For the first “Shuffle” in our Shuffle for a Shuffle, we’ll be offering up six great articles on a variety of back-to-school topics. What makes it a “shuffle” is that each blog will be hosting someone else’s article. For example, tomorrow Broke Grad Student will be hosting an article from Laura of Green Panda Treehouse.

The best way to make sure you see all six articles plus more great content from the College Money Network members is to subscribe to the CMN. You can also just watch the CMN main page, but you’ll have to check back every day for fresh content – subscribing is much easier! Or you can check back here on Poorer Than You next week, as I’ll surely do a roundup post that highlights all six articles in the Shuffle.

Now, for the other “Shuffle” involved…

Shuffle for an iPod Shuffle (and more!)

Prizes:

• 4GB iPod shuffle
• Copy of The Total Money Makeover
• One-year magazine subscription to Kiplinger’s or Money Magazine
• $20 Starbucks gift certificate

These prizes are being given away across the six College Money Network sites that are participating in the Shuffle for a Shuffle. Each site will provide you with six chances to win, meaning you have a total of 36 entries into the contest that you can earn! To enter on Poorer Than You, you can do one (or all!) of the following:

Follow me on Twitter, @stephonee. Leave a comment on this entry or email me with your Twitter user name so I can count your entry. No need to spam your Twitter with a specific tweet or anything. Although tweets about the contest are appreciated, they won’t earn you any extra entries on Poorer Than You. (1 entry)

Become a fan of Poorer Than You on Facebook. Leave a comment anywhere on the fan page, or contribute something to the “Discussion” tab. (Please be cooler than just begging to win in your comment.) Once you’ve done that, send me an email letting me know what your name is as it appears on Facebook, so I can match it up and count your entries. (2 entries)

Write a blog post about college finances. Your post must include a link to Poorer Than You, either the main page (http://poorerthanyou.com) or any article on the site other than a giveaway. Write about anything you want that relates to college and money, but it must be a new blog post – previous articles do not count. Again, leave a comment on this entry with a link to your blog post, or email the link to me. (3 entries)

How To Win

All valid entries will be assigned a unique number. We will use a random number generator to select the winning numbers. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received.

All entries must be received by September 6, 2009 at 11:59 PM PST.

Winners will be notified the following week. After all the prizes have been claimed, we will release an official announcement listing the winners.

Rules and Restrictions

• All winners must be 18 years of age or older and live in the United States.
• No purchase is necessary to participate in this giveaway.
• We will choose the winners from the qualified participants. We are the sole judges of adding entries to the list. Plagiarized content, trackback from splogs, spams, and comments containing abusive or inappropriate languages will not be considered.
• To award the prizes, we must be able to contact you. Please leave a valid email address with your comment, or make sure we can contact you through your web site. Your contact information will not be shared with anyone else.
• For certain prizes, winners will be required to submit a physical address to ship the prize. Again, your contact information will never be shared with anyone.
• Prizes are provided as-is, and substitutions may be made at our discretion.
• Winners must reply within 1 week from the time we notify them to claim their prize. Otherwise, they forfeit their prize, and it will be awarded to an alternate.

Related posts:

1. Why I’m Going Back to School
2. Roundup: Back to School Part I
3. Roundup: Back to School Part II

• Demonstration of a sound personal finance concept. Entries that were off topic or hard to understand were not considered.
• Free of copyrighted material. This is difficult for me to verify, even though I’m a big copyright geek and now a lot of the rules. But I have vetted these to best of my ability. If I find out in the future that a top entry is in violation of US copyright law, it will be removed from this page.
• Fun! This can be hard to do with personal finance, so I was a bit lax about this rule. But there were a few “downers” submitted, which was the opposite of what I wanted. Entries that looked on the sunny side of things were much more likely to make the cut.

Submissions after the “jump:”

Jim from Bargaineering came up with a slideshow to demonstrate how small savings each month can really add up! Click the image above to see what saving $1 – $500 per month could get you!

Photographer Charlie Doerner submitted this image of his for the contest. He describes it as “a photo illustration about the current american [sic] economy and how it effects our personal finances.”

