Review: GladRags Re-Usable Pads with Contest
Obviously from the title you may get a clue that I’m going to talk about feminine hygiene and I realize not everyone wants to hear about that, if you don’t you are more than welcome to click back to google.com and search for something else.
For those sticking around you will be privy to more personal info, a review on the pads and have a chance to win a sample pack ($88 value).
????????
Gladrags contacted me because they had read my interest in saving on household expenses and that I wanted to give them a try but I hadn’t yet crossed that bridge. My main concern was that my heavy flow would be too much for the material and produce an embarrassing situation.
Gladrags sent three different sizes for me to try out, they sent one each of the pantyliner, day pads and night pad. Each one came in shrink wrap, inside a box.
My first 2 1/2 days are very heavy flow days, usually I wear an overnight pad through the course of these days to make sure there are no leaks. I do not wear tampons and they are very uncomfortable to me, but overnights work fine for these first couple of days. Since I had one night pad from them I knew it wouldn’t last too long and did have my back up pads for changing during this experiment.
The overnight pad worked very well and I felt covered and leak proof. However, when I needed to change the pad out, I was glad I was home and not at work, so that I could clean it and toss it into the washer as I would have needed to grab one of the sacks in the stall to take it home with me.
I’m sure that may not be all that bad of an idea for those that have children in cloth diapers, but it is a mental challenge I will have to get used to with these pads.
The other two sizes worked perfect for the remaining part of the flow as it is pretty much light to non-existent the final 2 days and I could wear it the entire day without worry. The day pad was a pocket style that you put a liner in and the pantyline was simply, a liner - They were all cotton flannel material, though they do have some organic, undyed material as well.
Overall here are my thoughts on the trial period, both pro and con and even some of the con will just take some getting used to or figuring out ways to handle it.
PRO:
Ultra comfortable - I didn’t feel like I was wearing a diaper or that the pad was rubbing, like many of the commercial pads to. Sometimes I even forgot I was wearing it.
Absorption - They really do hold a lot more than I thought, especially the day pad and pantyliner.
Personalizing - My pads came in different colors and that was nice in comparison to boring white ones, plus the coloring disguised some of the blood, so it wasn’t such a contrast.
Snaps- All the pads came with metal snaps to hold them in place and I didn’t feel the snaps at all.
Durable - After washing them I was curious how well the seems would stay and the material hold up, no problems ….and no stains
CON:
Changing them - I have to still get used to the idea that I need to carry a plastic bag (I didn’t have their waterproof bag) with me if I am out when I change them, so I can bring them home to soak.
Soaking - I didn’t have any bucket prepared to soak them in, so soap and cold water was used on them right away before washing them
Limited inserts - With the night pads I wish I could have added two inserts and spread them out a bit more to spread out the thickness instead of just the center of the pad where the ‘holder’ was.
Pricing - This can be a shocker at first, but when you buy a larger quantity the price per pad does goes down and if you figure out the math in what you are buying for commercial pads it should work out as a savings over the long term.
I would give the product a B+ overall and some of that is slightly biased from my own “ewww” factor in getting used to them. But comfort, absorption, durability and them staying in place, a solid A+.
They have a handy ‘frequently asked questions’ area if you have questions I may not have answered - Gladrags FAQ
????????
So how do you get your own to try out? Gladrags is offering a sample kit to one random person who comments below with your favorite product of theirs.
RULES:
1. Go to Gladrags.com and look over the products (they have more than pads)
2. Come back here to comment with one product you would like to try
3. Please make sure you have an email in your blogger id or you link your name to an email address or I won’t be able to contact you if you won.
4. I will draw a random number based from the number of comments and contact that person
5. The contest ends and comments close February 18th 10pm EST/8pm MST time
Best of luck!
For more Gladrags info - they have:
Blog
Twitter feed
Facebook page
Copyright © Frugal for Life. All rights reserved.
This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. Publishing this feed’s content on any web site besides Frugal for life is strictly prohibited.
