August Extreme $100 Amazon Giveaway

Welcome to the Extreme Amazon Giveaway! I've joined up with other awesome blogs to bring our wonderful readers the chance to win a $100 Amazon Gift Card! There are lots of entries to choose from - you can do one or ALL to increase your chances of winning the big prize. 

Giveaway ends August 17th at 11:59 PM EST. Good luck! 

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WIN $500 Paypal Cash in July Extreme Cash Giveaway!

Welcome to the July Extreme Cash Giveaway! Gumdrops & Groanings has teamed up with Oh My Gosh Beck!, Broward Saves, Kimberly's Thoughts, SmartySaver, Life With Levi and other awesome blogs to give all our readers the chance to win a huge cash prize! 

This giveaway runs for a whole month, so you will have plenty of time to get through all the entries. There are also daily entries available so be sure to come back every day to grab as many entries as possible! 

Giveaway is open worldwide and ends August 20th at 11:59 PM EST. Good luck! 

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Giving away a Reusable Canvas Tote Bag!

Earn up to 32 entries. Ends 6/30/12. GOOD LUCK! You will get one of these styles with a "green" theme.

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The CookieCoo Dancing Star app lets kids play along with their favorite traditional children’s songs, like “Hokey Pokey,” while watching a whimsical 3D cookie character dance and sing with the music. CookieCoo Dancing Star is a perfect combination of fun and learning—it’s a game parents can feel good about letting their kids play, because they’ll be learning and practicing important concepts while they enjoy themselves.

 Download CookieCoo Dancing Star for FREE from May 18 - 31 here:

iPad download | iPhone download

To celebrate, CookieCoo Dancing Star will be giving away a $200 Amazon Gift Card to one lucky reader! Giveaway is open worldwide and ends May 31st at 11:59 PM EST.

CookieCoo is also giving away an additional $100 on their Facebook Fanpage. Visit for more information!

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May $400 Extreme Cash Giveaway

Welcome to the May Extreme Cash Giveaway! Gumdrops & Groanings has teamed up with over 80 awesome bloggers and businesses to bring you the chance to win $400 cash! 

This giveaway runs for a whole month, so don’t worry if you don’t have time to do all the entries at once. And don’t forget there are daily entries as well so come back every day to rack up all the entries you can.

Giveaway is open worldwide and ends June 10th at 11:59 PM EST. Good luck!

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April's Extreme Cash Giveaway $500 Paypal cash!

It’s time for the April Extreme Cash Giveaway! This month’s prize is... a $500 Paypal cash prize!

There are many entry options and daily entries as well, so keep this page bookmarked so you can come back every day to increase your chances of winning. Giveaway ends 5/13 and is open worldwide. Good luck!

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4/23/11, 1pm-4pm Eco Kid Bash at Gumdrop Swap in Downtown Bridgeport

So excited to announce this FREE event for Fairfield County! Like our Halloween event, Boo Bash, last fall, this event is open to the public. We will feature sponsors and vendors geared towards families, children, sustainability, wellness, and recycling. Kids will make crafts from recycled material and can plant seeds in a container they decorate. The Bluefish mascot (minor league baseball) will make an appearance at 2pm. Please RSVP on Facebook! If you have a business and are interested in sponsoring, opportunities start as low as $20! As of 4/4/11 there are 2 vendor spaces left.



Event planning by Pryceless Consulting. Thank you to all of our vendors and sponsors so far!

Community Residences Inc.
Clockwork Learning Center Black Rock
Veridian Energy for Less
Foster Adoptive Mission
Greater Bridgeport Transit
Snappy Dawgs, Gourmet Street Food
Cook and Grow, A Healthy Classroom Project
Uniquely Yours Handmade Greeting Cards
Natural Awakenings Magazine (Fairfield County)
Bridgeport Theatre Co.
Center for Green Builders
Main Street Pharmacy
Toppings Cupcakes
Gofer Ice Cream
Viva Cantina Mexican Restaurant
Moe's Burger Joint
City of Bridgeport
Email gumdropswap(at)gmail.com with any questions. We hope to see you there!
| FCBuzz.org

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DIY Small Business Accounting Made Easy

 When you are running a small business one must wear many hats. As solopreneurs, we're always looking to save money and do things ourselves to cut cost. Many things are worth hiring a someone else to do. Lots of administrative duties can be outsourced because, lets face it, our time is often more valuable elsewhere. I highly recommend hiring a CPA to file end-of the-year taxes. Tax laws change and professionals know about all kinds of write-offs we may not know about. But how do you handle the day to day numbers? If you are a public speaker or consultant, you may not have daily revenues or expenses to track. You are doing yourself a disservice by saving receipts and check stubs all year and waiting until the end of year to tally everything. You may be in for a shock.