My friend and longtime PTY reader Peter Mottola submitted what was obviously a personal lesson on Do-It-Yourself projects!

Reeve made a video with tips on how he put himself through college. Way to go!

Andre Da Costa gives us a depiction of the College Lifecycle, “the demands of college life, the key elements that make up every students tertiary experience: Money, Textbooks, Time, Food (Ramen) and of course studying for your goal, with the root or starting point of all these things going back to Money and how you manage it to your advantage.”

Mrs4444 sent in a picture of her son with the new (to him!) car he worked for this summer. Saving up for a dependable used car when you’re in your teens is definitely a sound personal finance idea – way to go, Mrs4444’s son!

Barbara Baker’s video has 5 great tips that have helped her family manage their finances. (You may need to visit the video’s YouTube page to be able to read the text. Just click on the video twice and it should take you there!)

Harry T. shares this simply beautiful picture that he snapped at the corner of Wall Street and Broadway. He explains it as “1) As a place many college graduates think they’ll end up and 2) As a place many college students don’t understand.”

Chris B submitted this nice simple image of tracking your spending. As he says, “the queen is watching!”

Krish M took this nice macro shot of some British currency. Sometimes, I’m jealous – American money isn’t nearly as pretty as other countries’!

Bogdizzle’s Retirin’ Early Rap

Bogdizzle took his first try at making a rap for this contest! It’s chock full of good advice and definitely fun to listen to. Link the link above to download the MP3.

My Journey made a graph that poignantly demonstrates the difference between paying just the minimum payments on a debt, and paying twice as much. A very clear demonstration of debt payoff!

Renee Watkins made a nice and simple graphic about how saving money is like planting a seed. Click the picture above for a larger version.

Chris Swan’s Song
To the tune of “Clementine”

Chris Swan wrote a sweet little personal finance song that you sing the tune of “Clementine.” Just like the original, this is sure to get stuck in your head!

Colleen C gives us a peek into her coupon binder, which saved her over $1000 last year! Click the picture above to view a larger version, where you can read  the tips on the index cards.

J Money from Budgets Are Sexy apparently uses his money to remind himself not to spend his money! Cute, J… but maybe you should try this with Andrew Jackson and Benjamin Franklin?

Rita drew us a simple graphic that reads “It isn’t more cost effective to buy a cheap item that falls apart… rather than an expensive one that lasts!” She’s so right – quality matters!

Why Buy It When You Can Win It?

Jess presents some great tips on entering giveaways to win stuff you want. Although you don’t want to fill your home with stuff you don’t need, it’s good to see if you can win something before you go out and buy it!

Birute’s image of textbooks has some good tips on saving money when you buy them! Click the picture for a larger version if it’s hard to read.

Abby Joy’s Tight Wad Rap
(Lyrics)

Another personal finance rap! The message of the rap, in a nutshell:
“Avoid debt–spending money you don’t have.
Keep short accounts–build credit and favor.
Invest…in people.”

Milcah’s video has several great tips on how to manage and save money! Including, of course, reading Poorer Than You and related sites!

Tanya demonstrates some smart tips that will make clipping coupons worth your time!

Fonda Wong’s photo is about planning how you’ll spend your money before you go out and spend it!

Victor Hsieh submitted a nice visual of saving money over time.

Miranda (who wrote an article for PTY last year) shared this video with great tips for parents on how to save money while back-to-school shopping.

Jess shows us the money her husband saved by buying his textbooks online! Jill very simply shows us that time is money!

Google’s “suggest” feature shows you what other people have recently search for that is similar to what you’ve started typing. Apoorv Gulati wonders if the change in people’s searches indicates that we’re coming out of the recession.

I may not agree with all of Richard’s Rules of College Finance/Life, but each campus is different! On mine, there were a lot of fun things to do, for free! But remember, if your campus has free fun stuff, it’s not really free. You’re just paying for it through your tuition!

Mike Piper of The Oblivious Investor made this simply great video about investing in index funds. It’s really easy to understand and sums up the two biggest reasons why index funds rock!

My friend and (sometimes) comic artist Dave Morgan spent a lot of time putting together this personal finance comic. It’s a very smart look at dealing with personal finance advice. See how many personal finance gurus you recognize! (Click the thumbnail above to view the full-size comic.)

