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Pompeian Olive Oil – Smiley360.com

Posted by Brande on October 8, 2013
in Coupons, Food and Treats, Health and Nutrition, Recipes, Saving Money, Uncategorized

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product through Smiley 360 Bloggers program in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

I have been trying to incorporate more healthy options in my family’s meals. I was extremely excited to try Pompeian Olive Oil. What a pleasant surprise, it’s light and healthier for my family. I’ve replaced regular oil for Pompeian Olive Oil.

One of my favorite recipes from the Pompeian Olive Oil is the Honey Whole Wheat Waffles. Mmmm….. Click here for the recipe! You can try some great recipes as I have from the Pompeian Website also!

Come and get your $1.00 coupon for your next purchase! Don’t forget to you and LIKE the Pompeian Facebook Page for more coupons!

Smiley 260 & Pompeian Olive Oil are doing a survey, when you take the survey you can enter for a chance to win $200.00 gift card!

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My Husband Lost His Job….Again

Posted by html404 on September 10, 2013
in Business, Family Stuff, Home, Money & Finances, News Worthy, Saving Money

Five and a half years ago my husband came home through our front door at about 9am, which was uncharacteristically early considering he left work at 5:30-6:00AM and usually returned at 3:30-4:00PM. When I asked him what he was doing home so early, he replied, “I was laid off.” It was such a shock. Robert had worked at the store since he was in junior high. We worked for the first owner from 1981-2005. Then when the second owner bought the shop in 2005, Robert at times felt he had less job security. But seriously, we never saw the lay off coming.

Robert was out of work for about 20 months. I cleaned houses for a couple of months and started our virtual assistant business. Then his original boss, whom he had worked for over 20 years called him saying he had a new buyer for the store. You see, the second owner still owed the original owner money so when he went out of business in 2009, the store reverted back to the original owner. Clear as mud, eh?

He’s trying hard not to crack a smile in this photo in case you didn’t notice.

My Husband Lost His Job….Again

We accepted the job because we had high hopes of the store succeeding under new ownership.

This current lay off was better in the fact we knew it was coming. Robert’s job allowed him to see the numbers in the reports he ran and I’d say early in the summer he called it by saying he gave the shop until mid-August. He was a little off in that he had a job until about the end of August, as he was officially done a week and a half ago.

It’s was a topsy, curvy ride waiting for the axe to fall, so to speak. It is a bittersweet end to a job Robert enjoyed. He really liked this last owner and we thought the store would make it but alas, the industry has changed so much with the advent of the internet. Mom and Pop stores cannot compete with their distributors or online competition. Just look at your home town’s main street. If you have empty store fronts like we do, you’ll see what we are living.

We are not sure what God’s plan is in all of this. It is definitely stretching us.

Robert is applying to jobs. I’m working more. I just learned that I have a job as a hostess of a new moms forum, which will help bring in a little extra money. We are trying to get caught up around the farm while Robert is home…but that is a never ending task because there is always something to do!

Have you ever been unemployed or faced a lay off? How did you survive?

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OMG Nail Strips Review

Posted by Brande on August 27, 2013
in Deals, Fashion, Fun Stuff, Personal Care Products, Products for Mom, Reviews, SALES, Saving Money, Seasonal Stuff, Shopping, Uncategorized

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

Imagine having great nails that look expensive BUT, without the appointment and expense! OMG Nail Strips bring that to you at a low cost and it’s do it yourself at home! Hook me up, right?

These super easy nail adhesives are so much fun with little effort. Pick your favorite design from OMG Nail Strips; rather pick 4 of your favorite designs. There’s a sale going on right now 4 designs for $20.00! Tell me where you can go to get your nails done 4 times for $20.00? Not where I live.

OMG Nail Strips Review

They come in a strip with 12 sized strips. You need to make sure your nails are clean, apply a small amount of hand lotion. Wipe the excess and start applying the nail wraps. File the edges and you are ready to go! Yes, it’s that easy.

I wore them out to a picnic and one of my friends asked… “Do they really last?’” My answer was yes. After I applied OMG Nail Strips, I peeled and canned tomatoes. The strips lasted through the scald, cold bath and peeling tomatoes.

The strips last up to 10 days and come off very easy and there’s no drying time. For a mom & wife on the go these are great and very fun!

