Since it’s the holiday season, I thought I’d share some thoughts on hosting – and attending – festivities.
COME TOGETHER
The real fun of any party is connecting with other people. There’s nothing worse than going to a shindig where you barely know anyone, and leaving the party in the same isolated state. It doesn’t cost a thing to make introductions between your guests, and it’s a much-appreciated gesture. The best technique is to hook up people with common interests. “Terry, this is Alex. Like you, he collects Nazi memorabilia.” I have a friend who celebrated sudden wealth by inviting four hundred people on a private Caribbean cruise. The journey had four legs, and each week one hundred people would disembark, and the next group would get on board. The guests were all accomplished, creative people, and there was a sprinkling of celebrities. When we arrived, we personally knew about fifteen out of the hundred. Our host had a brilliant plan for connecting strangers: Read More »
Waffle irons are among the many appliances that can be picked up on the cheap at yard sales. I bought two George Foreman grills for two bucks each at a church rummage sale. We then invited a gaggle of visiting Danish relatives over for a panini party. Everyone selected their own combo of cold cuts, cheese, veggies, and dressings for a custom-made grilled sandwich. Everyone loved it – especially the little kids. And I didn’t have to do any cooking – always a plus for my lazy-ass self.
Houses in Los Angeles are not insulated, so our rooms are cold and drafty. If I turn on the central heating system, it reaches jungle temperature after ten minutes and when I turn it off, it’s chilly again right away. I solved this dilemma by picking up small space heaters for a few bucks at thrift shops. They warm the room I’m in without blasting wasteful heat through the rest of the house. Climate control is not an issue for my Danish husband, Benni. He has the interior thermostat of a lizard and never seems to need heat or air-conditioning. Lucky guy!
On those rare occasions when I do some serious cooking, I use my food processor which was purchased at an estate sale for five dollars several years ago.
I’m still on the lookout for an espresso machine for family visits. My Danish relatives are caffeine fiends and require at least five cups of joe every day.
Being frugal goes hand in hand with being green. I never buy wrapping paper. I’ve endured too many Christmas celebrations, wedding showers and birthday parties that ended with a mountain of gift-wrap trash. Some Martha Stewart types save it all for crafts projects, but I am allergic to crafts projects. Instead, I put presents into those gift bags that are two for a dollar at the Ninety-nine Cent Store. I don’t write on the message tag, so the bag can be used again and again and again. Anyway, if I try to wrap a package myself, it comes out looking like the work of a four-year-old, so the bags save me a lot of stress.
If you’re so inclined – which I am not – you can show some originality with a hand-crafted present.
• Benni went to one of those pay-by-the-hour pottery studios, and made a beautiful bowl for his partner’s wedding gift.
• Kim made me two stunning bracelets out of vintage rhinestone and Bakelite buttons. These one-of-a-kind pieces are real attention-getters, and I crave attention! 
• One Christmas, Kim and her sister made spectacular wreaths out of twigs, pine cones, dried flowers, berries and ribbons for all their friends. When I think of the long hours of patient labor that went into this project, I get overwhelmed with fatigue. Fortunately, not all of my friends are as slothful as I am.
• Brenda picks up interesting ceramic containers at yard sales. When she needs to bring a house gift, she takes a cutting from one of her succulents, and plants it in one of these pots.
I just became a member of the Freecyle network. www.Freecycle.org It’s a really cool site where you can search for free goods, or recycle your own excess. It costs nothing to join, and the no-cost merchandise is varied. A glance at today’s posts included offerings of a vacuum cleaner, a wooden desk, 50 sheets of poster paper, and cherry-flavored Nyquil.
Last week, I scored a shopping bag full of gratis hair products, toiletries, and unused make-up. Then Benni needed to get rid of his computer monitor. I posted a listing, and it was gone within 24 hours, which is a lot better than having to schlep it over to the electronic waste dump.
Freecycle has thousands of local groups representing millions of members. As a result, they are currently keeping over 500 tons a day out of landfills. This amounts to five times the height of Mt. Everest in the past year alone, when stacked in garbage trucks. In spite of the old inspirational song, “Climb Every Mountain,” I say that’s one mountain no one should have to climb.
We take pride and pleasure in furnishing our home with unconventional treasures that we buy on the cheap. A few years ago we picked up this weirdly interesting face at a yard sale for a few bucks. My husband, Benni, got creative and added the peacenik hair-do, and we hung it on a wall as a quirky piece of found art.
Last week, we were at a flea market and saw this hand-carved table that had a carved face that was identical to our hippie lady. Read More »
I rarely eat fast food, junk food, or chain restaurant food, where every item – be it fish, meat, or fowl – is smothered with a gluey three-cheese melt. Sometimes I’m stuck in the boonies somewhere and TGIF is the only game in town. If so, I keep it simple and order the club sandwich – rather than the “quick-fried crusty ravioli filled with pulled barbeque pork.”
You won’t catch me at a Red Lobster or Olive Garden. The ambiance is institutional, the prices aren’t that terrific, and the food is blandly heavy heavy heavy. “Steak Gorgonzola-Alfredo” will put a lot of money in your cardiologist’s pocket. Amusingly, I saw a paid ad on Olive Garden’s home page that read, “Gastric Bypass Diet. Learn About Proper Dieting Following Gastric Bypass Surgery” I rest my case.
