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Giveaway: The medium flat-rate box of FinCon19 swag.

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I’ve been home from the 2019 Financial Blogger Conference for weeks now, and for weeks a medium-flat-rate-box-sized heap of Expo Hall swag has sat on my desk, taunting me.

What’s up for grabs this year? All sorts of goodies, many of which make primo stocking stuffers.

I haven’t catalogued and boxed it up yet because Reasons. Now it’s done, and one lucky person is going to get a large selection of offbeat items courtesy of the expo hall at the annual financial writers’ conference.

Exhibitors lure you to their tables by putting out things like T-shirts, candy, reusable shopping bags and the like. And who doesn’t need a spare box of matches, or a bottle opener, or a little bag of custom M&Ms?

Plenty of people, I know. But again, some of these things are giftable as heck. In fact, I kept a few of them back for the annual shoebox Christmas giveaway organized by a local charity. You fill a shoebox with items homeless people have requested, then wrap it with Christmas paper and drop it off at the Tastee-Freez.

This year my shoebox will include hand sanitizer, lip balm, and a notebook and pens from the expo hall, in addition to the other stuff I bought. And here are the things that this year’s box-of-FinCon-swag winner will receive:

 

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7 free financial resources.

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My buddy Cameron Huddleston’s new book, “Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: How to Have Essential Conversations With Your Parents About Their Finances,” is a guide to negotiating that potentially awkward and/or painful subject of your parents’ finances as they age. (She recently sponsored a giveaway of two copies.)

In conjunction with the publication of her book, Huddleston has created a pair of great (and free!) financial resources.

The first is a document called the “In Case of Emergency Organizer: A Fill-in-the-Blank Financial Inventory to Give Your Loved Ones the Information They Need,” and it’s one-stop-shopping as far as financial information is concerned.

This PDF is write-able, i.e., you can type into it from your computer, tablet or smartphone. Then you can either print it out or send it as a document to your kids or whoever needs to have this info. Or you can print it out as a blank document and fill it in with a pen. #oldschool

Obviously you’ll need to lock it away safely, and make sure the person to whom you send it is careful with the document as well. After all, it will contain your Social Security number, bank account number(s) and other identifying information. But it sure beats your kids (or whoever) scrambling to find this stuff during a crisis.

Consider filling one of these out yourself as well, even if you’re young and hale. Suppose you became very ill, or were involved in some sort of accident: Would your relatives, or even your partner, be able to deal with things like temporarily paying your bills or finding your health insurance information?

 

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Free stuff at the garage sale.

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Once while shopping at a garage sale I was given a box of canning jar lids and bands for free. I was perfectly willing to pay the $1 price, but the proprietor said “Oh, you can have it” – probably because I was buying a bunch of other stuff.

At another garage sale, my daughter and I showed up just as the hosts were So Done with the event. Everything left was free, they said. And not just some limp paperbacks and yellowed doilies, either: We’re talking a bed frame, kitchenware, sports equipment, a kitchen table, linens and more.

The easiest way to get free stuff, though, is the most obvious way: Look in the free box.

 

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Welcome, NerdWallet readers! (Here’s a coupon.)

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Thanks for finding your way to my site from Amrita Jayakumar’s article, “These young adults are debt-free – true story.” I’m not exactly young, but I was broke when I was very young and again when I was middle-aged, so I was thrilled to chat with her for the piece.

My goal was to share some of the tactics I used as a teen-ager running a household of three on a very thin margin, and later as a woman furiously treading financial water during a protracted divorce. You could say I took what I learned at age 16 and embroidered on it.

If you’re new to the site, here’s what I learned about being broke: You can make a good life on the money you currently have, without losing your dignity or your hopes for a better future.

And if you’re new to the site, let me tell you about the two books I wrote on that very topic. (Also about a way to get a free PDF of the “stealth savings” chapter from the first book.)

 

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Hear me out – and maybe win a book.

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thThis week you have a chance to win one of three copies of my book, and the opportunity for a free preview.

First, the giveaway: The lovely and talented J. Money, of Budgets Are Sexy and Rockstar Finance fame, is giving away three copies of “Your Playbook For Tough Times: Living Large On Small Change, For The Short Term Or The Long Haul.”

He’s doing this in three different places:

 

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Giveaway: The big box of FinCon16 swag.

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thDue to my daughter’s mystery illness, we both missed huge chunks of the 2016 Financial Blogger Conference. Huge bummer for us both, especially since we’d looked forward to meeting with some local readers.

(I did get to say hello to Ro in San Diego, a regular reader/commenter. Thanks for dropping by, Ro.)

My daughter and I each managed to visit the expo hall, where a ton of organizations and businesses were handing out goodies. Obviously both Abby and I wanted to learn about new products and services, but I must admit to thinking how much fun it would be to share these items with a lucky winner.

FinCon swag giveaways have been popular in the past. Pretty sure that the big box of FinCon16 swag will keep that streak alive.

 

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Giveaway: $10 Starbucks card.

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thSolstice isn’t until June 20, but I think it’s hot enough in some places to count as summer. Cold drinks are a fine antidote to heat and humidity, and Starbucks cards are always popular as giveaways. QED.

In addition, this is a fairly easy prize for me to mail from out of town. Yep, I’m on the road again — but this time in Alaska.

Specifically, I’m attending the 24th annual Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez (that’s pronounced val-DEEZ, incidentally). For the next week I’ll be attending classes and staged readings, including a full-length work by my BFF Linda B, “The Cooter Creek Passion Play.”

 

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Giveaway: Another TSA-friendly travel bag.

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thGot travel plans for Memorial Day weekend? This week’s giveaway will make your trip through security a lot more affordable.

These little bags are always hugely popular, and for good reason: Who wants to pay $1.29 for the one-ounce tube of toothpaste that will get you and your carry-on bag through security?

But toothpaste isn’t the only thing in this bag. Here’s what the winner will take on his/her next trip:

 

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Giveaway: “The Thriver’s Edge.”

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thSpring means rebirth, transformation and beauty. How about translating that kind of positive energy to your professional and/or personal life?

“The Thriver’s Edge: Seven Keys to Transform the Way You Live, Love and Lead,” by Dr. Donna Stoneham, might be just what you need to make this year your best ever.

Stoneham is a “transformational leadership expert” who’s spent three decades helping individuals, teams and entire organizations to “unleash their power to thrive.” She’s worked with non-profits and Fortune 1000 leaders alike to get to the bottom of the fears, negative beliefs or self-denigrating ideas that keep them from realizing their full potential.

That potential, by the way, can be happiness and peace — and you don’t have to be a captain of industry to take to heart the lessons from this book.

 

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