giveaway

Support the reader economy: Giveaway #9.

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How’s your household budget doing? Yeah, mine too. Inflation is allegedly easing, but I haven’t noticed this much. In fact, gasoline is going back up and milk is now $4.29 a gallon.

The reason I started the “support the reader economy” giveaway series is to bring a (small!) boost to someone’s budget. Sad to say that $25 isn’t much these days – unless, of course, you’re $25 short on groceries or you need to get to work for two more days until payday.

Thus I am offering a $25 e-gift card of the winner’s choice, whether that’s a supermarket, gas station, big-box retailer or, yes, Starbucks. It’s hot out there, and if you’ve cut back on cold drinks (or drinks away from home, period) then a caramel macchiato whatchamacallit might be exactly the small boost you need to keep on keeping on.

Or maybe you’re thinking bigger-picture thoughts. For example, Hannukah is just 125 days from now, Christmas is 143 days away and Kwanzaa starts in 144 days. If you’re planning to give gifts, it’s a good idea to at least make a list. Bonus frugal points for starting (or having started) to look for affordable presents via clearance sections (virtual or IRL), yard sales and your Buy Nothing Facebook group. A $25 card to Target or Amazon or wherever might not make much difference, but it’s a start.

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Support the reader economy: Giveaway #8.

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It’s been a minute since the last giveaway. As inflation shows no signs of disappearing, I will continue this series.

I know that $25 isn’t much. But it beats not having $25.

As always, the rules are simple: Winner gets to choose his or her scrip source. If it’s possible for me to get an e-gift card from your retailer of choice, then I will do so.

This includes cards from outside the United States, so international readers (and I know you’re out there because Google Analytics told me so) should feel free to enter.

I do need to qualify something: Mastercard or Visa prepaid cards are not an option for this giveaway. They add noticeably to the $25 price tag, and I prefer to stretch my prize budget as far as I can.

Okay, two ways: I will do only e-gift cards from now on.

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Valentine’s Day giveaway.

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It’s a little early* for Valentine’s Day, but the point of this giveaway is for the winners to have gifts for the holiday. I’ll need some time to mail them, so early is the way to play it.

Those gifts can be for your sweetheart, your mom, your daughter, your niece or a nice coworker.

You could also gift them to yourself. And if you’ve got a bestest buddy who wears earrings? Make them a Galentine’s Day present.

My photography is subpar, but all these earrings do feature heart shapes. They seemed appropriate for Valentine’s Day.

 

They were made by my jewelry-making buddy Linda B., whose work has been featured in giveaways before. Since I believe in supporting the local economy, why not use heart-shaped art from someone I know? 

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Support the reader economy: Giveaway #6.

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I’m sitting in the Anchorage airport, watching snow fall outside, preparatory to a jaunt to the land of the palm trees. Yep, back to Orlando just a month after being there for the 2022 Financial Blogger Conference. Before I leave, though, I wanted to put up another “Support the Reader Economy” giveaway.

Why Orlando during hurricane season? Because my brother is hosting a birthday bash and I’ll get to see not just him, but also one of his daughters and her kids plus my sister. Nicole made landfall and people in some areas were told to leave. However, she’s been downgraded to tropical storm status and the Orlando forecast is for at least partly sunny skies over the next week. So southward I go, and as long as I’m in the neighborhood I will also swing through Phoenix to see my daughter on the way home.

Back to the giveaway, though. It’s the sixth in a series of giveaways aimed to give a (small) boost to reader budgets. The winner gets a $25 gift card to the retailer of his or her choice. Not a princely sum, to be sure, but if I gave away $50 at a clip I’d be able to afford only half as many giveaways. I’d rather go wide than deep.

What card would you choose?

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Support the reader economy: Giveaway #5.

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Still here (albeit on semi-sabbatical), and still supporting the reader economy. For those just joining us, I have been doing a semi-regular giveaway of products made in Alaska, the state where I live. It’s important to me to support the local economy.

But with inflation kicking everyone’s backside, I have decided to focus also on the reader economy, with a semi-regular giveaway of $25 gift cards. That’s not exactly a huge sum, but I’m not exactly a huge blog.

Besides, while $25 giveaway won’t permanently prop the budget, it can certainly be a much-needed tweak. For example, maybe you’re operating on the tightest of margins and your kid’s birthday is coming up. These days $25 won’t buy you much, but it will buy you something. Maybe several somethings, if you’re a bargain hound and your child is young enough not to be picky.

