Five Frugal Things
As always, a hat-tip to The Nonconsumer Advocate for the post theme, which I am totally stealing from her.
1. I'm selling old school books.
I just recycle consumables, of course, but when I have a non-consumable book we no longer need, I list it on half.com or ebay.
And of course I ship my stuff using packages I've saved from my own purchases.
2. I made pizza subs instead of going out for pizza.
I spent the afternoon at the pool with the kids one day this week and we had to squeeze dinner in between our pool afternoon and music rehearsal at church that night.
I was sorely tempted to pick up pizza on the way, but instead I stopped at Aldi to pick up a package of sub rolls so I could make pizza subs.
(I make them like pizza bagels, in case you were wondering.)
It would have been rock-bottom cheap to make my own pizza, of course, but in this case, buying rolls saved me from buying takeout pizza, so it was definitely the cheaper option.
3. I made hamburger buns.
The next day, I had more time (and when I stopped at Aldi, I didn't even think about hamburger buns!), so I opted to make my own.
I used my fluffy hamburger bun recipe, of course.
The nice thing is that I end up with 24 buns, which is far more than you get in a package of hamburger buns. And though I haven't calculated it out, I bet my 24-bun recipe costs the same or less than an 8-count package of commercial buns.
4. I used up squash.
I got a bunch of squash in my produce box, and I've been sliced it up into spaghetti-sized strands, sauteeing it with spices, and using it like pasta.
I'm not big on summer squashes, but this is working out pretty nicely.
Also, a co-worker gave Mr. FG a gianormous zucchini, and I tried a double-chocolate bread (er, cake?) recipe with it.
It was pretty good, but I'd do some things a bit differently next time.
(The recipe is from King Arthur.)
5. I insisted on getting paid.
Spending avoidance tactics are super and all, but so is getting paid!
I'd done some blog-related work this past spring and still had not received payment. After some persistent effort to track down the person who could help me, I got it resolved.
(I think I was getting the run-around, because after a bunch of nice emails, I tried calling and was told the person I needed to speak to had no phone. Which...what??)
Anyway, apparently someone had fat-fingered my bank account routing number and the deposit hadn't gone through. But still! No one reached out to let me know or to try to fix the issue.
Needless to say, I won't say yes if this company wants me to work for them again.
But the happy news is that the money is in my account now. Yay!
(I'd have had to make a awful lot of homemade pizzas and hamburger buns to make up for the absence of that payment.)
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Want to join me?
Comment and share five recent frugal things you've done! It's fun, and you might give other readers some good ideas.
I made chocolate zucchini bread last week and everyone said it was like eating brownies. This week I just made zucchini brownies. I modified this recipe by adding one egg and got awesome cake like brownies!
allrecipes.com/recipe/zucchini-brownies/
1) Made roasted tomato sauce with our very own tomatoes we grew our local library's community garden. Then made pizza dough and .....pizza for dinner 🙂
2) Had a leftover night instead of ordering take-out. (this took an insane amount of will power this time, so I'm listing it!)
3) Instead of buying a new kitchen table, I answered an ad from another homeschooler and got one for FREEEE
4) Actually using our YMCA membership today. And planning on doing it every day - one day at a time.
5) Used my VA benefits and switched to using them for my normal rx. My rx is usually $25/month through my husband's insurance. Through the VA, it's $24/3 months. 🙂
1. Had a business trip 8 hrs away and took my husband for 3 free hotel nights, he worked from the hotel (his job allows him to do that) and I worked during the day.
2. Ate the lack luster breakfast provided by the hotel. Ate a lot for breakfast and we both skipped lunch.
3. Went to Trader Joes before we left and bought nut mixes and pita pockets for lunches and took left overs in our frige for lunches (which we didn't really even eat but could have if we were hungry).
4. Stuck to my $25 a day per diem for dinner for the 2 of us. I would have much rather eaten fancier (ie Chili's or the like) for dinner but we ate Sonny's BBQ Fire House Subs, Steak n Shake and a local BBQ place.
5. Decided to make Spaghetti for dinner the day after I got back even though I was really tired and would have much rather have gotten pizza.
Yes to number 5! It does take a lot of saving dollars here and there to equal a missing paycheck...
You will not be surprised to hear that I thought of you as I was typing that one up!
This past week of travel has had some delightful unintentionally frugal moments.
I offered to pay someone's (anyone's!) teenager to help me move furniture at my parents' house, and 4 friends helped instead. Yay!
