The Get Rich Slowly Writing Project: Share Your Story for a Chance to Win a Wii
Published on - October 14th, 2007 (by J.D. Roth) Get Rich Slowly turns eighteen this week! Eighteen months, that is.
While this blog is toddling around and learning to speak, I thought it might be fun to celebrate by giving something back to the readers. To that end, I’m holding a week of contests. I have over $600 in prizes to give away, including a Nintendo Wii.
- On Monday (Blog Action Day), I’ll be giving away a nature print from photographer (and GRS reader) Andrea Gingerich. Andrea’s work is amazing. Visit her site for another chance to win one of her prints.
- On Tuesday, I’ll be featuring a guest-post from Michael Mihalik, author of Debt is Slavery (reviewed here a couple months ago). I’ll give away two copies of his book.
- The folks at Intuit were kind enough to pass along three copies of Quicken Deluxe 2008. These are the prizes for Wednesday.
- On Thursday, I’ll be giving away a brand-new 1gb silver iPod Shuffle.
- To cap things off, next Friday I’ll be give away a Nintendo Wii bundle. The contest for the Wii actually begins today, however. Read on.
To enter the first four contests, you’ll need to contribute a substantive comment to a specific post on the day in question. (By substantive I mean a comment that adds to the conversation, not something like “I want to win the book!”) To have a chance at winning the Wii, you’ll need to join the first-ever Get Rich Slowly writing project: I want you to share your personal finance success story.
Have you escaped minimum wage? Have you paid off your debt? Did you drive a hard bargain at the car dealership? Have you given up credit? Is your mortgage paid off? Have you learned to cook at home? Write about your biggest financial achievement. Whatever it is, tell us your story. One lucky participant will be chosen at random to win a Nintendo Wii with Mario Party 8 and an extra controller.

There are two ways to share your story:
- If you have a blog, write an entry sharing your personal finance success story. Make it fun. Make it interesting. Make it inspirational. When you’ve finished, drop me a line with URL. While I’d be happy if you linked back to Get Rich Slowly, it’s not a requirement. Next Saturday, I’ll post links to all bloggers who shared stories.
- If you don’t have a blog, you may enter the contest in the Success Stories forum at the Get Rich Slowly message board. (To register, you’ll need to use the VIP code 0325.) While you’re there, be sure to join the discussions in the other forums.
You may enter only once per daily contest, and only until 1:00 a.m. Pacific Friday, October 19th. Sometime on Friday, I will randomly select one person to win the Nintendo Wii. At that time, I’ll also make drawings for the other prizes.
(If this group writing project is successful, there will be others in the future. I can’t afford to subsidize the prizes every time, so I’d be happy to hear offers from potential project sponsors.)
Contest Rules
You can find full contest rules here. Legal mumbo-jumbo makes my brain numb, so here’s the abridged version:
- No purchase is necessary to participate in these contests. Purchase will not improve your chance of winning.
- All winners must be 18 years of age or older.
- These contests are open to participants outside the U.S., but in all cases are void where prohibited by law.
- Winners will chosen at random from valid submissions.
- I am the sole arbiter of what constitutes a “valid submission”. If you’re participating in the spirit of the contest, your submission is probably valid. (In other words: blogspam and one-line “stories” are no way to enter this contest.)
- In order to win, I have to be able to contact you. If you participate, please use a valid e-mail address. I will never harvest your e-mail address for any nefarious purpose. Also, winners will need to supply a mailing address so I can ship their prize.
- There are no prize substitutions. The Wii is a North America-region Wii. If you win and you’re from Germany, for example, you are responsible for making the system work.
- All prizes are provided as-is. They’re new now, but Get Rich Slowly is not responsible for any problems you may have with them.
- Finally — and this is important — by participating in these contests, you agree to allow Get Rich Slowly to republish what you write, either on the blog or in other contexts.
These giveaways are being conducted in the spirit of fun. Please treat them as such. If things go smoothly, there will be other giveaways in the future!
