Ten Talents...

I know that everyone is dying to post Halloween pics, and I want to see them because kids in costumes are the cutest things ever!  I thought I'd try to make it a little bit easier for everyone to check out each other's super cute pics by putting up a linky!

So...let's see 'em!

From now on, I'm going to start the Low Entry Lowdown all over again on Mondays because it gets SO long after a while.  If your giveaway is no longer on the LEL and it's still low entry, please send it to me again when it gets close to the end date and I will relist it!   

 I'm not really sure what to say about this year's Halloween costume.  It kind of happened by accident.  If you've been reading this blog since the beginning (which was only about 6 months ago, I guess), you know that we've always called my daughter the Shark because of her fondness for the Mama Shark (doot doot doot doot) song.  Well, I wanted a shark costume for her because it seemed so fitting, but I couldn't find one.  So...I was really excited when my sister found a shark "costume" for her, though she did mention that it MIGHT be a dog costume.  She meant for her to just play dress-up with it, but I somehow got my wires crossed and thought it was meant to be her Halloween costume.  I refused to face the truth until it was too late, and tonight I did the unthinkable.  I let my daughter go to the Harvest Fest at our church dressed in a shark costume designed for a dog...and it was pretty obvious :)  I suppose this will make for a fun story later when we tell her that her 2nd Halloween costume was actually a dog costume...and it will give her more ammo when she blames her need for therapy on us in the future :)  

**Also, at the last minute I decided to try to make the costume better by fashioning a shark hat for her with teeth.  The only problem was that the only ball cap she owns is a pink Disney princess cap.  I decided to make it anyway.  I figured it couldn't make the costume any worse.  I may have been wrong :)

Look at that trusting little face...she had no idea what we had done to her :)

I'm not sure how long this will last, but you can get a FREE subscription to Whole Living by using Rewards Gold HERE.  You refer three friends and then complete a super quick survey about exercise and exercise equipment.  Rewards Gold has always been legit for me and you NEVER enter any billing info!

Thanks, Hip2Save!

Wow!  Amazon is offering the Veggietales Incredible Singing Christmas Tree for FREE right now HERE!  I don't know how long this will last, so I would HURRY!!!!!

Thanks, Rockin' Deals!

Hello all!  I just got a comment from Gale @ Scribbleprints, and I will start using my tags from now on so that you can use those links if you want to share about This for That or the Low Entry Lowdown.  You should also be able to pull up the latest post from each by clicking on the corresponding tag in my right sidebar (under the This for That button).  I didn't know you could copy the links from tags, so I never used them...SO...thanks so much, Gale!  I appreciate it :)

Steph

**Note** If someone asks that you follow via GFC and you already do, I'm sure they would appreciate it if you find another way to follow or help them.  Or you could comment and let them know you already do and ask if there is anything else you can do to help them.

Happy Saturday, everyone!  Esther from Discovering the Me in Mommy wrote today to ask us all to vote for her baby girl HERE!  How stinkin' cute is this picture?  Please help her out and go vote today! 

Thanks so much!
Steph

This is a sweet Groupon deal!  It's for Washington, D.C., but everyone can take advantage of this groupon because it's online!  You can check out what you can buy at Soap.com and see if you might want to get anything.  I like that you can use ecoupons on the site, so you can get some pretty cheap stuff.  When you take into account that you're already getting it half off with this Groupon deal, it's totally worth it!  AND...it comes straight to your door so you don't need to use any gas.  My Dad got me a GPS and it tells me how much gas money I am spending to go to each store.  I kind of liked not knowing that :)  It makes the totally free in-store deals seem not so totally free anymore!

Go HERE for this deal!
Note: You can only buy this Groupon one time per household (it's pretty popular so I guess they had to limit it), so if you got it before, you can't get it again :(  Also, it says that it's not valid on household items, though the picture shows plenty of household items, so I'm not sure what they mean by that...here's the rest of the FINE PRINT in case you are interested in the deal:

• Expires Feb 4, 2011
• Redeem starting 11/3. Limit 1/household. May not buy in multiple Groupon markets. Not valid for Household Products. Valid only at Soap.com, not valid at diapers.com. Must use in 1 order. 1 - 2 day shipping included.

Thanks, MyFrugalAdventures!

