Staying Safe at BBQs. According to a recent survey, 70 percent of Moms are cooking more at home and many are likely switching up their meal routine with an outdoor BBQ. Make sure your kids have a safe BBQ experience by keeping them away from the flames and any sharp knives. Also, don’t forget to check that your child’s hamburger is fully cooked. Always keep a thermometer on hand to be sure all food has reached the appropriate inside temperature.

Keep the Pool Cool and Clean. If your kids love to spend hot afternoons in kiddie pools, you know the importance of cleaning the pool area. Dump out water after each session, and keep the pool clean by disinfecting it with a solution of ¾ cup bleach* to one gallon of water. Don’t forget to rinse well and dry thoroughly after each cleaning (never leave any water in the pool). Be sure to always supervise children when they are in or around any water. (* Always remember to read and follow precautions and usage directions before using cleaning products)

Staying Healthy and Hydrated. Spending time in the heat means kids will be more prone to becoming dehydrated. Remind kids to take frequent rest/drink breaks in the shade when playing outside and try to avoid activity during peak sun hours.  Encourage fluids before, during, and after outside activities.

Having Peace of Mind at Playgrounds. Sometimes just getting out of the house is the best way to keep it clean, but before letting kids loose at the playground, ensure the safety of the equipment. Swing seats and slides can really heat up in the sun – test them out before your kids hop on to avoid burns. Be sure the playground surface is composed of a soft material to help prevent injury. All playground equipment should be routinely checked for any broken or loose parts.  As always, adult supervision is a must at all times!

Saving on Spills. Spending extra time around the house, especially with kids, often means more spills to clean up. Synthetic sponges and kitchen cloths can start to smell and carry bacteria, but you don’t have to toss them out after a few uses. One option to reduce bacteria is to sanitize sponges and dishrags by soaking them in a bleach solution (¾ cup of bleach* to a gallon of water) for 5 minutes in the sink.  Don’t forget to rinse and dry when done.  A wet sponge can also be microwaved to get rid of bacteria. (* Always remember to read and follow precautions and usage directions before using cleaning products)

Related Posts:
How to Budget for a Family Vacation with Julie Casserly
Summer Family Tips From Scott Common Sense + $50 Visa Giveaway!

Ms. Casserly offered some tips for making your vacation memorable without paying for it until next summer. I couldn’t resist sharing them.

• Last Minute Deals – We live in a world where there are so many things to do and many, many options.  Many of the travel websites will have last minute trips at a deep discount, particularly today with this economic environment.  Decide, OK, we have $2000 to spend on vacation and then search online for an all inclusive trip for the long weekend that falls into that number.  The exciting part is that you are leaving yourself open to trying a new adventure or a new place.
• Look At The End, First - Steven Covey says, “Begin with the end in mind”. I couldn’t agree more. Decide what are your priorities for your vacation, what amount your will choose to spend, then build your plan out from there.
• Choose the Day – Choose to travel on cheaper air fare days, say Tuesday – Saturday
• Name Your Price – Rent your car, hotel, or your airfare through priceline.com where you can name your own price. I have tried a 30% lower price than the market price and most times I am successful.
• Pack the Snacks – If you’re taking a road trip, pack a cooler!!!  No need to spend extra money on those high cost, high calorie snacks.
• One Stop Shopping – Buy in bulk, get airfare, hotel, and car from one vendor.
• Locals Know Best – Talk to the locals once you get somewhere, go to the restaurants where the locals eat, they’re not tourist traps with higher costs, and many times better.
• Set the Plan and Open an Account - If you don’t have a vacation planned, set those financial intentions by opening up a separate savings account that is ONLY to be used for your vacations. If you’ve decided you want to spend $3000 per year on a vacation, then make sure you put $125 per check (if paid twice per month) into that savings account straight from your paycheck.  I’ve met so many people who want to go on vacation, but they don’t because they don’t plan on it….this is a really easy thing to do to go have some fun in life!

Got a tip for making your vacation memorable without paying for it until next summer? Feel free to share in the comments. Also, be sure to share some of your summer tips here for a chance to win a $50 visa card courtesy of Scott Common Sense!

Shop4Freebies.com is website where you can find freebies and coupons for just about anything, including food, household items, pet items, and more! Shop4Freebies is updated on frequent basis, with new free samples posted daily. They have a newsletter that you can sign up for to have free samples and coupons delivered directly to your inbox every day. So you won’t have to hunt down freebies as they would be coming to you!

Although Shop4Freebies focuses primarily on free samples, they also have a Coupons page where you can select and print free coupons in just a couple of clicks. I’d suggest checking that page each time before you head out to the grocery/convenience store as you’d be surprised at how many everyday items you can save on!

