Friday, September 2, 2011

The Kitchen & Bathroom: Benefits of Coconut Oil

I am just starting to use coconut oil.  Typically things that you can both eat and rub on your body kind of scare me, but coconut oil smells so nice and has lots of health benefits:
  • hair care (will rid your scalp of dandruff, kill lice, and is a super conditioner and shine giver)
  • skin care (great moisturizer and massage oil, apparently it helps with premature aging as well)
  • maintaining cholesterol levels (because it's 50% lauric acid, it helps prevent high cholesterol)
  • weight loss (less harmful saturated fats in this oil than other vegetable oils)
  • increased immunity (has antifungal, antibacterial, and antivirus properties)
  • proper digestion (the antimicrobial properties kill off the various bacteria & fungi in our foods)
  • relief from kidney problems, heart diseases, & high blood pressure
  • rich in antioxidants

Need I continue??

You can use coconut oil in my homemade deodorant, you can use it as a substitute for oil in baking and cooking, you can use it for hair and skin care...its an all-around great product. :)

Plus, with amazon's subscribe and save discount (which if you decide you don't like the service, you can cancel at anytime!) and coupon code NUTIVSEP you can get 2 jars of coconut oil for $6.49 each-- shipped free. 

Check out The Truth about Coconut Oil if you want to know more.

The Nursery: Saving Money on Diapers!

A few months ago a friend told me about Amazon Mom, where you can enroll (for free) to get diapers shipped to you (free shipping) on a monthly or bimonthly basis at 30% off.  My first response was thinking "I do better shopping sales and using coupons!" But, as we've added a third baby to our family I've found that 1) Its not that easy to go from store to store for the different diaper sales and 2) I often end up running out of diapers & coupons and paying full-price anyway.

So, last week I moseyed over to Amazon to see how expensive things are-- and I was shocked at the deals I found.  For example, I typically buy Huggies Snug & Dry diapers because they are the cheapest possible out of Huggies/Pampers, and the ones most likely to have high dollar coupons.  If I can find a Jumbo pack on sale it's usually $8.99.  If I am so lucky as to have a $2 off coupon, then I just bought the pack for $6.99 instead of the regular price of $12.99.  This makes size 2 diapers work out to $0.16 each + tax.  Not bad you say...

But, last week on Amazon Mom with subscribe and save, I bought Pampers Baby Dry (which I actually prefer) in a huge 246 count and after my 30% savings (not shown to the left), I paid $30.73 or $0.12 each with no tax, delivered straight to my door for FREE!

Now that saves me money, time, "oh my gosh we are totally out of diapers", etc.!  Plus, I can go online and manage what I want them to send, when I want it, and I can stop it at anytime.  Its fantastic!  And I get free two-day shipping on most things on Amazon as an Amazon Mom without the $25 minimum purchase restriction

I also bought some Seventh Generation diapers because they were only $14.36 after my 30% discount which made them $0.19 each instead of the $0.26 each + tax they are at Target.  I've been wanting to try them for a while and this seemed like a great opportunity since I can't find coupons for this brand.

And finally, I purchased some Pampers Thick Unscented wipes which work out to $0.02 each, a full cent cheaper per wipe than Walmart's price and matching the price for Target's Up&Up brand for wipes (which are great by the way...)

So, all-around I am pleased and excited to be an Amazon Mom!