Love with Food April 2014

FLOWER POWER

Love With Food is a healthy snack box subscription. There are two types of boxes available. There is the tasting box, which will give you 8+ new snack to try. You can choose the monthly plan (which I have) which will charge you $10 plus $2 shipping per month, a 6 month plan which will charge you $66 every 6 months (making each box $11 and shipping is free), and the annual plan of $120 which will make each box only $10 (shipping is free as well). The other box available is the deluxe box. This plan gives you 16-20 new snacks to try each month. The monthly plan is $19.95 plus free shipping. The 6 month plan $108 (free shipping) and the annual plan is $204 making each box only $17. A cool thing about this subscription is that for every box sent out they will donate a meal to various food banks.

 The theme os this months box flower inspired treats. Hence the name "Flower Power".

Orchard Blend Crunch Dried Fruit by Sensible Foods

12 pack for $22.07- value of one pack $1.84

These didn't last long at all. These have to be some of the best dried fruits I have ever tasted. I loved that they were crunchy and not chewy, like most dried fruits tend to be. They are not only gluten free and fat free but they are USA made. Who doesn't love that!?

Heart-tee by Wild Hibiscus Flower Co.

20 pack for $10.99- value of one tea bag $0.55

Creamed Honey with Chocolate Mint By Vintage Bee

8oz jar for $9.50-value ?

This is definitely a new twist to honey. It has that raw honey texture but with the sweet taste of chocolate mint. I was a little unsure at first but once I got passed the idea of how honey is "suppose" to taste like I quite enjoyed it.

Almonds with Cranberries, Honey + Sea Salt by Sahale Snacks

30 pack for $29.08- value of one bag $0.97

I'm usually a lover of salty and sweet but these didn't hit the spot like most snacks of this nature do. Don't get me wrong they weren't bad but I'm not going out of my way to find these.

Popcorn by Crave Canyon

I couldn't find a price but I saw that they are sold at stores like Whole Foods so I'm guessing the value at $1.50.

I REALLY love cheese popcorn and these were great BUT the fine powder from the green chili made it difficult to eat without coughing.

Honey Waffle by Meli

pack of 8 for $6.88- value of one $0.86

I have never had anything like these before so I don't really know what to compare it to. All I can say though is that they are delicious. I split it with my son. Well, more like I had a small piece and he had the rest. I will be ordering me some of these yummy treats. I'll just need to hide them from my son.

Fiorddifrutta Organic Fruit Spread by Rigoni Di Asiago

8.82 oz jar $5.29-value of sample pack ?

Amazing Almond Organic Energy Bar by BumbleBar

1.4 oz bar $1.99 -value of .65 oz bar about $0.99

When you first unwrap the bar is looks like nothing but a bar of sesame seeds. But once I actually braved a bite, I thought it was pretty amazing. This was one of those times I wish I would have upgraded to a deluxe box. And since it is gluten free these would make a perfect snack for my husband, on the nights he has to fly.

I paid $12 for the box and the value was only about $8-$9. So the value wasn't there for me but the quality of the products I received made it worth it. Out of the 8 products I received there are three that are on my "to buy" list. I usually only have one. Getting to discover new, yummy (and healthy) snacks is always a plus. I really enjoy this subscription. And the fact that one meal is donated to help feed a child makes the box (no matter the value) worth it.

*If you are interested in signing up please fill free to click here and use my referral link.

   

GRAZE

Graze is a biweekly or monthly snack subscription service. For more info click here. Every 2 weeks or every month (depending on you) you get 4 single serving snacks delivered right to you. Once you get your snack box you can either trash, like, or love each snack. If you "trash" it, they will never send you that snack again. If you like it they will send it occasionally and if you love it they will send it regularly. I got this sub for my husband who is currently on the Paleo diet. He'll take these to work to snack in between his meals. He's not a huge fan of my subs but he loves this one. Especially since it is Paleo friendly.

The oven roasted salt vinegar nuts (top left) are ones that my husband had "liked". He says that have that perfect balance between salt and vinegar but because of the salt it leaves him really thirsty. So that's why he "likes" them rather then "love".

The apple & cinnamon flapjacks (top right) are one of my husband's faves for sure. He was really happy to see these again. These are a "love".

The My Thai (bottom left) was new for my husband but he said he enjoyed them and prompted me to go and "like" them.

The booster seeds were also new for him. The name alone made him "like" this item before he even tried them. He eventually did try them and said they were good.

