How can you afford custom-printed personalized holiday cards?

How can you get gorgeous invitations for a birthday party?

How can you make a $30 gift card be worth $100?

I KNOW!!!    Hit the Christmas in July sale at Paper Coterie.  This sale runs through July 31, 2012.  This is a great time to start budgeting for the holidays.  If you do a Secret Santa gift exchange at the office, just think how much your “secret buddy” would love this!   Or what about teacher gifts at Christmas? [Read more…]

Packing your lunch is one of the easiest ways to save on food.  At the school where I work, we only have 25 minutes for lunch and that’s including the time it takes to get my students in line.  Packing my lunch helps me to eat healthy and save time as well, so I try to take a sandwich or some yogurt along in the morning.  Sometimes I really want a hot lunch and don’t have the time to pop my meal in the microwave.  It’s so tempting to say “yes” when someone offers to grab a to-go meal for me. That’s why I was really excited to hear about the lunch crock.  This might be my lunchtime solution!

The lunch crock is perfectly sized to heat up your leftover soups and casseroles.  It keeps the meal at just the right temperature so that your food is ready when you have a moment to eat.  Also, it is small enough that it can even fit on your desk or an office shelf.  I think this would be a great option for keeping warm dips and sauces to share with work friends.  Since it’s so small you can even wash it in the office sink.  This is a great little gadget that will help me stick to my budget and eat right at the same time.

This post is brought to you by VA Streamline Refinance.

If you are active duty or prior service military and currently have a VA mortgage, did you know that you can get a military streamline loan?   By completing a short and simple online form, you can have a reply in just a few seconds.  With mortgage rates being so low right now, you might want to consider refinancing to save money on interest.  In our case, we used the money to pay off the pool that we just installed.  We decided that the pool would provide our family with a lifetime of memories.   Refinancing might help free up cash so that you can pay down credit cards or other debt.  You could also continue to pay your current mortgage amount and possibly pay off your loan sooner!  There are so many reasons to consider refinancing.  Is it right for you? Having VA loans explained makes things so much easier. My stepfather is active military and refinanced his home recently.  He had a VA loan and refinanced it for a lower interest rate.   His experience was so smooth and easy that my husband and I decided to refinance, too.  Unfortunately we did not have the option to use the VA loan since we’re not a military family, and our process was so very frustrating.  I was so envious of my stepfather’s VA refinance program!

According to VA Streamline Refinance, if your current mortgage interest rate is over 5%, you could benefit from a refinance.    They claim that even a  1% reduction might help you save $100 to $600 per month!  And that’s with no out of pocket expenses. Additionally, you might be able to get up to $6000 for energy efficient improvements.  Wow!  Our refinance program wasn’t even close to that good.   There is an online quote form that you can complete to see if a refinance might help you.

There are some terms that you should be aware of.  Make sure to read the fine print on the page, especially the part about late payments.  Still, from what I could see, there were lots of advantages to refinancing with the VA program.  It’s something I would consider if we had that opportunity.

Once upon a time, on a college campus long, long ago there was a girl who spent $500 in textbooks for just one single semester.  The girl had been shocked at the cost of these books and tried to purchase the used copies.  Almost $100 for a used Abnormal Psychology book?!?  Still, she almost had a heart attack when the cash register totaled the bill.  The girl gulped and paid the clerk then struggled to carry the bag full of books up the steep hill to her dorm room.  Weak and exhausted from the effort, and still stunned by the expense of the textbooks, the girl collapsed on her bed and vowed to find an alternative.

Fifteen years later…..

Although I never found a cheaper option while I was in college, I am really excited to share with you a great site for textbook deals.

Welcome to CampusBookRentals.com.  They offer textbooks at significant savings—you can save 40-90% off the bookstore prices.  Also, Campus Book Rentals offers free shipping BOTH ways!   They have flexible rental periods and you can even (politely) highlight in the textbooks.   Shopping online means that the textbooks are delivered right to your door.   Need to make some extra cash?  Campus Book Rentals buys textbooks and they’ll even provide a shipping label for you.  I love that they donate to Operation Smile with each textbook rental, too.

Share Campus Book Rentals with a friend and you’ll both save!  You get $5 for each friend referred plus your friend gets 5% off their next purchase!   Your friend will thank you for being such a savings-savvy bud.   Here’s an example of the savings you’ll realize with your rental.  Remember the $100 Abnormal Psych book that I had to buy 15 years ago?  On Campus Book Rental, you can rent a similar  Abnormal Psychology textbookfor a semester for around $26.  Wow, it’s like your best friend took all the classes before you and is letting you borrow the books, right?!

It takes just seconds to sign up, and there’s a 30-day guarantee.  It’s been a while, but I remember being on a college student budget.  Campus Book Rentals would have been a real lifesaver for me!  I hope you’ll share it with someone who can benefit from it, too.

Check out Campus Book Rentals and tell me which books you can save money on!

I have a confession to make.

I’m in love with the guy who cleans my pool.

That’s a good thing, though, because he’s my husband.  He diligently keeps our pool looking sparkling blue and so perfect for us to enjoy.  Over the last three weeks, it has rained daily.  We’re not complaining because we know the rest of the country is going through a terrible drought, so we’re grateful for the rain.  But I’m NOT grateful for the mud that keeps sliding into the pool because it’s escaping over the retaining wall.  A few days ago, some muddy water got into the pool and made it more like a pond.  My poor husband has spent HOURS getting it back to normal.

Thanks to Dave’s Waves, it’s been a lot easier to keep our pool clean and safe.  Dave’s Waves is located here in Kingsport on Memorial Blvd.  They allow us to bring our water in to be tested and they’ll analyze it, giving us a printout of what needs to be done.  This is all completely free for anyone!  Of course, they appreciate if you purchase your chemicals there but you are not required to.   It takes just a few minutes and my kids love going into the store because they actually have a swimming pool in it. The employees are always so friendly and nice.  I’m very appreciative of  their help.

Everyone told us how much of a hassle it is to have a pool.  Thanks to Dave’s Waves, the pool has turned out to be a wonderful blessing for our family.

I couldn’t find a website for Dave’s Waves, but they do have a Facebook page if you’d like to follow them!

(I received no compensation, monetary or otherwise, for this post.)

I received a copy of Mission Possible by Eva Moskowitz and Arin Lavinia to read and another to give away to one of you fabulous readers.  Education is always a major factor in our national and state budgets.  It seems that no one can agree on how money should be spent or how children should be taught.

I was asked to respond to this question when reading this book:

Stagnation, being unable to accomplish one’s job at a high level, is one of the greatest sources of low teacher morale. Why do you think this country treats teaching so differently than it does other professions?

In my opinion, it’s not that teachers are unable to accomplish exceptional teaching.   It’s that they have too many distractions that take away from the most important job—educating children.   In what other job is a professional expected to perform and get results that are truly out of one’s control?  For example, if a doctor tells a patient to lose weight and the patient doesn’t meet that goal, is the doctor held responsible?  Would an Olympic coach be able to take children from all walks of life, all shapes and sizes, and be able to make gold medalists out of each one?  Of course not!!  So why are teachers expected to make such miracles happen?    In the United States, teachers are being asked to take great measures beyond the classroom for the good of the children.  Often, this is done without resources or a realistic budget. Meanwhile, the country looks on and everyone has an opinion about how these measures should be evaluated.   Teachers are also some of the lowest-paid professionals among their college educated peers.  The country does treat teaching much differently than it does other professions.   For some reason, teachers are often looked upon with condescension from their colleagues in other fields.  We all know the saying, “those who can’t, teach.”   Anyone who speaks those words should be required to teach a third grader how to compute long division.  I think that phrase would be banished from the English language!

Going back to my point about teachers making miracles happen…….the point is that teachers do make that miracle happen.  No matter the excuses, teachers rise above and get results.  Teachers don’t go to into education for the money or the benefits.  Teachers are devoted to children and helping them love learning.   If you have a child, remember when your child learned to ride a bike?  That feeling that you had is what teachers live for.  At the end of the day, cantankerous parents or a boatload of papers to grade don’t hold a candle to the light in a child’s eyes when she makes the connection between addition and subtraction.

That’s what Mission Possible is all about.  These Success Academies take away the barriers that can stand in the way of true excellence in learning.  Economics, demographics, and gender are all cast aside.  What’s left is rigorous learning made simple and fun.  Although I didn’t agree with the part about bringing in entertainment to make school a crazy fun place to be, I love the idea of making schools about kids again.  Mission Possible focuses on “scholars” and teachers working together to achieve powerful results in kids’ reading and writing skills.   Another feature I liked about Mission Possible was the great tips on higher-level questioning skills.  The book is supported with an excellent array of documented research.  Although Mission Possible is primarily about public education, I think it could benefit homeschooling parents as well.

You can find out more about Mission Possible by liking author Eva Moskowitz on Facebook and following her on Twitter.  Send her a tweet and tell her what you think of Mission Possible and Success Academies!

Want to win a copy of Mission Possible?  Enter using the Rafflecopter form below.  The giveaway is open to US readers of Savings in Seconds and will end July 31, 2012.  Good luck!

I think it’s time for me to take inventory of what’s in my first aid kit.  We have a couple of them stashed around the house and my kids have wiped out all of the Band-aids.   Then there’s the bug bites…..I finally got stocked up on our bug repellant, but when my hubby forgot to put it on he got a ton of bites.  I couldn’t find the Benadryl stick to put on it.

