Decluttering and Moneymaking: NOT on Yard Sales

I will never have a yard sale, ever ever. Maybe one day I'll write about the last one: most of my stuff was stolen from a friend's garage and a ten dollar bill was left on her front steps. Since she had things stolen too, we split the ten.

So, can you get anything back for your over-acquisitions? I don't itemize deductions, so I can't take advantage of the oft-cited tax write off. I donate lots of stuff, but still like some cash on occasion.

The end of school is the declutter season at the frugal household. So far, we have gotten about $120.00 in Amazon credit for books. These are not textbooks, but regular old books we have lying around. We've gotten more than $100.00 in cash from Barnes and Noble for similar books. Generally, these are books that are recent big sellers or books USED as textbooks. At the moment, The Great Gatsby is not wanted, but one of my three copies of The Iliad got me $4.00. In the Amazon example, a copy of Water for Elephants will give you $2.01 in credit.

I find typing in isbn numbers very soothing and I'm sure it staves off dementia. Most books are worthless and the ones that I send are worth only a dollar or two or three. It is easy to pack up a box. Amazon and Barnes and Noble pay shipping too!

Miss Em and I also had a fun day bring stuff to the Buffalo Exchange. We get clothes one year and then cycle them through the Buf. In fact, we have created a verb: Do you think we can Buf it?

We COULD buf it as it happened. We opted for $200.00 in cash (we did have a lot of stuff), since we still have credit from our last trip.

Ahhhhh. So far over $400.00, which is more than I ever made at a yard sale. MUCH less messy too.

How do you declutter?

Frugal Food in France

We are going to Nantes later this summer. We will probably do much of our grocery shopping in the markets, but we love love love Monoprix, a chain that has groceries, stationery, kitchen wares, and even clothing.

We always bring back a few French notebooks, with the graph pattern pages, and can't wait to have a little one to buy petit bateau shirts for.

Now you can even check out the food ads on-line. What a great way to practice my French and prepare my budget.

Many people are bewildered by my love of checking grocery ads; perhaps checking FRENCH grocery ads has a bit more cachet.

My Supper of the Lamb: Frugal Cooking

My family keeps urging me to clean out the freezer and pantry. I'm trying, really. Frugal Son is always bugging me about this. Fortunately/Unfortunately, he arrived home from college bearing a diploma and a leg of lamb. He bought the leg of lamb at the campus Dairy Store, which sells the products of Ag School training. He paid for it with some of the Tiger Bucks that came with his scholarship and were soon to expire.

One of my role models in cooking, more for philosophy than actual recipes, is Robert Capon, whose Supper of the Lamb is a classic.

I've written about this book before, but turn to it again and again. Capon is an Episcopal priest, so his meditations on food are also meditations on spirituality. Anyway, the book tells how to get 4 meals out of one leg of lamb. Here's what we are doing.

Day 1: Lamb, brown rice, braised greens.
Day 2: Thai curry for Miss Em on the eve of her departure for Italy. Lamb, coconut milk, curry paste, eggplant, greens, onions, bell peppers. Veggies were mostly provided by our garden.
Day 3: Stay tuned.

I believe that frugal cooking and frugality in general are inherently spiritual practices. Transforming leftovers is one of my favorite things to do.

What's your favorite part of frugality?

Does Remodeling Increase Your Home's Value?

Good question. I don't know the answer. During the housing bubble, common wisdom was that YES it did and, besides, it was basically free cuz you could borrow from your home's appreciation. We all know where those ideas ended up.

1. APPRECIATION. I have seen two homes in my neighborhood undergo extensive renovation. Medium-sized cottages like my own were spiffed up, with many magazine-worthy details. Both homes were put on the market shortly after renovation. There were not flippers, but people who changed their minds about where they wanted to live. Both sold. Did the owners get back their money? I don't know. In any case, I don't plan to put $200,000-$300,000 to the test to find out.

2. NOT DEPRECIATING. I had a colleague with an under-employed husband and scads of kids. When he got a job, they relocated. Their house was on the lower-end of the market. Nevertheless, their real estate agent told them to carpet the hideous patterned linoleum. She said that NOT putting in the money would mean a $10,000 lower asking price. Too bad my colleague didn't get to enjoy the new flooring for a while.