Click Here to visit OMG’s Nail Strip Website or visit their Facebook page.

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Back-to-School with Kmart #KmartBackToSchool

Posted by html404 on August 26, 2013
in Deals, Kids Stuff, Parenting, SALES, Saving Money, School, Shopping, Uncategorized

This is a sponsored post. I am a Kmart blogger, though all opinions are my own.

Doesn’t it seem like every year your kids get busier and busier? As the years go by, activities get piled on and so do the expenses. Soccer, ballet & music classes aren’t free. Unfortunately, neither are school supplies. With so much going on, your budget can get pulled in a lot of different directions. Fortunately, Kmart has savings on back to school so you can breathe easier. Pick up everything on their back to school shopping list from backpacks to gym shoes and the latest fall styles for less. The only question left is what will YOU do with the savings? I vote picking up something for yourself because it is a new year after all.

Watch for the Back-to-School with Kmart savings on Twitter using hashtag #KmartBackToSchool and follow the conversation too!

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My First Trip to Mariano’s in Chicago

Posted by html404 on August 20, 2013
in All Natural Products, Deals, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff, Health and Nutrition, Money & Finances, Parenting, Reviews, SALES, Saving Money, Shopping, Things to Do in Chicago, Uncategorized

It takes a lot to feed our family of ten. A huge reason we started farming was to grow our own food because buying all organic food for a large family is soooo expensive! There is no way we could do it by shopping at Whole Foods. We try to buy as much organic as we can, but it’s not always possible due to our budget. Enter Mariano’s. We had seen bags with Mariano’s on them but until we shopped there we did not know anything about this store or that they offered organic produce.

My husband and I went out ALONE to Mariano’s in Jefferson Park, Chicago. It was a rare treat to be alone but it was also a treat to go into the city for a change. We looked forward to purchasing organic milk, natural products and organic produce. First we went to Whole Foods in Sauganash, Chicago, then we went to Mariano’s in Jefferson Park. The stores are literally only a couple miles apart. We bought the exact same items at each store. The goal was to see how much money we could save by shopping at Mariano’s for organic produce and all natural products.

Mariano’s in Jefferson Park

Mariano’s in Jefferson Park is a large spacious store. There was lots of room to maneuver aisles, even though there were lots of people in the store. It was pretty easy to find everything. The only thing we couldn’t find right away was Kombucha but we found it just before we checked out because I almost forgot to buy it!

Shopping at Mariano’s was a good experience for us in that we discovered a new store we can shop for organic produce and all natural products our family loves and enjoys and SAVE money, which makes my hubby very happy!

Here’s a list of items we bought:

Organic Valley Milk
1-1.5 lbs Organic Tomatoes
2 lbs Organic Carrots
2 lbs Organic Blueberries
2 pkg.Applegate Organic Bacon
1 bottle of Kombucha (fermented tea that is carbonated)

Below is our receipts from both stores to show you how much we saved by shopping for organic produce at Mariano’s. We saved a whopping $12.24! We were impressed.

This past weekend was customer appreciation at Mariano’s. In celebration of this they featured over 3,000 roses on display at all stores – just $1 each. Over 100 varieties – a rainbow of color and called it their Rose Extravaganza! It was truly a gorgeous display of roses. Robert and I loved looking at the roses and we even took time to stop and smell them.

Customer appreciation at Mariano’s includes a FREE rewards card with the potential to earn rewards!

We are looking forward to shopping at Mariano’s again in the future.

Please mark your calendars because you are invited to Mariano’s Twitter Party which will be on Thursday, August 29, from 12-1pm CT/1-2 pm ET RSVP link: http://cbi.as/5bh5f #cbias #MyMarianos. Consider “liking” them on Facebook as well.

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PowerMyLearning

Posted by html404 on August 13, 2013
in Animals, Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Kids Stuff, Parenting, Reviews, Saving Money, School, Technology/Electronics, Uncategorized

This is a sponsored post.

We love getting educational products, digital or otherwise, to review. It’s fun for the children and changes up our routine a bit trying something new.

PowerMyLearning.org Review

PowerMyLearning is a free, educational website for teachers, parents and children. This site covers all the core subjects of education: Math, Language Arts, Music & Art, Social Studies, Science, Technology, World Languages and My Life (or what we old-timers would consider “Health”). There is a lot of interactive activities and my children enjoy visiting this website. The site does require creating a free account but it’s painless. Just like any other site registration.

