How to Save Big on Electronics

If you love to own the latest tech devices but you are not so keen on the hefty price tags that come with them, then you need to keep reading.

According to IDC, consumer spending on tech is set to hit $2.06 trillion in 2023, with purchases such as drones and smart home devices becoming increasingly popular, as well as traditional products such as mobile phones and computers

However, there are ways that you can enjoy the latest must-have electronics without breaking the bank.

From applying promotional codes, to earning cash back on old tech, keep reading to find out how you can save big on electronics.

Use coupons

Whether you are already a coupon addict or you have never used a promotional code before, coupons are a great way to cut the cost of electronic devices. For example, simply by using a Lenovo Promo Code, you can enjoy savings of up to 70% on a wide range of gadgets including laptops and desktop computers.

Be sure to also check if a particular retailer allows you to stack coupons, as this can help you make maximum savings.

Check online prices

Although you may enjoy checking out the latest tech at your nearest electrical goods store, you should always compare prices online to find the best deal on any given day.

Furthermore, many retailers offer flexible payment plans, meaning you have the freedom to purchase your preferred tech even if you don’t have the money upfront to pay for it.

Buy at the right time

Seasonal sales and special events such as Black Friday offer a great way to save big on electronics. Typically, January is the best month for finding TV and TV accessories deals as they go on sale ahead of the annual Super Bowl.

Plus, as well as Black Friday and Cyber Monday which takes place in November, you will find that many retailers continue to slash their prices all the way up until Christmas.

Trade-in old devices

If you like to upgrade your gadgets as soon as a new model comes out, rather than simply letting your tech gather dust in a drawer, why not make some money out of it?

Many mobile phones providers offer trade-in programs, giving you account credit that can be used against future purchases. Alternatively, you could sell your old devices yourself via social media or on a selling platform such as eBay.

Opt for refurbished electronics

Refurbished items are often in great condition, with some being as good as a brand new device, yet they cost far less to buy. That being said, the quality of refurbished tech can vary greatly from one store to a next, so it is always a good idea to do your homework before making a purchase.

Similarly, if you do not want the latest model of a particular electronic, you can find some great deals on older versions or discontinued range.

Don’t buy extended warranty

If you usually purchase extended warranty when you buy a new electronic product, you should be aware that the vast majority of electronics last way beyond the time of their warranty. Furthermore, major repairs on new tech items are needed very infrequently.

Most brands offer sufficient free warranties, meaning you don’t need to fork out the extra cash to extend them.

Countertop Appliances Every Home Must Have

6 Countertop Appliances Every Home Must Have:

It goes without saying that every home should have an electric can opener and a coffee maker, but what about all those nice little countertop appliances that enable you to prepare the most spectacular meals, snacks, and beverages? Whether you are just setting up a household having recently been married or are thinking about ways to fix more meals at home instead of eating out so much, here are six countertop appliances every home should have.

1. Microwave Oven

While microwave ovens were never really meant to be used to cook in, they are a must in the kitchens of busy households. The reason everyone should have a microwave is that you can cook casseroles and big meals one night and quickly heat up the leftovers the next night in the microwave. They also work well for defrosting foods you forgot to take out of the freezer in the morning before going to work.

You can live without a microwave, but it sure does make life a whole lot easier to have one.

2. Convection Oven

Sometimes you can do away with a microwave if you get a countertop convection oven that also has a microwave function. These are more versatile than a microwave and you can cook foods in them on the convection setting because you are using those top and bottom heating elements, but with the added benefit of a fan that keeps the heat evenly distributed. Check out indreviews to see what kind of convection toaster oven would work in your kitchen. There are all types of styles and sizes.

3. Stand Mixer with Attachments

Every home should have a KitchenAid stand mixer with all the attachments. Not only can you knead bread dough with the dough hook, but you can whip cream, grind meats, make pasta (with the pasta attachment) and so much more. Why bother with that little hand mixer when you can get a stand mixer that does so much more?