12 Free Ebook Download And Search Sites
With the Advent of the Apple iPad, the ebooks market is getting more crowded. The Amazon Kindle has remained the leader up until now. Sony, Barnes & Noble among many others will be upgrading or joining this joyride. Buying the device can cost you a bit of pocket change, luckily ebooks are cheaper than the paper alternatives. An even better option is to find FREE ebooks.
New to FrugalNYC? Click here to add FrugalNYC to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalNYC by Email.
To help you find more FREE ebooks than you can read in a lifetime, I’ve put together a list of sites that either host the books themselves or helps you search for the books. Project Gutenberg is probably the most widely known. Most of you have also heard about Google digitizing books. Below you will find links to these and more.
- pdfgeni.com
- scribd.com
- Project Gutenberg
- Manybooks
- Feedbooks
- Books In My Phone
- Queens Library
- NYPL
- Online Computer Books
- Free Tech Books
- Free Computer Books
- Google Books
What sites do you use to download or find Ebooks?
Recommended Book: The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content.
Love Reading? Get the Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device (9.7″ Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation)
For additional links to frugal tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC in any way feel free to contact me via email. Click here to add FrugalNYC to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalNYC by Email.
How to Safely hunt for Freebies
So you decided to start freebie hunting - good for you! This is both fun and really useful. The only thing to be aware of is that there are plenty of spammers in the niche: most often you can get into two types of a trouble by collecting freebies online:
• Your personal details may be stolen (and used to access your private accounts to steal your money or other important data);
• Your email address may be added to spam lists (and you’ll end up receiving plenty of spam messages daily).
But don’t worry: there’s a safe way to hunt for freebies. Just follow these steps:
1. Use only trusted sources of freebies
It is very important to only try freebies shared by sites you can trust. BesidesFrugal Freebies and Deals which you read daily and can rely on, there’s one more site I can personally recommend because it never let me down.
ListFreeSamples is also a reliable freebie aggregator that lists offers only from official sources and runs background checks before sharing any freebie.
2. Run a background search in Google
By searching Google, you can check what other people’s experience was with the freebie provider. Here are some Google search tips for you to take advantage of:
• Search for the name or for the domain name of the freebie provider;
• Be sure to dig as deep as you can: the top Google results may be faked by the freebie provider;
• Use some additional words to help your search: scam, reviews, opinions, etc;
• Check the latest mentions of the name by using Google’s advanced search sidebar (which hides behind “Show options” link)
3. Check online shopping communities and forums
Buxr.com is my favorite online shopping community for a couple of reasons:
• All freebies and coupons are shared and voted up/down by real people;
• Moderators check and pre-approve all the submissions: so no spam is possible;
• The users are friendly and you can get really useful advice at their forums.
And how do you keep yourself safe from being cheated when hunting for freebies? Please share your tips in the comments!
The guest post was provided by Jessy Troy who likes blogging about social media and shopping.
If you would like to guest post on FFD we are considering post ideas right now. Please email us.
Get freebies in your inbox- Sign up for the FFD newsletter.
Live fab-u-LE$$: Video: WPBF: Make lobster at home for less than chicken at a restaurant!
Watch the video HERE
Cooking at home is one of the ways to best keep your food budget under control– and you can eat well, VERY well– and still spend less– all without resorting to reconstituted powdered milk or ramen noodles.
As you’ve heard me say before, allow whichever protein– meaning poultry, beef, pork, seafood or fish– is on sale each week to dictate your menu. And, when I talk about planning a weekly menu, I don’t mean that you must know *exactly* what you’re going to make, just that you should know the main ingredient(s) that you’re going to use.
My goal is to keep my dinners for my family of 5 under $10 per dinner– and for that price, we’re able to eat a varied menu that includes everything from steak to seafood and everything in between.
How I do it is to emulate the way that chefs at fine restaurants cook– like them, I buy whatever protein is good and fresh that day and then select some seasonal vegetables and/or fresh herbs that marry up well with that protein. Their pantry and spice cabinet is stocked with most, if not all of the basics that they need to create just about any dish– and your pantry should be too!
If you select whichever fruits and vegetables are in season they not only tend to taste better but they also tend to be less expensive. And many fruits and vegetables can be found for under a dollar or two per pound– healthy and fabuLESSly inexpensive! Once you have all of your ingredients that’s where the fun begins!
