Five Frugal Things
My friend Katy frequently posts a list of five frugal things she's done recently. Sometimes I borrow her idea. 😉
1. I fixed an armpit hole (or two, rather.)
You may remember this shirt from a mending/thrifting post few years back (and also from this outfit post).
It's held up pretty well, but recently, the seams under both armpits sprouted holes.
This seems to happen every now and then to shirts, and I'm wondering if it's because the salts from sweat wear away at the fabric.
(There's a savory thought to start your day!)
Anyway, I stitched 'em up, and hopefully the shirt will be good to go for a while longer.
2. I made some whole wheat bread.
Not earthshaking, I know, but it's inexpensive and awfully tasty, especially fresh out of the oven.
Whole wheat bread recipe here.
(No, I don't weigh my bread dough when I shape my loaves. One is almost always smaller than the others! )
(Yes, I might be an imperfectionist.)
3. I used one of my bonus offers for free notecards.
Sometimes when I buy Ultimate Bundles, I am dreadful about redeeming the bonus offers. But last bundle and this bundle, I've turned over a new leaf!
(The bonus offers are usually worth more than the $34.95 price of the bundle to begin with, so redeeming them is very sensible.)
The bonus offer I redeemed was the $15 credit at Fawnsberg.com, which I used to buy a $16.50 set of notecards.
(The 6-card sets are sold out right now, but I emailed the company and they let me know they'll be back in stock again in February, hopefully before the 26th, which is when the bonus offer code expires.)
My girls are the ones who send out prolific amounts of mail, so I let them choose the design, and they went with the colorful tulips over there on the right.
I also browsed through the free Craftsy classes offered (you get one free with your bundle, and they normally run anywhere from $40-$60!), but I have not been able to make up my mind.
There are 18 to choose from, and I'm trying to decide if I want to buy a digital photography one for Joshua to use, or it I want the bread making one for myself.
Or maybe Lisey, my plant-lover, would like the one about gardening in small spaces.
Gah!
4. I fixed a pair of (thrifted) snow pants.
Black overall snowpants are my favorite thing.
They match any coat, can be worn by boys or girls, and they fit for several seasons due to the strap adjustability.
I had picked a pair up from Goodwill a few years back, which had a small rip in the front. The rip meant, I got them for, um, $0.50.
Still kind of mind-boggled about that.
I bought them large for someone to grow into, so I never had fixed the rip.
But this year, someone needed to wear them, so I zig-zagged them up.
It's not a beautiful fix, but the bib of the pants is always covered by a coat so I figured it didn't matter.
Apparently my zig-zagging wasn't quite enough, because one side came loose after an afternoon of snow play.
So, more zig-zagging happened, and I think the ripping will stop now.
5. I'm using up my Groupons.
Not redeeming already-purchased Groupons is just as nonsensical as not redeeming bonus offers.
So.
This week, I used my AdoramaPix Groupon to finish up Zoe's baby book (finally!)
Mr. FG and I are going to use a local restaurant Groupon for our next date night (Woot!)
Tonight we're using a Papa John's Groupon to buy some pizza.
(Yup, that means there are two nights in the span of seven days that I don't have to cook. Eeeeexcellent.)
_________________________
Your turn! Leave a comment sharing five frugal things you've done recently.
(All of us frugal people here are an appreciative audience, so you can share the crazy money-saving stories that your other friends would roll their eyes at. 😉 )
_________________________
P.S. Here's the AdoramaPix Groupon I got (the $11 8x8 book). It's small and doesn't come with a lot of pages, so it's perfect for a little project like Zoe's newborn photos.
P.P.S. The Ultimate DIY Bundle is available here, if you'd like to snag the books and bonus offers for yourself. I think it's a really great deal, especially once you add in the bonus offers. And my book is in the bundle, so you know, there's that. 😉
This post contains affiliate links.
I had to laugh about your comment on weighing your bread dough. I'm always being teased because I weigh everything. I just don't trust my estimation skills.
