budget

Disclosure: I received these products to facilitate this post from MomsMeet.com and Veggie Go’s. All opinions are my own. My full disclosure policy can be read here. Thank you!  #veggiegos #momsmeet

Healthy snacking at home can be a challenge for most parents. Particularly after school snacks that are gluten-free, vegan, and without artificial dyes and preservatives. Snacks that contain minimal ingredients that align with our family’s commitment to healthy living. Which is why I’m always on the lookout for healthy snacks for my family. Snacks that are not only healthy but tasty too! Let me tell you friends, the struggle to find a minimally processed, all-natural snacks is real!

Times when I can find snacks that are tasty, affordable, and family-approved I make stock up on them. My current favorite back-to-school snack? Veggie Go’s all-natural fruit chews and strips.

Veggie Go’s was started by two passionate people who have a zeal for all things organic. This dynamic duo includes Lisa, a certified nutrition guru who shares her secrets with Veggie-Go’s fans via The Go Life™. On the other, you have John, Veggie Go’s CEO who keeps Veggie-Go’s healthy and strong every day. They’re two passionate new parents cultivated that passion into a unique line of healthy, tasty snacks sure to please even your pickiest eater at home!

Veggie Go’s contain no added sugar, are gluten-free, certified vegan, and each snack contains ONE whole serving of fruit and vegetables. The best part? Veggie Go’s are all-natural and contain only 15-20 calories per snacks, and feature flavor profiles like apples, beets, cinnamon, chia seeds, carrots, and kale, that is sure to get your taste buds thinking about all things Fall!

While many healthy snacks in the health food aisle of your local grocery store tout themselves as healthy treats, many are packed full of sugars and preservatives. Veggie Go’s, on the other hand, are a far cleaner, more minimalist product.

For example, the Berry Apple Spinach chews contain only berries, spinach, apples, and spinach and the Tropikale strips contain only mango, kiwi, kale, sweet potatoes, apples, and Guava. Nothing more, nothing less. Making Veggie Go’s a snack you can feel good aout giving your kiddos at home!  

In terms of the Veggie Go’s bites, we tried wonderful flavors like Orange, Cocoa Nibs, and Carrots, Strawberry, Chia, and Beets, as well as Berry, Rice, Crisps, and Greens. Our favorite was Berry, Rice Crisps, and Greens because the crunchy rice bits were fun! The texture of these snacks is also good, not at all hard and very tasty.

I also love that Veggie Go’s are reasonably priced at just under $1.50 a package. An affordable price point which makes budgeting for quality snacks for your kiddos all the easier this back-to-school season. 

For this post, we received Veggie Go’s strips, a non-sticky fruit leather product, great for travel and school lunches. We also received the Veggie Go’s Bites, a bite-sized fruit snack, great for play-dates, packed lunches, and after dinner treats for kiddos of all ages! We are already huge fans of Veggie Go’s and plan on ordering more very soon! 

Freinds, I encourage you to try Veggie Go’s with your family at home this back-to-school season! Now I have to ask, which flavor of Veggie Go’s strips or chews is you most excited to try, or if you currently purchase Veggie Go’s, what’s your favorite product and flavor? I’d love to hear about it below!

Sponsored.

Buying a car can be tough. Sometimes the mere thought of visiting an auto dealership can leave your stomach into knots. The process of buying cars can appear intimidating. From the idea of haggling with salespeople or the high price tag that comes with buying a new car. Either way, I’m right there with you. It’s easy for a car buying afternoon to turn from necessity buying to an anxiety-driven event. Even for families like my own who live debt-free!

Whether you’re shopping for a new or used car, buying a car is a humongous purchase and one that’s always made me nervous. When my husband and I needed a new (or as I should say, new to us) car several years ago I was afraid it would cost us too much and I dreaded the entire process as a whole. But with just a bit of planning, research, and a few money-saving tips, I found the negotiation process easier than I ever thought possible. In fact, we were able to save over $5,000 on our new car purchase. Here are the five tips my family used to purchase their last car and how you can also use them to save money on your next car purchase too!

1) Always know your car shopping budget. When we bought our last car we had people tell us to let the salesperson know much we intended to spend on our next vehicle. Folks, let me tell you. This is the last thing you should do. Telling dealers how much you have allotted to spend on your next vehicle gives them a bar to push you to spend. Instead of sharing your budget at the dealership, be sure to keep that information close to the vest and if asked, steer your negotiation away from what you’ll be spending to what sort of deal the salesman is offering. Your budget is what you can spend not what you should spend on your next vehicle. Always be in a position of power when purchasing your next vehicle!

