This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Coldwell Banker. All opinions are 100% mine.
It’s that time of year again, the dreaded tax time! I don’t know about you, but we’ve been looking at all types of ways we can save money, particularly over the past year as we’ve watch the economy take a nose dive and drag our retirement funds right down with it. Thankfully my husband has been able to keep his job, while I did suffer a 2 month layoff, at least I was rehired. Next week I am actually even getting a promotion and a very small increase in salary! While we’ve made it our job to find ways to save money, it is my own personal New Year’s resolution to pay off debt as much as I can, and that includes our mortgage.
Looking at our mortgage and ways we can either save or get it paid off quicker, brings me back to tax time. I learned early on in my life that it’s important to plan ahead for taxes in order to take advantage of certain tax breaks. In fact, one particular tax credit available right now to current homeowners is the 2010 Homebuyer Tax Credits. This federal tax credit is not only for first time homebuyers, but many current home owners who are thinking about moving up qualify if they’ve lived in their current home for 5 out of the last 8 years. Unfortunately, we’ve only been in our current home for 3 years so we can’t take advantage of this, but I know many people who can. If you’re even thinking about it, keep in mind that you must have a binding contract dated no later than April 30, 2010 and there are income limits that must be considered as well.
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Wheat Food Council. All opinions are 100% mine.
My daughter is in 8th grade and is studying the nitrogen cycle in science. I wonder if they cover the food cycle as part of their studies. Really, have you ever thought about where our food comes from? Seriously, it can be a very interesting learning experience is you track back to the beginning. I think I may just have to email her science teacher and send him the link to How Wheat Works which is sponsored by the Wheat Foods Council and shows how wheat goes from being planted in the ground to being food on the table, with all the steps in between.
Wheat is in so many of our daily foods, whether we’re using flour for making gravy or baking cookies. Wheat is in our breads, tortillas, many chips, snack foods and cereals. Using the How Wheat Works interactive program, you can plant, harvest, mill, bake and then virtually eat the wheat you’ve grown! It’s fascinating to see the entire process and kids especially will enjoy the learning process and the online interactive activity. There are 4 programs, each taking just a few minutes to complete, and one can be completed each day.
As an added benefit, for each person that completes the 4 day cycle, the Wheat Foods Council will donate 2 pounds of flour to OperationHomeFront.net, a non-profit group that provides assistance to U.S. Troops and their families in need.
I’ve all ready started my farming activity, how about you?
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of 2000 Flushes. All opinions are 100% mine.
Well, it’s Saturday, time for our weekly housecleaning. Now mind you, our house isn’t that old, but I certainly have to question the architect that designed the houseplan. What was he thinking? Yes, it has to be a he because the bathrooms in this house seem to have been poorly thought out and no woman would’ve ever designed them this way.
For example, the masterbath is HUGE! That’s great, except that everything surrounds the walls, so there is the HUGE empty space right in the middle, nothing but tile floor to collect and gather dust and sticky hairspray residue. What’s the point? Just that much more floor I have to get down on my knees and scrub. Then there is my daughter’s bathroom. At it’s widest point it’s about 3 feet and that includes the counter space. It’s like a tube. Walk in and hope no one follows you because you won’t be able to turn around and walk back out! It does have 2 sinks. This is questionable as to why there are two sinks since the sinks are literally side by side with about 3 inches of counter space separating them. There is no other counter space, so my daughter has no place to set her things. You know, like a box of tissues, a hair dryer, etc. You know, the basics? The room isn’t wide enough to put shelves in so that isn’t an option. I’d love to close off the one sink and have it become a counter, it would certainly be more useful.
This leads me to the “Is Your Bowl Ready for the Big Game?” Sweepstakes sponsored by 2000 Flushes. The contest is tied in with the Super Bowl and here is a very interesting fact. Did you know that 90 million toilets will be flushed during halftime, yep, that is JUST during halftime! That’s an incredible number of flushes if you sit back and think about it!
Anyway, it’s super simple to Enter to Win the Sweepstakes by filling out an online entry. In addition to the Grand Prize which is a $10,000 bathroom makeover (which I would give anything to have!), there are also weekly prizes of coupons for free 2000 Flushes antibacterial product. You can also download a $1 off coupon for the contest site, so even if you don’t win, you can still have a nice clean bowl, and 2000 Flushes cleans and deodorizes for up to 4 months! That alone would save me time.
I’ve all ready submitted my entry because I would love to give my daughter’s bathroom a makeover and wouldn’t mind doing a couple renovations in my own bathroom! $10,000 would sure go a long way toward making those renovations happen.
Sweepstakes winner will be announced on or before March 15, 2010.
I realize Val did this meme at Christmas, but I’m so far behind and hate that I’ve been missing Four Foods on Friday. So, here are the questions posted by Val and my answers.
1. What did you eat yesterday? (Christmas for some of you.) Yesterday, I had Special K for breakfast, leftover pizza for lunch and a turkey noodle casserole for dinner.
2. Do you have any food traditions for Christmas? Cookies, cookies and more cookies!
3. What’s your favorite holiday leftover? Can I still say cookies? It’s really the only time of year I can count on homemade cookies!
4. What food do you always wish you had more of after the holidays? chocolate and cookies!
Be sure to check out Val’s site , she has so much useful information and hosts my favorite meme!
This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Ramblers Way. All opinions are 100% mine.
My husband’s primary reason for moving to Texas that he has repeated to me over and over again for the last 3 years is that he HATES the cold weather of the midwest. Well dear, maybe you haven’t noticed, but our temperatures here in Dallas have really been struggling lately to get above the freezing mark and it’s downright cold!
It’s so dang cold in fact, I’m sleeping at night on flannel sheets, wearing fleece pajamas and layered on top with 3 quilts. Tomorrow’s high temperature is supposed to be reached at midnight (tonight) and will only go down from there with windchills causing it to feel like it’s in the teens in the morning when my daughter has to stand outside at the school bus stop.
Now we moved south to get AWAY from the frigid temperatures, so I also gave away most of our winter clothing. Once my daughter had grown out of her winter coat, we never bothered to replace it. After all, it’s not supposed to be this cold here! We are setting records now!
I’m seriously going to have to do some emergency warm clothes shopping and I’m definitely checking out the wonderful and comfortable clothing line at Ramblers Way. Now, this isn’t your mother’s wool clothing. Remember that old wool? Itchy, itchy, itchy! There really is no other way to describe it! Even when I used to own wool pants that were nicely lined, I could still feel the itch!
Ramblers Way creates versatile, comfortable wool clothing that you’d swear wasn’t wool. It comes from Rambouillet and is some of the finest wool in this country. Their clothes are all natural and pre-washed so they arrive ready to wear. Most importantly, they are SOFT and comfortable. It will definitely make you re-imagine wool!
Well, now that I’ve created my shopping list, I’m headed outside to make sure our outdoor pipes are covered so they don’t freeze overnight. Stay warm everybody!
