Why I Love Upromise!

Hey! My background is sponsored by SecretZen, please check out http://secretzen.com

@brazoscowgirl That has to be WORK!

UPromiseoffers many opportunities to earn while traveling. They offer a plethora of choices for hotels, airfare, cruise travel, rental cars and more.

In the past few weeks, I have made two short trips that required an overnight stay. We are Choice Privileges members, so I first look for a hotel room always sends to www.choicehotels.com to take advantage of their rewards program. Now that Choice Hotels is a UPromisepartner, we always enter the hotel website through the Upromise links.

Choice Privileges is currently running a bonus program that earns you a free room after two seperate stays. Early this month, when we were prom dress shopping, we stayed in a Quality Inn. We checked out thinking that we were going home that evening after finding that perfect dress, but things did not work out as planned. We stayed at a loveley, new Comfort Suites. I pulled up in front of the hotel and made my reservation through the Upromise link so I would get credit from UPromise, as well as Choice Hotels. I was so happy with my choice and was told by the front desk that I had an exceptionally good rate for my room. I always ask if there is a better rate when I arrive…but I don’t allow them to cancel my reservation and start over because that would keep me from getting my points. (Have I totally confused you?) For that stay, I earned enough points from Choice Privileges for a seperate stay and will earn approximately $5.40 back on my Upromise account.

This past Wednesday, I had to make another trip to the same city and I waltzed through the same process again ending up in a Clarion Hotel. I have to throw in here that they had the most amazing hot breakfast, in a real dining room, that was included in the price of our room. This time we only stayed one night, so I will not earn my bonus points for another room until I have another stay before April 30th. For complete rules check out FREEVILLE.

Signing up for Upromise is FREE, with NO strings attached. I encourage everyone who either attends college themselves, or have children/grandchildren to sign up for earnings from UPromise. You can use the funds to pay for student loans as well. The amount of sponsors and ways that money can be earned is absolutely amazing. And that 3% that I received back on the hotel stays, is exactly the percent that I am earning on one of my CDs right now. Think about it…earning off of your everyday spending.

The Very Last Track Season~http://tinyurl.com/djvs87

My friend Kathy is raising money for her 150 mile Multiple Sclerosis Bike Ride~http://tinyurl.com/d5f2hu

Sending a child off to college during this worrisome economy is a certainly a frightening dilemma here at our house. Expenses are rising and the paycheck is dwindling. Though Hais has secured an athletic scholarship, it is not a full-ride. In fact, after looking at the total costs expectancy it is less than 50% financial assistance. Housing and meals alone is over $7000 a year. From where is that money going to come? I cannot just pull it out of the air….heck…we are wondering how we are going to get Hais a vehicle to take with her to college.

The amount of scholarships available locally is very limited. Unfortunately, Hais’ GPA is 8/10 of a point off from qualifying for scholarship. I can thank our lovely school for having such a wacked-out grading scale for the first three years of her high school career for the situation in which she finds herself. Luckily, it did change for better this senior year, but if it had been the same all four years she would have qualified easily for several academic scholarships. So what do you do? Sit on your thumbs? NO! You go looking for other scholarships that are not based totally on academics, but a student’s interests and other achievements.

There are several ways of doing this. You can wander aimlessly by googling scholarships or cash for college, but that would take hours and hours (or is that months) of wading through the 260,000,000 sites that come back to just the keyword search of scholarships. You can ask your high school counselor, who is generally over-worked, and possibly complacent about the entire college process. My recommendation is to use a college scholarship search service. There are many available and some actually charge for their services, but I really like FastWeb. I used FastWeb for my own scholarship search when I went back to school nine years ago.

Heading Back to School? - Don’t forget to find scholarships for college at FastWeb.com

FastWeb is free. Yes, you heard it FREE! By answering several qualifying questions, the service narrows down the search of quality scholarships available that meet your criteria. When new scholarships are added, you are notified via email. FastWeb also notifies you of approaching deadlines, as well. Take a look around…remember it’s free. Oh! and if decide to sign up, I hope you will use one of the links provided in this post, so that we able to receive referral credit. Thanks!

With graduation looming around the corner, there is much shopping to be completed. Just this weekend we stayed in Wichita to shop for Prom and Graduation dresses. There was no time look for my own dress for graduation, so off to internet land I go on a search for that perfect outfit.

Upromise partner, C. J. Banks, is one of my favorite shops for smart clothing. Because we are living in a geographically challenged remote area, the nearest C.J. Banks is almost 3 hours away. Internet shopping is great solution to our difficulties. Fortunately, by shopping through Upromise, I have two coupon codes–one for free shipping on a $50 or more order or $25 off of $100 orders PLUS free shipping. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, as a member of Upromise, I will earn 5% for college savings.

State Basketball ends this weekend and track season begins. That means it is time for new track shoes, thermal tights, and thermal gloves. In Kansas you just never know what the weather will bring at any given track meet. Hais, our daughter, has had to battle raging wind, rain, sleet, etc. to blistering hot days when she has participated in high school track. This being her senior year, I think that we have finally figured out the different equipment she needs to keep her warm and safe. She works so hard, we want her to be comfortable.

One of our favorite places to purchase athletic supplies is EastBay, which is a UPromise.com
partner. Currently the Eastbay contribution is up to 9%, up from 4% not very long ago. Maybe this is because of Bonus Month.
So let’s see, a set of thermal tights will run approximately $120 before tax and high jump shoes will cost approximatley $60. At this new contribution rate, my earnings would be near $12 on something I am going to purchase anyhow. That doesn’t sound like much, but if I earn these “rebates” on a regular basis, say twice a month….that is $288…enough to purchase 1 or 2 textbooks freshman year.

After you sign up for your free account at UPromise.com, visit Eastbay.com for all your Under Armour needs!

eBay’s Big Plan http://tinyurl.com/79k563

Check out my other blogs at…

Simply My Business

The Sustainable Backyard