jody's blog
random thoughts, ideas and chaosthe most referred to blog post… [flashback]
This is a blog post I did in October of 2008 on iembracechaos.com, and the one post I send people to most frequently. is it coffee or an investment? Anyone that knows me well, knows that I cannot live without my latte machine. It's a Pasquini machine, basically a...
last year’s blog post 2 days before Christmas [flashback]
There's not much time left until Christmas. It will go by very quickly though. Looking at the Facebook news feed, I get the distinct feeling people are ready for this to be over. People are either extremely tired or they are frantically shopping. Well, maybe...
a day in pictures [day 210]
I just don't have much to share on the shopping front. I'm just not doing it. Instead, I'll share a few photos today. Abandoned... This house was abandoned in the 70's, and interestingly enough, it looks as though they moved nothing out of it. Not only are the...
white elephant gifts [day 209]
As usual, I had to look up some information on this. The white elephant gift exchange is defined on Wikipedia like this: A white elephant gift exchange is a popular holiday party game found primarily in North America. It has many variations in both the name and the...
used book and trinket gifts [day 208]
A couple of years ago, they started the "360 feedback" process at work. I'm a fan of it if people use it correctly, but I don't want to wait until the end of the year to get zapped for something I might have done so long ago, and can't remember anything about it....
cool art made from junk mail [day 207]
I got an awesome little gift a few days ago, unexpected and very much related to trash society. The gift? An origami box with a photo album inside, all made with junk mail and paper stuff from the recycling bin. Check it out... Notice the thought behind this, not...
read the Bible and win an iPad! [day 206]
I found something in my email this morning, something which disturbed me greatly. It was from YouVersion, the online Bible app from lifechurch.tv. Now I love this app, I use it a lot to read the Bible, look up scriptures, post live church events and network with...
what frugal geeks do with a spare 15 minutes [day 205]
In a creative-type job, if you have an extra 15 minutes, that's just play time. It's not enough time to start a project, because in 14 minutes, you would just be getting into your creative zone, then have to stop. Frustrating! While Jerod and I were waiting for a...
what are you getting your kids for Christmas if you can’t retail shop? [day 204]
I've been asked a lot, "...what are you getting your kids for Christmas if you can't shop?" Here's the answer you've all been waiting for. I can shop, it just has to be pre-owned things, so here's the plan. Half Price Books. I got my kids each a gift card for $10...
Christmas gift with shredded money [trashogram]
santa claus [flashback]
December 11, 2009... I was listening to talk radio on my way to work yesterday. It was so incredibly cold I didn't want to let go of my warm coffee mug to steer the car, much less turn on the radio. The news guy was reporting on the experiences of the fake mall...
can’t live with it, can’t live without it… reversed [day 203]
I ran across two interesting things this week, one posted on my Facebook page and the other in a Yahoo! Groups post on Compact. These sites, xmaswithoutchina.com and the Marie Claire Yahoo! Shopping post, when combined together, portray a picture of our consumeristic...
dressed to shop [trashogram]
This trashogram was made from items sitting in bins in my garage, most of it purchased as props for a school photography class. The doll, decked out in her fancy Mastercard dress, is surrounded by shoes and many other random objects that she could place in her...
I used a 1/2 roll of paper towels and 2 plastic bags [day 202]
Yes, I used half a roll of paper towels last night. That's more than I use in a month. I also used 2 plastic shopping bags and threw away a perfectly good pair of socks. Yes, this is not my normal behavior, but I did these things for a good reason. It's really...
name brand god [photograph]
This photograph was light painted for a gallery collection called "Excessable", showing how we worship stuff, particularly name brand stuff.
I’ve saved a lot of money, but that wasn’t why I did it [day 201]
I'm speaking tonight at Preston Trail Community Church, in the Financial Peace University class, about the "no retail" shopping challenge. I didn't start this to save money, but it did turn out to be a nice benefit. Here's a recap of the posts from the last 200 days...
robinhood is good, homeLESS, organized hoarders and more… [day 200]
Is 200 a milestone in the challenge? No, it's just a nice, round, even number. I remember my mom pumping gas into the car when I was little and she always rounded it up to a full dollar amount, even if that meant topping it off to the point it overflowed. I asked...
AWESOME dumpster diving video! [day 199]
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk0vwmq26JQ This video was created for a school project by a student at the Clarion University of Pennsylvania for a Physics of Energy and the Environment class. It's a wonderful video on the how-to's of dumpster diving with some...
lesson learned through a pink bag and Barbie dolls [day 198]
Yet another trip to Target. This time it was for my son. Here's the somewhat funny, yet disturbing story... I was presented with a ziplock baggie full of Barbie doll parts this past week. Normally, this would be okay, as someone might be giving me these for an art...
Oprah’s favorite things or advertising by the big O? [day 197]
Oprah always has her list of favorite things at Christmas time and gives them away to her viewers or audience. A lot of this feels like advertising, although she has a few things to say about each of these and why she likes them. Unfortunately that doesn't rules out...