Following Wal-Mart’s announcement in late September that stores across the country would expand last year’s holiday come-on of ten toys priced at $10 to 100 toys this year. The list includes such desirables as the New Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Action Figures, board games including Monopoly and Battleship, Tonka trucks with light and sound, the Play=Doh Burger Builder Set (for those young wannabe burger-flippers in your family, and even a Nerf sword. Among other items.

So it was probably to be expected that competitor Target would come up with an alternative plan to get shoppers into the stores during what is expected to be a dismal holiday shopping season. Target’s come-on is to offer a selection of toys discounted up to 50%. Whether that offers more savings to cash-strapped parents than the guaranteed low prices at Wal-Mart remains to be seen.

For parents who really have to buy a few ‘regular’ toys for young children this may be a good deal, as there are unlikely to be any new Transformers or Nerf swords at Goodwill. But definitely keep the resale outlets in your planning, for such things as winter coats, dress-ups for girls, trikes and bicycles, those ubiquitous plastic child cars and play sets, etc. And it’s always possible to find one-of-a-kind items they just don’t make any more that would be perfect for someone on your list. Kitchen canisters, spice racks (may have to give empty), wooden utensil sets and many other things that are more opportunistic than planned as gifts.

The whole 50% off thing sort of reminds me of when I got a 2-day job in North Chicago while my husband was in A-School (Navy) many long years ago. I had small children and he was only there for 10 weeks, so getting a regular full-time job was very unlikely. It was at the area’s Carson Pirie and Scott department store for an upcoming late summer half price sale. One day helping prepare, and the opening day of the sale as floor help in Women’s Wear.

I showed up at the appointed hour, the store was closed in preparation for the sale. Turned out our job as temps was to replace the price tags on all the items in our departments – with the ‘original’ price doubled so the sale price underneath was exactly the same as full price was just yesterday. What a scam! Then the next day we braced ourselves against the huge crowd of revved-up shoppers who had been waiting for hours on the sidewalk. Nothing can really prepare you for watching a bunch of frenzied women with credit cards literally fighting over bras, sweaters, skirts, dresses, jeans and other items they only THINK they’re getting cheap. Clothes were flying everywhere, some things got ripped in half. It disgusted me enough that I never have trusted sales gimmicks ever since.

It wouldn’t hurt to check up on the going prices for some of those items you’re supposed to think you’re getting a great price on before you go to the big box stores to spend hard earned money. You might really be saving on that $20 item now going for $14.99, but you could be making it up on that peripheral item that’s been marked up to double. It might be a really pretty candy plate with angels and Aunt Ruth would love it, but if your experience suggests you could get the same useless item at the Dollar Store for $2, $9.99 is way too much. Retail is a little like a gambling casino. Sure, there are occasional winners, but the house always wins in the end.

Autumn is well upon us, and people who have been struggling to stay afloat in this lousy economy all year are now faced with the prospect of the coming holiday gifting season. Which can be daunting in the best of times, but can be positively depressing for those not used to not having cash or credit for the consumerist frenzy. This post is about helping to trim the gift list if you haven’t done so already, plus how and where to find gifts for loved ones that they may cherish forever, help maintain and spread the joy of the season, and not cost an arm or leg.

Previous Posts:
Christmas in a Depressed Economy
‘Tis the Season: Gift Ideas

1. Analyze your gift-giving habits, trim the tree.

In our free-wheeling consumerist culture the Christmas shopping season represents half or more of retailers’ annual intake and an average middle class family’s greatest expenditures on unnecessary items for the year. If your family is struggling, the credit cards with their usurious interest rates have already been cut into small pieces and thrown away, consumer loans have been paid down or frozen in place, and promises to self not to spend more than you’ve got have been made. Don’t change a thing just because the holidays are coming!

If you have a lot of friends and extended family for whom you’ve bought gifts in years past, networking with them early is a good idea. See if doing something other than gifting this year could be a thankful relief to them as well as you. Pot-luck holiday get-togethers are fun, and no one person has to provide all the food and drinks. “Re-Gifting” parties can be great fun too, where you give some trinket you got from someone else in the past (it’s been just taking up room in the closet or on the shelf ever since) to someone else. Chances are someone will remember who gave Fred that hideous tie he’s never worn and laughs will ensue. The holidays are for fun, so have some!

