This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of PBM Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

I just read a great article 10 Products to Always Buy Generic and I wanted to let you guys know how I feel about it.

They have a savings calculator to show how much you can save by buying generic vs. store brand. This is, of course, if you aren’t using coupons on the store brand items. Even the best couponers have those days when you need something and don’t have a coupon for it.

One of the best ways to save money, #1 on their list, was Generic Medications. Did you know they are required to have the same exact active ingredients in them? I didn’t know that. Well if that is the case, I say go generic on those!

The last on their list was Baby Formula. I know I have registered for Parent’s Choice, a Walmart store-brand formula before, and received coupons in the mail. With their low prices plus coupons, I was surprised this was last on their list. Unless I can get name-brand formula cheaper then store brand formula, I always buy store brand baby formula. I had no idea that the Infant Formula Act requires specific procedures be followed in making infant formulas; so you can rest assured generic or store brand formula are as good as the pricey ones that claim to be better for your baby. In fact, if you set the formulas side-by-side and compare ingredients, they are nearly identical.

Dingo will be offering up to *HOT* $20 coupon code when they reach 5,000 Facebook “Likers”! For you to be able to acquire this coupon, head on over here and “Like” them and then click on the “Join My List” tab and enter your email address. Currently they have more than 1,100 fans, so I guess it won’t take too long for them to reach 5,000 fans…!

Here’s a bit about the promo:

Dingo is trying to reach 5,000 likes. We are rewarding anyone that wants to be a part of this effort by giving away a $20 coupon to the first 5,000 people who like the Dingo page. If you have already “liked” this fan page and are a part of our mailing list, please e-mail custservice@dingobrand.com to have us add you to the list. However, if you are new to this page, please “like” the Dingo page and opt-in for the $20 coupon in the “Join My List” tab. If you have friends that would be interested, let them know! That will be the most effective way to get to our 5,000 goal and for you to get your $20 coupon.

(Thanks, Save the Coupons!)

I thought it’d be nice to kick off the 4th of July with a 7 Year Old Rhema Marvanne’s beautiful rendition of the National Anthem – The Star Spangled Banner.   The ending is the best part.

I will be spending the entire Fourth of July weekend at rodeos, parades, church, and doing fireworks with my family.   What will you be doing?

Have a Happy Fourth of July! God Bless America, the land that I love.

If you are new to my site, every Friday I usually feature a funny couponing video, but this week I decided to do something more patriotic.  Here’s my favorite funny couponing video of weeks past – Half-awful, Half-genius, Totally Cuckoo Music Video About Coupons!

Free eCookbook – Mr. Food Decadent Desserts, featuring 32 pages of dessert recipes.

So this reminded me, I am part of a recipe swap.  Me and 10 ladies, and our kids, get together every-other week at a different members house.  The hosting member has a full lunch with desserts and everything, and recipes printed up of what she made.  Its fun to socialize with my neighbors and get new recipes that you’ve actually tried.  Then you know if you want to make it or not.  Anyways, my turn is next week.  I have tons of frozen ground beef I need to use up, any ideas for a lunch with ground beef, besides grilling hamburgers?

UPDATE: Giveaway has ended, view winner here

I know what you are thinking – why aren’t your kids posing in the picture like they normally are?!?! No excuses here, sometimes kids just aren’t in picture taking moods.

We received the Your Baby Can Read Volume 1 set from Your Baby Can about 2 months ago.  It has a complete guide on how their system works.   One part of it is to do each volume for 2 or 3 months before moving onto the next volume.

The first volume includes:

• A DVD explaining how to use each of the following to maximize their effectiveness, and how often to do each:
• Another DVD which shows teaches words incorporated in the flop-open book and cards.   This was my 1 year old’s favorite part of the system.   She never watches t.v., but she really liked watching the kids on this dvd and seemed interested in learning the words.
• A book with flop-open pages with a word on one side, and when you flip the tab there’s a picture of what the word represents.   This was my 3 year old daughter’s favorite part of the system.   I believe she enjoys reading and even though it wasn’t about story lines, she just loves opening the flaps and reading with me.
• 5 hard cards with words on both sides and tabs to pull them open.  Inside are pictures representing the words on the card. Also their is a blank card you can use erasable markers on.

The system is really for people who are good at doing repetitive things and I learned I am not one of them.  At first we were really on schedule and never missed a day.  Then a few days would go in-between sessions.  Then we’d remember and do our sessions, but hardly twice a day as we were supposed to.

