I shared a post earlier this week about an awesome opportunity I have to give back thanks to Savings.com and Donors Choose. I was overwhelmed with the choices on Donors Choose, so I asked for readers to share their favorite projects. Now you get to help choose which project will get funded. Simply read the choices below and leave a comment. Thank you for helping me choose a project, I couldn’t do this without you!

Reminder: If you donate between now and February 24th, use this special link and code  “SAVINGS”  and Donors Choose will match your donation up to $100!

Entries:

1a. Cooking materials for disabled and language impaired students: Jennifer’s project: “I teach a great group of children with a range of disabilities.” Jennifer is seeking donations to outfit her classroom with kitchen equipment for children with disabilities. The lessons she teaches through cooking allow the children to develop language  and communication skills.

1b. Same as 1a: Patti also shared Jennifer’s project. Patti commented, “this is my friend’s project. She teaches children who have both visual and hearing impairments. She also is a licensed audiologist. She has such passion for her students. She uses the latest technology to help them. Now she wants to help increase their language skills through the use of cooking.  I would love for you to help her.”

For more info project see the project page.
Total donations needed: $1711, still needed $1290

2. Reading board and storytelling materials: MJ shared, ”I would like to enter a kindergarten project I have been helping. (I also teach kindergarten.)” The project is to help Kindergarten students in a school with high poverty rates to learn and love reading. Ms. Jones shares, “There is nothing in the world like the look on a young child’s face when she realizes she can read.” This project involves a flannel board, and storytelling books for students.

For more information see the project page.
Total donations needed: $370, still needed $279.

3. CD Learning Center: Alissa from Fun Finds for Families shares this project from the Chester Upland School District, near Philadelphia. “The project is in honor of all the dedicated teachers there that continued working without pay last month while their schools have been on the verge of bankruptcy. I’d love to see this classroom get their CD learning center.” The materials requested are a CD listening center, and CDs with music from around the world.

For more information about this project check out the project page.
Total donations needed: $410, still needed $410.

4. Sand and Water Table: Mariam shared her project, which has 30 days left to complete. She is requesting a sand and water table for her kindergarten classroom. She says, “I can’t wait to have this funded and watch my students have fun exploring!!”

To learn more about her project visit her project page.
Total donations needed: $470, still needed $310.

5. E-Readers/Tablets: Ms. Haverluk is seeking 4 tablets to help increase accessibility to reading materials for her students. Many of her students are 1st or second generation Americans. She shares, “Stephen Krashen’s research eloquently states the profound, “Humans acquire language in only one way, by understanding messages through ‘comprehensible input’ that is meaningful.” Studying native Korean speakers, he found those reading many English books, became English fluent faster than those who didn’t.”

To learn more about her project visit the project page.
Total donations needed: $1097, still needed $877.

How to Vote:

To vote on which project I should fund with $50 leave a comment and the number or name of the project. It’s that simple!

Voting ends Monday, February 10th at 10am ET. You may only vote once via comment. Winner will be announced on this post, and project funded on February 11th, 2012. 

If you’re considering funding a project I hope you’ll consider all these wonderful projects, and check out Donors Choose to enter your own project or look for projects that matter most to you.

Kelly

© 2012, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

For the 100th day of school the kids did all kinds of fun activities. Check out Aidan’s adorable 100 glasses and 100th day crown.

He also brought home a worksheet that shared what he would do with $100. Looks like mom is rubbing off on him.

For more inspiring photos, check out: The Bonafide Life, Better in Bulk, Shanamama, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Momblog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist, Brain Foggles, Lil Kid Things, Rachel Ferruci, Resourceful Mommy and Zensible Mama.

Kelly

© 2012, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

As I mentioned last week my site had major issues in the past week. I experienced an unusual amount of downtime from my host at the same time I found out my site had malware. To say Monday (and the rest of the week) was stressful is an understatement.

In layman’s terms the downtime means if you tried to visit the site it wouldn’t load. You’d get a message from your browser saying the site couldn’t load. That was for about 12 hours on Monday, and thankfully my host is back up and offered me free days of hosting for every hour my site was down.

Malware is worse. It means that a hacker found a way to get into my site and insert some code that redirected users to other sites that have a virus attached. In other words unbeknownst to me starting Sunday evening, readers were coming to the site and getting a giant warning from Google.

photo credit: Dominic Sayers

While I love to write and mess with my site on the outside, I’m at a loss when it comes to more in depth technical stuff like removing malware. I contacted two of my favorite tech people, Kat from E Design-Pro, and Mitchell from My Frugal Tech, who helped remove the malware and gave my site the all clear. I resubmitted the site to Google as being clear to remove the big warning readers saw when they came to my site. This process can take a day or two.

