review – Page 3 – Luv Saving Money

My Experience Proform Studio Bike Pro

How We Ended Up Choosing Proform Studio Pro Bike

I had a gym membership. I wasn’t a “gym person” until I found the right gym for me. I looked forward to it. I had a routine. Then when the pandemic hit, like many, the gyms closed down. I was lost. I tried to do workouts at home but it just wasn’t the same.

We first got a Proform treadmill around March. Shipping was fairly quick then and I had no issues. This is when we were also introduced to the iFit app. It wasn’t something I didn’t think we needed but immediately fell in love with. I was doing the beginners running series with Tommy Rivers Puzey and it was amazing. I had never been able to run my whole life. Even in my younger days when I was in better shape. This built me up to running more than anything else ever had. And when I didn’t feel like running, I could do a restoring walk in the mountains, or beach or whatever.

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I missed the exercise bikes from the gym though. I had tried a spin class at my local community building and it peaked my interest. I had full intention of doing more classes but…stupid pandemic.

I would have never asked for a studio bike but my hubby brought up the idea of getting an exercise bike. I had already had my eyes on the Proform Studio Pro bike. It was built similar to the spin class bikes and we already had ifit so I could start doing the ifit cycle classes. Thankfully my hubby was in agreement.

Now The Wait, And Shipping Experience

We ordered it around the 2nd week of September. When we ordered it said they were behind on orders (again due to the pandemic) and we should expect our bike around Oct 12. You might know that home exercise equipment company sales have greatly increased during the pandemic so most exercise equipment whether it be bikes, treadmills, benches, etc have been behind with shipping. For a while it was also hard to find hand weights and kettlebells too

Well it was Oct 9 (a Friday) and we hadn’t heard a thing so I used the customer service chat to see what the deal was. I was told our bike had been sent to the shipping warehouse and we should receive our bike “shortly”. That pacified me enough though I was super anxious to get our bike. We did not receive our bike until Oct 30.

When we received it we noticed there was a fairly big hole in the side of the box and it had very obviously been taped over. So someone saw the whole, taped it, but never bother to make sure the product was ok.

My 17 year old loves putting stuff together so he put it together for us. He said “uh mom, there’s a problem” The back of the monitor had a sizeable crack in it. I was so upset. The monitor is what you use to view your classes. We tested the monitor and it still worked but I worried about the safety. I don’t want to be using it and have sparks fly out or something. I also saw that the smaller box that the monitor was packed in, also had a whole in it and we deducted it must have been located where the whole was in the big box.

I contacted the company and they didn’t give me a hard time at all. They said they’d send a new monitor out. Unfortunately that was back in November and we’ve yet to receive the replacement monitor. Fortunately the cracked monitor has been working and you don’t leave the bike plugged in when you’re not using it anyway so we just went with it.

We had also heard NOTHING about the 3 yr iFit family membership we were supposed to receive with it. Again it took a few phone calls and several emails to finally get our iFit membership set up. Then we realized we’ve received ZERO information about our financing. We were told, via another phone call, that our info was sent to the financier and we should receive our finance packet “soon”. After almost 2 months we finally received financing info and could start paying for our bike. We were worried with how disorganized everything had been that they would ding our credit because we weren’t paying but we were trying, we really really were.

After The Initial Fiasco, (And Some Calm Down Time)

My husband and I have been regularly using our Proform Studio Pro bike. I can honestly say I love it. It’s easy to adjust. The iFit app works great. My hubby and I will swap workout brags. So I did a 4.5 mile bike ride in the Moab desert today. Cool, I did 10 miles in Japan today. It’s fun though because it gives us ideas and helps motivate each other.

The seat did take some getting used to. We ended up buying one of those gel bike seat cushions from Amazon and that helped. Over time, we got “used” to it and the seat isn’t uncomfortable anymore.

The bike is very adjustable. I’m 5′ 4″ and my hubby is 6 foot even. We have no issues adjusting for either of us. The ifit family account allows up to 5 people on the account. They must be invited by email so whoever you add in your family has to have an email account.

