shopping tips

Product Reviews-Clorox Greenworks Free and Clear Dishsoap

Available by the dozen at Amazon.com for $54.99 –> B001G84VWI

Also available at grocery and warehouse stores nationwide.

Our Rating: 3 out of 5

In the kitchen is one of the places that just about everyone is trying to be a little greener. It’s likely to be the place that many people are realizing they were the least green to begin with.

Take a moment to think about the things that come through our kitchens. Not just processed foods, but garbage, cleaning products, containers, the list could go on for miles.

No matter where you live or how you feel about the green movement, one thing we all have to do is dishes. Plates, glasses, bowls, silverware, pots and pans all need to be cleaned on a daily basis all across the world.

Clorox GreenWorks dish soap is one of the many products released by Clorox in response to the growing interest in cleaning products that are both green and reliable. To take a brand name people know and trust for clean, and to make it safe for our environment, affordable for most budgets, and widely available to just about everyone.

GreenWorks dish soap contains no phosphorous or bleach, and is made using natural ingredients such as coconut cleaners for a fresh kind of clean. You’ll get the extraordinary cleaning power you’ve come to expect from Clorox, without any harsh chemical residue on your hands and dishes.

Of course, you’re probably wondering how this dish soap stacks up to the competition! Have no fear, these suds as well as the other cleaners in the Clorox GreenWorks lineup have been blind tested and rated by over 200 households as being just as effective, if not more effective than the leading conventional cleaners.

My personal opinions are on that same level. I’ve gone through 3/4^th’s of the bottle and been nothing but pleased with the way this dish soap gets to work and cleans. It doesn’t leave behind a filmy residue, and it cuts through grease and grime just as well as my previous bottle of suds.

One thing I hope to see in the future is more scent choices on the shelves. When I’m doing dishes it’s nice to have a pleasant scent, and from time to time I like to change things up and try different scents.

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Guest Speaker Wendy- From Mobi Stories

We were so pleased last Tuesday to have with us Wendy from Mobi Stories. Mobi Stories is an wonderful site for both parents and children alike, offering digital  reading books for your children. This site offers wonderful stories that are animated with wonderful music and storytelling that you purchase the digital files and download them to your computer. This way your children can enjoy these stories for years to come. With our lives turning to the digital wave of our future Mobi Stories has also jumped on this bandwagon trying to promote literacy to our children by providing these wonderfully interactive digital stories for your children.

Wendy worked with her husband and other great individuals to bring you Mobi Stories to your children. One of the neatest features of their digital download books is all the diffrent formats they offer from applications for your computer or Mac, to applications for your IPod or your Iphone so your children can take their books on the run, which is a wonderful asset with today’s busy schedules.

Mobi Stories has also expanded to offering their digital stories in several libraries around the country including the New York Public Libary. On the site Mobi Stories they offer a FREE Digital book that you can view and try out to get the feel of what their digital books are all about. As a consumer you get a chance to see these wonderful books brought to life with wonderfully whimiscal music, someone acting out the story, beautifully colorful illustrations, and the kids also get to watch the pages flipping automatically. Not only does Mobi Stories bring the love of reading and literacy back to your children’s life, but the offer this in a fun and easy to go format that you can bring the love of reading with you anywhere you go. All of their digital books are very affordable from $2.99 a book and up. A very inexpensive price to be able to keep the digital books on your computers or ipods or iphones for future use.

Mobi Stories has become such a wonderful site that they are even partnering with well known author’s to help bring their books to life. If you are looking for a wonderful site to help promote literacy and reading in a child’s life we all highly recommend checking out Mobi Stories and please do not forget to listen to our interview with Karen by clicking here.

shopping tips

Have a Clothing Swap for Children’s Clothes

Shooting up like weeds, children grow out of their clothing rather quickly. Having to continuously buy clothing can be quite expensive, especially if you have more that one child. If you are lucky, you may be the recipient of hand me downs but sometimes you have to wait a year or two before they even fit.

Save money and have a clothing swap. To get started go through the clothing ad shoes your children no longer fit into. Throw away any stained and heavily worn clothing; wash the rest. Call all of your friends with children or advertise your swap in the play groups and at the local community center. Remember the more swappers the merrier.

