Just Had A Baby ? - Enter Turbo Tax Search for America's Cutest Last Minute Tax Deduction Contest

There is still one week left to enter America's Cutest Last-Minute Tax Deduction Contest! Moms of December new babies have a chance to win $5000. 

TurboTax® the nation's No. 1 rated, best-selling tax preparation software from Intuit Inc. is conducting its third annual nationwide search for America's Cutest Last-Minute Tax Deduction. 

The parents of one lucky baby, born in December 2009, will win $5,000.

To enter, parents or legal guardians should submit a photo of their baby born between Dec. 1-31, towww.cutesttaxdeduction.com. The deadline for submissions is January 7, 2010. 


Judges will select 10 finalists, and America will determine America's Cutest Last-Minute Tax Deduction and the $5,000 grand prize winner!


Why not enter, $5,000 buys lots of diapers.


Further details, rules and eligibility are available at www.CutestTaxDeduction.com.  

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Toy "R" Us Post Christmas Special Deals

Toys“R”Us is offering tons of  Post-Christmas Deals On Video Games, DVDs, Toys and More

 Highlights of the special deals available at Toys“R”Us stores from Saturday, December 26, 2009 through Saturday, January 2, 2010, while supplies last, include:

BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE on all Leapster Software

BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE on all V.Smile and V-Motion software

BUY ONE, GET ONE HALF OFF ALL Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 video games

BUY ONE, GET ONE HALF OFF ALL Nintendo DS video games priced at $19.99 or less

BUY ONE, GET ONE HALF OFF ALL video game accessories priced at $19.99 or less

BUY ONE, GET ONE HALF OFF ALL DVDs priced at $19.99 or less

50% OFF ALL Alive Cubs – Was $19.99 to $59.99; Now $9.99 to $29.99

BUY ONE, GET ONE HALF OFF on ALL Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway Accessories

BUY ONE, GET ONE HALF OFF select preschool board games

SAVE $30 on LEGO Star Wars Home One Mon Calamari Cruiser – Was $109.99; Now $79.99

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Gift Hero.com - Taking the Stress Out of Christmas Shopping

Christmas and the Holiday season should be about fun, family and gifts but somehow it's not. It has become all about gift giving, parties and family stuff. This year, I have the added stress of being unemployed and more importantly having a daughter at a gift crossroads. Her list includes the Wii and Nintendo DS.

She is in my opinion not ready for the Nintendo DS and frankly, the idea of introducing it in our lives is something I want to avoid as long as I can. I am not buying the Wii for the same reason.

So what the heck is THE gift for a 6 1/2 year old girl. In year's past it was a piece of cake to buy for her between the leapster, V-Tech, dollhouses, dolls, kitchen stuff.

So thankfully in my cluttered mind, I remembered a site that happened upon that was initially intended as a one-stop site to buy birthday gifts - www.gifthero.com.

The site was started by two moms who were always stressed about all the birthday gifts they had to buy and could never find the appropriate gift. Haven't we all been there? I had looked at the site early on and thought a lot of the gifts were so on target. What I found really helpful was the  Gift Finder which segments all the gifts by age, gender and price.

So has I headed into Christmas I had "Lightbulb" moment. Why not just go to the site for my daughter's gifts and put myself on a budget and go from there.

Here is what I ended up. Since I forced myself on a budget it was easy to choose gifts that indulged my daughter's creative side without breaking my budget. Full disclosure, I did a buy a few other gifts not on the site because my daughter's Dear Santa list included a couple of things that needed to be bought at a toy store.

I wished I had written this earlier for you last minute shoppers because I just got an email that says that you can order as late as 11:59PM on December 21st (TODAY) and get your gifts by Christmas Eve. Just choose the 2-day express option.

Finally, gifthero.com offers free shipping on orders of $75 or more. Even if you don't have the opportunity to get your Christmas gifts, check it out for your birthday gift needs.

Disclosure: This is my personal opinion because I wanted to spread the lov

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Red Plum.Com Gifts Under $30

Since I was unavailable, one of my contributers, CGN  graciously offered to be a “guest” contributor for New York Single Mom.com. Her assignment was to attend Redplum.com’s “Gifts Under $30” event.  Here is her review. 


