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Archive for the 'Help Us Help Ourselves' Category
Last time around Genni and I gave some info on buying clothes at the thrift store, but this time it’s about selling them back.
I usually don’t shop in consignment stores for clothes — furniture is another deal — but opt for the thrift shops. Thrift shops usually have donated clothing with no cost to the person donating, and because a consignment store pays the donater at the time of the sell, the clothes end up being more expensive.* Even though I get a ton of clothes at the thrift shop on the fly for very little money, I often end up with things that don’t fit correctly or that I never end up wearing. Every laundry day is closet cleaning day. You do need access to a car and a few big garbage bags.**
1) Throw anything you haven’t worn in six months in the pile. If it doesn’t fit, pile. If you kinda like it but don’t wear it, pile. Unless it’s truly reserved for some special occasion, pile. Don’t lie to yourself.
1a) Children’s clothing is truly special for money-making. Unless you have somebody specific that you’re absolutely going to pass down the clothes down to, pile.
2) When your pile gets too big to handle or when you’re particularly low on cash, start sorting. I make one pile of clothes that are too ratty to sell and another pile for clothes that reasonably follow trends enough to sell. For adult clothes, no holes, stains, missing buttons, or loose hems. Some stores I sell to are weird about clothing that develop pills (sweaters, some cotton blends) and others are not. With children’s clothes, try to sell everything. Bag everything up in separate bags and label.
3) Pick your stores. Donate everything that can’t be bought to a charity. (Goodwill overprices the truly needy out of their market, oddly, and chances are that if you donate everything to a charity all of it will actually be placed out on the racks. Also it’s kind of cool to find your old clothes on the racks next time you go thrifting.)
Children’s used clothes stores are a dime a dozen and I make the rounds — plus they pay well for nice used goods. If it doesn’t get sold to the first store I take it to another, and then another. I also use this time to find newer, nicer clothes for my little one if necessary.
As for adult stores, try to sell the trendiest stuff to a store aimed at teenagers and then branch out from there, since those stores usually offer more money — especially for mall clothes and brand names. Don’t donate something that is a few years out of style or has seen better days, keep trying to sell it at the next place.
I use this technique when I need money to get me through to the next paycheck or if something relatively small but unexpected pops up. If I spend a Saturday afternoon lugging my stuff all over town I can usually make a good deal of closet space and about about fifty bucks for the effort.
* If you do decide to get your stuff into a consignment store make sure you continue to keep up with your wares. A large portion of bread made at consignment stores is off of unclaimed sales.
** Believe it or not, one store I sell to is snotty about bringing in clothing in garbage bags, so I always save one laundry basket for the trip to take the clothes into the store.
If your cat gets eye herpes* there is generally no need to visit a vet because, just like human viruses, there’s not much you can do about a virus except pamper it. If it gets bad enough, yes, take your schnookums to the vet and get some ointment to rub on your kitty’s eye and otherwise make sure everything is okay. Otherwise, there are a few things you can do to ease small flare-ups to help you avoid a massive vet bill.
1) If your cat gets sniffly and sneezy, steam them. Turn the smallest bathroom in the house or apartment into a steam room by turning the shower up to the hottest temp and letting the steam build up behind the closed door. Keep the cat in the bathroom for upwards of ten minutes. Make sure the cat is in the bathroom with you when you bathe. This helps break up any congestion that results from the flare-up and makes your cat more miserable.
2) Lysine. Lysine, lysine, lysine. Lysine, a natural supplement you can find at pretty much any health food store, can help to stave off human break outs of herpes as well. Crush a half pill or whole pill and feed to the cat at the first sign of outbreak and continue 1-2 times a day until the outbreak is over. Although our vet suggested we do this with smelly canned catfood, Merle didn’t mind his as long as it was given with cheese. (Humans should take 4-6 daily from the first sign of outbreak until it is over.)
3) NeoPolyBac. This is the eye ointment that the vet prescribed to Merle and “is used to treat susceptible superficial bacterial infections of the eyelids and conjunctiva of dogs and cats” and is apparently available online.
