BluFrog contest

Have you ever heard of BluFrog? Well it is a new "healthy" energy drink. And they are sponsoring a bunch of contests. The prizes include a gaming package, a New Years Eve trip to NYC, a trip to Lolapalloza in Chicago, a Richard Petty Racing Experience, and a trip to the X-Games in Aspen.

Hmmm, which prize would I like to win? A trip to Lolapalloza in Chicago would be my pick. Listening to tunes by the shores of Lake Michigan [one of my favorite lakes even if the surfing is not the greatest] sounds like the best prize of the bunch to me. But hey I'm just a beach bum, what do I know.

Afterwards I could cruise up to Michigan and visit the Michigan Beach Bum and hang out at the beach in Holland or South Haven. That guy is always up for a game of beach volleyball which I love. I would probably crash at his place for a week or so. Maybe give him a hand painting the "beach shack."

It is probably about a two to three hour drive from Chicago. So it is pretty close, comparatively. I haven't seen him since the spring break get-away to Myrtle Beach, SC. Good times.

Back on topic...You can enter by tweeting on Twitter, leaving a comment or writing a blog post.


I'm not an energy drink drinker so I've never tried BluFrog...just saying.

Happy 4th of July

Enjoy the holiday! I'm heading out to the beach for the day. I'll probably watch the fireworks on the beach before returning home.

I sure am enjoying the summer but it seems to be going to quick. I need to make an effort to spend more time in the ocean before fall comes and the water temperature drops.

That's the bad part about the 4th of July....a good hunk of the summer is gone when it rolls around.

Survey challenge wrap up

The final numbers for the head to head survey challenge have been tabulated. The two contenders are Opinion Outpost [OO] and My Survey. The results are:

Surveys offered to me:
Opinion Outpost: 39
My Survey: 5

Surveys I qualify for:
Opinion Outpost: 10
My Survey: 5

Dollar value of points earned:
Opinion Outpost: $15.00
My Survey: $0.90

Obviously Opinion Outpost has is a winner based on earnings and opportunities. The only complaint that I have with OO is the number of surveys that I didn't qualify for. I feel that they should be able to do a better job of pre-qualifying before offering a survey.

Survey Challenge Update 2009

As we are now have way through the month I thought it would be a good time to give an update to the challenge.

Surveys offered to me:
Opinion Outpost: 22
My Survey: 2

Surveys I qualify for:
Opinion Outpost: 6
My Survey: 2

Dollar value of points earned:
Opinion Outpost: $9.80
My Survey: $0.20

Obviously Opinion Outpost has a commanding lead. I really would be surprised if My Survey makes a comeback at this point but time will tell.

Paid Survey Challenge 2009

As noted in my previous post, today I begin my paid survey head to head challenge. The two contestants are Opinion Outpost and My Survey. I signed up for Opinion Outpost(OO) in April and I've already received a check for $20.00. I signed up for My Survey in May and have not had a payout yet.

The challenge will consist of tracking the number of surveys offered to me, the number of surveys I qualify to complete and the earnings for filling out surveys. The challenge will run through the end of June.

Disclaimer: The link for OO is an affiliate link so I will earn $1.00 for everyone who signs up and takes a survey. I would recommend OO even if I was not compensated for the recommendation.

Over 100 posts

Whoo Hooo!!! The previous post was my 100th blog post. I just realized it today. Quite the milestone.

Anyway, I have an idea for a head to head comparision for June. I've joined two survey sites and I'll do as many surveys as they will give me for the month of June. During the month I'll give periodic updates and then at the end of June I will declare a winner.

I use to do alot of these challenges and I think I will start doing them again.

Looking at expenses

Over the years I have occasionally done spot checks on my expenses. This is a prudent thing for everyone to do, especially beach bums. In the past I have made the decision to drop my newspaper service, to bundle my Internet-phone-cable, drop my cell phone service, and automate several recurring expenses in order to eliminate late fees.

This time I'm going to drop my home phone service. This one is scary as I don't have a personal cell phone. But I'll be saving close to $50.00 per month, which translates to almost $600.00 per year. So the question is can a beach bum, like myself, live with out a phone in this age of electronic communication? Time will tell.

I did purchase a MagicJack for $39.95 but it makes my Internet connection fail. I can use the voice mail aspect of MagicJack to let me know when people want to get a hold of me but I would have to email them to let them know I received their message.

My phoneless adventure will begin next week. Wish me luck.

Trying out another paid survey site

My first foray into getting paid to fill out offers resulted in my inbox being crushed with spam. The first website is not truly a paid survey site and I don't recommend it (cough) CashCrate (/cough).

This site (which I'll name after I decide if they are worth a plug or not) is a true paid survey site. So far I've been pretty happy with it. The number of surveys seems adequate and the points per survey are fair. I'm close to $20.00 so far and once I go over $20.00 I'll cash out. Once that happens I'll post my overall conclusions.

If I feel they deserve a plug I'll create an affiliate link that you can follow. I would earn $1.00 for each referral that completes a survey.

FYI: (cough)(/cough) is a SSHTML tag

YouData now offers a referral program

Yeah!!! Finally!!! Youdata allows members to refer others and offers compensation for it.

Quick refresher about YouData as I had a previous post about it. You signup [hopefully with one of my links] and fill out your MeFile and answer as many of the surveys as you feel comfortable with. You can then view targeted ads for money!!! You can even view targeted ads right from this blog by using the "adget" in the sidebar. Typically they pay about $0.05 per ad viewed. If you follow the associated link you will earn extra. A recent link was priced at $0.15. So $0.20 for about 20 seconds of my time. Not all bad. You do need a PayPay account to participate.

FYI: When using the "adget" you have the option to give me a tip. The tip is automatically set to 50%. If you do not wish to leave a tip [which is fine as I earn a tiny bit anyway] you will need to reset the tip meter to 100% going to you. I don't want anyone mad at me if they miss the tip meter setting. I did NOT setup the tip feature that way.

If you like to make a little cash here and there on the Internet this might fit into your endeavors. If so consider taking my referral link. Also if you are still reading, I will pay the first five referrals all of the money earned from their referral for one month to the PayPal account of their choice. It probably won't be much but in today's economy every little thing helps.

My new rewards card plan

I recently acquired a Marriott Rewards Credit Card [MRCC]. It offers a points based reward system that is tied into their Marriott Rewards Account. I've been a user of the regular rewards account for a number of years. My old job had me traveling more than I am currently so the reward points have not been growing very fast. I am hoping that the MRCC will turbo charge my rewards account.

My normal bill payment method had been using the billpayer service from my credit union. The rare exception was using my debit card to pay my cable bill or actually writing a check [how 20th century]. I've started switching some of my bills to my MRCC.

In order to keep my credit card bill from getting to outrageous I've setup a recurring payment on my billpayer account to automatically send about half of my monthly bill total to my MRCC. This will also keep me from getting late fees. As I add new bills into my little plan I calculate a new recurring payment and update the recurring payment.

So someday maybe my bills will help me take my dream trip.... a vacation in the south Pacific to do a little surfing.