I don’t know about you, but I have the worst allergies!  Mine aren’t necessarily spring related, but dust & dry conditions of the winter make me wake up with sinus headaches, sneezing and itchy eyes.  When my allergies flare up my productivity is cut in half.  Thank goodness you can’t see me blogging on a bad allergy day… but you can imagine the pile of tissues near the desk!

I’m a Claritin user myself simply because I can’t afford to suffer with allergies. Not only does it make it difficult to do administrative tasks for my blog and social media consultant business, but when I need to record videos for product reviews or hop on a conference call, it’s no fun to sneeze into the microphone and stopping to blow my nose is not an option!

The film is a crazy, over-the-top look at two versions of one busy woman’s day who is juggling work, life and family while also dealing with allergies. In the first version of her day, Brooke’s character doesn’t take her allergy medication, and her non-stop allergy symptoms cause an impossibly upside-down day, where nothing goes right and everything goes wrong. In the second version, she treats her allergies and has an impossibly outrageous day, so much so, that there is no limit to what she can achieve.

To view the trailer and see behind-the-scenes footage, visit www.YouTube.com/Claritin. For more information on allergies and Claritin, visit www.claritin.com

I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour conducted by Burst Media on behalf of Claritin®. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program, but my opinions are my own.

The following is a Frugal Feature guest post:

Choosing the right handbag can make or break your outfit. Unfortunately, buying the handbag you really want can also break your budget. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/current-accounts/ can help you get the bag you want in a much more affordable manner. If you save, finance smartly and plan ahead, you should be able to get the bag you want to complete your outfit.

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You may have heard of a timeshare – it’s a type of ownership of a property where you get to “own” an allotted amount of time to use the property.  Typically, most timeshares are for 1 week, and units are similar to a condo, with 1-2 bedrooms, a kitchen, and a family room.  Many individuals buy a timeshare to have a place to vacation at least once a year.  Some timeshares even allow you to trade your unit for different properties, so you don’t have to stay in the same place every year.

But what if you don’t want to buy a timeshare?  If you are looking to travel to a vacation destination, you may want to look at timeshare rentals instead of traditional hotels, because you could save money compared to a normal hotel stay.

Why Rent a Timeshare?

If you’re going to be travelling soon and are looking to stay in a hotel, you should look at renting a timeshare instead.  Renting a timeshare can be cheaper than staying in a traditional hotel room.  Plus, since most timeshares are very similar to a condo (with kitchens, multiple bedrooms, and family rooms), you will probably get more space and rooms for your money compared to a traditional hotel room.

Also, since there are kitchens and multiple rooms, timeshares make the ideal place for families to stay.  You can have a kid’s room and a room to yourself, and you can use the kitchen to make food, so you can save money on eating out.  Plus, just having the kitchen allows you to have snacks and other treats laying around, so you don’t always have to go out if you don’t want to.

What’s The Catch?

There is no catch, other than you usually have to book for a week’s stay, instead of anytime like you could for a traditional hotel.  Basically, if the owner of the timeshare isn’t going to be using it, they may try to rent it to recoup some of their costs, like annual fees.  As such, if you rent the timeshare, you will usually come out ahead!

This frugal feature was provided by Money Supermarket

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “a penny saved is a penny earned.” While he made this quip hundreds of years ago, this quote seems even more relevant today. In our current sluggish economy, many consumers are struggling to find ways to save money on daily expenses. Here are several steps you can take to watch your savings add up this year.

Couponing

More and more shoppers are clipping coupons to save money at the grocery store. Despite the common misconception that couponing takes massive amounts of time, it’s really quite simple.

Just gather coupons from your Sunday paper, print coupons from the internet, grab blinkies from the grocery store or buy multiples from a coupon clipping service. Find sales flyers for the stores that you frequent and match up the sale items with coupons. To make things even easier, look for couponing blogs that post weekly sales and coupon match-ups.

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“This post is sponsored by” Pine-Sol® Clean & Disinfect with Pine-Sol®: The Powerful Scent of Clean” I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all my own.

Whenever the seasons change, I kick it into high gear in terms of cleaning and organizing.  I wasn’t always this way though- living in a small apartment means that storage space is at a premium.

My wardrobe and dresser space is extremely limited, so I’ve complimented that by having under bed storage for off-season items that don’t need to be on hand.

Seasonally, I swap out the season’s clothes and use this opportunity to do a deep clean of my bedroom and apartment and take a critical eye to everything that’s taking up space to clear out what should be tossed out or donated.

I have the same policy with home décor and holiday decorations- when you swap things out it’s the perfect time to take a critical eye to what you need to get rid of and what should be properly stored and organized elsewhere.

After everything’s organized and swapped out, I vacuum, dust and polish the wood furniture.  Moving things around usually has a tendency to kick up extra dust, fur balls and dust bunnies of all sizes, so it’s the perfect time to attack the unearthed dust remnants of the previous season and make everything fresh again.

I am absolutely adamant that this seasonal cleaning ritual has to take place- I don’t have enough room to let things pile up and with hardwood floors and a fuzzy pug the dust & fur bunnies start reproducing like mad.   Spring is a great time for Easter bunnies but they’re also a breeding time for dust bunnies it seems!

Many people hate spring cleaning but I find that it’s a great opportunity to really reconnect with your home space and surround yourself with a clean, organized space.  If it weren’t for living in such a small space, I would probably have way more stuff than I need, this seasonal cleaning ritual helps me keep things simple, moderately organized and helps me avoid the eventual pile up that accumulates when you live in a space over a long period of time.

Do you have any spring cleaning plans?  What are your cleaning rituals or do you just kind of wing it (if you do at all, haha!)?  

Pine-Sol is having a fun contest for those of us who are gearing up for spring cleaning…if you win, will you share the goods with me so I can get some more storage bins? Eh? Eh?

Are you a little extreme when it comes to cleaning? Win the Pine-Sol® Deep Clean Diva Crown and $5000. Enter Now!