This is Rene’s sister posting for her. She is in the hospital, so she won’t be posting for the next couple of days. We’ll let you know how she is.

I was recently contacted to review General Mills and Hot Wheels. Since they are offering a freebie to my readers as well, I decided to do it. (-: The box actually came right before we went on vacation. We had lunches and dinners covered, but breakfasts were not. So, this was perfect timing!! They sent me the five boxes shown above. I actually had never tried several of these cereals. I usually make my own granola. I must admit it was fun to eat them for breakfast though. My kiddos loved all of them. My personal favorite was the Reese’s cereal. But, who doesn’t love chocolate and peanut butter! Each of the cereals include a car.

I asked my hubby and kids their opinions on the cars. They are plastic cars that come with stickers that you place on the car. My kids have actually had a blast playing with them. They are race cars. So you pull them backwards and then they shoot forwards. Since they sent 5 boxes of cereal, we have 5 cars and there are 5 of us that are old enough to play with them, so I must say it was really fun racing them!!

Here is info about the cereal and cars:

Starting January 24th, inside each participating cereal box (Cheerios^® 14 oz,Cinnamon Toast Crunch^® 17 oz, Lucky Charms^® 16 oz, Reese´s Puffs^® 18 oz, andCookie Crisp^® 15.6 oz), you´ll be able to “gas and go” with one of four custom-designed collectable Hot Wheels^® pullback racers. Each car contains a code to unlock an exciting online racing game.

They are offering this same prize package to one of my readers. So . . . if you would like a chance to win 5 boxes of cereal with cars inside, here is how you can enter:

There are 4 different ways to enter. Please use a different comment for each entry.

1. Tell me which of the above is your favorite cereal OR a favorite memory from Hot Wheel cars you have.

2. Subscribe to my e-mail or RSS feeds. If you already are a subscriber, thank you so much! Just let me know that you already subscribe.

3. Follow Budget Saving Mom on Twitter. If you already do, thanks & just leave a comment letting me know.

4. Like Budget Saving Mom on facebook. If you already do, thanks so much! – Just leave a comment letting me know.

This giveaway will close on, Wednesday, 3/2/11 at 12 AM EST. Must be 18 or older and live in the United States to enter. A winner will be chosen via random.org & will be notified via e-mail. The winner has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be selected.

General Mills and Hot Wheels® provided me with the free product, information, and giveaway through MyBlogSpark. The opinions given in this review are my own (and my daughters) and have not been reviewed by anyone else.

My wonderful friend Renae has started a new blog How to Have it All. Not only is she a great person, she is a frugal mama who is great at finding deals. You will definitely want to check out her site! She has tons of great ways to save money. You will find coupons, deals and much more at her site. You will definitely want to check out her site and consider subscribing! Make sure to stop by and say hi and tell her Budget Saving Mom sent you! She is such an inspiring person, I am sure you will love her new blog! Below is one of her great, creative ideas that sounds like a lot of fun!!!

Cereal Box Backpack

My boys love to do crafts. In order to save money, we try to make our crafts out of things we have around the house. Not only is it thrifty to reuse items it is environmentally friendly!

What You Need:

Empty cardboard cereal box
Tape
Brown paper bag (or construction paper or thick wrapping paper)
Glue
Ribbon
Stickers, crayons, markers or paint for decorating
Scissors and/or box cutter

Instructions:

Grab an empty cereal box and glue the flaps down to make it look like it was never opened. Wrap the box with the brown paper bag like you are wrapping a present. The box should look similar to the following:

Next use a box cutter or scissors to cut a storage flap for the backpack. This part should be done by an adult! Cut about 1/3 of the way down the box as pictured below:

Once the cuts are made, some of the paper will be loose. Glue the paper to the box. Then it is time to put the straps on. Use the box cutter to make four small cuts on the back panel of the box. Use a pen to push the ribbon through the holes.

Once the ribbon is through the hole, tie a double knot to prevent the ribbon from slipping back through the hole.

Make sure the ribbon is even on both sides to create equal length straps.

Have your child decorate their backpack! We used stickers and crayons.

There are endless possibilities for use of the backpack. My son is using his for a writing box. We are trying to encourage him to practice his letters and we do a lot of education on the go. So his backpack contains pencils, crayons, paper and small activity books. Of course he thought his backpack looked just like a jet pack- perfect for those rocket pajamas!

Renae is a mom of two young boys. She works as a dental hygienist and blogs at How to Have it All. Join her as she journey’s through motherhood learning to balance work, raising kids and saving money.