Living a Vintage Life

Building things that breakdown or will be obsolete in a few months is called planned obsolescence. Edison's light bulbs had a shelf life of more than a hundred years, and the ones we have today will last only a few short months. His factory is still turning out a small amount of these incredible light bulbs each year.

I tend to hold onto things a bit longer than most people I know, I've had my DVD player for almost ten years and I didn't upgrade my TV until it started to break and when I did I got a used flat glass front TV. They're a bit heavy, but the colors are very vibrant which is something you really don't get on the HD TVs.

If you like older classic novels you can buy a lot of them from the kindle amazon store for free. You can Buy all of Jane Austen's novels, plus one book of her letters. You can buy classic children's books to read to your children while at home or on the road. You can also buy new books for free and other books at a discount. Friends can send you kindle books on loan, free for one week.

You can barrow books from the library, friends and family. You also can buy used books a lot cheaper and if you're like me and you normally only read a book once, that is a much better option than buying a 30 dollar book and it ending up on your coffee table as a reminder of how much money we spend everyday.

Clothing, yes it might be a bit harder to find your size while shopping for vintage clothing, but once you do you'll have one of a kind pieces that no one else will have. You can always learn to hem your clothing (which is great if you have a hard to shop for body type like me) it could save you even more money. I can't sew.

I buy a lot of my clothes at Khols, but I won't buy anything unless 80 to 90% off. I don't do that just to save money. Yes I am actually spending less money for new clothes than some pricey vintage stores. Most clothes aren't made in the US, and I want to give those other Countries as little money as possible.

I'll buy leather shoes or jackets in a vintage store rather than a department store, because I figure the animal has been dead for a long time and it wasn't killed for me.

Movies and TV and how to save on those as well. Most Libraries now offer movies, some places will have newer movies too. If you have the internet Netflix is a great option for no worry TV watching, for less than 60 dollars you can buy a cable internet ready box called a Roku, and with the 8 dollar a month plan you can watch an array of netflix movies and commercial free TV Shows. New titles are always being added, like now you can watch Glee and Bones. You can still get DVDs through the mail but you have to spend another 8 dollars a month. Netflix has a lot of hard to find classic Jane Austen DVDs. You can watch those movies without the Roku, the Roku connects to your computer's internet and then connects to your TV, so you can watch them on your TV and not your computer, which is much faster with hardly any lag time.

Finding a cheap theater. Cheap theaters are what they normally called second run movies, movies that are not on DVD yet and are no longer being showed in the regular theater. Our cheap theater has a bargain night, when all seats are 2 dollars and you get one free refill on a soda and popcorn. If you buy a kiddie combo, you can see 2 movies, have 2 drinks and one candy for 7.75, which is less than one evening ticket a the normal theater.

If you want a truly vintage experience, go see plays at your local theaters. You can also watch college productions and high school plays. I live in a very small town, and even I live no longer than thirty minutes away from a large theater.

If you're crafty and you see something you like make it yourself, I've done this loads of times. I've made jewelery, paintings, cards, drawings and I even made a hand sewn creepy and cute doll.

You can reuse the things you already have and don't use very often and make them into something new and wonderful.

I am a bit of a photographer and I take so many photos and some of them I just love. I have a newer digital camera that I received as a Christmas gift last year from my mother. A good camera is a great investment, because you can delete the photos you don't like and it will save you money in the long run because you won't be printing photos you'll never use.

I had bought a trunk at a yard sale, this was a late 1800s trunk and after a good cleaning and painting (I only painted it because it had been painted before), it was great and very sturdy. So very pretty, altogether including the paint it was 40 dollars. Now if I would had bought something in the same style I would not be able to find it for less than a hundred and that is on overstock.com which is usually a bit cheaper than most department stores, plus they are probably not as sturdy.

I have bought nice antique dressers for as little as twenty dollars at charity yard sales. You can find really nice things in some very odd places. The Salvation Army is one of the cheapest charity shops around and on Wed most of the store is up to half off their already insanely cheap prices. You can also find great deals online at places like amazon.com and overstock.com.

Protecting your Tech is important if you want to live a vintage life. You can't make your stuff last longer if you don't keep your things safe.

Some of you may have noticed that I am using less photos from the web and reusing some of the ones I already had, that is because while writing a squidoo movie review page I unwittingly downloaded a virus which froze my poor computer. My computer wouldn't open files and it was holding my intellectual property hostage and was thereby a kidnapper of my writing, art, photos, music and my peace of mind. I unplugged my poor baby and eventually it recovered on it's own and I was able to clean my PC without losing any of my files. My computer is a plucky five year old with a good sense humor. It would take a lot more than a common cold for me to trade it in for new one.

My computers full recovery is a bit of a personal miracle to me, most people I have talked to have told me that they or people they know had lost most of their files this way.

It's great that we can e-mail someone when something pops in our heads in the middle of the night when it's too late to call. That's all fine, but really shouldn't we at least send our friends handwritten letters and cards on special occasions like their birthday or Christmas, instead of just posting a message on their facebook wall. A handwritten note or postcard tells your friends and family that you really care.

If you want to make this really special you can invest in a wax and seal kit like they used in the olden days.