Contest: Loosest Slots In Town
…Heh.
Not sure you can donate to the 2009 Tomato Nation/Donors Choose fund drive? I understand; money’s pretty tight these days.
But one of the awesome things about Donors Choose is that you don’t have to make a big donation to make a big difference. In honor of today’s number theme, I made a little list of 7 things you could do to shake a few bucks loose (if you don’t do these things already):
1. re-route your Starbucks/Coffee Bean/Dunkin budget for one week (I probably spend $2/day minimum on third-party coffee), or brown-bag lunch
2. pause your Netflix subscription for a month, or drop to the next cheapest membership (for me, $7 for the month; hey, topical!)
3. Hoover your couch, floor, bureau top, car, and pockets for change and take it to the bank; it’s also a rad activity for kids, who usually like to help and definitely rock at spotting shiny stuff (my coin jar usually totals $25-ish)
4. select a few DVDs with obvious dust on them, and sell them on eBay or Half.com
5. see a matinee ($4 savings here in the 718) and smuggle in your own concessions ($3 just on the Diet Coke)
6. do something yourself (car wash, $11; pedicure, $15 + tip) that you usually pay for
7. drink at home for one night ($5 pints x 3 + tip = $18; calamari I wouldn’t have wanted if it weren’t on the menu, $9; car fare, $7)
All relatively painless; most quite temporary. Again, a lot of you may do, or have thought of, these things already, but I always have a lot more “room” in my budget than I realize when I look at my spending.
Another thing you can do: when we launch on October 1, tell 7 friends about the contest and Donors Choose — acquaintances, co-workers, in-laws, teachers at your old school or your child’s school. Spread the word; get more people involved and excited. Especially if one of those people is Donald Trump, and he’s drunk and waving a checkbook.
(…7b. invite Donald Trump over for a yooge evening of absinthe and philanthropy)
Tags: contests Donald Trump got absinthe? TN runs on Dunkin
I love this, and am SO excited for next week.
Additionally, I’m totally jealous your pedis only cost $15. I think I’m getting majorly fleeced.
“(…7b. invite Donald Trump over for a yooge evening of absinthe and philanthropy)”…. LMAO. :D
I’m so excited and impatient – I want to start NOW. I know, I know, it’s only a week.
I’m sitting on my hands to prevent myself from starting early.
I’m with trash- I can’t wait to start hitting refresh every 5 seconds, watching the goals being hit left and right. Come on 10/1!
What’s the number? I want to know the number!
I’m thinking of having a TN:DC Contest party where I provide snacks and drinks and guests donate the difference of what the same night out would have cost them.
@Karen: That is a GREAT idea, and I hope other readers steal it.
In fact…*I* may steal it, and schedule an NYC/Brooklyn meet-up of some sort. Hang out, meet fellow readers, drink some beer (or Sprite), raise some money. Eh? EHHHHHH?
Ms. Bunting,
I would cordially accept your invitation and bring my visa card to make an on-the-spot donation.
Yours sincerely etc.
:D
@Karen: BRILLIANT.
@Sarah: What Cij said. I’ve got a DC gift card that’s been burning a whole in my email inbox, dying to be spent.
@Karen – was that DC as in Donor’s Choose, or District of Columbia? Because if you’re organizing a District get-together-donate-dammit party, I am so there.
If you’re not near the district, though, I am sad panda.
I am totally naming my band Absinthe Philanthropy.
…that, or Sad Panda. And we will write songs about first graders getting excited about Shakespeare.
Dammit, I wanna live in New York. Anybody down for a southwest Florida DC partay?
“Third-party coffee” is brilliant.
Also, in honor of the theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GksEo8EDXiE
Can’t wait!!!!
Houston party? Anyone?
Man, imagining The Donald on absinthian hallucinations is simply too scary to do.
attica – the hair alone, huh? Ooh-how do I make that my Halloween costume? :-)
So are we supposed to be taking all these gambling pictures as hints for a theme? Perhaps the Tomato Costume will be visiting Vegas this year or something?