2) Research before you buy. With any major purchase, my family intends to make we spend a great deal of time pricing out, researching, and becoming knowledgeable in what the make and model of vehicle we wanted to buy. In fact, my husband and I spent months researching what we wanted before we set foot on a local car lot. We knew the price we were looking to spend and the size of car we wanted to the tee. We then shopped around at no less than a dozen dealerships over the span of several weeks before we narrowed our possible list of cars before buying. That helped us compare cars and narrow down the options to allow us eventually drive off the lot with a vehicle that cost several thousand less than we initially had invested in buying.

A bonus tip: Make up your mind before heading to the dealership not to buy on your any vehicle on your first trip to the dealership – no matter how good the deal is or how badly you want or need the car. Always give yourself 24 hours to mull over any car buying decision. 

3) Know the best time to buy. Most people buy cars on a weekend. But this is a mistake. While it can be a pain to carve time out of your busy work week to trudge down to the dealership to test drive or purchase cars, its the best time to do so. Especially on Monday evenings between 6-8 pm, when dealerships employees are looking to make extra sales to boost weekly bonus earning reports that are generally due on Tuesday morning each week. In hopes of getting those last minute paycheck bonuses, salespersons are usually more apt to make deals Monday evenings making it a peak time to buy. Other great times to buy are in late May when offering major discounts on Memorial Day sales, at Halloween for full-size truck savings, early November for great deals on SUV’s, and the overall single greatest day each year for savings at used car dealerships, New Year’s Day. When dealers are trying to offload previous year’s makes and models and consumers will typically find slashed prices throughout the first day of each new year!

4) The delete button is your friend. Did you know that most dealerships offer online quotes and pricing guides? You are generally only a few clicks away from being able to negotiate with dealers from the privacy of your own home. It’s also good to remember that dealers love to make deals against one another. Be sure to keep your paper trail of email offers, cc in each dealer you correspond with, and let them know that you know where the true deals are to be had in town. This also goes for financing at most dealerships. Remember that cash is king and some dealerships will offer cash-only deals, and should you need to finance shop around at local credit unions before heading to the dealership to find the rates and terms that will fit your budget, not the dealerships bottom line. No matter how you intend to pay, remember to be patient with the process. Always be willing to walk away or to delete offers beyond your means.

5) Get savvy about trade-ins. One great way to lower the cost of buying your next vehicle is by using your current vehicle as trade-in capital on your next purchase. While you’re doing trade-in research, investigate cash-back offers on the vehicle you’re planning to purchase. Also, research which dealerships will allow you to stack savings, giving you high trade-in value, rebates on your new car, and well as provide you with tax rebate information as well. I have found that Cars.com is a great resource for learning about your potential trade-in value on your next purchase. Their website has a huge selection of information that will provide you with everything you need to make an informed purchase all around. They provide reviews and essential information about a wide variety of different cars, and can give you an accurate detail of how much your trade-in will be worth too! This can help turn your current ride into new car success!

So those are the five tips my family used to seriously save on our last car purchase and may help you and your family do the same when you purchase your next vehicle too! Now I have to ask, have you tried Cars.com to research potential vehicle purchases? Or what are some of your favorite ways to save money when buying a new car? Have you ever paid for a car in all cash? I’d love to hear all about it below!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PurinaPetPack #CollectiveBias

My family lives in a small town. A really small town. A really small town surrounded by the sticks. I live in an area where the closest health food store or specialty pet food chain is a three hour round trip drive for my family and me to make. Especially for my family, who provides for 4 furry family members, each of whom hosts individual diets that require various specialty pet foods which is why we are a Purina® family.  

While we are committed to purchasing Purina® products for our fuzzy family members, traveling for hours at a time to pick-up your next bag of pet food is simply out of question. So when it comes to buying dry food, wet food, and treats for our pets, we rely on online delivery services to make that happen! 

By now, you’ve heard of Amazon.com‘s Subscribe & Save, which allows you to get household items delivered on a subscription basis. For instance, when we are in need of purchasing zero-waste household staples, such as Castille soap, essential oils, and other compostable products, we schedule for at-home monthly deliveries.

