Click on me to print up your own Elf Ornament, courtesy of Jessica Wolk-Stanley!
Merry Christmas to you and yours from the folks at The Non-Consumer Advocate!
I already have plans to return the one gift I received. After all, I can put the money towards my trip to Japan.
Non-Consumerly yours,
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or dow without”
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
{ 13 comments }
Stars of David, dreidels, torahs and feet. No one is excluded from our holiday cookies. So rejoice foot fetishists, your traditions are also welcome in our home!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
{ 4 comments }
Somehow, the shaving brush that I gave my husband for his birthday snapped into two pieces. I suspect that my not exactly, ahem, *detail oriented* 16-year-old son dropped it on the tile bathroom floor. However, this was no problem, as I am always happy to bust out my trusty tubes of . . .
Epoxy glue!
Mixing the two glues together is the only good use for newspaper advertisements.
A little glue, and whattayaknow, we have an intact shaving brush again! I *love* bringing broken items back to life, whether it's mending, gluing or removing stains. None of it is all that difficult, yet it's all so very satisfying. Just because today's culture makes it so easy to buy-new instead of repair, doesn't mean we shouldn't try to keep our possessions going. When you fix your stuff, you take a stance against excessive manufacturing, and even save a buck or two. What's not to love?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
{ 24 comments }
Today I am . . .
How about you?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
{ 11 comments }
Okay, my tree house came with next to no accessories, but I still think I can sell it on Craigslist for $25.
Everywhere you look right now, it’s Christmas, Christmas, Christmas! Spend your money here, save your money there. Bake these cookies here, count those calories there. Buy the perfect gifts . . . no, make the perfect gifts! And don’t forget to be happy all the while.
This year, I’ve been super casual about putting together my holiday gifts. In fact, I’m nowhere even close to done. (Aside from a package which I had to send to my sister’s family in New York City in time for a December 16th birthday.) Pretty much, I’ve just been living my life. Cooking from scratch, shopping at thrift stores, hanging out with my kids, going to work and writing the blog.
Examples of my recent frugal activites:
Sometimes the best thing to keep yourself from succumbing to holiday insanity is to stick with your routine. You can keep your cookie swaps, your holiday sweaters and your lines at the mall. You can find me at home, keeping to my fabulously frugal routine.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
{ 17 comments }
The following is a reprint of a previously published post. Enjoy!
If there’s one things that unites all income levels, it’s getting something for nothing. Whether it’s garbage picking a perfectly good mop, (guilty as charged) or getting a swag bag while attend the Oscar ceremonies, it’s hard to turn down a freebie.
But in a society where one in every ten Americans has overflowed their belongings into a self storage unit, should we be looking for more, more, more belongings?
I live in a pretty big home, it’s four large bedrooms plus a full basement and a large unfinished room at the back of the house. There should be enough room for all of our stuff and still allow for a bit of an echo.
Such is not the case.
My husband used to have his own commercial photography studio which he closed down eight years ago, this meant a whole lotta stuff entered our house. He was pretty good about selling off the majority of the furniture, but there’s still a large amount of photography equipment gathering dust in that back bedroom. He’s also the equipment manager for our local soccer club, which has over 1000 players, which means that goals, nets, T-shirts, first aid kits and other flotsam spill forth from our basement.
Our great big house is filled to the brim.
So what does this have to do with free stuff being too expensive?
Our backyard neighbors moved out of their rental house due to the landlord not paying her mortgage, and left a lot of stuff, (okay — crap) behind. The landlord unceremoniously dumped all of it onto the parking strip in front of the house, and propped a “free” sign against it all.
I knew it was there but really felt like:
My steely resolve lasted until around 3:00 P.M. when I strolled over to check it out. I daintily picked through the stuff and found:
This may seem like I exercised little restraint, but I actually did. There was a decent couch, which would have been a nice addition to my 13-year-old’s band practice space in the basement, as well as countless other tempting tidbits.
As I browsed the piles, at least four people stopped their cars to have a look. I felt that most of the usable items would go home with others.
I could easily have found much, much more to bring home, because hey — it’s free! But what would be the actual cost of adding that much more crap into my life? A house that requires too much work to keep clean and tidy, that’s what!
I have worked very hard to declutter my home, and I am not going to let all that effort go to waste just because there’s an enormous free pile a few steps from my house.
That, my fellow Non-Consumers is a price I am unwilling to pay.
Make sure to watch Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff as a reminder as to why the buy more, more, more mentality has got to change. It’s twenty minutes long, but worth every minute.
Do you have a hard time turning down stuff when it’s free? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
{ 17 comments }
"Sweep spending under the carpet: Katy spots a tempting rug in a dumpster and makes a grab for the freebie."
Remember when I was teasing out tiny details about filming a national reality TV show? Well apparently I no longer need to keep it a secret, as England’s The Daily Mail has published an article about the show, which is titled . . .
TLC’s Extreme Cheapskates!
I have not seen how they edited down two 14-hour days of filming into the apparent seven minutes that I was told my segment would be. And I doubt I’ll see the episode any sooner than you will.
Click HERE to read the article, which is light on any details about my particular segment, but does show a photo of me dumpter diving an oriental rug. The special will air December 28th at 9 P.M./8 P.M. Central. I have no idea whether TLC will make the full episode available to view online. I’ll continue to post any new information that comes to light.
Wish me luck, as I am sick with nerves about it all.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
{ 26 comments }
Kristen, over at The Frugal Girl posts her monthly goals on her blog, which include staying on top of her Quicken and daily exercise. Although Kristen and I long ago decided that we were long lost twins, she and I actually differ greatly.
For example, these are my December goals: (Note that I make month long goals on the 16th of the month.)
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
{ 17 comments }
Today will be busy. I am hosting a neighborhood potluck, and because I’ve been enjoying the gluttony of daytime playdates with my friends and evening snuggle-fests with my sons, the prep-work will involve a fire hose and a bulldozer. (I seriously do not understand how my house consistently goes from clean to messy so damned quickly!)
I need to sit down and write out a massive to-do list in order to present a less than filthy party home, so today’s blog post will be on the short side, and I so present to you . . . why my house is so messy:
And that, dear readers, is why my home looks like it houses a herd of insane and rabid chimps. When really, the chimps are actually neither insane nor rabid.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
{ 28 comments }
Sure, I could find all these games at Amazon, but I'd rather shop at locally owned stores like Cloud Cap Games.
As a member of The Compact, I’ve supposedly been buying exclusively used since January of 2007. However . . . I’ve slowly been expanding my Compact to include some buying new from locally owned shops. (This is the nice thing about The Compact, as it is absolutely self-defined.)
Today I will be mailing off a holiday package to my sister’s family in New York City, which will also include birthday gifts for my December 23rd nephew and December 16th sister. Supplementing my thrift store finds will be games from Cloud Cap Games, socks from Sock Dreams and Columbia Sportswear; super cute dish towels from Portland Homestead Supply and duct tape (for making wallets) from Fred Meyer. (True, Columbia Sportswear can hardly be categorized as a small business, but in my defense it is local, and does employ a number of people in our social circle.) And the duct tape? Umm . . . impossible to buy used or from a local shop.
I feel fine about these decisions, as I stayed away from Amazon and Target and pretty much stayed on track, financially.
Does my shopping at local shops mean I’ve opened the flood gates for non-stop consumerism?
Of course not. I just want to shop mindfully. To buy useful and welcome gifts from shops that have an owner, not a CEO.
I truly believe in supporting the kinds of businesses that I want in my community. And because of this, I sometimes pay more for an item than if I’d gone the Amazon/big box route.
None of this is easy for me. I do not have deep pockets, so I feel the pain of these decisions.
How about you? Are you supporting your local businesses even when it means paying a little extra? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
{ 31 comments }
