Category: sponsored post

With the summer travel season coming up, many people will be taking family trips.  Keeping your kids entertained in the car is not always an easy task.  I wrote a series of post for free or cheap DIY ideas to keep the kids entertained on a road trip. I recently wrote a post for Caitlin Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram on how to make a DIY travel bingo board.  There are plenty of places to find printable and to buy ready-made commercially produced travel bingo boards but it’s really not very hard to make your own.  This allows you to create and personalize them just for your family.

This is an example of a general travel bingo board I made.

 

 

If you want to personalize it a little more here are some ideas:

1.  Destination board — If you’re headed to the lake you might come across trucks towing boats, lakes, ducks or geese, campers or RVs, etc.  you can add those into the theme of your board. If you’re taking a trip to Florida for example you could put things in like palm trees, mickey ears, citrus groves, etc.

2.  Vehicle board — If you’re driving you’ll definitely see other drivers on the highways at least.  You could add pics of trucks, cars, vans, SUVs, semi-trucks, motorcycles, etc in different colors.

3.  Sign board –  You could do one strictly on road signs: Stop sign, Yield sign, Exit sign, mile markers, dead end, etc.

4.  Places board – you could make a board on places you might see along the way: McDonald’s, rest stops, gas stations (you can be specific with national chains) malls, grocery stores, hospitals, farms, etc.  You can either just type the name or find clipart online.

5. Number board — Think about the numbers you might see along the way with speed limit signs, mile markers, numbers on billboards, exit numbers, etc.  It might be better to use more common speed numbers like: 35, 65, 25  and exit or marker numbers like 1, 2, or 3.  800 might be a good number to use as many businesses use an 800 number on their billboards when a number is included.

6.  Color board — for little ones it might just be easier for them to identify colors.  Putting a red square on there they can check that off if they see a red stop sign. Yellow square when they see the McDonald’s arches they may recognize yellow, Green square perhaps for exit signs or even grass, and so on.  You could throw some odd colors in there to make it a little more challenging like pink, if they see a person with a pink shirt or pink shoes it could count.

Can you think of more themes for boards?  Be sure to check out my DIY on Caitlin Chrysler’s website found here: http://www.caitlinchryslerdodgejeepram.com/diy-travel-bingo-board.htm to see how to make your own board.

Please stop over to see my guest post.  Maybe even learn how to make your own travel bingo boards for your next car trip.

 

The info in this post was provided by TendlerOrthodontics.com 

I remember in highschool my dentist telling my mom that I should have braces.  My teeth were crowded, some overlapped others.  He told her that crowded and overlapping teeth make it more difficult for me to clean my teeth and can lead to other dental problems in the future.  My parents didn’t have a lot of money and had to put it off for a few years but I finally got braces when I was about 16.  I was so nervous they wouldn’t be off in time for senior pictures.  I had to have mine on for 2 years because my teeth really needed some work.  When they came off though I had so much more confidence in my smile.

I’ve heard a lot of studies and surveys where people were polled and asked what the first physical thing they noticed about a person and many said “their smile”  Having orthodontic work early can help with a child’s self esteem as well as possibly prevent future dental issues.  To come full circle, my oldest son is 11. His dentist told me he would need braces.  I asked him when.  He said after he loses a few more baby teeth.  I’m already planning for the expense but I know it will be expense that will be worth it 10x over from my own experience.

You don’t have to take my word for it though.  Learn more about early diagnosis and when you might want to consult an orthodontist.  I’m so glad my boys’ dentist gave me a heads up because it gives me plenty of time to look into options, plan for expenses, and research orthodontists.  I also know that it could end up saving my son and I money in the long run in terms of dental and medical issues in the future.  Not just financially but physically.

When I hear about people retiring it seems it’s one of two places.  Florida and Arizona both seem to be popular.  I had actually heard at one point that one of the reasons is that the heat is good for arthritic joints.

Another thing I heard is that some of the retirement communities are top notch.  I live in a small town in PA.  I heard there is actually a small community of people just from my town.  They call it the little version of my town in Florida.  To me that’s just crazy because for someone many people to be in one area of Florida from my small little PA town, I mean, what are the chances?

Still a lot of people know about the beautiful golf communities in the area.  You can find golf retirement communities along the coast or further inland, north or south.  There are even facilities for those that need a little extra help with meal prep or mobility.  Places like Devonshire at PGA National for example is located in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.  There are tons of places to retire to though no matter what you are into.

Before making a serious retirement decision it’s important to know where you stand financially, what expenses to expect, and the cost of living for the area.  Some retirement communities are all inclusive as far as meals, room, activities, while other may charge extra for some things.  Be sure to visit the communities too.  Anyone can talk a good game and take good pictures.  Talk with other residents and encourage their honest opinions.

