Holiday 2021 giveaway: Scented candles.

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We have one month before Christmas and a little more than that until Kwanzaa, so let’s keep these giveaways coming! This time around, the holiday 2021 giveaway is sponsored by Abigail Perry of I Pick Up Pennies, whom regular readers will know is my daughter. These highly scented candles could become four or more holiday gifts for some lucky reader, or maybe a really nice self-gift.

The backstory, as I recall it: Abby had written about the importance of supporting local and small-biz economies. One of her readers mentioned that she had an Etsy shop called BettysOnly. Abby visited and spent a little money, and decided to donate them to my holiday giveaway series.

As you can see from the photo, there are four good-sized scented candles and four little tulle bags. The bags are full of what I initially thought were small, flat candles, but which on closer inspection  proved to be wickless. I concluded that these are fragrance blocks, designed to perfume a room. Put one or two of them into a dish in a musty-smelling room, closet or dresser drawer and they’ll change the dynamic pretty quickly.

(I brought them home wrapped in plastic bags in my suitcase several weeks ago, and that Gladstone still smells sweet. Since I’m heading for the Talkeetna Bachelors Auction and Wilderness Woman Competition next weekend with Linda B., I’ll be even more irresistible than I usually am. Or my clothes will, anyway.)

You could give this prize as one great big holiday or birthday (or Valentine’s Day) present, or split it up into individual gifts. Three of the four candles are heart-shaped and one is a tall, square pillar. The smaller bags would make good stocking-stuffers, or little gifts to someone you’d like to treat but with whom you don’t want to provoke a gift war; such a small remembrance shouldn’t make that person feel, “Oh, but I didn’t get you anything!”

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Dr. Demento and the desecrated turkey

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(Happy Throwback Thursday! This article is from WAY back in the day: May 10, 2010. It was the eighth piece I published. Since the article has a Thanksgiving theme, sort of, I thought I’d re-run it in honor of turkey day.)

About five months ago I walked over to the Asian market to buy carrots and came home with a turkey. Yes, I know the difference between root vegetables and edible fowls. But the bird was on sale for 25 cents a pound. The whole thing cost only $2.65. I’ve paid more than that for a soft drink at a ballpark.

(What does this have to do with Dr. Demento? I’ll get to that.)

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Two quick grocery hacks.

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DF and I didn’t plan to buy eggs or meat today at the supermarket. But we wound up using two quick grocery hacks that saved us quite a bit of money.

While these quick grocery hacks are recurring deals, they’re not always available. We’ve made it a habit always to look for them, though, and today is one of those days that paid off.

The first is to watch for “repack” eggs. Sometimes one or more eggs in a carton will crack and the dozen is unsellable as-is.

An enterprising dairy manager simply repacks the unbroken eggs into cartons with “Grade B” stamped on them.

Some of these cartons are just standard white eggs. Other times, it’s quite the mix of cackleberries: medium-sized, huge, white, brown, bearing an “EB” (Eggland’s Best)

Sometimes I think the B stands for “broken.” Other times I think it stands for “better deal” – because non-organic eggs usually cost from $1.99 to $2.99; those Eggland’s Best are currently $3.99 a dozen. The repack eggs cost 99 cents at one store and $1.29 to $1.49 a dozen at the other. On this trip we bought two dozen.

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How not to starve in an emergency.

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Recent flooding in British Columbia led to a double-barreled consumer emergency: Stores emptied rapidly of food and household items, and because both road and rail links were so badly damaged, there’s no clear idea when regular deliveries can resume.

Shades of the early days of the pandemic: Once again, we’re seeing the fragility of the modern retail supply system.

It’s essential that we learn from this. Specifically: Don’t wait until an emergency threatens. Instead, build a good-sized stockpile of food and other vital items in advance.

Understand: I am not advocating hoarding. The Canadian government was pleading with folks in B.C. not to panic-buy, which would leave nothing for others. (That worked well.) Instead, I am talking about a simple, targeted approach toward not just getting these items, but using and replacing them regularly.

This isn’t only about food, either. Do you tend to wait until the last minute to buy cat litter? Ever found yourself purchasing tampons at a convenience store at 11 p.m.?

What about the allergy meds that keep your eyes from swelling shut every spring, or the lotion that makes your psoriasis flare-ups a little less painful? Suppose you were running low but kept procrastinating – and then an emergency made it impossible to get more?

Fortunately, there’s a bonehead-simple solution. Just three basic tactics can help keep you from running out of food, pet supplies, OTC meds or, yeah, toilet paper.

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Extreme Frugality: Use all the bits.

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Every time we cut into a loaf of that super-simple rustic bread, we wind up with bread crumbs. As I swept them off the butcher-block work station one day, I remembered a scene from Zola’s “Germinal,” a realistic (and depressing!) book about 19th-century French coal miners. As the eldest daughter makes sandwiches for everyone to take to work, her 11-year-old brother, Jeanlin, gathers up the crumbs and puts them into his bowl of coffee. Now that’s some extreme frugality.

I figured that what’s good enough for Jeanlin is good enough for me. So I started saving the crumbs.

Before you think that I’ve finally gone ’round the bend in terms of economy, or that I’ve become a parody of frugality, hear me out.

At first I made fun of it myself. Early on I displayed probably one-sixteenth of an inch of breadcrumbs in the plastic container, and told DF that in another seven or eight months we might have enough to make a batch of meatballs. A small batch.

