The Best Day Ever

by Katy on September 1, 2010 · 14 comments

I spent the day getting ready for a short vacation that my family is squeezing in before the school year ramps back up again. I reserved hotel rooms, put the newspaper on hold, cancelled the cable, washed clothing, cleaned house and then ran out to The Grocery Outlet to stock up on vacation style food.

Which included a six pack of Widmer Hefeweizen beer.

And then it happened.

I got carded.

And since I am precisely twice the legal drinking age, this is a random occurrence.

Thus making today the best. Day. Ever.

Did Gretchen Rubin get carded during her year of The Happiness Project? Because I think she definitely should have included this component. Definitely better than a clean and organized closet.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

P.S. I will be on vacation until this weekend, and will be taking a break from blogging. See ya’ later!

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Story of the $25 Garage Sale Bed Skirt

by Katy on August 31, 2010 · 17 comments

I went to a garage sale the other day and came across a cream colored bed skirt that was still pristine in the package. My husband and I switched over to a queen size bed last year, and frankly, the Hollywood frame is as dull as dirt. So I picked up the package, saw that it was unmarked and asked the owner the price.

“Oh, the bed skirt? I paid over $100 for that, so I’m looking to get $25 for it.”

Riiight . . . .

And indeed there was a $170 price tag on the packaging.

She then asked me how much I wanted to pay. I explained that I was thinking more along the lines of $5, so I would have to pass on the bed skirt.

At this point the woman’s friends started ribbing her for paying so much money for a bed skirt:

“How could you pay that much for a bed skirt? It’s not like it even touches your skin!”

But the woman defended her purchase:

“But it matched all my bedding!”

This woman paid waay too much for her purchase, so she thinks it should continue to be worth a lot.

Guess again, lady.

Perceived value and actual garage sale value are not the same thing. Just because she paid $100+ for the bedskirt doesn’t mean it’s worth any more than a $30 bedskirt once it hits the garage sale market.

I did pick up a pair of pillowcases for a cool buck from her garage sale mate. And they look perfect with our green sheets.

Do you have a hard time getting rid of items that you overpaid for? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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“The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment” — A Giveaway

by Katy on August 29, 2010 · 29 comments

It’s Monday, which means that it’s time for another Non-Consumer Advocate giveaway. This week’s prize is a hardback copy of A.J. Jacob’s hilarious book “The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment.” (And yes, it is from Goodwill!)

To enter to win this book, write something in the comments section about your favorite non-fiction books and authors. Because Jacobs is hands down my go-to guy when it comes to funny, smart and entertaining non-fiction. I want to be him when I grow up, (even though I may actually be older than him.)

I will pick a winner on Tuesday, August 31st at midnight. Please enter only once, U.S. residents only.

I am reprinting my review of this book from last year. Enjoy and good luck!

The end of the calendar year invariably brings out that side of us that wants to look back and make sense of life. How was this year different from others? Was there anything I should have done differently? And most importantly, (at least to the marketing gurus at Weight Watchers and Soloflex) how can I be better in the coming year?

How can I be a better person?

I just finished reading A.J. Jacobs’ newest book “The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment” which took over an entire evening and most of this morning. In this book, Jacobs throws himself into a number of experiences that run the gamut from outsourcing all the details of life to a company in India, to practicing “Radical Honesty.” (Which saw him explain in all honesty to a female business colleague that he was trying for a sneak peek of her cleavage.)

I had read both of Jacob’s other books, and become giddy with excitement when I found this new book at the bookstore. I immediately put it on hold at the library and had been waiting with bated breath ever since.

Although Jacobs writes with self-depreciating humor, he’s not above making real and meaningful change as a result of his stunts, (And yes, they are stunts.) In the chapter when Jacobs, a father of three small boys writes about putting an end to multitasking, (he actually wears a sleep mask while on phone calls in order to cut down on possible distractions) he writes about how his focus on unitaskingaffected his interactions with his children:

His mission is to pour out all the coins and then put them back. Then repeat. His brothers are working on an equally important task: taking DVD’s out of a drawer and putting them back.

Zane invites me to collaborate with him on this project.

“Help. Daddy!”

I clink a nickel into the slot.

“I’m here with my sons, putting nickels into a watermelon bank.”

I say this sentence out loud, per the Bill Murry Method. I have three sons. They are healthy. They get pleasure from putting coins in a slot. I am overwhelmed with gratitude. Maybe it’s the lingering effects of cold medication, but I start to choke up. A real “Cat’s in the Cradle” moment.

