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Keeping Up w/ the Kards……

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I got the first calendar of the holiday season in the mail yesterday.  It’s pretty – scenic destinations from all over – but useless.  Nobody on the planet needs additional calendars less than I do – I know that you all know this.

My most expensive calendar is my Daytimer.  I was actually given this portfolio-type calendar by my boss over 30 years ago.  After he had gotten a good annual review, he presented his three employees (me, Alan, Ann) with this gift saying that he could not have gotten a good review if we weren’t all doing good work.  As you can see from the frayed edges, it’s the original binder but I do spend the money every year to update the innards.  In the various pockets I keep stamps, address labels, deposited checks and my old vaccination card (before I started carrying around the covid card in my purse).   It also contains an address book that I update every couple of years.

Every month I do all my birthday/anniversary/occasion cards at once – on average about 20 cards a month.   I pick them out, stamp the appropriate greetings/sayings, sign them, seal them, affix a stamp to  them and stick on the address label and then sort them into my Daytimer for the week they need to be mailed.  That’s why a lot of the time, my Daytimer looks like it does in the photo above.  If I do cards for a holiday, I usually stack those on my dresser next to the Daytimer.  Right now I have Thanksgiving cards and National Origami Day cards stacked up. (I have to justify all these stamps/dies/papers you know!)

I’m pretty sure that I could devise a cheaper system for storing cards that are waiting to be mailed but my current system works great and I do have a sentimental attachment to the Daytimer.  My boss back then was a fabulous person to have as a boss – I was sorry when he left the company.  Alan, Ann and I weren’t long with the company after that. 

I’m sending the scenic calendar to work with YA – free stuff goes fast when left on a lunchroom table!

What’s a freebie that you look forward to?

26 thoughts on “Keeping Up w/ the Kards……”

  1. I appreciate getting address labels from charities I’ve donated to even if they still send them years after my last donation. Beats the heck out of writing my return address on “all those letters and packages I have to send constantly!” 😉 Because isn’t the postal system the life line of our democracy??

    We used to get a calendar from one or two charities but I don’t recall getting one recently (my wife would know).

    Other than that, I love going to Costco or Hyvee around noontime on certain days and picking up free bites of this and that. If you go on the right day, you can enjoy the equivalent of a three-course meal.

    And I never turn down the chance to plunge my grubby fist into a bowlful of Halloween candy that’s offered by a business or group this time of year. (And NO, my hands are not grubbier than anyone else’s, and I don’t slobber over the bowl digging for the chocolate candies or the Sweet Tarts.)

    Chris in Owatonna

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      1. Guilty as charged, although we do buy quite a bit at Costco on those trips. And (I) we have also succumbed to the occasional impulse buy and purchased a food item that was being offered for sampling.

        Same at Hyvee.

        Chris

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    3. I just received some address labels in today’s mail. I’m sorry to say right now I can’t even remember who sent them, although I have put them into my Daytimer for future use. About half of the labels I receive have my name spelled wrong – seriously bad marketing.

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  2. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Yesterday I returned home with a freebie from my uncle’s funeral. As my cousins and their families worked through their grief, someone had carved sets of words describing him, then assembled it into a crossword-like thingie. This was six feet tall and four feet wide. I was given one of the words as a gift, so I came home with “Loving” on the front and “Explore” on the back. Those were both words that described his life as a young man and a young uncle to me. I don’t know what I will do with it. My uncle’s presence cut a wide swath across his family and community to be sure.

    Noticeably absent was “Fox News Addiction” as well as “#45 supporter” But I kept my mouth shut about those issues. There has been a considerable amount of family conflict about certain life choices/conditions lately and I did not think such a comment would de-escalate that. Plus I was on alien, meaning so-called conservative, territory, and I did not want to be tarred and feathered. There was a recent family wedding of someone who is gay and that generated all kinds of angst and anger among my uncle’s children who refused to attend. But their children, the individual’s peers, did attend. ‘Nuff said. But many glares of disapproval.

    Is family conflict over political views and behaviors a Freebie? Or does it cost us? My thought is yes, it costs us.

