Continue reading »]]> When it comes to finances, I’m not the most informed. Sure, I have a checking and savings account but that is where it ends. Now that I’m getting older, I know I should be taking advantage of additional services that could be beneficial for me. For about ten years, I have been a Wells Fargo customer. In all those years, I have never taken the time to sit down with a banker and go over my various options. I decided it was finally time. Wells Fargo offers a great online tool where you can make an appointment with a banker. You simply let them know what you would like to discuss, choose your area and it will set up an appointment for you. That is great for people who sometimes can’t make a phone call. I’m always so busy, it’s easier for me to set things up online. Unfortunately, at this time, it was not available in my area. So I picked up the phone and made an appointment. They got me in the very next day. Before going to my appointment, I utilized the "My Retirement Plan" tool that Wells Fargo offers online. You don’t have to be a current customer to use it. You simply put in your age, annual income, savings, IRA’s and 401k’s. It will calculate what you should be doing now to help you plan for retirement. For example purposes, I used $25,000 for the annual income. I also chose that we had no savings, no IRA’s and no 401k’s. Besides the income, this is my financial situation and it is with others that I know. Here is what Wells Fargo suggested:

• $4,420 is the estimated monthly amount that I will need in my first year of retirement. This figure is based on 80% of the current income, adjusted for inflation. 
• $340 is the estimated additional amount that I would need to save each month to reach my retirement goal (age 65)

When I got to Wells Fargo, I was greeted and sat down with the banker. We first discussed the benefits and qualifications of a Wells Fargo Business Account. At this time, I do all my business via Paypal. It would be great to have something that is more accountable. Honestly, I would have opened one up on the spot; however, I’m contemplating starting to bring on contributors and outsourcing some things. That could change how I would use my business account. She gave me plenty of material to go over at home. We also discussed improving my credit. When I was younger, I made some bad choices. Now that I’m older, I regret those choices. I would like to start cleaning up my credit and building my credit score. The plan we came up with is for me to enroll in Wells Fargo’s Identity Theft Protection plan. With this plan, they will monitor my credit and alert me if anyone tries to open accounts under my name. Once you sign up for the program, you will have access to all of your credit information. Once I get that, I will go sit with a banker again and come up with a plan to consolidate and tackle all that debt! There is also a pre-paid credit card that only costs $300 to begin. You then treat it as a credit card by using it and paying the monthly payment. After one year (if you have maintained your payments), you will get your money back and the credit card will be funded by Wells Fargo.Overall, my appointment went really great. I learned a lot about services that I could be using. The banker also went over the My Retirement Plan tool and printed me out a copy of what my goal should be. We also talked about bringing my son in and getting him focused on being smart with his finances. He will be an adult in less than five months – it’s time. There is even a spending account I can get for my daughter when she turns ten in October. Once I got home, I had all of my reading material. I was telling my hubby about all the services I have been missing out on. Meeting with the Wells Fargo banker, made me a more informed customer. It made me more excited to expand my business. If you haven’t met with a banker, I highly recommend it. 

Have you ever met with a banker?
What financial services do you currently use or recommend? 

Continue reading »]]> Are you a dog person? We have a female boxer (Carly). Sometimes, I wish I knew what was on her mind. What if dogs could talk? Do you wonder what they would really say? In this funny new video, dogs can talk and we finally know what they want!

Dogswell is launching their Jerky Bars. They now contains more protein than before and feature real food ingredients. They are 85% protein, 15% fruits & veggies and 0% bad stuff. Jerky Bars fresh flavors include: Chicken & Veggies, Lamb & Veggies, Salmon & Veggies and Turkey & Veggies. You can purchase Jerky Bars online and in select retailers throughout the United States.

