Tag Archives: Resale

A Day in the Life of a Cheapskate

I spent the weekend living like a cheapskate.  I didn’t try to.  I just kind of lived my weekend life as I normally do, and it turns out my brain kind of defaults to less expensive choices.

The highlight of fall weekends for me is watching Penn State football games on TV.  But I don’t have cable.  I do have an assortment of streaming services, but none of them were carrying this week’s game.  I usually subscribe to one of the “watch live TV” services at some point during the football season (and carry it through bowl games), but I was trying to put it off as long as I can.  I won’t be home for next week’s game, so if I could find a way to watch this week’s for free I would be good until mid-October.  So I signed up for a one week free trial for one of the services I’m not planning to use for the full season, but had the Penn State game.  The next day I canceled the service so I wouldn’t be charged.  I feel a little bad for taking advantage of the service like that….but not that bad.  I usually do this once a year, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

For dinner on Saturday I was thinking about getting a slab of barbeque ribs from the warehouse club.  But the $18 price tag made me rethink that.  I also thought about ordering a pizza.  But ultimately I pulled out my Instant Pot and made a pot of soup.  It was a lot cheaper than the other two options.  And likely better for me.  And we have leftovers.

I also needed to buy some jeans this weekend.  Apparently the Covid-19 pounds that I gained have morphed into the Covid 29, and now my pants don’t fit.  But I like the jeans I have.  I just need the next size up (until I can get myself back on the treadmill to get my weight under control).  Rather than buy new, I went to my favorite resale site, Poshmark.  I found a bundle of three pair in my new (hopefully temporary) size for a good price, so I bought it.  I like buying used clothes.  It’s less expensive to buy better quality that way.  And it’s better for the environment to reuse like that.  So much fast fashion ends up in the world’s landfills, so I just feel better about reusing an item somebody didn’t want anymore.

I guess I have the mindset of a cheapskate.  And I’m fine with that.  I can dress it up and say that I’m “choosing a frugal lifestyle” or something like that, but the reality is I’m pretty cheap in regular life.  And I’m pretty sure that’s a good way to be for this era of super high inflation.  If my default is to keep costs low, that makes it a lot easier to get to the next paycheck.

Do you default to the less expensive options?  Should you?

Shopping Off-Season–Even Resale!

Everyone knows that shopping off season can save you some money. For example, this week is the best time to get a great deal on next year’s Halloween costume or decorations.  Or a giant bag of candy to satiate your sweet tooth and disappoint your dentist.

Halloween-clearance-70-off

But what if your favorite place to shop is a resale shop (like my favorite shopping fix, the State College Goodwill Store)?  Do you still need to think about shopping off-season?  I think yes.

I made a journey to Goodwill yesterday (Sunday….because that’s the day they change the prices and you get the best selection in the 49 cent and half price categories) and found several things for the current season, but also got amazing deals on a couple of pairs of shorts and an awesome pair of REI convertible pants (the legs zip off and they turn into shorts) for camping.  Did these things cost less than if I had purchased them in the summer?  No.  But I did have a lot more to choose from because most people are not looking for summer clothes in November.  So I bought the summer clothes and they’ll hang out in my basement until May, and then I’ll have new (to me) clothes that I completely forgot about over the winter.

Shopping off-season isn’t limited to regular retail.  Think about it when you’re shopping resale as well!