I have to say that I've used the Stand Mixer more than I thought I would. I didn't have one on my registry list, and my aunt made me add it. I'm glad I did. I have made all kinds of cookies and breads with it!

4. Juicer

What home would be complete without a juicer? There is nothing quite like fresh juice as far as health benefits go. While fresh fruits can be a bit expensive off-season, you can also juice carrots and vegetables to make absolutely delicious (and nutritious!) beverages.

I use a blender more than a juicer, so either or both are great to have! Drinking real fruit and veggies is so much better than store bought fruit.

Having a juicer really beats having to squeeze the life out of fruit by hand.

With a juicer you can sneak in fruits and veggies that your family needs!

5. Food Processor

Many hobbyist gourmet cooks use their food processors in ways many of us wouldn’t have ever guessed was possible. For example, do you know how easy it is to make the perfect pie crust in a food processor? All you need is flour, a pinch of salt, butter, and a tablespoon or so of water. Let the blender cut the butter into the flour, place it in a bag, refrigerate for a couple hours and voila! The perfect pie crust with minimum effort and very little mess.

If you need bead crumbs in a snap, a food processor is the answer! I also use it to make homemade peanut butter. It really cuts things up.

6. Electric Pressure Cooker

You probably expected countertop appliance number six to be a slow cooker, didn’t you? Actually, you aren’t far off the mark! Today’s electric pressure cookers dub as slow cookers and so you can get two appliances in one – just like the microwave/convection oven combo. However, be careful which programmable pressure cooker you buy because some only allow a four-hour maximum for cooking, so your food wouldn’t really be soft or warm enough when you get home after an eight-hour shift at work. Make sure you can set the time for the length you need.

There you have six countertop appliances every kitchen should have. There are more, but these are good for a start, and with these six, there’s little you can’t do.

Disclaimer: This is a guest post.

AutoRight SteamMachine #Giveaway

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. I received a AutoRight SteamMachine in exchange for this review. All opinions are mine.

I've loved every single product I've gotten from HomeRight. 

Their new AutoRight SteamMachine is certainly a product that did not disappoint my family. In fact both of my boys were fighting over who got to use it. They both got turns to use it under careful supervision. We had talks about not getting too close to the heat.

You can get the same steamer I got to review on Amazon.

It's been awhile since I've cleaned out my car both on the inside and on the outside, so I put my boys and I to work. We used the AutoRight SteamMachine to clean the mats off. They were dirty for sure!

Before and After

We only cleaned 1/2 the mat. The front of the mat was cleaned, where the back wasn't yet. Can you tell the difference?

The 290° F steam is powerful enough to disinfect surfaces from germs and bacteria. It's also gentle as to not to damage fabric and leather. 

How to Use:

1. AutoRight SteamMachine is easy to use. There is a plug, which I happen to like more than battery operated machinery. 


2. Fill it with water. They have a cup and funnel included.





3. Push the button on. I did have trouble seeing in the sunlight. At first I thought it wasn't working. I cupped my hand over the power light, and saw that it was in fact on. When we finished up, I still had water in it. I took it inside to clean parts of my shower. The water has to be used up, or it needs to be dumped out. I had no problem seeing the power light inside, where the sun wasn't so bright. It only takes a total of 8 minutes to charge up! That's not long at all. 


4. Before using it, add an attachment. There are a lot of attachments stored in the front of the machine. The cup, funnel and squeegee are all too big to fit inside the steamer. The squeegee is used to clean shower doors, and windows. There are wire bristle cleaners for grills, and stoves. We used the soft nylon bristle cleaners for the car mats.
   
   Tool List: 8-foot long reach hose, 8-foot power cord, 1 jet nozzle, 1 large rigid black nylon brush, 1 small rigid black nylon brush, 1 large brass brush, 1 small brass brush, 1 small soft grey nylon brush, 1 large soft grey nylon brush, 1 microfiber towel, 1 squeegee with terrycloth bonnet, 1 accessory adaptor, 1 crevice tool, 1 funnel and a measuring cup to fill the 40 ounce steam canister. AutoRight products are backed by an industry-leading 2-year warranty.  