My children really loved Biology – they love anything to do with animals – imagine that considering we live on a farm! They also loved the Who Am I section in Language Arts.

Here’s what my children had to say about the site:

“O” (13) – Picked up on misinformation. She said, “They got stuff like the gods and goddesses wrong in the solar system. They said the goddess of Agriculture was Aphrodite when everyone knows that is Demeter. Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty. They said the same thing about Mars, he is the God of War.” Can you tell she’s studied Greek mythology? Thanks to Percy Jackson.

“JAG”(9) – “It’s fun. I didn’t like the millions of years. I liked the stuff about rocks and stuff like that. I like the science things. Actually, I like a lot of it.”

“Blondie” (7) – “It was cool. I didn’t like the fact that there was no “playground” (another site we have used has a “playground” for recess etc., which was actually PBS kids TV programming and computer games) I like their games. My favorite game was the car racing game.”

“Nook” (5) – First he said he didn’t really like it then he changed his mind and said he likes it. Rather fickle little boy, eh?

Overall, I would have to say the children thought it was fun and I thought it was informative and a good site to use as a supplement to their homeschooling material.

PowerMyLearning is revamping their site with a launch date of September 3! We are excited as we thought the site was not very user friendly for mom or children. So this was great news to hear!

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Back to School with Old Navy #myONstyle @OldNavy

Posted by html404 on August 8, 2013
in Children's Clothing, Family Stuff, Fashion, Girl Stuff, Kids Stuff, Saving Money, School, Shopping, Uncategorized

Back to school season is here already, can you believe it? I still have shop to for school supplies but I did take one of our children, our third oldest daughter shopping at Old Navy as a treat and she needed more immediate things than the rest. Old Navy has their back to school promotion going on right now in all U.S. stores – $10 and under – from 8/3 thru 8/14. Old Navy is also inviting parents to come into stores to take a picture of their kids rocking their favorite Old Navy back to school looks in front of the store’s Step and Repeat!

Back to School with Old Navy

Old Navy Gift Card – Accepted via my iPhone since our printer is not working!

I have to admit we headed for the clearance section first. Not only did the bright colors attract my daughter but we wanted to make the most of our limited budget. It would have been easy to spend it all on one or two items, but instead we came out with eight things! Not too shabby, eh?

My daughter is still growing, as a matter of fact she’s taller than me by a couple inches, not saying much since I am only 5’3. I say that because we now have to shop in the ladies or women’s section just so we can get the height part to fit her. We did sneak a peek at the girls section to get a feel for what was available for my youngest daughter. The girls section was tucked all the way back in the left hand corner of the store, but very easy to find.

She loved these shorts, but wished they were longer or pants!

O with her clothes selection – 2 dresses, 5 pairs of socks, including horse socks and a pair of black leggings.

Don’t forget Old Navy’s Back to School promotion – $10 and under – and consider getting your kids to show of their back to school fashion style in front of the store’s Step and Repeat! After you upload your photo, enter to the Multiply Your Sweet Style here: www.nick.com/OldNavy! It includes an Old Navy $1000 shopping spree, $500 cash to play in L.A and a shopping experience with Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande from Nickelodeon’s Sam and Cat!

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Bookboard Review and Free Trial!

Posted by Brande on August 7, 2013
in Blog Stuff, Books, Deals, Downloads, Ebooks, Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Parenting, Reviews, Saving Money, School, Shopping, Technology/Electronics, Uncategorized

Mechanimals, Me and My Dragon, The Lucky Day Picnic, Doors in the Air are only a few of the wonderful books available through Bookboard.com. This app has over 400 books available to unlock with up to 4 children’s accounts (up to the age of 12). Once the books are downloaded, they can be read offline. Currently, Bookboard is available for iPads with iOS 5.x or higher. Bookboard recommends using and iPad2 or later version. However, they do work on an original iPad they are just slower. Bookboard says on their website that are adding other devices and platforms in the future.

Bookboard sets goals for your children and parents can check their progress through the app as well. Once a goal is reached, your child is rewarded with more books unlocked to continue their reading.

Bookboard Review and Free Trial

Head to Bookboard’s website for a FREE TRIAL! If you and your children enjoy it you can purchase a subscription for only $8.99 if you pay per month or if you choose the 6 month subscription its $29.94 or $4.99 a month! In the aspect of things if you purchase one book will cost $4.99. Here you have unlimited reading at your fingertips!

Here are a few on the many subjects that can be found on Bookboard: Smithsonian Series, Berenstain Bears and The Boxcar Children!!

My daughter is just learning to read and just loves the iPad. For us this is a great learning tool and we really enjoyed our books. You can join today to get your FREE TRIAL too!!

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Sell DVDs Online – Movie & Music Lovers

Posted by html404 on July 11, 2013
in Deals, DVDs & CDs, Money & Finances, Movies, Music, Saving Money, Shopping, Thrifty Thursday, Uncategorized

This is a partnered post.

It’s Thrifty Thursday and it appears to have been a while since we posted any money saving tips. However, this week I came across something that is great for music lovers, gamers and movie addicts. Are you or someone you know huge music buffs? What about movies or gaming? Do you have extra CDs, games and DVDs you no longer use? This post is for you! I will reveal a way for you to get rid of unwanted stuff and make a little money while you are at it.

My husband loves music and has quite the collection of CDs….somewhere in boxes he still has vinyl records and 8 tracks! We still have boxes in our bedroom from our move nearly two years ago and I found out one or two of the boxes are part of Robert’s CD collection. Sigh. I so want the boxes gone from our bedroom. If I was a conniving little wife I might be tempted to sell them on him and try to make some cash. But I am not. I wouldn’t do that to my husband. Nevertheless, if he knew he could make some money off of his stuff, I think he’d go through it all and see what he could let go of just to make a little extra money. That’s just the way he is and he’s done it in the past with other collectible items, etc.

That’s why my interest kind of peaked when I thought about selling stuff online. This new-to-me website that allows you to sell DVDs online, as well as CDs, and even games. musicMagpie is the solution to music lovers and their spouses! This site allows you to swap all those unwanted CDs, DVDs and games in exchange for cold, hard cash. Strapped for cash? Tap into your music, movies and DVDs!

With the advent of the internet, anything truly is possible. We can sell and swap books, clothing and even our music and movie collections.

What are some ways you have created extra cash for your family?

Happy Thrifty Thursday!

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Cutie Bees Baby Clothing

Posted by 278Wife on April 11, 2013
in Baby Products, Children's Clothing, Coupons, Crafts, Eco Friendly Products, Reviews, Safety, Saving Money

Keeping my baby safe is the most important thing I can do. I never realized that even clothing can be harmful to a baby’s skin. With Cutie Bees, I never have to worry about the safety or cuteness of my baby. Cutie Bees is a company dedicated to creating safe, eco-friendly, beautiful, and affordable organic baby clothing. They use only 100% GOTS certified organic cotton. I love this since many of the regular cotton made clothes can cause redness, itchiness, or rashes on baby skin. They can also contain harmful chemicals which are associated with dermatitis, asthma, and cancer. With Cutie Bees, their clothes are always free of harmful chemicals.

Besides being organic, Cutie Bees clothes are absolutely adorable! I had the opportunity to review their Pink Lemonade Organic Bodysuit and Pants set. When I first opened it my mouthed dropped in awe of how adorable it was! The bright yellow complimented the bright pink perfectly. The pink stripe across the tummy with the pink bow was a perfect addiction to the bodysuit. The neck was stetchy enough to easily slip over even larger heads. The matching stretchy pants had cute little yellow ruffles around the bottoms of the legs, making it a perfect match to the bodysuit. The only thing I wish it had was some matching yellow ruffles on the butt. I loved how soft the outfit was; it almost felt like silk. This is a very high quality baby outfit. I was very impressed.

Cutie Bees offers clothes for boys, girls, and even neutral items. They have everything from pants and dresses to jumpsuits and onesies. They even have giftsets already made up that would be perfect for any baby shower. I would highly recommend Cutie Bees. Not only are their clothes adorable, organic, soft, and machine washable, they are very affordable. Check out their website, you won’t be disappointed!

In honor of Earth Day, Cutie Bees is currently running a sale. With the code EARTH22, shoppers receive 22% off and free shipping (valid through May 15).

www.cutiebees.com