(Pro tip: Before you buy anything, join a Buy Nothing Facebook group. Not only might you find like-new or even brand-new items to gift, you could also put out an “ask” for birthday party supplies. I see that kind of thing being given all the time in my own Buy Nothing group.)

The winner of the Support the Reader Economy giveaway gets to choose the retailer, so perhaps that winner will choose Shell or Chevron, for gas to get to work before payday. Or, if you live in the right area, a Wawa card. (Man, I miss Wawa.)

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Support the reader economy: Giveaway #4.

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I hesitated to post another “Support the Reader Economy” giveaway so soon after my most recent giveaway, which was a $15 Starbucks gift card on June 20. Then I realized:

(a) That was several weeks ago (so easy to lose track of time during an Alaska summer), and also

(b) People are being slammed by inflation, so why not offer a little help right now instead of waiting?

In the grand scheme of things that help is rather small: A $25 gift card to the winner’s retailer of choice. On the other hand, it’s always fun to win things – and even though $25 is chump change these days, in some cases it could make a big difference.

For example:

You’re coming off a spell of unemployment and playing catch-up.

You’re in the middle of a spell of underemployment, and have more month than money.

You’re having one of those years where everything that can go wrong did go wrong, from major repair bills to high medical co-pays.

Will $25 fix any of those situations for good? Of course not. But it might provide gas to get to work, some Payless Shoe Source sneakers for your fast-growing youngest kid, or some milk and bananas to balance out this month’s food-bank offerings.

The giveaway was never meant to be a solution to a major problem. It’s more like a slice of serendipity, an e-hug from me to the winner to encourage them to keep fighting.

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Giveaway: $15 Starbucks gift card.

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It’s darned hot in the Lower 48 right now. Anyone up for a cold drink? I’m giving away a $15 Starbucks gift card.

What you use it for is up to you, of course. Maybe a mango dragonfruit lemonade, or a caramel ribbon crunch Frappucino, or a chocolate cream cold brew.

Those all sound like desserts to me, but hey, whatever floats your boat. And cools you down. It’s punishingly hot down in the States, and in Hawaii, so let me buy you a Starbucks beverage.

Maybe you’ll go for an iced Americano, an iced toasted vanilla oatmilk shaken espresso, an iced cinnamon dolce latte or an iced caramel macchiato.

Whew. Complicated! 

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Support the reader economy: Giveaway #3.

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It’s Friday the 13th, but maybe this will be your lucky day: Time for another giveaway in my “Support the Reader Economy” series. 

Longtime readers know I’ve been giving things away since I started this site* back in May 2010.  Often the giveaways are things like books, gift cards, fun stuff from the Financial Blogger Conference, or combos that I make up, such as the “Coffeehouse Cliche Giveaway” (a fancy notebook and a Starbucks gift card, so you can be one of those folks writing the Great American Novel in a coffeehouse.

More recently I’ve been focusing a lot more on giveaway prizes made in Alaska, in an effort to support our local economy. But with inflation nibbling (or gobbling) at people’s financial well-being, I decided to create the Support the Reader Economy giveaway series.

The prize is a $15 gift card of the winner’s choosing. That could be a physical or virtual card, depending on your preference.

Sure, $15 won’t do much. But sometimes it’s fun to have $15 to play with – or to use to put a few gallons of gas in the car until payday. 

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Giveaway: Alaska-made jewelry.

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I wanted to give away some more Alaska-made jewelry for Mother’s Day, but figured I had plenty of time. The other day I realized that the holiday is early this year: May 8. Yikes!

In order to allow a week for the giveaway to simmer, and then a few days to get the pieces mailed plus and a little time for those who don’t win to buy something else for Mom instead, I’m putting the giveaway up now.

Before I talk about the Alaska-made jewelry, though, I want to emphasize that this doesn’t have to be a Mother’s Day thing, for several reasons.

First, not everyone celebrates, because their moms are dead. Others have reasons not to want to give their moms the time of day, let alone a present. (It’s hard, but it happens.)

Finally, some people either believe in experiences rather than Stuff, or have been asked by their moms please not to send them any more Stuff. Clutter is a thing, especially as we age; we want to pare things down, not add to the problem. That’s why this does not have to be a Mother’s Day gift. Take your mom to lunch or gift her a massage, then use the jewelry as a gift for someone’s Confirmation, birthday or, heck, for next Christmas.

You could also choose to keep it, because why not give yourself a little somethin’ sparkly???

But back to the giveaway.

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