If this is your first time here, thanks for following the link from today’s guest post over at Get Rich Slowly.

Now that I’ve got your attention, I’d like to offer you something and ask you for something:

I post a giveaway every Friday: Amazon gift cards, PF books, movie tickets, chocolate, Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage alarm clocks — pretty much whatever’s handy. This week it’s a whole bunch of Godiva chocolate. For details and to enter, click here. The deadline is today at 9 p.m. PDT.

In return I’m asking for your help: If enough people show their support, I may get sent to the SaveUp 2010 conference in Chicago next month. The easiest way to do that is to vote for me here.

The second way is to read my tips at Savings.com and designate them as helpful. Throughout the comments section of this S&T article I’ve posted a series of links to questions I answered. If you have time to vote on even a few I would be grateful.

I promise to share whatever I learn at the conference here on the site — and if I come back with another Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage alarm clock, I’ll have another giveaway in the bag.

Surviving and Thriving isn’t strictly about frugality, although you’ll find plenty of thoughts on money and wealth. It’s kind of a hybrid: personal finance crossed with lifeitsownself. You can get a glimpse of previous work by clicking the “Popular Posts” button at the top of the page. If it’s PF you seek, click on tags such as “money,” “personal finance” or “frugal hacks.”

Thanks for coming by. I hope you’ll be back.