Category: Uncategorized

Let me first start of by saying: Yes, Breast feeding is best when possible. I nursed all three of my children for several months until i had to switch to formula. Now, that that’s said….

I love to get a great deal and I love to save money. Though, my kids’ health is more important to me than saving a few dollars. Anyone who has used formula with their babies know that formula is expensive. If you look around you’ll see Formula choices from Enfamil, Similac, Carnation Good Start, Store brand and probably other I just can’t think of right now. Most pediatricians will recommend that once you pick a formula you should stick with it. So you have a real decision on your hands.

First thing you may notice is the price. Ouch I know but stay with me here. the 27.5 oz cans of Similac and Enfamil are somewhere around $25-$28 dollars. Then you see the store brand such as Parent’s Choice $15. Big difference. But what else is different?

I get the little postcards in the mail saying that store brand formulas have the same nutritional values as the name brands. So I decided to take a good look myself. For the remainder of this blog post we will compare Parent’s Choice to Enfamil.

Both have vitamins: A, D, E, K, B1, B2, B6, B12, and C in reading the labels on the cans side by side

Both have Minerals: Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc, Manganese, Copper, Sodium, Selenium, Potassium, Chloride, Iodine

Both have Protein, Fat, Carbohydrates, Water, and Linoleic acid. The difference here is that Parent’s Choice (PC) has 2.3 g of protein and Enfamil has 2.6. The fat content is the same at 5.3 g as well as the Linoleic acid at 860 mg. PC has 10.8 g of carbohydrates while enfamil has 10.5.

Both contain the Lipids DHA and ARA which in reading are associated with infant mental and visual development.

I’m not a doctor or a nurse. Each mother’s choice is their own with breast feeding vs formula feeding and which brand of formula to choose when choosing to use formula.

In comparing the nutrition labels i chose parent’s choice because they were so similar with the nutritional content. I also found this information helpful on the Parent’s Choice website for baby formula regulations: http://www.parentschoiceformula.com/baby-formula-regulations.aspx

Don’t think it’s always best for your baby to buy the most expensive item. Not just with formula. Compare your diapers, diaper creams, clothing, baby food and more. When you do the research you can still save your family money AND take care of all your babies needs without stressing the budget.

Also found this youtube video i just thought was cute and entertaining:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziw-T6A2xEw

There are so many home sales companies out there. Companies like Lia Sophia, AVON, Pampered Chef and lots more. There are newer ones popping up all the time as well like the Dove Chocolatiers and Scentsy. If you are like I was, you’d probably only order from these type of companies to help out a friend or if you were invited to a party for one of these companies where you knew the host/hostess.

My ideas have changed though. More so in the past 2 years I’d guess. With the economy the way it is, people losing their jobs, and people just trying to make ends meet. My sister had been an AVON rep. Of course I bought from her because, well, she was my sister. But she gave me a lot more info on AVON than I was aware of. I always knew that AVON had good prices, good products, and great sales. I slowly started replacing my products with AVON products. I started comparing prices and realized AVON’s prices are similar to if not better than other brands even at walmart. Their products are a guaranteed and AVON supports a lot of great causes.

Other companies like Lia Sophia offer lifetime guarantees on their products as long as you have your receipt as well as great incentives of hostesses.

If you find a good consultant/rep/etc for a company they will let you know of upcoming sales, when you’re favorite products has a deal, new products etc.

There are still other companies out there that offer green cleaning products like Shaklee.

A company I recently discovered was RADA knives. A coworker was selling them as a fundraiser for her daughters horse riding club. I bought the knives to help out (mostly because they were a great price. Most of the knives were between $4-6) I LOVE them. Each time she sells them I buy more. I’m slowly replacing all my old knives that were given to me and no longer would…well…cut it. lol.

Most, if not all, of these companies offer shopping through a website OR a consultant. It’s so much easier to find out info about a product from a local consultant, to return items if you’re not happy with it, or to reorder items you like.

The best part is, you’ll be helping out someone in this tough economy. Whether it be a neighbor, friend, facebook friend, coworker, etc.

Read the companies information. See what causes they support, check into satisfaction and/or product guarantess, ask about specials, sign up for newletters, or mailing lists of companies and/or reps you’re interested in. Who knows, you may also get into selling as well.

I was inspired to write this blog because I won a prize in a recent contest. Nothing major but I did win. I won a TAG reading system from the Wendy’s Learning Adventure Sweepstakes. I’ve won prizes in other contest before.

The biggest prize I think I ever won was roughly about 7 years ago. I used to be a huge fan of Mystic flavored spring waters. Does anyone else remember those? Anyway, they had a contest that I entered online. I had pretty much forgotten about the contest when I got a letter in the mail saying I had one 1st prize (NOT the grand prize unfortunately, grand prize was something like $10,000) But I digress. I had won a year’s supply of Mystic and a Mystic T-shirt.

The point of me telling you this is not to brag but make a point. I’m telling one of my coworkers about my recent win of the TAG reading system. She says “you’re so lucky I never win anything”. Lucky, no i don’t think so. I think the law of averages falls into place somewhere.

For anyone that knows even a little bit about me, I love to enter contests and I’m not afraid to get free samples (and tell people about them)

You’re odds increase the more you enter. Some contests allow you to enter daily, weekly, monthly or only once. There are many great sites out there that offer a list of great sweeps and contests. Some of the ones I enjoy using are:

www.mysavings.com this one is also a great free sample site

www.sweepstakestoday.com
this site allow you to easily re-enter contests.

