How I Spent My $6.05

by Katy on February 2, 2010 · 11 comments

I wrote a few days back about how my wallet from 1983 was anonymously mailed to my father’s house. It was a time capsule of my 15 year old self, and contained $6.05 of post-1983 currency, which I wanted to spend on something special. I asked you, the readers for advice on how this money should be spent.

Advice ran the gamut from complete and utter teenage splurges to helping those in need. Here are a few of your suggestions:

  1. “I would go buy some blue mascara and a couple of 99 cent music downloads for, say, Abba or Night Ranger, lol.”
  2. “I would buy something for the family to enjoy that a 15 yo would like. A half gallon of ice cream with hot fudge sauce or butterscotch sauce, jimmies (or sprinkles), real whipped cream, etc. then have an ice cream party in rememberence of your teen years!”
  3. “Send it to Haiti…it might just make some teenage Haitian girl’s day!”
  4. “I think you should go to the thrift store and see what you can find for $6.05 and share with us what you bought.”

I went with suggestion number four and took my cash to one of my favorite Goodwill stores. And you know what I found? Exactly the type of baskets with white fabric liners that I’ve been keeping an eye out for! Exactly. Each was marked at $2.99, so this spent the $6 perfectly. However, I was able to talk the checker down a dollar as one of the liners was slightly stained, (which easily washed out.) This left me with enough money for:

A jumbo sized Snickers bar, which was my favorite treat when I was fifteen. (Luckily I danced for three hours per day plus theater classes!) I haven’t bought the candy yet, but I will savor every bite, and maybe even listen to a little Men at Work.

She just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich!

Thank you to everyone for your great (and humorous) suggestions. I wanted to do something my 42-year-old self really liked, while indulging my 15-year-old alter ego. Although I loved the idea of the blue mascara, I just couldn’t waste my money on something so useless, and as kind hearted as the Haiti idea was, I just gave money to Mercy Corp.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 11 comments }

Waste No Food Challenge — An Update

by Katy on February 1, 2010 · 31 comments

My monthly garbage pickup was today, which meant that yesterday was clean out the fridge day. Yes, I compost and work to minimize my family’s food waste, but there’s always something that slips through the cracks. This month was two tubs half-eaten cottage cheese, some Trader Joe’s hummus, (how did that happen? I love their hummus!) and some food my sister brought down from Seattle and then abandoned in my refrigerator.

But the refrigerator was not the only food storage to receive the food waste warden treatment, as I had a new pretty vintage glass storage jar that was aching to be filled with oatmeal.(Yes, I anthropomorphize storage containers. You got a problem with that?) And in that way where the flutter of a butterfly’s wings enacts change across the world, I completely cleaned and organized my kitchen cupboards today.

I pulled everything from my cupboards, (wiping down that greasy dust down that can only be found in kitchens) and transformed what had degenerated into a hodge-podge of food stuff into a thing of beauty.

Most notable were five containers of empty/almost empty Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa and four ziploc bags half-filled with stale/rancid taco shells. The Hershey’s chocolate I can understand, as I use the recipes for chocolate cake and frosting that’s printed on the box, but the taco shells? Sigh . . . . We can never eat all the tacos shells in the box, so I duly put them into a Ziploc bag like the responsible non-consumer that I am. Then when we’re having tacos two months later, the saved shells are stale and unappealing so I open up a new box and continue the cycle. But I apparently never cull the old ones out.

Luckily, the Hershey’s containers were recyclable and the taco shells were crushed and added to the compost, so no real garbage was created in today’s organizing spree.

The only super gross discovery was a paper bags full of dog biscuits that I had bought for the pup who volunteers for the read to the dogs program at the library. These bone shaped atrocities were swarming with bugs and had the consistency of swiss cheese. Gag, gag, gag.

I also gleaned and organized my medication and tea cupboards. I found Beano that expired in 1998 as well as some very old dinosaur vitamins that I had bought for my then preschoolers that had been deemed “yucky.” Since they had expired in 2003, I poured them into a baggie to take to the pharmacy for responsible disposal.

My kitchen cupboards are now so beautiful that I kept the doors open for most of the day, and actually considered having my tea while seated in front of them. (I don’t have cable TV, so my entertainment needs are simple.)

I now feel like I have a clean slate in the food waste department, and that warden lady can chill out for another month or so.

How are you doing with your food waste? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 31 comments }

Non-Consumer Mish-Mash

by Katy on February 1, 2010 · 30 comments

It’s time again for Non-Consumer Mish-Mash, where I write a little bit about this and a little bit about that.

