Category: Uncategorized (Page 122 of 188)

It’s not just a skill, it’s a way of life. I have taken thrifty to a whole new level in the past several years. Reusing ziploc baggies? They return to their home on top of the fridge each day. Returning any and all unused and unsatisfactory items, even if for store credit at Meijer? I’ve got 3 gift cards to prove it. And the home made laundry soap? Well, husband prefers not to talk about that (though I maintain its superiority to the store-bought and just purchased the makings for another round). Fortunately for me I can hide under this current “green” movement, masking my escapades in a venture to live more “sustainably.”

You can look in the obvious places to see that you’re livin’ on low funds – checkbook, wallet, change jar on the dryer – but I realized today that the real proof of tight pursestrings comes when gazing in a few other realms.

1. The closet. I’ve remarked on this before. I may have requested assistance. 

2. The itunes library.  When every album you pull up triggers a fond college memory, perhaps we’ve hit an expiration date. Especially when you’ve been out of college longer than you were in it. Really, they’re not all “classics.” (*Freebie: this may also fall onto a list called “places to look when confirming that you are indeed OLD.”)

3. The fridge. A flashing red light would be a condiments-only situation. But the more common landmark? Leftovers. Everywhere. And you know it’s intentional when old (not moldy) bread remains for the sake of bread pudding or french toast.

4. Gas gauge. Again with the college-like behaviors, only putting in the minimum to get you where you’re going. And here’s another “green” facade: I was once told your car is actually more efficient running on an emptier tank as it’s not hauling all the weight. I live by this mantra when I refrain from filling up more so out of laziness or foul weather than actual lack of funds (Brent, if you’re reading this and you have actual, tangible proof it’s a lie, I beseech you: keep that info to yourself). But really, with the Kroger Plus discount (now available at the Shell at the end of my road!) and it going on plastic anyway, there’s no excuse. Sidebar: my family regularly keeps ongoing count and tally of the Kroger Plus points as to know what kind of gas discount to look forward to that month. I’ve been doomed to penny-crunching from the time I was in the womb.

5. Amazon wish list. Ah, what to buy if we could remove price from the equation. And one can buy anything on Amazon. Or, perhaps the list serves as a reminder for those people who seem to have a more readily supply of funds when it comes Christmas-time. Shameless admission: amazon wishlisting sits in my top 5 favorite hobbies list. It’s a beautiful addiction, I recommend you try it.

One of my favorite memories of Slim Searfoss involved, mid-conversation, his head perking up at the mention of cake. “Cake?!” he said, with eyes as round as cupcakes. I’m not sure why that fancies me, but it still makes me smile. Yes, cake.

Really, that story has nothing to do with this post.

I’m tired of hearing the politician commercials. I have yet to hear one that really demonstrates that the candidate is any different from his/her opponent by citing actual examples of success. Though I do kind-of enjoy the Christine Whoever from some-other-state clip where she adamantly insists “I am not a witch.” Perhaps because none of the other candidates clearly described their lack of witching she might get a leg up.

But back to cake.

Other than the lack of proven success examples in the commercials, another common theme seems to be finger pointing about jobs. It seems that everyone’s opponent sent jobs overseas in their time serving Ohio. Now, being in the staffing industry, I can attest to the drop off in jobs over the past 2 years. Heck, if you have a neighbor within a 10 mile radius you can probably tell a story of woe concerning job loss. We’ve all felt it. I’m not convinced that any industry was immune to the effects.

However, though we all like to point as many fingers as we can, I think “we the people” need to put on our big-kid pants and take a little ownership of our problem.

We don’t like that our jobs are going overseas, but we also don’t like to pay a steep price for our everyday goods. For example, I love me some Old Navy clothes. Particularly I’ve got a thing for coats lately (oh, the ruffles. Or toggle buttons. Could I get away with orange?), and at 50% off, average price $30-45, who doesn’t? Now, one reason I enjoy the Old Navy shopping experience is because I can typically find something delightful – and that I can afford with the gift card my mother gave me. But one way that ON keeps my pocketbook happy is the fact that the clothing is typically made by a Guatermelon or tyke in another 3rd world country (whole different post about fair trade issues and ethics associated). Though we (ha! I suddenly became a part of the team! Do I get an employee discount?) do employ some corporate folk in Ohio, I’m guessing the payroll numbers largely span the globe. Why? Because clothing creation involves factory-setting, tedious work. Lots of cutting and stitching and general tasks that breaks nails and causes blisters. And in the US, for someone to be willing to do that work, the price will be at least $8/hr plus benefits. When you start adding up the number of ON across the country, multiply that by the number of garments and then divide by the number of people needed to stitch them up and then multiply that by $8/hr, the price of my new coat will have rapidly increased. All of a sudden Old Navy is Banana Republic. (Now, wait a second…).

