holidays

Black Friday 2017: Are you in or out?

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I have given birth to boring. My daughter put up a blog post today that testifies to tedium:

“I check the leaked Friday ads for what the Walgreen’s site-wide discount will be – so that I can buy really exciting stuff like toilet paper and garbage bags.

“Last year, I made a whole Excel spreadsheet to find the best price for loading up on the aforementioned toilet paper and garbage bags, plus hand soap, body wash, a couple of skin-care products and…Ugh, it’s all a boring, boring blur.”

Truth is, my own tastes are fairly plebeian this year. In fact, I have only two things I really want to get:

Butter. It’s $2.29 per pound, limit five, at Fred Meyer. That’s noticeably cheaper even than Costco, and since DF and I are all about the holiday peanut brittle and sea-salt caramels, I plan to limit out on this greasy goodness.

Bedclothes. Sheets are on sale but I’m not sure I’ll get them; will depend on how they feel. I’m more interested in the micro-plush blanket sale, also at Fred Meyer. Right now we’re sleeping under a mass of loosely connected blanket molecules; it’s a machine-crocheted number that’s so old DF can’t remember its exact age. Still warm, but the crocheted holes are turning into gaps in spots so I want to get one of those blankets, which are limited to stock on hand.

Speaking of which: I may or may not go there at 5 a.m. Friday. Yes. On purpose, for a handful of reasons:

 

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Labor Day musings.

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A press release received today had this clickbaity line in the message field: “If you are not doing what you love…You are wasting your time!”

Huh.

I understand the likely intent: Be all that you can be! Reach for the stars! Follow your bliss! Yet my own inference is a little darker: If you aren’t a super self-made success in the high-profile career of your choosing, you’re kind of a loser.

Dark, I know. But I do wish that the people who define success would realize that we can’t all be startup successes or crowdfunded darlings. I wish that “success” could be redefined.

Specifically, I wish that fame and fortune weren’t the things we all apparently should want. Not only is this untrue, it’s a notion that tells a whole bunch of working-class people that they aren’t measuring up.

 

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Gifts for pets on Valentine’s Day?

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I’m not going to be with my sweetheart today, except in spirit (and by phone). That’s because I came back to Phoenix to lend a hand after my son-in-law broke one foot and badly sprained the other.

Since I won’t have a holiday of my own, I’m focusing on other people’s Feb. 14 follies. For example, did you know that some people buy Valentine’s Day gifts for their pets?

Not making that up. Couldn’t make that up.

 

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Christmas at the airport.

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santa_planeWhen you fly on a buddy pass you travel standby. Using a pass during the holiday season is a total crapshoot – or, in airline parlance, “not recommended.”

But I when I decided to visit my daughter for the holidays, I believed the traditional wisdom about flying on Dec. 24.

“Folks will already be where they want to be,” I kept hearing. “Plenty of room on the planes on Christmas Eve.”

Apparently a whole lot of people missed that memo.

 

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Roadie: Make that holiday trip pay for itself.

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thPlanning to visit family and/or friends later this month? An app-based “shipping community” called Roadie could help you make the trip more profitable, or at least help pay for gas and tolls.

This app-based “shipping community” currently has more than 25,000 drivers in all 50 states. The premise is pretty simple: You sign up as a driver and wait to see if anybody wants you to deliver something to where you’re going.

Kind of like Uber or Lyft, except that drivers are transporting cargo rather than people.

How much can you earn? A surprising amount, actually.

 

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Financial infidelity for the holidays.

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thGray Thursday is tomorrow and Black Friday is the day after that. Anyone without a specific plan runs the risk of blowing the budget and/or lying about it.

Ho, ho, no.

According to a survey from VitalSmarts, eight out of 10 people overdo it on Black Friday and 56 percent have a hard time talking about holiday spending with their spouses/partners.

Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, who founded the corporate training company, cite these common tactics for avoiding the discussion:

 

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Big point bonuses at the Swagbucks holiday sale.

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Yep, holiday posts two days in a row and it’s not even Black Friday. Before you regard me as part of the problem, let me say that:

I always preach intentional spending during the holidays, and

I regularly suggest ways to spend intentionally, such as using cash-back shopping sites, buying early and paying with discounted gift cards.

Today I’m talking about a fourth intentional-spending category: rewards programs. In this case, that’s shopping through the Swagbucks rewards website.

Right now Swagbucks is offering heightened rewards for buying décor, gifts, special foods, airline tickets and other holiday-related items. A few examples of points (SBs) per dollar spent:

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Holiday news (yes, already).

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thI’ve been getting a bunch of holiday-themed press info lately: holiday spending, holiday hassles, holiday tips. Obviously I need to share it with readers.

Here’s a time-sensitive example: Erin Chase of the Grocery Budget Makeover website suggests that you might not want to shop for your Thanksgiving meal just yet.

Sure, all those displays look tempting and “sale” prices are being trumpeted. But they might not be the best prices of the season.

 

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Which Halloween mask is scarier: Trump or Clinton?

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thIt was 8 degrees Fahrenheit this morning, and I got my usual chuckle thinking of Halloween in Anchorage. We generally see a parade of Disney princess, zombie and superhero costumes obscured by winter garb.

Nothing like the sight of an Ariel or Rapunzel wearing a down coat and moon boots.

Last year, long before “Suicide Squad” hit the theaters, one of my great-nephews dressed as Harley Quinn. His makeup was great, his hair was stiffened in pigtails – and his homemade costume, thankfully, had long underwear as its base. It was plenty cold last Oct. 31, too.

Apparently we might see some election-themed trick-or-treaters this year. An e-mail from the Savers group of thrift stores noted that the presidential election has affected costume sales. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump accessories are flying off the shelves.

 

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Museums On Us: A frugal Mother’s Day out.

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thWant a free ticket to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Art and Design, the Contemporary Jewish Museum or the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts?

You might have that ticket already, if you use a Bank of America/Merrill Lynch credit or debit card, or any card with the BofA logo. The Museums On Us program means gratis admission to 150 museums in 33 states and the District of Columbia.

Bring along that bank card and a photo ID and you’ll get in without paying on the first full weekend each month. Usually that’s Saturday-only, but not always. This year the first full weekend happens to coincide with Mother’s Day. If mom has a card, she’s in; if you have a card but she doesn’t, you’ll wind up paying for one instead of two.

The word “museums” may connote the fine arts. But old still-lifes aren’t the only things that you can see for free.

 

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