Mandie Stevens is a frugal mom of two who owns www.takingtimeformommmy.com an online magazine for momsChoose a location for your swap such as a park, someone’s home, or the community center. When you are setting out the clothing it is best to lay them out on tables and categorize the clothing by size and gender. If there are any clothes left over, either donate them to a charity like a woman’s shelter or store them for future swaps. It is best to go through your clothing and have a swap seasonally.

Don’t limit the swaps to children’s clothing. Expectant moms appreciate and benefit from maternity clothes, blankets, and other baby items. You can trade clothes, purses, and shoes for your teenagers and yourself.

Having a clothing swap is a great way to save money, clean out your closets, and help others.

shopping tips

Our Interview with Jenna McCarthy Book Author

We we so thrilled to have with us today Book Author Jenna McCarthy. Jenna was such a warm and inviting and FUNNY lady to chat with this morning it was a geat interview. This was probably the funniest interview I have given over my last three years, Jenna was a down to earth lady who talk about the joys of motherhood in the funniest way. Before becoming a renowned book author Jenna started her career writing for large magazine publications like Mademoiselle and Shape just to name a few.

Also during her career she was a Morning Deejay on a popular Early Show where nothing was NO HOLD bar, she talked about her marriage and her kids and it was huge hit. After writing all of her columns for her magazines and realizing that there wasnt any books out there that just told it like it is about being a mother and her pregnancy, she decided to write her book “The Parent Trip”.  Jenna shared with us how there are many baby experts out there telling you to raise your child a certain way, and her philopsy is that every child is diffrent and every Mom has their own parenting techiques. And whatever works for each individual Mom is great!

Jenna ’s book “The Parent Trip-From High Heels and Parties to Highchairs and Potties” is an honest and funny look at the trials and tribulations alot of Mothers go through that you are likely NOT to find in another book. The way Jenna uses humor to talk about such delicate subjects as giving birth is hysterical.  Listed below are just some of these chapters from inside the book:

• Anyone Seen My Maternal Instincts?
• 287 Days is a Really, Really Really Long Time
• This Just In: They Don’t Call It Labor For Nothing
• So That’s What They’re For!

Here is an excerpt from the first book that is so funny it literally sets the tone for this hysterical book.

I was Twelve the first time I had the dream. Maybe the health class I was taking at the time put the idea in my head: perhaps it was the litter of kittens our family cat had recently delivered. It certainly wasnt because I was worried about getting knocked up. That would be at least another four and half years.

Be sure to grab yourself your favorite cup of tea or coffee and sit back and plan on laughing hysterically as we interview the funny and sweet Jenna McCarthy! Also her latest book was just released on Amazon called “Cheers to the New Mom!/Cheers to the New Dad! Tips and Tricks to Help You Ace the First Months of Parenthood” You can purchase both of these books by using our links below and purchasing through Amazon!

Also if you would like to win a FREE Copy of “The Parent Trip” all you need to do is listen to our interview and tell us your favorite part and be sure to include your email address and we will draw a winner in a couple of days! And Don’t forget to stop by Jenna’s site to learn all about this funny lady and to keep updated on her latests books coming out!

shopping tips

Frugal Crafts for Kids

On a weekend or just a rainy afternoon, kids get bored easily. We often reach for the car keys and our wallet to find ways to satisfy them. Instead of doing that, reach for a few supplies and show them how to make some crafts that won’t cause you to burn unnecessary gas or spend money.

Entertaining a kid is easier than you may think. If you know the types of things they like, you are one step ahead of the game. Younger kids enjoy ripping things to pieces. Their little hands find joy in destruction. When the wrecking ball is over, they are still delighted laughing about what they have accomplished. For them, something durable is in order.

One frugal craft that can stand up to the beating (at least for a little while) is to create a town or village for their dolls, action figures, or stuffed animals.