My waiter at a chain restaurant was outstanding. I emailed the corporate office with compliments. To my surprise, they're sending me a gift card.
My grandmother desperately wanted someone to take her beloved oil painting (it's huge). It's beautifully done, but none of us have room for it. We quickly reached a family decision to sell the painting and put the money towards her care. It's not a $5k painting or anything, but we should be able to cover her prescriptions for about 6 months.
Free hotel breakfast. 'Nuff said.
Mother/daughter workout at my Mom's gym, where she can bring a guest for free.
Also - part of the reason for the trip was to bring back the dining room table from my parents' home. Four generations of my family have eaten at that table, it's rock solid and in great shape, and the one DH and I have is in mediocre condition. I doubt that renting that terrifying SUV to drive 1500 miles roundtrip was all that frugal, although it was the lowest-cost option, but DANG I wanted that table!
You are frugal in all the other ways in order to splurge on the things that really matter. You cannot buy a table like that anywhere else.
Solid investment 😉
1. Exchanged some books through the US postal service with my sister literally on the other side of the continent from me (VA-->CA). Cheaper than buying the book new, and I can read it at a more leisurely pace than borrowing from the library. Although I do love the library.
2. Made whole-wheat carrot-raisin muffins - a double batch - for breakfasts. I've been failing at breakfasts lately, so this is a heckuva lot cheaper than always buying something on the way to work!
1.) I shop at Aldi and save an enormous amount on groceries.
2.) I buy my clothes (work & play) 2nd hand.
3.) I freeze large portions of dinner or breakfast casseroles for easy, cheap, and quick dinner or breakfast.
4.) I reuse containers that food come in as "to go" for our family when they want leftovers from a holiday dinner.
5.) I utilize Craigslist, Goodwill, garage sales, and 2nd hand stores for my decorating needs and furniture pieces.
1. Bought jeans (I literally had no pair of jeans) at Goodwill for $6!
2. Bought giant block of mozzarella at Costco, some to shred and some to cut up, to freeze until needed. Surprisingly big cheese savings!
3. Teaching my three-year-old to drink less water at night. Then, instead of needing to sleep in a Pull-Up, he can sleep in two pairs of padded Gerber pants with plastic cover--less to buy!
4. Froze leftover mint and green onions from projects Mr. FP started. You always get more than you need; now I won't have to buy more next time.
5. Converted a bunch of old teething bibs to washcloths by cutting off neck part.
Let's see . . .
1) I forgot to cancel a home food delivery (not a service I would typically use - long story). Their customer service hours are M-F so I thought I would be on the hook for the delivery and considered just eating the cost. I emailed them anyway on Saturday and to my surprise they answered on Sunday to say they had canceled the order and credited my account. Yay. It would have shipped Monday morning so glad I didn't wait.
2) Used my local library to pick up some movies. Canceled my Netflix account last month and thanks to the library, have not even missed it.
3) Attended my money mentoring class - free financial education. Win! Win!
4) brought my lunch to work all week.
5) found my refrigerator/freezer thermometer so I can check to see if it is possible to turn down the settings a little.
So, I'd never heard the term "fat-fingered" something and at first I didn't get what you meant--thought it might be that they held the key down/delayed payment intentionally, but then since it sounded like an accident I got this image of a really big person trying to do something technical and couldn't and then this whole thing just made me sad. I don't think I like this term at all. I'm not trying to be the PC police/you can obviously continue using the term (I googled it after this and apparently it's a thing), but this is the first time a post here has made me kind of sad and I guess for no real reason, but still. I dunno.
Ago, I have skinny fingers and I "fat finnger" my keyboard every single time I use it. Methinks you might be reeding just a leetle too much into this term.
Perhaps you might consider using your sadness to help a homeless family or a person with a terminal illness. Better still, go out of your way to help someone - anyone today. I guarantee your sadness will disappear like magic.
Hi Daine,
All good suggestions. 😀
Oh, yeah, it has nothing to do with a person's actual bodily size as far as I know! (though I could just be in the dark?) As I understand it, it just means accidentally pressing the wrong key.
My husband and I use the term regularly to refer to ourselves and neither of us would be categorized as fat. So I've just never associated it with body size!
I certainly didn't mean any offense to anyone by using the term, and for the record, I don't want to body shame people or anything. And I certainly would never, ever think that someone with a larger body would be unable to complete a technical task. That would be ridiculous (though I have known people who think that way, sadly.)
Hi Kristen! Thanks for your response. I believe you, and don't think you meant it that way at all.
