Support the reader economy: Giveaway #8.

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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Support the reader economy: Giveaway #6.

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.

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.

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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Support the reader economy: Giveaway #3.

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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Support the reader economy: Giveaway #2.

My new “Support the Reader Economy” giveaway series is back! For an explanation of why I’m doing this, and why I think it’s important, see the original post.

This time – and probably every time – the support the reader economy giveaway will be a $15 gift card of the winner’s choice. Given how startlingly fast the price of gasoline has jumped, I’m wondering how many of you would choose a gas gift card. Just think: It would probably cover at least two gallons!

You could also request a gift card for something else you need (food, drugstore stuff, whatever) and divert the $15 you saved to the fill-’er-up fund. Again: It’s not much, and I’m not suggesting that $15 will solve anyone’s problems, but it can’t hurt.

And as a reminder, that $15 could be for:

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Support the reader economy: A giveaway series.

For some time now, my giveaway scheme has been “support the local economy.” As in, giving away stuff made in Alaska or produced by Alaskans.

While one or two books, pieces of jewelry, soaps or chocolates won’t exactly enrich the local company, it helps publicize what we do up here. Someone who wins (or doesn’t win) might say, “I want more of that” or “I want to buy that as a gift for someone.” (And it’s been confirmed that this has happened.)

Lately, I’ve been very concerned about the effect inflation is having on people living on tight margins. It doesn’t take much to send the whole house of cards tumbling. I learned this from painful personal experience.

Inflation also injures those who were middle-class stable until prices went sky-high. They’ll probably be all right, but will have to retool their budgets and make some tough decisions (especially as regards what they can no longer afford to do for their children).

Thus I’ve decided to do a “support the reader economy” giveaway series. This week it’ll be a $15 Walmart gift card, because that’s what I have on hand; if Walmart isn’t their brand, I would be willing to switch out a different kind of card. In subsequent weeks, the card will be whatever the winner wants.

I’m not foolish enough to think these modest prizes will fix someone’s money woes all better. Instead, I’m thinking of it more as a small boost or a special treat.

Then again, even a “small” boost might have a big impact.

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