Okay, my fellow cheap chickadees, I have found us some Cyber Monday deals on some super-cool stuff!

From the looks of things, most of them are right about 30% off of the regular price, which is a pretty good deal, particularly for things that are difficult to find on sale elsewhere.

This first one is the LifeStraw personal water filter. We already have one of these that we bought last year. We are going to buy at least one more at this great price!

Next up is this portable solar charger with two USB ports. You know we love a road trip and we love all things solar panel, so I ordered this one last night. Now I'm wondering if I should order another one before this deal disappears!

This is not the food sealer that I have, but I can tell you that I do not know how I ever lived without mine. If you are new to vacuum sealing and the high-priced machines have been scaring you off, now is the time to give it a try! Using a sealer is a great way to extend the life of your produce, so don't pass up this vacuum sealer deal! 

Speaking of extending the life of your produce...you can reduce your food waste by switching to produce storage containers like these...

And, finally, I saw this yoga kit and thought it would be the perfect gift for someone just getting into yoga. If you know anyone like that (or are just getting into yoga yourself), you might want to grab this kit while it is a Cyber Monday deal!

These are just a handful of Amazon Cyber Monday deals I found that I thought you might like. There are hundreds more, so make sure you look around while you are there!

While I was looking for some other eBooks on Amazon, I came across these two that are currently free and might be helpful as you plan your vegan holiday meals. Of course, a free cookbook about vegan mug cakes is probably going to get used in our house way before the holidays get here!

Grab these books now, since they can go back to the regular price any time.

I just downloaded Self-Care for Activists: A Guide to Clearing Yourself of Trauma While Working for a Better World free on Amazon! I have not had a chance to read it, but I had to share it right away, since these free ebooks can quickly go back to their regular prices.

Whether you are an animal rights activists, a civil rights activist, fighting climate change or working for another good cause, download this free ebook for activists to learn more about taking care of yourself while doing this good work.

You do not need a Kindle to read free Kindle books. You can download the Kindle app free on Amazon, and then read them on your tablet or smartphone.

If you are interested in this downloading this ebook while it is free, make sure you head to Amazon soon, since prices can change quickly.

If you are considering moving towards a plant-based diet or going vegan, here are four FREE ebooks to help make sure you are well informed and have plenty of easy recipes on hand.

Keep in mind, the free ebooks on Amazon can change price at any time, so hurry over to get these before they go back to their regular price!

You do not have to have a Kindle to enjoy these free ebooks. You can read ebooks on your computer, tablet or smartphone with the Kindle app, which is free to download.

First off, click on this link to sign up for a chance to win one of the awesome Vitacost holiday giveaways:

Or...you can click this link to get your shopping on and save up to $30 off your order of vegan, cruelty-free, gluten-free or eco-friendly goodness. If you do this one, be sure to use the right promo code according to your order total:

SAVEMORE5 for $5 off $55
SAVEMORE15 for $15 off $100
SAVEMORE30 for $30 off $180 (I was out of almost all of my supplements, so I used this one!)

If you don't spend quite enough to enjoy the above savings, here is one more promo code for 12% off your order of any size.

Don't forget that you get free shipping if you spend at least $49!

Important: Make sure you are signed in to your Ebates account before you place your Vitacost order. That is the only way you can earn cash back from Ebates based on the amount you spend.

If you are not yet an Ebates member, it is fast and free to sign up and start earning cash back on online purchases. You can sign up here.

This post contains affiliate links. If you click on the links, you are taken directly to Vitacost to start saving on all sorts of vegan and organic awesomeness. You get the same great prices, but when you make a purchase, a small percentage goes to supporting this blog, which allows me to spend more time posting great deals and sales!

Remember when I did the vegan product review for the Mechaly bag? Well, if you have been waiting for a sale to pick one up, now is your chance!

All this weekend, you can save 45% off their entire line of cruelty-free handbags and vegan fashion with this promo code:

BLKF45

You will find their sunglasses, hats, bandanas, scarves, purses, wallets and more on the Mechaly website.

(no affiliate links here -- just passing on an awesome deal!)

Lately, I have been doing green smoothies for breakfast. However, today I had some coconut milk and a banana that needed to be used, so I decided to indulge in a more dessert-like treat for my first fuel of the day.

Since it was totally tasty and so quick to throw together, I thought some of you might like to try it too!

11 ounces coconut milk
1 banana
1 scoop Vega Protein & Greens (I used the vanilla flavor)
1 handful of pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
1 teaspoon chia seeds

Simply throw it all in the blender and blend it with a few ice cubes (if you prefer a thicker smoothie).

This took only a couple of minutes to put together and blend, which makes it great for when you need a quick breakfast smoothie to take with you as you head out the door in the morning.

