Thursday, March 23, 2017

It's National Reading Month! Celebrate with your Mobile Device!

FTC disclaimer:  This is a sponsored post from U.S. Cellular.  All opinions are my own.

With a blog name of "Books, Bargains, Blessings", you know I love books.  I used to be a self-proclaimed book snob and only read physical books.  But then I got a mobile device from U.S. Cellular and discovered the amazing world of eBooks.

My husband and I have a lot of appointments, and I love the fact that since I always have my phone on me, I am able to access a book anywhere I am with U.S. Cellular's national wide coverage.  Not only books, but I can read magazines, news, and yes, even blog posts on my phone.  I have read more than one book by stealing a few minutes here and there.  In line at the grocery store, waiting at a doctor's appointment, or while my husband fills the car with gas, having a reading app on my phone allows me pull up something interesting to read wherever I am.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

March 2017 Life Update

Things have been really exciting around here lately.  Mostly with good excitement.  I've kept my big news from February rather quiet because I didn't want anyone to know we were going to be gone for a while, but I won a big sweepstakes prize on SuperBowl Sunday.  So many companies have promotions on that day, I nickname it "SweeperBowl".   Turkish Airlines aired a commercial with James Earl Jones, and in conjunction with that gave away 10 business class tickets.  I won one of them!  For my husband to join me on the trip, we had to purchase a ticket for him, and we had to pay for hotel.  But still, we had planned a vacation for this month anyway.

Friday, March 17, 2017

The New Sheetz Reward Program De-Mystified (Based on What I Know Now)

One of my most visited blog posts is The Ultimate Guide to the Best Deals at Sheetz so I felt I needed to write a blog post about what I currently know about how the Sheetz reward program is changing on April 5, 2017.

This seems to be the year for changes to loyalty offers as My Coke Rewards is changing and the last day to enter codes is March 22, 2017.   Because Sheetz is my favorite loyalty program with My Coke Rewards a second, I have to wonder what is in store for 2017 with anything else I participate in!

One of my favorite things with the Sheetz program has been the buy 10 get 1 free offers.  In my guide to the best deals at Sheetz I suggested saving your free items for MTO products for a more expensive one.  For instance, I love the meatball and pepperoni subs.  (If you haven't tried the pepperoni sub on wholegrain with extra marinara sauce, you are missing out!)  If I save these credits and redeem them for a $9 six inch sub (which can be possible), then here is the breakdown of what I am spending and the rewards on that item.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Five Great Apps for Planning a Date Night

FTC disclaimer:  This is a sponsored post.  All opinions are my own.

My husband and I love to go out and do fun things.  It is rare that we have a date night that isn't in some way associated with something we needed to do that week, but it's also because we live in such a rural area that we try to plan our trips to the cities near us.  When we do, we always pull out my iPhone 7 Plus from U.S. Cellular and plan the evening.

When we were dating, we did a lot of texting as phone plans were different back then.  Did you know that 61% of people texted a potential love interest within the first few weeks following a first date.  (Funny but true, by the time my husband and I had a real date we were already married.  Everything we tried to plan fell through, including a trip to the Smithsonian -- that was when the government was shut down!  Perhaps my husband should have used these apps!)

What are some apps that are helpful when planning a date night?