Larry N. calls this a “quick sketch” that “represents a lot of people’s money problems, including mine.” Larry, if this is a quick sketch for you… I’m envious! (I never could draw…)

Nathan Cahill’s video about the dangers of debt in college feels very familiar to me – it’s almost as if he used my net worth graph to make it! (I don’t think he did. But my graph is very similar, and for a lot of the same reasons as in the video!)

Chad Oliver keeps this drawing on his bedroom wall to motivate himself to save money. Not a bad idea – maybe Chad will give his permission in the comments for others to print it out and use it that way, as well?

Auriette offers this illustration of the difference between making minimum payments and paying your credit card off in full. It’s a little hard to read, but in the top check, the bill is paid in full, and in the bottom the check is for only the minimum payment.

Winston’s Guide to Saving on Textbooks

This short presentation is a must watch/read for anyone who’s buying textbooks for college!

The Winner

I hope you enjoyed checking out the contest entries as much as I did! There are even more good entries on the contest page. Even though not every submission made the cut, some of the other submissions might be helpful to you in your personal finance journey, so check them out!

There were 36 entries featured here as the “top entries.” Entering in 1-36 on Randomizer.org, the final winner is…

#35, which is Chad Oliver! Congratulations Chad, hope you enjoy your HP laptops and Timbuk2 bag!

Again, thank you to everyone who entered! And everyone (except Chad) is welcome to keep entering contests in the HP Better Together Giveaway – there are still lots of chances! Good luck!

If you came to PoorerThanYou because of this contest, I hope you stick around. There’s a lot of great content here! You can subscribe to PTY via RSS feed or get articles sent to you by email.

No related posts.

HP and Microsoft have graciously provided me with a sweet laptop bundle to give away to one of you guys, in any way that I see fit. Here’s what the prize pack contains:

• 16” HP Pavilion dv6 with built-in Blu-ray drive
• 10” HP Mini 110 (yes, two computers!)
• Syncables software to keep your files up-to-date between the two machines
• Customized “Poorer Than You” Timbuk2 Swig Backpack

Sweet! So what flaming hoops am I going to have you jump through to win this bundle?

Contest Rules

Create a piece of multimedia that embodies a sound personal finance concept. “Multimedia” can be a photo, a drawing, a video, a collage made with software, or even a song if you so choose. I will pick my favorite submissions and feature them here on the blog on Saturday. I will assign each of the best submissions a number and use Randomizer.org to pick the winner!

I am not looking for the most artistic person in the world. I wasn’t a photo major or an art major… I was a film major, but that’s beside the point. I don’t expect you to be any of those things. It should look (or sound) like you put some work into it, but aesthetics will not be the #1 thing I use to pick out my favorites. Pretty is nice, but it’s not the point here.

Things I will be looking for in choosing my favorites:

• Money topics! It’s open to anything (poke around this blog for ideas), but try to keep it relevant to college students or 20-somethings. It can be something simple, like a cool photo of money. Or it can be something big that demonstrates a complex money topic in an easy-to-understand way.
• NO COPYRIGHTED OR TRADEMARKED MATERIAL. Even if it’s unintentional, you cannot use anything that you don’t have the rights to (including pictures used in a collage, or music). Anything that violates copyright law will be automatically disqualified.
• Fun! Personal finance can seem really dull and boring sometimes. It’s your job to make it fun and get people excited about money with your creation.

If you want to do something other than one of the multimedia forms I’ve already mentioned (photo, drawing, video, collage, music), contact me before you start your project. Let me know what you’re thinking of doing, and I’ll let you know if it will qualify for the contest.

Entries must be submitted by Noon Eastern Daylight Time, August 22nd. No entries submitted after that time will be considered, no matter how good they are. The number of “favorite submissions” will depend on the total number and quality of submissions.

Entries must be submitted in the comments section of this post. This means you will have to host your creation elsewhere (your own website, blog, Flickr, Photobucket, YouTube, etc.) and just paste the link into a comment. DO NOT JUST POST THE LINK IN THE “WEBSITE” FIELD OF YOUR COMMENT! Put the link in the body of the comment. Otherwise it will not be clear whether you are entering the contest or just leaving a regular comment.