Okay, it has been one week since I headed south to Costa Mesa and spent two awesome days at the 2016 SoCal VegFest.

I would have posted this sooner but, since I’ve been home, there have been a couple of things to contend with – such as having the fam over for Halloween, and then having our second slab leak this year. Ugh! It was the same pipe, so we had to have plumbers come and reroute the whole line so that it now runs through the attic. Up next are the drywall repair folks, and then determining whether we can replace just part of the flooring where the leak happened or if we have to replace all of the flooring in our house. Blah to all of that.

Anyways, that is what has been keeping me busy this week, so I apologize for waiting a week before posting my wrap-up of SoCal VegFest!

Now on to the good stuff…

First off – thank you so much to all of you who liked and retweeted my live tweets from the event. I hope you found them fun and useful! It was great to meet some Twitter friends at the festival and, as I tweeted during the event – I’m so used to being the only vegan in the room almost everywhere I go that it was truly incredible and amazing to be surrounded by thousands of compassionate vegans, vegetarians and veg-curious folks.

This green juice was so refreshing once the day got hotter.

I had the chance to have a long chat about vegan makeup and our love of tea with vegan singer/songwriter Annette Conlon, ate A LOT of awesome vegan food, and had the opportunity to meet some of the amazing folks who own or run vegan companies and organizations that I love. I also found out about some new brands I had yet to discover and picked up several products that I will be reviewing on Cheap Vegan Chick in the coming weeks.

Like this luxurious body butter from Veg in OC (above)!

This is just one row of vegan food vendors at SoCal VegFest (above) and the one I chose for my first meal at the festival (below).

The vegan Italian sandwich form Cafe MoMa was SO good! They also had this Mama's Sweet Bread (pictured below) that I meant to pick up before I left...and I totally forgot! I'm so bummed about this.

But...the important thing that I wanted to mention is that they do not normally make this sweet bread in a vegan version, but they said that they would if they got a good response. So if you have the chance to try it and you love it, please be sure to let them know!

There were also some awesome speakers -- like Matt Ruscigno, MPH, RD...

And lots of booths giving away vegan coupons!

Here's the Animal Rights Legislation Panel on the main stage (Jane Velez-Mitchell has the mic)...

And here are the purveyors of the best vegan croutons I have ever eaten! (I came home with three bags.)

I tried lots of new things...

...got Samson and Piper some vegan dog treats from Shaded Trails (which they loved!)...

...and met so many great people doing great things!

I <3 Sean and Queenie from Ahimsa Essentials. If you did not have a chance to stop by and try some of their products, you might just have to drive to Arizona to hit up one of the markets where they regularly sell their wares. Or, of course, you could just visit their website and order some of their oils, soaps, scrubs and more.

I came home with their Om body butter, which I will be reviewing soon!

I also came home with some of these awesome bamboo socks by Bambu Dru (for me and my wife!).

Oh! And I can't believe that I have missed Miss Jones vegan, organic baking mixes and frostings right in the baking aisle at Vons! If you are like me and just assume there aren't any products for us on that aisle, keep an eye out for Miss Jones!

All in all, SoCal VegFest was awesome!

I'm so glad I was able to attend both days to enjoy the hundreds of booths, thousands of attendees, tons of vegan food and awesome, compassionate vendors.

I can't wait for SoCal VegFest next year -- hope to see you there!

In the meantime, keep an eye out for several vegan product reviews coming soon as I have a chance to try out all of this vegan awesomeness I got at the festival!

There are always cheap, vegan, cruelty-free beauty products, skincare products and hair care products at T.J. Maxx. I don't think I have every been there when I have not seen some great deals on vegan personal care products that were pretty hard to pass up. But I do believe this is the biggest selection I have ever found at one time -- which was pretty awesome!

For me, this was even more exciting, because I use almost all of these brands, and this was a great opportunity to try some new products at a discount.

So much Giovanni, Alba, Andalou Naturals, Reviva Labs and Avalon Organics goodness...

I LOVE rosewater spray and every time I see one, I am tempted to buy it. I had to force myself to leave these at T.J. Maxx for someone else to enjoy, since I already have one in my bedroom, my office, my purse, my car and my travel kit. Sometimes a girl has to make tough choices!

I usually use witch hazel as a toner, but I did pick up this Elastin & Collagen Skin Toner from Reviva Labs on this trip. I've been using it for about a week now and am really enjoying it.

Okay, so now that you have seen some pics of the vegan, cruelty-free beauty products T.J. Maxx has right now...here is what I brought home with me...

I haven't had the chance to try everything yet, but I am using the toner I mentioned above, as well as the Andalou Naturals Floral Toner and Pore Minimizer. So far, I'm loving all three products and can't wait to try the others!

If you find great deals on vegan or cruelty-free personal care products, please let me know so that I can help spread the word!