I had a frugal FAIL this week. I have an incredibly skinny daughter (so skinny I have to sew button panels into her tight leggings to keep them on). I thought I would try and sew her some shorts for the summer in hopes that I could size them appropriately and save some money. Well, they definitely didn't turn out. Ergh! Oh well, at least I used a fabric remnant that I picked up cheap.
I don't trust recipes for bread with volumetric measurements. It works fine for sugar and water and stuff but flour needs to be weighed.
I pretty much never weigh OR measure flour for yeast bread. I go by feel all the time.
Now, for non-yeast baking, I am a huge fan of weighing. I never eyeball cakes or biscuits or muffins, for instance!
Love you're whole wheat bread recipe, I make it all the time. Weighs 1# 1/4 oz per loaf.
Oh, man, that's so frustrating.
My kids are all very slim, so clothes that are meant to be skin-tight rarely are. For instance, more than one of my girls has had leggings fit more like pants. And I've taken in more waistbands than I can count.
I just always think how grateful I am that skinny jeans and leggings are in. Imagine how dreadful it would be for us if baggy clothes were the style! We'd have no hope of them fitting our slender kiddos.
1. I tailored two pair of my jeans and two of my husband's shirts.
2. He, in turn, made my lunch for school the last three days.
3. Somewhat surprizingly to me, we have continued to make your wheat bread even during the hectic semester. The bread machine (that I bought used on Craigslist) makes it so easy.
4. I took advantage of an audible deal to save a few bucks on a few of my books.
5. I've resisted streaming music on my phone when I'm not on wifi. I have ting on your recommendation and love it.
Isn't Ting AWESOME? I love it.
Ting is amazeballs. I actually calculated the other day that since switching in August of 2013 my wife and I have saved over $1,000 and we haven't sacrificed anything being on Ting vs being on Verizon. We have data turned off on the phones (I don't need it and really don't care to be that connected) but we can still use Wifi where it's available.
Now if Sprint would just expand its network to better cover the Great Plains ....
Does Ting do international?
Does this page help? https://ting.com/outside_usa I never make international calls, so I have no personal experience with this.
It does, thanks for the link.
I also recently mended a thrift store find.
We don't buy chips, snacks or cookies. We make popcorn instead. I was making some this morning for hubs lunch and thinking how cheap we were.
And how much healthier popcorn is than chips or cookies!
I put some darts in the back of a new skirt my daughter received for Christmas. It was too loose at the waist but fit perfectly everywhere else. The darts were my second attempt to fix it--taking it in at the sides didn't work.
I made some French bread to use for French toast tomorrow morning.
I searched the internet for information about a problem I was having with my sewing machine and was able to fix it myself. (Who knew my Janome was supposed to have some kind of wick down under the bobbin case that kept things running smoothly and quietly?)
I sat down with the seed catalogs to plan what we'll grow in the garden this year.
I took advantage of $2.99 shipping at Current to buy some things I've been wanting, but didn't want to pay regular shipping on.
1.) We cooked a ham on Saturday and need to freeze the leftovers today. We've been eating ham ever since ...
2.) I pulled out some of my old PS2 games that I never got around to playing. Going by NBC logic, they are "new to me."
3.) I just haven't bought anything. I mean, what do I need?
We're going on a trip today, so my tips are travel related:
1. I bought a buy 1, get 1 free take and bake pizzas, which I'll bake then pack up for our supper on the road.
2. Using hotwire we got a hotel room for just $41!
3. I made up a jug of ice tea, and one of water, so hopefully we won't be tempted to buy gas station drinks.
4. Some of the snack we bought for the drive we bought using a Christmas giftcard.
5. This will be our first trip in our new-to-us mini-van that we purchased for just $3000 (yay for reduced prices on a van that doesn't have working ac, and a husband who can fix it!).
i sewed up my husbands underwear...he goes through underwear like no ones business because he works out 2 times a day (part of his job...) so they are wrecked and it was getting expensive to repurchase every couple of months. so i sewed them up, it wasn't a pretty fix but only i should be the ones seeing them so it didn't matter! 🙂
File this under the unsolicited advice category since you didn't ask for it... but my immediate thought was "what more could she possibly have to learn about bread... she is a bread expert!" Obviously you have more you could learn... but my guess is you wouldn't learn it in that e-course and you'd probably be bored. My vote is one of the courses for your kids!