So, I waited. Google sometimes takes it’s time so Tuesday and Wednesday were spent waiting to see if the warning would be lifted. When it wasn’t, I realized something else was going on. I immediately went in and changed all the passwords to my site, updated my plugins, removed old software, and found some odd code that I managed to remove. I resubmitted again, but it didn’t work. By Friday I was in a panic.

Thankfully Mitchell was able to help on Saturday, the site got the all clear again, and continues to be clean. (knock on wood) Protection has been put in place to ensure this won’t happen again, and I learned some very important ways to keep this from happening.

Now I know not all my readers are bloggers, but there is also some useful information that you can learn from my experience.

• Use complex passwords. 10 or more characters and a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols are a good place to start.
• Do not use numbers in lieu of letters. For instance using 3 in place of e is actually tried BEFORE simply using letters.
• Start with a word or meaningful phrase, and shift letters around and add symbols and characters. You can also use a password creator to help. Whatever you do don’t use identifying info as a password like your mother’s maiden name. That just gives hackers an easier way to get into your accounts.
• Change your passwords regularly. Set a reminder to change them every 30 days.

What you need to know if you’re a blogger:

• Remove the ‘Admin’ user. This is the easiest way that hackers find a way in.
• Use a complex password on every means of entry to your site. FTP, your host, your domain company, and your login to your backend.
• Keep your software up to date. Older themes and plugins that aren’t updating are vulnerable to hackers.
• Remove anything you aren’t using. If you’re a plugin collector like me, remove any that you aren’t currently using, and again be sure your plugins are up to date.
• For more ideas on how to protect your site check out Mitchell’s top 10 tips to protect your WordPress site from hackers. If these seem too complex to implement yourself, hire someone who knows their stuff. I recommend Mitchell and Kat who are both professional and reasonably priced.

Unfortunately there are people who want access to your info or your website for their own purposes, so protect yourself so you don’t have to deal with the frustration and hassle of fixing the mess a hacker leaves behind.

Kelly

© 2012, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

Donors Choose is a wonderful organization that allows schools to ask for what they need, and you to donate to all kinds of school projects based on whatever criteria you see fit. Want to fund the arts? No problem. Want to donate money to increasing technology in schools? They have you covered.

Even better now one of my favorite companies, Savings.com, is partnering up with Donors Choose to further your donation! Simply use the code “SAVINGS” any time between January 27th and February 24th on www.donorschoose.org/savings, and Donors Choose will match your donation up to $100!

More about Donors Choose:

Approximately 40% of schools across the U.S. use DonorsChoose.org, an innovative online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need. Public school teachers across the country post specific requests to support their classroom projects, ranging from pencils for a poetry writing unit, to violins for a school recital, to microscope slides for a biology class. Visitors to the website decide which project they would like to support and DonorsChoose.org delivers materials to the school once a project reaches its funding goal.

Here are some suggested tips on how to navigate through the site to find the perfect project:

• Get local: Use our Location filter to find projects in your state or hometown.
• Get inspired: What are you passionate about? The environment? Water color painting? A book you’re reading? Narrow projects by subject area, or search for what you care about in the keyword box.
• Get choosy: Sort your search results by cost, poverty level, or popularity…whatever matters most to you.

Now here’s where I need your help. We’re pretty fortunate to live in an area with great schools, responsive teachers, and lots of great low-cost and free activities for our kids (including the robotics club my husband runs). So when Savings.com offered me  a $25 gift card (and $25 matched!) I thought hard about how I could help my readers (and yes, I also happen to be incredibly indecisive). Then I saw Lisa’s brilliant idea-asking readers what Donors Choose programs they would like to see funded and why.

What you need to do to enter: Head to Donors Choose and either enter your own project, or find one you think should be funded. Come here and leave a comment and a link. You have the next 24 hours to comment. (comments will be closed at 4pm EST 2/7/2012) After that, I’ll set up a post with all the links you shared, and let readers choose the winner.

So tell me below what project you want funded, and why.

Kelly

Disclosure: Savings.com provided me with a $25 gift code which will be matched. While I was not compensated for this in any way, I am a Savings.com DealPro which means I get to share awesome stuff like this with you!

© 2012, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

We’re back to Week One with our 365 day meal plan this week. The first four weeks have been fairly simple in terms of shopping and cooking meals, though we have had to make some accomadations over those weeks as well. Overall though we’re seeing a huge savings over the previous month in groceries and eating out, and of course a slight increase in water bills due to doing more dishes. Time will tell if we can stick it out, and if it will save us money beyond the very spendy month of December.

