Donna Freedman

9 frugal mood enhancers.

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9 frugal mood enhancers.Autumn is coming, sooner than I’d like to acknowledge. Although the days are still mild (50 to 60 degrees) the angle of the sun has changed, making its rays seem tentative and transitory. That is, when the sun can be seen – it’s been raining a lot, too.

Where you live might still feel summery right now, but you know the change in seasons is coming. Those of you who live in places where the seasons don’t alter that much can go ahead and feel supremely lucky, or downright smug if you like. The rest of us will come up with such coping mechanisms as are necessary to get us through the transition.

Or through the season itself: Winter can be challenging both physically and emotionally. I’ll be pulling out the seasonal affective disorder light box eventually. Right now we’re leaning on a handful of things that make us feel better and don’t cost very much. In fact, some of them cost nothing at all.

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The Coffeehouse Cliche giveaway.

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51HixOXuQXL._AA200_As summer slips away we prepare to move more of our lives indoors. That is, unless we’re clever enough to live somewhere that’s temperate year-round.

Warm interiors. Hot drinks. Burning inspiration.

If you were ever going to write poetry, plays, short stories or the Great American Novel, you’re a lot less likely to do it when the weather is fine. No, fall and winter is when we head indoors and think deep thoughts.

(Or watch televised sports or “The Walking Dead,” or indulge in whatever nerdy pastimes make us happy.)

This week’s giveaway will give you two tools of the trade, or rather the accoutrements of the affected: a notebook and some coffeehouse scrip.

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Let your geek flag fly.

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thMy friend Linda B. is a major genre fangirl. There was a time when she could be spotted at MediaWest conferences, dressed as a middle-aged Corellian spice trader* and participating in blaster battles all over the conference hotels.

She and other fellow geeks would see plays and skits, admire others’ costumes, buy fan fiction (including some rather startling “slash” fiction) and, yeah, shoot at one another.

She and several other middle-aged women would share hotel rooms and at some point conduct readings of abysmally written fan fiction. A particular “Star Wars” story always brought the house down with the line, “Han spurted into the room.”

Good times, despite the expense of traveling from Alaska to Lansing and the “con crud” that she always seemed to catch.

These days she’s staying closer to home – working, writing plays, making jewelry and doing free-form bead weaving – but she’s still a geek. Or maybe she’s a nerd. Probably both.

Either way she’s a fangirl, which is how she came to send me the link to this Wil Wheaton video, “Why it’s awesome to be a nerd.” This is the kind of thing that slips over her transom on a regular basis, along with things like song parodies based on characters from “The X-Files” or news about the latest Doctor to play “Dr. Who.”

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Jean Chatzky wants to school you on finances.

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XSmallWant to take charge of your debt, your spending, your retirement or some other aspect of your finances? Maybe it’s time to go back to school.

Jean Chatzky’s “Money School” opens Sept. 10 – and since friends don’t let friends pay retail, I can offer you a discount code.

The financial editor for NBC’s “Today” show and the author of eight books, Chatzky will teach half a dozen virtual personal finance classes in real time (more on that in a minute).

You can choose one or two or take all six for an additional discount. Bonus: You won’t have to worry about mean kids who slam you into lockers or steal your lunch money.

What’s on the syllabus? So glad you asked.

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Sucre shock: Sweet treats from New Orleans.

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choc_nola15_9Remember those gorgeous French macarons I gave away a few months ago? The sponsor of that offer, the Sucré Sweet Boutiques and Confection Studio of New Orleans, is at it again.

No, it’s not a king cake (even though that’s a specialty confection often associated with New Orleans). This time around the giveaway is in the universal language: chocolate.

Not just any chocolate, either: Sucré is giving away a 15-piece New Orleans Chocolate Collection.  

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Silliness to be savored.

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thEvery so often I get an e-mail about the “Mensa Invitational,” a word game hosted by The Washington Post. It asks readers to make up new words by adding or subtracting a letter from an existing word.

A few examples:

Foreploy: Misrepresenting yourself for the purposes of obtaining sex.

Intaxication: The euphoria that accompanies an income tax rebate (which lasts only until you realize that this was your money to begin with).

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic humor and the person who doesn’t get it.

Glibido: All talk, no action.

Pretty clever, huh? The only problem with the Mensa Invitational is that it doesn’t exist. (Yet another reason to stop blindly forwarding every e-mail you get.)

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In which I electioneer for the 2013 Plutus Awards.

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thNot for myself! I did ask for Plutus Awards votes back in 2011, when I was nominated for “Best Blog Contributor or Freelance Writer” and “Best Written Blog.” (Thanks to all who voted, because I did win the first one.)

This time around, I’m asking for your votes for someone else: my daughter, Abigail Perry, who writes I Pick Up Pennies.

It’s pretty easy to do: All you have to is click on this link and her site’s URL will automatically be filled in under “Best Kept Secret.” Enter your own information (name, e-mail and whether or not you’re a PF blogger), then just scroll a bit further down and hit “nominate” – and you’re done.

Do I sound impossibly stage mom-ish? Well, she’s too modest to nominate herself so I felt compelled to do it for her. Here’s why.

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Swagcode alert! The end of “Five for Five.”

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card129It’s the final day of the “Five for Five” Swagbucks promotion. You’ve got until 2 p.m. Pacific to head over to Swagbucks and enter the code PunnyAnimal.

The case-sensitive code is available in all countries where Swagbucks is played.

Not sure exactly what I’m talking about? All will be revealed if you read “Swagcode alert! (And four more to come.)” Feel free to click on the link in that article to join the program.

(Note: If you do, I will receive a referral bonus. If you don’t want to do it that way, then just go to www.swagbucks.com and sign up for a new account.)

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Giveaway: “How I Make Money Blogging.”

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https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=132158&c=ib&aff=219310We’re heading toward September and you know what that means: Christmas shopping!

Or at least the stores seem to think so, given how early they sneak the red-and-green into the inventory. Can’t we have Halloween first?

Some of us shop year-round and then have to fill in with only a few items come the Black Friday madness.  Some realize around mid-December that they haven’t even started.

It all takes money — and one way to earn money is through blogging. Stop laughing. Some people actually do bring in a little extra cash, or a lot. Crystal Stemberger is one of those people. I’m giving away a copy of her e-book, “How I Make Money Blogging: The Beginner’s Guide to Building a Money-Making Blog,” in case you want to be one of those people, too. (There’s a discount code for those who want to buy the book outright; see below.)

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2 reasons to get a colonoscopy.

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thEarly this afternoon I had my camera-up-the-windward-passage exam. After having given up seedy foods for a week (including, alas, popcorn) and having spent a day and a half doing the not-fun (but not unbearable) prep, I am good for another five years.

I also have 11 little thumbnail photos of my colon’s various twists and turns. In color. Thanks, doc.

The release paperwork also instructed that for the next 12 hours I should not “perform any activity that requires you to be mentally alert with normal reflexes.” I figured that clears me for blogging.

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