Practical Application: Networking and Resale Shops

Resale shops can be hit or miss. Upscale resale shops can be fairly predictable - they always have something good in stock - but their prices are only slightly below retail. Truly great bargains can be found at lower-end shops (and yard sales), but you have to be willing to check them often for fresh merchandise. Here is a better strategy: network your resale shopping.

Here's an example of how this worked to my advantage this week. My friend has mostly grown children and one granddaughter. While shopping resale, she found an unopened Pixar Cars themed birthday party pack for $2! She knew it was a great buy, and immediately thought of me and my soon-to-be three year old son. She gave my cell phone a call, and it was convenient for me to swing by that shop while I was out running errands that day.

By networking, I was able to find a great buy thanks to my pal. When I return her the favor, she'll be very excited.

Extra Credit: Importance of Consistent Generosity

Just a quick note on consistency. Our church experiences a summer lull in giving during the months of June and July. I don't know if the reason is a lack of planning and what would normally be given is siphoned into the family vacation fund OR if it is because we tend to miss more Sundays in the summer due to weekend trips here and there and tend to get out of the routine of giving.

I do know this. Giving is a conscious decision, and it must be done consistently. Giving has to be a stable part of your monthly budget. The words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew ch 6 and Luke ch 12 tell us the following:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What you do with your treasure ALWAYS reflects where your heart is. Continue to bless your church and other charities with your heart through the summer months.

DISCLAIMER: No soul is saved through giving, living a clean life, or being a good person. We are only saved by faith in Jesus Christ. No amount of works can earn salvation. We give to charity as a sign of obedience. No matter if you can afford to give $5 or $500 a month, your offering reflects a giving heart.

Practical Application: Saving Money While Shopping

The way I see it, the cheapest place to shop is in your own house. Learn to appreciate what you have, reorganize your stuff to to be more usable, and re-purpose old stuff to be useful. It also helps to get rid of things you don't use so they don't clutter your home and your brain.

That being said, the next cheapest way to save money while shopping is to trade with friends. Once we traded a full-size bed with mattress for a queen-size bed with mattress. We wanted a bigger bed, and our friends wanted more space in their guest bedroom. We also gave them an extra twin mattress that we did not need but they needed for a trundle bed. I would have never bought a used mattress from a stranger, but we knew our friends and their account of the mattress' history. That was good enough for us.

Along with trading, you can also borrow from friends. With our second baby on the way, we have arranged to borrow a friend's glider and ottoman for the baby room. In our experience, a lot of newborn baby equipment is only useful for a few months (infant bathtubs, for example) and can be borrowed short-term or purchased second-hand from the original owner.

If you just can't get what you want for free, another great place to shop is resale shops. Kids look great in everything, and at a young age they usually outgrow clothes before they ruin them. I love shopping at The Children's Orchard in Springfield. Their store is clean and organized and offer low prices. Bonus: if you know someone getting rid of all their baby stuff because they are done having kids, here's an idea. After you've combed through their stash for stuff you can use (of course), offer to take their stuff to a children's resale shop for in-store credit. Resale always offers more in-store credit than straight cash, so offer to buy your friend's in-store credit at a discount. For example, buy her $70 in-store credit for $60. You save $10 and she makes $10 to $20 more than she would requesting cash from the store. Lots of resale shops have semi-annual dumping sales where they get rid of all their back stock of clothes by holding frenzied events like fill-a-bag for $5. If you attend, leave the kids at home and wearing comfy clothing!

Garage sales and Craig's List can also be great sources for cheap treasures if you know where to look and how much something is worth. You can definitely pay too much, so just know what you're doing there. We had our eye on a Sit and Stand stroller, which I knew retailed for $130 new. I was determined to get that particular style of stroller. I found an older model in perfect condition for $60 on Craig's List. The way I see it, I just made $70.

Finally, when you shop retail, be smart and shop during holiday sales and hit the outlet mall. Also, if you're a credit card user (we use our card for gas and groceries and pay the balance every month), you can find a card that gives you useful rewards. Our credit card gives us gift cards for Old Navy / Gap instead of airline miles. We average earning $20 a month in gift cards!

Practical Application: Moisturizers and Lotions

I recently learned a little fact about lotions and moisturizers that might save some money. I'm talking about the stuff you put on your body, hands, and face.

Lotions and moisturizers do not moisturize your skin all by themselves. They actually just lock in the moisture from recently wet (now slightly damp) skin. So, applying lotions to dry skin doesn't do a lot of good - in fact, it might dry your skin further if it contains alcohol. The best time to apply a moisturizer is just after washing your skin - following a bath or shower and after washing your face or hands.

And, while we're on the subject of lotion, take time today to sort through that drawer or basket of old lotion in your bathroom and recycle the old, mostly empty bottles!

Practical Application: Vacuum Cleaner Filter

If you think you need to buy a new vacuum cleaner, you might be mistaken. I have recently seen the light.

My vacuum was getting so pitiful that Asher was actually picking up Goldfish Crackers by hand and feeding them into the accessory hose because my machine didn't have enough power to pick them up. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that (A) although my bag-less vacuum doesn't need vacuum bags, it does use a filter, and (B) not changing the filter for seven years might affect the vacuum's performance.

With a toddler in the house, vacuuming is a daily necessity. I was getting very fed up with the lack of suction power from my vacuum - to the point that I found myself daydreaming about a new vacuum at Wal-Mart and online, starting at around $100 and going up to $1,000.