Same can be said about any general staple item that we purchase on a daily basis that comes from overseas.

Now, let me offer a possible solution: rather than cutting costs at the bottom (the lowest wage earners), I suppose we could cut costs at the top of the pyramid. If ol’ Les were to take a bit less in wage, perhaps there would be more to pay the workers AND keep prices at a relative minimum. But that’s not the American way. The American way is to get as rich as you possibly can. Aided by buying inexpensive coats.

And then blame the politicans for the loss of jobs and a tanking economy.

I know, I know, there are tons of holes to my theory (including “the right to earn as much as you can” and spend as little of it possible on coats). Alls I’m saying is, if we want our cake of jobs, we might have to pay a price before we’re able to eat it, too.

It’s hard to tell why some rules and laws exist. As a youth director, I depended on the theory that for every  rule there was an idiot that caused its existence because s/he didn’t think about the effects of his/her actions. Why do we have to wear t-shirts? Because some girls didn’t know that “no spaghetti straps” meant them. Why do we have to have a checklist for cabin cleanup? Because some group didn’t take cabin cleaning to its intended purpose. Why do we leave at exactly 6:00SVT (Standard Verizon Time)? Because someone consistently shows up 24 minutes late and expects that we’ll stick around.

I fear that trick-or-treat might suffer from a similar epidemic.

Last night we took little H for a mini-treat excursion with his buddy Kyle to about 4 houses. Miss M went too, but no bucket in tow. You know, the lack-of-teeth thing. But as Jill doled out treats to several well-costumed youth, a few adolescents who were much too old to T’nT pounced upon Jill’s sweet nature and took advantage. (Why, you ask, do you think they were too old? Simple. They were too cool for costumes, a general pre-requisite for the treat).

Then there were the parents of children who were being toted all across the land in strollers, where clearly the adults in the family would consume a majority of the candy. Now I’m all for a small candy taxation from the young ones (after all, who purchased the costume?). I call it a delivery fee for getting them to the treating. But, in my oh-so-humble opinion, the number of treating adults using a small child as a candy pawn raised concern.

Because what happens when too many people take advantage of a system that depends on the generosity of a well-meaning neighborhood? Ordinances, that’s what happens. Soon there will be age and height restrictions, perhaps a candy-to-body-weight ratio and children will be required to report the loot before getting to consume one bite. And for all my luck, the authorities will only accept the Nerds and Sweettharts as payment for fine, leaving me with only a Bit ‘o Honey or those horrendous peanut butter kisses wrapped in black and orange wax paper, likely made in somebody’s basement, to skim from my kids’ loot. The injustices.

I’m saddened that we can’t depend on parents to make good decisions on appropriateness of participating in activities based on the kid and not based on “free stuff” or what’s in it from a personal gain standpoint. If you ask me (and you did, or you still wouldn’t be reading 5 paragraphs down), this is why our country has encountered so many problems as of late. We’d like to blame the elected officials, but in all honesty morality cannot – and should not – be legislated. We can’t force people to live in a way that seeks the social good over personal gain, and I kinda wonder if our country was founded on that principle. But because such a notion rules our thinking, we depend on other systems to legislate and decipher good and bad, right and wrong for us. Then, when behavior becomes obnoxious, we legislate it. A new rule.

I read up a bit today in a pre-voting effort. Sure there are distinct differences between candidates, but all want to give us jobs and make education better. They all want us to feel like we won’t pay more in taxes. And though I will still vote, I have difficulty believing that any of that matters in the trick-or-treat of it all. I can’t depend on my legislators to do everything in an effort to make my community a better place to live. I have to depend on my schools, churches, civic organizations but most of all my neighbors to do that (after, of course, I depend on myself to aid, or even lead, the effort). Everyone is griping and moaning about how the government is broken and politicians are crooked, but that’s because I think we’ve flawed our approach to the system and our expectations of its purpose. When we live up to our responsibility to contribute – and not just take – from a community, then we’ll begin to see progress.

Until then, we’ll just have to listen to awful political smear campaigns and buy extra Halloween candy.