This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to Kristen!

I’m pretty thrifty when it comes to beauty products. I buy most of my cosmetics at the local drugstore (using coupons or CVS ExtraCare Bucks, naturally) and they work just as well as products from the cosmetics counter at any department store.

Carmex® Healing Lotion and Carmex® Healing Cream are two products that are a staple in my medicine cabinet and cost less than $10 each ($5.99 for the full-size tube, to be exact). I’ve been using both for about 6 months now – the healing lotion in the summer months and now the healing cream since it’s gotten cooler out. Both lotions have a hint of the classic Carmex scent, which I love and trust for it’s healing properties. Healing properties that extend to all products in the Carmex family. The Healing Lotion is a great all over lotion after a shower and the Healing Cream is perfect for targeting dry elbows, knees, and feet.

I love that Carmex® Healing Lotion and Carmex® Healing Cream are exactly what they say they are. Non-greasy, full of soothing aloe and nourishing vitamins, with a clean, pleasant scent. Both can be found at Walgreens and CVS and will be coming to Walmart this fall.

If you’d like to try both Carmex Healing Lotion and Carmex Healing Cream, I’m giving away a full-size and travel size-tube of each. Here’s how to enter:

• Leave a comment telling me which Carmex products you use or would most like to try
• Like Broke as a Spoke on Facebook
• Follow me on Twitter

Please leave a separate comment for each entry and I’ll pick a winner at random on Monday, November 14th.

The fine print…Entries will be accepted until Monday, November 14th. One (1) winner will be chosen at random and will be contacted by email. Please use your real first name a valid email address when entering. I am not responsible for incorrect contact information. Prize will be mailed to winner directly from the sponsor.

This is a sponsored review and giveaway courtesy of the lovely people at Carmex. Please see my site policy with any questions.

All this holiday talk already! I’m super excited about the holidays this year – I’ll be traveling back home to Chicago for Thanksgiving and my family is visiting Austin from Chicago and New York for Christmas. I can’t wait to start decorating and baking and it’s never too early to start thinking of ways to save money. Here are ten tips to make your holiday planning budget friendly:

1. There’s only 12 weeks until Christmas – which means only 6 paychecks for most of us. Make your holiday budget early and set aside cold hard cash to pay for things like gifts, party supplies, and travel. The  more thorough you are with your planning, the more likely you are to stick to your budget.

2. One of the highlights of the holidays is the (over) abundance of baked goods. If you’re doing the baking this Christmas, remember that bulk ingredients and finished baked goods freeze like a dream. You’ll save money by buying in larger quantities and be able to start your baking earlier knowing that your famous sugar cookies will taste just as good as the day on Christmas day as on the day you baked them.

3. Order your Storkie Christmas cards early (I aim to have mine ready to address by Thanksgiving) so that you can address one or two whenever you have a free minute. They’ll be ready to mail before you know it and your holiday greetings will arrive before the snow melts. Place your order with Strokie now, and you’ll have your customized cards before Halloween. Now that’s planning ahead.

4. You’re bound to stumble across some great sales throughout the year, so stash those purchases in your trunk or the back of your closet. Whether you’re buying gifts, decorations, or supplies for your big holiday gathering, you’ll avoid sticker shock come November if you spread your purchases out throughout the year.

5. If you’re shopping online, be sure to order early to avoid rush shipping charges!

6. Make your holiday dinners pot-luck! Have everyone bring their specialty and you’ll cut your budget and the stress of having to cook every dish at the table. All it takes is a festive email a few weeks in advance and a little ego stroking to get your great aunt to bring her famous egg nog.

7. Personalize your holiday cards with a handwritten message and a family photo. It’s a cheap and easy way to amp up the holiday cheer and show family and friends that you care. Storkie has a great collection of photo Christmas cards to customize for less than the price of a store-bought greeting card. Holy Swirls is my favorite – it’s modern and festive without being too Christmas-y.

