When Virgin Mobile acquired Helio, they also acquired a fat stack of 50 dollar Prepaid AmEx cards that were originally intended for Helio promotions. I assume it was kind of like finding a $20 in a pair of pants you haven’t worn in a long time, except it was a whole bunch of pieces of plastic worth $50 each. Rather than filling the Virgin Mobile offices with PS3s, they figured our readers might be able to use some of them to make Christmas just a wee bit more exciting. The only catch? They expire at the end of 2008, so you’ll have to find something to spend them on quick (as if that’ll be difficult.)
Over the next 7 days or so, we’ll be giving them all away to our lovely readers. Some contests (like the one below) will be comment contests. For others, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on our Twitter feed. It’ll be different every time, so stay sharp – expect one or two contests each day.
Find out how to enter the first contest after the jump.
The first contest: We’re doing our part to put smiles on a few faces in the midst of economic downtown, so return the favor. Use the comment box down below to tell us what you’re doing to save money this holiday season – funniest one (as picked by the MobileCrunch/Crunchgear staff) wins. No, they don’t have to be honest. Putting off upgrading from your old and busted RAZR? That’s cool. Want to tell us that you’ve shaved all of the neighborhood cats to make a line of fur coats for babies? Even better. Contest 1 ends tomorrow at 2 pm PST (Extended until 12/11 at 4 pm PST)
Im just gonna pour beer all over myself until my financial worries disapear.
Money – as they say, is for poor people.
Money is actually Debt in disguise.
Pouring beer on yourself, is fun for everyone lol.
In order to save money this holiday season, I’m going on Facebook instead of going out. Rather than spend money on booze, gas and cover…I’ll just see everyone on facebook. I’ll poke, chat, flirt and judge-at a fraction of the cost. I don’t have to get anyone gifts either, I can just write them insincere holiday greetings :)
Happy Holidays!
I’m saving money by keeping my cool and remaining calm about this whole financial crisis. No, really…it’s easy to not freak out, especially since everyone with money is losing it. So, even though I’m not really making much money right now I’m still catching up…right?
What I’m doing to save money is a little strange. Both my wife and I have traded in our gas guzzlers for 2 brand new hybrids. She got the 2009 Prius Hybrid and I got the 2009 Civic Hybrid. We got them both this month. The Prius had a 5 month wait because the wife was very specific about what she wanted.
They look “cute” sitting together in the garage.
Give one of the gift cards to this guy – he just spent thousands of dollars, which he will never recoup. He will need the money.
And for my generosity – give me a gift card.
Saving money is easy. Just find free food. I am a graduate student so I can find the departmental happy hours (sometimes comes with free beer too), seminars with good food. You name it, I’ll be trying to fill myself up,
I borrow money from everyone I can. Doesnt help them but I manage to save
To save money this year I am “borrowing all the christmas blow up figurines in my neighborhood and selling them at my yardsale.
Boy am I making a killing.
I can top this. After I steal those horrid things, I deflate them and save all that air. Then I gouge my buyers just a bit more and sell the air to them. You didn’t think I sold those yard things with air in them, did you?
Saved enough so far to buy the guy above another Prius, but, I just ain’t that nice. No air in the tires, or the air bag, air conditioner, or air filter. Got more air to sell.
I’ve been participating in studies at the local college, on allergies and sleep deprivation. I don’t have either, but they pay well, and they’re easy ailments to fake. Then I bury the cash in an old Apple II in the back yard.
I’m saving a few hundred dollars a month by canceling my porn site subscriptions and simply printing a high-quality photo of John Biggs.
Me and the boys from the IT department have been running bikini carwashes to scrape together some extra dough during these tough times. We strap on our banana hammocks, crank up the Styx tapes on the ghetto blaster, and get down with some soap and sponges.
The customers really seem to dig the cheap carwash because they are always smiling and telling all their friends to come get a wash. It’s been a big help in keeping the servers up and running this winter.
Holiday?
this holiday season i am saving for the future by simply asking the government for a bailout for all my stupid boneheaded spending i have done for the first 48 years of my life … no, i dont make a product worth anything … so therefore i should easily qualify …
Are you kidding? I seriously re-use all of my sandwich bags and was those lil red SOLO cups until they have holes in the bottom! Oh, its not used toilet paper until both sides have been SOILED! Get it to the edges!!!
I’m actually evolving to use photosynthesis so that I don’t have to buy food. And then basically my life will be set as I sell myself to science for the right to experiment on me.
