Poorer Than You » Lazy Sunday

Special Monday Edition: Lazy Sunday

Stephanie — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:04:56 +0000

This Lazy Sunday comes to you… on a Monday. I specifically waited an extra day so that I could post the results of the blog scholarship – voting for which ended at 3am Eastern time, this morning.

Congratulations to Kim Klein, the grand prize winner! She’ll have a nice $10,000 to help her get her law degree!

I didn’t make grand prize, or runner-up, but thanks to all of you, I did make the Top 10, which means I’ll be receiving a nice $100! Hey, don’t knock that $100 – that’s two textbooks I don’t have to pay for!

A lot of people have come to me about the “unfairness” of awarding a scholarship, especially one of this size, based on an internet poll. I don’t want to sound in any way like an ungracious loser, but I tend to agree. I hope that if College Scholarships.org offers this again next year, they will reconsider the award process.

In other Lazy Sunday news…

REPORTER magazine has their new site up and running, so if any of you are interested in reading the article I was interviewed for, you can now access it online. The article is the cover story from the September 14th issue (PDF), and it starts on page 9 of the PDF file. Sorry – there are no pictures of me! Just an interview on why I had to drop out of school, how I managed to go back, and some advice for my fellow college students.

There is one error in the article – it says that I got a job in web design to pay the bills. This isn’t entirely accurate, but since it’s really hard to explain what I do for my job, I let it slide. Suffice to say, I work “on the internets.”

Get $10 for Amazon.com and Cook by the Numbers: Lazy Sunday

Stephanie — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:48:30 +0000

It’s time for another Lazy Sunday – I’m sick, so I’m trying to stay in bed as much as possible. Apparently “staying in bed” means “taking two trips to the mall,” but I must never end my search for a pair of pants that actually fit me! Anyway, here’s your Lazy Sunday picks for today:

Coinstar is offering a an extra $10 Amazon gift certificate when you convert $30 worth of change into an Amazon gift certificate. Hmm… might be time for me to head to that coin counting machine! Coinstar doesn’t charge a fee if you get your money in the form of a gift certificate, but it does if you get your money in the form of cash.

There’s an article over at Christian Personal Finance that I absolutely adore called Money doesn’t solve money problems. This is the message I wish I could get through to all of my friends who say “I am too broke to save,” or “I don’t make enough money to do anything about it.” Personal finance all comes down to one simple behavior: spending less than you earn, no matter how much you earn.

Need more evidence that money doesn’t solve money problems? Look at these lottery winners who ended up worse off than before they won!

If you’re anything like me, you have a lot of really random stuff in your kitchen, and have no idea what you could make with it all. That’s where the site Cooking By Numbers comes in really handy – just check off the foods you have in your kitchen and VOILA! Recipes you can make, sorted by difficulty!

Lastly, here’s a sure-fire way to turn your kids into tax-free millionaires. Just do me a favor if you do this – teach them financial responsibility as well, so that instead of dumping out their Roth IRAs at age 18, they start contributing to them. I mean, don’t you want them to be happy, healthy, successful multi-millionaires?

Feed the Pig, Win the Best Blog: Lazy Sunday

Stephanie — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 15:35:05 +0000

I’d like to take this opportunity on a lazy Sunday (although it’s not so lazy for me – I’ve got a pile of homework to get through!) to pull together some interesting bits of this and that from around the web-o-sphere. Take a look.

Feed the Pig - this little calculator is out to beat the “latte factor.” Or the “anything factor” really. The default example of taking a bagged lunch instead of eating out actually reflects my situation really well. I have to fight to remember to bring food with me to campus instead of succumbing to one of the seven (yes, seven) eateries on campus – but knowing that it could save me $867 over the year might just help.

Feed the Pig also has a Credit Card Payoff calculator if you’re wondering how long it will take to pay off your plastic. (Hint: it’s usually longer than you think.)

VA posted 6 Painless Ways to Save Money on a Tight Budget a few weeks ago and I keep meaning to mention it. I have a VA addiction and I love it even more when she pops through with financial advice.

Got a blog? You might want to enter into the $4,000 blog anniversary prize drawing. This is the longest list of prizes I’ve ever seen in a blog giveaway! I’ve been hoping to redesign PTY with a custom logo and everything one of these days – winning this contest would get the ball rolling on that!

And lastly, I have a question. I’m hoping to find a new way to connect with PTY readers. If anyone would like, they’re free to email me, or send a message to my AIM name, StephaniePTY. But I’m also hoping for more of a group activity: would anyone be interested in an IRC chat, an AIM chat, a Skype chat, a TalkShoe interactive podcast, or just a regular old message board? I want to find a way to get more “internet face time” with you guys!