Samsung electric stove review

 

Out with our old broken Maytag. Good riddance. I hate aqua clean ovens. They DON’T clean!  But the electronics quit working so we decided to sell this one super cheap to someone who could fix it themselves. It was going to cost us too much and we needed a stove asap as we cook every single day!

Enter 

Our Samsung with air fryer. I was not specifically looking for an airfryer oven because I love our Ninja Foodie. And I was skeptical. But this one had a bigger oven capacity than our old one so I can actually fit more in there without the cost of a double oven and it was on sale. I guess the perk of breaking down right before Memorial Day weekend. We read the reviews while we were at the store and they did sell us on the credit card to get an extra $100 off. I never take those but figured $100 was worth it and I won’t use the card again. The only negative reviews really were about the glass top scratching easily.  My old Maytag didn’t look too bad. I’ve seen worse but we were careful to clean it. However I feel like my carbon steel pans were hard on it so we will not be using them on this one. We have a side burner we use on the cast iron anyways. I did brush up on making my old stainless steel set of pans non stick so we could use them on the stove and sure enough it works!  

After one month of constant use, there’s nothing not one slightly hazy spot. 

Otherwise we’ve been keeping it in good condition. 

The air fryer genuinely impressed me. With our Ninja we have to do quite a few batches when we’re all here. With the Samsung oven we can do everything at one time. And the fries turn out pretty much the same as the Ninja air fryer but not quite as good a oil frying. The oven has a lot of settings and things that we will likely never use but it has the old style of heat cleaning and I’ve already used that and it’s awesome!  My husband does want to try the dehydrator. It does link up to Alexa but have yet to figure out how to turn it on to preheat. I can turn it off though. 

I LOVE THE LOOK of it. It’s very streamlined and goes nicely with my counters. I love the typical Samsung music when anything changes like preheating etc.  Something we became very accustomed to in Korea.  

All in all, we’re loving it!

How to avoid handprints near light switches

 

Voila!

Lutron motion switch here!

I installed these in the walk through pantry and laundry room shortly after moving in. I noticed handprints near the switches and was having to wash the walls.  This has saved me a lot of anxiety and cleaning time and breakdown of paint.  Worth it!

Had to share!!! Cool children’s book

 

Get the Dude Perfect children’s book here

We have watched a LOT of Dude Perfect over the years. My 23 year old watched it a bit when they first started and my 14 year old grabbed on. He loves watching them. He even asks for the merchandise. He has a hat and some shirts and even got a new one this year when he outgrew the old. 

The thing is I like him watching them. They’re clean fun and pretty funny when we watch with him. I was literally seeing this book while he was watching them this morning and if he was his younger self I would buy it for him. Such a cute book with a $3 coupon. 

#affiliate #amazonfind #dudeperfect #dudeperfectbook

Great Etsy jewelry find

 

Link to this Etsy jewelry store 👉 https://www.etsy.com/shop/mysignaturejwl

I’m it one to wear much jewelry. Mostly because in the past anything that’s not solid gold turns and discolors on me. But I really wanted a necklace with my kids names on it in Hangul. I’m took a chance and ordered this this Spring. I worked it to sweaty track meets and all the way through our Florida vacation with sunscreen and saltwater. To my EXTREME surprise it hasn’t turned yet and has held up well. It’s also adjustable in length from 16”-18” for $30. 

I love this necklace so much!  Check out her store. And she was retry quick to ship. 

My favorite sale of the year!

 

I used to love Black Friday. Don’t get me wrong. I still find some great deals on things we need or Christmas requests….and streaming deals.  But Prime Days Deals have quickly become a favorite. It’s 3 months prior to any Black Friday deals and I ALWAYS have items saved in my Amazon cart for things I like or need but don’t like the price yet. You can start watching the prices drop on them days leading to and through Prime Day. 

By the way, when is Prime Days you ask?  July 11th and 12th for 2023. They’re coming soon so if you don’t have a Prime Membership get one. If you’ve never had one you can get a 30 day free trial with all the benefits below

 👇🏼👇🏼

Amazon Prime Free Trial

https://amzn.to/46eFZMu

If you’re a student try the 6 month trial membership just for students 

👇🏼👇🏼

Amazon Prime Student 6-Month Trial
https://amzn.to/46f5kpz

It’s going to be fun!!

#affiliate #amazonfinds #primedaydeals #amazonprimeday #loadyourcarts

Motion sensor switches? Why not?

 

I LOVE these Lutron motion switches. They keep the kids’ dirty hands off both the switches and walls. These are great for closets, pantries and other pass through rooms. We even have it in our laundry room. You can set the time to varying increments of which the lights will stay on before turning off.  They’re also super easy to install.  I did ours myself several years ago. 