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* I know this seems like a silly topic for HUHO but I’m willing to bet this becomes a dominant search string in less than a month.
I asked Jill to host Help Us Help Ourselves at Feministe for March 1st. Send your submissions to feministe@gmail.com in a timely manner in order to be a part. Car and transportation-related tips have been requested, but any of the following would be welcome.
# how to scrape up money quickly when you’re in a bind
# how to get your money’s worth when your $800 car breaks down
# hell, how to fix X, Y, and Z on your car
# what to expect when you find yourself in a custody battle
# how to find a lawyer, and how to find a good lawyer
# what to bring and what to expect when you sign up for HUD housing or any other sort of public assistance
# how to find healthcare when you don’t have insurance
# how to get a small business off of the ground
# tested, effective home remedies
# cheap (and I mean cheap) recipes that still taste good
# tips for thrift store shopping
# things you can do with your kids that don’t cost anything
# how to get a loan
# coping when life sucks
If you have any requests, leave a comment at Feministe and I’m sure somebody will oblige you.
HUHO, for the uninitiated, is a carnival of financial and economic tips to make life a little easier for us broke folks. The first massive installment can be found here. Thanks for participating, and do spread the word.
This mini version is so for a few reasons: a dying computer, a dead wiki, and a very tired blogger. Some of these entries are stragglers from the January version, and some are things I found in my daily reads.
Parties interested in hosting the March 2007 version of HUHO, please leave a comment below.
Cuisine:
Frugal Cuisine has some great ideas for cheap food on the fly. The goal is to keep the grocery list to $2-3 a day, yet many of these dishes look delicious.
Make the most of cheap cuts of beef. Or if you’re me, make nachos with those gag-inducing tubes of beef from the freezer section of the grocery store.
Cold and Cough Season:
Amanda offers several tips for minor ailments. I’m fond of the old school whiskey approach.
AradhanaD, who takes a damn fine baby picture, has two grandmother-approved home remedies to soothe your throat when you have a nasty cough.
Household:
Nurse Ratchett has two home remedies for fruit flies and fleas. Seeing my veggie-loving and cat-related lifestyle, both will come in handy this spring.
If you’ve got some land a garden is a good way to save. Start planning now.
Relate:
A somewhat irritating article on living on $12,000 annually, irritating because the author has a great attitude about poverty since she’s “poor by choice.” Her version of poor sounds like my version of college. Still, some good tips on saving money, keeping a good attitude, and managing to create savings while she’s at it. The Nut takes a look at this article as a single mom who can finally breathe but would suffer if that job were lost. And ironically, sadly, she lost her job that very week. At this moment, this is my fear.
I’ve linked it before but it’s worth reading again. Kactus, guestblogging at Women of Color Blog, writes about shame, welfare, and the economy.
And the must-read, the State of the Village Report.
I’m pretending to clean house and feed myself:
- I don’t know what my problem is but today I got really excited about starting my garden this spring, not that I ever have time to take care of it. Shit, my Christmas tree is still up. E wants us to plant flowers and I have to say this year’s garden might be a little of both. At least I’m getting a handle on how to maintain a low-key garden after two (three?) years. This year I will concentrate on getting a bunch of perennials and ornamental grasses into the yard and finally cleaning up my failed herb garden experiment.
- HUHO is clearly on hold. It was going to happen this month but my computer died and was brought back to life and now there’s only a few days left in January. Start composing your posts for March and I’ll put a little something together for February 1st. If you’re feeling charitable, you can leave links and trackbacks in the comments.
- Ever get tired of spending time in front of your computer? Me too.
- Chef and I have done pretty much nothing to prepare for for our not-wedding. The one thing we want is a nice honeymoon since we don’t get much time together and probably won’t get the opportunity to travel together again for a long time. Sadly, the number one place we have talked of visiting for the last year is still considered an unsafe zone by the American government due to political violence. Supposedly the violence has died down and we could still have a fine time as long as we don’t jump into any protests and get our visas revoked, but it’s up in the air.
