Citrus Lane November 2013 Review

Citrus Lane is a great kids box that Emily always looks forward to! For $25 a month (or $21 a month if you sign up for a 6 month subscription - I actually did upgrade to this for her! They have some awesome Black Friday deals going on right now for even less which I'll mention at the end of this post!), you get 4+ items selected for your child’s age (they offer boxes up to 5 years old). You usually get a mixture of useful things (like toothpaste, sunscreen, food items, etc) and toys or books.

This month for Citrus Lane, I decided to mix things up a bit. I switched Emily's profile to a slightly older boy (~4 yrs old) since, in the past, she's been a bit unimpressed with typical girl toys that come in these boxes. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of girly things she likes - her baby doll and stroller, her kitchen (ok, that one could go either way), her princess castle, etc - but she also LOVES cars and her favorite color is blue, so when it comes to these boxes, occasionally I'll see something in the boy version, like the Hape cars that came in either Citrus Lane or Stork Stack a couple months ago, that I think Emily would have much preferred to what she got. So, I just wanted to see what she'd get in a boy box for once. Turns out, there wasn't a whole lot of variation this month for the 3-5 year old set. Oh well.

Opening the box

Info sheet

The first thing Emily saw was a Green Toys Build-A-Burger set ($8.49). Green Toys doesn't actually seem to sell this individually. It's part of the Sandwich Shop Set, which actually, she got in a previous Citrus Lane box - I think May. That annoys me a bit that she got the full set back in May and now they're breaking up the set and sending out pieces to everyone again. Seems cheap of Citrus Lane. We do love Green Toys, but seeing as how she's already got this, it's going in the trade pile. I'm sure someone will enjoy it - Emily does have fun with her set. The other 2 Green Toys options I saw for different ages were a tug boat for the youngest set and a crockpot with utensils for the middle. It would've been nice to get the crockpot. 

We have this!

Green Toys Build-A-Burger set

Next, Emily pulled out the biggest item in the box, a Bumkins Insulated Lunch Tote ($12.95). Like with Stork Stack's lunch bag, I'm again a bit disappointed to get a lunch bag. Emily doesn't need this. Yes, I did age her up for this month, so the older crowd might need these, but I saw that even her age group got one of these in their box this month. It is at least insulated, so I may keep it just to bring drinks on outings, but I'm not sure. I do like the crocodile print. Much cuter than the ribbons print she would've gotten if I had kept her profile as it was. But, again, I wish we had gotten something that came in one of the younger boxes - Bumkins reusable snack bags. We take snacks everywhere! We usually use snack cup containers, but the snack bags would be great to have around too.

I think she liked the crocs too

Bumkins Insulated Lunch Tote

The next 2 items Emily got this month went together: a Faber-Castell Doodle Pad ($2.49) and a set of 12 Beeswax Crayons ($4.99). Emily wanted to draw right away! This seems to be the winner of the box for sure! The crayons are triangular so they don't roll away and they're nice and soft and pigmented to draw with. The pad is a pad of paper. Nothing terribly special, but the pages are multi-colored and made from 50% recycled material. I really like this set and so did Emily!

Faber-Castell Doodling Pad and Beeswax Crayons

Drawing a face. I love her little faces!

The last thing Emily pulled out was a mini bag (.53 oz vs. .7 oz snack size and 2.3 oz full size - why make a slightly smaller bag than their regular snack size? Just include the regular one!) of Good Boy Organics Organicasaurus Baked Organic Corn Snacks in the flavor cheddar cheese ($1.36 based on Amazon prices). Emily got a bit excited when she saw this because she thought they were dinosaur Cheetos, but alas, they are not the same. I'm sure these are healthier because they're organic, but they had an odd sweet taste that just didn't taste like cheese. She tried one and then handed the bag back and said "No thank you.".

Oooh, Cheetos? Sorry, kiddo.

Organicasaurus Cheese Snacks

No thanks.

Finally, there was a "bonus" coupon - 4 free sets of address labels and free shipping from Tiny Prints, but ONLY if you spend $99. Nope. Not a bonus. Maybe if I had already planned to get a buttload of Christmas cards from them it would be a nice little extra, but we already got our Christmas cards at The Picture People (for way less than $99!), so this won't be used. If you'd like the code, go ahead and let me know and I'll send it to you (it's unique, so I only have one).

November 2013 Citrus Lane

Really the only thing I'm thrilled with this month was the crayons and paper. Had Citrus Lane not already sent us the full Green Toys sandwich set, I would've loved the Build-A-Burger as well because it is a fun toy, but I'm annoyed they split up the set and sent them again. Everything else was meh. The overall value this month was $30.28, which isn't bad, but the lunch bag was the biggest value this month, which is kind of a bummer. Oh well. Not every month can be great.

So, Black Friday deals! These actually run through Dec. 5, which is nice. So, if you head to their site (and I believe you and I both still get $10 credits if you use that link! That's how it normally works anyway.), you'll see the deals:

• monthly is unchanged at $25/month
• 3 months is $18.67/month (save $19!)
• 6 months is $17.50/month (save $45!)
• 12 months is $16.33/month (save $104!!)

Typically, the 6 month price only goes down to $21/month (that's the only monthly plan I had written down, I'm not sure of the typical prices for the 3 month plan or 12 month plan, but I know they're higher than what they are now. If you wanted to sign up or even renew for a longer plan (this is available to existing customers too - that hardly ever happens with their special discounts!), now is the time!

(And just a disclaimer: I bought this box myself and was not compensated for this review in any way. All opinions are my own. I have included referral links.)