Virginia Back To School Tax Free Weekend August 2-4!

It’s almost that time of year again….Back To School Shopping!  The Back to School Sales have already started showing up at most stores.  To help save a little more money you’ll want to shop during the Back To School Sales Tax Holiday from August 2-4.  Click on this link to get more information for Virginia.

Here’s a list of more participating states.  Simply go to your state’s Department of Taxation website to find out more information and when your state will have it’s Tax Free Weekend/Week.

Alabama
Arkansas
Connecticut
Florida
Georgia
Iowa
Louisiana
Maryland
Mississippi
Missouri
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
Washington D.C.
West Virginia

This post brought to you by HUGGIES. All opinions are 100% mine.

Being a new Mom is hardly a new thing – until you ARE a new Mom, right? Then everything is so new, and scary, and great and overwhelming and . . . the list goes on. One thing is for sure, you're only a new Mom once and we all have our stories of those first few weeks with our tiny little human beings.

I think the hardest part of being a new Mom is remembering all the stuff that comes with a baby. Long gone are the days of grabbing a cute little purse and keys to head out the door. I've officially graduated to carrying a HUGE bag with all the baby essentials. I have one of every item we might need while we're out and about. Snacks, water, diapers, medicine, a toy, extra wipes, more snacks and a change of clothes for each kid. Being prepared for anything and everything is my motto, and I don't think its overkill that my glove box is stuffed with extra diapers, either.

You see, there was this one time that my husband was visiting his Dad for the weekend. They were camped out a few hours away from where we live at a cabin in the woods.  Far away from any sort of civilization. Being the good daughter-in-law that I am, I agreed to bring our son to see his Granddaddy for the day.  I promised to stay for an early dinner and then head back towards the land of easily accessible coffee shops and air conditioning for the rest of the weekend.

It was going great until I received a text from my sister:

"WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU NEAR THE TORNADO?!"

And instead of enjoying hamburgers on the grill, we spent the afternoon trying to decide if we were going to die in the path of a raging tornado. Things were pretty scary for a few hours, partly due to the storm warnings and partly due to the fact that I'd only planned on enough diapers for a one day trip and we were running low by about 7pm. The storm passed without incident and we eventually enjoyed those hamburgers, thank goodness. Since it had gotten so late, I decided to stay until the next day and I used the last diaper I had brought to get though the night.

The next morning we left bright and early . . . with my son happily wrapped in a dishtowel and safety pins.  We found a drug store to stop on at on the way back and thanks to HUGGIES®, I always have extra diapers stuffed in the car these days. It just goes to show, being a little OVER prepared goes a long way; and whether you're using HUGGIES® Little Snugglers Diapers, HUGGIES® Pure & Natural Diapers or HUGGIES NATURAL CARE® Wipes, it never hurts to have a few extra on hand 🙂 

Stock-up on all you favorite HUGGIES® products available at Walmart. HUGGIES® Mommy Center on Walmart.com is THE Place for new moms!

Have you ever run out out diapers?  What is the most worst thing you've forgotten to bring with you while you're out with your baby? Share your "Mommy Moments" below!

Reminder!

ALERT: If you use Endorse, you’ll want to take note of the following email they sent me this morning: 

We are writing to let you know that as of June 19, 2013, we are closing the Endorse service. You will no longer be able to receive product offers, to upload receipts, and to earn cash back and points using the Endorse mobile app.

In order to make your transition as easy as possible, you will have until 6PM PT on Sunday, June 30, 2013 to transfer your Endorse cash to your bank account and redeem your points balances. Please be aware that after June 30, 2013, you will not be able to access your account, contact customer service, or claim your cash balance.

Here is what this means for you:

You have {$X.XX} in your Endorse account. You can cash out immediately using PayPal. If you already have a PayPal account, simply open the Endorse app, go to your “Account” screen, tap “Rewards,” make sure your “Payment Settings” are set to “PayPal”, and then enter the email account associated with your PayPal account. Tap “Cash Out” and your money will be transferred immediately. If you don’t have a PayPal account, simply click on the link to begin the sign up process. You will need to use PayPal- we cannot send you a physical check for your balance.

You have {X} points. If you have more than 500 points, you can exchange them for DonorsChoose donation(s). Simply tap “Redeem” to get your gift codes emailed to you. If you do not have 500 points in your account, you do not need to do anything as the points will terminate.
Your account will be deleted and your personally identifiable data will be removed.

Thank you for using Endorse and for supporting the company over the past two years. We will miss having the opportunity to help you and your families. We wish you all the best.

As always, if you have any questions, you can always email us at [email protected].

Thank you.

-The Endorse Team

Basically you’ve got till 6PM PT on Sunday, June 30, 2013 to cash out before they close the program entirely. Did you like there service? Will you be sad to see it go?

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Dollar General. All opinions are 100% mine.

Yesterday was the first day of summer, and I am SO ready to start eating outside and enjoying the warm weather. We love dinner on the back porch or taking picnics to the beach (especially when we bring pizza – Mama doesn’t have to cook!) I try and make easy-to-pack dinners that don’t require the oven to be on for hours. No one wants to spend all day inside heating up the house right now! Summer should be fun and easy, and anything I can do to make it easier is a huge help.

That’s where Scott® Paper Towels come in.

The job I hate the most is after-dinner clean up.  Having two kids under the age of 3,  you can imagine that it’s no easy task. We always have paper towels ready for wiping sticky hands, faces, tables, chairs, under the table, the chair legs, the wall… the dog. If it’s within 6ft. of their dining area, it’s probably covered in food.

