Who Said Nothing in Life is Free?

For all chocolate lovers looking for a delicious new way to kick the craving, award-winning snack brand Mrs. Freshley’s is thrilled to announce that the search is finally over!  A tasty collaboration between Mrs. Freshley’s and America’s favorite cookie, OREO, has introduced Mrs. Freshley’s Brownie made with OREO Cookie Pieces.

The new treat features Mrs. Freshley’s moist, fudge brownie layered with crunchy OREO cookie pieces, resulting in a delectable dessert that gives chocolate lovers everywhere a rich, sweet and satisfying way to celebrate snack time. 

Pick up Mrs. Freshley’s Brownie Made with OREO^® Cookie Pieces today in convenience stores and vending machines nationwide. To learn more, visit Mrs. Freshley’s website at mrsfreshleys.com.

I was given the opportunity to try these new treats and my kids and I loved them. Its  the perfect sized individually wrapped snack to toss into your kids lunchboxes (or into your own work bag).

Through September 30, in addition to advertised OneBlood rewards, all blood donors within the state of Florida will receive a special offer from Crayola Experience Orlando – purchase one admission ticket and receive a 2nd admission FREE.

What you need to do:

1. Donate blood on a Big Red Bus® or at a OneBlood donor center in Florida
2. Receive a voucher for Crayola Experience Orlando
3. Go to the Crayola Experience and purchase one admission ticket. Present your voucher and you’ll receive a 2nd admission FREE

For more information or to make an appointment please visit oneblood.org/crayola or call 1.888.9.DONATE (1.888.936.6283).

I absolutely love Halloween and Oriental Trading makes it so easy to decorate my home.  With so many cool items in their Halloween Headquarters, you are sure to find something that fits your style.   Another thing I like to do is create Halloween décor of my own and  Oriental Trading has all kinds of crafts and activities to make the perfect project.

This year for my front entrance table (pic above), I chose 2 of their large Apothecary Jars and filled one with the skulls from their Bag of Skulls (IN – 13746398) and moss from the Dollar Tree.  I then found the perfect Happy Haunting sign (IN-13605330) on their site and lastly, the wreath I made myself using left over skulls from the bag of skulls I got for the apothecary jar.  ** You can see how I made the shelf liner skull wreath HERE.

For my wine rack, I choose their black birdcage (IN-13605330) and hot glued some burgundy ribbon and flowers onto the top of it and added a black crow from the Dollar Tree.  I also loved the spooky bird spindles (IN-13605285) and spray painted their white candle sticks (IN-13751867) with a sparkle black paint.  On top of the candle sticks I placed the Halloween Battery Operated LED Pillar Candles that I made a few years ago. And finally I made the “EEK” word blocks by cutting, sanding, and painting blocks of wood and then mod podging scrapbook paper onto them.

I just love how fun my house is this year !!!  Which is your favorite item ?

Managing one’s personal finances is often seen as a rare, almost mystical, skill. We are all prone to bemoaning our own inability to properly manage our own finances while praising the ability of our friends and family to hang on to their money.

The truth is that managing one’s own finances is much, much easier than many people realise. Not only is it something that is very easily achievable; it is something that has numerous benefits on a number of levels. So long as one makes efforts to keep things organized, tracks their day to day spending, and is prepared to make the necessary adjustments to their daily routine, then most saving occurs incidentally and without much of a conscious effort.

Budgeting

Budgeting is absolutely crucial for managing your finances effectively. Budgeting involves sitting down and working out exactly how much money you are expecting to bring in each month versus how much you will spend, and do all you can to ensure that you don’t end up increasing your overall debt.

The first step to budgeting properly is to take an inventory. Begin by establishing exactly what sources of income you have and where your outgoings are going. Do this on a day-to-day basis and then expand it to the weekly/monthly level.  On this basis, decide how much money you need to spend on essentials and then how you think you can best use the remaining money, remembering to set some aside as savings.

Putting your budget into action will be the real test of its strength. You will probably find that you need to make some adjustments, but remember that if you allow yourself too much flexibility you will ultimately end up harming your own goals and setting yourself back. Ensure that your budgets always prioritise the essentials. It’s important that you set aside some money to allow yourself to have some fun, but it is always most important to ensure that bills are paid on time.

