THE DOLLAR STRETCHER

"Living Better...For Less"

November 25, 1996

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"The Dollar Stretcher" is a FREE weekly newsletter. To subscribe send e-mail to gary@stretcher.com with 'subscribe' in the subject and your e-mail address in the body of the message.
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PUBLICATION INFORMATION:
"The Dollar Stretcher" Copyright 1996. All Rights reserved. Copies may be distributed without alteration electronically free of charge. "The Dollar Stretcher" is distributed via email each Monday between 6pm and Midnight United States Eastern time zone. The newsletter runs approximately 30k in length.
All articles are printed with the author's prior consent. It is assumed that any questions, tips or replies to questions may be reprinted. The name and email address of the sender will not be used unless specifically requested. "The Dollar Stretcher" does not assume responsibility for advice given. All advice should be weighed against your own abilities and circumstances and applied accordingly. It is up to the reader to determine if advice is safe and suitable for their own situation.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Introduction

Housekeeping Tips, part 1
Three Hours to a Clean House
by Judith C. Bettinger

Gifting With Refunding
by Stephanie Lanza-Efthimiou

Credit Card Fees
A Reader's Question
by Gary Foreman

Advice from Mom
US Postal Service Offers North Pole Postmark
by Rae Osenbaugh

Tips, Quips, Quotes & Questions

IN FUTURE ISSUES:

Holiday Savings Galore
Reader's Crock Pot Recipes

Hello Frugal Friends,

With all the holidays coming up there's a good chance that you'll be doing some entertaining. That means cooking and housecleaning! This week we'll take a look at how to clean your home in three hours a week. We'll also check out some frugal gifts through refunding. I answer a reader's question about credit card fees and Mom tells us how to get a North Pole postmark for our greeting cards.

Don't forget to send us your best holiday ideas. Pass on your favorite frugal recipes, decorating tips, gift ideas. Your idea could save a bunch of time and money for many others!

And for all of our readers in the states, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and many blessings to be thankful for.

All the Best!
Gary

I'm a computer programmer by profession, but I always joke that "I should have majored in home ec." because I really love keeping an orderly house, clean clothes, and home-cooked meals. Since I work outside the home full-time, and have a 3-year-old, though, I'm chronically short on time. For a while, I tried hiring other people to do the housework, but I was never able to find someone who was reliable, honest, and consistently did good work. Disgusted, I went back to doing the work myself, but then found that I felt like a slave to my house. Finally, I did A LOT of reading, took a "Speedcleaning" class at Colorado Free University, and came up with a system that allows me to keep the house in good order without giving up sleep. We have a 2200- square foot house, and I spend roughly 3 hours per week to keep it clean. And I'm pretty picky!

To start my new system, I did three things:

1. Clear the path
Over a period of several weeks, I went through our entire house and ruthlessly purged anything that wasn't justifying its existence. I got rid of clothes, books, unused linens, broken toys, knick-knacks, kitchen utensils - you name it. We have a big front porch that was FULL of stuff that I donated to ARC, after making an itemized list to use on our tax return. This is undoubtedly the most important first step to take, because if you don't have to clean around a bunch of stuff, it's going to be a whole lot easier to keep things in order. As Don Aslett says in "Clutter's Last Stand", "don't love anything that can't love you back". I don't miss ANYTHING that I got rid of, and it's amazing how much more efficiently the house runs.

2. Organize the stuff
Deniece Schofield's "Confessions Of An Organized Homemaker" was a tremendous resource for this one. She suggests wonderful ways to organize everything from the linen closet to the kitchen. Doing this has probably cut my "pick up" task to a third of what it once was, and now I can always find what I need in my kitchen. I found Deniece's book at our library, but it was so useful that I bought my own copy.

3. Schedule the tasks
Deniece Schofield also suggests scheduling your housework. At first, this seemed kind of silly. But after trying this technique, I find that it's immensely freeing - once I've done whatever needs to be done on a particular day, then I'm DONE. It helps me get things done regularly; I was about to give up keeping houseplants, for example, because I kept forgetting to water them and they'd die. Now I water plants every Monday, and they look great. Scheduling also keeps any one job from becoming overwhelming. If I clean the oven once a month, it never has a chance to get to the point where I have to spend hours cleaning it. Best of all, scheduling has given me MUCH more free time to spend with my family.