If we’re taking dinner to the beach we toss a roll of paper towels in the picnic basket for fast clean up on the go. Or for getting sand of little legs, cleaning up sandy sippy cups, wiping sand off dropped apples. The list goes on and on. We can definitely go through some paper towels in this house. I’m always looking for a deal, so I was excited when I saw this:

Right now, or a limited time, when you visit Dollar General Stores (offer valid in-store only) and you purchase $6 worth of Scott® products, you’ll receive 3 FREE Music Downloads!

Did you know that your local Dollar General Carries the Scott® Products you use every day?

They stock:

– Scott® 1000count bath tissue, 9 pack
– Scott® 1000count bath tissue, 4 pack
– Scott® Towels (Mega Roll, Choose-a-Size) 6 pack
– Scott® Extra Soft Bath Tissue, 12 pack (Big Roll)

Dollar General is THE place to get your Scott® products for a steal of a deal, especially when you combine your purchase with the $5 off $30 coupon available from their website. Also, you can visit the Scott Shared Values website HERE and sign up for money saving coupons.

So here's to a fun and easy summer, thanks to Scott Paper Products 🙂 What songs will YOU download with your 3 FREE Music downloads!?

I wanted to introduce you to another member of the Coupon Challenge Team, Emily.  Emily has been sharing her money saving expertise with you all for a couple months.  You’ll find her posting deals, writing about companies that can save you money, sharing reviews and giveaways and more. Since she’s expecting her 3rd child this year, I’m sure she’ll also be sharing more diaper and baby deals as she grows her stockpile for her new arrival.

I found it funny that she mentions people shopping in her stockpile.  My family and good friends do that ALL the time.  People rarely leave my house without grabbing 1 or 2 items from my shelf or picking up the bag of goodies I specifically “purchased” for them 🙂

Meet Emily:

Hi! My name is Emily but most people just call me “Em” these days. I am married to the love of my life, Brock, and together we have the two best kids in the world, Jack and Lucy. Baby #3 is due in December 2013 and we couldn’t be happier to become a party of five!

I started couponing when I quit my commercial interior design job to stay at home with my babies. It was a hard decision to make since I loved my career, but I knew it was the right choice for my family. Hubs is an public school elementary school teacher and together we’ve found ways to live (and enjoy!) a debt free life, except for our mortgage. I always say “we have everything we need and almost everything we want” . . . with the exception of historic house in the country and a decked out minivan and a few ponies, right? Just kidding.

Living on one income changed the way we spent our money; we learned to do with less, buy used, reused/up-cycled more and always found a coupon or a sale for items we wanted. I started using coupons at the grocery store in 2012 and haven’t looked back. Who pays $5 for a box of cereal anyways!?

I am a little bit obsessive when it comes to my coupons, but staying at (or under) budget is really important to me. I even use a spreadsheet to keep me on track. Something that really drives me crazy is when people assume that we must only eat junk food since I use all those coupons. NOT TRUE. I try and find ways to save on produce and fresh meat, healthy snacks and lots of “ingredient” items – so we can make our own, rather than buy boxed. I’m interested in buying local, in season produce but could care less what brand of shampoo I use, so long as its free. It can get tiring to keep up with all the sales and deals, but its worth it when we have money at the end of the year to contribute to retirement or take a vacation.

Sharing good deals with family and friends is one of my favorite things to do – in fact, they often ask me before the head to the store “Whats a good deal this week?” and sometimes they go shopping in my stockpile 🙂 I also enjoy taking our “extras” up to the parish food pantry – its more rewarding that filling my own shelves!

I try and use couponing as a tool to help my family live the life we want to live: simple and happy, being wise stewards of the gifts and talents we’ve been blessed with. I hope that the information here at The Coupon Challenge can help you live the life you want, too.

Let me know what we can do to help on your saving journey – whether you’re just starting out or have tips to share, I love hearing from readers and look forward to sharing lots of great deals with you.

Just a note:  you’ll see Emily’s shopping spreadsheet coming to the site soon!

Contact Emily: [email protected]

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Allstate for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

When my husband and I made the choice to become a one income family, we were really scared. While we knew it was the right thing to do, it was still a hard decision.  I loved my job as a commercial interior designer… but our second baby was on the way. The conflict between being a mother and furthering my career was always on my mind.

Deciding to quit my job was difficult, but in the end it’s been so rewarding for my family. We live on a school teacher salary and a tight budget, but we always have what we need. And some things we want. It was hard work, but we eliminated our credit cards and paid off all our debt (except the mortgage) and still manage to save a little each month after all our bills are paid.

I learned to coupon, and was able to save A LOT on our grocery bill. Honestly, I was really nervous to begin couponing and put it off for months, convincing myself that shopping at Walmart was still the best way to save. Not anymore! After a few months I got the hang of it and I’ve haven’t looked back. I never thought I’d see the day where I could walk away paying less than $3 for over $8 worth of groceries like I did this morning.

Its been almost two years since I made the decision to stay home and now we're expecting baby #3. I wouldn't trade it for the world! My days are sometimes filled with financial worry, but it is such a comfort to look back and see that we were never without the necessities, and usually had a little extra, just in case. Spending time with my kids has been the biggest blessing; and I am having an (exhausting) blast being a Mama. My family, despite the lack of sleep around here, lives the Good Life!

The Allstate Good Life promise is to use their good hands to do more good in the everyday lives of the people they help protect. This is shown through forgiveness when someone has an accident and rewards when they don’t. They also offer FREE access to Good Hands® Roadside Assistance, a new Good Life website full of helpful tools ans tips. Plus, a local agent people can count on for things big and small. All making it easier to live a good life every day.

Have you overcome adversity, fear or doubt to get where you are? How do you celebrate simplicity and contentment every day?

What’s good in your Good Life?