Since I run a retail business, Gumdrop Swap, I have to record data daily. I wasn't sure if I should invest in a program like Quickbooks. I've heard good things about it but I just didn't want to purchase it yet. I designed a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel with my basic skills in formula making. It was beautifully colored and prettified and then... my laptop was stolen (my mistake for not backing that document up and I encourage you to back up everything! Even email it to yourself if you don't have another drive to save things on.) I knew I wouldn't be able to duplicate that Excel spreadsheet so I went on the hunt for a (free) or cheap one online. I figured if I could find a sample one I could tweak it to my needs. I stumbled upon a site called Basic Accounting Help. I read a few articles and then there was a claim to have free spreadsheet for download. I bet this is a scam or virus, I thought to myself. But I dared to download it and I was so glad I did! There was a simple but sophisticated Excel workbook that has 12 months and an end of year summary. You plug and play to tailor it to your needs. It was better than the one I had designed from scratch! So, I am sharing this with you. The woman behind the scenes is named Vickey and she'll answer any questions you have. She is passionate about helping small businesses. Soak up her advice. All she asks is that you sign up for her Small Business News (enewsletter) then she'll send you a link to download the spreadsheets. Feel free to tell her you learned about her from my blog. I told her how much I appreciated her and that I would spread the good news.

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For Those Who Like GIVEAWAYS!

Do you like entering or hosting blog giveaways? It's an easy why to win cool schwag, products, and services for free! The companies that giveaway the product or service get exposure and hopefully some word-of-mouth advertising and you don't spend a dime. Those bloggers that host the giveaways usually get the equivalent to write the initial post and more followers once the word gets out that they are hosting a cool giveaway. So everyone is a winner!

Whether you are someone who likes to enter or the blogger that hosts, you need to know about the "Mom Audience Giveaway Explosion" November 1-5! I have been a subscriber to Bev's newsletter for about 6 months now. It comes about once a month and has great offers from mom-owned businesses. She lets people post announcements about their blog, coupons, events... whatever. She's all about promoting each other to each other. I think this Giveaway Explosion is a great idea and if you are new to the blogosphere its a great way to meet other blogger moms and network with businesses! Have fun!

The purpose?
- To provide an explosion of giveaways

- To provide an explosion of new subscribers/clients/fans for all who provide giveaways

- To provide an explosion of new opportunities to connect with each other

- To provide an explosion of fun!!

How does it work?  You host giveaways on your site and Mom Audience will provide great exposure for your giveaways, as always. Team up with Mom Audience Giveaway Explosion and get your site in front of thousands!
Mom Audience will send out a special email each day from November 1 through November 5. Each email will list giveaways unique to that day, so each email will be different from the others, with different giveaways for each day.

To enter to win giveaways, simply subscribe to Mom Audience, and you will receive our five Mom Audience Giveaway Explosion emails, November 1-5, listing the new giveaways for that day. Peruse the list and enter the giveaways that look appealing to you.

To offer giveaways:

- Display our Mom Audience Giveaway Explosion button on your site now to ramp up traffic for your giveaways. See below.

- Subscribe to Mom Audience, if you haven't already.

- Create the giveaways on your site. Include subscribing to Mom Audience as an entry, please. (If you need help creating a URL for a future post see this help section).

- List your giveaway(s) on Mom Audience now - you don't have to wait until November. In fact, the earlier you list your giveaways, the higher on the list you'll be. The deadline to list your giveaways is midnight (Eastern) October 28.

- You can offer as many giveaways as you like. If you have multiple giveaways, spread them out over several days to get more exposure. But each giveaway may only be listed on one email, not repeatedly on several emails. 
- Blog, tweet, facebook, email, even call (gasp!) everyone you know to tell them about the Mom Audience Giveaway Explosion - the more exposure we get the more exposure you get.

