Rituals Gift Set Review

Thanks to Rituals USA and Tryazon, I had the opportunity to test these new gift sets. Rituals USA is a luxury lifestyle brand focused on ancient traditions for body 

and home. As the leading bath and body brand in Europe, they encourage 

‘slow down’ moments for the mind, body, & soul. With an expansive product line 

including body care, scented candles, fragrance sticks, natural skin care, 

precious mineral make-up, and Soulwear, the brand transforms everyday 

routines into more meaningful moments.

The entire presentation of their brand and products is amazing. These sets come in keepsake boxes that are sturdy and gorgeous.

So this scrub is one of my favorite features of the box. It smells heavenly and feels so good on your skin. They reccomend using it two to three times a week. It makes your skin feel silky soft.

This is probably my second favorite item. This cream smells amazing. A little goes a long way with it's strong scent, so I like to rub it on my arms and chest when I need a fresh pick-me-up.

This hand soap looks gorgeous and smells great. My son is obsessed with it.

This foaming shower gel is really fun. It comes out like shaving cream but works in to a thick, foaming lather. It smells wonderful and makes my skin feel amazing.

Overall I was very impressed by this set and definitely plan to continue ordering the scrub and cream once I run out.

Interested in learning more about Rituals?

The Power of Rituals

They are everywhere: at any given moment, of every single day, waiting to be discovered, eager to share the beauty within them. They are the seemingly 

meaningless moments we all tend to overlook. Rituals unveils these moments 

and reminds you to experience them with joy. Whether it’s taking a nice long 

bath or creating a homey atmosphere with the rich scent of Asian incense, 

Rituals allows you to find happiness in the smallest of things.

History

In 2000, RITUALS opened its first store on Amsterdam’s Kalverstraat, followed by 

openings in such vibrant cities as London, Madrid, Antwerp, Paris, Lisbon, Berlin, 

Stockholm and New York. The luxury brand has more than 600 stores, more than 

2000 shop-in-shops and 4 city spas in 27 countries worldwide- expanding its US 

footprint with a total of 18 stores.

Little Medical School

I was selected by Tryazon and Little Medical School to host a party to spread the word about their inspiring STEM kits and programs for kids! 

They aim to inspire children to be "tomorrow's healthcare providers today" by providing fun, hands on educational programs in a variety of medical fields. I was given the "How to be a Pediatrician" and "How to be a Veterinarian" kits, but they also have "How to be a Sports Surgeon", which is insanely exciting! My little cousin just graduated with a degree in Sports Medicine, so it was really fun to share this with her and nudge her into getting a kit for her little twin nieces. 

The kits are so well made! There are activities in each kit that everyone loved. Everyone got a kick out of the tick removal activity in the "How to be a Veterinarian" kit (and it included really interesting facts no one knew-- like how you should keep ticks that have attached to your pets and how to kill them). 

The party was so fun and things were passed around so much that I was kept busy answering questions and playing games. So I took more detailed shots of everything included after the party. 

The "How to be a Pediatrician" kit includes:

• Little Medical School® Light Weight Lab Coat

• Real Working Stethoscope
• Student Doctor ID Badge
• Premium Plush Baby
• Removable Diaper
• Diaper Wipe
• Reusable Markers
• Activity Sheets
• Baby ID Bracelet
• Birth/Adoption Certificate
• Tape Measure
• Little Medical School® Diploma
• Workbook

The "How to be a Veterinarian" kit includes:

• Little Medical School® Light Weight Lab Coat

• Real Working Stethoscope

• Premium Plush Dog

• Reusable Markers

• Tick Stickers

• Tweezers

• Recipe Card

• Cookie Cutter

• Modeling Dough

• Adoption Certificate

• Tape Measure

• Little Medical School® Diploma

• Workbook

Here's a closer look at the workbook and the activities, including the fun tick activity. My son is usually afraid of bugs, so it was awesome to show everyone how much he enjoyed the activity while he was learning really valuable information. 

You can shop all their products here.

The really exciting thing is that they are committed to inspiring and teaching children everywhere with their programs. They have hands on interactive programs for children across the United States. Children can be educated AND entertained with their programs at summer camps, workshops, after school programs, and special events. You can find locations near you by clicking here!

Little Medical School offers programs for Medical, Nursing, Pharmacy, Veterinarian, Dental, Wilderness Medicine and Sports Medicine! They will soon release Nutrition and more! And you can be a part of it as a franchise owner! 

You could teach children what it takes to work in the medical field with hands-on demonstrations, crafts, and games at after school programs, birthday parties, summer and vacation camps, special events, and school programs. 

As a franchisee, you will have lots of ways to help kids learn and explore, and generate revenue for yourself. The curriculum is flexible so you can create programming to fit any occasion, and no Wi-Fi or electricity is required! NO SCREEN TIME, PARENTS! Just good learning! 