You do not need special cycling shoes like you do with some studio bikes. I just use regular running shoes. There are straps on the pedals and teeth on the pedals to help ensure your feet don’t slide.

So What Can You Do On The Bike With The iFit App

There are lots of options depending on your fitness and cycling level. Workouts have a difficulty level bar. I tend to stick around 1, 2, or 3 for now. They go up to as high a like 10 or something.

There are many different setting and types of workouts: spin classes, mountain biking, endurance rides, recovery rides, interval training, and classes that include both bike work and off the bike work. Oh that reminds me, the Proform Studio Pro also come with 3 lb hand weights. There’s tons of different settings from dessert, mountain, beach, forest, studio, and international.

They recently added feed.fm so music can play during your workouts but you have the option to turn the music down/up/off. There are also challenges you can participate in and live classes if you like. Just since we got our bike they’ve added several new features. They’s constantly adding new classes and challenges too.

Overall Opinion

Love the bike. I know that the shipping and customer service issues were not the norm and is strained due to the pandemic. We had no issue at all when we got our treadmill earlier in the year.

The iFit app is awesome and continues to improve all the time. If we were to get another piece of equipment we’d definitely look at buying another piece compatible with iFit.

The bike is very adjustable and well made. It’s sturdy and hold up to 250 lbs. My husband was slightly over that so before we ordered we asked if that would be an issue or void the warranty if we were to order. Being as it was only a few pounds over they told us it would not.

If you’d like me to do a post on our treadmill, I’d be happy to. Just let me know.

This is NOT a sponsored post. We bought the Proform Studio Pro bike ourselves. There is an Amazon affiliate link in the post.

Adagio Tea Advent Calendar and 12 Days of Christmas Teas

I love advent calendars. They’re so fun to countdown the days until Christmas. You can find an advent calendar for just about any interest. I you or someone you know is a tea lover, the Adagio Tea Advent Calendar 2020 is perfect for you! OR gift someone a 12 days of Christmas tea gift set.

First let me say that I LOVE Adagio tea. They have TONS of teas to choose from loose leaf teas, to tea bags, to iced tea you can find what you like. I used their teas when I tried my hand at making boba. This particular one was a strawberry boba that used real strawberry bits and the Adagio Libra blend which has bits of strawberry and chocolate notes in it. But they have several strawberry teas on their site. So you can make it to your taste.

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Back to the Adagio Tea Advent Calendar though. 24 days of a tea taste adventure. I’m always leary about revealing too much when it comes to things like advent calendars. I figure people want to know what they might expect in it but want the excitement of wondering what flavor will be next.

So what I did was I just popped open day 1 so you can see about what size the packets are. These are loose leaf teas. I personally popped open two other days too just to get a feel of what to expect. I can tell you, based on my snooping, that there are different flavors of loose leaf tea for each day. Some holiday flavors, some “enjoy anytime” flavors.

My mouth is watering thinking of the couple flavors I unveiled. But, I’m gonna make myself wait to try them until the proper day. I mean, i gotta have something to look forward to on those days that I sneaked a peak on right?

At a price point of only $29, you don’t have to feel guilty about getting yourself a little something for the holidays. Hey it’s practical too!

The Adagio Tea Advent Calendar would make a great gift but so does the Adagio 12 Days of Christmas gift tea set.

So this little set include 12 tins of different holiday flavored teas such as Candy Cane. But that’s not all. Each tin is decorated festively and can double as an ornament!

So many amazing teas in this little gift set. Perfect for the tea lover. Or keep this around when you need a festive cup of cheer while decorating or baking cookies.

At a price of only $19, this is a great “under $20 gift” and they get some fun ornaments out of of it too.

I highly encourage you to check out the other items on Adagio’s site too. I have their travel loose leaf tea glass and I use it all the time. They also have tea pots, infuser, a tea of the month club, rock sugar crystals for tea, and more. You’re sure to find the perfect gift for the tea lover. Or treat yourself. Their prices are amazing but the tea is so good.