Let’s start (as usual) with last week’s recap.

Week Four Menu: Week of January 30th

Monday: Emma’s birthday! Her menu includes hamburgers, hot dogs, salad, fruit salad (made by her big brother), and organic mac & cheese. For dessert we’re having ice cream cake!

This was a fun evening, and Emma loved her birthday cake.

Tuesday: Since Emma picked tonight’s meal almost exactly for her birthday, we’ll be shifting Monday’s meal here. Bone-in chicken breasts (keeping the bone in makes them juicier) with sides of brown rice, spinach salad, and garlic-butter broccoli.

I totally forgot about the broccoli, and ended unmaking green beans instead. This is always a family favorite.

Wednesday: “Mix Night” nacho chips, tacos, tortillas, taco beef, leftover chicken, and lots of sides.

Mix Night is always an easy and crowd-pleasing meal in our house.

Thursday: The menu calls for fish, but I found pork loin on sale last week and froze them, so we’ll try our hand at cider-glazed pork loin again. Sides will include salad (I know I’m boring!), green beans, and applesauce. {Recipe will be posted later this week!}

Yum, this recipe is divine. Will share it later today!

Friday: Pizza night! We’ll try our hand again at making pizzas with a side of salad.

We ended up having a basketball game early and having to drive to pick up my husband and his car from the shop (nothing serious-just an inspection) so we opted to get takeout this evening. I found some savings in the form of a free meal, and hubby and I split a gluten-free pizza. Still not too shabby for having to spend the extra moolah.

Saturday: Roasted chicken, green beans, salad, gluten-free cornbread.

We switched clean out the fridge night to here since I forgot the SuperBowl in my meal planning (the nerve!) and my daughter insisted on a ‘feast’. 

Sunday: Clean out the fridge night (we have plans on Sunday during the day-so this will make things easier when dinnertime rolls around)

We had a feast of food for the SuperBowl including fresh veggies and hummus, juiced strawberries, crackers and cheese, salami and pepperoni, popcorn and Trader Joe’s pulled pork (LOVE this stuff).

Now onto this week’s menu a repeat of Week One.

Week One Menu: Week of February 6th

Monday: Bone-in chicken breasts, rice, buttered green beans, cornbread

Tuesday: Gluten-free pancakes, bacon (drool), fruit salad, smoothies

Wednesday: “Mix Night” nacho chips, tacos, tortillas, taco beef, leftover chicken, and lots of sides.

Thursday: Pot roast, roasted potatoes w/ bacon, salad

Friday: Make your own pizzas and side of salad

Saturday: Clean out the fridge night.

Sunday: Roasted chicken, rice, broccoli.

I’m also planning to make a ‘one-pot’ lunch for myself to last all week. I’ll be making this delicious butternut squash soup recipe.

What’s on your menu this week? 

To create your own rotating menu plan download my menu plan templates.

Kelly

© 2012, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

December through April are big months in my house for gift cards. We have Christmas, then all 4 of my family members’ birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Easter, etc., and as my kids have gotten older we have found that they have gotten harder to shop for. My husband and I have also gotten harder to shop for as we seem to want and need less and less stuff. So a popular gift item that we all give and get frequently has become the gift card.

The only problem with the gift cards my family has come across is occasionally we get a gift card from an out of town relative who is unaware that we don’t have the same stores that they do in their home towns. Now sure many gift cards can work online, but items like movie cards or restaurant cards don’t. As I am one whose skin literally crawls at the idea of a wasted gift/money I was excited to discover that there is an excellent option. You can sell your unwanted gift cards on-line.

Buying and Selling Gift Cards On-Line

There are many different websites that buy and sell gift cards. All of these websites generally work the same way. They buy your unwanted gift cards at a discounted rate. Then they sell those same gift cards at a discounted rate to others. Which means that not only can you get rid of unwanted gift cards, but you can also buy lets say a gift card worth $25 for only $23. Pretty cool, right?

In researching these sites I narrowed them down to my 3 favorite, Gift Card Rescue, Plastic Jungle, and Cardpool. I experimented with 2 cards, a Starbucks card and an Athleta card. As they seemed to be equally reliable as far as giving what they promised, I was curious to see what types of bids I would get from each. Here is what I found:

Gift Card Rescue.com

For my testing purposes Gift Card Rescue.com had a more limited group of retailers to pick from. They do not purchase Athleta cards, so I was unable to get a bid from them. However, I was able to get a bid on a Starbucks card (without having to put the card number in initially). They offered me $19.69 for an online Amazon gift credit and $18.75 for a check, the least amount for the sites I pooled.