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You said, “To have a chance at winning the Wii, you’ll need to join the first-ever Get Rich Slowly writing project.” But what if you’re not interested in the Wii, but just the other prizes? (I’m not much of a writer imo…)
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Ah — good question. To win the other prizes, you’ll simply need to leave a substantive comment on a designated post for the day in question. By substantive comment, I mean one that contributes to the conversation.
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Wow, I’ve been thinking about de-lurking, and contributing because I’ve found this blog so helpful. This contest is a great incentive. Thanks!
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Looks like a lot of fun! I don’t expect to win anything, but there are a few things I’d like and I’m a rabid commenter anyway.
Question about the Wii:
Is it ok if non-gamers enter this as well? Because in the spirit of debt repayment, I’d love to win a Wii and resell it. That’d make a nice contribution towards paying off the car. Is this within the spirit of the competition? If not, I won’t enter for the Wii.
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Is it ok if non-gamers enter this as well? Because in the spirit of debt repayment, I’d love to win a Wii and resell it.
Absolutely! I don’t care what the winner does with the Wii — I just want to give it away. In fact, I think your idea is kind of clever, and very much in keeping with the spirit of Get Rich Slowly.
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J.D., congratulations on the 18 month anniversary! I’m so happy that your blog has reached people all over the world. You’ve worked so hard to create a wonderful and informative site and you deserve all of the wonderful things that have come out of it so far and in the future!
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Very cool! I really want to win that Debt is Slavery book.
We have a Wii, and whomever wins that is going to just love it. So much fun!
Congrats on hitting the 18 month mark.
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JD, congrats on the continued success of your blog. This is a cool contest – and much unlike many other contests, entrants have to contribute something to the community. Great way to run it!
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[...] Come on Joe, I’m trying to win a Wii here, don’t bring up money [...]
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JD, looking forward to participating in your contest but have one question first…
“All winers must be 18 years of age or older.”
I thought all winers had to be at least 21 (legally).
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I just wanted to de-lurk myself after months of reading advice on your website. Thank you so much! I finally decided to delve myself into the vast PF community and make my own. Maybe now I’ll comment more. I also added you as a link.
-Emm
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I thought all winers had to be at least 21
Ah, the joys of proofreading.
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I also enjoy learning about frugality from this blog (though applying it in my situation is another challenge). Can I join the contest too?
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great contest JD!..was just over at the board reading the stories left.i shall return later today to leave mine as well.18 months is great,and i ,like the commenter above,have been a lurker until now.you have some very good advice,some i’ve tried ,some not.i do believe that if anyone is open for good advice,they can achieve far more than close minded people.would love to win the WII,i have a 15 year old that would love it .we have had to cut back on some spending due to a change in household.we are now raising our 2 &1/2 and 5 year old grandsons due to private reasons since feb. 2007 .so that would be sweet to win.i’ll also be linking back to ya..
thanks jd for a sweeeet contest and a great site as well…
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“You may enter only once, and only until 1:00 a.m. Pacific Friday, October 19th. Sometime on Friday, I will randomly select one person to win the Nintendo Wii.”
JD- When you say you can only enter once, do you mean once for the wii, or once across the board (ie if you enter for the wii, you can’t enter for the book)?
Does that make sense?
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[...] finance that makes cents Win a Nintendo Wii! Share your pesonal finance success story with the Get Rich Slowly writing project for your chance to win. « The Get Rich Slowly Writing Project: Share Your Story for a [...]
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Definitely going to have to make a post just for this project. Hope everything goes smoothly JD!
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I’m a long time reader, but this is probably my first comment. I love the blog and I read it nearly every day. A lot of the stuff I’ve read and gathered here (and other blogs like it), I’ve applied directly to my life and finances.
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My First Lesson in Financial Success: Be Assertive…
Reading Get Rich Slowly today & wanted to add my thoughts to J.D.'s requests for stories about financial success. My story is less about a specific success and more about a philosophy that has served me well, but I think……
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[...] finance that makes cents Win a Nintendo Wii! Share your pesonal finance success story with the Get Rich Slowly writing project for your chance to win. « ShopSmart: Five Eco-Friendly, Wallet-Friendly Sites | [...]
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I love your blog. It helped me turn my finances around (see my posting on the forum under Uzbek immigrant). For those people who are foreign to this society or don’t have a knowledgeable parent or older sibling this and similar blogs are invaluable. thank you.
