giving

Giveaway: More stocking stuffers.

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I’m really enjoying these giveaways. That’s because I love giving things away almost as much as I love winning things myself. Okay, not 100 percent accurate right now: I’m hoping against hope to win a PlayStation 5 in time for Christmas. My great-nephew, like many other gamers, is obsessed over this new system. Some people … Read more

Extreme frugality: Holiday attitude edition.

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(This is another in an occasional series of articles focusing on saving serious dough. A little background can be read here.)

Part of me thinks it’s a bit late to bring up the holidays, since some people have already finished their shopping and have their decorating plans well underway.

Then again, I expect lots of people have barely begun, because 2020 has sucked as relentlessly as gravity. Heck, April lasted something like 22 weeks and the pre- and post-election antics have left my head spinning. How about yours?

Money is a bigger-than-usual issue this year. #ThanksCOVID Layoffs, work slowdowns and dismal business returns have left some people frankly terrified. Should they spend on gifts and tinsel when they’re worried about being able to make the rent next month?

Spoiler alert: Some do. CreditCards.com surveyed 2,369 U.S. residents and almost half were willing to acquire debt (or sink deeper into it) to prepare for Dec. 25.

Here’s another sign of the times. Recently the Buy Nothing Facebook group to which I belong split into three smaller groups. One former member reports that her new group has very few giveaways but is replete with requests – many of them for food.

That led me to wonder how many of those Buy Nothing giveaway items are going to constitute a big part of Christmas for some households, both in that group and in my own. Certainly I’ve seen responses like, “This would be a great Christmas gift for my son” or “We’d love to get those decorations because we don’t have any and it’s been a tough year.”

So maybe it’s not too late for me to write about this topic. Maybe it’s the perfect time. 

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Giveaway: Another $25 gift card.

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The results are in: You guys really like gift cards. The previous gift card giveaway had 185 entries.

No surprises here. Gift cards can be used either for something you need or for something you want but couldn’t quite justify buying for yourself.

Here’s a good example: One commenter who’d previously won a gift card on my site said she used it to buy a signed copy of a book, thereby supporting a writer while indulging in something she would not otherwise have gotten. #winwin

Frankly, I wish the amount on the card were more generous. But I decided that I would rather give away a bunch of relatively small prizes than one or two big ones.

Besides, during the difficult days of the pandemic even $25 can make a difference in your life. That could mean getting a signed book, or it could mean being able to buy a few groceries or put gas in your car until the next cash – be it paycheck or unemployment benefit – comes in.

As a broke single mom, at times I had to take coins from the baby’s piggy bank to buy milk before payday. Always paid it back, but it caused me tremendous anxiety to have to open up that bank (even though the milk was for her).

 

That $25 gift card might also let you do a little holiday shopping, which was definitely something I thought about when planning this series of giveaways. While I’d never advise buying gifts that you can’t pay for in cash (or pay for in full when the credit card bill comes due), I also think it’s important to give.

 

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Holiday shopping in the time of COVID.

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(Surviving and Thriving has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Surviving and Thriving and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses and recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.)

Some 71 percent of U.S. residents plan to go online for most of their holiday shopping this year, according to a new survey from CreditCards.com. Will you be one of them?

I sort of hope not.

Local stores have already been hammered by the novel coronavirus. Some are barely hanging on. If there’s another stimulus check – and even if there isn’t – I plan to do much of my shopping here in town.

Note that I said “much.” A bunch of my gifts won’t actually be physical gifts, but rather gift cards that I get from rewards programs like Swagbucks and MyPoints or from my rewards credit cards.

But I’ll also be visiting some local shops with beautiful and/or practical gifts.

Sure, I could go online for pop-culture items for my nephew and niece, or cash in some of those rewards points for chain pet stores. But I’d much rather head over to Bosco’s or the Anchorage PetZoo and leave my dollars here in town.

 

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What to do with “extra” money.