Simple Living Network Newsletter

I’ve had a number of columns reprinted in the Simple Living Network Newsletter, which has been great, because their readership is my target audience. The January-February online issue is currently running my column titled, “Green Purchasing — What is Best?” I highly recommend this newsletter which always has a number of interesting and thought provoking pieces. Be sure to check it out!

My Achilles Heel

I am normally quite immune to the advertising circulars that weigh down my Sunday newspaper.

Target? Pass. Kmart? Don’t even think about it!

But today’s paper included a glossy ad for Tuesday Morning, which is a store I had never given a thought towards in the past. But today’s ad caught my eye and pulled me in. The products that were making my heart go pitter-pat were coordinating fabric lined basket in pretty black and white toile patterns.

Like a fashionable girl who thinks that the right pair of boots will solve all of life’s problems, I think that the right organizing system will raise me to the level of those Stepford wives whose homes are always tidy, organized and whose children get along at all times and wolf down their broccoli. This line of thinking is called a “slippery slope” according to the Logic class I took in college, but that doesn’t mean I can’t subscribe to it now.

Of course, I did not go buy a cartload of organizing baskets today, but I did have a hard time recycling that one circular. It was so pretty, and I know there were no children in the ad, but if there had been, their baskets would have been full of broccoli.

Frugality Run Amuck

Inspired by the father of In Cheap We Trust’s Lauren Weber’s habit of reusing his tea bags 10 or 11 times, I decided that if he could be using his tea bags so many times, surely I could reuse mine at least once!

I tried this for a few days, and had a number of cups of tea where I momentarily forgot my experiment, and was baffled as to why my tea tasted like crap.

“What the #@** is wrong with my tea?!”

I came to the conclusion that I love my tea, was very particular about my tea, and tea was very important to me. Tea is a huge part of my daily routines and that while I make many frugal sacrifices, reusing tea bags was not going to be one of them.

Simple living and frugality are about saving money on the things that don’t matter so that it’s available for the things that do. And tea? It matters!

Compost Critter

I was innocently going about my chores this afternoon, and had taken a container of food scraps to the compost bin on the side of the house and got a startling surprise when a small mouse came to the surface of the bin. It’s not that I’m scared of mice, but it wasn’t what I was expecting to see and made a noise that was far from the “Eek!” of 1950’s cartoons. (Picture Linda Blair in The Exorcist.)

The mouse itself was brown with big black eyes and looked quite content. I quickly replaced the lid and skedaddled back into the house. A quick Google search brought up issues of pathogens in mouse dung, so I will have to deal with this. Hopefully by turning it more often (making it less inhospitable) and nothing much more extreme. I have been composting for 12 years, and this was a first.

Any ideas?

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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


{ 30 comments }

Procrastination — A.K.A. How 42 is the New 10

by Katy on January 31, 2010 · 17 comments

I have a confession to make — I am a terrible procrastinator. When I visited my sister in Seattle last year and discovered the “Photo Booth” function on her computer, I remember saying to myself, “Boy, I’m sure glad I don’t have this function on my computer, or I’d never get anything done.”

Well, my husband bought a webcam for our computer and guess what popped up? Yup, it’s Photo booth, in its full glory.

So I may not have written a column today, so instead I present to you:

and

and

I may be 42 years old, but I often act my shoe size, which is ten. Simple living? I say silly living!

Gotta work on that procrastination thing.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 17 comments }

Kindle vs. Books — The New Literary Battle

by Katy on January 29, 2010 · 56 comments

 

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

I wrote yesterday about books that support The Non-Consumer Advocate lifestyle. I received this question from “Daniel.”

What is your opinion on the Kindle device? It does save quite a lot of paper and allows for less expensive distribution of books. Just wondering what your take was on this.

Since I do The Compact, (buy nothing new) I’d never even given one minute’s thought to Amazon’s revolutionary wireless reading device. 

My first impulse is to outright dismiss The Kindle. I’m a bit of a techno-phobe, and have repeatedly turned down my husband’s offer to buy me an iPod. 

“No thank you, dear. I’m perfectly happy listening to audio books on my Discman.” 

Or, maybe something far less polite.

So I clicked my way to the Amazon website, where the Kindle is featured prominently on the home page. The cost is $359, with free super-saver shipping. Hmm . . . that’s a lot of moolah, folks.

I read through the description and user-reviews. Once you buy the Kindle, there’s nothing further to subscribe to. You can instantly buy most any book you want for about $9.99. (That is kind of cool.) It holds around 200 books at a time, and you canstore books you don’t currently need on the Amazon site. The battery sounds like it holds up well and re-charges quickly. It weighs less than a regular paperback, yet holds 200 books?

