Recession Lifehacks: #1

[FrodoSwaggins]

Just a few recession lifehacks:
(Mostly parenting related, but still...)

• Volunteer or free event for you or the kids? If its for the kids, get their free t-shirts a size (or 2!) up so they can wear them longer. They can swim in the shirt for the day (or you can do the fancy early-90's tie at the waist), then they'll have the shirt for a while. Event shirts are good to help cover all the colors you need for spirit days at school, if your kids' school does that.
  
• Buying kids shoes? Buy a size up, stuff the toes with newspaper, they'll grow into them quick enough.
  
• Goodwill stores have a dollar tag sale on Sunday mornings. You can get a specific tag color for just a dollar. You have to get their early and be quick because the resellers (employees call these "regulars" and "vultures") will mob new merchandise, even getting into fistfights, all the while scanning items with their cellphones to see what they can resell them for. Man, I just wanted pants for work!
  
• 2 tips in one: Becoming a reseller (don't) or at least using their app - Haven't dug into it much yet, but online forums suggest ScoutIQ or Scoutly to scan bar codes in the wild (thrift stores) to identify items for resale. Things like sealed media also don't need to be resold... you can take them to a retailer like Target or Walmart to return ("it was a gift, I don't have a receipt") for store credit. Big retailers will flag you over a certain number of returns per quarter, but if you do this a few times year to buy special groceries, holiday gifts, or work clothes with the credit, it could pay off for you. I have absolutely done this in the past, sans the app, just returning sealed DVDs to big retailers. -- I also hear that eBay app might have this barcode scanning function? I"m not sure, let me know if you have experience here.
  

[gorzek]

I don't have any good ones off the top of my head but these are great tips.

[FrodoSwaggins]

Hey, if you want to get into "unethical life pro tips" category, next time you go to the mall, Target, a hotel, whatever... didn't you forget a black sweatshirt (or maybe it was a jacket) there last time? No? Are you SUUUURE??? Or you know, sometimes it's a cellphone charger. -- Is this your jacket in the lost and found? By golly look at that, there it is!

[gorzek]

Speaking of maybe less "ethical" ones:
I saw a video where someone said they leave their grocery receipt wedged in the seat of their shopping cart so the next person can get free groceries.
Someone had to explain to me how that works. Basically, someone would take your receipt, go into the store, buy more or less everything on it, and then walk out the door. "Here's my receipt," you see.
That's one where you have to show a lot of confidence that you are not, in fact, stealing, but you're at the exit with a receipt so who's to say you didn't pay?