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Lisa Schmeiser
When to pay cash for Christmas presents
So the reason I haven't posted in a while is because I was off having a baby. The baby's been had and it's time to resume examining our spending habits and the myriad factors that nudge them in one direction or another. What better topic to look at this week than shopping for Christmas?
There was an interesting article in the Washington Post yesterday: because recovery from the recession has been uneven, this year's Christmas will be too. The better-off will continue to help Tiffany's and Coach hit quarterly profit targets while people who are still scraping by -- if that -- will be hitting Wal-Mart and Family Dollar for the basics.
Note: pile of cash probably slightly larger than one's typical holiday budget.
Also of note this holiday season: more consumers are sticking to an all-cash budget when shopping for presents, which is a great way to ensure they don't overspend. There is something about counting out the cash for an item that forces you to consider whether what you're about to buy is worth what you're going to spend. And having tangible signs that your budgeted allotment is shrinking can help you maintain strict discipline when you're in the stores and your head's getting turned by festive geegaws.
Of course, it's hard to stick to the cash-only rule when you're shopping online for gifts. In that case, may I suggest a sticky note tacked to your computer monitor, upon which you keep a running tally of how much you've spent -- including shipping, of course?
If you're buying holiday presents this year, how are you paying for them? Weigh in on the merits of going cash-only versus credit at dollarsandsense@sfgate.com.
| December 13 2010 at 09:24 AM
Saying no to the nursery
Continuing with the prenatal-themed posts this week, I thought I'd share the most awkward question we've fielded throughout the pregnancy. No, it had nothing to do with preferences for giving birth, feeding or diapering the child, or any of the other issues that seem to prompt vicious infighting among parents.
It was this: "So have you finished the nursery yet?"
The question was a little awkward because I was never sure how to say "We haven't even started" without sounding like I was inappropriately unenthusiastic about this pending parenthood thing. In an era where bloggers painstakingly document all their nursery design decisions, in a culture where "setting up the nursery" is one of those activities you're supposed to tick off on the Typical American Pregnancy checklist, how do you explain why you're opting out of doing so?
The glib answer is, "You take it to your own blog." But what we ended up telling most people was the truth: It made no sense to us, logistically or financially, to buy things and set up a room for someone we hadn't met yet.
I can understand the emotional appeal of stocking up in the nursery as a way to feel prepared for whatever comes my way ... the reality just seems like asking for trouble. Buying things that don't work with our baby's specific personality quirks, having to keep track of the packaging, receipts and return policies so I can get my money back, then schlepping this stuff to the store and waiting in line to unload it -- all while dealing with a newborn? It seems like it will be easier to buy things as we need them. Barring a freak occurrence in which every baby-related retail emporium in America disappears in a puff of smoke, I'm fairly confident we'll be able to head out and pick up that baby swing/play mat/bottle sterilizer as we need it.
Sure, we run the risk of -- Gasp! Horrors! -- paying full price for what we buy, but I'm betting that buying what we need as we need it will turn out to be a better financial move than doing a lot of "Just in case" stocking up on sale items, then not using any of them. Besides, there's always Craigslist. A quick whirl through the baby and kid stuff listings shows a lot of merchandise that's being unloaded for bargain-basement prices because the child never needed the items. Thus I may be able to take advantage of someone else's stock-up-in-preparation impulses.
The closest I've come to nursery prep so far -- aside from clearing out a huge set of bookshelves in which I'm stashing my child's extensive wardrobe, the toys we've received, and the diapers and wipes we've stockpiled in anticipation -- is to bookmark several of those "nursery checklist" features across the Web. Here are the ones I've found most helpful:
- Simple Mom's "The Things You Don't Need (But They Say You Do) For a New Baby" -- Just say no to multiple strollers, says Tsh Oxenreider.
- Mighty Girl's "15 Perfect Baby Things for New Parents" -- This list is great for urban parents who don't have a lot of space and can't rely on a car to schlepp their baby gear everywhere.
- Apartment Therapy's "9 Month Cure: What You Really Need" -- It has all of six items on it, which is both space- and budget-friendly. Check out the comments for bonus suggestions.
- Kiplinger's "Baby Gear You Don't Need" -- This is mostly a common-sense list, but the nice thing about it is how it doesn't make you feel as though you're scarring the child for life if you don't get them a playmate with a lot of bells and whistles.
