Last month, I discussed why to buy art books, and how to pick good ones. With prices of new art books often hitting $70 or $125, of course, you also want to know how I get them for 0-$30. So here we go:

• Look on the remainder shelves. Most bookstores have a section where they sell new books that turned out to be surplus, at a deep discount. You can often find best-sellers from two or three years back, at maybe $3.99–but you can also find coffee-table art and nature books, priced typically between $5 and $25
• * While I’m not a big fan of chain bookstores, they do have great values on art books–Barnes & Noble, in particular, because they publish some of them themselves
• Yard sales, estate sales, used book stores, flea markets, Friends of the Library book sales, and similar used-book venues (sniff the books for mildew and check for water damage before buying)
• Consider the art in obsolete calendars, as well as old National Geographics (both often available for free or very cheap)
• Library discard sales
• Museum stores, while selling most art books for full retail, will sometimes have great deals on a few selected books, and also on catalogs of their current or recent exhibitions

Lots more frugal fun ideas in my 280-page e-book, The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty with a Peasant’s Pocketbook.

I’ve known about inkjet and toner cartridge recycling businesses for more than a decade, and never paid them much mind. But when I met Karl Tur, of Inkjet Solutions, at a Chamber of Commerce mixer, I was impressed that the first thing this young man said to me, before he knew anything about my background, was about the positive environmental impact we could all have by recycling our cartridges–before he even mentioned the price benefits. His reasons for starting this business, with locations in Amherst and Northampton, Massachusetts, are all about doing something right for the earth.When I walked into the store he’s just opened in Northampton, I was once again impressed with this small company’s commitment to the environment, as that was the key message of many of the posters and other point-of-sale marketing materials. Also, the website not only has a page about the environment as its third link, but devotes most of the space on the who-we-are page to its environmental mission as well.

And again, when I had him as a guest on my one-hour radio show, he spent at least half the time talking about the environment.

At my current age of 50, I find it very exciting to find 20-somethings who are starting businesses with a wider social agenda, and not just to get rich. I’d expect him, as the old Quaker saying goes, to “do well by doing good.”

Restore/Revive Used Clothing: Shel Horowitz’s Monthly Frugal Fun Tip, July 2007 - Volume 11, Number 3Results of Your Feedback

Based on the very positive feedback I got last month, I’m continuing to publish but changing the newsletter format. Instead of sending the whole issue to you as an e-mail, I’ll send you a brief note, like this, with links to the articles. I got roughly 200 responses to my questions about whether I should keep publishing–and about 120 of them were filtered–yikes. Most of those were so totally innocuous that I’m convinced anything with real content will get blocked. E-mail is just too broken!

I wrote back at least a brief note to everyone I could. If you didn’t hear back from me, it means I either didn’t get your feedback (please re-send) or yours was one of the handful that wouldn’t come in or be copied even after I’d rescued it (or, of course, you didn’t receive my answer). What a time-consuming and frustrating communication method!

Advantages of the New Format for You and for Me
http://frugalmarketing.com/newsletters//?p=5

Main Article: How to Restore/Revive Yard Sale and thrift Shop Clothing

Take advantage of the great used clothing bargains, and know what can be fixed or perked up easily.

http://frugalmarketing.com/newsletters/2007/07/04/how-to-restorerevive-yard-sale-and-thrift-shop-clothing/

Which of Shel’s Books is Right for You?
http://frugalmarketing.com/newsletters/2007/06/18/shels-award-winning-books-which-should-you-own/

Hear and Meet Shel
In Denver/Boulder, CO (on the radio); Avon, CT; Las Vegas; South Hadley, MA; worldwide at an online writer’s conference and over Internet radio:
http://frugalmarketing.com/newsletters/2007/07/05/heremeet-shel-july-to-december-07/

Latest Additions to the Websites
I haven’t received the list yet from my assistant, but I know we’ve got quite a bit of new stuff. Check http://frugalmarketing.com/newsletters in a day or two.

Administrative Information

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Published monthly since May, 1997 by Shel Horowitz
16 Barstow Lane, Hadley, MA 01035 USA
413/586-2388

It’s yard sale season in North America, where I live. Tons of clothes available dirt-cheap for the careful buyer.

These tips from my old friend Margie Phillips–part of a much longer chapter in The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty with a Peasant’s Pocketbook on how to buy just about anything very cheaply–can help you reinvigorate clothing you buy at yard sales or thrift shops:

• Spot remover can often save a garment, though some stains–such as perspiration under the arms–are tough to fix.
• Clothing can often be easily modified. For example, Margie doesn’t like the feel of a turtleneck, so she snips the neck off along the seam (to minimize unraveling) and uses it as an ear-warming headband while bicycling.
• Woolen socks with worn out bottoms can be cut to make great under-the-pants-leg warmers–and these, in turn, can make a too-short pair of pants look fashionable.
• Disguise a pair of pants that fit well in the legs but look awkward in the butt by wearing a long top over it.
• Broken zippers, elastics, or fasteners can be replaced.
• If an elastic waistband is too tight, cut a string into the elastic to lengthen the waist.
• Clothes age with frequent washing. Sometimes a garment can be brushed off and aired out outside.
• Wash any used purchase before you wear it.
• Although second-hand shoes are hard to find, since they shape themselves to the previous wearer’s foot, you can often salvage a pair–especially if it’s just a little bit too big–by putting in a thick inner sole.
• Most dry-clean-only clothes can be hand washed in cold water with wool cleaner. Store brands work fine for most things, but for those fancy Ecuadorian sweaters, use real Woolite in cold water, using the gentle cycle of your washing machine.
• Combine an old and new garment to make the old one look new.
• Preserve your fancy duds by wearing old clothes when you don’t need to be dressed up.

Get your own copy of The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty with a Peasant’s Pocketbook, all 280 pages, for just $8.50 as an instant download–just click here.