WHATEVER WORKS...as long as it's CHEAP!

Blog # 3

WHATEVER WORKS as long as it’s CHEAP!.

Thought it might be time to tell the truth.  I’m cheap, not just  frugal, thrifty,  economic, cut rate, cost conscious,  or even  careful,  I’m  just plain, old, CHEAP!  Now, you got it- right?  I’ve tried  a lot to think of myself as financially challenged, , but no luck,  BOTTOM LINE  ,when it comes right down to it,  I’m just plain, ordinary CHEAP!

You remember those pocketbooks I talked about last Blog, well I have a monetary limit on what I will spend on pocketbooks.  Five bucks, that’s  it, less if at all possible.  Yes, yes, I know I said very clearly that I bought a bag that called to me for $10, if it hadn’t been for the additional Senior Citizen discount, it could have yelled its head off and I wouldn’t have taken it.

Today, I was in the Salvation Army and when I got to the counter the young girl behind it mentioned that Senior  Day was Thursday, so I put those bags back and came back Thursday..  Twenty-five  percent, is  twenty-five percent.   Why should I spend $9 (1 @ 4.99, 2 @ 1.99 each) when I can come back one day later and pay $6.75.  No, no!  I’m not driving miles and miles out of my way to get there and eating up gallons of gas.  The SA is right here in town and we pass it all the time in our travels.  Goodwill is on the other hand a little out of the way, about two towns down the road, and we only go there when we’re already going somewhere else in that neighborhood, but the day doesn’t matter since the Senior Discount is all the time. They always have a special tag color of the week,  yellow, blue, white, etc., for additional savings.  Seriously, we don’t  actually go to either of these places very often anyway, but we do once in a while so we go when sales and discounts apply.  Clothes are out at the thrift stores (mostly because of my size) BUT pocketbooks are definitely in.

I just have to interject here with another little thrift shop story.  About a month ago we were told about a thrift shop called Upscale Thrift, about two  towns south.  Well, in this case we did make a ‘spec ial’ trip to see it.  Naturally, it was closed when we got there, but we could look through the windows.  The stuff looked great and in one window was a single bed.  It had a wrought iron head board and foot board with wrought iron roses on the top, crème color.   Anyway I was in love, the cost of the bed, frame and mattress and box spring was $345.  I was in love,  I’ve been wanting to trade my queen in for a single (that’s another story, for another  time), but that’s what I wanted.  Nan  said it was just too overpriced and all but talked me out of it, anyway the place was closed.  I just couldn’t let this bed go.  When our friend, Cathy came down for a visit last week, she wanted to go thrifting, so one of the places we went was Upscale Thrift.  The first place I went was into the little room that had my bed, it had been marked down to $249,  one hundred bucks off.  I was very excited (needless to say)  and Cathy wanted to see my bed.  After she saw it, she said she would BUY IT FOR ME, if we could get it for $200.  She called the salesman over and we would take it today for $200 and SURPRISE!! SURPRISE!!  He said yes.   I did not have the money to buy it myself and would have had to borrow the money from Nan for it.   I GOT MY BED, head and foot boards as well as a brand new  pillow top mattress and box spring as a present.  Couldn’t thank Cathy enough.  Old bed out new bed in and I love it.... Even though I didn’t personally save the money it was  a BIG $150 savings and NO tax because the place is church run.  You know that stick I’m always referring to:  well use it to beat this!!

Bed, Bath and Beyond is another special  favorite.  When you sign up, they send you coupons for $5 off $15 or more or 20% off any one item.  Need I mention that I shop here a lot!!!  Besides I like the store and the stuff in it (especially their clearance section, got aVerado fan for $10.59 just today.  I have two Verado fans that I bought about 15 years ago.  They run almost all time and were not cheap.  They are a very good brand name in fans.  Anyway,  two days ago my little Verado in my bedroom died, just like that, died.  I was devastated, but after 15 years, I figured that had  a good run.  Nan and I went to BB&B in Deltona today and in there ‘clearance section’ lo’ and behold was the same size Verado that just died on me.  It was marked $19.99 (down from $39.99, floor model) .  When I got to the check out, the sales woman said “this has been marked down to $15 and I had my $5 coupon – wah la -- $10..I’m still beating with that same stick.

Let’s get right down to basics A FASHIONISTA  I’m  not!!  We shop at Bealls Outlet a lot, they have a dot system.  The dots are different colors and they move every month,  one month pink is 30% off, the next month it moves up to 50% off, then 70 – then 90 then back to the beginning of the line 30.  Usually  the dots have already been discounted, so the additional 30-90% becomes a big deal and then on Monday, my favorite 15% addition- Senior. Talk about  the possibility of big savings.   Where is that stick!!

