Donna Freedman It’s been a long time since I gave away any chocolate.
That’s the question I ask in my current Living With Less column over at MSN Money. “Can your life be richer without TV?” refers to wealth both actual and abstract.
Non-watchers told me they save money (sometimes a lot of money) on cable costs and tend to spend less (sometimes a lot less) because they and their kids aren’t bombarded with ads and product placement. They find their lives are richer in other ways, too.
And they get more sleep.
My work is in two blog carnivals this week.
My extended family has loads of skill sets and garages full of equipment. They’re either professional electricians, plumbers, carpenters or mechanics or else they know enough about it not to wind up in the ER.
They’ll drywall or paint or landscape or bring over their log-splitters. They’ll help you wrestle a heating oil storage tank into place, or wire a surround-sound system for your man-cave. They’ll cut down a tree or spread bark mulch or dig a hole right where you want it.
It’s a loose system of favor-trading. You need something, you ask. The guy or gal who can do it will eventually ask for something in return. Nobody keeps score. It all evens out – and even if it isn’t strictly “fair,” everyone is pretty happy with the arrangement.
I miss that kind of networking. Then again, I’m the one who moved away. It’s my own fault if I have to hire someone to do the kind of thing cousin Denny would have traded for.
Congratulations to lostAnnfound, she whom the random number generator loved this week. She gets the EnviTote, a reusable canvas shopping bag that is both rugged and eco-friendly.
Ann: Please respond to my e-mail requesting your mailing address. I’ll put it in the mail before I fly back to Seattle on Thursday.
(I’ve been here just over one month. It seems to have gone so quickly.)
Thanks to all who entered. Be sure to check back on Friday, because it just might be a chocolate sort of day.
Still in New Jersey, still feeling squeezed and sad – yet still finding joy in life. And, occasionally, time to read.
Americans are getting deeper in debt at I Pick Up Pennies
Shari’ah law is coming! Lock up your daughters! at Still Small Voice
Ever thrown away a half-used food product because, well, you never got around to using it? So has 77% of the population, according to a survey done for the J.M. Smucker Company.
Don’t toss it, repurpose it – particularly if it’s a Hungry Jack brand item. The “Use Up the Box” contest will award a year’s worth of groceries to the best recipes that use the company’s instant mashed potatoes, pancake mix or syrup. Two caveats:
Yesterday I didn’t post at all, and it felt odd. Much of the day was taken up with deadlines: my Living With Less column for MSN Money and a guest post for Get Rich Slowly. I took a two-mile walk. I spent some time with my aunt. I scanned a ton of family photos at Walgreens, and had a plate of ravioli at a pizzeria while I waited for the prints to be ready.
Those photos, particularly the ones of my mother, are generating a lot of melancholy. It’s going to take some time for the emotions to shake down. When they do, I’ll be writing about what I’ve learned – and what I hope to continue to learn – from looking back.
This post was ripped off inspired by a post at Budgets Are Sexy. In “I got Googled and I liked it,” J.Money listed some of the weird search engine queries that landed visitors on his site. Stuff like:
J$’s post made me laugh. It also made me start looking at the search engine terms that bring readers to Surviving and Thriving. There were some funny ones*, such as:
A persistent theme, though, is nekkidness.
Anybody here eat food from the scratch-and-dent grocery?
Anybody here ever heard of the scratch-and-dent grocery?
If not, head over to MSN Money to read my latest Living With Less column. “Save with scratch-and-dent food” explains how salvage stores work and offers tips on buying from discount grocers and the dented-can bin, too. [Edited to add: Since MSN Money changed platforms, the pieces that I wrote are no longer available through conventional channels.]
Maybe the idea skeeves you right out: Eeeewwww, old food! But plenty of it isn’t old.