Green Living
WendyGR
member
Dear Community,
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
coupon and giveaway blogs
in Green Living
speaking of where and how you do your shopping . . . I am flabbergasted at how many giveaway and coupon blogs there are. I frequent a women's blogger board so I see people promoting their sites. I dont' use coupons, I can't think of anything I buy that would actually apply, unless you can get coupons for baking supplies and all natural toiletries. Oh wait, maybe toilet paper. And the giveaway stuff seems like . . . stuff no one would need.
I"m not trying to rag on them, it's just that the whole concept is so foreign to me now that I've been trying to curb consumption.
Re: coupon and giveaway blogs
Well there's a lot of waste all over!!
Some are good, jebuell did a giveaway for coconut oil that was awesome.
Just to clarify, I wasn't talking about the occasional giveaway of a product. I sign up for those :-)
There are actual blogs where every single post is about this coupon or win a sample of this or what the CVS ads are. Somebody did a spoof, and posted a photo of a sweet potato that was shrink wrapped with a "microwavable!" label on it.
I am not a big fan of those sites, really. I enjoy them for the sites they recommend where you can earn points for giftcards and such (like Swagbucks) but I'm not a fan of coupons personally. I clip them for toothpaste and general 10% off whatever you buy sorts of things, but otherwise I rarely buy the products there are coupons for. Unless it's 7th Generation... I have a few of those! And blogs that just do giveaways and feature anything that comes their way just seems like the person is hording a bunch of useless stuff.
I do giveaways on my blog a lot (if anyone wants to win some Coconut Peanut Butter, it ends today at 10PM!) but I am a bit more picky about what I feature on my blog then most. Almost all of the products I review are "Green" or "Eco-Friendly" in some way (like the peanut butter). I specifically search out and approach companies that tie into what I discuss on my blog. I've even turned down a giveaway because it didn't fit in with the theme of my blog (or my lifestyle). I also only accept samples of things that I want (like the Evolve showerheads and Soda Stream). Because if I'm not going to use it, what's the point?
I will admit I enter a ton of giveaways (and I win a lot, actually). But again, I only enter for things I want. Mostly food because I'm a food wh*re, but I also love winning Cloth Diapers "for the future".
Just wanted to jump in here really quick for any lurkers that might be out there
I do agree that there is WAYYY too much over-consumption. I actually haven't seen any of these blogs that you are referring to with constant giveaways, but that's probably because I haven't really searched for them. Over consumption in this world sickens me.
Anyway, I'm actually in the works right now of creating my own blog (which is why I haven't been on this board much lately, creating the blog has been consuming my life! lol) -- hoping to go live Feb 1st....but I'm hoping to get to the point where I have a weekly or bi-weekly giveaway. BUT my blog is going to be a 'green living' blog and all of my giveaways are going to be 'green living' related.
I honestly think that giveaways can serve a really great purpose..if I can get people to my blog who might not normally usual EF products and get them reading about them and even give them a chance to win one? Then, I think that's AWESOME. All of my giveaways will be things that people actually need and/or will help them replace a product that wasn't EF to begin with. And of course I will encourage them to donate or freecycle their old products instead of sticking them in the trash. To me, the giveaways will be for education, not to encourage over-consumption. Oh and I also want to add that a lot of EF products can be expensive, so people are a little nervous about spending money to try out a product that they're not sure they'll like...so if I can get it to them for free, maybe they'll fall in love with it and then be more willing to shell out the $$ for EF stuff in the future?
The cool thing is, there are a LOT of 'green' blogs out there who giveaway a TON of great stuff...one of the things I've been trying to win lately is cloth diapers, because, let's face it, they're expensive! We're not planning to TTC for another year or so, but the earlier I can start building my stash the better.
Anyway, I hope I don't sound snarky right now, that really is not my intention...I just wanted to come and inform any lurkers that there are good giveaways too
I'm glad you clarified yourself. I'd like to see one of these blogs you are talking about..although maybe I don't because it will probably just make me want to puke 
Visit my blog about my family's experiments in eco-living
Wooo hooo! I'm entered in like 5 or 6 cloth diaper giveaways right now and am hoping to win one of them! I'm seriously so glad I discovered all these blogs because if I can even win a couple that will definitely help with savings...and it's fulfilling my baby fever for a bit until we do start TTC hehehe
Gives me some hope to hear that you've already won some!
Visit my blog about my family's experiments in eco-living
It's very funny to me, the whole concept of the giveaways. At a previous job we had an office-wide saying "If it's free, it's for me, and I'll take three." This was not OUR motto, this is what we said of our clients--they would take something if it was free even if they didn't want, need, or even know what it was. I wish I was joking, but I'm serious. Example: Why would a child--as in 5-8 years old-- need a car ice scraper? For their tonka trucks and/or big wheels? And when I say "need" he/she "needed" it so badly that when I didn't give it to him/her that he/she threw a temper tantrum.
Because of that, I'm always a little cynical about giveaways. I suppose a freebie here and there would be a nice little perk to my mail, and what jeubell does sounds very savvy to me. But as usual, I'm just a little behind on the technology front and haven't developed a "love" yet for blogging.
oh, I totally get that..that kinda thing SICKENS me.
I have volunteered for Relay For Life for YEARS. and it's crazy how people will go INSANE at a fundraiser event for free things...little key chains, stickers, ANYTHING. i'm like, come on, you know it's just going to end up in the trash eventually. sometimes when the info booth would be crowded, people would start shoving to get to the front of the line to grab a little flashy button or whatever. gag me with a wooden spoon.
it's the same with sales...i hate that the second that stuff goes on sale or even clearance, it's like people have to go nutso...like the day after thanksgiving. yeah, you can get good deals, but people buy SO MUCH sh!t that we all know they don't really 'need'. yuck.
Visit my blog about my family's experiments in eco-living