- Mommy Poppins' 5 Baby Gear Essentials for Living With Baby in a Small One Bedroom Apartment -- I liked the less-is-more angle to the post, because it encourages mindful acquisition of baby gear that makes everyone's life better.
- Mashable's "20 Fantastic Free iPhone Apps for Parents" -- Hey, not all gear is physical. I have lost count of the number of pals who swear by their smartphone as a parenting tool.
I'd like to hear from all you parents out there. Did you set up a nursery prior to your kids' arrivals? What did you find most useful? What would you advise people to save their money on? Share your experience at dollarsandsense@sfgate.com.
| October 15 2010 at 05:22 PM
A love letter to hand-me-downs
I have no fewer than 14 labeled drawers dedicated to baby clothes: Sleepers (newborn-3 mos.); Gowns (newborn-6 mos.); Onesies (3-6 mos.); Tops and bottoms (3-6 mos.); Sleepers (3-6 mos.); Sleepers (6-9 mos.); Tops and bottoms (6-9 mos.); Sleepers (9 mos. & up); Tops and bottoms (9 mos. & up); Knitted gear (??); Tops and bottoms (12 mos. & up); Socks; Hats (0-6 mos.); Hats (6 mos. & up). Half a closet has been taken over by insulated winter suits with bunny or bear ears, overalls for tots, a big basket of diaper covers, a big basket of receiving blankets, etc.
Our not-yet-here kid has a more extensive wardrobe than both parents put together -- a tidy trick considering that I've bought all of three sleepers and an on-sale sun hat in anticipation of next summer. Nearly everything else has come from people who, upon hearing the news, said, "Congratulations -- I have hand-me-downs for you!"
And I took them. Gladly.
Thrifting for adult clothing is not without its attendant risks -- trying to translate 1960s sizing onto a 2010 body, garments that still reek of cigarette smoke and a prior owner's nervous perspiration, frayed hems and badly-stretched seams. It's fun, but shopping for quality, used adult clothing requires a critical eye so you don't end up with something that disintegrates when you look at it funny.
Baby clothes, on the other hand, are easy. All you have to do is make sure the material doesn't double as a firestarter and that there aren't zippers or fasteners that pinch, nor any giant, sludgy green-brown stains in strategic areas and voila! Baby's got a new pair of pants with ruffles on the butt. And you didn't have to pay money for a piece of clothing from which your child will get maybe three months' use.
I was lucky enough to know plenty of people who wanted to pass clothing on. If you're on the leading edge of your parenting posse (i.e. the first one to have kids), you may have to blaze a trail to find other people's hand-me-downs. I know I flog Craigslist and Freecycle a lot, but if you're trawling for free kiddie clothing, these are good starting points. If your neighborhood or city is lucky enough to have a Yahoo group, a Meetup group or listserv dedicated to local parents, there's usually a few offers flying around there as well.
Note that not that all hand-me-down exchanges are perfect. You may have visions of dressing your child like he's JFK, Jr. and your pal may have passed you a little black muscle tee with Johnny Cash silk-screened on the front. And as one blogger pointed out, it was important to her to have her child's wardrobe reflect her taste, so she'd rather buy clothing that broadcast her own sense of style.
This brings up one final point about hand-me-downs: If you go this route, cherish the brief window in which you can dress your child in anything before he or she develops distinct preferences. I may actually get sentimental about that phase ending.
Here's how to make taking or sending out hand-me-downs the kind of experience that guarantees continued good karma:
If someone's offering to ship you some hand-me-downs, the least you can do is offer to pick up the cost of postage. Paypal is great for this -- it's but a few clicks to transfer funds from your account to anyone's email address. The only drawback: PayPal charges a service fee for converting the funds in its system to a check, should the person you sent funds to want to cash out your deposit. So you may want to send a check. I know! That's so 20th century. But it means no fees.
Pay attention to special requests. My friend Molly sent me four boxes of clothing and gear, and waved off my offer of postage with, "Just send me pictures." So I've photographed the clothing -- this way, I don't forget what she sent -- and programmed my calendar to remind me to take snaps of the child wearing the outfits at six, nine, twelve, fifteen months down the line. I figure it's the least I can do. My friend Lauren knitted an adorable sweater in Cal colors with monkey buttons; she's definitely getting pictures of that in action.
Be mindful of sentiment. My mother sent along a gorgeous, delicately-knit blue carriage set that my brother and I both wore. Because it's going to see at least two generations' worth of us, I'm not chucking it into the hand-me-downs pile when my child outgrows it. The lesson here: When relatives send you things, be sure to ask whether there's any special meaning for specific items, and how you should treat them accordingly.