Be sure to use a valid email address when leaving your comment – one that you check often! I’ll be using the email address left in the comment to contact the winner.

One entry per person. You can work in a team, if you like, but then it’s one entry per team. And you’ll have to figure out which one of your team members is responsible for winning the laptop bundle.

I reserve the right to delete or disqualify an entry for any reason, including but not limited to copyright violations, multiple submissions, or obscene content. By submitting media into this contest, you give me the right to use your content in upcoming posts on Poorer Than You and other related projects.

Relatives of the site owner (Stephanie) are not allowed to enter. Sorry Mom… I know you really want this bundle, but you can enter the other 24 contests of the Better Together giveaway!

This contest is open to residents around the world and is not restricted to any one location. For areas where customs or taxes would prevent shipment of the bundle, an equivalent credit to the HP online store will be issued. If you have won a bundle in one of the other Better Together giveaways, you are not eligible to enter this one – sorry, no two-fers!

Go go go go! I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!

No related posts.

As a part of a massive 25-blog giveaway called “Better Together” I’ll be giving away a delicious prize pack that’s designed specifically for college students:

• 16” HP Pavilion dv6 with built-in Blu-ray drive
• 10” HP Mini 110 (yes, two computers!)
• Syncables software to keep your files up-to-date between the two machines
• Customized “Poorer Than You” Timbuk2 Swig Backpack

You can learn much more about the two computers in the bundle on Thursday, because in addition to providing a bundle to give away, HP also loaned me a second bundle to review. So check back on Thursday for some in-depth descriptions! (Or subscribe to the RSS feed or you can subscribe by email!)

So when can you enter to win? And how? Well, just like last year, the details of “how” won’t be revealed until my specially assigned giveaway-day. But I can tell you when that will be! Here are all of the sites that will be holding one of these giveaways, and their giveaway dates:

So get yourself back here on the 18th and enter to win!

Related posts:

1. Roundup: Back to School Part I
2. Roundup: Back to School Part II
3. Why I’m Going Back to School

Please excuse my ugly graph – I didn’t got to art school for actual art. Let us move on and discuss the results…

69% of you indicated you’d like to interact with Poorer Than You and the PTY community via Twitter. Since some of you actually came to the survey from my Twitter, account, you already know about @stephonee – for those of you who don’t…

Question: Would you like to see a tweet when a new post goes up on PTY? Or a separate Twitter account that automatically updates when there’s a new post here? Neither? Let me know in the comments!

63%% would like to see a message board on the site. This is something I’ve been kicking around for a while, but I want to be sure that if it’s done, it’s done right. I’ve seen many message boards languish due to lack of participation! But these survey results are encouraging, so there might just be a message board in PTY’s future – if you guys promise to use it! [Update: the PTY forums are now live!]

58% indicated that they would subscribe to an email newsletter. This is a definite possibility, if I can find a way to do it, and do it well… without costing a fortune. It’s good to know that I’ll have subscribers when I finally figure it out!

44% asked for a Facebook fan page – ask and ye shall receive!

22% would tune in to a live webcast via Ustream.tv. I was hoping for more interest in this, since I have something planned for it in the coming weeks, but that’s okay! I’ll either have to change my plans or do a good job of convincing you guys that it’s worthwhile! (Or make it a super-secret members-only club for cool kids…)

12% were interested in some sort of weekly voice chat or podcast. Honestly, I’m a little relieved. I’m more comfortable with Ustream than podcasting – does this make me weird? So I’m glad to see that, percentage-wise, Ustream is favored.

And a handful of people selected “Other.” The responses here were mostly “RSS Feed” (make sure you’re subscribed!) and “Google” (uh, okay?). There was one response I’m curious about: “More personal access on the blog.” Would the author of that comment care to elaborate?

As for the $10 Amazon gift certificate, the winner has been selected and emailed – so check your email! And thanks to everyone for taking the survey and giving me this awesome feedback.

Related posts:

1. Join the Poorer Than You Forums

That’s it. The survey should take you less than 30 seconds. If it takes you longer than that, you’re doing it wrong. It’s one question plus a text box to leave your email address. Your email address will not be harvested and put to use for any evil deeds… no, it will just be used to contact you if you win.

