Ode to Bargain Mart April 22, 2009

I have a new love!  There is a mom at preschool who has been telling me about this little gem of a hole in the wall that sells groceries and goods that have been “damaged” in transit.  I have had to alter my own diet since my last post, going lactose and gluten free (when I can, at least).  We found a jackpot of organic ricemilk for my daugther priced at $1.50 per carton (usually around $3), a huge bunch of bananas for .99, and an 8-pack of Dr. Pepper for hubby for $2.50 (no idea the actual retail since we don’t bother with it much).  I also grabbed a few cartons of organic chicken broth for the same price and savings as the rice milk.

I used to frequent a place like Bargain Mart when we lived in Anchorage, Liquidation World.  Unfortunately it had to liquidate it’s own store and close about a year and a half ago.  These little stores are all over, and it seems you need to know someone  who knows about it because I certainly do not see advertisement for it.  I will shop this store before anything from now on, it is said that they get tons of new stuff weekly and I’m going to get the skinny on WHEN it’s restocked from my inside mom!

Gardening isn’t cheap, considering the hobby is centered around stuff that is somewhere out in nature to begin with.  I thought I was going to do mosaic flower pots.  When I got to the craft store and saw how expensive pre-cut mosaic tiles and the accompanying tools would be all together, I opted for some cheap pain and very pretty stencils that were on clearance.  I had plenty of fun painting the terra cotta pots (around $4 for a largish and $2 for a medium).  I happened to still have bulbs in the garage from our preschool bulb sale that happened around September.  I just hope that they had enough of the appropriate climate to grow so late!  Some actually started puttin up shoots so I’ll at least have two pastel tulips and a bunch of bluebells!  I think I’ll begin trolling yardsales for flower pots since the weather is trying to do nice things.

Professional photographs are not found in my house!  We had our wedding pictures done by a lady in Germany and that was the last time we bothered.  I did get a few great pro shots done of my daughter when she was a baby when my boss’ husband wanted to practice with babies.  We wanted some family photos done before my husband goes overseas and while shopping craigslist in the barter section stumbled across a photographer who is part of an organization called “Operation: Love Reunited”.  Photographers volunteer their time and services to military families who are either about to deploy, mid deployment (pics of the family to send to the soldiers) and/or returning from deployment.  Weather permitting, we are having ours made in Garden of the Gods.  If you have never seen or heard of the place, google  it.  Stunning! The site has examples and explanations.  http://www.oplove.org/

We recently took a vacation to visit our family on the east coast, and we drove since flying with our health concerns is akin to holding a grenade and waiting for it to spontaneously explode.  We spent a lot of money on the trip but it was all in supplies- gas, U-Haul and motel rooms.  We pulled our little atv trailer with a china hutch set (I couldn’t stand it, sister in law loved it) to my husband’s sister and left the trailer at his parents house where they had the space to store it since we can’t store it at our house and paying to let it sit somewhere is silly.  We then drove 8 hours to my parents where we rented a pull behind U-haul and were given the piano that mom had promised to me.  When we went back up to the in-laws, we proceeded to cull part of the overstuffed basement and came back with some beautiful pieces of furniture from the family’s world travels.  There is a beautiful and ornately carved secretary desk and chair with beautiful embroidery that came from India, a set of hand carved lions from Nigeria and a set of ceramic elephant plant stands that were among the last shipment out of Vietnam.  In between the neat finds were about 10 boxes of  Christmas ornaments from Hallmark, many that are old.  His mother wanted us to take them and hoped we could make some money off of them.  We’ll educate ourselves before jumping into the sales arena of course!  I do know that certain series are coveted and we have a few that look promising.  Right now the task is overwhelming since the two stacks of boxes tower over my head!

