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!

As we move into 2008’s extended holiday period, more than a few families are wondering if there will be a Christmas this year. Sure, some retailers are going all out to stay open long enough to see if anybody’s buying this year, but with consumer credit at a virtual standstill, international trade languishing on the docks and jobs being lost by the thousands every week, it’s a no-brainer that this Christmas isn’t going to be ‘the usual’ consumer spending orgy of Christmases past.

Presuming that your family still has a home, can heat it, and enough income to put food on the table, there are ways to have a festive, meaningful Christmas without going further into debt and without ending up with cheap Chinese junk that nobody really wants or needs.

The best thing you can do for your family is Make Your Own, and involve the kids! We save old Christmas cards in a box in the closet, pull them out around Thanksgiving and use them, plus various saved papers, made papers, trims, sequins, glitter, buttons, studs, etc. to make brand new Christmas cards for the people in our lives. Scissors and glue, a paper cutter, maybe some cutsey hole punches and lots of odds and ends, these cards inevitably get saved by every Mom, Grandma or other friend/relative who gets them! And kids are especially creative in this area. Sure you’ll have to clean up the mess, but a great time was had by all.

There are schedulers, list-keepers, budding writers and artists in just about every family. So another great gift are notebooks, journals, sketchbooks and schedulers you can make or buy. My friends over at Casual Keystrokes have compiled a worthy list of the best of the best journals, notebooks, sketchbooks and schedulers available online, some of them offer great deals and discounts.

If you really want to put some ’self’ into it, the ideas and designs of some of those items Keystrokes suggests can be used as models for do it yourself gift projects. My grandson learned how to make leather bound notebooks in school, has really turned it into an art form. He collects old used leather jackets from Goodwill and other thrift shops, and recycles that leather for bindings. The neatest looking ones are patchwork of different kinds of leather, bound together with leather glue (can be purchased at a craft supply store).

Paper can be bought or made, but making can be fun. Did you know that you can make fine paper from collected dryer lint? Frugal Living offers the recipe and details on how to do this. Fine handmade paper bound in a fine handmade leather bound book can be the most delightful gift under the tree for anyone who loves to write, doodle, or keep meticulous notes.

You might be surprised at how useful that dryer lint can be to the dedicated crafter. PlanetPal offers recipes and instructions for how to make lint paper mache and lint clay as well as lint paper. And if there are very young ones on your Christmas list, there are some great patterns and instructions for how to make stuffed animals and dolls, and that dryer lint makes great stuffing too!

There is also the tradition of “Hobbit Presents” that some families find so fun. This is the practice of re-giving a previous year’s gift to someone else. When it’s unwrapped, the family can remember where it came from, who has enjoyed it, and who gave it to whom. These sort of gifts need to be more substantial than cheap plastic stuff from China, but quality items handmade with skill and care make great Hobbit Presents. Pride in craftsmanship is something children miss out on too much these days. Teaching them, encouraging them and helping them learn to value such things from themselves and others won’t hurt them a bit.

So it’s November. Get busy!!!

Links:

‘Tis the Season: Gift Ideas
Casual Keystrokes
Making Paper from Dryer Lint
Lint Craft Recipes
Stuffed Toy Patterns

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…

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

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been much of a good consumer as that designation has come to signify in and out of recessions in this capitalist-based economy. I don’t “shop ’til I drop,” I don’t buy much of anything new, and whenever friends or sisters try to talk me into tagging along for a bout of binge buying at the mall I come up with every excuse in the book to beg out of it.

And now that I live on a mountain rather far from town (and any sort of mall), I’ve managed to keep from making friends who believe that frivolous spending of vast amounts of money is a competitive sport. I like that about the people here in the southern Appalachians – they’re not nearly so concerned conspicuous consumption as they are concerned about the quality of their natural habitats. Perhaps that’s true of rural areas all over the country, where people are simply not accustomed to spending money as an ingrained habit or mere way to pass the time of one’s life. When we lived in a city of a million-plus people in Florida, there seemed to be at least one strip mall for every household, and they were all making a living!