Here's what my schedule looks like:
Daily - go through the house and do "pick up".
Monday - water plants, spritz bathrooms (more about bathrooms later!)
Tuesday - clean stove, do paperwork
Wednesday - run a couple of loads of laundry, spritz bathrooms
Thursday - plan meals, wipe out fridge
Friday - paperwork, spritz bathrooms
Saturday - groceries in early morning (when I can find the best bargains), laundry, mending (while my daughter naps)
Sunday - clean the house (takes about 2 hours - more on that later, too!), monthly tasks

Monthly Tasks:
first Sunday - change furnace filters
second Sunday - damp mop hardwood floors
third Sunday - clean out freezer
fourth Sunday - clean oven

In the next few months, I'll share what I've learned about cleaning bathrooms, the kitchen, and the rest of the house.

Judy has agreed to join our team of housekeeping experts. Since cleaning our castles takes so much time and money, we'll be featuring tips from a variety of perspectives on how to save both. Look for practical, real world solutions to help you maintain your home as well as your sanity!

(editor's note: This article originally appeared in Moneytalk Magazine which features information on refunding. If you'd like to learn more about the magazine please email Stephanie for details.)

Have you ever wished you could save on your holiday and occasion gifts the same way you do with your groceries? You may be surprised to see how easy it is to do just that.

I have been refunding/couponing on gifts for years. I'd like to give you some ideas you can start with. Once you try it, you'll be surprised at how easy the ideas take shape.

Naturally, there is the obvious. If your child is asking for a toy, check the form boards and displays for rebate forms. If you come up empty handed, be sure to save your packaging and CRT. An offer may come out after you make your purchase.

Most of my gifts are ensembles of small items presented in a festively wrapped basket. I try to go with a theme of some sort, geared to the person. If I don't have a theme, I give a group of items every household needs, figuring that everyone likes to save a few dollars and is glad to get stuff they can use. I've always found this type of gift most enjoyed and useful when I have been the recipient. But I assumed it was too expensive to buy a bunch of items and often went with one common item, like a single article of clothing. Then I realized how I could save big and give nicer gifts at the same time.

One theme I am working on now is an Italian pizza kit. I've sent for the Ragu trivet, and am hoping it is as nice as it looks in the Sunday supplement ad I found the form in! The shipping and handling was $2 on this item. I am also awaiting the arrival of the pizza `paddle' from Tony's frozen pizza. This was a specially marked package offer, requiring 3 UPC's from Tony's Deep Dish Pizza and $2.50 shipping and handling. I'll add to this the Lean Cuisine Hot Mitt I got through the Self Magazine call in freebie. Although it wasn't a toll free number, I got the hot mitt for just a local call to Self magazine's request line.

Let me say right here, that I never used to do an offer that required shipping and handling. I resented the fact that the company making the offer didn't just run a rebate form instead. Then I realized that oftentimes I couldn't buy that item in a store for the price they were asking, so I started doing these types of deals when I felt they were worthwhile.

Back to my pizza kit. Once I have the paddle, hot mitt and trivet, I will most likely group them with a package of Pizza Quick sauce [gotten on sale and with a doubled coupon, of course], maybe some shelf stable grated cheese, such as Kraft, and a shaker of Pizza blended spices. If you do any of the toll freebies or World Wide Web freebies, you may have recently gotten a package of Italian blend spices. Single Italian spices like Basil and Oregano would be fine too. If you have a spice garden, you could dry some leaves whole and put them in a small Ball jar. Last year when I bought a case of Ball jelly jars there was a sheet of coupons inside that were good on related items which was a nice surprise.

Other ideas for this ensemble could be a red & white checkered tablecloth, some cloth napkins with rings, a subscription to a food magazine, or maybe some Italian recipes you got from other offers. You can make it very basic or quite elaborate, based on how much you want to spend.

Using the pizza paddle as a base, attractively arrange the items, and wrap. To wrap this I will use red cellophane, laid out under the pizza paddle, folded over, and gathered in a bunch at the top of the paddle's handle. I'll tie it with a few strands of coordinating curling ribbon.

In all, I will probably spend between $10 and $15 on this gift. It looks nicer than gift sets you see prepackaged in the department stores, and the receiver will know that you put personal thought into it. It can be used for a couple, a student going off to college, a young person getting their first apartment, a wedding shower, or for someone who loves pizza!

Okay, now you have the idea. There are lots of other occasions where an ensemble gift is appreciated and enjoyed. You will realize that when you see a free item for something you have no opportunity to use at home, that you will be able to use it for gifting. That is the case for me with baby care items. I have had all my children, and with them being 13, 11 and eight my grandparenting days are quite far off. However, any great deal on baby stuff is sure to be tossed into my shopping cart. Why? I do have friends and relatives of childbearing age, and never know when I will have the occasion to give a baby shower or new baby gift.

A new mom can use lots of baby supplies to get her through those early weeks when she is not yet up to doing her shopping regularly. I often fill a plastic baby tub with bath and toiletry items. A small basin in the color of the nursery [with the same kind of items] is needed for the early days when sponge baths are the norm. Once that time passes mom can use the basin for storing toys, or soaking bottles.