At Shop4Freebies, you can also find tips that you can apply while hunting for freebies. I especially like and recommend #5 that suggests getting in contact with the company to try to get free samples. You’ll be surprised at how many companies have no problem with sending you a free sample!

Shop4Freebies is also a community where you can connect with other freebie hunters and coupon clippers. They have a forum where you can swap coupons and share freebies with other people. They also have a page of community submitted money saving tips. There, you can find money saving advice such as home remedies for common problems that could eliminate the need for you to make a trip to the store. Imagine the possibilities where you have other like-minded people who love to save all in one place!

This post is part of our Three Gs For The Holidays event. Visit the announcement post to get involved in fun giveaways, get shopping ideas from our Gift Guide, and learn how you can help children in need this holiday season!

Just because you may not see a toy on the shelf in a store, doesn’t mean it is out of stock. Use these nine tips to find even the toys that are the most difficult to get your hands on.

1. Communicate with your local stores to learn their stocking patterns.

2. Talk with store stockers just to learn how they run their store.

3. Store employees are more likely to talk with collectors than dealers – I don’t recommend lying… but, I would be careful of the wording. They will figure out that you are a dealer/reseller when you visit buying the same things over and over.

4. Talk with customer service folks – Don’t assume all employees have the same level of information. Sometimes they have information the stockers don’t have. Where a stocker may not know when they are getting a shipment of a specific toy, the customer service folks may be able to tell you.

5. Avoid the big stores – check out drug stores, grocery stores – even smaller online toy stores.

6. Visit grocery stores/drug stores in less affluent areas.

7. Visit Out of the way cities.

8. Look behind other toys on the shelves.

9. Look under shelves in hidden storage areas – and places employees would hide toys.

Jenni Hunt is the author of The 2008 Holiday Toy Guide which provides you with a list of the most popular toys – many of these toys are going to get harder and harder to find as we get closer to the holiday season. Be sure to use these tips to find these great selling toys.

We’d like to help out those who are less fortunate this holiday season, so we’ll be donating some toys to Toys For Tots! But, since there’s only so much we can do, we encourage you to make a donation also. You can donate toys or cash to Toys For Tots, at your nearest Toys For Tots drop-off location. You can also donate a cash gift online via credit/debit card by visiting the Toys For Tots Online Donation page. With your help, there’s no limit to the amount of smiles we can put on childrens’ faces this year!

I just wanted to write a quick post on how to link directly to a Twitter status update (a.k.a. a tweet) since I’m getting quite a few people wondering how to do so when entering our giveaways. So here’s how:

First, make sure you’re logged in and on the “Home” page of Twitter. On the right, click on the word “tweets” right up under your Twitter username. Locate the tweet you’d like to link to, and find where it shows how long ago the tweet was tweeted (ex: “about 2 hours ago”). Click that and you should be taken to a page that displays only that specific tweet. Copy the url in the address bar, and paste it where ever you want to link directly to that tweet.

That’s it! Hopefully this helps those of you who were confused on how to do this!

There’s just something about greeting cards and pictures that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside! How many of you just melt when you read a greeting card or view photos of loved ones? Why not share the warm and fuzzies with family and friends? At PS Print Printing you can easily turn any image into custom postcards for any occasion affordably. Utilize PS Print’s postcard printing service for the upcoming holidays and events in your life by printing out custom postcards as greeting cards, announcements, invitations/party pluggers, and thank you cards! With the holiday season right around the corner, be sure to visit PS Print to create memorable greetings that you can share with the whole family!

Here are some ways we save money while shopping. They can be applied to shopping for the holidays and may keep you loan free!

Use coupons & coupon codes: Check out your local papers and even magazines for coupons. Even if the coupon is for something that you don’t think you’re going to purchase any time soon, clip it! There are many resourceful sites online where you can not only print out coupons but grab codes to use at the checkout of your favorite retailers. Some of my favorite places to find coupons are Coupon Chief and Retail Me Not. Both sites are powered by bargain hunters alike. Coupon Chief even has a Pays-2-Share program which allows you to get paid each time someone uses a coupon that you submit.

Shop with iBakeSale: iBakeSale turns everyday savings into cash-back for you and fundraising dollars for your community. iBakeSale has partnered with hundreds of merchants to offer up to 20% cash-back rewards on every purchase. All you have to do is shop from iBakeSale or install the Shopping Bag browser plugin. Whenever you land on any of the select merchants, a pop up will let you know that you can get cash back from iBakeSale. You can use iBakeSale with coupon codes and sales as well! Whether you choose to keep all of your cash-back rewards or donate them to your favorite organization is up to you. We’re listed as an organization, search for Mommy Daddy Blog. Yes, we are fundraising. Any donations are accepted with deepest gratitude (is that right?). Who would have thought that it costs money to maintain a blog?

eBay: Whatever it is you can find it on eBay, whether it’s brand spanking new or in excellent used condition! You’ll be surprised what you can luck up on below the price of retail. eBay has coupon codes too!