My husband purchased one of the Neat Receipt systems that scans reciepts and business cards and files them according to what it reads off of the actual paper.  It sorts by date and genre (such as retail, grocery, etc).  It’s a real smack from reality since you can see where the money is going.  A lot of it was going to things that we didn’t need, and that’s kind of hypocritical considering I’m blabbing about saving money and energy…  We’re working on a budget that involves a nice physical piece of paper with a spread of where the money goes.  If I can’t see it, I have no idea how to adhere to it.  We’re making the credit card an emergency piece of plastic, not a purchase inducer.  I am getting a set amount of money transfered from our pay into my own account and from there I do groceries, gas, medications and the rest is for things that come up or entertainment.

New Favorite Finds November 12, 2008

I’m in love with JoAnn’s (un)genius coupon idea; purchase a little pattern promotional magazine for three bucks and get 4-6 reusable coupons on the back! I’ve already saved hundreds…I think.  Then there is that little saying about it not being a deal if you don’t need it!  I use everything I get from JoAnns though.  I’ll bet the big guys are kicking themselves though!  They are reusable through sometime in December.  Neat.

I have a growing three year old that doesn’t want to stay in her pants.  I’ve taken to getting the blue jean rolled up “capri” pants and I take the few stitches out on either side of each leg to let the good three inches down.  It’s great when they go on sale at the end of the year or when you find them for a cheap price at the Goodwill.

With Christmas coming up, I went to http://www.buyhandmade.org/ and made my pledge to buy handmade or rather make my gifts this year.  For the women, it’s necklaces  and handbags, things a gal can never have too much of!  For the guys, well it will probably be food.  We are painting up shirts with my daughter for the grandpas.  I’m especially excited about the handbag I made for my mother in law.  She keeps a LOT of stuff and consequently still has many of her beautiful vintage clothes that were made for her in either Brazil, Philippines, Liberia or India when they were in the service.  Among those vintage items she found about 4 yards of great fabric with a feather print that is reminiscent of batik.  She said that she loved the print but doesn’t sew, and would very much love for me to do what I would with it.  I used a portion of it to make a baby sling when Mia was born and since then the rest of it has been hanging out in my fabric box.  I’m using it for the exterior of her purse, a reclaimed matching zipper and the inside pocket is made from a batik patchwork piece from a skirt she gave me.  It was much too long and I ended up cutting about six inches off.  The other purses are made from various pieces I have been selfishly holding onto   For my brother and his family, I made a set of place mats out of my scraps.  My SIL and niece aren’t into anything that I’m aware of but for my nephew I added train appliques and my brother’s will have vintage aircraft.  I’m trying desperately to get my hands on old bike gears and chains to make a clock for my cousins, but so far no luck.  One new bike chain is around $40, so really it defeats the purpose. 

I ran out of laundry detergent this weekend and have found that using baking soda and vinegar actually do a decent job.  It isn’t the best thing for very soiled clothes, but if it’s something like towels or clothes that just need to be freshened up it’s great.

Life in Colorado October 6, 2008

I haven’t written since we were busy preparing for our drive from Alaska to Colorado and what a drive it was!  It will test your marriage and your sanity.  The toy treasure chest worked out beautifully, we didn’t even get to everything I stuffed inside.  We did use the DVD player a lot towards the last half of the trip.  Mia was done by day three.  We drove for six days, so three days of DVD’s really isn’t so bad!

We have a decent Freecycle network here, but there are a lot of “wanted” ads that far outnumber the offered/recieved.  I don’t know if there are just more people, or if there are just more greedy people.  We did manage several pairs of shoes in Mia’s new size that are in stellar shape. I don’t have to buy a pair of sneaker that will be destroyed at preschool!

There is so much to do here and so much of it is either cheap or free.  We had a blast at the Colorado Balloon Classic last month.  Hundreds of hot air balloons lift off en masse at a local park at a festival.  It was unique and free and offered an opportunity to get some amazing photos.