Play Village

You will need:

· Cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes

· Crayons

· Construction paper

· Glue

· Scissors

The play village is easy to construct. Before cutting into the cardboard boxes, decide what each will be used for. A little girl may want a palace for her dolls. Kids with stuffed animals might enjoy creating a zoo or a farm from their boxes.

Each box can then be decorated with construction paper signs and decorated to their liking. If the kids are small or the boxes are big, they can crawl into the buildings with their dolls or action figures. A play set like this can be used over and over again. If one box rips or tears, throw it out and use another one. Those expensive play sets in the store wish they could last as long.

Other Ideas

Kids can use their imaginations to aid in the craft construction. In school art teachers are the greatest people on earth. They teach us to make pinwheels out of construction paper, pencils and stick pins. Kids can create flowers using tissue paper and pipe cleaners.

Around the holidays, the frugal crafting gets a bit easier. Water, flour, and baking soda can be used to make Christmas tree ornaments and table decorations.

Kids love to role play. With a few cotton balls, construction paper, and crayons, they can create costumes. Pilgrims and Indians, Santa and his elves, a princess, a dinosaur, and other creations are all fair game when the imaginations get going. These crafts are easy to make and take little time so the playtime can begin immediately after.

shopping tips

Gues Speaker-Jo Ann from Little Miss Julia

On today’s show we were honored to introduce you to a NEW WAHM who just opened her shop up in December called “Little Miss Julia“. Now this site is absolutely perfect for all of your ladies out there with little ones! Jo Ann offers great handmade barrettes on her site and Sue, Cathy and I all agree they are simply adorable!

Jo Ann told us the inspriation for naming her site came from her daughter who’s name is Julia. Jo Ann also shared with us how she has been creating barrettes and hair accessories for awhile from her home and creating for her area, and in Decemeber finally decided to try her hand at the internet with her own store. The first thing you notice when you enter her storefront is all the beautiful decor, the site is done in pale pink and brown with a cute lil girl and her poodle as her mascot for the store. In her store she offers a nice variety of barrettes from Daisy Barrettes, Smiling Daisy Barrettes, Ladybugs Barrettes, Fruit Barrettes, and Crystal Barrettes.

Another great service she offers is that she will happily custom create a barrette for your little one, maybe to go with their favorite outfit or for a special occasion. And if you have a birthday party coming up she also offers Gifts sets and Party Favors with her barrettes. Barrettes would be such a great party favor idea much better than the traditional candy and mini toys. It is always nice when we have a NEW WAHM who just opened their business to spotlight and we were so thrilled to be able to chat for few minutes with Jo Ann. We encourage you to listen to our March 5th show so you can hear our full interview with Jo Ann and be sure to stop by and visit her site Little Miss Julia today!

More Products you can View:

shopping tips

Product Reviews-Cross It Off Lists

What exactly is a Cross It Off? Well, it’s a book for list makers, like myself. Very much like it says on the cover – it’s your to do’s buttoned up.

There are two main sections to the book. The first section in the front is for making your own to-do lists. Basic lined to-do list paper, with perforated edges so you can tear it out when you’re done or to take with you when you’re out and about. Personally, I just toss the whole book in my tote bag and take it with me and tear the pages out when I’m finished with the list.

Then there is the second section is for delegation lists. These are the lists you make and hand out either to your significant other, children, employees, assistants, whoever you are delegating to on that day. What’s really cool about these is that you get to keep a carbon copy. That way, if you’re like me and forget what you’ve already delegated you have a backup memory! (Wow, backup for offline line life… how awesome is that?)

Cross It Off is easy to use, and it’s around the size of the average day planner, so it fits easily into your bag or purse without taking up a lot of room. What I found to be the best about this organizational tool is that it’s not complicated, it’s simple. Add a pen and you’re set to go. It provides a place to jot down all the important things that you need to do, but it doesn’t overcomplicate it and make life more confusing. It’s a back to basics approach to things.

Buttoned Up also makes a great selection of other organizational items to help keep every aspect of your life in order.

Recommended accompanying product:

Buttoned Up Coupons

Give the gift of time to someone you love! Enclosed are 20 coupons that enable you to lighten the load of someone you love – mom, dad, or roommate. The set includes coupons for everyday tasks like taking out the trash, doing the laundry, and doing the errands. Give one coupon at a time, or the whole book at once – and put a smile on the face of someone you love!

