anniemiz

Thursday Thrift: Fix It First

Today's topic is fixing stuff before throwing it out, if possible.  I think there's some catchy phrase for this concept, a la Reduce! Re-use! Recycle!, but I can't think of it at the moment.  The idea is pretty basic: if you can, fix something before you throw it out only to buy another one to replace it.

Today's example #1 is the shower curtain.  The shower curtain's  a few years old.  It was in pretty good condition except for a) a few tiny holes that don't affect its usage and that I'd be hard pressed to find if I had to and b) about half of the shower curtain ring holes had ripped.  Especially the ones on the end, which does affect how well you keep the water in the shower and off the bathroom floor.  Typically, one would buy a new shower curtain and, I confess, I have done that in my more frivolous past, but no more!  I've signed on with that Dyson guy: 'I just think things should work properly.'  Amen, brother!

And so with the shower curtain, I think, 'Why aren't they designed in such a way so that the holes last as long as the remaining 99.5% of the curtain?'  It's like throwing away your winter coat bc a couple of buttons fell off.  So, a while back, I had read about somebody who put grommets (I really like the sound of that word, for some reason) on his shower curtain.  Also a while back, I bought a grommet kit.  I (well, Kevin did most of the work, but I did the all important jump starting of the project!) recently got around to putting the grommets on the curtain.  No before pictures, but here's a picture afterward:

 

So I fully expect this thing to last a good long time.  I dunno if I'll keep it that long bc, as you can see from the circa late 1960s/early 1970s wallpaper, the bathroom is in dire need of a makeover and the curtain may not work in the new look.  But it will last until that new look comes along (which will probably be a good long time) and perhaps beyond for someone else.

Example #2 is the dishwasher rack.  I do have a before picture bc the dishwasher (which is a portable one) was leaking and we were thinking about selling it/giving it away so I took pix to email/post somewhere.  But then I decided to look into repairing it.  I think Kevin thinks I found the necessary part and fixed it myself, but actually I called a local appliance repair guy (Kevin used to read my blog at work, but it's behind a firewall now, considered 'entertainment' or 'non-essential' or something like that, and for some reason he never reads it at home so, bottom line, he doesn't read it anymore and so my secret is safe with the rest of the world).  I paid $70 for the guy to come out, figure out the problem, clean out some gunk.  When the part came in, I paid $110 for the part, but he didn't charge me anything more for the second visit to put it in.  So $180 to fix it.

But it did still have these rust spots and the tops of many of the prongs were rusted. I bought this uber goop stuff fixed a bunch of the rusted spots and caps.  Before:

 

It's kinda hard to see the rusty areas in the above picture.  After:

 

And:

 

I would like to get more caps and do most, if not all, of the remaining ones.  So, for about $190 (plus $10-$20 for more caps and goop), it will be fixed. For now.

It might develop some major problem that would preclude fixing it v. buying a new one.  Decent new ones go for about $500.  And I have to say that I have zero complaints about this dishwasher.  It has been a real workhouse for over 10 years; I forget when we got it; maybe 15 years ago now.  And, since the kitchen is in even more dire need of a makeover, I'm happy to just have this one last until then (whenever that is).  For two people, we manage to run it almost every day, sometimes twice in one day.  We do cook and bake a lot at home and Kevin does manage to use the maximum number of pots and pans when he's in the kitchen.  We do use real plates (from thrift stores and old ones we had) for the cats bc they seem to do better with them versus paper plates.  It was more important when we had cats that took their medicine in their food; the medicine stayed in the food until the food was gone and didn't get absorbed into the paper plate.  Plus, although we are washing the plates in the dishwasher, we're also not throwing out tons of paper plates.  And the paper plates end up everywhere!  They slide all over the place...under furniture, only to be found months later...and they flop over easy...onto carpeting.  Ick.

Well, I gotta go get ready for work.  Ciao, bellas! 
 
 

Thursday Thrift: Resolve

Wow.  It's been about a month since I last blogged.  It seems longer, but it's only been the month.  I'll start right in again with Thursday Thrift.  I'm too lazy to cursor my way to what I was blogging about, money-wise, this time last year, but I'm pretty sure I yapped about budgets.

So, yeah, I made up a budget at the beginning of the year.  Used it for a couple of months.  And then that was that.  I'm thinking this year to just focus on one part of the budget.  I won't undo the budget set up in Quicken; that's set up already so every time I enter income/expenses they'll just continue to post to the right categories.  And there are a lot of categories.  I think this year I'll focus on one category and see what I can do with it.  Which category?

Groceries.

I refuse - adamantly! - to admit how much we spend on groceries, but every week I think anew, Damn, that's a big dollar amount.  There are small families (families with a small number of members, not families with small members; for some reason, I felt I needed to clear that up) who spend less than we do.  And it just seems so wrong.  So, yes, my Thursday Thrift resolution for 2010 is to decrease the cost of groceries.  We'll see how that goes.

