Poorer Than You » Free Stuff

Join the Poorer Than You Forums

Stephanie — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:52:00 +0000

You guys told me you wanted a message board for this site, so a message board you shall have! But why have just a message board when you could have a whole community? To chat, discuss, blog, make friends, and connect in amazingly awesome ways with other people under 30 who care about their financial situation?

Oh yes, it can happen and it does exist! But, you have to be awesome to get in. Right now, it’s invite only – and getting an invite is no easy thing. Yep, you can’t just waltz right in and sign up. Sorry! You’ve got to prove your worth. (Added bonus: the need to “prove your worth” should keep the spammers out!)

So, how can you prove your worth? You’ve got to show me that you’ve interacted with Poorer Than You before. For some of you, this will be as simple as leaving a comment on this post. Because some of you, I recognize by name from all the comments or emails you’ve sent me. Just make sure when you leave the comment, you use the email address you want your invite sent to. (If you are a part of another community on Ning, you’ll want to use the same email address you use for that.)

If you’ve never commented on PTY before, can you still join the forums? Nope, sorry. Because we don’t want any lurkers in this community. It’s tough to talk about money when you know that there are creepers around reading your every detail, but never talking to you in return. And if you haven’t proven to me that you’re a person who’ll post, you can’t play in our treehouse. Sorry!

What you can do is start commenting. Real comments that follow the PTY comment policy, on past and future posts. Leave a comment here that’d you’d like an invite, and after a little while –if you impress me- I’ll send you an invite as well.

Because in the end, I’d rather have only a handful of people who really post and help one another, than 1000 creepers watching five people post.

20+ Places to Legally Watch and Download Free TV, Movies, and Documentaries

Guest Author — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:35:00 +0000

This was originally a guest post from Karen Schweitzer, who writes about online colleges for OnlineCollege.org. Karen has previously contributed to Poorer Than You with the post 15 Places to Find Free Books Online. This post has been updated by the editor as recently as March, 2013 to find you the best places for free, legal video content online!

You don’t need a television, Blu-ray player, or cable package to watch all of your favorite TV shows, movies, and documentaries. There are plenty of sites online that broadcast this sort of entertainment. Some sites even provide downloads so that you can legally transfer files to your PC, iPod, or mp3 player. Here is a list of 20 sites to bookmark today:

Can I Stream.It? – Got a specific movie, show, or even episode in mind? Search for what you’re looking for on “Can I Stream.It?” to find out if it’s available on any of the major streaming sites. “Can I Stream.It?” searches Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Crackle, YouTube, EpixHD, Xfinity Streampix, Snagfilms, Redbox Instant, and Hitbliss to see if you stream what you’re looking for from any of those services.

Hulu – Hulu is a great place to find popular movies, television shows, clips, and documentaries. All of these things can be viewed for free online. Back-seasons and some movies are hidden behind the pay wall of Hulu+, which costs $7.99 per month, but there is still a ton of recent episodes and movies available for free.

Veoh – Veoh offers millions of videos that can be watched for free online. Videos include full-length television shows and movies, documentaries, clips, trailers, and commercials.

Joost – This popular site provides free television shows, movies, and music. Joost not only allows you to browse the offerings, the site also offers suggestions for other movies you might enjoy.

PBS – The PBS site allows you to watch full-length episodes of PBS TV shows online. This site also broadcasts news, documentaries, and movies.

Babelgum – Babelgum is a free streaming video site that houses international movies, previews, and documentaries ranging from action adventure to shorts.

CWTV – The CW features high quality versions of several of the network’s shows online. Other viewable items include fall previews, clips, and interviews.

Internet Archive – The Internet Archive is a free public domain site with hundreds of movies, films, and videos. Most offerings can be watched online or downloaded for later viewing.

Docu-View – Docu-View is a free video streaming site with more than 300 documentaries.

Fox.com – Fox.com lets you watch new, new full length episodes of Fox TV shows eight days after their release. Whether you have missed an episode or just looking for something online to watch, Fox.com is a good place to find free television shows.

Retrovision – With more than 30 different movie categories to choose from, Retrovision is a great place to watch classic movies and television shows online.

OnlineDocumentaries – Online Documentaries offers more than 600 free documentaries that can be watched online. The site houses documentaries from HBO, BBC, PBS, and other high profile networks.

CBS – Nearly all of CBS’s normal season shows are ready and available for anyone to watch online. Simply click on the shows you like to view one episode or the entire season.

Fancast – Fancast is a good place to watch full-length movies and television shows. The site also offers clips, trailers, and other streaming video.

PublicDomainTorrents – This free movie site can be used to download or watch a wide range of classic movies and B movies.

FilmTalks – With some of the best titles on the web, FilmTalks is an excellent place to find high quality online documentaries.

Jaman – Jaman provides popular and classic films to view online. The Jaman library also includes documentaries.

Emol – This site, created by Entertainment Magazine, features several full length movies and clips for viewers to enjoy. All of the videos and films are available for download or instant viewing.