• Ready to give coupon booklet is the perfect stocking stuffer
• 20 pre-printed, illustrated coupons
• Each coupon perforated so you have the option to give one at a time

ButtonedUp.coupons™ measures approximately 3″ x 6.75″

shopping tips

Couponing 101-Organizing and Storing your Coupons

Find your Local Store Ads:

In my area our grocery store ads come in the Mail on Tuesday’s and Wednesdays. This is a great way to sit down and compare the current sales with your coupons you have on hand. If you cannot find a sale ad you can always visit that store’s website to see if they have their sale ad on their sites. Another tip or tricks is the best way to get the best savings is to visit more than one store per week because each store will have different sales and specials going on and this will allow you to save the most.

Couponing Catagories:

Sample Categories

Baby Products
Baking (cakes, muffins, etc)
Beverages
Body (lotions, make up)
Bread
Candy
Canned Goods
Cat Food
Cereal
Cleaning Aids
Cookies
Crackers
Dairy/Cheese
Deodorants
Dessert
Dog Food
Feminine Hygiene
Film
Frozen Foods
Hair
Household (film, batteries, light bulbs)
Instant Dinners
Jar Items
Laundry/Detergent
Meat
Medicines
Mouth (Toothpaste/Brush/Mouthwash)
Oil/Shortening
Pantyhose
Paper Products
Pasta
Plastic Bags
Rice
Snacks
Seasoning Mixes
Soaps
Soup

Organizing Methods:

This is probably the most important aspect of your couponing experience is there are several ways to organize and stockpile your coupons! You need to find out which way is going to be the easiest for you and your family. Here are just a few examples:

There is no wrong way or right way to organize your coupons only what works for you. Here are just a few suggestions to help you out.

· File System-A lot of people will get an accordion type of file cabinet and for each week they will put a file folder inside with that week’s coupons they collected. Then when it comes time to start making your grocery list you can go through your folders and find the coupons that you need. Some people will also use this system as a back up system to store coupons that they might not need right away. This is a fine system for storing your coupons, but I found it can be quite time consuming going through folder after folder just looking for particular coupons that you need for a particular shopping trip.

· Binder Method-Another great way to store your coupons is using a binder. Usually they purchase a 3 ring binder and fill with baseball card clear pages inside. The idea with using the binder method is to keep things simple and to help you find your coupons in a fast and timely manner. You will need to make sure that you trim your coupons good in order for them to fit into the baseball card sleeves, and you may have to fold them in half if they are large coupons. You also will do better to put the longer coupons on the bottom row so they are not covering up all your other coupons or sticking out of the top of your binder. These will hold your coupons. Now you are can organize them by putting in page dividers and divide each section such as bath and body, pets, baby care etc. Then the pages that are in each section you can divide up into a Alphabetic. You can even include pages in the back of your binder for rebates and refunds that you have received. This is a very popular method for me personally I did not like having to carry around a big and bulky binder. Because if you are anything like me I have a ton of coupons and this can prove to be a very heavy and awkward to carry binder.

· Shoebox or Recipe Box or Baby Wipe Box- Depending on how many coupons you have stockpiled will depend on whether you a simple plastic recipe file container or a large shoe box. But then you use index card dividers to divide the areas into your coupon categories.

· CD Holder-Much like the binder method some people will use those small CD holders to hold their coupons in. You can use the large CD Holders the nice thing about this method it easily holds larger coupons and it is very easy to tote around.

· Envelope Method-This is also a very popular method. But I must stress up front that method is very easy for you to lose or accidently throw away a whole envelope of coupons on accident so keep them somewhere safe! But you basically have one envelope for each category of coupons you need and you simply insert your coupons inside the envelopes and then head to the grocery store. You may want to hold all of your envelopes in a folder to keep them all in one place.