Thursday Thrift: Holiday Thrift

Today's Thursday Thrift tips come from Woman's Day November 17, 2009 issue.  The cover promises '127 Ways to Celebrate for Less'.  Here's a few:

Shop for Less - According to WD, the mall is a terrible place to shop for less, unless you really know what you're doing (dunno what that means).  Instead, try:

• your house - again, dunno what they mean here; I think they mean to look around your house and see what you already have that might make an appropriate gift; perhaps a friend has always coveted the fancy old atlas you inherited from your Uncle Magellan...it doesn't impress you, but your friend might treasure it
• online - you're more likely to stick to your budget if you cut out the touchy feely aspect of in-person shopping; you're less likely to give in to physical sales pitches
• craft fairs - handmade and sometimes inexpensive; I like to go to crafty places when I travel and get a reminder of the trip; e.g., I often try to find a pair of earrings during my travels; I wear earrings almost every day and so some earrings remind me of a fun trip whenever I wear them; but WD's point is that you can often find lovely gifts at reasonable prices at crafty places
• thrift stores - especially good for friends that appreciate the frugal and/or the funk that can be found in thrift stores

Plan It Perfect - *snort*  The word 'perfect' has long been written out of my vocabulary.  I scoff in the general direction of perfection.  The article's point is that when you end up running out and grabbing gifts, you end up spending lots more than you would have if you had planned ahead.

• create a schedule...of dedicated times to shop within the two months before the holidays; some shopping trips will be for holiday meal ingredients; some may be for gifts; put these trips on you calendar like appointments
• set your budget now ...their financial expert says to imagine how much money you'd be comfortable with gone from your savings account right after the new year; if you're okay with $1,000 going MIA and it's 10 weeks until Christmas (or whatever you celebrate), put $100 into savings every week so you have $1,000 to pay the bill in January.  I suppose you could just pay cash or use a debit card at the time of purchase.  If I know the money's coming out of my checking account today, I'm more likely to spend less.  Personally, I find any payment deferral tempts me to spend more. 
• allocate your budget...according to what you want to do this holiday season.  If you want to see people, spend your money on having a wonderful dinner to which you invite the people you most want to see.
• make your lists... plan ahead as far in advance as possible, including holiday menus, and make lists for the different kinds of shopping you need to do, e.g., gift, ingredients, etc.

Three Things You Shouldn't Spend a Dime On

1. wrapping paper - reuse incoming wrapping paper; have kids decorate plain white paper or construction paper (of course, that paper comes from somewhere); also, pretty pictures from magazines, old calendars, etc.
2. present mailing - bc you're being so organized and planning so far ahead this year, you'll be able to hand out gifts as you see people during the holiday season; for giftees who live out of town, buy online from sites that offer free shipping and to whom you don't have to pay sales tax
3. cell phone overcharges - catching up with people during the holidays may put you over your minute limit; buy a phone card now if you think this may happen to you

Thursday Thrift: Budget Chic Lifestyle I

So last week's Thursday Thrift topic was tips (courtesy of the Star-Ledger) for dining out thriftily.  Another article in the series is Budget Chic Lifestyle.  The article stresses the role of creativity in living less expensively (they say 'cheaply', but I find that word so aesthetically displeasing).  E.g., one person quoted uses plastic bags from Target as garbage bags and makeshift shower caps.  Forsooth!  (Now there's a quality word.)  Most creative.  Here are some of the suggestions; the rest will be in a future post.

1. Quit the gym and rock out doing stuff around the house.  E.g., if you have a cleaning service, fire them, pump up the volume and make your housecleaning into a workout.  Also, weather permitting work out outside: in the yard, helping a friend/neighbor/relative do something around their house, use the exercise stations at public parks, etc.
2. Pot luck & clothing exchange.  Invite your friends over; everyone brings a dish; plus they bring clothes that are in good condition, but that they no longer want/fit into/etc.; everyone tries on stuff, takes some items home and you've livened up your wardrobe for the cost of a covered dish.
3. Barter.  Everyone has something they can offer others...a thing or a service.  The classic barter item is to swap childcare related activities with other parents, e.g., taking turns driving the carpool or watch your friend's kids if they need to go somewhere w/o the kids.  There's probably lots of things we all have or can do that would be of value to someone else, but we don't even think of ourselves in that way.  I also think that relying on others in this way helps to strengthen relationships.
4. Puzzle night.  Buy some cheapo puzzles, invite your friends over, form teams and race to see which team finishes first.  I guess you could do this with board games, electronic games, backyard games (which reminds me: I bought a fab retro badminton set on ebay a couple of months ago and I totally forgot about it!  Now it will have to wait until spring.), etc.
5. Make your own coffee.  Kevin does this.  He used to have some at home in the morning and bring the rest of the pot in a travel mug for his drive in.  Now that he takes the train in, he just has coffee at home (being the law abiding citizen that he is, he doesn't bring food or beverages on the train).  He used to get coffee during the day at the cafeteria at work, but then his floor got one of those Keurig machines.  They have to supply their own coffee nodules, though, so he buys a bunch of boxes a few times/year.  Keurig coffee is more expensive than homemade coffee, although I don't know how it compares to coffee shop coffee (e.g., Starbucks).

Thursday Thrift: Read (and Follow) the Instructions

So I'm reading the washing machine manual the other day, looking to see how to soak some stained kitchen towels before washing them, in an effort to get out the stains (and zomg! it worked!).  After slaking my thirst for knowledge re: soaking things in hot water, detergent and bleach, I continued reading, it being a riveting read.

I actually learned several handy things about better using my own washing machine.  The most important thing was that I was reminded that this washer is the 'Super Capacity Plus' washer.  Huh.  I'd forgotten about it.  Kevin further reminds me that we bought it so we could wash more clothes more efficiently (or something) and so that we could wash large things, e.g., quilts, bedspreads, etc., w/o having to go to a laundromat or send it to the cleaners.  This all sounded vaguely familiar.

Truly surprising (as surprising as appliance-related revelations can be) were the loading suggestions in the laundry tips section.  Here they are for the Super Capacity Plus washer:

Heavy Work Clothes

• 4 jeans
• 4 workpants
• 4 workshirts
• 2 sweatshirts
• 2 sweatpants

Towels

• 10 bath towels
• 10 hand towels
• 14 wash clothes

Mixed Load

• 3 sheets (1 king, 2 twin)
• 4 pillowcases
• 3 shirts
• 3 blouses
• 9 t-shirts
• 9 shorts
• 10 handkerchiefs

Besides the idea that anyone in this day and age might use handkerchiefs enough to have 10 to wash at any given time, I was quite surprised at the size of the suggested loads.  I have not been washing loads this big.  Thinking back on my laundry habits, I seem to recall that I did wash large loads when we first got the washer.  Some time after that, I helped a former neighbor out when she had premature twins, including a lot of laundry.  She asked me to make smaller loads, and I did, but I do believe it was then that I began to doubt myself.  I didn't think that she likely didn't have a Super Capacity Plus model.  Maybe she only had the Super Capacity model.  Maybe she only had the Capacity model, poor thing.  Those twins are now in (I think) first grade so I've been washing smaller loads than necessary for that long.

So how much energy have I've been wasting?  It was too complicated to look up my particular model's energy usage, figure out how much electricity has cost over the past 6 years, etc. etc., so I'm just going with averages.  Mr. Electricity very helpfully has some average data on the cost of washing machine use here.  I didn't check the accuracy/plausibility of these figures; I simply trust in the power of Google and the internets.

• Let's say 75% of my loads are warm wash/cold rinse; 25% are hot wash/cold rinse; that's prolly too high on the latter, but we'll go with it.
• Mr. E says those loads, using gas heat to heat the water, cost $0.27 and $0.39, respectively.
• I prolly do 6-8 loads/week; so let's say 7 loads/week. Holy moley, that's a lot of laundry. That's a load/day. I should have something better to do.
• Let's say 5 loads are warm wash/cold rinse and 2 are hot wash/cold rinse.
• And that this has been going on for 6 years (it sounds so illicit).

Putting my math cap on (which is a very tight fit, btw):

• 5 loads x $0.27 = $1.35
• 2 loads x $0.39 = $0.78
• so 7 loads = $2.13
• for 52 weeks that's 364 loads = $110.76
• for 6 years that's 2,184 loads = $664.56

Now, figuring that each load was 75% of the maximum load capacity, I'll multiply $664.56 by .25 (25%) to get the excess spent on washing clothes which = $166.14.  Divide that by 6 years = $27.69/year.  Hmph.  Well, that doesn't seem like very much.  Of course, one can always find a better use for money that practically throwing it out the window, but this is a less exciting answer that I anticipated.  It's so late on a Thursday that I'm going to go with this anti-climatic topic bc I don't have time to work up something else.

But there's more to the waste than mere money.  There's the wasted water and the wasted time.  I won't say that there was similar waste wrt the clothes dryer bc I think the washer can successfully wash larger loads than the dryer can successfully dry.

My point,, and I do have one, as undramatic as it may be, is that I wasted time, money and natural resources by not using my washer properly.  I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't quite a few practices throughout the household that result in similar waste.  Using my washer correctly is not going to make or break my retirement, but it, along with other small changes, will keep more money in my wallet v. going to the utility company.  It's also more efficient time-wise; I don't know about you, but I don't feel that doing laundry is quality time with myself.  And, perhaps most importantly in this instance, it reduces the amount of water I use.

