You're an ok Cookie....

When ordering from Amazon.com over the holidays, I got an offer to get a free subscription for 1 year to Cookie magazine, and I decided to go ahead and get it because it was free. This magazine comes monthly, and I will say it has been pretty enjoyable. I’ve seen a year’s worth of this magazine available for around $10 a year.

I’m halfway through my subscription, and when I first saw the cover I thought this was going to be one of those ‘posh’ type motherly magazines with $500 nursery ensembles and such, and turns out, a lot of the stuff featured is like that.

Here’s a breakdown of what it’s like based on the April 2008 issue:

As with a lot of other magazines out there, you’ll find a lot of ads throughout the magazine. The ads to me are pretty varied- you’ll see not only Tiffany and Coach ads, but Best Buy and Target ones as well.

This month’s issue had “Smart Cookie Awards” which talked about a lot of different areas- food (this month’s happened to be all the things you could do with miso paste), shopping, beauty products, places to travel, free advice (this month was about cutting hair), and etiquette tips. I mostly just read the beauty products for stuff I hadn’t heard of.

Ok, the next article was about denim, and featured all different brands of denim, and to be honest- none of them were in my price range- some of the more pricier jeans were listed at $136, to which that I say “!@@@!!!!- not on your life!” Now do mind you we’re talking about children’s jeans. Needless to say this article turned me off.

They have a section for moms to dress- well you know cute, but not overdressed. These are meant for ladies when taking their kids to the park or going to pick them up at school. This month was about rain gear, and even though they had a really cute coat in there I would wear, it wasn’t $175 cute.

Then you have another article about some makeup, and then one about traveling around in Minnesota and places to see and stuff to do there. Next, you have a couple of pages of recipes, which actually looked pretty good, but my youngest wouldn’t eat any of them because some of them had green items in there, which she won’t touch.

After that, they had an article about a themed party, this month being a mad scientist party- stuff to feed the kids, activities, that sort of stuff. The next article was about how people of today are so much worse off financially than their parents were due to inflation. This was all coming from a couple of books and authors. Next, you have a little article about relationship questions.

Then, there’s a story about a stepmother who was not an evil one, but a mentor in the kitchen for her stepdaughter. The rest of the magazine includes reviews about movies, books, and children’s toys.


I know it seems like I’m badmouthing Cookie here, but this month’s issue really wasn’t as interesting as some of the others I’ve gotten before this one.


I will say this about Cookie, it really has had some really good articles in it that are not only informative, but something I really needed to know anyway. A few months ago, they had a several page long article about the different types of plastics, and which types you should avoid, and why. It also had info about wooden toys and several links to find recalled toys. After reading that article, I went through all my cabinets and actually found some #6 plastics, (which is one of the ones you should avoid) and I immediately threw them out. The thing is I had just bought them not too long ago.

Also, I really enjoyed the feature on outfits you could wear to pick up your kids at school- I know I’m probably the only one worried about what I look like, because I’m sure parents are more worried about picking up kids rather than what I have on. But, still I don’t like to go as a total slob. But, even though the article was interesting, and yes something I enjoyed reading- the clothing they had was way out of my league- they had a super cute jacket in there that I honestly wanted- until I saw the pricey tag of $175 or so- um, no. I think the article would have been better had they featured more items that were budget-friendly. This to me would make the articles much better. I mean really here folks, I’m wearing Target t-shirts (which are great by the way) so obviously I’m not buying $175 jackets.

Overall, well Cookie is ok. A lot of the issues are rather hit and miss as far as being informational in the articles. Some of the issues are just better than others. Also, as with a lot of other magazines out there, there are tons of ads, which make up a majority of the magazine. As I mentioned before, the clothes they feature are a little on the outrageous side as far as prices. I would like to see more down to earth (that is reality) prices that I could afford.

Will I renew my subscription when it comes due? Nope- this was an alright magazine, but not something I would want to buy myself nor recommend. It just doesn’t have any attributes that make it stand out from anything else available.