Blog: Pam's Pennypinching With STYLE

It's the Thoughts that Count

Friday, November 09, 2007

Lots of frugal blogs have specific frugal tips, and, I admit, I go there, too - but really, over the years I have found that it's the way of FRUGAL THINKING that makes the most difference.

Because, frankly, the outlets come and go.  Thrift shops open and close.  The contributors change.  The local discount stores close.

So you always have to be on the hunt - THINKING FRUGALLY.  It's the ingenuity that pays off.  You have to think - how can I do this (whatever) in a simple/frugal way? 

That was proven to me when years ago now, I went pack to the NY area for a season.  I wandered around Manhattan and found all sorts of bargain places not available in California!  And I found thrift shops in NJ in which I bought old silver for a ridiculous price! 

In short, I found myself able to maximize my $s in the same way I had in California, but through different means.  This even proved true in a recent visit back to NJ, when I found that the TJ Maxx-type stores had really good deals in skin care products, whereas in L.A. the demand far exceeds the supply! So I stocked up when I could & it lasted me for months....

When we lived at the beach, I discovered the great thrift shops in the Central Coast and its gateway.  Lots of things are there, I think because of all the retirees (and the Ritchie riches of places like Santa Barbara).  A friend of mine, a minor antique picker, likes to do the rounds of these thrift shops whenever he's up there visiting me, to get things like engravings and other minor antiques for resale at bargain basement prices.  I myself got a 19th C. colored lithograph, framed, at a Salvation Army on SALE for $7! But I did have to have the eye to recognize it, and its general period boing - which was later confirmed as correct!

So what would I suggest?  Develop your EYE.  Learn how to discern the good stuff, even if mixed up with junk. (Those situations offer the best deals.)  Windowshop at expensive stores to acquaint yourself with quality, and with brand names.  So you KNOW a Bill Blass worth picking up!  I enjoy windowshopping at antique stores just to see what my stuff is generally worth, and also to again, develop my eye for older things. 

Stay out of the mainstream as much as possible and search out the highways and byways of merchandising.  Don't be wedded to name brands merely due to their clout, either.  An obscure brand of face cream can very well be just the thing.  I stock up at the local 99 Cent stores here for creams and so on all the time.  And I am still working on the stash of colored shampoo/conditioner I got 2 years ago!  (At 99 cents a bottle it was a steal compared to the $7-8 they would cost in a drug store, so I got about a dozen bottles.)

THINK frugally and creatively.  After all these years, it's a game to me, and fun to rack up those frugal savings points!  Getting a $200 leather handbag for $7 is a real coup and cause to mentally celebrate!

It used to bother me that people would think I was a secondhand Rose - but in this day of being green and living simply - it's more of a thing to boast about.  (Although I would still check your circles - the nouveau riche are still not into this - but rather conspicuous consumption for the most part. Hey, I live in L.A., so I know....)

So put your thinking caps on and come up with a really clever solution.  We will be waiting to read about it at thriftyfun.com, our mothership. (I post there regularly, too.)

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Think Frugally and Out of the Box!

pamphyila

The most important element of frugality is being ingenious! c. doverpublishing.com used w/permission

Author:
pamphyila
L.A., CA USA
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