Five Frugal Things | books, paint, flowers, eyedrops, and chicken!
Happy Monday, readers! How about we start off the week with five frugal things?
1. I sold three books on half.com
All of them were schoolbooks we're done using...so clutter out, and money in!
I packaged them up using padded envelopes I saved from online purchases, so my only packing expense was the packing tape.
And I dropped them by the post office when I already happened to be driving by, so, no extra gas expense.
2. I got paint samples before choosing a bathroom paint color.
I'm in the midst of tackling that project, and I got a sample I thought would be right, but it turned out to be a baby blue.
Yuck.
So then I got another sample and yes! This one is right.
I hate "wasting" money on bad samples. But it is so much better to pay $5-$7 for a sample jar than to waste $30-$50 on a gallon of paint that ends up being ugly.
(related: remember the time it took 8 samples for Sonia and Zoe to pick a color?? At least this is way easier.)
3. I re-homed some purple hyacinth plants.
You maybe remember that I blogged about these beautiful vines before.
This year, I had trouble with my saved seeds not sprouting super well. I think I didn't let them dry well enough, so they got kind of moldy. Duly noted for next year!
Anyway, I noticed that several had sprouted up in the middle of my lawn recently, obviously from pods that got moved around last fall.
So, I dug them up and planted them around the mailbox, where hopefully they'll still have time to turn into something like the first photo above.
Grow, baby plants, grow!
(If you're not lucky enough to have a friend who can give you some seeds, you can easily buy them on Amazon, and your first set of seeds will produce enough for you to plant year after year.)
4. I cooked some chicken from the freezer.
I had a pack of boneless split breasts that had been living in my freezer for a little on the long side of things.
I thawed and salted them, and then roasted them so I could make a curried chicken salad for dinner yesterday.
Which will make handy leftovers for Joshua and Lisey's work lunches. Schweet.
5. I researched eyedrop prices.
Two people in my family need allergy eye drops, and they are definitely on the expensive side of things.
I poked around online to see where I could find the best deal, and it turned out that Walgreens had a buy one, get one 50% off sale on their brand, which is cheaper than the name brand to begin with.
This beat even Amazon's price, so I dropped into Walgreens on my way to buy paint. Yay for batching errands! Saves time and gas.
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Your turn! Join me with your own Five Frugal Things in the comments.
You are a master at painting, Kristen! I tried it once, and it just didn't go well at home. I just returned a baby gate and a gardening tool to Amazon Prime today, so I can't wait to get the refund. Other than that, we haven't eaten out at all this month. And I'm super happy about it!
1. We are currently at the library to get our 1st visit of the week in.
2. We are on our way to swim lessons (which aren't necessarily frugal but necessary) but I got the 4 kids all scheduled at the same time/location so as not to have to drive back and forth.
3. I have my weekly Aldi trip after swim lessons which always saves me money compared to my other stores.
4. While my kids are in the pool at lessons I will walk around the pool for my walk exercise today, while this doesn't necessarily save me $$ it saves me time since I don't have to take time this afternoon to do my walk.
5. I can't think if one so I will put what I have have seen others say "I didn't buy a jet!"
I noticed you mentioning checking Amazon for prices on eye drops. I just heard of jet.com that is supposed to beat most of the prices on Amazon. I tried it for my tea and saved a bundle. You might want to check it out.
thank you for the good information, will check this out
Allergy eye drops are one of the things that I buy name brand- the store brand didn't work for me. Please update us on how the walgreens brand works for your family. Thanks!
I sure will! I know we've used the Target off-brand in the past with success. Which store brand did you use?
We've been using the Walgreens brand this summer and it's worked better than some name brand for us.
I used the target off-brand and it didn't do anything!
I hope you asked for your money back! So not worth the savings if they do nothing for you.
1. Will attend a free class at library today to learn how to use my kindle to download FREE books,magazines and other library services!
2. Cleaned my freezer and made meal plan for week using up stuff I need to use. Found some scraps for making chili for the pot luck I'll be hosting in a week.
