MineForNine.com - Rent Maternity Clothes

Okay, I know..my first thought was that this is kind of silly. Who on earth wants to rent clothes, let alone maternity clothes? But then I thought, remember the third trimester when none of your clothes fit but you don't want to shell out the cash for something you'll only wear for a couple of weeks? Well, why not take a look at renting a few pieces? MineForNine.com has basics and fancy clothes, so you could find something for work, lounge, or dress up. You can borrow shirts for as little as $11, and pants for as little as $15! They've even got coats and nursing pieces too. So if you're thinking you've literally got nothing to wear, but you can't bear to pay much more for clothes, go check out MineForNine.com and see if you can find something that works for you!

MyFridgeFood.com

How many times have you been completely at a loss about what to make for dinner? Well, next time, go check out MyFridgeFood.com. Just select the ingredients you have to work with on hand, and it will give you ideas! This is very much like the service on AllRecipes to search by ingredient. Both are great resources if you're stuck in a rut and don't want to search too much for something new. Enjoy!

Great Article About Entertaining Young Kids For a $1 or Less

Here's another great article I found that I thought was worth passing along. Click here to read about 10 ways to entertain young children for $1 or less (without the TV!) You probably already know about most of them, but it's always nice to be reminded, especially if you're dying for some ideas right now =)

The Universal Card Deck For Kids - Fun Craft to Beat Boredom!

I found this fantastic idea for entertaining kids and I couldn't wait to share it! If you're looking for a fun craft to do with an older child, try this Universal Card Deck idea from the site Imagine Childhood. It's basically a card deck with ideas of things to do that is only limited by your own imagination. This would be a fun project to complete, and even more fun when it's done. Go see all the details and how to make the cards here. I envy all of you crafty people who can do these things so beautifully. I might just have to try my hand at this one, but it will NOT look like those pictures.

Tastespotting: Gluten Free Foodie Finds

If you've never looked at Tastespotting.com before, you're missing out on some serious eye candy. It's a great way to search foodie blogs for recipes, and you'll be drooling before you leave your computer! I was playing around on their site last night and decided to search Gluten Free, not expecting anything to show up. 455 hits later, I was proved wrong and had found at least two recipes I would love to try. And that was just from the first 2 pages. Here are the two I cannot wait to get my hands on:

• Almond Butter Cookies - Seriously. Three ingredients and the possibilities for making it your own are endless!
• Chocolate Nut Energy Bars - Low carb (11 grams!) and gluten free, and covered in chocolate ganache. Need I say more?

The recipe pictured can be found here.

Cloth Diaper Snap Conversion Service

If you've got cloth diapers with velcro that is driving you insane, here's a simple fix. Send your diapers off to Convert My Diapers, and they'll replace the velcro with snaps for a small fee per diaper. This might be a great way to deal with seconds diapers that you already didn't spend too much on! I believe this is a work at home mom, so you would also be supporting a great cause too =) The picture above is an example of what she's done with 3.0's, and they look fantastic. Click here to find a price list to get an idea of the cost for your diapers.

Thanks Rebecca!

Zinio Magazine eSubscriptions

If you love to read magazines, but don't want the clutter and don't like the wait for your first issue, try Zinio.com. Your magazine is delivered to you in an eForm immediately, and you can take it with you anywhere on all sorts of different devices. It's cheaper than traditional magazines too! You can choose to read online from any computer or choose to download and read offline.

You'll find great options:

Fit Pregnancy - 6 Issues for $9.97

Weight Watchers - 6 Issues for $9.99

Food Network - 10 Issues for $15

So if you're looking for a new way to do magazines, or even books for that matter,here it is! If you read them on your mobile device, it's so convenient to just stick it in your purse or diaper bag. You've got instant reading without the fuss of carrying books or magazines around!

Tight Bod With A Pod

Oh my goodness how I LOVE this website! Tight Bod With A Pod is a fitness site for pregnant and postpartum mamas. They break down the exercises by trimester and then post-natal mama and active mama, and all of their exercises have videos to show you precisely how they're done! They also have a newsletter you can sign up for that will email you exercises every day, which is a great way to stay motivated!

Pregnant mamas are bombarded with the idea that they'll do great damage to their babies or themselves if they work out when they're pregnant, but quite the opposite is true (barring complications, obviously!) Having websites like this that are devoted to helping you stay fit while you're pregnant is invaluable to helping you along the way. I worked out the whole way through my second pregnancy, and it definitely helped with the aches and pains along the way. I just wish this had been available to me then! Go check it out and start getting fit. Your body will definitely thank you!

EatYourBooks.com

So you've got this great collection of cookbooks, and you love to find recipes in them. But it gets time consuming, and it takes forever to make up a grocery list. But there's a better answer than giving up on your cookbooks! It's called EatYourBooks.com, and it's a membership service that has nearly 2,000 cookbooks in its database. You search for the cookbook you're using, and then you find the recipe you want. You can then make a shopping list with the recipes you choose! Just print it off and you're off to the store. The website has many other features that I haven't even begun to tap, but it's a great concept. Keep in mind that the recipes themselves are not included. Just the ingredients. So you really will need to have hard copies of the books to do your actual cooking. Or you could guess, and that could be interesting too! The membership price is not bad, so it might be worth the time you'll save!

