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!


Silverish Simplicity Links


Share the Blog

Past Blogs

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 ...

Downsizing Without Losing Memories

By Margaret Arnold • August 23, 2025
With the State Fair and the new school year here, memories flood back — once captured on a paper calendar pinned to the bulletin board, then in spiral-bound weekly calendar (still my favorite, pencil only!), and later on desktop electronic calendar. When we decided to downsize while preserving memories, I organized nearly 35 years of family dates into a single Google Sheet called "Family Important and Fun Dates from Margaret’s Calendars." This simple digital chronicle of our family’s journey, from our children's milestones to the activities and adventures my husband and I now enjoy as empty nesters. tODAY, THERE IS JUST ONE GOOGLE SHEET ...

Saying Goodbye to Boxes, Keeping the Memories

By Margaret Arnold • July 26, 2025
Thirteen years, seven rental properties, and countless storage boxes later, my oldest daughter finally has a home of her own. Through college, medical school, and residency, we continued to store belongings that didn't fit or belong in the cramped spaces of her temporary living situations. Passing along her belongings felt like closing one chapter and opening another—most of all, it represented the end of her grueling training years and the beginning of truly settling down in a lovely home and neighborhood. Her move got me reflecting on my own relationship with storage and my journey toward "Silverish Simplicity." In our former family home, we had one large storage area and two guest bedroom closets filled with plastic totes and banker boxes (see picture below). I even stored empty totes—a sure indication I was planning to accumulate more rather than less. With our move nearly four years ago and the natural process of downsizing while launching our children into their first homes, the number of boxes and totes has dramatically decreased. More importantly, I have no reason to purchase new totes, and I celebrate each time I empty a box or bin and it moves on to family members who need them. ... THE NUMBER OF BOXES AND TOTES HAS DRAMATICALLY DECREASED ...