BTW, longtime readers will recall that I am most definitely not a math major.  It's embarrassing how much time it took to figure out the above.  So if anyone has corrections to the calculation, I'd be delighted to hear them.

Thursday Thrift: Your Local Library: CDs

Today's Thursday Thrift is pretty much a PSA for your local library.  So.  We all have ipods or mp3 players or the like now, nu?  You could buy CDs and then download them to your players.  Or you could buy the songs online.  Or you could get the CDs from your library, download them, return them and spend $0.00.

Let's face it: many, many CDs are not keepers.  It's the same with books: some are keepers and others, once read, are not the worth the paper they're printed on.  E.g., Pride & Prejudice is surely a keeper (like you didn't see that one coming).  Pride & Prejudice & Zombies might be a keeper...keepability is subjective.  I could be wrong about this, seeing as I haven't read it yet, but I'll venture a guess that Untamed Billionaire, Undressed Virgin is probably not a keeper (great title, though!  who thinks of these things? and how much do they get paid to do this? and how can I get that job?).  But what do I know?  I often wonder if my tastes are too parochial.

Anyhoo, you decide what you do and do not want for keeps.  And whatever you don't want, borrow it from the library.  Now, our library's CD collection is pathetic.  It's beyond small, limited or any other respectable word for 'meager'.  It's all the way to pathetic and then some.  But enough about us (btw, if you click that link you'll see the thoroughly unimpressive and sloppy website maintained by me, local library webmaster...*snort*...I still can't say that without laughing...I don't know wtf I'm doing).  The thing to note is that the library's website has a link to the online catalog.  That catalog covers what's called the MAIN consortium, i.e., all the libraries in Morris County.  Any library that is part of a consortium should have a link to their online catalog on their website.

Plenty of other larger and more metro libraries have big collections...some even still have LPs!  Your library prolly has inter-library loans (or some similarly-named arrangement) whereby you request that an item from another library be sent to your library for you to pick up there and borrow.  In our consortium, it usually takes 3-4 days for stuff to arrive, although it could take longer.  If the item is very popular, e.g., the newest James Patterson or Janet Evanovich book, it could take a while to get to you.  That can be frustrating when you're dying to read the new book by your favorite author, but I'm sure you can find something else to read until your book comes in.  Basically, it could take longer or shorter to get your requested item based on:

• if the item is something new from a popular author/artist/whatever; it can take weeks/a couple of months to get crazy-popular stuff
• if the item is not new, but a popular reading club selection, e.g., The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society has been out for over a year now, but reading clubs are still selecting it
• the item is not new, but something in the news sparks interest, e.g., the movie about Julie Child has resulted in a lot of requests for her books
• if the item can't be located right away (e.g., yesterday and still today I couldn't find a book another library's patron wanted so I marked it missing and now the request will go to another library)
• library closings, e.g., scheduled, holiday, weather, etc.

Now, what if your consortium doesn't have what you want?  You or your library may be able to search outside of your consortium.  I did this a bit when I was in school.  E.g., we have something called JerseyCat (love that name, obvs).  Patrons can search for and request the desired item from other consortiums (consortia?) and libraries throughout NJ.  JerseyCat's search feature seems a little less intuitive and user-friendly than the MAIN online catalog, so you can usually ask your friendly neighborhood librarian to help you search JerseyCat or search and request the item for you.  Most of our patrons' JerseyCat requests are placed by staff, but a few people use it regularly and place their own requests.

At least wrt JerseyCat:

• requests submitted by patrons need to be approved by their home library staff; e.g., if a Boonton patron submitted a request from home last night, a Boonton staff person will see it when they check our account with JerseyCat; most requests are approved, but...
• ...requests for wildly popular things that should be in every library, let alone every consortium, will most likely not be approved; e.g., every library has at least one copy of every Harry Potter movie and book, so Boonton would not approve a request for that in JerseyCat
• JerseyCat is supposed to be for things that are not available within your own consortium
• libraries are not required to provide requested items; e.g., the Trenton Public Library is not required to loan me their copy of Basic Data of Plasma Physics if doing so goes against their JerseyCat loan policy or, basically, if they just don't want to
• it will take longer to get an item through JerseyCat; it involves more processing on the part of the loaning and borrowing libraries; it jalso ust takes longer to get a book to Boonton from Cape May County than from Mountain Lakes, which is right next door to us; there is a van service that goes between the libraries, but not all libraries are connected; sometimes the material travels via old fashioned snail mail
• some libraries may charge for JerseyCat items, although we do not and I haven't heard of anybody doing so

The other neat thing about borrowing library CDs is that you never know when you'll come across something new or at least new to you.  E.g., one of our patrons recently borrowed an old David Bowie CD, Pin Ups, from another library.  So then I borrowed it and enjoyed it...I thought it was a lot of fun.  Now, I saw it bc I work at the library, but if you peruse your library's online catalog you'll be requesting stuff left and right.