Disclaimer-y stuff: Survey closes at 11:59PM EDT on July 31st, 2009. At that point (or at some point the next morning, if I’m not online at the time) I’ll use Randomizer.org to pick one email address from the responses, and I’ll contact that person to deliver their $10 Amazon.com gift certificate by email. This contest is open to everyone except where prohibited by law. One entry per person, please, because I really do care about the results of the survey.

You can take the survey, even if you’re not interested in winning, or the contest is prohibited in your area: just leave the “email address” box blank. By taking the survey you’ll be helping PoorerThanYou.com, so do it!

Related posts:

1. Last Chance: E*TRADE $25 Bonus
2. Amazon.com Visa – Is There a Catch?
3. Get $10 for Amazon.com and Cook by the Numbers: Lazy Sunday

Well, heck yeah!

Upromise has partnered up with Bank of America, Sallie Mae, and Bed Bath and Beyond to offer the Tuition Tales video contest. All you have to do is upload a 30 second video about why you deserve $10,000 for college bills. There are three categories: savings for college, in college now, and paying it back. And frankly, there aren’t a whole lot of videos uploaded so far, so you have a pretty good shot at this!

Even better, I want to help my Poorer Than You readers out. Why? Because I’m personally ineligible to enter the contest (I’m a Upromise affiliate). But that doesn’t mean I can’t be incredibly biased and help my PTY readers go the distance. Here’s the deal:

• Upload your video to the Tuition Tales website. You must be a Upromise member to enter, but remember the Upromise membership is free.
• Email me via my contact form with the URL for your video, and also tell me what your favorite post here on PTY is. (This is to make sure you’re a real PTY reader, and also so that I know what you guys like!)
• One week from today, (April 4th, 2009), I will feature all of the PTY videos that have been sent to me here on the site. And I will tell everyone I know to vote for you, on Facebook and Twitter. And yes, I will play favorites, and put my favorite of the PTY readers on the top. So make your video good!

Obviously, you must upload your video before April 4th and send it to me to qualify. Tuition Tales allows you to upload up until May 3rd, but the sooner you upload, the more votes you’ll get. And viewer votes count for 20% of your score in this contest, so I want to give you as much help as possible!

You can also vote on the videos you like, and you get one vote per day. That vote enters you into an instant win contest for prizes from like a Bank of America $50 Visa gift card. (See the Official Rules for details.) So even if you don’t want to upload a video yourself, I encourage you to come back next week and pick a PTY reader’s video to vote for, and enter yourself in the instant win game!

Stephanie’s Kick-Ass Video Guide

Ok, I spent $42,000 in loans going to film school, so you can benefit a bit from my education here. First of all, here are the guidelines that Upromise has set for the Tuition Tales videos:

• The Video must be in .avi, .dv, .mov, .qt, .mpg, .mpg2, .mpeg, .mpeg2, .mpeg4, .mp4, .3gp, 3g2, .asf or .wmv format;

• The Video must have a file size no greater than 50 MB and be no longer than thirty (30) seconds in length; and

• The Video cannot have been submitted previously in a promotion or contest of any kind or exhibited or displayed publicly through any means previously.

First and foremost, make sure your video follows those guidelines. Get the best camera you have – a digital still camera that does video will often work better than a webcam, and obviously an actual video camera will probably be better than either. Make sure you have a way to get the video into your computer if you’re not using a webcam.

Do:

• Plan what you’re going to say. 30 seconds is not a lot of time! Show that you’re smart, and have tried other ways of paying, but could still use a little help. Record a few “takes” of your video so that you can choose the best.
• Show us who we’re voting for! If it’s you, we want to see you. If it’s your adorable children, show them to us!
• Think about lighting. If you’re shooting indoors, natural sunlight is your friend. Use indirect sunlight from a window to light your scene, and try not to mix natural light and light bulbs – they have different “color temperatures” that will make your video look bad.
• Think about shooting outdoors. Most of the videos so far are of people sitting at their desks. A cooler location will help your video to stand out.
• Worry about sound. Play the video on several different computers before you upload it, to make sure the sound is clear and loud enough to hear. I can’t tell you how many of these videos so far are barely audible!
• Play your video for several people before you upload, and ask for objective opinions. Would someone vote for you if they didn’t know you?
• Consider using a Mac with iMovie to edit. It’s seriously better than Windows Movie Maker. Borrow a friend’s computer if you have to.