This brings me to our last Subscribe & Save purchase, Purina® ONE® Tender Selects Blend with Real Salmon Dry Cat Food. I was particularly happy with this purchase because as a savvy saver, I was able to snag a sweet deal! By adding this product to my regularly scheduled Subscribe & Save delivery, I was able to save 15% off my total delivery, because my delivery then totaled 5 or more items. Then to sweeten the deal further, I was also able to combine this 15% off savings a current Purina® saving promotion, giving me additional $5.00 stacked savings off my order too! Saving 15% off my household product haul is a total win for my monthly family budget! 

As you can imagine, I rely heavily on Amazon Subscribe & Save program. Not just for the convenience of home delivery but the ease of mind that comes with knowing my fuzzy family’s need will be taken care of for another month!  It’s also worth noting that if you have never used the Subscribe and Save feature, you get $5.00 off your first purchase using it. You’ll also save 5% every day when you subscribe to 1-4 products, and you’ll save 15% when you subscribe to five products each month! 

Just for my ability to have my Purina® products delivered to my home I’ll always be an avid Amazon shopper! In particular, I prefer to feed my pets Purina® Pro Plan® and Purina® ONE® products. It’s very important for me to feed my pets food that is full of the highest quality ingredients, backed by veterinarians and scientists, and a governed by a top-notch quality control department. I know for certain that what Purina® Pro Plan® and Purina® ONE® products provide my pets. 

As I mentioned before, all of my pets have specific food needs. For example, Roxie, our older West Highland White Terrier will be turning 12-years-old this year, and our Chihuahua Harley, who will be 14 this year, both require age-specific food blend for memory and focus, as well as urinary tract health blends, for both their daily wet and dry foods. Our Shih-Tzu, Sassy, will be turning 9 this year and so we will be started on this same focus blend as well. We also have three sweet cats to provide for as well. Our American short hair cat, Boo Radley, who will be 2 this year, requires protein-heavy premium cat food, as does our kitten, Mr. Darcy, and our Bombay, Shadow, will be turning 16 years old this year, and like our, Westie requires high-quality focus-specific wet and dry food blends and foods designed to help with proper urinary tract health. Domestic male cats have a higher chance of urinary tract infections throughout their lives.

To keep everyone healthy, happy, and wise we added additional Purina® Pro Plan® and Purina® ONE® products to our latest Amazon Subscribe & Save order. We ordered:

• Purina® Pro Plan® Wet Cat Food, Focus, Adult Urinary Tract Health
• Purina® Pro Plan® Savor Adult Shredded Blend Chicken & Rice
• Purina® ONE® Tender Selects Blend with Real Salmon Dry Cat Food
• Purina® ONE® SmartBlend True Instincts Real Salmon and Tuna
• Purina® Pro Plan® Dry Adult Toy Breed Formula

Now if you’re ready to get started with the Subscribe & Save from Amazon, it’s really easy to get started. Just use this link, which will take you to this screen:

Then scroll down to either the Purina® Pro Plan® and Purina® ONE® products, or both is you have a large pet family as we do:

Click on the item you wish to subscribe to. In this case, we’re subscribing to Purina ONE Tender Selects Blend with Real Salmon Dry Cat Food. You’ll then you’ll see the Subscribe & Save offer on the right side of your screen. You’ll save 5% when you subscribe to one product.

Then click the Subscribe Now button to confirm your subscription! Repeat this step for each additional item you wish to subscribe to!

you’ll then need to repeat for each additional item you wish to subscribe to!

Remember, you’ll save 15% when subscribing to 5 products each monthly subscription delivery! And for those who may not need regularly delivered cat and dog food, consider ordering Purina® Pro Plan® and Purina® ONE® products to your order to donate to local animal shelter drop off bins in your area — or if we have time, stop by and see all the cute cats and dogs. Cats and dogs currently ready for adoption at your local pet shelter will sure be glad you did! 

Your pet food will arrive at your doorstep in those cool Amazon boxes in just a couple of days, and continue coming as scheduled each month as well!

So what do we do with the time we save by using Subscribe & Save? Less Paying. More Playing! We spend more time with Roxie, Harley, Sassy, Boo, Darcy, and Shadow, of course!

As all of our pets are adopted, being able to provide them with a happy life is important to me. So when we are able we love to clear our furniture out of the way in our living room and library and play with fuzzy friends. As you can see, Boo and Darcy love to play with the laser toy. Roxie, Harley, and Shadow, love to sleep, but they help referee games in spirit!

Sassy, on the other hand, is my wild child. She loves to jump into laser tag games. She also loves nothing more than a game of fetch. 

