Tightwad Gazette Tour | Summer, from Book One

Ah! We are finally in a section of the book that is seasonally appropriate, at least for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. 😉

Times Have Changed

Product Photos

A reader wrote in to say she flips used purchases (buying inexpensively, fixing up, and selling for a higher price) and she has more success if she cuts out a picture of the item from a store flyer and tapes it to the item.

This made me remember how difficult it would be to get product photos before the internet!

These days, if I want to remind people of how much something costs new, I include a link in my listing or a screenshot of the item. Same principle, modern adaptation. 🙂

Writing to Manufacturers

Amy encourages writing to a manufacturer when something is wrong with a product, but back then, you had to do it by actual mail.

She suggests looking on the product packaging for a mailing address, or looking through the 1990 World Almanac (which apparently had a current listing of the names and addresses of corporations.)

Complaining to a company has been made much simpler by the advent of the internet. Which makes me curious: do companies now receive a higher volume of complaints, since the barrier to entry has been lowered so significantly?

Paying a credit card bill by….mail!

A reader wrote in to say she charges everything on a credit card so that she can earn interest on the money in her bank account during the credit card grace period.

The value of this strategy would certainly vary depending on interest rates; right now, it would pay off pretty well, but that has not been the case for some recent years.

Amy responded by saying you’d need to charge at least $50 on your card each month to make it worth the price of the $0.29 stamp you’d need to mail your payment in!

I’ve always viewed my credit card usage as a win because of the rewards I earn (perhaps reward credit cards were not such a thing back then), and hey, I don’t even have to use a stamp to pay my bill each month.

Yay, internet.

When You Don’t Need To Be a Tightwad

This was obviously written before the advent of the FIRE financial movement, but Amy points out that most diehard tightwads will eventually hit a stage in life where they do not need to be tightwads anymore. 

What should a person do under those circumstances, when the kids are gone, the house is paid off, and the retirement funds are fat?

(What a nice problem to have!)

“Retire early” IS one of her suggestions, but other ideas on the list are:

• Spend your money in environmentally friendly ways (including those that cost more!)
• Buy locally
• Give more money away

Also, she points out that if you’ve still got kids at home, you might not want to give up all your frugal ways because otherwise you might turn out a batch of spendthrift adults who think thrifty ways are unreasonable and odd.

I think that’s a fair point, but also, I think that even if they’re raised in a thrifty home, some children will become frugal adults and others will not. We do influence our children, but some things about them seem to be rather predetermined!

We provide them with the tools, and it’s up to them if they pick up those tools and carry them into their adult lives.

Homemade Baby Wipes: did you make those?

Amy suggests using cloth washrags in place of wipes (you just launder them with your cloth diapers), but as I’ve already told you all, I didn’t cloth diaper!

She also includes a recipe for homemade baby wipes, using paper towels, water, baby shampoo, and baby oil. I did not ever try these homemade wipes, largely because I had my babies in the height of my couponing days. At that time, I was able to consistently get baby wipes for super duper cheap.

If I was having babies now, I’d probably try the homemade route, since couponing is not nearly as lucrative as it once was.

Used Clothing Filing

Ohh, I did this!!

(Here are my tips for storing children’s clothing.)

Amy has her hand-me-downs and yard sale finds sorted by age range and boy/girl, and so did I. That way, with each season that rolls around, you can go through the boxes and find clothes for each kid pretty easily.

A downside to hanging onto clothes is that until you know you are done having children, you keep accumulating boxes. I had quite a collection by the time Zoe was born, but of course, every year after that, I got to get rid of a box or two until I had none.

That was a great feeling!

Amy yard-saled most of her purchases, but I did buy some new clothes for my kids, mainly by shopping deeply discounted clearance racks off-season. I never really got into yard-saling, but clearance prices can come pretty close to yard sale prices if you are good at it.

One time, I got over $300 worth of Old Navy kid clothing for $30…everything was marked down to $1! That was one of my best hauls ever.

Something I will not be trying

Lite Margarine

A reader wrote in a tip to make DIY lite margarine (yes, yes, it was the 90s. Fat was the demon of the decade!), and obviously, I will not be trying that tip because I do not eat margarine.

Amy was a die-hard margarine buyer, and I just cannot get on board with that. I know it’s cheap, but man, it just does NOT taste anything like butter.

I would rather eat a plain piece of toast than spread margarine on it, actually.

Homemade Worcestershire Sauce

Maybe I am unusual, but I go through so little Worcestershire sauce, I cannot imagine it being worth the effort to make my own.

I would really rather just buy the store brand and call it good!

Honorable Mention: homemade wheat thins

I know I will not be trying this because: I already have tried making homemade crackers lots of times.

Every time I have made them, I have always thought, “This is too much headache.”

Homemade crackers require rolling, cutting, pricking with a fork, and then when you bake them, it is SO easy to accidentally burn some of them while underbaking others (particularly if your rolling stage didn’t leave you with perfectly flat dough).

Here again, I would rather just buy crackers on sale or get a store brand (although I must say, the only store brand cracker I consistently like are private-label Triscuit-style crackers.)

Alrighty, guys…discuss!

(and if you have the book, feel free to bring up any other topics from this section of the book too.)