Year: 2011

How to complain.

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After BlogHer 2011 ended my daughter and I stayed in San Diego for a couple of extra days. I’d used a Travelocity voucher I’d gotten through Eversave to get a decent deal for a hotel in the city’s Gaslamp section.

The conference had been pretty tiring, so we were ready to lie down by the time we showed up for the 3 p.m. check-in. A desk clerk told us it would be another 20 minutes because our room had not been cleaned.

Twenty minutes went by. Abby, who has a chronic health condition, was so fatigued she could barely sit upright. I inquired again. Still not clean, but they’d let us know as soon as something was available.

Another 20 minutes elapsed, during which I saw the clerk have a soft drink and chat with co-workers. What he didn’t do was call housekeeping to ask about the progress of the room. Meanwhile, I was wondering just how big a bitch I needed to be to get this fixed.

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My mom, the frugal role model.

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Editor’s note: A version of this post (written by me) originally appeared on MSN Money’s Smart Spending blog.

The older I get the more I miss my mother, who died eight years ago this month. Geneva Hanes was the youngest of 10 kids born to an uneducated Tennessee couple who eventually pulled up stakes and moved north for opportunity – that is, to work in South Jersey factories and vegetable fields.

Despite hunger, poverty and violence, my mother became the first in her family to finish high school. Mom owned two dresses (“one on, one off”) and never had a square meal or a bath in a real tub until she married my dad right after graduation.

They had four kids in five years, which sounds impossibly grim by today’s standards. But we didn’t seem to notice that we were poor.  Everyone we knew pinched pennies. Nobody did it like my mom, though.

 

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Live from BlogHer 2011: Forgetfulness!

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I’ve been so disoriented and exhausted since getting to San Diego on Thursday that I completely forgot to put up a giveaway on Friday — and when I remembered, the Internet was down at the hotel.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it. So next week I’ll probably give away two things to make up for it.

After the expo hall at BlogHer, the pickings will be pretty rich. Among the things they’re handing out away:

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The bank of BFFs.

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Do you always grab for the tab, or do you and friends/roommates split even the smallest expenditures?

The first can leave you open to exploitation. The second can be aggravating if it becomes an exercise in, “SonyaAnn got the extra cup of ranch dressing so she owes 30 cents more.”

Treading that ticklish territory is the subject of my latest column over at MSN Money, “Your best friends’ bank: You.” (Edited to add: This article is no longer available since Microsoft changed platforms. Sorry about that.)

 

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Join Swagbucks. I’ll make it worth your while.

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I love Swagbucks. There. I said it. I love Swagbucks because it helps me earn Amazon gift cards for doing what I’d do anyway, i.e., online searches.

I’d like for you to join Swagbucks using the widget here on the site. That’s because I’ll get bonus points if you do.

Yes, the Internet is a giant Ponzi scheme and I just want my piece of it. So I’m proposing a little incentive.

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Never dumpster-dive for plastic containers. (Warning: Immature language.)

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Getting older is not for whiners. Since my late 40s, midlife health concerns have included thyroid imbalance, elevated blood pressure and creeping weight gain. A couple of mammograms looked iffy but turned out to be OK. The asthma could be better.

Mostly I’ve handled these issues with equanimity. But that was before the doctor ordered me to spread my own poo on a chemically treated card.

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How to stop getting credit-card applications. (Insurance ones, too.)

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It’s always fun to go through the mail after you return from a long trip. True, a lot of what’s piled up is junk mail and charitable solicitations, but you always hope for some good stuff.

Two months’ worth of envelopes were waiting when I got back from Alaska in mid-July. I did find a $39 check from Mr. Rebates (yay, cash-back shopping!) and a couple of paychecks from my Get Rich Slowly gig. But the haul was mostly, well, junk mail and charitable solicitations.

And credit card applications. Ten of them.

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Back-to-school sales: What, already?

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Kids all over the country are in mourning, having seen “back to school” signs and adverts since early July. Today’s circulars included deals like 1-cent manual pencil sharpeners (Office Depot), 25-cent crayons (Kmart), free-after-rebate yellow highlighters (Staples) and $9 backpacks (Target).

It’s not time to buy yet, though.

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Blog roundup: Cartesian dualism edition.

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You’ve got to love a blogger who can work the phrase “Cartesian dualism” into a post. In this case the blogger is my daughter, Abigail Perry, and the article is about us both. (But mostly her.)

Don’t let the title “Glorifying my mom (who’s glorifying me)” fool you. It’s not an exercise in mutual admiration, although I do admire the hell out of her. The post is about her re-reading “You can’t even tell perfect bodies apart,” a post I wrote about Abby’s near-fatal illness, and then reflecting on who she was then and who she is now.

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