Miscellany: REI, pumpkin votives, & I want something unnecessary.
Happy Thursday, frugal peoples! It's time for some miscellany.
REI is skipping Black Friday.
For real. You can read all about it here. They're closing their stores and sites and encouraging people to go outside instead.
I don't really love the way that Black Friday has been creeping backwards until it runs smack dab into Thanksgiving day, so I like that REI is going against the flow by giving their employees an extra paid day off.
And I love that they're not afraid to make a decision that could hurt them financially.
(Although I feel hopeful that this will just solidify their customer base even more and possibly win over some new customers.)
I remembered to get out my pumpkin candles!
I'm not a big seasonal decorator unless it's Christmastime (and even then, I don't really go all out).
But I do own these little terracotta votive holders, which my girls love, and I actually remembered to get them out at the beginning of October this year. So, yay me.
I, uh, bought these at an after-Halloween clearance sale some years back. Because of course.
Can we talk about my dishes?
So, I've had these black Pfaltzgraff dishes for about 18 years now, and miraculously enough, a great percentage of them survived the years when my children were all small.
Well, that's not entirely true. I still have plenty of big dinner plates, but I'm a bit lacking in the smaller-plate department because a lot of those bit the dust.
Anyway, I've been wishing for a set of plain, minimalist-looking white dishes for some time now.
(Why yes, this would be partially motivated by the fact that white dishes are good for photography. Ahem.)
Also I just really dig white dishes. But my frugal, practical self is having issues with this. I mean, the black dishes do still work fine.
I dunno. I need to think about this some more.
I'm reading the new MoneySavingMom book.
It's not published yet, but it IS available for pre-order on Amazon. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy to read, though.
#bloggerperks
I'm only a few chapters in, but I'm liking it thus far, and I think it'd be really helpful for anyone looking to start up a business doing something they love.
Our router died.
This last weekend, our internet gave out, or at least it seemed that way.
Luckily, this is an area where Mr. FG shines, and he figured out the router had gone kaput. He ordered a new one, but then rummaged through his spare parts box to hook up an old extra router while we waited for the new one to come in. That way we didn't have to be without internet for days.
Wives who blog appreciate these kinds of things, you know?
The new one router came yesterday, so now we are back in business for real. I'm so glad that Mr. FG deals with our techie stuff because it's really, really not my area of expertise.
There's an ePantry giveaway goin' on.
Enter to win a complete set of Mrs. Meyers' products, which consists of one of everything they make! Plus the winner gets a bonus set for a friend. Schweet.
(14 items in all, with no purchase necessary.)
This is really quick giveaway, so if you want to win, enter right away! The winner will be emailed on Friday, October 30th.
And of course, you can also still snag your 3 free Mrs. Meyers' products plus free scrub brush plus free shipping when you spend $20.
(That offer is for new customers, but existing customers, click here and you'll get a free Mrs. Meyer's hand soap added to your next order!)
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Oohkay! I think that does it for this week's miscellany.
Sounds like it's time to start shopping the thrift shops for new dishes. Over a little bit of time, I bet you can get a new set of just what you want.
I've been keeping an eye out, but sadly, plain white dishes are hard to come across. Most have patterns of some sort and I want white and nothing but!
Check the Corning website - I saw several different sets of pure white dishes in the factory store in Corning, NY.
FYI, sometimes the factory store is a great bargain. I bought dishes for the next 20 years for less than half of list. This involved buying boxed sets rather than open stock (even though the sets have dishes I don't want, they really are that much cheaper), holiday discount, museum-goer discount, and affiliate discount.
ProTip 1: the reason I got three different discounts on one purchase is was I very pleasant about asking. When they thought they couldn't do the affiliate as well, I just said "thanks, I appreciate your thinking about it." When I returned to carry away the 5 boxes, the manager told me she could do it after all.
ProTip 2: there are factory stores in several different US states. Maybe there's one in your vicinity.
ooh, Corning is awesome! we have rather ugly 70s era "harvest gold" and "avocado" patterned dishes and they still totally rock -- almost indestructible, microwaveable, you can even cut meat and stuff on them. All White Corning is the dream and I think you can justify it because of 1) need and 2) blog expense.
