Frosty, Arsonist: The Dark Side of Christmas Knick Knacks

Frosty: Not so cute when
he starts your house on
fire. Courtesy: MLive

Perhaps black magic was in that old silk hat they found.

Recently I read of a giant snowman snowglobe that, refracting sunlight onto nearby combustibles, caused $1.8 million fire damage to a Michigan couple's home. With no injuries, we detachedly titter at this "can-you-believe-it?" occurrence. The $100 snowman snowglobe proved less than festive.

Merchandise-gathering for my shop, Laura's Last Ditch, draws me to thrift stores, shelves a-burst with snowman decorations and their compatriots: ceramic Santas with elfin helpers, flocked reindeer figurines, angry Grinch ornaments, plush teddies sporting cheaply knit sweaters. I hurry to more practical goods, while my frugal mind reflects: Who purchases these things to begin with? Who will buy, their cuteness morphed to tasteless kitsch? What unrealized dreams dog their former owners, having burned their money on such baubles?

Thrift store shelves overflow
with knickknacks.

Every secondhand store drowns in them. Yet, for each trinket awarded precious shelf space, jaded volunteers deem another unfit. And several never see Thrift Land's back room jungle, instead taking one-way trips to their owners' rubbish bins. Others languish in over-filled Rubbermaid totes, realizing similar fates once time heals the pain of having paid for them.

Mindless spending on holiday tchotchkes dwarfs the nearly two million in damage inflicted by Michigan's errant Frosty. Well-meaning folk frantically buy last-minute gifts; substitute Target's ineffectual retail therapy for meaningful interaction; or plunk a doodad in the cart, deeming it cute, or--for clearance shoppers--too cheap to pass up, collectively wasting billions of dollars, not to mention natural resources.

Courtesy: Sound of Cannons

Has Frosty, arsonist, lit a little fire in your wallet?

We squander for clutter. We shop, while needs go unfilled all around us. We'd donate more if finances weren't so tight; we'd volunteer if we had time.

Courtesy: Mulier Fortis

This year, while others--allowing wee Frosties to incinerate dollars one by one--attempt to spread Christmas cheer by buying more stuff, let us decorate, instead, with a small candle of caring--by serving God, neighbor, and stranger, mirroring a babe in a manger who came to give everything for us.

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.

May our little flames become wildfire, warming frosty hearts everywhere, making for a very merry Christmas.

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Embarrassed to Be Me

When I first meet someone, I make an attempt to pass for normal. But, when I'm introduced by a friend, I realize it's already too late when I hear the inevitable, "So you're the one who ________ " (fill in the blank with something unusually thrifty, or some curiosity I've sold online). I feel relieved if it's only mildly embarrassing. 

Last week I volunteered at New2You, the thrift store that supports my son's school. Introducing myself to Kris, a fellow volunteer, she began, "I remember hearing about you"--Oh, no, I thought, wondering what strange tidbit she'd present--"from someone, but I don't know who, and I don't remember what." Could it be from the other Laura, about the distressed feminist T-shirt I rescued from the thrift store trash bin last time I volunteered, or could it be from Pam, about the lip balm tin, or..., The possibilities raced through my mind, but I successfully kept my mouth shut, reveling in a rare moment of being almost memorable, but not quite.

Perhaps it's because I was a misfit as a child, never quite so strange to be taunted openly, but unusual enough that the other kids would sacrifice their social standing by getting too chummy with me. My only truly loyal friend through middle school was a boy who sucked the spit from his braces at regular intervals. We'd play chess during lunch break. I think of him occasionally, considering if he ever outgrew his gawkiness. Part of me hopes not; the awkwardness was part of his charm.

I'd never want to relive middle school; I'm not sure anyone would. Perhaps if I had attempted to act more normal, I would've been accepted by my peers. But then I think of some of the most fun I've ever had. It was when I was being myself, with my friends.

And the most fun I've ever had volunteering at the thrift store? Definitely the time I rescued the T-shirt. Whenever I see Lora, she asks me if I've sold it. I trust I will, eventually, and I can't wait to forward the "Etsy Order Confirmation" email to her. We'll both be laughing. I'll probably even give a snort or two, even if it is embarrassing.

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10 Crazy Secrets to Saving Money on Printer Ink Cartridges

When I hear people decrying the high cost of printer ink, I cannot join the lament because it costs me almost nothing to print. While some of my strategies won't work for you, some may apply to your situation. Read on, for 10 crazy secrets to saving money on printer ink cartridges:

I can find ink for my old printer at
garage sales and thrift stores.
Courtesy: 360 Technologies

1. I use an old printer, from 1998, for which it's easy to find ink cartridges very inexpensively on eBay, at garage sales, or thrift stores. If you have more than one printer (if you see another one in the trash or really cheap at a garage sale, you might want to pick it up), you double your chances of finding a good deal on the right ink cartridge.

2. Know what kind of ink you use, so you can take advantage of thrift store or garage sale bargains. Expired ink, even ink that is several years expired, is usually fine. Writing your ink types on the back of a business card kept in your wallet, or keep a memo on your iPhone.

3. Exchange your used ink cartridges at an office supply store for store credit. An ink cartridge you paid $2 for could yield $2 in store credit once you've used the ink. If you use your store credit for something you have to buy anyway, this essentially makes your ink free. For that matter, if you're driving down the road and see a printer in the trash, stop the car and nab the cartridges to exchange, even if you leave the printer behind.

4. The pen is your friend. Print less. If there's only a small amount of information you might need, grab a pen and scratch paper to jot down pertinent information; or, if you can just save it on your computer or flash drive, do that instead. 

