The Five Dollar Friendship Stimulus

Picking $5 winners is EXHAUSTING Y’ALL! Just kidding! ...

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:06:05 -0500

Picking $5 winners is EXHAUSTING Y’ALL!

Just kidding! It’s awesome. But we’re gonna take a week off to enjoy the holidays with family and friends.

Hope you enjoy the holidays!

Winner #23: Louis C.K.

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:05:05 -0500

No no, Louis C.K. himself didn’t win, but he came up as a topic more than once in the past week or so after releasing his “Live At The Beacon Theatre” video online DRM-free for only five bucks. Now that’s something we can support!

Anyway, a few people hit us up saying they’d spend the money supporting Louis C.K., but Brandon was the first:

I would buy my buddy Mike access to watch Louie C.K.’s new release “Live at the Beacon Theatre”. It’s a new experimental release where Louie gets all of the profits. I’d rather not torrent the guy.

http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/12/louis-ck-reddit-ama/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Venturebeat+%28VentureBeat%29

Congrats Brandon! Way to support comedy and the arts and cool things on the internet!

Winner #22: Date Night

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:05:05 -0500

Josh’s wife needs a little pick-me-up this Christmas, so he has planned a perfect date night:

My wife is originally from Colombia. This is the first Christmas she won’t be back in Colombia with her whole family. Although she’s excited to spend Christmas with just my family this year, she’s still a little bummed. With $5 I would take her to Chipotle, her favorite restaurant, and buy her a big carnitas filled burrito to fill the empty space she’s feeling. And as a show of good faith, I’ll match your $5 donation so she can get guacamole and we can eat together while watching a RedBox DVD. (I’ll even let her pick the movie)

A little piece of wisdom, Josh… it always helps if you let her pick the movie. Always.

drinkyourjuice: Nickel Party 2k11 Recap For those who don’t...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:00:05 -0500

drinkyourjuice:

Nickel Party 2k11 Recap

For those who don’t know, Phil is doing a project called 5 Dollar Friendship Stimulus where he’ll send five American dollars to people who tweet him their ideas re: how they’d spend the money with their friends.

Lindsey thought of a penny party (500 pennies, 5 friends, no two pennies spent the same way), and it got approved — but we quickly realized pennies might not be logistically friendly in terms of finding 500 different uses. So we switched it to a nickel party and then spent Saturday going nuts in lower Manhattan.

Some things nickels were spent on:

copies from a Xerox machine

Shaq Fu da Return

two (2) apple pies

five (5) of those twisting drum things

a coffee

random donations (inside of cups at a flatware display, next to some dog poop, on the ledge of a public chalk board, on someone’s motorcycle seat, Ronald McDonald House, etc.)

Things we tried to spend nickels on and have on video:

a psychic reading

I’m sure there are things that I’m missing, but the point is that it took up an entire afternoon and I had more fun than I ever should have had just walking around in the cold trying to spend nickels.

So if you are the kind of person who likes to set arbitrary limits for yourself and then try to operate within them out of a sense of fun and adventure, A+, would recommend 5 Dollar Friendship Stimulus, etc. etc.

Also don’t do a nickel party; it’s hard and there are junkies in a lot of the places where you can spend nickels (one talked to me while I played Bop It at the flea market and now we’re dating).

When we put the $5 Friendship Stimulus together, this is exactly what we were trying to make happen. These guys are the BEST!

WINNER #21: McRib

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:00:05 -0500

Tyler not only has a great entry, but he has some wise words about friendship:

I would take a friend to McDonalds for a McRib, they are here for a limited time only but my time with friends is unlimited. #fivedollars

Well said, Tyler. Congrats!

WINNER #20: Kindness at the tollbooth

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:01:05 -0500

Marie sent in a fun idea that we think is likely to spread some holiday cheer:

We would give it to a toll taker and tell them to use it to pay for as many cars as it can. This would reduce stress and maybe cheer a few people up. There’s nothing like an unexpected kindness, no matter how small, to make someone’s day better.

Who wouldn’t love to have their tolls paid for when you pull up at the tollbooth? We like this idea! Congrats Marie!

