Five Frugal Things | a dry bun, watch repair, cheap book, and...coffee!
1. I used up a dry bun by making a BLT sub
I had a lone sub roll left from when I'd made these sriracha sandwiches:
The last bun wasn't moldy, but it was a little on the dry side.
So, I fried some bacon and then toasted the bun in the pan I'd cooked the bacon in. That refreshed the bun quite nicely, and with the addition of tomato, lettuce, and mayo, it made for a very good sandwich.
On a related note: salting and peppering the tomatoes for a BLT is a lovely upgrade.
Plain tomatoes are good; salted and peppered tomatoes are amazing. 🙂
2. I ordered a watch repair kit and fixed Zoe's watch
Her watch just needed a new battery, but I did not have a screwdriver that was tiny enough to pop off the back of her watch.
And also, tiny screwdrivers don't work that well; it's really so much easier if you have a tool designed for this purpose.
So, I ordered a small watch repair kit, and now I can easily change batteries on any of our watches; that's cheaper and easier than paying someone else to do it.
3. I saved $80 on one of Zoe's schoolbooks
Her professor gave me the approval to buy the previous edition (yay!), so I browsed eBay and found one.
I did the same thing with my anatomy and physiology book last year and it was completely fine.
Maybe in a field that is more fast-moving (like something in the IT world?), it would pose a problem, but for a lot of textbooks, it's not like tons of stuff changes from edition to edition.
4. I ordered coffee on Amazon
I just used up my 50%-off bag that I got at Safeway on clearance, so I was in need of some coffee.
I ordered a pack of six bags for $46 ($7.66/bag) and I'm happy with that.
Starbucks coffee does occasionally go on sale here for around that price, but a lot of stores do not carry the mocha flavor. So, I'm happy that six mocha bags are coming my way.
Also: almost any coffee you buy to brew at home is gonna be cheaper than buying coffee out. 😉
5. I got a $3 bag of coffee at Safeway yesterday
The Amazon coffee is obviously not going to be here immediately, but luckily when I was at Safeway, I saw a bag of vanilla coffee on clearance for $3 (originally $12).
So, I'm going to give that a try today; I'm not terribly picky about my coffee, so this will probably be just fine.
Being easily pleased is a superpower. 😉
--I just bought coffee, too. I only drink Community Coffee with chicory. It's from Louisiana, and so was my mom, so my formative coffee experiences were cafe au lait at my grandparents' house in New Orleans. And that's what I still drink (minus the sugar). Happily, Community Coffee frequently runs 30% off sales, so I wait for those and buy 12 pounds at a time to be shipped to me. The price has gone up in the last year. It used to be about $7/lb. and is now about $8/lb, even with the big discount. I would never pay full price for it. Yikes.
--Now that I'm back at work, I'm again helping the school cook in the kitchen, which means I'm coming home with quite a bit of leftover food for my children, my chickens, or my dogs. Our cafeteria serves pretty good food, so it's not all junk, either. Last week, I got all the leftover vegetables from the salad bar. Yesterday, about 1.5 pounds of pork roast.
--The garden is in high gear, and the jars and freezer bags are filling up with processed (in the old-fashioned sense) food for winter. This makes me so happy. I'm an ant at heart.
--We got many pounds of green grapes from our neighbor's vines when my husband and son went to help her with her garden. Too many to eat, or even to freeze, so my husband is experimenting with making wine from them. They're just table grapes, and therefore too sweet for good wine flavor, so the experiment included adding apple and rhubarb from our garden to it to up the acidity. It's definitely fermenting nicely. We'll see how it tastes.
--Our roof was leaking into our bathroom. My husband fixed the seam in the metal with Gorilla Tape. It was a desperation fix, because that's all we had on hand (and the nearest hardware store is 60 miles away), but it actually seems to be working.
@kristin @ going country, I just dug out the Gorilla Tape for a repair too! Sneakers these days seem to have such thin mesh tops; they get holes fast - but if I catch them when they're tiny, I put a piece of tape inside, and maybe a dab of glue on the outside.
I also love coffee with chicory - I have no fun associations, so I may get Cafe du Monde or other brands too, but they all taste good to me. (Sidenote: I think chicory is my favorite wildflower; so pretty to see that vivid blue purple along the road.)
@Suz, depending on the acidity of the oil, chicory can be pink or white, much like a hydrangea.
@kristin @ going country, My husband's family is from NOla, I love the Community coffee, New Orleans blend, I always stock up on it when we visit. It is almost impossible t find in the New England. I have never seen the New Orleans blend in the stores.
