Sunday, February 20, 2011

Beloved Collectibles Must Go!!

I have collected annual sterling silver snowflake ornament sets since the late 1990s, buying back issues when I found them at a reasonable price. Over the years I have added more and more company's lines to my collection until I began to run out of room. About 5 years ago I winnowed my collection down to five lines that I couldn't live without!!

2004 Lenox Sterling and Crystal Snowflake
A couple years after that when I was downsizing for my move into a cottage I decided to let a couple more lines go.  I put the Lenox crystal and sterling line up on an online storefront and was able to sell only one.  I had two more waiting in my garage for someone to fall in love with them or desire the first and second in the series.

2006 Wallace Grand Baroque Sterling Silver Snowflake
Up until last month I had four lines that I wanted to keep.  Of course with my financial issues I had to find a way to make some quick cash.  I decided to "retire" a complete set of eleven Wallace sterling silver ornaments from the "Grand Baroque" line.  This was so difficult, but I really had no choice. 

Given my limited success with selling these ornaments online, I decided to call the company where I had purchased the snowflakes new.  Sterling Collectables also sells ornaments from previous years to collectors, and I hoped I could get a good offer.  I was pleased that they would offer me $400 for my 13 ornaments.  I wouldn't have gotten as much as I did if I hadn't kept them in pristine condition, with their original boxes, paperwork, red satin ribbon, and anti-tarnish pouch.  I hope I won't have to sell off my three remaining lines (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gorham, and Towle) of ornaments, but I am thankful that they purchased my ornaments, it was a nice Valentine's Day present.

© 2011 StayInMorroBay@gmail.com

Friday, February 11, 2011

Golden State Advantage aka "Food Stamps"

I was talking with the Department of Social Services representative at my local One-Stop center and she told me the good news.  When I was first laid off I called DSS to see if I qualified for any of the programs.  The only one I might have qualified for was "food stamps", but because I owned my car and had both a retirement account and a pension I was not qualified.  However, starting in February 2011 they are no longer counting "property" towards your eligibility for services.

So, I visited my local DSS office and filled out some paperwork last week.  I had an appointment yesterday, had to fill out more paperwork, get my photo taken, get my fingerprints taken, and watch a video of the services offered.  They sent me home with my "Golden State Advantage" card, which is like a debit card.  This morning I checked and $80 had been loaded on the card, so I hurried off to buy some food.


I am ashamed to say that I decided not to use my regular grocery store for my first use of my EBT card, afraid of the stigma I guess.  I went to a local discount grocery store (Cookie Crock) and gathered some different categories of food, which was challenging as I was not given guidelines of which food was eligible and which was not.  I grabbed some produce, some junk food, some canned food, a cooked chicken, bread, cheese, and some soda pop.  When I went through the register the guys helped me out with the process of checking out.  They were so respectful and helpful.  Luckily there was no one behind me in line because I was a bit slow learning which buttons to choose, etc.  I appreciate the patience of the register guys.

Turned out that most of the food, including the junk food and soda, was eligible for the card.  However, I was surprised to find that the cooked chicken was not eligible.  Apparently, prepared hot food is not covered.  I found an FDA site that explains which food is covered and which is not.  One interesting item on this list is "energy drinks", apparently if there is a nutritional label it is covered but if there is no nutritional label it is considered a supplement and is not covered.

Although I am thankful that I was approved for a monthly food stamps allowance of $87.00, I am upset that no one gave me a pamphlet about how to use the card, perhaps it is "in the mail".  I could easily have purchased my own chicken and cooked it at home, that would have saved me almost $6 in cash.

Follow-up:  For people who are new to the "EBT" card, each store has a different process for using the card.  I have used it at 4 stores and they are all different.  I am almost used to having to announce, or having the register announce, to the whole store that I am using food stamps!!  Today, because I had less on my card than the amount of the purchase, it rejected my card.  I had to take it to the special register where they could check my balance first and then process only that amount!!  The computer should know that, right?  If I had been in a regular line instead of the self-checkout line I would have held up the line and everyone would have known why.  This is not right!!  So not only do I have to learn several different processes for using the card, I also have to keep in mind how much is left on the card and not go over or it will be rejected and I will have to be embarrassed yet again, ARGGGGHH!!

Another Follow-up:  So, I was waiting, and waiting, and waiting at the beginning of my second month for my next installment of food stamps.  I called each day to see if the balance was $87.00, and finally pressed the right sequence of numbers to get to a list of topics that might answer my questions.  Of course I never had the option of speaking to a live person!!  The bottom line was that the date your food stamps funds are added to your card is the last number of your claim.  Of course mine is "9", so I have to wait until the 9th of the month to get my food stamps cash on my card.  See, this is why there should have been a packet mailed to me explaining all of this.  I feel like I was sent out into the ocean with a paddle with no boat!!

Yet another Follow-up:  Sometime last weekend I realized that I had been waiting for the quarterly report to come in the mail, or at least an email with a link to the report.  I did some online searching and it turns out that I was supposed to turn it in the first week of the month, and it was considered late by the second week of the month.  I went into the office in town this morning and got quite frustrated.  The gal who was helping me was a bit rude to me while she was helping me figure out the problem.  Apparently, they had me registered as homeless because the only address they had in their records was my P.O. Box!!  Of course, they have it noted in my record that I pay rent and utilities, so I don't know how that happened.  She went off to get my quarterly report form and when she came back she told me that there was a glitch in the system and they had me as not needing to do a quarterly report.  OK, so the report she gave me starts next month.  I was asking her lots of questions about the process, since no one ever explained this process to me, and she copped an attitude.  I lost it and stormed out telling her that it was hard enough to come in this office in the first place, and that she was not dealing with this situation well.  If they had given me a proper orientation in the first place this would not have been a problem.  I am hoping that because I will be filling this out and turning it in the following month that I will get a reprieve from any income I have starting next month.  One of the good things is that they don't stop benefits during a quarter.