Lutron motion detecting indoor light switch

Why faux flowers are awesome?

 

This is why.  

We’ve been in a drought since last year and the grass is brown and probably dying again but my flowers by the door are great. Admittedly, I’m not very good about remembering to water things. I have my arborvitaes on a drip system I put together last year because they’re WAY too expensive to lose. But anything in the front kinda always gets forgotten. 

Still looking good!

Link to post on putting together pot of faux plants

Stainless steel straws?

 

Comparable stainless steel straw pack

I’ve had these for 6 years. The kids use them, I use them they stay super clean and no discarding straws uselessly. These are definitely worth the money you save and you’re being good to the planet!

Collect sea shells from the beach?

 

I keep sea shells from different beaches. I usually put them in small glass dishes or vases and label them on the bottom. I didn’t have any from Shell Key already so I wanted to keep them from the last trip but wanted a unique display. My husband and I found this little lantern at Home Goods.  And it has a door on it so I put all the shells inside and placed it right next to my faux palm (another video) where it could share the fairy lights without anyone seeing. It’s adorable, unique and I love it!  

What do you think? 

 #seashells #seashelldisplay #cutevacationdecor #uniquedecor

New series for Amazon products

 Im going to spend the next several posts highlighting different items that I, likely, haven’t already shared. These will be pitches made 2019 or prior that I still have and use. It’s hard to find anything that lasts more than a year anymore so I’m going to share with things that have definitely been worth my money!

#moneysavingtips #mindfulfrugalista #amazonfinds

Yes, I actually have curly hair

 Not straight. 

I’ve been with my husband for over 30 years. I think it’s funny that my mother in law still thinks my hair is straight because, in all these years, she’s never seen it anything but straight or up with a hat.  I guess I’ve never actually swam in front of her because that’s how it dries.  But this ⬆️⬆️ is my normal hair. 

Midwest to beach in just several hours!

 

We have decided we LOVE that we can leave our house and be to the Clearwater/St Petersburg area in 6 hours including a 2 hour drive to the airport one way. And once you’re in Tampa it’s only 30 minutes to the beach from the airport.  And Southwest Air offers so many non stop flights and affordable. The joys of leaving your vacation condo at 8am and being home by 2pm including baggage and driving. 

And as a follow up on Alamo car rental they were great at turn in. They asked how we liked the van and we politely told them that the back up camera rarely worked and it already had damage on it at pick up. They knocked $20 off for that without us asking, not that I had planned to.  We ended up paying under $450 for one week of a van rental with unlimited miles. Thanks to my employee discount hub and the extra discount we came below budget on this part of the vacation plan. Great deal and easy pick up and delivery at the Tampa Airport!  Check them out. 

#alamocarental #southwestair #beachtraveleasy

Packing for family trip light mode

 

Belkin surge protector/power strip  this is perfect for traveling to protect your small devices and laptops and it also has a couple of usb ports its just you or a couple of people 

Anker 5 port charger this is what I always take for family travel  it has enough to charge all of our devices and I can have each port designated to a different type of charger so it’s ready to go when someone needs it

Malirona travel bag  this bag has traveled with us to Korea and Florida twice each  it’s cute and it is extremely durable with lots of pockets and a strap to keep it attached to your wheeled luggage  

Large collapsible travel duffle this duffle isn’t as good of quality but folds down to almost nothing and still has made it through multiple trips including road trips

Compression packing cubes these are perfect for packing and really do reduce the luggage space needed

Reusable travel luggage tags I can stretch these and remove them multiple times  they hold up through so much

Do you need to get your family to your destination lightly?  We are pretty good at that. And we didn’t end up needing anything when we got there. I even found out they wouldn’t provide enough paper towels and toilet paper at the condo so I packed some of that too. I got all of the floaties, tp, paper towels, beach towels, and toiletries for the whole family as well as our shoes and clothes between the three bags. Then coming back was lighter since we left some of the floaties and used our other paper towels and tp. 

The girls shared one small carry on roller, J had me to himself and C had his own. We each had a backpack personal bag with our chargers, stainless steel water bottles and snacks which meant they were almost empty on their or way back. And we all it all bottles in the checked luggage for the way back so nothing to deal with at TSA. Though 4 of us had pre check from previous trips. As a side note TSA NO LONGER tags other tickets on the same purchase trip as pre check so my husband and older son had to do regular TSA. The other kids and I took all of the bags through pre check so they would only have to deal with shoes and belts. With my husbands spinal cord injury that is hard enough. 

When we check bags to fly as a family the airlines are always amazed at how little we travel with but we are never short of anything. So it’s all in organization. 

