I think it’s time for a Summer bonfire.
Welcome to the Weekly Quick Hits Roundup!
If you’re new here, every week I write a weekly wrap-up of things that were going on here at Young Adult Money, a few personal updates/thoughts, and finally a few posts I read this week that I thought were worth sharing.
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We also have our giveaway roundup every Friday. This Friday there are 146 giveaways listed this week that end today (6/13) through next Thursday (6/19).
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Happy Friday everyone!
Here are some updates, thoughts, and more:
- FeeX contest results – I mentioned the past few weeks that I was competing for “most views” between the other bloggers over at FeeX. Good news: I won! The prize was a $150 restaurant gift card (I picked Chipotle) and a $50 Wine.com gift card. Definitely appreciate anyone who clicked over to some of my posts and helped me secure the win.
- Winning hundreds of thousands playing fantasy sports – I read an interesting article in the Saturday Wall Street Journal about a 29 year-old who makes hundreds of thousands a year playing fantasy sports. He’s a major data-cruncher and created a custom algorithm that tells him what to do in his 100+ leagues. It’s super interesting stuff, at least to someone like me who likes to read about how people utilize data in ways that allow them to make money.
- Encouraging Comments – One thing I try to be intentional about with the blog is using my Microsoft Excel/Google Spreadsheet skills to create useful tools. It’s something unique to my site and helps me differentiate myself from all the other blogs out there.
As some of you may know I made a coupon database in Microsoft Excel that has become quite popular. It’s “pinned” by someone new on Pinterest practically every day. I got an encouraging comment by someone recently:
Wow! This is exactly what I was looking for. I added a few other columns to modify it to the coupon organization me and my bff use. I’m a little late in the game here, I am a newbie to couponing and my I’m learning the ropes from my bff who is a veteran couponer.
Much appreciation for you and your work. I am very grateful I came across this!
If you’re a blogger you know how motivating it can be to get positive feedback from your work. Considering the fact that the spreadsheet/downloads take a lot longer than a “regular” post, it’s nice that people are still finding things like that useful even when the post was published over a year go.
Below are the posts we published this week:
- On Monday I shared 5 Ways to Make Sure Your House Sells Quick.
- On Tuesday Shannon shared 5 Gifts That Will Tick Off Your Frugal Wife.
- On Wednesday Cat shared What You Should Do After a Job Interview.
- On Thursday I answered the question: What is the HSA “Triple Tax Advantage?”
- On Thursday Cat wrote about a new documentary in Spent: Looking For Change, A Documentary Review
Posts of the Week:
As usual, here are five posts from around the blogosphere that I enjoyed:
- Shannon from The Heavy Purse shared The Money Secrets Parents Keep from Their Kids
- Liz from Budgeting for More asked DIY or Hire the Pro?
- John from Frugal Rules shared a Vegas story in A Screaming Idiot and Your Money
- Charles from Getting a Rich Life asked Are You Getting Paid What You’re Worth?
- Shannon from The Finance Girl shared 9 Ways To Keep Your Money Safe While Traveling
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Tell me something good from the past week! Are you fascinated with how people find new ways to utilize the ridiculous amount of data available?
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Thanks DC!!!! Hope you have a great weekend with your family! And I love both Shannon’s from The Heavy Purse and from Financially Blonde, so I’ll join them this week ;)
Hope you have a great weekend!!!!! Our good news from this week is that it’s over and finally Friday. Woot!
Congrats on winning the FeeX prizes, they were big time! And I love Chipotle, but I can’t imagine spending $150 there! At least you will get a bunch of dinners vs. one or two. And I am glad that you got that Pinterest feedback on your spreadsheets! I use a few of them and appreciate your efforts as well. Something good from this week is the fact that my hubby is done with school and is now tackling his massive “honey-do” list. I love the summer!
Hi DC! I think you’ve definitely found a way to provide your readers with a lot of value with all your different spreadsheet tools. I also enjoy the giveaway roundups you do every week as well. I hope you have a great weekend. And a bonfire sounds great! However I think we are expecting a lot of rain in our area : (
Congrats on another win! You’re on a roll. The Guac from Chipotle is my favorite. The Good News is the World Cup has begun! Yay! Have a good weekend.
Congrats on winning the FeeX contest! Hope your lucky streak continues :D
Very interesting about the guy making money on Fantasy sports…it seems that even the so called experts who played the sport never really get it correct…don’t know how he does it. As volatile and unpredictable as stocks are, I think sports are even more unpredictable. Congrats on winning the FeeX contest…pretty awesome that you’ve won a couple of contests…it takes skills =)
Do you have a link to the coupon database? I like coupons!