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Recently I interviewed personal finance blogger Jordanne Wells and something she said really struck me:

“If you know having money in your pocket will make you feel like you want to spend, then don’t have money in your pocket.” 

Wells didn’t mean using cash vs. credit/debit, or walking around without any money/plastic. She was referring to having “extra” money, as in spending less than you thought you would.

For example, maybe you budgeted $100 for groceries but the total was only $80 thanks to wise coupon use and some really good sales.

What to do with that $20?

“Put it toward something right now,” Wells says.

As in, right now. Don’t wait for the monthly credit card statement, or hesitate to move those bucks into your emergency fund. Do it nownownow.

“All of those payments just help to get you in that habit of ‘When I have money, I do something (positive) with it’,” the writer says.

She’s no ivory-tower theorist. Her lessons came the hard way. When Wells came to the U.S. from Jamaica to attend college she had zero information on how to handle money. Credit cards were a revelation: “I can charge $50 and I only have to pay $10? Awesome!” What with school expenses and then “work-appropriate” clothing, Wells amassed debt that she couldn’t pay in full – and that grew to $30,000 by her early 30s.

Needing to buy a vehicle after a car wreck, she learned that she had “awful” credit; the best car loan she could get was at 11 percent interest. So she set out to improve her financial life via what she calls the “Debt S.L.A.Y.E.R” method. Wells also wrote an e-book called “How to Build Credit and Raise Your Credit: Everything You Need to Know to Understand, Build and Maintain Excellent Credit.”

 

 

Right now a lot of folks would love to be in the position of having “extra” money. Plenty of people would have liked that opportunity pre-pandemic, too. If you’re living from paycheck to paycheck, or even just on very thin margins, the notion of surplus money cluttering up the checking account is something of a pipe dream.

Or maybe it isn’t.

 

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The REAL way to save on Black Friday.

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Having a gift closet is a great frugal hack, as it saves you money all year long. A stash of “evergreen” presents means you’re ready for any occasion.

(Especially those that sound like this: “Hey, I forgot to tell you, I’m invited to Jack’s birthday party on Saturday.”)

If you pick your spots, the first few shopping days of the holiday season are a great way to put some oomph into your gift closet. They’re also a good chance to hit some specific gift milestones, and maybe even to get something your own household needs (or wants).

Gifts for people who are pregnant, getting married, and or heading off to/graduating from college abound in sales flyers for Black Friday et al. Maybe it’s time to check a few gifts off your own upcoming events?

You’ll see towels, sheets, blankets and the like starting at just a few bucks. Last year, I spent just $5.99 for a luxuriously warm blanket in a rich mulberry color. It’s on our bed, and between it and the comforter we’ve been a little too warm lately.

Then again, poking an arm or leg out of a cozy bed is one of the great joys of a winter night. In “Dandelion Wine,” Ray Bradbury described it thusly:

“…sticking your feet out of the hot covers in wintertime to let the cold wind from the open window blow on them suddenly and you let them stay out a long time until you pull them back in under the covers again to feel them, like packed snow.”

Someone who’s setting up a first apartment might really appreciate something like that, especially if you could afford to pair it with a set of sheets. Maybe a half-dozen bath towels and washcloths would be a big help for that new apartment-dweller.

Small appliances like coffeemakers, electric fry pans and slow cookers are typical loss leaders. The Kohl’s flyer I got in the mail offers these for $2.14 after coupon and rebate.

Why didn’t they save that price for Valentine’s Day, I wonder? Maybe it’s because none of these are romantic enough. But they’d be a big help for someone setting up housekeeping – and that includes getting married.

 

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Extreme Frugality: Holiday shopping edition.

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Surviving and Thriving has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Surviving and Thriving and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses and recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

(This is the first in an occasional series of articles focusing on saving serious dough. A little background can be read here.)

Black Friday? How about Black November?

Not long ago, Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving – was considered the kick-off for the holiday shopping season. The timetable has been moved up, though.

