Sleep Number's Exciting Contest

As the school season comes to an end, we at Select Comfort want to help you and your children show their appreciation for their favorite teacher. Tell us how a teacher helped you or your child succeed in or out of the classroom and the impact they had on your life. Did a teacher help you or your child get into college? Did they give you/your child confidence to try out for sports, the school play? Did they help shape you/your child’s career path? Be funny or be profound, but don’t put us to sleep!

Contest Details:

Please submit a short essay or video about how a teacher helped you or your child succeed. The best entry will receive a Queen SLEEP NUMBER® p5 bed set, and the teacher in the winning essay will receive a SLEEP NUMBER® Bedding Collection package valued at more than $500! Entries will be judged on creativity of entry, quality of entry, and capturing the essence of the contest theme. Your entry can be either a 1,000 character-limit (including spaces) essay or a video (no longer than one minute long). Videos must be posted on youtube, simply paste your link in the entry form below. Limit one entry per person. Enter by 6/6/10 and must be 18+ to enter. For more information, please visit www.sleepnumber.com/teachercontest.



Sleep Tips:


Select Comfort’s Vice President of Sleep Innovation and Clinical Research, Pete Bils– who has been researching sleep for more than ten years and was a former high school math teacher– just posted some great sleep tips and facts relevant to school-aged students. Pete’s advice can be found at http://beds.com/zzz-help-teach-a-b-cs/


Look for more details on beds.com, via the Sleep Number Facebook page or on Twitter @SleepNumberDeal.

Today's Winner!

We have a winner for today's book draw:
http://www.oneincomedollar.com/2010/05/review-and-giveaway-canada-only-ibs.html

gizfarris@hotmail.com


***Winner has been contacted and has 7 days from today to contact me with regards to their win, before a new winner is drawn.

Thank you to all who entered.

$urviving the Economy: Get Cheap

Book Review: Instant Bargains by Kimberly Danger

Who is Kimberly Danger? Kimberly Danger grew up going to garage sales, clipping coupons, and living the frugal life. In 1999, she took that knowledge and turned it into a career when Mommysavers.com was launched. She enjoys showing parents new and unique ways to live well for less. Kim lives in Minnesota with her husband and two kids.

She is also the author of the book: Instant Bargains: 600 Ways to Shrink Your Grocery Bills and Eat For Less.

I loved this book. It's one you can't put down if you love to save money, and we are all looking for a cheaper way to shop right? Loved the size of this book too- handy enough to pack in your purse.

Although there was alot I did already know, ( only because saving a $$ is my life), I did love reading all the tips and thought there was a great deal of value in the book.

Instant Bargains offer you hundreds of tips on saving,cooking, eating healthier for less, where to shop for those great savings and how to strategize to shop.

This book is currently available on Amazon- and well worth every penny!

Coupons and a Chance to Win- Late July

Late July is giving away coupons and the chance to win an organic beach bag filled with organic goodies for your summer road trips this summer!

To enter send an email to offers@latejuly.com with your mailing address and post a comment on Facebook or at http://www.latejuly.com/ to tell us where you'd like to take your family this summer or please share a special trip experience from the past. Our trip this year was my favorite, but we're hoping to get a few good ideas from you for next year. All submissions will get coupons, but our favorite will also WIN a Late July Beach Bag filled with at least $50 worth of Late July Organic Snacks, a $25 iTunes gift card and we'll also carbon offset your trip!

The deadline is June 20th. The winner will be announced on June 21st - the first day of summer!

How Can a Family Utilize Their Credit Card Rewards Point For Traveling

There is no denying that hate them or love them, credit cards have become an intrinsic part of our financial lives. Of course managing a credit card well is important to make sure that you reap the convenience they provide especially when compared to using when making payment. Due to the increased competition among credit card companies, each goes out of their way to offer perks to their clients for purchases made or for being a loyal customer for a long time. These perks are normally in the form of credit card rewards points.




The reward points are in turn redeemable in many different ways that will vary from one credit card company to the other. But often times there are certain forms of points redemption that are almost standard across the different card companies. These popular forms of redemption include airline travel costs, restaurant bills, hotel accommodation and shopping.



