I’m sorry that I have kept Heidi Montag up at the top of the blog for so long — it’s time to bump her down. I am working on several new posts that I will be starting to launch this week, but am not quite ready to post them yet. It’s late and I really need to get some sleep.

I’m reading a lot of really great books right now that I hope to tell you about soon. The first one will be “The Element.” I’m almost done with that post and will share with you some insights about how creative people are just as smart as naturally intelligent people. There are multiple intelligences and one isn’t greater than the other — they are just different.

I’m also reading two books called Roses … one is a novel, “Roses,” the other an incredible baking cookbook from the author of “The Cake Bible.”

I’ve got “Crush It” on my night stand too. Along with Daniel Pink’s new “Drive.” There isn’t enough time to read all this, but I’m going to give it a shot.

Heidi Montag before her recent, multiple surgeries.

The other day I was trolling the Internet and came to People.com and its recent cover story on the young Heidi Montag’s multiple surgeries (1o procedures in one day)– at age 23. She’s on the cover looking fabulous as any cover model would. The problem I have is that it glamorizes what she’s done. I’m afraid that when young girls and women see this they’ll think it’s what you have to do to be beautiful.

At least Montag’s “The Hill’s” co-star is standing up for girls everywhere. In an short article on People.com titled, “Costar: Heidi’s Surgeries Send Wrong Message,” Lo Bosworth says that Montag went too far:

“I hope that girls don’t read the article, look at the decisions that Heidi made, and think that’s normal,” Bosworth tells PEOPLE.”

I’m glad to that the magazine ran this front and center on its Web site to counter the, still front and center, current cover featuring Montag.

ABC’s JuJu Chang interviewed Montag about the article and all the controversy is has brought. In the piece Montag says her message is that beauty comes from within, but that’s far from the message she is sending. Later in the interview she says that she had plastic surgery because of the industry she is in, thus proving my point that when young girls see famous people do things like this they come to believe that it is necessary to succeed. It’s sad to think that she didn’t see her own beauty before she got these unnecessary procedures so early in life.

If Heidi Montag wants to get multiple plastic surgeries at age 23 I can’t stop that. I just hope that her teen worshipers don’t think this is what you have to do to be beautiful.

Robin Roberts points out that Montag’s new album is titled, “Superficial.” Nuf said.

Related:

• ABC’s interview with Heidi Montag.
• The Hill’s CoStar, “Heidi’s Surgeries Send Wrong Message.”

I received an advanced copy of the new book from “The Coupon Mom” back in December. It’s taken me this long to digest the book and write this post because there is so much great information in it. I was excited when I had the opportunity to read the book because I’ve seen Stephanie Nelson on television and she makes it look easy.

In her new book, “The Coupon Mom’s Guide To Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half,” Nelson shares her secrets on getting the most for your dollar. She starts by talking about what type of shopper you are: busy, rookie or varsity and has advice throughout the book based on each shopping type.

What I like about the book is that Nelson is not only a mother and savvy shopper, but she’s well spoken and clearly uses her business background to help shoppers learn techniques that can help save their families a lot of money. Here’s some of what I’m taking away from the book:

• Even though I’m a busy working mother, I can save money with coupons. Nelson’s personal strategy is not to spend hours every week cutting coupons; instead, she saves the circulars each week and puts a date on the front. No clipping coupons yet. When she’s ready to shop, she consults her Web site’s Grocery Deals database to find the best deals for the week. The database will tell her which circular to find the coupons and then she simply clips the coupons she’s using for that shopping trip.
• Knowledge is power, or in Nelson’s case, store and pricing knowledge is money. She says to learn what is on sale, when at your local grocery and drug stores (as well as other stores) so that you know when to buy what. An example she gives is that her local grocery store puts chicken on sale once a month. She knows when this happens and buys four weeks worth of chicken when it’s on sale.
• Combine store coupons with manufacturer coupons to receive maximum benefits. Before reading this book I didn’t even realize there was a difference between a manufacturer coupon and store coupon, let alone that you can use them both on an item and save big! I think this is the secret to how Nelson can go into a store and get $100 worth of groceries for pennies (see video below).
• Sign up for and use couponmom.com. Nelson’s Web site is a goldmine. This is where the time saving techniques really come into play. Every week her site is updated with local discounts. The magic is that you can find discounts in  your local area simply by clicking a few pages of her site and you be rewarded with a grid that tells you what items are on sale, which coupons to use, where to find the coupons and it will show you a final price you’ll pay for that item. It also shows you when you can get things for free using sales and coupons. You don’t have to do the legwork, just use the database to find the deals.