Score for manners 🙂
If you drop an old Corning Ware piece on a ceramic floor, they explode like a bomb. Ask me how I know.
Be careful.
Ceramic floors are HARD, aren't they? Nothing seems to survive being dropped on those.
I have wood in my kitchen at this house, and it's a little more forgiving (although the floor itself can get damaged more easily.)
Here's one set of options: http://www.corelle.com/corelle-white/.
You're more likely to get discounts if you talk to a customer service rep online, than order off the website.
I just bought a new set from World Market, and I love them! I got the like 10% email coupon plus they were on sale, etc and they came in under like $100 for a set of 10 plates, bowls, & salad plates. These ones: http://www.worldmarket.com/product/white-coupe-collection.do?&from=Search
You could probably find dishes you like used - thrift stores, Craigslist, eBay. If you found specific ones you could piece together partial sets. people are always getting rid of dishes!
I would like to go on record as saying that there is not one thing wrong with owning more than one set of dishes. I have owned so many over the years, starting with "Picnic" by Fransiscan, then two Pfaltzgraff sets: " Folk Art", and "Morning Light." My current everyday dishes are Fiestaware in "Scarlet". Can you tell I love dishes?? Two Thanksgivings ago, I found myself hosting 16 people, and not only did I not have enough plates, the red of my everyday dishes didn't fit my autumn color scheme, lol. So, off to the Dollar Tree I went, and bought the dinner plates I needed in white. The other pieces I could fill in with clear, as I have a massive set of Fransiscan "American" pattern, inherited, along with a china cabinet, from my dishes-obsessed late mother-in-law.
Oops, the American pattern is FOSTORIA not Franciscan. I believe my mother in law may have just turned in her grave.
Just made my first order from epantry. Thanks! Can't wait for my freebies and other products.
Is it just me or does anyone else "lock up" when reading at this site? If I try to scroll down, my computer "freezes" and usually I have to click away to get things going again. I've been having this trouble for a while. I am reading through Firefox. I don't have the issue with any other sites so I wondered if I was doing something wrong?
Anyhoo..........I got some white dishes on a MAJOR sale a few years ago and I love them. I bet if you keep your eyes open, you might find a holiday sale. Good luck!!
I'm having the same issue with my site on Firefox, whereas on Chrome, it behaves fine. I have no idea why. Ugh.
Yes, it happens to me all the time. I thought it was just me so I never said anything. In fact it locked up while reading your comment and while I was trying to type this. I use internet explorer so it must not be a Firefox issue.
I use Explorer and the site locks for me, too.
I too have noticed this
Could you all send me screenshots of what happens to you? That would be so helpful in tracking down the issues!
I'm not sure how I would "screen shot" anything. What exactly do you mean? For example, once the site loads, if I try to scroll down, either with my mouse or the down arrow, everything "locks up" and it takes a bit for it to "catch up", if it ever does. Sometimes, I just have to close Firefox all together.
Even as I'm typing this comment, the letters aren't keeping up with my typing. I type and then have to wait for the words to appear. I am not getting any type of error message, just constant stalling.
Thanks for being willing to check into it! I'm sorry to make a headache for you!
Oh, gotcha. Some other readers are getting an unresponsive script message, so they can send screenshots of that. Thank you for describing th problem, though.
My suspicion is that this is an ad issue, so I've got support requests in to my three ad networks to see what the deal is. And if that doesn't pan out, I'll chat with my hosting company to see if they have ideas for me.
Thanks for your patience!!
It stinks that routers do die. I don't get it as there's not really much to go bad on them (though most likely they just have poor heat issues and slowly cook themselves to death.) At least new ones aren't too expensive (my house is small enough to survive with a $20 TP-Link model.
Per dishes, there's a nice white stoneware set at the land where the furniture folds to a much smaller size. They are called FÄRGRIK (which is apparently Swedish for colorful.) 6 place settings (a bowl, salad plate and dinner plate) are $20 so they aren't going to break the bank.
Also, extra dishes are great to give away when in a few years your older kids start out on their own.
