How to follow the Nifty Thrifty Family

Today I wanted to send out a quick reminder that when Google disables their Reader on July 1st, you can still follow The Nifty Thrifty Family thru the following sites.

Google + - Felicia R

Facebook - Nifty Thrifty Family

Twitter - @NiftyFamily

Pinterest - NiftyFamily

You can also sign up to receive each post thru email just go the Nifty Thrifty Family blog to sign up.

As bad as I hate the new change, I look forward to still sharing with my followers and friends. I have moved almost everything over from my reader, just have a few more to go. If you notice that I am not following you thru any of the above please let me know and I will make sure to follow. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

The Pocket Hose

I hate having to deal with rubber water hoses. I think they are a pain to place back on the holder. I hate the bends  and kinks that happens to most of them too. I dread every time I have to deal with that bulky rubber water hose. So when I saw the Pocket Hose advertise I thought it would be a neat thing to have, since I use the water hose almost every night, watering flowers in the summer.
Since I was very skeptical about this hose. I waited until I found the Pocket Hose in the store and I had to make sure I got a very good deal on it. I found the 50 foot Pocket Hose at Bed Bath & Beyond. I got to use a 20% off coupon and with that 20% off coupon it took the price just below $15.

After getting the Pocket Hose home, I had to try it out immediately. The hose did exactly what it claimed to do. When the water was turned on, it expanded to 50 foot and when the water was turned off the hose went back to the size that it was, when I bought it. There is only two things that really concerns me. One being that the hose is light green. That light green gets dirty very fast. The second concern is that it takes a long time for the water hose to drain all the water out with a sprayer on it. But if you take the sprayer off it drains very fast.

So I have had my Pocket Hose for little over a month now. I actually love everything about about it, until last night. I was doing general cleaning with the pressure washer. When I was done with the pressure washer I turned the top valve of the hose closed, because I was going to use the hose by itself. Next thing I see is this clear bubble filling up from the side of the hose and within seconds water shot out the side of the hose.

 I am thinking about returning the hose to the store that I bought it at and see if they will exchange it. Even with this mishap, I am still in love with the pocket hose. I think I might give it another chance. I just wish the hose would come with a warranty or something.
Have you ever tried the Pocket Hose? If so, what has been your experience?

Please note that I was not paid or compensated in anyway to write this review. This is a product that I wanted to try. All thoughts and opinions expressed are solo the thoughts of the Nifty Thrifty Mom.

Update on getting a New Pocket Hose:
I took my busted Pocket Hose to Bed Bath & Beyond were I purchased it. With no questions asked they told me to go get another one. So I am back loving my Pocket Hose again. 

Gender Reveal Party!

I have never heard of a Gender Reveal Party before, until one of my family members brought it to my attention. After looking at some parties on Pinterest. I thought it would be a great way to reveal the gender for our soon to be newest member of our family. If you are wondering what a Gender Reveal Party is? It is were the parents invite friends and family to a get together and everyone finds out the sex of the baby at the same time. It can be a small or large gathering. On the invitations we asked guests to come wearing pink or blue, to show their support of team pink or team blue. We also asked for no gifts to be brought. We just wanted them there to share in our moment of joy.
The hardest part of having one of these parties is not finding out the sex of the baby at the ultra sound.  The expecting mother just needs to ask the tech to write boy or girl in a sealed envelope and then they take the results to their neutral party. It's okay if the parents find out the sex at the ultra sound, but just remember your guest will drill you on the results and you could slip up.
My brothers wife, Angela who is the best sister n law in the world, was our neutral party and the host of the party. I think she did a wonderful job. Our party was just a back yard get together. It was nothing fancy, but we had a wonderful fun time.
 The decorations were awesome.

Here is the mix of blue and pink cups and straws. I love the label on the jar.

My brother created the poster. We had our guest place their tally of boy or girl when they arrived.

We gave out thank you gifts to our guest. They were filled with pink and blue salt water taffy.

There was pink and blue mints on the tables.

This was the cake table. We had pink and blue marked Hershey bars, suckers and more salt water taffy. One thing I learned from this. If your party is outside you might want to freeze the chocolate bars before hand. Our bars became mush within an hour due to the heat. But before all the guest left we placed the candy bars in the freezer and the children were still able to take them home. 

Here is the cake. The cake's inside was blue or pink. We found out after the big reveal.

 We also had cupcakes. The cupcakes were blue and pink. I love the toppings.

 We also had pink and blue punch. I liked the blue punch better than the pink.

We had a array of food. There was something for everyone. We had finger sandwiches of turkey and cheese to ham and cheese. I made my awesome chicken salad sandwiches.  Fruit and Vegetable trays were served. We made my friends special recipe of meatballs. My friend brought BBQ from Marks Feed Store. (My craving is BBQ). For the sides we had potato salad and chips. 

This was the box that held the big secret.  It was filled with balloons that were the color of the sex of the baby.

It's a BOY!!!!

The reveal was awesome. Not only was it exciting for my family. Our guest had a blast and some had tears of joy along with me. After the big reveal, we enjoyed cake and ice cream. Then it was time to see who won the games.

 We played place a dollar in the pot game. You place a dollar in the jar and your name in a pink or blue jar. The winners name was picked  from the jar that was the gender of the baby.

The winner was so nice that she gave a $1.00 to everyone of the kids there.

 The next game was guess how many babies were in the jar. The winner received a gift.














The last fun thing we had was ball toss for the kids.

Overall the get together was great. I want to thank my wonderful friend Angela (the best sister n law in the world) for hosting and designing this awesome get together. If you are or planning to have a baby or if you know of someone who is having a baby, throwing a gender reveal party is so much fun. It puts the "they knew before me" hurt feelings aside, because everyone finds out at the same time.

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Renting your College Textbooks

How many old college text books do you have laying around your house? I have more than I can count. I did not keep them on purpose, the campus bookstore would not take them back.This happens so much, you pay this outrageous price, with the hope to get some of your money back at the end of the semester. Just to hear the words, they are not using these books next year.
I have been asked to share with you a wonderful way, not to have to resale textbooks or be stuck with text books for years to come.  Have you ever heard of renting a text book? CampusBookRentals.com is a website where you can rent your college textbooks and save 40 -90% off bookstore prices. They even offer free shipping both ways. You can even highlight in the books you rent.
This site also offers a way that students can rent the text books they already own to other students. This is a great way you can make some cash rather than selling them back. Check out rentback.com. This site actually tells you just how much your textbooks are worth.
With each textbook that is rented a donation will be given to Operation Smile. Wow.. saving money and helping out a child's smile, all at the same time. So Happy Renting! I wish this was around when I was in school.  I have included a video that will sum up on how the renting process works.