Another little tip is that if you’re flying buy a roll of distinct ribbon at Walmart and tie it to each piece of luggage to make it easily identifiable at baggage claim  it has made this process so stress free.  

#ttavellight #usepackingcubes #tsaprecheck #organizedtravel

Don’t buy without a discount or cashback!

 

It’s only a couple bucks they say…..NOOOOOO

I always find SOME discount !

My 14 year of needed shoes so I shopped around and found good prices at Shoe Carnival. I’m a Perks member (it’s free) so I get free shipping to my home.  Btw, I know stores are changing a lot of policies so free shipping is getting harder to come by but I won’t but unless I can get it. Think about it. If the apparel you buy didn’t fit or the quality is lesser than you expect you just paid money to look at it. Nope!

Next, I always check coupon codes. RetailMeNot etc is a place to start. Nothing worked so I needed to decide if they were worth it. Well he needs them and with inflation a pair of tennis shoes at that price is good (sadly). Onto next step. 

Check out Rakuten for cash back.  Always!  They were only 2% so I checked out my Capital One  app for my Quicksilver card since I’d be paying with it anyways for the extra 1.5% cashback. And when I went to their offers they had 4% to shop through their app. So I doubled my credit card credit they will issue, later, to almost $3. 

$3.  Y’all need to learn to get a little more exited. $3 adds up. With inflation that’s what the cost of two loaves of bread went up and we eat that at least every week with 4 older kids in the house. 

👉👉👉get Capital One Quicksilver referral link  

#everydollarcounts  #moneysavingtips #capitolonesavings #finddiscounts

Sometimes procrastination pays off!

 

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. We paid $67.99 per ticket at the end of May 2023. We weren’t sure if we were going to go while we were there. I had already researched and found tickets on the website (a month prior) to be over $100/ticket for the timeframe. Then I checked my employee discount hub and they were around $95 each.  I was very much on the fence for that much for an amusement park.  

But the day we decided to go there was rain in the forecast, solid, for the rest of our trip and I didn’t want to get to do nothing. We had already spent 2 days solely on the beach. So I checked the Busch Gardens website once again that morning and the prices were down to $67.99. 

I will say it wasn’t really our cup of tea (mine and my husbands) but the kids had a good time and had been begging to go to Six Flags for a few years, so that’s out of their system. And it was different rides for them. I did enjoy the animals sprinkled throughout the park. 

And we had read about the free beer this summer so take advantage of that if you’re 21+. They do require a license so I didn’t get one. Even though I’m almost 50 they require a license. But my son and husband got theirs. It was a nice perk on a hot day. 

And the kids that rode the Iron Gwazi said it was the best ride. Outside of that the older kids rerode the Sheikra and the younger kids Tigris. 

Have fun this summer and keep this in mind to save money, possibly. 

#moneysavingtips #tampabayfun ##buschgardenstampabay

Best beachside eatery near Tampa

 

Went to eat @paradisegrille_fl  in Pass a Grille FL and got so much more than good food. FYI the buffalo shrimp is AWESOME!! The town is old seaside and extremely quaint.  The end of the island is just across the pass from Shell Key but the shells here were better and easier to find than Shell Key. Perfectly clear water and a beautiful sunset that people come for.  Go to this location and grab a great drink or some food and drinks and sit on a bench or picnic table to just people watch, watch the sunset, walk the beach or just enjoy the ambiance.  And the prices don’t bust a budget. Great place!! 

#paradisegrill #passagrille #floridasunsets #seashelllhuntjng #greatfoodinflorida #moneysavingtips

Great flight to Tampa so so car rental from Alamo

We had to fly out at 5:10. The Southwest Air staff were all super nice and the plane was clean. The flight was comfortable with the customary bag of snack mix and a drink on the flight to Tampa.  

The airfare was only $360 rountrip including Southwest’s early bird and Wanna Getaway Plus so we could get a credit to cancel and upgrade or change anytime. 

 We arrived on time and had our car from Alamo and out of the the airport in maybe 30 minutes including baggage claim.  We will see how the return of the Pacifica we rented goes on returning in the next several hours, but while pick up was smooth the vans all had damage and it makes you wonder if they’ll blame you for it. 

I used an employee discount program to rent for less than $500 for one week including unlimited miles. I used my Chase Freedom card to pay for the rental because it has automatic rental coverage and my auto owners covers us as well. Why pay extra?

Some were worse, as in plastic hanging.  But this one beeps at everything, slams on it’s brakes and the rear camera worked about 1/8 of the time. Good thing it was inexpensive. 

All in all inexpensive travel for a family of 6 adult priced anything!