Other than the typical items like bandages and ice packs, I try to always keep some J & J burn gel packets.  I found them once at Target and they are seriously so wonderful.  My little boy grabbed my flat iron one day and burned his tiny hand. I put some of the burn gel on it and it took the redness right out!  When I’ve used it on myself, it also takes the pain out of the burn.  It helps it heal a lot quicker, too.

We also just received a tube of this SunBurnt After Sun Gel that is a great treatment for sunburns.  It can even be used on skin that’s just been out in the sun too long.  My kids are in the sun all the time now that we have the pool and even though they’ve not been sunburned, they definitely have peeling skin.  This has helped and it’s homeopathic.   I really like that it’s Lidocaine-free.  It’s available at lots of nationally known stores like Walgreens and Target.  I’m thinking that this would be a good item to tuck into my husband’s golf club bag, too.

So it’s time to restock.  What do you have in yours?  What else do I need to have?  Tell me the essentials that you’re keeping in your First Aid Kit.

One lucky winner will receive a tube of SunBurnt After Sun Gel, too (open to US readers).  Enter using the rafflecopter form below. Good luck!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Are you headed to Walmart this week to do some back-to-school shopping?  Don’t miss out on these free Crayola markers. Even if they’re not on the school supplies list, who doesn’t love having a fresh pack of markers?  Even better, these are shipped free to your store so you can just pick them up while you’re doing your other shopping.

Just log-in to your Shop At Home account (or sign up if you haven’t already…new users get $5 in your account just for purchasing through this link).   Click on the Coupons tab on the top left and see the Crayola deal?  Click the link and pay for yours.  After 30 days your purchase price will be credited to your account.  If you’ve been taking advantage of the other WILD freebies I’ve posted lately, your account should be pretty close to cashing out!

Here was my final checkout page….I don’t mind paying tax only, after cashback!

This post contains affiliate links.

When was the last time that you did something that was completely for your kids?   Yesterday we did just that. We were invited to attend the SuperWhy Live show. When we found out that the Super Why Live show was going to be only 90 minutes away, I couldn’t wait to take my kids to see it.  My son loves Super Why (he’s three years old) and he’s never been to a live show of any kind.   We had a really, really busy morning and I had a headache, so I wasn’t looking forward to the drive. Nevertheless, we all piled into the car with charged iPods and assorted DS games.

Thankfully the show was at 3:30 PM, perfect timing so that we didn’t need to spend the night. It was in the strikingly beautiful Tennessee Theater in the Old City of Knoxville.  LOVE!!  My sister-in-law and I just sat and stared at the incredible architecture.  The kids were content with popcorn and water, so we had time to settle in before the show.  The Super Why Live show started off with a bang!!  There was a surprise blast of streamers that landed right on us, everyone (parents included) just loved it!!   In fact, most of the kids scrambled to grab one as a souvenir.  They had about three of these streamer moments through the show, so if you’re near the front, be prepared!!  We were so fortunate to have amazing seats and were right in the perfect spot to get showered with lots of confetti.  The kids loved it and my sister-in-law said it was her favorite part of the show! [Read more…]

I’ve been shopping online the past couple of days, taking advantage of some great sales!  My daughter is heading into third grade and needed some new tops/shorts outfits.  I don’t like to spend a fortune on more summer clothes, so I usually just get her three or four new outfits for the first week of school.  We wait to buy the fall/winter clothes when it’s colder.  Temperatures don’t start to drop until October around here, so I have plenty of time to wait for the rock-bottom sales!

Boden had some great prices on t-shirts, so I got several for my son and my daughter.  I also went through Shop At Home to earn some cashback.  With free shipping, it was a great deal—plus I can sell these at the consignment sale next season for what I paid!  Here are a few of the good deals they’ve got right now….you might have to search a bit for the sizes you need, but I’m sure you can find some great prices!

It’s also time to start jazzing up my daughter’s room. She’s been asking for a purple zebra comforter and I thought–What?!   But I found a great deal on one at Designer Living, it was just what she wanted!  Also went through Shop At Homeagain to earn more cashback.  I also used code STAYMP30 to get 30% off non-clearance items.  While I was there, I also grabbed some other clearance sale deals.  Their kids section had lots of items marked down to $9.99, so I was able to redecorate both kids’ rooms for under $100.  My order was over $75 so I also got free shipping.  Awesome!   Here are just a few of the deals I got:

If you are looking for the kids’ clearance stuff, search for “Olive Kids” and sort by price.  There are also Pucca items for $1.99 and above!

What great deals have you found lately?  I’d love to hear about them!

(This post contains affiliate links.)