The Amazing True Story of the $500 Gift Card

There are a couple of blogs I started reading when I got into the couponing thing. One of them, Life as Mom, has a great Frugal Fridays feature I always enjoy. Back in July, one of the links in that feature took me to Nicole's Nickles, and I began reading about her experience with online offers.

If you're even a little bit interested in doing an online offer or a $500 gift card or some other prize, you MUST read up first. Start with these:

http://www.nicolesnickels.net/2009/03/infamous-3634-wii-and-wii-fit.html
http://www.nicolesnickels.net/2009/04/more-online-offers.html
http://www.nicolesnickels.net/2009/06/online-offers.html
http://moneysavingmethodsonlineoffers.blogspot.com/

In addition to those posts, I read every comment and FAQ I could get my hands on, and then I took the plunge.

On July 26, I created a new GMail address, sat down with my spreadsheet, and took about 2 hours to go through and complete my offers. I followed every rule -- copied and pasted all terms of service into a monster document, printed screenshots, whatever, and I carefully noted all cancellation dates.

The next 10 days were hard. My silver offers approved the next morning. Gold came a few days later. And then, right at the 10-day mark, my platinums approved. I printed, filled out, and mailed my paperwork.

At that point, Mr. WG became suspicious. A W9? What the heck for? Well, I'm a freelancer, and I fill them out all the time for my clients. It's reportable income.

I mailed my paperwork with delivery confirmation. I tracked it online. When I saw that it had arrived at the "pick up point," I waited, and two weeks later I emailed to ask them why my status hadn't changed. I got an email back telling me that they needed additional information -- they claimed my WhitePages.com info didn't match up with my claimed info, and I needed to send a copy of my driver's license to prove I live at my address.

I faxed over the requested information with a detailed letter within an hour. By then, Mr. WG was in agony, convinced my identity was being stolen.

Two days later, my status online was updated to reflect that my gift had been processed and would be sent "within 6 to 8 weeks." And then, a week or so ago, FedEx dropped off my $500 gift card.

And that is the story.

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1. At Back-to-School night at the Jewish Day School, I stopped by a bulletin board where the kindergarten class has posted projects. Each had written his or her name on the paper. "Wow," I said to my best friend, whose son's work was featured. "Look how well he wrote his name! That's amazing!"

"They all did that," she said. "They're in kindergarten."

"Great!" I said brightly. "I'll just go cry myself to sleep!" I felt awful after I said that, because, well, just BECAUSE, but I really do forget that this is the class D. should be in and that the things the rest of the kids are doing are NORMAL.


2. My husband ordered new cell phones, because he likes new things. I, however, am old and crotchety and don't like to learn new technology. So I hated the new phone he got me, and I REALLY hated the fact that in ordering new lines of service he managed to stick us with new numbers that we cannot change to our old numbers. Wireless number portability? Not so much, when you stick with the same company you've been with for nearly four years but insist on ordering your phone through a deal only offered to new customers. Thanks, babe. But, by whining and complaining, I got my husband to buy me a new Blackberry Pearl to replace my old Blackberry Pearl. So, you know, it's all good.

3. I think D. hates the new speech therapist. I'm also not sure how much I like her. I'll keep you posted.

4. It is 11:48 on Friday morning, and I have made exactly NOTHING for shabbat. Granted, we're eating lunch out tomorrow, but still. NOTHING.

5. You know how you see those offers online where it says, "Get a Free [Whatever] -- Participation Required."? Well, I did one, for a free $500 Visa Gift Card AND a Michael Jackson King of Pop t-shirt. (The gift card was really just the bonus, of course.) Anyway, it totally worked. My kids stole the shirt, but the girt card is tucked into my wallet, where it will live as Grocery Budget Money for a few weeks.

6. I am SO not looking forward to Yom Kippur.

Is the world crazy, or am I?

You be the judge.

