Browse by Tags
-
Posted
Aug 20 2008, 09:24 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
When a Smart Spending message board reader posting as "jestjack" gave his daughter $10 for fast food, he expected to get back a bunch of change. He didn't. It cost his daughter more than $7 to get chicken strips, fries and a drink. In a thread called "Where have I been?" Jestjack remembered filling up his 1973 Chevy for $7. "I feel like I'm Rip Van Winkle," he lamented. "Anybody else going through sticker shock like this?"
Yep. In high school, I was able to get a cheeseburger and fries for less than a buck. Nowadays, I could easily spend $7 on the "extra value" menu. Or I could spend that money at Barriga Llena ("full belly"), a tiny restaurant that specializes in meaty Mexican sandwiches called tortas. I'd be supporting a small local business, and I might even practice my Spanish if I could be certain they'd hold their guffaws until I left the restaurant.
Read More...
-
Posted
Aug 18 2008, 12:29 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Last month my colleague Karen Datko linked to a post from personal finance blogger "Broke Grad Student." The short essay, "6 reasons why I hate cash," seemed at least partly tongue in cheek, especially since a couple of days later he followed up with reasons to love money. Yet the underlying sentiment -- plastic rules, cash stinks -- seemed genuine.
Broke Grad Student wrote his piece after making an ATM run to buy food at his workplace cafe. "Having to make the trip to get the cash (annoyed) me," he wrote. Good grief -- hasn't this man ever thought about getting cash back with a purchase from the supermarket or drugstore? Or, for that matter, about packing his own lunch?
Read More...
-
Posted
Aug 07 2008, 11:08 PM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
After a recent yard sale foray, I needed to squeeze what I'd bought into my gift closet. My "closet" is actually a big cedar chest bought for $15 at yet another yard sale. Because I'd been tossing stuff in higgledy-piggledy, I couldn't fit the new stuff in without reorganizing the stash. When I did, I was a little surprised to find out just how much I had.
Hardbacks bought at the dollar store (yes, they're by legitimate authors and no, there wasn't a mark on them) and at yard sales, plus quality fiction picked up for as little as 40 cents from the university bookstore's clearance table. Games, coloring books and a really cool fire truck bought pennies on the dollar a few months after Christmas. Unopened book-toy combos that cost as little as 50 cents at garage sales. Washable markers that were free after a drugstore rebate. Art card sets, gorgeously scented spa items, a craft kit, picture frames, candles -- all of it cheap. I felt like a frugal Santa Claus.
Read More...
-
Posted
Aug 04 2008, 12:06 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
On Friday I visited Office Depot for school backpacks at the killer price of $2.99. Along with other loss-leader school supplies, they'll be donated to a local social services agency. At the checkout, I handed over a "20% off all backpacks" coupon from an Office Depot mailer. The cash register wouldn't accept the coupon. "These are already on sale so the coupon won't work," the salesclerk said.
I noted, politely, that the coupon did not say "not good on sale-priced items." The cashier tried again. No dice. "It's not letting it go through," she said, and waited. I got the distinct impression she wanted me to say, "Oh, that's OK." But I wasn't going to say that, because my belief is that a store should honor its published offers.
Read More...
-
Posted
Aug 01 2008, 01:11 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Gas is expensive and food is going higher and higher. I'm not talking about today -- I'm flashing back to my teenage years. Times were tight between 1974 and 1976, when I ran the household for my father and younger brother. I remember how quickly the grocery money evaporated even though I made all our meals, desserts and snacks from scratch. Gasoline was not only costly but rationed during what was widely referred to as the "energy crisis."
People combined errands and stayed home a lot more. They cut back on nonessential foodstuffs, did without entertainment and new clothes, and generally tried to make their dollars go further. But this austerity didn't last. The age of conspicuous consumption cranked up in the 1980s, and cars seemed to get bigger each year. More than a few times I've said to myself, or to others, "Have we learned nothing from the '70s?"
Read More...
-
Posted
Jul 30 2008, 01:17 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Starting in January, Seattle shoppers may see groceries go up 20 cents per bag. That's because the City Council voted 6-1 to institute a fee for the use of paper or plastic bags at grocery, drug and convenience stores. If that doesn't get people to start bringing their own bags, I don't know what will. Twenty cents each adds up pretty quickly.
Councilmember Jan Drago, who voted against it, told the Seattle Times that the measure might make it look as though the council is not sensitive to the economic struggles of the average citizen. "It's about timing," Drago said, "not about the goal."
Here's what I think about that: There's never going to be a good time to try and get people to break a habit. They're accustomed to doing it that way and will come up with plenty of reasons why it just isn't fair to expect them to, say, stop using handheld cell phones while driving. (That's verboten in Washington state, although only 113 tickets have been issued thus far.)
Read More...
-
Posted
Jul 28 2008, 09:40 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
The past few days would have gone a lot more smoothly if I'd listened to MSN Money columnist Liz Pulliam Weston regarding the wisdom of those economic stimulus gift card promotions. For weeks I'd been mulling over the pros and cons of those cards, which are sold in $300 increments and come with a 10% bonus.
Liz thinks it's a punk idea (more on that below), yet I decided to go ahead. This move seemed cursed from the get-go (much more on that below), yet the experience reinforced a basic Smart Spending credo: Always keep your receipts.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jul 18 2008, 08:49 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Freshly
picked Rainier cherries melt in your mouth. At $5.99 a pound, they'd
better. This pricey indulgence appears in my menu only a few times a
year -- namely, on those occasions when I visit one of Seattle's
farmers markets.
These venues are jammed with heirloom tomatoes,
feathery field greens, dusty mushrooms foraged from Pacific Northwest
woods, jewel-like strawberries, peaches that yield sweetly to the
touch, radishes flecked with damp earth, sturdy maroon beets still
wearing their crowns. Much of the produce is organic. All of it comes
from small growers. To me, the best part of shopping this way is
knowing that a family farm is getting a decent price for produce.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jul 09 2008, 12:01 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Yesterday I was thinking about "hypermilers," those folks who go to great lengths to squeeze maximum mileage from their cars. While of course I strive for the best mileage possible, I don't hypermile -- with my car, that is. As a frugalist, I hypermile my whole life.
Meal plans, shopping, entertainment, transportation, utility usage, gift-giving -- all are done with an eye toward achieving maximum bang for the buck.
Plenty of you are right there with me, if posts on the Smart Spending message board and the comments about my articles are any indication.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jul 07 2008, 12:34 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
It can take years for a big Hollywood movie to get approved, let alone filmed. That's why I think that the parallels between "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" and our current economic situation are probably coincidental.
Foreclosures. Job loss. Hungry people lining up for food handouts. Families who can't make ends meet no matter how hard they work. But enough about today; let's talk about the Great Depression, the setting for "Kit Kittredge."
Read More...
More Posts Next page »
|
