Certifikid Launches Special Deals for Special Needs Program

Have you ever finished something and just felt like jumping up and down with joy? Today is that day for the team at Certifikid. Their Special Deals for Special Needs site is now live!

Certifikid is the first and only website in the nation (and quite possibly the world!) to offer daily deals for special needs kids. With approximately 19% of families in the U.S. caring for a child with special needs, according to the Heath Resources and Services Administration, the Certifikid team deserves some major KUDOS for being trailblazers for these families!

The Special Deals for Special Needs program will offer dicounts on dietary restrictions to sensory issues, emotional or behavioral health concerns to developmental delays or accessibility. CertifiKid has already partnered with businesses like My Gym, Urban Pirates and Cartoon Cuts, who will be participating in this program.

Drawing from the expertise of an advisory panel of parents, educators, specialists and practitioners, CertifiKid will be helping to bring more businesses into the fold and in turn offering savings and experiences to families of children with special needs in a format like never before.

 

Here is a small sampling of what will be offered:

• Gluten Free & Special Diet Food Vendors
• Open Plays
• Accessible and Inclusive Activities
• Individualized Classes and Camps
• Art, Animal and Music Therapies

Their first special deal is up so check it out! It offers parents 45% off the third annual Diamonds in the Rough: DC Area Special Learning Needs Sampler, plus lunch, on Sunday, March 18.

If you know of a special needs family, please pass this information on to them. EVERYONE deserves to save!

Certifikid is Economoms' exclusive partner for daily deals, bringing you the best family-friendly activities in the DC/Baltimore Metro area at great prices, of course!

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Get Ready for Winter Restaurant Weeks in the City and County!

Coming your way are two weeks of the cheapest fine dining in Baltimore!

Baltimore County Restaurant Week kicks off Thursday, Jan. 12 and runs through Saturday, Jan. 21, followed by Baltimore City Restaurant Week, which runs Friday, Jan. 20 through Sunday, Jan. 29.

Make your reservations for date night now as spots fill up quickly for your chance to eat prix fixe dinners as low as $25.12 in the county and $30.12 in the city per person.

Lunches are also on the menu for as low as $10.12 in the county and $15.12 in the city. (If you can't squeeze in a date night, lunches are a great way to sample these dining hots spots with the kiddos!)

All prices offered for city restaurants are $5 less than the discounts offered during Summer Restaurant Week. And one perk to dining in the county -- most if not all parking is FREE!

To see a listing of participating county restaurants, click here. To see a listing of participating city restaurants, click here.

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Meet Certifikid, Baltimore's Best Resource for Family Deals!

As I was looking over the Economoms Facebook page this morning, I was SOOOOO excited to see that we're up to almost 1,550 fans. I love our little community of Baltimore moms and dads who are on this journey with me to play local yet live frugal.

However, I was SOOOOO surprised to see one of the stats that the Facebook gurus provide business page owners .... Only about 100 of the 1,500 of you are fans of Certifikid, our newest partner. How can this be?! 

Certifikid is hands down my favorite daily deals site. Not only is it local, but it's targeted specifically to families. Unlike Groupon or Living Social, Certifikid has real moms just like us securing deals for their subscribers, not some Joe Schmoe that works halfway across the country and doesn't know anything about Baltimore family life.

My favorite Certifikid deal I've scored so far is half off Port Discovery tickets. I can't wait to take Macy for the first time! You can find deals for other kiddo favorites like Cartoon Cuts, Urban Pirates, and Irvine Nature Center too. Camps, music and art classes, photographers, and family-friendly restaurants are also featured regularly.

Plus, Certifikid offers deals that helps to make parents' lives a little easier .... like carpet cleaning and car detailing. If your car is anything like mine -- baby bottle spills and Cheerios galore -- I know these are services that us parents could really use but don't want to spend a lot of money on (hint, hint Certifikid!!).

So if you're one of the 1,400 Economoms that aren't yet following Certifikid, do it now! Click here to sign up to have their deals delivered to your inbox every day. And click here to follow them on Facebook.

Recycle Your Christmas Tree for FREE Mulch

Economoms is back after a brief hiatus during the craziness and magic of our daughter Macy's first Christmas! If you're beginning to "un-deck" your halls like we are, check out this great way to go green and get some FREE mulch out of it at the same time.