Nevertheless, we want to go somewhere in Central or South America if we can help it. Chef is fluent in Spanish (though I speak exactly none) and we’re looking to visit a cultural and culinary area that is off the beaten path for the honeymoon crowd. Sandals, we will not have ye. Any suggestions?
Which could be called HUHOOH.
We’re waiting for the wiki to be figured out (i.e. for me to figure the stupid thing out), and clearly I missed the January 1st mark for call-outs. More announcements to come.
As I have mentioned in previous posts all over the ‘sphere, I grew up in a comfortable middle class household. My folks weren’t always wealthy — this was the result of hard work and smart investments, sheer luck, education, the kindness of family, saving money and frugality whenever possible. I remember a story my mother told me about buying my oldest sister cowgirl boots when she was a toddler in the 1960s and wondering how they were going to make rent and groceries. When I came around a decade and a half later there wasn’t much I would want for. My sisters saw the financial struggles and sacrifices my parents went through to ensure their financial futures, but by the time I was old enough to know the meaning of money my parents felt free to finally spend a little. Oftentimes on me. Sometimes it was a necessity — see my teen years — and sometimes it was for fun.
Money has always been a struggle for me. I struggled while homeless and pregnant, living on a friend’s couch for free in return for cooking and cleaning while she went to school, and I struggled after E was born, trying to be a family when E’s father and I lived together, the money slipping through our fingers on the silliest of expenditures. I struggle now, not understanding where this money is going or why everything is so expensive, why no matter how I stretch I’m not stretching enough, why I can’t keep up. Part of it, I think, is mathematic, a personal struggle that is difficult to explain. No matter how high I scored on math tests in elementary and high school, numbers mean very little to me. They are approximations, something to be skipped over in a document since they don’t make sense anyway. The other part is obviously ignorance. Until a few years ago I knew nothing about how to budget or save, how to follow my bills or balance a checkbook, how to spend my money in ways that would benefit me in the future instead of the now. Part of it, admittedly, is a devil-may-care attitude, or was until very recently. I always thought there would be financial security in the immediate future — I didn’t realize that the degree wasn’t the golden ticket I thought until too late. My situation could be far, far worse. But I still struggle with money, and the truth is that I never know quite where to start in order to make things better.
Watching the discussions of class and accusations levied on peoples’ varied experience with upper- and lower-class living, both economically and socially, it became quite clear to me that we were making awful assumptions about one another’s experiences. This bothered me in part because I hid many of my financial struggles from friends and family until they were too much to bear on my own. When I bought something that wasn’t a necessity, someone would hold it over me later, not knowing that I had pinched pennies and foregone something else in order to enjoy myself with this one thing, whatever it was. It was a slap in the face, these assumptions, that the only reason I wanted was because of my irresponsibility. This too is why I requested ways for people without a lot of cash to find pleasure in simple things, be they thrifting for weird clothing or putting something interesting on the table for the family to eat that doesn’t involve the ever-present boiled potato or can of green beans. Or ketchup. God, ketchup.
I don’t need an economist to tell me what it’s like to be poor, I don’t have to read about it in a book that is more suited for a grad student than for me in my free time between jobs. I’m not stupid, I don’t live in a petri dish. Nothing is more infuriating than the implication that poverty is related to moral purity. Poor and pure are not synonyms. I don’t care if someone is student poor or welfare poor, you know the looks, you know the talk, you feel the burden of being burdensome on your family, on your friends, on the system. I’ve seen those looks, sat through those lectures, was told how much better off I would be if, when, and how. It never ceases to make a person feel small, this being talked at, being spoken for.
In other words, this project is selfish. I need help. But later, I thought, while this plea that would otherwise be considered blegging began to take shape, maybe other people could use the advice. And hey, maybe people who would otherwise consider themselves apart from this sort of daily worry could help too. Some of us need some help finding those bootstraps, hell, finding boots.
So here we are. These are ways to pinch a life that is already pinched, to beat the system, to get by when getting by is what you’re doing already.
Children
Liberal Debutante shows why you definitely don’t need a Nintendo Wii: how to entertain children on $3 or less.