Just outside my brain, three thousand things bark for my attention. My book deadline. Worries about the death of journalism. The invoice to the German magazine I forgot to send. But I’ve put up a soundproof wall. I’m going to put nickels in this watermelon with my son — and that’s all I’m going to do.

It is the perfect undistracted ten minutes.

Yes, he’s taking on these tasks for a book contract, but they leave their stamp on him nonetheless.

This genre of participatory journalism seems to be gaining steam. And I can’t be the only one who snaps them up like fat free donuts at a dietetic police convention. Not Buying It, No Impact Man and Helping Me Help Myself quickly come to mind, and I’m sure I’m just skimming the surface.

So did I take any of Jacobs’ lessons to heart?

It’s hard to say, as I dedicated today to napping and laziness, (nonstop house guests from Christmas Eve until yesterday threw me for a loop!) but I do have to say that when my kids crawled into my nap-tastic bed this afternoon, I gave them my full and focused attention. No multitasking whatsoever. Which I believe does make me a better person.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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You Asked For it, Before and After

by Katy on August 29, 2010 · 8 comments

I wrote the other day about the never ending remodeling on my 1914 house, and you, the readers asked for some before and after pictures. So here goes . . .

Before -- My house in 1918. Notice how the stairs come from the front of the porch.

Before -- My house in 1933. Notice how the stairs now come from the side of the porch, which will eventually not support the front of the house very well.

Before -- The house in 2002. The asbestos siding has been removed, but the front porch is a danger zone. The cheap lathe railing sways to the touch.


After -- My house in 2006. Notice how the porch steps now come from the front of the porch again, thus supporting the front of the house.

After -- My porch in 2008. (?) It's been painted, but there's still a few spots which need to be touched up.

And don’t worry, there’s more to come.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

P.S. Here’s a gratuitous before and after photo essay of my lovely, lovely living room chair:

Before -- Goodwill as-is chair sitting on my mother's front porch. I had declined the gift, as it was moist and stanky.

That is, until I saw a reproduction of the same style of chair at Rejuvenation, which looked awesome and cost $1800. It was not as detailed and lower quality.

After -- Hello, reupholstered chair!

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Thank You, Ms. Andersson

by Katy on August 28, 2010 · 9 comments

My boys in their Hanna jammies

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the lovely folks over at Hanna Andersson for producing such high quality children’s pajamas. But at $38 a pop, buying them new was never part of my family’s life. However, Hanna Andersson is a local company, so it’s super easy to find them at thrift stores.

Like yesterday, when I bought seven pairs of new looking Hanna jammies for 50¢ apiece. And now Portland Craigslist followers will be able to pick them up for $15 apiece. And I will have a chunk of change for a short vacation before school starts back up.

Thank you, Hanna Andersson.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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My Remodeling Project

by Katy on August 27, 2010 · 13 comments

You think your house was a fixer-upper?!

My husband and I are embarking on a new remodeling project on our 1914 house to add a second bathroom (yay!) and a fifth bedroom (cue blogger looking sheepishly to the side.) We bought our home in 1996, and it was such a fixer-upper that it was a year before we could even move in. Because yes, it was that run down. We have been working on it in fits and spurts ever since. Mostly because 99% of the work has been done by my non-contractor husband.

And in case you think I’m exaggerating, here’s what we’ve done so far:

  • Repaired the coved plaster ceilings in the living room and dining rooms.
  • Tore down the crumbling plaster walls in the living room, dining room and downstairs bedroom.
  • Removed the false ceiling in the downstairs bedroom.
  • Reconfigured the downstairs bedroom to what it used to be.
  • Put in a new bathroom.
  • Redid all the electric and plumbing.
  • Refinished the hardwood floors.
  • Rebuilt the fireplace surround.
  • Replaced all the lighting fixtures, (first with hideous $3 clearance lighting and then slowly with nicer lighting.)
  • Stripped all the downstairs woodwork, and replaced what the previous owners had ripped out.
  • Jacked up the front of the house and had a completely new front porch built.
  • Replaced the nasty kitchen counters with formica.
  • Repainted the kitchen cabinets, although we were able to reuse the hardware, which was inoffensive.
  • Put in new windows in the kitchen and downstairs bedroom where only small ones/none existed.
  • Replaced all the rest of the windows with new wooden double glass, low-E versions.
  • New appliances.
  • Had new brick layed in the fireplace.
  • Addressed all the lead paint issues with an official lead abatement team. This was paid for by a grant from The Portland Development Commission due to elevated lead levels in my younger son.
  • Completely reconfigured one of the upstairs bedrooms to create a hallway to the back bedroom. (It had been that you had to go through this bedroom in order to enter the large unfinished space that is soon to become our new bedroom/bathroom.)
  • Had a cement floor poured for the dirt basement.
  • Replaced the old garage door and front door.
  • Cleaned out the old sump pump that the previous owners had been pouring used motor oil into. Cemented this in.
  • Decommissioned the old oil furnace.
  • Ran a new sewer line under the neighbor’s property to the city sewer line a half block away.
  • Drywalled the only finished room in the basement to create a band practice space for our sons.
  • Put in a new furnace and heat ducts.
  • Built a retaining wall and brick patio in the backyard.
  • Built new cement steps and pathway leading to the front porch.