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All kids love LEGOs! Shoot, even I love LEGOs! This week The Joys of Boys is celebrating their one year "Blog-iversary." For that reason, some other fun bloggers and I got togehter to bring you an ultimate Lego giveaway. If you have kids (or you still are one at heart), this giveaway is for you. One lucky winner will receive a LEGO Duplo Brick Box, perfect for the a baby’s first LEGO experience (recommended ages 1 1/2 – 5), a LEGO Bricks and More Box (recommended ages 4+) and Power Mech (ages 7-12). There is definitely something for kids of all ages.

To enter to win, all you have to do is click the link below and fill out the easy Rafflecopter form. It’s that easy. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Continue reading »]]>   When it comes to the usual shopping for your house, wouldn’t it be great to find everything you need in one place? I never thought that was possible. I go to one store for our grocery staples, another for cleaning supplies, another for quick things and another for bulk items. With Smart & Final, this is possible. I didn’t know how amazing Smart & Final was until I attended the grand opening of their brand new store in Santa Rosa, California. 

Smart & Final is a warehouse store. It’s just a different kind of warehouse store but in a good way. You can be a business or a family, this is the one stop shop to stock up on the things you use most or grab smaller items that you don’t keep around long. You could have a restaurant and shop at Smart & Final for their large packages of quality products. You can be a mom like me and shop for your family, parties or stock up the pantry. So this setup might sound familiar. You might be wondering how much their membership is. There are no membership fees! Smart & Finals new store in Santa Rosa, California was amazing! When we first arrived, I knew everyone in the area must be excited because they were all there. The parking lot was very full. Smart & Final employees were scouring the lot for extra shopping carts. Outside there was a table where you could sign up to win a gift card, for emailed newsletters or a business/resale card. Of course, I signed up for their newsletter and the raffle while I was there. The gentlemen manning the booth were very friendly – just so happens they were father and son! When my family and I first approached the front door of Smart & Final, I was immediately distracted by the attractive display of Diet Coke. They must have known I was coming. The next thing I spotted was a hand sanitizing station – yes, please! I love to be as germ-free as possible. Then we went through the doors. I had to get around the checkouts because I didn’t want to be in everyone’s way. It was a hustle and bustle but it was being handled very well. Then I saw it… the produce section.While I was taking pictures, an employee approached me to make sure I was not up to no good. It happened to be a Director from their corporate office. He shared a lot about Smart & Final with me. One of the things he told me about was how much they prided themselves with their state of the art produce department. I happen to agree. They had a big variety of produce and you could buy it in small quantities or large. I loved how the produce was displayed. It appeared to be spilling out of baskets. I would have my produce like that at home if I could. Also, if you prefer organic produce, they have a variety of that as well. If you are a restaurant owner, having a party or maybe your family is just big or loves certain types of produce, Smart & Final has got you covered. Check out these huge bags of potatoes and carrots! I was shocked by the price of the carrots. Sometimes I see small two pound packages for almost that price. Have a sweet tooth? Be sure to stop by the baked goods area. They had about three or four large islands of delicious looking desserts like this. I’m pretty sure I need one of everything.After observing for a few minutes, I quickly realized the eggs were the hot deal of the day. Customers were grabbing eggs left and right. I would bet that an employee was stocking this area just about every minute of the day. We had to take a small break at the brooms and mops. Our son really loves them. Yes, I’m a lucky mom. Let’s just hope it lasts beyond his toddler years. Anyway, do you see all the cleaning tools here?! They also