8. Do your research. I know most people don’t recommend using credit around the holidays (heck, I recommended using cash only in this very post) but if you have a credit card with a great cash back program or airline mileage rewards and you have the cash on hand to pay the bill in full (that’s the key!) then definitely take advantage of those savings!

9. Decide who you truly want/need to buy gifts for. Buying for everyone and their brother isn’t budget-friendly nor do the gifts mean as much to you or the recipient.

10. Stock up on gift cards – especially if you can get them at a discount by purchasing online or in packs of 3 or more. If you’re anything like me, you’ll mistakenly overlook someone important and gift cards to a great last minute present to have on hand. Who doesn’t like gift cards?

How do you plan ahead for the holiday season? Are you excited to start planning this year?

I wrote this blog post while participating in the Storkie holiday blogging program. I received compensation for my participation. All opinions are 100% mine. Please see my site policy with any questions.

Five-night stay for two, including round-trip airfare, at The Grand Sunset Princess Resort in Cancun, Mexico.

Eighteen little words I’d like to hear right after the phrase “you’ve won.”

I’d be okay hearing them after 40%, 50%, or 60% off, too. Which is what you’ll find every day at BookIt.com, a leading travel website fearing vacation deals from your nearest airport to destinations worldwide.

You may have noticed over the past five years of posting my spending habits that I love to travel. And that I’m also a little OCD (how many people do you know write down where they spent every dollar for five years?) so traveling means lots of research, bargain hunting, and cost comparison.

BookIt basically rewards you for doing your research. Hotels. Flights. Package deals. All right there. Ready to book. So the next time you’re looking to blow this popsicle stand, you know exactly where to look.

Oh, and why do I deserve to win a trip to Mexico? Cause I will tweet the shit out of that trip. Tweeting is good. Vacation is good. BookIt is good.

By posting this information I am entered to win a five-night stay for two, including round-trip airfare, at The Grand Sunset Princess Resort in Cancun, Mexico. All opinions are 100% my own. Please see my site policy with any questions.

Tax time has me rummaging through shoe boxes full of receipts, which is always quite the eye opener. While filing away all the 2010 FSA paperwork, it became abundantly clear that prescription eye glasses are my biggest health care expense.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite grateful that an astigmatism is my biggest health care concern, but the price of a yearly exam and new glasses can be a strain, and I understand why people put it off until absolutely necessary.

One great way to keep health care expenses in check is by ordering prescription glasses from Zenni Optical. For as little as $6.95 a pair, you can get frames and prescription lenses with anti-scratch coating and UV protection.

I’ve been a customer of Zenni Optical for years, and I can tell you firsthand that my orders have always been accurate, prompt, and stylish. Their website was just redesigned, making it much more user friendly, and much more tempting to order a pair of glasses for everyday of the week. Especially these full frame glasses which look like my everyday glasses but with a pop of color (green – my favorite color).

Do you order from Zenni Optical? Do you have any other tips for keeping health care costs down?

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are 100% mine. Please see my site policy with any questions.

Thank you to TurboTax for sponsoring my writing about household finances.Learn more about how TurboTax can help you find every tax deduction you deserve. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

Please see my site policy with any questions.

One day, after graduating college, I was standing in the foyer of my apartment building checking my mail. After opening a credit card bill, the utility bill, the cable bill, and another credit card bill, I realized I didn’t have a grasp on how many bills I had.

I never knew what to expect in my mail box. When a bill came, I slipped it in my checkbook and paid it as soon as payday rolled around. I’d never missed a payment but there was no rhyme or reason to my money management.

In that moment, my budget was born. Well, first I panicked and then my budget was born.

I don’t like to complicate things, especially where money is concerned, so my budget is a simple spreadsheet. I don’t use any fancy formulas or software. I list the date, take home pay, and each and every account payable, including savings and miscellaneous expenditures. The total is the amount of cash left in my pocket after all bills are paid, which is then divvied up for entertainment, clothing, groceries, and unforeseeables.

The numbers aren’t accurate, but this is generally what my budget looks like. The gray accounts are paid in full, the green accounts are soon to be paid in full, and everything else is a recurring payment. See? Not fancy.

My budget will always be a work in progress. I rearrange entries, highlight monthly priorities, and keep separate tabs with more in depth information on accounts with outstanding balances. It may not be an exact science, but it gives me a good idea of where my obligations are and most importantly, it works for me.

What does your budget look like? Any tips? Tricks? Recommendations?

This is a sponsored guest post. Please see my site policy with any questions.

efile – The Smart Choice for Taxpayers in 2011

2011 is the best year yet to prepare your taxes online and to efile your tax return. Did you know that during the 2010 Tax Season almost 70% of all U.S. individual taxpayers either efiled their taxes themselves or efiled through a tax professional? That’s almost 100 million people! What do they know about IRS-efile that paper filers don’t? Read on and find out what makes efile such a smart choice…

efile is More Accurate

IRS-efile is more accurate than filling out a tax return on paper because the software drastically reduces filing and math errors. The IRS has stated that paper tax returns have an average error rate of 20%, but electronically filed tax returns have a typical error rate of only 1%. The tax software will perform all necessary calculations for you, so there are no math errors to be made, and it will let you know if you are missing necessary information on any forms.

efile Is More Secure

efiling is much safer and more secure than old-fashioned paper filing because your tax return will be safely encrypted and transmitted to the IRS. When you efile, nothing will get lost, damaged, or stolen in the mail. The privacy and confidentiality of your personal information will be protected when you efile.

efile Is Faster

efiling will not only get your tax return to the IRS faster than the Postal Service ever could; when you use efile, you will get your tax refund much faster as well. When you efile and choose to have your refund direct deposited to your bank account, you will get your refund money faster than any paper check in the mail possibly could. With efile and direct deposit, you could even get your refund in as few as 8 days from the time the IRS accepts your efiled return.

efile Can Even Be Free

The efile.com FREE FEDERAL EDITION is absolutely free and guides you through a simple online tax interview. If you meet the requirements listed below, you can efile and pay nothing.

Here is how you qualify for the eFile FREE Federal Edition:

• Your filing status is either: single or married filing jointly
• Your total taxable income is below $100,000
• Your income only comes from: wages, salaries, unemployment, tips, taxable scholarship and fellowship grants, taxable interest of $1,500 or less, or Alaska Permanent Fund dividends
• You do not claim any dependents
• You do not itemize deductions
• You do not claim any additional standard deductions (e.g. property tax or new car tax)
• You do not claim tax credits other than the Earned Income Credit and Making Work Pay Credit
• You have not received any Advance Earned Income Credit payments
• If married filing jointly, both you and your spouse are under 65 and not blind
• You do not owe any Household Employment taxes (on wages paid to a household employee)
• You are not involved as a debtor in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Try efile in 2011!

7 out of 10 individual taxpayers efiled in 2010, and the figures are sure to be higher in 2011 as more and more people learn about the many benefits of efiling. Nearly 100 million taxpayers already know that efiling is the easiest, fastest, and safest way to file taxes and get a tax refund. Now you do, too.

efile makes taxes easier. So why not get started today? Try an IRS-approved, trustworthy efile provider like efile.com.

Fine. I admit it. I’m a shopper. I like to shop. When I’m bored, shopping is a viable option to pass my time. When I’m upset, a new purse does make me feel better.

What I’m not, is a fool.

I know how to shop smart, compare prices, and hunt for bargains. Whether I’m looking for a laptop messenger bag or new dishes, CSN is a great place to start my search. With over 200 online stores, they carry most anything I could want and their prices continually beat their competitors – I know, I’ve compared!

There’s no shame in shopping! Are you a shopper? Do you have a go-to bargain hunting strategy?

CSN provided me with gift certificate in exchange for my post. All opinions are 100% mine. Please see my site policy with any questions.