I agree that it would be ridiculous to think bigger people can't complete technical tasks. I do, however, think that this term probably came out of that belief originally (even if the people who use it don't hold that misconception) because it is used, even by people who aren't big, to convey that they accidentally pressed the wrong key "the way a fat-fingered person necessarily would."
Anywho, I definitely believe you meant no offense and that it is a term used without malicious intent because, honestly, most people don't go around thinking "I'm going to be mean to X-type of person today." Again, it was more a surprise thing rather than anything else.
Anyway, again, do not think you were body-shaming. (Obviously even the teeny-tiniest person could have "fat fingers"/be clumsy lol.)
Well, you can tell it's mid summer I guess, I had a zucchini save as well. The vet who owns the clinic where I work has an epic garden, and the office refrigerator was full of peppers, okra, yellow and pattypan squash, tomatoes, and zucchini. After we all had taken our choices, for several days one HUGE baseball bat of a zucchini was left. I grabbed it and made 24 chocolate zucchini muffins and lemon blueberry zucchini bread. I'm giving most of it away, since I'm on Weight Watchers, and even though I'm sure they're healthier, they still are kind of high in calories. Then, for the okra, I cut it up, dipped the slices in egg white and coated in cornmeal, and baked at 400* for 30 minutes. Delicious and less calories than fried!
I guess I have no choice but to respond to this post! 😉
1) I bought a $20 vintage dresser which I'll be repainting for our bedroom.
2) I'm shining up the old brass hardware, but instead of buying brass specific cleaner I'm using some old Trader Joe's toothpaste which tasted terrible. BTW, it works perfectly!
3) I didn't bring a lunch to work yesterday, but instead of buying food in the cafeteria I made do with some peanut butter, graham crackers and milk.
4) I am taking advantage of today's sunny weather to put two loads through the wash and onto the clothesline. (It's been rainy all week.)
5) I had BOGO Burgerville coupons for cheeseburgers and milkshakes. Instead of using the coupons for two of us and then splurging for us adults, I bought for the kids and set out nice leftovers for the grownups. (Burgerville is local and delicious, but pricey.) My husband grumbled, but since we only grow wider not taller, he tucked into the yummy food.
1. I made homemade supreme pizza this week.
2. For the first time,I made pretzels (Pillsbury recipe)
3. I line dried yesterday (it was 90 degrees out)
4. I used $7 off coupon the grocery store sent me.
5.I found nice clothes for our girls from garage sale and spent $20 on everything including name brands dresses,grocery bag,book case and nice little shirts.
P.S-I'll be stealing your hamburger buns recipe. Looks really good!
1. Washed both my car and my wife's car at home (using a bucket since we are not allowed to let wastewater runoff into the sewer system).
2. Cut both my hair and my son's hair at home using clippers I usually buy for myself around Christmas time.
3. Mowed our front and rear lawn.
4. Bring a sack lunch to work for 4 of 5 days since the beginning of the year.
5. Enjoyed a nice afternoon picnic at the beach with the kids. Thanks to great California weather lately and the fact that we live may 15 minutes from the beach. 🙂
NOTE: I actually do items 1-3 continuously simply because I refuse to pay for it. 🙂
I found a "little free library" and gifted 3 books and took one.
This was on my way to the library where I checked out 28 books (plus 2 bags) for my summer camp because our free books at camp leave a lot to be desired.
I'm collecting TP rolls for a friend for summer camp, to pay it forward, since I spent about a week collecting them from other people for my camp.
And I always reuse packages from things I've purchased! I hate when I have to buy one because I'm sending more things out than taking them in, but that's a good thing too!
1. Got clothes for summer vacation at Goodwill. I noticed I was wearing a lot of the same clothes in the past several family vacation pictures.
2. Got a 2 piece name brand swim suit at a garage sale for $2. Didn't like the bottom so I found a bottom that matches at Sears on sale for 75% off.
3. I always make crock stock with the chicken bones from our $4.99 Costco chicken. Just put the bones, some onions, celery and spices in the crock pot on low for 12 hours. In the morning I remove the bones and add some vegies so we have chicken soup when we get home from church. I add leftover rice just before serving.
4. I make a big pot of oatmeal and just heat some up for breakfast every morning adding blueberries and a little maple syrup.
5. I have a great attitude (thanks Mom) about living frugally so it is a game I play all the time. Our family budget is the winner.
I would love to hear your zucchini bread recipe with tweaks. I made a chocolate zucchini bread (recipe found on Pinterest) and it was really dry. I was disappointed. I think zucchini bread is often dry. Not sure why. Would live to hear your thoughts. I was given a couple huge zucchinis just today!