Hooray for free music! Right now you can enter the code STUDENT3 HERE and get $3 in free mp3s from Amazon. I love these Amazon deals! You do have to use your credit by November 1st, but you should have no problem doing that :)

Now, if only I had shown some patience and waited instead of buying that Switchfoot "Needle and Haystack Life" mp3 last week. Oh well, I've played it so much that I think it was worth the $.99 :)

Thanks, Hip2Save!

**Note** If someone asks that you follow via GFC and you already do, I'm sure they would appreciate it if you find another way to follow or help them.  Or you could comment and let them know you already do and ask if there is anything else you can do to help them.

Is it just me or has customer service done a total nose dive recently?  You would think that companies would be trying to do an even better job of customer service with the economy the way that it is, but I have been SO disappointed.  Within the last week, I have had TWO orders canceled without a single word from the companies.  I made an order with Office Depot and one with Cabela's, and though both orders were canceled, neither company sent me an email to let me know.  So...I was checking the mail daily waiting for my items to arrive, and I finally had to call THEM to ask about the orders.  Now, these are pretty big companies, and all I got was an "I'm sorry for the inconvenience"...a very insincere apology at that.  I realize that you have to expect that orders will be canceled when you take part in some of these amazing deals, but... is it too much to ask that you can be notified when you aren't going to receive the items?  Shouldn't that be the least I can ask for?

Unfortunately, that's not all that I've experienced in the last week with poor customer service.  The worst was from Sensio.  I was one of the lucky people who bought one of the Bella Kitchen crock pots last year...you know, the ones that ended up catching on fire in some consumers' homes!   Now, I bought mine on Black Friday, so I got a great deal.  However, that doesn't mean that the company can just write off all responsibility for their product.  Not only did they require that I pay to have the cord shipped to them, but they also only refunded what you paid for the crock pot instead of replacing the defaulty ones with a good product (which means those of us who decided to go with their product vs. another one are now out a crock pot).  I explained to them that because of the way that they arranged the refund process, I was out the money that it cost to ship the cord to them because they only refunded what I paid for the crock pot (no tax refund either).  It wasn't my fault that they outsourced to China and the crock pot caught on fire in some homes, so it shouldn't be my responsibility to make the situation right.  And it shouldn't be the customer that is out money because of their mistake.  I called to talk to Sensio about it, and was given a ticket number and told I'd receive a call back.  Haven't heard from them since...

Well, I guess I at least know which companies I WON'T be supporting anymore.  I'm just disappointed because I really, really expected better.  I'm sorry if this sounds a little angry because I know it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but still...I feel cheated.

Have you had any similar (or completely opposite) experiences lately?  Check out this post by My Frugal Adventures to hear about how Piperlime truly went above and beyond for one of their customers!  I'm impressed! 

Newly Listed
$5 Blockbuster gc -- ENDS TODAY
$45 CSN gc -- ends 10/30
$40 1-800-Flowers gc -- ends 10/30
Happy Baby Organic Food & Dr. Sears Book -- ends 11/1
$50 Snapfish gc -- ends 11/2
Pocket Full of Posies Meal Planning System -- ends 11/2
$40 CSN gc -- ends 11/3
Spanish Harlem Orchestra: Viva la Tradicion Album -- ends 11/4
$15 EcoMom gc -- ends 11/5
$100 ShopBop & T-Bags gc -- ends 11/5
Time Buddy -- ends 11/8
$15 Lemon Tree Studio gc -- ends 11/11
$10 Whole Foods gc -- ends 11/11


