JonesLife | Archive | Gotta Have It!

Freebies!!

4 Comments 28 June 2010

So here’s a new one for the JonesLife blog: a contest with real freebies for the winner! The creators of the widget you see below have teamed up with iDerma, a skin care products company, to offer the readers of this blog and others a chance to win a free product. All you have to do is click through the products shown below (on this post) and interact with the different tools that are offered. Here are the specific rules:

They must comment on at least 5 products in the widget
They must click the “See It” link in the widget to read about each of the 5+ products they commented on
They must make all comments in the widget (not at the bottom of the post or on iDerma’s site)
They must identify themselves by giving their name/alias in the comments “Name” field (so that you know how to identify the winner)

It’s as simple as that! We will judge the comments based on the quality and helpfulness of the comments. The winner will receive a free product of their choosing from one of the products in the widget! Please make sure you leave your comments on the widget below for the purposes of this contest! The contest ends in one week (7/12) and is open to US residents only.

Casey is actually pretty excited about this because she has used iDerma products in the past (they sell it at the dermatology office she used to work at, Westlake Dermatology) and she loves their products. She is pretty much a skin care products junkie so you can take her word for it! In addition to leaving your comments on the widget, feel free to email us or post a comment to the blog to let us know if you like this sort of thing and would like to see more of it in the future. Here is the widget:

And before I go, I wanted to let you know why we have not been very active with the blog lately. For one, we are really, really busy – even more so than before – but as usual, it is all a really good, fun kind of busy! Second, we cannot talk much about anything that may end up on the new episodes of the show and videos are an absolute no-no so it kind of limits the blog topics quite a bit. Hopefully we can work something out with TLC to allow us to blog a bit more once filming is complete, but we are more than happy with the freedom they have allowed us…(apparently we have a bit more liberty than others because the blog was well established at the time TLC entered the scene). Thank you, TLC, for allowing us to continue blogging…your viewers love keeping up with the JonesLife while they wait for the new episodes to air!! :)

Good luck on the contest!

Ethan

Gotta Have It!

Change Anyone?

3 Comments 06 January 2010

Money

2009 – oh, what a year it was! The year just gone by will forever be remembered in the Jones house as the year of change…big, ginormously big, dramatic, life-altering (sometimes excruciatingly so), mind-bending CHANGE!! Of course, you are reading this blog so there is a 99.9% chance that you know the reason for all of this…hmm, what is another word for change…how about this: ADAPTATION. Obviously, the Fab Five had an impact on our family that will never be undone, which is a really, really awesome part of the change that has happened in our lives. But what I do not refer to very often on the blog, but has no doubt been a very active participant in the remaking of the Jones family dynamic, is the financial side of our world since, well, January…2009. Like I said, oh what a year it has been!

I won’t go into details, but I am sure you can imagine the enormity of the impact that bringing five babies into your world can have on the bank account. Couple that with The Great Recession we have all endured the past 18+ months and you have one heck of an ADAPTATION in the battle to balance the budget! (You like that…adaptation? I’m a walking thesaurus ;-)) I know that we are, unfortunately, in very crowded company where the money pinch is concerned so I put together a collection of tips, tricks, and little known freebies that will help us all with that wonderful TRANSITION into the brave, new world of pinching those pretty, under-appreciated pennies (hmm…I think I like adaptation better, but transition is probably more accurate).

For example, did you know that Wal-Mart gives away stuff…for free…all the time? I had no idea…until now! Music, product samples, and all kinds of free software tools to help you manage your diet, your days, and your dollars are all offered for, as my Spanish-speaking friends would say, “gratis…por nada!” (That means free for all you gringos out there.) Did you know that they also have a whole website dedicated to clearance items and also an online auction site similar to Craigs List and Ebay where you can save major bucks on the things you need every day? Pretty awesome stuff! But the list isn’t just all about products; there is also an article with 50 different money saving tips, another site that lists Amazon’s coupon codes for the month of January, and a site that offers free budget software and budgeting tips to help you corral the cash in times of…REVOLUTION (oooh, I like that one…sounds so stickin’-it-to-the-man~ish!).

So play around with the widget I’ve loaded at the top of the page and START SAVING TODAY!! That’s how the commercials say it, right? Check out the lists and, most importantly, give me your feedback! Give the individual items, lists, etc. a thumbs up or thumbs down, suggest your own items, leave comments…interact in any way that will benefit the members of the JonesLife community! I am pretty certain that most of us reading this blog have had to do some major belt-tightening this past year so let’s help each other out by sharing your own stories of how you’ve been able to ride the waves of CHANGE to a brighter, happier day!!

Gotta Have It!

1 Comment 22 November 2009

I’ve been working with a new company to enhance the interaction between me and the readers as well as between readers and other readers through the JonesLife website. In essence, we are looking to foster a community on this site and this is where we begin. The tool below is what has come of those efforts thus far. There are many more versions to come as we receive feedback and improve the tool for greater interaction. For now, what you see is a list of some of our favorite products for the nursery and around the house, as well as some important books and fun websites that we have enjoyed recently.

Here is how it works. You can scroll through the items and rate them, add your comments, and recommend more cool stuff that you think will benefit the JonesLife community! If the item is a product you decide you’d like to buy, you can click through to Amazon and make the purchase.

Let me know what you think by posting a comment to this blog or sending me an email. As more readers begin to interact on the tool, the more relevant the items and recommendations will become. Enjoy!

Freebies!!

Change Anyone?

Gotta Have It!

The Jones Fam

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