Yes, it appeared to be a heat issue. Ours was white, and if you looked carefully, you could see that part of the top looked a bit...burnt.
And ooh, those Ikea dishes look lovely. I might have to take a trip.
IKEA has another white set that is reasonably priced by the box, a set of 6 for $40. You can buy extras a la carte. It is called Arv. I love them. A little curvy edge, not too much, not too plain.
Ooh, off to check those out.
Oh no, I feel weak...must go look at IKEA dishes....
You need to ask for dishes (or a giftcard) for Christmas! I struggle with wanting things but not needing them sometimes too. If you receive it as a gift there is no guilt involved!
I know that they are "plain Jane", but we love our plain white dishes from Correll. They take up so little room in the cupboard. They are very difficult to break (I have four kids) and they come in lots of sizes. Very reasonably priced, too!
I treated myself to plain white Corelle when we moved last year. I love them! Mine have a slight fluting around the rim. I agree --ask for them for Christmas.
Oops! It is Corelle! Sorry!
I had a set of dishes with an ivy pattern on them for about 13 years. I really wanted some plain white ones, since that would go better with all my placemats and napkins. My mom gave me a set for Xmas. When I went to get rid of the ivy ones, only one bowl was missing. I thought that was pretty awesome that only one bowl broke. A few months later, a friend gave me back the bowl. So the whole set was actually intact after 13 years. Although I've broken two dishes since we moved. Tile isn't as forgiving as linoleum.
Life is short, buy the dishes. I did A LOT of research before registering for my plates for my wedding. I chose Kate Spade Wickford by Lenox for mine. Turns out the higher the quality plate (porcelain or better) the less likely to break AND. A lifetime warranty. They're all white but do have a white whicker-like edge to them.
White dishes are wonderful. They are very versatile. My mom has had them for a long time. Almost all food looked good on them so they would be great for your photographs. I have bright colorful Fiesta dishes because that's what I love. I think having dishes that you love makes enjoying cooking and eating much more enjoyable. As long as it's something affordable to you, go for it.
I got a set of White Frost Corell dishes when I got married; no china. I love them. It might be an investment since you have a larger family, but they are light, very difficult to break, simple, and easy to find (I've gotten separate mugs from ebay and I've seen individual dishes from that pattern sold at Walmart and Target). You might run into Corell stuff at thrift stores, but I think these simple white dishes don't end up there as often because, well, why would one get rid of them? You value buying quality, that is frugal as well (this is one of the many reasons I read your blog). I wouldn't find a large purchase of high quality dishes, new, to be un-frugal, especially if you save up for a few months. Keep looking, but maybe start putting some money in a jar aside in case you can't find exactly what you want at a thrift store.
I buy the cheapest white plates I can find (a local cheap store does a nice square plate which is cheap and modern) and then when they break I just pop in and replace them, so I have enough for two meals (ten plates). I have tried nice plates but they get just as chipped or broken as cheap ones and you can't replace patterned plates so easily. Also, I find white goes with everything when I decorate the table for birthdays or Christmas.
I think I may have overused the word cheap in my previous comment!
Could you consider donating your dishes? Near me there are several charities that help people (homeless, women leaving abusive situations, etc) get new housing and they are always needing household items to help people get set up. The less new items they have to buy the better! So, you could get a new set of dishes, and help someone with your old set!
Your note about white dishes rang a bell with a lot of people!
I remembered reading this post http://owlhaven.net/2010/06/15/my-new-dishes/ and GOOD GRAVY it was already five years ago (?!).
Also, I use firefox, and it locks: The popup says there is a script that quit running and do I want to debug? I have said yes, but it's all just html to me. If that information would be of any use to you I can screenshot/copy/something to send it.
Yes! A screenshot would be marvelous.
I, too, would like to replace my old Pfalzgraff with white dishes. Part of my hesitation is that I have many serving pieces that match my Pfalzgraff. It's an old pattern (Tea Rose) but I still like it ... but they are heavy and take up a lot of room. I'll be interested to know how you solve your dilemma.