I agree, although I think (I haven't checked to make sure) that the artisan bread making class is from the authors of "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day" series of books (they talked about it on their blog this week) and they have very easy and awesomely delicious recipes so it might be worth watching. I think that's the one I would pick if I got it for free but I'm selfish this way! Also I'm glad I don't have a free credit for it since I'm trying to eat healthier and avoid bread this year. I'm a bread nut so it's been hard to look at pictures of delicious-looking loaves (like Kristen's!) when I visit blogs...
Yeah, that's what I was thinking! Maybe it would be a different kind of bread than I'm used to making.
I love it when Katy writes those "Five Frugal Things" posts too. I like peeking into people's frugal lives 🙂
1. The underwire on one of my bras broke in half and was stabbing me. Ouch! I made a small cut in the "pocket" where it sits (I don't know the technical word for it!), wrapped the 2 ends in duct tape (a frugal person's best friend!) and sewed the whole thing back up again... the bra is like new, just as comfortable as it was before!
2. I mended holes on the bottom of 2 socks that belong to my son.
3. I adapted several recipes that I used this week to use items that I already had instead of buying items just for those recipes (for example used canned pinto beans instead of white beans in a soup recipe and smoked gouda instead of cheddar in my homemade mac'n cheese recipe last night, harvested some spinach and collard greens from my garden to use in a recipe instead of baby spinach.)
4. I've been buying whole milk instead of skim milk for a few months. I've always bought skim milk but while I was on a trip last year, my husband started buying whole and declared he didn't want skim anymore... I don't like whole milk. So I've been watering it down (1/2 milk, 1/2 water as soon as the level is down to 1/2 a gallon) ever since. My daughter has complained a couple of times because she is observant and noticed the level went back up in the bottle, but I lied (!) and denied it. No one has complained since other to say "We're glad you're not watering down the milk anymore". LOL. I buy 2 gallons a week, usually but would have to buy 3 or 4 if I didn't do that. And did I mention that I can't stand whole milk?
5. I turned several empty cat litter jugs from Aldi into plant labels, watering trays, and wide funnels to put on top of jugs that are sitting in my backyard. It's supposed to rain today and tomorrow so I will be collecting rainwater to water my in-ground and potted plants at a later date. I also collect rainwater in several bins that are just sitting in the yard and reuse the water to water the garden.
6. I'm adding a bonus 6th thing: I've been fixing my flip flops (I use them as garden shoes... I live in Central Florida where it was 79 degrees yesterday!) with rounds of plastic cut out from various containers I put in the recycling bin. The strap that goes between the toes won't stay put through the sole (the hole has enlarged since I bought them) so I make a plastic "washer" that I slip on the end on the bottom of the sole and it prevents the whole thing from coming off. Sometimes the washer falls off and I lose it and can't find it in the backyard but it takes about 10 seconds to make a new one. I will wear those flip flops (that I got for free) until they are worn down to nothing!
A little jealous of your warm weather-not gonna lie!
You can also use the plastic closures from bread bags for the flip flops. They fit perfectly. My husband uses them all the time. LOL.
Seriously? I have a couple of those on my countertop right now and was wondering how I could reuse them... I'll try that next time I lose my homemade "washer". Thanks!
I reuse bread tabs for closing bags of opened frozen veggies.
I watch free workshops on creativelive.com , the photography ones. They are free while they are being filmed live and sometimes there are reruns. I can then buy the ones I really like. (Try before you buy 😉 )
Leftover cooked veggies from dinners go in a storage bag in the freezer, so that when I make pot pie, I already have "mixed" veggies. Last night I fixed a scrumptious turkey pot pie using that , and some shredded turkey from New Year's. I sewed some buttons on a tunic top to make the tab opening a little more modest and it looks like it came that way. Yay! Today I will make lentil soup - very inexpensive and filling.
My husband has been taking our 2 older kids skiing about every other weekend. This is *not* a frugal family activity. However, we did a few things that save some money on the margin. We rented skis for the season, rather than renting them on the mountain every time. I pack snacks and sandwiches for everyone. I also sewed up the hole in my 5-year-old's long underwear. I did a pretty crappy job ("Mommy, that thread looks orange" -- and I sewed on the outside not inside, whoops!) but it will hold for a few more ski trips this winter. We've also discovered the joy of hand-me-down snowpants. They're bulky and take up a lot of storage space, so families with older kids are often eager to get rid of them.
I LOVE it when people give us hand-me-down snow gear. It's so hit or miss here as far as snow goes, so you could foreseeably buy snow gear and then never use it. So, hand-me-downs and thrifted snow gear is perfect (especially when it happens to be something timeless like black.)
Cracking up at the long underwear. At least no one else sees that!
This week I:
1) Brought my lunch to work every day. I still go home at lunch time to feed my daughter (nursing is frugal, too!), but I eat at work so I have more time during that hour to spend with the kids.
2) Visited the thrift store directly behind my office and picked up two pairs of kid's pjs, a sweater for my son, and yarn for my mom. I also found two cloth diapers that I thought would fit my kids, but won't. I'll sell them.
3) Drank coffee at work instead of stopping to get a pricey coffee drink.
4) Paid off one credit card! We recently moved and haven't gotten our reimbursement from the military yet, so that debt was hanging over us like a smelly sock. I'm glad it's gone.
5) Finally mailed a bunch of postcards I bought when we moved. I love writing letters, and it's always cheaper to send a card you already have than to buy a new one!
That is SUCH a great feeling to pay a bill off. Go you!
1) I made 2 pans of enchiladas yesterday....with homemade whole wheat tortillas (started by grinding the wheat berries) and homemade refried beans (started with dry beans that were purchased in bulk)
2) I am selling unwanted things in my home on Craigslist and Ebay. Not decluttering, but also making a little cash in the process!
3) I took my kids to a free museum in town, always love free entertainment 🙂
4) I sewed a curtain for one of my front windows...I think I also used a coupon so the total price for the fabric was $5 or $6
5) I am shopping at BigLots on their "everything is 20% off" day 🙂
Whoa, those are some SERIOUSLY frugal enchiladas.
Well, I don't have a frugal story to share.... just wanted to see if you or your readers have some advice. My work pants (khakis) have developed several holes (the shreddy kind that can't be fixed, grr!) right in the crotch (lovely). I've been wearing leggings underneath them all this week, and just wearing the pants anyway, since it was hard to see the holes, but now they're large enough that the pants are not usable.
Since they're wrecked, I won't donate them, but I also don't want to throw it all in the trash. I've been looking for some DIY projects I can use a bit of the fabric for, but I'm not coming up with much. Any ideas?
I hate, hate, hate when work pants do that. If they're at all dressy, you can't really patch 'em!
Sometimes I've had luck giving pants like that away on freecycle to people who make quilts and such. I've also sometimes used Mr. FG's old work clothes to make cloth napkins.
Hopefully someone else will have some ideas for you too!
You could make bin/basket liners, I'm thinking. Or - depending how wide the legs were - you could fashion a knee-length skirt from the non-holey leg fabrics. Probably not good for work anymore, but for casual outings?
If you sew at all these can be fun frugal things to do with your ruined pants.
You can use the bottom part of the leg as a gift bag for a bottle of wine. It is a simple project.
Make doll clothes or doll blankets from the legs.
Cut your zipper out to use on another project. If it has a button...safe that too.
You can cut the pants into squares, hem them and use them as dusting rags or mopping up rags.
I really like the quilt idea.
Cut them off for shorts and patch the leg area. They would be nice for "at home" wear when you are cleaning.
