Any time you go to a conference you can expect to bring back strange stuff. Exhibitors want to get your attention and also to remember them after you leave, so you wind up with things like notebooks, coffee mugs, pens and logoed rubber duckies.
Past giveaways from the Financial Blogger Conference have been well received. This year I’m able to give away two such packages: one with just stuff from the Expo Hall and one of all the exhibitors’ tchotchkes plus goodies from the Plutus Awards.
The former is possible because my daughter, who also attended (and who also won a Plutus) was willing to donate some of her Expo items. But let’s start with the ever-so-slightly nicer bag first.
The Plutus Award winners were given a trophy, a certificate and a sturdy little backpack filled with this and that. The backpack isn’t large enough to carry everything you need for a three-day trek to the wilderness. But it would make a great day pack or child’s school backpack (if the kid didn’t mind having a “State Farm” logo on it). Or perhaps you could fill it with emergency items and leave it in the trunk of your car.
Among the other items in the bag:
- Water bottle: This h2go bfree bottle holds 20 ounces and is BPA-free. Courtesy of the online coupon site Savings.com.
- Insulated drinking glass: It’s BPA-free, with a tight lid and a straw that cannot fall out, and bears the Ally Bank logo.
- Wireless mouse: This one’s also from Ally Bank.
- Emergency mobile device battery: Yet another treat from Ally, this works for most cell phones, game consoles, digital cameras, MP3 players and Bluetooth headsets.
- Mobile device charger: It plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter, apparently. Don’t thank me, thank Fidelity Investment.
- Retirement guide: “How Much Money Do I Need to Retire?” is part of Todd Tresidder’s “60-Minute Financial Solutions” series.
- Notebooks!: A ledger-sized one with lined sheets from the online investing site Betterment, a medium-sized one with its own pen from State Farm and a small one from Savings.com.
- Reusable shopping bags: You can never have too many of these things. One is from Chase and the other from EverBank.
- T-shirts: A navy blue one from Betterment and a white one advertising Savings.com’s new grocery app, Favado.
- Corkscrew: This Bankrate.com item looks like a Swiss Army knife that went on a diet, i.e., it has only a very sturdy corkscrew and a small blade for cutting a bottle’s seal. (I could be wrong about that since I never drink…wine.)
- Light-up ball: This clear rubber ball, with an Experian logo, has a map of the world inside and flashes a strobe-like red light when it’s bounced. Way cool! It may drive your cat crazy, though.
- Stress pig: This cute little reproduction of a piggy bank has a Chase logo. My anthropomorphism instinct kicked in big-time, so there’s no way could I squeeze it. For me, the stress relief would come from looking at its soft pink cuteness and maybe rubbing it between its ears.
A few other items are in the bottom of the backpack but I’m not going to list them all. You’ll just have to be surprised. If you win, that is. For your chance(s), do one or all of the following:
- Leave a comment below
- Subscribe via e-mail or Feedburner
- Sign up to follow Surviving and Thriving on Twitter or Facebook
If you do any (or all!) of these things, please leave separate, additional comments to get credit for each entry.
The deadline is 7 p.m. PDT Wednesday, Oct. 30. If I don’t hear back from the winners by 7 p.m. PDT Thursday, Oct. 31, I’ll pull another name.
Note: Due to the high cost of international shipping, a winner outside the United States will be given a choice of gift cards in lieu of the box and it will go up for grabs again.
Love your blog. I’d really like that Emergency mobile device battery.
Sounds like a fab giveaway! Count me in. 🙂
Email subscriber!
And a Facebook fan as well. Yours is one of my favorite blogs!
this one sounds good.
Lots of goodies. Thanks!
Follow on FB, not a twitter girl.
I hope I win
Recently signed up for your emails. really enjoy your blogs.
Thanks for the chance to win!
I hope I win. I could really use the wireless mouse on my old desktop computer.
Sounds like a really nice giveaway.
I just started following you on Twitter. Doesn’t look like you Twitter very much though, sort of like me. lol
I subscribed via Email. 🙂
I’d like to win.
I follow you on Facebook.
Love those goodie bags !
Sounds like a fun surprise. Hope I win!
I subscribe to your RSS feed via Newsblur.
All kinds of useful stuff!
I subscribe to the feed via NetVibes…
Oh, and I’m a twitter follower. What can I say, I’m afraid of missing something!
I am an RSS feed subscriber.
Lots of fun stuff! And congratulations, Donna, to you and Abigail on the big wins!
Awesome giveaway, and congrats!
I’m a subscriber via Feedburner
I follow via Twitter as well
I follow via Facebook!
this sounds like a fun package!
i follow by twitter @oshkoshbgosh321
i like you on facebook
Congrats to both you and Abby on your wins!
Strangely enough — I think I’d like the notebooks most of all 🙂
Would love to win!
I get your emails
I follow you on Twitter grandmasreading
I follow you on facebook
Thanks for the giveaway!
I follow you via Bloglovin.
I follow you on Facebook.
I would enjoy winning these goodies — thanks for the giveaway Donna!
I subscribe via email
Thanks once again for the giveaway!
I follow you via email
Sounds like a great bunch of goodies!
And I follow through FB now, but I used to just pop by.
Thank you for the chance to win.
I am already an email subscriber
Love getting your emails! This package would be like Christmas!!
I love when they give all different items like this. Thanks for the giveaway.
Email subscriber
Follow on Twitter(katsrus2003)
Like you on Facebook(Sue Brandes)
Goodies! Yay!
Thanks for the chance to win.
I follow you on Facebook.
I subscribe via email.
I subscribe via e-mail.
I also follow you on facebook.
I am also a twitter follower.
Heard it was a great conference. I subscribe by email…..
cool stuff from an interesting conference
Just found your blog through joetaxpayer.com, signed up for RSS feeds. Thanks
Love the giveaway idea, sounds like FinCon was a blast. Congratulations on the Plutus Award.
new Twitter follower @frugalapolis
So glad you got to attend FinCon and won an award to boot! Great giveaway!
I subscribe via email.
I follow you on Facebook.
I follow you on Twitter.
I wanna win 🙂
I subscribe via email
I follow on twitter @ ktmaag
I would love to win!
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facebook fan
Sounds like a fun package to me!
email subscriber
FB follower
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Enjoy reading your blog. And winning the box-o-stuff would be a great bonus!
Subscribe via email
I like your blog
I would love to win this. Will give the pig to my hog farmer brother-in-law for Christmas!
I “like” you on Facebook
I follow you on Twitter
I receive your emails which is where I got the link for the blog!
Sounds like a really useful giveaway! Congrats on your award and your daughter’s award too.
Fun stuff! Kids will love the light-up ball.
I subscribe via email.
I follow you on Twitter
cool giveaway. I subscribe via email.
I love free stuff!
Follow you on Facebook.
Follow you on twitter.
I subscribe via Feedburner.
love your blog
follow you on facebook
Sweet Swag Bag!! Pick me, Pick me, Pick meeeeeeeee.
Okay, admittedly the Grandkids are cuter than me & it is really for them 🙂
Congrats to you & your daughter!!!!
Would love to win! I need a new water bottle
I subscribe via email
I follow on fb and twitter
Love all your articles now and in the past! There has been so much useful information and many great money saving ideas.
I wants it’s!
I twitter follow 🙂
If I got the stress pig, I promise I would take care of it.
I follow you on twitter, as well.
Love, love, love this blog! Glad you had a good time.
Would love that Stress Pig!
Cynthia.Richardson@azbar.org
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Cynthia.Richardson@azbar.org
Twitter – @hofken
Facebook – Cynthia M Richardson
Cynthia.Richardson@azbar.org
thanks for a great giveaway
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like S&T on facebook-lmurley2000
I’d be happy with the backpack. Everything else is a great bonus!
love your information posts