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[...] Get Rich Slowly is having a contest to win a Nintendo Wii. To enter you must explain your biggest financial achievement or success story, and then send him a message about it. My frugal self won’t allow me to purchase a Wii, so I rely on various contests to try and win one. No luck so far though :/ [...]
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I’ve posted a blog for the Wii contest. Looking forward to reading all the great entries!
Thanks GRS
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As a small business owner, debt is something I know very well. I constantly am going up and down eating hot dogs, and then eating steak, and back and forth. I live off credit cards essentially for personal finances, but have been learning to turn that around (partly in thanks to this blog). Now I have multiple online high interest savings accounts that whenever I have spare money I drop it there to maximize the benefits and have developed a routine for credit card payments that keeps me at least 3x above the minimum payment. I’ve been a lurker for a couple weeks now, and I look forward to learning more tips for myself and my company as to how to live comfortably while having a good time. Thanks for the contest. I already have a WII, so besides selling it to help pay off debt (like others have already mentioned), that should be up for somebody else. I do love reading and music though
Thanks.
Matt
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[...] at Get Rich Slowly, JD is having a contest which is part of his group writing project which asks people to write their own success stories. Since I really haven’t gone into this [...]
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[...] away a free Nintendo Wii bundle to one lucky participant. The topic of Get Rich Slowly’s group writing project is: “Your Personal Finance Success [...]
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[...] finance that makes cents Win a Nintendo Wii! Share your pesonal finance success story with the Get Rich Slowly writing project for your chance to win. « Want to Save the Environment? Buy Less Stuff! | [...]
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Through hard work and dedication I have worked myself into a position where I no longer need to take on additional debt just to get by. And thanks to the postings I’ve read, I also managed to start eliminating debt.
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Hello JD, a co-worker mentioned that you had a contest on the site, so I had to check it out! I have been a lurker for a while now too, but you seem to have a way of getting people to come out of the shell! I honestly have used several of the methods you’ve mentioned on the site. My biggest being credit debt free finally! I had over 13k on credit cards as of June 2006 and have systematically paid them off over the past year, in good portion to the help of sites like this! You do a good service! Thanks!
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[...] in a Nintendo Wii? Get Rich Slowly is hooking up 1 lucky winner with a new system this week! He was also giving away prints from Andrea Gingerich a nature photographer, which [...]
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I am one of those paranoid types who does not like to give up control over my writing. So, since I don’t feel comfortable with my writing (esp. about personal material, such as my finances) potentially being reprinted somewhere in the future, I can’t participate in the actual contest.
But since I wrote the post before seeing that part of the “fine print,” I wanted to link to my post anyway. It still maintains the spirit of the project, and is about the topic you selected. Perhaps most important (to me at least) is the fact that the post is on my new personal finance blog!
Yay, I finally have a pf blog, rather than just writing my pf posts on my personal blog. Stop by and read my current “success story” (I’ve definitely got others, but this is the current financial one right now) here.
(If the link doesn’t work, there are only about three posts on my new blog right now, so the post should be very easy to find.)
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[...] wrote this story for the Get Rich Slowly Writing Project Contest. Make sure to visit this great blog! Posted by christianfinance Filed in Advice, [...]
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Where should I email? :blush: I seem to be missing the address there!
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[...] For instance, I WANT a Nintendo Wii, but if I’m patient, look around for a good deal (or a great contest), eventually I’ll find one, AND I’ll keep the electricity and internet bills paid! [...]
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[...] post was written as part of the first ever group writing project at Get Rich Slowly. There’s still time for you to participate! And be sure to check in with Get Rich Slowly [...]
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I hope it’s okay if I leave a link here? Here is my story: My Personal Finance Success Story
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Not a personal finance blog but here is my entry (I also don’t know where to email):
http://kathyandcalvin.com/personal-financing%3F-what%2526%2523039%3Bs-%3F
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[...] post is being done as part of the Get Rich Slowly Writing Project. Check out JD’s blog to see other people’s financial success stories, or feel free to [...]