The book also has chapters on wholesale clubs, the breakout of drugstores and their rewards programs, how to use couponmom.com and chapters about how to save buying meat, vegetables, dairy and sweets. She even throws in some recipes that she uses with her family. This book is like an encyclopedia for saving money. Well worth the read because even if you implement only one of her strategies, you’ll surely save money.

If you don’t believe it or haven’t seen Nelson in action, watch this short clip where she gets $100 worth of groceries for 25 cents!

Photo credit: Stephanie Nelson

Related:

• CouponMom.com
• Stephanie Nelson’s Coupon Mom show airs on You Tube every Thursday. “In her new series, Nelson teaches real families how to save BIG by sharing her infamous tips and tricks on how to get the biggest bang for your buck without sacrificing quality.”
• “The Coupon Mom’s Guide To Cutting Your Grocery Bills In Half” Amazon link and reviews
• Time.com’s Q&A with Stephanie Nelson, “Coupon Mom: How To Cut Grocery Bills In Half“

Several Web sites are posting links with how to help. It’s boiling down to donating money. The people of Haiti need money, and they need it now. I’m hoping companies will start to match employee contributions so that we can make donations stretch further.

I’ve compiled a list of the main organizations and am listing a few that specialize in helping woman and children. As a mother, I can’t bear the thought that children are in need.

Samaritan’s Purse
A Christian-based organization, they’ve been in Haiti before and can quickly mobilize to offer help. They were there when hurricanes hit this small country. I also like Samaritan’s Purse for the work they do with Operation Christmas Child.
http://www.samaritanspurse.org

The Red Cross
This goes without saying. The Red Cross is THE organization for disaster relief. You can text the word “HAITI” to 90999 to make an instant $10 donation.
http://redcross.org

Doctors Without Borders
“MSF [Doctors Without Borders] has already treated more than 1,000 people on the ground in Haiti following Tuesday’s earthquake, but the needs are huge. An inflatable hospital with operating theatres is expected to arrive in the next 24 hours.”
http://doctorswithoutborders.org/

Save The Children
The agency, with offices in Port-au-Prince. “As it has done in recent disasters in Haiti, Save the Children is preparing to provide immediate lifesaving assistance, such as food, water, shelter and child-friendly spaces. It has verified the safety of all but 16 staff members in its main office. Save the Children, which has been working in Haiti since 1985, has provided emergency relief and assistance to Haitian children and families following various recent disasters, including hurricanes and floods.”
http://www.savethechildren.org/

CARE
“CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. We place special focus on working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. Women are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives.”
http://www.care.org

• Be sure to ask your employer, church or other organization if they will match funds. This is the quickest way to make your money go further.
• Watch ABC News’ How To Avoid Aid Scams, including do’s and dont’s of giving.
• Read Mia Farrow’s Opinion piece on CNN.com, “How You Can Help Haiti’s Children”
  “In any disaster, children are the most vulnerable. They are in danger of being separated from their families, and they are at increased risk of injury, disease, malnutrition and every form of exploitation and abuse. Undoubtedly, with a disaster of this magnitude, these threats will be particularly grave for Haiti’s children.”

No money to give? Give blood. We all have it coursing through our veins. Haitians need it in great supply.

Photo credit: Matthew Marek/American Red Cross 

Sunday’s “Parade” magazine featured a great article about families learning to live with what they have, not what they want or think they need. The article profiles several families who’ve had to learn the hard way how to cut back. To make decisions to live differently after job loss or a business failed.

Wants and needs have always been very different things. Wants being things we desire like more money, fancier cars, larger homes, luxurious vacations, and more. Needs are just what we require to live: food, shelter, enough to pay our bills. The need category can tend to get long when we over indulge and think we must have items in order to get by.

We tend to think we need things. We collect things. We buy more things. Things, things, things. Nikki Willhite of allthingsfrugal.com states it this way:

It is said that we spend the first half of our life accumulating possessions, and the second half giving them away. This is true for most people.”

Willhite, ends her article, “Wants Versus Needs,” eloquently:

Learn to live with less. Learn to shun envy. Appreciate what you have. If you have less, you will appreciate what you have more.

The “Parade” article ends differently, but with an equally telling message about desiring too much:

Is there a lesson to be learned from 2009? “We now know what every 85-year-old knows,” says Ted Klontz, a financial-behavior consultant. “Chasing after money is meaningless.”

Photo credit: dinny.

Related:

• Read the full article from Parade.com
• Read Willhite’s article, “Wants Versus Needs.”
• Helpful tip sheet for kids on getting them to understand and differentiate a want vs. a need, especially when spending their own money. From PBSkids.org.
• Balancing Motherhood’s Finance archives.