have tons of cleaning supplies too. You can choose to purchase a normal sized single bottle of cleaner or a large bulk size and not run out or a while. In all my life, I have never seen these big bags of masa, beans and rice. We eat a lot of beans and rice but not quite this much. If we ever had a party, this would be perfect. For a chef, Smart & Final is a perfect place to shop for their cooking needs. One thing that I noticed were the signs placed throughout the store. There were signs reminding you there are no membership fees, that they ‘cater to caterers’, that if you buy more you save more and many others. This one here was important because now I know when I see that tag, I’m saving up to 70%! Those are the kind of deals I like. Yes, those are my people in the picture. Yes, we are using a Michaels shopping cart. We found it abandoned in the store. By the way, Smart & Final has just about every kind of soda in big 24 packs. I know there are 24 packs at most stores but when is the last time you saw a 24 pack of ginger ale? I have never. Although we visited every aisle, there was one aisle we had to make a point to visit – the candy aisle. My hubby remembers coming to Smart & Final with his friends when they were younger and buying candy. More specific, he remembers buying the big buckets of licorice. The first thing I thought about when seeing all this was a pinata. This would make for some amazing pinata filler! Meat is something that is important to me. Okay, well I guess it isn’t meat itself because I’m sure I could live without it. Meat quality is something I pay very close attention to. I’m a sucker for expiration dates, carefully handling meat and always sniffing for freshness. At Smart & Final, their meats were very red in color and extremely fresh looking. You could buy enough for one dinner or several dinners. They even had a large area of Jennie-O turkey products (that’s one of my new favorite things). If you like seafood, they have a big section of that as well. I couldn’t go in without inspecting their bacon section. It passed. They have lots and lots of bacon. I don’t even know why they have small packages of bacon. Everybody wants a ton of bacon, right? Before heading out of Smart & Final, I need to use the restroom. I’m weird about public restrooms. I’m not fond of germs. If a bathroom is filthy, I might not even bother and just hope I make it elsewhere. This place was clean. I love the walls of the stalls. I wonder if my hubby would let me do our bathroom walls like that? Probably not. Then I go to wash my hands, expecting that harsh soap that is in almost all dispensers – you know, the ones that leave the skin on your hand visibly dry. Not this time. There was Midnight Vanilla Softsoap! Who even has that ever? Smart & Final does. *Side Note: When walking out of the bathroom, I spotted the drinking fountains. They made me feel like I was in a Justin Timberlake video. No joke.
Their frozen food section was great! Rather than having a handful of the same product to choose from, there were a few handfuls. My hubby loves frozen burritos (he’s a simple kind of a man) so this was great for him. As our journey through Smart & Final came to an end, we passed the Spirits and then Cold Beer. If you like to have some cold ones handy during the summer, they have it all. When we finally made it up to the checkout, it was very busy. The line started at the registers, wrapped a first corner to frozen foods, around another corner, down the meat department, around yet another corner and ended along the dairy wall. There were associates directing traffic at the registers making it a very stress-free, calm environment. I was impressed. 
While walking through the store, I was reading all the signage. I read that they do a lot giving back within their communities. That is a valuable company to have in your area. I’m all about a supporting community. Community makes the world a happier place. There is also a fundraising program (you can go online for more information about that). Smart & Final really knows the value of relationships. I’m a little distance from a Smart & Final. I can only hope that one will come to my area soon or I will navigate closer to them. In conclusion, everyone needs to leave near a Smart & Final. Be sure to follow Smart & Final on Twitter and like them on Facebook to stay up on the latest news, promotions and contests! 