3. Went to Heard Museum yesterday with our son, It was "FREE SUNDAY!! Saw an awesome Frida Kahlo exhibit.
4. Will reorganize pantry later today and make another meal plan to use up supplies in there.
5. Going to check out several books that are on my list,for FREE at library today--I LOVE MY LIBRARY!!!!!!!
The library is the best!!!! Such an incredible resource.
Getting samples of paint is such a life-saver! We did that when we renovated our house and it saved our skins. We almost went with a hideous purple color that looked great in the store and not-so-great in our house.
This week:
1. I took a four-hour baking class and learned how to cook classic British pastries. It did cost $60, but I had a great time and got a lot of questions answered by a professional pastry chef. Worth it!
2. I used up some cherries that were past their prime by turning them into mini handheld cherry pies.
3. Mr. Picky Pincher and his dad re-bricked the back side of our house in preparation for installing our DIY outdoor kitchen. We've had Tyvec on the back of our house for over a year, so it's a good change!
4. Our truck broke down and we used free roadside assistance through our insurance to tow the truck. It was a silver lining, but at least we didn't have to pay for a tow service!
5. I used some old apples and turned them into a chutney, which I spread on some homemade thyme-cheddar scones.
Did you see that half.com is coming to an end?! I was so sad when I read the email as I have regularly sold books through the site!
1. I also dug out some chicken from the freezer that needed to be used. Fajitas on Friday night with lemons and peppers from Kroger's reduced .99 produce bags. Yesterday was bbq chicken sandwiches and I still have enough chicken left for two meals.
2. I picked our first tomatoes this weekend and as soon as it dries out, I'm heading out to pick the first of the green beans. Garden season is the best!
3. I have to have blood work done early Thursday so I also scheduled a mammogram and a haircut to combine errands. I'm planning on going to the grocery while in town. The mammogram and blood work will be covered by insurance but not the haircut!
4. Tuesday is a special movie deal for AT&T customers. Buy one, get one free by ordering a movie ticket online. Since Tuesday is bargain day at our local theater anyway, it makes for a cheap night out. Most movies can wait until we get them from the library but I really want to see Dunkirk on the big screen so I think we'll go tomorrow night.
5. This weekend is my husband's birthday. It always falls around the same time as our huge Celtic festival that is three FREE days of Celtic music. It's one of our don't miss events of the year. So we'll go all day Saturday and take drinks and snacks with us. We may splurge this year and eat one of our meals there as free parking is usually too far away but it will be a great day. And the weather is suppose to be wonderful. So excited!
LOVED Dunkirk. I just wish at the end they had listed the numbers again, as in number of boats and men saved...I kept thinking about how young those guys were, 18 and 19 and 20.
I was expecting the exact same thing. Listing the numbers would have made it that more impressive. Great movie though.
Nice! I sold a few things over the weekend and BANKED! Woohoo!
1. Had my daughter's 10th birthday party at a trampoline park yesterday. Although it was very expensive, I did buy gift cards a few weeks ago online from them at half price (enough to cover the party) so it ended up only costing half of the price plus I had a coupon for 5 free party guests with any party so that saved almost $100 too!
2. Daughter wanted friends to go swimming with her after the party so we went to her grandma's house to swim for a few hours.
3. Came home and I cooked them spaghetti with stuff I already had on hand.
4. Daughter taught all of her friends how to make slime with supplies she had on hand as well as we played games she had here at the house (Pie face and Bean Boozled).
5. Just going to stay home today and clean! So that saves me money too! lol
Nothing spectacular and little in the way of extra $$ coming in. I found a place that might buy some of the larger things I want to get out of the house, but for the most part I don't have the patience or the knack for selling small items such as books.
1) For my staycation, I mostly ate what I had in the house.
2) Neighbors offered to care for the dog for half the days I was at work, and for the weekend I was away. Cost me $35 for the gift I bought them.
3) Neighbor's son walked the dog for the other half of the days I was at work. Much less expensive than a kennel. (My work hours aren't compatible with doggie day care.)
4) Brought the snacks and drinks for my weekend away but went out for several meals with the niblings I was visiting at camp. A partial win. Also joined Shell's club, to get cheaper gas while I was on the road.
5) Brought all the food, drinks, and snacks to the work training site, rather than falling for the temping food court.
