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HouseParty.com

Posted by Brande on November 17, 2011
in Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Saving Money, Thrifty Thursday

Do you enjoy hosting parties? How about trying new foods? I’ve got the website for you! HouseParty.com! It’s easy! Here’s what you do!

Go to www.houseparty.comand sign up. You apply for parties, which consists of answering question. Then a few weeks down the road, the will email you and let you know if you been selected to host the party. Then, they send you a “Party Pack”, which has coupons, party supplies, giveaways, and a special thing for the host/hostess! Most parties are held on one day and there could be 500 to over a 1000 parties on that day! I’ve hosted a Philly Creme Party last March and I have a Shutterfly Party coming up!

My Shutterfly Party Pack has – 1 Holiday Card Holder in a mesh bag (for the hostess), 1 pack of Holiday card samples, 1 Shutterfly catalog, 7 Shutterfly Balloons, 14 brochures for the hostess and guests with promo codes for 15 FREE Holiday card and a FREE wall calendar – 15 Plum District Offers and House Party sweepstakes decoders.

Other past parites included Sabra, Twister Mania, and Johnsonville.

It’s a great site! Even if you just looking for recipes, which I’ve done.

So, join House Party and start to have fun!

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Crowdtap.com

Posted by Brande on November 14, 2011
in Business, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Products for Mom, Saving Money, Thrifty Thursday

I’ve been doing surveys online, hoping for a “reward”, and haven’t come up with anything. UNTIL, I joined Crowdtap in the Spring. I’ve received free Old Navy clothing! Just last week, I got a $99.00 coat for NOTHING, ZERO, ZIP, NADDA and so did my Mom!

“Crowdtap is the network for Brand Influencer Communities. Crowdtap allows marketers to easily collaborate with and mobilize their targeted brand crowd of influential consumers for real-time research, collaboration or powerful word-of-mouth marketing.”

Here’s how it works. You take “Quick Hit” questions to achieve points, by achieve points to gain levels. Once I got to Level 5, I started applying for Old Navy Sample & Share. I’ve received free Active Wear, a pair of shorts, and a coat for me and a FRIEND! Crazy right!?

Get Tapped In! www.crowdtap.com

Start your own Old Navy collection!

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Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North “Poll”

Posted by Brande on November 14, 2011
in Baby Products, Books, Coupons, Education, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Holidays, Kids Toys, SALES, Saving Money, Shopping

Melissa & Doug want you to tell them which of their educational toys you think is the best! Just click on the image below to place your vote in the North “Poll!” You’ll Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon** to use at MelissaAndDoug.com just for voting!

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Make Your Own Cosmetics – Thrifty Thursday

Posted by html404 on October 6, 2011
in Saving Money, Thrifty Thursday

A friend sent me a link to a website this week because she thought I would like, which led me to www.MakeYourCosmetics.com I do not use a lot of cosmetics, however, I do like to use organic as much as I can. I never really thought of making my own before. I have heard of the kits available to reuse the leftover lipstick in lipstick tubes, but have never actually bought one.

Anyhow, MakeYourCosmetics.com offers a variety of recipes and lots of great tips! Enjoy exploring the idea of making your own cosmetics.

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Free e-book – Saving Money And Time Without Losing Your Mind

Posted by html404 on October 6, 2011
in Downloads, Ebooks, Free Stuff, Saving Money, Thrifty Thursday

Got this in my inbox….

For those serious about saving money, this FREE ebook will enable you to save money and time without losing your mind!

http://www.livingonadime.com/free-e-book-saving-money-and-time/

I haven’t read it yet, but let me know if you like it or not.

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30 Meals in One Day Review, Promo Code & Giveaway!

Posted by Brande on July 8, 2011
in Books, Coupons, Deals, Downloads, DVDs & CDs, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Gift Ideas, Giveaways, Health, Health & Garden Tuesday, Health and Garden Tuesday, Health and Nutrition, Products for Mom, Recipes, Saving Money

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.

So, you spent the day at work or running around with your kids. You get home and the question comes up, “What’s for dinner?”. Imagine telling them we’re having Slow Cooked Chili or Chicken Stuffed Manicotti within 45 minutes! With this book and CD, it’s possible!

Dinner is Ready (by Deanna Buxton) is the book & software I received. In this book, there are 15 chapters. Each explains in detail the steps you need to accomplish your ultimate goal of 30 Meals in One Day. Here are a few chapter titles. “What is Freezer-Worthy?”, “Things That Will Make Your Life Easier”, “The Day Before”, & “Thawing”.

I’m going to share 2 (two) paragraphs from the “Dinner is Ready” book.

From Chapter 2 – “What is Freezer-Worthy?”

“The test for “freezer-worthiness” is, “Do you like it after it has been frozen?” After it is frozen, thawed and heated, can you tell that it has been frozen? If you can tell it has been frozen, you don’t want it on your freezer-worthy list. You are not freezing leftovers! What makes leftovers taste like leftovers? Leftovers can taste dried out, thick and overcooked. Freezing is a marvelous method for food preservation. When frozen properly, the food you serve your family will taste as delicious as if made that day! The intention is to freeze food at or before its peak so you are always serving fresh tasting food. Fully cooked meals such as Slow Cooker, StoveTop and Oven recipes should be frozen as soon as cool enough to go into the freezer. Assemble recipes should be frozen as soon as preparation and packaging is complete.

