Lately it’s been all undead, all the time. My friend Linda B. has been recording the deeply creepy zombie series “The Walking Dead” for me, and the two of us saw the zom-rom-com film “Warm Bodies” together. Last weekend, DF and I attended opening night (and the world premiere) of “At Home With the Clarks,” described by its author as “Father Knows Best” meets “Night of the Living Dead.”
All three got me thinking about class and consumerism.
Every year in early March the city of Anchorage puts snow on downtown streets, so the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race can have its ceremonial start. For the next nine or 10 days Alaskans talk about wheel dogs, snub lines, mandatory 24s and towns with names like Ophir, Shageluk, Shaktoolik, Unalakleet, Koyuk, Kaltag and – my personal favorite – Safety.
“Safety.” Just what I’d be thinking about if I were standing on sled runners in the middle of the night, on zero sleep, with wind chills well below zero.
This year’s race was won by 53-year-old Mitch Seavey in 9 days, 7 hours, 39 minutes and 56 seconds. He’s the oldest person ever to win – and this year, he beat his own son, Dallas, who finished in fourth place.
Like they say: Youth and vigor can often be overcome by age and treachery.
Want to cut your food bill? Jump-start the process with the “Grocery Couponing 101” webinar, jointly sponsored by Savings.com and LearnVest.
The free program, designed to reduce your supermarket spending by up to 50%, takes place from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, April 4. Presenters are Andrea Deckard of SavingsLifestyle.com, Lauren Greutman of I Am That Lady and Ellen Derrick, a certified financial planner with LearnVest.
Just how much can you learn in an hour? So glad you asked.
I’ve been mulling over a comment left on yesterday’s post, “Beware false economies,” which included examples of frugality that could actually cost someone money, health or reputation. A reader posting as “ImJuniperNow” said these examples confirmed that “people believe ‘frugal’ or living within or below one’s means equals doing without.
My immediate reply: “Good point! Just as some people believe that dieting or exercise must be unpleasant if it’s to be effective.”
After some reflection I believe it’s more than the “no pain, no gain” mentality. The attitude is more one of crime and punishment:
If you gain weight, you are bad and must suffer in order to take it off.
If you don’t have enough money in this Land of Opportunity, you are less than worthy and must endure privation. That is, until you can get another line of credit.
While preparing to write “Craziest ways to save a buck,” today’s post over at my day job, I was by turns amused and a little disturbed by what young people consider “crazy” frugality.
The post was based on a contest offered by DoSomething.org. Students 25 and under are invited to send in their wildest money-saving tips. The prize is a $4,000 scholarship, so send any students you know over there to enter.
But is getting books and CDs from the library now considered nutty behavior? What about locking up a debit card, using coupons, carrying a water bottle, eating leftovers or doing laundry at a relative’s house – any of those sound wacky to you?
Worse than that, though, were the false economies. For example, more than a few students said they brought home condiment packets and napkins from restaurants to save money. But if you’re broke, what are you doing in restaurants? How much did you spend in order to get a few cents’ worth of free taco sauce?
Or how about some of these:
Planning to hit the beaches on spring break or take your kids to a theme park during school vacation? Better buy those tickets soon. A new study from CheapAir.com indicates that the lowest prices can be found about seven weeks out.
The study also addresses questions like “When’s the best time to buy a ticket for Thanksgiving?” and “Is Tuesday night really the best time of the week to buy a ticket?”
The answer to the second question, by the way, is “no.”
Apparently I was out of my mind when I booked my recent trip to the East Coast. My return schedule last Friday was Philly-Chicago and then Chicago-Anchorage. The option of flying directly to Anchorage vs. a stopover in Seattle or Salt Lake City felt like a grand piece of luck.
And it would have been, if the flight had left on the same day. However, it left at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday.
I wanted to do a series of forehead-plants into the drywall. Instead I sighed, shrugged and started looking for a semi-affordable hotel near O’Hare.
The old me would have done those forehead-plants.
A single-mom blogger who goes by “Mutant Supermodel” is stressing over the holiday. She’d saved to buy gifts, but when her husband quit paying child support she had to spend every dime to keep herself and her three kids afloat.
It isn’t that MS fears there will be no Christmas. It’s that she fears she won’t be the one giving it.
“My kids are blessed with a large, loving extended family who will surely shower them with gifts the way they do at every special occasion,” she writes in a post called “$tre$$.”
“I know they don’t need or even want more stuff but I want to give it to them.”
Yet she doesn’t want to become part of the “relentless consumerism that so deeply affects this country.” Her compromise: Make some of her gifts, and limit the children’s Santa lists to that old favorite, “something I want, something I need, something to wear, something to read.”
“I think it’s better this way than a free for all,” MS concluded.
Me too – and I say that as someone who’s feeling the same contradictory clash of emotions.
A reader suggested an article on preparing for income reduction. Not layoff or job loss, but rather a partial loss of expected funds – salary reduction, an end to child support and the like.
“Where you still have a job, but really need to evaluate the ‘new budget’,” she says.
I’ve written on this subject before, calling it the “financial fire drill.” You figure out how little you can get away with spending – and you do it with an attitude of calm preparation, not fear of deprivation.
This baker’s dozen of tips will get you started.
Just before moving to Anchorage I wrote an MSN Money piece called “What I learned from de-cluttering.” But that was before I’d finished packing.
What I’ve learned since then? That I didn’t de-clutter enough.
It was shocking to see how many boxes I wound up putting in the moving van. As a result, I have half a dozen suggestions for your own future moves.
Here’s hoping these tips help you avoid merely paying lip service to de-cluttering.