???? Pretty cool huh? My friend Michelle over at I Heart Publix & I Heart Saving Money dot coms is giving away a $50.00 gift card to celebrate her hitting over 1000 fans on facebook!! I am so excited for her :) So if you are interested in some free groceries direct some mouse clicks this direction.

Thinking you might skip this giveaway because you aren't really interested in a giftcard or can't think of a use for it? Other uses for it might include: Do you guys know someone who is having trouble makign ends meet and needs to be able to buy groceries? Or know someone who is homeless and might benefit from a gift card for food? ORRR use the gift card plus coupons to hit the BOGO's and donate a bunch of food to church or a homeless shelter ORRRR Use it to buy something you normally wouldn't. Christmas and Thanksgiving are coming up...Turkeys and Ham's cost cash ya know? :)

FREE: Embroidery pattern giveaway

There are some giveaways going on this month that I want to be sure you folks are aware of. Check out the cute jungle safari patterns to the left! look at those adorable monkeys!!

Now - I do NOT sew because of reasons I will spare you from here. But I found online a lady who is giving away these adorable patterns. She is giving them to 3 winners...

There are only 3 comments on her post so you have a very HIGH probability of winning. Interested in entering? Go for it :) What do you have to lose but time?!

All You giveaway

Over at My Frugal Adventures she is giving away a 1 year subscription to All You Magazine. I am not going to enter - because I won a similar contest from common sense with money recently. SEE! Told you they aren't scams :)

Why should you care about "All You" magazine? Oh ...it's chocked FULL of coupons for products that you use every day - Not only that but it also has TONS of really cool money saving hints and pretty interesting articles. (Last month was an article on how to make money online in there - pretty cool!)

SO where do you go to enter? Go here. Like five minutes ago or something ;)

Giveaway: Step 2 Nature Station Playhouse

You may have realized by now that I have a toddler and an infant, so when I see big ticket items for free I tend to get excited. Well today I was browsing through my blog list and saw that Jolly Mom has a new birthday giveaway going on today!! She is giving away a Step 2 Nature Station Playhouse...My daughter LOVES little houses. She thinks they are just the neatest and I am the kind of person who really loves anything having to do with science. This little play center comes with binoculars and a lantern, a microscope and a few other tools to really help the child with learning science.

The little window box also has little drain holes in there so you can REALLY plant flowers or herbs or whatever!!! There are really great benefits to entering JollyMom's giveaways. 1 - she only requires your email address initially then if you win you would of course have to give her your shipping address so she could forward that to the manufacturer. 2 - Your chances of winning this type of giveaway are MUCH greater than winning any other type of contest. 3 - What have you lost if you don't win? about 5 minutes of time. If this is an item you'd like to own for your child or grandchild or donate to church or maybe you know a needy family who would never be able to afford this item on their own. What a blessing this would be to just SHOW UP on their doorstep one day!!! You can enter here. (Christmas is also coming up and we talked about that already!)

**EDITED:: Thanks Jamie for letting me know that I went goofy and forgot to link you to the post!!! So sorry guys!!! **

Giveaway: 4 Jonas Brothers Tickets!!! (Nashville, TN) at Faithful Provisions

I just got the most amazing e-mail when I first logged in afternoon. It was notifying me about a giveaway over at Faithful Provisions. When I read the e-mail her reader sent her I cried. One of her readers has 4 tickets to the Jonas Brothers contest on August 25th (next Tuesday) and would like to give them away to a family whose lives would be changed by seeing this concert. Do you know someone whose lives could be changed? Maybe they could never afford to go to a concert on their own or maybe someone who has a serious or terminal illness and this is their one wish...to see the Jonas Brothers. Whatever the case, large or small. Kelly is taking nominations for the family to receive the tickets to this concert. If you know someone who would be truly blessed by this and would like to nominate someone please go here and fill out her form to enter them into the contest...then watch Monday on Tennessee Mornings (Fox17) where she will announce the winner!!!

Wonderful Wednesday!

Ok here are the goings on of the blogosphere....Sorry I don't have the time to devote to each individual item as an individual posts but those of you who subscribe by email will be much happier to get the condensed version anyway ;)

First: if you are arriving here from Glade Girls - welcome! make yourself at home! If you have questions or comments - leave them or email me :)

Freebies and Cheapies:
Mercedes over at Common Sense With Money has a line on some freebies for No-Doz, Emergen-C, Carefree and Stayfree products, Breast self-exam shower card, A free $5.00 Gift Card to the Children's Orchard....Interested? Click Here.

