Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)

[glacio09]

We are repatriating and moving countries (yes, countries, not counties) in a few weeks and have been selling all our stuff. We want to hold a moving sale and give away the stuff we are still using. However, as Mustachians, most of our stuff is secondhand and we have so little stuff that we don’t have enough for a moving sale. So now I have all this random mismatched secondhand stuff and have to think of another way to get rid of it besides throwing it away.

Plan is to put everything in boxes outside our apartment and then to post a notice telling people to come take what they want.

Goodwill usually works for me combined with Freecycle

That’s great for you! We live in China. Neither Goodwill nor Freecycle are available here, and the local apps are not available to foreigners because you need to register a real Chinese ID to use them (it prevents fraud and scams.) So we will have to just use the means available to us.

There's the old joke of if you want something gone, put it outside with a $5 sign. It'll be gone quicker than a free sign.

[crocheted_stache]

We are repatriating and moving countries (yes, countries, not counties) in a few weeks and have been selling all our stuff. We want to hold a moving sale and give away the stuff we are still using. However, as Mustachians, most of our stuff is secondhand and we have so little stuff that we don’t have enough for a moving sale. So now I have all this random mismatched secondhand stuff and have to think of another way to get rid of it besides throwing it away.

Plan is to put everything in boxes outside our apartment and then to post a notice telling people to come take what they want.

Goodwill usually works for me combined with Freecycle

That’s great for you! We live in China. Neither Goodwill nor Freecycle are available here, and the local apps are not available to foreigners because you need to register a real Chinese ID to use them (it prevents fraud and scams.) So we will have to just use the means available to us.

There's the old joke of if you want something gone, put it outside with a $5 sign. It'll be gone quicker than a free sign.

I'm actually really curious what the culture is elsewhere about secondhand and surplus belongings as gifts.

[Alfred J Quack]

We are repatriating and moving countries (yes, countries, not counties) in a few weeks and have been selling all our stuff. We want to hold a moving sale and give away the stuff we are still using. However, as Mustachians, most of our stuff is secondhand and we have so little stuff that we don’t have enough for a moving sale. So now I have all this random mismatched secondhand stuff and have to think of another way to get rid of it besides throwing it away.

Plan is to put everything in boxes outside our apartment and then to post a notice telling people to come take what they want.

Goodwill usually works for me combined with Freecycle

That’s great for you! We live in China. Neither Goodwill nor Freecycle are available here, and the local apps are not available to foreigners because you need to register a real Chinese ID to use them (it prevents fraud and scams.) So we will have to just use the means available to us.

There's the old joke of if you want something gone, put it outside with a $5 sign. It'll be gone quicker than a free sign.

My stepdad has a asked me whether I wanted something since he wasn't using it anymore. He's not a hoarder but he's not prone to letting something go either. I've "helped" him a number of times by accepting and then taking it straight to goodwill.


My son wanted to buy some clothes but we just spent 100's on getting paint to paint the wooden fence parts of our perimiter (in stead of thousands to replace them). So I told him it's not in the budget and wait until payday.
He knows we have savings but he also knows we have a firm limit on not taking out of savings what can wait until the next payday 😁

[crocheted_stache]

We have an older car. Lately, it's been parked across the street to be out of the way of work we're doing and possible debris from that work. We don't move the car often, because we bike almost everywhere, especially when the weather is this nice. That's the Mustachian part.

Today, we found out which neighbor zealously defends "their" parking space, as in the space on the public street that happens to be in front of their house. At least it was just a note.

We have a cool neighbor, too. He came over to make sure we knew that the other neighbor had left that note, in case we hadn't seen it. He also invited us to park in front of his place, since he can see we're doing work. He doesn't think too highly of the neighbor who left the note. (The note was not signed, but nobody doubts who left it.)

If that's the worst the neighborhood relations get, we're doing ok. Also, a retired neighbor who's on your side and is the right kind of busybody is better than a security camera in a case like this.

We shook our heads a bit and moved the car. Also, the cool neighbor is definitely getting homegrown fruit from our tree.

[BicycleB]

We have an older car. Lately, it's been parked across the street to be out of the way of work we're doing and possible debris from that work. We don't move the car often, because we bike almost everywhere, especially when the weather is this nice. That's the Mustachian part.

Today, we found out which neighbor zealously defends "their" parking space, as in the space on the public street that happens to be in front of their house. At least it was just a note.

We have a cool neighbor, too. He came over to make sure we knew that the other neighbor had left that note, in case we hadn't seen it. He also invited us to park in front of his place, since he can see we're doing work. He doesn't think too highly of the neighbor who left the note. (The note was not signed, but nobody doubts who left it.)

If that's the worst the neighborhood relations get, we're doing ok. Also, a retired neighbor who's on your side and is the right kind of busybody is better than a security camera in a case like this.

We shook our heads a bit and moved the car. Also, the cool neighbor is definitely getting homegrown fruit from our tree.

And thus we join the eternal story of human relations.

Mustachian, yet universal.

[crocheted_stache]

Between living in sunny California and driving less than once a week, a car window shade is a must. Ours is old and sun-damaged and shedding fuzz all over, so we made a rare impulse purchase when we saw new ones at the store today.

Today's MPP: "Universal fit" is a little too tall and a little too rigid to fit our 20-year-old, small-for-the-US car. Fortunately, I didn't destroy or toss the package to determine that, so it's going back, and they should be able to put it back on the shelf for the next clown car owner.

I'll measure the windshield before I try again.

[FireLane]

I usually cook for the week on Monday night. This past week, my meal prep didn't stretch far enough, so I had to make an extra trip to the store.

I was wandering the aisles, and I saw a package of pre-made meatballs. I had spaghetti already, so I thought, great! Spaghetti and meatballs makes a solid dinner.

It was $6.80, which is a lot. But just for one night I figured it would be fine, and maybe there'd be leftovers.

When I started cooking, I opened the package to find... six lousy meatballs. More than a dollar each, and they weren't even that big! I could've gotten a pound of meat for less than that and made a dozen.

I thought, who buys ripoff products like this? And the answer is obvious: people who are tired after work and don't have time to comparison-shop or cook. I'm not in that category, so I should've known better.

In the grand scheme of things, it's a tiny mistake. I'm not beating myself up over it, but it's a lesson learned.

[crocheted_stache]

@FireLane that's the kind of thing I especially look out for in dollar stores. There are only so many ways to make something cheaper, and cutting the quality and quantity are among them.

It sounds like you got $1.00 worth of meatballs and the rest was (deceptive?) packaging and a markup for "convenience." Yeesh.

Was the extra trip to a different store than usual?