My little sisters were both given credit cards when my parents divorced, and never seemed to figure out that the money wasn’t free. When cleaning out one sister’s after she died last spring, I couldn’t count the number of shopping bags and boxes full of ’stuff’ (basic junk) she’d bought at some point over the last decade and never even bothered to unpack once she got home. I’m convinced it’s a sickness, a symptom of how empty lives can be in our overcrowded, materialistically-minded cities. I couldn’t back out of going appliance shopping with my big sister a couple of years ago after her new lake house retirement home was built. I managed not to drop a dime, while she ended up spending nearly $16,000 in just 3 hours’ time – it was the most money I’d ever seen anybody spend in one outing that wasn’t a formal mortgage-signing! I could have lived pretty well for a year on that much.

Thus the first line of defense against peer pressure to go shopping for junk and stuff you don’t really want or need is to not live in an environment that supports the idea that this is a good thing. The second line of defense is to avoid hanging out with people who are shopaholics. And the third line of defense when you can’t avoid the pressure (because you’re related to the shopaholic) is to develop a convenient headache or offer to watch the kids while she does the shopping for herself.

I know the friend ‘filter’ sounds sort of callous, but once you’re into thrifting you’ll find other friends who are as into it as you are. Those shopping trips can be much more fun and exciting than any day at the mall, and more rewarding too. Thrifters tend to be crafty and creative, or they wouldn’t have developed an eye for bargains they can turn into income or wonderful gifts. Generally cooler people, for my own experience.

Lana Goodrich over at Wise Bread blog has a post outlining 5 Ways To Dodge Peer Pressure To Spend. It’s definitely worth a read, but I’ll go ahead and disagree here with her tip #3, which is Blame it on your values. I disagree because I don’t find it difficult in the least to just say “I can’t go because I don’t have the money.” She suggests a fib I don’t believe is necessary in most instances – though it might work well with in-laws or other family members whom you don’t wish to share your financial status with.

It’s not all that difficult to avoid spending money frivolously, especially if you’ve made a commitment in your own mind to living a certain way for all the right reasons. Recycling of anything – be it leftovers, cars, houses or knick-knacks – is an environmentally responsible commitment. Making money doing something you really like, for yourself, is very satisfying. Not spending money on things you don’t need is a moral commitment to avoid the notorious pitfalls of materialism and the dangers of a wasteful life. Thrifting for food – by gardening, joining a home gardening cooperative or buying crop shares in a farm, buying commodities in bulk at the regional farmer’s market, maybe even working trades with farmers in your area is a commitment to a healthier diet, non-support of factory farming cruelty, and a way of living much closer to nature and appreciating what it really takes to sustain a human being in this world.

I believe these are all good moral commitments to make, and more Americans should try it. It’s not as hard as quitting smoking, after all! Living in awareness of our footprints on the earth is good for us. If enough people were to choose to live that way the world situation wouldn’t be as desperate as it usually is. Our lives will be better for it, so there’s nothing to be ashamed of. There’s more to life than shopping!

I was in my late twenties when I finally grasped a tiny bit of the Mystery of Mammon – the magic of money. It occurred to me while awaiting a payment for services rendered that the person who owed me money was waiting on someone who owed him money too. I realized that among the full-time residents of that small New Mexico town there was never more than about $5,000 in circulation on any day of any month. That money made its rounds every month starting at the top and ending right back there when the month was over. The only new money anybody ever saw came in by way of tourists from Texas, but that got immediately swallowed up by big bank accounts in somebody else’s town.

Many regular people have a certain psychological aversion to money, or to the idea of allowing money to rule their lives. The capital class depends upon this deep psychological aversion to empower the “money myth” they depend upon to amass ever more of it in their own coffers. Terms like “filthy lucre” and traditional religious prohibitions of usury speak to this deep uncomfortableness with artificial value, yet it is the general public’s uncomfortableness with artificial value that allows the capitalist system to operate.

People who are not comfortable with artificial value don’t tend to amass much money and are prone to use the artificially valued paper to purchase things that for them have actual value. A home. A reliable means of transportation. Nice clothes, big televisions, enough food to make themselves obese, computers, entertainment, toys… it’s what makes our consumerist lifestyles hum and it’s every bit as unsustainable – both personally and economically on the national level – as chemical-intensive force-farming. These days a college graduate begins his or her working career deeply in debt and remains deeply in debt for most or all of his or her life. And it never seems to matter how deeply in debt you are, there are at least 10 new credit offers in the mailbox every week to dig you deeper.

When the laws against usury were stricken in the early 1980s to allow for interest rates to regular consumers to hover between 30 and 50%, people didn’t stop borrowing. When home mortgage rates were near 20% people still bought homes, hoping to win the lottery before the “balloon” payment came due, or at least refinance when the rates came down. They didn’t come down for nearly a decade, and this crushed the middle class in a series of deep recessions that claimed a lot of homes, businesses and lives.

When the rates finally did come down, they only came down on the price of money to the lenders of money. For credit cards, home and car loans and other commercial credit, the price of money stayed high. During the “Greed Is Good” age, the combination of risky loans to foreign nations and fraudulent loan practices here at home have now brought us to the very brink of another great depression, where the US President is trying to broker a deal to bail out the lenders while saving half of the 3-4 million homes that are scheduled to be repossessed during the first part of 2008. An equal number of businesses are predicted to shut their doors for good during the next six to eight months. Bankruptcy rates are staggering and rising, and recent changes to the laws aren’t consumer-friendly.

So it’s a good idea even as we all prepare for the big end of the year holidays to take a little time to figure out where we are financially, where we’re losing and where we can win, and make some plans to get out from under as much debt as possible. In this and one or two follow-up posts we’ll take a look at some ways to dig yourself out of debt while still maintaining the survival basics and still living ‘the good life’.

Step I: Where Does the Money Go?

Take a little time to sit down with all your monthly bills and pay stubs, ATM receipts, credit card statements and checkbook. On a piece of paper list your income and your expenses. When they’re all right there in front of you it won’t be too hard to start categorizing where the money goes. Which of your expenses are necessary debt, which are unnecessary? Do you spend money frivolously? Do you eat out a lot? Did you really need 4 more pairs of shoes? How much cash do you fritter away on a daily basis? What do you do with your accumulated change?

If you have trouble remembering what you spend money on here and there during the month, try carrying a little notebook for a week and writing everything down. Multiply that by 4.5 and you’ll have a good estimation for the month. Carefully keep track of your method of payment for purchases too. Whether you used the credit card or the debit card, whether you withdrew cash at the ATM, wrote a check or used money transfers. Once you can see where your money’s going, you can also see whether you’re getting any real value out of it.

The idea is to cut back on what you don’t need to spend so you’ll have more to mitigate the high costs of what you do need to spend. I know some people who can’t imagine living without at least three credit cards, but simply having the money in the bank to pay cash for what you need will cost you much less. Paying off credit card debt will be the most important thing any family can do for themselves in 2008 to ensure they can weather hard economic times.

If you’re charging $100 a month on credit cards you’re paying about $120 for the privilege. If you can cut back that much on your buying you can use that same $100 to begin paying off the balance on your cards. If you decide you want to be credit card free in 12 months, add up your total credit card debt and divide by 12 (plus interest, which will diminish over that time as your debt gets repaid). That’s how much you need to be paying on those cards every month while NOT charging those new boots or that new snowblower.

At the end of the year you may find that you haven’t missed out on much by not using your credit cards to get yourself deeper in debt, and you’ve still got ~$120 a month you could be salting away in a savings account to cover big purchases or emergencies. Paying cash is always less expensive than financing, and getting into the wide world of thrift can earn you bargains galore without diminishing your life one bit.

There are some who may benefit from consolidating all their credit card debt under one ‘new’ card with a 6-month low introductory interest rate. That way all the interest goes to one party instead of 3 or 4, so costs you less in real terms. Don’t use the new card to go further into debt, use it as your means to get out of debt. Pay as much as you can on the principle during the first 6 months, and the increased interest in the last 6 months will be less because the principle is less. Big savings overall.

As the cost of home mortgages comes down (it’s now at half the 8% rate of our first mortgage), some with good credit ratings may want to refinance at the lower rate and “cash out” enough to pay off other debts. If the car is paid for, the credit cards paid off and cut up, the installment loan over with and the cost is tacked onto the mortgage at 4% you come out way ahead. Avoid high interest, adjustable rate and balloon schemes like the plague.

And only refinance for what you actually owe on the original mortgage plus your current consumer debt, even if your home is appraised much higher. Keep your equity for yourself even if the lender wants to assume all of it. Real estate may be a shaky market for a decade. 15 years is the most you’ll want to go for on the loan term, 10 is even better. Keep those payments as low as possible, pay extra when you can. An extra $100 a month (that you’re NOT paying on those credit cards) will shave years off the payoff date and save thousands in interest over the life of the mortgage.