If you’ve got children, find out what they want most instead of just gathering their wish lists of every toy they’ve seen advertised on TV. For children old enough to know Santa isn’t Bill Gates, one big gift can be better than ten little ones. Items like bicycles, roller blades and other sports equipment can be purchased second hand and refurbished, maybe personalized with glitter paint and trim. Go for things they’ll really use and enjoy, stay away from basic junk.

2. Seek out mainstream and even obscure second hand, consignment and/or junk outlets in your area.

There’s nothing like serious holiday shopping among the hugely varied items at a resale outlet, where the perfect something for someone on your list could be found. Often area churches, animal rescue outfits and civic organizations host thrift shops. In many places there are great private resale shops that offer amazing items from art to furniture, crockery to costume jewelry. Don’t overlook those even if you also plan to shop at Goodwill or Salvation Army.

I’ve found beautiful handcrafted chess sets and boards, totally unique hand-whittled puzzle boxes, antique glassware and china, beautiful jewelry boxes, hand-crafted doll houses, etc. in some unlikely haunts. Sometimes something just needs cleanup and a couple of touches, sometimes you can put a lot of yourself into it with a new paint job or fixes, and again you can always personalize. Commercialized junk doesn’t tend to become someone’s most treasured keepsake. Remember it’s all about the thought and effort, not about the price tag.

3. Know your local resources.

If your area has a Freecycle club, think about joining. You can get rid of some of your closet-clutter and maybe get items for gifting. Great for baby furniture and accessories, bicycles and such, often tools, household items, yarns and needles, fabric and sewing machines, books, clothing, home repair and building supplies, etc. All free.

Keep up with your area’s want ads and garage/yard sales as well. Spending Saturdays thrifting and bargain-hunting can be both fun and rewarding as you add to your collection of things “perfect for…” whoever will most love that gift. Your time and effort adds to the value of any gift you give!

4. Think Creatively!

Many people don’t know that you can make a wonderfully colorful and snuggly warm blanket out of a stack of old sweaters. They make great stuffed animals too, if you’re handy with a sewing machine. Purses out of old jeans, sparkled up with some craft store jewels and studs are always welcome presents to the teen set. For younger girls a box full of sparkly costume jewelry is great, as is a laundry basket chock full of fancy dress-up items (including high heels and hats!). For already-creative young’uns, a bunch of items from which they can salvage feathers, beads, trims, etc. may be just the thing. Art supplies can often be found second hand in areas where artists are, I always buy up as much paint, brushes, pastels, pencils, charcoals, canvases, sketchbooks and whatever else as I possibly can.

5. Have Kitchen, Will Travel.

Consider pouring your heart into food for family and friends this year. Make batches of yummy fudge, lots of Christmas cookies, try your hand at hard candies, etc. Such things are always most welcome during the holidays even if they don’t tend to last long in a crowd! If you have to go to the company party and are expected to bring a gift, fudge always works even better than some cheap soap or cologne or tie, and you don’t have to worry about whether you’ve drawn a man or a woman’s name from the hat.

6. Gift of your time and talents.

Have a friend or relative working two part-time jobs, barely getting by and who could really use a night out? Know a caregiver who is stressed to the max? Stumped for something for the teenagers? You can make some beautiful cards (post on that upcoming) and include ‘tickets’ for babysitting, house or pet sitting, a home-cooked meal (at their convenience), even a movie night in your den using your big-screen TV and DVD player. To be redeemed later.

Whatever your talents are or time you can spare, it can be gifted. If you sew, you can gift that. If you cook, gift that. If you have a vehicle, you can gift chauffeur duty. If you paint or craft, you can gift those too. There’s no reason to spend money you don’t have on things to give away to others who may not need or appreciate them just because it’s the holiday season. If you plan wisely and aren’t shy of new adventures, this could turn out to be the most holiday fun you’ve had in years! Even better, once the real spirit of the season infects you, it’s hard to get rid of even when the economic situation isn’t so tough any more.

So start planning, see how much fun you can turn this into by involving your kids, your spouse, your friends!

I stumbled across a really terrific blog post today on one of my regular check-ins dedicated to the automotive industry. It’s RideLust: 15 Beater Cars That Won’t Disappoint, and it makes the case for the very best deals among ‘Brand New Used’ vehicles that can be had for under $2500 (that’s a deal that can’t be beat by much these days!).

Sure, sometimes you can happen across the Greatest Deal On The Planet just when you happen to need it, as explained in my previous post A Car, A Car, My Kingdom for a Car!. In lieu of that sort of deal, Ryan has lined up some really good ones. There’s the legendary long-lived staples like Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, but a surprising number of Detroit-produced cars that will at least be good for nostalgia’s sake if they all go under in the current crisis.