The one area that I’m not able to have good savings is my clothing.  I’m a big girl and wear a size 3-4x.  3x if the piece of clothing comes from a good store, like Dillard’s.  They handle high quality merchandise or a 4x is it’s a store like Bealls or JC Penney’s or the like.   In my size there are very little good sales and even when there are, the starting prices are so high that even with the sale their not inexpensive.  So, I wear what I consider expensive clothing.

Want to talk about food, no?  Well tough, I do.  We buy the bulk of our food at BJ’s wholesale.  Sure, you  have to buy in bulk, but they also take manufacturer’s coupons as well as their own, so most of the time we save fifty dollars or so on a $120 bill.  Between Nan’s place and mine, we find places to put the bulk items.  We also buy, as needed during the month, at Wal-Mart and Ald even Big Lotsi.   I guess I don’t have to mention that I’m a coupon person. 

We buy most of our food to make at home at BJ’s, but we still eat out a lot.  Titusville is a small town but it has quite a few eating establishments.   We frequent Denny’s a lot.  Big menu and the prices are reasonable and I have an AARP card (which this year I renewed for $11 instead of the regular $15, so with all the times we eat at Denny’s it pays for itself)  20% off everything.  Village Inn, also reasonable and 10% off for seniors all the time.  To boot, on Wednesday it’s FREE PIE DAY.  Buy anything, even as little as a cup of coffee and you get your free piece of pie.  Small town, yes, but we do have a few FINE restaurants, too.  Most we don’t go to, but Portofino, a really good Italian, is our favorite.  Not only is the food exceptional, and the selection really good, but they send out coupons for a FREE meal worth  $`11.99 when you buy an additional entrée.   The coupons come with the arrival of spring, fall, your birthday, anniversary and a few times I don’t remember.  All you have to do is ‘sign-up’.  I did, Nan did too. They also have a $6 prix fix lunch (entre’, salad and drink), they often let us use the coupon for lunch even though it states very clearly for diner only.   Dixie Crossroads, known world-wide, and I do mean world-wide.  People come from absolutely everywhere to Dixie.  Prices usually well above my budget, but once a year they have a GRANDPARENTS WEEK.  Prices run from a high of $12.99 for a full lobster dinner to $5.99 for a full tilapia dinner.  Soft drinks are twenty-five cents.  Naturally we always show up for Grandparents Week, usually all week.  Also when you sign up for their emails –you get coupons  for your anniversary and birthday --$5 off for  two, $10 off for four.  We used the $10 off for four when Cathy and Kevin came down this month.

Travel, we love to travel, go anywhere, anytime at the drop of a hat.  Our traveling days have been cut down considerably since Nancy has been put on dialysis and has to go three times a week.  But this too will be worked out as soon as she is established with the dialysis schedule.  You must go to dialysis three times a week, but you can arrange to go anywhere in the world (except third world countries, because of possible sanitary problems).  Anyway, when her sessions get regulated, we’re back on the road.  Since her insurance only covers the United States and territories,  we now  into  ‘SEE AMERICA FIRST’.

 Nan has a timeshare (yes, it’s true you have heard horror stories about timeshares).  But Nan has owned hers for thirty years, she’s in partnership with our friend, Cathy they own it together.  When you join RCI the company that makes the arrangements and set the prices for your timeshare rentals, they have a department they refer to as:  LAST CALL.    Last Call units can be purchased up to  45 days before you want to go.  Now the kick is that  (although the prices have been going up recently) you can usually get an entire week, all seven days for $200 a week.   We go to Mexico for 5 or 6 weeks every other year and pay $200 a week for a total of $1,300, that’s  FIVE WEEKS in  an upscale condo type living space.  We split it in half $650 each.  We stay at Pueblo Bonito in Mazatlan an unbelievable place, the first time we stayed there it was $149 and the last time $200.   Have I mentioned that we first started going there for 5-6 weeks to get our teeth done.  We found, after much research, that we could go to a Mexican dentist, stay at a great condo, eat  and even with the airfare could have a 6 week vacation and still spend less to get our dental work done in Mexico than right here in the US for the cost of the dental work alone. We have a great dentist in Mazatlan, who speaks fluent English and is one of the best dentists around  and is also one of the  nicest people we have ever  come across.  Example, I needed a little surgery on my upper gum and he made the appointment with the surgeon, took us in his car to the surgeon, stayed with me , holding my hand, while the Doctor did his thing and brought us back to our condo. On other occasions he took us to Wal-Mart and to a mall.   Just find that kind of service in the US of A.

