Margaret Arnold • November 23, 2024
From Gold Bond Stamps to Today’s Simple Incentives: Where Memories and Savings Endure

For anyone growing up in Minnesota in the late 1950s and 1960s probably remembers Gold Bond Stamps in their homes, a loyalty program from area grocery stores and other retailers.


Next to recipes, newspaper clippings and school papers, my mother had booklets to be filled in with Gold Bond Stamps to be redeemed for merchandise. One of the chores she gave her six children was to sit at the kitchen desk, lick the currency-like stamps and place them on the booklet squares before mailing them with her redemption selections to the Gold Bond Stamp Redemption Center on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. Weeks later packages would arrive in the mail with merchandise she redeemed for her loyalty to her neighborhood grocery store.


When our mother passed away, some of the items we sorted through were Gold Bond Stamp redemption products, including full sets of silverware and dishware that are now in the homes of her children and grandchildren. Gold Bond Stamps was a regional program of the Carlson Companies that declined in the 1970s and early 1980s and about the same time we left our parents home for college. Today, loyalty programs are prolific because of online apps and promotions. While there is a simplicity to this practice today, the number of programs, remembering passwords, and the vastness of participants in the same program, are far from simple.


... my mother had booklets to be filled in with Gold Bond Stamps ...


I prefer entering simple, local incentive programs and contests because of the ease and small celebrations they create between neighbors and community. Recently, my husband called me from his office to tell me he heard from our local butcher that I had won a recipe contest from our local electric and broadband coop asking to submit a favorite fall recipe. I quickly located the cooperative newsletter and there on page seven was the winning Caramel-Crowned Pumpkin Squares recipe I submitted and for which I received $10 off my utility bill. This effortless task had some take aways:


  • Local or regional loyalty programs can be the easiest and most meaningful, i.e., a simple email to an employee who personally writes you back with: “Thanks, Margaret. These sound delicious!”
  • Entering a contest can create simple fun for you, your neighbors and family.
  • Winning can save money on bills.


I’m now waiting for a Thanksgiving contest I entered for our local propane company to get $25 off our bill and to celebrate the news with others. Happy Thanksgiving  and enjoy the winning recipe!


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Past Blogs

Maple syrup bottles on the counter with holiday decor.

The Wisdom and Challenge of Simplicity

By Margaret Arnold • January 1, 2026
As I go about my Silverish Simplicity days, I've started mentally categorizing my activities and intentions. Is this a lightbulb moment? Is this extreme? Is this an add-on to an existing idea? Since this is the time of year to look back while looking ahead, I'm sharing a few ideas in the categories below with the warning, dear readers, that they aren't for everyone—but no doubt there is wisdom and a challenge in each of them. Epiphanies After more than five years of downsizing and living more simply, I continue to have epiphanies as I go about my day. They come suddenly and are ideas I can't wait to try. Most challenge me to reduce, reuse, or repurpose and lean towards quality. One recent example: splitting and gifting a gallon of Saint John's Abbey Maple Syrup (one of 24 gallons bottled last season) won in a silent auction. With handmade tags added to glass bottles I had been collecting, this small-batch, limited production liquid gold became perfect gifts for my children (all who have visited the sugar shack) and a few hostesses. Extremes Some things I do to help the environment or save money would make my own family roll their eyes. Toilet paper, for instance. I save dryer lint in empty toilet paper rolls to create fire starters for outdoor bonfires. Saving dryer lint was a trick I learned from a friend way before I was Silverish Simplicity. I added the empty toilet paper roll for a more contained starter (and to keep the lint out of sight). An extra: I challenge myself to use only three perforated squares rather than grabbing half the roll. The cost savings and septic system benefits are real. I won’t go into any greater detail! ... I continue to have epiphanies as i go about my day ...
Christmas tree with white lights in front of a window, indoors.

A Season of Foraging, Layering and Reflection

By Margaret Arnold • December 6, 2025
Five years ago, during the Covid season, my children came home to find tables of sorted items, empty storage closets, and the beginning of a life of simplicity and repurposing. Today, that simplicity—downsizing, repurposing, purchasing quality—continues. It's my go-to, my reset, my happy place. This fall and winter seasons have been busy, so here are some Silverish Simplicity insights: Foraging – For several years now, I've foraged for my own fall and winter outdoor planter decorations: pines, dogwood, sumac, birch. This year was especially fun with the discovery of hard-to-find bittersweet and cutting down our own small balsam fir for the holidays. Best of all, I shared the love of foraging with my daughter and her husband. Layering – I heard about "layering" Christmas décor rather than completely switching out your home, and it matched my intentions perfectly. This year I added touches of the holidays here and there without removing any existing décor. In the process, more than two totes of Christmas decorations moved on to family or Goodwill. With three children purchasing new homes this year, it was the perfect time to pass along items that matched their interests—from prints and books to snowmen and ornaments. It's fun to visit their homes and see these items being used, so it wasn't a complete farewell. ... A perfect time to pass along items that matched their interests ...
Laura Ingalls Wilder Book Collection

Stories in Small Moments: Essays and Simple Living

By Margaret Arnold • October 11, 2025
After nearly 30 blog posts about simple living, I continue to find enjoyment in downsizing and being intentional. This summer reinforced my commitment to simplicity in two ways: first, letting things move on—including my 55-year collection of Laura Ingalls Wilder books to my son's fiancée, a teacher, with whom I discovered a shared love of the series; and secondly, using groceries wisely, experimenting with what's on hand and increasing freezing techniques rather than waste (more on that later). This intentional approach extends to reading, one of life's simplest pleasures. Some of my best memories and connections to people are through reading. Laura Ingalls Wilder's books read in the early 1970s remind me of home upstairs in the girls’ “dormitory” bedroom. The Sound of Music on a family road trip in a GMC motorhome in 1976 gave me moments of escape alongside five siblings. Kate DiCamillo, Gary Paulsen and the Harry Potter series remind me of my children as emerging readers and their well-worn books. Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig and Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner connect me to an early book club of serious readers and friends I still cherish today. This intentional approach extends to reading ...