The Thrill of Thrifting

I've written about thrifting in the past and attributed it to our parsimonious natures, as well as our penchant for reusing and recycling. It's not like it's an odious task for me. Truth be told, I love thrifting, in case you haven't guessed. It's how we've clothed ourselves over the past two decades and done a pretty good job of it, I think ... always good value and pennies on the dollar compared to new. I set us a new challenge when we bought the house. I wanted to furnish the house as much as possible using used/recycled furniture and wow, have we ever scored big. I was already familiar with some of the thrift shop opportunities in Las Vegas. There's the usual suspects: Salvos (Salvation Army), Good Will, Savers and Catholic Charities, to name a few. We also discovered Epic Thrift, Deseret and Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Most all have a “senior day” when additional discounts are offered to the over 55 crowd and from this I determined the best day to shop. At Mary's suggestion, we also checked out Colleen's Consignments for several good buys and, of course, Craigslist was consulted frequently. We scoured the yard sale and estate ads for items of interest.

I made list of what we needed … a rather long list since we haven't owned a house for a long time. Mary moved some of her furniture to the new house and furnished her and Karen's room plus some of the family room, but there were big voids and lots of empty space in this 8-room house. We needed stuff! We set ourselves a reasonable budget and promised to stick to it. Shopping at the not-for-profit thrift shops, by the way, also saved us the local 8% state sales tax which was another important savings. Salvos also participates in a program called Flok with a phone app which provides coupon savings on purchases, as well as frequent buyer discounts.

We haunted all the thrift stores regularly. It was hard passing up good buys before we actually moved, but we did our best to wait. We started out small. We found a great set of three swivel bar stools for the breakfast counter with four extra chairs for $67.50 and a versatile side table for the family room for $37.50. Both purchases were made at Salvos which ended up being our favorite store(s) for both value and selection. There are three stores in Las Vegas and we hit them all. Catholic Charities, however, came through with an 8' tall, lighted cherry bookcase for $75 which accommodated the family book collection and fit perfectly into an alcove in the family room.

Once we actually owned the house, we began furnishing in earnest, but with specific needs in mind. Patience paid off. We found a solid cherry dining room set with china cabinet on Craigslist which fit perfectly into the new dining room.

We'd get up early in the morning to head to estate and yard sales. We'd hit the thrift shops and consignment shops to see what was on offer. The inventory changes almost daily. Some of the furniture was awful, but there were gems to be had.

A like-new sofa was purchased at Colleen's Consignments and a cherry secretary which we certainly didn't need at all, became a necessity when we saw it at Salvo's for $68! Habitat for Humanity Restore was a good source for a beveled-glass, over the mantle mirror, as well as some new bathroom hardware.

We wanted to set up an office in our bedroom and since we wanted everything to “match”, the challenge was to find matching desks. David found two matching granite-topped writing tables which worked perfectly when we purchased a couple of inexpensive file cabinets to go with them. Acquiring desk lamps and accessories are in progress. The extra chairs that came with the bar stool purchase work just fine at the desks.

We'd been searching without success for a chest of drawers. Now that we have a place to leave clothes, we wanted something to put them in. The piece de resistance was found at an estate sale on the west side of town. A beautiful solid wood armoire in excellent condition was for sale and we snagged it the moment we saw it.

We had a couple of missteps. I bought a hanging pot rack for the kitchen, but found that with our vaulted ceilings, it just didn't make sense. Luckily, I sold it at our moving sale and actually made a small profit on it. We needed a kitchen table and chairs for the breakfast nook and couldn't seem to find anything that we liked. We ended up settling for a small oak table with two chairs which sufficed, but wasn't great. We should have been more patient because just a few days later, we found a great table and chair set at Salvos which was almost perfect. We've got the original set advertised on Craigslist and we're hoping to sell it before we leave to fly back to Trinidad. Even if we don't sell it, the total cost for both sets was $120, so we're not out all that much.

Oh, there are still things to find and buy to get us totally settled. We need some good artwork on the walls, accessory pieces, accents, and floor lighting. I found an excellent used window treatments book on Amazon that will help with drapes. The living room echoes … we need an area rug or two for the wooden floors to absorb the sound. A good wing chair next to the sofa would be nice. Altogether, however, we've spent less than $1,800 to furnish the house, well below the allotted budget. Which means, of course, I have “credits” for future yard sale, estate sale, thrift shop, craigslist, etc. purchases. Currently, I'm high on the thrill of thrifting. Cheap entertainment for a sailor on land. If only marine parts were such a bargain!!!

Credit Card Woes

We haven't had many issues with our credit cards while traveling the past 15 years until recently. Oh, sure, we get frustrated when charges don't go through, but we usually don't have issues with unauthorized charges. The current problem is not a fraud thing, though we've had a few charges on our account from time to time that weren't ours. We had an issue in Chile once when buying diesel where the owner knowingly charged us twice. Luckily, I caught it before we left Puerto Montt … he had done the same thing to another cruiser as well. We visited him with the proof of the duplicate charges. He said it was just a little mix-up and sheepishly handed us back cash on the spot.

This time, it's a little different. I noticed a duplicate charge on our Visa card account at the end of May. I called the little restaurant that charged us twice, explained the issue to the manager, but was met with a bit of resistance. Bring your receipt and come to the restaurant, she said. Well, I didn't have the receipt any longer and the restaurant wasn't convenient to get to. I lodged an on-line dispute with the credit card company and let it go at that.

