Announcements

What's Up with Google/Feedburner?

by

Is anyone else’s Feedburner stats messed up?  It looks like other blogs are having their stats reported correctly but mine are way off.   Last week my subscribers went from 257 to 199 overnight and then up to 292 the next day.  This week they’ve gone from 278 to 174 in two days.  I don’t think I’ve done anything to alienate the readers so much that they would unsubscribe in such large numbers. When I go to Feedburner my number of visits isn’t being recorded at all.  I suppose it is something to do with Google absorbing Feedburner and the numbers will eventually be accurate again.  The numbers aren’t really that important but it stil annoys me.

I wish Google didn’t have so much control over everything.  They stripped me of my Page Rank last year and it doesn’t look like they’re ever going to restore it.  I resisted putting Adsense on here for a long time but I’m sure that I can use the revenue more than Google.  I’m trying affilliate links instead of Adsense this month but they’re way behind what I made from Adsense.  I’ll probably put Adsense back next month.  If Google is going to annoy me I might as well make some money from them.

The Frugal Duchess of South Beach Book Giveaway

by


Fellow Frugal Blog Network member Sharon Harvey Rosenberg a.k.a. The Frugal Duchess has written a book titled The Frugal Duchess of South Beach: How to Live Well and Save Money…Anywhere!. She is having an online book tour to promote the book and I’m hosting the tour this week.  As part of the promotion I’ll be giving away a copy of her book.  Just leave a comment on this post to enter and I will choose a winner at random on Friday.

I don’t want to list a bunch of rules but please enter just once.  Also since I have to pay shipping costs I’m limiting the contest to those with a US address unless you’re willing to pay the mailing costs.  Any other rules will be at my discretion.  Thanks.

Charity Drive Results

by

The charity drive didn’t go very well. I’ll have to figure out a way to better promote it and get more participation the next time I do this. I’d be glad to hear any suggestions you might have. I decided to go ahead and donate my max of $200 even though the actions taken didn’t come anywhere near that amount. I was hoping to raise even more money to donate but this is what I can afford right now.

I Won Free Mcd’s for a Year Again

by

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you might recall that last year I won free extra value meals for a year (1 a week) as part of a McDonald’s grand opening promotion. This morning a McDonald’s close to my GF’s house had a similar promotion and we had to take advantage of it. This grand opening was much more crowded than the last one but we still easily were in the first 75 walk-in customers and received our free extra value meals for a year. My GF already informed me that this won’t count as our weekly date meal but it is still a good deal. With the free McD’s I won before I’ll now have two free extra value meals a week during August and September. The drawback to this is that I want to lose weight and eating at McDonald’s doesn’t help that. I’m going to try to make slightly healthier choices but most of what I like at McD’s isn’t healthy.

Quitting My Job

by

After thinking it over this weekend I’ve decided to quit my job.  This isn’t just because I was robbed although being robbed certainly was a major factor.  The increasing amount I’m spending on gas and the fact that my car is on its last legs were also contributing factors.  I’m planning to move farther away from my job when my lease is over at the end of September.  That would also make it less practical to keep my job.

I haven’t told my boss yet, I’m going to tell him when I work tonight.  Quitting this job shouldn’t be a problem for me financially.  I have some savings beyond my $1000 emergency fund and some online income to help pay bills as well.  I’ll be receiving financial aid next month for school.  I don’t want to spend any of this money on living expenses but it is available for that if needed. I was planning to only work two days a week once school started so I won’t have to replace too much income.  Maybe not having a job will give me the motivation to kick my online earnings into high gear.