Money: It's Not Just For Rich People
By Stephanie, updated 1 Comment This post may contain affiliate links
ISPF over at Grad Money Matters interviewed me, as well as
Golbguru from Money, Matter and More Musings,
and English Major from An English Major’s Money
as part of Ethics, Values & Personal Finance Week.
Yeah, that’s a lot of links all at once, so, here’s the interview. Start there.
By Stephanie, updated 2 Comments This post may contain affiliate links
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!
By Stephanie, updated 11 Comments This post may contain affiliate links
I think I’ve become an unintentional Compacter! For those of you who don’t know, Compactors are people who strive to reduce their environmental impact and increase their frugality by not buying anything new (except for food and health/safety items). I looked at my Excel document of expenses for 2007, and here’s everything I’ve bought:
The new clothes, the Netflix, and the car wash might not fit exactly into the Compacting mentality, but then again, I wasn’t trying!
I think from now on, I’m going to continue my “loose compacting,” regardless of how much money I have coming in. Not buying anything new reduces my environmental impact and my clutter, and it leaves me more money to pay down my credit card debt. So, I’m going to Compact (sort of) until that debt is gone!
By Stephanie, updated 13 Comments This post may contain affiliate links
[Update: This offer no longer exists. It was a great program while it lasted. From time to time, I’ve been known to highlight other giveaways for things like free iPods. Check out the Sweepstakes category for the latest giveaways!]
Yes, I love WOWIO even more now. My free iPod shuffle, which I got for referring 10 people to WOWIO, came today. Want your own completely free iPod shuffle (that’s right, I didn’t pay shipping or anything)? The promotion is still going on. Check out WOWIO, and sign up. At the end of the registration process, when it asks who referred you, put
vanpattenjames@gmail.com
This is my friend’s email address, and will help him get his iPod shuffle. Why should you bother to credit my friend, you ask? Well, because it will give you good referral karma, which will help you get YOUR ten referrals! So once you’ve signed up, convince ten of your friends that WOWIO is a truly awesome service, and have them sign up, crediting your email address.
It’s very, very easy (I managed to convince 10 people in two days), and WOWIO truly is a great service.
Also, if you sign up under the email address above, feel free to send me an email using my contact form. Once my friend has his 10 referrals, replace his email address on this page with the first person who emailed me, and once they get their ten, I’ll put up the next email address, and so forth. This page, as of June 2007, still gets several hits from search engines every day!
(Number of people I’ve referred who have also gotten their own iPod shuffle: 4)
By Stephanie, updated 2 Comments This post may contain affiliate links
The war over direct-to-mail DVD rentals continues, even in my own house. My mother has both Blockbuster Online* and Netflix* this month, and she’s torn over which one to keep. On the one hand, she can easily return her Blockbuster DVDs to one of their physical stores, and come home with even more movies – and there’s a store not far from her place of work. Seems like Blockbuster might be the better value, for her.
On the other hand, she doesn’t like the way the categories are on the Blockbuster site, and there still isn’t as good of a selection. And, Netflix introduced a new feature last month: Watch Now. Streaming video, on your desktop, free. You get as many hours as dollars you pay for your plan (my mom is on the $15 plan, so she gets 15 hours of free streaming video a month). The feature isn’t available to all subscribers yet, but it’s being rolled out to everyone over the course of the next 6 months. Looks like my mom got in on the ground floor, because I can access the feature from her account.
So, who’s winning now? Well, I can’t tell you who my mom will pick. She really seems to be taking advantage of the Blockbuster in-store exchange, so we’ll have to see at the end of the month which she chooses. But if it were me? I’m still partial to Netflix. Bigger selection, funding of independent films, and streaming videos are all major pluses to me (I already watch LOST and other shows that are offered free on the network websites). Also, I wouldn’t use the in-store exchange of Blockbuster very often. Not that I have the money for video rentals, but, you know.
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