As for me personally, we have one of those ’90s Chevy S-10 pickups. It’s an honest workhorse, didn’t cost an arm and leg, and isn’t all that difficult to work on (if you’re into that sort of thing). These are the smaller pickups that can still manage a half a ton of cargo if you need it, but manage to get mid-20s mileage. Gas isn’t going to be as cheap as it is today forever, you know.

So if you or someone in your family has a need for a nice gad-about and you don’t have a lot of money to waste, check these out. Then do your homework for dealers or sellers in your area that have used stock, make your best deal. Merry Christmas!

Links:

RideLust: 15 Beater Cars That Won’t Disappoint
A Car, A Car, My Kingdom for a Car!

My eldest grandson graduated from high school in the top 10% of his class a couple of months ago, for which we are inordinately proud – he was taking courses like advanced biology, pre-calc, physics and advanced literature/writing, which most kids around here avoid like the plague. Now we’re facing the costs of getting him through college, since we raised him and of course we will.

We have had to seriously crimp some of our expectations about how this could happen, as things have changed both personally and societally since our children were in college. First, they don’t give out full scholarships to incoming freshmen around here, no matter how well they do in high school. You have to start with your basic Pell Grant and complete at least two semesters before you’re eligible for scholarship or extra grant money. The Pell Grant won’t come in until the second semester because the process doesn’t even start until the student’s already enrolled, so tuition must be paid up front out of pocket, along with all fees and the cost of textbooks.

So for our grandson, we have made concessions. He will work for his father in another state through the fall, save up money to be put toward tuition, books and transportation (or one of those, since they’re all necessities). That means not starting college until January. That will give us time to save for the tuition.

We’ve also decided to begin his academic career at the area community college rather than the university his mother graduated from, because the first year or two is just basic requirements, the CC offers them in a straight transfer program, and the cost is less than a third what the university costs for a full-time student. That way if he does well, he can get into the scholarship system quickly, including those from university when it’s time to make the change.

Tuition at our Community College is less than $700 per semester, which leaves $300 from the basic level Pell Grant to pay for everything else. $300 won’t even buy him lunch, so saving on the cost of books – which can often add up to tuition for the course – is required. Luckily, the CC here knows it’s in an official “economically depressed region” and offers cool alternatives. Most courses have online sources for lesson material, so students needn’t purchase textbooks at all. There’s also a lively book exchange, a used book option, and even a lending library on campus. So we’re hoping to get by at least the first year without having to buy any books at all.

At higher levels, however, he’s going to WANT to purchase books – he’ll want to keep them forever, as source material he can readily access in his future life. So I have found a couple of sources of very good information on how to save a bundle on college textbooks. If you’ve got someone in or getting ready for college, the tips will serve you very well! Check them out:

10 Tips: Save on college textbooks
MSNBC: 10 ways to save on college textbooks

Last month I asked the question, Is It Depression Yet? and linked quite a few opinions of economic pundits about when the recession no one in DC cares to admit we’re in will turn into a full-fledged depression.

In going down the list of ominous signs that we’re going down for the third time, the key ingredient apart from a burst credit bubble was rising oil prices. Well, this last weekend gasoline went over $4 a gallon, and diesel was pushing $5. So while families and workers in cities can start taking mass transit to work and school and just stay home this summer instead of driving to the Grand Canyon, the price of diesel – which runs all our shipping fleets, trucks and trains – is going to cause swift inflation in the price of food as well as everything else that is transported from here to there. It is no longer a wild conspiracy theory that oil will go to $200 a barrel, now projected by the end of this year and possibly right around election time. It could hit $150 this month and no one will be shocked.

Thus I read with interest an article in the June 9 New York Times entitled Rural U.S. Takes Worst Hit as Gas Tops $4 Average. A survey by the Oil Price Information Service did a survey which showed that the price of gasoline has its biggest impact on rural areas, particularly in the Southeast, and that for the people euphemistically called the “working poor” the cost of just getting to work and to the store is quickly eating as much of their income as food and housing. Since their incomes are not rising and aren’t likely to rise, the situation for people in rural areas of the south, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas will soon become a choice between food and transportation.