Maybe your store is having a great sale on diapers and wipes, well, you can be sure that they will be appreciated and put to good use! A new baby will go through a pack or two of diapers a week.

Before you write off those Gerber coupons, think twice! Baby food has long expiration dates. A plastic travel dish filled with jars of food is another idea. You can add a bib, and wrap in a cloth diaper, receiving blanket or towel. If you find stockpiled jars of baby food or cans of formula are getting close to expiration date, you can donate them to a local shelter or food program. These programs are grateful for the donation and you benefit by getting a tax writeoff for the value of the food. Make sure to get a receipt from the organization if you plan to deduct the amount from your income taxes.

The gift I have given the most is a personal care kit. I do them in two different ways, either as a basket or as a travel kit.

When I am making a basket I line it with a nice, plush washcloth or hand towel. I fill the basket according to the person's gender. For a lady's basket I would use ladies' razors, [did you get the B1G1F 5pk. Bic razor coupon in the June 16th Sunday supplement?] the Pure Silk I got with a full purchase price refund, a bar of beauty soap, a ladies' deodorant, a scented candle, box of pain reliever [especially for a mom of young children!]. The possibilities are endless.

For a teenage girl you might want to give makeup items, often available with full purchase price rebates in the major chain drugstores like Walgreen's, Rite Aid, etc. Young ladies are often experimenting with new colors and brands. I would hesitate to give makeup items to a grown woman, however. I think an adult is more set in her color/brand choices and unless I knew for sure this was a product she would use, I would be leery to give it.

A man can use many of the same items, in the masculine version. A masculine deodorant, shave cream, and razor are a good start. Add an aftershave, shoe insoles, a sports, computer or financial magazine for bathroom reading, or athlete's foot spray.

When working on a personal care kit, keep an eye out for trial sizes of commonly used items. There are often free coupons for these items. There are many offers to find out on the World Wide Web and toll free numbers, [many listed here in Moneytalk] where you can get samples free for the asking. Again, select items to be included based on whether you have a man or a woman to give a gift to. Take all your trial/travel size items and fill a travel bag with them.

If you know an upcoming travel destination for the person you are giving it to, you could call a toll free number [look it up on the www at AT&T's toll free directory. The address is www.tollfree.att.net or call 1(800) 555-1212 for toll free information.] and get information for their travel destination and pack it inside the kit.

One last idea I recently learned from a fellow refunder gave me a good laugh. For a bridal shower, one of the gag gifts she gave was a pair of socks. She attached a note telling the bride they were to be used in case she `got cold feet.' I thought this was hilarious. I also immediately thought of the Hanes Head to Toe offer that is good until October. You can get a pair of socks for four Hanes UPC's with no handling fee!

I hope these few ideas have given you a springboard to go from. Once you do it a few times, the ideas will just keep coming. Enjoy!

I am a stay at home mom in my early 30's, 3 kids 14 y/o son, 11 y/o daughter and nine year old son. We moved out of NYC about 2 years ago to live in a semi-rural setting about 70 miles north of the city. Hubby's commute, children's 'needs' such as $80 sneakers, feeding our exotic pets and real estate taxes cost a fortune so I try to be frugal any way I can. I am big into coupons and refunds.

Dear Gary,
About a month ago, I got a letter from my credit card company, Capital One, telling me that they have selected to give me a (temporarily) lower interest rate and are giving me a $20 annual fee. Before, I had no annual fee. I pay my bill in full every month to avoid paying any interest. Therefore, the "generous" offer of a lower interest rate did not apply to me at all. I read the fine print, and it said they were changing the terms of my account because of "insufficient activity." We charge plenty every month, but we pay it off in full. This letter was a sneaky way of telling us that they will punish us for paying our bill off every month.

From what I've read in the news, this is becoming common practice. Do you have any suggestions about dealing with this situation? Are any credit card companies out there who actually appreciate when their customers aren't on the brink of bankruptcy?

What I've done: I called Capital One first to see if they'd deal with me. They said that I wouldn't be charged the $20 until April, and we could negotiate then. Of course, if they refused to negotiate then, I wouldn't have any other credit card to go back to, and I would be stuck. So I've applied to a credit card from a credit union in the local area and am awaiting their response. If they accept me, I will drop Capital One.

I would convert to a check card--a card that looks like a credit card but acts like a check--if my bank offered them. It's a small local bank, and I don't want to go through the bother of changing banks.)
-- Sara

Sara is confronting an issue that we'll all face in the next few years. Credit card companies are beginning to admit that they like to lend us money (at crazy rates, of course!) They also are making an effort to reduce the number of cardholders who pay their bills in full each month. But, don't worry. All is not lost!

