The Value of a Partial Hog

by Katy on May 4, 2010 · 14 comments

It is natural to want to take on projects in the style of the whole hog. Pull everything out of that cluttered closet, go through every single one of your child’s outgrown toys in an afternoon, attack that overwhelming basement mess over a single weekend!

But sometimes, (okay, often) the opportunity for going the whole hog does not offer itself up. Either because of time constraints or energy level, thinking that everything has to be done all at once is a barrier to actually getting anything done.

Which is why I offer up the notion of the partial hog.

Can’t organize the entire closet? How about just the board games or just the shoes? Can’t attack that disastrous basement? Perhaps just a shelf or two would fit into your day.

Trent Hamm of The Simple Dollar recently wrote a blog piece about Snowflaking and Goals.

” ‘Snowflaking’ refers to the idea that if you make little frugal steps throughout the month, you simply add the amount you saved with that method and include the total as an extra payment at the end of the month.”

This is a similar concept to my “partial hog” idea. Dramatically big actions are fantastic, but the small stuff can actually add up more impressively in the long run. The person who spends eight long hours organizing their closets will actually get less accomplished than the person who consistently spends thirty minutes per day.

I have to fight this “Oh, why bother?” instinct when I’m taking a solitary laundry basket of stuff to Goodwill or I’m helping my son clear off his desk in an otherwise disorganized bedroom. But it is these small bits of the hog that will eventually add up to the whole hog.

And the whole hog is the goal, but not necessarily the process.

Sorry if my analogy grossed you out. As an apology, I offer up the adorable Jessica Wolk-Stanley illustration.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 14 comments }

Amy Dacyczyn of “The Tightwad Gazette”

by Katy on May 3, 2010 · 39 comments

Please enjoy this wonderful interview with the amazing Amy Dacyczyn, author of The Tightwad Gazette, and all around legend. I love this woman, and it wouldn’t be exaggerating to say she is one of my greatest inspirations. To be able to see her in her home is a joy that brings tears to my eyes. She is a stranger to me, yet she changed my life in deep and profound ways.

Thank you Amy.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 39 comments }

Life Lesson From a Sunburn

by Katy on May 2, 2010 · 5 comments

I’m here to tell a cautionary tale told through the power of a beet red sunburn.

This weekend marked the occasion of not one, but two soccer games for my 11-year-old son. Yesterday’s game required a fleece hat, a scarf, gloves, wool socks and a winter coat. All this, and I still seriously entertained fantasies of mugging the one dad who brought his own carafe of steaming hot coffee.

Today’s soccer game miraculously just required the coat. No hat, scarf, gloves or even wool socks! The coffee dad was safe and I even ended up with a bright and dramatic sunburn!

This is to demonstrate that however bleak and dismal life a day can seem, tomorrow is always a fresh start.

And I have the sunburn to prove it.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 5 comments }

Time to Help a Fellow Non-Consumer Advocate Reader

by Katy on May 2, 2010 · 33 comments

The combination of nature and the frugality of my backyard clothesline gives me a happy feeling.

This morning, The Non-Consumer Advocate received this comment in response to the recent post titled Feeling Deprived? The reader called herself VERY Deprived.

All around I feel deprived.

I infrequently I buy clothes (1 per 3 months I get one new item $50 or less), infrequenlty I eat out (about 6 times per year – this includes fast food), I haven’t had a vacaiton in over 4 years (this includes stay vacations around my home town (like going to the zoo or camping). I can’t even afford to drive the 6 hours needed to visit my grandmother for a weekend (gas, wear and tear on the car, eating out for 2 days and hotel – my grandmother lives in a senior’s home is just too much).
Money is so tight – I avoid others at work as I can’t contibute to office gifts or endure the pressure of what to say when other’s ask if I want to join them for a drink afterwork (this to me is eating out). BILLS, BILLs, BILLs – yes I can pay my own the cost of doing NOTHING.

This comment is difficult to read. This person feels they are unable to visit a grandparent, eat out, maintain a wardrobe or even socialize in the workplace.

I look to my own life, which I consider to be rich and full of happiness. Yes, I do get occasionally treated to lunches out by my parents, but if those were to stop I would still be happy. I can’t remember the last time that I bought any clothing (for myself) that set me back more than $5, and in fifteen years of working in the same place, I have never gone out for drinks with co-workers. Sure, there are others that frequently do this, but that’s just not my scene.  But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t formed deep and satisfying relationships with the women who share my workplace.

I ask you, my readers to give your best advice to VERY Deprived. What can she do to help herself get past her current situation?

I’ll get you started.

My advice:

  • Gather all her bills together and see if there’s any way to decrease them. Maybe go to a smaller phone plan, drop cable, cancel her newspaper, contact her insurance agent to see if she’s paying too much.
  • Find free activities that interest her. This could be library events, walking with a friend, free concerts, swapping DVD’s with a neighbor.
  • Find a clothing swap to scratch that itch of new clothes. If there isn’t one in her area, she could organize her own. This can be as simple as having a couple of girlfriends over with the express purpose of swapping clothes and accessories. Make it a potluck to decrease the expense.
  • Try and find a free place to stay near her grandmother’s retirement home. Is there anyone she knows in the area? If not, would she be willing to try something like couch surfing, which is free?
  • Utilize her library to read books about money management. I recommend:
  1. The Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey
  2. The Complete Tightwad Gazette, by Amy Dacyczyn
  3. Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez & Vicki Robin
  • Make more money. This make sound like oversimplified advice, but who among us doesn’t have stuff lying around that couldn’t be converted into some spare cash? Craigslist, eBay, consignment shops and garage sales are all generally easy (okay, maybe not eBay) methods of selling household belongings. Take on extra work, ask for a raise, do odd jobs like vacation pet sitting or house cleaning. This isn’t necessarily easy, but it is doable.
  • My last bit of advice is to find and then do the activities that give her pleasure. Getting together with friends that boost her up, rereading beloved books or starting a gratitude journal.

Okay trusty Non-Consumer Advocate readers. What advice do you have for VERY Deprived? Please leave your advice in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 33 comments }

My Achilles Heel of Decluttering

by Katy on April 30, 2010 · 28 comments

It’s no secret that I’ve been working hard to declutter my enormous five bedroom, one bathroom house. This has been a seemingly never ending task, not to mention gut- wrenchingly exhaustive. Because anyone who tells you that objects do not hold emotional meaning is full of crap. A stuffed animal is not just a stuffed animal. It belonged your adorable preschooler, who once dragged it around every day and sucked on its ears. Never mind that your once adorable four year old now shaves, eats more than Andre The Giant and is more rugged than adorable. That object is still imbedded with a giant emotional anchor.

But I’ve been able to talk myself down from this proverbial rooftop, and I’m now able to part with all kinds of emotionally taxing items. Toys, books, dress-ups. They all get the Craigslist/Goodwill treatment. And I’m a better person for it.

But there is still a category of belonging that tugs at my illogical heart strings and that is things I paid too much for. Case in point is this stupid underbed Ikea basket that I paid $25 for at a thrift store. Granted, this huge lined basket costs $50 new, but I spent a gift certificate I received as a Christmas present on it, so not only did I overpay, (and remove the price tag so it was non-returnable) but it was my *Christmas present* from my sainted mother. And guess what? The damned thing doesn’t fit under my damned bed.

I tried putting it on Craigslist, but no one wanted it. So there it sat, cluttering up my living room for at least a month, mocking my inability to part with this brief but expensive lapse in judgement.

I am fully aware that $25 is not that large an expense, even to me. But the regret that hitchhiked onto this inanimate object was priceless.

I finally decided yesterday that I would bring it by the hipster consignment store in my neighborhood, and if they didn’t want it, then it would get a one way ticket to Goodwillsville. Sadly, the store was not open when I stopped by. So what did I do? I gave it to my mother, who thought she should be able to use it in one of her guest cottages.

The basket is out of my life, but it’s still occupying a place in my mind that should be devoted to charitable works and world peace. I don’t feel satisfied with how I dealt with the basket. I made getting rid of it too complicated. I should have just put it on Freecycle and let someone else get some use out of it. But no, I felt like I should get at least some of my money back.

Are you holding onto items that you paid too much for, even though they are now essentially worthless and drag you down whenever you see them? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Imperfectly yours,

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 28 comments }

I Am No Island

by Katy on April 29, 2010 · 9 comments

Sometimes I feel as if my non-consumer writings are a bit of a sham. This is because so much of what I’m able to do is based on living in a community where others are constantly helping me out. Not in a poor Katy sort of way, but as part of a general sense of everyone helping each other out.

There’s no way I could do what I do if I didn’t have friends and family to depend on.

For example, today my mother will be bringing her truck over and together we’re going to haul the eight 5-gallon buckets of used oil motor sludge to the hazardous waste dump. (The previous owners of this house had been dumping their used motor oil into the basement sump pump.) And when I stopped by my mother’s house this morning and asked her if she had any extra nice fabric storage bins, she did! (Thanks Mom!)

My mother is an almost never ending source of doo-dads and thingamajigs, plus the woman loves a project and was the sole investigator of free stones for our backyard project.

However, I help her out too. I’m her guest cottage cleaning service, as well as her bossy professional organizer. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been her airport limo service and I always offer to be the one to host big family gatherings.

I use my mother as an example, but only because she’s such a good example. My family provides vacation cat sitting services for the neighbors, and they in turn make their spice cupboards available to me for last minute cumin emergencies. My friend Sasha has given me her old furniture, and in turn, I have given her plants, quilts, vintage tablecloths, a lampshade and probably some other stuff as well.

My point here is that if I didn’t have friends and family, there simply no way I could live the frugal and Compact friendly life that I do.

It’s the community that surrounds us that makes it all possible.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 9 comments }

Tiny Hong Kong Apartment Lives Large

by Katy on April 28, 2010 · 6 comments

Think your home is working double duty to meet all your needs? Well, Gary Chang, a Hong Kong architect has figured out how to make his miniscule apartment work triple, quadruple, even quintuple duty! This video is so cool, that I had to watch it a couple times to enjoy all the goodness it has to offer.

Watch the video and share your favorite living space hack. I’m kind of partial to the mirrors on the ceiling bed that folds down over the bathtub.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 6 comments }

Deliriously Happy About Garbage

by Katy on April 27, 2010 · 7 comments

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

I just notched down my 20 gallon garbage service from every week to once a month.

The reasoning was both environmental and financial. The change would force us to be super-finicky about how much garbage our family is producing, (always a good thing) plus it saves us five dollars per month. I know the money difference may seem minimal, but I feel a $60 per year savings is nothing to sneeze at.

What I didn’t consider, was how the added stress of “Oh crap, it’s Sunday, I gotta’ do the garbage” would suddenly become a monthly pain instead of weekly.

Ahh . . . .

We got home from our trip to Seattle at 10:15 last night. I saw that the neighbors all had their bins neatly lined up, ready for garbage day. After the schlep of luggage and sleepy kids, the last thing I wanted to deal with was garbage night.

But then I remembered that I didn’t have to put our garbage out!

I was happy, deliriously happy that our 3-1/2 hour drive was not topped off with the tedious chore of garbage gathering.

Garbage happy!

So many changes made in the name of frugality and green living can bring aboutextra household work.

For example, I love hanging clothes on the clothesline, but am fully aware that it takes longer than throwing everything into the electric dryer. I love my clothesline, and am willing to make this change because I know it’s better for the environment, makes the clothes last longer and saves money. Plus I really enjoy it.