I can see why people are going nutso for this Kindle thingy. 

Wait a minute?! What’s going to happen to all these Kindles in two years when Amazon comes out with a newer, shinier, improved version? (Titanium for him, pink for her.)

Electronic waste is a huge problem in today’s world. Wired magazine had this to say:

“The refuse from discarded electronics products, also known as e-waste, often ends up in landfills or incinerators instead of being recycled. And that means toxic substances like lead, cadmium and mercury that are commonly used in these products can contaminate the land, water and air.”

The Kindle takes a recyclable and virtually indestructible product – a book — and replaces it with a fragile, toxic device that will be obsolesced in a few years. Drop a book and it can get bent pages. Drop a Kindle and you’ve just made a nasty piece of electronic garbage.

But are books perfect?

Not really. Publishers print too many books, many of which then get destroyed. (Recycled? I don’t know.) Few books are currently published on recycled paper, and the inks are usually far from natural. The last Harry Potter book was  printed on recycled paper in the U.K. and Canada, but only partially so here in the U.S. 

And yes, they do have to be distributed to the bookstores.

What’s my verdict on the Kindle?

Thumbs down.

I do see how the Kindle would be a great addition on a long vacation, or a trip to the Mir space station. But for most of us, reading an actual paper book is no burden.

I see each purchase I make as a validation of consumer ethics.

What am I supporting with this purchase?

Am I telling the manufacturers to be responsible?

For now, I’ll continue with my juicy stack of old-fashioned library books, knowing there are no damaging components to poison the land.

Besides, my fancy living room shelves would look pretty stupid filled with electronics. 

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

For information on electronics recycling in your area, click here.

Do you have a Kindle? Let me know how you like it, in the comments section below.

{ 56 comments }

The Mysterious Adventures a 26-Year-Old Wallet

by Katy on January 28, 2010 · 39 comments

Like bumper stickers on the back of a car, one can usually tell a fair amount about a person by the possessions they choose to carry around.  High heeled shoes and a tall venti latté, or Birkenstocks and a mason jar of yerba maté? Whether we like to admit it or not, we are at least somewhat defined by our possessions.

I recently had a time capsule of my fifteen-year-old self enter back into my life in the form of a lost wallet. This 26-year-old relic arrived at my father’s house on Christmas Eve and was handed to me as a gift.

The wallet included an anonymous letter, written in a handwriting not usually found with those under the age of seventy, which read:

Dear Mr. Wolk:

I believe this wallet belongs to your daughter Katherine Wolk-Stanley — I found it on the Burnside Bridge many, many years ago. I recently found it in a drawer that I was cleaning — I had always meant to return it but had neglected to send it to you. I apologize to your daughter. Please see that she receives this —

Thank you

I have no memory whatsoever of losing my wallet in 1983, and I especially don’t remember having one stolen, but the evidence outweighs my shoddy memory.

But one thing is clear, 15-year-old Katy is a lot different than 42-year-old Katy.

Let’s start with the wallet itself, which is made from a traditional Guatemalan huipil. The signature, nee stereotypical wallet of hippies worldwide. This is not a wallet I would carry anymore, and I’m surprised I had one to begin with.

The wallet contained:

  • One tenth grade student ID
  • Two house keys, one of which was bent by the psychic Uri Geller, but still continues to function.
  • A magazine photo of a girl looking off in the distance and superimposed with her grinning wildly at the camera. Was this some kind of inspiration to me in 1983?!
  • A school picture of my sister’s friend Amanda.
  • Two fortunes from Chinese fortune cookies. They read:
  • “You will do to expand your business”
  • “Genius does what it must, and talent does what it can.”
  • A slip of paper that reads, “Deposito por Envases, ¢1200 Montelimar.” (I spent the summer of 1983 in Costa Rica on an exchange program.)
  • A note on 3 X 5 card that reads, “Please excuse Katy Wolk-Stanley for missing school on Friday — she was with her sister who had just graduated from High School — Tony Wolk.”
  • A calling card from “Elaine Lustig G.”
  • My mother’s business card from the Oregon Journal as an “Entertainment Writer.”
  • Two youth membership cards from The Jewish Community Center.
  • A receipt from the “Banco Nacional de Costa Rica.”
  • Two receipts for traveler’s checks.
  • Two bus passes for March and May of 1983. (What, no April?)
  • A credit union withdrawal voucher for $30.
  • A Multnomah County Library card with an expiration date of September 7, 1977.
  • One Canadian 1979 quarter  and a 1995 nickel.
  • A 2003 five dollar bill and a 2006 one dollar bill.