These all seem to be food related:
1. I salvaged some old, ahem moldy, cheese by cutting away all the bad parts. The rest of it was fine. I have to do this far too often due to my cheese buying problem. I always think that the varieties will get eaten more quickly than they do. Ate cheese with only slightly stale crackers. Lunch sounds dreadful when really it was alright!
2. Cooked delicious duck breast on Saturday night. Leftover duck went into individual meat pies made with homemade pie crust I had in the freezer. Duck is very expensive so I was glad that it stretched along with the other ingredients into another meal for the five of us.
3. Most of the ingredients for both dinners on Saturday & Sunday came from Aldi's! Not the duck breast though.
4. Went to play miniature golf with the family after our meat pie, basmati rice & fresh fruit dinner last night. Saved $ by not eating out which made the $40 spent on putt putt more palatable!
5. Used free ice cream cone coupons as an after church treat on Sunday.
1. I froze banana chunks (thanks for the idea, Kristen!) for about 5 bananas that got neglected due to having watermelon, pineapple, and strawberries in the fridge.
2. We had a date night over the weekend. We were planning to use gift cards for a movie and dinner, but realized at the last minute that the movie gift card doesn't work for the theater in our city and we'd have to drive 45 minutes or more to get to a place where it would. But we went at the $6 ticket time and still used the dinner gift card, so it wasn't bad.
3. My friend watched my kiddos for free for our date! So grateful for her!!
4. My baby turned one over the weekend and we breastfed for the whole year, never having to buy formula. This was a big goal for me and I'm thankful that God allowed us to have that experience.
5. Today my daughter watched a video that she is borrowing from a friend (instead of renting new movies) and we read a book from the library. I guess those would be numbers 5 and 6. 🙂
1. We went away for the week to a condo 2 hours away and I did my grocery shopping from fridge, freezer, and garden before we went (condo had a full kitchen). We did buy eggs, a pacakge of frozen fudge bars, and fresh-picked corn while there (less than $10 in all). We ate out once, at a brewhouse with beer samples and fantastic duck-fat fries.
2. Picked up a brand new blouse for $1 at a thrift store.
3. Our provincial parks had a free entry day on Friday, so I went there for a hike, a picnic at the beach, and some lake swimming.
4. At the park store, I picked up a solar-powered bug catcher for $5 and a waterproof pouch ($4) for my phone, keys, and watch when I'm on the water kayaking. I've seen similar things for twice the price.
5. Took advantage of $1 iced coffees at Tim Hortons and McDonalds on our day trips.
I'm not sure I have five frugal items this week, but I'll give it a try.
1. Most of suppers last week were sided with produce from the garden. It was an inexpensive cooking week.
2. I am almost done with redecorating my granddaughter 's bedroom. And at a very low cost. I only had to buy 2 gallons of paint and some material.
3. I was given a headboard and footboard from a yard sale which I painted to match her room and the dressers I painted. I needed no extra paint.
4. I was also given a desk for her room whic I painted. I did purchase a desk chair which was gift for her birthday.
5. Now I need to make her curtains and bedspread. I had to purchase some of the material for this.
I'm really looking forward to when the entire room is completed.
Goodmorning Kristen,
So far this week, a few frugal things I have done are-
Made a batch of home made laundry liquid
Mended a few items- a tshirt and skirt for my sister and a dog coat for one of our newly adopted dogs.
Had all my little family over for a lamb roast dinner, it is much cheaper than going out for dinner, I also made a sticky date pudding for dessert (all ingredients were already in the house)
Hung all the washing in the sunshine to dry
Did our tax nice and early this year and I am getting a refund-whoo hoo
Cooked from scratch every night and used up all leftovers so there is no waste
Cleaned the house with home made cleaners, I especially love my all purpose miracle spray, It gets everything really clean.
Have a wonderful day.
Fi
About the eye drops: my opthalmologist (eye specialist, not to be confused with an optometrist) warned me about eye drops and the preservatives they contain. You have to check if they contain preservatives. If they do, your body becomes dependent on them and you have to keep using them for relief, so do be aware of cheaper versions. I had a great set of drops from her, but I lost the box, so can't remember the name. They did come packaged in separate doses. It was definitely worth it.