Clothing
Genni McMahon offers details on how to get your money’s worth at the thrift store. I share my techniques later which differ a little because I live on the edge of a rural area.
In the comments, Butter offers a global perspective: In West Africa, our cast-offs’ cast-offs are sold by the pound. I found this article on wearing “dead white man’s clothing” as opposed to traditional styles of clothing which are sold in upper-class boutiques.
Education
Bitch PhD offers advice to people who want to go back to school after they thought their school days were over.
Managing Money
Coturnix explains why not having a bank account is pretty smart when you’re poor.
At Noli Irritare Leones, Lynn details how to win an appeal with the IRS.
McBoing writes how to pay your bills late without getting disconnected.
At Labradorite, FreeCycle saved the world.
Bad Bad Ivy explains how to keep your car safe from the repo man.
Chuck explains why you should always look at your paper bills, and if necessary, give your utility companies a call.
Earn Benefits shows you how to get subsidised childcare, food stamps, health insurance, and the Earned Income Tax Credit, also offering education on money management. Unfortunately, only Atlanta, Baltimore, Memphis, and NYC are covered. Check it out if you’re in one of these areas.
A new find in my feeds, Get Rich Slowly, a collection of resources on how to save and spend your money. If you have absolutely no idea what having (or ruining your) credit with a credit card means, start here. I’ve never had a credit card, and this doesn’t make me want one.
Marriage and Relationships
Helen has a few home remedies to offer, but I think the more compelling and urgent portion of her post is how to get out of an abusive relationship with your ass covered.
Hugo explains how he rebuilt his life after divorce.
Mental Health
Piny and commenters talk about how to manage eating disorder triggers.
Aradhana shares some techniques on how to get yourself out of a depressive slump.
Recipes
Brownfemipower has an entire blog category dedicated to cooking and eating healthy when poor. That Dragon Bowl recipe looks mighty familiar to this belly.
Also, Kathy contributed two family cookbooks, one of which is full of Indian and Sri Lankan recipes, and the other, downhome family recipes. Yum.
Ilyka Damen: Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Garlic
Reclusive Leftist: Cheap, Easy Brownies from Scratch
Pandagon: Cheap-ass Trashy Foodstuffs
Faux Real Tho: Green Chicken Curry
Mary McQueen: Egg Salad and Tomato and Spinach Soup
House of Mayhem: Green Chili Burritos
Buy in bulk, eat healthy.
Comic and illustration fans should check out this strip: Cheap Thrills Cuisine.
And in a cooking-related post, VeganKid tells us how to build our own hayboxes to cook your food in. Talk about reducing the gas bill.
Transportation
Antiprincess tells us how to exploit public transportation and how to make it bearable, even fun. I can’t do the bus anymore, but when I did I was a diehard headphones-eyes-down passenger.
Aunt B. shares some excellent knowledge on what you need to know and do when you buy a car, everything from how to deal with the salesperson to what to look for on the test drive.
Misc
The trials of finding public housing assistance (tailored to the Lafayette, Indiana area).
Roxanne shares a holiday idea that’s cheap and could make you money. Build a live wreath, steal your flora.
Amanda offers decorating tips on the cheap.
Other Related Reading
Belledame suggested these two sites, Class Matters and Living on Less, for people who are interested in the more academic side of poverty issues.
Kactus at Superbabymama compiled a fantastic collection of links for Carnival of the Feminists on poverty issues. I spent a great deal of time this week perusing the links. This one is highly recommended.
These entries mostly apply to the generic U.S. (but if you’re in Canada, here’s how to get a job as an aid worker), so check in your area to see if you can apply this advice in your area. The comments on these posts also offer rather ingenious suggestions for continuing to save your pennies and find legal help where necessary. Make sure you read them.
Information on the next carnival is in the works. If you missed out on the first round, write for the second. I’ll continue to take submission at ednasaint at yahoo dot com until further information is released. Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas, and I hope you’ll help us continue to grow the project in the future.
The Hard Way:
Each recipe makes approx. 10 burritos. You can freeze leftovers, IF ANY! It can be thawed, and with added water, makes a nice stew over rice. Aging improves the flavor!
