The Morning After

Sometimes the day after a yard sale bonanza you wake up with a bit of a hangover:

Remember the nice pretty dining room when the freezer arrived?

I miss that.  I really do.

Especially when my mother called this morning to tell me they'd be coming over HERE for Father's Day tomorrow!

Yup.  I'm pretty sure that's exactly what my face looked like as I calmly told my mother, "Sure, that sounds great.....were you planning on lunch or dinner?"

There's a reason I refuse to video phone.  With anyone.

Father's Day Ideas

Okay, now that I've calmed down about the yard sale crankiness from earlier, I'd like to dedicate some space to Father's Day ideas.  Since we don't have any kidlets of our own, I don't have to worry about coming up with ideas for hubby that involve OJ cans, yarn, and puddles of glue.  (Actual gift given to my father circa 1980-something.)

However, I still have to come up with ideas for my father, who pretty much has everything he wants and the means to buy whatever he wants (or at least more than I could buy him) if he so desires.  It's been about 30 years since I could get away with making a pencil holder for him and calling it good.  Nowadays, I have to actually get creative.

Both of my parents have so much stuff in their house I'm always reluctant to add anything to it that isn't:

a) a gag gift (and therefore able to be disposed of without any guilt)
 or
b) consumable

This year, I'm planning on the following:

1)  Rhubarb Jam that we purchased from a roadside stand in Pennsylvania
2)  Crabcakes made with bluefin crab caught off the dock at my in-laws house in Virginia
3)  Homemade tapioca pudding

My dad loves rhubarb, and they've been trying to grow it in the garden for several years, with varying success.  He also grew up in Pennsylvania, so finding Rhubarb Jam made in the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch method is a double win.

Living in Indiana, my parents don't get to eat good seafood very often unless they travel to Florida to see my grandparents.  I personally can't stand seafood, but hubby loves it and my parents love it, so it's a labor of love for me to put up with the smelly stuff as I make crabcakes for all of them.  Hubby's labor of love is sharing his precious stash of bluefin crab reserve!

I recently came across a great recipe for homemade tapioca pudding.  I've tried it once and the results were simply DIVINE.  I think for this time around I will soak the tapioca overnight, but other than that I can follow the directions just as she wrote them.

Do yourself a favor and bring a stool into the kitchen for this one -- you'll be stirring for 35 minutes straight and your feet will appreciate the break!

What are YOUR ideas for Father's Day this year?  Struggling for ideas?  Have it all planned out?  Sound off in the comments below!

(Note:  I fixed the issue the comment box was having earlier - it didn't used to allow anonymous comments.  Now you can comment to your heart's content! :) )

Yard Sale Day!

I was so excited to be able to map out 9 yard sales for today which stretched all the way across town.  I started at 8:30 am, right after dropping hubby off at work.  Little did I know that by 2:30 pm, it would be 96 degrees out and I would have visited 30+ yard sales in 6 hours.

Warning:  I'm a little cranky.

Before I empty the trunk and tell you about all the great scores I got today, I want to write an open letter to all yard sale proprietors in Indiana:

Dear Yard Sale Seller:

As a frequent yard sale patron, I'd like to take this opportunity to offer you some advice for success on your next sale.

1. Don't make me use my GPS navigator to find you after pulling off to the side of the road to read the tiny print on your sign that contains your address.  The more work I have to do to find your sale, the less money I want to spend on your items.  You've cost me time, now it will cost you money. 
2. USE ARROWS.  For God's sake.  (And all the rest of us shoppers too.)  Seriously.  Invest a couple dollars in some matching fluorescent posterboard (they sell it at Walgreens, it's not that expensive), buy a giant size Sharpie marker, and use the top half of the sign to say "SALE" and the bottom half of the sign to have a huge arrow.  This works.  I know it does.  Because every yard sale I've ever hosted there's hardly any items left unsold and I always have steady traffic throughout the day.  If you do your arrows well, I don't need to know your address.  Your arrows will lead me right to you. 
3. YOUR CLOTHES ARE NOT AT A THRIFT STORE.  Quit pricing them like they are.  This is a yard sale.  Clothes are a bottom of the barrel commodity and should be priced accordingly.  I don't mind you pricing t-shirts at 50 cents apiece, but when I have to sort through 20 shirts to find 4 that don't have paint or food stains on them, don't get all pissy with me when I offer you $1.00 for the four of them.  I just spent tons of time sorting through and refolding your shirts for you.  If you wanted me to spend 50 cents a shirt, you should've sorted them yourself and priced the paint ones at 25 cents apiece with a sign saying "Stained t-shirts: great for painting!  4/$1"
4. EXPECT HAGGLING UNLESS YOU NOTE THE PRICE IS FIRM.  This is Indiana.  We love to negotiate.  So when you price a sweatshirt for $3, don't get all pissy when I offer $2 and then decide not to buy it because you cop an attitude and insist upon $3.  It's your option to sell it for $3.  It's my option not to buy it.  When it's 96 degrees out there's not really a high demand for sweatshirts.