The first thing you should do when faced with this situation is what Sara did. Contact the credit card company and ask them to waive the fee. Sometimes they will and sometimes they won't. This is one time when having an excellent payment history isn't going to help.

If the credit card issuer refuses to drop the fee, your next step is to find another credit card without a fee that will give you the credit limit you need. If getting a high enough credit limit is a problem you can get two new cards or review your spending habits!

There are banks that offer no fee cards. A quick search on "credit cards + no fee" in a search engine brought up twenty six banks with current offers. Ten of those were said to be willing to accept accounts from anywhere in the U.S. You might not even have to search them out. I get offers every week in my junk mail. Every so often there's one for a no fee card.

You might want to think twice before changing to a check card. Remember what's happening here. If you pay your bill in full each month you've actually received a free loan from the credit card company. It's only for a couple of weeks, but never-the-less it's still a free loan. (Don't worry about the credit card company. They make up for it by charging the store 1% or more on each transaction.)

But if you go to a check card, your account will be charged as soon as the bill clears. It works almost as if you wrote a check for your purchase. You'll lose that short free loan you've been getting. However, if you only make small or occasional purchases a check card could be fine for you.

One recent event means that we'll all need to be more aware of credit card fees. This past summer the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that companies can base their fees on the state where the company is located rather than the customer's location. Most companies are located in South Dakota and Delaware. You can guess why. That's were the laws are least restrictive on fees.

Some experts are predicting a surge in the kinds of fees and the amounts charged. You'll probably start seeing fees for cash advances, calling to ask your account balance and even for not using your card enough. The best strategy is go shop around. There are over 6,000 companies that issue credit cards. Find out about some of them.

Just like in most everything else, credit cards are getting more complicated. You need to know more to make a good decision. But the good side is that there are plenty of options available to you. With a little research you should be able to find a credit card that does a good job of meeting your individual needs.

Gary writes the weekly Dollar Stretcher column. It's dedicated to "Living Better...for Less!" If you have a question for Gary, just send it to him at Gary@stretcher.com

(this article was in my local paper this week, I thought it was interesting enough to reprint here)

The North Pole Station is once again offering its special North Pole postmark during the holiday season.

People who want to receive the postmark should perform the following four steps:

First, they should completely address and apply postage stamps to the envelope or envelopes on which they want to have the North Pole postmark.

Second, they should insert the envelope or envelopes into a larger envelope or container. Third, they should include a note requesting the special North Pole postmark.

Finally, they should mail to North Pole Cancellations, U.S. Postal Service, 5400 Mail Trail, Fairbanks, Alaska 99709- 9998.

The Postal Service recommends large orders of addressed and stamped envelopes be sent via Priority or Express mail. The cards will be postmarked North Pole and will be mailed from Fairbanks.

Postmarked cards will not be returned to customers for mailing from their own town. North Pole cancellations requests should be received in Fairbanks by December 7.

Have a good day! --Rae

Rae is the mother of nine (and grandmother of two) in central Nebraska. She says her house runs smoothly due to "organized chaos, and lots of lists! Anyone wishing to drop her a line is welcome to at rae@kdsi.net

Again, thanks for an excellent on-line discussion of frugal living.
Regards,
Mike L

http://www. lalecheleague.org/
http://www.lalecheleague.org/helpform.html
http://www.lalecheleague.org/homepage.html

May I also direct you to the LLLI pages that feature numerous articles on breastfeeding (bfinfo.html at same address above), including FAQs and NEW BEGINNINGS articles at the LLLI site.
--Eileen

Kristina didn't mention her income situation, but she may be eligible for the WIC Program. WIC is not a welfare or an entitlement program. It is a supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children up to age 5. It provides vouchers for nutritious food worth up to $130 per month per person, nutrition education and breastfeeding support. She should call her local WIC agency to determine eligibility, many working lower income families can enroll in WIC, as well as those on public assistance. WIC is available throughout the United States. Vouchers are issued for eggs, cheese, milk, dried peas and beans, peanut butter, juice, infant and adult cereals and tuna and carrots for breastfeeding women.
--Anne B
Outreach Specialist
American Red Cross WIC

All the Best!

Gary Foreman
"The Dollar Stretcher"
gary@stretcher.com
http://www.stretcher.com/dollar

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PUBLICATION INFORMATION:
"The Dollar Stretcher" Copyright 1996. All Rights reserved. Copies may be distributed without alteration electronically free of charge. "The Dollar Stretcher" is distributed via email each Monday between 6pm and Midnight United States Eastern time zone. The newsletter runs approximately 30k in length.
All articles are printed wibr>Web page designed and developed by The Dollar Stretcher, gary@stretcher.com

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