1. I emailed the school principal requesting a meeting to discuss S. and detailed my concerns. I received this reply:

I'd like to invite all teachers, along with you and me, together to discuss [S]'s needs. This way we can all share ideas and implement a few. And, we will all be on the same page. It will be tricky to get everyone together, but with notice, I think it can be done..probably around lunch time. I will email her teachers to inform them we all want to meet and find the time that works best for them. Once I do that, do you think you can make yourself available for that time?

I agreed to be available and received:

ok, I just emailed the teachers so will hopefully have some information about when we can meet by tomorrow afternoon.

Several days passed. I wrote to ask for an update. I received:

My sincere apologies because I scheduled a time to meet with [S]'s General Studies teachers for yesterday at 12:15 but then I had to cancel and rescheduled for today at 12:15. I was going to share the information you gave me, forgetting that you would like to attend the meeting. I've talked to [the teachers] and we can still meet today at 12:15 if that is good for you, but if not, we can meet tomorrow at 12:15. Which day would you prefer?

Who's crazy?

2. I email the principal the following:

I am interested in several of your new endeavors, specifically, the parent book club (possibly, depending on what exactly it entails), the Bluebonnet program, the spelling bee, and the gardens. I am NOT volunteering to get all of these off the ground, but I am happy to be involved in all of them. Can you tell me what's involved in the Bluebonnet program? And what are the plans for the parent book club? Fiction, nonfiction, Judaica, what? Thanks!

I receive the following reply, sent to me and two other parents:

Dear Ladies,
Thank you for your kind offer to volunteer to make this program a success! Our librarian and I would like to meet with you this Wednesday, the 16th at 8:00 for about 30 minutes in the library. I look forward to working with y’all. : )

Who's crazy this time?

3. The phone rings at 10 past 9 am, also known as ten minutes after the housekeeper should arrive. It is her son, speaking in barely intelligible English. Something about his mother being late. How late? He doesn't know. Two hours later, I am at Target with the baby when the daughter -- who is 12 -- calls with slightly better English. Her mom is sick and can't come today. Ten minutes later, Mr. WG calls to tell me the daughter -- who is TWELVE -- showed up at our house to clean and care for my children for the day. Her mom DROPPED HER OFF and left. He neglected to mention that she came with her 3-year-old brother in tow.

Seriously, who's crazy here?

Variously.

1. On Sunday night, the new housekeeper called to ask if we wanted her to work on Monday. Um, yes? OK. She came with her daughter. At one point, we were talking with them, Mr. WG and I, and Mr. WG asked if they had ever been to San Antonio. No. Why not? "Because we don't have time and money," the daughter said. She did not add, "you moron." Mr. WG followed up with, "How about Galveston?" "Yes," said the daughter. "We've been to Galveston. We were going to go today, but..." and the end of THAT sentence of course is "but you made my mother come to work, you bastard." Or, "Mr. and Mrs. WG SUCK and are going STRAIGHT TO HELL." Either one works, really.

2. D. has a friend in school. Desperate mother that I am, I gave my name, phone number, cell phone number, and email address to his mother. Are you surprised that I haven't heard from her?

3. Save me from myself. I am reasonably certain that people behind me in line at the grocery store do not care about Baby A's microtia. And yet, when they say things like, "Oh, what a cute baby!" I INVARIABLY respond with, "Yes, and his ear? It's going to be fine. It's called microtia, and there's surgery, but not now. When he's older. He has no external ear canal." And the people slowly back away, and I STILL KEEP TALKING.

4. We canceled cable yesterday. I ordered a Netflix plan for $13.99/month, which lets us have 2 DVDs at a time, plus access to their full library of on-demand movies and TV shows. I also used some Amazon gift certificates earned via Swagbucks to buy a Roku, which lets us watch all that Netflix content right on the TV. Cable was costing us about $50/month, so I'm pretty psyched.

5. I am slowly getting my life back under control. Slowly, slowly, but I am almost on a regular working schedule. Just in time for the Jewish holidays!