Never Pay Retail: Over and over again I hear parents complaining about how they just bought so and so some new clothes that they grew out of or destroyed very quickly. Shop the clearance rack, hello! JcPenney has many racks of lovelies. You can find outfits for less than $4! We do it all of the time! Looking for name brands? Shop stores like Marshalls and TJMaxx who sell factory seconds. It’s possible to find items for less than $4 in these stores as well! You just have to look! The kids want stylish gear to wear to school but you can only afford to buy them 5 outfits each at retail. Don’t have them repeating the same 5 outfits! I’ve seen this so many times going back to school after Christmas. Kids would come back looking fly for one week only because their parents didn’t shop clearance!

Buy in bulk: When the seasonal items go on sale clearance, grab them at the speed of light! You may have to save some of the items to use for the next year, but hey you got them next to nothing! Baby Dagny had an 80% off Labor Day sale. I quickly snatched up a 6-pack of wubbanubs marked down from $90 to $18!

Using these tips should help you save, save, save, and avoid having to take out icky cash loans! Many people turn to loans to help bail them out of the sticky financial situation called Christmas. Sure, everyone absolutely LOVED the gifts you got them, but now you have thousands of dollars accumulated in interest. If you absolutely must take out installment loans, I suggest getting one with the lowest interest rates possible, then paying them off ASAP! You don’t want to have to start the new year off with a pile of debt!

About a couple of weeks ago, I came across this post by Lisa C where she explained how she has a hard time with her to-do list also. And she’s not the only one, as a few other people left comments saying the same thing. So I want to share some tips on creating, managing, and completing a to-do list. These are tips I learned myself over the past couple of years. They may not work for everyone, but if I help even just one person better manage their to-do list, then my goal will be met.

To clarify, this post won’t be so much about how to get a to-do list done when you have children to look after; it’s going to be about simply getting a to-do list done period. Getting a to-do list done when you have children to worry about may be something I’ll touch on in the future… that is, once I learn how it’s done!

Creating Your To-Do List

The first step to managing a to-do list is of course creating one, and there’s two ways to do that. There’s the tradition way, where a list of tasks that need to be done are written down on a piece of paper and tacked on a bulletin board or a refrigerator. And there’s the modern way, where the to-do list is stored on a computer by way of desktop or web application. Personally, I use both.

My main to-do list I keep stored on the desktop of my laptop. I use Rainlendar, which is a free desktop application that includes a calendar to keep track of events and a to-do list to keep track of tasks. I have been using Rainlendar for over two years now, and it has worked wonders with helping me keep tasks and events organized. I keep it visible on my desktop so it’s the first thing I see when I turn on my laptop in the morning.

My secondary to-do list I keep on a dry erase board on my refrigerator. I only put urgent tasks that need be done there. This way, if something ever happens to my laptop, I still know the important tasks that need to be completed. And it also helps that I eat about 50 times a day, so I’m reminded of these tasks every time.

Before I continue, I want to say that I prefer digital (computer, internet, cell phone, etc.) based to-do lists over traditional handwritten to-do lists. The benefits of digital to-do lists far outweigh the benefits of handwritten to-do lists, most notably them being way easier to manage and organize. Other people may beg to differ, but that’s just my personal opinion.

Although I personally recommend Rainlendar, there are many other desktop-based and web-based applications that can help you manage your to-do list. Here are some free web-based to-do list managers:

Ta-da List
voo2do
Toodledo
Jott
Remember The Milk

And here are some free desktop-based to-do list managers:

Swift To-Do List Lite (Windows)
Portable Task List (Windows)
Task List (Windows)
ToDo Reminder (Windows)
Anxiety (Mac)

(I haven’t used any of these to-do list managers, so I can’t personally vouch for them.)

Once you have your blank to-do list in front of you, you’re ready to start listing the tasks that need to be completed. List every single task you can think of, no matter how urgent or important. It doesn’t matter what order they’re in right now, just focus on getting every undone task written down. Once you have all of your tasks listed, you’re ready to start managing your to-do list.

Managing Your To-Do List

Now that you have all of your tasks written down, it’s time to start organizing them. I organize my to-do list in two ways; first by group, then by priority.

Group like tasks together. I organize all of my tasks into two groups; Life and Computer. Tasks dealing with everyday life such as mailing a package, making a phone call, and changing a tire on the car, go in the Life group. Tasks dealing with my computer such as organizing my desktop, sending an e-mail, and finishing a post, go in the Computer group. I then take it a step further by grouping like tasks together within each group. For example, if I have to go to the bank and go to the post office, I’ll put those two tasks one after the other depending on priority. That way I can knock out these two tasks while I’m out, instead of going out to complete one task, coming back home, then having to go back out later to complete the second task.

