UsedEverywhere.com

My Journey to “Hope House”: A Community Helping Create a Home Away from Home

I’m extremely fortunate to be the Community Angel for UsedVictoria.com because part of my job is being able to help others in our community. Recently I was presented with an opportunity that really proved to me what I always knew to be true:  that people, when given the chance, really just want to help give back to their community and pay it forward.

The Start Line

A few months ago, I was contacted by the Beacon of Hope House Project which was founded through the Salvation Army in Victoria. This organization provides a safe haven for at-risk male youth (ages 13-18) seeking individualized and comprehensive drug and alcohol treatment. They had recently moved into a new house and were wondering if UsedVictoria.com would be able to help with donations from our site.

I immediately jumped on the opportunity to help a project that would be able to benefit so many youth in our community.  I asked the organizer Keltie to put together a wish list of everything they needed. It ended up being a little bit longer than I anticipated and I suddenly became nervous that I wouldn’t be able to fulfill it with my limited budget. But my gut told me that once our community found out about this project and who it was benefiting, that they would help me make this goal attainable. And boy was I right!!

My Journey

I began scouring UsedVictoria.com looking for items on this wish list. Within a couple hours, I managed to find several items either for sale or free and started contacting the sellers. I decided I would mention who I was and where the items were going to and thankfully I did. Almost every person who I contacted responded that they would gladly sell or hold the item for me as they were happy to help out such a great cause. Some people discounted their prices while others actually went above and beyond to make this project a success. Here are a few stand out examples:

• Lori posted some soccer equipment for free on the site and so I arranged to pick this up from her. When I got to her home, she told me she was spring cleaning and had managed to find some brand new beach items she’d be happy to donate as well. She has teenage boys of her own so this project really resonated with her.

• Sara posted a free television and stand on UsedVictoria.com. Not only did her and her boyfriend help me load it into my truck (it weighed a ton!) but they also offered their time if we needed their help for any future community angel projects.

• The Rotary Club advertised they were having a garage sale on our site so I decided to pop down to see what they had on the wish list. I met this wonderful volunteer named Larry and showed him my list explaining what I was involved in. He quickly started running around the gymnasium grabbing items and starting a pile for me. Within minutes, he had found a large portion of my list and even gave me an amazing deal for all of it. I left with a huge smile on my face, not only because I found such amazing items but also because the money I paid for the items would be used towards another great charity. Love it when you can pay it forward twice!

• But my favorite part of the journey was meeting Tyler, a local 14-year-old boy who was selling a skim board on our site. I emailed him some questions about it as I’m a total novice when it comes to this sport and explained who the skim board was going to. Tyler emailed back quickly asking if there were any other sports items we were looking for. I rattled off the different sports items assuming he may have other items for sale. Instead, he replied that he would go through his garage and try to find other items to donate to Hope House. When I arrived at his house, he had a pile of items in the middle of the garage floor including two baseball gloves, three baseballs, one soccer ball, one basketball, a brand new snorkeling kit and, of course, the skim board. It floored me how generous this young man was and that this generosity was helping other kids his age.

The Final Leg

After combing UsedVictoria.com for items and reaching out to the community for two months, I’m happy to report that I managed to find almost every single item on the wish list for Hope House (still looking for a bongo drum and a ukulele so if you happen to have one sitting around in your house, let me know!).

We arranged a moving van and dropped everything off to the Salvation Army downtown, shocking the organizers with the amount of donations we had. They were overwhelmed with what we managed to find for them and before you knew it, we were all shedding tears of joy over how much these things would mean to the boys at Hope House. As Keltie eloquently put it, “these items will help turn a house into a home for the young men living there.”

Finish Line

I’ve been lucky to be able to help many people in our community but this project will always hold a special place in my heart as it affirmed my faith in human kindness and how people will jump at the opportunity to help others when simply given the chance. Thank you to everyone in Victoria who helped make this donation and project a huge success! It was a journey I will never forget.

For more information on the Beacon of Hope House and details about the items UsedVictoria.com donated, please click here.