Now there’s also another reason we love Purina® Pro Plan® and Purina® ONE® products. We love these products as they help us set up the perfect DIY pet food stations for our pets. Check out how we created fun and frugal pet food stations below.

To create a DIY Cat Food Station you need the following items:

How we assembled our DIY Cat Food Station:

• Contact Paper
• Scissors
• Screwdriver
• Microfiber towel
• Pet-safe cleaner
• 5-15 Gallon Aquarium filter & filtering pump
• Pet toys (hanging and rolling)
• Toy basket
• Staple Gun & Staples
• Food Tray
• Ice Tray
• Pet Food (we used Purina® ONE® Tender Selects Blend with Real Salmon Dry Cat Food & Purina® Pro Plan® Savor Adult Shredded Blend Chicken & Rice)
• Baby Socket Cover

To begin, we used pet-safe DIY Castille cleaner to clean a shelf in our library. Making sure the shelf was completely dry before continuing. 

We then removed the shelf above our food station and electrical outlet plate from the wall. We then measured out our roll of contact paper, and carefully attached it to the back of our food station. We went with contact paper to help us keep our food station easier to wipe down. A Quick Tip: An electrical wall plate helped smooth air bubbles from behind our contact paper while being applied. 

You will now need to replace your electrical plate to the wall along with replacing your shelf to your bookcase. For added safety, we added a plastic baby socket cover for added safety. 

As cats prefer running water to still, we opted to use a 5-15 gallon aquarium water filter and in-freezer ice tray to create our water fountain feature. You’ll need to remove your filter from its packaging, and according to the manufacturer’s instructions, prime your fountain before its initial usage as directed. Once installed, we filled our filter with cold, filtered water from the fridge. 

We then attached two hanging cat toys with a staple gun to the underside of our bookshelf. For added fun, we rubbed the hanging toys with organic catnip before hanging. As cats need a group, individual, and owner-driven play and prey stimulation each day, we also added a small wire basket of plastic cat balls of varying sizes. 

We finished our DIY Cat Food Station with a glass bowl of kitten milk and a three-tray easy-to-wash plastic dish of Purina® Pro Plan® and Purina® ONE® wet and dry food products.

As you can see, Darcy, Boo, and Shadow loved the DIY Cat Food Station! It’s been a great addition to our home. What’s even better? All the supplies used can be purchased online on Amazon.com for under $20.00! 

Now we didn’t forget about our dogs either! We created a DIY Dog Food Station. In this second station, we featured a self-dispensing water bowl, three stainless steel food dishes (which accommodate all three dogs food needs), and a small bowl of rawhide treat sticks and organic dog toys. A quick tip: store pet toys in ceramic baking dishes. This helps keep toys weighed down on the floor and the ceramic dishes, compared to their plastic counterparts, are less porous and easier to clean in the dishwasher!  

Then with everyone’s food needs to be met with our DIY Pet Food Stations and our Amazon Subscribe & Save Purina® Pro Plan® and Purina® ONE® wet and dry food products, we’ll have plenty of time this summer for play and fun! So be sure to pop on over to Amazon and sign up for all of your pet food and other household needs, because the more you subscribe for, the more you save! So, friends, I have to ask, how will Subscribe & Save give you more quality time with your pets this season? I’d love to hear about it below!

Disclosure: This review was made possible by iConnect and Luvs.  I was provided compensation to facilitate this post, but all opinions stated are 100% mine. You can read my full Disclosure Policy here. Thank you.

If your family is anything like my own, you know how hard it can be to create, let alone maintain, a family budget. Especially if you are a mom of littles or with a newborn at home. While there are numerous ways to savvy around your home when you have a baby, from buying second-hand furniture and crocheting cloth baby essentials, but when it when comes to saving for long-term pre-baby funds, such as a vacation, it may seem complicated to find ways to budget in for such a big ticket expense!

Having a baby doesn’t mean vacations are off the table. Quite the opposite. Vacations can prove to be the much-needed relaxation moms need to recharge from days of caring for others and can serve as ways to not only bond with your family, but to allow your children new places to explore, cultures to be exposed to, and cuisine to try. So the only thing stopping you and your baby from enjoying a bit of much-needed R&R is just a few clever budget-savvy strategies to get you to your desired port of call quicker than you may think!  Here are five ways to help get you started.