Eat at Arby's today and order a sandwich and receive a FREE Fruitea. Wednesday's only. Next week's freebie is a free Beef & Cheddar WYB a drink.

Mercedes has some information for us about Walgreens and their photo shop. You can get FREE STUFF all week from the online walgreens photo. Today's freebie? Walgreens Photo: Free Photo Cling 8/19 Only Go find out how!! She also has a line on how to get 25 FREE Prints from Wags this week!!

Local Writer Becky over at Frugal in Franklin let's us know there is a used book sale going on in Franklin right now.

Crystal has some info for you on a $5 coupon when you spend $15 or more at TGIFridays.

Free download of a beautiful piano arrangement - find out more from Crystal.
My friend Crystal over at Money Saving Mom has more Target deals for us here. Also here.

Printable coupons:
Like SpongeBob? Target has recently released some new internet printable coupons you can use to score some Spongebob Swag. There is even a $5.00 / 1 Spongebob Video Game coupon!! Find out about the other coupons from Mercedes here.

Get thirsty? Me too!! My friend Lissa has some info over here about how to score a printable coupon for a free drink at Krystals!

More printables from Mercedes - goldfish, pepperidge farms cookies and more!

Giveaways:
Jolly Mom has a line on Great back to school Money saving Tips and she also has some info on how to win a FREE GAS CARD!!
She is also giving away a mimi the sardine splashmat

WIN a free Britax Marathon CS...

If you have seen my GIGANTIC baby you may be able to understand why I am looking at transitioning out of the infant carrier and into a convertable carseat before he is even six months old.

He is a large child. Toppling the scales at 90% and 95% for length/height at 4 months. He is almost too big for the infant carrier but i'd also like to have a super premium carseat.

I love my children and want them to be protected in the event that something happens! I would desperately love to confidently buckle him into a premium carseat every time i put him into the car, but my limited finances simply won't allow me to lay out hundreds of dollars for a carseat. When your income is as minimal and sporadic as mine is currently...you look to really stretch your dollars. It is a very difficult balancing act. I don't want to risk his safety, and he's in a safe carseat but I feel he would be safer in a higher quality one.

Great news though!!! Recently I was looking around the blogosphere and came upon a very interesting giveaway in the first time around's blog. She is having a Christmas in July celebration (it is August now - I realize!) She has several other giveaways but the one i'm interested in is this: Britax is partnering with her to give away a Britax Marathon CS. The carseat has some amazing qualities. The two i am the most interested in are: Built in lock offs which secure the car's seatbelt so that the carseat does not and CANNOT wobble. The child's carseat cannot move more than an inch to the side or back and forth at the belt path. This is FANTASTIC because i have such a hard time getting my carseats to properly lock into the backseat of my matchbox car. I also LOVE the HUGS system. This is the Harness Ultra Guard System which reduces forward head movement and according to the website cushions the chest in the event of an impact. If you look at the benefits of this carseat it seems so incredible.

One thing that strikes me about this giveaway is that the chances of winning it are so fantastically good. at present count there are only 774 entries in the contest. You are allowed to have multiple entries so I figure the chance of winning to be somewhere around 1 in 400 right now which are pretty good odds.

Do you have children who could use this seat? Grandchildren? nieces? nephews? close neighbors? I can pretty much guarantee that everyone reading this knows someone who could use this carseat.

If you win - you have an amazing gift to give someone. If you don't - all it cost you was a little time and you might learn something in the process. (I learned I hate technorati and should not ever log into it again.)

PSST - I'm also willing to bet if you win the carseat and can't think of a single person to donate this to that the church can find someone within the matter of a day or two and if they can't I KNOW Dr. Bill can!

Tot Tutors (Furniture for little ones)

So I recently read about a giveaway over at Jolly Mom for some Tot Tutors furniture. This furniture looks pretty great. I am very interested in anything that allows my children to grow and live in an environment conducive to their learning. This little table would be a sweet addition to allow the kids to eat together (when Tyler is a little older anyway) and to allow Lila to do some art at a "her size" table!!

I have entered the giveaway which runs through midnight tomorrow night. I have entered for this table. I think this table looks super cute!