My neighbors and I went to a charity event at the Castle Rock outlets that required you to purchase a $20 ticket that donated to a charity of your choice.  With the ticket you received special discounts at stores as well as the opportunity to buy raffle tickets.  For twenty bucks I came out ahead!  With my own tickets I only won a $25 gift certificate to Fossil (I did badly need a watch!) and my neighbor who has two older boys gave me her $50 for Stride Rite and $25 for Hartstrings.  However I think I cancelled out the savings when I bought a Coach handbag.  Let me explain!  First, I never splurge on myself like that.  The deal was that it was an outlet store doing a 40% sale on a newer selection.  You can’t even get a good deal like that at the base PX!  The PX has things around 20% off which puts it around the normal outlet price.  So I got a $300 dollar handbag that I had been coveting for a third of that. Plus tax,but you know how that is.  Know what something is worth and know when to bite!

We decided to live on post since we still have the house up in AK.  We only just got renters in which means we were paying a mortgage on an empty house for the entire summer.  Yes, that punched the finances and jacked our credit card back up.  However, that lovely hush-money…er…PFD from being an AK resident helped tremendously.  Instead of going after a new TV or something that we really don’t need, we paid off the Subaru!  No more car payments!  We turned around and replaced it with a preschool payment, so really it’s all the same financial feeling right now, but it’s a good feeling to get out from under a debt that has interest to it.

Another perk of living on post is the bills.  I’m not saying I love bills, quite the opposite.  The housing company has a neat way of doing things.  Most utilities are covered as long as you stay within an average.  For each season they have calculated the average cost of a specific bill and as long as you stay within their calculations, you do not owe money.  If you go over, you owe the difference but if you come in under the average, they pay you  the difference.  It’s pretty neat, we get about $20 a month during the summer.  I think the biggest help is not using a clothes dryer.  We had to buy a new washer when we got here because the housing doesn’t come with a w/d, but opted out of buying a dryer because of the cost and the fact that the air is ridiculously dry.  We bought two extra drying racks and our clothes were usually dry in half a day or overnight.  I don’t know how well it will work during the winter but we’ll give it a shot.  They have a lot of windows in the house so I rarely use lights unless I’m in my closet or it’s evening.  We’re probably the most energy efficient family on post. 

I’ve also been back into the Ebay thing.  I loved Value Village in Anchorage.  There were always great deals on high end items.  Here, the ARC Thriftstore is the place to go! There are Goodwill stores too, but they seem to get the whatever items.  In Denver there is an ARC store near the hospital that we frequent and I found two Diane Von Furstenberg dresses and a few Hanna Andersson dresses that I put on ebay.  I made my money back over and over.  On craigslist,  a woman put an ad up for “three pair of european shoes”.  I wondered if they were Dansko and sure enough they were…and she was only asking $15 for all three pairs!  They were brand new.  I made my money back and then some!  People don’t buy a lot off of craigslist though.  I blame the economy.  It’s just too easy.  I did manage to sell some of Mia’s toys that she has outgrown, but it took a long time.

Road Trip Treasure Kit and a Handmade Britax Carseat Cover! May 15, 2008

T-2weeks until we drive out.  We went with a U-Pack We Haul type of company and scrounged boxes where we could.  There are so many moves happening right now that the box and packing paper have turned into endangered resources and the competition is cut-throat!  We have come to the point of stalking the moving trucks on post, offering to take boxes of packing paper off of the incoming hands as they get it unpacked!  That has turned out to be the best plan, after getting hosed out of $60 for “great moving boxes” on Craigslist.  Some people posted their boxes saying they were great for moving.  DH brings home a bunch of junky salvaged gas station boxes.  Yay.  Go ahead and spend the money for the U-Haul packing stuff, because you can return what you do not use for a full refund and sell the “gently” used boxes on the other end.