Baltimore's Department of Public Works will provide Christmas tree mulching Mondays to Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in January 2012. Just bring your tree and some containers or bags to the Reedbird Avenue Citizen Drop-off Center at 701 Reedbird Avenue. The folks there will recycle your tree then fill your containers with mulch!

Community groups are also encouraged to collect the free mulch for neighborhood gardens while supplies last.

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Save the Date: Winter Restaurant Week to Return

Is it too early to book a babysitter? Baltimore's favorite way to dine like kings and queens for a fraction of the normal cost is returning in just a few months.

Baltimore Winter Restaurant Week will be back Friday, Jan. 20 through Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. As usual, restaurants will offer prix-fixe three-course dinner and lunch menus. Although the price has not yet been publicized, we're guessing it will be $20.12 for lunches and $35.12 for dinners, in keeping with the event's tradition to make the cents portion of the price the same as the current year.

Book those babysitters!

Meet Our New Sponsor: WyzAnt Tutoring!

One-on-one sessions with students of all ages ... More than 500 tutors in the Baltimore area ... Discount packages on multiple tutoring sessions ... No contracts or minimum payments ...

Sounds like a tutoring service I would want to invest in for my daughter someday! That's why Economoms has partnered up with WyzAnt Tutoring. It's a service we feel like we can stand behind, and it won't cost you an arm and a leg. Sessions average about $30-45 per hour.

Check out WyzAnt's "Find Local Tutors" widget (also always available on the right hand side of Economoms' home page). Select the subject your child needs some extra help with, click Search, and voila! You'll get a listing of available tutors in the Baltimore area that for each includes a photo (if available), their profile information and expertise, and their rate. Pretty cool, huh?

Visit WyzAnt's home page here, or click here to 'like' them on Facebook for tutoring tips that parents can use at home.

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Meet Our New Sponsor: Supper Thyme USA!

Confession: I'm such a fan of Supper Thyme USA's Fast Track low-calorie meals, that I agreed to accept them as payment in exchange for advertising with Economoms. Yes, I'm being paid in food, and I'm not afraid to admit it!

You might remember I blogged about Supper Thyme several months ago when I was trying to get a jump-start on losing my post-baby weight. The Fast Track meals were a huge help because they're pre-made and portioned for a 1,200 calorie diet. You just pop them in the microwave or oven and eat. No other actions or thinking required, which was such a relief 6 weeks after having a baby. The best part -- they taste like real, homemade food.

Supper Thyme also offers Supper Tykes, pre-made meals for children. They're easy for babysitters to heat up, and at $3.50 per serving they're cheaper than ordering pizza. Pop them in the oven on soccer night when you don't have time to stand over the stove.

Or, looking for a fun mom's night out? Visit Supper Thyme in Cockeysville and make a month's worth of meals in about two hours. They have easy to follow recipes, fresh chopped ingredients, baking instructions, and a team of staff members that will take care of clean up.

Click here to register for a session, or go here to show Supper Thyme some love on Facebook.

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Cool Mom Picks Debuts Deal of the Day

Cool Mom Picks is already a fabulous resource for the swingset crowd. Every day they share their favorite mom- and kid-friendly items, particularly non-mainstream products from indie or emerging designers. It's a great website to learn about the latest trends before the rest of the playground does.

Now, they've expanded their fabulosity even further by joining the ranks of the daily deal sites. The Cool Mom Picks Deal of the Day will only be accessible to Facebook fans. Head over and like their Facebook page now to get in on the discounts!

Cool Mom Picks is promising to offer deals on their favorite items, which they say are rarely discounted. We're hoping to see some new brands other than the ones constantly rotated throughout the daily deals sites. While we love them, there's only so many times you can buy Trumpette socks or Little Giraffe blankets!

Each daily deal will only be offered until midnight, so if you see something you like, nab it quick!

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Baltimore Sun Launches Bmore Bargains

A new local daily deals website has entered the scene: Bmore Bargains, run by the Baltimore Sun. With the Baltimore Sun arguably one of the best sources of 'insider' information for locals, we're hoping their deals site lives up to the same reputation--providing bargains on restaurants, attractions and events that true Baltimoreans desire. In other words, we're excited that some salesperson in Chicago (where Groupon is headquartered) won't be picking our deals! So how is Bmore Bargains different from the bevy of daily deals sites already out there? Here's what we've observed so far:

• Bmore Bargains does not have a rewards program (i.e. - Refer a deal to a friend, and get rewarded for it through credits). Virtually every other deals site on the market offers this, so we think they need to follow suit!
• Bmore Bargains has returned to the traditional daily deals model, in which the deals are truly only available for 24 hours. Most sites now offer deals for 2-3 days, Groupon included. If you like a Bmore Bargain, better get it quick!
• Bmore Bargains does not have any niche editions. We're hoping they'll eventually offer Bmore Bargains for families!