- 1 head cabbage
- 1 lb. meat-chicken, beef, or pork. Preferably lean and cut into ¼ inch cubes. If using a whole chicken (or leg quarters), boil first, de-bone, then dice the meat from the leg quarters and/or wings. Save leftover chicken (breasts) for enchiladas or salad. (Freeze stock for soups, etc.!)
- 3 large potatoes (peeling is optional. For better results, boil potatoes whole until almost done, then let cool. This dries out the potatoes, and they get that nice crust when you fry them.)
- Green chile (16 oz.) and jalapenos to taste (jalapenos can be omitted for those who prefer not to get burned inside and out!)
- Onions, salt, pepper, garlic to taste
- 1 (16 oz.) can pinto beans, drained, or even better—SOME BEANS THAT YOU COOKED YOURSELF!
- ½ lb. Cheese-Cheddar, Colby, or CoJack
- 1 dozen tortillas, burrito size
LARGE pot or wok, as the cabbage is very bulky. Don’t worry—it’ll cook down!
Prep:
Cut potatoes into large cubes.
Slice cabbage thinly, after removing the heart.
Chop green chile and jalapenos (if necessary–meaning you bought your chile fresh from your next-door neighbor’s field and roasted it, bagged it and put it in your freezer. If you bought your chile AT THE STORE. FROZEN. ALREADY DICED, skip this step. And please accept my condolences.)
Cube meat, trimming off the fat if necessary.
Dice onions.
Grate cheese.
Put 2 tbsp. oil into pot and add potatoes, cooking over medium-low heat (cooking temps may vary—you can try med-hi if it’s not cooking those taties fast enough. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.)
Let potatoes get that nice crust on them, then add the meat, onions, and garlic, and stir.
Cook until you can smell the onions and garlic. When the meat is almost cooked, check for any fat: push the meat off to one side and tilt the pot–if there is a lot of fat, spoon off and discard (a little bit of fat is OK).
Then, add the cabbage, salt, and pepper, then cover. After the cabbage ‘sweats’ down to the tender “al dente” stage, add the green chile*, pinto beans and stir occasionally. Cook for five minutes, turn off heat and let it sit for another five minutes.
*NOTE: If the mixture seems watery after sweating the cabbage and adding the chile, simmer uncovered until mixture cooks down, but is still moist.
While the burrito filling is resting, warm tortillas one by one on a griddle or in the microwave (about 45 seconds for a dozen, or 15 seconds each singly. Heating times may vary).
When tortillas are warm, put cabbage filling and cheese in, fold once, fold up one of the open ends and finish rolling into the familiar burrito shape we’ve all come to know and love.
The “Peppy and Cheap” Way”:
- 1 lb. Meat (from above), hamburger meat, or chicken (skip the boiling step) and dice.
- 1 lb. “Southern Style” hash browns—“Potatoes O’Brian” style is good, too.
- 1 head cabbage, thinly sliced, or bagged “cole slaw mix”, usually available in your grocer’s refrigerated produce aisle.
- Green Chile and/or jalapenos to taste
- Onion, salt, pepper, garlic to taste
- 1 can refried beans
- Cheese (from above)
- Tortillas
Prep as above.
Fry potatoes until you get that nice crust. Add beef or pork or chicken (as above) and cook until almost done. Remove fat (if any) and add cabbage (or cole slaw mix), onions, garlic and salt. Sweat cabbage. Add green chile. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking, and let rest for ten minutes (*see above note.)
Warm tortillas on griddle or microwave, and heat refried beans in separate pan.
Spread refried beans over warm tortilla, sprinkle with grated cheese, fill with burrito mixture.
The Vegetarian Way:
Substitute sliced banana squash and zucchini, or firm tofu for meat, and follow directions given above. Easy on the stirring if you’re using tofu—that stuff breaks up real quick. Use soy cheese if you’re a hard-core vegan.
Enjoy!
Other notes on this recipe:
This recipe not only can be made in a low-fat, low-cholesterol way, but it is very tasty and economical as well. Even if you had NO FOOD in your house, you could still bring this meal in under budget and still have leftovers.