My main focus for the trip (aside from not getting lost in Canada) has been how to entertain the toddler.  I don’t want to keep her doped up on DVD the whole time.  I hit a craigslist ad for a very large homeschooling family that were just picking up and leaving.  Everythinghad to go so I got a load of nice educational playthings for a decent price.  I’ve been stashing a bunch of her ignored toys away and picking up cheap “little happies” where I can.  So far, this is what I’ve come up with:

• Snack and Play Travel Tray- http://www.familytravelgear.com/page/FTG/PROD/car-snack-play-travel-tray  This nifty little soft tray has raised sides to keep toys and whatnots in front of the child.  Now she can do her puzzles and color and I *hopefully* wont’ have to stay turned around to pick up the pieces!  I found mine at a store on Ebay, but I don’t think I saved much once shipping was calculated.  We just tested it today and so far I’m pleased!
• Stickers and appropriate things to put them on!
• Coloring books and the crayons that twist up.  Mia is contact reactive to something in the paper covered crayons (I hear that there is often corn used in the paper), but these also have to work harder to melt all over the car.
• Color Magic markers and paper.  If you haven’t seen Crayola’s Color Magic sets yet, whoa nelly!  At first I thought, “How lazy. Just teach your child to be respectful of property and you won’t have multiple art incidents.”  But, being a frequent flyer of waiting rooms and doctors offices, these have earned their places. 
• Wallet with “credit cards”.  This is a big hit.  We save all of the fake cards that are sent with the applications.  Very productive recycling!  It has saved my tush in the pharmacy after an out of the ordinary Rx took almost an hour to fill.  It’s a big clutch wallet with lots of zippers, snaps and pockets and slots.  A few old receipts really make her day!
• Mr. Potato Head.  What more do you need to know?  They even have the “extension” kits at Walmart, so he has options.
• Magnadoodle!  Mess free drawing an I found some magnet kits at Toys R Us.  It is a fairy tale themed set with dresses and other things that you draw around, creating a scene.
• Puzzles. Lots of puzzles~
• Lacing cards from Eboo.  Mia has the fairy set, but they have boy options as well.  The yare big and colorful, great fine motor exercise.
• Lacing dress-up bear from Melissa&Doug.  You lace the bears clothes onto her picture that is on the lid of the storage box.  I think it might be too advanced for Mia without my help, maybe a good evening or hotel game.
• Memory game.  I could easily turn around and help her play by flipping the tiles over.
• Books. No brainer.
• Beads to make a necklace or bracelet, also from M&D. That was the test toy today, and it’s on the cumbersome and messy side of the fence.
• My First Leap Pad.  It has yet to get here, but we are borrowing several sets of books and cartridges.  I don’t plan on this being used all day, but they are nice when Mommy needs a break!
• Flashcards.  Mostly ABC’s and colors.
• Deck of cards. There is something enthralling about that mess.
• Music.  We can give up about 45 minutes of rock  or country for something that appeals to her
• Pipe cleaners.  Endless fun.  Try it in a restaurant!
• Figits  block twister guy. No idea what he’s really called.
• The cheap as allgetout toy section of walmarthas some nice little happies.  The “connect four” game is lots of fun since I don’t have to worry about her putting the chips in her mouth.  I also bought the suction cup balls, and mini puzzle alphabet foams. A mini version of the abc floor crepe rubber mats.
• Slinky.
• Elmers Go Paint, same concept as Color Magic, but with “paint”
• Aquadoodle mini book/pen
• Ravensburger has lots of great mini matching puzzles.  I found a set at our local Value Village  that have babies/mommy matching of jungle animals.  We also have a lttle zip purse of one piece farm puzzles.
• Madeline Press N Peel dress up doll/scene board.  Another VV score.  Like paper dolls, but with the vinyl pieces.
• Diego’s rescue animals pack. I think it was the only dora/diego thing NOT recalled for lead!
• Madeline Magnetic “paper dolls” with little scene board.
• Magic Cloth paper dolls
• Hand puppets (oh gosh those can keep her busy for hours!)
• Velcro mitt with ball catch game for rest stops
• Bubbles for either standstill traffic or rest stops