No-dye, no-scent detergent is your friend. If you're getting hand-me-downs, wash them in this; it will reduce the odds of your child breaking out in mystery hives. Or at least let you blame the mysterious fabric blend and not the detergent. If you're sending out items, wash them in this detergent first, and be sure to let the recipient know what you did.
(Actually, sending along reassurance that you've cleaned goes for all baby gear: My friend Emily sent me a Baby Bjorn and was very careful to note that she had washed it in cold water with vinegar, then line-dried it.)
Become fluent in stain removal. If you get stained clothing (it happens, especially around the neckline), a little pre-treatment with Shout, an OxyClean paste or the soap of your choice) usually works well -- pre-treat and wash. If you're the one whose little darling just can't keep the pureed squash off their sleeper, the Berkeley Parents Network has an entire primer on what's worked for them.
Think about how you're going to sort and store your clothing. Yes, I admit that having all those labeled drawers seems a tad excessive, but my thought was, When my child outgrows that specific clothing type/size, it's ten minutes' work to empty the clean contents of the drawer into a box or bag, label the container, then use that space for something else, like bigger clothing.
Which brings me to my final point: Have an exit plan for your hand-me-downs. Some folks hold on to things until they're sure they're done having children, some visit consignment stores, some use the baby clothing as a lure to bring in shoppers during yard sales ... and some continue the great hand-me-down cycle.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to stare at my wall of hand-me-downs and think about how much I'm going to enjoy not having children's clothing sticker shock until Halloween 2011.
| October 12 2010 at 02:22 PM
Trying to stay off the mom-marketing radar
I'm supposed to have a baby next Saturday, and in the past few months, I've spent some time becoming intimately acquainted with a whole new area of consumer activity: Shopping for pregnancy and parenthood.
Because I am not a big fan of stores with restrictive return policies, nor am I a big fan of retailers that sell your personal information without your knowledge or consent, I've been very careful about where I shop.
For example, I've made it through 38.5 weeks of pregnancy without once stepping into a Motherhood Maternity. Why? Because their return policy stipulates:
Merchandise which is unworn, unopened, and undamaged with the original receipt and tags attached may be exchanged for merchandise or store credit, or returned for a full refund within 30 days of purchase.
for in-store merchandise, while Internet-purchased merchandise is subject to this policy:
You may Return or Exchange Internet or Phone Orders at any Motherhood Maternity or Destination Maternity store location within 45 days of the date of delivery for new merchandise or a Store Credit only.
In other words: Unless you buy from a bricks-and-mortar outlet, don't expect any refunds. This made no sense to me -- if you can't try on the merchandise in person and had to order it online, why should you be penalized if it didn't work out for you?
The other reason I avoided Motherhood Maternity -- this Consumerist post outlining the ways in which that chain sells its customer information. I didn't want a mailbox full of solicitations from companies in which I had no interest.
And yes, this made buying maternity wear more inconvenient. Trying to avoid getting your personal data sold off to whomever wants it often is.
What's been alternately fascinating and disconcerting has been tracing the rise of child-related junk mail in the weeks since I registered at Babies'R'Us. I checked their privacy policy, and here's what it has to say about whether or not the company sells my personal data:
Your personal information is used by the "R" Us Family members to enhance your guest relationship with them, respond to your requests, tailor offerings to you, communicate with you about products, services, special offerings and events or programs offered by the "R" Us Family members or their marketing partners that may be of interest to you.
And while you can opt out of receiving "R" Us correspondence, there's nothing in the privacy policy that tells you how to opt out of getting things from the company that the "R" Us family sold your data to.
So is there a solution to staying off the kiddie-market radar?
Here's what I've managed to do thus far: Buy used, hit Craigslist and Freecycle, and shop locally. I'm lucky enough to live near two stores that have provided great values and good privacy policies. One of these stores, Tot Tank, offers many of the same products as Babies "R" Us at the same prices (if not cheaper) and their privacy policy reads as follows:
We care about the privacy of our customers. When you provide us with personal information, Tot Tank may use that information for our own internal marketing purposes. This information will be collected from you directly. Using the information you give us, we may contact you with information or special offers. We will not require you to disclose more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in an activity as a condition of participation. Tot Tank will not sell or disclose personal information to outside third parties.
(Emphasis mine.)
And the other store, Fashion After Passion, had a huge selection of new and used maternity wear, and really excellent customer service.
I can't speak to shopping as a parent just yet. But it seems like much of the preliminary shopping amplifies a concern we all have as consumers: How can we get the biggest bang for our buck without becoming the raw material that someone else uses for their profit?
| October 11 2010 at 02:51 PM
Know your rights of return
Quick question: Do you know the return policies at the retailers you patronize most frequently?
Before the holiday shopping season begins -- and, going by the Christmas Creep photos popping up all over, some retailers are hoping the season's already begun -- it would make sense to check out exactly what latitude you have as a shopper, or how easy it will be for your gift's recipient to return whatever you bought.
One of the frustrations I encountered in poking around online: the websites for some common chains are okay at listing the return policies for any purchases you make online, but trying to find the policies for purchases you make at the bricks-and-mortar stores? Good luck with that. For example, Costco's got a very clear and informative page on its policy for returning Costco.com orders, but I had to resort to Google to find the page outlining the return policy for purchases made at the warehouse outlets. I found a similar issue at Target.com -- there were instructions on when and how to return Target.com purchases to the stores, or how to mail them back to Target.com. But to find out the in-store return policy? It took me searching for it, because there's no direct link from the "Return an Item" option or the hyperlinked "Return and Refund Policy" option. That makes no sense! (For the record: Here's the link for how to return in-store purchases.)
Kudos to Best Buy -- while a recent Angie's List article noted that its return policy is wildly variable depending on what you bought, at least the site has one page that clearly links to the online and in-store return policies.
Apple's another vendor that does a good job collecting all its assorted return policies in one easy-to-find place, as does Amazon.com.
Also, let me point you to WalletPop's excellent slideshow on what they think the best retailer return policies are. Because if finding these policies is inconvenient, imagine how much more irritating it is when you find out the policy is only for store credit within fourteen days, or exchanges-but-no-refunds, or whatever.
One of the reasons I love Zappos -- the return policy is linked right at the top of the site, and it is a total no-brainer, what with giving you a year to return a pair of shoes without paying for shipping or a restocking fee. But I want to hear some of your tales of retailers with great or awful return policies. Dish 'em at dollarsandsense@sfgate.com.
| October 08 2010 at 09:05 AM
A new, compelling reason to pay your bills promptly
Do you have calendar alerts set up to remind you when to pay specific bills? Or do you have them built into your online bill pay? You should.
According to a column in yesterday's Los Angeles Times, companies are trying to nudge customers toward automated bill pay by charging hefty fees for pay-by-phone. Among them:
Chase Bank -- charges you $20 to pay your mortgage by the phone with a live service rep; $15 for using the automated phone pay system
Wells Fargo -- $15 for using the automated phone pay system
Bank of America -- $15 for using the automated phone pay system
Verizon -- $3.50 for any nonrecurring payment using a credit or debit card
AT&T; -- $5 for paying by phone with a service rep
Time Warner -- $4.99 for paying by phone with a service rep
As to why you'd pay by phone: If you're trying to charge your bills to a credit card for reward points and you haven't gotten around to setting up an automatic bill pay, that's one reason. If you're out of town, that's another. If you've got cash-flow issues and can't drop a check in the mail before the bill is due, that's a third.
Of course, you can always sidestep the fancy tricks and just set up reminders of when your bills are due. That will help you plan ahead and avoid paying fees for (in)convenience later.
| October 06 2010 at 02:22 PM
Do you still feel recessionary?
I'm not much of a mall-shopper -- I don't live near one, I don't really shop recreationally, and I get a tad overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff on display. But I was at Stoneridge Mall on Saturday so we could hit the Apple store with my mother-in-law (she lives out that way), and I was surprised by how packed it was.
It was a surprise because for months, there's been the drumbeat that people aren't shopping, we're no longer a consumer culture, welcome to the new austerity, etc., etc. So to see a packed mall with lots of people toting multiple shopping bags ... it was like jumping in a time machine and returning to 2005.
The pro-spending crowd at Stoneridge might be an anomaly. According to a recently released study by Big Research, 80.9% of Americans are not buying the National Bureau of Economic Research's verdict that the recession ended in June 2009. Indeed, 78.6% say they have lost wealth -- mostly tied to plunging housing prices, although job loss and declining interest rates on savings didn't help either.
