Bluum Box Review: Movin’ and Shakin’

Okay, I know this is silly, but I decided that after subscribing to Citrus Lane for almost a full year, perhaps I should check out some of the other boxes out there! Because of that and a great coupon, I decided to try out Bluum. Bluum‘s pricing is very similar to Citrus Lane, at $25 per box on a month to month basis, $23 per month for a three month subscription (less than CL), $21 per month for a six month subscription (the same as CL), and even less than that for a one year subscription. Also of note is that Bluum offers more ways to earn rewards and free boxes than Citrus Lane does (which is why I’m on the month to month plan at the moment, hoping to earn a free box!). Anyway, I got my first box today, and I am very impressed! I was told that Bluum would primarily send samples, but I love my box, and I believe it to be of phenomenal value.

My box this month was the Movin’ and Shakin’ box for thirteen month olds.

1. Snack Trap by MossWorld Enterprises
Price: $4.99
Status: Pretty Great
Comments: I had already bought what I believe to be a better version of this that is manufactured by Munchkin, and I love the idea. It’s always great to have another one on hand, and I’m thrilled to have gotten one!

2. Calendula Baby Cream by Weleda
Price: $12.00
Status: Pretty Great
Comments: Did I need yet another baby lotion/cream? Nope. Am I excited to get this one? Kind of. I had already received some Weather Protection Cream by Weleda in one of my Citrus Lane boxes, and it is one of the brands I really like (along with Episencial). It isn’t always fun to have a baby with sensitive skin and eczema, so it’s nice to get these things! I’m even more excited that this was a full sized item and not sample sized as I had been told to expect.

3. Peek-a-Boo Panda by Melissa & Doug
Price: $7.99
Status: Pretty Great
Comments: I love Melissa & Doug products, and their little wooden toys are awesome. We actually had already received their Peek-a-Boo Turtle in a previous Citrus Lane box, and it had been quite a hit. I think I like the Panda even more, as he covers his eyes and really plays Peek-a-Boo!

4. Baby Play Day Book by Priddy Books
Price: $12.99
Status: Pretty Great
Comments: Is it the best board book for babies ever? Nope. Are the touch and feel features awesome? Meh. That said, I’m always happy to get books in these boxes, Baby Girl loves to read her board books, and this one is of a good quality and I know she will love it.

5. Vanilla Blueberry Luna Fiber Bar by Luna Bar
Price: $2.03 each (sold in a pack of 12)
Status: Interesting
Comments: Being used to Citrus Lane and how they do things, I don’t often receive items that aren’t for baby. This was timely however. I work a job that makes it hard sometimes for me to stop and eat, and with a lot of fiber, Luna Bars could be a great solution for me, and I don’t know why I hadn’t tried them before. I’ll definitely be packing this in my work bag on my next job!

6. 100 Best Fresh Salads Cookbook by Love Food, an imprint of Parragon Books
Price: $9.99
Status: Interesting
Comments: At first I was pretty excited about this item. I love cookbooks (have a bit of an addiction, in fact), and I love salads. I actually didn’t own a dedicated salad cookbook. But, being a vegetarian, I was a tad disappointed to find the book very meat and fish heavy. So I won’t be keeping it, but I know it will make a great gift!

7. $25 Voucher by Paper Culture
Price: $25.00
Status: Interesting
Comments: I’m not usually fond of these types of items in subscription boxes, but I can tell you why this one was different. This wasn’t a coupon, it is a voucher, and it wasn’t available to anyone who signs up, and it doesn’t matter if you’ve used the service before, you still get it. A nice touch, actually.

Also included: Two manufacturer coupons for Happy Family products. No real value, but perhaps useful.

So was it worth it? I think definitely. The total value of the box was $74.99 (higher than any Citrus Lane box I have ever received), compared to a $25 purchase price. Even if you subtract things that I will probably regift, the value was still a whopping $65.00! I will be continuing my Bluum subscription!

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Citrus Lane Review: August 2013

It’s that time of the month again! Time to review another Citrus Lane box and see if it was worth it’s purchase price! See my reviews for previous months here.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how Citrus Lane works, it is a subscription service that sends you age appropriate items for your child aged 0-5 years every month. The cost of the subscription depends on how long you are willing to commit to. For month to month or three month subscriptions, your cost is $25.00 per month, while it goes down to $21.00 per month if you sign up for a six month or one year subscription. To personalize the box, you choose the child’s age and gender (or neutral) and receive items appropriate to those selections.

In my reviews, I can only review what my daughter receives in her box. I will always tell you what my age and gender selections were, give you a description of the items, what I think of them, pricing, etc.

This month my daughter received a thirteen month old box with a neutral gender selection.

1.Octopus Opposites from Barefoot Books
Price: $6.39
Status: Useful
Comments: Barefoot Books is one of those brands that shows up in my Citrus Lane boxes a lot. We’re always happy to see a book in the box, as we are a family of readers, and Baby Girl loves books. This book isn’t particularly awesome, but it’s nice and sturdy, and has some examples of opposites that don’t show up in any of her other opposite books, so that’s nice. Definitely a plus in this box.

2. 5″ Playground Ball from Crocodile Creek
Price: $7.99
Status: Awesome
Comments: This was one of those items that happens every once in awhile that was just timed perfectly. Baby Girl is obsessed with balls, and this is actually a very nice one. It’s colorful, fun, and very sturdy (I’m not afraid that my cats will pop it. This is a great addition to our play area! I should note that Citrus Lane also included some paper bowling pins to be colored and used with this ball. While I like the idea of including activities and suggestions for using the items in the box, she’s still a bit young for coloring or for understanding a game like bowling.

