countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Sept 28, 2020 19:49:00 GMT -5
Terrible to say but in a way covid has helped. I went through shopping withdrawal at first but that was a good thing. Now it doesn't bother me so much. And when I do need something I go to Amazon and buy it. No browsing through a store and coming home with $100 worth of stuff.
I have gotten rid of a lot of clothes and this summer have actually worn a bunch out, that's a first. I will pitch them or cut up for rags soon. It's about time to move summer down and winter up. I too am shopping in my basement. I will make me some pajamas. I really think this may change a lot of peoples shopping habits, once we get used to it.
The problem is I have 1800 a sq ft of basement to store stuff in. I threw away a bunch of papers so I can store more in my lateral file cabinet instead of stacking. Hubs has shifted a few things up here from the garage. I told him like he told me. Everything you carry down has to one day come up.
We will do this, I have all winter to declutter. If we ever move, all I want to take are my sewing and canning supplies, and my preps, from down there, will take a truck to do that, LOL! I thinned out a ton of Xmas stuff, more is going.
I will do this, made up my mind and its going to happen.
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lynnerself
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Post by lynnerself on Sept 28, 2020 20:14:40 GMT -5
We've done a lot of painting and new flooring, which meant moving everything. We have a lot of stuff! We did get rid of a bunch. Everything that didn't fit. But now there are 2 of us in a 2100 sq ft 4 bedroom house with lots of storage. So everything fits. No issues. It's making it harder to continue to purge stuff. Out of site, out of mind. Or "I might need this" and there is a place for it. We will move in 1 or 2 years, and then have to do a better job. As far as buying new stuff, it's interesting. The few thing that we are able to buy with the shut down, I have got more extravagant with. I don't much care what we are paying for booze, wine or food. I bought new bar supplies. More subscription services. Any work on the yard or house. We payed $900 to have a new gate installed.
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kadee79
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S.W. Ga., zone 8b, out in the boonies!
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Post by kadee79 on Sept 28, 2020 20:35:31 GMT -5
Just a hint of what can be done with some "stuff"....if you have a women's/children's shelter in your area...when they are ready to move out on their own...they need everything. They need household items, they need linens, they need kitchen utensils...anything & everything. I used to manage drug stores & when we finally cleaned out our back rooms & got rid of years old things like charcoal grills, our local home was tickled to get these items. And it got a tax write off for the company too. Any books or old magazines, nursing homes love to get things like that. And yes, Veterans need things too. We donate books to the VA clinics where DH goes. Right now they aren't taking any of those donations, but I have boxes filled & stacked up...ready for when they open up the donations again. There is also a 'dress for success' place here where lots of clothes can go.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2020 21:00:38 GMT -5
Dolphins, how are you doing (other than losing your mother)? It's good to see you back again. One of the traps I've seen in having too much stuff is that you lose track of it so you go out and buy another of something you already had. A waste of money and more space taken up. DH had multiple screwdrivers in each size. I gave away all the duplicates, keeping the good ones for myself. I think I own 3 tape measures and 4 corkscrews. Have to start listing more Free Stuff on Craigslist. When DBF and I put up a shelves/sort of peg board/whatever system in the garage, in MY (silly) head since it was all my idea, the point was to organize the garage and get some stuff out of the storage room so we could at least somewhat organize it. When we started pulling stuff out of the storage room, I couldn’t count the number of times DBF found multiples of stuff. Some things he’d bought 2 or 3 times and was still surprised to find there was more than 1. Unfortunately, the storage room is still a mess.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2020 7:59:25 GMT -5
Since Christmas is coming (well, the stores have decorations up in an attempt to wring more money out of you), I had another thought about Stuff: gifts. My family culture is that the adults don't buy each other presents, except between husbands and wives. We're all doing fine, We get what we want when we want it. Two of my sisters-in-law, very good women otherwise, come from families where it would be TERRIBLE not to get Mom and Dad something. Sometimes they just did it on their own and sometimes they chose a major item and we all chipped in. Some were successes (a digital camera Dad used for years, a bigger TV although his old one worked fine) but a lot was Stuff, mostly clothing. When we cleaned out Dad's storage locker (he'd moved from Independent Living to LTC after a stroke), there were some items that clearly hadn't been worn. I brought home a beautiful Brooks Brothers cashmere sweater, made in Italy.
I also remember going through a second-hand place and seeing other merchandise that was clearly gifts that had never been used- sets of fancy soap, for example.
