I mailed my taxes on Tuesday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh? Since some of you may be finishing up the paperwork, or may be glum about the paperwork you just mailed, I’m hoping this week’s giveaway will cheer you up.
And if not, maybe my upcoming Swagbucks announcement (more on that below) will do the trick.
You don’t have to use them on Black Friday, of course. Use them on Post-Turkey Thursday or Cyber Monday. Or just hoard them until you see something you want to buy.
This week’s drawing is for the kind of prize most favored by readers. Chocolate runs a very close second – but allow me to point out that you can buy chocolate on Amazon.com.
I’ve got four issues of coupon-heavy All You magazine to give away, along with several other items in the “shopping” family.
I’ve written before about cash-back shopping sites, which offer rebates for buying through the stores you always use. If you use Amazon, certain deals just got a little better.
Nope, not giving away a trip somewhere. I’m on vacation, and forgot to plan my giveaway.
But that works in your favor.
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.
Here’s my feeling about presents: Once they’re yours, you get to use them any way you like. If you want to regift it, donate it to charity, sell it in a yard sale or run over it with a steamroller, that’s your business.
Which is why I sold two of the gift cards I got during the holidays. They morphed from $75 worth of might-not-get-used promissory plastic into $63.79 worth of Amazon.com gift cards.
Some would look at this as an $11.21 loss. Not me. I look at it as being that much closer to the crib I need to buy.
If you’re looking for a $100 head start on holiday shopping, be sure to enter the giveaway sponsored by Consumerism Commentary. The deadline to enter is 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. You can enter up to five different ways.
Since getting my candy/jelly thermometer from Amazon.com recently I have learned a new and entirely dangerous skill: making caramels for Christmas gifts.
I know they are dangerous because: