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The Joy of Financial Security by Donna Skeels Cygan – Book Review

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joyoffinancialsecurityThere are many financial books out there – about money management, investing, paying off debt, and frugal living. I’ve read dozens of these, but never anything quite like The Joy of Financial Security by Donna Skeels Cygan, CFP, MBA.

The Joy of Financial Security’s subtitle sums up the book’s unique angle on the topic of money: The Art and Science of Becoming Happier, Managing Your Money Wisely, and Creating a Secure Financial Future.

The art and science of becoming happier? Before discussing investing and retirement – all the topics her clients come to her for as one of the top financial advisors in the U.S. – she discusses happiness and its relationship to money. She gets to the root of who we are and why we make the financial decisions we do by connecting research from the fields of psychology and neuroscience to real-life stories and experiences.

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The Mommy MD Guide to Losing Weight and Feeling Great – Book Review

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Not long ago I shared information about a new book called The Mommy MD Guide to Losing Weight and Feeling Great. I received the eBook version of the book for review which I’ve been reading when working out at the YMCA, and it’s been a great inspiration with tips about eating, exercise, supplementing, coping with setbacks, stress, and more. It has helped me stay positive while exercising, as if I have friends with me sharing the ups and downs of their weight loss journey and supporting each other.

The Mommy MD Guide to Losing Weight and Feeling Great is the fourth book in the successful Mommy MD Guides book series. It features more than 700 tips that 50 doctors who are also mothers use to slim down, shape up, fight fatigue, boost mood, look great, and live better. Finally – a book about losing weight, just for moms – a great resource at the beginning of a New Year and anytime to help moms get in shape and feel good about themselves!

The book is divided into 8 chapters: [Read more…]

A Mom’s Guide to Home Organization Book can help with New Year’s resolutions

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This year probably my biggest goal is to GET ORGANIZED. This past year for me was busy in so many ways and as a result, I’ve fallen behind with a lot of organization projects – with clothes that the kids have outgrown piling up, papers that need to be weeded out, and just a lot of STUFF to get rid of. Ugh!

amomguideorganizationI know I’m not alone. Are you also frazzled by your family’s hectic schedule and chaotic household? Well there’s a book that may help – Debbie Lillard’s “A Mom’s Guide to Home Organization.” This book walks you through simple processes and tips for organizing your time, your stuff and your space. The second half of the book addresses how to teach your children the life skill of being organized. Written by a busy mom for busy moms, you can order it at amazon.com here. (Cost is $21.99 for a paperback version of the book, $12.99 for a Kindle version.)

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Alphablock Children’s Book Review & GIVEAWAY (Great Gift Idea)

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“There’s a new ABC book on the block…ALPHABLOCK!”

My kids and I have been enjoying our own review copy of a new children’s book called Alphablock. It’s a fun book that reads like a guessing game with thick pages shaped as each of the letters of the alphabet.

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Alphablock an educational book as kids can learn and name each letter as they see it in its physical form – angles, holes, and curves, both front and back. Peeking behind each letter is a word that letter starts with, such as apple, elephant, garden, kite, moon, pencils, and rainbow. There are pictures that give clues to help your child guess what the word is, like sprinkles, cherries and chocolate syrup that they see before they turn the “I” to see “ice cream.” [Read more…]

2014 ENTERTAINMENT Coupon Book Review

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I am the coupon queen of my entire family. In my purse I always carry several envelopes full of coupons for everything from groceries to eating out to gas at the gas station, and never go somewhere without checking if I have a coupon first. My husband jokes that on my tombstone it will say something like “Is there a coupon for this?” He knows I always do everything possible to save our family money. If there’s a coupon for it, I’ll find it and use it!

In celebration of National Coupon Month  in September, I received a free copy of the NEW 2014 Entertainment Coupon Book for review, and because of my passion for coupons and great deals, this may be one of my favorite reviews to date!

Entertainment sells over 145 book and access memberships in the USA and Canada. I received the Entertainment 2014 Coupon Book for the Twin Cities & Twin Ports area which has hundreds of pages of coupons for everything from dining out to entertainment & sports to travel & hotels to retail stores, both local and national, and more!  [Read more…]

Reader Giveaway: Homemade Snacks and Staples Cookbook! Great for the Frugal Cook!

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I’ve been hearing a lot lately about clean eating and preparing staple foods from scratch. It tends to come up a lot in frugal living books because when you make more of your family’s foods yourself, you tend to eat better and spend less on groceries.

But many cookbooks focus on recipes for meals, not staples, and most recipes contain at least white flour and processed ingredients.

So when I heard about a new cookbook, Homemade Snacks & Staples, I was anxious to try it! I admit I’ve been doing a lot of cooking for convenience rather for health and cost lately, so I figured this would be good “staple” among my cookbooks to help me “clean up” my cooking.

Homemade Snacks & Staples is a 284-page cookbook written by a Wisconsin food blogger, Kimberly Aime, who emphasizes “whole foods, clean eating and local ingredients.” She also adapts recipes for food allergies because of her own dairy intolerance and her husband’s sensitivity to gluten. Her blog is called “Badger Girl Learns to Cook” and is at learntocookbadgergirl.com. [Read more…]

Kids Book Review: You Choose by Pippa Goodhart

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I’m recommending a great, interactive and imaginative book for kids called “You Choose” by Pippa Goodhart and illustrated by Nick Sharratt.

YouChoosebookI borrowed this book from our local library after the children’s librarian, a friend of ours, recommended it to me. She said she had to sneak it back to the library from her kids because they loved it so much!

Well, I can see why. My kids absolutely love this book! So much that I just ordered a copy for ourselves – something I don’t do often because we already have SO many kids books in the house. (Note: Amazon.com currently doesn’t seem to have new copies in stock, so I ordered one from a private seller on there. You may have to order a used copy but it’s worth it!) [Read more…]

Book Review: Pocket Your Dollars by Carrie Rocha

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I recently finished reading Carrie Rocha’s new book, Pocket Your Dollars: 5 attitude changes that will help you pay down debt, avoid financial stress, & keep more of what you make.

Carrie Rocha is the founder and owner of Pocket Your Dollars.com, a popular money site on the web based right here in the Twin Cities. I’ve been following her site for several years now (she and I started our blogs at about the same time), and have saved money by using her grocery lists (she lists deals store by store by combining sales with coupons available) and other helpful posts.

I bought this book as a Christmas gift for myself. It was a quick read – it took me about 2 weeks to get through it, which is pretty good for a busy, working mom like myself (I’ve only read one other book cover to cover in the past year!)

Pocket Your Dollars was hard to put down! I kept identifying with Carrie throughout the book and many of the challenges she and her family faced while paying off almost $60,000 in debt. I enjoyed her many stories and anecdotes that engage and connect with the reader. [Read more…]