holidays

Midlife love STILL rocks.

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images(Happy Throwback Thursday! In honor of Valentine’s Day I am republishing this post, which originally ran on Feb. 14, 2015.)

I put a card on DF’s coffee cup this morning, even though we’d agreed to opt out of the Valentine’s Day hoopla.

“It’s a frugal card,” I assured him. “Hallmark sent it to me.”

Seriously: I’m a member of the company’s Gold Crown loyalty programs, and Hallmark recently mailed both a love-you card and a birthday card. I was supposed to have had them scanned at the store to earn extra points, but I keep forgetting to do that.

After two years of living together, DF and I still “delight in each other’s company,” as he puts it.

Do we ever. Whenever he walks into the room my heart still does a funny little dance, not unlike the kind you see in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Sometimes I’ll glance up from reading or writing and catch him gazing at me with what I can only describe as a moon-eyed calf look.

Then he’ll grin ruefully at own besottedness and say, “I really love you.”

I still can’t quite believe that I found the perfect guy for me: smart, caring, well-read, a great conversationalist and the world’s greatest cuddler. DF is always thinking of and doing things for others. He’s more than fair in the division of household chores. Upon request he’ll play the theme from “Astro Boy” on the piano, but will also play Brahms’ Intermezzo in A, which he describes as “the universe in three pages.”

 

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Charity overload.

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I’m drowning in end-of-the-year charity solicitations. Social causes, political action groups, health-care organizations, educational advocacy agencies…Some I’ve never heard of, some I’ve helped in the past. All of them worthy.

Thanks to texting, social media and e-mail lists, marketing departments have more ways than ever to reach out to us. “They know that we have a tendency toward (giving) at this time of year, and they really double down on it,” says behavioral finance expert Dr. Ted Klontz, co-author of books like Mind Over Money: Overcoming the Money Disorders That Threaten Our Financial Health.

You’re aware that need exists, and would like to help. But giving without a plan could potentially turn you into a charity case.

“If you harm yourself financially, you’re creating the same kind of problems you’re trying to solve,” says Manisha Thakor, vice president of financial education for Brighton Jones and author of On My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girl’s Guide to Personal Finance.

I talked with Manisha and several other money experts for an article on a new website, Considerable.com. All of them told me pretty much the same thing:

 

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Win a $500 Amazon gift card.

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Want a $500 Amazon gift card? You probably do.

Last week I posted several ways to win gift cards to boost your holiday shopping. A few more giveaways have popped up since then – and if I can’t win them, then I hope one of my readers will.

The big enchilada is that $500 Amazon card, which is being given away by a new site called Considerable.com. Its goal is to provide money and lifestyle information for people aged 45 and over. Give it a look – there’s some great reading here.

 

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3 ways to win a holiday shopping boost.

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If you’re in the market for some gift cards or extra money for your holiday shopping, read on.

Savings.com is giving away $500 worth of Walmart gift cards. Enter by using this link before 11:59 p.m. EST Friday, Dec. 7.

The site also has a discount code good for three free grocery deliveries in areas where Walmart delivers. Visit this link and use the code DISCOVER before Jan. 31, 2019.

Incidentally, grocery delivery may actually be a frugal thing. Learn more at my Money Talks News article, “How grocery delivery can save you money.”

 

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Getting ready for Black Friday.

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DF and I have a hot date early in the morning of Nov. 23: We’re heading to Fred Meyer for Black Friday. The store opens at 5 a.m. and the first 100 customers will get gift cards – and all customers will get free juice, coffee and doughnuts.

When I mentioned that I’d be going, he startled me by suggesting that he’d like to go, too. Apparently he’s never been out on a Black Friday. Or maybe it was the free coffee and doughnuts that got his motor running.

Black Friday isn’t as nutty as it once was, given how many people shop online. Still, every year we hear about some pushy-shovey behavior that results in screaming fights or physical injury. Anchorage seems to have escaped that level of consumer madness.