Even if you don’t have a lot of cookbooks– consider starting a binder or even a card file of recipes that you gather from friends, family, or cut recipes out of magazines and the newspaper– you can even find TONS of recipes online.
One of my favorite ways to find recipes is what I call Google Cooking– you simply enter the ingredients that you have on hand, say: Chicken, Lemon, and Garlic and then the word RECIPE into any search engine and you’ll find thousands upon thousands of recipes to choose from– I’ve found some of my very favorite recipes this way.
Also, if you have a favorite dish from a restaurant that you’d like to recreate– just do an internet search– you will likely be able to find a replica of the recipe for that exact same dish and you can recreate for a fraction of the cost!
You don’t need fancy equipment to cook– just a few basic kitchen supplies will suffice and any investment you make in pots, pans and cooking utensils will surely pay off in just a few weeks.
Remember, don’t change your lifestyle just change the way that you shop and live fab-u-LE$$
Audible.com: Free Audiobook for Thanksgiving
To celebrate Thanksgiving, Audible.com is offering first-time listeners the opportunity to download one audiobook for free, including Pride and Prejudice, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Planet Google. This offer expires at midnight on Thursday (11/26).
If you like what you hear, you can also sign up for a free 14-day trial of Audible.com, which includes two free audiobooks of your choice. Thanks, Couponing to Disney!
Organizing the Money, Bills and Tools
In trying to gather an idea together for a post I came to the conclusion that I really didn’t have a lot to say one specific topic, but a little to say on a few. Thank you for understanding my winding post as I jump from one topic to another.
•••••••••••••••••••••
I am absolutely horrible at remembering things I need to follow up on unless I write it down somewhere and have it within eyesight every day. If I don’t remind myself of this stuff I will lose money. Because of my horrible memory I am quite thankful that Google has added a feature in their gmail that allows me to keep track of a calendar of events.
For instance, I have an HBO special coming due with my cable company and I need to contact them about removing it once the promotion is done. I also have a rebate that I sent in for some tires I bought and I want to make sure I follow-up if I don’t receive my money. Another is changing the battery in the smoke detector. These are all things I need to do or I will end up spending money or losing money.
There are certainly programs that will even email me notification but I try to keep my inbox cleaned out and don’t like clutter, so once it is out of site, it is out of mind until I remember it again or need to search for it. I know this because I get emails from the library about books that I can pick up and I always forget about them and have to put them on hold again. Since I log into my email at least once a day I will always have that information there to remind me that I need to get it done and this has worked well for me for quite a few months.
••••••••••••••
I have finally switched all bills over to auto-pay or online payments and now I don’t have to worry if I have enough stamps for the holidays. I haven’t been the quickest person to move to an electronic payment system simply because I know things can go wrong and I see the disaster it leaves in it’s wake. But I have slowly been moving my bills, from least worrisome to most worrisome, to some form of electronic payment.
At first it was some old credit cards that I never used, then it was the utility bills and now I have my rent automatically deducted from my account. Of course it can get hard to keep track of but that is why we have calendars and I keep a folder with all my bookmarks for these bills. Plus I don’t think I could go more than two days without checking my bank account and checking what has and hasn’t gone through.
Yes, my bank has a bill pay option but at the time I was setting these all up it did cost and I didn’t want to spend a dime to pay a bill.
Plus, there is just something to be said about not having to sit down at the table with the envelopes and a check book and getting it all organized to pay. It just feels easier to handle and there is something to be said for not having a stack of bills sitting and waiting to be taken care of every two weeks and then waiting again for the check to get there and clear. (inspired from Out of Debt Again by Mrs. Accountability)
••••••••••••••
I came across a great tip over at ThriftyFun about keeping old vacuum tools before tossing out the old broken vacuum. Most of them are interchangeable and with multiple extension wands I would be able to reach the corner of the ceiling or the fan to clean it. However there is one downside, since the new vacuum has places for the new tools I get - where do I put the old tools when they aren’t in use?