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  4. Morning –
    This week of the children’s plays, we feed the actors between shows. It’s free to them, and me, but the theater department pays for it. Nothing is ever really free, is it.
    Pretty decent food catered by HyVee. One day Chicken fingers, the next, taco’s, then hot dogs, turkey and mashed potatoes, and Sloppy Joes on Friday. Plus all the fixings and side dishes and deserts. I make sure the kids take whatever they want, and the left overs go home to my chickens. They love this week. The chickens and dogs.
    I was surprised the kids liked mixed vegetables as much as they did.

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  5. At a luncheon yesterday for Home Delivered Meals volunteers, I was one of the winners of the drawing – a $25 gift card to Kwik Trip – I’m sure we’ll find a way to use it.

    And I’ve had a chaotic week, (which has resolved itself mostly – long story). So today I’m allowing myself to cancel a couple of regular things in my schedule, and I have time to take a nap right now.

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  6. Free pads of list paper are always useful. I get those at conferences. I got the weirdest thing at a conference in Septmber. It was this thing called a selfish, a round piece of plastic the diameter of a coffee cup that fits onto the end of a cell phone and flashes lights if you push the button. I.have no idea what it is used for.

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  7. I get a lot of those address labels too. I think I get way too many. My attitude about the free calendars, tote bags, address labels, pens, pads of paper, bookmarks, and other items is pretty negative. Most nonprofits could save money by ending this practice. A lot of it eventually makes it way into a landfill. I have donated to various environmental nonprofits and it surprises me that they send all this junk out. I tend to keep one sheet of address labels but that’s it. I try to use my phone for my calendar but I don’t always succeed. I’m not as organized as you, VS. I have a DayTimer too but I never use it. I’ve managed to put my contacts into my phone and I like it that way.

    Still having identity issues with WP. I do like your comments but I’m not able to “like” them.

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    1. Agree with ” My attitude about the free calendars, tote bags, address labels, pens, pads of paper, bookmarks, and other items is pretty negative” – what a waste of paper for most of it. I do use a few of the address labels (remember when you had to order them?). But there are stacks of the calendars available at our senior center, in the lobby of a nursing home that we visit…

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    2. I am always amazed during State Fair to see folks lined up waiting for a freebie bag or yardstick… how can you be alive today and not have WAY TOO MANY bags. I’ve never counted mine up but I’d have to guess I have at least 40! I also can’t imagine what people do with the yardsticks they pick up.

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    3. Krista, check to see if you’re allowing pop-ups on the blog page. Usually a little icon in the right side of the address bar. If you aren’t, enabling them might solve your ID issues. Just an idea, since I’ve had other issues that were fixed by allowing pop-ups on a certain website.

      Chris

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      2. I have a few different log-in screens that pop up. They all look different. I have the best success if there is a “W” for WP. If I click on that, it does log me in without all kinds of circular business about “It looks like you have already said that.” On the log in screen/box that works for me there are 3 options about receiving replies via email, etc. Nothing about pop-ups. I’m using an iPad most of the time. Thanks for thinking of me.

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  8. The State Fair Foundation gives me a blue ribbon bargain book once a year. I suppose it’s not technically a freebie, since you have to make a donation. Kinda like your public radio/TV membership gift. I do look forward to it, though.

    Another free thing that gives me some satisfaction each year is my free I Voted sticker. Don’t forget to get yours!

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  9. We get a lot of address labels and keep and use a fair number of them. I feel a little guilty using labels from places to which we have not donated but throwing them away would not change anything. Inevitably a couple of wall calendars show up but no matter how attractive the photos are, we don’t have a place for a calendar on the wall and we have specific requirements for an organizing calendar, which we keep by the land line phone.

    Back when I did a lot of work with General Mills, they used to send an assortment of their products and a couple of Betty Crocker kitchen tools in a box to their vendors. Most of the products in the box were from the middle aisles of the store, the processed foods like Hamburger Helper, and those are things I would never use so most of what came in the box I took down to the local supermarket and dumped into their donation barrel. We still have the big Betty Crocker spoon, though.

    My investment advisor always sends out a holiday gift to his clients. Lately it has been a nice box of assorted Abdullah chocolates. I’m not personally a big sweets eater but the gesture is appreciated.

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    1. My system works really well for me but there is one small drawback. I have several really cute belated birthday stamps and I never get to use them!

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