5. Reduce the size and print quality. The method varies by operating system, but in Windows Vista and Windows 7 (which is all I can vouch for), in the "Print" pop-up window, go to Properties, and in the Paper/Quality tab, choose "draft;" in the Layout tab, I often choose two pages per sheet. Not a good idea for a doctoral thesis, but it will be good enough for many applications.

6. If you're printing a document for which you can choose the font, choose a thrifty font. Some fonts use far less ink than others.

7. Proofread and use the Print Preview feature so you don't have to reprint due to a typo or other error. If you need to make multiple copies, print just one first, to be sure everything is fine, so you don't end up with 20 sheets that have errors. Depending on how cheaply you find your ink, it might be less expensive to use a copy machine to make additional copies rather than printing them all on your printer.

8. While you're saving ink, you can save paper, too. Make a stack of scratch paper with blank back sides, and keep it near your printer, so you can save your good paper for when you really need it.

9. Don't print this blog post. 

10. Did I miss anything? If you have any other strategies for saving ink, please comment!
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If You Love Garage Sales a Little Too Much

Courtesy: Frugal Cafe

Most tightwads love garage sales and thrift stores. It's really fun to shop them, but sometimes you bring home a "bargain" and wonder, "What was I thinking?" Unless you purge religiously, you probably can gather up several boxes of this stuff. You can donate it and get a tax deduction if you itemize, you can sell it at your own garage sale or Craigslist and maybe make a little something, or you can sell on eBay and make quite a bit.

The average person has no idea what to sell on eBay. In fact, if I showed you three photos of random items, you'd probably guess wrong on all of them. There's a Weird Al song about eBay my favorite line of which is, "The kind of stuff that you would throw away, I'll buy on eBay." This is true. Is it junky? It might not matter--I once sold a pair of very worn vintage whisk brooms from a trash pile for $41. Is it worthless and useless? I've sold an empty lip balm tin for $20. Is it obsolete? Probably not so obsolete no one will buy it (check out what Polaroid film goes for, and VCRs). What about your trash? Some of that sells, too! My point is that almost anything can be eBayable, and you won't know unless you check the prices.

To check prices on eBay, you need to sign in, put something into the search box, then click on "completed listings" in the left hand column. This way you will see what items have sold for, not just what the asking prices are. You can sort items from highest to lowest sale price, or vice versa. If you find you have something good, list it. If you don't know how, just dive in and figure it out as you go along. I started out knowing nothing, and now this is my family's main source of income. If you get hung up on trying to do everything "right," you'll never start, and never succeed.

The good thing about selling on eBay, aside from the obvious bonus of making money, is that once you work through selling the junk around your house, armed with your new-found knowledge of what sells and of what you like to sell, you can now go to thrift stores and garage sales with a new set of eyes,eyes that recognize what you can eBay. Now you can get your shopping fix and make money. But there's that saying, "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach," to chastise a person who has taken more than he or she could possibly eat. It's easy to do that while shopping for eBay fodder, too. Just have to be careful not to buy too much, because it will cut into your profit and clutter your home anew.

Ready to try it? Let me know what happens!
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Lower Expectations = Stress-Free Christmas

Think her mom ran all over town trying
to find the season's hot gift?

People think kids need presents for Christmas--and lots of them--hundreds of dollars' worth per child. Parents even let the kids dictate, to a certain extent, what they want, via a wish list. Many of these same kids are ferried around, allowed to dictate the dinner menu, and have parents who do almost all the housework. Parents are relegated to a serving role while kids are coddled. Is it any wonder, then, that Christmas is a financial and emotional drain? What if I can't find the hot toy on my kid's wish list? I'd rather run from store to store, or overpay on eBay than disappoint my little princess!

Does this come to your house? Cancel it.

But, we can teach our kids that it's not about me, me, me, and model it ourselves by not demanding the latest gadgets or fashions, a bigger house, or faster car. We can practice contentment, using our resources instead to take care of our own financial obligations and to care for the legitimate needs of others. And we can teach discernment with advertisements, such as, "Yes, that remote control helicopter with built-in video camera in the Toys R Us ad looks really fun, but it doesn't look well made, and it would probably break after it flew into a wall, and all we could do is throw it away, and that wouldn't be a good use of resources," or, just promptly recycle the ad. And point out that, "Yes, your friend Suzie has some really great American Girl dolls with all the fancy accoutrements, but     (list trade-offs here, such as day care, stress, less leisure time)         in order to work to pay for those fancy toys and a big house to fit them in."

Remember simple Christmases, by
buying this plate you don't need.

If we teach children right, we needn't worry they'll be deprived. It's loving, caring parents they need, not a bunch of fancily wrapped packages that become outgrown, broken landfill fodder, or clutter bound for U-Store-It. Remember  Little House on the Prairie, how the Ingalls girls delighted in oranges in their stockings?

Kids need to learn to care about others. I have a friend who lets her kids decide, in lieu of a bunch of presents, which non-profit organization to donate to each Christmas. Kids can have such big hearts when it's cultivated and modeled by the adults in their lives.

We get our son one or two gifts for Christmas, from a garage sale or thrift store. He remembers what they were. He enjoys them, more than a toy we might buy last-minute from the store, throwing something mildly appropriate into the cart amidst a throng of last-minute shoppers, just so he'll have a haul as big as his friends'. Raised this way, he does not expect a Christmas-morning windfall. A kid with other expectations will need to be told ahead of time that family priorities are changing--not because times are tight, necessarily, but because excess consumption doesn't really provide lasting satisfaction, and it does not fit with the family values.

But a parent who isn't stressed, who doesn't need to work overtime, and who teaches values that matter is the best gift of all.
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