CheapTweet Blog

It’s Friday! This week, we’re itching for some adventure. It’s been a long, long, long winter and we’ve been working really hard the past few months. It’s time for an adventure! So all the deals we’re sharing this week are full of adventure. We also finally have an answer to the question “Where is my jetpack?” Links to these deals are posted below the video.

Plus, you might notice that we’re wearing matching shirts. These are our kickball jerseys – Hayes and I play on a kickball team here in Austin called The Whales. Our new season starts tonight, so we’re dressed for game day. Go The Whales!

• $2 off Planet Shark admission, expires 3/14
• $5 off Jungle Island admission, expires 3/31
• Virgin America Primetime Fare Sale, flights as low as $49 one way, ends 3/01
• Europe travel deals from Expedia, up to 40% off, book by 2/28
• Martin personal jetpack for $76,000

Also, please enjoy this outtake from this week’s video, where I almost break our awesome Flip camera with the kickball.

This week, Heather – mom and our Happy Hatchling guest blogger – shares tips for the soon-to-be breastfeeding mom. Here, she discusses items that will make the first couple of months breastfeeding easier on mom. You can also follow Heather on Twitter.

1) Medela Tender Care HydroGel Nipple Pad
This product is a must for first-time moms. I did not know how sore and painful the first few weeks of breastfeeding could be. A friend of mine gave me a pack of the HydroGel nipple pads to take to the hospital, and I was so happy to have them. Now I give them to all my pregnant friends that plan on breastfeeding. The pads can be worn for 24 hours (I wore them for 48 hours), and when rinsed in cold water they feel so soothing. Lansinoh breast cream is also a common product for sore nipples, but I found that the cream was so hard that spreading the cream was also painful. The HydroGel nipple pad was so easy to stick on and provided instantaneous relief without the mess.

2) Aimee’s Nursing Nightgown – pictured
These nightgowns are unbelievably comfortable and makes nursing at night easy and accessible. I also loved the pajama tops and wore it with my regular pajama bottoms.

3) Mother’s Milk Tea
Every nursing mom goes through moments of concern that she’s not producing enough milk. Although there’s probably nothing to worry about, it is always good to be proactive. Mother’s Milk Tea has ingredients that have been traditionally used to increase milk production, and it tastes yummy.

4) Lilypadz Nursing Pads
Lilypadz are a great alternative to the standard disposable and washable nipple pads that soak up leaking milk. Lilypadz stop leakage by keeping a constant pressure on your breast. They are made from a flexible silicon that conforms to your shape. They are comfortable and unlike other nipple pads you’ll never have the uncomfortable soaked pad feeling.

Do you have any recommendations for a mom who is breastfeeding for the first time? Share them in the comments!

CheapTweet is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and it never snows here. Seriously, never. But it’s snowing today, and we think that’s kinda awesome. Here are a few pictures and a quick video. Yay snow!

This week, our happy hour video is all about pets. We’ve just launched a new pets category on CheapTweet, where you can find great deals on pet supplies, food, toys, and more. We picked out a few of our favorite pet deals to talk about in this week’s video (the deals are linked to below), but there are tons more discounted pet items on CheapTweet.com.

Enjoy the video and happy Friday!

Love Your Pet Day, 2/20

• Snowflake dog sweater
• Hamster food dish
• Frontline Plus – $29.77 for a 3-month supply
• World’s Best Cat Litter – $4 off coupon

Walking the Dog Day, 2/22

• Medium-sized dog leash
• Eco-friendly dog collar

International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day, 2/23

• BOGO Meaty Bone dog biscuits
• Milk-Bone Essentials Plus biscuits – $1 off

Pet Dental Month, February

• Best Bully Sticks
• Pedigree Dentastix – $1 off coupon

And be sure to check out our brand new pets category and previous happy hour videos. Also, please enjoy these pictures of some of our favorite pets.

Rooney

Evie

Kida

We’re about to launch a brand new and extremely cool CheapTweet feature. This feature will change the way you find deals, making it faster, easier and more fun to find the exact deals you’re looking for. You’ll learn a lot more about it soon.

Before its public debut, however, we’re providing an early sneak peak to our most loyal users. And as a reader of our blog, that’s you! If you’d like to try this feature before it becomes public, just click here to sign up. We’ll send you an email with more information. This is your chance to see the new CheapTweet before anyone else does!

The following is a guest post from Emily Starbuck Gerson. Emily is a journalist and copywriter who lives in beautiful Austin, Texas. She is obsessed with travel, so she runs a blog, Maiden Voyage, in her free time as a fun excuse to spend more time thinking and talking about travel (follow @themaidenvoyage on Twitter). Emily is also an avid photographer.

Yapta.com

It’s a sickening feeling when you purchase an expensive flight, only to see it have a major price drop just days or weeks later. Yapta.com helps you save money both before and after you purchase a flight. On the front end, Yapta can help you track prices of a flight before you book. You tell Yapta which flights to track (you can also have it track hotel prices based on dates). When the prices drop to rates that will give you the best value, the site sends you an email so you know it’s prime time to book. Conversely, if you book airfare and the price later drops, Yapta will send you an alert letting you know that you are eligible for a refund from the airline you’re flying with (and it gives you instructions for claiming the credit for each airline). According to Yapta.com, the average annual savings per user is $334.16.

HomeExchange.com

Have you ever seen the movie “The Holiday,” in which an American woman and a British woman swap homes for the winter holidays? The site they use in the movie, HomeExchange.com, is real. You have to pay for a subscription for listing your home, but the fee is low, and it doesn’t cost any extra to actually swap homes. You create a listing with basic information about your home in addition to information about where and when you would like to travel. You can then search through the 32,000+ homes around the world and contact the owners of the homes you are interested in directly.

I know of one American family who wanted to go to Paris but were concerned about the price. They found a Parisian family wanting to visit their city in Massachusetts, and it worked out perfectly and saved them tons of cash by swapping. Some people will do a simultaneous swap, while others do not swap at the same time (perhaps one party has a second home, or is traveling somewhere else at the time). Some people swap for a few days at a time, while others swap for several months. Swapping homes is completely free – the two parties don’t exchange money. Some homeowners include their car for the guest. Some may ask that you take care of their pets, but that is not the norm.

CouchSurfing.org

It’s become a bit of a cliché, but CouchSurfing really is a great way to travel on the cheap if you are open to meeting new people. Anyone can join and create a profile for free. The site is primarily for people who are open to having out-of-town guests stay with them, or travelers who want a free, no-frill place to stay. The hosts don’t necessarily have to offer a couch – they may have a guest bedroom or an extra inflatable mattress. Some hosts like to hang out with their guests and show them all around town, while others simply want to give you a free place to crash and be left alone.

If the thought of sharing a home with a stranger freaks you out, you can also just use CouchSurfing to meet people during your travels. Many people have accounts and have indicated that they are not interested in hosting, but are happy to meet up for coffee or show a visitor around town. A free tour from a local is hard to beat. While it may sound a little sketchy, CouchCurfing has safety measures and vouching systems in place.

Email newsletters

Sign up for email newsletters for discount travel websites. Nearby every website sends out email newsletters these days, but only some are really worth receiving.

• ShermansTravel.com sends out a weekly email called “This Week’s Top 25,” which contains hard-to-beat, last-minute deals on hotel stays, cruises, and travel packages.
• TravelZoo.com sends out their Travelzoo Top 20® every week, which is similar to Sherman’s and covers some of the week’s best deals.
• AirFareWatchdog.com sends out weekly newsletters about dirt-cheap flights that leave from your chosen destination. These email newsletters are all very popular, so the deals sometimes sell out if you don’t act fast.

What are some of your favorite money-saving travel websites?

(Bed photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theredproject)

In this week’s CheapTweet Happy Hour, we talk about deals on home haircut accessories (yes, you heard that right), free medicine and free food, and some more of our favorite Etsy sellers. Links to these deals are posted below the video.

Have a great weekend!

• Haircut umbrella (pictured below)
• Free Excedrin by mail
• Einstein Bros buy one bagel, get one free
• @polishedtwo jewelry
• Etsy Austin Street Team

And if you haven’t seen our previous happy hour videos, you should check them out.

Andrew, the industrious CheapTweet mailroom clerk, is back with another reader letter. This week, Andrew answers a tough question about how to find the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for that not-so-special someone.

If you missed the last post from the CheapTweet mailroom, watch it here.

Do you have your own question for Andrew? He reads emails, too, so feel free to send him your questions. Maybe he’ll read it in the next CheapTweet mailroom video! You can also follow Andrew on Twitter at @ishak.

We’re updating a few pages on CheapTweet.com to provide more information to CheapTweet visitors. Among other changes, there’s a revamped About CheapTweet page, which includes more detailed information about who we are, recent press mentions, etc…

And, there’s a brand new FAQ and Help page! If you ever have a question about how CheapTweet works or why something isn’t working the way you think it should, check here for answers. We’ll continue to add to this page as we grow. Let us know if you have a question that isn’t currently answered here!

If you want to stay up-to-date on the latest deals and CheapTweet news, become our fan on Facebook!

Every day, we’ll post links to great deals, as well as CheapTweet.com site updates, company news and pictures from various events. Feel free to ask questions in the discussion board or post links to your favorite deals.