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Thanks for such a great contest! Here is my link to my entry:
http://www.chicawithissues.com/?p=177
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Hi JD,
This sounds really neat. Thanks for sponsoring it. My paying-off-college story is over here:
http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2007/09/when-food-frugality-pays-off-see-ya.html
Thank you!
Kris
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[...] feel like we’re missing out. However, if we were to bring a system home from winning a contest, that’s a whole different [...]
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Sorry I don’t have a link for an entry. But to share my success, I basically am frugal by nature, so I enjoy reading GRS since I like to see others like myself & see ideas that I may not have already implemented.
Like today you item about subscriptions. I want to get rid of cable (my husband & children do not). I grew up with out cable & enjoyed reading because of it. Now that we have cable, I don’t get to read. I’m even more upset with our cable company as they used to give one month free cable if we paid a year in advance (which helped if they decided to increase fees) which they opted to do at least once a year. Is basic cable at $55 monthly worth it? TO keep peace in my family I guess.
Anyway my success story has been opening the eyes of others to your website. I have mentioned to my college students about your contest. I hope some of them will see it get some ideas to implement in their life & start moving to the GRS mentality.
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Thanks so much for this blog. It has inspired me to start reducing my debt. I feel like a new person. I shopped and cooked for the week to avoid impulse eating out. I really fear the feeling of deprivation, however I feel more control over my life. I have only been at this a short time and have a long way to go, so I am grateful for the kindred spirits and inspiration I can find over the internet.
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Tracking my spending is a big priority for me. Most of the personal finance blogs I’ve been reading recently have advocated going to an all cash model – for me, this results in my spending *more*. I do tend to think about big purchases for a while, and when I finally decide to make them, I’ll make them regardless of how I’m paying. If I use a debit card, I’m much more likely to think about what I’m spending money on, but mentally, I think of cash as being used for small, negligible purchases, so I don’t think on them. I am making a concerted effort to record every expense from now on out though.
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Since having a baby and adding a hefty daycare bill to the mix, I’ve really looked for ways to save money. One of my successes has been in using websites with tips or discussion forums on hot deals to save money on purchases. We recently had a “combo” birthday for my DS and brother. I was able to give my DS two huge Tonka trucks, a Nike basketball outfit, a children’s music CD, and a game for about $42 total. I gave my brother a schnazzy dress watch and a shirt for about $37. All from keeping my eyes out for great hot tips rather than last-minute desperation shopping!
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When my wife was pregnant, we decided she would stay home after our son was born. Cutting off one income was going to be tough. So we started depositing her pay directly into savings. The first month we had to take most of it back out. But the month before he was born we had worked our way to doing without. This made us not only “right size” our budget, but we saved a little money too!
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I haven’t ever played the Nintendo Wii. I wish to participate in the contest so I could gift it to my husband who has just been a great support in helping me with our baby. I am sure he would love it. Thanks.
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What a great contest! I posted our success story and linked up to you.
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I’ve been an avid lurker, subscribed to GRS on Bloglines for over a year. This year, my partner and I decided to move to a city with our son and start a new life. We decided that in order to save money and give Avery (our son) the best life possible, we would eat out less and opt-out of cable and telephone. We’ve been using the local library for everything from printing needs to getting information about where to go to college. We both quit smoking cigarettes (saving about $70 a month) and quit drinking alcohol (saving another $30/mo). By changing these habits, we’ve been able to put Avery in the best daycare in the city and live in a great, spacious duplex. We both work hard and I am going to college currently. I’m in my senior year majoring in Computer Information Systems. We want so badly to succeed but we just can’t seem to get ahead, we just scrape by. Avery has a wonderful life, but my partner and I struggle. As a side-sob-note, my partner’s iPod nano was stolen out of our car and we don’t have the funds to replace it. It was a gift in the first place. I appreciate all of the tips on this blog, including the comments! This is one that has stayed on my Bloglines even after purging it of “old” blogs. I just can’t bring myself to get rid of it!
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Hello again, J.D
I have written the post to participate in this contest. Please, check it out at http://balitourguide.blogspot.com/2007/10/challenge-to-be-frugal-tour-guide.html
And thank you very much.
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