I’m still working on the system of dispersal. I’ve heard lots of great ideas, like wrapping everything up and doling out little “gifts” every so often.  That won’t get us through 10 days, or we’d have to have a separate trailer just for the toys!  I have one of those cardboard mini chests that we aren’t using. You know, the ones you get for “temporary” storage but end up using until they fall apart?  This one is about 3.5″ high and is the perfect treasure chest.  Some of the bigger items don’t fit, so I may just police the use of those from the back of the car.  Here is the tentative plan: She will have everyday access to some toys like the Leap Pad, Magnadoodle and books with the occasional DVD.  She will be allowed to open one “treasure” drawer per day and play with the contents.  There are four drawers and we’ll likely go through each at least twice, so after day four I’ll switch and mix the contents again so it’s not the same stash the second time around.  I’ll also keep a bag of wrapped toys and give her one or two to unwrap every day.  We’ll be driving 6-8hrs/day for 8-10 days. 

I had a few projects on my to-do list for the trip, the biggest being a new carseat cover for her Britax Marathon.  I searched Ebay and couldn’t find any within our budget so I decided I’d make my own, darnit!  Homemade custom covers are being sold on Ebay for nearly $90!!   I just can’t justify it when I know how to sew!  I draped an old sheet over the seat, pinned it, traced the seams and marked where the holes needed to go.  Then I cut the odd looking shapes out of the sheet, smoothed edges and took the liberty of straightening any lines I thought looked wonky.  I then laid them onto a big sheet of craft paper and traced the sheet pieces.  I measured and marked holes and then added a seam allowance.  I chose an outdoor strength fabric with a neat Scandinavian print for the outside, low-loft FUSIBLE batting for the inner (next time I’ll go with more loft, as this doesn’t offer a lot of cushion) and plain muslin for the backside.  I made sure that my pattern pieces were labeled for dummies before cutting anything out.  After cutting all layers out, I fused everything together and stay stitched each separate piece as close to the raw edge as possible to keep batting in place.  Ironically, everything joined perfectly!  I only had to add about 12 inches to the skirt part that goes around with the elastic to hold it in places but it was a quick fix.  Maybe one day I’ll get a tutorial up!  DISCLAIMER!!!!!—– This carseat cover is strictly for backup in the event that my toddler has an accident and will be used as an interim cover until the original can be washed.  Carseat covers are made with flame retardant fabrics therefore we should ideally only use those manufactured by the appropriate company.  There, don’t blame me if something happens.

 

 

Here she is! It’s a bit baggy but it will do between washings!

Road worthiness, road readiness April 29, 2008

We still do not have PCS orders, but it can’t be too far away.  Our request for a compassionate reassignment has made it to the top of the chain and we should hear something this week.  Although we are hoping for Colorado, we know it could be anywhere. 

We have finally finished the bathroom!  All of our flooring is done, the bathroom is painted and the cabinets are installed.  For the cheapest thing at Home Depot, they sure brighten up the room and look nice.  We’ll see what happens after renting it for a while.

The newest challenge is doing our own Dity Move.  There are so many families moving to and from Anchorage this summer that the moving companies are anticipating saturation.  We are opting to do our own move (called a Dity Move, mentioned above).  We toyed with the idea of doing a U-haul, then looked at PODS (there are no services up here right now) and think we may have settled on ABF.  They will leave a trailer in front of our house three days before the move, drive it to our destination and give us 3 days to unpack it.  We will only have to drive our car and pull a small trailer.  I like this much better than our previous scenario of being stuffed into a UHaul cab, PULLING the Suby. 

The challenge within the challenge is keeping a toddler happy for the 10+ days it will possibly take to drive from Anchorage to Destination X.  A good chunk of that time will be spent driving through Canada, with little around to look at.  I’ve googled and dogpiled, goodsearched and yahoo’d and have come up with a list of toys/findings that should be useful for our trip.  I also have a “treasure box” system in the works and will post pictures of it when it’s done.

I have so many projects that need to be finished before this move comes to fruition!

 

See what we will be travelling with? She’s downright nutty!