This wallet was a criminal’s dream. Not only did it contain my father’s address, but it also held still-working keys to his house. It also had the number of a credit union account that I used up until a few years ago.

I don’t believe for a minute that this wallet was “found on the Burnside Bridge” and then put aside for 26 years. My theory is that someone either stole it and is now making amends, (hence the post 1983 cash) or that someone found a stash of wallets from a son or grandson and is trying to reunite them with their original owners.

Despite the creepiness of having a wallet anonymously mailed to me, I actually like the snapshot of my 15-year-old self. A girl who traveled, exchanged currency, visited the J.C.C. and still got her dad to write excuses for school absences. (Although I apparently didn’t turn them in!) I even enjoy the bizarrely flat affect of my school I.D. and especially am enjoying reuniting with my childhood library card.

My 42-year-old lady wallet is much more serious, filled with work related licenses, a debit card, credit cards, gift cards and such. It may not have been an official time capsule, but it’s awakening the fifteen-year-old-girl inside of me.

Okay readers, here’s a task for you. I want you to decide how I should spend this $6.05 windfall. Should I tuck it away in savings, use it for debt reduction or spend it on something fun and frivolous? Please share your suggestions in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 39 comments }

Winner of “Thrift: A Cyclopedia” Plus Money Saving Tips!

by Katy on January 28, 2010 · 5 comments

Congratulations to Brenda, whose money saving tip was randomly chosen to win a copy of  Thrift: A Cyclopedia. A big shout out as well to Barb Dawson and Beth who both won “Bring Back Thrift Week” T-shirts. (A random number generator was used to choose the winners.)

The thrifty tips that readers submitted were incredible!  Here are a selected few, (although I would recommend that you look at the entire fantastic list.)

From Kareness:

My favorite fun and thrifty tip is my annual post-holiday regifting party. Each year in January, I invite people over who bring a gift they’ve received during the past year (or something they bought that didn’t work for them) and we have a little “greed” style exchange. The last person to the event picks first, and they unwrap a gift. The next person can either “steal” the first gift or open a new one. As the exchange goes on, people become more bold, “stealing” and trading to get the item they really like.

The party is great because it eliminates the guilt of keeping something you don’t need/want – when you know something is going to someone who will use it, you feel better about giving it up. The gifts really do get recycled which is good for the planet. And those attending all leave with something more useful to them than what they came in the door with.

Plus, it’s a good excuse for a fun potluck party with friends!

From Carorole:

I slit the bottom of the vacuum cleaner bags with a razor blade , remove the contents and seal it up again with gorilla tape, only once per bag, but I get double the use. Also, as the bag is full predominately with dog hair, I place the hair around my plants that are susceptible to deer predation. Works really well!

From Robyn J:

Prior to joing The Compact I was an avid shopper! I love clothing and creating fun, funky unique styels. Since November, I’ve had to get more creating since I am no longer buying new items soooooo I’ve used my creativity to craft new looks with all the pieces that I already own! I browse adds and various catalogues that come to my house and before I pop them into the recycle bin I take a look and see what I have in my closet that could be paired with another item that is similar to the “look”. I find I am using different color combinations and enjoying making my own “retro hip” versions. Scarves are my latests fun fashion trend………and I’ve found some great ones at thrift stores. I am also learning to knit so if there’s something really cool I see somewhere, I take a picture or take a note and then see what I can do make it! I feel that embracing thrift is allowing my creativity to thrive!

From Elisa:

I carry reusable water bottles everywhere I go to avoid paying for bottled water and adding plastic to the landfill.

From Namaste Mama:

Our latest thrift adventure is homemade yogurt. First we stopped buying it in little tubs and tubes. Then it was just big tubs. Now I don’t have to worry about recycling or reusing all that plastic too. We also have a garden and make our own tomato sauce. The first year we made it, we figured it to be less than a dollar a quart. That year we bought some jars and herbs. Now we just own and grow. So it would be even cheaper. You can’t even buy crappy Ragu for that and I grow organic heirloom tomatoes ! Can’t wait for August!

From Leatrice:

I am in charge of the coffee bar at our church. Since I had literally NO budget, I called all the local Starbucks & coffee houses around and asked if they would be willing to donate coffee. They were more than willing to help out.
Then, I called the local bakeries around town & asked if they would be willing to donate their day old baked goods from Saturday (they are all closed on Sunday) to our coffee bar. Since our membership is primarily the homeless & disadvantaged, this is sometimes the only meal they get.
In addition, I save all the coffee grounds from the coffee bar and use them in my garden. Talk about some colorful hydrangeas!