We currently receive our box every 2 weeks. We pay $6.00 for each box. SO we end up paying $12 a month.

*If you are interested in signing up head here and enter my friend code C53NRF5NP.

This will get you your first and fifth box for free!

Fancy Women's Mystery Box

Fancy is another subscription box service. They not only have their own Fancy Box but they offer boxes curated by different celebrities. Currently they have the Kelly Rowland Fancy Box, Jennifer Love Hewitt Fancy Box, Coco Rocha Fancy Box, Tyler Florence Fancy Box, and Verbal Fancy Box. Each of these celebrity boxes is $39/month plus $7.95 s&h. Each box will come with $80+ of products. They also offer a Fancy Food Box, which is also $39/month. The newest celebrity curated box is the Snoop Dog Fancy Box. This box is a little more at $42/month. Another difference is that you have to be at least 18 years of age to subscribe to this box. For that reason alone I'm intrigued. My brother in laws is a huge fan so I'm going to have to tell him about this subscription.

This review is going to be for the Women's Mystery Box. When I ordered the box they only had a $10 box for both men and women. They now seem to have a medium box for $20 and a large box for $40. I paid  $10 plus $7.95 s&h.

These are Fancy notebooks and the suggested retail price is $12.00. I'm a huge office supply hoarder, so this was a happy addition to my collection.

This LAEX orange plastic cardholder retails for $27.  A little hard to believe but it is what they sell it for on their (LAEX) website. Considering it comes in a nice little box I'm going to save this as a gift card holder for my sister. 

This wall decal apparently retails for $20. Not going to lie this was the most disappointing thing in the box for me. Since I'm renting I really don't want to stick anything on the walls. This might just end up being sent to Goodwill.

The China Glaze would have been great if i didn't already have a silver polish. But this will make a great addition to my gift pile. Oh and the suggested retail is $7.50.

Overall the only thing that worked for me were the notebooks. But I did get two (MAYBE 3) gift items. From seeing other box reviews it seems that these boxes were filled whatever they had leftover from previous boxes. For $17.95 I'm not sure if this was worth it for me. Even if the suggested retail price for the box is $66.50. If this is still available in a few moths I might order a men's box to see what I can get for my dad and brother in laws.

*If you are interested in signing up to any of these boxes please use my referral link here. 

April Julep Box

Julep is a monthly nail/beauty subscription box. Every month you get a box with either 2 nail polishes and one full-size beauty product, 3 nail polishes, or 2 full-size beauty products. Classic with a Twist, Boho Glam, and Bombshell are boxes that contain 2 nail polishes and a full-size beauty product. It Girl contains 3 nail polishes and Modern Beauty contains 2 full-size beauty products. The cost is $19.99 a month. You may skip each month unless you are a new customer. New customers are allowed a skip every 6 months. If you like everything they have to offer for the month you are allowed to upgrade your box. This month the beauty product was either a blush or bronzer. Since neither peaked my interest I decided to go with the polish lover upgrade. 

This upgrade cost me an additional $25. So I paid $44.99. Considering each nail polish retails for $14, the $45 I spent turned out being a great deal. I really love their polishes as well. They have great coverage and don't chip. So they last a good week (at least). 

Additionally to my upgrade I decided to add these brushes as well. They were meant to go with the blush and bronzer they were offering but I was just looking for a good blush and bronzer brush. This add-on was $29.99 but I used my jules (reward points) to purchase these. So I paid $0 OOP. I have to tell you these are they nicest face brushes I own. They are super soft and pick up just enough color to be able to blend in nicely. Their make up brushes have been quite impressive so far. I might have to order some more down the road as gifts.

*If you are interested in signing up please feel free to click here and use my referral link.

**If you use the code FREEBOX you can get your first box free. 

***If you skipped this month but are interested in placing an order you can use code GLOW25 to get 25% off the brushes (pictured above) or the new blushes and bronzers. This code expires 4/30/2014.

****To receive a FREE Bare Face Cleansing Oil (best thing since sliced bread) with your next $25 purchase use the code OILPERK. This code expires 5/31/2014.

ModCloth Stylish Surprise

ModCloth recently had their Stylish Surprise going on. It's basically a grab bag for $5 or $10. They had four grab bag types. There was apparel, shoes, accessories, and apartment. They are all sold out. The accessory and apartment sold out almost immediately. That's probably because they are only $5 each. They shoes sold out fairly quickly. They still had size Small in a apparel available for a while. The shoes and apparel were $10 a piece as well. I ended up buying two XS apparel and one 5.5 shoes.