Don’t:

• Don’t have your light source in the “frame” of your video. You shouldn’t be able to see any lamps that are on, or windows that have light coming in, and definitely not the sun! (Unless you’re showing a pretty sunset, and nothing else in the frame, or you’re purposefully doing a cool silhouette thing.)
• Don’t use copyrighted material. You have to own the rights to everything in the video, and that includes music and background noise. Also watch out for trademarked brand names in the background of your video – we shouldn’t be able to see any Coke cans or Doritos bags!
• Don’t shoot your face too close-up. We should be able to see the top of your head, and a bit of your shoulders. It’s uncomfortable to watch someone when they’re “too close.”
• Don’t whine, complain, or swear. It’s ok to tug on heartstrings, but a lot of us have trouble paying for school. Passing the blame onto others doesn’t make people want to vote for you.

Good luck with your video! And don’t forget to send the link to me via the contact form when you’re done… and do it before April 4th!

Related posts:

1. $25,000 for College from Upromise
2. How Much Interest Would $1,000,000 Yield?
3. Moving: Tales from the Trip

Later this week, I’ll be posting some of my frugal holiday ideas, and so will other CMN members. But for today, I’m sure you just want to hear about the giveaway!

Prizes

• 2 GB iPod Shuffle
• $50 Photofiddle.com Gift Certificate
• $25 Amazon.com Gift Certificate
• One-year magazine subscriptions
  • Kiplinger’s
  • Money Magazine
• A copy of The Millionaire Next Door

How to Enter

There are multiple ways to earn entries into the CMN Frugal Holiday giveaway. Complete as many as you can to increase your chances of winning a prize! You may enter each way once.

• Leave a comment on this post sharing your frugal holiday ideas. (1 entry)

• Subscribe to my feed via RSS or email. Then send me the secret phrase that appears at the end of each post in my feed. (2 entries)

• Write a post on your own blog about your frugal holiday ideas and link back to this post. Email me to let me know. (Posts you’ve already written count, as long as they were written in 2008.) (3 entries)

• Visit individual College Money Network member sites for opportunities to earn additional entries, similar to the ones you see here. Copying and pasting your comment on multiple blogs will NOT count. (Maximum of 6 extra entries)

  • Broke Grad Student
  • College Finance 101
  • MFA or Bust
  • Spilling Buckets
  • This Writer’s Wallet

How To Win

All valid entries will be assigned a unique number. We will use a random number generator to select the winning numbers. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received.

All entries must be received by December 15, 2008 at 11:59 PM PST.

Winners will be notified the following day. After all the prizes have been claimed, we will release an official announcement listing the winners.

Rules and Restrictions

• All winners must be 18 years of age or older and live in the United States.
• No purchase is necessary to participate in this giveaway.
• We will choose the winners from the qualified participants. We are the sole judges of adding entries to the list. Plagiarized content, trackback from splogs, spam, and comments containing abusive or inappropriate languages will not be considered.
• To award the prizes, we must be able to contact you. Please leave a valid email address with your comment, or make sure we can contact you through your web site. Your contact information will not be shared with anyone else.
• For certain prizes, winners will be required to submit a physical address to ship the prize. Again, your contact information will never be shared with anyone.
• Prizes are provided as-is, and substitutions may be made at our discretion.
• Winners must reply within 1 week from the time we notify them to claim their prize. Otherwise, they forfeit their prize, and it will be awarded to an alternate.

Related posts:

1. Just Launched: The College Money Network
2. The College Money Network Introduces Studenomics
3. Expertise: The Gift College Students Can Afford

I hope the questions weren’t too hard! There were nearly 200 correct entries, so I think it was a nice balance of hard-but-not-too-hard. Also, I gave you second and third chances if you needed them.

So, who won?!?