••••••••••••••
I don’t do much of anything to my car on my own, I don’t even change the oil in it even though I know it would save me money beyond the initial investment. That is something I will be working on for a future endeavor. To me this frugal life is an ongoing process and involves jumping into some areas that may be a little frightening to me.
Anyway, I was reading the Orlando Sentinel’s Frugal Force section and read that Autozone, the parts store, is loaning out tools for those DIYers who want to fix stuff on their own but don’t want to plop down $100 for a tool that will be used once or twice.
Until that day comes I can do something beyond air in the tires, gas in the car and checking the oil, it is nice that there are places that loan out tools for those who are of the more advanced DIYer.
••••••••••••••
And finally, a bit of fun. I am fan of the creativity that goes into fixing something up when one doesn’t have the means or even the desire to repair it to brand new. Because of this I am also a fan of the site: thereifixedit.com - Today’s ingenuity comes to us from someone who has the idea that waste is bad and using an item for multiple uses is good
The Air Conditioner/ Plant Waterer - It may be an old idea, but I liked seeing it in action
Copyright © Frugal for Life. All rights reserved.
This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. Publishing this feed’s content on any web site besides Frugal for life is strictly prohibited.
Weekly Roundup: Become a Frugal Dad Fan Edition
I have finally taken the Facebook plunge! I created a personal account some time ago to reconnect with friends, but just this week I set up a fan page for FrugalDad.com. My goal for the fan page is to provide a place for readers to interact with me outside of the comments section, Twitter, etc. I enjoy chatting in those environments as well, but let’s face it – having a discussion is tough to do in 140 characters, or through the back-and-forth nature of blog comments.
Yesterday I tossed out a “Discussion” feature and a few questions to get things going. Since I removed the forums feature here at Frugal Dad, I’m hoping this can replace some of those features. Because many of the discussion topics are seeds for future posts, your feedback is greatly appreciated. Who knows, I might just mention one of your comments in the post and reference your blog.
Hope you’ll join me over at the new Frugal Dad fan page at Facebook! Click the banner below to join, and be sure to check out the roundup below.
The Frugal Roundup
Want to Get Out of Debt? Become A Master at Instant Gratification. Sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? Read on to find out what Neal means about mastering instant gratification and using it to your advantage. (@Wealth Pilgrim)
Do You Need a Local Bank? We are fans of ING Direct, but also maintain a local checking and savings account. We keep a local emergency fund (the first couple thousand of our fully funded emergency fund) here just in case we need cash in a hurry. (@My Dollar Plan)
Finally Out of Debt? Here’s How to Stay Out. So many people fight for years to obtain debt freedom, only to fall right back in the trap of living beyond their means. (@Wisdom Journal)
Google Street View – Great For House Buyers. We have been entertaining the idea of relocating here lately and have found Google Street View to scope out a number of properties in other cities. (@Four Pillars)
Sneaky Ways Restaurants Use Menus to Entice You to Spend More. I’ve read a number of articles on the ways grocery stores use consumer psychology to make shoppers spend more. This is an interesting piece on similar strategies employed by restaurants. (@Wallet Pop)
Why Freelancing Benefits Your Day Job. Those who have read FD for a while now know I’m a big proponent of the “side hustle,” for exactly the reasons pointed out in this post. (@Fiscal Fizzle)
The “Local Store Premium” – How Much Is It Worth to You? This weekend I worked on a couple major household repair projects. Rather than going to the big box warehouse store, I decided to try our local hardware store for supplies. I paid a little more, and they had less product options, but I felt good about helping a local store this time around. (@The Simple Dollar)
Best of the Rest
- Become a Fan of Generation X Finance on Facebook
- Organizing Your Way to a Simple Christmas: Gift Lists
- What Kind of Spender Are You?
- How to Get Rid of $106,000 in Debt
- Price-Placebo Effect: Are You a Victim, Too?
- Trusting Your Intuition
- 3 Quick Tips to Make Your Life Better Today
- 7 Ways to Build & Maintain a Personal Network that Works for You
- Learn More About Lending Club Credit Rating and Collection Process
- How Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) Works
- Loan Modification Companies vs The Fair Housing Authority
Hope everyone has a great end of the week. Just a heads up – only 10 weeks until Christmas. Don’t wait for the last minute and charge presents on a credit card. Start saving now and enjoy a cash-only Christmas!