I’m sending E cards this Holiday Season.
I’m signing up for all the credit cards I can get, to bump up my credit rating.
I’m also turning off the lights for my son and wife when they leave rooms glowing bright as the sun!
I am saving money by selling all my kids toys. Well actually they are selling them and giving me the money. They think that Santa requires them to pay taxes to daddy so they have to sell their stuff to pay the Santa tax.
It sucks, but this financial crunch hits hard at all ages.
:)
Make some money by buying things and then you can sell the stuff at ebay
http://make-money-after-rebate.blogspot.com/
I am going to buy toys at the most low end of discount department stores… DD’s (Owned by Ross and contains stuff Ross can’t sell or won’t ever sell!!!) Still not broke enough to buy gifts at the 99 Cents Only store. I have found Citizen Urban Icon Vinyl dolls in Ecko and Icon for 1.99.
I’ve actually used the butterfly effect to power my entire home. I simply hold a butterfly in my hand, allow it to gently flap its wings once, and utilize the resulting monsoon to generate electricity via the giant wind tunnel I have mounted atop my residence.
Also, for the past several weeks my family and I have been consuming the contents of our lawn and the weeds within for sustenance, then using our own excrement as a natural fertilizer to produce more nutritious vegetation.
Also, I grow my own weed now. That probably saves gas used for transportation or something.
Well over the past year, me and my dad have been cutting trees and grinding stumps for his second business because we barely make it by. And the wood from cutting dead trees or what not we use in our wood boiler because we can’t afford natural gas. 50 bucks would be a great help to get ms a gift more my parents. Thank you
I’m saving money by diverting the “Internets” spilling out from all my neighbors unprotected WIFI routers into mine; thus forcing my “Internets” meter to move in reverse forcing Cablevision to pay me every month for Internet bandwidth.
Well, since we won’t be buying the huge 150-inch plasma tv this year, I’ve pulled out my granddad’s old movie projection screen and bring home the marketing dept projector to show movies.
the kids don’t notice because of all the smoke from burning oil trying to pop corn the old-fashioned way.
I decided to start my own country where currency is debt so there is no way not to have money! :D
Saving money by substituting toilet paper with scratch paper. As for food eating squirrels that step into the backyard.
I tell the hookers I’m going to pay them for their services and then run away as fast as I can when they’re finished, only leaving behind a business card with the name John Biggs on it.
I’m going to stay in New Jersey on my next trip to New York and take the bus into the city. :-/
lol
:-(
Blog Post Request: Putting the Hobo back in Hoboken :P
Most appropriate outlet: LiveJournal
In order to help (other’s) save money unwillingly and unknowingly, I am going around my neighborhood stealing 1 lightbulb out of their christmas lights… It’s also helping generate less electricity and battle Global Warming at the same time… Al Gore would be proud.
Also… watching my neighbors try to find the one missing light bulb is quite amusing.
I’m saving money by not making money. Being unemployed and living off my fiancee is the best way to save money! If you don’t make any, you can’t spend any. Well, you can’t spend any of your own…
I created a union that consists of all of my family members and sent my dad to Congress to ask for a bailout! And he’s going to tell them if they don’t our kids aren’t having Christmas this year!!!!! And we’re only asking for 1/2 a billion:)
I have started scouring all the tech blogs and hunting down each and every gift card give-a-way in the vain hope that I can submit a lame comment to win a free 50 bucks!
I’m saving money by “bailing out” all of my friends that are currently in some sort of financial crisis. In reality I am just throwing buzz words like “leveraging,” “de-leveraging,” “private sector,” and “blue-ray” at them whilst having them sign over enduring power of attorney to me. In the end, they will thank me. Maybe.
I’m going to use a combination of duct tape and papercraft to make it seem like I’m giving away great gifts… then when Christmas eve comes, I’ll flee the premises… and live with friends with three months until things cool down…
The best way for me to save money is to mooch of my nearby Apple Store. I sleep there and use their Macbook Pros (hopefully they won’t blow up!!). I’m the official Apple Store hobo :)
I’ve began making and distributing jenkem a.k.a butthash…hard times calls for hard measures
Instead of buying contact lenses, I simply cut out small circles of cling film (this can be tricky, since I’m not good with scissors) and press them very carefully into my eyes.
I’m attempting to be funny in the hopes of earning $50 for my time and effort.