RentMaternityWear.com

Daily Candy featured an awesome new site called Rent Maternity Wear. It's pretty much exactly what is sounds like: a website to rent maternity dresses from. And before you roll your eyes and say it's crazy, take a gander at the site. They've got a really great selection of dresses, and many of them are an awesome deal. Some are not so much (I've seen the exact dress on Zulily for less than the cost of renting it...) BUT, others are in the $30 range. While that's still on the high side, buying really nice maternity wear for special occasions is even pricier, and most of the time, you're not wearing it again. So if you have one of those occasions coming up and you don't want to shell out $70+, give this site a try and hopefully you'll save yourself some money! And check out the How it Works page for answers to any questions you might have too.

Find Great Deals in Athens - The Mommy Octopus

I know several of my readers live in or near Athens, and I wanted to pass along a blog that will help you find deals locally! The Mommy Octopus is a website that lists deals from all over, but there are often specific ones pertaining to Athens and the surrounding areas. Go check it out and save even more! She's also doing a giveaway for family passes to Fernbank Museum right now too, so go enter!

Handy Places to Register for Mommy Gifts

These days, it's very helpful to register for online stores. I know that many people won't buy things online, but it's still a very useful resource for the people that will! Here are some fabulous websites that have registries for things you might not think about registering for, but will really need! All of them have great registries, and they'll give you a very good idea for what you'll need:

• Milk Nursingwear - Believe me, you're going to want some cute nursing stuff, especially if this is your second baby. This site has adorable nursing shirts and dresses, and feeling cute postpartum is worth every penny!
• Earth Mama Angel Baby - If you're looking for some awesome products that really work, you have to register here. Oh, how I wish I had known about this stuff before my first! Their nipple butter is fabulous, and the bottom balm is wonderful. You want this stuff after labor...trust me!!
• Amazon Baby Registry - This one is fairly self explanatory. Everyone's already buying stuff from Amazon anyway. They could easily get free shipping, and you get to choose from so many more things than a traditional store would carry!
• Diaper Junction - If you're going to cloth diaper, get some help! People happily buy $15-$20 worth of diapers for showers, so why not ask for cloth instead? Get 5 or 6 people to buy and you've got half your stash for free!
• giggle.com - Giggle has great list of what they call their Better Basics Collection. All the items get free shipping, and are very handy for new moms. They have Halo Sleepsacks, organic clothes and teething toys, and get child proofing items. They also have fabulous customer service, so if there's a problem, they'll happily help you out!

Where have you registered that you were very happy with? I'd love to hear about more sites!

ThredUp Kids Invite

ThredUp Kids is a website that lets you trade boxes of gently used clothes! Here's how they describe it:

What is thredUP kids?
thredUP lets parents across America swap boxes of clothes that no longer fit their kids for stylish ones that will. We’ll connect you with thousands of parents nationwide, make clothing matches based on kids ages and brand preferences, facilitate exchanges and monitor quality. We know that swapping is hard to coordinate (esp with friends across the country) and that hand-me-downs often leave someone empty handed. thredUP makes swapping easy – bottom line. There’s no bidding, no auction lots, no rifling through consignment racks, and no trips to the post office. All swaps are done online, with home pick-up and delivery. Meet the next generation of swap parties!

So what can I do on thredUP?
Like Netflix, you can choose a box of gently used clothes you’d like to receive. You pay for shipping, you agree to list a box of your own child’s outgrown clothes and the box is sent to you (from another member). Then, similar to eBay, you list a virtual box of clothes that your kid no longer wears. When someone picks your box, you send it free of charge (we even have the USPS pick-up the box at your house). We manage the quality control and review process and take care of all the details to make sure you get a quality exchange.

Americans discard two quadrillion pounds (that’s a two with fifteen zeros!) of used clothes and textiles into landfills each year. thredUP lets you GO GREEN by swapping with like-minded moms and dads. By sharing what we already have, parents can make a huge step towards sustainability. Teach your kids the importance of green living by creating a “thredbank” – the place for kids to save outgrown clothes to exchange when the time is right.

Even better, do it with friends! In addition to the chore of organization, offline swaps are always uneven - friends with the oldest kids provide the hand-me-downs yet they receive nothing in return. And clothes are expensive! With the “Inner Circle” feature on thredUP, you can bring ALL of your friends online so that everybody wins. The person doing the giving earns credit each time they give. We’ll update you on your friends swaps, boxes they list and sizes and brands they are looking for.

They are in Beta right now, and they're offering free swaps for the first 1000 boxes of clothes listed. About 600 of those are already gone, so if you're interested, go check them out now and sign up for your free swap. This is invite only, so if you have friends interested, direct them to this post by using the Share button at the top of this post =). Let me know how you like it if you give it a try!

FillerItem.com

So you're making a purchase on Amazon and you're $3 shy of the free super saver shipping. You try and try to find something to get you to $25, but it's just such a large site! Enter FillerItem.com. Simple enter the amount you are looking to spend and out pops a list of all of the items for sale on Amazon for that price! This seems like a huge timesaver, so give it a try the next time you find yourself a few dollars shy of free shipping.

Pingg.com

If you've been looking for a new source for online party invitations, check out Pingg.com. This site has tons of great designs to choose from, and several different ways to send your invitation out! This includes being able to post your invite to facebook or twitter, a personalized web page, text, or even via the post office for a small fee. They also offer an Event Report so you can keep track of what's going on with your party in one place! I haven't tried this site yet, but I am looking forward to giving it a try. Have you heard of it or tried it?