Check out my twitter and facebook blog feeds too. I’ll be sharing Adagio coupons for new Adagio shoppers!

I received the above mentioned samples to complete this post. any opinions expressed are my own.

Bissell SpinWave Wet and Dry Robot Vacuum Review

I’m not new to using robotic vacuums but I am new to using a Bissell brand robotic vacuum. I had also never tried a robotic vacuum that also mops. Every floor in the downstairs of my home is some sort of hard floors. I have tile in the kitchen and bathroom, linoleum in the laundry room and mudroom, and hardwood floors in the living room. But I also have a combination of hardwood, laminate, vinyl flooring, and carpet upstairs. So Is it going to work on all of them?

My Experience with My OLD robotic vaccuum

Last year for Christmas I asked my husband for a popular name brand robotic vacuum. We’ll just call it Brand X. It was NOT a Bissell. The more I used it I realized it is not the solution I had hoped for. This particular model has this little knob that sticks out of the top. When cleaning along my cupboards in the kitchen that knob would get stuck under the rim of the dishwasher and if I didn’t moved the fatigue mat from in front of the sink it would get stuck under the lip of the cupboard in that area too. After a while it had trouble getting over the small area rug we had in the mudroom. It would occasionally get hung up on the hardwood threshholds into the bathroom or kitchen. While it was ok for light daily cleaning it didn’t pick up things like pieces of popcorn, small chunks of food particles on the kitchen floor, a small piece of gravel in the mudroom, etc. It was basically good for just every day dirt and some pet hair.

With having 4 kids, they’re constantly leaving stuff out like legos on the floor, a dirty sock, a tissue, etc. I would have to make sure I picked up everything before I could run this robot vacuum. If not and it would happen to suck one of these things up it would become clogged.

In short, I could never ever run it while not at home like some of the commercials claim. I felt like I was constantly having to unclog it or move it then restart it to get it to work. Plus I’d have to pull out the regular vacuum or broom and dust pan for the things it wouldn’t pick up.

Also Brand X robotic vacuum was very noisy. My husband would complain if I ran it while he was trying to watch tv. The kids would complain if I ran it while playing video games. I’d have to pause it if I wanted to talk on the phone or go to another floor of the house. I was not impressed with Brand X.

My Experience with my Bissell Spinwave Wet and Dry Robotic vacuum

The Bissell Spinwave Wet and Dry Robotic vacuum is much quieter than my Brand X robot vacuum. While we can still hear it, it isn’t “turn up the tv because you can’t hear it over the vacuum” loud.

The Bissell Spinwave doesn’t get hung up or caught as much as my Brand X vacuum. Because it doesn’t have that annoying little knob on the top like my old robotic vacuum does, it doesn’t get caught under my dishwasher or cupboards.

Both vacuums were easy to clean out and empty. And both vacuums held about the same amount of debris. So I can’t really say one is better than the other on that aspect.

The Bissell spinwave, of course, also has the mop function that my old robotic vacuum didn’t. In my opinion, the mop function is good for light daily cleaning. I definitely do this. Having tile floors in my kitchen and downstairs bathroom though, I still feel the needs to scrub them good because the mop function does not get into all the little divots, and bumps in the tiles. The mop feature is helpful for light spills, dirt tracks, etc so I definitely like to use it.

They highly recommend the Bissell floor cleaning solution for the mop well. The instructions say it’s specially formulated for use with this vacuum and using a different cleaning solution, such as Pinesol for instance, could void the warranty.

I feel like with any robotic vacuum you still have to make sure your floors are picked up well even from small pieces. I could never run my robotic vacuum while not home. With 4 kids and 3 cats, there’s forever something on the floor.

Final Thoughts On The Bissell Spinwave

I definitely prefer this one over my old robotic vacuum. The fact that it can vacuum and mop give it more value to me. Since it is quieter, it is less annoying to me. I feel like I can still carry on with life. Since it doesn’t get hung up as often as my old robotic vacuum I feel like i can get more done and I’m not babysitting the vacuum cleaner.

