More storage and more money!

Posted By Paul

I recently discovered a cool and frugal event that I thought was cool enough that it justified a posting.

I have several hobbies and my hobbies have a tendency to cause an accumulation of hobby related stuff (a fact that several of my friends can relate to).

Well I recently discovered an event that helped me to get rid of some of my unwanted hobby related stuff, and also helped me to save money. This event was specific to a particular hobby, but I thought that I should try to keep my eyes open for events like it.

Enough beating around the bush. The hobby I'm talking about is board games. I really enjoy playing them with friends and family. So of course the result of this is that you end up with a pretty decent closet full of board games that for whatever reason you don't want anymore.

Well a local game store hosted a game auction where you can bring in your old board games and they will sell them at an auction for you. I brought in 10 games that I didn't want. The way this auction worked was that you brought them in on Wednesday (where you were given a 'seller' number and you filled out the minimum bids for all of your items), and then the actual auction was on Sunday.

I went to the event on Sunday. My plan was to not only sell my unwanted games (the cash paid for the games goes to the store and you get that amount in store credit), but pick up a few games at a bargain price.

Well I didn't end up buying any games (my wife was shocked, but the other games I was interested in were all bid up too high for me), but I sold all of my games except 1. The store handled the whole process and all I had to do was pick up my one unsold game and my gift card loaded with my $130 in store credit!

The game store (if you live in the Portland, OR area I recommend checking it out, the people there are really nice) does these auctions twice a year and it was a great way to clean out some of my old stuff and turn it into new stuff.

I do a similar thing with books (I found a bookstore that takes used books and gives you store credit) and it not only helps you save money on your hobbies, it also keeps you from accumulating too much stuff that you just end up storing and never using.

Have people out there had similar experiences with other types of hobbies?

How does your family control spending during the holidays?

Posted by Matt

I just read a great article from Bankrate about de-commercializing the holiday season. Not only are they helping readers save money, the tips have some other nice side effects like making families spend more time together.

We've used several of these suggestions in the past, and I wanted to share my favorites.

• Secret Santa - we do this with my immediate family and also with groups of friends. I really like the fact that you don't have to try to come up with something for every person and you can instead really focus on finding a present that your "assigned" person is going to love (even if it costs a little more because you aren't spending so much money trying to get a gift for everyone). We usually make the name draw part of the Thanksgiving holiday and young children are excluded, meaning they get gifts from everyone.
• Spending limit - we do this in conjunction with Secret Santa, but it can also be used if you are buying for large groups. If the limit is set appropriately for the group, it can prevent situations where one person feels guilty for receiving a very expensive present from someone for whom they just bought a candle. I personally think that the whole mental process of deciding whether you are spending "enough" on a person's present is one of the craziest parts of the holidays.
• Family outings - memories last longer than gifts. Take the family out to dinner, to a movie, or even up to the mountains for a ski trip.