All the Things I Love About the AutoRight SteamMachine:

• You can use it for just a few minutes by putting less water in it, or up to 30 minutes with a full cup of water.

• I love the how many different things the steamer can clean! It just has so many tools. It's really versatile. 

• The wait time of 8 minutes isn't bad at all. 

• I think it's easy to carry around. It's not heavy, and it's sweet that it has a handle. 

• This is kind of an odd like, but I love that it's red! Red's my favorite color.

Giveaway:

Who wants to win there own HomeRight - AutoRight SteamMachine? That's a $129 value! Open to the US. The winner will have 48 hours to respond after the giveaway has ended, and I've contacted the winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Salbakos 2 pk Oversized Cotton-Silk Bath Towels Review

We have 2 colors of towels: Grey and Yellow. They go with our rug in there. Some of our towels were looking kind of drab. I got Salbakos 2 pk Oversized Cotton-Silk Bath Towels to review.

They Come in 4 Different Colors:

• Gray 
• White
• Taupe
• Ivory

I picked gray. I have had white, ivory, and yellow towels in the past. They tend to show their ware faster than gray in my opinion.

Fabric:

They are a luxury 95% Turkish cotton-5% Italian silk bath towel. I've already washed them. I wash clothes, sheets, and towels before using them. They stayed super soft. I did dry them with wool balls that had drops of lavender and lemon essential oils on them to give the towels a nice scent.

They are made with no harmful chemicals, no pesticides, and are eco-friendly. With all the allergies in our house I love that the company American Pillowcase is environmentally friendly.

Size:

30x60, which is a nice big size. 

Cost: 

2 for $99.99, but on sale for $49.99.

Thoughts:

I'm glad I got this set. They work well in our bathroom. Most importantly the towels cover my body after a shower.

You could take these towels to the beach, swimming, to a gym, to a spa, and more.

Disclaimer: I received this product for a discount in exchange for an honest review. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Premium Cool Mist Ultrasonic Humidifier Review

Our air quality in Nebraska was rated very poor a few weeks ago. Kansas had grass fires, and it was blowing in our direction. Since then I've developed a raspy cough for a good solid 2 weeks in evening. The fires have stopped, but I can't seem to get the cough to go away. It's gone during the day, and comes back each and every evening.

I started using Premium Cool Mist Ultrasonic Humidifier I got for review. In the past I've noticed when I develop a dry cough humidifiers help. It has broken up my cough a bit, but it's kind of early to know if it's going to eliminate the cough all together.

Low Humidity... 

• can lead to a dry cough
• irritated sinuses
• itchy eyes
• dry skin

It's been rainy here, but Isaak has itchy eyes, I have a dry cough, and the boys and I all have irritated sinuses. I know something is in the air driving us batty!

I'm hoping that this humidifier is the solution to our problems.

It opens up with ease. If filled all the way, you can use it for 7 hours.

You twist off the filter, and fill it up with water. I love that it has a filter to make the water cleaner as it passes through.

It comes with 3 extra filters. I do have to say that I'm glad it came with extra filters. It was concerning when I took them out of the bags, and about 4 small plastic beads came out with them. My boys are older, but if I didn't see them, and I had toddlers around the house that could have been bad.

It has a funnel to help the water go in. I find the I didn't really need this. The humidifier fit right up into our water dispenser pretty well.

A mist came out right away. You can control where the mist goes. I'm still playing with that. It only wanted to go in the back for me. I did have it on a pretty low setting, but water collected on the surface it was on. I may want to put it on a towel next time I run it. I guess if I have to say one thing that I wished it had, it would be to put the mist out higher and more into the air.

You can see when it's on by the green light. The LED ON/OFF allows colors to change. This feature is pretty cool.

Here are some of the colors I captured:

• Ultramarine Blue
• Aqua Blue/Green
• Mint Green
• Pink
• Lavender

It has 7 colors all together.