Here's why we don't want to spend a lot on clothing when we buy it at yard sales:  

• It's really hard to find our size  
• If we're lucky enough to find our size, it's usually horrendously out of style
• We always have to dig through piles to find our size and style and then hope against hope that you haven't put out stained or ripped clothing
• By the time we find something that works for us, we've put forth so much effort we're only willing to spend about 25 cents apiece unless it's a real find (like the trenchcoat I'll be featuring later).  

If I wanted to spend $3-5 apiece for clothing items I'd head to Second Glance, my favorite upscale secondhand store.  There I can shop in air conditioned comfort, find my size by walking to a particular section of the store, and try on the items before purchasing to make sure I like them.  I'm willing to stand out in the heat and sort through your pile of clothes only because I want to get it cheaper than the thrift store.  If you price it as high as the thrift store, I'm not interested!  It's just not worth the time and effort.  Especially when 29 other sales are calling my name and some of them end at noon!

I'd love to buy your items.  You obviously want to get rid of them.  Let's work together to make it a mutually satisfying experience, okay?




Yours Truly,

Frequent Yard Sale Buyer

Health Insurance

Lots of people wonder which health insurance plan they should choose at their company.  Others wonder if they can afford the monthly premiums deducted from their checks.  Still others wish they even had a choice.

Then there's me.  Sitting on a blog, trying to come up with a way to explain the complexities of insurance without putting you to sleep.  Or worse, confusing you.

Here are some cold hard facts about health insurance:

• Most doctors give a cash discount for settling your bill at the time of service instead of having it billed or processed through an insurance company.  Just ask at the reception desk.
• It costs your doctor a lot of money to process an insurance claim.  He has to hire people who specialize in specific codings and processes for multitudes of insurance companies.  Often it is months until he is paid.
• The insurance company is a lot like "the house" in Vegas.  The odds are in the insurance company's favor.  
• Health insurance used to be something purchased to insure against catastrophic expenses, such as major accidents or surgeries.  When people expect insurance to pay for everything, it increases the costs for everyone, including the doctors.

When it comes to making a decision about health insurance, you need to keep the following factors in mind:

1. What medical expenses do I know I will have on a regular basis?  (ie, recurring prescriptions, bi-annual doctor visits, etc.)
2. What is the actual retail price for those expenses?  (ie, the price without insurance)  You might be surprised to learn it is usually less than $150 to visit your doctor.  The lab tests are what will give you sticker shock.  Talk to your doctor or nurse to find out which labs in town have the lowest prices.  Walgreens now offers cholesterol screenings for only $30.
3. How much can I afford on a monthly basis for medical costs?  This amount should include  premiums you're already paying (or planning on paying), any amount you currently set aside in an FSA or HSA, plus any extra you can devote to medical costs.
4. What dollar amount on a medical bill would bankrupt me?  (This is the amount you want to insure against.)

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can begin to evaluate some of your decisions about health insurance.  It's all about running the numbers to see what choices help you come out ahead.

Are YOU facing difficult choices about your health insurance?  Sound off in the comments below or shoot me an email at ChiefBargainHunter@gmail.com and I'd be happy to help you!

My Pioneer Cooking Habit

Thanks to Ree Drummond I had 4 pieces of chocolate cake this morning.  Granted, this was after having two eggs for breakfast, but those piddly little eggs are nowhere near enough protein to balance out the sugar high of THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE EVER. 

While energized with sugar, I managed to clean up the kitchen, put away all the remaining cake pieces out of sight (and eat one more), then start making Simple, Perfect Chili from Ree's cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. 

Suffice to say, I love how this woman cooks.  Real butter.  Real cream.  Whole milk.  Half and half without shame.  She's my hero.