© 2011 StayInMorroBay@gmail.com

Monday, February 7, 2011

Selling Gold, Silver, and Gemstones

With the current high price of gold I decided to gather up all my stray scraps of gold, as well as some un-used gold chains.  I also gathered my extra silver and loose gemstones.  I packaged them into little baggies and created a numbered spreadsheet of the items.  I had read that you should shop around to find the best offer for your items, so I decided to check with my local family-owned jewelry shop (Gold Tree Jewelers), a pawn shop (Atascadero Jewelry & Loan),  and an estate jewelry shop (Hamilton Estate Jewelry) to see who could give me the most for my gold.

I called ahead of time to see if they could quote me a standard price and I had mixed results.  The jewelry shop asked me to bring in my items to have them check them out.  The pawn shop hemmed and hawed about the price, saying that I should bring in my pieces.  The estate jewelry shop told me $15 a gram for "clean" gold, that meant gold chains with no solder.  While I had them on the phone I asked if I needed an appointment, and all of the shops said I could stop by and they could help me if there were not a lot of people in the shops.  I also asked if there was a fee for the evaluation process.  The jewelry shop and the pawn shop said there was no fee.  The estate jewelry shop indicated that if the evaluation process took a long time there would be a fee.  He explained that people often bring in a bunch of items for evaluation and then they don't sell them.  Basically, it is an assurance that people don't use him for a free appraisal.  I had a feeling that I would be selling to him so I decided to save his evaluation for last.

The local jewelry store had a constant flow of random neighborhood people with purchases or repairs.  I realized that they were doing me a favor and was very patient.  She had calculated the exchange rate at a bit more then $10 per gram, and was frustrated that the estate jewelry shop had quoted me $15.  I told her that I wished that they could pay more for the gold, because I would much rather use them.  She was willing to buy a couple of the chains outright as jewelry and gave me a quote.  She checked if my stray post earrings were diamonds, until the meter broke (they weren't!!)  She also recommended that I check out the antique shop up the street (Mikkelson's Antiques) to see if they would be interested in purchasing my vintage items, some of which were incomplete.  I did go by the shop but the buyer was not there.  I will check back later. 

I checked out the pawn shop next, it was the first time I visited a pawn shop.  I couldn't believe how many items were for sale!!  I know where I would go if I needed to buy some used jewelry.  They also offered me $10 per gram.  The owner was friendly and spent some time showing me some of the jewelry while we chatted and I picked his brain.  It was worth checking out the pawn shop, now I know where it is and what type of items are for sale there.

I finally ended up at the estate jewelry shop.  He ended up giving me $12 a gram because it was not "clean" and there were some 10K pieces in the mix.  I couldn't believe how much I got for the scrap gold, about $150!!  The full 18K gold necklace brought me $100, and the extra chains brought about $50.  He told me that it would cost about $25 to evaluate the rest of my stuff, apparently even if the stones are not actual gemstones they might still be set in gold.  He also gave me a $50 quote on a vintage watch if he bought it as gold.  He buys silver, which the other shops don't, and so I will most likely take the items back to his shop for an evaluation and sell the remaining items to him.  He said that the loose gemstones are not saleable, that if there was one in the gold it would "go into the melt".    If I really have some gemstones I will have them removed and will save them anyway, I can't imagine sacrificing them "to the melt"!!  I still need to check out the coin guy in town to see how much I could get for my silver coins, I have heard that they are worth more as silver because they are 90% silver.

© 2011 StayInMorroBay@gmail.com

Sweepstakes, Raffles, and Contests -- Oh My!!

People often ignore the constant bombardment of offers for sweepstakes, contests, raffles, and the like.   These opportunities abound and most of us just ignore them.  Now that I am trying to make ends meet I am taking advantage of all of these opportunities.  I have even set up a separate email to use for this purpose so I don't accidentally end up with a ton of unsolicited emails to my main account.

 I always check the bottom of my receipts to see if there is a weekly sweepstakes.  Most grocery stores have these sweepstakes, free in exchange for a short survey.  I haven't won one yet, but I figure most people don't participate so one day I will win.  Another grocery store in my neighborhood runs a weekly $100 raffle.  All you have to do it add your name and phone number to the bin after your store transaction.  Keep your eyes open for receipts that people toss, you can use their code to enter the sweepstakes.  My grocery store allows one entry per day.

If you belong to any Internet groups or blogs, especially if they are bargain-related, they often run contests.  The Best Western Facebook site has a contest every Tuesday where you guess the location in the picture.  I won it once and got a $25 Staples gift card!!  Another blog I follow has contests all the time.  One time recently all I had to do was post on the blog and I won $20 Target gift card.

It definitely pays to pay attention to signs and any boxes that are on the counter at stores.  One thing you can do is make up some address labels with your name and contact information to stick to the ticket.  That way you don't even have to write anything down.

© 2011 StayInMorroBay@gmail.com