Different Strategies, Same Goals

By LESLIE EARNEST

Dec. 22, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Shop and worry, shop and worry. Thuy Phan’s done plenty of both lately.

One day earlier this month had been ghastly, Phan explained, roaming the aisles at Toys R Us on a recent evening.

Her boss had announced that morning that 15 people--23% of the work force--would be laid off at the Orange mortgage-lending office where she works. The employees were on edge, wondering who’d get the ax.

As it turned out, Phan kept her job. Her cubicle mate did not.

“Everybody was just crying at work. It was a terrible day,” she said. “But it doesn’t stop me from buying for my kids.”

Nothing, it seems, can stall Phan’s determination to make Christmas merry for her sons, Sean, 8, and Justin, 6.

Last December, cancer confined Justin to a hospital bed. Today, the cancer is in remission, his bone-marrow test just came back negative, and his family is ready to celebrate.

With a combined annual income of $44,000, Phan shocked her husband, Ken To, recently when she said she’d be spending at least $500 this year, just on the boys.

Still, the 33-year-old Phan is careful about her purchases. In fact, the first thing she did when she arrived at the Santa Ana toy store was to return a $39.99 Power Ranger Space Mega Voyager that she had found at Target for $28.88.

Phan may be ready to buy, but she’s not about to waste money.

“I go to one place and buy whatever,” she said. “And then I run back and forth exchanging things.”

Her caution was evident as she roamed the aisles that evening, examining toys and prices. Her husband had urged her to “take it easy” with her shopping, Phan said.

Still, she paused at a Nintendo Star Wars game with a $59 price tag. “Five hundred bucks doesn’t go very far,” she said, frowning.

On another aisle, she slipped a Knex box under a scanner and the price popped up: $39.99. “Wow!” she said, returning the box to the shelf. Then she glared at a $129 Lego train set.

“Look how expensive these things are,” she said.

But there are plenty of other options.

Phan spied a $14.99 box of Legos. “I’m getting this,” she said. And a Mega Block Motor Sport for $19.99. “That’s cute,” she said. “I think I’ll have this one.”

Soon, her arms were full, and the worried look had vanished.

“I didn’t think I was going to get so much,” she said.

Marcus and Charlotte Pride also are shopping for their children, but they’re taking a different approach.

They’ve scratched Toys R Us off the list this Christmas in favor of an “educational theme,” the Baldwin Hills couple said as they arrived at Fox Hills Mall on a recent Tuesday morning.

With a “six-figure” income that allows generous spending, chiropractor Marcus Pride is concerned that their five children may have too much already. So they whittled their list to three categories: shoes, books and educational games.

At B. Dalton, the couple considered a cursive writing book for their 8-year-old twins, Malcolm and Mikala. Or an etiquette book might be nice, suggested Marcus Pride, 36. “They need their own Bible,” he said. Or maybe a diary.

Before long, he had lost interest. Why do women like this stuff? he wondered out loud. Halfheartedly, he leafed through a few more books, and then shoved them back onto their shelves.

“OK, I’ve had enough of this,” he told his wife. Soon, he was outside pacing.

Charlotte Pride, 37, made two purchases, a diary and “A Bug’s Life” book. The total: $14.29.

“Two big bags and we’re still under $100,” Marcus Pride said as his wife emerged from the store. “I’m a happy man.”

But his mood sank quickly as they entered the next store and his wife began to carefully consider her options.

They included Mega Munchers, a $19.99 math, words and geography game to “super charge your brain cells”; a Barbie Photo Designer, with a digital camera and CD-ROM for $79.99; and an Adventure Workshop with “four mind-bending journeys into learning” for $44.99.

Soon, Marcus Pride had disappeared completely.

Charlotte Pride continued her deliberations, which now included a $19.99 Math Blaster and a Jump Start Spanish for $19.99. Eventually, her husband resurfaced.

“Hey, darling, what do you think about this?” she asked, showing him the Mega Munchers.

Sure, her husband said, and the shopping trip was over. He needed to get into his office, he said. He had been as game as possible, but an hour was clearly more than enough shopping.

“This is my least favorite thing in the world to do,” he said.

Shopping isn’t the least bit painful for Sergio Aguilar, 54, who two Saturday mornings ago slung a backpack over his shoulders and set off for some garage sales with his wife, Carmen Hernandez.

“Most husbands don’t like it, they get bored,” Hernandez said. “He’s not.”

The couple live in Laguna Beach where Hernandez, 50, keeps house for another family. She makes about $11,000 a year and gets free housing for herself and her family, including 18-year-old Jonathan and Keila Margarita, 13.

The garage sales in this well-heeled community have been a boon for Hernandez and Aguilar, who shop them to save money and to collect items for people in Mexico. At Christmas, the sales are particularly helpful as the couple are trying to stick to a budget of about $800, while their gift list seems to keep growing.

That Saturday began like many others, with the pair waiting at the bus stop before 8 a.m. and Aguilar consulting a Pennysaver to chart their course. After a short bus ride past the joggers at Main Beach and a walk down an alley, Hernandez and Aguilar spotted their first garage sale.

Immediately, Hernandez grabbed the day’s first purchase, a radio for 50 cents. It will be a Christmas gift for a friend or neighbor, she said, peeling off the price tag and tucking it in her husband’s backpack.

At the next stop, Hernandez bought four pairs of earrings at 25 cents each, and two pairs of new socks for $1. Hernandez and Aguilar weren’t the first Christmas shoppers to stop by this garage sale, said the woman who was running it.

“Last week, people were looking for gifts, stuff that was new,” she said.

The couple moved on, up a hilly street, past a telephone post plastered with garage sale notices. And then they hit the jackpot, a three-family garage sale behind a picket fence. They quickly got down to business.

Before long, they settled on their purchases: four children’s baseball-style caps, a Sony headphone set, a child’s dress, a fanny pack and a woman’s denim suit. The total: $9.50.

But they weren’t all Christmas gifts, said Hernandez, obviously smitten with the denim suit. “I think it’s gonna be for me,” she said.

It was a high point for the morning. By the time the trek was over, they had collected three more presents: a sterling silver ring, a small heart-shaped box and a tiny ceramic container, all for $4.

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Unfinished Business

Despite different approaches to the task, these three families still haven’t completed their holiday shopping:

Sergio Aguilar and Carmen Hernandez

* Home: Laguna Beach

* Christmas budget: $800

* Spent to date: $800 to $900

* Shopping: Not finished

Marcus and Charlotte Pride

* Home: Baldwin Hills

* Christmas budget: Undefined

* Spent to date: Unknown