Thursday, January 15, 2009

Adventures in frugality


Retail sales fell twice as much as economists thought they would in December, down 2.7 percent from November, the numbers-crunchers reported yesterday. Compared to December 2007, we consumers spent 9.8 percent less last month.

My guess is that this spending dropoff surprised economists more than the rest of us. With home foreclosures and the unemployment rate climbing, and investment portfolios falling, many of us have revised our shopping lists. We also are revising our shopping methods.

I offer my household as one example. My partner, Harry, and I wanted a carpet runner for our stairs. A few hours in the carpet store pointed to a price tag of $2,000 or so. We figured it was something to think about for a while. As we were thinking, the economy took a tumble down its own set of stairs, inspiring us to be creative with our carpet purchase.

Craigslist came through. We found a brand new carpet runner, purchased years ago but never installed. The owner, who lived five miles away, was moving out, the carpet was still rolled up in the attic, and she just needed to get rid of it. The size, colors, and pattern worked very well for us and the price was less than 10 percent of what we had considered spending last summer. What about installation? We found that on Craigslist, too.

What about you? Any creative shopping (or non-shopping) stories you can share?

4 comments:

shadow Rider said...

A couple of years ago when planning my daughter's wedding, I made a steal on flowers for the wedding party. $60.00 bought me 18pcs. in all, bouquets/boutineres, and corsages off of ebay. They were brand new never used silk arrangements. Calla Lillies, yellow and white just what I wanted. Compare to the fower shop price of $3.oo per stem. I took the 3 bouguets to a friend who spent 30 minutes adding a bit of ribbon and greenery to dress them up. I had thought them rather plain. We ended up with beautiful flowers at a fraction of the cost. I also bought a flower girl dress for $20.00. Worth 10 times that new, I'm sure.

shadow Rider said...

A couple of years ago when planning my daughter's wedding, I made a steal on flowers for the wedding party. $60.00 bought me 18pcs. in all, bouquets/boutineres, and corsages off of ebay. They were brand new never used silk arrangements. Calla Lillies, yellow and white just what I wanted. Compare to the fower shop price of $3.oo per stem. I took the 3 bouguets to a friend who spent 30 minutes adding a bit of ribbon and greenery to dress them up. I had thought them rather plain. We ended up with beautiful flowers at a fraction of the cost. I also bought a flower girl dress for $20.00. Worth 10 times that new, I'm sure

Theresa said...

Good for you, shadow Rider. I wonder if we will see more people finding alternatives to the typical wedding-industry trappings. I know a young couple whose parents were prepared to give them a lavish wedding. Instead, the kids had a very small wedding and spent the lavish wedding budget on a down payment for a condo.

ashescs said...

craigslist is an amazing place for savings - nearly my entire apartment is furnished with craiglist finds. another good find: if you're looking for furniture and live near an ikea, keep an eye on the "as is" section near the checkout area. you can find floor models and returns for a fraction of the already-affordable new prices.

also consider energy savings. depending on where you live, your utility company may provide free or low cost energy audits to determine where you're losing heat and money. new windows are an expensive fix, but spray in insulation is a cost-effective way to save energy.

the easy stuff: share books and music with friends (and build community at the same time!), join netflix (no more going out to movies or watching oodles of commercials on TV), eat in, carpool more often, buy clothes second hand, get rid of your cable subscription, pick up an affordable sport that can add in some social time WHILE making you healthy (soccer, masters swimming, rock climbing, walking/running with neighbors or colleagues)...

i used all of these tricks to make it through grad school on a very limited budget in a very expensive town.