WARNING: CUTENESS OVERLOAD Last week, one of our winners Justin...

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:01:26 -0500

WARNING: CUTENESS OVERLOAD

Last week, one of our winners Justin submitted the idea that he would buy a package of Misfits temporary tattoos for $5 and give his one-year-old daughter a full sleeve of Misfits tattoos. Today he sent us this picture and we’re DYING. Now if that’s not worth five dollars, I don’t know what is.

Submit your $5 idea: http://fivedollarstimulus.com

WINNER #19: AUTOGRAPH SEEKER

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 11:31:06 -0500

Our Winner #19 is Mike from New Jersey who wrote us with a great idea for a prank to play on his family:

While dining in a restaurant with friends or family I’d make an excuse to leave the table. While away from the table, I would approach a friendly-looking stranger dining in the establishment and offer them the five dollars towards coffee or dessert if he/she would approach my table and pretend to know who I am.

I would ask that they address me by name (Mike Grant) and say what a great privilege it is to meet me. They could ask for my autograph, shake my hand or ask to take my picture with their cellphone. They would then return to their table leaving my dining companions perplexed and dumbfounded. I would act like it was nothing out of the ordinary.

This idea was too good not to fund. I would love to be there to see the reaction on the faces of everyone at the table. Mike, you’re a winner!

WINNER #18: Marfa, Texas!

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 11:31:05 -0500

I only hear rad things about the people in Marfa, Texas. So it makes sense that the offer we heard from Terry:

Good evening, Gentlemen—

A friend shared your link with me, and I just issued this challenge to my Marfa, Texas Facebook friends. Already I’ve gotten several public pledges, and a few private pledges via facebook messages. I only posted this a few minutes ago, and we’re multiplying the potential $5 stimulus you offer like topsy (whatever the Hell topsy is….). So, whether or not my entry is clever or captivating enough to win, it nevertheless inspired me, and served as a catalyst to do some positive good here in our tiny community during this Christmas Season of Giving, so kudos and shout outs to you, for getting this little project rolling! My own $5 will serve as the stimulus if we don’t win, as will EVERYONE in Marfa who contributes.

So Terry basically took our idea and ran with it - asking for $5 matching pledges from his friends in Marfa with the intention of giving the cash to charity.

Terry, we love that our giveaway has inspired you - we hope selecting you as a winner will inspire you even further! Congrats!

WINNER #17: Photos

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:31:05 -0500

Sometimes all you need is a little encouragement… and it’s usually your friends who can help the most. Gina wants to help her friend get out of a rut with a walk around the city taking pictures. Sounds like a fun way to spend $5 to us!

i’d take the $5 and buy a roll of film for my friend Kate to shoot with. she’s been stuck in a rut and i think it would be a really great reason to take out the camera and walk around the city with a new roll of film.

Good stuff. Let us know how the pictures turn out!

WINNER #16: Little Misfit

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:00:05 -0500

Entries like Justin’s are the kinds of entries you hope to get in a contest like this. Who doesn’t want to see a baby with a full sleeve of Misfit temporary tattoos?

Justin, congrats my friend! If you send a picture with your tattooed one-year-old, we can just retire the entire $5 Friendship Stimulus and claim victory.

WINNER #15: Doing good for a do-gooder

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:10:05 -0500

Michael wrote to us about his friend who does lots of good things for people:

Hey guys. A very good friend of mine is always doing the
sweetest things for other people, volunteering at hospice and reading
singing ullabies to old ladies as they pass away, volunteering at
Make-A-Wish and making kids feel like there’s nothing wrong with them
at all, starting food drives at her work for the foodbank, and
generally getting information out about other people’s struggles. She’s also always making friendship cards for her friends with stickers and markers and whatnot to make them feel special. I’d like to take $5 to the dollar store and get stickers and glitter and other supplies to make her a fantastic card
so that she knows how special she is also.

It’s nice to recognize the people in your life who do the most good for others. I’m sure she’ll be really stoked! Take a picture of the card for us when you send it! Congrats!

You may recall Sen, our Winner #10, promised to right a wrong by...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:00:05 -0500

You may recall Sen, our Winner #10, promised to right a wrong by delivering his friend a free cookie. We made him promise to take a picture and Sen came through like a champ! Good job, dude! The best way to spread good cheer is with a cookie, I think.

