Keeping Little Ones Safe This Summer

                                                                                                                                  Sponsored post

I recently wrote about about pool safety and small children following an incident that occurred with my three year old. At the time I was staying with my Dad who has a pool at his house and the incident occurred while we were all around the pool together. What I didn't say in the last post was, that even before I arrived at Dad's place I had been concerned about how safe my kids would be around the pool.

Way too often we hear stories about children drowning in back yard pools because they become curious and wander off on their own. These stories really scare me. I also have a very vivid imagination and I often go off into daydreams (or short visions) about terrible things that may happen to my kids, me or my hubby. Of course these things never actually eventuate but it does help me to take steps in advance to make sure we are all safe.

When I arrived at Dad's place for our holiday I was relieved to see that the pool was very well fenced. I even went to the fence myself and tried to imagine what my kids would have to do to get past the fence and realised it was very unlikely. The fence was secure.

My dream pool with EccoHardware fencing

These days fences are much, much safer then they were when I was a child. When I was young, our backyard pool was above ground and did have a fence (well, it was actually a gate on the deck). I don't remember having any trouble getting in and out of that fence. I think it would also have been pretty easy to bring a chair up to the edge of the pool and climb in.

It is the law now that pools are fenced but thankfully pool fences don't need to be ugly. EccoHardware, is a Sydney based company that builds beautiful glass fencing that complies with Australian standards so that you don't have to go through the crazy daydreams about what might happen to your child.  Their website is worth a look to drool over some gorgeous pools which are perfectly safe for adventurous little people.


Do you have crazy daydreams about scary things that may happen? Or is that just me?

Why Pumpkin is Evil and How to Fight it (in the Laundry)

It's raining here at the moment and that means my washing pile is growing by the minute. Sometimes I honestly wish that we lived a simpler life with only one outfit that we washed every night (ok that would only be good for washing and not great for anything else really).

Call me crazy but I quite like washing clothes. We have a massive old reconditioned washing machine that we picked up from some guy whose front yard to filled with old appliances. I absolutely LOVE it! We had two front loaders prior and they both died after 4-5 years. I wasn't sad to see them go because they made way for my massive washer. I can fit at least double the amount of clothes in this one.

The only thing that makes washing a burden for me is when I can't get stains out of my clothes. So I was excited when I was asked to review Vanish Napisan Oxi Action Powder. In my clumsiness, I spilled my glass of wine on our throw rug (I think it was while watching Offspring and laughing at Billie) and ended up with a red wine stain which looked a little like blood. The good news for me is that Vanish Napisan Powder gets it out no problem. It is also good for Coffee stains and my personal favourite puree pumpkin. When my girls were younger, all their little clothes had orange stains on them that just wouldn't budge. 

See, pumpkin IS EVIL

They only thing that would work is Napisan. I'd soak them as per the instructions on the box and they'd be gone. I also had a very special trick I used for the very stubborn stains. After following the normal soaking with Napisan, place the clothing in full sun. After the clothes were dry the stains disappeared like magic! 

I love this product and always have it on hand in my laundry. If you don't use it, I think it is worth a try.

Do you have a great tip for removing stains?

This is a sponsored post and I was given the product to try, but all opinions are my own.

Along Came a Spider {Product Review}

Sponsored post

Before I had kids I was a little nicer to bugs. However, when my babies were born, as soon as I spied a creepy crawly in the house I would go into protector mode and that bug had no chance. I was especially fearful of a spider going near my little people, but I also freaked out about flies fearing that they may end up in my child's mouth and choke them.

I was just protecting my kids

A squish or a splat is generally a very effective method of removing a nasty creepy crawly but it is better (in my opinion) to make sure that they are not there in the first place. A few of my friends have had their houses sprayed by pest control people but that is not something that fits into our budget so I mostly resort to sprays to prevent bugs coming near my kiddies.

Recently, Mortein sent me a couple of their products to try out. At the moment we don't have lots of bugs in the house (apart from a few spiders who are taking advantage of our central heating), but in summer we have a seriously bad fly problem. It doesn't help that the kids leave the door wide open despite me yelling at them to close it.

I really like the Mortein pest control products I trialed. I especially love the NaturGuard fly and mosquito killer. It isn't like those scary sprays that feel like you are going to poison your family as well as kill the bug. Not only is it odourless, but it is also made out of 90% natural ingredients.  This product is also a mosquito killer which is perfect for our family as I am considered a delicacy in mozzie circles. I think I will also be checking out any mosquito repellent products available.I think when summer comes along these products will be a must have to keep those creepy crawlies away from my little people and from me. 


