Save money and go retro by reusing an old calendar in 09!
Filed under: Reduce Reuse Recycle, Saving Money
With so many constants -- 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year and almost most always 365 days -- it seems surprising that we need to buy a new calendar every year. Even though you can't reuse your 2008 calendar this coming year, thanks to their cyclical nature you can use it again in 2036! More importantly this means you can use many old calendars in 2009.Finding a retro calendar is simple and with plenty of years to choose from for 2009 it's sure to be a fun adventure. The first thing to do is to find out what years have the same distribution of days as 2009 by using the repeating calendar calculator. Now that you know what years to look for, hit up eBay or your local thrift store to find a suitable calendar from years gone by.
In just a few minutes I was able to find a cool vintage advertisement calendar on eBay from 1942 for only a few bucks. I also found a Spice Girls calendar which would make an excellent gag gift for my sister!
Looking at the recent years that are repeating in 2009, I found an abundance of pop culture, advertisement and "pinup" style calendars. With this much diversity and rock bottom prices you're sure to find a cheap gift for anyone on your list. Don't forget to include "calender" in your eBay search as I found plenty of interesting retro calendars under this common misspelling.
Just be sure you correct the holidays or warn your recipient since the dates won't always match up. There's no need for them to lose their job for taking the wrong day off on Easter!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-04-2008 @ 10:45AM
Mary said...
Hey! I'm all for saving a buck...but recycling calendars? Give me a break. Yes...You can pay up to $10 (or even more) if you want to on them...but any town with a Dollar Store in it all carries them. Better still...Go to your local pharmacy and they're sitting right on the counter. My church sells them for a buck...but if you can't afford it, you can still get one for free. I'd be afraid of reusing a calendar for a whole lot of reasons...especially when there's no need to. Get a life, people.
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12-04-2008 @ 10:45AM
Josh Smith said...
I think the biggest appeal would be to find cool looking calendars or ones that were popular when you were a kid, recipients birth year, etc.
12-04-2008 @ 11:31AM
Mark Schroeder said...
So after all that.... what years in retrospect will have a valid 2009 calendar? At least list the last two.
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12-04-2008 @ 11:16AM
Josh Smith said...
The Repeating Calendar Calculator has the full list;
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/repeating.html?country=1&year=2009
Most Recent 1998 and 1987
12-21-2008 @ 5:24PM
Glen said...
Josh, There are actually 12 permutations - unless you want to ignore Leap years.
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12-21-2008 @ 5:26PM
Josh Smith said...
Thanks! For some reason it seemed like there should be more; but that's why I'm not a mathematician.
1-02-2009 @ 3:01PM
chuck said...
Actually, there are 14. Two beginning each day of the week, one with leap year and one without. However, if one doesn't mind using two calendars during a leap year, after February 28 (which would leave February 29 unrepresented), one can switch calendars, thereby needing only seven.
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1-27-2009 @ 6:55PM
Jane said...
I received Kate Libby Art for Everyday calendars as a gift from my sister-in-law for many years. We stopped exchanging gifts a few years ago amongst the adults. Kate Libby was a wonderful artist and I kept all of her calendars hoping to be able to reuse them. A few years ago a friend was using a 1986 calendar which led to my search of when I could reuse my calendars. I initially found a table by Charles Dixon. I found timeanddate.com this past year which helped with future years. Kate Libby calendars are simply the month and date, so there's not a problem with shifting holidays such as Easter. When I mentioned how I was reusing these calendars, my sister-in-law started to send them again.
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