Very cool on the win and the feedback on your database! That’s crazy about that guy setting up his own algo for fantasy sports. But, if you can do it then why not? My good thing for the week…it’s Friday and we’ve all had nasty colds this week, so I’m glad the week is over. Thanks for the mention DC!
I know how you feel about the positive feedback. After the people on Yahoo roasted me, I got an email from a lady who was trying to pay off debt and needed some encouragement. It made it all worth it. Have a great weekend.
Holly at ClubThrifty That’s good news for sure! Hope you have a great weekend as well.
theFinancegirl Yes, all the Shannons are great haha. I hope you have a great weekend as well!
blonde_finance Haha it’s the one place that I’m confident I will spend $150 over time, which is why I choose it. I If you get two burritos the price is already ~$15, so I figure that’s ten times we can go. Even if we only went once a month it would be gone within a year.
Haha “honey-do” is such a funny term. I’m glad your husband is done and has some time to get things done. My wife hasn’t made me a list, but I think it’s because she knows that I know what needs to be done. We have quite a few projects that will take a long, long time to all finish.
BudgetforMore Yes the giveaway roundups are good as well! I have had less time recently so I only enter the major ones, but I like that it’s out there and people can enter as many or as few as they want.
Yep we are expecting rain in the area as well on Saturday and Sunday. It’s a bummer because I also had some yard work I want to get off my plate.
Raquel@Practical Cents I’m loving the world cup as well! I actually don’t like guac :0 My wife always gets it with her veggie burrito bowl, though. Hope you have a good one as well!
TheWriteBudget Thanks! I sure hope it does too! Haha
Andrew LivingRichCheaply I’m guessing you didn’t read the article (yet?) but he built an algorithm that intakes a massive amount of data, makes adjustments for last minute injuries and whatnot (even tracks it on Twitter), and participates in over 100 leagues a day. So essentially he takes a statistical edge and over time wins more than he loses. It’s pretty impressive!
I can’t believe I didn’t include a link in the post! It’s on the sidebar, but here it is as well: https://www.youngadultmoney.com/2013/06/03/how-to-organize-coupons-using-a-database-in-excel-with-download/
FrugalRules Yeah it sounds like he proposed the same theories you would for poker to fantasy sports. In fact, I would much prefer to have an algorithm with fantasy sports as opposed to poker, because there has to be slightly less variance (I would imagine at least). I hope you guys feel better this weekend!
Eyesonthedollar The commenters on those big sites are downright ridiculous at times. I’m glad you got a positive email after it all and I hope you have a good weekend as well!
You’ve been on a winning streak, DC! Congratulations! It’s great when your hard work pays off, whether it’s winning competitions or getting great feedback. Those kind of comments can really make your day. You do great work, DC and it shows! Have a great weekend! And thanks for mentioning my post too!
I love getting comments like that! And a guy making hundreds of thousands playing fantasy football is definitely interesting. Thanks for sharing. I’m absolutely fascinated when data crunchers find new ways to bring in the dough!
Wow you’re winning things left and right! Congratulations and enjoy your weekend!
Joshua Rodriguez I think he plays multiple fantasy sports. The article specifically mentioned him running an algorithm for fantasy basketball.
Beachbudget Thanks! I almost prefer the competitions (as opposed to giveaways) because it becomes a matter of who is willing to put in the most effort. Hope you have a great weekend as well!
You must be super efficient there Dave, how do you manage it all?
Congrats on the win as well, you’re adding great value to the community/bloggersphere :)
Dave
That’s why your blog iTunes success as you produce very useful tools. Thanks for the link have a great weekend.
Getting reader feedback is the best. Know that I always appreciate your posts :)
DC @ Young Adult Money Joshua Rodriguez Sorry, I did read the article, but when I think of fantasy sports, I automatically gravitate to fantasy football. I’m not a sports fan unless it’s boxing or UFC…So any time I hear or read fantasy, the next thing that pops in my head is football! Anyway, it really is interesting that he was able to crunch data and make it profitable. I wonder how he accounts for variables. The fact is, the players are human, they’re not going to run like a machine…it’s pretty interesting stuff
Congrats on winning! Mmmm I love Chipotle.
LisaVsTheLoans Thanks! Chipotle is so awesome and now I have essentially 10 free meals for my wife and me.
brokeandbeau Thanks I’m glad you do! haha