If you have not being taking keen interest in your credit card rewards points, it is time you started to do so because they could be the difference between you and your family enjoying a vacation or not. Why pay for something when you could recoup the costs by redeeming the points based on purchases you have made in the past on your credit card? There is nothing that you stand to lose since you would still have made the purchases anyway. The best way to take advantage of these points is to first come up with list of rewards that would be most suitable and interesting for our family.



So if you are hoping to redeem your points for a free ticket or for air miles, first look for companies that offer that type of reward and then assess the one which has the best terms and where possible, the one that requires the least amount of points to redeem the reward. One credit card company may pay for your traveling cost and let you handle the cost of all other expenses incurred when traveling, while others may even pay for your hotel expenses, travel insurance and shopping depending on their terms and of course the number for points you will have amassed. You should also bear in mind that some card companies have arrangements with few airlines while there may be one that has redemption agreement with several airlines. Access to more airlines might very well translate to greater alternatives in terms of where you can travel to.



Make sure you read the fine print to see whether there is anything that might put you in difficulty in future. For instance, some credit card companies require that you forfeit all points you may have amassed if your card is ever cancelled due to default or if you voluntarily choose to close your account. That would not be a pleasant consequence especially if you had taken time to amass the points over several months or even years only to see your efforts go down the drain. Life can be unpredictable and it is good to go for card companies that will not leave you completely high and dry when the storms of life come a calling.



Once you have settled on a company, the next thing is to make sure you manage your points well. If you need to for instance accumulate 20,000 points in order to qualify for a free ticket to a destination of your choice, you must resist the temptation to redeem any points before then. Redeeming your points should be something you plan for and approach in the same way as you would approach source of income in your family budget. You should use an estimate of your monthly spend to come up with a time frame on when you would like to redeem the points i.e. 2 years, 1 year, 6 months etcetera.

The Secret to You..A Gift From The Secret Scrolls.

Plan a Wedding on a One Income Budget

Recession or not, people are still getting married! And, with lots of people looking for jobs, many couples are getting married and living on a one budget income. So how can you cut costs without cutting corners? Here are a few ideas for you.




Keep it small. Generally speaking, costs go up for every guest you add to the list, especially if you’re providing them with food and drink. Consider a family and very close friends only wedding and reception. Not only will you save on food, but you’ll also spend less on a smaller venue, fewer paper goods (invitations, ceremony programs), and a lot of other per-guest purchases.



Think outside the sit-down dinner reception. You don’t need a big band, towering cake, colorfully lit dance floor, and a five-course meal to have a fabulous wedding reception. Your main objective should be for everyone to have a good time! Consider having a late night cocktails and hors d’oeuvres reception or a light brunch morning soiree. Or, keep it simple with cake and punch in the church or temple gathering place.



Go without the unnecessary things. Do your guests need tulle wrapped candied almonds? Nope. Do you need to spend $300+ on a pair of white shoes? Not really. Do you and your love need to drive off into the sunset in a vintage Rolls Royce? Of course not! Sometimes we get wrapped up in the details of wedding planning and forget that many of the things we dream up in our heads are in fact, completely unnecessary. Prioritize what’s important to you – the photographer, the cake, the reception location – and put those things first. Then, cut things like favors that will most likely end up in the trash. If there are things you can’t live without, look for the cheapest options.



Forget an open bar. If you chose to have alcohol at all, opt out of the open bar, even if you can bring in your own. Support your community by going with a local brewery for beer, a local vineyard (where applicable) for wine, and serving a single signature cocktail. And just remember – no wedding needs alcohol. Your friends and family will be at your wedding no matter what’s on the menu.



Go on a staycation for your honeymoon. Who doesn’t want to spend some newlywed alone time after all the wedding festivities?! If a two week stay in Europe doesn’t exactly fit into your budget, consider taking a staycation instead. Yes, a staycation – take a vacation in or close to the town in which you live! Consider spending a few days seeing all the local sights that you never took the time to see before, trying out a few new places to dine, and stay a few nights in a hotel to get the real “vaca” feel.



