“Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go…”

The title of this blog was a lyric of a Thanksgiving song that we sang at my grade school, Gesu Elementary.  We sang it every year.  Many of us will not be traveling to our parents homes over the holidays because we cannot afford it.  However, the song does remind me of simpler times, the country and fireplaces.  Well the holidays really are around the corner and a Frugal Diva has to really “pull a rabbit out of a hat” because the economy has not changed.  One way to save money during the holidays is making some or all of your presents.  Relax, I do not have a Fruitcake recipe, but people did use to send homemade cakes instead of store bought.  Although, a homemade fruitcake would tastes better, especially if it had enough rum in it.  Oh, what the heck, you might like it (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/christmas-fruitcake/detail.aspx ).  Maybe, that is why my grandmother always loved homemade fruit cake.  If you know how to knit or crochet well, make mitten and hat sets.  You can make matching scarves as well, but those seem to take forever.  You need to start earlier than October for those projects.  If you can sew, look for something creative to make.  I had one classmate whose mother was a seamstress on the side and she made the prettiest dolls and doll clothes.  If you or your kids are good with arts and crafts, have them make Christmas ornaments for their friends.  I still have a Christmas ornament that a friend of mine made in high school.  It goes on the tree every year. 

Anyway, if I didn’t say it before, my family is originally from Texas.  I am the first generation not to grow up or spend summers on a farm.  So, there were other gifts that were not “technically” homemade, but still not as expensive.   They were home grown.  For example, when my cousin Cornelius was alive, he sent pecans to everyone in the family.  Everyone looked forward to them.  Although, you had to be careful, cousin Cornelius was kind of like Santa, if he thought that you had misbehaved, no pecans for you that year.  Also, there was no age limit, so if you were 70, and he determined that you misbehaved no pecans.  I was always good, so I got pecans.  Granted, I am allergic to them, so my mother and grandmother always got extra pecans??  Oh, I digress.

A Frugal Diva does buy few gifts, but only a small group of people are chosen.   Gifts for work, your postman, newspaper carrier can be homemade.   People almost always love a tin filled with chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, brownies, lemon bars, cake, or even rice crispies.  And, if you truly want to go old school, a tin filled with ginger bread, ginger bread men, a pound cake or Christmas shaped sugar cookies with icing.  Ginger bread is the easiest to make. 

A few years ago, I encountered a natural Frugal Diva; usually these Frugal Diva skills are earned and learned.   But, I think that she has had those skills from birth.  She had just gotten a divorce and her husband left her with their daughter, the mortgage and both car notes on a secretary’s salary.  Well, she went into high gear, the first thing that she did was get rid of her cable.  I gave her my old antenna set; (network television wasn’t digital yet) and she started renting DVDs.  Also, she enrolled in a community college and took hair braiding classes let coworkers know that she was available for babysitting, dog walking and house cleaning.  (She didn’t do windows. No one ever does that.)  After she finished her hair braiding course, she started doing hair on the side.  Additional money started coming in, but it was her hobby, that put the “H” in Hustle.  She liked to bake.  She would try different recipes and bring them to work, so she wouldn’t eat them all at home.  Her rum cake was an instant hit.  It was so good that one of our coworker asked her to bake two for their Christmas party.  I saw opportunity knocking and I offered to make cake flyers for her to post in the other in our building and in other businesses.   Her businesses took off; her creditors were shocked at how fast she was able to pay off all of her debt.  Her head was above water by the end of the following year.  It is hard to believe that happened 8 years ago, time flies.  She has dropped all of the side jobs except hair braiding and baking.  In good times, those two jobs keep extra cash in her pocket, in lean times; those jobs have covered a few bills. 