Hypermiling, anyone? March 29, 2008

http://www.hypermiling.com/

I thought it was a bit extreme at first, but have you SEEN the numbers on the gas station signs?  Will they take Monopoly money, do you think?  I already unwittingly practice some hypermiling techniques; I don’t have a heavy foot, don’t brake until necessary and let the engine do that for me, don’t step on the gas straight out of a stop etc.  But this guy takes it to the max!  He even has a video that was pretty enlightening about how often people get zero mph by getting crazy with the brakes.  They also have training for businesses with fleets!  My father owns a business but hypermiling would kill him.  He has a heavy foot.

 I’ve been out of the blogging loop due to unforeseen home improvement projects.   NOT a way to save money, that home improvement thing.  The projects multiply and have babies over night.  One thing leads to another! We just wanted to finish laying the laminate!  Then we realised we had to pull out the cabinets in the bathroom to do it properly.  They fell apart so we had to get a new set which doesn’t sit in the same place, so now we have to tear the wallpaper off and repaint.  If we are going to repaint the bathroom, we should just do the whole house since we have to in a year anyway.  Although, FYI if you do mostly one colour, you can just get the 5 gallon buckets and save at least the cost of one gallon.

We are trying to get reassigned to a base with more doctors for our daughter, the reason for the sudden burst of Home Makeover.  We are aiming for a compassionate reassignment which means we could be out of here lickety split, leaving little time to get the house sold.  We are looking at it like a rental property for at least a year, so we are trying to get things accomplished on a tight budget without looking cheap. It’s not easy!  We are saving on the paint by going with 5 gallons of the semi-gloss in a neutral off white colour.  Semi gloss is easy to clean and the neutral shades will attract more people than my usual colourful preferences!  We decided to carpet the stairs instead of doing laminate.  In our house, they are the first thing you see and since we are doing it ourselves, we don’t want to do a botched job that immediately greets the eye.  We managed to find some cheaper but durable carpet that wasn’t hideous and Home Depot was doing a free measurement incentive.  It looks like we’ll get the job done for less than $400 and it will be much nicer to see professionally installed carpet than amateur laminate with gobs of maple coloured caulking! 

Catch a curveball February 22, 2008

All the preaching I do about saving money?  Handy stuff, that saved stash!  We were going on a snowshoe trip last week but woke up to a house that was 50*  I accused my husband of lowering the thermostat, but he went to the garage and found a dead furnace!  Fifty degrees isn’t so bad , say in Georgia, but we live in Alaska.  That just won’t do!

This was also a Sunday morning, and if you haven’t needed a service on the weekend I’ll let you in on the double price not-so-secret.  We called around and everyone had a service fee of double what it was during the week.  Meanwhile, we had a very cozy fire in the fireplace and some space heaters set up, that brought our temp back up to about 68*, where we normally keep it anyhow.  We opted to wait until Monday.  Long story short, we shaved about $200 off our bill.

Speaking of shaving, I was experimenting with our electric bill last month.  I knocked $20 off by using the dryer only for towels.  That downstairs bathroom can handle more than I though.  My husband found one of those twist shower rods and hung it over the middle for an extra rack.  Even the jeans dry and they aren’t so bad on.  The stiffness was unnoticeable after a minute. I’m guessing I was using it about every 3-4 days.  Unfortunately ever since the furnace incident, it  hasn’t been heating very well.  It’s very old for a furnace and we may have to dip into that savings soon

To show we’re not perfect… February 16, 2008

Yesterday, I was THAT mom with THAT kid in the grocery store.  Mia was screaming, arching out of the cart seat and nearly hyperventilating.  I should have known better than to do errands yesterday; she had an IVIG infusion in the morning and she is always crabby afterwards.  So, she’s crabby and falls asleep in the car (thankyou benedryl..also makes her crabby), and the ultimate bonehead move, I woke her up at the grocery store.  Bad mommy.