Do you know someone who has retired in Florida?  I know a few.  I also know a few who winter in Florida and come back to PA for the summer! I’d love to be able to do that!

This post was brought to you by an assisted living site. 

 

**Sponsored post from Evolve Money.  Any opinions expressed are my own**

Paying bills is not really at the top of my “fun things to do list”.  It always feels good when I can pay my bills on time.  It really feels good to finally pay a bill off.  It can be stressful when you forget about a bill the day before it’s due or you have to wait for payday which is only 2 days before the bill is due.  Still, companies are making it easier and more convenient to pay our bills and pay for things in store.

Just this week I was on my way to work.  As I was walking into the building checking my email on my cell phone I realized I needed to put money in my son’s ATT GoPhone account.  Went through the day at work, hit the ground running when I got home and totally forgot about putting money in his account.  The next day went to work, walking into work again and realized “hey I never put money in his account”.  I have what I like to call “mommy dementia”. You know, moms (and dads too) sometimes have so much stuff on our plate that some things are forgotten about until we have a spare moment and say “oh shoot I never did _____” fill in the blank there.

Well Evolve Money makes it easy for you to pay bills on the go and even set it to pay bills for you a certain day each month.  Evolve Money is an app for your smart phone that can be downloaded from Google Play.  The app is free. You can add funds to your Evolve Money account either through credit, debit, or ReLoadit packs that you can purchase at 1000’s of retailers nationwide. You can even use prepaid VISA and Mastercards.   I was excited to see that I could actually pay my son’s AT&T GoPhone with Evolve Money.

 

You can choose the amount you want to pay.  Standard bill pay (2 day)  is free but you can do an express pay (same day ) for only $1.50.  You can do a provider search to see which of your bills you can pay with Evolve Money.  You can pay electric, water, banks, etc to pay your utilities, car notes, etc. In fact, there are more than 11,000 providers you can pay through the app.  The only thing I noticed they didn’t have was credit card companies.  I initially thought of paying my credit card but it wasn’t available.  I did email them to inquire about it.  The reply I got said that they don’t currently support credit cards but they are working on growing more.  I did a general search for providers for electric just to see what would come up.

Currently the Evolve Money app is only available on Google Play with IOS to come soon.  I was able to use the website to try out the features though since I have an iPhone.  I could definitely see me using this app for my “mommy dementia” moments that I described earlier in the post.  It would be nice to pay the bills I’m thinking of right when I’m thinking of it.

Evolve Money has a special code for Luv Saving Money readers. This code is only for new Evolve Money customers but will give you a $5 credit towards paying bills.  Use code: LuvSaving5 to in the “Discount and Promo Code” box when you read the “add payment method” section.  Coupon code expires May 5, 2014. 

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This post is sponsored by Scoopshot through Sverve.  Any opinions expressed are my own

Do you love taking pictures on the go with your smartphone?  Maybe taking pics on your iPhone or android phone of your wife running a local race, Pics of a celeb you passed at an event, pics from the charity event you attended, honestly it could be a simple picture of a beautiful landscape or flower you spotted.  Whatever it is you like to take pics of on the go, you could be making money with those pics. No kidding.

Scoopshot connects smartphone photographers with media and brands looking for your pictures.  They are looking for pics for breaking news, custom tasks, high school sports, community news, and more.  Sometimes media outlets want eye witness pictures or pics from a local event that they just can’t get to.  You own the rights to your photos.  Scoopshot has 13 pending patents and 1 approved patent.

You can get paid for your photos.  Simply take photos on your phone (this can be done through the scoopshot app too) and submit them for tasks or for news stories. You can download the app free on iTunes and Google Play.  When you download it you’ll need to sign up (also free). They just take your name, email, and ask for a phone number.  They explain why in the app but it doesn’t seem like the phone and name is mandatory.  Once you’re signed up you can see if there are any tasks in your area and find out how to submit content for news stories. I took a screen shot from my iPhone so you can see what this looks like.

 

If you’re a brand or a media outlet looking for fresh photos from consumers point of view, this would be the place to go.  Smartphone photographers from around the world are using this app.  Want local high school event pictures, who better to get those than the student’s parents?  Looking for pics from past summer events as examples for your upcoming summer calendar you’ll find plenty.  Some media and brand clients include: USA Today, London Evening Standard, Fiat, and Finnair just to name a few.

For the smartphone photographers you might be wondering if you can really make money.  One photographer in Europe has made $20,000!  Scoopshot has paid out over $500,000 so far. If you’re a freelance photographer you can even have assignments sent to you.  Create a 9 photo portfolio, include your location, and your experience.  Clients will rate your work. You can find more info on the Scoopshot photographer page.

I’m new to this app myself but I’m giving it a try.  I’ve already tried submitting a few photos to see what happens.

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