MoviesFoundOnline – MoviesFoundOnline hosts movies, cartoons, documentaries, TV shows and other media from the public domain. If you’re a fan of classics, MoviesFoundOnline is one of the better places to get your movie fix.

Guba – This online entertainment site allows viewers to browse, download, and share movies. Guba has a wide assortment of titles and videos to choice from.

Top Documentary Films – Top Documentary Films is a documentary site that offers a vast collection of free online documentaries. The site features several well known documentaries including, Sicko and The Naked Truth.

A&E TV – View full episodes of some of cable channel A&E’s most popular shows on their website, available as soon as the next day after airing.

Keeping this list up-to-date is an on-going process! Let us know in the comments if you have any issues with any of these sites, or if you find something we missed.

15 Places to Find Free Books Online

Guest Author — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:02:38 +0000

The following is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer, who writes reviews of online classes for OnlineClasses.org.

Finding free stuff online is a great way to save money when you’re in college. Here are 15 places to find free books, audio books, and textbooks online.

Books

Classic Reader – a great source of classic literary works from previous centuries to the start of the 20th century. You can find thousands of free downloadable classics from Dickens, Austen, Shakespeare, and other popular authors.

Get Free Books – offers hundreds of free fiction and nonfiction books that can be downloaded in multiple formats.

Many Books – offers one of the largest collections of free eBooks anywhere. Books are available in multiple formats–they can be read on your desktop or downloaded to a PDA, iPod, or eBook reader.

Project Gutenberg – widely considered to be one of the best sources on the web for free books. The site has nearly 30,000 books in its catalog and provides links to another 70,000 books that can be found for free online.

The Online Books Page – lists more than 35,000 free books in its index, including full text books, definitive collections, and serials.

Audio Books

BooksShouldBeFree – provides hundreds of classic audio books along with nonfiction books. Each book can be downloaded in plain text form and as an mp3 file.

Learn Out Loud – specializes in educational books and materials. The site hosts more than 20,000 audio books, MP3 downloads, and podcasts.

Librivox – volunteers record public domain books and publish audio files that can be downloaded by anyone. New books are added weekly.

Lit2Go – offers free stories and poems in mp3 format. You can read along online or print out pages to make your own book.

PodioBooks – features free serialized audio books delivered on site, through iTunes, and via an RSS feed. PodioBooks is a good place to find modern works of fiction by undiscovered authors.

Textbooks

Connexions – provides educational materials in a unique format. Hundreds of textbooks are currently available–many include complementary courses and course notes.

FreeTechBooks – lists online computer science, engineering, and programming textbooks that are freely availably over the Internet. This site is also a good place to find lecture notes and other tech-related books.

Textbook Revolt – has saved students tens of thousands of dollars since its inception. Students can give away the textbooks they don’t need anymore and receive the textbooks they need for free in return.

Textbook Revolution – began in response to the rising cost of textbooks. This student-operated site is easily one of the best places to find free textbooks online.

The Global Text Project – dedicates itself to making textbooks freely available online. The site also hopes to make open content electronic textbooks available on paper, CD, or DVD in the near future.

Stephanie’s note: Thanks to Karen for sharing this list of resources on Poorer Than You! Now I have some free books to make my way through!

Financial News on Twitter

Guest Author — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:13:33 +0000

The following is a guest post from Lewis Bennett, who is interested in anything financial. He writes for a Life Insurance website based in the United Kingdom.

Twitter mania is in full force. The micro blogging and social networking site is being used by everyone from President Obama and Britney Spears to the average person on the street.

The service is free to use over the web and allows users to send 140 character text-based updates, known as tweets. Users can send and receive these updates via the Twitter website, or through a number of other applications.

Financial news companies have seen the potential and have been using Twitter to help give their readers immediate access to their newsrooms. The following websites have taken the lead:

CNN Money – http://twitter.com/CNNMoney – International business and financial news from CNN.

New York Times Business – http://twitter.com/nytimesbusiness – Up to date business news from NYTimes.com/Business.

BBC Business – http://twitter.com/bbcbusiness – The British Broadcasting Corporation’s financial twitter home page.

Financial Advice – http://twitter.com/financialuk – Provides current financial news and advice for the UK and international markets.

The Wall Street Journal – http://twitter.com/WSJ – Current updates from the Wall Street Journal.

Financial Times – http://twitter.com/financialtimes – Based in Hong Kong, London, & New York; Financial Times provides world business, finance and political news.

Many of these pages also feature sub-feeds relating to other areas of news and finance.

If you like to keep current on business news then Twitter is a quick and easy way to view everything going on around the world in real time. Happy tweeting!

Stephanie’s Note: In addition to big-name financial news networks, you can also find some of your favorite personal finance bloggers on Twitter. For example, my own tweets can be found at http://twitter.com/stephonee.

I Just Won a Movie Ticket From Blingo

Stephanie — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 23:08:19 +0000

Huzzah! I signed up for Blingo almost two months ago, and finally, I won something! Actually, I didn’t win… but I did. Cause with Blingo, if anyone you referred wins a prize, you win that prize as well. And one of my referrals won a Fandango ticket today, so I won one too! He immediately IMed me, and as soon as we get them in the mail, the two of us are going to the movies. At the nice theater. FOR FREE.