I also like how easy it is to convert her recipes into gluten free (GF).  Since her target audience is cowboys, there's a heavy focus on meat and potatoes, which are naturally GF.  Occasionally I have to substitute cornstarch for flour (when needed for thickening) or Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour (when needed for baking), but usually I can stick with the recipe as she's written it.

And now that all that sugar is about to drop into a precarious sugar crash, I think I'll go fix some of my favorite PW Iced Coffee! Naturally GF, and oh-so-good with half and half creamer.  YUM!

The Freezer Arrives!

Today our new freezer arrived and I'm super excited.  This pretty much triples our freezer capacity, allowing me to make stuff ahead and pull out ready made food to eat at a moment's notice.  This will also enable me to take advantage of those "Special Buys" that pop up at Aldi's and purchase in bulk to throw in the freezer.

Now I wouldn't be Chief Bargain Hunter if I hadn't gotten a great deal on this freezer.  I could have gotten a better deal if hubby hadn't been wary of buying a used model (hello Craigslist!), but I think I did pretty well for our needs.

Our needs were as follows:

$200 or less (total out of pocket up front, including tax)
Delivered (we live in an upstairs apartment and don't own a truck)
5.0 cubic feet storage (not too big, not too small)
Good ratings (didn't want it to crap out after a year)

After comparing all the prices, we ended up settling on the GE Freezer from Home Depot.  Listed price was $189, with free shipping/delivery, and over 300 people had given it very good ratings.  I logged in to Ebates, (my go-to place before purchasing ANYTHING online) and saw that not only would I get 5% back on my purchase, but their coupon section had a code for $5 off any purchase of $50 or more!

So initial out of pocket expense was $189 - $5 coupon = $184 + 7% tax = $196.88.  An additional $9.20 will be coming back to me via Ebates, bringing my final cost down to $187.68 - a savings of $14.55!

Delivery was done by Kid Glove Service, Inc., a subcontractor for Home Depot.  I could not have been happier with their service.  I placed the order on Sunday, June 10, and selected Tuesday, June 12 for delivery.  On Monday, a representative from Kid Glove called to let me know they would be stopping by between 12 and 4 pm on Tuesday.  On Tuesday, just before 1:00 pm, I received another phone call from the delivery driver stating that they were about 10 minutes out and would this be a convenient time to drop off the freezer?  Within 15 minutes the freezer had arrived, been installed, and the delivery crew was gone.  Impeccable service, professional handling, and a really satisfied customer!  I might give them half a star off for leaving newsprint fingerprints on the freezer (a likely side effect of unpacking it on the truck instead of in my living room), but I figure what's a quick wipedown with a microfiber cloth compared to excellent, on time delivery with professionals?

I'm definitely a very happy customer!  (And looking forward to sharing my freezer recipes with you soon!)



 

The Adventure Begins

On May 29 I turned in the keys to my old job and turned towards a new one:

Chief Bargain Hunter
(And Domestic Fiscal Administrator)

Fancy fun-sounding names aside, I was scared shitless.  I had just walked away from a good-paying job (sort of) and unabashedly cut our income stream in half.  Was I crazy? 

Fortunately, I had run the numbers before making my exit, and figured out that even though I was doubling our income with my job, I was also making us miserable in the process. 

As a Property Manager, I was responsible for the success or failure of the portfolio I managed, and I took that responsibility seriously.    My first month on the job averaged 16-18 hour days 7 days/week, including holidays.  I drank so much Starbucks coffee during that time I qualified for their gold card within 2 weeks.  I was literally running on passion, caffeine, and an unwillingness to fail.

As time went on, my workload lessened slightly, and I was able to take one day off per week.  This became my "household chores day" when I would madly do laundry, clean house, wash dishes, etc.  Fun way to relax, huh?

This continued for about 6 months, with both my husband and I becoming more and more miserable, and our bank accounts never growing substantially like we had planned. 

One night I sat down and calculated what we were currently spending vs. what we would spend if I weren't working.  When all was said and done, we could easily live off of one salary and still have a decent amount left over for savings each month.  If I could increase my cooking and reduce or eliminate pre-made foods, I could reduce our food budget and increase our savings even more.

The plan for exit was made. 6 weeks later I fired my boss and became CBH of our household. 

The adventure had begun!