For example:
3 large potatoes-$1.59
1 head of cabbage-.89 cents
1 pound of meat-$4.00
1 pound of green chile-$3.00
with–
5 jalapenos-.39 cents
1 onion-.25 cents
Dozen tortillas-$2.00
Cheese-$3.00
Can of pinto beans-.89 cents
Cole slaw mix (bag)-$3.00 max
Frozen potatoes-$2.50 max
These prices are somewhat generous estimates.
If you live alone, or have a medium-sized family, this recipe is pretty good. Of course, it helps if you like burritos.
If you have questions about this recipe, or, even better, improvements — please let me know!
Mary McQueen offers two more recipes for the bundle. These look like things you could make in bulk and eat on for awhile, a technique of mine to save time during the week.
Tomato and Spinach Soup
Note: K, I have to admit, this first one I have jacked from Rachael Ray, but it is delicious, cheap, fast, easy, healthy, lasts for days, and feeds many. I have only ever used vegetable broth in this soup, but if you want a little protein, I’m sure chicken broth would do just fine. I store extra soup in the fridge for a couple days, and then you can freeze it for eons! And by the way, I don’t usually measure. This soup will feed about four people. Add crusty bread and salad for a complete meal. Oh, and extras you can send along the next day in a thermos in your kid’s lunchbox.
1 large shallot
2 cloves garlic
1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes (I sometimes use the fire-roasted, which gives the soup a nice smoky flavor)
1/2 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
2-3 cups veg. broth
Several handfuls of fresh spinach
Olive oil
Pepper
Saute the shallot and garlic for a couple minutes. Add the crushed and diced tomatoes. After the tomatoes are heated through (maybe 5 minutes or so), add the broth until you have a soup consistency (this is a thick soup, though). After everything is bubbly and hot, add the spinach and cook until wilted down (another 3-5 minutes). Add pepper to taste (you don’t really need salt because the canned tomatoes are already salted usually).
Egg Salad
Note: When I was little, my mom always made my egg salad with ranch dressing – extra yummy. If you have an aversion to ranch dressing (or don’t have any or whatever), use a little less mayo than the ranch and half a small lemon. This is just a very simple, very cheap way to make egg salad, but you could always add extras like capers, for example, if you have the $$$.
Eggs (usually about 1 1/2 – 2 eggs per sandwich)
Ranch dressing (see notes)
Scallions (if you want)
Salt
Pepper
Put the eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a rolling boil. As soon as the water is boiling, turn the heat down so you have a gentle boil, and cook the eggs for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, take the saucepan off the heat, dump out the boiling water, and run cold water on the eggs until they are no longer warm. To save water (and my water bill), I cover the eggs with cold water, let them cool down in that water, dump the water, and repeat (rather than running a continuous stream of water over them). When cool, crack open the eggs, and mash up in a bowl with a fork (sometimes a knife works better). For every two eggs, add a spoonful of dressing. Basically, you want just enough dressing to bind the eggs together. Add one chopped scallion per two eggs, and salt and pepper to taste. You can eat this with crackers, on bread sandwich-style, on lettuce cups, or plain….
I prefer my egg salad with a very small straw.
I had to add to the suggestions on thrift store shopping because it’s basically how I’ve clothed myself for the last six years.
1. Contrary to the folks who commented below, I don’t thrift in town if I can help it. I travel to the smaller towns in the region, avoid Goodwill and Salvation Army, and hit up the little church thrifts in Nowhere, Indiana.
One major reason I skip town that the tiny towns may not have excellent quality clothing, but they have a ton of clothes and sell them cheap. A thrift store not too far from here offers $2 a bag sales in which the little church ladies force you to fill your industrial-sized garbage bag of clothing before you leave. Another reason is that if you’re like me and don’t mind mending and spot cleaning, you can find some funky clothes that would otherwise be snapped up by hip-minded college-aged students with an eye for vintage t-shirts. I’ve never found anything designer at a thrift store, but then again I haven’t looked.