I <3 Blingo!

Join Upromise and Get $2 in Your Account

Stephanie — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 05:03:00 +0000

Being an affliate doesn’t just help me – it helps you guys! I just got an email from Upromise telling me that if any of you join Upromise (using that link) and add a credit or debit card to your account (these cards will never be charged), Upromise will deposit $2 into your new Upromise account. There was no word on how long this promotion will last, so you might want to snatch it up now!

I have already sung the praises of Upromise, but if that didn’t convince you, maybe two free dollars will!

Pear Budget – Really Friggin Easy Budgeting

Stephanie — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 05:41:00 +0000

After reading on My Money Blog about how easy (and free!) Pear Budget is, I downloaded it and gave it a look-over. I was impressed – because it runs in Excel, the document size is practically nothing. It’s well thought-out, and easy to use. Unfortunately, I could also tell it wasn’t for me. I have two monthly expenses right now: my car and my credit card payment. Besides that, all I really buy is gas for my car. I keep track of all my money’s comings and goings in a Excel document that I wrote myself, and although I was in love with Pear Budget, I knew our time had not come yet.

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t find someone else to thrust it upon! While I was in LA, I set it up for The Fella. I uploaded it into Google Docs and Spreadsheets, because The Fella works from two different computers, and I wanted him to be able to access it from either. Some of the features (such as the red triangles) don’t work in Google Docs, and some of it looks a little funny, but all of the basics of the program still work.

The reason Pear Budget is good for The Fella and not for me is that he has actual expenses and income, living on his own and having real jobs and the sort. Basically, this program might not be useful for anyone college-aged or younger, but once you’re living on your own, I highly recommend it. It’s free, it’s super easy, and because of Google Docs, you can decide whether you want it to be online or offline.

I like it!

WOWIO Update

Stephanie — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 23:43:00 +0000

If it’s possible, I love WOWIO more now than I even did before. As I mentioned in my previous entry, WOWIO is a free service for downloading free ebooks, and they are doing a giveaway where if you refer 10 people to the service, you get a free iPod shuffle.

Within five days of receiving an email from WOWIO about the promotion (I’ve had an account with them since September), I had my 10 referrals and I filled out the simple form (just my address and daytime phone number) to claim my iPod shuffle.

During that time, I had a slight bit of trouble with one of my referrals crediting. He did everything right, but it simply didn’t show up. So I emailed WOWIO, and they responded in less than 20 minutes with “No problem. Just tell us his email address, and we’ll credit you.”

WOWIO is by far one of my favorite online services now! If you decide to sign up, please put

vanpattenjames@gmail.com

as your referrer, so that my friend will get credit toward his free iPod shuffle. This goes whether you sign up for the free ebooks or for your chance at the shuffle – either way, you have to sign up, and it won’t help you any to NOT put him as your referral, but it will help him if you DO.

Favorite Free Ebooks: WOWIO

Stephanie — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:12:00 +0000

In the spirit of saving money, I often chase “free” offers up and down the coastlines. My friends refer to this as “cheap,” but I like to think of it as “nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah, I got a free t-shirt and you didn’t!” Mostly, free stuff isn’t worth the battle, though. But sometimes, you find a gem.

WOWIO is my favorite free service. I originally signed up because they were running a scholarship sweepstakes, and free money on top of free ebooks sounded, really, really awesome.

I didn’t win the scholarship, but I did win a free t-shirt, and got more free ebooks than I’ve been able to read.

A lot of the books they started the service with are in the public domain, but they’ve been adding more and more books, including some sweet comic books. My favorite book that I’ve downloaded from them so far is “Hello,” Lied the Agent, and Other Bullshit You Hear as a Hollywood TV Writer. (Amazon link, obviously you can get it for free from WOWIO.)

What’s the catch, you ask? A very small one – the ebooks have ads in them. Full-page magazine-style ads, about 6 per ebook. For long books, that about one every 100 pages. Also, you can only download up to 5 books per day. Yeah… PER DAY.

I could rave all day about how much I love the service, but you’re best off just going to their website and checking it out for yourself. In order to sign up, though, you’ll need either a “non-anonymous email address” (a university email works well), or a credit card number (they don’t charge it, they just verify your identity). This is to keep out riff-raff that would download the books just to redistribute them.

Use Blingo and Win!

Stephanie — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 23:46:00 +0000

Thanks to 1mil, I found this great thing called Blingo, run by Publisher’s Clearing House. It’s basically just the Google search bar, only when you use it, you have a chance to win some pretty excellent prizes, from Fandango tickets up to $20,000 cash. It even has several plugins to integrate it into your browser – I already use the Quick Search box in Firefox, so it was easy to put Blingo in there and use it just like Google.

So let’s look at this: it works exactly like Google, has the ease of Google, but you can win stuff!

Also, if you can convince your friends to join, it gets even better. If one of your friends wins a prize, you win that prize too! Wouldn’t it be cool if we both won the big money? Heck, I’d be happy if we both won Fandango tickets!

Give it a try: