holidays

Some frugal Christmas parodies.

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(Happy Throwback Tuesday! Yes, I know it’s supposed to be Throwback Thursday, but my sandbox, my rules. This article originally ran on Dec. 23, 2017. Get ready to sing along!)

This close to the holiday I’m still feeling the pull to buy, buy, buy. Even though we don’t have a television to deliver marketing copy six times per hour, consumerism creeps into our lives in other ways:

Ads on the classical music station (fun fact: a local shop packed and shipped more than 10 tons of Alaska king crab last Christmas).

Displays of holiday foods and gifts at the supermarket and drugstore.

Signs outside other stores.

Christmas decorations at restaurants and my neighbors’ homes.

Never mind that everyone on my list has been bought for and that all the gifts have been wrapped and either mailed or delivered. I still feel that I haven’t bought enough. That somehow I should be giving lots more. That maybe tomorrow on my way to a friend’s house I could just stop in somewhere and…

Noooope, as Lana would say on “Archer.” So I decided to banish those thoughts with humor.

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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

Monday miscellany: Disastrous beginner mistake edition.

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The delightful but definitely NSFW (in a good way!) personal finance blog Bitches Get Riches has tackled a topic that needs a perennial takedown: what to do with retirement funds. “PLEASE tell me you’re not making this disastrous beginner mistake with your retirement funds” is an essential read if you’re just starting out, but also … Read more

Giveaway: “Tundra” calendars.

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Every time I give away something from the Tundra family, there’s always a lot of response. So why not keep that energy going?

Besides, it plays into my “support the local economy” series of giveaways quite nicely. I ran into Tundra creator Chad Carpenter recently and bought two of his 2021 calendars. The idea is to give one and keep one for yourself.

Or maybe you’ll give them both away. However you handle things, that’s at least one holiday gift checked off your list – for free!

Bonus: I might even be able to get Chad to personalize the calendars for you. He generally throws in a cute li’l sketch of one of his critters, too. Some day those signed calendars could be worth…Well, I have no idea.

What I do know is that Chad’s work is known literally around the world. It’s syndicated in nearly 650 newspapers in the United States, Europe, Jamaica and Trinidad. I guess that moose, bear and bug humor is universal.

Not that Chad is limited to static images. He and his twin brother, Darin, have also been responsible for two films shot entirely in Alaska. The first was “Moose: The Movie,” about an ancient curse that awakens a killer ungulate. Mayhem ensues. Funny stuff also ensues. When I gave away a copy of that movie I described it as having been made with “a tight budget and a loose grip on reality.” Pretty much.

The second is “Sudsy Slim Rides Again,” which centers on an Alaska lawman who heads to a tiny off-the-grid town to investigate a missing person. That “person” is the mummified remains of a notorious criminal – and since he’s a big tourist draw, the town fathers and mothers want him back. However, he’s been corpse-napped by a couple of escaped convicts who want to leverage the stiff for safe passage out of town.

Just FYI: You can buy those films at the Tundra website, or rent them on Amazon. I won’t get any kind of remuneration if you do. It’s just another stab at supporting the local economy.

But back to the giveaway.

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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: Alaska-made jewelry.

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You’ve heard me mention my friend Linda B. a lot on this site. I do this because she’s the best friend ever. And since she’s also a jewelry artist, I decided to make the next Alaska-themed giveaway all about her work.

Jewelry is a great holiday gift because those who wear it never seem to have quite enough. A new color, texture or pattern, or a change in metals, can stimulate the eyes during this dark time of year, and turn a plain outfit into a canvas for wearable art.

Jewelry is easy to wrap, if you’re giving your presents locally, and easy to mail if you’re shipping your gifts. It can be given to folks of all ages. This particular batch of pendants and earrings is probably not right for toddlers with newly pierced ears or elementary-aged kids who’d likely be happier with pop-culture themes or shiny shiny rhinestones.

Linda came to jewelry art relatively late in life, beginning with freeform bead-weaving in her 50s and later developing a fondness for hammered metal embellished with beads and metal shapes. For a time she dabbled in what I think of as “resin captures” – putting shells, dried plants, charms and other oddments into forms and sealing them in clear resin. (Think of the mosquito in Amber from “Jurassic Park,” although nowhere near as deadly.)

But she made her living as a journalist and editor here in Anchorage, and since retiring she’s also become a playwright who’s regularly featured at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, the 8 By 10 Theater Festival in Fairbanks (she’s the only person to have been selected – in blind judging – all 15 years), and even in an off-Broadway new plays festival. 