Redeemed, not Damned

You know, you were damned if you did, or damned if you didn’t.  But you can’t be damned forever. Well, at least not in this article.   When I look at all the people protesting, the 99%, I think about how some said, “We shouldn’t have bailed out Wall Street.  We should have let the defaults happen or let the depression occur.  It would have been a natural correction.”  I think about it because so many people who did what they were suppose to do are suffering.  And, when you are in pain and someone says, “You know, it could be worse.”  You think, “What in the Hell are you talking about???!!”  But, it could be worse.   When the depression hit and banks failed, people just lost their money.  For example, one day you had 3,000 in your checking and savings account.  The next day, you had nothing, the bank doors were locked.  And that was that.  Also, some banks that had not failed, but were failing, put limitations on how much you could withdraw.  See, we are used to limits like you are only able to withdraw $500 a day from the ATM or you can only withdraw a certain amount daily or weekly from your bank, after that you pay a penalty.   But during the depression, you may be told that you could only take out 1000 a week.  That is it, no penalty, no checks, debit card and no coming back until the following week.  No access to your own money until the designated time.  If you have an emergency or a bill, that is too bad.  This was why people in our grandparents and great-grandparents generation put money under the bed, in a sock or in the closet.  My grandmother had money in the closet.  You know it is funny, we work, we deposit our hard earned money in banks, we bail them out when they are in trouble with our money, yet they still act as though it is their money.  It’s not. 

The latest bank in the news is Bank of America.  The bank president justified the $5 debit card fee that will start in January.  People complain, but they really don’t do much.  We seem to have become complacent.  One customer has decided to start a petition.  I think that is a great idea, but I think that the smart idea is to leave.  I think if enough customers changed banks, Bank of America would get the message.  This blog is supposed to be about surviving during this economy, and sharing how to save money during this economy.  So, I will say, a frugal diva cannot afford banks like Bank of America or Citibank.  $5 a month is $60 a year.  In this economy $60 can mean more food on the table, gas in your car, the ability to pay off or catch up on a small bill, more money in your pocket, or more money in a bank or credit union with reasonable rates and fees.  Banks have a right to make a profit, but Frugal Divas have the right to save money.

An AARP article in January, discussed internet banks (http://www.aarp.org/money/budgeting-saving/info-01-2011/looking_for_free_checking.html ), and banks that still had free checking.  Yes, I said AARP.  Most AARP members are on a budget, so they always have to look at ways of saving money.  What can I say, this Frugal Diva is creative.

Below is one of many stories of how people worked together during the Great Depression.  I have listed the site as well.  Many have said that Steve Jobs changed the world, and he did.  But, he did not do it alone.  Everyday people can work to make a change every day. 

Activism

Penny Auctions

As the pace of foreclosure auctions increased between 1930 and 1932, more and more farmers became desperate. Activists demanded that state legislators halt foreclosure sales. Angry farmers marched on the capitol buildings in several states, including Nebraska. Some farmers in Madison County, Nebraska, took matters into their own hands. In 1931, about 150 farmers showed up at a foreclosure auction at the Von Bonn family farm. The bank was selling the land and equipment because the family couldn’t repay a loan. The bank expected to make hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

As those who were there remember it, the auctioneer began with a piece of equipment. The first bid was 5-cents. When someone else tried to raise that bid, he was requested not to do so – forcibly. Item after item got only one or two bids. All were ridiculously low. The proceeds for that first "Penny Auction" were $5.35, which the bank was supposed to accept to pay off the loan.

The idea caught on. Harvey Pickrel remembers going to a Penny Auction where "some of the farmers wouldn't bid on anything at all – because they were trying to help the man that was being sold out." At auctions across the Midwest, farmers showed up as a group and physically prevented any real bidders from placing bids. But the banks figured out ways to get around these illegal Penny Auctions.

Farm groups and activists turned their attention to the political arena demanding a stop to foreclosure sales. Eventually, several Midwestern states, including Nebraska, enacted moratoriums on farm foreclosures. Generally the moratoriums lasted a year. The theory was that the Depression couldn't last that much longer, and then farmers would have the income to make their payments. But the Depression continued, the moratoriums ran out and farmers continued to lose their farms.

Written by Bill Ganzel of the Ganzel Group. First written and published in 2003.

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/money_10.html