Do you have a Smart & Final store near you?
What’s something you could purchase in bulk?

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I’m always on the look out for fun things to do with my children. I think it’s important to spend quality one on one time with each of them. My daughter, Briana, is nine years old and loves girly girl stuff. We had a girls’ night a while back and painting our nails was on our list; however, we never ended up getting to it. When Mother’s Day came around, I knew it was a perfect time to do that with her. Sally Hansen had exactly what we were looking for. 

We went shopping for some supplies to get started on our mother/daughter manicure date. Dad was taking the little guy out for the day so it was just us girls. We scurried over to Walgreens to shop for some Sally Hansen nail art supplies. It was great, everything was all about "I Heart Nail Art." There was so much to choose from. They had two featured displays plus the usual spot down the aisle! The displays really portrayed pop art, in my opinion. We were there for over an hour. We wanted to bring it all home; unfortunately, the monthly bills say otherwise. We had to play the process of elimination game. We will be back.

We picked up some amazing products that we couldn’t wait to try out! We chose six polishes that included Deep Purple, Sun Kissed, Hot Magenta, Blue Me Away!, Fuchsia Power and Black Out. It was really hard the decide on which nail art pens to get. We truly wanted all of them. Unfortunately, we had to narrow it way down. After an hour, we finally decided on four. They were Neon Pink, White, Chartreuse (aka Neon Green) and Black. We also grabbed a couple of Nail Shapers and a No More Mistakes Manicure Clean-Up Pen. 

What’s a fun time without a little fun decorations? It was just my daughter and I so we didn’t want to go buy a bunch of stuff. Instead, we worked with what we had. I found one of those dollar plastic tablecloths and some duck tape. Then we just ripped up the tape and stuck it everywhere. It turned out pretty interesting – perfect for our occasion. 

We needed to have some snacks readily accessible considering we were going to be doing our nails. What if we needed something but our nails were wet? Problem solved. We had some cheese popcorn puffs, jordan almonds, yogurt almonds, Hershey Kisses, Rolos and pretzels. We got our supplies ready. I even brought out my nail dryer that way we could speed the process along a bit. Each layer has to dry so this helped us in the end. 

We laid out all of our products to see what we were working with and decide how we were going to do this. This was our first time doing nail art. Sure we have painted our nails plenty of times and have even applied decals. We just haven’t done anything like this. I’m pretty sure this experience has turned me into a nail polish addict. I was on the verge before this but I’m over the edge now. All the colors were awesome. It was exciting to get the pens out of their packages and into our hands. 

First, we simply shaped our nails. My daughter has a nail biting habit (yes, already). So there wasn’t much to file down. Mine needed some work. This was probably the quickest part of the whole thing. 

When we were done shaping our nails, our first step was to paint on a color base. She wanted to go crazy and paint each nail a different color. I thought it was kind of neat. Remember, when doing nail art, you must let each layer dry before starting the next step. 

Once we were finished with the colorful base coat, we went on to start our nail art with the pens. We enjoyed being able to simply draw on our nails. We even messed up a couple of times but it was easy to improvise and fix. The entire time we didn’t really have a plan. We just went with whatever came to mind.

My daughter’s nails turned out really cute. I was worried they would be hard to work with because they were so tiny but she didn’t have any problems. The tips of the nail pens are fine and allow for small detail. She had stripes, a smiley face, a heart and even polka dots. She was excited to go to school on Monday and show all of her friends. 

My nails were fun. They were different but fun. It almost made me feel like a kid again. I had a tuxedo bowtie, clouds, polka dots, stripes, a peace sign, my name, a flower, a sun, an @ symbol and even a hashtag. My daughter loved them. That is really what mattered. She thought they were so cool. It was a fun time spent with her and I enjoyed every minute. 

It was a lot of fun spending time with my daughter. I’m sure we will have many more nail art dates. It was a lot of fun. We will definitely be keeping our eyes out for Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen sales – we need more! 

Speaking of sales… Walgreens has some great Sally Hansen sales going on right now that include the following: 

• Magnetic and Crackle Polish  $5.99 (ends 5/25)
• $3 off Coupon in Walgreens Coupon Book on Insta Gel Kits (ends 5/25)  
• $5  Coupon on Salon Gel Kits (ends 5/25)
• Complete Salon Manicure Polish on sale for 2/$10 (ends 5/25)
• Xtreme, Salon Effects, Diamond and Insta Dri polishes $1 off sale (ends 5/25) 

When shopping at Walgreens, be sure to use your Balance Rewards card! By using the card, I saved about 20% on my purchase. Be sure to follow Sally Hansen and Walgreens on Twitter to keep up with the latest news, promotions and contests. You can also check out the iHeartNailArt app on Facebook.

If you liked this post, be sure to check out my graffiti art nails that my MAN did!! Yes, you heard me. He thought this was pretty cool and wanted to try it out on me. They turned out pretty great. 

Have you ever used nail art pens?
What is the coolest nail design you have done?