1. I went on a job interview. I am retired but I want to make a little spending money and learn something new. Just a few hours a week in my own town--I could ride my bike. For the summer I have been helping a woman keep her gardens cleaned up but that job will be finished at some point.
2. Through our (organic) CSA, by picking my own green beans, I was able to get 5 lbs. A small box of organic beans at the grocery store was $4.00. My daughters and I share the CSA.
3. By using the library, I found 3 DVDs recommended on facebook and my 2 friends and I went to the Museum of Fine Arts using the library passes. Saved $15/person. The passes cover 2 people. I shared my pass with the next person in line.
4. Went out for pizza with my husband at a local restaurant that has $1.50 pizza night. Total for 2 was under $10 (drink included).
5. I won a gift certificate to a local bakery that I like.
In case you ever have extra zucchini again you are trying to use up, this recipe is awesome and healthy!
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/06/25/recipe-zucchini-bread/
1) I'm challenging myself to an Austere August, where I only have £5 a week to spend on any non urgent incidentals :/ bit of a scary prospect!
2) I'm saving all sorts of things to use as planters and pots to start seedlings off instead of buying growing on pots - toilet roll inners and egg boxes are ace!
3) I'm keeping track of my commission earned and am actually putting in for overtime instead of working for free, for a change 🙂
4) using up ropey looking fruit in cakes and learning how to freeze my home grown produce so it doesn't go to waste 🙂
5) meal planning. I love meal planning - I'm such a geek for a list!
Loving reading your blog, your writing style is brilliant 🙂
Thank you so much for your encouraging words!
1. Spent some time price-matching various school and computer supplies, so I could buy at a single office supply store instead of going to many. (This didn't work out very well, BTW. I may just pick one store a week to go to instead.)
2. Did the above errand on the weekend because I realized - in time to be of use - that the cost of weekday parking probably would have been more than the savings from price-matching.
3. Still pushing ahead on eating what's in the freezer. It's not 100% - I bought skirt steak yesterday - but much progress is being made.
4. Still doing well on the food waste front. Today I froze an elderly and tasteless melon for smoothies, thus forestalling any waste this week.
5. Even though I was totally wiped out last night I did not pay someone else for my food. Dinner was chix wings[1] simmered in bulgogi sauce bought on sale, and whatever veg was in the fridge. Stupidly simple - dump meat and sauce in pot, simmer on very low till done - and tasty.
[1] The wings of roast chix usually come out too overcooked to eat, so I cut them off the raw bird and save for future use. I'm happier with a wingless roast + a meal of wings, than with a winged roast.
That reminds me. I need to try to hit a sale for school supplies (specifically for notebooks). As homeschoolers, we don't end up needing a lot of the traditional school supplies, but we go through notebooks and composition books like there's no tomorrow.
I like thinking of the melon as "elderly." Very funny.
And tasteless - the jokes it was telling were really NSFW!
1. Did a good job of using garden produce this weekend. Zuke muffins (lemon and double chocolate), savory zuke-cheddar bread and enough green beans to sink a ship. I told particular joy in having peaches and blackberries from our garden on pancakes this morning.
2. Studied grocery receipt and saw that I was charged $3.99 for a 5 lb bag of potatoes that was supposed to be on sale for $2.99. Debated whether to go back to store another day for $1, but ultimately did and got a refund of $3.99. Hey, it's $3.99 plus a bag of potatoes, right?
3. Packed lunch for work this week. It's hard for me to stay on the wagon with this one, so I am happy about it.
4. Made and froze stock with scraps. Zucchini chowder is coming soon! See #1.
5. Lots of free summer fun with the kids this week: park after dinner, swimming at a friend's pool, trip to library, cooking together, movie night with DVD from library.
I wasn't feeling too thrifty especially after stopping by at Sam's Club and buying a few pre packaged items. Then I figured 1- the pre packaged breakfast sandwiches will save my hubby $40 in the next month because he won't be stopping for breakfast at a drive thru (although I will plan better and make them in bulk myself going forward). I also spoke to 2 friends and asked for hand me downs on PJs for my daughter and Nike (my 6 yr old suddenly became infatuated w Nike but I refuse to pay $22 for a pair of shorts-he's very athletic,too) stuff from a family who I noticed dress their 3 boys in that type of clothing all the time. #4 our fridge went out almost a month ago and I fell I love w a $2500 fridge at Lowes but thankfully my hubby said no way and his brother is giving us an extra one he has (not happy that its black but free is free and I need to be grateful) and last, the old fridge will be sold at the junk place:)
More frugal exercises:
1. Posted - yet again - five items to sell on Craigslist. One already sold, three others being looked at today. This is the third time I've posted these items. The previous times I got no responses at all.