If you are good at keeping schedules and make sure to do the sessions, I think you could see improvement in your child’s ability to understand written words.  My 1 year old daughter would put her arms up when the words “arms up” came on the screen.  I thought that was pretty cool.  I don’t think she was reading, but more understanding it meant to put her arms up.

My 3 year old daughter is not the type that can hold still and wander away during the DVD time.  But she came back and loved the flop-book and sliding cards and was more interested in those.  I wish I had been more diligent in doing this everyday, I am going to continue on with the system to see if she learns the words.  Right now she hasn’t yet.  She has, however, figured out that when I point at the picture of a tiger, and then point at the word tiger that the word represents the tiger.  I’ll point at the tiger and then at the word and say “what’s this word” and she says “tiger”.

Giveaway: 1 Winner Will Get the Entire Your Baby Can Read Volume 1 Set including: 1 training DVD, 1 watching DVD for kids, 1 flap book, and 6 slide cards.

HERE’S HOW TO ENTER TO WIN:

Remember when I told you about Nielson Digital Voice here?

If you get a letter from Nielson in the mail, don’t junk it!  I am part of their Digital Voice panel and they recently sent me a survey to take on what shows I watch, with $5 cash included to “thank you in advance for taking the survey”.   Also, being part of this panel I am automatically entered to win $10,000 monthly and lots of other smaller prizes weekly.  Nothing to fill out, just being part of the program gets you entered.

They sent me an email a week ago asking if I wanted to try the tv show ratings program, and I said yes.  They sent the email through the Digital Voice panel so I think that is how they are getting members for their tv show watching program.

If you haven’t signed up yet, apply to be in the Nielson Digital Voice program here.  You download a software program on your computer to track where you go on the internet – anonymously for your confidentiality.  They also do T.V. show analysis for national ratings, I’m sure you’ve heard of them before.

Get Aladdin’s “One Jump Ahead” on Facebook – as part of their 50 days of free downloads.  I love Aladdin!

Wanna Be A Blogger Series:

Part 1 – Blogger Link Back Love (what you can and can’t copy, and how to give proper credit)

Part 2 - Hotlinking Photos (or a big no-no) & How to Edit An Image Size to Under 20 KB’s

Part 3 – Comments and Followers

Part 4 - Schedules/Series

Part 5 – When you insert a link, right under where you post the link location, where it says “Target” then shows a drop-down list, click on “open link in a new window”. You don’t want people to click on your links and leave your site for good!

Blogger Link Back Love

The reason I started this series is because when I was a newbie blogger, there were so many unwritten “blogger rules & codes of conduct” I didn’t know about.   I broke them all. Not intentionally. But other people didn’t know that. There still may be blogs hatin’ on me thinking I’m a jerk.  I have learned the rules and strive to be an ethical blogger, and would love to teach anyone thinking of creating a blog, or new at their blog, the lessons I learned the hard way.

I run a coupon deals blog.   I try to find original deals, but I also post hot deals my fellow coupon bloggers post. I have most coupon blogs in my Google Reader.

1. I browse their posts until I find one I love.  Let’s say I find a great Kraft Cheese sale at Target, on Deal&More’s site.
2. I see who Deal&More used to help find the deal, i.e., they say “Thanks,  CouponSite” at the bottom of their post.
3. Then I click on the link to go to “CouponSite” to make sure it is the original source.  Often, it is not.
4. CouponSite.com may have on their post of the Kraft Cheese deal “Thanks, SamsCoupons”
5. So I go to Sams Coupons. They have no links back at the end of their post, so it is probably their deal.
6. I run a Google Reader search for Kraft Cheese and see which blogs post for the deal is the oldest.  I see who they linked back to.

This way I can verify who originally posted a deal.  This may seem time-consuming, but it is important to give credit to the person who originally found the deal.  Often it takes a long time to find original deals. Sometimes I give credit to multiple blogs for a deal, for example a blog added new information to a previous deal so I credit both the original deal poster and the blog that I found out new information on.

One time I posted an original deal that took me a very long time to verify and get worked up.  Another blog posted it on their site word-for-word copying me, and didn’t link back.

UPDATE: giveaway has ended, please view winners here

Flower Duet Training DVD:

Ya know that part in The Matrix where Neo plugs in and learns Kung Fu?  Well this took a little longer, but I feel like I just became a pro at flower arranging after watching this 30 minute DVD!  Here is my before picture:

I got this kinda sad looking bunch of flowers from Smiths.
After watching the video and following the instructions, I created this: