Thriftstore Find: A Cat Cam

I've recounted my thrift store finds in many previous entries, but haven't focused on many of Keith's. Shopping there or in flea markets and antique shops requires a sort of scanning of the eye...and when we shop together, looking over the same merchandise, Keith will notice things I do not and vice versa.

In March, Keith found a pet camera in a Tulsa Thrift Store. We paid a little more for the gadget than I would have liked, not being certain it would work. I charged the thing up on my computer, we set the interval on it and mounted it on our black cat.

Below are a few of the results:

Lounging in the weeds!


Under our pickup!


Chair on our deck

Our next experiment with the cam will be inside our brooding cage. Remember the 3 quail I wrote about months ago? We have 80 eggs in the incubator and may have as many chicks by the morning of my birthday!

Cucumber Ade

Keith and I have learned that late on Sunday afternoons is the BEST time to shop our local farmer's market for produce. The trick is to arrive about the time the vendors are packing up and all sorts of bargains can be had. This Sunday, we walked away with 8 cucumbers for $2, a $4 watermelon, pounds of bananas for $1, a quart of blueberries for $1, onions, mushrooms, cherries for $2/lb., among items I know I've forgotten to list.

On one of our thrift store forays, Keith found an ancient juicer. While fresh, frothy pineapple juice remains my favorite, cucumber ade is my drink of the summer. Juice the cucumbers, peel and all, with the juice of fresh limes and/or lemons, then add seltzer water to taste. Refreshing and low-calories.

What's Your Poison?

The hours of the two week break between spring and summer semesters are numbered...I have just turned on all three of my summer online courses. For four years now, I have taught entirely online, saving the two hour drive time and the four gallons of gas it cost me to commute daily from Paola to Lee's Summit and back.

Long time readers will know that last year I tracked our gas expenditures. In May, 2008, that figure topped $800! And we cut back on our free-wheeling ways. Then in August and September, I began to track our beer expenditures and decided that needed some trimming since we spent more on beer than on gasoline for several months running. We experimented with kegs and finally settled on Budweiser in aluminum cans purchased on the Missouri side of the state line.

In March, I was shocked to realize that our cigarette expenditure was higher than gasoline or beer. That was when a federally approved tax caused the price of a carton of cigarettes to jump over $10 a carton. Keith's premium Benson & Hedges menthols cost $51, a week's supply. My Winston 100's were $30 or so. I just about cried the first time I realized we were spending over $90 a week on cigarettes! I tried to make light of how patriotic smoking was--since we were voluntarily paying this tax.

During my years in Montana, I could purchase tax-free cigarettes on the reservation. I went online and explored the possibility of purchasing our smokes that way now. After an hour or so, I realized that there were several pending law suits challenging the legality of such purchases...

I signed up for coupons, giving more information than I really wanted the tobacco companies to have. Finally, my brand loyalty began to waver. We have been exploring several different "off" brands, available at discount smoke shops. We have tried WildHorse ($27 per carton), Echos ($20-22 per carton) and today, we purchased Nova brand cigarettes made in India for $17 per carton.

I don't expect much sympathy for my habit from any of my readers, but we are amazed that we can almost purchase a month's worth of smokes for what we once spent on a week's supply.

Check out the title link.

Scavenging: Dandelions

I was at a graduation dinner imbibing a salad of greens and berries, when the subject of scavenging came up. One diner at my table works as a surveyor and described spots he's worked where he had to hack his way through wild blackberry thickets.

Another diner described a meal at the American Restaurant, Kansas City's finest (?). He took his wife and her married twin there to celebrate their birthday one year. He said it was the one dining experience he'd ever had where he felt "out of his league." The twin's husband had done yard work all day and stared aghast at the swanky salad brought to him--a plate of dandelion greens!!!

A third diner, our freshman history professor, told us that dandelions are not native to North America and were in fact brought here by immigrants to supply themselves with fresh greens. They ate the petals, the leaves, and the roots.

Years ago, when my children were small, we made dandelion wine with a bottle and a balloon. More recently, I have eaten dandelion greens from my mother's lawn at the Lake of the Ozarks. Pick, wash, pat dry, and serve up with a hot vinaigrette. Crumbled bacon adds a nice touch.

Not recommended for dandelions in most suburban yards!

