Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Money for College, BOGG, DSPS, EOPS and Other Resources


Please help me send my little one, Alixia, to College at no cost to you. When you use this link, http://www.upromise.com/guest/2396097749 they are supposed to credit her account. Once you try mine I highly recommend that you sign up as well for yourself so that if you have any friends or relatives that could use some free money for college you could also earn for them. So far I have already earned over $190 by signing up for this program. I have not bought anything special, just typed in my grocery rewards card numbers and they credit my account when I buy products that I use everyday. Upromise seems to be legitimate and has been around for quite a while at this time.
Another way to pay for college fees that a lot of students don't realize, if you are attending a California Community College is the Board of Governor's Grant, commonly referred to as a BOGG. I work at a community college and see that a lot of students don't even realize that this opportunity exist. There are several ways to qualify for the BOGG and lots of students do. The easiest way to find out about it is to go the web site for your local community college and go to their financial aid office page. They should have a link where you can print out more information and the application. It usually is composed of answering a few simple questions and providing proof of income. Here is a link for the BOGG for California residents: http://www.cccapply.org/BOG_Waiver/
Finally, remember that there are several other programs in California Community Colleges that help financially and with appropriate services. These special programs that you may be eligible for include, Disabled Students Services & Programs(DSPS) here is a link to the DSPS program at Santa Barbara City College which discusses the eligibility criteria and services offered: http://www.sbcc.edu/dsps/, Extended Opportunities Programs & Services(EOPS) here is a link to the EOPS program at Chaffey College which discusses the eligibility criteria and services offered: http://www.chaffey.edu/eops/, and several other programs are available if you simply do a search on support services.
If you want to attend college it is possible, you are even in a better place usually with a lower income and a higher need level. Anyone who wants to go to college can. It is only a little research and maybe a lot of paperwork that may stand in your way. When deciding to take out loans I would also recommend that you do you research. Most students that I see really don't need loans but they see this money as being free, even though the long term costs can be prohibitive. Instead I would encourage you to look into scholarships and other funding sources such as the ones discussed here. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what is out there in terms of financial support. Look in on future blogs to find out more tips for financial help with college.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

FREE Food at T.G.I. Fridays

The first great item that I love is for those of you who have a T.G.I. Friday's restaurant near you. Don't forget that if you travel, they can often be found in larger metropolitan areas as well. Sign up for their Give Me More Stripes program. When you sign up they will give you a free appetizer. Did I say FREE, yes free. They are also always sending me emails for other freebies and tons of 2 for 1 offers.

Even though there is no T.G.I. Friday's by me, I decided to sign up for when I travel. I love to be able to travel on a budget, so FREE is definitely in my vocabulary for eating out. To activate this offer just go to their home page at http://www.tgifridays.com, then click on the link near the bottom of the page that says SIGN UP NOW.

They even have some other great promos going as well right now, it shows appetizers 1 cent when you purchase any beverage in the bar and $1 entree when you buy another, make sure to see their site for these promotional details. All from signing up for this free offer by April 30th. Also make sure that everytime you go in to eat that you show your loyalty card to earn more freebies and discounts from them. Let me know how successful you are with this promotion and if you want more like this. Vote in the poll to the right.

Welcome to a No Nonsense Approach to Living Better and to Having More Wealth

Suze Orman, my daughter, and myself
at a confernece in Anaheim, CA

I am starting this blog to share with you how to make some extra money from the web. As long as the Internet has had opportunities to make money from it I have. Contests, free money, freebies from manufactures, and anything in between has come my way from this hobby. Years back I even made over $3,000 from EBay one summer month selling items from around the house. Back then their was no Pay Pal or any other conveniences, so that was a huge deal.

One of my biggest monetary wins from the Internet was when I won a $10,000.00 scholarship for taking about twenty minutes to fill out an application for a new book store who was offering scholarships. After filling out the application I totally forgot about it and one day came home from work to find an email telling me that I won the $10,000.00 scholarship. All from just filling out a twenty minute application. Other interesting prizes that I have won include going to the announcements of the Grammies where I got to socialize in the Green room with many of the music industries giants. Although I did not know many of them, they were all kind. Some other prizes over the years that I have won include, a computer, a vacuum, a case of salsa and tortilla chips, too many hats and t-shirts to count, cash, a kids pinball machine and bubble package, a Sony PlayStation 1 & 2, and too many other things to list.

Besides these items, I am also the shopping queen. My friends all know that if they need to purchase something, they should first check with me. I constantly save tons of money at the grocery store and will be sharing those tricks with you as well. Besides shopping for items I also get tons of trial products. Products where manufactures want you to try them out and give them feedback. If you like the product then they also have you help them by sharing the information with your friends and family. Sometimes they just want your opinion and they pay you for it. Dollar bills in the mail have come many times to my house for just answering a few questions.

Several sites also will pay you to click and shop through them or to do searches with them. I will be exploring the legitimate sites and telling you what to steer clear from. One that used to be very lucrative, that is no longer around was the Beans site. There are a few promising sites that I will provide links to that are along the same lines...look for these soon.

Finally, practical government programs will be explored and I will let you in on some of the ins and outs for these sites. I went personally from living comfortably on less then $600 month to making a very decent income and living in a bay front house, mostly with the help of governmental programs. Please feel free to comment and ask questions if you have any. Plus make sure to tell all your friends and colleagues about this blog so that you can share the wealth.