Thank you for your blog! My husband and I both find it inspiring 🙂
1. I found a fairly large bag of ripe bananas at the grocery for $1. I brought them home and sliced them all up and froze for future smoothies.
2. Needed to send flowers to someone, so bought a Groupon and then took advantage of my "gold status" to get free delivery. Saved about $25.
3. Got a card from Kohls in the mail with a 30% off coupon. Threw it away since Kohl's has moved and is now very inconvenient for me to get there. Saved on gas and saved 70% on what I didn't buy!
4. Tossed another sale card from a store at the mall.....saved 100% for what I didn't buy!
5. Bought another Groupon to get a Shutterfly book for $5!
1) I bought six dozen eggs for 39 cents a dozen at Aldi.
2) I used a coupon at Groupon to get a magazine subscription for 2.00. Paula Dean was on my mind but with second thought I will see if they have National Geographic.
3) I gathered up all our leftover school supplies to donate to a woman who overheard me talking about them. I hope they will be helpful.
4) Enjoyed some shows on Amazon my father recommended to me.
I found another great deal for The Great Courses Plus. One free month. 99 cents next month. I really enjoy these programs.
5) listed my truck for sale on some free sites. Need to trade it for a car for my college bound son.
1) I also bought paint samples for our exterior paint on our house. This will save to make sure we get the right paint for the entire outside of the house! (My husband and I are college students/house flippers and we are currently in the middle of a flip)
2) We went to 99 cent taco Tuesday at the local Mexican restaurant! This made for a fun and cheap date.
3) I found that Walmart has a clearance section. It has some really cool things there.
4) Home Depot was having a rebates deal going on for their paint. We bought four 5 gallon buckets and got $120 back to spend.
5) We borrowed the neighbors lawn mower. This saves us from having to pay someone else or from buying our own. Killed two birds with one stone!
http://www.brittanyobarr.com
Ruth- Your frugal ways were great!
Kirsten- I agree that paint samples are a good idea. I once bought a color called "cream." It turned out to be big bird yellow!!AAhhh! It's still on my bathroom walls as I'm too lazy to change it. I tried to cover some of it with 2 huge mirrors and a large painting.
My frugalness this week:
1) On my break at work, if I'm hungry, I try to eat 2 bananas. So tired of spending $8 on juices, etc. Bananas are about 40 cents.
2) DH wanted to go out to lunch. Used Groupon coupon for half price meal.
3)Thawing out dinners from the freezer...Ground beef, ham, etc I cook a lot and make bread too. This week will be cookies and pie as I haven't done that in a while.
4) Had the home appraiser over so I had to tidy things up. I got free boxes from work and got a huge plant to put in the wine barrel out front. It was 70% off. The place was so clean without a speck of clutter, that it reminded me of a museum. I could hear the creaking of the floors as the two of them walked through the home.
5)Had to remake house keys and I wasn't sure how much they cost these days..Two keys cost $4.10...Great deal.
1. Bought a rotissierie chicken on sale, made 2 meals out of it.
2. Boiled the bones, made lots of chicken stock. Thanks to other readers' suggestions, I froze the bags on a baking pan this time, so they didn't get stuck on the wire shelves in the freezer!
3. Eating leftovers from company this week.
4. Going to a 2 day seminar, lunch is provided.
5 .Using tumblers I already own to take water to work. Using their filtered water system to refill them. It is tempting to want to buy the nice metal or glass bottles, but I have enough tumblers at home to use for now.
1. Managed to eat out of the freezer for the last 2 weeks.
2. Only bought fruit and veggies from Aldi and Meijer due to a pharmacy Q I only spent about $13
3. We got some much needed rain so I didn't have to water.
4. Traded some flower plants with mom-in-laws neighbor. She is 93 and gardens everyday.
5. We bought our old car back from our son while not super frugal my new car does so poorly in the snow and our old car plows thru the snow like a hot knife thru butter. I will drive it on snowy days.
6. I'm on a roll...taking my Instant Pot on vacation so hopefully less eating out.
7. Mom-in-law having party and we are borrowing tables and crock pots.
Hmmm...