 It took me awhile to find the Diffusion Tray. It's labeled, but on the very bottom in the back. This is where essential oils go in.

Cost: 

$170.84, but on sale for $24.97!

It comes with different sachets:

• Vanilla
• Lavender
• Ocean

I plan on using one in my bathroom, and one in my bedroom, and one in my car. Each sachet comes with a ribbon that matches the sachet. The ribbons are not shown in this post.

The humidifier does have an automatic shut-off when the water is empty.

Do you use a humidifier? 

Disclaimer: I received a free humidifier for the purpose of this review. The opinions are 100% mine.

Castile Soap - Unscented Review

I love cleaning with things that do not have a ton of chemicals added!

I just got Castile Soap to review. Yep I'm using it to clean with! 

Castile Soap has been around so long. That's why I trust it so much. I've used the bar version to make my own laundry soap. It works!

TriNova's Castile Soap liquid form works as well. You do need to dilute it down with water to use it.

Last week I dropped my 1 cup measuring cup that had my sauce for my stir fry in it. It had turmeric in the sauce. I was worried our floor that Travis just put in not too long ago would be yellow for awhile. After picking up all the glass pieces we could see, I decided to try out the Castile Soap.

The Floor Cleaner: 

1/2 cup TriNova's Castile Soap, drops of peppermint essential oil to 3 gallons of mop water and cleaned the floor.

Bam it was clean!

I decided to try a recipe on the back of the TriNova's Castile Soap to see how well I'd like their All Purpose Cleaner:

1/4 cup soap added to 1 quart of water in a spray bottle. I added drops of lemon essential oil.

Bam it cleaned under and around my toilet really well! I want to point out that it's not sudsy. I wasn't making a mess to clean.

Other things you can try:

• For Clean Dishes: 1:10 in hot water.

• To Protect Plants: 1 Tbs soap in 1 quart of water with a dash of cayenne to discourage bugs. 

• To Sterilize Fruits and Vegetables: 1 Tsp in a bowl of water to remove pesticides and residue. 

• For Soft and Smooth Skin: One small squirt applied to a washcloth or wet hands. *I'll be using this when the boys go to their outdoor camp.

• Use it as a natural glass cleaner. It will make your glassware, mirrors, and windows streak-free.

It really can be used to clean anything! I love that a little bit goes a long way! You get 32 ounces, but it's diluted down with water every time.


It's not very expensive: $34.97, but on sale for $17.97.

Have you used Castile Soap before?

Disclaimer: I received product mentioned for free in exchange for a review. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Random Tid Bits

1. I'm off work until Monday. I'm contagious with Influenza for 5 days. I'm just hoping kid number 1, kid number 2, and Dad doesn't get it. I feel better, then worse again. I'm on day 3 of the sickness. The doctor said day 2 and day 3 were the worst days. 


2. I'm about to let the kids watch moves all day. I feel like sleeping. Actually I convinced Mica to read a book.


3. The boys want to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house so bad. They were supposed to go there today, but I'm out of commission, so they are here. Even though I've told the boys why they can't go to Grandma and Grandpa's house Isaak keeps asking about going.


4. Both boys got super hero blanket/snuggie things from Aunt Terra yesterday. Mica's the only one that would pose, but Isaak's more excited about his. Mica got Batman and Isaak got Superman. Mica's just not excited about anything other than toys.





5. I told the boys, "I don't want to see you holding Legos on the couch, or love seat out anymore. I cleaned too many out from under the cushions when I was vacuuming them out the last time. Every time I look over Mica he has a Lego construction he's holding on the loveseat. It like telling a dog to get off the furniture. 

Busy Bees

Mixed brood comb. Flickr photo by Gord Campbell

At Work

It's midterm time at the college I teach at. This time always = a busy time. I'll do my best to get back to people. I'll try my best to return comments; not because I have to, but because I want to. If I let one comment back at ya slip, at least you understand why. Next week I'll be MUCH better!