In that previous post asking what signs will tell us we’re in a depression (since our dear leaders in Washington will never admit it), the moment that transportation becomes effectively unaffordable for people who have no other transport options, depression is upon us. Now, the millions of rural or suburban Americans who have to quit their jobs because they can no longer afford to get to work will not show up in the unemployment figures the government releases each month. Because if you quit your job rather than getting laid off, you won’t be getting any unemployment insurance payments. So the government figures – always low by a large factor due to not counting anyone not receiving benefits, will be low by much larger factors. When we can safely multiply the government figures by tens (where 300,000 lost jobs really means more like 3 million jobs lost), denial among the political class won’t be fooling anybody in the real world.

Mine is a rural family. Worse, we live in the hard-hit Southeast. Even worse than that, we live in Appalachia, which is and has always been an official “economically depressed region.” Jobs are scarce and getting scarcer, and commutes can be long. Outside actual cities of 100,000 or more mass transit is nonexistent. I work from home (which is nice), but daughter works in retail, grandson will be starting college this fall (and must drive unless he can share an apartment with a friend close to campus), and hubby’s job involves considerable travel in the region. The boss tells him that if gas goes to $5 a gallon he’ll have to simply close it down.

So what I’ve been doing is looking at some possible alternatives that don’t involve selling the property at cut-rate price and moving to some dingy city we’ll hate. My ‘vintage’ diesel Mercedes has been parked for months now, is probably going to be the first vehicle to go. Daughter’s will be second. We have to keep the pickup truck because this is a rural homestead and we need it. We’ll just have to keep it parked most of the time.

I’m thinking our best bet is some motorcycle type of thing. Because while a bicycle would be a healthful alternative, this is the mountains. No one in their right mind wants to bike 15 miles to work on steep mountain roads (where you’d end up walking it instead of riding it). So it looks to be your basic Barley Harley scooter or glorified Moped that gets about 100 miles per gallon. With that sort of mileage you can put up with some rain and wind, and spend a bit more time getting to and from (can’t use the interstate!). Turns out that you can buy a used scooter for a few hundred dollars, but it may need repair and that’s usually a few hundred dollars too. Yet fairly reliable transportation for under a thousand dollars is a pretty good deal, and the cost of running it saves a lot on gasoline. There are also brand new scooters for under a thousand dollars, which might be a wiser investment.

I’ve discovered that you can also buy saddlebags, trunks and baskets that would allow me to use the scooter to do minor grocery shopping or carry some things while traveling. This is quite a plus. A good ski outfit and well-styled rain gear will get me through rough weather, but do they make any helmets with windshield wipers?

So if rising prices are cutting deeply into your way of life, you might want to check around your area and some of the information and supplies sources listed below to see if there’s a good alternative for personal transportation in your future. Or, I suppose, we could spend the money on a horse and convert the little Honda into a carriage. How about a donkey and cart? I figure that if America wants to be a Third World country (parts of it already qualify), we might as well look like one.

Links:

Rural U.S. Takes Worst Hit as Gas Tops $4 Average
Go Motor Scooter Blog
Motoscooter Muse
The Advantages of Scooters
Motorscooter Economy

Many of us watched with serious confusion the strange financial market machinations that led to the Fed bailout of investment bank Bear-Stearns, taxpayers taking on bad debt paper held by speculators rather than any actual member of the central banking community. JP Morgan bought B-S for mere pennies on the dollar, ending up buying for just a 5th of what B-S’s Madison Avenue headquarters building is worth – the rich folks have taken their hit. What matters now is how much of a hit the average cash-strapped citizen will have to take.

Government bailouts of junk paper speculators is outrageous, and does not a thing to help homeowners whose mortgages far outstrip the current reduced value of their homes – while the price of every necessity is going through the roof. Yet at the same time Fed chair Ben Bernanke pledged to “do all that is possible” to help struggling homeowners. There actually may be hope on the horizon, though nobody should bank on Fed “pledges.”

What should a homeowner behind in mortgage payments (and unable to catch up) hold out for? With the cost of everything going up quickly, there isn’t much incentive to hang on to an overpriced mortgage or the increasing fees for being hopelessly behind. If the homeowner still has a job, here are the things to insist if the mortgage holder is willing to negotiate…

1. Reduced principal. Tell the holder you don’t want a property that’s worth tens of thousands less than what you bought it for in an inflated market.

2. Reduced interest. Tell the holder you don’t care to pay 13-20% interest over 20-30 years and certainly aren’t looking to be able to afford a balloon payment in this economy. If they won’t re-set to a flat rate of 8% or less, tell ‘em you’ll send a postcard from wherever you end up.