Well done!

WINNER #14: TACO DELIVERY

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:59:51 -0500

It seems like so many of the $5 ideas we get revolve around food. But it makes sense because FOOD IS AWESOME. Especially food you can’t get normally. I can’t tell you how often I crave the amazing food of various West Coast-only food establishments… mainly because I can’t have them here in Virginia.

Jeff is here to save the day!

With $5 I could bring Del Taco direct from Los Angeles to my good buddies back home in DC on Christmas Eve. I mean who doesn’t want to support delivery of mexican food with crinkle cut fries? It’s a Christmas Miracle!

Christmas tacos! It’s a dream come true!

Jeff - send us your mailing address, you’ve won five bucks!

WINNER #13: BE THE HERO How could we resist this blatant appeal...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:11:00 -0500

WINNER #13: BE THE HERO

How could we resist this blatant appeal for us to send five dollars? A dozen roses, only $4.96!

Mary, sorry we can’t mail you actual roses - but hopefully the $5 will allow you to pick them up yourself and pretend we sent them. Congrats and send us your mailing address!

Winner #12: Happy Birthday

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:47:46 -0500

We couldn’t resist Ellen’s heartwarming story:

I’d like to treat my 93-year-old friend Eva to a piece of cake for her bday which is today!!! She’s provided my husband and me with many words of wisdom over the past few years and I’d like to give her a small treat to celebrate her life.

Surely I think we all deserve a piece of cake for turning 93! If we can give five bucks to make that happen, how can we say no?

Congrats Ellen!

Hopefully you guys remember our Winner #6 @axeylady who...

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:48:00 -0500

Hopefully you guys remember our Winner #6 @axeylady who promised she’d print out high quality photos of shirtless Ryan Gosling for her co-workers with her $5 winnings. Well, she came through today in a BIG WAY.

Look how happy she made her co-workers, all the with the power of $5 and Ryan Gosling’s inherent sexiness.

WELL DONE!

WINNER #11: Funding a Tradition

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:12:00 -0500

Today’s winner is Annie from NYC, who asks us to help her fund a longstanding tradition with her friend:

Hi! My name is Annie. My best friend Alisa lives in Philly and I live in NYC. When we were in college, we would celebrate momentous occasions- like receiving scholarships, getting accepted to a semester abroad program, or just for making it to class on time (8am classes are really early, okay!?)- with cheese fries and cherry cokes. We both recently got promotions at work but haven’t had a chance to celebrate together! I’ll cover the cost of the bus ticket to and from Philly/NYC, but do you think you could fund our tradition? We’ll take awesome pictures and tweet like crazy while enjoying our successes. Thanks guys!

Annie, we’re going to hold you to taking pictures and tweeting like crazy. Maybe you should do that on the bus ride too. Those can get pretty boring.

Congrats! And enjoy those cheese fries.

Ethan Hawke and Winona Rider prove that anything is possible...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:48:00 -0500

Ethan Hawke and Winona Rider prove that anything is possible with a friend and five bucks. Fast forward to 1:25 if you’re impatient!

(thanks Jen!)

For those of you just joining us...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:05:37 -0500

Here’s a little refresher on how to submit. Don’t be shy, it’s easy!

Submitting on Twitter (our preferred method of submissions):

I’d buy a small piece of fabric and some thread… then make a kitten pillow stuffed with @heyitsphil’s beard hair. #fivedollars

(notice that this person has tagged their friend and used our hashtag so we could find their idea out there on the internet)

Submitting over email (our second most preferred method of submissions):

From: Ryan.Yuckstown@gmail.com

Cc: Jennifer.yuckstown@gmail.com

My wife went to Michigan and I went to Ohio State. I’m going to buy a habanero pepper, then slice it up, then during the big game, we’ll each eat a slice every time the opposing team scores.

(notice that Ryan cc’d his wife on the submission)

Submitting on the site:

I’d fill my buddy Ted’s autographed Walter Peyton helmet that he keeps in his office with a delicious chocolate mousse.