@Suz, that bluish-purple wildflower along the roads is my absolute favorite color and flower!
So I just looked it up and turns out chicory (which I always thought was some exotic plant) is what I've called cornflower all my life! My grandpa told me it was called cornflower because it grew near corn fields. You learn something new every day...
@Karen A., I think cornflowers and bachelors buttons are also interchangeable names, though not the same plant as chicory.
Such a lovely blue color!
@Karen A., I never knew that either. Someone above said they can be white or pink like hydrangeas. I'm going to look for some white and pink ones.
@Ginger Bruce, my mistake I was thinking of a different flower. I have seen them in pink and white.
Ah, coffee...an essential expense!
My FFT:
1. I harvested what I estimated to be 107.00 worth of tomatoes, figs and flowers on u-pick, plus I got one large eggplant from the cull pile.
2. My husband made (while grumbling because food rescue is not his fav) what he called "immediate sauce" which used up some veggies that needed to be used immediately: tomatoes with funky spots cut out, squishy peppers, soft onions, the eggplant from the cull pile, etc. It made a lot, so we froze three containers.
3. I skipped groceries this week. I always overbuy anyway, so this just means no bananas or fresh berries this week.
4. I saved wrapping paper to reuse for the next birthday. My kids like the decorate each other's presents, so often I just use brown packing paper.
5. I made overnight oats to use up half of a butternut squash. The other half went yucky on me, but it's from last year, so impressive that it lasted this long.
@Becca, I read an article a couple of years ago stating that canned pumpkin is really squash, such as butternut. Because of some legal loophole, the companies are allowed to call it pumpkin when it could be other varieties of squash. I'm not a squash eating fan, but one day while dumpster diving I came across a butternut, made it into a pie, and, yeah, it's "pumpkin" pie!
@Andrea, I routinely use all kinds of winter squash in "pumpkin" recipes. I too usually trashpick mine (it's unbelievable what ends up on the curb the week after Halloween), but I've actually grown two butternuts this year from free plants provided by neighbors. I'm carefully protecting these from the deer and woodchucks, and hope I can get them to maturity before frost.
@Becca, my family has alway used the funny pages from the newspaper as wrapping - no matter the holiday!
@Becca, “immediate sauce” is now going to be part of my lexicon. am going on holiday tomorrow and need to finish making some of this tonight!
FYI, depending on the subject, you may be able to find your required course books at the library. As an a English and Art minion (I.e. vastly employable ;P), I was able to borrow most of my materials from the library and (after a few semesters of gaining trust) a few from my professors, who were sympathetic to tight budgets. It’s also helpful to ask the person at the campus bookshop whether you even need the text. One clerk flat out told me to not bother with the book because the instructor—a coach coerced into teaching a required health and wellness class—never assigned anything. He didn’t, either!
Now, on to frugality!
—We ordered new litter boxes to better fit their designated spots in the house. (The ones we moved with were just too big short of being one of the carpeted rooms—nope!—plus we wanted to squeeze in an extra box.) The identical litter boxes were shipped side by side instead of nesting, which meant they arrived in an absurdly HUGE box—my first thoughts when I saw it were “Fort!” and “Rocket ship!” It was just too awesome of a box to throw away! My husband offered the giant box to one of his coworkers for his small boys; we later received photos of the airplane they spent the night making. 🙂
—As the new litter boxes attest, we’ve done our best to live here for a bit before buying anything to better determine needs vs. wants vs. this works just fine. I considered buying more storage bins for our giant built-in bathroom cabinet, then realized I could better arrange the contents of bins I already had to free up several for bathroom duty. I also rearranged our kitchen and pantry using storage items we already had (mostly free/repurposed jars) and regained a surprising amount of cupboard space.
—Goodwill for the win! Recent victories include a gorgeous hand-thrown ceramic mug for $2 and a 52” tall framed print of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s painting “Spring.” Not only do my husband and I love Alma-Tadema’s art, but the print is the perfect size and shape to cover the “window to nowhere” in our entryway. One window was boarded up from the outside when the house received siding in its past life. The window still remains completely intact, glass and all, and highly visible on the inside, just looking out on bare wood. It’s been driving me batty, so I’m glad to finally have a beautiful way to cover it! The print’s professional frame, alone, is worth several hundred dollars; Goodwill’s $12 for the whole was a pittance!