I will be not saving any money and in fact going against the flow and spending it all, investing in the market, and buying multiple houses. And the gift card wouldn’t hurt to go towards a nice new copy of GTA4 :)
I used to tell my kids back when I lived in the USA that if they didn’t behave, I’d sell them to the Gypsies. Now, this was of course an idle threat because in Oklahoma, we have no appreciable quantity of Gypsies.
But last year I moved to the United Kingdom. And lo and behold, there are actually real live Gypsies here. So this Christmas season, my wife and I have decided to sell our first born child to the Gypsies. This will both save us money this Christmas season and will provide extra gift money for our extra children.
Some people may feel this is a bit extreme. But I consider this an excellent opportunity for us to be financially responsible this merry credit CRUNCH season. And even more importantly, our child is bound to learn some ery practical life skills!
I have been deconstructing all of my old gadgets and using the parts to create a ten foot tall version of Optimus Prime, at first selling him to the highest bidder on ebay was going to make me millions, but then i realized that after all of their fees i would only make $1.50, also I can’t really sell him now that he has a mind of his own thanks to the PS3’s multi-core chip that is part of his brain. So now that Optimus Prime can do pretty much whatever the hell he wants, along with all of our first class passengers…thank you Billy Idol, I will be traveling with him as he defends the world from the evil of the Decepticons…
I’m buying up high risk mortgages, negotiating crippling contracts with my labor unions, and creating expensive, inferior products in an attempt to get several billion dollars in bailout funds from the government by the end of the year.
When the financial crisis hit I went out and bought 137 mice and 137 wheels for them to run on. I’ve rigged the electricity in my house to run off the energy generated by their frenetic running and am officially off the grid. Thus far I have managed to get 1 light, my tv, my tivo and my microwave to function. Basically life is good, but with this $50 gift card I could get the additional 18 mice and wheels I need in order to get my 360 up and running.
Thank you Crunch family for bringing the light of hope to us hope in these dark times.
I am saving money AND helping others.
I assist with the local adaptive skiier program in my community.
As a volunteer helping teach lessons to individials of various disabilities/capabilities, I am rewarded by the smiles of courageous children and families – I am also rewarded with a free lift ticket by the mountain resort.
To save money this Holiday season I’m straight up robbing, and looting your neighborhood nursing homes. (Stay with me here) I’m going to stake out every local nursing home and wait for those casino party buses to pick up those slot squatters (your precious loved ones). When they least expect it I’m going snatch purses and pick pocket all of them. H*ll there only going to throw their money away into machines that give horrible odds anyway. Some might say I’m preying on the weak? Well I’m saving those old farts from smoke infested casino’s and heart breaks so bad that could end their lives! Ok, some I’m not a total a**, I will give back to local food banks and share my “winnings” with a few hobo’s. In the end I will more that save money I will make a few extras pennies will avoiding the urge to invest the money in this unstable economy.
**NOTE** do not contact your local law enforcement – I am a trained professional and will not hurt anyone with my actions.
Oh by the way…….J/K!!!!!!!!
To save money I sold all of my possessions and now live in the office. Extra money for working extra hours and less expenses, because I have nothing to pay for. Though the office donuts and coffee gets old after awhile.
I enter as many contests as possible to earn some extra cash so I don’t have to spend the stuff I’m working for so diligently .
My wife wants a gold necklace. I will be making it out of stringing macaroni together and painting it with gold paint. She didn’t say she wanted an actual made out of gold necklace.
iwentto my neighbors houses and told them i was doin some charity,so i needed toys for those kids their parents cannot afford.
I waslike santa without a custom,full of toys. So i went to an old friends house and started a “Toy Garage Sale”.
We collect and ‘recycle’ all of the neighborhood cats & dogs. Remarkably, if prepared well, they taste like chicken.
I have to find some money to save first…
My wife and I are no longer using “rimming sugar” for our rimming activities. We are going old-school and going without for all future rimjobs until the financial crisis is over. So far we have saved a ton!
This year I have been doing some investigating on what family members are getting me or thinking about getting me for chirstmas. I am looking at the stores they are probably going to to find out the price of the items. I will then in return buy them something they wanted for the exact same or pretty close to the amount they are buying for me. So after this whole holiday season is over I will break even and have new stuff and everyone will be happy. Usually I go broke and don’t get a lot in return so this is a perfect way to break even in spending amount.
I’ve been saving the sticks from ice cream bars all year. I’m going to paint them to look like family and friends and give them as presents.