To sign up to receive daily email alerts from Bmore Bargains, click here.

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Maryland's Tax-FREE Shopping Week

Maryland Tax-FREE Shopping Week returns this year from Sunday, August 14 through Saturday, August 20. Kick start your back-to-school shopping with 6% savings on all apparel and footwear purchases that are $100 or less. Accessory items are not included.

Additionally, save the date for a tax-free three-day weekend during which the sales and use tax will not apply to the sale of Energy Star Products or solar water heaters. This tax-free weekend will occur the weekend of February 18, 2012 through February 20, 2012.

For details on both events, click here.

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LivingSocial Introduces Baltimore Families Edition

LivingSocial has added to its repertoir of deals, and this time it's right down Economoms' alley! Today they introduced their Baltimore Families edition, promising "dance classes, martial arts instruction, zoos, day trips, aquariums, art classes, and more ... to enjoy Baltimore with your tots or teens."

To receive LivingSocial's Baltimore Families daily email alerts, click here (affiliate link) and enter your email address. Once you're a member, click on the dropdown menu in the upper right corner from LivingSocial's homepage. Select Subcriptions and check off all deals that you would like to receive. In addition to family-friendly discounts, you can also receive daily emails on LivingSocial Escapes (vacations) and LivingSocial Adventures (day-trip type outings).

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New Daily Deal Site for "Design Inspiration" Launches

New flash sale website Fab is ... well, pretty fab!

They're offering up to 70% off retail prices on design inspirations every day. So what do they consider design inspirations, you ask?

Based on the sales they've offered in their first two days in business, everything from funky, sculptural lighting to modern bikes that have a vintage feel to parent-favorite Melissa and Doug toys.

If anything, this site is just plain fun to browse through! To receive their daily deals in your inbox, sign up here (affiliate link).

Baltimore's Citycents Daily Deal Site Shuts Down

After just a couple months since debuting, Baltimore-based Citycents has shut down operations. Economoms had previously reported on Citycents for its new spin on the daily deals arena -- offering discounts to consumers for completely free. See last month's post here. If you claimed any free vouchers from Citycents, you should have received an email earlier this week that still allows you to redeem the deals even though the company is no longer in business. Citycents owners cited an oversaturated market as their reason for failing. There certainly are a ton of daily deal sites on the market right now. Last month, Economoms also polled our readers for their favorite sites. Check out the results here.

Thanks for the Coverage, Citycents

6/5/11 - Please note since the original posting of this article, Citycents has officially shut down. For more information, click here.

Economoms recent article on Citycents, a new daily deal site that's based out of Baltimore, is now linked from their press page. Citycents is unique because all of their deals are 100% FREE. To learn more, read our article here.

New on the Daily Deals Scene: Citycents - Baltimore-Based and Completely FREE!

6/5/11 - Please note since the original posting of this article, Citycents has officially shut down. For more information, click here.

Why spend money to get a 50% off deal when you can claim it for FREE instead? That's the question Citycents wants you to ask as a new daily deals website that puts its own (very attractive, hard to refuse!) spin on saving in Baltimore.

As far as we can tell, Citycents is the first daily deals site in the nation to offer deals completely free--and their headquarters are based in Baltimore. (Score one for the home team!)

Citycents works just like competing daily deal sites, except for one very important thing. Umm, did we mention their deals are free?!

Here's how it works: One new deal is up for grabs each day from Baltimore-area retailers. You have 24 hours to "steal" the deal, which costs nothing. Once a certain threshhold of people claim the deal, it activates, and you receive a voucher for the merchant in your inbox, ready for use as soon as the next day.

Another new Citycents twist is bonus auctions. Once a deal is activated, bonus auctions -- for items like $10 gift cards toward Target or Subway -- are unlocked for bidding. You earn bids each time you steal a deal, or when you share the deal through a social network, like Facebook, and your friends then steal the deal too. Bids can also be purchased.