Mia is learning to use the potty.  We’ve been talking about it for a while, preparing her for the idea.  We bought a little potty for her to mess with because she is deathly afraid of the big toilet. She explored it by taking it apart, wearing the seat as a hat, carrying the lid around and eventually sitting on it.  She had only used it a few times until today, all day with a few accidents so far.  She was so scared of her own pee and screamed whenever she went, but today I’m using the tough luck approach.  I told her we had no diapers today and have kept her in old stretch pants.  I ask her every ten minutes or so if she needs to potty and she even asks on her own sometimes.  It is getting closer to the time for “big girl” underwear! 

On vehicles February 7, 2008

As cheap as we can be and as environmental as I try to think, vehicles are not our strong point!  DH has a Jeep Rubicon and likes to offroad–not a cheap sport, nor is it very enviro-friendly.  I have to say though, the offroad club we belong to are actually very respectful and help remove all kinds of large waste from the glacier flats and coastal refuge and they are veryanal about the Tread Lightly principles.  Anyway.  I had a Cherokee for a while; it was old and it wasn’t the most gas conserving thing out there but I loved it.  We finally parted last year and we saved for a down payment on our ‘05 Outback.  The gas mileage still isn’t spectacular, but for a family that was used to anywhere between 11-14mpg, it’s sittin’ pretty.  I don’t know if I’m really one to be giving out car tips, but I can at least share what we do until we can afford a Prius!

• Buy used.  That way you won’t get flatted by the depreciation. 
• Long loan, fast payoff.  Now, whether or not it is actually smart, this is what we did.  We shopped around for the best rate, and chose the 4 year loan.  The monthly payments are manageable, but we are actually paying at least double because all of your interest is at the beginning of a loan.  You don’t actually pay for the price of the car until later in the loan.  If you can add as much as you can to your monthly, you will pay it down faster and pay less in interest.  We just got this puppy in November and are working at paying it off at a year and a half instead of 4.  The financial calculator link will help you figure out what you can handle.  It means doing without some frivolous extras, but we will fully own a relatively new car while everyone else is still upside down.
• You don’t need the SUV.  No, seriously.  You don’t.  I had a friend who went from a blazer to some huge thing like a Sequoia or something.  Her excuse was “I need more room.”  For what??  Two kids and their things fit nicely into a Blazer.  They fit nicely into a sedan!  When I pointed that out she said, “Well, I want to feel safer.”  Now, I happened to be privy to the fact that she liked to look good more than be safe (don’t ask.)  The only unsafe vehicle is one being driven by an unsafe driver.  Small vehicles are considered “unsafe” because of the move to bigger vehicles.  Trust me, I hauled a baby and medical junk just fine in a two door Cherokee (once considered a big SUV in her hayday).  Room is rarely the real issue. I even fit my friend and her two children back there AND went yard-saleing!  Sometimes it is warranted, like the friend who runs a daycare. She really does need every seat in the Suburban.  If you don’t haul more than two kids and groceries, a car or smallsize SUV is just smarter.  You won’t pass out at the pump and you will actually fit into parking spaces.
• Shave all you can off of the insurance.    DH is the king of found money.  He found a great rate and after reading lots of fine print, found that you can get a little knocked off the payment if your VIN # is etched into every window and if you use something like The Club.  He used his dremel, practiced on an old picture frame and then tatted all the windows. I hardly even notice.  Call them and ask, it won’t hurt anything.
• Maintenance.  It costs, but it could save you more than what you pay the dudes at JiffyLube.  I wish someone had impressed upon me the importance of checking oil when I was in highschool.  Get cozy with someone who knows how to change oil or do simpler engine work.  This is where some of that Wheel-N-Deal can be handy.  

Bought once, used a million times! February 6, 2008

I was born into a secondhand-loving family.  When my dad started his own business, it would get hairy at times and second hand was just how we rolled.  It’s amazing what people will just give away.