Speaking of timeshares, once you’re involved with them you get “offers”.  Offer after offer to their seminars.  The timeshare talk usually lasts about an hour and a half (some are horribly longer, but we usually get out in an hour and a half, we actually have a method) and ALWAYS, ALWAYS have a ‘GIFT’ attached to them. We’ve gotten everything from dinner for two in a swanky restaurant to $200 to a few Bahamas cruises.  Many years ago we went to Ixtapa, Mexico and really got into the swing of things.  We went to one timeshare talk, then another, then another and before you knew it we had hit every time share in town.  The people  on the street, called OPC’s (outside public consultants, I was one, once)  who talked you into the tour (and got money for it, of course) knew us by sight.  They would  call us over and say “ Senioritis, today, I have a new tour for you, this one gives you $50, or a local dinner cruise, or dinner  in a swanky restaurant,  Mexican Fiesta shows and I don’t even remember what else.   We would tour in the morning and then spend the rest of the day using whatever we had gotten as a ‘gift’ for doing the tour.  We did this for two weeks.  We purchased NOTHING.   

We did this not only in Mexico, but in Florida as well.  Finally we stopped touring about eight months ago.  Actually we’ve run out of places to go, you can’t go back and re-tour for a year sometimes more.  And we’ve hit them all.  Besides we’re tired of going to the Bahamas.

You have to keep in mind that we ARE RETIRED and have quite a lot of ‘free time’ on our hands.  So we use it to our best advantage.

I can’t for the life of me remember how we got involved with Travel Clubs, but somehow we did.  Example:  Special T travel, for $149 you get 2 nights, 3 days in a hotel on the beach in Daytona, or New Smyrna, or Ormand Beach, plus 3 nights, 4days in a hotel in Orlando (by Disney) and the same in Ft. Lauderdale, it usually has a Bahamas cruise for four days, too.   We usually connect the Ft. Lauderdale stay with the Bahamas cruise and make a week out of it.  On this trip we also got one dinner voucher for $50 for what we thought was a “swanky” restaurant, turned out we were dressed for swank and the place was a very casual seafood restaurant where you docked your boat.  Food was good and expensive and we were overdressed.

Just   the one we were going on, but it didn’t work out, soooo  we   made it for  the next weekend.  So in one month we went to the Bahamas twice.  We got dinner vouchers for the hotel. A two night stay, one night before and  one night after we returned.  Two dinner vouchers for each night, four in all.

We have gotten sooooooo many free trips over the last several years, I can’t begin to mention them all.  When it’s a hotel stay you pay nothing extra, but on the cruise you do have the port charges.

 We’re taking Nan’s grandchildren to a timeshare in St. Augustine, Florida,, for Christmas, again $200,  2 bedroom on the beach.  We went to three timeshares over the course of the summer and at one, we went to a talk and got a $100 gift, naturally bringing the cost of that stay down to $100 for the week. That place had a pool that was open 24/7, right up our alley..  All these places have full kitchens, washers and dryers  and we usually eat in to save a little money..

Cruises, are we cruisers you bet your life we are..  We’ve been on seven cruises  (maybe eight, I’m not sure) in the last five years.  We had one coming up to the Panama Canal and Costa Rica on October 22, but because of Nan’s dialysis we had to cancel.  We’re both very disappointed.  But that’s the way life goes, so we take it in stride and continue onward.  .  But I did the research on this cruise about 7 months ago and we got an early bird type of deal—8 days for $500.  Granted we take an inside cabin, but we find we are almost never in the cabin anyway and as far as sleeping goes  all the cabin beds are quite alike.  $500 for 8 days.   When we cruise I always make similar deals.  I will add, that we did have insurance on the Panama cruise, because it was so far in advance and are we glad we did,  because of Nan’s condition we were able to get every penny back.  We’ve been to Jamaica  (we especially liked Jamaica and would go back there again), Honduras, Grand Cayman,Cosumel , Belize  and other places and the Bahamas (Freeport and Grand Bahamas) three times.  Hot deals too good to pass up.   The last two Bahamas trips we didn’t even get off the ship.    Now I’m working on finding cruise ships that have dialysis available and that I can make affordable and believe me I’ll do it.  They say if you get a cruise that costs you $100 a day or less you’re doing really well.  We’ll Panama and Costa Rica was $62.50.  Got it – we did.   Get that stick out again.