I had seen this dress on someone else's blog already. As soon as I saw the print I was exited. This is the Right on the Dot dress from Tulle. I couldn't find a price but seeing what their other dresses are priced I'm guessing this is about $50-$60 retail. This gonna make a perfect Spring dress. Oh and just as an FYI I didn't realize I had taken a picture of the dress backwards. The buttons go in the back.

This beauty is from Sunny Girl. I absolutely love the peacock fan print. This is gonna have to be a Fall/Winter dress though. It has some weight to it and is kinda on the thick side as far as material goes. I'm planning on wearing it with a cute brown belt to accentuate my waist. Now I couldn't find a price for this either so this is just an estimate. But I'm guessing this is about $60 retail.

Whenever I first opened the box I was super excited. The color is beautiful and would go perfectly with my first dress but then I realized they were going to be way to big for me. It states it's a 5 1/2 but I would say it's a 6 really. SoI'm going to have to see if I can swap with someone. If not maybe it'll fit my sister.

Even though the shoes were a bust for me the $34 (including shipping) I paid for these 3 items was well worth it for me. I will definitely plan on getting more of these grab bags in the future.

Bountiful Basket- March 29, 2014

Bountiful Basket

This week I choose to get the regular basket with the Guac & Salsa Pack and the Tortilla pack as my add-ons. For more info about Bountiful Baskets click here.

This is what came in my basket for this week. I received 2 heads of romaine lettuce, 2 heads of cauliflower, 3 crowns of broccoli, 2 red bell peppers, 4 english cucumbers, 6 zucchini/squash (?), 5 tomatoes, 6 apples, 3 bananas, 1 pint of strawberries, 4 oranges, and 1 grapefruit.

This add-on was the Guac and Salsa add-on. This cost $14.00 extra. I received one bag of uncooked tortilla chips (so I can choose whether to fry or bake them), 6 avocados, 1 bunch of cilantro, 6-7 green onions, 9 tomatillos, 5 jalapeños, 4 anaheim peppers, 5 onions,  and 1 garlic.

This is what was in my tortilla pack. This add-on cost $12.00. Great thing about theses is that you can freeze them. One follower on their Facbook page suggested that adding wax paper between the tortillas would help reduce waste, That way I can choose how many or how little I want to thaw at a time.

My conventional basket, in my opinion, was a great deal. I got more them  my money's worth. The Guac and salsa pack however, I feel was overpriced I thing an $8 price would be more appropriate. So I will not be ordering this again unless the price goes down. I think the tortilla was reasonably priced. The fact that I am able to freeze them is a big plus. For the total price I paid I think i still ended up getting a good deal.

If you are interested in seeing if they are available in you are click here.

Target Deals for the day 3/28

I did two transactions to get this deal. The first one is the Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel deal and the second is everything else.

There is currently a deal, running until tomorrow, that if you buy 4 select SC Johnson products you get  back a $5 Target gift card. I bought 4 of the Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel. They were on sale for $3.69 each. All together that came out to $14.76.

I used two manufacturer coupons I had that were $2/2 of the Toilet Cleaning Gels, a Target.com coupon that is for $2/3 select household cleaning items, and received $0.75 cash back from the Checkout 51 app. I paid $8.76 (+ tax) OOP. With the sale, coupons, and Checkout 51 app I saved $6.75. PLUS I received a $5 Target gift card.

Free Julep Polish

 JET

Another perk about becoming a Julep Maven is when you purchase a box 3 months in a row,  you will receive (by e-mail) a coupon code for a FREE nail polish of your choice. And when I say free I mean FREE. This was shipped to me at zero cost. The color I decided to go with was one of the add-on polishes for the April box. It is a black crème finish nail polish. it has to be, i my opinion, one of the best black nail polishes I ave ever used. Even without a top coat it had an incredible shine. Here are some samples of how it's suppose to look.

For more info on Julep please read my past post here.

Golden Tote- March 2014 Review

Golden Tote Review-$49 Tote

Golden Tote is a monthly (non-renewing) clothing subscription. At the beginning of each month they will launch their sale. and you can either choose the $49 tote (as I have) or the $149 tote. With the $49 tote you get to pick out one item of your choice and they will surprise you with one or two more items. The Value of the tote being up to $200. The $149 tote lets you choose 2 items of your liking and again they will surprise you with 4-5 more items. The value being able to be up to $600!!! Shipping is $7.95 for both totes. AK and HI are $15 and international is $25. The type of clothing and brand found in the totes are what you would see at an Antropologie store. For more info click here and here.

This dress is made by Hourglass Lilly. If you are signed up for Golden Tote you are able to purchase this dress for $30. But it retails for $48. This lovely dress was the item I picked out. It is super soft and so comfy. You can't really tell in the pic but it is navy blue. I'm 4'10" and this dress hits me just above my knee. I can't say enough great things about this dress. I absolutely love it. Oh it is USA made as well. So that's always a nice bonus.

I was really happy to see this in the bag. I really didn't expect to get it since I thought it was only going to be available to the first 1000 totes. I just ordered my tote about a week ago. But I'm so happy I got it. I LOVE quirky/crazy prints. And this top is just up my alley. It is so soft as well. Almost like a jersey feel. It's a very loose and flowy(?) top. Great for those jeans and tshirt type of days.  I wasn't able to find this exact top anywhere to be able to give you a set price. But they do sell the brand (Porridge) on Antropologie's website. And seeing what was available and how it was priced I would guess this top to retail at or about $68. If I am incorrect please do tell me. This top is also USA made.

I wouldn't say that I don't like this I just wasn't expecting something like this. It's a teal bralette or soft bra. I won't be using it as such. More like a cami for my v-neck tops. I'm not "blessed" enough to be able to wear alone. So I'm going to continue to let Victoria keep my secrets. I tried to look up the brand (Flawless) but wasn't able to find it anywhere. So I'm guesstimating the value to be around $10.

Overall I would have to say my first Golden Tote experience was a success. I really love the dress I picked and the top that was chosen for me. For basically $57 I received about $125 worth of clothing items. And for as often as I am planning to wear them, I would say it was definitely worth the $57. 

**** If you do not like something in our tote you have to return the whole bag. It's an all or nothing deal. You can't pick and choose with this one. 

Target Haul

Unfortunately I cannot find my receipts. So I won't be able to break down how I came up with my total. But for all of this I paid only $4.75 out of pocket. That does include tax as well. But I made 2 transactions for it to work out that way. I also used the $25 gift card I had won so that's why my out of pocket expense was so low.

As you can see I bought, a gallon of milk, 2 83oz Downy Fabric softeners, 1 onion, 1 8pk of hamburger buns, 1 3pk of o-celo sponges, and 2 pkgs of cheese slices. Not pictured is an 8qt stock pot that I found on clearance for $7.68. It still had the clearance sticker on it so that's why I know the price.

 I will start off with the 1st transaction.

This week at Target you get a $5 gift card when you buy any of the two items listed above. I bought the Downy Fabric Softener. Not only was it on sale but there happen to be a Cartwheel coupon and a Target Mobile coupon as seen below.

In this same transaction I also bought the onion and the 2 pkgs of cheese. There also happened to be a Cartwheel coupon and Target Mobile coupon for the cheese. After all was said and done I had $6 and some change left on my $25 gift card and I received the $5 gift card for the Downy.

Now onto the 2nd transaction.

My 2nd transaction included the milk, buns, sponges, and the (not pictured) stock pot. These are the Cartwheel Coupons that I used to bring my total down even further. I used what was left on my $25 gift card and the $5 gift card I received from my Downy purchase. And I was left owing $4.75.  So that's like a little over $0.50 cents an item. Not bad.

Bountiful Baskets- March 22

Bountiful Basket

So here is what I received in my Bountiful Basket for this week. 

A pineapple, 8 pears, 3 oranges, 2 bananas, 2 8pks of kiwi, 1 pint of strawberries, 5 tomatoes, 2 red bell peppers, 2 celery, 1 head of lettuce, 1 8oz pkg of white mushrooms, and a 5lb bag of potatoes, along with the extra ones. I paid $15 plus a $2.50 fee so a total of $17.50 for all of this. This would have easily cost me anywhere form $25-$30 in store so again Bountiful Baskets has saved my family some money.

To see if your area participates click here.

And for more general info click here, here, and here.

Another Great Reason to Sign up for My Place Rewards

I just received this e-mail from Children's Place. If you also received this email I would highly recommend taking advantage of the 30% off coupon and the Place Cash deal they have going on as well.

Here are the stipulations.