- Announce your winners and enjoy your new subscribers/clients/fans!

To get even more exposure:
Mom Audience Giveaway Explosion emails will display sponsors' buttons at the top of the Mom Audience Giveaway Explosion emails. These will be exclusive to the Giveaway Explosion and will not carry over from the regular Mom Audience emails. So here's your chance to get top billing and place your site's button at the top of the email.

Choose the day you want to get increased exposure. Or place your button on two, three, four or all five emails! You'll get noticed as soon as our subscribers open the email!

To sponsor Mom Audience Giveaway Explosion emails, click here.

SPECIAL OFFER: Parents who have unwanted SUMMER girl's clothes in size 3T or SUMMER boys sizes 18M to 8! When you make your 1st swap I'll take your membership fee out of your earned credits. If you are ONLINE ONLY member fee is $14.99 for 3 mos or $49.99 for a year. If you are a LOCAL customer that swaps and shops in person, the cost for 3 mos is $44.97 & the year is $159.99 (for 1st child) Avg swap yields $200-$500 in credits. So the items you swap more than pay for your membership the first time you swap. Contact gumdropswap@gmail.com or 800-385-6080 for more details.

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Review & Giveaway: Sprounce Natural Cleaner Ends 4/30/10

***random.org was used to generate the winner and the number given was #10 so thriftymommy@verizon.net is the winner! Congrats! Thanks to all who participated." 

I am always on the search for natural or "green" products to promote or sell in my kids boutique (Gumdrop Swap). So I read about this all-natural cleaner on another site (forgive me, if I remembered, I would mention it here). Gimme a break people, I do most of my online communication and blogging in the wee morning hours. But I digress, I contacted the makers of Sprounce about being a wholesaler and they were nice enough to send two 4 oz bottles. Zoom. They were in my hands in days. Gotta love enthusiastic small businesses!

The website is easy to navigate and use. The product comes in a handy, diaper bag friendly size (4 oz) for only $4.99. Is is safe to spray on pacifiers, teething rings, etc. That's exactly why it was developed.  It contains a blend of oils that have been proven to naturally kill germs. Sprounce was developed to have safe contact on skin. It contains Canadian Willowhereb extract, which provides anti-irritant and anti-inflammatory properties on skin. Another great reason to keep it handy is Sprounce was designed as a “no-rinse” formula. Just towel or air dry. Rinsing with water is not necessary!

Since my butterbean is 2yo now, we are passed that phase. I wish I had known about this cleaner back then. I cringe to think how I "sanitized" things for my daughter when I was desperate. I plead the 5th amendment for fear of incriminating myself. But thank God she is happy and healthy today! So far I have used this to sanitize her toys that touch the floor or if they get sticky from pbj hands. And I use it to clean off her activity/dining table and chair. NOTE* it is made for non-porous surfaces and not intended for removing stains from clothing or to clean stuffed animals, cloth dolls, etc.

I cannot describe the scent. My olfactory memory tells me it's something I have smelled before. Kind of eucalyptus like? Then I read the FAQ's on their site and found this "The scent is from a combination of tea tree oil extract and lavender oil extract. " Any way... I know I will get a lot of use at the store sanitizing the surfaces that kids touch and the toys in the play area. But I thought I would share my good fortune by giving away a bottle. This is awesome for a new mom worried about the chemicals in cleaners used for baby items. With Sprounce, you can rest easy knowing you are not harming your child with toxins when you clean off their sippy cup tops and what have you. It's made by parents for parents.

Okay, here are the rules for the giveaway.

I will use random.org on April 30, 2010 (*extended from March 31) to find a random winner from the total number of comments. So the more comments (entries you have, the better your chances). C'mon you all know how this works :-)

• 1 entry for following me on Twitter (specify you Twitter name in your comment) 
• 1 entry for following Sprounce on Twitter 
• 1 entry for tweeting about this giveaway with a link to this blog entry (tiny url is http://tinyurl.com/yhlxeyd) 
• 1 entry for becoming a fan of GumdropSwap.com on Facebook
• 1 entry for becoming a fan of Sprounce on Facebook  
• 1 entry for mentioning my blog in a blog entry of yours (include link within your comment)

That's six chances! Good luck everyone!
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