From the wonderful discount gift card website Gift Card Granny who partners with eBay.com, Plastic Jungle and GiftCards.com, I am giving away:

TWO Best Buy Gift Cards for $25 each

and

TWO Kohl’s Gift Cards for $25 each

Rules

• You can only enter to win ONE of the gift cards (be fair and share!)
• It is only for U.S. residents (sorry, I got shafted too…)
• Contest ends April 16th 2010 at midnight EST.

How to win

Subscribe to my RSS Feed: (One Entry)

RSS Feed link here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FabulouslyBrokeInTheCity

You can use Google Reader (www.google.com/reader) if you are looking for something (fairly) easy to use, web-based and quick.

If you are already subscribed, leave me a comment and let me know.

Blog about it on your site (One Entry)

Tell your readers all about it!

Just link back to this post and leave me a comment with the link to your blog post so I can verify it.

Follow me on Twitter & Tweet about it (Two Entries)

Follow me on Twitter @brokeinthecity and tweet about it.

@brokeinthecity is giving away one of four $25 gift cards to either Best Buy or Kohls –> http://bit.ly/bH3H2A

Please tweet only once. Not twice.

The Keg Celebration

I’m taking BF out to The Keg for lunch today (apparently the food is quite good there), to celebrate my new contract.

I told him he could even order a $3.00 iced tea (inside joke — read “The Cheap Opportunist“)!

I guess this can also be our Valentine’s thing too.

BF is really the sweetest guy, EVER

See, we don’t really celebrate commercial holidays like Valentine’s Day.

Only Birthdays and Anniversary really matter to us.

I don’t believe that only one day a year can be the day you tell someone you love and appreciate them — it’s the whole YEAR.

Same goes for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, in my opinion.

So in the spirit of not celebrating and falling into the commercial trap of the holidays, I am always pleasantly surprised or pleased when he does something out of the blue, like now.

His idea was not directly related to Valentine’s Day, but he mentioned to me today (Feb 13th) that he is going to cook Poulet Marengo (Chicken Marengo-style) for tomorrow, and make extra so that I can bring 5 days of breakfasts and lunches to work without cooking for this week.

Isn’t that wonderful?

Such a keeper.

Working on Contract

I. Love. It.

I am thrilled that my interviews fell through (yes, that’s why I was in Toronto), and for (unsubstantiated) reasons I will not go into, they felt that I wasn’t good enough to join their company.

Pooh to them, because I started on a contract the week after I was rejected, and I love working in Ottawa even more.

The client is great and the work is challenging and fulfilling.

I am covering my own expenses in my rate while I am at the client, so a post on how I am saving money while traveling on business is coming up.

I also talked to them about flexible hours, and I will be working Monday to Thursday, with my Fridays off.

They even mentioned on more than one occasion that they will need to keep me on past March, so this might be a full-time year long contract.

Right now, I am going to net about $20,000 and if they keep me on for a year, it’ll be an extra $150,000 net after taxes and expenses.

And after living expenses for a year, perhaps $120,000? Nevertheless, I think I’ll hit my goal of a $100,000 net worth this year.

Overall, a pretty good start to a great week.

I love my job. And this contract is just another reminder.

Although I don’t have a computer, internet connection or access to any kind of login, let alone a pass to get in and out of the building — this client is incredible.

Everyone is so nice and eager to do a good job that it just makes my life easier overall.

Let’s just hope this isn’t pre-emptive to say so

———————————————————————–

P.S. This is an incredible post

I just wanted to bring your attention to this blog post. It’s really well-written and I follow his blog religiously.

Made me tear up.

A Taxi Driver’s Diary: The Unbearable Heaviness of Being

————————————————————————-

P.P.S Want to buy H&R Block Taxes At Home for 50% off?

Only for U.S. readers — thanks to Jen for tipping me off!

Friday, February 12 through Sunday, February 14 taxpayers are invited to register to use any H&R Block At Home online product for only $14. This pricing represents a 50 percent discount off H&R Block At Home Deluxe and 70 percent off H&R Block At Home Premium.

As long as people register for the online product Feb 12-14, they are locked in with the $14 price, even if they do their taxes in April! How cool is that?

Register here: http://www.hrblock.com/valentine. The site will have a register link live on Friday, active through Sunday.

Yep. You read right.

I am working full-time until for a month and a half.

My gross income after this contract is done, will be $30,000.

I figured out the general numbers, and I’ll net after expenses and taxes, about $20,000 give or take a couple thousand.

Am going to try to live and travel on the cheap (sandwiches to work, the whole shebang).

It’s a lot of money, but if I don’t work for the rest of the year, it’ll just be enough to cover my personal expenses this year.

I just hope the contract gets extended.

Yay for not going into the red this month! Mama’s rollin’ in some dough to replenish the accounts!

More details to come in the February end of month roundup.

Oh yeah.. if I am not around so much, it’s because I am internet-less, and trying to stay professional during work; meaning I am not going to be on Twitter or doing anything online until I get back in my hotel room at night or on the weekends.

The most I’ll do, is check my personal email.

It’s just not professional when they’re contracting me for something else.

Plus, I think they can see what I send and sign into on the internet.

Wouldn’t want to out myself after so long. :\

I’ll miss everyone during the week…. *sigh* .. I’ve gotten so used to being on Twitter, it’ll be hard to break away.