Went through my school supply hoard and highlighted the few things I needed to purchase (X2- twins ya know...).. So we went to Office Max and picked up those things-
a) traded in 3 old 3ring binders and made back $2/binder....
b) grabbed 4 binders in the B3G1free promo...
c) used $35 in office max rewards money.. from all the work purchases I pick up there!
d) purchases earn me back 2% now! so still made money...
2. Was shocked that Office Max had paper folders on sale for .15/folder.. they are NEVER that low this early.. and they had a LOT.. so I sent kids to grab another cart.. and started to count... 4 different color, 250 in total.. had my tax exempt card in my wallet.. got my work errand completed and made 2% back on it! lol
3. Treated the kids to Taco Bell(lol) using their Good Grade Free Taco coupons...
4. Saw a bottle of Vitamins on the clearance shelf at Walgreen.. marked off 90% to 1.49... Bought them and applied my Ibotta rebates earning me $2.5 back!!!!
5. stocked up on the all natural chicken breasts at my local store... manager marked down.. I think almost too low.. a manager had to actually key the purchase through b/c the register locked down.. $2.39/lb! lol
6- salvaged some quickly ripening peaches and made peach pie filling... froze in dish then popped into a freezer bag..
7. bought a large bag of *damaged* apples for 3.50. All the golden delicious and granny smith went into a apple pie mix and froze for future pie... the rest made a pot of sauted spiced apples...
1. Packing lunches and not eating out.
2. Walked home from work and saved a bus fare.
3. Waited until Amazon Prime to buy a printer I've been eying for several months.
4. Eating through the leftovers in my fridge before I go out of town next week.
5. I also did not buy a jet 😀
I don't know that I am ever going to be as frugal as you, but I do try! I added some leftover chicken to plain fried rice from Trader Joe's yesterday for a takeout/fake out lunch for my boys and I. Wore a pair of scrub pants until they literally fell apart - then ordered new ones. Bought store brand K-cups with a coupon (ok that's not frugal, but we love our Keurig, so..) Resisted the urge to go get a pedi and spent 30 min just doing it myself. Actually I talk myself out of it every time I say I am going to go get one, but wouldn't that be the ultimate luxury to have someone else do it? Oh, well!
Hi Kristen, Have been looking at Kumon Math classes for my daughter(starting 5th grade in public school). She is doing well in school and we are involved with her studies at home.
Kumon is supposed to help improve speed and accuracy and thereby help students surpass their grade level. The improvement in speed is what I am looking for and I am trying to see if there are workbooks/websites through which we can do it at home.
Kumon is expensive (140$ a month), they expect students to visit the center twice a week, parents must check the Kumon homework everyday and they believe in self-learning (through examples). Right now I check her homework for mistakes and I use Khanacademy and other websites when I have to teach her a Math topic.
Can you please share what you have done with your kids to help improve their speed and overall Math performance ? My daughter( like your kids) enjoys Language Arts more than Math. 🙂
Thanks very much !
My kids all prefer language arts too!
Probably the thing that's increased their speed the most is time tests. These are good for improving arithmetic speed for sure!
Thanks for the reply Kristen! Will try the time tests soon. 🙂
I work for an allergy office. We like the allergy drops called Zaditor. They run about $13/bottle. Our patients have liked this brand. Just FYI.
I agree. Received a Zaditor sample from the eye doctor and it was nearly as effective as prescription allergy eyedrops.
Yep, those are the ones we use! But I bought the Walgreens brand of them. Hopefully they'll be good!
I'm late to this game because I had a medical procedure yesterday, out of town, and didn't read anything on the computer at all.
1. Said procedure required me to be off of solid foods all day Sunday and most of Monday. My husband scrounged for leftovers and I had broth I made in the crock pot last week. It certainly made for cheap meals.
2. Didn't drink all the broth, so it is going into a pan of jambalaya tonight along with a tomato that needs to be used.
3. I was frustrated that the lid to my older food processor was broken (my husband went through a few years of dizzy spells and broke so much stuff... but only one bone, thank heavens), and I was sure I couldn't replace it. I finally, finally looked online, and yeah, the replacement was out there all along, for $10, less a $2.98 credit I had left from an Amazon gift card. Do you know I had almost bought another processor!? I now have a nice new lid so I can use my processor again.