Gift cards are one solution, but maybe it's time to re-think gift-giving to adults and pare back.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2020 18:30:55 GMT -5
We don't exchange gifts between adults. It had gotten to the point where I wanted to accuse my daughter of buying things she wanted to reclaim after I died. That wasn't true, but the items matched her taste and not mine. I went to a Christmas party that had a "Dirty Santa" game (you can steal presents) where there was a $10 limit. Many people brought gift cards. So basically it was gift card exchange. However, some of the people who got actual "presents" were disappointed that they didn't get gift cards. Lol. I buy myself several "presents" at Christmas; it is built into my Christmas Club account. That's only because there are some awesome sales, though, and I like to take advantage of them for me, too.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2020 19:50:49 GMT -5
We haven't exchanged gifts with friends in many years, and often don't exchange gifts with one another. This year we may gift each other for birthdays and Christmas because we are both wearing a smaller size. I'll probably give DH a new belt because he can't put another hole in his to make it smaller. And I'll probably hint at a new purse so he can have the fun of "gifting" me.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Sept 29, 2020 21:13:20 GMT -5
My grandma used to suggest stopping gift exchanges because it was all gift cards. The funny part is she expects the usual gift cards to her favorite restaurants and is disappointed if they are missing. Unless she needs something, we tend to stick to consumables and gift cards we know she'll use. This summer I gave her an air fryer and ice cream maker. She loves both.
Now DH's parents, we only give gifts to if there's something we come up with. Theater tickets to shows they want to see are always a hit. Similarly we buy the baseball tickets but they buy the food and beer. Of course both of those are out in 2020.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Sept 29, 2020 21:26:03 GMT -5
I don't know, our kids don't need anything and we don't either but hubs likes to buy Christmas gifts. I hope this year it doesn't happen, just for grandson and DD.
We are doing better money wise I think. Stopping a lot of impulse purchases really helps. But I buy a lot of books now.
And not spending on the house fix up is really going to help.
I just paid the balance of the property taxes so we are done for the rest of the year.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2020 7:15:06 GMT -5
We are doing better money wise I think. Stopping a lot of impulse purchases really helps. But I buy a lot of books now. I bought a Nook in January, installed Libby and have been happily downloading books borrowed from the pubic library. I'd bought it because I'd gotten Dad's ancient Kindle and couldn't get it to work with Libby but what a blessing it was after COVID-19 closed down the libraries! That's a habit that will continue indefinitely. I'm still in the stage where I'm getting rid of hard-copy books.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Sept 30, 2020 8:04:02 GMT -5
All of my family was giving dad gift cards to Dairy Queen for his birthday, Father's Day and Christmas.
In his apartment, we found over $600 in Dairy Queen gift cards. I told my sister that her family could have them.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on Oct 18, 2020 10:59:45 GMT -5
Hubs got me a kindle, I don't like it. I like holding a book in my hand to read. Maybe someday it will change as i can download lots for $.99 and I pay $8 and up for books. Just old and I like some of the old ways.
We had waffles this morning. I want some of the little link sausages I have in the fridge but didn't fix them. Maybe for lunch, should not eat stuff like that but I so like them. And like bacon don't eat often. I thinking of cabbage rolls for dinner tonight with green beans and salad or maybe no salad.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 18, 2020 14:02:59 GMT -5
Hubs got me a kindle, I don't like it. I like holding a book in my hand to read. Maybe someday it will change as i can download lots for $.99 and I pay $8 and up for books. Just old and I like some of the old ways.We had waffles this morning. I want some of the little link sausages I have in the fridge but didn't fix them. Maybe for lunch, should not eat stuff like that but I so like them. And like bacon don't eat often. I thinking of cabbage rolls for dinner tonight with green beans and salad or maybe no salad. I thought I wouldn’t like it until I was at the beach and wound up running out of reading material. The resort we were at had limited English books, and I was rereading things I had read. Then we were in Myrtle Beach with friends and both had Paperwhites. After trying to hold a big book, I started to appreciate the Kindle’s size. I am on my second Paperwhite. Most of the books I buy are $0.99-1.99, but my charges still run about $40/mo for books. I’d hate to see what they would be if I paid $8-12 for them. It is nice not to run out of reading material when we travel now, or to haul a dozen books. Hell, I remember TD dropping $80 at the Cape Town airport, he ran out of reading material on our way to the Maldives. He STILL ran out of reading material, but this resort had a better selection of books for him. TD was like you too, and he is now a convert.