When it comes to bugs are you a sprayer or a squasher?

When it's Cheaper to Throw it Than to Keep Using It {Sponsored Post}

Sponsored Post

For Christmas last year we decided to make some lovely photo albums as gifts for the great grandmothers. After a fight with the in store photo printing machines we decided that it would be easier just to print the photos off ourselves at home. But of course, as usual our printer was out of ink.

For some reason, at our place, buying ink for our printer is always a drama. My hubby, in concern for the environment and for our budget has tried refilling the cartridges himself or buying cheap alternatives and it always seems to take a million times longer than it needs to. This last time was no different.

It should have been easy, hubby went to get the ink, and I distracted the kids from destroying the shop displays. After five minutes (which is a long time with little people who want to touch EVERYTHING) I went to look for him. I found him in front of a wall of ink, still scanning the shelves for ink. When I questioned him as to why it was taking so long he told me that they no longer stocked the ink for our printer.

Now, the printer was a little bit old but not more than 3 years. After a quick check online, we discovered the MOST ridiculous thing ever. It was cheaper to buy a whole new printer than to buy printer ink.

We honestly couldn’t believe it. Imagine if, after your car was five years old it became cheaper to buy a whole new car than to fill it with petrol. Seriously, sometimes the world we live in makes it so hard to be concerned for the environment.

So wrong!

The outcome of this story was that we did buy a new printer (which I do love because it is wireless and I can print from laptop or iPad without getting off the couch) and managed to get the albums printed. However now we have a perfectly good printer that we cannot use because we can’t afford to buy ink for it. Hopefully it can be recycled in some way.

Next time we buy printer ink I am going to stick to my SIMPLE philosophy and buy it online. The good news is that I can now buy ink cartridges online from Cartridges Direct. At the moment they are offering my readers an exclusive discount of 5% off when they purchase ink or toner online. Just use the promo code: X567XC1 at the online checkout. Head to www.cartridgesdirect.com.au They even have free delivery on orders over $75. SIMPLE!

Do you have the same experience of buying printer ink? Or do you have any other stories of having to throw appliances away when they still work?

Linking up with Jess from Essentially Jess for IBOT

 

$1000 + in Ambulance bills in Two Weeks {Sponsored Post}

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Earlier this year I received two bills, both were over $500, each for ambulance services. In my 33 years I have never required an ambulance, but due to a baby who was in a hurry and then that same baby needing to be transferred between hospitals two weeks later we were suddenly hit with these two big bills. Without any health insurance, we would have been up for the full amount (Medicare does not cover the cost of an ambulance) but because we had private health insurance we happily sent the bills off to our provider and never thought of it again.

The Ambulance from Ali's surprise home birth

Although we have a fantastic government funded health care system in Medicare, there are still medical treatments/services (like Ambulance costs) that are either not covered or require a long time on a waiting list. By choosing to have health insurance, even just for hospital cover, you can greatly reduce the amount you have to pay.

Having health insurance also meant better
access to hospital care for our sick girl.

A lot of people think that health insurance is really expensive for something that you hardly ever use. But the point of insurance is that you get for those times you do need it, and in most circumstances, the big bills are for the things you don’t see coming. Having said that, there are a range of different levels of cover depending on what you need so you do have some control over what you pay, and are covered for. 

It is worth taking a look at Choosi’s health insurance quotes to see what you can afford. And we make sure we have cover for things like dental and optical, things we know we will actually claim back.

If you already have health insurance, you no doubt know the frustration of seeing premiums go up......AGAIN.  I get grumpy when the premiums keep rising, and the rebellious teenager in me wants to look elsewhere. Again, it is worth taking a moment to compare health insurance with Choosi as they have a lot of different health insurance providers on their website. It is quick and easy to see whether you can get a better deal. And I like being able to select the different extras I may need/use (and delete stuff I don’t want...like pregnancy or elderly related extra’s) to get a quote that suits me. 

Also, I only realised recently that if you do move health funds you don’t have to start your waiting periods again for the same or lower level of cover (I know, I am a bit slow).

If you don’t have any health insurance, or want to see if you can get a better deal, check out Choosi’s website.  Even if you don’t have time now click on the link above and bookmark it for later. If you have the cheapest one already, well done! However you just might be able to save some cash that is better spent on yourself.

This is obviously a sponsored post for Choosi but the opinions are all my own.