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After You get Married, You Still Need To Save

- brandy3

When I got married I did everything backwards. we did not have any money or family around. My then boyfriend was leaving for an overseas deployment, so we made a split decision and got married. We married in a court house and even kept our marriage a secret.  10 months after our marriage my husband was deployed and I had to learn how to balance our finances myself.

Here are some of my tips for post-marriage financial decisions.

Payments and debts- figure out what each of your debts and bills are and make a financial plan on what you can pay off and a monthly budget. Now that you are married your debts become each others debts.  We payed as much money towards our car payment to finally get it payed off and out of the way. Trust me having a  budget can save your marriage.

Save- you saved for your big wedding, now that it’s over you still need to save. You never know when something unexpected will come up and you need money.  I had my first child 2 weeks before my husband left on deployment. Luckily we had money saved up to fly my family out to help me while he was gone.

Plan ahead- Start planning ahead, can you afford a family now or is it a better idea for you to wait. The biggest thing is you want to make sure you and your spouse are on the same page about family planning. A child is a lot of money and you need to be prepared.

Do not finance- I guess it could be okay to finance a car if you can really not afford one straight out.  It is a bad idea to finance furniture or appliances, especially from Rent to own companies.  Always look for deals and second hand. All of our furniture was second hand when we first got married, except our bed.  The furniture lasted us a long time and saved us a lot of money.

Disclosure:  This Article was written using Genworth Financial Educational Resources

Save On Auto Insurance

- brandy3 1 Comment

I got my license at 19, so I didn’t know much about insurance when I bought my first car. It was so expensive, even for liability only. When I got married luckily I was able to get on my husbands insurance. He was in the military, so we got a really good discounted rate.

Shopping around for Auto insurance can be a big pain, there are just so many companies that try and advertise to you.  Now that my husband is out of the military we have been shopping around again for the best car insurance rates online. It is so hard because everyone has so much to offer, but i need to find the right one for my family.

The best thing about shopping online is the comparison charts, and instant quotes it makes it so much easier. To start saving on auto insurance Click here.

Disclosure: Sponsored post

PeachSuite Hotel Supply

- brandy3

When I have company come visit and stay in my house, I want them to feel as comfortable, as if they were in a suite at a hotel.   So i set my guest bedroom up as nice as I can.  I can find all the supplies I need at PeachSuite Hotel Supply.

PeachSuite is an online store that sells hotel supplies, from china ware to cleaning supplies. Everything you need!  This is a great store to even upgrade your old items, or if your going on a trip. I know there have been times where I have gone to a hotel, and didn’t feel comfortable using anything in the room because of bugs or just the cleanliness. So I started taking some of my own supplies when I travel.

They even have Hotel catering supplies, perfect if you are holding a wedding at a wedding and your hotel doesn’t have everything you need.

 

Disclosure:This is a  Sponsored post, all opinions are my own.

Play Bejeweled 2 Deluxe From Big Fish Games GiveawayClosed

- brandy3 30 Comments

You can play Bejeweled 2 on your PC, Mac or mobile device.

Shine up your matching skills to make your way through Bejeweled 2. Have you ever wondered why this match-3 is the game everyone knows? Try it out and see. With even more glitz and glamour, this new take on the ever-loved gem-swapping original will keep you amazed.

We recently had the opportunity to try out a new game from Big Fish Games, Bejeweled 2 Deluxe. I had played Bejeweled before on Facebook, so I figured it would be very similar. I downloaded the game on my Mac, and let my daughter play first. She loved it, You just match up the jewels as fast as you can to beat the levels. My daughter really loved that when you finish a level you go into this color warped tunnel. It’s a little mind-blowing, it feels like your actually in the computer screen.

My favorite is the puzzle challenge, every stage is different and you just need to solve the puzzle. Big Fish Games has a ton of family friendly games to choose from.

I have 2 codes to giveaway, so mu readers can play Bejeweled 2 on mac or PC.

To enter: Visit Big Fish Games and tell me a game you are interested in.

Extra entries:

Subscribe to my feed-8 entries

Blog about this-7 entries

Grab my button-6 entries

Follow me on twitter-5 entries

Like No Time Mommy on Facebook-4 entries

Leave a comment on any non-giveaway post-4 entries unlimited

Enter any of my other giveaways-3 entries

Tweet this giveaway-2 entries (can be done daily)

post this giveaway on Facebook-1 entry (can be done daily)

contest closes 11/7/12

Disclosure:  This is a sponsored post on behalf of Big Fish Games.

Get Sexy This Halloween

- brandy3 1 Comment

Before I had children on Halloween I would choose a sexy adult Halloween costume to wear. I would only wear it to certain parties or around the house for my husband. Now that I have children I still dress up for Halloween but I go with more appropriate adult Halloween costumes.

When it came to sexy, my favorites Halloween costumes were:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sexy Cop!                                                                                                                      The Bad Kitty!

Like I said that’s all behind me now, I like to be able to dress up and still be appropriate for my kids. Some of my favorite Halloween costumes 2012 ideas:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Witch!                                                                                                                      Walking Dead Zombie!

Pure costumes has costumes for everyone in the family. We always shop in the Tv Show Character section for my children.

