Financial Friday: Car Rental Discounts & More

As I am still on vacation in San Francisco from the INA Conference last weekend, I wanted to share with my readers some great summer car savings that Maximizing Money's blog posted the other day.  

Thrifty Car Rental Savings and Dollar Vehicle Rental Discount Offers

Check out these latest Thrifty car rental savings and Dollar vehicle rental discount offers for savings on your next car rental.
These Dollar rental promotions and Thrifty rental deals offer great discounts on vehicle rentals.
Check out these additional Rental Car Specials for more savings from national car rental companies.

Make sure to check out Maximizing Money's blog post on great deals for Memorial Day weekend as well.

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Financial Friday: The Story of Pigtopia & the Piggy Bank

Financial Friday: The Story of Pigtopia & The Piggy Bank 
by Alice Shaffer


I love reading other people's finance blogs. I have learned so many things from everyone's experience.  Recently I saw a quote that said "Experience is what you get when don't get what you want".  Oh how true is that.  I stumbled across the  Wellheeled blog again this week and just laughed hysterically about the story of Pigtopia! I wanted to share the story with you. What I love so much about this blog post is the creative writing and all the wonderful links to other financial blogs.  As professional nannies we are often immersed in being creative with paint, markers, recycled art projects and the like, but I am sure we never realized how creative finance and money could be.  Thanks to Petunia Piggy and her piglets we can now have a finance "fairy tale" for us the professional nannies and adults in the world.

Today, humans know of the piggy bank as a simple coin container. But  did you know the true origin of the piggy bank is all about financial  literacy [Suburban Dollar]? It all began in a magical land called  Pigtopia, where pigs are just as (or, they would argue, even more  intelligent than) humans, and walked upright and dressed in stylish  garbs such as tophats and waistcoats. Pigtopia had   interest rates [Canadian Finance Blog] and natural  disasters [A Modern Gal], just like the human realm.  But it’s the  place where Piggy Bank was born to become the most famous banking  dynasty in Pigtopia.
It all began when a lady pig named Petunia Piggy married  [The Financial Uproar] Pigster Piggtington, and gave birth to five  little piglets. One day, Petunia took her piglets to a famous  fortune-teller, who told their fortunes in a rhyme:

For the rest of the story please read Wellheeled blog's 

Carnival of Personal Finance:  

The Origin of the  Piggy Bank

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Financial Friday: Tips For Living With Food Allergies

Financial Friday: Tips For Living with Food Allergies


This is National Food Allergy Awareness week. Over at Regarding Nannies we have featured numerous views of living with food allergies, today I am going to share some financial tips from some of our readers on how to save money while being healthy and dealing with food allergies. I am providing numerous links to websites and tips on dealing with Food Allergies.  They are indirectly helping you save money by giving you resources at your fingertips.  There is no need to reinvent the wheel just because you have food allergies now, many people have established the wheel for you.   Take their advice and their recipes and enjoy. 


Many families have dealt with food allergies in many ways that are helpful for them. The one common thing I have heard from all of them is to do bulk buying and use a crockpot. Making as many of your foods from scratch will ensure that you are eating healthy and safely.   


Through this gathering of tips and websites I have learned that being gluten free or having allergies does not mean you have to eat yucky foods.  One person even adapted a Julia Child's Strawberry Tart to be gluten free.  You will have to be in the kitchen more to make sure you are eating safely but many of these sites provide so many wonderful recipes that you shouldn't have a problem throwing a dinner party or bringing dessert to a friend's house one night.


Helpful Websites & Companies

• Truly Natural
• Bob's Red Mill  numerous types of grains, flours, recipes & monthly specials
• Gluten Free Mall  coupons, reward program, articles
• Celiac Disease  Anything you want to know about Celiac Disease
• Be Free For Me  Win It Wednesdays, Friday Favorite and a wealth of other knowledge
• Amazon  has a buying program as well that might be helpful on some foods, remember Amazon Prime may be worth looking into for faster and cheaper shipping.
• True Foods Market
• Gluten Free Food Directory lists of beer, snacks, bread, chips, popcorn etc
•  Nature's Path Organic
• Envirokidz fun food products for kids  
• GFCF has many products that are gluten free/casein free foods/products
• Shop at your local farmers market
• Look into joining a CSA 
• Rachel's Recipe Box  recipes, families journey through living gluten free, dairy free, wheat free, gfcf free, berry free & other top allergen foods
• Sure Foods Living  great links to dining & cooking foods
• Cherrybrook Kitchen  gluten free, egg free, peanut free, dairy free, nut free cake mixes, frosting and other products
• Food Allergy Buzz    a great blog with tons of resources and links
• The Food Allergy Queen  has a great strawberry tart recipe from Julia Child adapted to be gluten free
• Check my Tag:  food allergy awareness clothes for toddlers