Along those lines ... I happened to be at JC Penney yesterday and they have white dishes on sale--seems like it was around $80 for service for 8 (about half-price) and they had a few different patterns to choose from. Ikea also has white dishware at reasonable prices.
I think it will be next to impossible for you to find white dishes at thrift stores or Ebay or anyplace like that--white dishware is very trendy right now and I bet anything like that gets snatched up immediately.
You've had the same set of dishes for 18 years. It is likely that you'll have the next set for 18 years (at least). Go find a new (yes new!) set that you love (preferably on sale) and get them.
My husband hates the plates that I got at Goodwill, 70's style, brown and beige. Ok, they are not stylish but... it's plates! And I paid 0,25$/each. I don't think I could shell out 100$ for a new set, it would drive me crazy to think about the price I paid everytime I use it. That said, we do not entertain very often. And for some odd reason, I love special presentation dishes like cake plate or hors-d'oeuvre plates...
Why not mix the dishes? Pottery barn sells caterers plates -- they are inexpensive and you can buy just the salad plates. White dishes for photography and a cool black and white table.
Also, REI closing for Black Friday is cool, but they won't lose too much business over it, so it's great, but also a PR move.
Target can't close, because their direct competitor stays open. (They've done the math and they would need to lay off employees if they lost that much revenue on Black Friday.) for people to stop Black Friday openings, they need to stop shopping on Black Friday. (Steps off soapbox.)
And I like those votives!
Yep, I agree. Consumer demand is certainly a driving force behind the Black Friday creep.
Also, since REI isn't publicly traded (as far as I know), it has a lot more freedom do things like this than, say, Target.
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out for REI. I was thinking about how Chick-Fil-A stays closed on Sundays despite their competitors being open every Sunday...apparently this hasn't affected their bottom line. Aldi also closes on a lot of holidays when their competitors are still open, and they seem to do fine with it too.
REI is a cooperative rather than the more usual corporation.
White dishes are cool (but so are black.) I sold my ivy dishes at a garage sale a couple of years ago and it paid half the cost of buying new. I went with Corelle which isn't very sexy, but durable. That's what we need for my station in life. Your plates would look AWESOME with white chalk marker words on them on a gold plate stand. They might go for a mint on etsy that way and cover the cost of the white dishes and then some.
last year we made the switch to all white plates. I went online to the Crate and Barrel outlet site and bought them in sets of 8 for pretty (relatively) cheap, for the large and salad plates. Which, come to find out, we never use the large plates because the salad plates are big enough for pretty much any meal we buy. They also had a dozen small-ish plain white bowls for all of about 15 bucks, which is perfect size for the kids to have yogurt or cereal. Their deep bowls were almost 5 bucks a pop, so I got lucky and found some at the dollar tree, that have held up very well. My sister bought her plates AND bowls from dollar tree, and have been really happy with them.
We LOVE REI... their customer service is fantastic, and their people are really knowledgeable, so it's always been our go-to if we need outdoor stuff, which isn't terribly often. Marketing ploy or not, it makes me happy to know that a company we've gone out of our way to support is doing something relatively unheard of in the retail industry. I doubt the people that work in the stores, who don't have to cut Thanksgiving dinner short and run to work at 8 pm like some companies do, aren't going to be thinking "well, it's just a marketing play, so..."
Ok. WRT yesterday's post: I DO boycott Black Friday. 😉 Glad to see REI is making a PR move. I hope others do the same.
I really like the idea above of mixing black and white dishes! I LOVE my mom's Corelle plain white (remarkably they survived four kids!) but my husband hates those so I opted for Pottery Barn's Great White when we got married. TBH they're a bit too heavy for my taste. Glad to hear that Ikea has cheap alternatives! I may have to check those out. I really like the idea of mixing different "patterned" white dishes. Maybe I'll try that!
I don't typically shop on Black Friday either, but that's not exactly a boycott in my case; it's avoiding pain and misery. It's exactly like why I don't shop at Wal-Mart....I stay away because the experience is so bad! 😉
Haha, ok that's fair - I suppose it doesn't count as true boycott unless you were planning/needing to do it and then chose not to. For me [holiday] shopping is a bit of a chore anyway. Why would this working girl waste a precious extra day off schlepping around crowded stores (can you tell I'm an introvert?) 😀
Especially when you could just order gifts online and never leave the house???
