holidays

7 essentials to grab at post-holiday sales.

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Frugal folks have always known that post-holiday clearance sales are a great way to stock up on next year’s wrapping paper, holiday decorations and Christmas cards. But why stop there?

Birthday gifts, fun PJs and even everyday food items are just some of the budget-stretchers you can get for a song starting on Dec. 26. As soon as Christmas is over, retailers can’t get rid of holiday items quickly enough.

Discounts of 50% are the usual starting point, and rise as the end of the year approaches. I’ve seen 90%-off price tags.

Here’s how to work those post-holiday discounts for year-round savings.

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Easter tomatoes.

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Despite what the president says, egg prices have not dropped by 87 percent. They’re still so costly that some folks suggested dyeing potatoes instead of eggs for Easter.

We didn’t dye anything this year, but on Easter we did enjoy a couple of brightly colored roundish objects: fresh tomatoes.

They were from plants that DF wintered over in the basement and brought upstairs about six weeks ago. Life wasn’t easy for them with temps at 40-something degrees, even with six to eight hours of artificial light per day. Yet they somehow put out flowers and started forming teeny-tiny fruits, along with a couple of volunteer marigolds that have us mystified.

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Doesn’t feel like Christmas.

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We’re in the midst of one of those awful winter thaws, with temperatures in the low to mid-30s and even some rain at times. Blech. I hate these things because of how slippery the roads and sidewalks get. Thank goodness for my Icebugs; haven’t had a fall yet despite surfaces that my late dad inelegantly described as “slicker than snot on a doorknob.” (As an Amazon affiliate, I may receive a small fee for items bought through my links.)

Lousy weather + seasonal affective disorder are probably two of the reasons why I haven’t set up my small tree. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas this year. Yet gray skies aren’t totally to blame: Post-election anxiety has been kicking my butt.

How in the world did this guy get elected again? Every time he opens his mouth, I flinch and wonder what fresh hell will emerge. Don’t get me started on the folks who work with him.

I may lose readers for making these statements. But it’s how I feel about this con man.

Back to Christmas, though: DF has been practicing holiday carols on the piano, to prepare for an extended family get-together. Hearing songs like “The First Noel,” “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” and “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella” do make me smile.

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How frugalists rock Earth Day.

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(Happy Throwback Monday! It would have been Throwback Thursday per usual had Earth Day been responsible enough to occur on a Thursday. This post originally ran on Earth Day 2023, which was April 19.)

Everywhere I looked online this morning were reminders of Earth Day 2023. My initial reaction was to remember my high-school Ecology Club. That’s when I believed, truly believed, that we’d have this all figured out pretty soon.

Boy, was I young.

That thought was followed by this one: Frugalists are eco-warriors.

Because we are. We really are! Although our goal is to be good stewards of our finances, we wind up being good stewards of the Earth. The steps we take to save money help us ameliorate our impact on the environment.

Here are seven ways we do that. Note: These aren’t universal. Few people likely do all these things or even most of them, but I know that my regular readers do at least some of them.

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Giveaway: Artisanal chocolate from Alaska.

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Not everyone gets a Valentine’s Day treat from a loved one. In fact, some of us don’t particularly want them. Still, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to feel a little bit special, so I’m having another Chugach Chocolates giveaway. If you didn’t get a Valentine, then treat yourself (or someone else) to this one.

Chugach Chocolates is a “bear-to-bar” that creates delicious (and sometimes scary-sounding) items here in Anchorage. Right down the street from us, in fact, which is particularly dangerous since they’ve opened a nice little coffee shop/retail space.

Since DF’s doctor wants him to eat an ounce of dark chocolate per day, we decided to support the local economy and buy solely from Chugach Chocolates. Happily, they offer a volume discount so we’ve taken to buying a dozen bars at a clip. It’s a health issue, you see.

About the “scary-sounding” chocolates: We’ve found that you don’t need to be afraid of confections such as Alaskan Kelp and Cayenne or Mat-Su Valley Potato Chip chocolate bars. They’re all good. Well, except for the Espresso Beans bars – I’ve never been a coffee fan. DF loves them, though.

The winner of this giveaway gets to choose from among: 

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We ring in the new year, cautiously.

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Some believe that whatever you do at the start of the new year, you’ll repeat all year long. DF and I made sure to ring in the new year with moderation and frugality. This wasn’t exactly a stretch, since we tend to live moderately and frugally all year long. We aren’t particularly superstitious people anyway.

Still: Why take chances?