Well, I'm off bc I have to go take care of something in the kitchen.  I'm working on an ingredient to try in another batch of chili this weekend.  It might just supply the certain je ne sais quoi that I felt the last batch was missing (although no one else seemed to think it was missing anything...I think so...but I don't know what!).

Thursday Thrift: Dining Out

Och, I'm awake earlier than usual (and necessary!) today bco some kitty making a racket this morning.  'Some kitty' indeed.  I would normally blame Miles bc he's always getting into something so he gets a sort of blanket blame, but I knew fer sure it was him when I saw that someone had knocked a bunch of stuff off of a bathroom shelf.  He has this fixation with Q-tips and, once he spies them, will go to any length to get them.  I have to admit that he is adorable running around with a Q-tip in his mouth or when I find him asleep with a Q-tip.  In short, I can't get mad at him.  Or any of my cats; I certainly can't stay mad at them.

Today is Thursday which means it's Thursday Thrift here, not Friday Cat Blogging which is on, well, Friday.  Somehow those cats creep into everything around here.  They're like a fog that settles over everything.

On second thought, maybe I can stay mad at Miles.  I'm still yawning.  Gotta get another shot of diet coke.  Easy for Miles...he'll just be settling down into his daytime nap (approx. 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.) when I'm leaving for work today.

In January, I posted about the first in a series of articles published in December, 2008 about thrift in the Star-Ledger.  The second article is 'Be Thrift on the Homefront' and discusses ways to save on food and energy costs.  Let's see what they have to say about dining out.

1. BYOB.  Yes!  Definitely.  Alcohol is much more expensive when purchased from the restaurant.  Bonus: Presumably, you know you like whatever you're bringing to drink.  Con: If you're fussy about food-wine matching, you're bringing wine that may or may not well match whatever you decide to eat.   I wonder if people who BYOB drink more...hmm.
2. Look for deals.  Check newspapers, mailers, etc. for coupons, BOGOs, etc.  I would think that 'look for deals' pretty much applies to everything.
3. Dine early.  Some restaurants have senior discounts; others have kid discounts/kids' menus or kids eat free deals.  You don't have to be an oldster to take advantage of early bird menus.
4. Bring half your meal home...and have them for lunch or dinner another day.  Bonus: A popular weight loss tip is, when you order your meal, ask to have half of it packed to go before they bring it to you.  No temptation to eat the whole thing when you're no longer hungry, but the food is as yummy as ever.
5. Order cheaper items.  E.g., order appetizers instead of entrees; share entrees of several appetizers when dining with others; order off the bar menu; etc.
6. Sign up for restaurant email.  You'll get emails with coupons, special offers, etc.  You'll also get emails about other stuff, so it's a tradeoff if you're concerned about the amount of email you receive but end up deleting.
7. Get take out.  Provide your own drinks; no tip (or at least a minimal tip at the take out counter; certainly less than what you'd tip a waitperson); maybe you already have at home the fixings for part of the meal, e.g., salad or dessert.
8. Eat out at lunchtime.  Lunch menus are generally cheaper bc the meals are smaller.  There may also be lunch specials.  E.g., my usual lunch haunt has lunch specials, but not dinner specials (except on Friday& Saturday nights).  Yes, the lunch portions are smaller, but I still often end up taking half of that with me and I might leave it at work to have for lunch the next day.  Sometimes, when it's going to be a long day at work and I'll be there for lunch and dinner, I'll get a lunch special at said haunt, have the cup of soup that is an option with a lunch entree (or salad) for lunch and then have the entree part for dinner later.  So lunch and dinner at work for $7-$8.
9. Don't skimp on the tip.  Although I heartily approve this message (having been a member of the second oldest profession in the world), I'm not sure how this saves you money.  If you go to the same places regularly, it probably helps ensure you get good service.

To the above suggestions, I'd also add:

• Try restaurant.com.  The deal there is: You buy restaurant gift certificates for at least 50% of their value.  Sometimes they have sales where the certs will be, e.g., 50% off the 50% price.  So a cert originally valued at $10 regularly sells for $5 at restaurant.com, but if you get on their email list or somehow or other learn the current magic sale code you get it for $2.50.  Restaurant.com must have some kind of deal with Kevin's employer bc employees occasionally get emails with some special code to get even more $ off.  Anybody can use the codes, not just employees.  You get an email that tells you how to access your certs and then you print them off.  Notes: Sometimes there are restrictions, e.g., a particular restaurant's cert might be good Monday - Thursday (which is still handy bc sometimes you just don't feel up to cooking and if a meal out costs you maybe 75% less than usual, why not?).  Others might specify a minimum expenditure or minimum number of guests.  So read carefully before you buy the certs.  If you like to give gift cards, I think restaurant.com offers some kind of gift card.  You can also buy them as if buying them for yourself and then print them off, but I think the gift card would look nicer.