If your budgeting reveals that you could benefit from a temporary tax cash injection then you might want to consider taking out a loan. A loan calculator such as https://www.118118money.com/money-guidance/financial-tools/loan-calculator/ can help you greatly with this process. A loan calculator is a tool that will help you establish how much money you can afford to borrow should you be considering taking out a loan to improve your finances. Of course, you should be certain beforehand that you can meet the terms of a loan and, while a loan calculator will help you with this process, it is always a good idea to consult with a financial professional.

Set Yourself Achievable Goals

This is an important part of any attempt at self-improvement. Failure makes us feel bad and success makes us feel good. It is no surprise then that by setting ourselves goals that we can actually achieve ends up having a much greater positive impact on our mood and general well-being. When we fail to achieve our goals, we become discouraged and this not only makes changing problematic behaviours worse; it also has the side effect of sometimes making us fall back harder on those bad habits.

When you’re working out your budget, for example, you should be looking to cut back on any expenses that aren’t entirely necessary. This doesn’t mean, however, that you should leave yourself with no money left to have fun with. This goal will be difficult to achieve and therefore there is a greater chance of you failing in your goal.

Stick to Your Budget

Once you have devised a budget plan you need to stick to it and this will be the key part of the process. Other than ensuring that your budget is one that is realistically achievable, you will require willpower in order to break previous bad habits. Some people find it helpful to set up some kind of reward system to reward their own good behaviour. One way of doing this is to set aside a little extra at the end of each month and add it to your personal spending money if you meet your budget goals for the rest of the month.

Successfully sticking to your budget won’t only have a positive effect on your finances; it will also help to reinforce the necessity and potential benefits of what you are doing. If you find yourself in need of some encouragement, remind yourself why you decided to start budgeting and keep focused on the things you will be able to afford before long if you start saving now.

Streamlining one’s personal finance is the first step towards financial responsibility. It is easy in today’s modern economy to become caught up in a vicious cycle of debt and managing one’s finances efficiently and effectively is the best way of avoiding this.

The digital rewards Swagbucks just hit a major milestone – they have given their members over $200 million in cash and free gift cards since 2008! I use Swagbucks all the time to get free gift cards doing stuff I already do online, like shopping, answering surveys, watching videos, discovering great deals, and searching the web. To demonstrate how big a number 200 million really is, here are some fun facts:

The digital rewards site Swagbucks is nearing $200,000,000 in cash and gift cards given back to it members. Since 2008, they’ve rewarded members for things we all do online, like shopping, watching videos, discovering deals, answering surveys, and searching the web.

$200,000,000 is a huge number, and to celebrate they’re holding a “Swago” promotion starting Monday, September 11th at 9am PDT!

Swago is just like bingo, but in this case you’re filling out squares as you earn points on their site for doing things you already do online. If you’re thinking of trying Swagbucks, this is a great chance to learn all about how the site works and earn bonus points while doing it. Here are a few tips:

Each square on your Swago Board will contain an action item to complete. They can be anything from getting a search win, completing a survey, or just visiting one of our popular stores!

Once you complete the action item in a particular square the square will change color signifying the action item is complete.

You have until 12pm PT/3pm ET on Tuesday, September 19th to mark off as many squares as possible so use your time wisely.

Be mindful of the patterns and their corresponding bonuses located on the right of your Swago Board. The patterns will vary in difficulty and bonus value. Once you’ve achieved a pattern, the corresponding “Submit” button will light up. You can have multiple patterns available for submission, however, you can only submit ONE pattern so choose wisely.

Each activity you successfully complete on your Swago Board will give you anywhere from 1-20 spins on the Spin & Win Wheel. PLUS, when you submit your board for a bonus you’ll get additional spins. The number of spins will depend on the pattern you complete. The wheel has all sorts of great prizes that you can win, and each spin is a winner!

The Spin & Win Wheel will not be available to use until 9AM PT/12PM ET on Tuesday, September 19th and will end at 9AM PT/12PM ET on Thursday, September 21st.

Fill up your board and then submit your pattern to get even more points – if you can fill in the whole board, you get a 500 SB bonus! That’s enough for a $5 gift card in their Rewards Store to the retailer of your choice.

Click here right now and click “Join” to get started! If you don’t already have a Swagbucks account, you’ll be able to quickly sign up; PLUS, if 300 SB before the first of next month, you’ll get a bonus 300 SB!