Just when you thought finance couldn't get any more exciting - the guys over at Credit Card Finder come up with a whole new PF Comic series! And lucky ol' me gets picked as one of the featured bloggers ;) I can now retire! haha...although I must admit I'm much uglier in real life....so uhh....yeah. Click the image to start the adventure! (and keep your eyes open for the 3 easter eggs)

Labels: about j., awesomely awesome, blogging, lottery

For anyone who missed it, on Friday I decided to embark on a $100 Scratch Off Lottery Project.

At first it was purely for entertainment, but after generating some buzz on Twitter I decided to donate all my winnings to charity - specifically Project Hopeful.

Before I get into the results though, I wanted to thank all those who have graciously decided to match my contributions! What started off as a financially stupid game has now ended with a handful of money for our charity :) So a major thank you to JerryB, Sid, Forest, Michele, RainyDaySaver, and Brad - you guys are awesome.

And now, the results:

Well my friends, the party has ended and I feel hungover. For all the build up (and hope) this weekend, the results really blew. As expected as it may sound, I really thought I'd win a lot more than I did! And not because I was feeling extra lucky lately either (which I was) but because I usually win at least every other time when playing on a whim. Like an idiot I was just hoping it would carry over into this little game of ours ;) Oops.

But with all adventures in life, there is always something you can take away from it. I'll be getting into that in a bit, but first I thought it would be fun to share some interesting stats from this weekend's project (I created a gallery of pictures too):

• When placed end to end, the 100 tickets reached 400 inches long! Or roughly 33 feet.
• Stacked on top of each other it was about 2 inches thick (1 inch if smooshed).
• The store clerk wrapped all the tickets in a white paper bag. I found this strange for some reason.
• The odds of winning on back of tickets: 1 in 4.21
• The REAL odds of me winning: 1 in 5 (20 winners, 80 losers - bleh!)
• It took me 1 1/2 hours to scratch them all off.
• Then another 5 mins to make sure I didn't miss any!
• I did them all with my right pointer finger.
• By the end I had a MAJOR headache, followed by weird finger sensations?!
• I was also frustrated, pissed off, grumpy, and overall just sad.

So, how much did I win? $38 freakin' dollars. It could have been worse, but it could have also been much better. On the plus side, we generated a lot of money to go out to Project Hopeful! Here's how it all breaks down - winning tickets & generous matches:

• $1 winners: 12
• $2 winners: 4
• $3 winners: 2
• $6 winners: 2
• MY TOTAL WINNINGS: $38.00
  
• Add in JerryB's match of $38.00
• Along with Sid's match of $20.00
• And Forest's match of $38.00
• With Michele's match of $38.00
• And RainyDaySaver's of $25.00
• And finally Brad's of $25.00

And we come up with a grand total of donations worth $222! Not too shabby for a random experiment, eh? I'm still reeling a bit from not hitting at least ONE winning ticket over $20 bucks (wtf, right?), but I suppose it just wasn't my time yet...

Takeaway Thoughts:

When all was said and done though, I came away much more enlightened. I wasn't the happiest person to be around when finished, but I did learn from this. Here is what I wrote minutes after the last ticket was scratched (I wanted to get my feelings down while they were hot & fresh):

Sometimes it's more exciting thinking about things than doing them. The *idea* of all those lottery tickets was awesome!!! Going to the store and buying them was awesome! The thinking about "what ifs", the buzz around it, the whole damn thing was awesome - right up until the point of scratch time. That's when things started sucking.

Gambling brings out the emotions in you. As soon as I began scratching them off I started getting super competitive. And then mad, and then happy!, and then sad, and then nervous, and then happy!, and then pissed, and then lucky!, and then totally embarrassed. Playing the lottery every now and then is one thing, but playing 100 times in a row is a TOTALLY different experience. You know the odds are greatly stacked against you, but it still doesn't make you feel any better when you lose 15 or 20 in a row. In fact, it seemed I only won in a row, or lost in a row (w/ the losing spurts being much longer). Truth be told, it was an emotional roller coaster.

Giving back is contagious. I was really happy knowing Project Hopeful would be getting all my winnings, but even more so after some of you decided to play along! While I wish I could have won a helluva lot more for them, it really does go to show what a wonderful community we have here. As soon as one person decided to match, 4 others hopped right on board and that really touched me quite a bit :) Before even scratching we had the opportunity to triple our winnings!

There really can be too much of a good thing. The first 30-40 tickets flew by like crazy and I enjoyed every last second of it. But the more I went along from that point, the less fun I started to have, and the more "chore-like" it became. Maybe it would have been better had I hit it big, but I think that's really the exception to the rule. That doesn't mean all the buzz and excitement leading up to it wasn't great (it was the best part!), but the act itself wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

In Summary

We didn't hit the jackpot friends, but I'd still call the $100 Scratch Off Project a success! We learned a little, struggled a little, were entertained a lot!, and all in all had a great time experimenting :) You won't see me doing it again anytime soon, but I'm really glad I can now check it off the list. And on top of it all we donated more than $200 to charity!!! Not too bad for a random post idea...

I hope you guys enjoyed this! And if you want even more of this lottery craziness, check out today's post over at My Next Buck - It turns out I wasn't the only one to do something like this ;) Although I do hate him for beating me like that....See you all tomorrow!

--------------
PS: For anyone interested in Project Hopeful, here's some contact info:

Project Hopeful, NFP
P.O. Box 350
Plainfield, IL 60544
Phone: +1 815-823-3297
Website: ProjectHopeful.org
DONATE: Click the purple "Donate" Button on the right
E-mail: projecthopeful (at) projecthopeful (dot) org

Labels: charity, lottery

Welcome to this weekend's $100 Lottery Project! I'm feeling feisty as ever right now, and thought I'd spice things up a bit by doing something ridiculously stupid. But also fun, exciting, silly, and rewarding all mixed into one.

As many of you know, I am a hardcore fan of scratch off lottery tickets. Not only do they pump me full of endorphins, but those lovely pieces of metallic paper allow me to escape into a dream-like world full of happiness & unicorns! Okay maybe not unicorns, but definitely ligors. For me, lotteries really are the best bang for a buck. (so long as you don't get addicted)

I've wanted to do this for years now, but having a captive audience was all I needed ;) And I'll have you know there were many behind the scenes here egging me on too (probably because it's not their money we're using! haha...). I shot out a feeler on Twitter and Facebook to gauge interest, and 25+ of you said to go for it! My favorite response: "You have the insanity of a manatee!" Yes. Yes I do.

The $100 Scratch Off Lottery Project:

1. I march my crazy a$$ down to the local liquor store.
2. I pick up 100 assorted $1 scratch-off lottery tickets. All random and spread out, No fun in hitting up the same kind 100 times over.
3. I scratch each and every one of them off this weekend. (Amounting to orgasmic euphoria)
4. I post up the results on Monday! The good, the bad, and the finger-hurtin' ugly.
5. I hand over all the winnings to charity :) In particularly, Project Hopeful - A charity that encourages, educates, and enables families to adopt children with HIV/Aids (and a charity that is near & dear to my friend Jessica, who I admire very much).

I've also started collecting guesses as to what people think we'll be winning. So far we have $76 and $87, and my guess is somewhere around $125 - but I'm hoping for $2.00. Care to add your own?

So Stay tuned for Monday's results! And wish me luck too. You kinda sorta have to since it's all going to charity ;) The more we win, the better we/I/everyone feels! Oh, and I almost forgot - this $100 is coming straight out of my "entertainment budget." I can't be too irresponsible now can I?
-----------------------------
UPDATE: I couldn't help but to chime in and say THANK YOU to all who have decided to match our winnings! I am blown away by your generosity, and I'm sure Project Hopeful will be just as please to hear the good news :) A shout out to the matchers: JerryB, Sid, Forest, Michele, RainyDaySaver, and Brad.
UPDATE: The results are in!!! Check it out.

Labels: about j., charity, lottery, randomness 3000

Well take a look at that bad boy! That's right, i rolled the dice and won big last night :) A wopping $21! Aww yeahhhhh....