Is it any wonder that we’re still standing? I am in no way recommending that anyone ever buy a house that needs this much work. We were naive and had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. This house has sucked up our time, energy and money.

The bedroom and bathroom will be our last hurrah, and I feel like we’re going in with eyes wide open which is a new experience. We’re working with an architect, who is very generously donating his design as a thank you for my husband’s years of coaching his son in soccer. (Yay for volunteering!)

Yes, we have a lovely home in a great neighborhood, but at what cost? If I had to do it all over again I would not have bought my house, but that’s kind of a waste of energy to even think about. So we just move forward.

I need to start shopping for supplies, but am waiting until the kids are back in school. I’ll be looking at The Rebuilding Center, the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store, Rejuvenation, Craigslist and traditional sources. I’m being aware to not rush the process, as this has been a sure recipe for disaster in the past.

Looking through the list, I’m sure there are a number of things that I forgot. I don’t understand why we’re not in ruinous financial shape. Although I do understand why we’re not on track to retire at 50.

I will be chronicling our remodel project as it progresses, so check back often to follow our hopefully angst free remodel.

Wish us luck!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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The Millionaire Next Door — A Winner

by Katy on August 26, 2010 · 0 comments

Congratulations to Judyy whose entry was randomly chosen to win a copy of “The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy.” Here’s her winning entry:

“My folks always taught me that no matter how much or how little I made to always save at least 10% of it.”

Thank you to everyone who wrote a little something about money to try and win a copy of this great book. (I’m re-reading this book right now and loving it just as much as when I first read it in 1997.) Here are a few of the insightful reader comments:

Katy Akers:

“I live on $750.00 a month. First, pay the necessities – rent, utilities, dog food. Then, spend what’s left on food. Scavenge, garden, trade, re-purpose. I am sheltered, fed, and have good friends and family. ‘Enough is a feast.’ “

Laura:

“I’m feeling very lucky right now…for the first time in our 20 year marriage my husband and I are on the same page regarding money-(spend less) and he’s finally joined me on the de-cluttering and living more simply quest–it’s really lightened up-we are actually moving into the smallest apartment we have lived in since we first married and it feels great.”

Sarah:

“Money stresses me out until I create some systems and rules around it. Then I feel better. Watching my savings account grow makes me so happy!”

Christine S.:

“Being a new mom (and now a stay at home mom) makes me think about money A LOT! But I need to remember that the more I think about it, the more I worry about it — like a dieter that obsesses with food! Its all good, and even if I never become a millionaire, I know I am still rich because of where we live. As Americans, we are so fortunate. Treasure what we have.”

Jennifer:

“Money to me is a mystery. It’s only dirty paper, for God’s sake! But it does rule so much of who we are.”

Barb @ 1 Sentence Diary:

“I struggle with my relationship with money — in some ways I’m a total tightwad, and in others I spend frivolously. And investing? Reading about investing? I’d rather have a root canal treatment.”

ElisaWells:

“I grew up next to a millionaire. He lives a quite modest lifestyle, saves and reuses everything, grows his own veggies, and has a foundation to give away his excess wealth. His favorite saying, even at 96 years old, is ‘Life is good!’ “

Click HERE to read all the comments, and come back next Monday when I’ll have another great Non-Consumer Advocate giveaway. And yes, it will also be from Goodwill!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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Is it Okay to Not Be Happy?

by Katy on August 25, 2010 · 28 comments

I’ve written a fair amount about happiness. Gretchen Rubin’s book, The Happiness Project was a huge inspiration to me and I already considered myself a fairly happy person to begin with. But what about when you just want to wallow in an old fashioned bad mood funk?

Is is acceptable to not be happy?

I do worry that the new focus on happiness is placing a unreasonable pressure on women to be happy at all times. Yes women. Not only do we have to do all that we do, but we need to have a smile plastered across our faces while we’re at it.

Doing dishes? Make sure to enjoy the task.

This is bouncing around in my head today because I had a really crappy day at work yesterday. I came home and immediately had to run the kids across town to soccer and martial arts. This wasn’t all that bad, but I was tired and just wanted to put my head down on a pillow. The evening entailed catching up on the latest episodes of Mad Man, but somehow it just didn’t do the trick. I was grumpy, short tempered and it was probably a good idea to give me some elbow room.

I guess what I’m asking is this, is it acceptable to hunker down into a bad mood? Should a person employ all the traditional tricks to stay happy, (sing songs, write gratitude lists, bask in the glow of a perfectly organized closet) or should we accept the mood in order to get through it?

I feel that all emotions need to be experienced in order to move past them. If we bottle up the negative emotions in an effort to be happy at all times, then we’ll eventually implode. Of course, occasional bad moods are an entirely different beast from true depression, which I won’t even attempt to cover in a short quippy column.

I’m feeling better today. I got to sleep in a little bit, and although my house is a revolting mess, I do have a few kid free hours to deal with it. But if I had plastered that smile onto my face yesterday, I would probably still be wallowing in that funk.

Agree, disagree? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

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Spinning Straw Into Gold

by Katy on August 24, 2010 · 11 comments

The following is a reprint of a previously published post. Enjoy!

Non-Consumer Living Room

I am the queen of spinning straw into gold. I guess you could say I’m theRumpelstiltskin of the non-consumer set. Show me a mostly empty refrigerator and I can pull together a tasty meal, show me an empty bank account and I can find free stuff to do, show me a poorly decorated room and I can tart it up using things found throughout of the house.

Yup, straw into gold.

Sometimes I think we do ourselves a disservice when we are provided with all the resources to everything we could ever possibly need, as this state dulls ingenuity. Some of the most creative people I know are that way precisely because they’ve never had a comfortable living.

Paris Hilton? Not so creative.

Anyone schmo can walk into an Ikea or Pottery Barn and pick out everything needed to outfit their home, but it takes creative and critical thinking skills to figure out how to furnish on a dime. And if done right, can be a much more beautiful and fad-bypassing look than when everything’s bought at once.

Need a bedside table? How about hauling that ugly dresser out from your mother’s garage and stripping off those layers of paint.

Ahh . . . better.

There is little in my home that I paid more than $100 for, yet I think my house looks much more elegant than I could normally afford. My living room is pulled together from Goodwill, craigslist and garage sale finds. My dining room sports 1920’scraftsman-style Carnegie library oak chairs that I bought off somebody’s front porch. (Eleven of them for $75!) The 1914 piano was free, as was my living room rug. (That burned-by-an-iron-mark? Just make sure it’s hidden under a chair!)

I derive a tremendous amount of satisfaction from being able to assemble a great life for my family. And I don’t just mean furnishings. Money is tight at our house right now, yet we’re heading into a Spring break that will include a night at a water park resort and a few nights nestled in a cabin on Mt. Hood. All of this is for free, and all of it will be way more fun and satisfying than if I’d simply booked a trip to Disneyland.

Cause that’s how Rumpelstiltskin rolls.

Do you feel having less inspires more creativity in your life? Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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The Millionaire Next Door — A Giveaway

by Katy on August 23, 2010 · 60 comments

Are you under the impression that millionaires drive expensive cars, live in mansions and spend their days sipping champagne? Well then, you’re in for a bit of a surprise.

The Millionaire Next Door, written by Thomas Stanley and William Danko looks at research related to American millionaires and is not only an interesting read, but extremely informative. I read this book when I was first figuring out how to invest in my retirement account, which means I was 30 years old at the time. But despite the, ahem, 12 years since I read the book, much of it still remains with me.

Millionaires are more likely to drive older cars, you’re more likely to become a millionaire if you own your own business than if you’re employed by someone else, and (here’s the crux) millionaires live below their means.

This copy of The Millionaire Next Door is a second hand, but never read copy from Goodwill. It was a gift at one point, which I know because someone wrote this on the second page:

To: Jeremiah,

From: Cleto

2/11/99

Here is the essence of saving & accumulating wealth!

Apparently, this was not a welcome message, as the book appears untouched. 😉

To win this copy of The Millionaire Next Door, write a little something in the comments section about money. It can be anything you wish, positive or negative, short or long. I will randomly choose a winner Wednesday, August 25th at midnight. U.S. residents only, please enter only once.

Good luck!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”

P.S. This book may look a little worn by the time you get it, because I’m kind of wanting to reread it.

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