This year, some retailers offered “Black Friday in April” or “Black Friday in July” deals, and recently the National Retail Federation reported a phenomenon called “Black November” – big deals offered on Nov. 1, with more to come before Nov. 29.

Some of the busiest shopping days of the year, however, are the days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. In 2018, an estimated 165 consumers spent an average of just over $313 during that five-day period.

“People plan their attack, and where they’re going to go. It’s a sport,” says shopping expert Trae Bodge, a senior editor at Retail Me Not.

 

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Should you ask for money at Christmas?

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Recently I interviewed Melissa J. Ellis, a certified financial planner from Kansas City, for an article about medical debt. One potential tactic I’d asked her about involved holiday and birthday gift-giving. Suppose when relatives and friends ask for gift ideas we were to say, “Help paying my bills”?

Ellis thought this might work for some people. But some people are embarrassed to ask for money outright. It seems gauche or greedy. The CFP suggested framing it this way:

I really appreciate that you want to give me a gift, and here is something that I could really use. It will help relieve my stress and help me feel better than a new sweater ever would.

Is that gauche? Or greedy? Personally, I’m torn.

Part of me thinks it’s not polite to dictate a gift and that it’s particularly squicky to ask for money. But the rest of me thinks some people wouldn’t mind being misdirected. If your parents want to spend $100 on a sweater and some frou-frou bath bombs on your b-day, they might find it more meaningful to send that money toward your co-pay.

After all, they’d be helping their beloved child pay less interest total on the obligation. If other relatives/friends did the same, you could see some real progress on the debt. Besides, how many sweaters does one person need?

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Rage purging.

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(Surviving and Thriving has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Surviving and Thriving and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses and recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.)

A recent post on my neighborhood’s Buy Nothing Facebook page mentioned “rage purging.” The woman was getting rid of a bunch of stuff because she wanted to be able to park in her garage again.

Further down on the page someone was giving away a 16-quart tamale/seafood steamer – never used, she said. I wondered if it had been a wedding present that got set aside and forgotten, or whether she’d bought it herself while thinking, “Gosh, I’d use this all the time.”

These posts plus early hints of Christmas stuff in the stores made me want to write a public service announcement:

Stop buying stuff you don’t have room to store.

Stop buying stuff you will likely never use.

Stop buying stuff, period.

About that last: Obviously I don’t expect anyone never to buy stuff again, unless they’re absolute wizards at the Buy Nothing page and Freecycle. But soon we’ll be buffeted by massive marketing campaigns designed to part us from our dollars, so I’d like to suggest we all take a look at what we need – and, more to the point, what we want.

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Amazon Prime Day: Black Friday in July?

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Have you taken advantage of Amazon Prime Day, or are you ignoring it completely?

If you were interested in buying a Kindle, an Echo speaker, a Fire Tablet or TV stick, a Blink security camera or any other tech that Amazon makes, this could be a good time to do it.

(You have until 2:59 a.m. Tuesday, July 16, to make up your mind.)

According to Cnet.com, some prices hit rock bottom during the sales promotion. That Fire TV stick was just $15, and the Echo Show 5 was priced at $50. In addition, while the Amazon Echo dropped down to $22 (from as high as $50), you could get an Echo for free if you bundled it with stuff like Ring Video Doorbell Pro or the AmazonBasics microwave.

Non-Alexa household, here. In fact, I have to admit that I spaced the date until Amazon Prime Day was more than half over. And I’m okay with that, because I agree with Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst with Bankrate.com: Any spike in sales is good news for Amazon shareholders, “but not necessarily for consumers as a whole.”

The hype surrounding Amazon Prime Day is not unlike that of Black Friday (or Gray Thursday, or Cyber Monday). We’re being set up for a major, collective case of FOMO (fear of missing out). What if we miss the best deals ever? What if everyone else gets the cool gear and we don’t?

Yeah, and what if the prices aren’t as good as they look?

 

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