In My Bag

I like to shop. A lot. Prior to having kids, I loved to shop for clothes, makeup, jewelry, hair accessories, stationery, and car accessories. Now that I have kids and a household to manage, my priorities for shopping have changed. After groceries comes household necessities (cleansers and paper products), and then baby clothes for my daughter and son (who are both in 5T, so soon we’ll be moving into the little kids’ clothes! Ack!), then things for my husband, and finally, if there’s money and energy left over, a few odds and ends for myself.

Where do I love to shop? Target and Fashion Bug. I ♥ those stores!

Someone organized a yard sale in our neighborhood. It’s being held on June 28th. If we’re here (my husband’s aunt and uncle invited us to join them at the NJ shore during the week of the 22nd-28th), I’m going to hopefully have some things to sell! Not so much because I want to stand outside in the disgusting heat and deal with bugs and maybe make ten or twenty dollars, but because it’s nice to participate in neighborly events. We have lived here for over a year, and we know the people on either side of us. That’s it.

So, I need to dig up some things to sell! I have some baby bedding left over from when Ryan was still using his crib, a hot sling that I really should part with, and of course, toys, books, arts and crafts stuff — all the typical kiddie stuff you’ll find most moms and dads selling during yard sales and flea market events!

What do you sell at yard sales? And what was your best find at a yard sale?

My favorite crib bedding is Classic Pooh. When I was pregnant with my son, the Classic Pooh frenzy started with a few adorable items I saw in Target. When my husband and I created a baby wish list, we chose all sorts of Classic Pooh items. When the baby gifts from friends and gift swaps arrived, they were Classic Pooh. And when we decorated our son’s room and went shopping for curtains, wall decals and a crib dust ruffle, we made sure to match everything to his Classic Pooh crib bedding.

What baby crib bedding themes do you like?

Rating:

When I was pregnant with Alyssa, I found a consignment shop in our area. They had a lot of nice stuff, but I quickly found out that you don’t always save as much money at a consignment shop as you think you do! Oh, I got some good deals –a very nice changing table for $25, an L.L.Bean bunting bag for $10, and various articles of clothing, books and videos for just a few dollars apiece.

But they wanted a hundred dollars or more for used bassinets with visible wear and tear on them. I’m sorry, but I’m not paying $125 for a bassinet with frayed edges, when I can pick up a lower end new one for $200 or less! And some of their clothes…oy. I’d find shirts for $5 and $6, and pants for $12 - $15. Newsflash: you can get clothes BRAND NEW for those prices. Granted, they’d be Target and the like, rather than Gap… but used Gap clothing or brand new Target clothing? Used clothes that you’re paying for the brand name in order to have, or brand new?
The choice should be clear!

So today I was told to Visit Shop Shield® at their website, stopshield.net. What is Stop Shield, you may be asking. Well, I’m asking the same thing! Apparently, Stop Shield offers comprehensive protection against fraud and identity theft, but is exclusively designed to protect individuals who are making online purchases.

Stop Shield is a new, cutting edge solution to the privacy worries that many people worry about when shopping online. And worry they should! Fraud and identity theft happen all too often. Between phishing emails, spoof emails, fraudulent sellers, fake websites, and hackers and crackers, our online purchases can be susceptible to intrusion all of the time.

So what does Stop Shield protect? Credit card numbers, bank account information, billing addresses, shipping addresses, email addresses and account login information is all secured when you use Stop Shield.

Have I mentioned that Stop Shield is free? The benefit of using Stop Shield should be clear: your privacy and financial identity protected from theft and fraud, for FREE! With Stop Shield, your online purchases are made with regular websites, but with the use of the Stop Shield service, so there’s never a worry of those websites exploiting your billing and financial info — because they don’t have it to begin with!

So go and Learn More! Of course, you should be aware that Stop Shield is in live beta testing mode. This means while the service has the potential works, there could always be bugs. Go and sign up for free to be a tester for this neat new service!

My husband talked me into buying a tub of LAND O LAKES Spreadable Butter a month or so back. I was against the purchase, because one tub is approximately fifteen ounces (nearly a pound). Its cost? Almost $4. In contrast, one pound of butter in stick form is often less than $250. So you’re getting one ounce more for a whole lot less money! But I love my husband, so I agreed to the purchase.

It looks like butter, smells like butter and tastes like butter. It also spreads just like regular butter — meaning it doesn’t! In our experience, LAND O LAKES Spreadable Butter does not spread any easier than regular stick butter! Our fridge temp, for those interested, is average: not too cold, not too hot. It’s just right.

Rating:

A nice Father’s Day present would be a Seiko watch. I really like Seiko’s Men’s Kinetic Arctura Chronograph Silver Dial watch (say that ten times fast!). It’s definitely a lot fancier than the $30 and $40 watches I have bought Dan so far. The watch is silver (as the name suggests lol) with silver accents and tones, hour, minute and second hands, stopwatch, date, scratch resistant sapphire glass cover, and a three year warranty.

Now if I could just come up with $300 and enough to cover shipping and get the watch in time for Sunday!