The Elf Blog

Overstock

Sometimes I think we remember only too well what it was like to dwell in caves, fearing what tomorrow might bring and having our survival depend on stockpiling resources.

For most of us, this is not our reality.  We don't need to spend September and October stockpiling food and fuel to last until April.  The supermarkets will be open all winter and food will remain accessible.  Even if there's snow, we are unlikely to be cut off from resources for more than a week.

So why do we stockpile months' worth of food?  Marketers convince us that we need to take advantage of stock up sales, buying more than we are likely to use in the next several months.  Warehouse stores take it to a whole new level.  Now, clearly larger families can take advantage of such sales because they can easily go through several boxes of cereal and huge bags of frozen vegetables every week.  For those in smaller living units, however, too much is too much.  A carton of oatmeal can last me almost a month since I don't eat it every day.  A pound of coffee lasts even longer.  Yet still, it's tempting to buy two cans of coffee or two cartons of oatmeal since they are on such a great sale.  That way, I'll have it when I need it and I'm shielded against a price increase.

In truth, it may not be that great a deal.  You have to take up space to store it. The longer it's stored, the higher the likelihood that it will go bad before you use it.  There will be another sale.  There always is.  The prices may not be quite as low, but food prices have been relatively stable for years.  If inflation were running 10%, it might be a different story, but that's not the case.

So, what do you do?

• Have a reasonable sense of what your household uses in a month.  As a rule, you don't need to keep more than that on hand.
• Rotate the foods you do have on hand so that you use the oldest food first.
• Before going shopping, take a quick inventory of what you have on hand and plan upcoming meals to use the oldest food.
• If you do buy a lot of something, within 24 hours of bringing it into your house, have a plan for using at least half of it.
• If you want to take advantage of two-for-one discounts but don't really need that much, consider shopping with a friend and splitting the cost.

Christmas Countdown -- Three Months To Go

Christmas Eve is three months from today.  That means it's time to kick the Christmas countdown into high gear. 

Within the next month, you need to complete the following tasks:

• Make your holiday travel arrangements.
• If you are throwing a party, let folks know to save the date.
• Update your Christmas card address list.
• Build your Christmas gift list.  You don't have to start shopping yet, but you should at least decide who you'll be shopping for.
• If you plan to make gifts or decorations, purchase all craft supplies and start work, if possible.
• Pull out your holiday recipe file and start narrowing down the ones you want to try.
• Make room in the cabinets, refrigerator, and freezer for the holiday surplus.
• Finalize your holiday budget and make sure you know where the money is coming from.  If you don't have enough saved, you need to reduce the budget.
• Stop buying things you don't absolutely need.  Put them on your Christmas list instead.

the sooner you start, the higher the chances that three months from today, you'll be cosily esconced in a chair, drinking hot cocoa, eating homemade cookies, and watching a Christmas movie -- not making a mad dash through the mall only to come home to defrost the turkey with a hair dryer before pulling an all-nighter to finish crafts and wrapping.

Use It Up

Most of us have too much stuff -- and we keep acquiring more.  This pattern wastes resources and money and creates clutter.

So now it's time to use things up.  Eat the food already in your pantry and freezer before you buy more.  (Yes, I know there's a big sale.  You know that this is not the last sale that will ever happen, don't you?)  Try to make sure that at least 2 or 3 meals a week are primarily from your pantry goods.*

*You get a pass on this if your pantry is already lean or if most of what's there in preserved summer produce.  You'll want those gems for the winter.

But using it up isn't limited to food.  Use up all those partial bottles of shampoo and the bath salts and the makeup.  Light the candles you've been saving (For what?  The Great Candle Shortage of 2010?)  Look in the back of your closet and, at least once a week, wear something you haven't worn in ages (season permitting).  If it doesn't fit anymore, donate it.

What do you have taking up space in the house that you should be using up?

Make It Easy

Sometimes it seems as though life is very complicated.  There is so much to do and so many demands on our time.  It seems as if we've failed before we even begin.

We need to look for strategies that make our day-to-day tasks easier. Some of the basic strategies are well-known.  We should all have a place in the house where we keep the things we need each day, like keys, backpacks, etc.  Having a place like a folder or a basket to put the bills that need to be paid or the school papers requiring review can keep life well organized.

But we can do other things as well. We are more likely to make healthier food choices if they are easy.  We can do initial prep of fresh veggies as we put them away so that they are easy to use when we are ready to cook.  (Most veggies steam in a matter of minutes in the microwave, retaining their color and their vitamins.)  A grill pan or something like a George Foreman Grill can make for quick and easy dinners.  Putting leftovers right into lunch containers makes it far easier to take your lunch to work than if you have to use precious morning moments.

If you find yourself with a few minutes to think (sitting in traffic, at a boring meeting, on the traedmill at the gym, waiting for something to start), think through your daily routine.  What changes could you make to simplify it?  To make your life easier?

Labor Day Shopping

I know that lots of people spend at least part of the Labor Day holiday shopping.  And many shopping establishments have special sales this weekend to take advantage of the crods.

You can get some great deals if you look.  Concentrate on things that are ending their season, such as outdoor furniture, picnic supplies, and sporting goods.  If you have the storage space, you can save a lot of money by buying these things now.  No one buys an outdoor gazebo in November, so stores want them off their hands.  You can save by buying it now, even though you will have to store it all winter.

Some stores have huge sales on items just coming into use.  Last year, I got great deal on long underwear at an outlet sale.  If you are making lots of purchases, it helps to do some research about the available sales -- and about the usual prices for things -- to make sure you are finding true deals.

You are likely to be overwhelmed by holiday merchandise (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas).  Tempting as it is, very few of these items will be on sale.  If you plan to make purchases of these things, make sure you 1) really need the item and 2) know what a good price is.