Me, I’m mostly looking for socks because they always get discounted at Fred’s on Black Friday. But tomorrow the two of us will pore over the ads in the fattest newspaper of the year – not for gifts, but to look for any screamin’ deals on things we need. For example, the off/on button on our toaster oven is balkier by the day.

That’s a tactic I suggest in a recent piece I did for The Simple Dollar. “Seven Ways Black Friday Can Save You Money All Year Long” notes that BF deals can be a great way to boost the budget beyond Hannukah, Christmas or Kwanzaa.

 

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Christmas creep.

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It begins. For the past couple of weeks, at least, I’ve seen lights and ornaments, singing holiday trees, and even a life-sized Santa Claus at a Home Depot entrance.

Yeah, it was kind of cute that he wore an orange HD apron over his red suit, and that the words “St. Nick” were written on the “Hi, I’m…” tag. But for heaven’s sake, it’s not even Halloween yet. What’s with the Christmas creep?

Rhetorical question. The “rush” is that retailers need to make a certain amount of money or they become ex-retailers.

An excellent way to do that is to get people thinking ahead to the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. Specifically, to get people thinking about this way ahead of time.

I admit it: Although I’m mostly horrified by the specter of Christmas creep, part of me does derive a certain frisson from those blinky lights on the periphery of the store. Does that mean that dark marketing forces have trained me to think that way? Good grief, I hope not. I much prefer to think it’s because Christmas was quite wonderful when I was a kid.

 

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Three chances to win gift cards.

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These things would come in handy right before the holidays.

Who am I kidding? Gift cards come in handy any time.

Only one of the three opportunities requires any real time investment – and since that time would be spent carving a jack o’lantern, it’s hardly painful.

 

Well, except maybe to the pumpkin, if pumpkins were sentient. But they aren’t. Unless, that is, you believe the Arrogant Worms song “Carrot Juice Is Murder.”

Philosophical derail over. Time to win some cards.

 

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A life-changing holiday gift: Personal finance books.

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th(Note: This is an update of an article that ran in 2016, with some new books to go along with ones I feel confident re-recommending.)

Some people are into experiences rather than gifts. Physical presents take up space and need to be dusted, whereas a massage or a theater ticket is a one-and-done event.

I suggest that a personal finance book is both a gift and an experience. Sure, it takes up a little space – but it can lead to life-altering changes and literal enrichment. And if you get the Kindle or PDF version, it doesn’t take up any room in your domicile.

When you give the gift of personal finance, you’re giving people tools that can get them out of current money troubles and/or help them build the lives they want. Doesn’t that beat the heck out of a scented candle or a cheese log?

 

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Shopping the office potluck. Plus: Book discounts.

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The following post is based on an excerpt from “Your Playbook For Tough Times, Vol. 2: Needs And Wants Edition.” I’m offering holiday discounts on this book and the first one; see the end of the post for details.

Many years ago I dropped into a different department at my workplace, to ask a question. That section’s holiday potluck was winding down, and the ebullient partygoers invited me to help myself.

My eyes lit upon the nearly empty ham platter. “Has anyone claimed the bone?” I asked.

Apparently no one had. “Go ahead and take it,” I was told. “Do you have a dog?”

“No, but I’ve got a pound of pinto beans and an onion.”

 

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7 ways that Black Friday is like sex.

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Some years back my blogging buddy J. Money ran “10 reasons Black Friday is like sex” on his Budgets Are Sexy blog. I was immediately inspired to comment with some reasons of my own, whereupon he dared me to run them on my own site.

So I did, with an article called “Black Friday and sex” about why the two aren’t alike. Such as:

You won’t be offered coffee and doughnuts.

Finishing early is NOT a plus.

The women generally end up more satisfied than the men.

Revisiting that literary tradition this year – but as reasons that the two are alike. The following material is not suitable for work, and possibly not for anyone afflicted with taste and refinement.

 

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