<$Monday, January 21, 2008$>
Discount Blinds
| *Sponsored post* I can't stop myself from mentally dressing my hypothetical future house. As such, I waste a lot of spare time "window shopping" on the web for good decorating and furniture bargains. Even though I suspect our decorating style will be primarily "Second-hand Chic," at least for the first few years, it's still fun to dream. One thing I must have when we move is good window coverings. Ever since my cat tore down the mini blinds in my current apartment, I haven't bothered to replace them. Well, I did once, when I made curtains--she destroyed those, too. Cats are jerks. I think by now, though, she's old enough and fat enough that we can safely hang blinds in our hypothetical future house. Although they're a bit pricier than the mini blinds, I really like the look of these basswood wood blinds. If I were buying them today, I'd get 25% off the regular price, and they would actually be pretty affordable. I also like the fact that Select Blinds has donated products to Extreme Home Makeover; sure, it's good for them in the way of exposure and publicity, but it also goes to a good cause, and I like to support businesses that give generously to those in need. Labels: charity, disclosure, house-hunt, PPP, shopping |
<$Thursday, January 17, 2008$>
Blog Review: Conscious Spending
| I discovered Conscious Spending yesterday through one of my blog networks. I like its focus on eco-friendly shopping and businesses that support good causes. There are a lot of ideas and resources here geared toward creating responsible consumers. Of course, I'm trying to get away from the consumer mind-set, and some of the things linked here don't fit my meager budget--like these reusable shopping bags that are to-die-for and I want one so badly--but overall, this blog is about making wise spending decisions, and isn't that what frugality is all about? Labels: blog-recs, charity, frugality, green, healthy living, spending |
<$Thursday, November 1, 2007$>
"A Click a Day Saves a Life"
| I first saw this on Neil Gaiman's Blog, and I figured if he was willing to post it, it's probably on the up and up: Project Download is a project set up by woman suffering from two rare and painful neurological disorders. Her condition has left her unable to work, and her in-between status (too "well-off" to qualify for Medicaid while still too low-income to afford health insurance) has left her unable to receive the brain surgeries she needs to prolong her life. In an attempt to raise the funds for her surgery, she signed up for a rewards program with MegaUpload which promises a payout of $10,000 if/when she reaches 5 million downloads of a single document. As such, she's simply looking for folks to download her file and rack up her points. I did it, and all it is is a short .txt document explaining all of this in further detail along with a note of thanks. No viruses, pop-ups or anything hinky, and the download only took seconds. The caveat is that only downloads each day from unique IP addresses count toward her points, and multiple downloads from the same IP on the same day could disqualify her, so there can be no well-intentioned cheating. There's also a Paypal link at the site if you'd like to help her out with a donation, but all she's really asking for is about a minute of your time. Labels: charity |