Feb

25

Sucking Up Value

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maid cleaning

It was August in Florida. Not a time you want to go out in the daytime, if you can at all avoid it. It’s steamy and rainy so I decide to stay in and clean the house — and my cordless electric vacuum cleaner dies. So I drag the thing downstairs and out through the dampness and bring it to the closest service place, and the guy tells me it’s too small a unit to repair and they won’t honor the guarantee! I put on the charm and do my best to get him to change his mind, but he wasn’t having any of it. So, back into the steam, back to the house and onto the phone to voice my complaint to the manufacturer. By the end of the call, the sweet woman at the other end promises that a replacement machine should arrive at my home in 7 to 10 days.
 
Two weeks later and my carpet is very dusty, and no new vac has arrived. Back on the phone, another promise, and voila — two days later, a brand new vacuum.

And two days after that, another!

I often speak affirmations of abundance — maybe there is something to this affirmation stuff. I now have an abundance of vacuum cleaners.

Today’s lesson in living the frugalcious life: never take no for an answer. But always be nice about it. You may be pleasantly surprised!

Read more about discount decorating here

Feb

13

Charity Begins Close to Home

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My sister, the Rebate Queen, and I (the Discount Princess) worked at the welcome table at a great charity event last night at the fabulous Westin Diplomat hotel, just next door on the Intracoastal Waterway (yes, life in Florida is so tough in February,  nothing for young people to do at all).  

las-olas-lifestyle-february-2009

Thursday night is the big night at the waterfront restaurant/bar, so instead of the 400 people we expected, the crowd was about 950!  It was a beautiful evening, and once the bulk of the people had checked in, we volunteers were invited to stay, eat and drink and mingle with the people who made sizable donations to be there.  

 

(This is us in the middle bottom picture, compliments of Las Olas Lifestyle Magazine.  I am fourth from the left, the one showing all the skin!)

One of my favorite parts of charity events is the Silent Auctions.  Usually, we find that they’re stocked with great products and services that you can guy for a fraction of the real prices, and make a donation to the sponsoring charity too.  Over the years, we’ve gotten art work, spa services, gifty items, fine wines, jewelry, tickets to events, tickets to travel and more and more and more.  

We spoke to a guy who is living in a very cool loft building in Ft. Lauderdale.  Turns out he’s living practically for free as the building management wanted to put in attractive, successful business people to lure more tenants.  Gotta love it.  

If you need a new place to live, it pays to see a lot, make friends with the management and ask for the best deal they can give you.  If you want to make new friends, have fun, get stuff and make a difference, try volunteering.  

Most cities have a volunteer-central type organization. Just search for Volunteering and your county, and you should be on your way.

More on volunteering later, (especially those silent auctions!) but for now I’ll  just say that it’s a great way to have fun, meet new people and make a difference (the most valuable thing there is), with no out-of-pocket expense.