Archive for January, 2009:
Giveaway: Little Debbie snacks
The doorbell rang, and I was so startled that I knocked my bowl of Kashi cereal all over my rocker and the carpet. Somehow, my mess missed the baby — thank goodness! A UPS guy was bringing me a package.
I opened it to find a bunch of Little Debbie snacks! Hooray! That made cleaning up my cereal no big deal.
I received 8 boxes of 100-calorie individually packaged snacks: Nutty Bars, Snow Puffs, Marshmallow Treats, Nutty Bar P.B. Stix, Chocolate Cakes, Yellow Cakes, Triple Fudge Brownies, and Gingerbread Cookies.
Oh, my goodness.
I don’t think you could call any of these snacks “healthy,” but hey, they are only 100 calories (assuming you eat just one!).
The folks at Little Debbie are offering three of my readers a box of snacks identical to the one I received. If you’d like to win, please leave a comment below. For fun, tell me your favorite snack. I will accept entries until midnight on Saturday, January 10. After that, I will use a random number generator to select the winners. I will then contact the winners to get their mailing address and then pass it on to Little Debbie.
**Note: Winners must live in the lower 48 states. Sorry, Alaskans, Hawaiians, and international readers!
**Note #2: If you haven’t ever commented here, or haven’t commented in awhile, your comment may have been held for moderation. Check back later to make sure I approved it! If you think yours was overlooked, e-mail me at sensetosave (at) gmail.com
No more second-hand children’s goods? Say it ain’t so!
While catching up on my blog reading yesterday, I came across some alarming posts about second-hand children’s items.
A new law, going into effect on Feb. 10, will prohibit the sale of children’s items (toys, clothing, etc.) unless they have been shown to be free of lead and phthalates.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?
This could be the beginning of the end for children’s second-hand resale shops. How can these stores afford to pay for testing of all this stuff? I don’t know what it would cost them to test each item they have, but it’s probably a lot. I’m guessing some stores won’t be able to absorb those costs. I don’t know how much they’d have to raise prices to offset it, but it might not be worth it to certain retailers.
Update: One father of two who makes children’s toys says it would cost him $2,500 to test a toy that he sells for $75. Great.
Where will we buy cheap children’s clothing and gear? Where will the current used items go? Landfills?
And what of yard sales? Are you telling me that it will be illegal to sell unverified children’s items there? Good luck with enforcing that, CSPC.
I made a quick stop into Once Upon a Child today to see if they had any baby swings. They had none. In fact, their gear shelves were mostly bare. I didn’t take the time to ask an employee if that had anything to do with the new law. Maybe I’ll call and ask what will happen to the store.
We have a ton of baby clothes right now, and I think we’ll be well stocked until my son is at least six months old, if not older. But after that? I really hope we won’t all have to buy a bunch of brand-new baby clothes.
Perhaps the law can be amended to apply to all items manufactured after Feb. 10. If not, frugal families everywhere will certainly feel the pinch. It’ll be interesting to see how this one plays out.
