Giving Tuesday with World Vision and Thirty-One Gifts

I received the below mentioned product in order to complete an honest review. Any opinions expressed are my own.

Tuesday December 1, 2015 is Giving Tuesday. The day when, after we’ve all bought our gifts during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday frenzy, we donate to a cause for the holidays.

On Giving Tuesday (December 1) for every donation made by phone 1-888-511-6588 or through World Vision website: worldvisiongifts.org it will be matched by Thirty-One Gifts-a direct selling company with a donation of one or more of it’s products like a tote bag or blanket up to a toal of $1 million worth of products for women and girls in need around the world.

You may be asking, why the need? What is a tote or blanket going to do? Tote bags like the one included in the giveaway, have recently been distributed to volunteers in Burundi who use the totes to carry materials for educating families about malnutrition. Before the totes, volunteers had to carry all their materials by hand. The totes make it easier for volunteers to carry the materials they need to each home.

Thirty-One Gifts was founded on the principle of helping women. In 2012, they founded a philantropic initiative called Thirty-One Gives. To date they have donated more than $80 million dollars in cash and products to non-profit organizations that empower women and girls and support families. The tote featured in this post is part of the Thirty-One gives line with 31 cents of each purchase going to the Thirty-One Gives fund. You can find more info at thirtyonegifts.com

The Zip-Top Organizing Utility tote is versatile. Use it for school, use it for work, use it as a diaper bag, use it as an overnight bag. I personally love this tote. This week my oldest son was admitted to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. We spend 3 days there. I used this bag. Every day I took a change of clothes in case I needed to stay. I also took my phone charger, every day makeup, toiletries, and some activities for my son to do. It also held my wallet, phone, and my card I needed to get in and out of the PICU that my son was in. There was still plenty of space. Even with all that, this bag was not too bulky. In my opinion, it was the perfect size. It’s light weight but well made.

GIVEAWAY

1 Luv Saving Money money reader will win a

Thirty-One Zip-Top Utility Tote

US only

World Vision and Thirty-One

14 Educational Stocking Stuffer Ideas

This post does contain affiliate links. Regardless I only post legitimate offers from trusted sites.

If you want to find stocker stuffers that are more than just candy or fillers, this is the list for you. Stocking stuffers that will be both fun and educational.

Personalized Letter from Santa

Gone are the days of trying to write in “Santa’s handwriting.” Educents has made it so easy to make your child feel special and loved by Santa! The personalized letter comes straight to your front door from the North Pole in a beautiful red envelope, and highlights your child’s exciting accomplishments this year. The letter also includes some fun Santa-approved activities for you and your kiddo to spend some sweet holiday time together, like a recipe for Mrs. Claus’ Famous Cookies, two snowflake craft templates, a packet of reindeer food (glitter!) and a sheet of festive stickers. This special letter will make for an imaginative and exciting addition to the very top of our Christmas stockings this year!

This letter will make for an imaginative start to any Christmas morning, but there’s more pressure now to keep the fun going! Here are some other easy stocking stuffers to keep the magic going for your kiddos this year!

Educational Stocking Stuffer Ideas

1. FREE DIY Crystal Christmas Tree Experiment – An opportunity to spend more time together as a family is one of the best gifts you can give! These directions for a DIY salt-crystal Christmas tree can get the whole family involved and teach everyone something new!

2. DIY Push Light Planets – Create these amazing lights for your kiddo’s bedroom. Each light is decorated to represent one of the planets. To encourage planet recognition, even paint the names of the planets onto each pushable light!

Push Light Planets

3. Show Me the Kwan – Looking for a great, fun game for the whole family to play after all the presents have been opened? This clever and upbeat word game gets kids excited about vocabulary, word construction and more and is the perfect size for a stocking!

4. Matching Games for Little Learners – These handmade wooden matching games from Mama May I are a very sweet stocking stuffer for little learners. Choose from Zoo, Trucks, Vegetables, Space and more !

5. The Familia Craft Kit – This craft kit has all the tools for your kiddos to decoupage little wooden peg dolls to create their own story or to include in a new adventure! They come in a slim tube that’s easy to fit in a stocking!

6. DIY Domino Set – This homemade domino set is one you and your family can play for years to come. To make this set special for the holidays, use green and red puff paint!

DIY Domino Set

7. DIY Pop-Up Alphabet Sponges – This simple gift is a low-cost way to make baby’s bath time fun and educational! Cut sponges into the shapes of alphabet letters and numbers.

8. DigiPuppets – This adorable animal finger puppet acts as a touchscreen-sensitive stylus for phones and tablets. Use them on their own to keep kids engaged with digital learning tools, or head to the app store to download DigiPuppet’s educational games.

9. Just Add Milk Science & Art Kit – This kit is filled with fun science and art projects you can do along with some at home ingredients, and it’s just the size of a milk carton! If your child is lactose-intolerant, don’t worry, the experiments work with non-dairy milk as well!

10. DIY Telling Time Clock Pillow – Crafty family members can take a few hours to create this comfortable accessory for kiddos learning to tell time!

