Is it Halloween yet?

I’m one of those moms who like to dress up my daughter. I buy her children’s costumes on any holiday and occasion that I can think of. I have to enjoy it while it last and she is not going to be my little girl in the years to come although she will always be my baby. It’s almost August and soon it would be October. It’s time to buy Halloween Costumes . Another one of my frugal idea is to buy items ahead of time because they get more expensive during the holiday season.  And even if it not Halloween, she still loves wearing her tutus and her tiara so buying the costumes are worth it. Do you have an idea what costume you would have for your little one or maybe for yourself this coming Halloween?  As usual, I would like something simple for RC. Here are some of my picks.

Both photos are from  HalloweenAdventure.com. There are a lot more costumes from their website.

Eventish

I bought these goodies from a bake sale a few months ago. Cheap and delicious.

I like supporting fundraising activities especially the ones that are for my friend’s kids. I think that there would come a time when RC is in school and we’ll be getting all those tickets to sell and I would need some help too. Just yesterday, I bought a lunch that costs $10 even though I was already bringing lunch from home. Here, one way the public schools do it is by raising money for school activities and for other good reasons.

I know some companies that facilitate bake sales and the proceeds go to a charitable institution or for their employees. They can also do other events to help the community. There are online resources like Eventish.com that can help with preparing an event that makes it easier, or a fundraising campaign. They help with the planning details, including the time and the budget for an event. They can even help with selling tickets and market your event in case you would like to reach out to more people.

This post is brought yo ou  by http://www.eventish.com/, for more information please check out their website.

Health Gadgets

A lot of people are trying to lose weight and be more healthy to cut down on sicknesses and always feeling tired and run down. Life can be stressful and we sometimes put exercise and dieting off because we don’t feel we have time for them. The benefits of exercise and losing weight are well known, it’s just finding the willpower and desire that’s the problem for most people. I used to watch programs on TV like The Biggest Loser because if those people lose lots of weight and eat healthy, it gives me good ideas about what should be included when I start to try getting healthy.

The Health and Fitness Network located at www.healthfitnet.com carries products for weight loss management, including the MedGem and BodyGem, which are mouthpieces used to measure resting metabolic rate or RMR. The MedGem and BodyGem monitor changes in metabolism, which can be useful in meeting your weight loss goals. They were recently shown in use on The Biggest Loser as part of the weight management plan for contestants.

Another tool available from the Health and Fitness Network is the Cholestech LDX Lipid Analyzer. With only a single drop of blood, it can be used to quickly measure cholesterol and several other important lipid levels. Keeping our cholesterol levels under control will lead to better health and reduces the risk of heart problems in the future. For people who are already using the blood pressure monitors, this will be a good addition to their “health” tools.

The links on this post is brought to you by healthfitnet.com.

Six Tips For Buying a Short Sale

Once again, my husband helped me with this article because he has more experience in buying and selling homes than I do. We are currently renting an apartment here in the island but we bought two houses in the Midwest a few years ago where it is so much cheaper. Houses here in Honolulu are crazy expensive so we thought about investing somewhere else.

1. Whether you are looking to buy a short sale in Las Vegas or another part of the country you need to be patient. There are an abundance of short sales on the market due to the collapse of the real estate market in many parts of the country. The banks take longer to approve a short sale, so you can’t be in a hurry.

2. Have cash available for as much of the sale price as possible. As they say, cash is king. Those with cash have a better chance of being approved than those who require a mortgage loan. Banks are leery about making mortgage loans these days because of the huge amounts of foreclosures they are being stuck with. They have to unload them, but they would prefer to do a short sale because it keeps someone in the home who probably isn’t gutting it.

3. Make sure your have good credit. If you need to take out a mortgage, the credit score requirements are much higher now than they were a few years ago. To even have a chance now, some banks require that you should have at least a 720 credit score, without any bankruptcies or foreclosures on your record for the past 10 years.

4. Be prepared to make multiple offers before you’re successful in getting a signed contract. In Las Vegas and other depressed markets, there is competition on some homes. You may have to raise your offer and you might get into a bidding war on a place that is appealing to someone else.

5. Once you take possession, be prepared to spend money on repairs and upgrades to make the home livable or ready to rent out. You should expect to spend about 20% of the sale price on needed work after the sale.