But as regular readers know, DF and I have found a ton of ways to save on food  and are always looking for new tactics. This isn’t because we’re afraid we’ll go hungry – it’s just another part of our frugal ethos. Each piece of food represents not just money but also resources: Think of the dollars and fossil fuels that went into planting, irrigating, spraying, harvesting, packaging and transporting the elements of our meals, and of the dollars we spend to get those elements.

So why not use all of it? Especially if there’s a way to bring Harry Potter into it? 

 

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Win a $100 Macy’s gift card.

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Win a $100 e-gift card from Macy's.

I didn’t set out to be a giveaway site, and thus try not to post too many “win this” articles in a row. Right now I have the Alaskan art jewelry giveaway* going, so this will make the second post in a row that lets you enter to win a prize. But the holidays approach, and I would like for readers to have a chance to win a $100 Macy’s gift card from Savings.com. which is giving away five of them. So here we are.

Macy’s has a wide variety of products, from toys to toasters, to go along with its clothing items. Having a $100 head start on your holiday shopping could be a nice boost to your budget. So what are you waiting for?

Not shopping for the holidays? Already finished your buying? Well, then, you could spend the money on warm items to take to a shelter. If you’re in a warm climate, use it to buy necessities like socks and underwear because I think most (if not all) shelters can never have enough of such things.

Spend it all on playthings to donate to a toy drive. Contact a nursing home to see if you could play Secret Santa to someone who has no family; a hundred dollars could let you buy slippers, PJs, comfortable loungewear for someone who otherwise would not be remembered on the holiday. 

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Holiday 2021 giveaway: Alaska art jewelry.

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I’ve been doing intermittent giveaways of Alaska-made items, in order to support the local economy. Today I realized that Hannukah starts on Nov. 28, and that we have only about five more weeks before Christmas and Kwanzaa. Clearly it’s time for a holiday 2021 giveaway, no matter which holiday(s) you observe.

My friend Linda B’s jewelry has done so well in the past that I’m putting some of it back up for grabs. You can read more about her backstory in the first giveaway write-up. Short form: She’s talented in fields other than jewelry, and she’s also awesome.

As is her jewelry. She started out with beading, and has lately become entranced with metalwork and resin capture. If you want to give gifts to a spouse, lover, friend or, heck, even to yourself, I can guarantee that these are one-of-a-kind pieces. Linda never repeats herself, so every jewelry work is unique and never to be repeated.

Her work is arresting, and it’s hard to pick favorites, but here are the items I will be giving away this time around.

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9 cheap indulgences that bring joy.

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A recent Twitter thread caught my eye: “What’s a cheap indulgence that brings you joy?” The usual suspects showed up: ice cream, coffee, bubble baths, good pens, pretty notebooks, dark chocolate.

And a few less-obvious choices showed up, too:

People-watching at the pub

Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards

S’mores Pop Tarts

Soft cotton sheets

Pretty hardback copies of favorite classic novels

Boston Baked Beans from the dollar store (“It has had me in a chokehold”)

Here was my contribution to the thread: “Pay-one-price day at Cinemark with my BFF or one/both of my great-nephews – and kettle corn, of course. Bonus joy points if I am using a discounted gift card and a coupon cashed in from movie rewards points.”

I’ve long been a fan of cheap joy. Given the past couple of years, and the no-real-end-in-sight nature of the pandemic (and its impact on finances), I think it’s more important than ever to find affordable delight.

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Thanks, Dad, for useful life skills.

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(Note: A version of this article was published in MSN Money’s Smart Spending blog in 2009. I am re-running it for Throwback Thursday, because tomorrow is the first anniversary of his death from COVID-19.)

Years ago my dad had two teaching jobs: elementary school all day, and an evening gig with adolescents deemed too unruly for regular high school. One evening, a student flipped a penny at him. Dad picked it up and put it in his pocket. The teens laughed, and another one flipped a penny. Then another one.

When my father had 12 cents in his pocket, he said, “Guys, I want to thank you. All I need is 38 more of these and I’m going over to the Fairfield and have a draft beer – on you.”

He could see the horror in their faces: Man, I’m not gonna buy the TEACHER a beer! Not another penny was flung.

That was an example of what he would call a “useful life skill”: realizing that sometimes nontraditional tactics are needed to solve nontraditional situations.

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Win a $100 Walmart gift card.

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Win a $100 e-gift card from Walmart.

Sorry to have maintained radio silence since Oct. 23, but I’m on vacation in Phoenix. More about that below, however, because I want to focus on the topic at hand: Why five of you should win a $100 Walmart card.

My old pals at Savings.com are giving away five $100 e-gift cards in what they’re calling the #LiveWellWithWalmart giveaway. I see no reason that all five shouldn’t be won by readers of this site.

After all, the holidays are upon us and due to supply-chain and pandemic-related issues, there’s no time like the present to start looking for your presents.

(Disclosure: I get a small affiliate fee for each click on the links in this piece.)

And if you’re in a position where all your needs are currently covered? Consider entering anyway, and then using the $100 to do some good. Buy diapers and donate them to a diaper bank. Purchase gloves, hats and wool socks and drop them off at a shelter; if you live in a temperate climate, then substitute cotton socks and maybe some underwear.

Buy pet food for a no-kill rescue group. Choose some puzzles and stuffed animals to help out your local Toys for Tots drive. Get a hundred bucks’ worth of coffee and tea and deliver it to the senior center. 

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