I think my bathrooms are in the second category: they are so tiny, have so little storage (none), and have such ugly bathing facilities that they would LOWER the price of my house. Most buyers would tear them out immediately. Most owners with the tolerance of normal people would have fixed things up about 10-15 years ago.

However, I have to be careful not to over-improve because I don't plan to move any time soon. The latest thing won't be the latest in ten years.

On the plus side, materials costs have gone down with the bursting of the real estate bubble.

Any thoughts on this tricky issue?

Do You Shoe Goo?

This product has saved us tons of money over the years. Why have I not mentioned it before? Because it's in Mr FS's department.

Miss Em--packing for her trip to Italy--asked "Can you fix my shoes?" YES! Shoe Goo to the rescue!

Mr FS has been using this product since--well, before I met him. It has always been a part of our relationship. He probably repaired some shoes for me back in graduate school.

Do you have any similar frugal lifesavers in your pantry?

Higher Food Prices in Perspective

From Yahoo Finance, some historical perspective on food prices.

I've excerpted a bit below. Prices for most items are about double what they were 30 years ago. Most of us are making--I would guess--more than double what we were back then. If prices are killing us, I would venture to say it's not food that is to blame.

10 Everyday Grocery Items: Now and Then
by Lauren Covello


Rising prices may be top of mind for consumers right now, but they're nothing new. Here's a look at how the price tags on these 10 basic items have changed over the last three decades.


©Fox Business

1. Bread

What you pay now: $1.41 (average price for a pound of white bread)

What you paid ...

Last year: $1.37
5 years ago: $1.08
10 years ago: $1.00
15 years ago: $0.88
20 years ago: $0.71
25 years ago: $0.57
30 years ago: $0.53


©Fox Business

2. Butter

What you pay now: $3.69 (average price for a pound of salted butter)

What you paid ...

Last year: $3.13
5 years ago: $2.92
10 years ago: $3.30
15 years ago: $2.05
20 years ago: $1.94
25 years ago: $2.15
30 years ago: $1.99


©Fox Business

3. Eggs

What you pay now: $1.73 (average price for a dozen Grade-A eggs)

What you paid ...

Last year: $1.66
5 years ago: $1.31
10 years ago: $0.93
15 years ago: $1.11
20 years ago: $0.99
25 years ago: $0.87
30 years ago: $0.90



Data courtesy of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. ("What you pay now" is the average price for March 2011; historical prices were calculated by averaging the monthly price data for the years noted.)

Good Deals (if you need the stuff): Paula Begoun, Ballard Design, Walgreens

Far be if from me to tell you that spending money is saving money. Still, if you need the stuff, it's a good thing to get it on sale. And even if you just want the stuff, well...if you can manage it in your budget, you can quote King Lear.

Paula's Choice. Miss Em was just bugging me to get her more sunscreen. I noticed it was on sale. As of today it is MORE on sale. PLUS FREE SHIPPING over $20.00. PLUS--and this is a little trick I just learned--ADDITIONAL 15% off if you link through her Beautypedia site.

Ballard Design. Honestly, I am hesitant about buying furniture and the like from beautiful catalog pics. I did buy some burlap curtain panels on super sale a few months ago. I ordered one too few panels (moment of dementia). The panels went way up. As of yesterday, and for only today and tomorrow, if you link through the Facebook page, you get 20% off. I think the curtains are a good deal--relatively speaking.

Walgreens--If you need contact solution, they have some for $7.99. After you buy it, the register spits out a coupon for the full purchase price. QUICK! Go back and buy something you need if you are prone to forget the slips of paper residing in your wallet.

Big Lots--My BL has a slew of Bob's Red Mill stuff. I was so happy! Then I saw the prices: quinoa $8.50 for 26 oz. That's somewhat less than retail, but I got some from Amazon much cheaper on a one-day sale. I did buy oat groats for $3.00 for 54 oz.


From King Lear.


O reason not the need! Our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life is as cheap as beast's. Thou art a lady:
If only to go warm were gorgeous,
Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm.

Any good deals in your neck of the woods?