Back to basics, shoes, not a priority with me.  I own about four pair of shoes, all of them cost me two bucks a piece (Family Dollar)  and they go everything.  Because I have wide feet that go with my bigger body, I have trouble buying shoes.  This is Florida so flip flop type shoes are except able footwear  everywhere.  Mine have plastic diamonds on the straps that hold them on my feet and go with everything.  When I see a good buy, I buy  lots, this time 4 pair, two black two white.    When I go to New York, I have to come up with some real shoes, but that’s not often and I worry about it when it happens.    I’m 67 and have Diabetes so I get a free pair of shoes (sneakers) each year, so that’s taken care of.  They are Dr. Comfort’s and about $150 a pair. How’s that for a deal.

I should say right now, that Nancy is not cheap, but she is an unbelievable shopper.  She’s a  bargain shopper but definitely not cheap.  We had a bad hurricane  a few years ago and Nan’s condo got flooded.  The condo was condemned and she had to move in with me for a few months.  All the furniture had to go and be replaced.  We shopped, shopped, shopped .until we dropped.    Nan is used to buying  (as most people do) a piece of furniture at a time as needed.  Well, now she had to shop for an entire house.  Normally, she would shop around, looking for the best buy for what she wanted, and buy when she got the price and the piece she wanted.  But now she had to blitz.  Everything at once to fill her home, so she could go home.  We shopped at all the local furniture stores (she likes to keep the money in and around Titusville)  and couldn’t always wait for the perfect  ‘SALE’.  She just couldn’t get OVER not finding the very  best deal.   All of us, her family, me, everyone just kept saying “Buy the damn thing, if you want it, regardless of the price.  You got the money from the insurance, so buy it”.   Eventually, she had to get into that ‘SPEND-MODE’ in order to get back into the house.  She was a trouper spent, spent, spent and got back into her house in record time.

Gas, since we’re  stuck on the home front these days, car travel is all we have.  We buy our gas at Murphy’s which is on the Wal-Mart property.  Use the Wal-Mart credit card-- ten cents off each and every gallon and  to boot their gas is usually a few cents cheaper than other stations in town anyway.   My car, Hyundai Elantra gets 29-31 miles to the gallon depending on how I  drive (which is usually 29) that’s the way things go.

The best for next to last-- absolutely…. My neighbor, downstairs and a few doors over, and good friend, Lorraine told me about an organization here in Brevard County that offers free services to those 60 and over.  They put those bars in the bathroom for you for FREE.  In Nan’s case they did all three of her bathrooms, in my place just one.  They also do some plumbing and electrical.  ALL FOR FREE.  Just make the phone call and make the appointment for Bob to come and o the work.

And the very last:  LIHeat, also part of Brevard County gives a certain amount of money each year to help defray your electric costs if you are low income. (they have several criteria that they use for determining your needs)   I received $200 deposited to my Florida Power and Light account to use against this year’s electric bills.

What can I say  FREE is always the best…

Think I’ve said enough for now.    As I always say:  WHATEVER WORKS!

Next saga:  THE WEDDING and how we got there.

Bargains Galore, humor, travel, Mexico, cruising (on ships), shoes?, flip flops, timeshare travels,  discounts,  cheap gas, a Katrina saga,  Retirement Tales,  FASHIONISTA?, Restaurant talk, Foreign Dentists,  Thrift store delights,  Coupons, Single bed saga,  free trips, Personal  glimpses,  Senior Citizen Stories, Dialysis’ Dilemmas, Free time possibilities, Free trips,  Retirement  Tales, Travel  tips,

Well, Blog #3 is finally on the stands.  It took more time than I originally planned, probably because of Cathy and Kevin’s coming down, Laurie and Liz’s upcoming visit and re-doing Nan’s house.  Also haven’t been feeling all that great (leg problems), but all is under control now.   #3 finally came gushing out of my head this weekend while we were in Deltona.  You know the Travelista’s we are, maybe I just need to GET AWAY to get back on track.  .I’m always happy when I can pack a bag.

At  5:30am this morning I got up because I just couldn’t stop thinking about possible categories to put my Blog under.  Well 26 came flowing out this early morning.   Everything from Retirement Tales to Timeshare Travels.   And last Blog I could only think of 4 (I think). 

By the way, it looks (if I’m reading things correctly) like 28 people looked at my last Blog and wrote comments.    You c an subscribe, like Angela did,  (for free of course) and get the next Blog announcement right on your e-mail,  sounds like a done deal to me