I was going to also blog about the article's tips for grocery shopping, but I gotta get a move on and this moving of which I speak is not going particularly fast this morning.  I'm sooooo tired that I just want to close my eyes and put my head back right here and now in the comfy chair, but I know I'd fall asleep again in seconds.  So I'll leave the article's grocery shopping tips for another day.

Thursday Thrift: ebay

ebay.  What would life be like w/o ebay?  I don't even ebay that much (my # is <100), but I find it valuable.

First, it gives an idea of how much people will pay for something.  I have this system where, as I find stuff I don't want anymore and that's still in decent condition, I mark a price on it and put it in a box for some future tag sale.  My prices are very reasonable; for the most part, I just want to move the stuff on to someone who can use it.  E.g., I got some no name bath stuff as a token thank you gift; it probably cost $7.99 at WalMart (and it may well have been a re-gift and there's nothing wrong with that); it's now marked 50 cents for the whole basket.

Sometimes I wonder if something is worth more.  I'll look on ebay to see what people are willing to pay for it or something like it.  That item I'll mark with a higher price; still a price less than what people are paying on ebay just to make sure it goes.

Second, it gives an idea of what people are asking and paying for something, even if I expect to buy it at a brick & mortar store.

Third, it gives an idea of what's available ito brands, quality, availability, older but funner models, etc.

Fourth, and finally, it's obvs a different way to buy stuff and often cheaper.  A couple of recent examples.

Sheet Sets - Sheet sets are ridiculously expensive.  It is not uncommon for a queen deep pocket sheet set to be on sale at $75.  As they say over at Cute Overload, that's just redonkulous.  I don't want fancy sheets; I just want simple, 100% cotton sheets.  For starters, with 6 cats there are certain items for which we've learned to not pay a lot.  E.g., carpeting and rugs.  We had some wall to wall installed, but soon learned that bare floors with inexpensive rugs are a better option bc the cats just end up yakking  (among other things) on it.  In fact, Kevin got some old Persian rugs on ebay really inexpensively; I think the shipping was more than the price of the rugs.  I don't feel so bad trying some harsh cleaner on or hosing down a room-size rug that cost <$100.  Also: go for darker, multi-colored patterns!

Enough about how to best camouflage cat yak against one's decor.  So I wanted some new sheets, but did not want to pay $75 on sale for them.  Nosey's just going to sneeze on them, I'm just going to get cracker crumbs and diet Coke or a nice cuppa tea on them, Kevin's just going to sweat up a storm on them (hence no flannel sheets are allowed chez nous), I'm just going to launder the stuffing out of them due to aforementioned affronts against textiles, etc.  So I noodle around ebay, checking out the bedclothes (I love that word; it sounds so medieval).  I eventually bid $24.99 (incl. shipping) on a plain white, queen size, deep-pocket, 400TC, 100% cotton sheet set with two extra pillowcases (so 4 in total).  Okay, white is a bit boring, even for me, but what the heck.  Now yes, I'm taking a chance bc the sheets might feel like sandpaper.  And actually, I took a double chance bc I bid on a second set w/o first winning, receiving and trying out one set.

Things worked out well.  I've laundered and am currently using the first set I won (the white set) and I like them.  I especially like the extra pillowcases bc Nosey sleeps between the pillows and gets his black fur (and I guess his white fur) all over them.  So I can change the pillowcases before I'd change the sheets.  I'll use the second, green set next and since they're the exact same thing except for the color, I expect I'll like them as well.  Here's the picture from ebay; I got the white set at the top of the left stack and the green set third down on the right stack.

Pinking Shears - I had a pair of pinking shears that were probably ~25 yo, but practically brand new bc I hardly ever used them and kept them well.  I recently needed them, but could not find them.  I imagine I put them in some safe place which means they'll be found by whoever ends up handling my estate.  Fortunately, my MIL loaned me a pair to use until I finish my current project and/or find my own pair, whichever comes first and who knows if either will happen.

I looked and looked and still didn't find my shears.  Kevin suggested I go out and buy a new pair since that will most likely cause my old pair to turn up.  Though true enough dat, I didn't really want to buy a brand new pair of pinking shears.  Good quality sewing shears are expensive; I don't need two pairs (albeit one missing pair) of expensive pinking shears.  So ebay it is.

Now, one thing about ebay that is similar to shopping in person is that it's possible to end up buying stuff you don't truly need and weren't even looking for in the first place until you saw them on ebay and decided, Hey!  I want that!  And, I admit, so it was with me.  I was looking for a the usual size pinking shears, 7"-9" or so, but OMG there was the cutest little pinking shears evar up for auction!  5-1/4" total length with 3" blades.  So I bid on and won those.   Fortunately, the whole sordid affair only cost $4.99 ($2.99 + $2 shipping).  I have received those:

 

They're a little stiff and a good cleaning and sharpening wouldn't hurt them, although they do work as is, but it's nothing a quick visit to the hardware store won't fix and did I ask you aren't they the cutest thing?