Prioritize; most important tasks first, least important tasks last. Once I have my tasks separated into groups, I prioritize them by the amount of time by which I want/need to complete them. I put tasks that I want to complete within the next 24 hours first, then the tasks that I want to complete within the next few days, then the next week, next two weeks, and so on. I even have tasks I give myself a year to complete. I call these tasks the long-term tasks because they’re not really urgent or important and typically take quite a bit of time, work, and/or money to complete. I work at these tasks little by little whenever I don’t have urgent tasks to complete.

Now that you’ve organized your to-do list, it’s time for the final and most important step!

Completing Your To-Do List

Now it’s time for the (seemingly) hard part! You’ve got your tasks organized and looking all pretty, but now it’s time to eliminate them! I was proud the first time I organized all of the tasks on my to-do list. I was even prouder when my to-do was empty! So now let’s work on getting yours empty!

Pick 3, and I’m not talking about the lotto! One mistake I used to make is I’d look at my to-do list of 50+ unfinished tasks and I’d start to feel overwhelmed. I felt that there was so much to do and so little time. That ultimately led to procrastination, which led to nothing on my to-do list getting done. Now I just pick 3 tasks that I want to complete for the day and don’t worry about the rest. I focus only on these 3 tasks and getting them done for the day. If I finish these 3 tasks before the day is over, I either relax for the rest of the day, reward myself in some way, or move on to another set of 3 tasks. If I don’t finish these 3 tasks before the day is over, I simply pick up where I left off the next day. This way, I don’t feel overwhelmed because I see only 3 tasks needing to be done for the day instead of 50. You may want to give yourself more or less tasks to complete for the day, depending on how busy your life is and the nature of your incomplete tasks. At the beginning of each day, go over your to-do list and choose which 3 tasks you want to complete for the day. By doing this, you can plan and prepare yourself for the day ahead.

Create a “done list”. Another mistake I used to make is whenever I’d complete a task, I’d delete it, and it was never to be seen again. You’d think that was a good thing, but now what do I have? A list of more tasks that need to be completed. So what I did was create a “done list” where I list all of the tasks that I have completed. Whenever I feel as if I have a lot to do, I open my done list and bask in all of the completed tasks. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and motivation to make that list grow bigger.

So what do you think? Could these tips help you better manage your to-do list? Do you already use some of these methods? What are some different methods you use to manage your to-do list and complete daily tasks?

And what a hectic move it was! We’ve been through the moving process before and we know how tough it can be. But this time was different. I actually wish this time was just tough (that word sounds so girly now). No no, this time we were moving with a new baby! *Dun dun duuuuuuuun*! I don’t know if any of you ever had or will have to endure moving with a new baby, but I just wanted to share some tips that proved helpful for us during this strenuous move…

Take turns. There were times when Boogie would sleep for hours and we wouldn’t hear a peep out of him. Then there were also the times when he would scream at the top of his lungs if he didn’t have our total undivided attention. These were the times when we took turns with our roles. I would pack and paint while Mommy watched over Boogie. Then after a while, we would switch, and Mommy would pack while I watched over Boogie. This helped us get some packing done while at the same time still be able to watch Boogie show us the 27 different ways he can make drool bubbles.

Take advantage of every second that he’s asleep. The very moment Boogie closed his eyes and we heard that cute little baby snore, we rushed to get as much packing done together as we could. Because we knew before long he would be waking up screaming for some boob.

Use a sling or wrap. This method really worked for Mommy during the times I was at work throughout our whole moving process. Carrying Boogie around in her sleepy wrap or a sling helped her get some small stuff done while at the same time care for him. Me on the other hand, I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a baby carrier!

Nope…

Not me…

Never…

*cough*



*cough*

Stop laughing.

Stock up on Tylenol. Headaches, headaches, headaches; that’s all I have to say.

If all else fails, get some help. We didn’t have any help moving out of our old place, but having help moving into our new place was definitely a relief. It lessened the workload for us, and family members offering to babysit enabled us to get things organized without worries or interruptions.

And then there’s one tip I’d like to share that we didn’t use but I wish we would’ve…

Pack the TVs and computers FIRST! It’s so easy to get distracted by an episode of Scrubs or an article about seven people who cheated death and kicked it in the balls. We wasted so much time being drawn into to our TVs and computers and all it did was prolong the moving process.

Alright so now I want to hear what you have to say! Whether or not you’ve had to go through the process of moving with a new baby, if you have any tips, feel free to share them!