How frugalists rock Earth Day.

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(Happy Throwback Monday! It would have been Throwback Thursday per usual had Earth Day been responsible enough to occur on a Thursday. This post originally ran on Earth Day 2023, which was April 19.)

Everywhere I looked online this morning were reminders of Earth Day 2023. My initial reaction was to remember my high-school Ecology Club. That’s when I believed, truly believed, that we’d have this all figured out pretty soon.

Boy, was I young.

That thought was followed by this one: Frugalists are eco-warriors.

Because we are. We really are! Although our goal is to be good stewards of our finances, we wind up being good stewards of the Earth. The steps we take to save money help us ameliorate our impact on the environment.

Here are seven ways we do that. Note: These aren’t universal. Few people likely do all these things or even most of them, but I know that my regular readers do at least some of them.

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Support the reader economy: Giveaway #10.

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It makes me happy to do these “Support the reader economy” giveaways. Yet it also makes me a little bit sad because $25 just doesn’t have the impact it once did.

Back in the day, $25 covered my child care for the week. (Dang, I’m old.) But I try to remind myself that I keep reminding myself how excited finding a penny makes me – and more than a few of you readers.

Since finding 2,500 pennies would be even better, I keep going with the giveaway. As I once noted, $25 might not fix all your problems but it’s better than not having $25.

As always, the winner gets to choose the type of card they receive. One exception: I won’t give a Visa or Mastercard prepaid debit card because of the fees. Other than that, if I can obtain it electronically, then I will send it to the winner. 

Prefer a physical card? I’ll do that, too, if I can.

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KeyHero is your friend.

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Greetings from Phoenix, where I have keys to my daughter’s new locks. In fact, I had those keys when I arrived, thanks to KeyHero.

She recently replaced those locks due to how “old and beat-up” they were after who-knows-how-many years of service. (Hint: Abby didn’t change them when she and her now-ex husband moved in 12½ years ago.)

The locks still worked, but looked pretty terrible – and like me, she saves where she can so she can spend where she wants. In this case, what she wanted was new locks.

This meant my old keys were kaput, and since I was arriving at almost 11 p.m., she would likely be asleep. I make it a point never to wake up a hostess with chronic fatigue.

Hence: KeyHero.

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Save BIG on tickets to FinCon24.

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If you’ve ever considered going to FinCon (the artist formerly known as the Financial Bloggers Conference), now would be a good time to get off the fence. That’s because tickets to FinCon24 go on sale today at 50 percent off the regular cost with a discount code (more on that below). This code will be good for two weeks at half-off, and then for a lower discount after that.

FinCon24 takes place from Oct. 23 to 26 at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s no longer called the “Financial Bloggers Conference” because it’s no longer just about blogging. Podcasters, YouTubers, TikTok et al., illustrators, coaches, influencers, and, yes, ordinary civilians** attend FinCon these days. Those creators attend for one or more of the following reasons:

To learn. Even if you’re not a writer, blogger, podcaster or whatever, you might want to be, someday. FinCon24 will give you not just knowledge, but encouragement – and connections with those who are doing what you dream of doing. For example, I know of one guy who created a blog before the first FinCon had even ended, and I never thought of creating a writing course until I attended a conference session on this topic.

To meet/join forces with other* creators. Writing can be a damned lonely business, as can those other jobs mentioned earlier. Finding folks who do what you do means you now have a tribe to call on when you need inspiration, sources or just a sympathetic virtual shoulder on which to cry. A few years back, during a personal rough spell, the fabulous Jackie Lam and Sarah Li-Cain offered me this kind of support. I will always be grateful to those two fabulous women.

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I’ll be in Phoenix next week.

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It’s still snowing here in Seward’s Icebox, but I have an escape hatch: Phoenix, Arizona, where my daughter lives. At this time of year, Phoenix is a wondrous place, with sidewalks you can see and thus no need to wear cleats on your shoes. Also, you don’t have to shovel sunlight.

Which is why I’m heading there next week. Anyone interested in a meet-up?

I plan to take a walk every day to get out of my daughter’s hair, so would be glad to meet for coffee or a snack as long as it’s within walking distance. That pretty much limits us to Wendy’s, Barro’s Pizza or Lucky Doughnuts. I see no issue with that.

Those who don’t (or can’t) do junk food might manage with a lemonade or a fruit juice, plus maybe a baked potato to keep up their strength.

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The winter tomato.

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DF tried to winter over a trio of tomato plants last fall. He pruned them back severely and put them under a grow light in the basement, figuring the cool temperature would keep them from sprouting too much new growth.

The no-grow tactic worked a little too well. by winter solstice, one of the plants looked extremely sad and the others were bordering on despair. So he brought the best-looking one upstairs, along with the light, and set it next to our kitchen table.