6. Don’t expect to flip the house and make a quick profit, those days are long gone. You may realize a profit after doing all the repairs and upgrades, but be ready for it to sit on the market because the competition is fierce with all the foreclosures and short sales. You’ll need patience to prosper in the current real estate market.

Additional tip:  These tips are my personal opinion.  Real estate professionals and attorneys can provide specific guidelines for purchasing short sales because laws vary by state and location. You may visit schwartzlawyers.com if you need  help with a short sale.

We attended an open house yesterday and I am sharing some photos with you. The pictures were taken at the yard of a house that is worth over half a million dollars. I'll have to be content living in an apartment for now.

I am participating in a blogger campaign by Bucks2Blog and was compensated. All opinions are purely my own and my husband's.

Royal Hats

Another walking day for the family. This time I let RC walk the last lap but she got tired and went back to her stroller after awhile. The sky can't make up his mind too, it was sunny, then drizzling, then raining then sunny again while we were walking.  It was sunny though most of the time so it was good we finished four laps without getting too wet.

Here's our little princess in her stroller.

We need to have some fun walking so here's some pictures of me being ready for the camera. I know I'm still in 4th of July colors.

Me resting but still soaking myself under the sun.

Me and RC wearing the same hairpieces, I DIY'd the hat hairclip before I learned the buzz about the royals wearing hats during Prince William's and Kate's wedding. Maybe I have a royal instinct? I got these hats for free, with the alligator clips and the base headband, both are less than a dollar each. I can't really think of a good title for this post and "royal hats" is what I can think of right now.

One more week and I'm officially a stay at home mom, it felt like I have been saying this in forever already. The one more month extension of work felt longer when I'm writing about it however, in reality, days are flying by so fast.

I'm joining linky parties here. I  hope everyone had a great weekend.

P.S. I have more giveaways coming soon.

Work From Home

I see a lot of parenting blog authors that are working from home. Some are even sharing their income per month.The idea started to hit me when I became serious in thinking of becoming a stay at home mom since RC kept getting sick in the child care.  As more of us work from home and look to the power of the internet to increase sales, online marketing and affiliate services become more important. For the advertiser's point of view, they want to increase their income while making their products and services more readily available to internet searches, and an international affiliate network can increase worldwide income. Blue Global Media located at  www.blueglobalmedia.com is one of the affiliate network I’ve found.  They offer many services, including a cash advance affiliate program.


So far, I learned that affiliate network management is an advanced marketing tool that generates traffic to your website using paid search, email or other techniques. Visitors to your website are offered links which are related to your site’s content. Those who click on the links are sent to an advertiser’s website where they can browse products and make purchases, if interested. When the sales or leads are made, the advertiser pays the affiliate for referring customers to their site, and top affiliate networks do all that for you, while you sit back and enjoy the income. I still have a lot to learn about this and I have to try if it would work for me. I would like to be an affiliate.

This post is brought to you by blueglobalmedia.com.

Playing the Printable Luau

My favorite luau was the one from Polynesian Cultural Center and I’ve been there twice before when RC was not born yet. I’ve been to about four luaus here in the island but I did not have much idea of luau games before until I got this Luau Party Games Pack. The ones that I attended are mostly Hawaiian buffet with dancers and singers.

These photos above were taken tonight. This is the second time we played with these paper dolls. I printed and cut the Hawaiian paper dolls for RC. These dolls can also be a giveaway for little girls who attend your party, in case you have one just my thoughts. It also became a learning experience for RC identifying some of the print outs. I just wish I had a lighter cardboard so the colors of the outfits will pop a little bit more.

If you want a fun filled party, you can purchase the Luau Party Games Pack. This pack has ice breakers, trivias, games and even paper dolls. I and my husband did some of the trivia and we both liked it. But this is not just for the nerds. There are also print outs that you can cut out and have your guests do some fun physical games with it. We are not planning a party but we still loved it. Another great thing is when you order, you don’t need to wait for it to come in the mail. You will receive it in an email. You’ll just need to have a printer. You don’t have to think hard to entertain your guests. I received 19 Hawaiian luau party ideas from this party pack and most of them are two pages each.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com created by WebBizIdeas.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Tomoson Product review & giveaway Disclosure.