"Waste Not, Want Not" Series: Leftover Veggies

In last week’s blog, I showcased a way to reuse shrivelled up oranges as an ingredient in muffins in order to avoid throwing them in the trash. It’s an ingrained trait in my family to be able to find alternative ways to use items rather than simply tossing them out. I was chatting with my Mom about this yesterday and she says it comes from our Mennonite background to try to avoid wasting anything. She was telling me how my Grandmother would save something as small as a piece of string because you never knew when you might need a piece of string later on.  Some might say this could be a sign of hoarding but, when done in moderation, I think it’s a good lesson to learn that there are always ways to recycle or upcycle almost anything.

My challenge in this series is to be able to come up with ways to reuse veggies and fruit for consumption, even if it doesn’t look all that aesthetically desirable. This week’s topic is a couple of tips from my Mom on reusing leftover veggies that you’re tempted to just throw away.

Veggie Leftover: Potato Water

For most people, potatoes are a regular side dish and preparation usually involves boiling them first. Once the potatoes are cooked, it’s customary to simply poor the leftover water down the sink. But did you know that that murky water actually contains wonderful nutrients that have leeched out of the potatoes? Once boiled, potatoes lose a large percentage of their vitamins such as vitamin C, vitamin B, potassium and calcium.

So here’s what you can do with this vitamin rich water…don’t worry I’m not going to tell you to drink it! Simply pour it into a container, put it in the freezer and then take it out next time you are planning to make homemade chicken or turkey soup. You can use it in place of regular water to pump up the health value in your yummy soup.

Veggie Leftover:  Steamed Veggies

How many times have you prepared a lovely home cooked meal of chicken, potatoes and steamed veggies only to find that by the end of the meal, the only leftovers that weren’t completely scarfed down were the steamed veggies? You could put them in the fridge and pray that someone in the house gets a hankering for some steamed broccoli as a midnight snack or…you can prep them to be used in your morning omelets!

Just chop up the leftover asparagus or broccoli into small pieces and place small handfuls of them into individual Ziploc bags. If you don’t think you’ll be having omelets in the next couple of days, put them in the freezer and just pull them out when you need to add some healthy ingredients to your omelet. You don’t even need to defrost them beforehand as they’ll thaw out quickly in the frying pan.

If you have any tips on how you like to reuse your leftover veggies, I’d love to hear them! Next time, I’ll have some magical tricks to bring your produce back to life. Shazam!

"Waste Not, Want Not" Series: Shriveled Oranges

Growing up, the saying “Waste not, Want not” was a common saying my mom would repeat all the time. Over the years she taught me great ways to reuse items, whether it be using toilet paper rolls for craft projects or freezing bread ends to make bread crumbs. The idea was to keep as much as you could out of the garbage can.

Now that I am a mom, I’ve realized that this need to reuse is something I want to teach my children as well. Lately, I’ve been focused on being able to use up as much produce in my house before it goes bad.  The obvious way to do this is to actually eat all of it when it’s ripe which is the goal I have in mind when I purchase fruits and veggies. Unfortunately, life throws curve balls and so, while you promised yourself you’d eat three to five servings of fruit each day, somehow only one piece ended up in your belly.

Because my goal hasn’t been as attainable as I’d like these last few weeks, I’ve been stuck looking into a fruit bowl and veggie drawer filled with yummy items that don’t exact look as good as they did when I first bought them. Technically they are still edible but don’t look or feel very appealing. So I decided I’d come up with some ways to reuse these aging pieces of produce and avoid tossing them in the compost.

My first challenge was a big bag of cutie oranges I bought at Costco last week. I completely intended on feeding these to my family as snacks every day but they accidentally got buried beneath some apples and were forgotten.

They weren’t rotten but had all become shrivelled and lost their plumpness. So I thought about what I could do to still enjoy these lovely sweet orbs. I thought about juicing them but they were so tiny that they couldn’t produce more than a few drops each using a manual juicer (I’m planning to grab an automatic one of the site very soon!) So instead I came up with another idea that, after trying out, actually worked out. Here’s what I did:

I washed the oranges under cold water and then cut them up into quarters.

I then stuffed the quarters into my shiny blender, peel and all, in preparation of being turned into pulp.

Lastly, I turned the switch to high and watched these little cuties become a lot of juicy orange pulp.

I know you are now wondering, “What in the heck is she going to do with all this orange pulp?” I did a little research online and found a bunch of muffin recipes that actually call for blending whole oranges! So my plan is to use some right away to make a batch of yummy muffins and then freeze the rest for the next batch I make. So simple it scared me!

S0 hopefully next time you find a forgotten orange hidden in the back of the fridge that has lost its “zest” you’ll think of this idea and manage to carry forward the “waste not, want not” tradition. Oh and here’s the recipe I’m planning to use the whole orange pulp in tonight, courtesy of Jessica from Lovely Wee Days Blog:

Date & Orange Muffins

2 oranges

2 large eggs 200g butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 Cup pitted dates, roughly chopped

400g natural yoghurt

a little lemon juice

3/4 Cup sugar 3 Cups standard flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Grease two 12-hole muffin pans.

Blend the whole oranges in the food processor–skin, seeds, everything! Add the eggs and melted butter. Whirl the mixture around, but do not over-process. Place it in a large bowl with the dates.

Mix the yoghurt, lemon juice and sugar together in a bowl. Sift the dry ingredients into another bowl. Add the yoghurt mixture and the dry ingredients to the orange mixture, alternating small amounts of each. Just blend with the lightest movement–do not over-mix. Place 2 tablespoons of batter in each hole of the prepared muffin pans.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the muffins comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes and then cool on a wire rack. The muffins keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container. These muffins also freeze well.

My Top 10 List: Why Our Free Page is So Awesome!

Now you may have guessed from my previous posts that I am someone who LOVES to save money and loves to get things for free! I even wrote a blog post a while back letting you know that “Free” is my favorite word…the tattoo is still pending. I don’t think this is too outrageous as most people enjoy the feeling of getting something for free, right? And the flip side to this is giving stuff away for free can also be an uplifting experience as you know you’ve made someone else happy. It’s a win-win!

This brings me to my Top 10 List: Why the Used Free Page is So Awesome!  And yes, I admit, I am stealing this idea from the great Mr. Letterman so there will be no lawsuit.

#10 – You can post your FREE items for FREE on the UsedEverywhere.com sites: Because free and free just go together like peanut butter and jelly! Snap a pic of that great item you no longer need, tell the world all about it and post it. So easy!

#9 – You can post as many free items as you like: The skies are the limit as to how many unwanted items you can give away to be cherished by another. Remember the old saying, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.”

#8 – It helps you de-clutter your life: The free page is like a life coach that’s trying to help you simplify your life. It asks to you to sort through your garage or closet and remove the items you no longer use or need but don’t necessarily want to sell as you want them out of your life IMMEDIATELY.

#7 – It will save you time: First, you have a greater chance of someone picking up a free item right away as they’ll want to jump on such an amazing deal. Second, it will save you time from loading up that old couch or dresser and driving it to the nearest dump. And last but not least, it can save you time as people will actually use their own time to get it for free.

Here’s a quick story: a friend of mine wanted to take down his backyard porch. He was going to spend the entire day dismantling this huge thing and then pay money to have it discarded at the dump. I told him to post it for free on UsedEverywhere.com with the stipulation that whoever picked it up also had to take it down. He scoffed at this idea but did what I said. Within 30 minutes, he had over 20 people email and call him asking to take this porch down and way…for FREE! Now, he actually listens to me when I talk.

#6 – It will save you money: This one is pretty obvious. You save money on gas and you save money by not paying the dump.

#5 – It keeps things out of the landfill: Enough said. Everyone feels better when they can recycle and keep things out of the dump. It’s in our blood as Canadians! On this note, if you decide to put your free items out on the curb, you not only risk offending your neighbours, but if it rains, the items will be ruined, so you are now forced to spend money taking it to the landfill.

#4 – It inspires creativity: You may think those old wooden window frames you’ve posted for free are just junk or someone will only be able to reuse them on an old house. But thanks to DIY blogs and Pinterest, someone may take them and repurpose them as picture frames, abstract art or even in a wedding reception as a seating chart. The possibilities are endless!

#3 – It helps save the world: Always wanted to be a super hero? Well, here’s a role you can take on…Captain Recycle! Your mission is to keep items out of the landfill and reuse them to ensure our world is around for millions of years to come.

#2 – It will make someone really happy: As mentioned earlier, people love to get things for free. I was ecstatic last summer when someone posted a free Little Tikes push car AND picnic table. I’d been looking for these for my son for a while and couldn’t believe someone was actually giving them away for free. It made my week!

#1 – It will make you happy:  Nothing feels better than helping someone else out. While you may think that the old bed frame you posted for free is old and that nobody will take it. There will be someone out there who’s struggling and trying to rebuild their life and all they have left to complete their new apartment is a bed frame so they no longer have to sleep on their mattress on the floor. Plus, it always helps to stock-up on good karma!

So if my Top 10 List hasn’t convinced you to start using the free pages on UsedEverywhere.com, I just don’t know what else will. I would love to hear what cool and unique things you’ve found on our free page and what they mean to you. Free Page Rocks!

Recycling in Canada is “Simply” Cool

Being a born and raised Canadian, the idea of not being able to recycle is a sad world to imagine. And unfortunately, I actually saw a glimpse of this world last year.  We travelled to the East Coast, first stopping in Florida and then heading to Nova Scotia.  Besides the palm trees, marshy lands and gorgeous beaches, the greatest thing that stuck out to me in Florida was the fact that they do not offer a recycling program.  It felt just wrong and almost dirty to finish a can of pop and then chuck it in the garbage where it would eventually up in a landfill forever. With a recycling program, that can could have turned into a new can, paper clips, computer parts or even a part of a new airplane! This didn’t make any sense to me at all; I felt like I was in bizarro world!

Then suddenly in Halifax, Nova Scotia I was transported to a new world where recycling was a priority on everyone’s list, even more so than the West Coast – if you can believe that!  They even had a recycling bin program where you can to sort all of your garbage into compost items, recyclable items and garbage.  And if you didn’t comply with this, the city would fine you!  It is the law to recycle there.  Supposedly this idea is being tossed around in Victoria right now which I am all for!

Being bounced between these two worlds got me thinking lately how fortunate I am to be living in a country where recycling is the norm and is also so acceptable. It also made me realize how simple recycling has become and how most items nowadays can be recycled easily. So I decided to give myself a little educational tutorial to find out all the different items you can now recycle and pass this info along to others in case they weren’t aware of how simple it is to recycle rather than trash our items.

Styrofoam

I’ve always hated this white beast. First because it’s usually not necessary in packaging and second because it is so messy and takes up so much space. But mostly I’ve hated it because I was under the impression it wasn’t recyclable and had to be thrown out. Turns out I was wrong! While it’s not accepted in our blue box programs, there are private recycling depots that will take it away to be recycled and then reused again for a small fee. Just check with your local recycling depot and they should be able to point to a local company that provides this service. And here’s a money saving tip: save up your Styrofoam and then break it down into small pieces and put in a large garbage bag because they usually charge a flat fee per garbage bag.

Old Mattresses

How many times have you seen someone put an old mattress out on the curb and thought “who in the world is actually going to take this after it’s been sitting outside in the dirt and rain for days?” I don’t know about you, but I like to sleep on a clean and mold-free bed at night. And so this poor thing ends up being carted to its final resting place at the landfill. But this doesn’t have to be its’ fate!

Before chucking that bed on the lawn, grab your computer and search to see if there is a mattress recycling program in your city. Turns out Sleep Country offers this in all their locations for a small “green fee” or if you are purchasing a new bed from them. And in Vancouver, they actually put a ban on dumping mattresses and started a local mattress pick up program. This means 90% of the material avoids the dump.  So cool!

Candy Wrappers

Now I can’t tell you that you won’t feel guilty after eating that Kit Kat bar but I can tell you that you can lessen your guilt by recycling the wrapper. Turns out there are recycle drop offs for candy wrappers at some movie theatres now and London Drugs also has drop off bins at most of their locations. And some of these wrappers will actually be upcycled into other products like laptop covers. Sweet huh?