4. We didn't buy any groceries this past weekend. That will sure help the food budget.
5. I ordered some much needed office wear through ThredUp. Only one thing I didn't like, and I'll return it for credit, so shipping will be free. Then I went through my closet and cleaned so much stuff out. "I might wear that" is not going to fill up my closet again, if I can help it.
6. Oh, and I mailed an actual letter to an elderly relative, with real, actual printed photos included in it. My stationery wasn't big enough for the prints, so I took some kraft paper I had from a roll I was given long ago, cut out an envelope, glued it with glue I had, and slid my letter and photos in it. I put a little tape on it for good measure. When I was a kid, we cut out envelopes, cut out lightweight cardboard boxes, and cut down bigger boxes to make smaller ones, all the time. How did we get out of that?
1. Made sure to go to Aldi's when I brought my son to his orthodontist appt.
2. Checked out Ollie's while in the far away orthodontist town and resisted all sorts of stuff I don't need- left with scalloped potatoes, ice pops, and protein bars.
3. Signed up for a free week at a gym, then looked at monthly rates and decided against it.
4. Worked from home today.
5. Let my son use my (gifted) Dunkin gift card this am to get himself a donut.
1. Spent a long weekend with my grandparents for a vacation. Only expense was the gas to get there and treating them to lunch out as a thank-you for the relaxing time away.
2. Ate down all the food in my fridge due to the vacation. Managed to delay grocery shopping for a few days upon my return by getting creative with my meals.
3. Waited a day to place an online order so I could use as many rewards points as possible. Ordered two birthday gifts for family members and a book I wanted to read for only $9 total.
4. Found two online coupons to use for the routine car maintenance I have scheduled tomorrow. This will bring the cost down significantly, plus will enjoy the free coffee while I wait for the work to be done!
5. Made homemade sugar cookies for a work event. I had leftovers, so put the extras in a gift bag that matched the cookie icing to drop off for a friend as a congratulatory gift for achieving a career goal. She lives close enough to bike to her house, so even no cost for gas to drive.
1. We did the summer reading program at our library, which scored us library funds for movie rentals (and free baseball tickets!).
2. I matched up online coupons, printed coupons & sale items (including clearance organic produce) for a smaller grocery budget this week.
3. I wrapped a gift in fabric we already owned.
4. I bought store brand vinegar & baking soda for cleaning supplies.
5. We've been working on our summer bucket list & having fun with our kids with little spending. Yay contentment!
1. Husband taking kids to free movie in the park tonight.
2. Bought a spelling kit (for homeschooling) from a yard sale for only $3!!
3. Rode bike to and checked out a stack of movies and books from bookmobile. Dog got walked at the same time with a doggie attachment on my bike. The librarian even let him inside the bookmobile!
4. Made gluten-free sugar cookies instead of buying them, they were delicious by the way;).
5. Canned Chokecherry Syrup for pancakes, harvested by wild foraging.
I know I am a week behind on this, but I was on vacation last week. I would still like to give it a try. Here goes:
1. I had paid for two campsites for our vacation (one for us and one for my in-laws). They never paid me back for them, so on the actual vacation, they paid me. I had completely forgotten about not being paid! Money in my pocket!
2. One of the days it rained on vacation and we ended up taking the kids bowling. I searched for free summer bowling for kids on my phone and was able to print off vouchers for the kids to bowl for free on that rainy day.
3. On that same rainy day we stopped at Burger King for lunch and used a coupon to eat. Saved a few dollars.
4. Not very frugal of me to spend money, but I did buy our souvenirs (a sweatshirt for me and a shirt for each kid) on the clearance rack at the gift shop. The kids' birthday is in two weeks, so I plan to give the shirts to them as a birthday gift.
5. We have two "parties" for the kids' birthday each year. One when we are camping and one that we host at our home. During the one we had while camping, we ended up making cupcakes in our camper instead of buying a store bought cake! Money saved.
Not a great week, but we didn't go overboard on any aspect of vacation.