Save money shopping online with CouponCodes4U
May 16, 2012 Paid/Sponsored Post
[The following is a sponsored post, commissioned by CouponCodes4u.]
I do pretty much all of my shopping online – I have for years. Everything from clothes and shoes to jewelry to groceries. I love the convenience. I love being able to shop in my pajamas (why should I dress for shopping if I don’t dress for work?) and have my purchases brought right to my door. This works especially well for the big stuff, since shopping with a car isn’t the easiest thing where I live.
But I also love to get a deal, so I always check for coupons before I shop. Not looking first to see if there’s a coupon is like leaving your wallet on the counter after you pay. Finding coupons, free shipping deals, and more is as easy as going to CouponCodes4u. The best part for you, of course, is that the site is free to use.
Using the site couldn’t be easier. If you already know which store you want to buy from, just search for it in the big box at the top of the site. If I want to shop at Kohls, for example, I can search and easily find all sorts of Kohls coupons. To use them all I have to do is copy and paste the code and use it at the store’s checkout – no logging in, no membership, nothing complicated.
If you don’t have a particular store in mind, you can browse through the categories. A quick look through the Book & Magazine section and I found Barnes & Noble coupon codes for everything from books to Nooks to DVDs.
Remember back a couple months ago when a lot of us shopped at JCP on the same day to support their support of Ellen as spokeswoman? I was excited and on a mission and forgot to check that day for JC Penney Coupon Codes. I spent so much money that day, I shudder to think about the savings I missed out on! It would have been so easy!
Another great way to save is to sign up for their newsletter, which contains special deals not available on their site. You’ll get the biggest discounts to the best brands right in your inbox.
So do yourself a favor, don’t leave money on the table when you shop online – check in with CouponCodes4u first, and save yourself some cash!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 13. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Fresh Direct–actually making this mom’s life easier!
May 7, 2012 Paid/Sponsored Post
This giveaway has closed. Congratulations to the winner, Eve L.!
I can’t tell you how often I get pitches from PR people for things they claim will make my life easier. Usually it’s something that would make no discernable difference at all in the level of ease in my life. But when the folks behind Listen To Your Mother asked if I would give away a Fresh Direct gift certificate in conjunction with their show, I said of course! Fresh Direct has been making my life easier since 2003, and I support them wholeheartedly.
My life has been unusually busy lately. I was away for a week, and then I only had two days to catch up on a week’s worth of emails, clean my entire house, work a big fundraiser at the kids’ school, bake a birthday cake, and get ready for Fiona’s birthday party. And of course, having been out of town, we didn’t have the basics when we got home – no milk, eggs, etc. Thank goodness I was able to put in a quick Fresh Direct order for the very next morning, and get not only the groceries we needed, but the bulk of the food and drinks for the party, too. It saved me at least two hours at a time when I didn’t have two hours to spare.
I’m so thrilled that Fresh Direct was a major sponsor of Listen To Your Mother, because I know some of the people involved with the show (which was performed Sunday afternoon) and I know how hard they worked on it. I hope Fresh Direct was able to make their lives a little easier, too.
As a long-time Fresh Direct customer, I can personally attest to the quality of their food. And if something isn’t perfect, their excellent ratings system tells you, so that you can decide whether to buy it or not. Their customer service team is outstanding, taking care of any problems that may arise, usually within hours.
continue reading: Fresh Direct–actually making this mom’s life... Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Fresh Direct, NYC, Shopping
Cake Pop Stands from KC Bakes
Feb 28, 2012 Product Review
I’ve been making cake pops for a few months now. They’re fun, easy, and incredibly delicious (and a nice morning treat with my current “dessert with breakfast” diet). But the one thing that bugged me about the whole process was the Styrofoam blocks I was going through. I tried wrapping them in packing tape and poking holes through with a sharp pencil so that they wouldn’t fall apart so easily. I tried buying the denser blocks used to make “fake” wedding cakes. I even tried making the cake pops upside-down, which gives them ugly, flat tops.
Then I found the pretty, practical, affordable cake pop stands by KC Bakes. I purchased three of them at a discount, with a promise of a write-up if I found them useful. And oh my yes, I do. So does my number-one cake pop helper.
