Products Moms Will Love

Moms, I’ve been reviewing products that you can really use!  There are so many that in order to get them all posted, I’m going to do a big review round up for you.  Ready? Here we go!

FOOD:

O Organics is a line of organic foods that was once a private label for Safeway but is now being rolled out to stores around the country.  We sampled airplane graham crackers, freeze dried apple and strawberry bites, strawberry cereal bars, and bite size cheese crackers.  If your a Mom who likes buying organic products, O Organics won’t break your budget, and there’s a wide variety of foods including beverages, dairy products and cereals.  Everything we tried was delicious and I would buy them again.

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter cooking and baking sticks have 50% less saturated fat than butter, 0g trans fats, 0 cholesterol, and are an excellent source of omega-3s. I received a package to sample, and I don’t know how they do it, but I found no difference in performance or taste. I put dabs of it on our cooked veggies at dinner, spread it on toast for the kids, scrambled eggs in it, and even used it to make grilled cheese sandwiches, with no difference that I could taste or see. Don’t eat saturated fat if you don’t need to! You should be able to find these at grocery stores for around $2.99 for four sticks.

CLEANING

Clorox Disinfecting Wipes Decor Canisters- I gotta be honest here, I appreciated getting these to review but I wouldn’t buy them again. Unless there was a sale plus a coupon that made them free.  Not because they don’t work, I mean, it’s a wipe with clorox cleaning liquid soaked in, which is the only thing that makes my boys’ bathroom clean on a daily basis.  The problem I have with this is 1., the part that the wipes are supposed to thread through so you can pull out one at a time? Is kinda flimsy and I end up just grabbing and yanking out a bunch at a time. Second,  I’m not going to look at cleaning wipes canisters as a complement to my “decor”. I’m going to keep them in the closet with all the other cleaning products, up on a high shelf where Kaitlyn can’t reach them. Sorry, Clorox!

CLOTHING

PeaceLoveMom sent me a wonderfully soft and comfy baby blue t-shirt that says “Happy Mom” on it with a big smiley face, and a matching ball cap. When they contacted me about the review and I went to the site, I was happy to see that they offer a “Fuller Cut” women’s tee. For, you know, us fuller-figured gals.  At $40, PLM tees are more expensive than ones from Target, BUT they are also made in the USA with 100% cotton and won’t shrink. I love mine!

PERSONAL CARE

Softsoap liquid hand soap has come out with a great idea for keeping at least a little plastic from being thrown away more often, their new Softsoap Ensembles feature refills that you use with the pump from the finished-up bottle of soap. They come in different designs and colors for a little splash of color in your bathroom. I like Softsoap, I buy it anyway, and I like the idea of being able to just take out the pump and put it in a new base.  Great idea!

I’ve got more reviews of products Moms will love coming up in the next post!

Site Review- Adjust My Loan, or, why bankruptcy sucks

refinance now
Image by TheTruthAbout… via Flickr

Adjust My Loan is the website of a nationwide company that specializes in Arizona Loan Modification. When I worked at the Credit Union we called it refinancing, but after reading the description on the site, I see the difference between a refinance and a modification. A refinance almost always involves borrowing against the equity you’ve accrued by taking out a second mortgage against the value of your house. A modification helps people having trouble making their payments by working with your lender to negotiate an adjustment of your interest rate, an extension on the length of your mortgage, or even a reduction on the principal amount owed.

In 2001 when Chris and I filed bankruptcy because we had been swindled by a shady mortgage refinance company, I wish a site like this had been around. We tried to work with our lender (who had bought the mortgage from the company that bought the mortgage from our Credit Union) to get our payments lowered,  but they were absolutely not going to help us at all.  I spent HOURS searching the Internet, filling out applications at places like the Lending Tree, making countless phone calls to places that claimed to help people avoid bankruptcy, but in the end, that’s what we did.  Maybe they didn’t exist back then, but no where in all my searching did I come across a Loan Modification Company that could work with my lender on my behalf.

In fact, doing this review reminded me of something I had forgotten about-there was one company I found online that swore they could help us get our debts settled and we could avoid bankruptcy. They would negotiate with each of our creditors to have us pay a percentage of what we owed in exchange for having the accounts marked paid in full. Sounds great, right? Yeah, except for the one drawback- the FEE was $3,000. In CASH. If I had $3,000 in cash, would I have needed help PAYING MY DEBTS?

So anyway, back to the site I’m supposed to be reviewing here :) Adjust My Loan might charge fees, it does say in their FAQs that they don’t charge an upfront fee. They work primarily in Arizona but you can apply if you live in a different state. They use attorneys to audit the existing mortgage to see if any Federal Laws were broken, which I assume is then an excellent bargaining chip.  Take it from me, bankruptcy SUCKS. Your credit is ruined, you can’t get credit cards or car loans, it changes your whole life. If you are having trouble making mortgage payments, you are not alone.  Search the Internet for Loan Modification Arizona (or New Jersey or California or Montana or wherever you live),  weigh your options, and do what’s right for you.

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BeBe ChaCha Sticker Placemats

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My family loves to eat out. After twelve years of taking kids to restaurants, there’s one thing I can say for sure-paper placemats DO NOT WORK for kids.  Even the ones with the puzzles and coloring section on them will eventually get soaked with water after the toddler tries to drink their ice water with a spoon, or the whole placemat will end up flying through the air after it is swept aside by flying kid arms.

Which then leaves Mom and Dad to figure out how to dole out bits of crackers or whatever they’ve brought to keep the kid occupied for the 20 minutes it takes for the food to come to the table, and THEN figure out how to keep either the food on the plate or the plate itself on the table. It’s exhausting!

picresized_th_1222772662_bebechacha_package_picks_004_resizedBeBe ChaCha Sticker Placemats are the answer to your dining out prayers, people. You get twelve really big (11′ by 14′)  sheets with adhesive backing and fun geometric prints on the front in four colors, packaged in a zip-shut bag that fits in your diaper bag or purse. You just unfold one, peel off half the backing, place it where you want it, then peel off the other half and stick it down. The surface meets safety standards so your child can eat their food right on the mat. It’s designed to be easy to remove, you just peel it right off.

And the best part? The price is $7.59 for a pack of twelve. Seriously! For $7.59 you can get one sandwich with chips and a drink for lunch, OR you can buy TWELVE reusable placemats right from the BeBe ChaCha site! Pretty nifty.  I’d like to thank BeBe ChaCha for sending me a pack of placemats to use in exchange for this review, they have sure come in handy!

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