holidays - Surviving and Thriving

Holiday shopping in the time of COVID.

September 17, 2020 by Donna Freedman

(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.

Giveaway: The small flat-rate box of stocking stuffers.

December 2, 2019December 2, 2019 by Donna Freedman

(As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This revenue helps keep the blog lights on.)

Back in 2015 I received a press release about “fun and affordable” stocking stuffers. Specifically, about stocking stuffers “under $50.”

Wait. What?

I was pretty surprised to see suggestions like $50 iTunes cards and $30 bottles of perfume. So I wound up writing a piece called “12 ways to spend less on stocking stuffers,” which noted a dozen ways to spend little (or nothing) on fun gifts for the holiday sock.

This year I’ve come up with an even easier way to spend less on stocking stuffers: by giving readers a chance to win some.

I’ve come into possession of/already owned a handful of things that would make great stocking stuffers. Since I love doing giveaways – and since readers love getting something for free – I created the “Small Flat-Rate Box of Stocking Stuffers” giveaway.

The giveaway includes a $5 Starbucks gift card, which is enough to get some people to enter even if they don’t care much about the other items in the box. There’s just something universal about Starbucks cards, even if you – like me – don’t even drink coffee.

However, some of these other items in the collection should appeal to relatives, friends, co-workers or even the local family shelter.

A festival of pie.

December 5, 2019November 27, 2019 by Donna Freedman

Tomorrow we’re attending a Thanksgiving celebration hosted by DF’s son and daughter-in-law, and we’re not going empty-handed. He’ll be doing a turkey in the oven plus prime rib on the Weber, and I’m bringing three pies.

Not just any pies, mind you. These are Alaska pies, made with fillings grown less than three miles from where they’ll be consumed.

Specifically, they were grown in our own dirt. The apple pie filling was made mostly by DF over many days in August and September. He sliced the Norland apples and mixed them with sugar, cinnamon, and a dash of ginger and nutmeg, then froze the result in pie-sized portions.

Lots of pie-sized portions: We have enough filling for more than two dozen desserts. Although the trees are less than five years old, the weirdly warm summer had them producing like gangbusters.

The second pie will be raspberry and rhubarb, with a hint of cinnamon. The berries went nuts this year, too, producing nearly three dozen quarts for the freezer, a bunch eaten fresh, and still more picked by family members. (Especially DF’s granddaughters, who love eating a path through the patch.)

And the last pie will be the best pie: pumpkin. It’s one of my favorite flavors anyway, and this one is special because it was the first year we tried to grow pumpkins. Although it was a jack o’ lantern cultivar rather than a pie pumpkin, that didn’t seem to matter much. Frankly, I had my doubts when I made a test pie a couple of weeks ago, since the pulp was a bright yellow. (See the illustration above.) But apparently it’s the cinnamon, ginger and cloves that are mostly responsible for the orange/brown hue of pumpkin pie filling.

The REAL way to save on Black Friday.

November 25, 2019 by Donna Freedman

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.

Extreme Frugality: Holiday shopping edition.

November 14, 2019 by Donna Freedman

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.

12 days of giveaways from Savings.com.

November 22, 2019November 7, 2019 by Donna Freedman

(Note: This post contains affiliate links. I will receive a teeny-tiny finder’s fee for anyone who signs up for the drawings; this revenue helps keep the blog lights on. If that bugs you, feel free to enter the giveaway daily at this non-affiliate link.)

Planning your holiday shopping? Savings.com can help. The coupon/deal site’s “12 days of giveaways” promotion will award one $250 gift card every weekday from now through Friday, Nov. 22.

Which merchants are participating? So glad you asked.

The giveaway started with HP, the company that manufactures laptops, desktops, printers, monitors and accessories to keep us connected. The only printers I’ve ever owned have been from HP, and I’ve had great service from them.

My next printer will also be from HP – but unfortunately I’m not allowed to enter this drawing because I’m a Savings.com DealPro. You, however, can enter – and I hope a member of this community wins.

Here’s the list of future giveaway partners – again, one each weekday until Nov. 22:

Should you ask for money at Christmas?

November 10, 2023October 29, 2019 by Donna Freedman

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?

Rage purging.

May 15, 2023October 2, 2019 by Donna Freedman

(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.

Amazon Prime Day: Black Friday in July?

July 16, 2019July 15, 2019 by Donna Freedman

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?