3. Make sure they re-set the whole thing so you start fresh in the new mortgage. Don’t agree to start over already behind, and don’t accept imposition of ‘points’ on the renegotiation.

In some states courts have determined that the debt has been bundled and resold by speculators so many times that no one actually holds the mortgage paper. This means homeowners cannot be foreclosed on if no one can prove they hold the debt. If this is true in your situation, you just might come out ahead! At least, until the markets figure out how to re-do everything, and in your favor if you insist. They can’t re-do anything you won’t go along with.

And while you’re negotiating, remember that even with a low fixed-rate mortgage you’re still paying 3 times the actual price of the property over the life of the loan. That’s the way it works, and this is not going to change. It’s a trade-off for the real property asset – but useful only so long as it’s an actual asset and not a lead weight on your ability to get by in the world. If the feds can bail out the wealthy speculators, they can bail out strapped homeowners. If they won’t do that, there’s nothing wrong with walking away.

Being a “bad credit risk” in an economy where no credit is being extended anyway isn’t much of a problem. By the time the economy climbs out, just about everything will have to be re-set. If you take to heart the many resources available to conduct your life without going into debt (brand new used!), you’ll get by better than many others.

Links:

MSNBC: Mortgage Mess

Bernanke pledges to help troubled homeowners

Banks may lose $325 billion over mortgage mess

The Beauty and Style site List Maven has posted a linky article entitled…

35 Accessories Made From Recycled Materials

It’s truly imaginative. I particularly like the crocheted plastic grocery bag necklace, though I use my plastic grocery bags as trash basket liners if I forget to take my many forever re-usable canvas bags to the store with me. And I’ll definitely have to make my grandson those computer key cuff links for the prom, since he’s determined to win the Duck brand Scholarship for best Duct Tape tuxedo…

In this last entry on our 20 ways to live on little-to-nothing, some further ways to take honest stock of your situation and prospects, plan accordingly, and make use of systems already in place to stretch the dollars you’ve got left.

16. Who Are You Supporting?

If your habit is to always buy new, who is that supporting? In a serious recession, it’s probably not supporting some skilled worker in a factory in your area, since the US has already stripped its manufacturing capability to almost zip. Are you supporting the call center bill collectors? Do you really WANT to support them?

The capital class does not need your pity, they’ll be fine. You and your family are your primary concerns, no one else. Stop worrying what “they” want from you, pay strict attention to what YOU need from you. This is a situation where pride can definitely precede a serious fall, so swallow it.

17. Budget and Stick To It

If your income is a bit bigger than your ‘necessary’ expenses, the place to change habits is in discretionary spending. Hang onto your home if your debt isn’t upside down. Some will want to get out from under the big bills anyway during a serious recession that looks to last a decade or more for most citizens, but a positive net balance allows time to do that without filing bankruptcy.

In order to buy that time it will be necessary to limit discretionary spending rather drastically. It is possible to come out the other side not bankrupt. If bankruptcy is unavoidable, make the best of it to start a whole new life!

18. Don’t Buy New If You Can Buy Used

When you’re figuring out how much money you’ve got to have in order to live, don’t include things you can get for little or nothing. And don’t buy anything if you haven’t got the cash on hand. Even very nice clothes – business suits and formal wear and such – can be purchased secondhand for a fraction of cost new, and if you’ve a good sense of style you’ll look great even if you don’t spend much.

Used vehicles cost thousands less than new ones. Used appliances cost less than new ones cost. Used furniture can be every bit as comfortable and stylish (or eclectic) as your decorating sensibilities can imagine. Reupholstering isn’t that hard either if you can work a sewing machine. And if you can work a sewing machine, your decorating options expand accordingly!

19. What’s Your Time Really Worth?

Hardly anyone believes they’re being paid enough by someone else for what they do. And too often, that’s absolutely true. As the price of everything rises, you’ve got a choice – get a second job or step out of the rat-race by putting yourself to work for yourself. If you’ve contemplated a second job, then you’ve time to spend elsewhere, on something else.

This may involve getting involved in an alternative economy of some sort. Barter is the strongest of them, and there are barter networks all over the place if you go looking for them. Trading what you can do for what someone else can provide you skips the whole cash thing entirely. The plus of belonging to a barter network is that often you’ll get paid in cash for what you offer, as the buyer may have nothing you need. Think of it as your second job, and soon you’ll find you’re worth more than the “Little Hitler School of Middle Management” boss thinks you are.