Whether or not people's perceptions of their net worth provide accurate reflections of the overall economy is a question to be answered on another day. For now, it seems that our fellow Americans are feeling poorer -- even as our fellow Bay Areans are going to the mall.
| October 04 2010 at 03:19 PM
Couponers saved over $57 million in 6 months
Retailmenot recently released numbers regarding how people used online and printable coupons for the first six months of this year.
Here are some of the interesting data points:
-- On average, consumers saved $29 per online coupon and $5 per downloadable coupon. Printable coupon users as a whole saved $8.2 million, while online coupon users as a whole saved $49.3 million.
-- The three most popular searches for online brand coupons: Victoria's Secret, Amazon.com and Kohl's, and the three most popular searches for printable coupons were Fantastic Sam's, IHOP and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
-- Although California did not crack the list of top ten states where users were printing out coupons, the Golden State was #9 among states using online coupons.
Are you among the online or printable-coupon crowd? Do these numbers surprise you or confirm what you've already suspected about the effectiveness of coupons?
| October 01 2010 at 01:26 PM
When technology abets impulse buying
I ran across an interesting piece of data: According to eBay, people who hit their site via an iPad spend 50% more than folks who log on to the auction site via good old fashioned PC. iPhone users also spent more on the site than PC users, although not to such a great extent.
Retailers are taking note: The money is moving into mobile commerce. As PayPal's Bill Zielke recently wrote in Mashable:
Mobile shopping ... offers consumers the chance to buy something in a checkout experience catered to a mobile device and perhaps most importantly, reduces the amount of clicks it takes to finalize the purchase. This is particularly important in the context of mobile web browsers, where cutting back on content and minimizing the number of clicks is vital to keeping shoppers engaged.
In other words: There is an entire industry devoted to making it very, very easy to shop on your smartphone or tablet. The transaction of taking out your money and handing it over in the classic exchange of goods and services is now a brief series of clicks where you never once actually count out the money.
As a longtime Apple iTunes user and a recent Kindle convert, one of the things I've noticed about both of these is how easy it is to buy digital assets without paying attention to the costs you're running up. Because neither the iTunes music store nor the Kindle store has a shopping cart associated with it, it's very easy to ignore how quickly a $39.99 season pass for a TV show, a $9.99 album and ten new $0.99 single tracks add up. (Or in the case of the Kindle, as I wrote recently, to think of the $25.59 I spent on a book trilogy as a "bargain" compared to what I would have paid in a local bookstore.)
The cumulative impact of spending is downplayed while the instant gratification of a new digital asset is highlighted.
| September 30 2010 at 02:36 PM
Free e-reads: How to find them
I received a Kindle as a milestone anniversary gift, and while there is much to love about it -- for one thing, I no longer have to allocate half a suitcase to my reading material when going on vacation -- there is also a huge risk to owning it.
The risk? False economy. Like many bibliofiends, I love a good bookstore, but I generally avoid buying anything new in hardback. That's why God invented libraries and reserve lists -- and people who do buy new hardcover and softcover books, then sell them for a fraction of the cost used.
But I have to admit: It is so, so easy to go look at a new title and see that the Kindle version is only half the cost of the physical book. Half, you say? And I don't have to wait or scour used-book sites? You can see where the risk comes in: If one perceives there to be a bargain, one is more likely to point, click and spend.
And those "bargain" titles can be no bargain. I will cop to spending $25.59 for Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games trilogy on the Kindle. While I appreciate that it cost less than the $27.68 that Amazon.com's offering for the three books in hardcover, there is a downside: I can't resell those digital assets if I get tired of them, whereas I probably could have unloaded the books for a few bucks and ended up ultimately paying less than what the Kindle "bargain" cost me.
So I've been surfing the Internet for free, downloadable Kindle books. The first and most obvious place to look: Amazon.com's Kindle store's list of bestsellers, which tots up the top 100 free titles. For those of us who want to revisit our favorite classics, there's always Project Gutenberg, which lets you download compatible file versions of its books to your Kindle. I've also had a lot of fun scrolling through the selections at ManyBooks.net and FeedBooks. (At the latter, for example, I found a copy of Peter Watts' Starfish -- which is not even available for the Kindle via Amazon.)
Anyone else out there a Kindle owner? Where do you go for free reads? And have you noticed whether you're spending more or less on reading material now that it seems so much cheaper? Share at dollarsandsense@sfgate.com.
| September 28 2010 at 03:07 PM
Dollars and Sense is about finding new ways to inject dollars, cents and sensibility into your everyday spending.
By Lisa Schmeiser, Read Bio
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