(fellow introvert)
PS I was also having trouble with your site in Firefox (not crashing, but getting the scrolling wheel and other weird blips that I couldn't screen shot), but I just switched to Chrome and it seems fine now.
Hmm. That is really strange. I'm wondering why this happens in Firefox but not in Chrome.
There does seem to be an ad that comes up with an unresponsive script, and I do have a screenshot of that. I'm contacting my ad networks to see if they can tell me where this is coming from. Maybe if we get rid of that, the random locking-up will stop too.
This site works great in Chrome, but with the newly installed Windows 10, Chrome won't consistently run Facebook. I spend an inordinate time with Facebook open, so having it crash my other tabs is a giant pain! Knowing Google and Facebook, they'll fix that quickly and I can switch back to Chrome, which I actually like a lot better than Firefox.
Y'know, extra information, for what it's worth.
Ikea has very affordable plain jane white dishes - a 6 piece serving aet for about $40. They also have them in modern or traditional to fit your style and some fancier edged ones too. You can alao buy the individual pieces.
Yay REI! Love my membership there. Willing for my dividends to be less to support this Black Friday closing.
Corning outlet stores are a good place to buy white small plates to mix with your large black plates. The also have white plates with black designs that could tie it all together. No need to buy a whole set of anything.
Agree having a tech oriented spouse is a genuine bonus! I love just mentioning a problem then watching said problem disappear.
When I learned from you that food photographs are best on white dishes, I bought one at a th store. Shortly after that I saw one I liked better. Then I began to think it would be good to have different sizes. Well, it didn't take long for me to collect a complete set of all white but not matching dinner plates, salad plates and soup bowls. My top price was 99 cents but many were as low as a quarter. I love my eclectic dinnerware. Most of it has a texture pattern but some are contemporary. So if you are willing to collect your new set slowly I'm sure you will eventually find them second hand.
I am so excited to get the REI Black Friday news. I always spend Black Friday out in nature!
(My white Corelle dishes have waves on the rims.) Thanks Kristen!
I do appreciate the purpose behind REI keeping their store closed. They seem to be getting a positive response, so maybe more stores will do it. I don't like the hype around Thanksgiving/Black Friday shopping. I find the crowds stressful, and it seems like people get caught up in the materialism. Advertisers are great at making us think we need lots of stuff.
I think after 18 years a new set of dishes is perfectly reasonable. 🙂 You spend lots of time in the kitchen, and something that helps you enjoy your time in there is a good investment.
I bought these dishes a few years ago, because like you I really wanted a set of plain white dishes, even though I didn't NEED them. I felt like it was a reasonable splurge for such a large set. And 10 Strawberry Street had great customer service. One of the bowls was chipped when the set arrived and then set me out a new one right away. http://www.walmart.com/ip/10-Strawberry-Street-Nova-Square-Banquet-45-Piece-Dinnerware-Set/19525094
I HIGHLY recommend white Fiesta dishes! They're USA-made and incredibly durable. They're also attractive and often used in restaurants and photographed in food blogs. (Hint, hint) We've owned our Fiesta since our wedding 16 years ago and through many moves and almost all pieces are intact. Plus, it's sold in stores like Macy's and Kohl's that offer lots of coupons.
Are Fiesta dishes all really thick? I have limited cabinet space, and so I haven't considered those because of my assumption that they are all thick. I need my plates to nest pretty tightly in order to fit them in my cabinet!
We have had white Corelle dishes for over 6 years and still love them.
I love the dishes I bought at dollar tree. I've had them for a while and they are thick. My 5 kids ages baby-7 haven't broke one but even if they do I can go and buy just one instead of a whole new set. They aren't exactly white but more of a cream color, but they have worked great for us.
I get the following message when my computer freezes on your webpage:
A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, open the script in the debugger, or let the script continue.
Script: http://secure-ds.serving-sys.c…urstingScript/SZMKFLVPAIDBR.js:17