There are hundreds of other items that can be recycled.  And thanks to blog sites and forums like Pinterest, there are also hundreds of ways to upcycle items that can’t be recycled.  So regardless, it’s practically impossible not to recycle in Canada. If you know of any other cool items you can recycle, I’d love to hear them.

And the Award for Best Marriage Advice Goes to…

A few weeks ago UsedVictoria.com was fortunate enough to be a part of the Modern Bride Wedding Event where groom Rob and bride Vanessa tied the knot in front of hundreds of people.  It was such a wonderful and moving occasion, making me wish I could do it all over again… but I guess that’s what vow renewals are for, right?

As part of the event, we ran a contest to win a brand new Ipad Mini! We asked the public to write down their best marriage advice for the newlyweds.  There were hundreds of entries, making it very difficult to pick the winner but we managed to whittle it down to six – and here they are!

1. Take at least one night a week to have fun apart and one night just for you two alone.

2. Being kind is better than being right.

3. Dance, often.

4. Real love is when you choose to love often even when you don’t feel like it. Have a happy marriage!

5. Keep a journal. Every time your partner amazes you or reminds you how much you love them, write it down. Sometimes we need reminders.

6. Stay friends through thick and thin, it will carry you through.

Difficult to choose, eh? They were all great advice but one stuck out to us as being simple and yet so important.  So our grand prize winner was chosen and the Ipad Mini went to… drum roll please… Debbie Boylan for her advice: “Stay friends through thick and thin, it will carry you through.”

Turns out that Debbie’s great advice came from personal experience, as her and her husband have been happily married for over 30 years!  That, in itself, deserves a prize in my opinion! Since Debbie has been happily married for so long, I thought I’d pick her brain to find out if she had any other words of wisdom to pass along:

1. Why do you think it’s so important to stay friends in a marriage?

Every marriage has rough patches; financial stress, family issues, life just gets really busy at various times. This results in not feeling totally engaged in the marriage at times. Remaining friends keeps the communications lines open until you get through what you are working through and can re-connect again. When my hubby and I would have a disagreement, I tended to go to my quiet place in my brain. He would say to me, ‘Can we be friends?’ and it would get me to come around every time and brought us back together; we quickly got over whatever was troubling us. We are soul mates and I knew this the moment I met him! I still get excited and my heart quickens when I see him.

2. As someone who’s been married over 30 years, do you have any other words of wisdom to those embarking on the marriage journey?

Find your soul mate, always be respectful to each other, be kind, recognize neither of you are perfect and accept that that is the person you fell in love with – flaws and all! We all have them. Take time for each other and yourself, even if it is only a few minutes to re-focus. Love each other and respect each other’s differences.

3. And finally, cause we gotta ask, what is your favorite thing about UsedVictoria?

I have seven grandchildren so I have bought and sold many things on UsedVictoria: high chairs, playpens, exer-saucers, desks, bed frames, bikes, my previous car, toys. I also review real estate on there – I am obsessed! And, I am always suggesting it to others – it works! It is a great tool and many people I know use it too! It is easy to use, even for the person not too savvy on a computer. My whole family uses it!

Thanks so much, Debbie for the wonderful marriage advice.  We hope you enjoy your Ipad Mini and you can finally tell people that you won a prize for having such a long and happy marriage… an amazing life achievement that deserves a prize anyways! Cheers to another thirty years!

Beat the Winter Blues: Take a Staycation!

It’s still winter; it’s cold, it’s rainy and it’s grey… and frankly I’m going a bit stir crazy, begging for Spring and Summer to peak their pretty heads out. Not to mention, I’ve been sick for the past two weeks (and very sick of that!) My mind constantly drifts off thinking about how nice it would be to be sitting on a beach, soaking in the sun and sipping on a margarita. Or this could just be the cold medication talking!

We currently don’t have the funds or time to jet off to a tropical paradise for a week to warm up and relax so I started thinking about ways I could bring the fun and sun feelin’ into my home. But first things first, what makes a vacation so great?

Aside from the sunshine and beaches, vacations are also a time to decompress from our hectic daily lives and recharge our energy. Not to mention it’s a time to give yourself a break about eating 100% healthy or watching your beverage consumption.