I swear I almost $hit in my pants too. I'm one of those people who scratches off the items first to SEE if i win, and then go back to scratch off the actual amounts as to drag on the excitement.

Sooo, as I was scratching off the first cash icon, then the second, and then the third, i was like "OH. MY. GOSH. I'm going to win it all!" And then I thought (no thanks to the Mrs.), is this a mistake? How could i win ALL 7 slots?! Did the computer mess up and I really didn't win anything? And remember, at this point I still hadn't scratched off all the dollar amounts ;)

But I scratched them all off and won $21 sexy sweet dollars! It was pretty damn fun, but I have to admit it was a bit of a let down as I got to cash prize #6 and #7. I thought i'd get close to being the Top Prize $1k winner for sure! I guess that's what I get for dragging it all out and imagining in my head what i'd do with it all ;) haha....it sure was a rush though!

There's not too many things that excite me for $1, so playing the lottery always gives a jolt of happiness - win or lose. But last night?! Whew! I was freakin' flying high! Isn't that funny though? In the grand scheme of things it's only $20 ($21 - $1 paid for it), but when you build up the excitement like that it quadruples (is there a word for 21 times? Twentyfirst-tupled?) the fun :)

It's also quite interesting that I didn't even MEAN to play. It just so happened the lottery machine was side by side w/ the ATM (pretty clever technique there, 7-Eleven!). So as I stood there waiting for my $80 buckaroos to pop out of it, that lottery machine kept calling my name ;) As cheezy as it sounds, I REALLY felt lucky at that moment in time. I didn't even have to guess *which* ticket to buy as only one stood out - "Money Bags". And as luck would have it, I had one remaining $1 bill in my pocket!

So what did i learn from it all? A) Play the lottery when you have a good feeling, and B) Play the lottery for the love of the game. If you follow those 2 rules (and don't overdue it), you'll be sitting pretty happily. Now, who wants to loan me another dollar?

Labels: awesomely awesome, free money, lottery

Now THAT's what i call getting creative! And these days, i don't blame him - it sure is one way to sell a house (you hear that stupid foreclosure neighbor?!). Imagine, owning a 6,000 square foot 6 bedroom 4.5 bath house for a crisp $50 bill - AMAZING. Here's a clip from the article i found on MSNBC:

"After more than a year of making major improvements on the home, Walters has been hit doubly hard. He's in the mortgage business, and as his property value plummets, his paycheck is also shrinking....Walters has to donate a portion of the ticket sales to charity, so he calculates that he must sell 31,000 tickets by the end of the year to meet his goal. He's already more than a third of the way there, with 10,000 tickets sold."

So is it really worth the shot? Man, i dunno...the gambler in me REALLY wants to play, but the smart-financial side of me says hooooooooooooold up - your odds of winning are slim to none buster.

While this is true, the odds are MUCH better than winning the lottery! Here you have a 1 in 31,000 chance of winning (possibly even less if he can't reach this desired #), whereas you have like a 1 in 175,000,000 chance of hitting the megamillions. True you're also blowing through 50 $1 bills instead of just 1, AND your prize is much smaller, but still - SOMEONE has to win it!

But then again, let's just say for the fun of it you DO win. Now you're a proud owner of a whole bunch of taxes, upkeep, etc...esp if you already own a home (and i'm willing to guess most people playing don't actually NEED this home). So what if someone wins who can't afford to maintain and keep it all up like some neighbors are afraid of? Well, then you just sell it! But now, if you sell it, the neighbors get SUPER pissed! Esp. if you, let's say, unload it for half it's value - $500k. Now it lowers all the other property values in the neighborhood, right? Boy....what a crazy situation! Wanna play yet? Here's some more on it:



So yeah, I'm still considering getting in on the action (visit fiftydollarhouse.com to play), but i'm more likely to chalk it up to a "good idea" and then forget about it tomorrow ;)

Labels: bargains, cockamamy indeed, home ownership, lottery

And i'll take that any day. I believe this marks the very first time i've ever won a non-scratch ticket before (i'm a sucker for those shiny things), and to think i got close to winning the Mega Millions!