As many of you know, Redplum.com is a website where you can find special offers, great deals, valuable product information and coupons for products and services.  The site allows you to find things that are local to your area. Best of all they do all the research to find the best offers, deals and products and feature it in one place, saving an enormous amount of time. 


They did a great job with the “Gifts Under $30” idea. Not only do they offer shopping discounts but also lots of great lifestyle advice. After meeting their great editorial staff, I have total faith that these gals have great ideas.

Check out the super advice they dish out in “5 Tips on Hosting An Open House” – any advice on how to fit 50 people in a 600 square foot apartment? And “4 Holiday Ingredients


To Skip”  thank God there was no crazy ideas about substituting margarine for butter!!!
Redplum also has IKEA do up two very attractive and creative table settings.  The settings were versatile and weren’t just for the holiday – this one would look great at a beach house. I love the greens and blue. 

Back to the Christmas gifts - I have a wide variety of family and friends to shop for – from a 95 year old uncle to a 3 month old nephew, friends who have everything and also who have much better taste than I; friends and family with house five times the size of my NYC apartment to nieces living in tiny dorm rooms.


Every few years I commit to gathering goodies throughout the year, but often I put things aside and forget where I put them until I do Spring cleaning. Redplum has put together a great resource if you can be decisive and committee to an hour or so – you could easily knock off at least five or six gifts. Here are some of the ones I’m seriously considering:



For the little ones

MYPACIFIER
$5 - “mute button” pacifier
Put the baby on “mute” - While I don’t have children, I do have four nieces and two nephews in addition to being an honorary aunt to about ten or so other “nieces and nephews”. From my babysitting days, I know you can never have too many “binkies”.  This customized binky; pacifier or whatever you want to call it can be customized and is gender neutral so it is also good for a baby shower gift.  Redplum’s suggestion of “Mute Button” fits the bill. 







For the Pre-Tweener
 

SNAPPY HEADBAND
$18 - interchangeable headband – you choose two
I always want to be the aunt who gives the fun gift that will always be remembered. The Interchangeable Headband is it. I can hear the girls 25 years from now . . . “When I was seven my aunt gave me the best gift . . .”  I love that the hair band is easy to put together; very cute felt designs that are easy enough for a five year old to manage and tame enough for Mom and school dress policies to approve.








For those friends in the ‘burbs or anyone with steps that get icy 

SCENTED DE-ICING SALT
$16 - scented salt
This is the perfect hostess gift for those with inclement weather. Scented De-Icing Salt!  Just last year I took a tumble down my sister’s front entrance steps – living in an apartment one doesn’t know how the disappears into that ugly grey/black gunk – but when you have  a lovely home it’s nice to keep things looking and smelling nice. Great for a friend who doesn’t let the weather stop a party. 


For 20 somethings or really for any one - great for those of us who may be domestically challenge
 

FORKING FANTASTIC
$20 - entertaining/cookbook

This is a very well organized, direct and easy to follow cook/entertaining book.  Often I check out many of the famous/lifestyle gurus’ books – their ideas sound great but can be intimidating to implement.  This is on the mark.  Forking Fantastic will “de-stress the fête”!

So there it is.  Get online to Redplum.com to make things a little easier for yourself this year; they did all the testing, research, etc all you have to do is get out the credit card.

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Bath and Body Works Christmas Shopping List

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Open Letter to Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel - The Brooklyn Target is your worst run store

Let me say for the record that I love Target (aka Targey). I have for quite some time so much so that that during every business trip that I ever had, I have made time to go to the local Target and never walked away without buying something. When I traveled to Omaha (which was every 2 months for 2 years), my account manager would purposely schedule in 2 hour break for me to hit a Target Superstore before dinner. Now that's service.

I have been to Target in California, Arizona, Florida, Virginia, Nebraska, Illinois and North Carolina and have never been disappointed until NOW.

Yesterday, I went to the Target and it was utter chaos. I went for three things I saw in the weekly circular (Princess Tiana doll (that I will get over since it is the #1 movie, a sleeping bag (gone) and half off nutcrackers (gone) and buy one game get card game free. The toy department was insanity, stock boys had carts in the middle aisles so that you could not get the shopping carts pass, no one had any idea where the games where. One woman asked where the connect 4 game was and no one could answer it or even made an attempt to help her. I helped her plus I told her about the free card game. Pathetic customer service.