This year in particular is a crazy year. I'm changing all my handouts, tests and keys over to the program InDesign. The information will copy over, but the font, size and styles will not. I also have been catching my own errors. I guess now is a great time to see them! At least I get to look forward to this time next year; all the documents will already be transferred over!

One of my books went out of print. With all the new reading assignments, I bet I'm one of the only ones that's reading it! I do have to read it because I have PowerPoints on the reading assignments, and test over them. Art students in general do not like to read. This new book is move advanced than their last one. That's both good and bad. Good because it gives them a jump start into understanding how design and typography work. Bad because it goes through things faster than my lectures previously went. I've decided to leave my lectures where they are at, and build new, additional ones that go over the reading. Repeating isn't always bad. Especially if things are explained in an entirely different way.

At the Y

Isaak and Mica went into a non competitive swim team. Mica kept up. Isaak did not. Isaak's a good swimmer for his age, but they were having him do strokes he was never taught. They put him in a swimming lesson that was at the same time. That to was too hard as well. Mica's continuing on with the swim team. Isaak took many steps forward, and many steps back. I only wanted him to move up one lesson. Soon we'll get it right.

Mica still loves Jiu Jitsu. We'd love to put Isaak in there to, but you have to be age 6 and up to join that one. There is no way we'd be able to make it to the Y at 5:15 for him to participate with the younger class.

At School

The school has put in game nights for each class; on different nights. The only trouble is, is that siblings can't go. One of us (me) has been going. It's a good thing. I now get why they have them on different nights. It's to exchange phone numbers, and to get to know parents better. Then play dates can happen.

At Home

We had 2 play dates this weekend; one for each kid. They went well, but Isaak was super excited; so much so that he was showing off, and having a hard time understanding that you have to still listen to Mom and Dad. Now we have to go over friend etiquette with Isaak. It's Isaak's first friend over from this school. He was trying to be goofy to make his friend laugh. Then when it was time to pick up, Isaak still wanted to be goofy. His friend was doing all the pick up work. I think showing off is normal. It's just that we have to talk to him more about how to act when friends come over. It made me feel much better when Mica's friend's Mom came to pick up her son, and told us she had problems with her son when her older daughter has friends over.

Blog

Today is a catch up day. I have two reviews to write. One being a giveaway. I also want to blog for a post to go up Tuesday night, a post to go up on Wednesday night and another to go up on Thursday night. Do you pre-post, or post right away?

Super Busy!

I know I didn't even post a Sing, Sing a Song Saturday post yesterday. I still want to keep that going.

This weekend was crazy busy. I'll post about each thing we did with photos.

Here's a quick recap:

• We refinanced our house. Now we have lots of work to do before they inspect us. We have to put a railing in on some steps we have, we have to scrap and paint some of our house and we have to replace a door that goes from our basement to our garage. We both feel overwhelmed! We've never refinanced, so we didn't know all this had to be done! YIKES!
• We finally celebrated my birthday that was June 21 and Grandpa Spiehs' Fathers Day. It was nice we went to a park. That's something new for us.
• I had my first online friend over. I never met her in person. She assisted me with one of my very first giveaways. Check out Snugfits. We email back and forth and talk on Facebook. Her family (3 boys) came to my house along with Aunt Terra and her (3 boys) to have fun on our slip n' slide. It was a great time!
• Today I ran errands all morning. 
• I've been cleaning, spackling, digging up weeds and doing laundry all weekend! 
• Isaak has to of course be going through a stage of night time accidents. He'll go through a month of time being dry and then it's wet, wet, wet! I take him potty before bed. It doesn't seem to matter, he's still soaked when he wakes up! Uggg! 
• Daddy's been swamped at work! He's always swamped when we don't want him to be! 
• Blogger was acting odd yesterday for me. I went to upload a video for Sing, Sing a Song Saturday and my site along with others were just spinning. That's the main reason why I didn't get up a song.

This Makes Me Want to Spend More Time With My Kids ;)