So in order to start off your vacation at home, or “staycation”, it’s time to unplug!  This means turning the computer off and powering the cell phone down. When you go on vacation, you are leaving the world behind so why not take a weekend at home where you pretend you are on a deserted island with no contact from the outside world?

One of my absolute favorite things about going on vacation is that you get to stop counting calories and throw away that diet plan. It’s okay to splurge every once in a while and so before your staycation begins, make sure to stop by the grocery store and stock up on food items you love to eat…even if they are not good for you. Because when you’re on vacation, those calories don’t count or so I’ve been told (or maybe convinced myself!). Either way, pig out on junk food, healthy food or even eat an entire cake. It doesn’t matter what you eat as long as you are enjoying yourself because that’s what vacations are all about.

And a tropical vacation would not be complete without a fancy fruity alcoholic drink in your hand, right? Personally, I feel that in order to make it feel like a vacation drink, you must invest in those little paper umbrellas!  They make all the difference as to how that drink will taste.  Even if you don’t drink alcohol, pour a pop or juice in a fancy daiquiri cup, drop in an umbrella and sip to your hearts’ content!

Unfortunately the only thing that you can’t guarantee on your staycation is the weather and it’s unlikely summer will start in February this year.  So the only thing that I can think of that is just as wonderful as lounging in the sun is putting on your coziest pajamas or sweats and cuddling under a warm down comforter on a cold and rainy day. As part of staycation law, I order you to stay in those pajamas the entire time.  And if you are lucky enough to have a fire place, light it up for extra coziness.

I’m getting really excited to go on my staycation this weekend and hopefully you are already starting to plan yours. Bon Voyage!

Recycle Your Christmas Cards into Valentine's Day Cards

I admit I am a very sentimental kind of girl who likes to keep every single card she receives, whether it be for birthdays, Christmas or even thank you cards. But as the years have progressed, I’ve ended up with a gigantic stack of cards that may or may not make me look like a beginner hoarder.  Lately, I’ve been obsessed with finding ways to upcycle items in the house rather than just chuck them in the recycling bin.  I managed to cut up last year’s calendar so my son could use the pictures to make crafts and stickers.  And this got me thinking, what if I tried to upcycle a couple of my old Christmas cards and turn them into Valentine’s Day Cards? Well, turns out this actually can work.  Here’s how you do it:

What you Need:

Recycled Christmas Cards

glue stick

coloured markers

construction paper (preferably pink and red)

scissors

Look through the recycled Christmas cards and pick one that doesn’t scream holiday card or have lots of Christmas words on it.

Next cover up any holidays messages or wording inside the card with pink or red construction paper. Then write your romantic message on top.

Look for objects or wording you can cut out of other cards to glue onto the front of your Valentine’s Day card.  Or instead, look for colours and patterns that will work and cut out heart shapes from them. If you can’t find the right words, simply write romantic words like “Love” or “Be my Valentine” on paper and glue them to the card.  You could also cut out letters from the recycled cards to spell out the words you want.

Get creative and glue the various items onto your card and there you have it…a beautiful, original, thoughtful Valentine’s Day card that anyone would love. I can’t say who’s going to get this one as it has to be a surprise…. but he probably can guess!  Tee-hee!

The Art of the Contest

For the past couple of years I’ve been hearing this sound a lot, “arrrrrrrrrrg.”  It’s the sound of my friends groaning as I tell them I’ve won yet another contest.  It’s usually followed by “seriously, you win everything!”  This, of course, is not totally true but I’ve been fortunate enough to win some great prizes lately. I’ve won things like movie passes, restaurant gift certificates and even a grand prize pack worth over $2000.

Okay, so maybe I do have a lucky horseshoe stashed away somewhere but I don’t believe that’s the reason I win stuff. It’s really simple and everyone can do it if they choose. I love it when anybody wins something so here is my pay-it-forward for all the good luck I’ve had lately.