I did also bid on and win a larger 9" pair, but haven't received those yet.  The total cost of those was ~$10. 

Again, you're almost always taking a chance of some size when bidding on ebay stuff.  I try to mitigatge the chance by only bidding on sellers with excellent feedback ratings.  You might think that a rating of anywhere in the 90%s is good, bc that would be an A in school ! but not in ebay.  I never bid on anything sold by a seller with a less than 99% feedback rating.  The sheet seller had 99.7%, which is great considering that he's had 57,000 ebay transactions.  The scissor sellers (2 different sellers) had between 1,800 - 4,000 ebay transactions and both had 100% feedback ratings.  Sure, there are reasons why a seller might have <99% feedback rating, but someone else can figure that out and give them the benefit of the doubt.  There are enough sellers and things for auction that it's easy to stick with sellers with >=99% ratings.

Another thing that might derail the thrift of ebay shopping is getting caught up in the bidding.  I was the only bidder for the sheet sets and the small shears, so I got those things for the minimum bid.  There were 5 bids in total for the larger shears: me, some other bidder, me again, some other other bidder, then me again for the win.  I did what's known as sniping.  That's when you wait until seconds left in the auction then place a bid that you hope will outbid the current high bidder.  I usually don't snipe bc I don't pay that much attention to what's going on with my auctions, the items are generally not must-have items for me, etc., but this time I happened to be around when the auction was closing so I sniped and did so successfully.

IIUC, the powers that be at ebay discourage sniping, but oh well for them.  Kevin uses ebay a lot.  He's kinda off his stamp collecting at the moment, but he got a ton o' stamps from ebay.  He's currently on his coin collecting and wins several auctions/week.  He's pretty much done with U.S. coins bc he's got most of the ones he can afford.  He's moved on to foreign coins, mostly German and German-state coins.   He does a lot of sniping and, I must admit, usually successfully.  His motto is, 'You live by the snipe, you die by the snipe.'   Tough talk, nu?

So.  As you can see, I've used ebay a bit and had some luck with it.  I am by no means an expert on finding bargains on ebay so I'd love to hear readers' stories and tips around using ebay.  And now, my frugal friends, that's all for today's edition of Thursday Thrift.  See you next time!

Thursday Thrift: Laura, Girl Reporter

Like Lois Lane before her, my co-worker Laura is bound and determined to get the scoop...but in Laura's case, she wants the scoop on bargains  And she wants those bargains bad.  One of her favorite things to do is prowl thrift stores for quality clothes at great prices.  On several recent occasions, she very kindly obliged me by wearing some of her bargains to work  to share with readers.

Here she works the always flattering 3/4 shot in an ensemble that consists, I believe, entirely of thrift shop finds, with the possible exception of her underthings (I'm assuming she's wearing underthings, but really, wouldn't it be even cheaper to do away with underthings altogether?).

Shoes, too!

 

Another day, another ensemble:

 

IIRC, Laura paid approximately the following for the above items:

• purple cashmere sweater: $5
• white tee: $3
• white pants: $6
• black flats: $5
• red 100% cashmere full-length coat: $10
• jeans: $5
• blue shirt: $4
• black layering shirt: $3

At some point I'll get a picture of some righteous, truly nearly new black leather boots she picked up for $10.

Laura will pay a certain amount of $ for certain items.  Under her guidelines, the $10 boots would be a splurge.  She also has certain strategies.  E.g., she knows the schedules for the various shops she likes: when new stuff is put out; when reductions are made; when the seasonal shift in merchandise happens; etc..

She only looks at items priced in a certain way, e.g., one store's tags are color coded.  Just-in items have a certain color price tag.  After a while, they're reduced x% and sport a different color price tag.  I believe that at that store Laura only looks at items with the tags colored for 50% and more off the original price.

She's got a number of stores she likes, but will check out other stores.  She and a friend recently made a tour of thrift shops in some of the tonier hamlets in our fair state and were not greatly impressed.  I doubt she will return to them anytime soon.

Laura looks for items in good condition, of good quality (cut, materials), with good fit...I had no idea that much -- perhaps most? -- of her clothes are thrift store finds.