Heather Brown is the lucky winner of the HP dv4t prize pack! She’ll be receiving all of the following:

• HP Pavilion dv4t series notebook
• HP xb4 Media Docking Station
• HP 500GB Pocket Media Drive
• HP Photosmart C6380 All-in-One
• HP Protect Messenger Bag

And the following four runners-up will each get an HP Protect Messenger Bag (which is a pretty sweet bag, if I do say so myself):

Alain Lai
Rebeca Chirinos
Karim Turay
and Scott Campbell

I’ve emailed all of the winners, so if you see your name above, check your inbox!

What if you didn’t win? Well, if I don’t hear back from one or more of the winners, I will pick new names, so keep a keen eye on your inbox. Also, keep an eye on this site – this isn’t the first giveaway I’ve done, so I highly doubt it will be the last. Subscribe via RSS or email to get financial tips, stories, and future giveaway announcements delivered right to you!

Many thanks to everyone who entered, this was a blast! And don’t forget, there are 14 other sites giving away similar prize packs! Here’s the list:

• Sep 26 – Oct 3: Poorer Than You
• Sep 28 – Oct 5: Broke-Ass Student
• Sep 30 – Oct 7: Broke Grad Student
• Oct 2 – Oct 9: Study Hacks
• Oct 4 – Oct 11: Cooking for Engineers
• Oct 6 – Oct 13: College Being
• Oct 8 – Oct 15: Paul Stamatiou
• Oct 10 – Oct 17: DormDelicious
• Oct 12 – Oct 19: Student Bloggers
• Oct 14 – Oct 21: Jessica Mah Meets World
• Oct 16 – Oct 23: UNEASYsilence
• Oct 18 – Oct 25: Gomeler.com
• Oct 20 – Oct 27: CampusGrotto
• Oct 22 – Oct 29: Hack College
• Oct 24 – Oct 31: The University Blog

No related posts.

Happy Birthday! Wait… it’s my birthday, I’m not supposed to say that. And I’m not supposed to be giving out gifts. I’ve got this all wrong, don’t I?

Too bad! I’ll do what I want for my birthday, and what I want to do is give you the chance to win a sweet laptop prize pack from HP. I’m really pumped to be the first blog in the HP Freshman 15 giveaway, so let’s get this party started, shall we?

How to Enter

It’s an Easter Birthday Egg Hunt! The answers to the following 10 questions can all be found on this blog:

• Since it’s my birthday, how old am I?
• What did I do for Earth Day this year? (Not on what I did here on the blog, but out in the “real world”)
• What is the Compact?
• How many college seniors have four or more credit cards?
• What’s one reason you should over-pay your taxes right after graduating college?
• List Rule Zero and the Steps of the Quick Start Financial Guide.
• Name a government application that I hate.
• Name a show from my childhood that I miss.
• What should you do with extra financial aid money?
• What “percent of a guy” is checking in on bottled water’s cleanliness?

Find the answers to these questions, and submit them using the contact form. If you get all the right answers, you’re entered to win! I’ll use randomizer.org to pick the winning entry, and announce the winner on October 3rd.

Rules and Stuff

• Don’t post the answers anywhere online! Remember, the more correct entries, the lower your odds of winning, so giving other people the answers can only hurt you.
• Send in your entry by 11:59PM, EST October 1st. This will give me time to sort through all the entries, so I can pick the winner before the announcement date.
• You do not have to be a US resident to enter!
• One (correct) entry per person.
• If any of your answers are wrong, I’ll reply to your email telling you how many you got wrong, but not which ones. Kinda like that game Mastermind, which I love!
• The correct answers are the one’s that come from this blog. Although I’m sure many of them can be found on other websites, the only answers that are correct for the purposes of this giveaway are the ones that come from PoorerThanYou.com.
• Use a valid email address that you check often when entering, so that I can contact you if you win!

That’s it! Find the answers, send them in, and then check back on October 3rd to see if you’re a winner! You might want to subscribe via RSS or subscribe via email to help you remember. And most importantly, don’t forget to check the other 14 blogs giveaway away these prize packs! The next giveaway starts on September 28th at Broke-Ass Student!

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1. Birthday and National Museum Day!