Discerning foodaholic that I am, I never thought I’d set foot in an IHOP until I spotted one of those discount coupons in the Sunday paper: “Order one entrée and get the second for free.” That’s an offer I couldn’t refuse. My chicken fajita tostada salad was actually pretty good, and large enough for a family of four. (If you finish the entire serving in most American restaurants, you are probably well on your way to morbid obesity. Wrap it up!) The IHOP experience inspired me to start using coupons for other low-price chains: Souplantation, Sizzler, Boston Market and Acapulco, which were also a lot better than expected.
I don’t eat a lot of burgers, but I’m told by meaty friends that In-N-Out-Burger is the best chain in the Southwest. This is welcome news, because my son and I invested $600 in two different million-dollar home raffles last year, and all we won was a ten buck voucher at In-N-Out. That better be a really good burger.
I am not a Starbucks aficionado: four bucks for self-service coffee in a paper cup is not my idea of a good deal.
• OPENTABLE.COM is free to join, and I often use it to make reservations. It’s faster than calling, plus there’s a savings plan. Each reservation gives you one hundred points. When you reach two thousand, you get a twenty-dollar credit. I like the idea of earning money while I eat!
• There’s also RESTAURANT.COM where you pay ten bucks for a twenty-five dollar restaurant voucher. I got so excited the day I joined that I ordered ten vouchers immediately. The following week they went on sale for half-price, and then two weeks after that they were down to two bucks. They keep repeating the same cycle, so I’ve learned to wait for the cheapest offering. Someone is paying me twenty-three dollars to eat out. That’s a deal no frugalista could resista.
• CHOWHOUND.COM is another great site, where foodies swap info on cheap eats all over the world. We used it when visiting Palm Springs, where we found a terrific Thai place.
OENOPHILE
Restaurants make more money on wine than food, so that bottle of Cab-Sav is way overpriced. I have a lawyer friend who actually has the guts to say, “I’ll have your second cheapest bottle of Chardonnay.” Note the choice of “second cheapest” rather than “cheapest.” Classy!
I often call ahead to ask the restaurant’s corkage fee. That’s what they charge if you bring your own bottle. If the fee is fifteen dollars or under, it’s a good deal: fancier places charge thirty bucks. Word to the wise: the waiter will look at your bottle and comment on the choice, so avoid embarrassment and leave the Thunderbird at home.
FLEA MARKETS
These are fun to browse, but the prices of professional dealers are usually too high for me. If I do go to a flea market, I try to get there for the last hour. That’s when the vendors are ready to make deals and clear out the inventory. By the way, I often see those same vendors picking through the goods at yard sales. And they can sometimes be a little arrogant.
Quite a while ago, I fell in love with Bakelite jewelry and started buying it cheaply on country weekends. I wandered into a fancy-dancy shop off Madison 
Avenue and saw that they had duplicates of my pieces, so I offered to sell the owner some of my collection. He sneered at me like I was some kind of filthy rag peddler, “Sorry. I do not buy from the STREET!” I held on to my Bakelite, which is worth a lot more now than it was then. A little while ago, I sold a few pieces to a dealer, who told me that she is a “picker” for that very same shop. I was tempted to include a note, “Regards from the street!”
THRIFT SHOPS: USED IS THE NEW BLACK
I’ve seen TV actresses and models prowling the racks at Goodwill. Most thrift stores have regular sales, senior discounts and 2-for-1 days. My fave is a chain in California and Florida called Out Of The Closet. The proceeds go towards helping Aids patients. (By the way, the Alaska Out Of The Closet Sarah Palin favors is not a thrift shop: it is a for/profit consignment shop that was illegally infringing on my store’s registered trademark.)
Every Sunday at OOTC, many items are reduced to one dollar. Needless to say, I only shop there on Sundays. I get there when the doors open at 10, because the competition is fierce. Here are some of my one-buck treasures:
• RALPH LAUREN black velvet evening trousers, which I paired with
• A HARARI silk top when hosting my son’s engagement party.
• A DIANE VON FURSTENBERG floral wrap dress, which I’ve used so many times that by now each wearing costs about a nickel.
• Zillions of CP SHADES and CHICO’s separates for those comfy but still-a-little-pretty days.
• A 1950s smoky mauve lace cocktail dress. I’m still 
waiting for the right occasion to wiggle into this hot little number. I may have to lose 20 pounds first – and pull in my tummy with the Spanx I bought on Ebay.
• A WILSON’S tan suede blazer for my husband, Benni. First time out, he managed to dip his sleeve into a bowl of tomato soup, but at these prices, who cares? Dollar clothing gives new meaning to the phrase, “Easy come – easy go.”
And, depending on the salesperson, they sometimes add a 10% senior discount. I’m serious: ninety cents for a suede jacket. I am a frugalista GENIUS!
HOSPITAL AND CHURCH STORES ARE CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP
I was spending a few weeks in New York when the early spring weather suddenly turned unseasonably cold and I hadn’t packed any winter clothes. I wandered into a church thrift store that was having a half-price sale on all winter coats. I found a barely used fur-lined raincoat for ten bucks. That puppy kept me toasty warm while the March winds blew. Yes, I sometimes wear fur. There’s nothing warmer, and down coats makes you look like a king-size duvet on legs. Besides, I eat very little meat.
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