There are Standard Franchise opportunities for the US and Canada, as well as International Master Franchise for international locations. You can learn all about this amazing opportunity by clicking here! 

All of these opinions are 100% my own and I'm sharing my real experiences with the products. I truly believe that this is SUCH a cool program that is inspiring children and teaching them valuable skills. I had people commenting at the party how much their grandchildren would love the kits, how great it is to inspire children to work in these fields, and how fun it would be to teach these things yourself! And with no technology! Goodness knows that my kids don't need more screen time. I think this is a great kit with SO MUCH VALUE and the programs would be so fun to attend. And how fantastic would it be to be a franchisee and inspire the kids!

Please hit me up through the comments if you have any questions! And please, please, please check out Little Medical School on their website, Instagram, and Facebook. 

Just popping in to say...

Love it when the fuel points add up. I often include fuel points when I'm figuring out the best deals, but sometimes they'll have daily specials I wasn't aware of and it's an awesome surprise.

Celebrate those small wins!

Do This!

Cut your bottles!

If you want to make it count and pinch those pennies, cutting bottles is a must. Honestly the stuff that gets stuck in those hard-to-squeeze-out places can last me from a few extra days to a week or more! I do this for diaper creams, lotions, shampoos, conditioners, toothpaste, etc.

The way I cut it generally depends on what it is. Tubes of diaper cream get cut in to strips, because it's easier for me. I grab a strip, rub my finger on the inside to get any cream that is sticking to it, and use what comes off. One strip usually has enough cream on it to cover one diaper change. Sometimes it can take or three. Chunky bottles like shampoo, conditioners, or lotion get cut in half, right through the middle. I use my fingers to pull up any lotion that sticks to the bottom or top (and trust me, there's always a lot).

This is where I store the "leftover" diaper cream. It's in a little diaper changing station-bin-thing by our bedside. Keeps it convenient .

There are a couple downsides: it's messy. After I cut it, I clean my scissors and then store the cut containers in bags. This keeps them from leaking all over or drying out. You also need to exercise caution because cut edges can be sharp! My husband hates using these "leftovers", so I always have the new bottle ready to go for him while I finagle with the messy stuff.

So okay, it may seem like a big effort for little reward. But I've done it so long now that it's just habit. All of these things you do now to save money are going to be so rewarding in the future. Using up the products we buy to their fullest extent is best for your wallet and best for the environment. If the bottles are not able to be reused, it only makes sense to squeeze out every last drop.

Good News // Bad News // New News

Guys, this is not a drill. I repeat- this is not a drill. For the first time in forever, we managed to have our budget actually NOT go over. It was a weird month, as you can see. We don't exactly get checks for $13,000 every month and then proceed to buy a $12,000 car. That was all a result of the accident. But we stayed below in medical, groceries, eating out, and gas! 

So that was the good news. The very, very good news. 

But it was short lived, unfortunately. April was a disaster (and I should not be surprised, as April is my name and everything). Everyone kept getting sick. Colds, the flu, migraines. We also decided to hire a crew to finish one issue with the basement & ended up deciding to finish up practically all of it, which resulted them finding issues with the walls, etc. It felt like I was trapped in a bad episode on HGTV. Check out the difference though. 

Future home theater:

Future home gym:

They're both still going to need plenty of aesthetic tweaks & buys, but the bare bones are looking great and the whole dang basement is finally functional. I can't tell you how good that feels.

Other unplanned expenses came bouncing along (as they always do...) and knocked holes in the budget, too. It was a tough month. But we're both pretty darn determined to make May a much better month.

Steps I am taking this month to save:

+ Unplug devices when they aren't in use. Turn off lights & TV when leaving rooms.

+ Don't wear makeup unless I feel I really need to.

+ Plan meals around the best store sales. Make one weekly shopping trip and avoid stores otherwise.

+ Get creative with gifts. There are plenty of diy crafty gifts that I could do with the kids for their grandma's on Mother's Day.

+ Using portion control to make meals last longer. Eat healthy and don't snack out of boredom. Cook at home and bake goodies instead of eating out or buying things packaged.

+ Use points at Walgreens to save on food & other essentials. I think I have around 20,000 points, or $20, to use.

+ Try to use as little water as possible and keep showers short & baths shallow.

+ Keep working out. Clean the house and the cars. Take care & take pride in the abundance of things you already own. Do all the free things you enjoy and get creative and use the things you already have.

+ Keep trying to downsize and sell the things we no longer need, want, or use.

Hello. I am alive.

Oh, it's only been... 6 months since my last post?
I've been good, how about you?
Not too much has changed, except that my son is now four (!!!) and that expectant babe I forementioned is now a six month old wiggly little teeny tiny named Charlotte. We also have some new furniture since the new addition made us realize that we needed more space. It was more than I wanted to spend initially, but we had it put together to fit our exact specifications (color, texture, room size) and we added on the replacement plan, so it's set and proven to be pretty darn perfect. I'd like to add, for the record, we paid for it with cash. We're absolutely positively completely finished with any and all types of loans. Pay with cash on hand, or wait and save up until you can.

Oh yeah! No big deal, but we also paid off the 2015 KIA that we had taken such great care of. We were so dang proud when we mailed off that final check. Also no big deal, but the very next morning after sending that same final check, a woman blasted through a red light and smashed in to our car when I was taking my son to gymnastics class, totaling it. The entire experience has proven to be emotionally damaging and very, very stressful. The kids were both unharmed and I only had minor injuries (whiplash, bruising, soreness), but emotionally, it was tough. Talk about a smashing realization about the illusion of safety... If anything had happened to my children... I can't even go there. But we're all alive and ok and more together than we've ever been.

That's a part of why I'm back. With a vengeance. I have been so angry about all these bad and unexpected things that keep happening one right after the other. Medical bills, things leaking, things breaking down, things needing to be fixed, accidents... I did nothing wrong. Our lives were violently interrupted and it still hasn't all been resolved. Well, I'm here to control every possible aspect that I can. This is my life, my family, my home. Let's get to it.

The nitty gritty is basically that we were suffering financially for a pretty solid eight months. We just could not catch a break. We're finally coming out ahead this month (so far, knock on wood) and the biggest reason is probably the simplest. We've just stopped buying stuff. As much as we possibly can, we've stopped. Of course we buy food and those basic consumables we all need (toilet paper, toothpaste, etc.), but that's about it. I stock up on sales and completely avoid stores otherwise if I can. I stretch what we have at home. My son even repeated one of my mantras today when I told him that he needed to finish all of his broccoli: "We don't waste food". Proud mama moment.

I'm very proud of my kids right now for a lot of reasons, but I'm so super proud of my son, Donnie. We have not given him any new toys since his birthday a few months ago, and he has been so cool with it. He still likes to look at toys when we go to stores, but he never throws a fit when I have to say "no", though he rarely even asks anymore. We've been making more use out of the toys we have, making more fun crafts, coloring more, pulling down old board games now that he's old enough to understand some of them, going outside whenever the weather is decent (playing in our yard, going for walks around the neighborhood or going to the park), going to the library for story time (where he checks out books and DVDs), and reading more. All of these things are fun and enriching for him, and don't cost a thing. It's such a perfect lesson for him. We also deposited his full Iron Man bank into his savings account recently and he was super proud. He carried around his lil' transaction log book for days and kept saying that he had "four million dollars". Dream big, kid. We'll get there some day!

I've been keeping a close eye on our budget this month and balancing our checkbook weekly. We are finally seeing a slow, but steady rise in our balance. It's higher than it's been in over three months so I know we're on the right track. I'm feeling super proud of everything we've accomplished and super motivated to keep it going.

Well, it's this mama's bed time. I am wornnnn out. I had a couple teeth extracted (wisdom tooth & one broken tooth) about a week ago and it has proven to be much, much, much more painful than I was anticipating... Throbbing pains and aching canker sores all over my gums and cheek. I'm breastfeeding so I chose not to be put under or to take any prescription pain meds. Reaaaallllyyyy kicking myself in the butt right now and wishing that I had just waited it out until I was finished nursing. Remember that whole part about not being able to catch a break? Welcome to life, eh?

Grocery Haul // September: Week One

Grocery haul for the first week of September. It might not seem like much, but it took some plotting and scheming. My first stop was at CVS, where I did two transactions and spent only $9 for everything pictured below, including two Skintimate Shaving creams, Colgate toothpaste, Wet'n'Wild nail polish, three boxes of Puffs Plus Lotion with Vicks, Trolli gummies bag, and three Cherry Coke twelve packs! The nail polish will be thrown in to s gift bag and the gummies aren't pictured because they were being hidden from Donnie.

A 99% savings! That's what I like to see.

My next stop was Hyvee, where I stocked up on their one day sale items and the "quick foods" I mentioned previously. I bought four Tony's pizzas, four Red Baron pizzas (price matched), eight bags of various steamable vegetables, two family size bags of Lays chips, three boxes of Pillsbury brownies, four 12 packs of pop, one 18 count carton of eggs, two mangos, and four avocados. That ended up being $50, but it got me 44 cents on the Fuel Saver card and ended up saving us about $7.50 on a tank of gas.

I'm planning to make this haul last as long as I can, and combined with all the food we already have, I think I can stretch it pretty far.

We did grab McDonalds today for Jairo & Donnie, which I'm not thrilled about. But I used a coupon on the app for a free medium fry for Donnie and Jairo used the 2/$5 deal on large fries, so at least we took advantage of what we could.

I'll plan and post our meal plan for next week, but I'm going to be induced if this girl doesn't come naturally by Friday, so it's likely to be a crazy week.