First of all, they’re infinitely reusable, as opposed to Styrofoam, which breaks down rather quickly with all of that poking and wiping. If you’ve been using Styrofoam, these stands will pay for themselves after not that long.
The holes are the perfect size for regular sucker sticks. They’re well spaced so that you have access to each cake pop. They come in a variety of sizes and colors.
These stands clean up easily. If you drizzle chocolate on them you just wait for it to dry, and it lifts right off cleanly with the help of a fingernail. If you drip chocolate into one of the holes, it can be picked out easily with a toothpick. This was the biggest improvement over my Styrofoam blocks: those were nearly impossible to clean.
The “skinny mini” six-hole size is also perfect for gift giving, at $15. If I’d had my act together I would’ve bought a half dozen of the small ones and given them to teachers for Christmas, filled with cake pops, of course. End of the school year, perhaps.
If you’re a cake pop maker – or want to be – I’d definitely recommend these stands. They’ll make it so much easier to produce pretty, professional-looking cake pops. Your friends and family won’t believe you didn’t buy them from a bakery.
Plus, I can’t wait until my next party: the centerpiece of the buffet table will definitely be a gorgeous display of cake pops!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
A half marathon that fits on a t-shirt
Feb 23, 2012 What's Going On
I arrived at Disney World a little while ago for the Disney Princess Half Marathon, and on the plane I was looking over pictures from last year. I’d forgotten about the t-shirts.
When you pick up your race packet you do it in a giant expo hall at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports. This Expo has everything you could possibly need for the race. Really, you could show up with nothing and buy everything you need, from sneakers to sports bras to a fancy plaque for your awesome race pictures.
Pictures from last year’s Expo:
I didn’t buy any of the t-shirts because I’d already made my own at the Hanes Design A Tee store, but I had fun looking at them.
I can relate.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7, 8, & 16. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Want to catch up on my runDisney adventures? Here are the other posts (newest first):
Disney’s Tangled Royal Family 5K
Disney’s Fit for a Princess Expo
From bad, to worse, to great with runDisney
And then a few zebra wandered by
From couch potato to 26K with runDisney
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 2
Disney Princess Half Marathon: Done
Diary of a Disney Princess Half Marathoner – Part 1
So this is what Disney does to me
Today’s agenda: stage manager edition
Dec 16, 2011 Today's Agenda
So today will be a little crazy. The kids’ school’s enrichment showcase is always a little, shall we say, disorganized. And I want to stress that that’s not a criticism of the people who organize it. I’ve volunteered at the school enough to know that there’s no good way to get this kind of thing done. It’s not like there’s some staff member in charge of all of the performances at the school. It’s all very ad-hoc. And the guy who knows the most about the equipment and where everything is has a 3-day-old baby, so he’s less accessible than usual right now.
After the last showcase I very nicely told anyone who would listen that I had a lot of stage management experience, and I’d be happy to help run the next one. And dammit, they remembered.
So, most of today will be about learning how to make the auditorium’s sound system work, finding, borrowing or buying equipment, and figuring out what else needs to be done to get the show over with as quickly as possible so that we can all get the hell out of there and play video games. Or maybe that’s just my husband.
But in the middle of the day I’ll be helping to host a twitter party for a great site called EXPO, where you earn points (that you can use to get real stuff) for uploading video reviews, taking surveys, sharing your opinions, and participating on the site in other ways. You can even win prizes or qualify to try out products for free, sometimes before they hit store shelves!
The twitter party runs today (Friday) from 1-2pm EST and is about one of my favorite topics, shopping. From the EXPO blog:
We know that a lot of you are avid twitter users and chat about exciting tips and activities daily. We also know there are plenty of you out there that want to join these conversations but may not be in the twittersphere. We want to hear from all of you no matter how advanced you are in the social networking world! Just sign up here for our twitter party and either create a twitter name to join the discussion or just read along.
Rules:
1. Sign up for our Twitter Party here
2. Mention @expotv at least once during the twitter party using the hashtag #expoholiday
3. Must be at least 18 years of age and live in the USPlease see official rules here.
We hope that you’ll join us and feel free to invite your friends! Don’t forget to sign up so you can be entered to win one of our gift cards!
So I hope to see you there. To make following the discussion easy, you can use tweetchat.
Plus, I’ll be posting a very fun interview I did with Joely Fisher. Can’t wait!
