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For your enjoyment and education, we request goodies from manufacturers and update you on our search. We seek interesting promotional items, foodstuffs, and household items which strike us as innovative, unique, timely or quality improvements on a classic theme.
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More Goodies Articles
Super Bowl XL, check received for free soda and chips.
∗Now for Super Bowl XL, more free soda and chips!
∗Lots of Goodies at the Green Festival in DC this Weekend
∗Make some Watermelon Gazpacho!
∗Frugality for Small Family Reunions
* All Articles . . .
Shop at Amazon.com
Value: $20 (I will be paid for this review)
Significance: 1/5
Via: ReviewMe.com
Last weekend I received an invitation to review the The Scholarship Blog via ReviewMe.com landed in my email box. My first though was that the site probably was a hack job for a website created to drive ad clicks. I was surprised to find that the site had quality written content and thus accepted the invitation to do a paid review of the site.
The Scholarship Blog is site is described as a “Blog about scholarships and obtaining financial aid for college.” So I expected a blog about federal grants and money for school. Although The Scholarship Blog does highlight these issues, it also talks about more scholarly issues such as high school drop out rates for Latinos and diversity at colleges as Affirmative Auction laws are challenged.
The posts are well written and just long enough for you to get into. Each article is based on an interview or a news story which the author, Daniel Kovach, encountered. They contain one or more quotes from that source, some background on the issue, and after a presentation of the facts en with either the Daniels opinion on the issue or a question. He does a good job of posting regularly. Recent posts generally came every other day.
While preparing to preview the site I discovered that I could not print out his posts without changing the printer to landscape. This is not a fault unique to The Scholarship Blog but rather something we all should keep in mind, especially if we are writing longer articles which readers may like to delay reading.
I enjoyed the site more than I expected since it talked about scholarly issues in addition to scholarships. However I have to wonder weather it will (or has) be able to build a repeat readership. The content is interested but seems to be of limited broad interest outside of those in the education industry. However, Daniel does offer a seven scholarships himself which surely drives traffic. There was a scholarship for bloggers and one for Library and Information Science.
That being said Daniel has created a blog focusing on scholarly issues in addition to scholarship information. His content is worth a read and hopefully he will be able to find a core audience which will reward him for his hard work on The Scholarship Blog.
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Received via Mail in Rebate
Value: $10
Significance: 3/5
This month the current Super Bowl XL free after rebate Pepsi/Frito Lay rebate check arrived. For the second year in a row I’ve received a lot of junk food for free. Last year the Super Bowl XXXIX netted me a cool collectable rebate check, that was promptly sent off to the bank. This year I’m preparing to do the same.
I particular enjoy food stuff and household rebates because generally they are no hassle. The company providing the rebate really wants you to try the product and get your money. These days we rarely buy tooth paste thanks to Rite Aid’s Single Check Rebates and the various free after rebate offers in the Sunday paper.
The cool twist with this offer is that the check actually looks good. The company has to be saving the cost of printing due to people hanging onto the check because it looks so good. It could be a collectable. However, I prefer cash to collecting, so its going to the bank in the morning.
Contact information for this expired offer is as follows:
SCORE $10 OFFER
P.O. Box 8138
Young America, MN 55551-8138There is a phone number to call for info: 1-800-257-9300
Comment [1]
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Today’s post is not about the goodies that I’ve received, but rather a service that allows me to provide goodies to others in the form of business investments.
Over the past 10 years or so, international charities and development organizations have developed an appreciation for micro loans in the developing world. In depth articles in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and stories on National Public Radio have educated me on the subject for years. Each time I’m reminded of this type of direct investment, I think it sounds like a good business to be in, both for profit and for humanitarian reasons.
The basic concept is that you can empower a community by providing small loans to entrepreneurs who do not have traditional access to credit. The concept of micro loans and micro finance is most commonly associated with the developing world. There investments viewed as extremely small in the developed world can positively affect a large number of people. The loans traditionally are very small, a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. Yet an entire community can benefit and improve as the entrepreneur becomes self-sufficent.
This type of loan is most often provided by charities or development organizations and a small number of local commercial lending organizations. Because of this, someone such as myself could not directly support such programs. Even though I’ve felt that this is a business I would like to help with, short of getting a job with a group providing such services, I could not be involved.
That changed last year as I became aware of an organization – Kiva – that facilitated direct investment of this type. Kiva was founded to let you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. When I initially signed up to become a member there were not businesses in need. But there were lots of businesses that had already raised their needed funds.
Kiva doesn’t provide the standard information that a loan broker would require to fund a loan, but rather a profile of the business, a photo, and a blog like area where you can track the status of the business once funds are raised.
The loans that you make via Kiva are more like a charitable gift, expect you get your money back with no interest once the business owner pays back the loan. Any interest paid by the business goes to Kiva to fund their operations. To make a loan you need to find via the website a business in need, then you fund your loan via Paypal.
Once a business pays off your loan, you get the money back in the form of a Kiva credit. This credit can be sent back to you Paypal account, donated to Kiva (US tax deductibility pending) or re-loaned to another business. If a business defaults on your loan it is converted to a donation to Kiva (US tax deductibility pending).
This year my longtime desire to participate in micro lending was realized when Kiva posted many new business opportunities. I’ve since be able to loan small amounts to businesses in Gaza, Bulgaria, Senegal, and Honduras. It’s quite gratifying to be able to make small loans, which are bundled up into slightly larger loans, to help an entrepreneur in a place where a small amount of money makes a large difference.
So please, if you have any interest in help others, particularly small business owners or entrepreneurs in the developing world take a look at Kiva.org.
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Sent to you via email
Value: priceless
Significance: 4/5
Here is a goodie from me for all of you who passed up on a writely beta account. Now that Google purchased the company you probably want an account to look at the product. However, writely sign ups are closed until they move writely to the Google system.
Luckily there is a backdoor right now – an existing user can share a project with you and you can create a new account.
So here is the deal, if you want an writely account just post a comment with your email address in the comment form – not in the comment body. Feel free to tell me why you want an account. I’ll invite you to work on a shared page and you will get an account.
If you can not post a comment that indicates this offer is over or I can no longer invite new users.
Comment [62]
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Sent via Mail Rebate
Value: $10
Significance: 3/5
In May I featured the Super Bowl XXXIX check which I received as part of a promotion where you buy three bags of Lays potato chips and three 12-packs of Pepsi soda, then receive a check rendering them free after rebate. Well it is back this year, except for not all the stores have it priced at $10, so its not quite free after rebate everywhere.
Of all the stores in our area Giant Foods had the best deal, four sodas, three lays, for $15 with a instant card discount of $10 = free after rebate. CVS had a similar offer on three sodas but the $5 was in Extra Care Bucks which requires you to spend them at CVS to get a the deal. Otherwise most of the other stores have the package priced at $15, so you would end up paying $5 for the package.
After pricing all of the local stores via their weekend circulars, this afternoon I went to our local Giant Foods to pick up not thee 12 packs of soda, but 4. Their deal required a purchase of four sodas, which allowed me to purchase one non-Pepsi brand – Schweppes Ginger Ale. On these types of offers I always want to be very careful and only buy Pepsi Products, rather than Pepsi plus Pepsi distributed products. So it was an ok bonus to be able to buy another brand as part of the promotion.
Otherwise I’m looking forward to this year’s check. Super Bowl XL seems to be a strong brand and should make for a nice logo on the check. But as I did last year, it will be in a deposit envelop quickly, because the point it to get junk food for free…
Comment [2]
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