When the realization hit me that I should at least TRY to give my old vacuum a tuneup, I started looking at filters. All I had to do was go to the Eureka web site and type in my machine's model number. From there I got the part number for a replacement filter and then went online to find the best price (eventually at vacuumsinc.com). For $20 including shipping, I now have a new filter and a very powerful vacuum. Thank goodness I didn't shell out $100-plus for a new vacuum before I tried the new filter!

Practical Application: Libraries and Library Book Sales

Although reading can be one of the least expensive methods of entertainment (vs. movie tickets, vacations, etc.), the price of that entertainment can vary greatly depending on where and whether you buy your books. Large book-selling chains like Borders and Barnes and Noble create a great atmosphere for bookworms like myself - who can resist those comfy chairs and mocha lattes? However, purchasing books from a first-run bookstore on a regular basis can get expensive. The occasional Harry Potter midnight release party with corresponding $25 book purchase is exciting, but what's more exciting is getting the SAME BOOK for a much smaller price - like FREE!

You see, there is this thing called a li-brar-y. I know, I know. If you're a kid that grew up in a rural town like me, you have preconceived ideas about what a library is like. Your county library was about the size of most people's bathrooms nowadays. It contained exactly 5 Dr. Seuss hardbacks, three Stephen King paperbacks, and a whole slue of encyclopedias from pre-1950. The checkout time was three days, and the library shared a building with the smelly county courthouse. Barf.

Libraries are different now! If you haven't been to a library in the past 10 years, you owe it to yourself to see just how much they've changed. Some county libraries have much better funding thanks to literacy programs. In fact, you are paying for your county library with your property tax each year. If you're not using your county library, you are just giving that money away. Some communities even have private libraries. The funding there can be all over the chart.

Libraries contain more than traditional books. Not everyone has time to sit with a book in hand, but most people can make time for audio books, music, movies, and computer games. All of these are available at your library - our library even lets you download audio books from home straight to an mp3 player!

Most libraries offer programs beyond children's storytime. Many offer movie-showings with free popcorn, host book clubs for all ages, and hold seminars on learning computer basics and even genealogy research and writers support groups.

Library locations are getting smarter. Instead of the institutional settings like the county courthouse or some weird brick building with fewer than five good parking spots, many libraries now share a building with a coffee house or cafe. Many libraries offer quiet study rooms and a sectioned-off children's area were two-year-olds can run and scream a bit without the traditional "shhh!"

You can even find better service at today's libraries. In the computer age, card catalogs are now totally online, which means you can look for books from the comfort of home. Our library let's you put them "on hold" and will email when they are ready to pickup in the drive-through window. That's right! We have a drive-through pickup window, not to mention drive-through book returns all over town.

Additionally, many of the "library pages" (as they are called in our town) are teenagers with jobs. Nothing sounds better to me than a teenager learning the value of money with their own job at the library.

And, if all that isn't enough to lure you in to your local library, consider attending the library book sale. I know some people out there are book buyers, and the thought of borrowing a book with a return deadline can be stressful. Yesterday I attended our library's semi-annual book sale. I bought 20 children's books (mostly board books) for $10. For those of you who don't know, one child's board book at even a discount store like Wal-Mart will cost at least $5, and probably more like $10. A few of them had some small Crayon markings, but they fit right in with my son's collection of once-new but now semi-damaged books.

I can think of a dozen more reasons for you to visit your library, but what I'd really like is for you to go discover them yourself. Today!

Practical Application: Where and when to buy pre-packaged foods

I'm BACK! Whew! Pregnancy can really dampen your energy level. Now that I'm coasting through the second trimester, I have a little more waking moments in my day to blog.

Pre-packaged foods are always more expensive than preparing food yourself. The reason this is true is because you pay a premium for the package itself as well as the preparation process. Technically, the only time you come out ahead on buying packaged foods is if the ingredients only come in large quantities but you only plan to eat the food item once - maybe because you're taste testing, or perhaps you're trying to build your own recipe.

I am a big believer in learning to do the food prep yourself. I think it's important to know the ingredients you are consuming (packaged food are bad about sneaking in hydroginated oils and HFCS - high fructose corn syrup) and to have the basic knowledge of how to do things yourself. As an adult, I look back on the home-ec classes I never took and think "What a shame!"

All that being said, packaged foods have a place in today's busy lifestyle. There's no reason to feel bad about the occasional packaged food lunch or dinner so long as it's not a lifestyle that is continually ruining your budget or health. I want to point out in this post that some packaged foods can be tasty, economical, and healthy if you know where to get them.

Look at the deli / bakery section of your favorite grocery store (even Wal-Mart). Yesterday while grocery shopping around 10:30am, I realized that I was very hungry and it was likely that the McDonald's in the Wal-Mart parking lot was going to call my name (as well as my two-year-old son's name!). That's when I spotted a packed lunch portion of a turkey and provolone wrap for $2.50 in the deli section. By the time we got all the groceries loaded in the car, it was 11:30am and if I hadn't already purchased that wrap for $2.50, we would have ended up spending at least $6 in the McDonald's drive through.

I know sometimes the drive through convenience itself is worth the extra $3.50 - especially when kids and car seats are involved. But, if you're a habitual fast foody on your lunch break at work, consider buying a few packaged lunches from the grocery store deli and brown bagging that a few days a week to supplement on the days when there are no leftovers (or they just look gross) or you need a little something special in your lunchbox. By the same token, on days when you have a marathon grocery experience and you're tugging a kid along, treat yourself to a turkey provolone wrap and hold the Quarter Pounder with Cheese.