20. Freecycle and Thrifting

You can get free clothes, household goods, major appliances, building supplies, baby stuff, furniture, even vehicles, farm and garden equipment and whole buildings on occasion! So long as what you want isn’t too much, and you’re willing to delay immediate gratification you don’t have to spend a cent other than the cost to pick it (whatever “it” is) up! If it’s not available free, seek great bargains used.

With a minor change of mental focus it’s easy to get excited about “Brand New Used”, and spending little or nothing can be even more rewarding than spending a lot on things you don’t really need and won’t last long anyway.

Posts to This Series:
Part 1: Items 1-5
Part 2: Items 6-10
Part 3: Items 11-15
Part 4: Items 16-20

If you enjoy Selena’s video, don’t forget to check out her blog! There’s plenty more knowledge where that came from…

Previous Posts About Thrifting:

Thrifting: It’s An Art Form!
Credit Crunch: How to Survive the Recession
Living on Less: The Alternative Economies
The Payoff: Thrifting and Re-Selling
Free Yourself from Debtor’s Prison
Tips for Avoiding Pressure to Shop
Craig’s List: Great Resource or Scary Place?

A good friend read my post It’s Better than Cheap… It’s Free! and mentioned Craigslist as another very useful resource for the sale and exchange of items, along the lines of the Freecycle Network. I had never made use of Craigslist and wasn’t very familiar with how it works, so in this post let’s look at what it actually has to offer those of us trying to live well on limited budgets.

Craigslist is a lot broader in scope than the Freecycle Network, which maintains local sites devoted exclusively to the exchange of ’stuff’ for free – you advertise what you have to give away or want someone to give to you, and responses are routed through the administrators (sans personal information) to facilitate the exchange. In contrast, Craigslist advertises community news, businesses and services, housing, personals, for sale items and job openings (or wanteds), just like your local newspaper’s want ads – but much, much moreso!

There are local lists serving most cities and a lot of countries, just like for Freecycle Network. If your needs are fairly general, Craigslist might be more useful for some things than simple freecycling, given that it also has a section that basically IS freecycling. The list also offers a section for bartering, where you can exchange something you have or can do for something you want or need. Bartering is part of the notorious “underground economy” the IRS is constantly frustrated in trying to tax, but let’s face it – the government would be better advised to try and get its money from people who actually have money, rather than from people who have little to none.

Craigslist was founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark in the San Francisco Bay area. He incorporated in 1999, and now operates with a staff of 24 people. It does charge fees to place ads unless the exchange involves no money. In 2004 eBay purchased a 25% stake in the company, but so far that hasn’t changed its nature. The company projects an annual revenue for 2007 in the $150 million range – this is not a non-profit enterprise.

It hasn’t been without its controversies, either. in 2006 Craigs List was sued by the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law for allegedly allowing users to post discriminatory housing ads in Chicago that violate the Fair Housing Act. That suit was dismissed as more stringent rules were applied. The list also got in a bit of trouble in 2006 for publishing email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, photos, etc. in its ‘personals’ sections, something the Freecycle Network guards studiously against with its admin firewall on direct communications. In September of 2007 a woman pled guilty to running an underage prostitution ring through the list, and in October a young woman was found murdered after replying to a list ad for a babysitting job. These are the very type of things responsible social site managers should take real precautions against, no matter how much money they’re making.

Craigslist has been criticized for being a lot like Wal-Mart in local communities, where it challenges local small businesses like the retail giant does. Yet for those of us who honestly cannot afford to spend money we don’t have on some overpriced item from Mom&Pop – or who just refuse to do it – who’s complaining?

But as long as you’re careful – and that advice is good no matter what resources you’re using to help stretch your budget – Craigslist does look to be a useful resource for exchange, barter, selling used items (when you don’t want to give them away), finding ‘gigs’, part or full time jobs, and the community forums might put you in touch with people who share your interests. It can be a good way to advertise a home business or art/craft items you make and wish to sell, and it does offer free ads for free items/services and local volunteer efforts of all varieties.

If you’re interested in checking out Craigslist generally or locally, the links below will get you started. Any reports from readers about their experiences with the list will be helpful too, so don’t hesitate to comment!

Links:

Craigslist Sites

Craig’s list Overview

Great tips about using Craigslist

How to stay away from Craigslist Scams and frauds

Wikipedia: Craigslist