Sense to Save

It pays to ask for a free TV

This is a picture of my free 27″ TV sitting on top of my free TV stand. I acquired both during moves.

I got my TV stand a few years ago while moving from one campus apartment to another. I was taking out some trash and saw it sitting next to the dumpster. It was in great shape and clearly whoever discarded it had no space to take it with them. I hurried to the apartment office, grabbed a dolly and wheeled it inside.

I just got my TV this weekend.

After we packed up my possessions onto our rental truck, we headed over to a furniture store to pick up a couch Shane and I bought last weekend. This was the first new piece of furniture we have ever purchased! We got it for 75 percent off regular price because the side had some minor damage. It’s still functional and comfy as could be.

I have a magazine rack next to it and it covers it pretty well. Anyway, back to the story:

The furniture loading dock is adjacent to the Goodwill donations drop-off point. As we pulled in with our truck-and-car caravan, a woman was about to donate her TV.

I caught a glimpse of it, saw that it was much bigger than my 19″ set, and asked her if I could buy it from her.

“Oh just give it to her,” her husband called out.

The woman said she was ready to give it away anyway, and said I could have it.

And all I had to do was ask. The worst that could have happened? She might say “no.” But you won’t know unless you ask!

P.S. Yes, that is Andy Griffith on TV. Lol! Also, I plan to donate my old TV.

Moving

The grandpas (my dad and Shane’s dad) are coming to Pittsburgh on Friday to help with our move to another apartment. We want to be mostly packed by then, ideally everything except our toothbrushes and a change of clothes for the next day. We’ll actually move on Saturday.

We’ve taken two carloads of donations to Goodwill and have made ten or so trips to the dumpster. Feels good, but we still have lots of stuff to toss in boxes!

It’s going to be a bit busy around here for a few days and I might not be able to post for awhile.

Keeping up with the…cheapskates?

I saw an interesting article in the Washington Post this weekend about the trendiness of being a tightwad and how some folks are almost viewing it as a competitive sport.

Since many people are cutting back on their discretionary spending, they’re finding new ways to entertain themselves. People are staying in more and having game and movie nights instead of spending money. The consumer-driven culture is taking a turn as frugal living becomes acceptable and even idealized idolized.

People, en masse, are spending less on frivolous things. They’re making food from scratch (or at least eating at home more often). They’re socking away more money in the bank than in recent decades. This is great!

And friends and acquaintances are inspiring one another to live on less. Some are taking it a bit to the extreme and treat saving money as a competition.

Well ya know what? It shouldn’t be. If someone pays $40 a week to feed their family and their neighbor harvests bushels of vegetables from their own garden, who wins? They both do!

If one mom buys disposable diapers when they’re on supersale, has a coupon for them and also earns Extra Care Bucks, and another mom diapers her babies in second-hand cloth diapers, who is more frugal? They’re both frugal. They’re making a conscious effort to save money and do what’s best for their individual families.

The frugal community can do well to inspire one another and teach each other new ways to save money. That’s why most of us frugal/pf bloggers blog — we want to share what we know and learn from others. We figure if everyone can save a buck here and there, that’s more money that can be used to build savings, pay off debt, give and live a better life.

We have to be careful that we don’t turn frugal living into a race. That’s not what it’s about.

I think the lovely Meredith said it well in her post here as she poses the question: “Which is more important–what actually fills our shopping carts, or our common commitment to live within budget and belief?”

Have you seen a change in people’s money mentalities?