Previously Listed
Pillsbury Sweet Moments Prize Pack -- ENDS TODAY
$100 A&P gc -- ends 10/29
$45 CSN gc -- ends 11/12
Crazy Dog Tee -- ends 10/28
$25 Expressions Vinyl gc -- ends 10/29
$10 Amazon gc -- ends 10/29
$35 CSN gc -- ends 10/31
$50 Pixie Chicago gc -- ends 10/31
$100 ShopBop gc -- ends 10/31
Undercover Mama -- ends 11/3
$20 Heels Above gc -- ends 11/9
Softlips -- ends 10/28
Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Bottle -- ends 10/29
Dewey's Nine Lives (3 winners) -- ends 10/29
Bakery on Main Gift Set -- ends 10/29
Eating Animals (3 winners) -- ends 10/29
Spookley the Square Pumpkin Prize Pack -- ends 10/30
Intelligender (Gender Prediction Kit) -- ends 10/31
Old El Paso Prize Pack -- ends 10/31
$25 Subway gc -- ends 11/1
Magic Cabin ABC Animal Train -- ends 11/3
Uncommonly Cute Onesie/Tee -- ends 11/5
$50 Glencara gc -- ends 11/7
Cheerios Playbook -- ends 10/29
Pear Tree Greetings Thank You cards -- ends 10/29
Mini Halloween Witch Owl -- ends 10/31
"Don't Fret the Sweat" mother/daughter ticket pack -- ends 10/31
Brilliant Lenses Travel Kit -- ends 11/1
"Aligned Archetypes" (autographed copy) -- ends 11/1
$35 CSN gc -- ends 11/1
$45 CSN gc -- ends 11/1
Izola Shower Curtain -- ends 11/2
$20 Amex gc -- ends 11/6
Dr. Bloom's Chewable Jewels -- ends 10/29
Monster Cereals Prize Pack -- ends 10/31
Wendy's gift card (2 winners) -- ends 10/29
$25 Teacups & Mudpies gc -- ends 10/30
$15 EcoMom gc -- ends 10/31

If you've been waiting to register your blog with a .com domain name because you didn't want to pay the $10.49 to do so, today is your lucky day :) The first 10,000 people to register a new domain name at GoDaddy.com can use the code SCARYONE to get a domain name for $.99 for a year. That comes out to $1.18 with tax for me!

Go HERE to get started! 

In the possibly distant future, my new blog domain name will be www.mytentalents.com. Ahh...now if I can just get it all together and get back to blogging consistently....or at all :)

Thanks, Swaggrabber!

Newly Listed
Pillsbury Sweet Moments Prize Pack -- ENDS TODAY
$100 A&P gc -- ends 10/29
$45 CSN gc -- ends 11/12



Previously Listed
Crazy Dog Tee -- ends 10/28
$25 Expressions Vinyl gc -- ends 10/29
$10 Amazon gc -- ends 10/29
$35 CSN gc -- ends 10/31
$50 Pixie Chicago gc -- ends 10/31
$100 ShopBop gc -- ends 10/31
Undercover Mama -- ends 11/3
$20 Heels Above gc -- ends 11/9
Softlips -- ends 10/28
Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Bottle -- ends 10/29
Dewey's Nine Lives (3 winners) -- ends 10/29
Bakery on Main Gift Set -- ends 10/29
Eating Animals (3 winners) -- ends 10/29
Spookley the Square Pumpkin Prize Pack -- ends 10/30
Intelligender (Gender Prediction Kit) -- ends 10/31
Old El Paso Prize Pack -- ends 10/31
$25 Subway gc -- ends 11/1
Magic Cabin ABC Animal Train -- ends 11/3
Uncommonly Cute Onesie/Tee -- ends 11/5
$50 Glencara gc -- ends 11/7
Cheerios Playbook -- ends 10/29
Pear Tree Greetings Thank You cards -- ends 10/29
Mini Halloween Witch Owl -- ends 10/31
"Don't Fret the Sweat" mother/daughter ticket pack -- ends 10/31
Brilliant Lenses Travel Kit -- ends 11/1
"Aligned Archetypes" (autographed copy) -- ends 11/1
$35 CSN gc -- ends 11/1
$45 CSN gc -- ends 11/1
Izola Shower Curtain -- ends 11/2
$20 Amex gc -- ends 11/6
Dr. Bloom's Chewable Jewels -- ends 10/29
Monster Cereals Prize Pack -- ends 10/31
Wendy's gift card (2 winners) -- ends 10/29
$25 Teacups & Mudpies gc -- ends 10/30
$15 EcoMom gc -- ends 10/31

I'm not sure who signed up for Eversave's latest deal where you can get All You, Real Simple, and more mags for only $7 (if you're new to Eversave), but I wanted to say thanks for signing up via my referral link!  I appreciate it :)  I got this deal right away because I ALWAYS use coupons from All You, and my subscription just ran out.  It's unheard of to get All You for only $7 (or $12 if you've used Eversave before).  So....THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU...whoever you might be :)

If you missed the post about this earlier, you can still get this deal for 2 more days HERE! 

Thank you so much to all of you who entered this latest giveaway from Betty Crocker and My Blog Spark.  It was a great giveaway, and I appreciate the time that you took to submit your entries!  Out of 294 entries, the winning number that was chosen by random.org was #130, Nancy!