March, 2012 - Surviving and Thriving

Hey! I didn’t win the Mega Millions!

April 29, 2012March 31, 2012 by Donna Freedman

You probably didn’t, either. Although winning tickets were sold in several states, odds are they weren’t yours.

The odds really do stink, you know. That’s why some wags call the lottery “a tax on people who are bad at math.”

Going out on a fiscal limb here, but…I don’t think the lottery is so bad.

It’s not that I think the lottery is “good,” i.e., an important part of a balanced financial portfolio. I just think it’s not-so-bad in the way that potato chips are not-so-bad. An occasional handful won’t kill you. If you focus on chips to the exclusion of anything healthy, then you’ve got a problem.

What’s better than chocolate? Free, organic chocolate.

April 29, 2012March 30, 2012 by Donna Freedman

My friend Linda B.’s doctor has advised her to eat an ounce of dark chocolate daily. I wish I could get a prescription like that.

Whoever wins this week’s giveaway will be a healthier person because the prize is a trio of organic, fair-trade chocolate bars made right here in Seattle.

A loan repaid.

January 24, 2016March 29, 2012 by Donna Freedman

I got a big surprise in the mail the other day: a check for $850. That’s the amount of the loan I made to a friend 15 months ago, plus the Western Union fee to get it to her.

In fact, it’s $6 more than I sent. I guess I should consider that interest, or maybe bus fare and aspirin.

Don’t toss those phone books just yet.

April 29, 2012March 28, 2012 by Donna Freedman

My biweekly gig at Get Rich Slowly took on the pulpy plague of phone-book bundles. What to do with directories you didn’t ask for and won’t use?

Teacakes: You know you want them.

March 23, 2012 by Donna Freedman

Or maybe you’d rather have chocolate chip cookies or sugar cookies, or both. Or a batch of pralines. Or some brightly iced Easter cookies.

This week’s giveaway is a package of freshly baked goodies shipped to you from Abeeya’s Bakery in Zachary, Louisiana. Head sweetie pie Donna M. Butler offers you a true dilemma: Which of the above-listed goodies to choose?

My words, elsewhere.

March 22, 2012 by Donna Freedman

Write what you know, right? Thus my most recent post at Get Rich Slowly was called “Prepare to get sick.”

In it I explained how I stay relatively ready year-round for illness or injury, from having basic foods and OTC meds on hand to figuring out a way to telecommute in case of a longish period of immobility. Specifically, I noted that one reason I could have surgery on really short notice was that I already had most of my ducks in a row.

I also got to work in a reference to the exchanging of body fluids. This pained one reader, who left a comment asking if this were truly necessary. My reply: “Yes.” After all, it was Valentine’s Day when I got sick.

Win this book.

March 16, 2012 by Donna Freedman

Lately it seems that all I publish are giveaways, with relatively little real writing. I blame sudden illness, a new job and some additional freelance opportunities.

Not that I don’t like giving things away. I do. That’s why I have a weekly contest. This week it’s, “Be CentsAble: How to Cut Your Household Budget in Half,” by Chrissy Pate and Kristin McKee

The life I once led.

November 26, 2018March 12, 2012 by Donna Freedman

Eight years ago today I headed west. I had no idea what I might do, no idea that I was about to be reborn. In fact, I couldn’t see any kind of future for myself. The only thing I knew for sure was that the life I’d lived up until that moment was no longer bearable.

I left while my then-husband, also a writer, was covering an event several states away. The day before I’d flattened a rear tire in my Chevy Cavalier to keep him from driving it instead of his own vehicle. (Mine got better mileage.)

After getting the tire repaired, I packed what would fit into the little sedan, put Liz Phair’s “The Divorce Song” on the CD player and peeled out.

In less than three days I drove from Chicago to Seattle, a trip made notable by the fact that I somehow managed to get a speeding ticket in Montana.

Giveaway: $20 Amazon gift card.

March 9, 2012 by Donna Freedman

I had planned to put up a book for this week’s giveaway, but two days of computer glitches have left me unfit for rational thought. I’m so frustrated that I’m ready to fling myself out a window.

Of course, since I live on the first floor it would be a largely ceremonial gesture.

Since I can’t write up an interesting screed about the book, a $20 Amazon gift card it is.

The latest from elsewhere.

January 24, 2016March 7, 2012 by Donna Freedman

After two full weeks of writing the Frugal Cool site for MSN Money, I’ve learned that a five-times-a-week deadline can be less intimidating than a once-every-10-days deadline.

I’d been writing a biweekly personal finance column since spring 2009. Initially I thought this would be easier than my previous job at MSN Money, the three-times-a-week Smart Spending blog. It wasn’t.