Pure Costumes has some great deals going on right now to help you save.

$4.99 shipping or free shipping when you spend $50 or more.

You can also save 5% when you shop using their Facebook store.

What will be your costume this year?

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.

Freschetta’s The Strength Of 1 Campaign

- brandy3 2 Comments

October is Breast Cancer awareness month, how will you show your support?

Now through the end of October, 2012, the makers of Freschetta pizza are helping to promote breast cancer awareness through their new The Strength of 1 campaign, which includes sponsoring Bright Pink, the only national non-profit organization focusing on the prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancerin young women, while providing support to high-risk individuals. The mission of this The Strength of 1 initiative is to inspire everyone to realize they can make a difference in some way in the fight against breast cancer.

Take the pledge and share your strength on Facebook by sharing your own personal story.

This is a great cause! As a granddaughter of 2 breast cancer survivors, showing your support means the world to me, my grandparents and the world.

Disclosure: “I occasionally receive compensation in the form of products for posts. However, the opinions I share are solely my own.”

The Benefits of Renting Textbooks

- brandy3

My husband has been in college for the past 6 years. While undergraduate school may be over, he is still in graduate school and learning new things everyday.

I could remember when my husband was in undergrad school and the book list was so long, not to mention each book was over $100.   It was crazy, we relied on scholarships and grants to help with books.   My husband always wanted to buy because he likes to keep the books as references.

Had he decided to rent textbooks (the new thing). If he would of rented textbooks he would have saved a ton of money on every book.

Some of the benefits of Renting your textbooks:

  • save 40-90% off bookstore prices
  • free shipping both ways
  • you can highlight in textbooks
  • Flexible renting periods
  • plus more

For every textbook that is rented CampusBookRental donates to operation smile.

My husband majored in Chemistry with a minor in biochemistry. One of the bookd he needed was a Biochemistry book, online it is over $250.00 new, you can rent it for $82.22.

Get OnPage To Keep In Touch

- brandy3

OnPage is an application for any Smartphone that provides priority and emergency messaging. It was originally created for Doctors, IT specialists, and government agencies, but is now used by everyone, especially families.

iPhone DownloadBlackBerry DownloadAndroid Download

You can download the app for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, iPod touch, and iPad.

As a mother of three, with such a busy schedule it is so hard to keep in direct contact with everyone. I have to juggle contact with my husband, 2 different schools, colleagues and more. The great thing about this app is it has been so easy to use and set up. The app is kind of like a mix of email and texting, but your message goes through immediately. Plus not having to go through the internet or use log ins has been very beneficial.
For more information please visit here.

Right now OnPage is offering a great discount for families, if you use the promo code ‘zach2′ your cost will only be $8.00 a month.

Disclosure: “I participated in a campaign on behalf of Onset Technology for their product OnPage. I received a free trial and a gift card as a thank-you for participating.”

Find The Right Life Insurance For You

- brandy3 1 Comment

I know I have mentioned this topic before, but I can not stress how important it is to have a plan or life insurance in place. If you are a parent of small children, it’s a great idea to have a plan in place in case anything ever happens to you.

I can remember having a family friend who was a stay at home mom, her husband worked and provided for everything. They had a good life and could afford a lot. One day her husband just passed away unexpectedly, she was devastated. She went from having everything to having nothing. She had to move, and get a job to help care for her daughter. They didn’t have anything saved or life insurance.

We are now in the process of looking into health insurance and see what we can afford, just in case.  I found a site Mozdex.com, that will give you quotes from all the leading insurance companies.  It’s so easy to use and you can get instant quotes on life insurance. You can even get a quote for a 30 year term life insurance policy.

Disclosure: This is a compensated post

Thinking About Post College Financial decisions

- brandy3

When my husband left the army and decided to go to college it was a big change on us, but luckily the military helped pay for his schooling. While he was in college we strategized and spent weeks deciding what are best graduate school choice would be.

Now my husband is just finishing up his second year of graduate school, and we are putting together our Post-grad/college financial plan.

Of course it is always a good idea to save up money when you are in college for after graduation.  Sometimes it’s not always possible, if you are trying to pay off loans and such.

Three things we really focus on:

Finding a job- before you graduate it’s good to start applying for jobs, whether it is a internship or post doc. You need to have something lined up for after graduation to ensure that you have money coming in.

Benefits: Do you have a family or are you single? If you have a family it’s a good idea to look into  benefits of a job or secondary school for your family. Also look at the cost of living in the area you are going to make sure you can afford it.

That was one of the big things for us when my husband was starting Grad school. We had 3 kids so, we had to look into cost of living and who offers free or discounted health insurance of every school.   Luckily we found a school that is the perfect fit for our family.

Debts: After you have determined where your life is going to go after college, and you have a income coming in to pay off your college loans. Well if you have any, College can rack up  a lot of debt on credit cards and loans. Plus you have to pay interest on that. It’s a great idea to set up payment plans or even if you can pay the whole thing off at once.

Going to college can be a life changing experience, but even after you graduate you still have many more decisions to make.

Disclosure: This Article was written using Genworth Financial Educational Resources

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