More ideas will come in future posts, and if readers have any good ones I hope they’ll share!

Links:

Stay Out of Debt

Smart Money: Digging Out of Debt

How to Get Out of Debt

I’ve written a bit about The Art of Thrifting, purchasing clothes, appliances, knick-knacks and gift items at secondhand outlets, garage sales and through auction outlets. I’ve also written about Alternative Economies and how systems like barter and straight trade can keep your family going without the exchange of cash or credit.

This post combines both of these approaches to make a talent at thrifting into an actual income. Over at Apron Thrift Girl blog there is a wonderful post describing one adventure in estate sale thrifting entitled Seeing What Has Always Been There that I recommend to readers so as to get a feel for how to make money by picking out bargains and re-selling them at a hefty profit.

Thrift Girl talks about finding some sterling silver pieces, and about a friend who found an entire set of sterling flatware for $40 that resold for $900. This is one of those spectacular deals everyone hopes to stumble into, but that’s not going to happen all the time. More modest profit potentials still build up and should not be overlooked. Estate sales are sometimes just boxed ’stuff’ in the old home, but are more often handled by small local auction houses. Which in my area advertise in the local paper and with posters on the storefront alerting buyers of the usual Saturday auction, and this can be a really fun way to pick up bargains in antiques, jewelry, artwork, porcelains, clocks and unusual items.

I once found a beautiful 1.5 carat diamond solitaire at an estate jewelry outlet for a mere $300. I had it re-set with a six-prong setting in white gold by a reputable jeweler for another $400 and wore it occasionally for a couple of years. It was too big to wear every day, but was a flawless super-sparkler that never failed to elicit oohs and aahs. I sold it – to the jeweler who had lovingly crafted the new setting for such a beautiful, century-old stone – for its insurance appraisal of $2,000. And he was delighted to get it at that price!

China (plus unusual odd pieces like tea cups and saucers, cream and sugar sets, serving bowls and gravy boats) is also a great investment if you can find whole or nearly whole sets. a complete set for 6 will sell quickly even if it was originally meant to be a set for 12 (but is missing some pieces). People these days don’t tend to have large families, do much formal dining, and even formal dinner parties aren’t so big anymore. My mother had several sets of china for 24, which she always complained were responsible for limiting the size of her dinner parties. I always took that with a grain of salt, given that the mahogany table could only seat 24 +2 with all its leaves. Where was she planning to seat extra guests?

Many china dealers specialize in particular brands and styles, and have websites you can peruse to identify pieces and buy or sell any odd pieces you have. These in turn are bought by people who inherited Great-Grandma’s bone china and the set is short a few plates, saucers or accessories. Return for odd pieces of popular styles is quite good. Crystal is also a good investment, as are any kitchen odds and ends in milkglass or depression glass. Old family Bibles sometimes go for a surprising amount of money to collectors, and the occasional old cardboard box chock full of baseball cards can be a regular treasure (an original Mickey Mantle rookie card in pristine shape can go for more than $30,000). Even textiles – bedspreads, tablecloths, linen napkins, handmade quilts and tatted lace can re-sell for a good profit if you know something about the items, their age, and if they’re in good shape.

Thing is, when you begin thrifting for items you want to re-sell at a profit, you’ve got to pay attention to items you might never think of buying for yourself. And having some idea of what various items are actually worth will keep you from ending up with a barn full of stuff you can’t sell at a profit. Many local auction houses will advertise at least a week ahead of time for all major items in an estate sale, allowing you to do your homework before the auction and before the bidding starts. Some will even let you lodge a pre-auction bid that will start the process on the big day (or just let you pre-purchase that item).

Once you’ve trained yourself to notice items that will readily sell to collectors (even if you don’t like them personally), you’ll need some reliable outlets for your own sales. eBay has proven to be a popular method that doesn’t cost much and has millions of customers. Research what’s available and be careful of the amount of time, effort and money you may have to put into the market in order to start seeing some profit. This can easily become more than a full time job if you’re not careful.

Happy thrifting, and big returns on the re-sale!

Links:

How to Find Great Live Auctions for Resale Items

Resale 101 Auction Secrets Revealed

NBER: Auctions with Resale when Private Values are Uncertain

Some people get into the economics of living on less because they don’t have much of a choice. Others get into alternatives because they believe our living-beyond-our-means lifestyles are harmful both to ourselves and to the environment. Either way, it’s good to know that there are alternatives, and plenty of room for people to invent their own levels of participation.

