E-cards: if You Care Enough to Send the Very Best
Posted: June 28th, 2009 | Author: Kimberly McCaffery | Filed under: Friendship, Frugal Resources, Time Management | Tags: birthdays, e-cards, greeting cards, Hallmark, holidays, remembering birthdays | No Comments »click to watch the adorable e-card Kim sent to her sister
I have a difficult time remembering important events like birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries. It’s a failing that bothers me greatly and probably bothers the people who are important to me even more. And it’s not just carelessness. I’m convinced that in this one area I have a yet-to-be diagnosed dyslexia–a simple failing of normal brain function, nothing personal.
Take my sister’s birthday for example–it’s today, and it’s not like I forgot about it. Not exactly. Back at the beginning of June I thought, “Oh, it’s June. Lesley’s birthday is at the end of the month.” Then later in the month I thought about it again. “Hmm, I should get a card.” I looked over the paper cards at CVS. Dismayed at the cheesiness of all of them, I decided to look again at a different store, which I never remembered to do. Anyway, today I woke up and thought, “Yikes, it’s the 28th and I never sent a card.” So I decided to look for an e-card (what else could I do?)
The last time I sent an e-card was for my mother’s birthday (which I forgot about entirely. Yes, I know, very bad daughter.) Anyway, it took me a long time to find a decent e-card because I had this idea that e-cards should be free. After a long search, I found a good one, but it wasn’t entirely free. Sending that “free” e-card signed me up for a relentless and impossible to get rid of mailing list that still plagues me twice a week.
So this morning I relented and took a look at the premium Hallmark e-cards. I was surprised and excited to find tons of stuff that I liked. Unlike the dismal sentiments paper cards proffer (they range from mildly offensive humor to sickly sweet poetry), the e-cards offered something more contemporary and relevant. They are funny yet tasteful, and they are extremely entertaining. After browsing their offerings, I concluded that e-cards had gotten better, much better, than paper cards. So I signed up for a one-year subscription. For only $9.99 I can send as many e-cards as I want. This is an amazing savings since nowadays, a nice paper card costs about $4.00, and a really nice card can cost as much at $7.00.
But the biggest benefit for me isn’t the cost savings, it’s this little gem:
Hallmark's e-card organizer
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This may sound strange, but one area of my life in which I’ve been practicing being more frugal lately is in my friendships. I’m not doing this in an effort to save money – though staying home at night and on weekends does have that desirable effect on my bank account – it’s an attempt to conserve time and devote more of it to my writing. Not my freelance writing, but the kind of writing that earned me my 
. For me, it’s a conundrum, and it always has been since I realized I was a writer.