Starting at around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, I’ll be sitting in the food court at the Moorestown Mall in Moorestown, NJ. It’s kind of like throwing a party and hoping someone will show up.
J. Money, my favorite wedding-gift giver, thinks that plenty of things should be rented, not bought.
Tools. Textbooks. Prom gowns. Coffins.
My newspaper didn’t show up today. A missing Sunday paper is particularly irksome because it’s top-heavy with sale and coupon supplements. Happily, another paper was delivered about an hour after I called the Seattle Times circulation department.
One of these days there won’t be a paper – and not because someone stole it, or because my carrier’s Saturday night stretched into Sunday morning. It will be because newspapers have gone the way of the dodo.
At that point I’ll be seriously bummed. So will dog lovers, bird owners and the thrift store cashiers who insist on wrapping each cup or plate you buy in sheets of yesterday’s news.
I’ve eaten in restaurants more often in the past 10 weeks than I have in the entire previous year. That’s not as big a deal as it seems, since in Seattle I cook almost all my own meals. Here in Anchorage, though, my hostess and I like to go to Harley’s Old Thyme Café. I’ve also enjoyed taking my muddy nephew, his little brother and his mom out to eat.
Not that I’ve completely lost my cheap edge: I often use BOGOs or other coupons that I’ve gotten from social media, the Val-Pak mailings and newspaper supplements.
Naturally it would be cheaper to heat up a can of soup. But isn’t it swell to have someone cook for you once in a while?
A former coworker hosted a potluck for me on Saturday. Among the goodies we enjoyed: Alaska salmon in a ginger-based marinade, burgers (meat or veggie), dilled potato salad, baked beans made from scratch in a slow cooker, a mesclun salad with chicken and grilled sweet potatoes, rosemary bread, eggplant pate, olives, grape tomatoes, melon and several desserts, including a Ukrainian rhubarb torte that was much classier than the rhubarb cake that I made recently.
I was the guest of honor but gently urged the hostess to tell me what I might contribute. It wound up being deviled eggs and two 12-packs of Diet Coke.
Someone suggested that potlucks would be a good subject for a frugality column. I laughed. Then I realized that she’s right. If I were unemployed or underemployed, I’d be attending or hosting potlucks as often as I could get away with it.
Consider that:
I’m the grocery store customer who challenges the scanner. Yes, it slows things up a little. But I’m not going to pay $2.89 a pound just because someone forgot to tell the computer that hams are on sale this week.
That’s me. And you? You might be the person behind me, grinding her teeth in frustration because I won’t accept anything other than the advertised price.
My apologies if your checkout is delayed by 60 seconds. But that $1.90-per-pound savings times eight pounds represents almost $16. My budget won’t let me back down.
So the economy’s not so great. That’s no reason to give up recreation.
The best things in life are free. Some of the other things are cheap — say, a dollar or less.
Just off the top of my head:
Wash your car. Use an environmentally friendly soap. It’s a good excuse to squirt each other with the hose on a sticky day.
Hit the dollar store. Buy sidewalk chalk, a kite, some bubble-blowing stuff or a generic Frisbee. Then take it to the park. OK, so you may have to add a few cents in sales tax. You’re still spending a dollar, but being charged tax. (Not to split hairs.)
Create your own “drive-in.” Weather permitting, set up a TV in your driveway and screen movies outdoors. Kids are especially delighted by anything out of the ordinary. But don’t be surprised if grown-up neighbors also walk over to see what’s on.
Here’s a recipe for frugal fun: Go watch some “coach-pitch” Little League. Go even if you don’t have any kids. And go to the bathroom before you leave for the game, or you will almost certainly wet yourself laughing.
Coach-pitch is like an extended bloopers reel on YouTube, minus the annoying music and captions. Think “The Keystone Kops,” only shorter, and with bats instead of billy clubs:
Recently I bought my first laptop. However, I could have gotten one or more for free at the University of Washington. During the month before I left for Alaska, I was twice asked by library patrons if I’d watch their stuff while they went to the bathroom.
Of course I said “yes,” because it was a simple favor. But I could also have strolled out of Odegaard Undergraduate Library with a couple of nice computers plus whatever was in their backpacks.
You can get rid of anything on Freecycle, and I can prove it: A woman came to my house the other day to pick up five empty 42-ounce oatmeal boxes.
Bonus: The lady is a Yup’ik Eskimo so while we chatted on the phone I had a chance to use one of the approximately three Yup’ik words I know: “Akleng,” or “I’m sorry,” when her toddler daughter woke up crying from a nap.
I wasn’t sorry to be giving her the boxes, though, because it gave them one more use before they hit the recycle bin.
I also wasn’t sorry about having five empty oatmeal boxes. I kept them because I figured someone would want them. And someone did.