"Frugalistas" are the new"fashionistas". It's the hipster term for those who refuse to sacrifice style and not spend $$$ . The girls are trading clothes just like in high school. I wish I had my old Villager outfits to swap. Whoa baby, being cheap, I mean frugal, is cool! Clothing swap events are popping up everywhere. Unfortunately my "everything must go" closet sale has made it hard for me to join in so I'm sad because I love parties. I wonder if anyone would trade something in size 4 for my mink coat with one arm ? Yipee I want to be part of the fun.
I don't believe saving grocery money by growing my own food is in the immediate future. My luck with plant life would beg I'd starve to death before my first tomato appeared.
2 comments:
I really don't think you hold the title of "Cheapest woman alive" nope I don't think so, ok maybe, 5 years ago I dated a British woman and she hold the title of Cheapest/meanest/dumbest woman alive. So beat this one. Do you go to the Dollar store to do all your Christmas shopping for the family? Do you go shopping at the dollar store, purchase something and then bring it back (used) 1 week later and demand your $1.00 back? Do you buy bathing soap in bulk and give them as gifts? Do you go to places where they give free shampoo samples and then you get old shoes boxes, pain them and put the sample shampoo and Ivory soap in them, grab news paper and shred it and lay it in teh box, make a bow out of used material and give all of that as a "nice little gift box" to your friends?.. DO you go to the consignment store, buy a skirt, wear it to a bar and the next day take it back, demand your money and since they don't do refunds you ask for the manager and throw a fit?... Do you stand behind the kitchen doors of hotels and when you see the chef going out you ask them if they can give you the left overs? Do you go to the bars and wait fro someone to leave their drink on teh table and you grab it and drink it even though you don't know that person? Do you still wear your high boots from 1978 to gala events? Do you but triple ply toilette paper, get home and unroll each one and roll them into a used tube so that way you can make 3 rolls of toilette paper from one? If you have an onion in your fridge and 1/2 of it has mold so you cut that part off and cook the rest? Do you buy a brand new car, ask the sales rep to give you everything in it for free and you go 2 years driving it and not use the AC because you waste gas even though it is 100 degrees outside and you are sweating and red from the heat?. Do you collect used empty water bottles and go home and fill them up with water from you sink and drink it?. When you go to eat or a bar and you get the bill, do you get your adding machine out and figure out what 5% is on the bill and give that as a tip? And if it's 1.50 you just give 1.00 and tell the server you needed the change? Do you borrow clothes from your significant other even if they don't fit cos you don't want to wear out your own clothes?...
If you think I am making this up? I AM NOT, I have witnesses... Last Christmas she was invited to a gift exchange party in which we all have to buy ONE gift worth $10.00 to $30.00, we all went around and skipped her gift because WE KNEW.. The person who was stuck with her gift got a pair of white socks, just the typical white socks, you know 2 for $1.00.. We decided she is no longer invited to any party where gifts are exchanged.
Mind you, yes we were together for about 2 months.. I ran when she started an argument with a beer store because "why is Heineken beer more expensive that Keystone Beer? "ITS BEER.. ITS MADE TEH SAME WAH.. I want HINEKEN!!!" No kidding, I got out of there, stopped a cab, went home and never called her again.. She called me 10 times that day and her last message was "I called you several times, I am wasting my phone minutes so send me an e-mail" Do you think I called her or e-mailed her? Nope.. This happened years ago and because we have the same friend circle I still bump into her now and then.. Last time she asked me to go have a burger with her and she expected fro me to pay.. I ate my burger and she got pissed off because I didn't buy her one.. So I handed her one French fry and told her that's all she gets..
SO there Gail, you and Uncle Bob DO NOT hold that title... A British Woman living in Texas does.
In a search of online uses of the word "frugalista," I found your name and email associated either with such use, or as part of the general area of language commentary. I might already have contacted you -- if so, I apologize for the interruption. I have become involved in a bizarre controversy over the right to use the word online and I thought you might want to be aware of it.
My name is Amy Marquez. I live in Jackson and I LOVE a bargain. So do many of my friends. We often found ourselves sharing information with each other about great sales or discount store shipments or rummage sales after the fact, so some of us would miss out. I decided to create a blog to follow the bargain-hunting possibilities in our area.
I called my blog "JacksonFrugalista," for our area and for the theme -- living fashioably while being thrifty. I had seen the word used in a variety of frugal-minded websites and I liked it. It sounded much better than "JacksonCheapskate" or the like. My first few posts were about our local "fire sale store" chain, Hudsons, and about some upcoming sales at a local higher-end consignment store. The blog had recorded a few-dozen hits from my family and friends.
The blog had been up for about a week when I got a Cease and Desist letter from a Chicago attorney, Alexis Hart McDowell, on behalf of Natalie McNeal, operator of the Miami Herald's blog "FrugalistaFiles." The letter, which I have attached, ordered me to stop using the word "frugalista" on my blog. Apparently, Ms. McNeal has trademarked the word. Not the name of her blog, not the word in any particular visual formal, but the WORD ITSELF. According to her application (Serial No. 3532912) she has sole control of that word in any "online journal (or) blog in the field of financial advice and tips." That means that even your use of the word in your blog could violate her trademark!
The letter further states that MY use of the word "is confusingly similar and exactly the same to (McNeal's mark) and unfairly capitalizes on the goodwill and reputation embodied" in McNeal's use of the word. The letter states that my "continued unauthorized use of the mark is likely to confuse and miselad the consuming public and suggests an affiliation" with McNeal's blog. The letter also reminds me that McNeal has not given me permission to use the mark, i.e., the WORD.
Now, my blog isn't a money maker. I don't sell any products or services. I just wanted a way for me and my friends to tell each other about how to save money.
When I received the C&D letter, I sent it to some friends. Many of them suggested I change the name of my blog -- and that would be an easy solution. But the more I thought about it, the more irritated I got. WHY is it okay for someone to control a WORD? A word that has been used online and in other formats for a few years and in no association with that particular person or blog? Why does one person get to own a word and tell me that I can't use it online?
I have prepared a letter to send to the Trademark Office to protest these Trademark approvals (there are two submitted by Ms. McNeal). Unfortunately, filing the opposition to her pending application and the appeal of her approved application would cost me $600 -- $300 for each filing. I can't afford that.
I would be happy to send you the text of the letter I composed for the filing I can't afford. I am hoping that getting many people online aware of this might make a difference -- kind of a "don't kill the goodwill" approach to fighting the mark.
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