Katie Olson is a lover of all things wedding and runs GownStudio.com, a custom made wedding dress company that provides brides with custom gowns at reasonable prices

Review and Giveaway-Powerhouse Hit The Deck

Fitness is important to me. I usually do some form of it at least twice a day.Walking, riding the exercise bike or doing dvds.Keeps my mind off eating! Ha Ha

I recently had the opportunity to review "Powerhouse Hit The Deck"

What you get a is a timer, and 35 cards with single exercises and photos on them, to help you lose weight, improve your fitness level, increase your energy and so much more. You set the timer and do as much of th exercises on the cards or as little as you wish. Work your way up with a fitness level comfortable for you.There are three different intensity categories you can work from:

1.No Sweat


2.I’m Glistening

3.Sweating Buckets

The cards and timer fit into a small sturdy box, perfect for taking with you out of town if you don't want to miss staying in shape while on the road.

Three different intensity categories that challenge all major muscle groups for a comprehensive total body strength-training and cardiovascular workout at the same time.

It's a great way to work out- and requires no equipment. You can buy it now for only $19.99

Powerhouse Performance Coaching would like to give one lucky reader from US or Canada a chance to win their very own set of these cards!

A random draw will be made on June 4, 2010 from all entries recieved, through Random.org

To enter:

Tell me your favorite way to get in exercise for the day.Mine is walking.

Extra Entries:

-Subscribe in email

-Follow me in Twitter

-Follow as a Google Friend

-Grab my Stretching the One Income Dollar button

-Grab my Fathers Day Event button

-Grab my Dream Big button

-Add this giveaway to your site

Good luck to all!

An Economical Way To Keep Ants Away This Summer

My name is Steve and I have been in the pest exterminator business for more than 10 years and I personally treat my home for ant problems that I have every year. All of the products that you can find in stores are similar to what big businesses use. For example either the ant bait is sugar-based or protein-based depending on the ant that you are trying to treat. So don’t spend hundreds of dollars hiring a professional. Do it yourself and spend the rest of the money to reward yourself for a job well done without ants.



I will divide this article into two parts: what to do before ants start coming out and what to do when ants have already invaded your home.


What you should do before ants start to come out during the spring and summer time is to block them from coming in the first place. If ants cannot come in then you will not have an ant problem in the first place. I have tested out almost allof the over the counter ant products and you should spread “Terro’s Perimter Ant Bait Plus” around the perimeter of your home. This over-the-counter product has been the best product for me and it rivals some of the commercial products that you can find. Depending on how large your house is you might need to buy more than one. Don’t be shy about spreading the granules around the perimeter of your home, be very generous. After you have done this, you need to get rid of any ant mounds or home that you can find. Spread some of the “Terro’s Perimeter Ant Bait Plus” on the top of the ant mounds and this should get rid of the whole colony by killing the queen. After you do this go drink a lemonade and get prepared to treat the ants inside of your home.


If you home is currently invested with ants, you should know that there are many different types of ants in the US depending on the type of ant that is prevalent in your area. Depending on the type of ant, you need to treat them with either sugar or protein bait. We will use ants in the south as an example, but you can still apply this wherever you are.


Pharaoh ants are one of the main types of ants that are prevalent in the south and just love sugar based solutions. What ants especially in the south like to do is build their homes in between your walls. One of the biggest mistakes that people tend to do is spray chemicals around their homes. What this will do is that the ants will create sub colonies which will be even harder to get rid of. So what ever you do, don’t use any other kind of ant killer spray inside of the home except for the use of ant bait!


Since we are talking about ants in the south remember, buy sugar based solutions, if you go to the store looking for a protein based bait then this will not work!! And you will still have ant problems! This is why you failed in getting rid of ants when you bought ant bait at Walmart to get rid of ants. What you should do if ants have invaded your house is to first remove any open foods in the kitchen of your home. This will attract more ants to come in since they will notify the other ant from outside your home by means of an invisible trail called pheromones. What you should do next is that if you find a group of ants buy and place “Terro’s Liquid Ant Bait” and put it where ants like to hang out. Once one ant goes into the bait, more ants are sure to follow. Remember, although it might freak you out to see so many ants, DO NOT disturb the ant bait. The ant bait is doing its job and taking the chemical back to the queen which will eventually destroy the whole colony. After a few days you will be ant free and can enjoy the peace that your home was meant to bring.