The winner of this giveaway will get his or her choice of one pendant from the six pictured below, and also half a dozen pairs of earrings (only one of which is pictured – I’m not one of those bloggers who likes to make people scroll and scroll and scroll).

It was hard to choose even half a dozen from the many pendants Linda has on hand. Normally at this time of year she’d be selling them right and left at local crafts shows, but the pandemic put paid to that custom in 2020. Her work is available at several gift and art stores around the state, too.

But finally I bit the bullet and chose these:

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Monday miscellany: Holiday hiring edition.

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“Get a side hustle” is a common personal finance suggestion, whether it’s for paying off debt or building wealth. A whole bunch of those side-gig options went away when COVID-19 struck, according to veteran PF writer Kathy Kristof.

But “several industries are now picking up steam,” Kristof writes on her SideHusl website.

“Some are back from the dead, while others are simply ramping up to new highs for the holidays.”

Among them: warehouse work, delivery, pet-sitting, mystery shopping and, of course, holiday retail. In her article, “Jobs that are revving up and reviving,” Kristof doesn’t just make the observations – she also gives links to the sites where you can apply for these gigs.

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All Souls’ Day, with refreshments.

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(Note: I originally put this up as a Facebook photo and post. Because of the reactions, I decided to expand it a bit and post here for those who don’t do social media.)

Monday being All Souls’ Day, my partner constructed his usual altar to the memory of dead relatives. It’s hard to make out the details in the picture above, but in addition to photographs, a rosary, Mass cards and newspaper obituaries, there’s also a shot glass of whiskey, a cup of coffee, a glass of water, a pipe full of tobacco and a candy bar.

(The framed photo at the top left is of my mother, at age 11 or 12.)

Shortly after I took this picture DF added a Mexican Coca-Cola for Great-Great Grandma Myrt, who hated coffee but adored Coke. It had to be a Mexican Coke because those are made with sugar rather than the high-fructose corn syrup that U.S. bottlers use.

His 4-year-old granddaughter, whom I’ll call “Daisy” to protect her privacy, visited for a short time that morning. A child prone to wild flights of fancy – mostly in a good way – she was immediately fascinated by the idea of “the ancestors.” Possibly that’s because she’s a big fan of the animated film, “Coco,” which features the Mexican celebration of El Día de los Muertos.

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Monday miscellany: Money mediocrity edition.

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Note: Surviving and Thriving is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

This is the sixth year for Amazon Prime Day, but the first time that it happened so close to Christmas. Usually it takes place in mid-July; this year it starts at 3 a.m. Eastern Oct. 13 and winds up in 48 hours.

During that time you’ll see a lot of deals, some of which might be exactly what you want. Although I am an Amazon Prime member I have yet to take part in Prime Day. A single-mom relative of mine has used it to stretch her holiday budget, however.

It’s being said that Amazon is basically encouraging everyone to do their holiday shopping now. Apparently other retailers have the same idea, both in-store and online. Black Friday “previews” and “sneak peeks” are already showing up and may come out in force during the month of November.

According to Consumer Reports, the idea is to keep crowds down and thus reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. Until I read that, I figured it was just another prime (as it were) example of “Christmas creep.” But the coronavirus angle makes sense, too.

To take advantage of Prime Day deals you must be a Prime member. You can do an end run around this by signing up for a 30-day free trial and canceling once Prime Day is over.

Consumer Reports has these tips for getting the most out of Prime Day:

 

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Giveaway: A box of (mostly) Alaskan stocking stuffers.

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Very glad I started this giveaway series in time for the holidays. Judging from the response I got to the previous one, so are a whole lot of readers.

While gift cards are easier to send (especially if they’re e-gift cards), my original intent was also to give away some Alaska items in order to support the local economy this holiday season. Hence the current giveaway: the small flat-rate box of (mostly) Alaskan stocking stuffers.

Don’t celebrate Christmas? Give them as “just thinking about you” presents. Donate them to a shelter. Or keep them all to yourself. Who’s gonna know?

A bunch of these items are courtesy of my BFF, Linda B., who is conducting a fairly ruthless purge of Stuff. Like many of us, she has come by sooooo much Stuff. Even if you have a biggish house (which she does), there’s only so much Stuff you can display/use.

Linda has been finding good homes for a lot of the Stuff through our local Buy Nothing Facebook page. Art, outerwear, jewelry, tchotchkes…It’s been fun to watch. And, occasionally, to participate in, as I was able to snare some things for the mostly Alaska stocking stuffers.

That box includes but is not limited to:

 

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