What we're loving about Citycents:

• Again, did we mention it's FREE?! There's no risk to claiming a Citycents deal. Claim it and use it, or claim it and toss it. There's no cost to you either way.
• Besides its Baltimore edition, Citycents has also debuted in Annapolis. Washington D.C. is soon to come. The Maryland-area bases are covered.

What you should keep your eye on:

• It appears that Citycents' deals expire more quickly than others. For example, today's deal expires in three months, whereas most Groupon deals are valid for one year. Fair trade for getting it for free? I think so.
• Citycents hasn't been live for long, but from what I've seen so far, their deals seem targeted more to young singles rather than families. Two of the past week's deals have been for Federal Hill pubs. Still, their PR person tells me they plan to have family-friendly features in the future, so stay tuned.
• The bidding process for the auction items seems a bit complicated. In theory, it makes total sense, but then when I visit the website to actually bid, I get totally confused! Who knows, I might just be having a blonde moment!

What do you think about Citycents' new deals model? Will it affect your purchasing of deals through other sites? How so?

To sign up to have Citycents deals delivered to your email inbox, click here.

We're Featured in Stroller Stride's January 2011 E-Newsletter!

Economoms is Stroller Strides Baltimore's Vendor of the Month in their January 2011 newsletter. Check it out here. Stroller Strides is the original BYOB (Bring-your-own-Baby) workout! Instructors provide a 60-minute total body workout that will emotionally and physically uplift new or veteran mommies in a fun, yet intense class. This is for mothers who have been released from their physician to exercise and are at least six-weeks post-natal. Resistance training, intense abdominal work and cardiovascular endurance are emphasized.

Things that make you feel goooood!

Morning Fans!

Since Economoms was launched a little over three months ago, I've gotten so much joy from landing awesome deals for you guys and passing on tips for budget-friendly events in the Baltimore area. Saving money is just as important as living a fun, style-filled life, and I sincerely hope Economoms is helping you to that end.

Lisa with her Daughters

But it wasn't until just a few days ago, that I felt TRULY proud of Economoms, and it was all thanks to fan Lisa Berg Joubert and partner Physical Therapy First. You might recall that Lisa was the winner of our Halloween photo giveaway. She posted adorable photos of her daughters dressed as Dorothy and Minnie Mouse for Halloween. Courtesy of Physical Therapy First, we drew Lisa as the random winner of a thirty minute massage.

The idea was to give a local mom a relaxing experience. After all, holidays can be more exhausting than anything else! Between decorating, making costumes, buying candy, and trying to get your kids not to gorge on said candy, we figured a parent could really use thirty minutes of pure relaxation.

But Lisa took it to another level ...... upon winning, her immediate thought was not to keep the massage for herself, but to pass it on to someone who needed it much more than her. Lisa thought a good friend in her book club would appreciate it much more. Why? She was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this fall.

Lisa was concerned that Physical Therapy First's gift certificate wouldn't be transferrable. Economoms response? We'll make it happen, no matter what!! We were truly touched by Lisa's generosity and experienced that warm, fuzzy feeling that you can only get when you give back. The deal was sealed when Physical Therapy First let us know they loved the idea too. And now a voucher for a relaxing massage is on its way to Lisa's friend. We sincerely hope the massage will be a little slice of bliss for her amidst this trying time.

Call for Charities
Lisa's generosity made us realize Economoms needs to give back a whole lot more! In honor of the upcoming holiday season, Economoms would love to spread the word about the charity events and drives that you're participating in. There's 569 of us on Facebook (so far!) and if just 10% of us could give back at least once, it would make a HUGE difference. To that end, Economoms will publish a weekly log of your charities throughout the holiday season. Here's what we need from you in order to be featured:

1. The Name of the Charity You'd Like to Promote
2. Brief Description of Charity
3. What and How People Can Donate
4. Web Address / Email Address / Phone # of the Charity
5. Any Applicable Dates
6. Photos are Encouraged but Optional!

Email the above information to bmorefamilydeals@gmail.com to be included!

Cheers,

Amie
Founder, Economoms

Hey fans! Guess what? We're famous!

Wellllll, not really. But we're ABSOLUTELY THRILLED (cool) progeny featured us today in the Parents in the Know series. Check it out! We highly recommend you follow (cool) progeny, who blogs about raising active little thinkers in Baltimore.

Baltimore scores top ranking

Forbes named Baltimore/Towson #5 in its Top 50 Cities for Working Mothers! And Washington, D.C. nabbed #2. Do you agree? Read the article here.