If you are on a budget (and what family isn’t on a budget these days) then a great idea for a family vacation is Knoebel’s Amusement Resort in Elysburg, PA. It is the country’s largest free admission amusement park and is a very cost effective way to bring your family to an amusement park.

Just because the park is a free admission park doesn’t mean it has boring rides. On the contrary, some of the best amusement park rides in the country can be found at Knoebel’s. The Phoenix is a wooden roller coaster that has been featured in television shows on the best roller coasters in the country. The Haunted Mansion (or Haunted House) has been named as one of the best dark rides in the country for years. The Bumper Cars were recognized as the best in the country several years back in Parade magazine. And the food at the park is award winning.

You have two options for paying to ride the rides. You can purchase a hand stamp (available most weekdays) where you can ride the rides as many times as you want or you can purchase tickets and pay for each ride as you go. Each ride has a value – the children’s rides are cheaper than the roller coasters, for example. No matter what option you pick, if you want to go on the skyride, use the pool or go into the Haunted Mansion you must pay for those attractions with tickets.

You can bring food to picnic at the park because there are many different picnic pavilions where you can eat. You don’t have to sneak your food into the park here – many families bring their coolers with them in wagons to save money.

Knoebel’s is located in Elysburg, PA. It is about 2.75 hours away from Philadelphia, 3 hours from New York City and 4.25 hours from Pittsburgh.

Sometimes when we become moms we forget what it was like to be engaged. The excitement of getting married, of starting a new life with the man of your dreams. Being a mom is the most wonderful thing in the world, but it most certainly is not the most glamorous!

When you are asked by a close friend, sister or family member to plan a bachelorette party you might be at a loss. Well a great idea to try is to plan a poker themed bachelorette party. You can keep it small or have a larger party. The number of guests you invite will play a role in how many card games you will have going.

You don’t have to limit yourself to poker. Any card game is fine. A fun idea is to have a few different kind of card games going on at several tables in the room. If you have a daughter or young girl who is in the wedding party, why not invite her to a tame bachelorette party and include a table where the card game of choice is Go Fish or Old Maid?

There are no rules to planning a bachelorette party – all you need to do is plan for some fun!

You would think that going to buy window curtains would be easy. Well it is – and it isn’t. If you are experienced in purchasing window curtains you won’t need any help. You’ll know how to measure for them and what type you want to buy. If you aren’t so experienced then an introduction to window curtains could be just what you need. There’s a good introduction to the types of window curtains on the website Window Curtains 101. Some of the basic terminology used regarding window curtains is explained in plain language. It’s a great beginners guide to window curtains.

Window curtains are not cheap. If you have a lot of windows in your home, or if the windows you have are large you understand what I mean. Plus I have always found it difficult to find curtains I like. So once I find ones I like, at a price I want to pay, I want to buy them. There is one step though that is crucial to purchasing window curtains – knowing what size curtains you need. The easiest way to do this – learn how to measure your windows for window curtains.

It isn’t hard to do. Use a hard or metal measuring tool (like a metal tape measure or yardstick if your windows are small) so you get an accurate measurement. Measure the length of the window from where you hung your curtain rod to where you would like your curtains to fall. Measure the width of the window from the outside of the window casement. Don’t just measure the glass – otherwise you’ll be short in width. If you like the look of full curtains multiply this measurement by two.

There you have it. That’s all you need to do to measure your windows for curtains. Now if it was just as easy to find the curtains you love.

Everyone is looking for a way to save money these days. One great way to do that is by using grocery coupons. I had only thought about grocery coupons as being the ones you find in your Sunday paper but you can find lots of online grocery coupons too. This is a summary of my introduction to online grocery coupons.

First, not all stores will take online grocery coupons. You should check with the store for their policy on using them. One of the stores where I shop will honor the coupons, but only if they can be scanned. While they might manually enter in a newspaper coupon they won’t do that with an online grocery coupon.

Second, you’ll have to install programs on your computer that allow you to print the bar code on the grocery coupons. These programs are safe to use. As long as you are running a good anti virus/anti spyware program that is up to date you’ll be fine.

Next, you will want to get a junk email account for your coupon surfing. Some of the websites require you to sign up with an email address to get access to the coupons. You don’t want to use your regular email address because, trust me, you will be overloaded with emails. You can check your coupon email address once or twice a week. There are lots of places online to get free email addresses like Yahoo!, Gmail, AOL and Hotmail.

Finally, you are ready to begin searching for online grocery coupons. Here are some of the sites I found that have some good coupons to use:

www.Redplum.com
www.Coupons.com
www.Coolsavings.com
www.Couponsurfer.com

Don’t forget to go to the official websites for the products you use. You can often find some good coupons there too!