2. Know your size. Don’t just know the number, but be able to eyeball what will fit and what won’t. I know certain styles, shapes, and fabrics will work with my body and others won’t. I can pretty much look at a piece of clothing and know whether or not it will fit me. My safe bets, being pretty curvy and of average height, include all things polyester, A-line skirts (preferably polyester), sweaters, and cardigans. I’m not so much worried about what brand label it is so much as it looks wearable, feels machine washable and I like it. After all, I’m getting an enormous amount of clothes for quite literally a few dollars.
3. Go ahead and try it on — over your clothes. My friend taught me how to try on clothing in a thrift store by wearing things in that easily come on and off in the aisle under your potential buys. Nobody cares, I’ve gathered, and neither do I since I’m out of town.
3a. I don’t buy pants or jeans at thrift stores. Not only do I hate buying pants, but it’s hard to try on pants and/or jeans over my own jeans, and I’m really not into unwittingly tucking my skirt into my underwear and walking around in public.
4. Don’t go in with a particular item in mind. Think more openly about, for example, what season of clothes you’re looking for, or specifically what you aren’t looking for. Like Genni says, there are always more clothes. Buy what you’ll actually use.
Thrift store shopping provides the great majority of my wardrobe — the only things I spend a good amount of money on are pants and shoes, although I have quite a few pairs of thrift store shoes in my arsenal as well. Purchasing a good pair of pants for work is a good investment if you’re an office monkey, because a black or brown pair can be worn with nearly any crazy shirt you pick up at the thrift store and be made to look professional. I have one pair of black pants, one pair of brown pants, and a pair of purple pants (thrifted, in spite of myself). This is all I need for work with my collection of thrifted tops.
Shoes, too, are a good investment, primarily because you have to care for your feet lest you end up with hooves like mine. If you work on your feet, I highly recommend saving up for some Danskos. I know a nurse or two who spend upwards of ten hours a day on their feet that swear these clogs have saved their knees and backs.
gennimcmahon writes a long description of how to shop thrift stores and get your $2 worth:
If there’s one thing I know, I know thrifting for clothes. I haven’t worn much in the line of new clothing in years, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at me. Some things I have learned:
1. Familiarize yourself with the cheap-ass store brands. Faded Glory is Walmart, Route 66 is K-Mart, etc. Why? Because these items are very poorly made, and will not be worth your thrift dollar. Conversely, familiarize yourself with designer brands; many thrifties don’t know what they have, and with flat pricing, you might find a Michael Kors next to three Faded Glory dresses, and you’ll get it for the same price.
2. Note that the majority of items you will find in a thrift store are there because they are cheap shit from Walmart, KMart, and the like, and there’s a reason people throw them out. Always ask yourself, “Why was this given away?” It helps you be objective about a purchase and avoid wasting money.
3. When you find something you like, don’t just snatch it up without giving it a good once over. Things that often cannot be fixed and that tend to escape the initial glance are underarm stains (particularly on white shirts), missing buttons (especially unusual ones), elastic that is crunchy or completely shot, stains at the collar (particularly on men’s shirts; remember, Ring Around The Collar is real, and usually won’t come out), vintage fabric that is rotted (when handling it, the item may appear solid, but feel almost as if it were papery or full of dirt; that’s the fabric disintegrating and when you launder it, you will end up with a handful of shredded fabric) torn or stained linings, or home botched tailoring (a great skirt may reveal a butchered hemline, for example). Also, while distasteful to think about, check for stains at the crotch in any pants you are interested in; those sorts of events often precipitate a garment being thrown out rather than laundered.
4. Many thrift stores offer different bargains on different days; familiarize yourself and shop accordingly. If you need work clothes, take advantage of the days when dresses or dress pants are half price. If you get a great Ann Taylor suit for $4.00 instead of $8.00, you can then get it drycleaned and still come out ahead.
5. Be nice to the staff at your usual haunts; people working at thrift stores are dealing with all kinds of people, from the mentally ill to the just plain awful. They appreciate being treated politely. If you are a regular, and known for being considerate, they may save for you something they know you would like, point out things you may have missed, or negotiate on prices for you. When I am shopping, I always put things back on hangers that fall off, and if the line is long I sort my stuff and take out the hangers. It’s simple, it saves time, and people appreciate efficiency.