· My Favorite Organizer-Is the Couponizer this is my personal choice and one that I use! Please see photos below:

The Couponizer® is an organizing and shopping system for coupons and other discounts. Product Features:

The entire 7 piece system includes:

• The Couponizer® – 8″ x 5 ¼�? booklet with 18 grocery coupon pockets, 4 Non-grocery coupon pockets, 3 gift card/shopper loyalty sleeves, shopping pockets
• Shopping List – 20 page tear off list pad with cardboard backing
• CoupStacker – pre-sorting mat color coded to match the system pockets
• CoupTracker – 15 page spiral bound list pad with cardboard backing
• “Your Guide to Smart Savings�? – instruction booklet with spending strategy and coupon tips
• Scissors – blunt tip
• Carrying Bag – clear vinyl zippered bag

Article Written by Angie Wenke

You may use article but link it back to Frugal WAHMs Talk Radio http://frugalwahmstalkradio.com

shopping tips

Product Review-Pledge Fabric Sweeper-Dog Hair No More!

Three years ago I gave in and allowed my girls to adopt a yellow labador puppy, who could resists those big brown eyes begging for you to take him home. Had I of known then what a pet hair nightmare I would have because of this cute little furball I might of changed my mind. Now Max is a beloved member of our family and over the last three years I have not found a great way to remove his pet hair from my furniture, other than the standard peel and stick lint rollars.

Well three years later and adding up the costs I have spent on sticky lint rollars that only worked half as well as they should of, I am beginning to think purchasing stocks in the lint rollar might of been the cheaper way to go. After hearing my disgust over pet hair in my home a friend of mine suggested that I try the new Pledge Fabric Sweeper that she had seen on TV.

Being skeptical and trying several products in the past I relunctaly headed to Walmart to see if I could find these. In the cleaning section at Walmart I was able to easily find a box that contained four pods for removing hair at $4.62 per box.

Directions for Use:

According to Package directions you are to move the pods side to side on upholstered furniture using mild pressure. Moving the pod side to side in strokes about 8-10 inches in length in the direction of the arrow on the pod itself.

The Pod is also self cleaning meaning all the fur is contained inside the pod so simply going in one direction it picks up the hair and when you move in the opposite direction the second brushes clean off the first brushes so they are ready for another round of cleaning.

If you do find that pet hair is building up on the brushes on the pod just repeat the side to side motive a few times to allow the brushes to clean themself.

Where to use the Fabric Sweeper:
Pledge claims that you can use this product on all upholstered items such as couches, chairs, and more!  Also claims it is perfect for removing hair off of pillows and cushions and car interiors which is a huge plus!

Being a pet family who are the proud owners of a couple of cats and one shedding monster of a yellow lab I as anxious to try this out to see how well it really worked. In my living room we have a maroon wingback chair that for some reason is my dog’s favorite place to lay, now you can imagine what a dark maroon chair with a yellow dog fur on it will look like GROSE! So I set off to try it. The main cushion on the chair was literally covered in fur, after about a minute of going side to side with pod I was happily surprised to say that the cushion literally looked brand new. Never had my chair been so clean, not wiith vaccuming, not with our lint rollars. This was the first time in years you could tell this was actually a marroon chair and not white!

To say this product did just as it stated is an understatement, for those of you pet lovers I honestly can say you cannot live without this! Each pod last in my household about 4-5 days and that is cleaning daily two wingback chairs and couch completely. Not only was this product easy to use and understand, very durable, but this actually did what it was set out to do and that was remove the unwanted pet hair.

shopping tips

Office Max-$10 off coupon off $50 worth of Furniture

You can link to the coupon at: http://fatwallet.cachefly.net/attachments/2861_OfficeMax_Furniture_Sale_Coupon.pdf

You can view the sale items here:

DESKS on SALE – www.officemax.com/omax/catalog/displayCategory.jsp?id=cat780002

CHAIRS on SALE – www.officemax.com/omax/catalog/displayCategory.jsp?id=cat780007

CABINETS & BOOKCASES on SALE – www.officemax.com/omax/catalog/displayCategory.jsp?id=cat280008

DESK ACCESSORIES, Buy 2, Get 1 Free – www.officemax.com/omax/catalog/displayCategory.jsp?id=cat470006

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