If you find any great deals, come back and tell us about them.  I don't plan to shop this weekend, so I'll shop vicariously through you!

Unexpected Occurrences

No matter how much you plan, sometimes, life just happens.

On Friday night, my hot water heater decided to give up the ghost -- spilling it all over my kitchen floor.  On Saturday, I had a plumber come in to install a new one --a significant unanticipated expense.

This is why it's so imoprtant to have an emergency fund.  It takes one stress away from such nasty surprises.  If you don't have savings set aside for unexpected occurrences, try to set aside a bit each week until you have a fund built up.  the hardest part is remembering NOT TO TOUCH IT unless there's a real emergency.  (No, hard as it is to believe, a shoe sale is not an emergency.)

Back from Vacation -- with Some Strategies

I am back from acation and slowly getting back into the swing of my ordinary daily life.  But before I get totally immersed in the ordinary, I wanted to share a few strategies I used during my recent vacation.

Before you go, check out the places you plan to visit on the Internet.  By doing advance research online, I was able to save on hotel rooms, attraction tickets, and food costs.  You can also try googling the place you are visiting with the word "discount" but most of the links will take you to places trying to sell you vacation packages.

Once you arrive, check out your a travel center or your hotel for discount coupon books.  You are likely to find coupons for local restaurants.

Another great thing to do is to talk with the people you meet who live in the area -- for example, the people who work at an amusement park or a museum.  Ak them where locals go.  I've had some of my favorite travel meals that way.

Finally, when planning your vacation, decide what you are willing to splurge on:  location, trabnsportation, food, accommodations, things to see and do, souvenir shopping, etc.  Unless you are independently wealthy, you likely can't splurge on all of those.  (If you are independently wealthy, please call me.  I have a business proposition for you!) Pick what matters to you and spend money on that.  Maybe you really want to visit someplace that has high admission fees.  Save money on food or stay in a less expensive hotel.  If you want to stay in a nice place, maybe you go off-season or you don't travel as far.  As in most of life, the point is to decide what you really want and plan to get it.

The Cost of Appearances

I've been thinking today about the amount of time and money I spend on appearances -- specifically salon-type services and health club memberships.  Think about it:  monthly gym fees, personal training appointments, hair cuts, manicures, pedicures, waxing, massages, facials.

As these things are among my little treats for myself, I always seem to justify the time and expense, but I wonder. 

Obviously, the gym membership can have health benefits and some basic grooming is a necessity.  But I still wonder if we go overboard.  What do you think?

Rethinking a Fresh Start

For obvious reasons, people tend to tie their fresh starts to the new year.  On January 1, people start exercise programs or diets, start getting organized, and decide to save more money.

But there's no reason to be bound by the conventional calendar approach.  In fact, now is a great time for a fresh start.

If you want to start an exercise program, now is a great time.  Gyms are less crowded.  They offer special deals and it's easier to book time with a personal trainer. When it's hot and humid outside, I'm more likely to drag myself into a nice air-conditioned gym.  Workout clothes like shorts, t-shirts, tanks, and swimsuits are also likely to be on sale.

When is a better time to start a diet:  in the middle of the winter when it's cold and you want lots of comfort foods or the height of the summer, when fresh fruits and vegetables fill the farmer's markets at good prices.  Plus, on a summer evening, a nice salad topped with leftover grilled chicken sounds way more appealing than heating the house up by cooking.

As for organizing your time well, now's a perfect time to start.  For many of us, the year really runs on the school schedule.  That means things heat up again in the next few weeks.  That gives a new chance to make choices between outside activities.  How many committees do you want to volunteer for?  How many activities will your kids sign up for?  How much will you take on?  Start making those choices.  And don't forget to block out some time that remains purposely unscheduled. 

If you want to organize your things, now's a great time.  Lots of storage solutions go on sale at this time of year because of college students.  Also, if you want to get rid of things, thrift shops seem to be more empty around this time of year, so they need more donations.

As for saving money:  it's always a good time to save!

The Information You Need

The refrains are common:  I don't have enough time.  I don't have enough money.  I weigh too much.  I have too much to do. If you've never said one of those things, you can stop reading now, pour yourself a beverage, and go watch a movie.

But, for the rest of us.....

The first step in taking control of your time, money, and weight is to get the information you need.  It's about challenging your perceptions with facts.  We often underestimate what we eat and spend.  We don't recall how we spend our time.  The only way to get a true picture is to build it carefully by tracking what you actually do over a period of time.

If you want to know how you spend your money, start by pulling out a few months of bills to get a sense for what things cost.  You can even do a year's worth.  I know my gas bill is way higher in the winter while my electricity bill is higher in the summer.  By looking at the year, I can balance things out.  Use that to make a basic expense list.  Don't forget automatic deductions or authomatic charges to your credit card.  Then, using a small notebook or your pda, write down everything you spend for at least a week.  If you put 35 cents in the parking meter, write it down.  $2.79 on coffee -- in the notebook.  You might be surprised at how much you spend without realizing it.  And, you'll have a handy listing of what you spend money on, so you'll know what you can cut.

You can do similar tracking with your food intake or your time.  What do you eat?  When do you eat it?  What time did you wake up?  When did you leave for work?  What did you do in the interim?  What did you do on your lunch hour? (I wrote this blog.)

Knowing what you actually do is the first step in taking control.  If you find yourself always eating an unhealthy snack before bed, you know that's a danger time.  You can pre-empt that hunger by eating something healthy an hour earlier.  You can identify the pockets of time that appear in your day and plan for ways to use them more productively.

Lots of changes become possible when you have the information you need.