I now get to delete the garbage chore from my mental to-do list 75% of the time.

And those are some numbers I can stand behind.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

Check out myzerowaste.com for more information about reducing your family’s garbage/rubbish output.

{ 7 comments }

Busy Day = Short Blog

by Katy on April 26, 2010 · 13 comments

My day started with a 4:46 A.M. phone telling me to not to come to work. (Apparently, today was not a popular day to have a baby. A rarity on a Monday, which usually has a lot of scheduled procedures.) Most of my co-workers hate to be “called off,” but I secretly love it. Not only is it a bonus day off, but I’ve usually just taken care of all the detailed housework before a work day, so there’s never any laundry, grocery shopping or generalized upkeep to do.

Which meant I could work on those chores that actually get me ahead, rather than the treading water stuff like laundry, grocery shopping and generalized upkeep.

I had a great day spiffing up the yard, scrubbing down the bathroom, donating yet more stuff to Goodwill, fixing up our guest bedroom, (the bed had broken and it was as if the rest of the room had simply given up) and catching up on my reading. Because yes, I put “read book” on my to-do list. I really feel like I made forward progress, which makes me happy.

I have a highly social day planned for tomorrow, (two, count ’em two Katy play dates!) and I wanted the house to look nice.

See you tomorrow Non-Consumerinos. Maybe then I’ll have better stuff to write about.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

P.S. The above photo is me holding Ashley English’s Homemade Living: Canning and Preserving Book. It’s totally irrelevant, but Ashley is my friend’s wife, and her book is great!

{ 13 comments }

Theme Week — Spoil My Son Rotten

by Katy on April 25, 2010 · 11 comments

The focus of the past few weeks has rested squarely on the task of readying my son for his trip to Japan, which he is currently enjoying. (One week down, one to go!) Unfortunately, this has left my younger son out of the loop. He’s been a good sport about it, and I wanted to reward him by spoiling him insanely rotten while his brother was away. Which is why the theme of the this time is:

Spoil my younger son rotten!

Not only is he enjoying this immensely, but so am I! It’s fun to cut loose and say yes more often than no.

My son had been begging for a pair of “skinny jeans” for a month or two, and as much as I’d been keeping an eye out at Goodwill, they had proved elusive in his size. So today I told him I would take him to The Mall to buy a pair of skinny jeans. This rarity of errands sent my son into a rapturous fog and we aimed the mini-van towards consumer hell heaven.

But guess what? There’s a Goodwill right next to the mall, and it’s actually a Greatwill. Actually, a Fantasticwill, as we were able to buy three pairs of skinny jeans in his size for $17.50 total. Not cheap, but still cheaper than a single pair of brand new jeans. Plus, I bought my son a brand new looking skateboardy thing for $12.99 that normally sells for $99.99.

We still ventured into the mall so he could see how much we would have paid had we bought new. ($27.99) And yeah, we hit up See’s chocolates for one of their lollipops, which come with a free sample for each of us. Uurp!

After dinner, my son and I walked over to the nearby park for some skateboarding fun, and there are not words to describe the pleasure on my son’s face as he quickly figured out how to maneuver on his new skateboard. It almost made me cry.

Other spoil my son rotten activities so far?

  • Spontaneous stop for donuts.
  • Yummy after soccer brunch with his Dad on Saturday.
  • Rental of a $1 movie with a big bowl of ice cream on a school night.
  • Reading aloud at bedtime, even though it’s already waaay late.
  • Turning a blind eye to a few things I would normally not allow. (Like raiding his brother’s T-shirt drawer while he’s out of the country.)

Alright now, I gotta go. It’s a school night and late, so I think I’ll go read to him a chapter or two.

I am loving this excuse to be the fun mommy, all the time. When is it going to be spoil Katy week?

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 11 comments }

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →