Lazy Man and Money

Last-Minute, Frugal, Mother’s Day Tips

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With only a few days until Mother’s Day, people are thinking about gift giving. If you are looking to save some money and have limited time, arts and crafts are a good way to go. It reminds me of the first Mother’s Day after my dad died. I was only 14… too young to drive anywhere and without a job to buy something valuable. So I wrote a little poem. It was horrible. Parts of it rhymed and parts of it almost rhymed. She had a calligrapher make it into a nice picture for framing. I guess she liked it well enough.

Here’s a sample of ideas that people came up with:

  • Camera Accessories – Chris said that moms are the picture takers in the family. Personally, I found that things couldn’t be further from the truth in my family. However, to each their own, right?
  • Burn a mix CD or put songs on an old MP3 player – I really liked this suggestion from Anna. My mom asked for a similar thing years ago. However, this was before iTunes was around. Getting songs was difficult – not to mention the legality of getting them. It seems like something that one could do in a few minutes once they learned how.
  • A Video – Kosmo @ The Casual Observer suggests taking a video. I know it’s not frugal, but this is one of the best reasons I can think of to buy a Flip camera.
  • Festival Day – Jen says to look for a festival as they are quite often free or cheap. Thisisbeth adds parks and zoos as good ideas. Of course we shouldn’t forget museums…
  • Hugs and Macaroni Statues – Tyler suggests a hug. It’s going to be tough for me 3000 miles away and may be too simplistic for some. I don’t know if the macaroni statue was serious, but it would on a personal level. She helped me make a macaroni Zeus (it was a portrait not a statue) for a diarama when I was little. Nothing beats good times and memories with macaroni.
  • Spend Time and Use What You Have – This is an overarching theme, but Joshua mentioned using wine from his stock. Maybe it’s because we live so close to Napa Valley and love wine-tasting, but we have so much wine in our stock. (It’s not exactly a frugal hobby, but we don’t go all that often.)
  • Restaurant Deals – Pat M noted that TGI Fridays is offer a deal on Mother’s Day and suggest other restaurants will do the same. In the past, it seems to me restaurants jacked the prices up, but in this economy the tables have turned.
  • Charity – MLR brings up the fantastic idea of donating to charity. My mom usually just buys what she wants (within reason), so typically there are few things to get her. This is one idea that breaks that mold.
  • Make Dinner – I’m surprised that something so simple wasn’t thought of until the 13th comment. I think I might use this one for my wife (or Doggy Mommy as we call her).
  • Make an Photo Book – Candice is making her mom and iPhoto book. This is how we did our wedding book and it took hours and hours – actually days. Now that it’s done, it’s would be easy to just send her a copy. However, it seems weird to send pictures of my wedding for Mother’s Day. I think it has to be more of a random – it’s July 23rd gift.

So what am I getting Mom? I’m going with a couple of months of Netflix. I’m also pre-ordering Friday Night Light DVDs for her. That’s not very personal. However, I do have some three years worth of writing on this website. I may send her a link. My difficulty with is the name… only some people understand that Lazy is a good thing.

[This article was originally published May 8th, 2009]

Wine-Tasting: A Frugal Hobby or Not?

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For Valentine’s Day this past weekend my wife and I headed down to wine country – Paso Robles to be exact. Because we have a friend named Justin we found Justin Vineyards a natural place to start. We got there and they asked if we were Passport members. We asked what that was and it seems that 15 vineyards (known as the Far Out Wineries) got together to offer tastings all weekend long for $25 per person with the proceeds going to cancer support the Paso Robles chapter of the Wellness Community (which made $16,960.27 last year). It was a fortunate coincidence that we hadn’t planned on as a tasting typically ranges from $5-10 per person.

I keep going back and forth when I think about whether wine tasting is a frugal hobby. On one hand $12.50 a day per person to taste wine (often with great cheeses) in beautiful landscapes that look like they are out of Tuscany is fairly frugal. On the other hand, there is a powerful urge to buy at the wine-tasting. We went Paso Robles fully prepared to restock our wine-reserves, but ended up with a few extra bottles. At an average price of $20 to $25 it does add up. I would perhaps wine-tasting in the “gateway hobby” class. It seems like it may be cheap fun, but before you know it, it can get out of hand.

In evaluating anything financially, it’s important to understand the value for a dollar spent. That’s where wine-tasting really starts to shine for me. I’m generally a very reserved person, almost never one to initiate a conversation. Perhaps it’s a little bit of the wine, but it just seems that people are more friendly during wine tastings. Here are a couple of examples…

  • We spent time at Poalillo Vineyards talking with the wine-maker, now in his 70s. He had a picture of him and his wife from the 1950s that looked like it was out of a Brando film. When someone when to take a picture of it, he stopped her and showed her how to take it from the side so the flash wouldn’t produce a glare – “I was a professional photographer for 30 years…” he said. It wasn’t said in a bragging way, just a matter of fact like it wasn’t anything unusual.
  • While at the same winery, I ran into a couple of Steelers fans who just came back from the Super Bowl. We talked about the Steelers, the Patriots. My wife found comfort in her Italian roots enjoying Dean Martin and talking with the employee of the vineyard.
  • We had a great conversation with Pipestone Vineyards who make their wines “sustainably and organically”, plowed with horses on a certified wildlife habitat. Solar-power provides them with all the power they need most year. Sadly my wife liked the one wine of theirs that wasn’t grown on the property. I liked a couple of the others, but we couldn’t agree on a bottle. Instead, I’ll ask you to give them a visit if you are in the area.
  • We talked with the young couple who owns Minassian-Young Vineyards… and go to school 200 miles away in Berkeley five days a week. We had the opportunity to play with their two dogs. My wife and I came away thinking that they are either extremely leveraged or they inherited the winery from a parent.
  • While on the topic of Berkeley, we met a film professor from there. He had the cutest golden retriever we ever did see. The whole winery (including us) stopped to worship this dog. Of course, we had to talk with him about where he got his dog (since we are searching for a dog ourselves) and it turns out that it bred very locally to where we live.

By the end of the day, I realized that wine tasting isn’t just about the wine. It’s not about the pairing of wine with cheese, chocolate, or even a live band. It’s not just about the scenery or having a picnic with someone you love. It is about all of that, but it more. It’s about the 20 minutes where you and some total strangers interact almost like you were old friends. It’s about the people… and I find that there is great value in that.