There are lots of people that upcycle used clothes. You might be able to sell them for a small amount of cash.
Without knowing your sewing skills, and assuming the fabric is fairly soft:
First save the zipper and the button, especially if it is metallic
Then cut the fabric, around the heavy seams
Make cloth napkins, make rags if they are soft enough, make small doll items, save them for a quilt and mix them in with jean squares, cut them into strips to tie for a rug and save them till you have enough
It is my understanding that Goodwill does not throw away unusable donated clothing, but sells them to fabric recyclers. And around where I live, there are bins in parking lots all over the place for shoe and clothing collection for the same thing. So if it is fabric, but really worn out, I put my stuff in those.
Thanks everyone for the ideas! I think I'm going to try making some fabric flowers, mixing in some printed fabric with it.
Mary Ann, it's so nice to know that thrift stores recycle their unusable fabric donations. I'll keep that in mind for the future! 🙂
Tonight I will take my first stab at making Buffalo Chicken pizza. While we love that pizza at Ledo's it is expensive and a trek (drive) to pick it up. I'll take notes so I'll be able to refine the recipe going forward.
My daughter's cell phone died so a friend gave her her old smart phone. She also switched to Ting, from Virgin Mobile. When I run out of Virgin Mobile cards I add my phone to her account, planning for a big savings.
I stopped at Giant and Safeway for weekly specials and Sam's Club for some basic items. I will go to Aldi later for sale produce.
The sun is out so I'll go for a walk before bad weather arrives tonight.
I am using an envelope that came with postage on it in a fund raising appeal to send in a rebate. I was not going to send funds to the fund raiser.
Careful with that last one. If its a live stamp, good for you for not wasting it. If it is printed postage.
1. The charity pays for that only when you use it so mailing something else with it costs them money.
2. Most of those envelopes have bars and codes on them in the printing that help the return mail get to the charity. Your rebate may end up with them.
It was an envelope full of stamps (not a postage paid envelope, I would never use one of those) and I crossed off the bar code and address and added the rebate address. Thank you for your concerns.
To be sure your mail doesn't go to the charity, cover the bar code with marker or a label. I prefer using a marker because sometimes labels come off.
Also, it is my understanding that if it's pre-printed postage (rather than a stamp), the Post Office doesn't send the mail if the pre-printed address/bar code is overwritten.
I loathe getting junk mail and I'm on all the "do not solicit" lists, including calling individual businesses. If it's pre-franked and from a commercial business I'll mail their pre-franked envelope back to them.
I thought I was at the wrong place for a minute there! Hmmm five frugal things...
1. I ate leftovers for lunch.
2. I folded the laundry that I had been hanging indoors to dry.
3. I put on a sweater and fuzzy socks because my thermostat is set low.
4. We're making a favorite restaurant meal, fish and chips, at home tonight.
5. Tonight I'll be logging stuff into our budget tracking program.
1. Made hummus with on sale dried chickpeas. I stocked up on them Sunday because were completely out.
2. Fixed two holes in the seams of my favorite black turtleneck.
3. Pulled a slightly shrunken turtleneck sweater from the donate pile and made it into a warm up shrug for tomorrow's ballet class.
4. Made whole wheat beer and fennel bread. We are out of bread and had a flat half bottle of stout in the fridge. (the alcohol cooks out while baking)
5. Bought a leotard and tights from Zulily for %50 off. I started adult ballet classes and while I'm lucky the one pair of tights, leotard, and shoes still fit from my modern dance days, I could use a second. After a lot of comparison shopping and going back and forth about it being a ned or a want, I finally bought them. I figured it was OK to splurge since I paid nothing for the extra warm up clothes I also wanted because I upcycled them from what I had. 😛
It was the week to mend black shirts. 😉
1. I made a batch of yogurt.
2. I DIDN'T buy your book bundle! 🙁 but I saved some money! 🙂
3. Joined andthenwesaved.com A really helpful site to stop me spending unnecessarily and get rid of debt.
4. Ate food sitting in the freezer. And surprisingly it was yummy!
5. Started knitting sweater from yarn I have in house.
Oh boy! I feel pleased with myself.
I love it when I manage to eat down what we have in the freezer. A great feeling.
And yes, you should be proud of yourself!
I made my very first meal plan for the week. Now I´m gonna make it every week! (´cause is a lot less stress in my day) Also, my hubby and I did our very first DIY proyect, we made furniture, a bench (to be specific) to cover the radiator in our dinning room.
I hate meal planning with a passion, but oh, the freedom it provides me makes me keep on going. I feel so so so much better when I know what I'm making for dinner.
Every time I see a post about you mending or making something, I think "I really would like to learn to sew!" Maybe I actually will, sometime!
Some of our frugal activities this week include:
1) cashing in our little bowl of pocket change at the machine for a Starbuck's card... we do that about once a year, and it's nice to get a little treat that way.
2) enjoying a hot latte on a rainy day, courtesy of another coffee card given to me by a friend.
3) bringing items from home to decorate my new office at work. I get the added benefit of decluttering our apartment a bit, as well.
4) switching our usual take-out date night to a "pasta bowl & TV marathon date night," as our food budget is already maxed for the month.
5) keeping an eye on my wish list, and waiting to purchase an item from it until the price was reduced by 50%
Also, I found myself extremely grateful for our frugal lifestyle when we were able to put in ticket requests this week for an annual event we've been wanting to attend. Several people commented that they weren't able to afford tickets because the deadline was on a Thursday, one day before payday. There was a time when we would have been among them, but learning how to live beneath our means has allowed us the ability to plan a splurge now and then. To me, that is SO worth the effort!
I went to a thrift store that I've been meaning to visit for a long time. (It isn't close to where I live but I happened to be in that part of town). Bought ten items for my son. The grand total, including the $5 off I received because I get texts from this store, was $36.10. Not too shabby for jeans, shirts, swim trunks, and more. A few items were brand new with tags too! Score!
That is AWESOME. Do you calculate the price per item when you get a haul like that? I totally do.
I've been sick all week which usually means an expensive grocery trip for 'easier' food so the family can fend for themselves more and at least one take-out pizza, but this time I vowed that I would at least keep the family fed and we haven't spent an extra dime due to me being sick. That's an accomplishment for me!
I make homemade bread at least once a week. I don't weigh my dough either. I always have one loaf smaller than the other. 🙂
I wonder how much money you save by mending your own clothes! I'd be willing it bet that it's a lot. Thanks for encouraging me to do that more! Have a great weekend, Kristen!
Aww, when you are sick, I totally think you deserve some grace. Easy food from the grocery store is almost always cheaper than takeout, you know? But kudos to you for sticking to your budget even when you were sick!
1. changed home phone companies. Decreased bill by $14/month.
2. walked to eye dr to pick up my new glasses. (saved my gas money)
3. sewed an arm hole on my pjs. (I laughed when I saw you sewed and arm hole, too.) Another pair of pjs to put back into rotation.
4. put on another sweater and thermals so I could keep the heater off and not freeze.
5. Checked a book out from the library instead of buying it.
I love when the library is mentioned but I'm biased because I'm a librarian:) We also have movies & audiobooks to checkout & magazines, ebooks and audio to download.
1. Fixed my husband's frayed-hem work pants by opening the hem, reinforcing the frayed area, and re-hemming just slightly above the fraying.
2. Sewed patches on Big Brother's pants.
3. Talked Mr. FP out of ordering pizza.
4. Made Big Brother's birthday cake from scratch AND explained to him why he could get regular wrapping paper but not Spider-Man (much smaller role for same price).
5. When my bike trailer gave way, I scored a replacement on Craigslist and got a nearly new Burley for $100!
Fairly new to a frugal life. I've always been somewhat careful but now I'm watching every penny. I'm going through a divorce and it's not horrible but it's been a long time since I was fiscally autonomous and I wasn't good at it then. 🙂
Enjoying the life though, simpler and reassuring.