It started the morning of Dec. 31, when he dumped the boiling bag in the slow cooker along with some vegetable cooking water from the freezer. By midday he had a very savory-smelling broth cooling outdoors. In the evening he put some black-eyed peas to soak overnight.

This morning, he caramelized onions and some garlic scapes from our garden (which made the house smell divine), then dumped them into the slow cooker along with yesterday’s  broth, sliced carrots, dehydrated celery leaves* (also from our garden), frozen green tomatoes (from a not-successful-enough** foray into frying) and some ham chunks. That’s because DF’s mom was born in Texas, where hoppin’ john is a New Year’s tradition alleged to bring prosperity for the coming year.

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Do we need a little less Christmas?

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santa-claus-for-christmas_w128(Happy Throwback Tuesday! It should be “Throwback Thursday,” but I’m in charge here. This Christmas article originally ran on Dec. 27, 2012, and I believe its message is still relevant. In these inflationary times, it might be more relevant than ever.)

A reader responded to “I’m dreaming of a stripped-down Christmas” with a description of her 7-year-old’s Yuletide experience:

“There are so many gifts from extended family, it actually stresses him out to open them – usually there’s a good one in the first two or three and he wants to stop and play with it, not have it taken away and have to open 10 more things.

“It looks like ingratitude, and that’s a little of it – we’re lucky to already have everything we need and most of what we want, so he’s not that into new stuff – but it’s mostly sheer overwhelm at being the center of attention and having so many people around and then having to switch focus every moment.”

I saw a bit of that myself on Tuesday as I watched a young child open a massive pile of presents. He was a little stressed and cranky by the time he was through. In fact, he had to be coaxed into opening the last few packages.

When my oldest great-nephew was a toddler he was well-nigh buried in loot on Christmas morning. At one point he was nearly in tears, saying “No more!”

No more. Would that have happened when you were small?

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Should you get a store credit card?

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Black Friday is upon us, and retailers are ready not just to sell, but to lend.

That is, they’re ready to talk you into getting their proprietary credit cards. When you shop in-store, you’ll almost certainly get asked when you pay for your purchases. If you’re shopping online, a pop-up ad will probably follow you all the way to the “pay now” button.

The introductory offers may sound tempting. (Zero interest! Deferred interest! 30% off your first purchase!) But is a store credit card the best choice for you right now, or ever?

That depends. Store credit cards may have their place, especially for those trying to build or re-build credit, but they aren’t always a good idea.

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Mother’s Day giveaway.

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Yep, it’s early. Mother’s Day isn’t until May 14. But I need time to publicize the giveaway, mail the prizes to the winners and, if need be, allow them time to send the gifts along to the mothers/maternal figures in their lives.

And yep, those were plurals: I’m giving away a trio of prizes suitable for Mother’s Day, if you celebrate. This giveaway is part of my continuing “Support the Local Economy“ series, wherein I choose prizes made here in Alaska. Once more I’m featuring the jewelry of my friend Linda B.

But first, about that “if you celebrate“ thing. I’m well aware that some people do not participate because their moms are dead, or they’re no-contact with their mothers.

Still others lament what they see as the Hallmark nature of this holiday. In fact, Mother’s Day founder Anna Jarvis herself was appalled by the commercialization. According to History.com, Jarvis spent “the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar.“

Don’t let any of this stop you from entering the giveaway, though. If you win, you could treat a friend or relative to a new necklace – or maybe keep it for yourself. Heck, you could use it as the beginning of your holiday shopping push. (If you celebrate.)

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Easter giveaway: Alaskan artisanal chocolate.

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Why should kids have all the fun at Easter? For the grownup palates in my audience, I’m giving away a delicious treat from Chugach Chocolates, a bean-to-bar chocolatier right here in Anchorage, Alaska.

(In fact, it’s located down the street from me, which may or may not be too close for comfort.)

I’ve given away Chugach Chocolate items in the past, as part of my desire to support the local economy. Given that Easter is on April 9, I figured it’s time for another chance at delight.

“Bean-to-bar” is exactly what it sounds like: The company roasts raw cacao beans and turns them into fascinating flavors. Some of them, such as the Alaskan Kelp and Cayenne, sound a bit scary. But that bar – like the others Chugach creates – is in fact great fun. 

Chugach has single-origin bars made with beans from Fiji, Guatemala, Madagascar, Vietnam and other countries. As for its Alaskan flavors, you could sample flavors such as Dark Chocolate with Alaskan Birch Syrup Toffee, Dark Chocolate with Mat-Su Valley Potato Chips (that’s a local chip company) and Dark Chocolate with Prince William Sound Sea Salt. 

The winner gets to choose one of the following items:

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