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| Anneliese in her "Facebook borrowed" wedding outfit! All of a sudden, my little baby has grown up! |
Oops! I guess I really need to get my act together and find nice clothes for us to wear to the wedding! And absolutely no time to shop, that's for sure...
I mean, I had clothing for them to wear, but while they were nice and somewhat formal, they weren't fancy enough to wear to a wedding, especially not the wedding of an immediate relative.
So what does someone like myself do?
Well, I posted on Facebook "Does anyone local have a fancy outfit in sizes 5 or 6T boys, 3-4 T boys, or 12-18 mos or 2T girls? Does anyone have a nice black skirt I can borrow?"
And you know what?
It worked!
One neighbor of mine loaned me a skirt for myself, ties for each of the boys, and a vest and suit pants for Ike to wear. Another friend loaned me a beautiful poofy 2T dress for Anneliese to wear, together with tights and cute little fancy shoes! (First time Anneliese ever wore shoes and she's still getting comfortable with walking.)
I ended up finding a vest and pants for Lee and nice shirts for both boys in the closet, and found a lace bolero for myself to wear. Together with some accessorizing and makeup, we were good to go.
Facebook is such a money saver for me.
Its not just Facebook, but social networking in general is a huge money saver. I know some people are very wary of joining Facebook because of whatever reasons, privacy, security, or whatnot... but for me, Facebook has paid off so many times financially that it is very worthwhile to me.
When my sister in law got married last April, I was able to clothe my family in fancy borrowed clothes as well, instead of needing to buy new clothes for the event.
When there is a book I want to read, I post that I'm looking for it, asking if anyone has it that I can borrow, which I then do.
When my house phone broke and I was about to go buy a new one, I just figured, why not post about it on Facebook- maybe someone has a phone they no longer want for whatever reason that they'll happily pass on... We've been using the phone we got then for the past year.
When friends post that they are decluttering, and does anyone want xyz type of thing, I am able to see it on facebook, and take advantage of it if it suits me.
Social networking is like this big advanced, new age community. Instead of knocking on the door of every neighbor on the street, asking them if you can borrow eggs, you just "knock in the virtual door" of an entire community, reaching out to a lot of people at once instead of just one at a time... That is so much more time effective than calling up each person on the phone and asking them if they have what you need.
If you, too, want to take advantage of social networking/facebook to get what you need, if there isn't one already, consider creating an email list or a facebook group for people in your location/community. This allows the community to be more cohesive and able to help each other out than if you were just random neighbors who didn't really know each other.
Facebook.
I love it.
Saves me money.
Do you find social networking saves you money? How is that?