• Thrift.  Love these places!  Salvation Army, Goodwill and local churches usually have at least one around.  The church I grew up in was where a lot of the city’s aristocracy went on Sundays, so consequently the thrift house run by that church gained their castoffs.  You could find lightly used high-end items most times.  This is an awesome option for kids, especially the older active set that spill and tear while playing.  The drawback is that you have to spend a great deal of time sorting through the clothes or things that are crammed onto shelves.  I’d make sure everyone used the bathroom and was fed before going in!
• Resale/Consignment.  If you like to know that you won’t have to dig through five stained shirts to get to the first non-stained item, go here but don’t expect to pay thrift prices.  Sometimes they only take high-end, like the boutiques, and sometimes they’ll be more lenient, like Platos Closet.  These are also where I sometimes take my things for extra cash.  The children’s resale store isn’t great, you leave feeling like you need to file a report but Platos Closet once gave me an extra $15.  Since then I’ve significantly cut back on buying clothes.
• Craigslist.org  I love Craig.  You can buy or sell many things here.  I sold Mia’s changing table, exersaucer, our unused electric blanket…  Even what I thought was an ugly useless video shelf.  My husband put it up for $30 and I balked at it, saying no one would pay more than $10 for it.  Not even an hourlater someone called and bought it!  We found my beloved Subaru on Craigslist and our beater for husbands commute.
• Ebay.  Okay.  If ever there were a double edged sword, it was Ebay.  You have to be uber careful since you can’t physically check the items out.  I fell into the Ebay Trap  when I first started using it and ended up with a lot of crappy buys, mostly cheap foreign made clothes that fell apart.  But I won it for.99 darnit!  I have since limited myself only to buying brands I know.  Some kids clothes like Hanna Andersson and Gymboree I have found tougher than cockroaches, so I have no problem plunking some PayPal on them.  I only buy shoes whose sizes I know, same for jeans and other clothes.  It’s a great place to buy high-end for cheap, but you need to be careful and know the items you’re buying.  Jeans are an easy ripoff.  I adore the fit of Joes Jeans, so I have familiarized myself with what an authentic pair looks like in comparison to a ripoff, same for Seven For All Mankind.  Most important, I try to onlyuse what is in my Paypal.  I get my paypal funds from selling on Ebay, but you should be careful here as well.  Research what you want to sell. See if anyone else is having luck with it before you list.  Sometimes people simply hear, “you can make money on ebay” and they just list everything they see.  Nobody wants to pay you to ship them a piece of junk.  I urge you to look at their selling guides first.
• freecycle.org  This is a yahoogroup that has grown to insane proportions.  The initial idea was to keep usable objects from the landfills. You join and receive emails from people offering or asking for an item, or you can do the same.  I have cleared many “junk” items out of my house to people who thought they hit the jackpot. I have also made scores from other people’s unwanted, like the screen door and my daughters crib mattress.  You’d be surprised at what people are willing to give you.  I have stopped my husband from buying things after asking for and receiving them on freecycle. 
• other yahoo groups.  There are actually loops out there where people resell their kids clothes. I found a very nice group of moms who are all about some gymboree and hanna.  They offer very fair prices for clothes that are often very gently used.
• Just ask!Sometimes you don’t even have to buy or look at ads.  My husband and I were going to look at a pulk to pull Mia in while I snowshoed or skied, and it would have set us back about $250.  While at her occupational therapy, I was telling her therapist about it.  She looked at the other therapist in the room and asked “Hey, do you still have that pulk that you wanted to get rid of?”  Voila.  Free pulk.  Just get the word out that you are looking for something but be willing to offer something in return. We got super lucky on this one!
• Wheel-N-Deal.  This is the term my husband has given for barter and trade.  We bartered some help with our flooring by offering a friend a case of beer.  I’ve traded babysitting and sewing skills as well.  Our Man Cave (aka The Garage) is host to heaps and piles of “junk” that he has picked up for free or cheap and plans to use to “trade up”, or get something better.  He has outfitted much of his manly Jeep doing this and it has kept a lot of purchases from going onto the credit card.  The mini fridge that I was critical of got something pretty pricey for that Jeep!