Post by Frugal Dad
Buying Another Investment Property?
Once again my husband and I are contemplating the purchase of property in North Carolina. We already own one home on the Outer Banks, but with prices at five year lows and interest rates in the 4-5% range it’s hard to pass by properties without at least considering a purchase.
At this point in time I’m not certain that a bank would approve financing. I placed a call to our current lender to get the skinny on the process of buying a vacant lot, (we’ve never done that before), and the requirements for acquiring a loan on a property without a house. Unfortunately, the loan officer didn’t call me back this afternoon, so I decided to Google instead.
Strangely enough I didn’t find a ton of information on the topic. I guess most people purchase homes, not vacant lots. I did discover that the loan term cannot be longer than 15 years and that a 30% down payment will be required.
Our banks pre-approval website didn’t support lot purchases, so I couldn’t find out whether or not we would even qualify for a loan. I plan to call our lender back tomorrow to see if they can run a query over the phone.
Of course if we can’t qualify for a loan than our quest stops here, but if we do qualify my husband and I will need to rake over the numbers to see if we really want to proceed.
Ever time we’ve purchased a property I’ve been both unbelievably excited and slightly terrified all at the same time. There is so much excitement in buying a piece of property, but so much trepidation in terms of making the monthly mortgage payments while still paying for all of life’s necessities.
Amazon: Kindle price drop! And, new international device available!
Kindle just dropped their prices:
You can get a refurbished Kindle for $219, click HERE
You can get a US-only Kindle for $259, click HERE
You can now get a Kindle with both US and International Wireless– pre-order yours today for $279 (orders will be filled on a first come, first served basis)– to order click HERE
How is this frugal? Well, simple– you can download new releases and New York Times Best Sellers for $10 rather than paying $24.99 and up for hard cover, new edition books. By the time you purchase 20 books through Kindle, it has more than paid for itself. At $10 per book oftentimes that price is lower than the best price that you can find on a paperback– plus you get it *instantly* rather than having to order a book online and/or hunt around locally.
You can also preview many books for free before you determine whether you want to buy them– and, you can search Wikipedia and Google WITHOUT paying for monthly web access– how cool is that?
It’s also better for the environment (no trees were harmed in the process), requires FAR less storage space in your home than actual books do, and it’s unbelievably portable, too.
In fact, I’m about to order one for the hubs for the holidays– shhhh, don’t tell him!
Happy Kindle
30 Free SwagBucks in September
If you are not using SwagBucks yet, scroll down to see how you can get started with 5 free SwagBucks!
Swagbucks has a new toolbar that you can download for Firefox users as wella as Internet Explorer users. The best part is that everyday in September there will be a new code released through the toolbar. The codes can be redeemed for 1 SwagBuck. That means by the end of September you can collect 30 free Swagbucks, just by redeeming the new code each day.
To get your 30 free SwagBucks, simply download the SwagBucks toolbar. Click where it says “From TSG” (that is your messages from the swag guy). It will look like this:
Click on the message and it will tell you what the new Swag Code of the day is. To redeem your code, go to the SwagBucks home page and once you are logged in, on the right hand side it will say, “Enter a Swag Code.” Enter your code and click Gimme. Then just remember to go back and do the same thing each day.
New to SwagBucks?
SwagBucks is a free search engine powered by Google and Ask.com. Every time you perform a search, you have a chance to win swagbucks. Once you have won enough swagbucks, you can redeem them for merchandise. My favorite prize is a $5.00 Amazon gift card that you can redeem after earning 45 SwagBucks.
If you want to get started, I can give you a code that will start you off with 5 SwagBucks in your account. Simply click here to register and then enter the code: frugalswagcode where it says “Swag Code.”
After you register, be sure and download the toolbar and enter the Swag Code every day. If you are confused by all of this, feel free to leave a comment and I will see if I can help you sort through it all!
Post from: Being Frugal is Fabulous Use of this feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at frugalisfab (at) gmail.com
30 Free SwagBucks in September