I am sure you are thinking its the holidays but don't even give them that much credit. It's always like that. I have been there in the morning, afternoons, early evening, weekends. It's a joke.

I have never seen such bad service, poorly run and pathetically stocked Target than that Brooklyn Target. The shelves are always half empty so much that I feel like I am shopping in a third world country. The shoes racks, are always empty, you can never find your size, the linens are never stocked, any seasonal items, good lord, forget it, the  clothes departments looks like elephants trampled through it and they never have any good mossimo stuff.

Seriously, I have no idea who the manager is but they should be fired. I just don't get it.

I keep hoping it will improve but it never does, I should learn my lesson not to specifically make a trip out there when I see something in the weekly circular because I am always disappointed.

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LeSportsac and Bath & Body Works Promotion Until Dec. 24

 Two of my favorite brands, LeSportsac and Bath & Body Works are teaming up for the holidays.  

From now until December 24^th, if you buy any LeSportsac bag on the website or in the stores, you will receive a free Bath & Body Works anti-bacterial hand gel. 

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1800flowers.com Customer Service Experience

This weekend, I held my annual Christmas party for small group of friends. As part of my decor,  I decided to order flowers from 1800flowers.com because it was one last thing to do on my list. Ordering flowers was a piece of cake, the website is super user friendly and allows you to choose when you want the flowers delivered.

On Friday, my flowers arrived and I was so happy when I opened the box but then I put the flowers, Tiger Lillys in my vase and noticed that most of the steps were bent. It was obvious those steps would never bloom. Since I had always received perfectly intact flowers, I wondered what the customer service experience would be like.

Well, I can report back that the customer service rep was very nice and accomodating. I am not sure what I expected. Actually I expected them to question my feedback but they apologized for the flowers being damaged, sent me a replacement and gave me a $20 credit.

Sadly, I did not have a bouquet for my party but at least I can say that 1800flowers.com stands behind their product.

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Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2010 Game for Wii Giveaway

Jillian Michaels  Fitness Ultimatum 2010 Game for Wii Giveway

Back in September, I had the pleasure of meeting Jillian Michaels, the trainer from NBC's "The Biggest Loser" to get a sneak preview of her Wii Fitness Ultimatum 2010 Game.

Luckily for my readers, I don't have a Wii (maybe next year). So because I don't have the Wii, one lucky NYC Single Mom Review reader will win a copy of Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2010.

To win, comment on what your favorite form of exercise is.
For additional entries:
1. Link to this giveaway post on your blog and leave a comment with the link.
2. Follow me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/NYCSingleMom
3. Become a Follower
4. Become a Subscriber
5. Become a Facebook Fan: http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-York-City-Single-Mom/173390540429

Contest is open to U.S. residents, ages 18 and over, only.
Contest ends Monday, December 14, 2009. Winner will be selected by random.org and announced on the site.If winner does not respond within three days, another winner will be selected. 

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Dr. Seuss Grinchmas and Dr. Seuss Camera - The Grinch Edition iPhone/iPod Apps Review

Recently, the first series of officially licensed based on the beloved Dr. Seuss classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! for iPhone/iPod touch apps. Well there is good news and bad news. Grinchmas, a casual, light-hearted snowball and present-throwing game, priced at  $1.99 is basically you pretending to be the Grinch throwing snowballs at the Who-ville houses. I have to say and my daughter agrees it is a boring game, it is pretty much as advertised, you just throw snowballs. I was quite sure if there was more to the game but wasn't interested in finding out since we got tired after the first game. So not worth $1.99, even free is too much to spend. Dr. Seuss Camera - The Grinch Edition, a unique and whimsical greeting card maker now available for only $2.99, on the other hand was fun. There are tons of options to make Grinchmas cards using the built-in camera that will keep you busy for hours.  Cards can be emailed to friends/family or saved to your library. Of the two, I would opt for the Dr. Seuss Camera as I think that will keep your kids and occupied far longer than the game but that said, I don't think I would it's worth $2.99 but should be priced at $1.99. Disclosure: Both products were provided by Oceanhouse Media, Inc. for review purposes only and I was not compensated for the review. 

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