1. Dine in: Did you know that according to the National Consumer Council, Americans spend triple the cost of cooking meals at home each time they eat out and that the average American spends $1,100.00 a year dining out versus cooking at home. Which is easy to consider as the average fast food meal for a family of four can total easily over $20.00! However, if you dine in at home and following strategies such as meal planning, cash envelope trips to the grocery stores, and zero-waste bulk shopping for household goods you could literally save thousands of dollars each year. Then put those saved dollars to good use by taking the difference of what you spent dining out from your actual grocery bill and placing those funds into a vacation-specific account at your local bank for one year, imagine the trip you could go on with you and your baby next Summer!

2. Be your own Barista: In my early 20’s it would not have been uncommon for me to spend upwards of $10.00 a day on a morning and afternoon frozen coffee at my local cafe. A cost of nearly $3,600.00 a year. As a wife and mom, this is an expense I couldn’t justify in my current season of life. Being your own barista at home, creating your own coffee drinks can help you not only save hundreds of dollars a year but also help you keep dozens of needless plastic and styrofoam cups from entering landfills each year. With each cup of coffee, you make at home, allocate $1.00 to your ongoing vacation fund and see just how quickly the cost of getting a cup of joe out can save you!

3. Declutter your home: Consider clearing your home of unnecessary clutter. Think unused furniture, duplicate small appliances, and even outgrown baby clothes and gear. Then sell your unused goods on Facebook local sales sites, Craigslist, or eBay and add the proceeds to your growing vacation fund. A decluttered home will help you focus on saving for your vacation, but more importantly, give you more time to spend with your baby in lieu of cleaning and organizing your home!

4. Flexibility is key: Once you have your vacation plan in place, remember to be flexible with your vacation details. Consider getting the most bang for your vacation buck by:

• Be flexible with flights. Fly midweek instead of on the weekend; fly with stops instead of direct. Small changes like this can save you hundreds of dollars per trip.
• Travel off-season. Book flights and rail tickets just before or after peak season when prices are rock bottom. 
• Think outside the box. Why are the most popular destinations so expensive? Because everyone goes there. Looking for a beach but Costa Rica’s a little pricey? Try Nicaragua. Love to go to Paris but less than thrilled with the expenses the city of lights hails? Try Provance, Saint-Lo, Normandy, or Marseille instead. Think regional. Travel to your favorite country and then take the train to Paris for the day. You’ll save upwards of half the costs of traveling to higher sought-after destination pricing for vacation. 
• Skip the chain hotels. I rarely stay at big expensive brand hotels. They offer very little value, and there are many better alternatives available. Why spend $150 a night when $50 will get you the same thing? A few of my favorite lodging alternatives include bed and breakfasts or check out sites that offer competitive hotel booking bids for local cost hotel stays. 
• Take free tours. Sure, you could pay a sightseeing service for the standard tour. But in major cities around the world, free walking tours show you the city’s highlights and teach you about the culture. You also meet cool, smart, genuinely nice people along the way. 
• Book last-minute. Airfare costs tend to skyrocket when reserving at the last minute.But not for cruises. Crusie lines looking to fill to capacity rooms will offer deep discounts 2-3 weeks before ships leave port.

5. Buy Luvs: Luvs understands how important family time is, and they want to help you save for vacation by offering you a $2.00 off print-at-home coupon. Luvs is already a super affordable way to save money when you’ve got a baby. Having high-value coupons like this is another way you can save! You can tally up the amount of money you save each month using money-saving coupons and grocery rebate apps and transfer that amount to your ongoing vacation fund as well! Put those extra dollars that you save by buying Luvs in your vacation fund, and it will add up quickly.

Not only can Luvs help you save for your vacation while having a baby, it can also help you have a better piece of mind at home too! Luvs Ultra Leakguard Diapers with NightLock Plus™ are softer and more absorbent than before, with large stretch tabs for easy fastening, ultra-leakage protection, and a money-back guarantee.  Luvs, the official diaper of experienced parents, provides features babies and parents need for less cost than premium brands. If you find that you’re not happy with Luvs, they offer a money back guarantee! That’s a win-win in my book!

Remember, your $2.00 print-at-home coupon is good for up to 30 days after printing, so be sure to print and redeem your coupon before it expires! Also worth noting, you can use the coupon anywhere Luvs are sold, and its good on all Luvs products, except for trial and travel sized packs.

So savvy-savers, those are five ways you can save for upcoming vacation with a baby this summer. So friends, do you have a vacation planned this summer or fun budget-friendly tips for new moms to save for upcoming vacations? I’d love to hear about them below!