1. learned how to make bread
2. for almost two weeks I ate only from my pantry
3. did not buy anything that I did not absolutely need.
4. wasted very little food this week; tiny serving of thai chicken and a couple of beets.
5. made a birthday gift for a friend instead of buying one.
Every time I put a cloth diaper on my newborn, I feel a great sense of accomplishment. I was 100% with the cloth diapering with my first and second kids, but have started using disposables at night with this third one. The temptation is sometimes strong to just use the disposables all the time, but MAN, they will bankrupt a person. Plus, I already have all the cloth stuff, so it seems dumb not to use it. And anyway, the worst part of changing babies (for me) is the getting the outside clothing on and off, so it doesn't matter what diaper I'm putting on or taking off.
Also, mostly I breastfeed because I find it way less hassle than dealing with bottles and stuff, but it does end up being cheap. Or, well, free, except for the extra food that, let's be honest, I'd probably be eating anyway.
In conclusion, I finally used the last 3/4 of a red cabbage that's been sitting in the refrigerator for about three weeks now, silently mocking me and reproaching me for not just slicing it up and making German red cabbage with apples already. Probably only saved about a buck, given the dirt cheapness of cabbage, but it was bugging me and I'm glad it's out of there.
This is not an impressive list, but my standards are pretty low these days. 🙂
HA! HA! I had a head of green cabbage that was giving me baleful looks each time I opened the fridge, for at least a month now. Finally used it last night, just to make it go away, in cabbage soup.
I made a CI recipe for yakisoba (Japanese seared beef & noodle dish, kinda like lo mein). The recipe called for bok choi but I had leftover cabbage, so I browned it in the meat drippings. Da bomb! I munched on a lot of them before the final dish was made.
If you zigzagged a seam down the other side it would just look like cool detail on the bib of the snow pants. I doubt anyone would be the wiser!
1. Transferred a prescription refill to RiteAid and got $25 Store Reward. My cost for Rx was $3.61. I will part of it to pay for mustache/ beard trimmer for son's birthday gift.
2. Found bags of Christmas Reese's bells mixed in with Valentine candy when I was picking up my prescription. They marked them to $1 and I used a $1/2 coupon to get them for 50 cents each. Happy guys at my house!
3. I ordered 4 pairs of shoes on Saturday. All sale shoes were an additional $10 off through Sunday. On Monday, before they shipped, I get an email that sale shoes are now $12 off. Since my order hadn't even shipped I called and they credited me the $8. It pays to ask!
4. Turned some apples going soft into apple crisp and made banana bread from overripe bananas. Baked them at the same time to save electricity.
5. Got rid of a unopened bag of aquarium gravel, bean bag beans and some books on freecycle. Picked up 12 printer cartridges for my printer and an iron for my son to take to college in the fall from another freecycler.
I've been reading both blogs for some years now, and I just LOVE those "5 frugal things" notes... 🙂
Thanks a lot (actually to both of you), it's always very inspiring.
Regards from France,
Serge
Salut to a fellow Frenchie reader! I'm headed there this summer, bringing 2 of my teens for their very first trip to the motherland... not very frugal but we'll be staying with family the whole time so this will mitigate the cost of the airfare, car rental, gas and TOLLS. Ugh, those tolls... still, can't wait 🙂 Aurevoir!
Salut 🙂 And welcome back (even if it's only for a few weeks) ! 😉
that was a neat looking mend. if your machine does a 3-step zig-zag, it will hold even better. also, you can use liquid fray block to keep the edges from pulling out of your mend.
there are specialty fabric stores, and sport gear places like rei, who carry press-on and iron-on outdoor gear mending supplies. these make a very nice mend and have the advantage of not sewing thru the garment, and so, don't breech the thermal layer.
also, try your library for any of the peter reinhart bread baking books. I had the pleasure of living near his bakery years ago, and regularly got to sample his many breads. be aware that some are complicated. but you will learn a great deal and your breads will be awesome.
emmer
Oh, I even have some fray check. I should have thought to use that...good idea.