About a week later, another duplicate charge showed up … different vendor. This place had a customer service department and the woman promised to look into it immediately and credit out the dupe charge. She was good on her word, but of course, the rand exchange had changed and so the credit was for a bit less than the duplicate charge. Only 25 cents, no big deal. No problem.

Recently, however, I checked our account and saw a duplicate charge for all that rope we just bought, as well as a dupe charge for several items purchased at the chandlery. Now, we were starting to talk serious money and it didn't appear it was the vendors who were at fault, but rather a communication snag between the banks and the credit card company.

I had the miserable task of calling the credit card company. We only have a local cell phone and overseas charges are not cheap. I opted to use Skype which has, in the past, worked well for us. The first step is establishing your card number and passing all the security codes … no problem. Then getting to a representative … relatively easy. After explaining the problem in detail, Don from Tampa, admitted he couldn't help me. I had to talk to the Disputes Department … but they don't work 24x7 and they'd just left for the day. Drat!

I called back during Disputes business hours and had to go through the same rigamarole with establishing account number, security, etc., got to a  representative who insisted I give her the rundown before she switched me once again to Disputes. My Disputes rep, Buddy, had an odd accent. No comment on that. Once again, I explained the issues and after delineating each charge and duplicate charge and explaining that the differences in charges in dollars were due to the fluctuating Rand exchange rate, he put me on hold … forever. After a 25 minute hold-time, I was disconnected.

When I tried calling back, the credit card company was “experiencing a high volume of calls, but be patient while our customer service representatives work hard to handle your call as soon as possible.” Another 20 minute wait had me identifying myself to Chris from Somewhere and explaining the problem. She was sympathetic … anything to pass the crazy woman on to another representative … and held the line while she patched me through to Disputes David from Tampa.

Disputes David knew his stuff, but admitted he'd never heard of this particular problem before (dupe charges from several different vendors) and had no idea how to even go about fixing it. He did, however, provide me with a direct line to follow up with him and promised to credit our account for the dupe charges while he was investigating further. He took my cell phone number and actually called back later in the day. He wondered how I was swiping the card … maybe that accounted for the problem? Really … swiping the card incorrectly could account for dupe charges. I expressed my doubt about this possibility. He promised to work on the problem some more.

I checked my account again today and sure enough, Disputes David had credited the dupe charges, however he'd credited them incorrectly. He credited out not only the dupe, but the original charge on one and didn't credit out the dupes on two others. Sigh! This is going to take awhile, I fear.

I guess the moral of the story is to check your credit card charges frequently and carefully. It's so easy to sneak an unauthorized charge onto your account, especially if you use your card frequently and the transactions list is long. Most banks/credit card companies allow 90-120 days to dispute charges and we're not liable for the duplicate charges. It's just the hassle of straightening it all out from afar.

Easy to Make Ditty Bags...and Groundhogs Day

I mentioned awhile ago that David had asked me to make some new ditty bags the next time I had the sewing machine out. He uses them for holding various parts and tools. I use them for things like clothespins and sewing supplies. I had cut up the old bimini and salvaged some good-sized chunks of useable Sunbrella fabric which provided ample material for the half dozen new bags he'd requested. For those of you who don't know what a ditty bag is, here's Wiktionary's definition. Though the origin of the term ditty bag is not clear, it appears to be a nautical term used in the 1850s as a slang for the cloth bag which sailors used to carry their personal items. It might derive from the British naval phrase commodity bag. Not sure how “housewife” got mixed up in the definition. Anyhow, David uses ditty bags lots and needed more.

When there's a dearth of ditty bags, David uses Zip-Loc bags which wear out quickly. The ditty bags eventually wear out, too … but after several years, rather than weeks. In particular, he needed a new ditty bag to hold his vast collection of sockets (you can never have too many!). He also needed one to manage his supply of stainless hose clamps in various sizes. If I make more, he'll always find a use for them. This is about the easiest project you can do using used or leftover fabric and you can make one, from start to finish, in 15 minutes … max.

This is not rocket science. I don't even get out my measuring tape. I eyeball the size and cut, providing for a ½ seam allowance and a 1” tube along the top edge for a drawstring. In this case, David wanted a couple of bags about the size of a ZipLoc gallon bag, so I got out a bag to figure the approximate size. I fold the fabric in half to save myself cutting and stitching on one side.

Fold over and stitch the short ends of the rectangle first to give a finished edge. Then fold over about 1” along the top edge and stitch it so there is a long tube for the drawstring.

Stitch the side and bottom seams starting about 1” down from the top, so that you have access to the drawstring tube.

Turn the bag right-side out and then draw a piece of small line through the drawstring tube using a large safety pin. We usually tie the ends of the line together in a knot.

Voila! You've got a ditty bag.

Notes: I had a shortcut because the finished bimini edge provided a built-in drawstring tube for a couple of the bags.

Sometimes the bags are leftover fabric from another project … like pillow covers, etc., in which case they become rather colorful, but easily distinguishable.

For sake of identification, David sometimes labels the bags.

By the way, in case you forgot, it's Groundhog's Day. Not from the USA? It's an fun holiday to determine if we'll get an early Spring or not. Check out Punxatawney Phil's official website. We plan to watch the movie, Groundhog Day, tonight to celebrate. Any opportunity to celebrate!