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How to avoid overdrafting.

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It can be surprisingly simple to bounce a check – and overdrafting can put a serious hurt on your finances, especially if you’re living on a tight budget. That’s because banks and credit unions can legally charge non-sufficient funds and/or overdraft fees multiple times per day. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently reported that bank … Read more

The frugal medicine cabinet.

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(Happy Throwback Thursday! Now that the no- or low-spend February is underway, I have decided to run a throwback frugality post every Thursday this month. This post originally ran on Oct. 4, 2021. Its topic is timely due to COVID-19, flu-rona, and the usual sniffles being passed around at this time of year.)

What makes a medicine cabinet frugal? I’ll explain some tactics a little later. Right off, though, I would like to gently nag you to do an inventory of your own. Here’s why.

You might get sick. If it’s COVID, then it could be possible to fight this at home. (You might have to if you’re living in a place where they’re rationing healthcare. They’re doing it right now in Alaska.) And if it’s not COVID, then you’ll feel a little more comfortable – or at least a little less horrible – if you have certain OTC items on hand.

You might get stuck. Again, no one can say whether another lockdown will happen. If it does, or if case numbers were scary enough in your area to make you want to stay home, then you’re at the mercy of delivery services. Sure, you could look at their ads and find out whether generic Theraflu is cheaper at CVS than at Kroger. But will you do that? Also, being unable to watch for deals and pick them off, one or two at a time, means you’ll likely pay full retail. Bonus: Not being in-store means not seeing “manager’s special” or “clearance” tags.

You might be strapped. Suppose two members of your household get whatever bug is going around. You’ll be so busy putting cold cloths on foreheads and emptying puke pails that you won’t exactly have time/inclination to rush off to Rite Aid. (Stay home anyway, ya Typhoid Mary!)

What will you need, and how should you acquire it? Let’s get started.

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The $0 home makeover.

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Ever get tired of the way your place looks? That song lyric “I sit here staring at the same old walls” comes to mind, especially during the winter – or, lately, during lockdowns and quarantine.

While we should all be grateful to have places to live, there’s nothing wrong with wanting a little variety. My daughter worked at home long before COVID made it commonplace. Stuck in the house pretty much 24/7 due to work, chronic health issues and a now-ex who complicated her life in many ways, Abby had neither the energy nor the finances to change those same old walls.

Until one day she decided to redecorate for free.

All she did was rearrange the living-room furniture and bring in a lamp from elsewhere in the house. The effect? Pretty much a brand-new room, without spending a cent.

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Need something? Buy Nothing.

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(Happy Throwback Thursday! Now that the no- or low-spend February is underway, I thought this post could help some of you avoid spending and/or declutter. It was originally published on Aug. 5, 2018. Ever since then I have been using the heck out of Buy Nothing, both to give and to receive. With luck, your local group will be a great year-round resource to you as well.)

I got a free mini-fridge yesterday. Not for me, for a friend. (Seriously!)

While clearly secondhand, with a couple of scratches and dings, it smells freshly washed on the inside and will help someone out.

Helping people out is the stated purpose of the fridge’s source: a Buy Nothing Facebook group.

Sort of an intensely local Freecycle, this page is a great way not just to keep things out of the landfill, but also to connect with your community.

I’ve gotten so much good stuff from this site, including but not limited to:

  • A waffle iron that had been used just once (and it has a beeping timer – no more scorched waffles!)
  • A never-before-played “Game of Thrones” board game, which became a Christmas gift
  • A pair of slippers for DF’s grandchild to wear when she visits (this is Alaska, and shoes go off at the door)
  • A wraparound-style fleece poncho (very soft and cozy)
  • A bright-red colander (which I use to drain my homemade yogurt)
  • Plastic storage totes
  • Lots of food: apples, powdered milk, flour, dried beans, yeast, lentils, baking powder, pasta, split peas, and canned vegetables, fruits, fish and Spam (some of which we donated to a food bank)
  • Dig-your-own horseradish roots (always looking for new garden challenges)
  • A huge roll of parchment paper (a crucial ingredient in making that ridiculously simple, ridiculously delicious rustic bread)

It also helped me find an elementary school teacher who was delighted to take some empty Altoid tins off my hands. She’s also stoked about receiving fidget spinners, slap bracelets and any other fun items I bring back from . (Teachers are always looking for things for their classrooms.) DF and I have given away a bunch of other things, too, such as books, clothing and fresh rhubarb.

My niece has been able to find new homes for some decorative items (she’s changing décor), some outgrown toys and kids’ clothing, and a big bag of shredded bedding for pet cages (her snake died). Recently she picked up a big bag of clothing for her younger son, and also a major holiday gift (again, can’t say exactly what in case the kiddo is reading). She and I both check the page regularly, to see if anyone’s giving away something useful.

Or looking for something useful – the Buy Nothing group runs both ways. If you don’t see what you need, you can ask.

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Credit card requirements easing.

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The good news: Banks have lately made it a bit easier to get a credit card.

The bad news: Banks have lately made it a bit easier to get a credit card.

According to the Federal Reserve’s new quarterly survey of bank senior loan officers, nearly 15 percent of large banks and 25 percent of other banks have eased the required minimum credit score in the fourth quarter of 2021. This trend is likely to continue in 2022.

Notice that not all banks are doing this. Notice, too, that I said it’s both good and bad news.

The relaxing of standards could help people who don’t currently qualify for credit, or who qualify only for cards with lousy interest rates and lots of fees. Getting a legitimate card and using it carefully can help them build their credit history. Without a solid credit history, you’ll pay more than you must for things like car loans, vehicles and insurance.

The idea is to get the best possible card and, more important, to have a plan to build credit, not create debt. That’s the “bad news” part: Being able finally to get a card could harm someone who doesn’t have a plan in place. A credit card is not the ticket to the good life, with zero consequences attached. It’s a tool, and like any tool it can be used for good or for ill.

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Low/no-spend February: Week 1.

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It’s been a quiet week in Lake DebtBeGone* – which also happened to be the first week of the no- or low-spend February challenge. It was fairly easy to manage because I barely went anywhere. Since I don’t shop much online, it was pretty easy to avoid spending.

Not that I avoided it entirely. Tuesday, Feb. 1 was “Senior Tuesday” at Fred Meyer, a hot date for DF and me. That’s where the “low-spend” part comes in: Pretty much everything we bought either had an extra 10 percent off because it was a store brand, or because we had a coupon, or both. We found some screamin’ deals on meat, paying $2.49 a pound for 91 percent lean ground sirloin, $2.87 for a pound of breakfast sausage (DF eats meat and eggs before heading off to ski) and $1.92 for a pound of organic ground beef (manager’s special/store coupon/Senior Day trifecta).

Those prices may not sound rock-bottom to you, but we live in the home of the Alaska Gouge and we were just delighted.

On the way to the checkout line, we saw frozen turkey breast for 99 cents a pound. Grabbed one of those, too, and today it made the most marvelous midday meal – and it was frugal to boot:

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Low- or no-spend February starts tomorrow.

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Just a heads-up: Beginning tomorrow, we start the no- or low-spend February challenge. Given the comments I received on the original post, some of you are as intrigued as I am by this chance to look closer at your spending and, if need be, to get control of it.

This time around we’re doing “low-spend” as an option. I want to encourage people to do their best not to spend – but I also want them to let it go if they do have to spend.

Your teenager has no control over whether they grow out of their shoes next month, and your car isn’t going to wait until March 1 to break down. As thoughtful as those things would be, life isn’t perfect. It doesn’t conform to our expectations. (I expect most of you know that already.)

As I noted in the original piece, it’s more of a “spend-super-intentionally” month. The object isn’t privation. It’s innovation, and it’s discovery. How can we come up with clever workarounds vs. spending on autopilot? And just how much do we spend while we think we’re being frugal?

Also as noted: We’re going for mindfulness, like masochism. You can still buy stuff. Heck, you can even buy stuff you don’t technically “need,” as long as you keep the low- or no-spend February club rules in mind: 

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Valentine giveaway: Alaska-made jewelry.

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Welcome back to the “support the local economy” giveaway series. This time around, we’re going for a Valentine’s Day theme. Specifically, a trio of heart-shaped earrings made by Cypher Alaska.

That’s the business run by my friend Linda B., who started out with freeform bead-weaving and has added things like traditional beading, resin capture and metal work.

Once she picked up a bunch of flashing at the Habitat ReStore and turned pieces of it into jewelry (Linda has quite the collection of shapes and punches). Then there was the time she purchased a piece of copper piping at the home improvement center, capped both ends and beaded around the middle.

What I’m giving away this week is a bit simpler, though. Three winners will each get a pair of hammered metal heart-shaped earrings. From a distance, these things look like just metal hearts. When you get up close, you can see they bear multiple divots that add texture to the metal.

That’s not a bad metaphor for Valentine’s Day, or for love itsownself: After all, many a heart has been dented in the name of l’amour.

If you’re lucky, that never happened to you because you met The One and immediately paired up. Or maybe you escaped a heart-hammering because you have the ability to shrug over a lost love and say, “Plenty of other fish in the sea.” Or possibly you don’t have much interest in the whole love thing from the start, living just as long and dying just as happy without romance (shout-out to the aro folks among us).

But back to Valentine’s Day. If you’re interested in gifting a pair of shiny earbobs to your Valentine – or to yourself – on Feb. 14, read on to see the goods and enter the drawing.

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Found money and hunger.

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As regular readers know, I pick up coins (and sometimes bills) all year long. The found money goes into a vase my daughter got from the free box at a yard sale when she was little. At the end of the year, I round up the amount and donate it.

Last year my found money take was pretty paltry: just $5.88, probably due to the pandemic*. For example:

Work slowdowns/job loss might have made some folks more apt to pick up those quarters they dropped. When times were better, they just let ’em roll.

People weren’t shopping in-person as much, for fear of contagion. Fewer shoppers means fewer chances for dropped coins.

And since I spent a whole lot of 2020 hiding away from the invisible** threat, I wasn’t in the stores much myself.

To some extent, those things were still true in the past year. In addition, the country has been plagued by a coin shortage in stores and banks so folks were using less cash. Maybe that’s why I kept thinking that 2021 was going to be another low year for found money. Imagine my surprise when I counted up: The vase held $10.11 – almost 72 percent more than in 2020.

Generally I donate the rounded-up amount either to Feeding America or the Food Bank of Alaska. This year, however, I’m going to focus on hunger in the rural town where I grew up. 

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