11. Clever Catch Math Balls – These inflatable balls make math-learning fun with active games you can play with 2 or more people. Just keep it deflated, and this blow-up Clever Catch is ready for the stocking! Choose from: Numbers 0-25, Money, Multiplication, Addition, or Subtraction.

12. DIY Hopscotch Mat – Here’s a fun game you can make yourself, roll up into a Christmas stocking, and then play on Christmas Day and many, MANY days after that!

13. DIY Bongo Rice Shakers – Use some household materials to make shakable, musical instruments for little ones to use while Christmas caroling on Christmas Day!

DIY Stocking Stuffer Instrument

Looking for more ways to make your Christmas stockings and holiday gifts extra special this year? Head to Educents’ Give the Gift of Education page for more ideas, tips, steals and deals!

If You Have a LEGO Fan, You’ll Want To See This!

I received the below mentioned product as part of the US Family Guide blogger program. Any opinions expressed are my own.

BrickSwag is the #1 membership for LEGO fans. Each month includes official LEGO kits to build and keep, exclusive t-shirt, Build magazine, Funky Fig trading cards, and more surprises.
Mission: To Inspire, Educate, and Entertain with LEGO bricks.

We did an unboxing video for our November box:

We showed everything in the video but here is a list of everything included in the box this month:

Exclusive LEGO T-shirt
Challenge pack (includes a hodge podge of all kinds of LEGO bricks and they are given a challenge to build a specific item. This month is was to build a thanksgiving feast out of the bricks.
Trading Cards
LEGO cup
Build Magazine
Monthly build packet – this month was a turkey with full instructions
LEGO Poster
Exclusive Brickswag brick

You can order your subscription at brickswag.com My 2 youngest sons LOVE it! Everything in the box is authentic LEGO. You’ll received exclusive items you can’t buy just anywhere. If you have a LEGO fan this is the LEGO subscription box for them!

My readers receive 20% Off their BrickSwag subscription with this exclusive promo code: FAM20 http://usfamilycoupons.com/coupon.php?regionid=75&bid=12257&dealid=2103
OFFER EXPIRES: 11/20/2015

8 Tips To Making Holiday Shopping Less Stressful

The holidays can be a stressful time. Dinners to cook, decorations to hang, guests to host, gifts to wrap, school parties to make treats for, events to attend, gifts to buy, coordinating with family…uh I’m sure I’m missing some things but you get the idea. Here’s some tips to decrease some of the holiday stress:

1. Does your gift shopping list include all your nieces and nephews, great uncle Bob, grandma, your bother Joe’s new girlfriend (because she’ll be at the party and it ‘s just not right if she doesn’t get a gift too) on top of buying for your own kids and spouse. Consider doing a family name draw. Everyone buys for one person rather than everyone buying for 17 people. You can set a price limit too. Everyone still gets a gift but it’s a lot less stressful and affordable.

2. Set a budget and stick to it. You know what budget works best for you. Set a limit for each person and stick to it.

3. Take advantage of gift wrap services when available. Some stores will offer free gift wrap or gift wrap for a nominal fee. It will look great and save you time. Our local Boscov’s department stores offers free gift wrap all year round when you buy a gift in their store. Ran out of gift wrap? Don’t sweat it, check out this post I did last year for Parade Magazine’s website on last minute gift wrap ideas.

4. Ask your significant other, family members, or even your kids (if they’re old enough) to email you their wish lists/gift ideas. That way if you forget a written list while you’re out you can pull them up on your phone.

5. If you’re not quite sure what to get your recipient there are lots of lists specific to hobbies, careers, and more online. Just search your phone for things like “gift ideas for the new driver” and you’ll have a stream of ideas at your finger tips.

6. Shopping online is an easy way to avoid long lines, avoid searching for parking spaces, and forego dealing with rude people but delayed shipping can cause stress. If you’re worried that you or your recipient won’t receive the gift on time. Opt for quicker shipping when possible.

7. Oh no, you’re getting ready to head out the door to the family party and you realized you forgot to get somebody a gift! You can buy an egift card online, print it out and put it in an envelope. If all else fails, cash is always the rights size.

Clubs Galore Find The Gift of the Month Club You Want, In One Place

Have family and friends you won’t get to see over the holidays but still want to make sure you get them a gift. Gift of the Month clubs are a good idea, especially when you find the right one for them. But finding the right one for them can be hard. Now you can find tons of gift of the month clubs in one place at ClubsGalore.com. You can find tons of clubs all in one place: coffee & biscotti, e-books (yea seriously), scotch, gardening, steak, gift card club (yea seriously again), bacon (well that takes care of about half my list woohoo!) and more. In fact there are 62 different clubs on the site! There’s even a variety club where you can choose a different club each month: hmm bacon this month, pie next month, bacon the month after that, wine in January, bacon, bacon…oh wait variety…gardening, tea, bacon…never mind I’ll let you use your imagination.

ClubsGalore Gift of the Month Clubs are the perfect way to celebrate any occasion for more than just one day. Whether it’s a birthday, anniversary, thank you, retirement, or other special event, the multi-touch programs allow you to show that special someone you care – again and again.
$10 OFF – Ten Dollars off any gift with code: Gift10 at ClubsGalore.com – Gift of the Month Clubs PERFECTED.
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