The plan was to coax it back to life, not to create food just yet. That way he’d have a nice big plant to put in the greenhouse in late May to encourage the seedlings he’ll be starting this week. Meanwhile, the green encouraged us during this particularly snowy and cold winter.

When the plant showed signs of survival, we rejoiced; when it started putting out flowers, we laughed and pinched them off. No chance we were going to pollinate those blooms. The focus was surviving, not thriving. And survive it has, putting out loads of new growth and so many blossoms that we gave up pinching. It could bloom all it wanted, but we weren’t going to hand-pollinate any of them.

A week or so ago during dinner, DF did a double-take. “There’s a tomato,” he said.

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Reading the Bible in Yup’ik.

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Yet another reason to be delighted by my partner: He reads the Bible in Yup’ik, the language spoken by indigenous folks in western and southwestern Alaska (and the Russian Far East). That’s because DF has been doing home visits for his church, and one of the parishioners is an elderly woman who is much more … Read more

Giveaway: Artisanal chocolate from Alaska.

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Not everyone gets a Valentine’s Day treat from a loved one. In fact, some of us don’t particularly want them. Still, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to feel a little bit special, so I’m having another Chugach Chocolates giveaway. If you didn’t get a Valentine, then treat yourself (or someone else) to this one.

Chugach Chocolates is a “bear-to-bar” that creates delicious (and sometimes scary-sounding) items here in Anchorage. Right down the street from us, in fact, which is particularly dangerous since they’ve opened a nice little coffee shop/retail space.

Since DF’s doctor wants him to eat an ounce of dark chocolate per day, we decided to support the local economy and buy solely from Chugach Chocolates. Happily, they offer a volume discount so we’ve taken to buying a dozen bars at a clip. It’s a health issue, you see.

About the “scary-sounding” chocolates: We’ve found that you don’t need to be afraid of confections such as Alaskan Kelp and Cayenne or Mat-Su Valley Potato Chip chocolate bars. They’re all good. Well, except for the Espresso Beans bars – I’ve never been a coffee fan. DF loves them, though.

The winner of this giveaway gets to choose from among: 

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Meet a reader: Ann from South Carolina.

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First, let me be clear: Ann is not a turtle. She’s a  camera-avoidant reader who requested that I use a photo she snapped of a turtle sunning itself.

There’s another reason for the turtle, though: Its slow-and-steady approach to life is analogous to Ann’s brand of frugality.

She’s in no rush to get the latest anything, has lived in the same house for more than three decades, and knows all the best thrift stores. Recently, Ann met a friend for lunch at a hospital snack bar, which she says has a “spa-like” vibe: “It’s got a skylight, it’s very sunny, they’ve got healthy food, it’s inexpensive, it’s fast.”

She drives a car “that no one will steal,” and specifically chose a job with a pension. Ann is lucky to live in a city where supermarkets “compete,” and she can turn those deals into comfort foods that cost way less than takeout.  “I feel rich if I’ve got cooked ground beef in the freezer…a perfect start for tacos, spaghetti, chili or nachos.”

Ann has been a reader since the MSN Money days, so it was great fun to attach a voice to the history. Please join me in congratulating her on her end-of-December retirement, at age 57. And enjoy the following conversation, which has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

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Colonoscopy prep: The true and simple rules.

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(Happy Throwback Thursday! Today I am having my every-five-years colonoscopy, so it seemed like a good time to re-run this piece from Dec. 5, 2018.)

Some people throw parties on their birthdays, or go out to dinner. This year I went with a butt camera.

It’s not that “colonoscopy prep” was high up on my birthday bucket list, but rather that the appointment was the first one I could get.

Lucky for me that it hadn’t been scheduled first thing on Nov. 30, when we had a nice big earthquake. According to a staffer at the doctor’s office, they’d just finished one procedure and were beginning to sedate another patient when the 7.0 temblor hit.

That poor guy had to reschedule – which meant having to re-do the colonoscopy prep. Ack.

For the uninitiated, colonoscopy prep is a full-scale cleanout of your colon: a combination of light diet, then liquids only and finally a seriously effective cleansing solution. Apparently one brand of industrial-strength laxative is available in tablet form, but the doctor I visited won’t prescribe it. He says the results aren’t always optimal.

(Eeeewww.)

This time around I was offered the option of a relatively new product called Plenvu. It’s so new, in fact, that my insurance would not have covered it. However, the doctor’s office had some samples to give and I accepted one upon hearing the regimen: two 16-ounce doses of solution over two days, each dose followed by 16 ounces of your clear liquid of choice. (Mine was iced tea.)

Previous preps had required two 32-ounce doses of solution followed by two 16-ounce glasses of clear liquid. No wonder Plenvu’s slogan is “success with less.”

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