OK, I’m off to relive my days of winding cables and calling cues.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 15 (EXPO). Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: EXPO, Joely Fisher, school performances, Shopping
Today’s Agenda: where did the day go? edition
Dec 15, 2011 Today's Agenda
How in the world is it 1pm already? I have so much to do today and I feel like I got a lot done this morning, but it was all little stuff that had been collecting up – I have no one big thing to point to as an accomplishment.
Except maybe the fridge. My husband was home last night when Fresh Direct got here, so he put everything away that needed to stay cold. This is what I came home to:
Several items fell out when I opened it this morning.
To his credit, he told me he did a sucky job, and that the fridge needed my organizational magic touch. Then again, maybe he was just flattering me so that I wouldn’t post a picture of his terrible putting away job. :-)
So, fifteen minutes later I at least have an organized (but still too crowded) fridge. What else have I gotten done? Nothing interesting (assuming you consider the fridge interesting, which you probably do not).
But, I do have interesting things coming up today. I’ll be posting about a very fun twitter party I’ll be participating in tomorrow, including telling you how to RSVP so that you can win prizes. And I’ll be posting my totally non-secret totally package mix recipe for how to make the gooey-est, bestest brownies ever.
And if you have a chance, check out the post I put up last night about a shoe subscription! Because magazine subscriptions are so 20th century.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Stepping out of my comfort zone
Dec 14, 2011 Posted From My Phone
I’m in a cab on my way home from a fabulous event put on by my wonderful friend (and occasional employer) Barbara Jones of the One 2 One Network, and the awesome Catherine Connors of Babble. They hosted a really fabulous group of bloggers at Hotel Lola to introduce us to Sole Society and their gorgeous shoes.
Sole Society is like a personalized shoe subscription. You can sign up for free (you don’t even have to give any credit card info) and you take a very quick style quiz, choosing pictures of clothes and shoes that speak to you. Once you make your first purchase you become a member of the subscription club, and you get a selection of shoes to choose from each month. Each pair is only $49.95! And if you don’t want shoes in any month, no worries – you can always just skip that month.
I was allowed to pick a pair to bring home, and my first instinct was to grab a pair of flats, since they were adorable and exactly the kind of shoe I would buy.
But, this was an event! Free shoes! Why should I go practical? So, I chose the tallest, awesomest platform heels there.
I was surprised when I tried them on that I didn’t fall over. Despite having a five inch heel, the front of the shoe is about two inches high, so it doesn’t seem so bad. They’re absolutely the most stylish pair I own. I can’t wait to wear them out somewhere.
As long as there are no stairs.
Thanks so much, Barbara and Catherine. Great night out. And thanks to Sole Society for my new shoes!
UPDATE: I forgot to thank Barbara for taking that awesome picture of me and my shoes!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom, from Amy’s cell phone (so please excuse any weird formatting). All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Today’s Agenda: not eating doughnuts edition
Dec 8, 2011 Today's Agenda
So I’d completely planned on today being a normal Slim-Fast day. Yes, I’d gotten a Babycakes doughnut maker in my gift bag at yesterday’s BJ’s holiday shopping event, but I figured I’d try it out this weekend (I’ve fallen into taking Slim-Fast breaks on weekends – it works as long as those are the only breaks).
However, when I came down to get the kids’ breakfasts and lunches together this morning, it was sitting on the counter, staring at me, saying “Open me – you know you want to!” So I did. And OMG they were good. And easy. The kids loved them. (Of course if my husband is reading this I’m going to get a lot of crap for making them doughnuts for breakfast; I’ll try to distract him with a full sock drawer and clean bathrooms.)
I only made one little batch of doughnut batter, but there are still eight or nine mini doughnuts left. I know I should just throw them down the garbage disposal, but that’s such a waste!
So aside from trying to avoid the doughnuts, I’ll be writing today. Lots of writing. And laundry. And hopefully posting the things I wanted to work on yesterday and never got around to.
Also, today is day 6 of ONE’s 12 Days of Change campaign. Yesterday’s Day 5 post was by Emily McKhann of The Motherhood (who recently went to Africa with ONE!), and today’s action is being announced by Ellen Seidman of Love That Max. I won’t give away what today’s action is, but I will say that I did mine already, and it was fun!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1 (Babycakes Doughnut Maker). Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