6. Are you a freak magnet? My favorite thrift store story is the woman who approached me and in a whisper asked, “Do you wanna see my BABY?” I had, of course, no choice but to say yes, at which point she pulled the collar of her shirt aside to show me her pet mouse, clinging to her bra strap. If you are certain that you never, ever, want to see someone’s “baby”, try shopping with headphones. The iPod was invented to tell the freaks to back off. If you don’t have one, get a pair of earbuds and run the cord into your coat. No one has to know you aren’t plugged into anything.
7. Always launder what you buy before you wear it. Many thrift stores spray clothing with disinfectant that can irritate allergies/asthma. Also, nasty things like crabs or other lice can live quite well in clothing, so wash in the hottest water possible and/or spray with Lysol and let sit in a bag for a day then wash. Plus, you’ve no idea where it’s been before reaching you. The kid playing next to you while her mom is shopping? She just wiped her nose with her hand and then wiped her hand on what was hanging on the racks. You can bet on it.
8. Never try things on at the thrift store; the dressing rooms are usually filthy germ magnets, poorly lit and depressing. If you aren’t sure it will fit, don’t buy it. I’ve never left anything behind that I later regretted, but I’ve taken plenty home I wish I hadn’t. Err on the side of caution.
9. Don’t get carried away because clothes are cheap. Fifty bucks is fifty bucks, whether you bring home one top or twenty-five, and if you didn’t have fifty bucks, you’re just as broke when you walk out. Set a limit before you hit the racks, and use it to weed out those things you have doubts about. Remember, there are literally mountains of cast off clothes in the world; there will always be more the next time you go shopping.
I have lots more I could add to this since I learned how to thrift with the Queen of Thrift. Tomorrow, tomorrow.
This is an awesome contribution. Kathy writes:
I don’t have a blog or anything, but I’d like to contribute some tasty and fairly cheap curry and other recipes to the project. The recipes.doc file is a cookbook I put together a few years ago with family recipes and some contributions from the mother in law a few years ago as Christmas gifts for my mom and sisters (Tigger is one of my cats). There are a few in there that aren’t terribly cheap to produce, but that I like for special occasions and such. Also, some of the recipes will be listed in both files. As far as cheap food goes, though, most of the curries are really cheap to produce if you have access to a decent Asian grocery and several in the recipes.doc file are family standards from my mom’s (and my) childhood in southern WV where ends had to be forced to meet sometimes.
Right-click and save as. You Mac users do whatever it is you do.
Family Recipes
SriLankan & IndianRecipes
Again, I make a habit of shopping at an Asian goricery store because so many of their products are cheaper. Even expensive spices like cumin can be bought in bulk for very little money. Chuck vouches for this option here, as he’s the one that introduced me to my choice market in the first place.
Catty writes:
If there is a Trader joe’s nearby, whole wheat pasta that is actually delish is available for a buck a package. Their tomato sauce is also very affordable, and often organic to boot. That can make the trusty spaghetti much healthier than using regular spaghetti and Ragu sauce. Their cereals and such are often organic and cheaper- way cheaper- than the grocery store for similar products. I survived relatively healthy on Trader Joe’s throughout my lean college years.
We don’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby, but I found that I can go to the locally-owned health food store and ask what they have in bulk that I can buy in bulk — then I haggle. I have a 10 lb. box of dry, multi-colored veggie pasta in my kitchen that has lasted us for months. I think I paid ten bucks for it.
The only thing about this kind of pasta is that it’s easy to overcook. I dump it into a strainer before it feels done and it’s usually perfect.
I will accept HUHO posts until midnight tomorrow night.
And good news! Vegankid kindly set up a wiki on this domain using this software — and once I figure out how to use it we’ll be in business on the wiki end. Regardless, I will have the carnival posts up as planned on Friday, December 1st.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, everyone, for your contributions. We have some incredibly interesting and useful information on the way. Check the trackbacks in the top link for a taste.
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