Bonus Feature

When you purchase this particular product, a portion of the sale goes to the Bissell Pet Foundation and it’s mission to save homeless pets.

I received this product at no cost from BzzAgent. Any opinion expressed is my own.

The Rituals of Karma Review

Last year I had my first experience with Rituals products when I got to review The Rituals of Advent Calendar. I was delighted to try the products. I feel like I had been missing something in the bath and body world before then.

Rituals products are high quality and beautifully packaged. If you’re wondering, yes I have bought several Rituals products since reviewing that advent calendar last year. I still have a bunch more on my wish list.

This year I got to try the new The Rituals of Karma products.

I received the gorgeous products pictured about to review from Rituals and Tryazon. I received a full size The Rituals of Karma shower gel, The Rituals of Karma body cream, and The Rituals of Karma body scrub.

Let’s start with the body cream. You receive a generous amount of body cream in your beautiful container. A little goes along way. In my opinion, it’s the perfect consistency. It’s not too thin or too thick. It’s felt immediately soothing to my skin and quenched my dry legs.

The Rituals of Karma scent is my favorite scent I’ve tried to date. It is a light, fresh, clean scent using lotus and white tea. Each of the three products I received had the same fragrance the fragrance was consistent between products.

Now let’s talk about the body scrub..

Again beautifully packaged same gorgeous scent. I’m a fan of body scrubs. I find myself using body scrubs more in the winter when my skin get dry and itchy from the dry heat and in the summer to keep that glow. If I had any complaints about this particular product though it would just be that it’s almost too oily for my liking. The scrub itself on my skin is amazing. But it left an oil film in my tub for a couple days.

Now onto the shower gel…

As I’ve mentioned earlier I love Rituals products. If I was placed inside a Rituals store and they told me I could pick 1 item in any scent I choose, I would pick this product. No joke. I love the shower gels already. It’s a shower gel but it foams a little so I love the consistency of it. The Rituals of Karma is my favorite scent so far. I also love the pump on their shower gels.

Fun fact, this is my birthday month so I needed to redeem my Sephora birthday gift. So when I picked my birthday gift I also bought another can of The Rituals of Karma shower gel because I loved it that much and I don’t want to run out.

Which brings me to another point. You can find The Rituals of Karma products at Sephora and Rituals.com. There are also gift sets available that would make an awesome gift. Rituals products are more affordable than you might assume too. I’m also eyeing up their fragrances. I might have to treat myself to one of those.

I received these products at no cost from Rituals and Tryazon. Any opinions expressed are my own.

Era Organic Complete – This Has Been A Skin Saver

I’m a healthcare worker in a local hospital. I work part time so I only work 4 hours a day (right now). But in that 4 hours if I’m not using hand sanitizer and washing my hands at least 20 times in my 4 hours there then it’s probably more. My hands are drying out. I’m wearing a mask while at work, believe it or not it’s drying my face out. Normal every day moisturizers just aren’t cutting it. I’m taking hot showers when I get home and that’s drying out my skin.

Era Organic Complete has been such a treat for my body.

Era Organics complete moisturizes, protects, soothes, and quenches dry skin. It uses natural ingredients like manuka honey, aloe vera, hemp seed oil, and MSM among other ingredients.

Right off the bad, opening the container offers a sweet aroma that smells something like honey and coconut. You can see the thick creamy moisturizer but feeling it is when you know it’s gonna work. The cool, thick and creamy consistency allows you to get a lot of moisturizer done with a small amount.

I’ve applied this to my face, hands, and body. It’s instant relief for my dry skin and even my cracked skin on my hands. The moisturizing feeling lasts for hours. The fragrant scent last a while too. I like to put this on after my shower. Then I’ll some times apply more to my face and hands before work.

The description on Era Organics website states it’s for eczema as well. My little ones had eczema as babies and I could totally see how this would work for that. Manuka honey, in and of itself, is set to ease some of the discomfort and eczema.

I was blessed to receive this sample from Era Organics to review. Any opinions expressed are my own.