—Less glamorously, I made apple crisp in the crock pot to save some spotty apples. I swear fruit is going bad faster, as I can tear through a bag of apples on my own in just a few days. Apples simply are not around long enough to justify being spotty.
—I recaulked around the toilet and where the cabinets meet the floor, as I still had most of the tube of brown caulk I bought to match the new flooring. This caulk settles quite a bit, and stray cat litter kept collecting in the crevice. Hopefully another layer will fix that!
@N, I love that your husband's coworker was able to make such fun use of the giant box!
@N, we once owned an old wooden house built in the '20s and it had a "window to nowhere". But then it had so many odd things that we often said it had been built by Mickey and Donald.
@N, I have a friend who has taught all three of her cats to use the toilet and has no need for a litter box. Honest! I had never heard of that even being possible but I witnessed it first hand. It made me sorry I had not trained my Irish wolfhounds, who were so tall that they sat on our couch like humans with butt on the cushion and feet on the floor, to use our guest room toilet becasue we could have just turned the tnrie bathroom over to them! (They already used the guest room sink for their water bowl. Things like buckets or dog bowls were always tipped over and they easily reached the sink. And it was so easy to clean the sink instead of a water bowl. Training them to drink out of the sink also made it esy when we travelled becasue they drank out of the hotel sinks so we did not worry about spilling water on the carpets.)
@N,
When I was in grad school, I always bought whatever edition of my text was the very cheapest used on half.com (look at me dating myself) and then asked my professor if I could compare my text to the current edition on the first day. Almost always the changes were things like putting the chapters in a different order. Occasionally there was a new chapter, but my professors would always let me borrow their book for that chapter. I saved so much money that way. Like I remember one time my text cost me 6.00, but the current edition was some astronomical price like 160.00.
@Lindsey, I have a cat that loves to splash and play in her water and scoop it out of the bowl to drink straight from the floor. So my cats' main water bowl is in the bathtub. I call it their splash pad.
@Anne, I’m glad you understand my “window to nowhere” weirdness!
@Lindsey, oh my gosh, I love your humanoid wolf hounds! Re: litter boxes, we have grown shelter rescues, so they came used to boxes. Maybe with the next round, we’ll get ambitious and go for the bowl! 😛
@Lindsey,
I often wish that my cats could use the toilet (especially on Wednesdays which are trash days here and therefore also early morning litter box cleaning days) but then my husband reminds me that I would not want to teach them to flush and I would also not want to keep discovering their, um, flushables. Also, I'm not sure about dogs, but our city tells us not to flush cat waste because the water treatment plant can't handle cat bacteria. So I guess there's that...can you tell that I am procrastinating on that litter box right now???
1. Saved and reused a lot of school supplies for this school year.
2. Continuing to eat veggies from the garden instead of the grocery store. Canned some pickles, zucchini, tomatoes, berry jams, tomato sauce is next.
3. Using my bread maker to make bread.
4. My mom gifted me a basket of peaches. Going to freeze some for winter use.
5. I do not enjoy shopping with 4 kids in tow. Avoiding stores saves a lot of money .
1. Saved egg whites leftover from making homemade pudding (egg yolks make for a delicious pudding) for my breakfast today.
2. Ate leftovers for lunch three days in a row (chicken salad, egg salad).
3. We accidentally ordered a duplicate season of Star Trek on DVD. Used the Amazon returns to get our money back. I know many people will say "use the library" but we really do love Star Trek enough to have our own copies rather than wait for them to be available at from the library.
4. Speaking of the library, I remembered to bring in my homeschooling letter from the school board to apply for an educator card. If you are a homeschooler, or a teacher, it's worth checking to see if your library has educator cards; you can check out more items for a longer period of time. All I had to do was show my letter of exemption, and my ID, and they gave me the card right then.
1) This week, my son ended up with Covid after just one week back at school. Thankfully, I took advantage of the government’s free Covid tests and ordered mine a few weeks ago. When the rest of us had Covid a month ago, I was buying boxes of two tests for close to $30each. We went through so many, it was painful! Boxes of 4 tests for free is much better!
2) I’ve been organizing my house and using leftover cardboard boxes I found in my house, rather than buying new plastic bins or baskets.
3) I continue to get lots of produce from my garden. I’ve also been using the water from my rain barrels, which means a lower water bill plus doing my part to keep the street drains from being overwhelmed during rain storms.
4) The starter on our grill recently went out and we couldn’t find a cheap replacement, so now we just light the grill with a wand lighter that we already had and had previously just been used for birthday candles.