Helpful Tips:

1. Do you have an egg allergy in the house?  I ran across this tip on a blog, which I can't find now unfortunately about a substitute for egg.  You can substitute 1 Tbsp. of milled flax seed(you can find this near the flours) and 3 Tbsp. of water for each egg in your recipe.
2. Write to the companies that have products that your child and you can eat based on your food allergies. Tell them you like the products etc. Many times they will send you a sample and coupons.  This is a great idea especially if you are not sure you are going to like a product.  All packages should have an 800 phone number on them to reach customer service. Never hurts to try.
3. Bulk purchasing.  Look at the websites and see if they off deals on bulk purchasing.  If so stock up on the basics like flours, grains and so forth that don't go bad quickly.  
4. Split costs of bulk buying with friends who need to purchase similar products
5. Learn how to decipher a food label
6. Learn what the major food allergens are (milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, wheat & other)
7. Ask those who are over for meals and playdates if they have food allergies, do not be afraid to ask them to bring their own snacks and lunches.  If it often safer for the child/person especially if they have severe food allergies
8. Educate yourself on food allergies in children
9. Consider purchasing the Allergy Label Pack from Stuck on You for your child's camp belongs and for school as well. Comes with bracelets, stickers, bag tag etc.  ( listed under Stuck on You Value Packs)
10. Learn about the various non wheat flours and how to cook with them
11. Check your vitamins and medicines to make sure they are free of the food allergens, gluten free and casein free Make sure to confirm with the manufactures as well.

Through your journey of food allergies you will find frustrations and victories in the foods you try from the store and the ones you make.  The costs at first may seem high but once you figure out what foods and products you like buying in bulk and from scratch will save you lots of money.  Make this a fun time for your family in the kitchen, have everyone help out with cooking!


Please share with us some of your helpful money saving and time tips with living and cooking with food allergies!

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Financial Friday: What Exactly Is Jasmere?

Financial Friday: What Exactly is Jasmere?

Late last year I received an email from someone letting me know about a new website that was opening up in January 2010 called Jasmere.  It is a website that would offer great discounts on little known products and companies to people who wanted to explore new products. The best part was that the more people who purchased the "deal" the cost of it would decrease.   I was intrigued by this thought. I have always loved shopping for unique things from all avenues of the shopping world.  I liked the concept of Groupon and Restaurant, so I knew I would fall in love with Jasmere when it launched. I have to say I have not been disappointed at all in them.


I started getting the daily email of the "deal" of the day. I have made three purchases since January. 

•   Twenty Pounds of Fresh, Delicious Florida Citrus: Honeybells, Grapefruit, Navel Oranges or Mixed    This was $42 originally.  The final price was $17 plus $11.95 shipping for a total of $29.97.  I had ordered the mix of Honeybells and Navel Oranges.  I was anxiously awaiting for my order to be shipped when that horrible freeze hit Florida citrus growers.  I finally received my yummy Honeybells & Navel Oranged in February.  The Navel Oranges were the size of softballs. The honeybells were so heavy with juice.   Despite having to wait a bit longer because Mother Nature "froze" some of Florida it was totally worth the wait.  I would not have discovered The Orange Shoppe without this deal 
• NY's Legendary Fat Witch Brownie, as seen on Today Show, Food Network, CBS, many more.  The price for 8 three bite dense brownies is $17. I ended up with these heavenly "Fat Witch Brownies" for $4.00 plus $4.95 shipping! These were so incredibly awesome!  If you are ever in NYC they have a store in Chelsea Market. 
• Lunchskins: 3 Sandwich Skins & 2 Snack Skins. The value is $43. The final price I paid was  $15 plus $7.95 shipping. I snagged two of these deals along with their bonus of the day which was a $40 voucher for $16.  My total was $51.71.

Have I peaked your interest in the items up for grabs on Jasmere?  If so make sure you sign up for an account. 
If you sign up and then refer others through your referral link, such as the one I just gave you, you will receive $10 in Jasmere money.  I have used a coupon code for $5 off and it was very simple.  They are also great at answering emails if you need more advice or anything else. 

Make sure you "LIKE" Jasmere on Facebook as they have a winner of the day for the item that day.  They post the winner's name on facebook and I believe you have 24 hours to respond.  Which I think is pretty darn cool!  


Some helpful links to make your experience fun!

• To see some of the past companies that have been shared on Jasmere.

• To read a Haiku sneak peak at May

• To read their blog  (They do a more indepth review of the daily products and you can go back through and read about the previous ones too.)

• To know what is coming up next on Jasmere go to the bottom of the website and click on SOON

• To read more on how Jasmere works they have an awesome guide for you!   

Let us know what you end up purchasing! Think birthday gifts, baby gifts, graduation and holiday gifts when you see the deal of the day!

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