The ‘Money Economy’ is the one most people live in here in the modern world. It causes us to trade our lives – our time, our talents, our energy – for a certain valuation calculated in cash, and in that economy different people have different value placed on their lives. Women are still worth less than men, even in the same jobs with the same responsibilities. Women also tend to have to work more hours than men do, despite also being saddled with most of the housekeeping, child-rearing and food preparation jobs.

Minority workers are also valued poorly, as are teen workers and entry-level jobs in all sectors are notorious for paying less than it takes to live, eat, and repay student loans for that semi-worthless college degree.

Many people living on little in cities have figured out that getting a part-time second or third job waiting tables in a restaurant or tending bar offers a system work-around providing daily cash income (useful for daily cash expenditures) as well as a way to avoid tax “bracket creep” that hits so many these days when April comes around and they find the raise they got last year not only didn’t pay for the increase in health care insurance, but also got eaten up entirely by new income taxes. Very frustrating.

Many others who live in smaller towns or in rural environments by choice have learned to master some ways of working whole new ’systems’ of trade for goods and services, effectively dropping out of the ‘Money Economy’ almost completely.

I’ve talked a little about Thrifting for clothing, household goods, materials for ‘making your own’ gifts and crafts for sale or trade. Also discussed was using the renovation and recycling industry for durable consumer goods and major appliances, which avoids hefty credit charges and the most frustrating aspect of such purchases – the fact that about half of them will break down or wear out before you’ve paid for them.

Words of advice for living on less include:

Localize:
Buy locally whenever you can. Your friends and neighbors offer many of the food items, recycled appliances and furniture, etc. that your family may need. You’ll get to know them, they’ll get to know you, and you’ll find that often your neighbors are more than willing to engage in barter with you for what you have to offer. Even better, as your circle grows you’ll find that much of value comes around free, when they’d just as soon give you the item than have to haul it somewhere to sell for a few bucks.

Reduce & Reuse:
Reduce the sheer amount of junk you accumulate, and think up ways to reuse things when they do become junk – these can be valuable barter items for you. An old treadle sewing machine cabinet can be refinished into an very nice homework desk, houseplant stand, or even cabinet for a brand new (portable) sewing machine. Salvage the good wood from old furniture and cabinets, to recycle into new shelving. And whatever you do, don’t forget that aluminum cans, old copper wiring and tubing, old metal roofing, etc. brings cash (and gets out of your way) if you simply take it to a scrap metal yard to sell.

Make Stuff:
Whatever you can make for yourself is something you don’t have to buy. Of course this is important for meals, putting up garden harvests, clothes (learn how to sew!), etc. It also works for art and craft projects, that can either be sold or bartered. These can be as simple as painting rocks as animals or flowers (great garden accents), producing clocks with sports team motifs, pressing and decoupaging herb and wildflowers for wall hangings, etc. Someone out there will want what you make, and be happy to trade for it.

Stay out of Debt:
This is a hard one, but by keeping your eyes open and spending a little time tracking things down, it’s really not that hard to avoid debt for most things. Housing and utilities are always a chunk out of an income, whether you work outside the home or not, whether you rent or own. Avoid cable television (what good is it?), first-run movies, eating out, and the desire to wander aimlessly around the electronics store at the mall building up desire for huge flat-screen televisions, monster stereo systems and other such expensive consumer ’stuff’. If you’ve lived this long without it, you probably don’t need it. Keep reminding yourself of that.

Check out your local and regional weekend flea markets, second hand stores, and farmers’ markets. Attend some of your area’s local artisan festivals, get to know folks and what they do. If you drive an older vehicle, find out who the area’s most reliable shade-tree mechanic is, and show him some respect. You’ll need him on a semi-regular basis, it’s always good to be on his friend-list.

When you trade the ‘Money Economy’ for your own freedom, you’ll have a lot more time to do with as YOU please. Just bear in mind that you’ll still have to use a big chunk of that time – and as many of your talents as you can put to work – obtaining the things you need to live. It can be an immensely rewarding and enriching experience even if you only end up spending a few years of your life learning how “the other half” lives.

Links:

Voluntary simplicity versus poverty

Penny Pincher’s Almanac