From Bonnie:

My favorite way to save money: We live in a townhouse and are forbidden from having an outdoor clothesline. I found a metal garment rack and we place our freshly washed clothes on hangers and hang them on the rack to dry. It not only saves electricity, but also adds humidity back in the air during winter.

From Jennifer:

I signed up to pay all utility bills via automatic debit thru our bank’s website. Not only do we avoid a monthly service fee by doing so, but by participating in their free “rewards” program we build “points” each month. I use these points to “buy” gift cards as gifts to family members who just aren’t onboard with either regifting or thrift shop finds!! Money we would have spent anyways for the utilities is now earning us gifts for those “hard to buy for’s”!!

From Stephanie:

My homeowners insurance policy arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. I just phoned my agent and she reviewed the policy with me and was able to reduce the premium by $41. All it took was a 5-minute phone call!

From TraciFree:

We are all about sharing resources in the community. Our group of friends ( a dozen couples) group own a community pick up trick, cement mixer, seed spreader…you get the idea.
We get all our media (movies, books, games) from the library. Recently went through all our bills and were able to shave off over $100 a month making small changes to our services. Joined a food co-op to save money on groceries. Use cloth napkins…..
Still trying to get my husband to give up paper towels. It’s not going so well.

Thank you to everyone who shared their frugal tips. I will be holding another book giveaway in a few weeks.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

I received no compensation for this column.

{ 5 comments }

The “No Heat Challenge” Over at Wisebread today

by Katy on January 27, 2010 · 2 comments

Click here to read a Wisebread piece by ChildWild.com‘s Sierra Black about the No Heat Challenge.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 2 comments }

The Non-Consumer Advocate Takes the “Culture” out of “Horticulture”

by Katy on January 26, 2010 · 18 comments

My garden in summer

Today I tricked myself into doing a ton of yard work. Yes, “tricked,” because if I had known going into it that it would be working three long hours, there’s no way I would have even started. The front of the house has a couple of big flower beds with got-them-for-free perennials such as Japanese iris, witch’s wort, bishop’s weed, lobelia, lady’s mantle, day lilies, sedum and other flowers that transform from colorful beauties to grey-green slime come January. (Okay, it was earlier than January, but that’s irrelevant.) Every time I walk past this crime against Martha Stewart I think to myself, “Oh crap, I gotta deal with that.” Which is a very bad mindset to carry into the house.

Hardly a horticultural accomlishment.

And today I had nothing I really had to do. It wasn’t raining, the yard debrid bin had just been picked up and I hadn’t showered yet. (Filthy jobs like this require pre-shower status.) So I strapped on my audio book, gardening gloves and got busy.

In all it took around three hours to snip away at all the horticultural detritus, spread compost and prune some raspberries and my thicket of hydrangeas. And I only got through around half of the hydrangeas, as the yard debris bin wouldn’t accept even one more leaf.

I felt very proud have accomplished all this landscapery, as the front of the house no longer looked awful and I knew I was off the hook for another two weeks, (when the yard debris gets picked up) and indulged in a hot cleansing shower.

My only question was this — How did I get so much compost down the back of my shirt? And more importantly, does this happen to Martha?

Are you starting to get excited about the upcoming gardening season? Please share your horticultural stories in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

{ 18 comments }

Win a Copy of “Thrift: A Cyclopedia,” and Maybe Even a T-Shirt!

by Katy on January 25, 2010 · 85 comments

This giveaway has ended. Thank you to everyone who entered your thrifty tips!

Although Thrift Week is over, thrift at my house lingers longer than a house guest with a hide-a-bed fetish.

To recognize the 365 days that encompass my thrift week, I have another giveaway for Non-Consumer Advocate readers.

Today’s giveaway is for a copy of Thrift: A Cyclopedia, by David Blankenhorn, (Templeton Foundation Press.)

“In David Blankenhorn’s new compendium, Thrift: A Cyclopedia, he reminds readers of a time when thrift was one of America’s most cherished cultural values. Gathering hundreds of quotes, sayings, proverbs, and photographs of Blankenhorn’s vast personal collection of thrift memorabilia, this handsome book is a treasure trove of wisdom from around the world and throughout the ages.”

To enter to win this book, please share your favorite thrifty tip in the comments section below.

I will randomly pick a winner on Wednesday, January 27th at midnight Pacific time zone. One entry person, and this contest is open to U.S. residents only.

As a special treat, two runners up will receive “Bring Back Thrift Week” T-shirts in size large.

Good luck!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

I have received no compensation in exchange for this giveaway.

{ 85 comments }

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