Donna Freedman Yep, it’s early. I’m putting the Valentine’s Day giveaway up to allow plenty of time for the winner to receive the package and re-gift it.
That is, if the winner really wants to – the items range from the sublime to the ridiculous. All might be hard to turn loose once you see them.
Let’s start with the sublime: three new kinds of chocolate.
These two goals are the subjects of my recent work at MSN Money and Get Rich Slowly — and they complement each other.
I decided to throw caution to the winds — or, rather, an extra subscription at the readers — with the current weekly giveaway.
The winner of last week’s prize, a copy of “Your Money: The Missing Manual,” is Cindy Brick. Or will be, if I hear back from her by Monday night.
This week’s giveaway is a six-month subscription to All You magazine, which thrifty types love for its numerous coupons and its life hacks.
Oh, and its recipes. Can’t forget those, which is why I’m throwing in a copy of All You’s new “Eat Well, Save Big” cookbook.
And if you’re not the winner? You can take advantage of a $6 subscription deal.
On my way home from the store recently I found nine cents, a My Coke Rewards cap and two ice-cream bars.
About that last: While waiting for the light to change I saw a discarded plastic grocery bag on the ground. As a rule I pick these up for my sister to use when she walks her dog. This bag held one of those Klondike Bar six-packs, with four missing.
The supermarket register receipt indicated they’d been purchased only about 15 minutes earlier, and it was a chilly day. You bet I took them home.
If you feel you must say “eeewww,” go ahead. I’ll wait.
Thanks to all who left comments here and on the Facebook page or e-mailed after my daughter lost her baby. Your expressions of sympathy and support were much appreciated during this sad time in our family’s life.
To get back on track, I decided I’d better keep my giveaway streak alive. Up this week is a copy of J.D. Roth’s “Your Money: The Missing Manual.”
My daughter lost the baby. If I’m brokenhearted, imagine how bad Abby and Tim feel.
Who here is sick of receiving e-mail forwards like “To women everywhere from a man who’s had enough”?
Normally I have at least a nodding tolerance for such stereotypical humor. Not this time. Maybe it was the wrong time of the month for me to be reading it.
I kid! In fact, I just thought it demanded an answer – especially if it would give me a chance to be just as sexist and condescending as the original author, whoever he is.
Each year a mid-January day is designated “Blue Monday” — allegedly the most depressing day out of the 365 or 366, according to a formula concocted by a guy named Cliff Arnall.
A former tutor at the University of Cardiff, Arnall seems to have created Blue Monday as a publicity stunt for a travel agency. Still, the reasoning seems pretty sound to me: A combination of consumer debt from holiday spending, post-holiday letdown, crappy weather and failed New Year’s resolutions make us feel like hell.