Bank Closing

Keith and I were headed out of town Saturday morning to a bird show, when I noticed the name of a local bank had changed overnight. TeamBank was now the Great Southern Bank...we had places to go and things to do, so I didn't worry about it much.

This is the bank that gave up the construction loan for the EXTENSIVE update and remodel on our "funeral home." We have kept two accounts active there for most of our married life. But last spring, there were rumblings of trouble...and just to be on the safe side, we opened an alternative checking account, so that we wouldn't be caught without resources if the bank had to close it's doors.

My sixth sense, which Jason doesn't believe in, panned out this week. Stories on Huffington Post, in the Kansas City Star, and the local Miami County Republic report that this is the 20th bank in the nation, and the FIRST in Kansas to close.

We still have a nominal amount of money in this bank, but when we used the debit card for it today, it worked. Things may get more complicated if we try to write a check on the old forms.

TeamBank operated 17 locations with nine facilities in the Kansas City metropolitan area, three facilities in southeast Kansas, two locations in Missouri, and three in metropolitan Omaha, Neb. Great Southern will be assuming approximately $474 million of the deposits of TeamBank at a premium of 1%. Additionally, Great Southern is purchasing approximately $443 million in loans and $7 million of other real estate owned (ORE) at a discount of $100 million. The loans and ORE purchased are covered by a loss share agreement between the FDIC and Great Southern which affords Great Southern significant protection. Under such agreement, the FDIC has agreed to cover 80% of the losses on the disposition of the loans and ORE up to $115 million, and 95% of losses that exceed that amount. In addition, Great Southern will also be purchasing cash and other marketable securities of TeamBank. Great Southern did not assume brokered deposits, the trust department or the subsidiary, TeamBank N.A. Asset Corporation.

In other news, we have hatched out five of the tiniest quail checks and have spent all day watching them emerge from their shells. It is HIGH drama.

Tax Funk

I've been on Spring Break. One of my first tasks was to get all of our bookkeeping in order to make the annual trek to the tax preparer. Keith has collected unemployment for over a year, without any withholding, so the nice fat check I had been dreaming of in April or May is spent. AAAArgh! One discovery I made though is that I should change the exemptions on my W-2 from 4 (my kids, all grown now) to 1.

We did take time for a whirlwind road trip south to Tulsa, where we visited my daughter Priscilla & her household of 4. She and her significant other share a condominium with two other roommates and two large dogs. It calms my mother's worry that the 4 of them are sharing the challenges of making do in this economy. I took my Tightwad Gazette along and reluctantly left it behind. Priscilla tried to check the book out of her local library and fond that there were three holds on the book! While I thought I might find another $8 copy, used, at Amazon--I was wrong. The least expensive used copy sells for $14.

Priscilla and I checked out the Tulsa area thrift stores. The Goodwill Stores in that city are downright swanky. Everything is divided by size and color. I didn't buy much (I still haven't worn everything I bought on our Christmas junket), but I splurged $2 on a thigh master of all things. It proved to be great entertainment that evening and everyone complained ;) of trembling thighs the following morning.

In the meantime, I've continued to explore many of the ideas in that book. During the first week of March, I took Keith to the grocery store with me for a 3-day meat sale. Since Keith is the primary meat-eater in the household, we stocked up on enough inexpensive meat to keep us supplied for several months. One item was a HUGE pork loin, which we cut down to week-sized roasts and re-wrapped in our own kitchen. This is a tightwad idea.

The same week I stocked up on Progresso soups, a brand we NEVER normally eat because of it's price. I had $1, $2, and $3.00 coupons I had found online. Combined with the sale price, it was more akin to a can of Campbells.

Monthly, we have made trips to Dirty Don's, a liquidator of unclaimed freight, located in Raytown, Missouri. We never know for certain what we might find there, but it's generally good for cheap chips (another habit of Keith's). We've been buying 3 sacks for $1. I'm the cookie monster in our household and they were selling Archway cookies for $.50 a package. I can't make them for that. We also stocked up on dried beans--the price of these has doubled in grocery stores this past year, just when people are more inclined to eat them. I have probably stockpiled 15 pounds of beans now. In addition, we bought a large bag of cheese, which the Tightwad Gazette claims can be frozen. We'll see.