2. My roommate spent 6+ hours in the metalwork shop, fixing an 11+ year old Target coat stand. The stand retails for $60 and he spent $15 on supplies, so he didn't earn even so much as minimum wage. Not so frugal from this perspective. But look at it from another perspective: he's just learning metalworking, but his student product was something very useful rather than the usual useless metal box. And he kept the item out of the recycling bin.
3. My crafty coworker fixed a fancy watchband/wrist chain for me. In return I gave her a loaf of multi-grain bread.
Good for you for being persistent in selling your stuff!
Four of five sold within 48 hours = $365 in cash. As you pointed out, that's a lot of homemade bread and couponing.
Yes! Not that saving money isn't worth it, but it would be silly to bake bread and then choose not to sell your stuff as well.
I like doing the two in tandem...earning AND saving.
I switched to cloth diapers and now an advocate for a company by selling cloth diapers I can earn free ones too
1. Our neighbors offered to take down a very large tree in our yard for the fire wood, it should heat their house for a month in the winter. We also gave them a couple of additional cords that we will never use.
2. Cleaned up a neighbors garage sale leftovers, some going to Goodwill, metal items going to a scrap yard. Nothing went to a landfill.
3. Hit a Tide detergent sale at Meijer that cost me $9 for $60 worth of detergent. I don't normally purchase Tide because of the cost.
4. Only had some left over fish that was tossed out, I just can't stand leftover fish.
5. Helped my son build a workbench & a shelf for the garage using wood, wheels & paint from leftover projects. Turned out really nice and we did not buy anything. Yay!
I have been wanting a small flock of turkeys after paying for an organic, free range bird last Thanksgiving. It is a hard expense to justify so I put myself on a strict budget. Craig's List to the rescue.
I got a free six foot high pen off for a few hours work taking it down. I'll have to buy six bags of concrete and spend a few more hours putting it back together but that is a still a huge savings.
Then I found some (free) really great used stockade fencing to use as siding on the coop. The posts are in good enough shape that I can use them for the corners of the coop. Tomorrow I'm picking up more (free) lumber from someone that took down their kid's tree house. I already had some old doors and windows to use. I have plenty of tools and nails so the coop will cost next to nothing. As a bonus, I love building things.
I got two free poults off of Craig's list too. They were lame and the breeder thought they would improve with good care. I spent about $12 on feed and vitamins. After a week it was clear that they needed to be put down but that week taught me that I could raise poults and that having them was amazingly relaxing. The breeder is saving 5 poults from her next brood for me for free because I tried to save the first two.
Wow! Good luck with your turkey raising!
1) Just hung up a load of laundry outside. This is a win/win for me as it reminds me of my Grandma who used to hang up her laundry all the time, I get a good dose of Vit. D, this gets me moving in the morning & warms up my back & hips, and it's become a meditation for me. I love it.
2)Purchased some items from Vitacost that were BOGO free and shopped them through ebates.com which gives me a percentage back on whatever I spend on Vitacost. I wasn't deserpately in need of any of the items but I'm not turning down a BOGO free on items I know I will need in the near future.
If you do a lot of shopping online, I highly recommend signing up on ebates.com. If you go to their web site before you do any online shopping, click which site you want to shop on, ebates will give you a different percentage back (as in a check mailed to you!) for each store you shop.
3)Have been looking for good sneakers and hadn't found anything that works for me (and not spending $100). Went to a web site for sneakers that I have been longing for (Altrarunning.com) since I need shoes with a wide toe box. Found a pair that were on clearance for $65 (normally over $100) and they just happen to have my size in stock. *FYI-yes, $65 for a pair of shoes isn't terribly frugal but because I stand on my feet for my job, I have to have good shoes; this was a great investment.
4)Did my laundry as soon as I got up this morning when the energy load is the least expensive. I only run my washing machine and dishwasher either early mornings or after 9pm.
5) We pack our own lunches ALWAYS. It's soooooo much healthier.
6) Another day of loving our investment of a solar hot water heater this morning; here in Central Fla. this should be a no-brainer for everyone that lives here! Sorry, I know you asked for only 5 but I can't stop being happy about my solar hot water heater. 🙂