Some of her favorite stores:

• Nearly New Shop in beautiful downtown Morristown, NJ; this shop is sponsored by the Junior League of Morristown
• The Bargain Box, also in Motown; proceeds support the Women's Assoc. at Morristown Memorial Hospital
• (I know there's more...will update shortly)

My own experience with area thrift shops is meager.  I visited the Nearly New Shop, but since I was squeezing the visit in that day, I did not have enough time to do more than get the lay of the land.  I also visited the Goodwill Store on Route 46W in Fairfield, NJ.  It's a large-ish store.  Clean.  I spent a good amount of time checking out almost every department.  I came away with one shirt, a royal blue 3/4 sleeve fitted number, for a grand total of $3.74.  I thought it was about $7 (an amount which Laura would never pay), but some kind of discount appeared at the register.  Everyone who has complimented me on it is informed, whether they wish it or not, of the enormity of the bargain that was had.  I expect to mosey my way through more thrift shops and will let you know what I find and learn.  I'm afraid I'm not much of a clothes person, so I imagine I'll be looking in the shops for other items as well.

I admit I seriously perused the baby clothes for something I could easily alter for Miles, but the most suitable item had the wrong team logo on it.  I don't think Kevin could abide Miles, as adorable as he is, wearing a Philadelphia Eagles tee shirt.

 

Thursday Thrift: Cheap v. Thifty

Gaaaahhh!  I just lost this entire post!  I'll repost later.  Grrrrrr.

Okay, I'm back and no, I didn't lose my post on purpose just so I could post that picture of a fierce cheezburger cat.

So.

The Star-Ledger ran a four-part series called 'Cheap Thrills' last month.  It's all about the new black, i.e., frugality.  The very first paragraph of the first part:

Once a word used to describe embarrassingly stingy tightwads who favored inexpensive, tasteless items of poor quality, "cheap" now means chic, hip, fashionable and most of all, smart.

Now, IMHO, this is just part of the story.  Wrt the first part of the definition: There's nothing necessarily bad about being cheap in this manner.  If you like inexpensive, tasteless (and taste is up for debate, even when it comes to items almost universally recognized as kitsch) items of poor quality AND it works for you AND you're happy, then rock on.

Cheap has also meant and continues to mean - at least for me - obtaining things, services, experiences, etc. via questionable means.  Such means might include saving money by stiffing your waitperson (who provided good service) all or some of the tip for good service.  Or saving money by stuffing eats from an all-you-can-eat buffet into your purse, briefcase, diaper bag or what have you.  'All-you-can-eat' means all you can eat at this meal, not all you can ever eat if you were only given the chance.  That's screwing someone else over in order to save money and that, my friends, is cheap.  It is not cheap to bring home leftovers from an a la carte meal.  You paid for that entire portion and leaving leftovers at the restaurant is like (say it with me now) leaving money on the table.

Even though there's nothing morally wrong about being cheap in the first sense of the above definition, it does seem like an ugly word, does it not?  Perhaps that's due to the sense of cheap I described in the above paragraph.  Ugly by association.  I prefer the word 'frugal' or 'thrifty'. 

Getting back to the first article, Adopting A Frugal Mentality: Here are 5 tips to release the inner frugaleer (?  thriftine?  ) in you.

1. Change your mindset.  Amen, sister.  Thrift is a way of life guided by what you've determined is important to you, no matter what your financial situation.  A less expensive car could mean lower car payments for you which could then mean more money at your disposal (figuratively speaking, of course) for paying down credit card debt, retirement, college tuition or outfits for your 11 cats - whatever you value.
2. Don't worry about the neighbors.  Seriously.  Neighbors, peers, colleagues, etc. - they're great, but live to please yourself, not them.  Oh, and family!  Don't worry about what your family thinks of you.  And that goes for lots of things.
3. Think before you buy.  Ever since beginning The Great Budget Experiment of 2009 mentioned earlier, I've been really thinking before buying anything.  And I mean anything.  Earlier this week at work, I concluded that a diet Coke with lemon from  Roma would indeed be worth the $1.50 it cost, if only for the short-term jolt (these 5 day weeks are killing me).  And I spent about $5 on suction cups.  So so far I've spent about $6.50 in unplanned discretionary spending.  (I also spent $9 on lunch out, but I've budgeted a certain amount for some lunches out during the work week, so that's planned discretionary spending.)   Try being an intentional consumer; you might be surprised at how much you don't spend.
4. Look for deals everywhere.  Sure, clip coupons to grocery stores, but also for department stores.  Use online coupons.  There are websites out there that list promo codes for online shopping.  If you shop somewhere on a regular basis, see if they have a rewards program.  The very tasty Mara's has a rewards program under which the basic reward is a $5 coupon (off anything and no minimum purchase) every time you spend $100 (cumulative, tracked on a member card, not all at once).  Plus, you get free stuff on your birthday, your partner's birthday, your anniversary, the owner's birthday, the owner's grandkid's birthday....  For realz.  It's like they'll have a promotion for any reason.  Ask if there are any current or upcoming promotions.

Let's recap.  Cheap in the negative sense (not to mention uncomfortable):

Cheap in a positive sense (it's a win-win for all concerned):

Any questions?