Also, monthly, we've been making trips to the City Market. I have long heard about people dumpster-diving behind grocery stores, but this time I saw an Asian woman going through discarded produce in broad daylight and no one was troubling her about it. We have not succumbed to this practice, but we found strawberries for $1 a quart, lemons, bananas, and a large sack of potatoes for HALF what a person pays in the grocery store.

Today, we borrowed a friend's Costco card just to go window-shopping. Mostly I wanted to re-assure myself that I had beat their prices on most things. Bakery-check; we can beat their prices at the local bakery thrift store. Meat-check, but Costco comes close on the cuts we like. Produce-check. Some of Costco's produce is beautiful, but the two of us couldn't eat it all before it went bad. Rice is probably a bargain there. We walked out with 6 pounds of coffee beans, 6 pounds of meatballs, some veggie burgers, a year's supply of my allergy meds (a significant savings), and a large box of Alka Seltzer. I think it was worth the visit, but perhaps not worth investing in a membership.

I very seldom get into a funk about money, preferring to see money management as a game...but Keith was being extra nice after we picked up our taxes. And when I found a solid old oak rocker at a thrift store, we splurged. He's busy refinishing the thing and soon I'll be able to retire to our porch.

The Crisis Explained

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Perhaps an easier way to understand what is happening in our economy.

Forever Stamps

We have until May to purchase "forever" stamps--meaning that if the price of a stamp goes up, up, up, these stamps will be good until you use them up. We mail fewer and fewer items per month and have been deciding how many we ought to buy.

Thursday, I mailed a book to Jason in St. Louis. I had the clerk quote me a price on first class postage. For $23.60, it could have arrived on Jason's doorstep overnight.

Instead, I mailed it media mail, $3.28, plus a certified mail sticker to make sure this apartment dweller actually receives it. No telling when it will arrive...which gives my tightwad sensibility a great deal of pleasure. Keep the first edition, Jason.

Walk a mile in my...

Shoes! Jason is picturing his latest sneakers, which prompted me to think of my "everyday" shoes. I bought them two years ago, using credits from Keith's Cabela's card, on sale at a Cabela's for $30. That may not sound like such a bargain, except that I know I will wear them for five years.

I know this because I had another pair, the same HiTec brand, when my kids were little and we were dirt poor. I wore that pair DAILY, replacing the shoe strings occasionally, throughout their preschool years. The first pair I bought new in an Army/Navy surplus store in Missoula, MT.



They are no longer the only pair I own. I like to think that "for a girl" I only have a modest collection.



best dress shoes not pictured.

Coturnix Quail

A couple of weeks ago, Keith brought two females and a male home from the pet guy at SUPER FLEA, a flea market in northeast Kansas City. He's been promised that they are very productive...and he has visions of quail chicks dancing in his head. Some days, he has checked their cage 15+ times to see if there's another egg.



My photo is fuzzy, but the eggs are mottled and about a quarter of the size of a chicken egg, which Keith can't eat.



Tuesday, we'll put a dozen of the little eggs into the incubator, where they'll be turned three times a day for a couple of weeks. By then, we'll have little chicks. And 6 weeks later, those little chicks may be able to lay eggs.

Counting our Blessings

For the past several days, we've been keeping track of things that either made us laugh out loud or smile. The only caveat has been that those things must be free:

On Thursday, this was my pick , an acoustics professor's academic study of a very human sound. I shouldn't have laughed, but I did.

On Friday, it was a piece of mail which we hadn't expected. Out of the envelope tumbled a painting by our 9 year old grand-daughter, Jasmine, and a drawing by 15 year old grandson, Ricky.

On Saturday, it was the thrill of connecting with so many colleagues and old friends on Facebook, something I was experimenting with as part of Leadership Academy.

On Sunday, our 7 year old grandson, Caden, read to us long-distance from "The Little Bear Treasury". It was thrilling to hear his fluency, as he has struggled to get the hang of reading...and as an instructor I know the problems illiteracy can cause later in life.

And on Monday, we collected the last egg we needed to raise a batch of quail chicks...

Frugal Find of the Week

I wandered down to our local library yesterday and came home with The Life of Edgar Sawtelle and The Majic Bus. The second title was pure serendipity; it's an account of a history professor who takes off across country with 17 students (college seniors) to learn hands on about American culture. The book I was looking for was The Complete Tightwad Gazette.