There are also other websites that offer great contests such as:
www.sheknows.com
www.womansday.com
www.madberries.com

Personally I must enter 100s of contests a year. So if I win one or 2 things a year I’m really not THAT lucky. A lot of sites make it easy for you to re-enter as well. Google tool bar offer an autofill button on their bar. There is also something called “roboform” available online that i’ve heard many people use. I personally don’t but mostly because I like the google autofill. I’ve never won the big prize in a contest but I’m working on it 🙂

Also a little more rewarding is Online Instant Win contests or IWGs.
www.myinstantwin.com
While it doesn’t seem to be that they are updating the main page of the site you can go into the forums and find many instant win games. Often there are lots of prizes being given away in these games and you’ll have better odds of winning something. I’ve won things like: free wendy’s frosty’s, a $50 amex gift card from Kraft, free m&ms for the mars halloween IWG they do, and more from contests like these.

Most online contests are free to enter. If the contests requires a code from a package purchase check the rules. Often times they will offer an alternative entry method or list a “free code” in the rules.

Also as a matter of courtesy. I don’t enter contests if I’m really not interested in the prize. For instance, I would never enter a contest for something like free sky diving lessons, or “spend the day with _______ football player ( i wouldn’t even know what to say) or something like that. Not for me, but I’m sure there are people out there that would truely enjoy that.

I only learned about this Reece’s Rainbow recently from a fellow blogger, Grissell. I took a look at the website and gladly posted the button on my blog. I found myself drawn to go back to the site. I felt as though I wanted to do more. I looked at the website and found myself in tears. All these poor children who need loving families and medical care.

Where I’m not in a position to be able to adopt, I wanted to be able to help someone who is in a position to do so. Reece’s rainbow website takes donations that are used to help adoptive families with the cost of international adoption. All of the children are special needs.

http://networkedblogs.com/p24375484

I made a small donation myself. Reading through the information the website is saying it can cost $25,000 for a family to adopt a special needs child internationally. If these children are not adopted at an early age they are sent away to institutions for the rest of their lives.

It breaks my heart to see the pictures of their sweet smiling faces. As a healthcare worker, I think, “this child could be helped with a few surgeries, or “in the right environment this child could do fairly well.”

Please consider making a donation to this wonderful organization. You’re donation could extend the life, quality and happiness of a child’s future and help place them in a loving home.

http://networkedblogs.com/p24375484

I love the site: www.freestufftimes.com I find a lot of great free stuff on that site. This time I found out about “Recycle Bank”. www.recyclebank.com
Registration for Recycle Banks is free. The idea is you earn points by doing things like: curbside recycling, sending in old cell phones and ipods, and joining the Kashless community which is also free: http://kashless.org/signup Where you can post your used items for free that someone else may want. As opposed to throwing them away. You can also get free stuff.

Trade in your points for things like gift cards, cleaning products, discounts, and more. I just ordered a free Seventh Generation all purpose cleaner and a free Seventh Generation natural dish liquid. You get 100 points just for making a free account on “Recycle Bank”. I used that to get a free 6 month Pogo membership.

So you do green things and get points to get free stuff. Not bad huh?
Seventh Generation, Free & Clear All-Purpose Cleaner 32 Ounces
Seventh Generation Dish Liquid, Free & Clear, 25-Ounce Bottles (Pack of 6)

***UPDATE Received my coupons today for free jar of Chick Chick Baby Food, 1 free seventh generation all purpose cleaner, and 1 fre Seventh Generation Dish Liquid

So excited to have got an email from Recycle bank to give me more info to share with you about recycle bank. I received this email from Melody Serafino with recyclebank and have provided most of the email for you all to read to learn more about recyclebank.

As you know, RecycleBank motivates people to become greener citizens and smarter consumers by rewarding them for recycling at home or taking greener actions. With a robust rewards program, there is an incentive for everyone for doing their part to make the world a bit greener.

In addition to our curbside recycling program – now servicing 25 states and growing– anyone, anywhere in the U.S. can sign up for a RecycleBank account and earn RecycleBank points for all kinds of greener actions like: reusing products through a free exchange on Kashless, recycling your MP3 players, laptops and cell phones, and joining eBay’s Green Team Community and working to use what already exists in the world today.

Here are some examples of how members can earn points:

· Getting a new sofa? Rather than putting the old one to the curb on trash day, post it on Kashless.org. Need a sofa, check the listings by state, city, mileage radius… and pick one up for free. RecycleBank will reward you for either side, because you saved landfill space. And, there are dozens of categories to share in this free exchange of goods!

· Today you can send in your old cell phones, laptops, and iPod/MP3 players and earn RecycleBank points for keeping them out of the landfill. Starting in April, we’ll be accepting 20 different types of electronic waste! Visit www.RecycleBank.com/earn/electronics to see how to download a postage paid label for e-waste.

· Ever realize how green eBay is? It’s the ultimate source of that second of the three “R”s in the familiar environmental saying: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Join the eBay Green Team community through RecycleBank and you’ll earn 50 more points! Soon, you’ll even be able to use use your points for eBay transactions and make reuse even easier and more appealing!