3. Mighty Bug Shield Repellant Lotion from Episencial
Price: $1.77
Status: Could be great…
Comments: Okay, so this is annoying. I’ve received Episencial products in my Citrus Lane boxes before and loved them. I’ve also bought some of my own accord. This is the second time I’ve been sent a tiny sample size of something from them. This could have been a stellar review, as we’ve been hating trying to use standard bug repellant on Baby Girl, and receiving this product would have been timely and well appreciated. Instead, they sent us a 0.5 ounce sample that will barely cover one use. Very annoying. I would have been ecstatic to receive this in full size (same with the other sample size products from Episencial I’ve received previously). I feel like I can barely even count this as an item. The price I’ve listed is based on a percentage of the price for the full size item.

4. Adhesive Bandages from Ouchies Jr.
Price: $5.00
Status: Meh
Comments: These are just vanity band-aids. I’ve never really understood decorative band-aids, not even when I was a kid, but these are fine, and I’m sure we’ll use them eventually, even if it’s just on ourselves rather than on Baby Girl. I certainly would never pay $5 for vanity band-aids.

5. Hand Sanitizing Wipes from CleanWell
Price: $5.50
Status: Useful
Comments: These are an interesting concept, but I’m not sure how useful they are to us. We use liquid hand sanitizer all the time, but this big canister isn’t exactly easy to take places, and we aren’t clean freak people that are constantly sanitizing our hands. I put them on the changing table for those times when I’m not fast enough to keep Baby Girl from grabbing a handful of poop while I’m changing her. That’s the best use I could think of.

6. Free Trial Offer from FabKids
Price: $39.95
Status: Absolutely Not
Comments: I’m pretty annoyed that after the hullabaloo a few months ago when Citrus Lane included a JustFab offer (the same company as FabKids) that this was included. The reasons I’m annoyed that this was included are many, but a here are a few. 1) The value is inflated. There is no way I would pay $40 for an outfit just to have a brand name on it, plus you can get the same or similar clothes at an actual store for less. 2) This service operates like a scam. When you claim your “free outfit”, you have to pay shipping, and they automatically sign you up to have your credit card charged every month whether you like it or not, and if you don’t pay close attention, you could actually be charged every month and receive nothing, as you have to log into your account and choose an outfit before they send you anything. Then, when you try to cancel, they will give you a hard time and often, while they will stop charging your credit card, will not actually delete your account so that you have the opportunity to restart the service. No thanks. 3) While many of the products and companies that Citrus Lane sends are organic, good-hearted companies started by real moms and dads, the brands carried by FabKids manufacture the majority of their products in Bangladesh, where they have all those awesome factory fires killing hundreds of the workers that make these very clothes. Not exactly a company with a conscience. 4) Sizing starts at 2T. Why in the WORLD, are you sending me a free outfit (whether it is free or not) that is 2-3 sizes too big for my baby? Not cool. Also, this free outfit thing is only for people who are not already members of FabKids, so if you already signed up, you get nothing and this offer is worthless.

Final Thoughts:
This month’s box was only okay, but I feel like it was probably an awesome one for somebody else. I can see the value in it, it just wasn’t a home run for me. Also, this is the first box I’ve had that cut so close to full price value. I feel like the FabKids offer was thrown in just to bump up value, and I’m a bit disappointed. I’m actually planning to try Bluum next month as well just to see how it compares.

Optional Add-to-Box:
I also received an offer this month to add a Bumkins Zippered Wet/Dry Bag to my box at the price of $14.95. I didn’t take advantage of the offer because I prefer PlanetWise wet bags and already own several, and because the price wasn’t a special offer at all, as this is the same price listed on the Bumkins website. If it had been a discount, I could understand a bit better. That said, Bumkins makes great products and I would have been thrilled to receive this in my Citrus Lane box without the extra charge rather than some of the things we received.

By the Numbers:
Total value of the box items: $26.65
Total value of items I will use: $26.65
Is the value greater than the cost? YES

Looking for my previous Citrus Lane reviews? CLICK HERE!

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Recipe: Deep Dark Pecan Pie

Deep Dark Pecan Pie

Husband Rating: 5 out of 10 (note that my husband doesn’t actually like pecans, making the rating on this recipe semi-pointless)

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 Tbsp. butter flavored vegetable shortening
1/4 cup raw sugar
6 Tbsp. milk
3 eggs
1 cup muscovado sugar (available at specialty shops and online)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch salt
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
3 Tbsp. light corn syrup
3 Tbsp. molasses
2 cups roughly chopped pecans
Pecan halves
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

1. For the dough, mix flour and salt together in a mixing bowl and rub in the 4 Tbsp. butter and shortening with your fingertips until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Work in the raw sugar and add milk. Work mixture into a soft dough. This dough does NOT resemble traditional pie crust. It looks and tastes more like cookie dough. Wrap the dough and chill for 30 minutes or more.
2. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Press the dough into a 9-10 inch tart pan with your fingers, making sure the sides are sufficiently covered. Line with parchment paper and fill with pie weights (if you fail to fill the pan with pie weights, the crust will shrink!). Bake 20 minutes. Remove crust from oven and remove paper and weights. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Place baking sheet in the oven to catch overflow.
3. For filling, break eggs into a bowl and beat lightly. Beat in the muscovado sugar, vanilla extract, and salt. Stir in melted butter, corn syrup, molasses, and chopped nuts. Pour into shell and top with pecan halves.
4. Place on heated baking sheet and bake 35-40 minutes until filling appears set. Serve warm topped with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.