Empowering military spouses to make the most of their money, family, and the military experience.
Yum, yum for the tum, tum! Outback’s New Steak Flights!
It’s no lie. I love me some ahi tuna. And steak. And the always delicious Bloomin’ Onion, but now I get to shout my love for Outback Steakhouse from the rooftops as an official Best Mate (#bestmate)! Oh, and I’ve also got some gift certificates to share with you…read further down to see how you can score one!
I was so stoked to be invited to the blogger preview for The Container Store’s Tampa opening! I know my MacDill AFB and Tampa Bay friends are eagerly awaiting the grand opening, so I was super excited to check it all out. Not only did I get spoiled rotten with blogger swag, I was able to learn a little bit about The Container Store and bring my milspouse eyes to the event.
Have I ever told you how much I love shopping at the Commissary? For my non-military readers, that’s what we call the grocery store located on base/post. Sometimes, I don’t even realize the savings until it slaps me in the face. To make matters worse, I’m a horrible coupon clipper, so you wouldn’t imagine my delight at being contacted to share a special program brought to you by General Mills to help military families save even more at the Commissary! [Read more...]
For those of you who don’t know, I am the co-founder of Military Spouse Bloggers, a new media professional community and agency dedicated to helping military spouses carve out portable careers for themselves in new media and social media. Military Spouse Bloggers is participating in a fundraising campaign with Click 4 Hope to raise money for disaster relief funds to help individuals and families affected by Hurricane Sandy. [Read more...]
As a mom and a decently healthy eater, I am constantly on the hunt for tasty and healthful snack options. From our many exchanges on Facebook and Twitter, I know you are too! Sometimes it’s really challenging to find a snack that hits all the trifecta of awesomeness: healthy, tasty to adults, and, most importantly, tasty to kids! My new healthy snack fave? Way Better Snacks sprouted ingredient chips. Oh, and you can win some by entering the giveaway at the end of the post!
Way Better Snacks goes above and beyond the awesome-snack trifecta. Their sprouted ingredient chips are more than delicious, they’re gluten-free, vegan, non-GMO, and kosher! You can’t beat that with a stick! Well, you could and then you’d have crumbs and you’d be so sad. [Read more...]
I am a Time Dog Champion, my friends! (Don’t lie. You know you have Queen’s ‘We Are The Champions’ looping in your head right now. You’re welcome.) But in all seriousness, I am very excited to share my new status as a #TDChamp (via Twitter) with you.
You’re probably asking yourself, time-what? Time? Dog? What is that? Is that like Time, Dawg? Like I got time, Dawg?
Well, kind of. It’s kind of like that. I do have more time to do amazing things with my day because I have time, Dawg, thanks to Time Dog. Time Dog is a daily personal virtual assistant service made to help busy women save time and money.
[Read more...]
What can I say? Disney Parks definitely knows how to roll out the red carpet. The ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ Family Game Day event at Downtown Disney in Orlando, Florida, was an absolute BLAST! If you’ve ever been to anything that Disney has a hand in, you know they don’t go anything but full throttle. Not only did we get a sneak peak of Disney’s much-hyped soon to be released Wreck-it Ralph, we got an all access pass to DisneyQuest to channel our inner arcade gamer. [Read more...]
Do you ever find yourself going through your day when a song, a breeze, the color of the sky, or an aroma takes you on a mental journey that leaves you feeling inspired and joyful? You get that tingly sensation that starts right in the center of your chest and radiates through your body. You breathe deeper, your mood instantly brightens, and you allow yourself to be a conduit of positive thought and energy…ahhhhh! [Read more...]
Saving on your utilities isn’t as hard as you think and it is a great way to cut down on your housing expenses. As you scrubdown your budget, try some of these techniques to help you save money on your monthly expenses on electricity, heating, water, and trash removal services.
First of all, thank you for sticking with the Budget Scrubdown! Now that we’ve taken our budget snapshot (Part 1, Part 2), now’s the time to start examining each spending category to find ways to trim our expenses to put towards saving and debt reduction. The first area we’re going to take a hard look at is our housing expenses. Housing expenses should account for no more than 30% of your net income or take-home pay. Housing expenses are notoriously hard to trim, mainly due to the fact that we MUST have shelter, and leases and mortgages are relatively inflexible once we sign the dotted line. Regardless, we’re going to give it a good college try and dig deep into our resource bin to see what we can do to save some dough. [Read more...]
You see that wagon over there? Yeah, that one. Somewhere between the sweltering summer heat and lazy hazy days, I took a swan dive right off of my fitness wagon. I’d like to throw some blame to summer and a little bit to the lack of a daily schedule, but honestly, the only person I have to blame is me. Now, I’m not going to sit here and moan about my weight or how my clothing fits. That’s not why I made a commitment to be fit.
I made a commitment to be fit because I wanted to live a full and healthy life for ME. And I want to model a healthy lifestyle for my girls. I decided that I deserve to be healthy. Not thin. Not hot n’ sexy. Just healthy. You can’t measure healthy with a scale, or say that healthy is not eating this or not eating that. Okay, maybe you can. But as far as this Chica is concerned, it’s about how you feel. [Read more...]
I cannot stand the Treasure Box. The treasure box is everywhere. At school, at gymnastics, at the dentist’s office, at the doctor’s office, at the checkout line…it’s everpresent. I get it. We like rewards for a job well done. We like to say, “hey, you’re really awesome and here’s a little token of our appreciation.” But when does it become overkill? When does it get to be a little too much? Do you hate it or love it? [Read more...]
How’s the expense tracking going? Even though tracking your expenses seems like a pain, you’ll really find truth in the numbers. There is something really sobering about seeing exactly how much you pay for that uber-fru-fru gourmet java each day, or what it really costs you to eat out during the work week.
Today we’re focusing on the income portion of taking a budget snapshot. A budget snapshot is exactly what it sounds like. We’re going to do our best to look at your numbers exactly as they are right now. [Read more...]
As the summer fun winds down and the new school year gears up, it’s the perfect time to pull your family budget off the shelf, brush of the dust, and give it the ol’ spit polish. Don’t have a budget? Don’t worry. By the end of our Budget Scrubdown Challenge you’ll not only have a budget, you’ll develop a working budget you can really count on, and most importantly, LIVE WITH. Are you giving me the newly viral McKayla Maroney scowl?
And that’s not all, nu-uh! I am going to give away one personal finance book from the For Dummies series compliments of the fabulous publishers, John Wiley & Sons, each week!!!!! You’ll have 8 weeks and 8 chances to win books to help you beef up your financial know-how! [Read more...]
As you all know, I attended Type-A Parent Conference in June 2012 and had an amazing time connecting with other geeky, bloggy. cool-mo-dee moms and dads. Not only did I connect with fabulous bloggers, I connected with some killer brands with products and services I know you will love. Here’s my Type-A faves list, in no particular order: [Read more...]
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