Cardpool.com

Cardpool.com was the only site in which I was able to check both cards equally. If I chose the “Redeem by Mail” option they offered $21 for my Athleta gift card and $22.05 for my Starbucks gift card. If I chose to receive an Amazon.com online gift card they offered $19.69 for the Athleta gift card and $20.74 for the Starbucks gift card. Unlike the other two sites they offered you more money not to trade for an Amazon gift card.

Plastic Jungle.com

Although all three sites explained how the selling process worked, Plastic Jungle for me had the best step-by-step explanation about what would happen. Also, Plastic Jungle was the only site that requires the gift card number to get a bid, (they all require it for the final purchases). Therefore I wasn’t able to get a bid on my Starbucks card. Plastic Jungle did, however, give me two options for payment for my Athleta card offering me $19.69 for an on-line Amazon gift card and $18.75 for cash either deposited into my PayPal account or sent to me via a cashier’s check.

Comparing Gift Card Buyback Sites

In doing this research I discovered that once again one of my steadfast shopping rules held fast.

It pays to shop around and not be a store snob.

As you can see from my short experience on these sites, each site at some point was better than the other site. Some sites had a better retailer list, others offered better prices, and others were easier to navigate. Probably the best idea for you when you have a gift card to sell is to consider all of your options. After all a little research is the shoppers best friend, and only you know what shopping experience is best for you.

Kelly K.

© 2012, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to take more time to take care of myself. Last year was hectic in both good and challenging ways, but I wasn’t taking care of myself and found that I was exhausted and stressed to the max. The lesson I learned was that putting myself last never works. I need to make more time for myself to bring more balance into my life, and be healthier and happier. While it means cutting back in other areas, after 35 years I have finally learned that it is essential to take me time, and make time for everyday luxuries.

Having ‘me time’ can mean anything from taking a nap to going away for the weekend. It can be as simple as sipping a delicious cup of coffee while reading a great book to a weeklong vacation with my husband.

That’s why I’m thrilled the Splash team has partnered up with Acura to share the Acura RDX Contest and info about the Acura RDX Challenge!

This Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 we’ll be hosting a twitter party with Acura where
we’ll talk all about life’s essential luxuries and offer up some awesome prizes to add a little luxury to your everyday.

If you’re looking for a true luxury experience you can enter the Acura RDX Challenge on Facebook. You simply submit a brief video, and you’re entered to win one of 5 luxury getaways for you and your plus one to experience top of the line luxury at a spa and hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona. You’ll get to experience the newly redesigned 2013 Acura RDX first-hand with a test drive, and you’ll even take home a MacBook Pro*!

How to enter Acura’s RDX Challenge:

Create a video to tell Acura about all of your essential luxuries. For more details and to submit your video, head to the RDX Challenge tab on the Acura Facebook Page.

Acura #RDXContest Twitter Party

Join us Wednesday, February 1st from 9-10 pm ET (6-7 pm PT) for a fun Twitter party, where we’ll discuss the contest, the new car, and of course, life’s essential luxuries.

It’s easy to join the party. Simply follow the hashtag #RDXContest.

Hosts:
@JustPrecious, @CentsibleLife, @TechSavvyMama, @GraceDuffy

Please also follow:
@Splash_Creative and @Acura_Insider

We’ll also be giving away prizes that will help you experience luxury in your everyday life!

Prizes include:

• $25 Barnes & Noble gift card
• $25 Starbucks gift card
• $50 SpaFinder gift card
• $50 Restaurant.com gift card
• Grand Prize: Nook Simple Touch (valued at $99)

How to Enter:

RSVP below for a chance to win! Enter your name and Twitter handle. To be eligible to win you must RSVP and participate in the party using #RDXContest. All winners will be chosen by random drawing and must have a mailing address within the United States. Official rules can be found on the Splash Creative Media site.

Hope to see you Wednesday night!

Kelly

*MacBook Pro is a trademark of Apple Inc. Apple is not a participant in or sponsor of this promotion.

© 2012, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

Apologies for the delay in Monday’s meal plan, due to downtime and malware infecting my site I was unable to get this up in time. Without further ado an update on meal planning.

We’re in week four of my 365 meal plan, and so far even with crazy busy schedules, and a never-ending cold that we’re passing around we’re doing really well. The part I’m most excited about is the savings! Our food spending is down and I’m looking forward to tallying up our total savings this month.

Week Three Menu Update

Week 3′s menu was something I stuck to pretty closely. The only exception was Sunday since I’m still battling the cold that never ends, I opted to make some chicken nuggets we had in the freezer.