ENTER EVERY CONTEST  

I have a mantra for winning things: ”You can’t win if you don’t enter.”  It’s really that simple.  How many times have you seen a contest on Facebook or spotted a ballot box at a store and chose to ignore it?  In essence, you have actually said, “I don’t want to win anything.”  Some would argue that it takes too much time to fill out the ballot or enter your info online but isn’t it worth it if you win hundreds of dollars in prizes for one minute of your time?

It’s understandable to not want to release your private information, but if you’re okay with it, then spend that extra minute.  I believe I have won things before simply because I was one of the only people who actually entered the contest.

SEEK OUT CONTESTS

As I mentioned, you can find hundreds of contests on places like Facebook and Twitter. Most of them are from manufacturers wanting you to “like” their pages. So if there are products that you really support, make sure to “like” or follow them so you’ll be notified of their contests.

Another great way to find out about contests is to look up contest sites like smartsource.ca and womenfreebies.ca (which is not all about women prizes by the way).  They will let you know about the great current contests to enter.

My best advice is to keep your eye peeled for contests as they are literally everywhere.  You’ll find ballot boxes in grocery stores, at malls, in liquor stores and even on napkins – yes, napkins. I won a grand prize worth over $2000 by simply scanning a barcode off a napkin at a restaurant with my smart phone.  The barcode linked me to a contest entry form and I filled it out.  Sure enough, a few weeks later I got a call informing me I was the grand prize winner!  This was totally crazy as it was also the first time I’ve ever used my phone to scan a barcode.

PAY IT FORWARD

If you know about a great contest, share it with your friends and family so they also have a chance to win. This goes against the idea that the fewer people who enter, the greater chance you have to win. I firmly believe in karma and feel that if you help others, you increase your luck in life… and in this case, contests!

As I said earlier, I totally understand that some people don’t feel comfortable giving out their personal info in order to win. But I can honestly say that I’ve entered hundreds of contests and have never been spammed, harassed or bombarded with emails from any of them. That said, I strongly recommend taking a good look at each contest carefully to make sure that it is legit and legal. One tip to avoid spam is to create a separate email account only for contests.

I hope this inspires some of you out there to start entering contests and I’d love to hear of some of the cool things you’ve won in the past and how you did it.

My New Years Resolution: Finish Last Year's Resolutions

Every New Year’s Eve we toast to the start of a brand new year and make resolutions for ways we can be healthier and happier.  The usual, cliche ones are working out more, eating more fruit and veggies (even the ones that you hate but are super good for you like icky brussell sprouts) or starting a new hobby like knitting or scrap booking.  I confess I’m prone to promising the first two to myself, only to cave by January 15th and drown my sorrows in a Big Mac meal! Or in the case of this year, Jan.8th.  I know, I’m so weak.

Therefore, since I’ve already caved on my “new” resolutions, I’ve decided to go back in time and actually resolve the “old” ones that I didn’t complete last year. For example, my last two blog posts counted down my “Random Acts of Kindness” challenge where I planned to complete 12 random acts of kindness by Christmas. As you may have guessed, I ran out of time and didn’t complete this challenge. For shame, for shame!

I’ve been able to complete seven random acts and so my new/old resolution is to finish this challenge by next Christmas which should be a much easier task since I only gave myself two weeks the last time. Guess I’m kind of a keener!

My next “old” New Year’s Resolution is to try to complete the long list of household tasks that I didn’t get to in 2012.  Things like replacing  the outside light with a new one we bought eight months ago and cleaning out the basement so we can turn it into a playroom for our son. This way I’ll be all set to start working on the long list of tasks I forget to do this year for next year…does that even make sense? I’m confusing myself now.

And finally my last “old” new years resolution is to not beat myself up for not completing my resolutions from last year and to remember this when I probably forget to do this same thing again this year. Boy these resolutions can be really tricky?

Don’t get me wrong, I think New Year’s Resolutions are a great way of taking stock of your life and to look at the things you’d like to change in order to better yourself. But I also think we sometimes go too big and that can be daunting and therefore easier to bail on. I feel these three “old” resolutions are small enough to be attainable plus now that I’ve written them in a post for everyone to see, I feel more accountable to complete them.  As for the usual eating healthier and working out more ones, I’ll start with grabbing a carrot stick instead of a french fry and simply go from there.

Happy 2013!