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saveinla
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Post by saveinla on Oct 18, 2020 14:11:47 GMT -5
Hubs got me a kindle, I don't like it. I like holding a book in my hand to read. Maybe someday it will change as i can download lots for $.99 and I pay $8 and up for books. Just old and I like some of the old ways.We had waffles this morning. I want some of the little link sausages I have in the fridge but didn't fix them. Maybe for lunch, should not eat stuff like that but I so like them. And like bacon don't eat often. I thinking of cabbage rolls for dinner tonight with green beans and salad or maybe no salad. I thought I wouldn’t like it until I was at the beach and wound up running out of reading material. The resort we were at had limited English books, and I was rereading things I had read. Then we were in Myrtle Beach with friends and both had Paperwhites. After trying to hold a big book, I started to appreciate the Kindle’s size. I am on my second Paperwhite. Most of the books I buy are $0.99-1.99, but my charges still run about $40/mo for books. I’d hate to see what they would be if I paid $8-12 for them. It is nice not to run out of reading material when we travel now. The Walk of the Penguin Mich, How is the size and weight of the Kindle compared to a regular ipad? I have beeen reading on my ipad after installing the Kindle app there, but its starting to get heavy.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 18, 2020 14:32:44 GMT -5
I thought I wouldn’t like it until I was at the beach and wound up running out of reading material. The resort we were at had limited English books, and I was rereading things I had read. Then we were in Myrtle Beach with friends and both had Paperwhites. After trying to hold a big book, I started to appreciate the Kindle’s size. I am on my second Paperwhite. Most of the books I buy are $0.99-1.99, but my charges still run about $40/mo for books. I’d hate to see what they would be if I paid $8-12 for them. It is nice not to run out of reading material when we travel now. The Walk of the Penguin Mich , How is the size and weight of the Kindle compared to a regular ipad? I have beeen reading on my ipad after installing the Kindle app there, but its starting to get heavy. My iPad with cover is 1 lb, 11 oz. My Kindle with cover is 10.5 oz. The Kindle Paperwhite you can read in the sun. I took my iPad on that vacation where I was searching for books, and realized that my iPad’s Kindle app was useless on the beach. You couldn’t see anything in the sun.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Oct 18, 2020 14:49:26 GMT -5
I just love my tablet for books and magazines. I never run out of reading material. I have a couple magazine apps I use, plus Amazon Prime. Everything from the library is free. It is so much better for traveling. I use my 10 inch tablet at home and my 7 inch when traveling. I only wish there was a color reader that can be seen better in sunlight.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2020 15:27:59 GMT -5
Interestingly, I got into e-reading when we were sorting out Dad's things as he moved to a smaller living unit last year and there was a Kindle nobody wanted- it was from 2014, I think. I looked up the serial number. Yet another electronic toy someone had given Dad on some gift-giving occasion. I never could get it to play nicely with my library's app (Libby) and gave up, but bought a new Samsung Galaxy Nook in January. Genius timing. The library closed soon after due to COVID and I discovered free downloads. Even better, I found I had less eye fatigue. Even with a current eyeglass prescription, reading some of the smaller print hard copy books got to me. I'm reading far more than I used to and my granddaughters enjoy it, too.
I found some place that recycles or refurbishes old ones and sent Dad's to them.
On my visit to DB and DSIL, DSIL offered me some toys she'd bought and kept around for her two granddaughters that they'd outgrown. Three were noisy electronic educational toys and two were cloth dolls. I sent a photo to DDIL and told her that one of the electronic toys looked promising and the others were pretty much the same as what they already have. I'll be bringing the one- the rest will be Free Stuff on Craigslist.
Kids' toys have gotten out of control. I went through the "Repair Shop" series on Netflix and two women in the show fix and mend ancient, treasured dolls and stuffed animals. One mentioned that typically you had ONE stuffed animal or baby doll and it really meant something. Two customers had brought the doll/critter with them when they were moved out of London to safer areas during the Blitz. Now kids have so many dolls and stuffed animals you have to store the in a hammock from the ceiling. Why?
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buystoys
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Post by buystoys on Oct 18, 2020 15:33:53 GMT -5
I've refilled the kitchen with everything we decided to keep and we still have empty drawers. I'm in no rush to fill them with things and neither is DH. I'm fine with not using all the space we now have. Now if I could just convince DH to throw out his two big boxes of T-shirts.
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