Like many lottery players out there, i let the computer do the guessing for me. I figure if it's meant to be, it will compute the perfect concoction of figures. It didn't totally work this round, but it got pretty damn close! I *knew* the other day was gonna be different ;)

As you can see frome the picture (that's my actual scanned ticket), i got 2 of the 5 regular numbers correct, AS WELL AS that magical "mega ball" number, thus tripling the amount i won! Niiiiece. And to think that i almost forgot to grab one...i had already changed into my sweats and t-shirt @ home, and it was nearing bed time when i remembered about my glorious plan. Something told me to just suck it up and drive the .8 miles to the beer store - aptly named "Beers and Cheers", and the rest is history!

So now what? Well, in an effort to extend my joy i will be doing two things:

1. As promised to AlwaysInStyle, i will be sharing half with her :) I told her in a comment the other day that i'd split my winnings with her just like in that "It Can Happen to You" movie. Sure i didn't hit the big times (yet) but what's fair is far - So congrats girl! And holler so i can paypal it over.
2. And with the other $5, i bought 5 MORE tickets! haha...yeah i know it breaks the cardinal rule of stopping when you're ahead, but my damn it's just SO FUN! I mean, big rewards require big risks, right? I'm on a roll here and i'll keep on going until i lose it all ;) It'll be the best $1 i ever spent.

So that's all i have for ya today. If you need me, i'll be the one basking in all my glory here in DC. And don't be surprised when you see my anonymous face holding that big a$$ check on tv! i do it all for you baby.

Labels: awesomely awesome, free money, lottery, randomness 3000

HAPPY Friday the 13th! If you're a superstitious one, you might enjoy this post. Turns out that while I was away, a LOT of horrible stuff happened, yet when I came back the world was happier! haha ... check it out for yourself ;)

This is what happens when J goes away:

• The stock market goes dooooooown, down, down.
• Floods carry away homes in the midwest :(
• And an elderly man gets hit by car, causing rage across the entire country!

And this is what happens when J comes back:

• There's piles of gifts and money on our tables. Sexy!
• A doorman wins $5 million scratch off lottery, and keeps job :)
  
• Obama wins the Democratic nominee! (sure this happened while away, but im counting it here. he he)

Is the world telling me somthing? haha ... we'll never know!

Labels: barack obama, lottery, politics, stock market

Anyone who knows me will tell you that i'm a HUGE fan of Panera Bread. Their plethora of breakfast goodies are extremely tasty, and prices for the most part decent. There is one bone, however, i need to pick with them, and that's the price of their cream cheese. It is sinfully price gouging, and plain and simply - a rip off.

Although i've known for a while that it was a bit more to order a bagel w/ cream cheese, than w/out, i had no idea HOW MUCH of a difference it was. Next time you roll into one, check out their prices for bagels. You will notice the price of one w/out any spread (cream cheese, butter, etc) costs $0.79. not bad. Now, look for the price with the spread: $2.19!!!!

You're telling me that a teaspoon of cream cheese costs $1.40? No siree bob, that's crazy talk. There's no way in hell this white goodness is worth almost DOUBLE the price of the plump and beautiful bagel.

This is where my genius idea comes in, and i change the world. Since complaining won't change anything (although it does feel good) i have decided to put my money where my mouth is. This morning I paid my 79 cents (83 cents w/ tax), brought my toasted blueberry bagel home, and lathered it up w/ my own cream cheese. BAM, take that!

THEN, and this is a very important "then", I walked down the street and used this $1 from the savings to purchase a mega-millions lottery ticket. I will then do the following:

- Win the $135 million tomorrow
- Take the lump sum of $80 cash
- Call up my brokerage firm
- And spend every last penny on PNRA (Panera stock).

This will give me controlling interest in the company, allowing me to dutifully change the price of their cream cheese to $0.25. This simple action will make all that is wrong in this world right, and giving me the "smartest person alive" award :)

I told you it was genius.

Labels: cockamamy indeed, lottery