Five things, hm?
Twice this week, we've had beans. First, we had beans and weiners. Then we also had a cornmeal casserole - cornbread on top and mixed beans/meat in sloppy joe sauce below. It was good. And everything we ate was at home.
We heat water as we need it for washing, instead of running the hot water tank constantly. Amazing how much money that saves.
*Another* credit card got locked into the lock box. That makes two. It feels good.
Although it was a huge purchase, I just bought $350 worth of seeds and jiffy pellets that I will turn into *thousands* of dollars of vegetables in the spring.
I'm just going to have to claim "all the stuff I didn't buy" for the last one. 🙂
Yay for frugal!
1. I'm practicing hemming with my sewing machine on an old pillow case. It's a frugal-in-progress if I can figure this out and save my short self some cash on alterations.
2. Despite both of us having 12-hour workdays this week, we did a really good job of eating dinner at home. Big props to DH who rearranged his schedule twice so he could handle the cooking!
3. My parents sent us a Christmas gift card for much-needed new bath towels. Amen for a sale + a white sale + a store coupon. The new towels go in the linen closet, the old towels become dog towels, and the old dog towels go to the animal shelter.
4. Did NOT go outlet shopping for new work clothes I want but don't truly need. This was the hardest one on the list!
5. We had a black-tie event to attend. My gorgeous gown from the thrift store was priced at a very reasonable $18. When I got to the register I discovered it was 50% off day.
1. Used cabbage I had (and was having trouble using up) instead of bok choi in a recipe.
2. I've wanted a dough-rising bucket (large clear container with volume markings so you know when your dough has doubled, like http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/dough-rising-bucket). Haven't bought it because it seems silly but my one marked glass bowl isn't large enough and I keep on misestimating. I was literally in the store to buy one when I realized I could mark the volume on one of my old flour containers instead of buying something. It might not work but at least I will have tried.
3. Experimenting with pre-baking Smitten Kitchen's Lazy Pizza dough, so as to keep a frozen pizza on hand. This is the only pizza dough recipe that has worked for me, over years of looking for one.
4. Despite several late nights at work, did not buy dinner, making something easy from the freezer instead. A frozen Contessa meal with added veg and protein is not as inexpensive as making from scratch but it's a darn sight better than take-out.
5. Checked out a book from the library, and borrowed several books on my chosen athletic endeavor from a colleague. Great way to gives books a trial run before buying.
Sharing reading material is a great $-saver. My manager gets the New Yorker and I get Vanity Fair; we swap once a month.
1. Stuffed animal repair -- lots of sewing but ears are back on and no more fluff loss
2. Seam repair on youngest daughter's stretchy, purple, comfy pants
3. Toasted stale, homemade bread with olive oil and garlic
4. Combined multiple trips into town, though had one early morning hour at the local bread shop where a bran muffin was bought and consumed...really good though, not too sweet!
5. Didn't buy tickets to some place warm, sunny and mud free...looked at photos of summer instead
1) We were invited to an anniversary party for our friends. We don't have money for gifts right now so I asked her if she needed to borrow a suitcase for her upcoming cruise and she said yes. I asked what airline they were flying and it happened to be an airline that I have two free passes to their lounge. I offered those to her too and she accepted them. I couldn't afford to give such a nice gift. I am happy I had things that she needed and that I could offer for free.
2) I made 20 jars of premixed meals for gifts and for the pantry. This is our "fast food" that is much healthier and cheaper. They are really pretty for gifts too.
3) I needed more storage for our very small bedroom. I found a cabinet in a dumpster I was driving by. I claimed it, took it apart, turned them into rolling drawers for under my bed. I had some help from my step grandpa. He has a fully functioning wood shop. Score for me! Only had to spend $20 on hardware.
4) I made wool dryer balls of purchasing fabric softner.
5) Took pictures of my kids myself instead of hiring a photographer. I used a sheet for the backdrop.
I love under-bed storage. Our Christmas ornaments live under my bed and I really do not know where I'd put them otherwise!