Money: It's Not Just For Rich People
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!
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!
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!
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.
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
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.