I think you would agree that times are tough, so when you make a purchase for your home you want to make sure what you buy lasts. For example – bathroom towels. Bathroom towels are used on a daily basis, and if you have a family you have several in rotation at a time. These are items that need to be washed on a regular basis, so learning how to care for your bath towels properly is important.

Bath towels should be washed before you use them to get rid of any dirt or grime accumulated in the store. Fabric softener should not be used – it affects the absorption power of the towels. Each person should have his or her own bath towels (ugh – can you imagine sharing them, even with family?) and they can be used more than once. That’s a personal preference – some people use them one or two times, while others use them for a week. Whatever you decide bath towels should be washed at least once a week on hot water to kill germs and bacteria. They can be put in the dryer on medium heat. I don’t recommend putting them on a clothesline to dry because they can accumulate lint that way. Since bath towels are heavy and take a long time to dry they should be washed in a group by themselves, sorted by color since hot water will cause the colors to run sometimes.

Caring for your bath towels is not complicated, and done properly you can have towels that will last you five or more years.

I just read a great article on Yahoo about when you need to give out your Social Security number. This article has validated what I’ve known for a while – that not everyone needs to have your Social Security number. But what this article does (besides listing where you must give your number and where you can say no) is give some suggestions for getting out of giving your number without getting confrontational.

One place that often asks for your number but doesn’t need it if you have health insurance is the doctor’s office. My children go to several different doctors and the one hospital is always asking for it. One time I asked the woman on the phone why they needed it and they said for insurance. I said that isn’t true, because they are covered under my husband’s insurance. It got a bit dicey so I told her I didn’t have the number, that the card was in the safe deposit box and she said just provide it next time. So anymore that’s the excuse I use – I don’t know his Social Security number off the top of my head, I’ll bring the card next time.

For many years a Social Security number was the way a person was uniquely identified in a database. Since no two numbers are the same it was an easy way to give that ID to a person. But there was never any law or legal basis for organizations asking for it, with the exception of a few. Where is it required to give out your Social Security number if asked? In a nutshell, if you are applying for credit, federal benefits, to the DMV, and or completing military paperwork then you need to provide it. You have the option to say no to providing it to places such as doctors, dentists, and schools.

I highly recommend reading the entire article on Yahoo.com. You can click here for a link to it.

A little more than a year ago I spent about a week in the hospital with a bout of diverticulitis. Diverticulitis is an infection in the large intestine, located in a small pocket known as a diverticula. It’s an extremely painful disorder and one I don’t want to experience again. Upon discharge from the hospital I was instructed that one of the best ways to help prevent a reoccurrence of the disease was by eating a diet high in fiber.

I’m not the best eater when it comes to fruits and veggies (the best ways to get fiber into your diet) so I spent a lot of time in the grocery store looking for high fiber foods that I would eat. One of the problem with foods high in fiber is that they are often high in calories. I was thrilled when I discovered Fiber One Nonfat Yogurt made by Yoplait.

Fiber One Nonfat Yogurt comes in several flavors – vanilla, strawberry, peach, and my favorite key lime pie. That’s the flavor I’m going to review today. It is only 50 calories per serving and has five grams of fiber. For anyone who is counting that’s 20% of your daily recommended intake of fiber. It is fat free – big bonus! There is less than 5 mg of cholesterol so that pleases me too – another one of my issues is a slightly raised bad cholesterol level. . It is sweetened with the artificial sweetener Aspartame.

This yogurt tastes so good. It has a nice lime flavor to it, and if you close your eyes and imagine a piece of pie you can almost taste a graham cracker crust in it. The texture is good – even if it’s been in the refrigerator for a few days it doesn’t get watery on top as some other yogurts do. My kids love the flavor of it, often taking a cup of Fiber One Nonfat Yogurt out of the fridge instead of one of their “kid friendly” yogurts I often buy for them.
My only complaint with Fiber One Nonfat Yogurt is the size of the cups. It used to come in a six pack with a larger portion size. Now it comes in a four pack with a four ounce serving size. I wouldn’t mind having some more yogurt per cup, even if it means more calories, so I don’t down two cups for a snack instead of one!

Price wise it isn’t too expensive. I’ve found the best price on Fiber One Nonfat Yogurt at Wal-Mart. However, you can often find coupons online for the product and if you combine that with a sale at your local grocery store you can do pretty well in terms of price.

I also like the vanilla flavor. I’ve never had the peach or strawberry – I don’t care for peach flavor and even though the yogurt appears to be fruit free I’m so afraid of eating a seed that I won’t get the strawberry ones.

I highly recommend this product to anyone who is looking for a healthy snack that is delicious as well as low fat and low calorie. I will be buying Fiber One yogurt as long as it is on the market!