Surviving and Thriving - Life is short. But it's also wide.

Sick? Please stay home.

October 15, 2015October 31, 2013 by Donna Freedman

Back in 1980 I was a single mom and “permanent part-time” employee at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Like many working parents I feared illness because it meant using up sick days – which God had clearly intended to be used when your kid got sick.

Plenty of people still feel the same way – and quite a few workers come to work when they’re sick because they feel the place would collapse without them. A new study from Kimberly-Clark says 59% of employees come in sick, either because they’re too “essential” to stay home or because they’ve got too much work to do to miss a day.

Trouble is, their co-workers may wind up missing days if they catch whatever cooties Typhoid Mary/Marty is spewing into their shared breathing space.

Last call for a chance at a $50 gift card.

October 28, 2013 by Donna Freedman

Just a reminder: My favorite rewards program, Swagbucks, has offered a special signup code for new referrals (see below) plus a chance for both new and old referrals to win a $50 gift card.If you want in, keep in mind the rapidly approaching deadline: Oct. 30.

This contest is pretty easy to enter; in fact, it’s automatic. Anyone I’ve ever referred to Swagbucks will be entered into a drawing for a $50 card if they earn at least 50 Swagbucks before the deadline. (For a glimpse of the card offerings, click here.)

That’s 50 SBs from any combination of the Shop, Search, Watch, Play, Answer or Discover categories. Keep an eye on the Swagbucks Facebook page for Swag Code announcements, too.

Extra points for newbies

If you’re not already a member, you can get a better-than-usual bonus for signing up. Here’s how:

Coming up: The Talkeetna Bachelors Auction and Wilderness Woman Competition.

November 28, 2013October 28, 2013 by Donna Freedman

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Come up and join us at the Talkeetna Bachelors Auction and Wilderness Woman Competition and you’ll dine out on those stories for years.

True, it’ll be winter* — Dec. 7, to be exact — and that means it’ll probably be cold. But that’s the whole point! You’ll be in Alaska in the winter.

You’ll survive. I promise. There’s a bonfire at which to warm yourself during the competition, and the auction and after-party are actually pretty warm due to the hootin’, hollerin’ and dancin’.

Besides, Talkeetna has a doctor.

I wanted to link to my first-ever article about Talkeetna, published in 2010, but my site was migrated to a new server and that first piece doesn’t seem to have made the jump from hyperspace. So I’m excerpting from that piece to explain the absolute hilarity of the event:

Giveaway: The Plutus Awards package.

October 27, 2013 by Donna Freedman

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.

Time is something we can’t do over.

October 15, 2015October 25, 2013 by Donna Freedman

The 2013 Financial Blogger Conference was the best yet, and also the most exhausting. We got up at 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 15 to fly to St. Louis and, coincidentally, walked back through our front door at about 2 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24.

In between: a long plane trip, most of a day spent “frugalizing” a family with MP Dunleavey (for her Woman’s Day column), the conference itself and then a few days hanging out with my daughter, who also attended.

The conference days were a blur of activity, four days of leaving the room at 7:30 or 8 a.m. and falling back into bed at 1:30 or 2 a.m. Yet it was delightful to attend sessions, reconnect with others who’ve attended for three years running, to win prizes, and to discuss some very interesting work-related propositions (nothing I can noise around just yet, though).

Right now DF is on furlough (grrr), so we had Thursday and today to recover from the trip. It’s been tough for me to get my head back into the game; instead, I want to spend my days talking about writing and having other people cook for me.

Scratch that: I want to spend my days working only when I feel like it. I expect I’m not alone.

As I noted in “Termination dust,” being kicked to the virtual curb by MSN Money has caused me to reconsider the kind of life I want to lead. That’s why an e-mail I received today really resonated.

Coffee: Way too freakin’ early on Monday, Oct. 21.

October 19, 2013 by Donna Freedman

I’ll be at the St. Louis Bread Company, 116 N. 6th St., starting at 7 a.m. on Monday. Anyone who wants to meet for coffee and one of their distressingly good pastries is cordially invited to join me.

Just look for the bottle blonde who seems very tired yet oddly keyed-up. Conferences do that to me. I’ll have my battered MacBook open and will be drinking far too much Diet Pepsi.

On the bright side: thanks to my Panera Rewards card, I will get my pastry for free. Although I like to think I’ll have a whole-grain bagel, lightly toasted with just a touch of canola-based margarine, that’s probably not going to happen.

We’re having a swell time at the Financial Blogger Conference — almost as much fun as those Cardinal fans had last night. I’d like to thank the city of St. Louis for the fireworks display after you guys cinched the World Series: We had a primo view of the pyrotechnics from our hotel window.

To paraphrase the poet, we have eaten not wisely but too well. For more on that, see “Food food glorious food” at I Pick Up Pennies (which just happens to be the People’s Choice winner at the 2013 Plutus Awards.)

Quick (and exciting!) news from FinCon13.

October 18, 2013 by Donna Freedman

The bad news: Abby didn’t win the Plutus Award for “Best-Kept Secret Blog” last night.

The good news: She did win the People’s Choice Award. Her reaction was quite choice; read about it at her blog.

And I won for Best Frugality-Based Blog, which frankly astounds me: I didn’t even know I’d been nominated until shortly before the conference. We got a lot of good-natured ribbing about it being Mother-Daughter Night at the Plutus Awards.

So many thanks to all of you who voted. She still can’t quite believe it. Abby has already noted a number of new followers.

Giveaway: The cold and flu package.

October 10, 2013 by Donna Freedman

If you’ve been in the cold/flu medicine aisle of the drugstore lately you were probably as shocked as I was by the high cost of cold medications.

I hope none of you actually get sick this winter. But we’re indoors with a lot of other people and rhinoviruses spread faster than nasty rumors. So why not be prepared? And why not let me help?

These cold-and-flu packages are invariably popular, and probably not just because they save you money. I think a lot of people simply don’t want to keep cold medications on hand because, well, you don’t need them.

Until you do — at which point ayou might feel too miserable to make the trip to the pharmacy. And if you thought this stuff costs a lot at the pharmacy, wait until you price them at a convenience store.

The frugal heating pad.

October 9, 2013 by Donna Freedman

Recently our heater went on the blink. The heating company that DF prefers wasn’t able to give us an appointment for almost two weeks – unless, that is, we wanted to pay extra for an after-hours visit.

Nope, we didn’t, even though temperatures dropped into the mid-20s at night and only into the high 40s during the day. We had plenty of split wood so we kept the fireplace insert stoked.

Nothing froze. In fact, the living room got a little too warm from time to time. However, the home office is farthest away from the heat source and it wasn’t exactly toasty. Most days I was plenty comfortable with a bathrobe over my sweats and T-shirt.

And when I wasn’t? I used the perfect frugal chill-chaser.