ORIENTAL TRADING

Oriental Trading has some great stuff for Halloween parties and such. Use code AHA742 for $10 off any order of $30 or more by 10/5/09.

CHRISTMAS CLOTHES

Janie & Jack, Gymboree, Crazy 8 and Children's Place all have their dressy Christmas clothes out now.

Click here for a 20% off coupon to Crazy 8.

GAP.COM

Use code SAVE25 through today to save 25% off at Gap.com

COMPUTER BACKUP

My cousin's husband told me about Mozy. A website to backup your home computer on. You can get 2 gb of free space or pay $5 a month per computer for unlimited space. It is the best I have found. Other websites charge an amount per memory space. This is one flat fee.

Awhile ago my computer crashed and I was able to get all of my data back by just going on Mozy.com and downloading everything I had backed up. It was so great!

LEAP FROG LETTER FACTORY

My son started watching Leap Frog Letter Factory when he was just a few months over 2 years old and he loved it! I was amazed that after a week of watching it he could recognize almost every letter and knew ever letter's sound. The best part is that I don't have to make or even encourage him to watch it. He asks for it! Ever parent with a child age 2 and up needs to own this! They also have others that help put words together and learn numbers and such.


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As the commenters suggested, I went to Costco and they have this DVD as well as 4 others. They are $6.99 each. (Other stores sell it for $9.99, typically). Letter Factory is the first one because it is for ages 2-5. The others are more advanced and are for ages 3-6.

PRICELINE & HOTWIRE

Originally posted on 2/10/09

I have always heard of people getting hotel rooms on Priceline and Hotwire but I have never felt comfortable taking the gamble on an unknown hotel room. Until NOW! I have recently discovered Betterbidding.com
It is a forum that posts results of what hotels people are getting when they book a priceline or a hotwire room in a certain city or area. If you create a username and ask for a bidding strategy on priceline (where you would bid on your hotel) or post the amenities and stars and price on a hotwire hotel you are looking at they will help you guess what the hotel is. I have booked 3 separate hotels recently and they were right on with each hotel guess. Of course you are still taking a gamble using Priceline and Hotwire but it is nice to see some of the results that other people have gotten when booking to give you some reassurance. All they ask is that you book your rooms through their links to Hotwire and Priceline (they must get a kickback). Otherwise it is free!

GOOGLE TEXT!

Last posted on 4/1/08.




Did you know that you can TEXT Google on your cell phone and get results with the address and phone number or whatever you need for free! This is such a great alternative to 411. You need to be somewhat specific (city and state) and commas do help in my experience. You just text to 466453 ('GOOGLE' on most devices) and it sends back a text message with the info. Here is the link to read more about it.

If you don't want to text you can also call 1-800 GOOG 411 and they will connect you for free! Say good bye to $1.49 411 calls!!! Yeah! Here is the link for it.

MOVIE REVIEWS

Originally posted on 1/7/08




There is this great website that you can go to and read movie reviews to find out the content and such. It gives you everything you might be worried about (especially if your children want to see it). You can subscribe to a more detailed version or just go to the bottom of the screen on the home page and click "no thanks" and you will still get all of the information you would need. You just have to see a lot of ads and such on their free version.

http://www.screenit.com/

While I am talking about movies...has anyone seen "August Rush?" I am curious if it is worth seeing and I haven't heard anything yet.

UTAH SHOWS

The What a Woman Wants show is going on Sept. 25-26 at the South Towne Expo Center. Friday 10-8 pm and Saturday 8-4 pm.

The Holy Cow Boutique will be going on September 23-25th from 9-8 pm and September 26th 9-5 pm. It is held in the Old Pleasant Grove Rec. Center. Details can be found on their blog.

MINT.COM

**Originally posted on 3/14/09

So...I started this blog because I love learning about new and useful things and I wanted to be able to share them with others. I am so excited to share my latest find with you.

My recent discovery is Mint.com! It is a website that helps you track your money and your spending and such. I have been using Quicken but I haven't loved the format of it or the fact that it costs money to purchase and I have to pay a $3 a month fee to my bank to upload to Quicken. Mint.com is entirely FREE is is very user friendly. It even sends me emails and text messages if I go over a budget category or if I have a credit card bill due soon.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

*Thanks Reese for the tip!

PEANUT POSH

Have you heard of Peanut Posh yet? They have adorable boy's neckties, car seat covers and car seat tents and a darling flower clip system that you can interchange with different flowers and tops.

Peanut Posh is offering 10% off your order to Karen's tips readers by entering KARENSTIPS at checkout through the end of the month!

OH SWEET SADIE

Oops! Has it really been that long since my last post. Well...hopefully you all didn't give up on me yet.

Oh Sweet Sadie is putting on a show in Daybreak at the new SoDa Row shops this Friday and Saturday, September 18th and 19th. 9:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. each day. They are also doing contests on their blog each day until the show. There are some good prizes!