It took two Half-Price Bookstores to find it. We have done most of our bookshopping here for the past year. I've found that each location tends to reflect the reading tastes of the surrounding neighborhood. (Is that my imagination?). In south Olathe, there was nary a copy to be found. I looked in cooking, home improvement, even the business section.

Then, we traveled to the Metcalf branch. Immediately, I found all three volumes in one, shelved in the personal finance section! I paid $8 for a book that is still selling at $22.95 retail.

I stayed up very late last night, gleaning frugal tips we haven't yet thought of. This author, Amy Dacyczyn, washes out baggies and reuses aluminum foil! She addresses those who poke fun at tightwads, as Jason did several posts ago when I marveled at crushed ice made in a plastic jug. She has me pondering how much people pay for simple services that their "chasing a dollar" lives render them too busy to do for themselves...

Splitting Meals

Used to be that when Keith & I would go out for dinner, we weren't good for much else--the meal just made us want to sleep. It's been a couple of years ago that we first split a meal at our local steakhouse. We divided the largest steak on the menu and added a salad. Keith ate the potatoe. We both went home content.

We did it another time at the same steakhouse--only this time our choice was their gargantuan pork tenderloin. We added horseradish and a family sized fries. Again, we were content, without being glutted.

In my single parent days, I'd get a "fried rice" at the local Asian place (nowadays my favorite is Shanghai Boy on 3rd Street in Lee's Summit) and split it 4 ways with all three of my little girls.

I don't suppose any of these are particularly healthy meals, but they all filled us up and for cheap. It's not necessary to spend a lot of money to fill that "hole" in our beliies and this gives a renewed meaning to the idea of a meal as "communion."

Hitchhiking

How many of us have ever stuck our thumb out? I've begun to notice more hitchhikers lately...one was headed west last Friday, with a guitar case banging against his leg. Another was walking south on 169 north. His backpack was huge and he was African American. His thumb wasn't out, but he was miles from nowhere.

I have hitched once or twice in the past. I first did it as a lark with two girlfriends, traveling home from Columbia, MO in the early 1970's. A kindly trucker picked all three of us up. Then, in the summer of 1974, I worked in Yellowstone National Park. Frequently, on our days off, the employees would hitch around the park. My room-mate and I were once picked up by a pair of Asian men, who seemed far more interested in snapping our pictures with their arms around a pair of American girls in cut offs and hiking boots than in getting anywhere. I think it was that same day, having hitched to Bozeman, MT, we were picked up by a drunk who terrified us on all the hills and curves of the park.

Only once have I ever picked up a pair of hitchhikers--two young men and nothing untoward happened. I think men have more leeway in this than most women. Keith picked up a hitch-hiker a couple of winters ago and got to talking with him. His story was that he had been dislocated by Katrina and had gone to Iowa to work--until the work gave out. Keith gave the man his coat and a $20; Keith said the man seemed far more appreciative of the coat than the money.

Last fall, I passed a hitchhiker who looked like one of my grown sons. I so wanted to pick him up, but thought better of it until I'd talked it over with Keith. This lead to quite a discussion at home and the upshot of it was that I have Keith's permission to "trust my own instincts" about picking up hitchhikers.
Whether I pick up a hitchhiker or not, they often capture my imagination.

Couponing

Recently, at our local Price Chopper, we waited to be rung up behind a man who looked like he had worked all day driving a truck. His groceries rang up about $165 and then he handed the clerk his coupons. Her register froze up, but she could not credit him more than $100. Soon, a store manager showed up and over-rode the register. I was incredulous, because he did not look like your typical coupon-er.

For a long time, I rarely used coupons because our shopping for groceries and toiletries was SO basic that the products I bought didn't have brand names. In fact, I considered many coupons to be something of a scam. I figured that the price of the coupon and the promotion had been added into the price of the product and therefore, I was money ahead to buy brands that didn't add to their costs this way.

BUT, the man's coupons intrigued me and I began poking around on the net. Sunday night, I spent two hours sorting through coupons on the internet and I am astounded at what is out there. I only printed out coupons for products we might actually buy--I found $1 off Velveeta; a $1 off Alka Seltzer (Keith's standby for all ailments), and a $1 off a brand of shampoo I actually use.

What do you guys think? Are coupons worth it? I can see spending an hour once a month to check it out, if it meant saving $100 on my grocery bill.