From Chapter 4 – ” Choosing Recipes”

“Before choosing 15 recipes to prepare, you must first divide them according to cooking method and/or time required to prepare each. Slow Cooker recipes, Oven recipes, StoveTop recipes, and Assemble recipes.

Your recipe list should very nearly consist of:

2 Slow Cooker recipes, 2 Oven recipes, 2 StoveTop recipes and 9 Assemble recipes

This is a general rule. The number of each will probably vary at times. Just be sure to limit the total to 15. Don’t choose more Slow Cooker and Oven recipes than are physically possible in a day and avoid choosing too many labor intensive StoveTop recipes.”

My Review:

What your doing is making 15 double batch recipes, getting 30 meals. This book and software is fantastic! The software is very friendly, when you pick your recipes. It will develop a shopping list and labels! Also, from the software you can print a menu, recipes, and labels! The book is very step by step and it seems as though nothing has been left out! There are 158 pages of recipes! However, I must warn you. You’ll need 1 (one) full day just to cook. So, put your families on notice for that day. That and your shopping day, you’ll probably end up spending more than normal. But, you’ll have tons of meals! I know what some of you are thinking, where am I going to fit 30 meals in my freezer? (There’s a chapter on this too) I’m limited on space and moving in a few weeks. So, 30 meals didn’t make sense to me at this time. Or maybe you want to try it out first. You can do what I did, I made 10 meals (5 recipes). 1 Slow Cooker, 1 Oven, 1 StoveTop, and 2 Assemble. Worked for me!

In addition to Dinner is Ready, they offer Lunch is Ready & On the Side. Got a wedding or baby shower coming up?

Overall, I recommend this product!

Let’s talk promo codes! We’ve got one for you, for you! You can get $5.00 off any order over $12.oo if you use this promo code: UTFAIR Not too shabby!

Join their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Dinner-is-Ready#!/pages/Dinner-is-Ready/192962734062940

Or their blog at http://www.30mealsinoneday.blogspot.com/!

Oh, one more thing! We have a giveaway!!!!

One very lucky Faith and Family Reviews reader will win a Dinner is Ready book and software combo!

You can also purchase this combo on their website at http://www.30mealsinoneday.com/products.php and don’t forget your promo code UTFAIR. If you order the same combo set, then win the giveaway, they will refund your order OR send you another set! AND – it you order the full set (all 3 cookbooks and 3-in-1 software) before the winner is announced, the will refund $60.00 of the winner’s order!

Happy Cooking!

Giveaway-

Mandatory Entry: Tell me what your favorite dish is to cook or bake.
Extra Entries (Please be sure and leave a comment and link for extra entries):

1 Entry:Follow Faith and Family Reviews On Twitter

1 Entry:Like/Friend Faith and Family Reviews on Facebook.

1 Entry: Join their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Dinner-is-Ready#!/pages/Dinner-is-Ready/192962734062940

2 Entries: Follow Faith and Family Reviews on Google Friend Connect (on the our right side bar).

2 Entries: Tweet about this giveaway, but only one tweet per day please. Include your tweet url with your comment. You may write your own tweet or use this one:

Giveaway: Enter to win a 30 meals in one day combo pack! http://bit.ly/p4jNyA @faithfamilyrevw! Please share! Thx!

5 Entries: Blog about this giveaway and link back this post..

1 Entry: for every comment you leave anywhere else on this blog, but please leave a link with your comment!

Details:
This giveaway will run from July 8th, 2011 to July 22nd, 2011 at midnight CST. The winner will be chosen through Random.org. 30 Meals in One Day will send one winner their prize. Winner will be contacted via email on or before July 22nd and will be asked for their contact and other pertinent info. Winners will have 48 hours to send me their e-mail at [ffr] [giveaways] [at] [gmail] [dot] [com] (without spaces and parenthesis). Please note: This giveaway is offered to US and Canada only.

Thanks and have fun!

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Cut Back on Food Waste

Posted by html404 on May 26, 2011
in Food and Treats, Organization, Saving Money, Thrifty Thursday

I got an email this week giving some great ideas on how to cut back on food waste from FreshtheMovie.com. It is sad some weeks what can get thrown out just due to lack of planning and preparing. One of the comments on the post gave some great organizing tips on how she (her name was Virginia) went from spending $400 month on food to $80-$130!

A couple of suggestions were make the most of your leftovers, when you can’t eat it, freeze it and other practical reminders on how to cut back on throwing out all that wasted food on garbage day.

You can read the article in full here.

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Liquid Soap Saver: Thrifty Thursday

Posted by html404 on April 7, 2011
in Saving Money, Thrifty Thursday

thriftythursdaysbutton

Maybe some of you do this already, maybe some of you don’t, but I am going to share it anyways. If you use or buy liquid soap, one way to make it last longer is to add water to it once it is about an inch down. Keep doing this until it is gone and you make one container of liquid soap last at least 5x as long, if not longer depending upon the strength of the soap. This one has already had water added at least 3x and the soap is still as foamy as it was when it was new.

The second soap is a newer pump and has had water added only once. It is due for another dose.

All I do is add the water and shake up the soap dispenser and I usually do not have to shake it up again until I add more water. The idea behind the shaking is to get the soap along the inside walls of the dispenser.

Something New

Submit your own Thrifty Tips for publication here at Faith and Family Reviews. You will be credited with a byline and a link back to your site, if you have one. If not your name will still appear on the post.

Happy Thrifty Thursday!

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A-Peeling Reuse

Posted by Brande on April 5, 2011
in All Natural Products, Articles, Books, Eco Friendly Products, Health, Health & Garden Tuesday, Organic, Saving Money

Leaving the grocery store the other day I picked up a free magazine called Natural Awakenings (March 2011) Edition. I found this article – “A-Peeling Reuse” by Jeff Yeager. It goes onto say…

“A rind is a terrible thing to waste,” says Jeff Yeager, who refers to himself as the ultimate cheapskate. Yeager has discovered multiple uses for produce rinds and ways to extract extended benefits before they land in the compost pile. Here are a few of his favorites, shared with us during a recent interview:

Cornhusks – Wrap fish and other seafood in fresh, dampened, sweet corn husks to grill and serve in husks.

Olive oil infusions – Add citrus peels to olive oil for flavor and to reinvigorate oil that’s getting old.

Savory Chicken – Stuff all kinds of fruit and veggie peels, inside a free-range chicken before roasting to give it extra flavor. Trimmings from onions, celery, citrus, apples garlic, etc., can be stuffed in the chicken cavity or sprinkled around the roasting pan. Once baked, the trimmings break down faster in the compost pile.

Hair Dye – Boil potato peels in water for about a half-hour, strain and let cool. Rinsing hair with this water after shampooig will gradually darken grey hair without any synthetic chemicals.

Shoeshine – Put a “split-shine” on leather shoes by polishing them with the slippery side of a banana peel.

Metal Polish – Lemon, lime, and other citrus rinds and pulp/juice are high in citric acid, which makes them great for polishing brass, cooper and other non-ferrous metals. Sprinkle on a little baking soda to hasten polishing (Ketchup works, too).

Seedling Pots – Scooped-out avocado shells make perfect biodegradable pots to start garden seedlings.

Note: Always thoroughly wash the rinds of produce that will be eaten or come into contact with food, even if it is organically grown.

Jeff Yeager is the author of The Cheapskate Next Door and The Ultimate Cheapskate’s road Map to True Riches.”

I went to Yeager’s website at www.ultimatecheapstake.com, and he’s really got great ideas. There’s one for egg shells, perfect since Easter is coming.

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How to Organize Your Coupons

Posted by html404 on March 17, 2011
in Guest Post, Organization, Saving Money

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post. While we appreciate our guest writer’s submissions, this does not constitute endorsement or agreement to the opinions expressed in the articles featured.

by Diane Johnson

Taking the time to find and cut out coupons may be a time-consuming process, but it can save you hundreds of dollars each year. However, even when you take the time to cut out the coupons, if you don’t have an effective way to organize and store your coupons, you’ll be more likely to miss out on the savings, simply because you can’t find the coupon you need or the coupon’s expiration date has slipped by you unnoticed. Learn to organize your coupons effectively, so you can take advantage of the savings awaiting you!

1) The first step to evaluate your coupon-clipping habits is to make sure you’re only cutting the coupons that you will actually use. Coupon clutter is a common culprit of coupon disorder. Avoid the clutter by collecting coupons for products you actually buy and for the stores at which you actually shop.

2) After you’ve determined to quit the coupon clutter, the next step to organizing your coupons is to determine how to sort your coupons. There are several ways to sort and categorize coupons, so experiment and find the most effective way for you. One of best ways to sort coupons that many consider to be the most intuitive is to organize by corresponding aisles in the store. Another common way is to divide your coupons up into categories such as “Beauty”, “Produce”, “Cleaning Products”, etc. And, of course, another simple and effective way to sort coupons is to sort by expiration date. The system isn’t important as long as it works for you.

3) The next step in organizing your coupons is to determine how to store your coupons. There are several viable options, so choose the one that works best for you. One viable and easy option is to use a series of sandwich bags or envelopes—one bag or envelope per category. Another simple way to store your coupons is to use an accordion file. These come in many sizes, some as small as a wallet, so you can easily toss it in your bag when it’s time to go to the store. Still another option is to store coupons inside a binder with sleeves or page protectors where you can store all the coupons according to your sorting system. This method of storage allows you to easily see how many of each type of coupon you have.

Once you have determined how to best sort and store your coupons to fit your needs, having an organized system of coupon clipping will lead to tons of savings as you can easy sort, find, and use your coupons. Happy saving!

About the author: Diane Johnson primarily writes about online education and anything else that interests her. She enjoys traveling, shopping, and sports.