Monday: Stir Fry night with shrimp and veggies, rice on the side.

This was yummy, in part because I didn’t cook it! This was met with some resistance from one of the kids-so she had an alternative meal (an all beef hot dog). 

Tuesday: Bone-in chicken breasts, twice baked potatoes, salad with pears and cranberries.

In lieu of the twice baked potatoes I did roasted garlic potatoes and the salad was without pears since the kids snacked on them before we had dinner.

Wednesday: “Mix Night” nacho chips, tacos, tortillas, taco beef, leftover chicken, and lots of sides

Always an easy and fun night for the kids. Everyone loved this dinner.

Thursday: Sausage, gluten-free pasta, salad, peppers and onions

The peppers and onions got used for ‘mix night’, so I offered a variety of veggies instead.

Friday: Pizza night (this time homemade!)

I made gluten-free pizza dough, and the kids didn’t know the difference. It was pretty good, but not the same as a traditional pizza. We enjoyed putting our own toppings on our pizza pies-everyone chose something different!

Saturday: Clean out the Fridge Night

Always a fun night! I was home with 3 of the kiddos alone, so this made dinnertime simple.

Sunday: Rack of lamb, spinach salad, roasted potatoes

Since I was still feeling crummy I made chicken nuggets from the freezer and served them with a side of tater tots (also pulled from the freezer), salad, and some sliced apples.

Week Four Menu: Week of January 30th

Monday: Emma’s birthday! Her menu includes hamburgers, hot dogs, salad, fruit salad (made by her big brother), and organic mac & cheese. For dessert we’re having ice cream cake!

Tuesday: Since Emma picked tonight’s meal almost exactly for her birthday, we’ll be shifting Monday’s meal here. Bone-in chicken breasts (keeping the bone in makes them juicier) with sides of brown rice, spinach salad, and garlic-butter broccoli.

Wednesday: “Mix Night” nacho chips, tacos, tortillas, taco beef, leftover chicken, and lots of sides.

Thursday: The menu calls for fish, but I found pork loin on sale last week and froze them, so we’ll try our hand at cider-glazed pork loin again. Sides will include salad (I know I’m boring!), green beans, and applesauce. {Recipe will be posted later this week!}

Friday: Pizza night! We’ll try our hand again at making pizzas with a side of salad.

Saturday: Roasted chicken, green beans, salad, gluten-free cornbread.

Sunday: Clean out the fridge night (we have plans on Sunday during the day-so this will make things easier when dinnertime rolls around)

What’s on your menu this week? 

To create your own rotating menu plan download my menu plan templates.

Kelly

© 2012, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

If you tried to visit the site yesterday you may have come across a big red page that said malware was attached to my site, or you may have seen nothing.

Yesterday the server had unexpected downtime but I’ve been assured that this issue was taken care of. The site was also hacked, and thanks to two trusty tech friends was given a clean bill of health. It took time for Google to reprocess the site, but the Centisble Life now has a clean bill of health.

I apologize for both issues, and hope <knock on wood> that going forward there won’t be any issues. Excuse the number of posts that will be going up today too, as I make up for lost time.

Kelly

© 2012, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

Here are our favorite deals and discounts from this week.

Would love to know what you think of this new feature-let me know in the comments!

Are you ready for some football?

It is Superbowl time check out these fun decoration ideas!

If you are not into football, maybe this craft site is more up your alley

Craftsy has forums, tons of craft projects, and you can learn how to make a quilt in 12 months

Free Kindle Books

I’m a big fan of free! There are always good titles to download on Amazon, and Centsible Deals features a few this week:

Looking to change up your school day breakfasts and lunches – Smart School Time Recipes Book 

Low calorie recipe ideas -Hungry Girl cookbook

            Tip: You can download Kindle books on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch as well!

Get Healthy

My husband and I are having a contest going on right now, so we can both become healthier!

If you are looking to become healthier this year check these great items and workout options to Get Fit.

If want to get cash back on outdoor items you purchase check out Active Junky.

Gluten free and Nut free

We found some great products that are gluten and nut free

If your child has food allergies this is worth checking out

Coupons

Children’s Place is having a great sale and with a coupon you can get some great deals right now!

JoAnn.com

40% off One Regular Priced Item Code: savgsae212

Expires: Feb/16/2012

Overstock.com

Overstock – 15% off coupon – Winter Wear 

(see all Overstock coupons)

Crocs.com
Take $5 off any order over $19.99 at Crocs.com with code 5OFF until 1/31!

Don’t miss any deals or coupons-head over to Centsible Deals and sign up for emails right to your inbox.

Brittany

© 2012, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.