5) Our mower lost a screw and to get the official replacement screw, we were going to be charged $3 for the screw plus $9 for shipping and handling! I ended up going to a locally owned mower repair shop where they found me a comparable screw for just a couple dollars.
I need to add a number 6 to my list. I just fixed my mower for $0. My husband and son told me the self-propeller on the mower was not working. I know nothing about mowers and was about to load it in the van to take to the repair shop, but decided to take a look myself. There was a string wrapped around one of the back wheels. It took about 2 seconds to remove, and the self propeller was working again. I love fixing things and am very proud of myself!
@JenRR,
Way to go on the mower!
@JD, Thanks!
The government-subsidized free covid tests are going away soon, so if you haven't used up your allotted supply, get them now! It will be suspended on Friday!
@Kris, I just heard about that today. I think our allotted supply was used up with our last request, but I’ll check again just in case. Thanks for the reminder!
FFT, Happy Birthday to Me! Edition. (This is a shameless rerun of the FFT I did yesterday on The Non-Consumer Advocate, with a little updating. But I think it bears repeating, and may also serve as my Thankful Thursday this week. And thanks to all those who already offered birthday wishes over at the NCA.)
(1) Monday was my 67th birthday. Although DH’s dementia and need for residential care remain major sorrows, I’m very grateful to have gotten this far in life myself with most of my marbles, all but a few of my original body parts, and my sense of humor intact. Thank you, Universe.
(2) I had a birthday Zoom call on Sunday with my brother and my two sisters. We had our ups and downs while we were growing up, but I’m grateful for improved relations with one sister in particular, and for the technology that makes it possible for far-flung siblings to meet up far less expensively than anyone could have imagined. (The brother is in AZ, and the two sisters are in CA and FL.) Thank you, Universe and Sibs.
(3) The Bestest Neighbors got Indian takeout for a birthday dinner last night, and Ms. BN made a mixed-fruit pie for dessert. Thank you, BNs.
(4) The BNs previously bought me a most useful birthday present: a stirrup hoe for getting at pesky weeds more efficiently. And they also brought me home a bag of soda cans from a visit to Dr. BN’s brother in NJ, having noticed that the cans bought in NJ nevertheless have the NY 5-cent deposit stamp. Thank you again, BNs.
(5) Finally, I was touched beyond words to get a Jacquie Lawson birthday card from a husband and wife (JASNA friends) who are in an even tougher spot than I am right now: The wife has just resumed chemo for metastasizing cancer. A priceless birthday remembrance.
@A. Marie, I tried to wish you a happy birthday over at the NCA, but had a computer glitch. Happy belated by a day birthday! Your BNs are the greatest.
@A. Marie, Happy Belated Birthday! And yay for wonderful neighbors, what a blessing.
@A. Marie,
@A. Marie,
Happy birthday!
@A. Marie, Happy Birthday!
@A. Marie,
Happy birthday!
@A. Marie,
Happy birthday! That pie made by Mrs. BN sounds scrumptious. I also need to look up what a stirrup hoe looks like? We have lots of pesky weeds!
@Liz B., here's an article from the NYT about stirrup hoes (https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/garden-weeding-tool-stirrup-hoe/). Naturally, they got a lot harder to find around here after this article came out. but the BNs are nothing if not persistent.
@A. Marie, Happy Birthday!!! May this be the year that memories are made. Wishing you peace, love and good health…
@A. Marie, happiest of birthdays to you!
@A. Marie, Many happy returns on your birthday!
@A. Marie,
Thank you! The BNs are both bestest and persistent!
@A. Marie, Many thanks. My DH could really use this.
@A. Marie, I have a stuff hoe - probably my second one, an acquaintance suggested I get one (he was Dutch and called it a Dutch hoe) about 20 years ago. He also suggested that I sharpen it on occasion, which I have neglected to do. When sharp, it works even FASTER and better. Mine newer one is down in the field/greenhouse/raised beds area, I pulled it out last week and used it to tear through a section of garden that had been harvested. fastest and easiest way I know to loosen soil and deal with pesky weeds in only a few motions...
@ecoteri, "sturrup" hoe, not spell-not-corrected-"stuff" hoe. sheesh
I love a good BLT, and also bought a watch repair kit a while back so that DH could change out the batteries in our watches. The local jewelry store that used to do it closed a while back.
My FFT:
1. Trimmed my bangs to stretch out a haircut.
2. Made a CD caddy for my car out of a little bungee cord and a $2 metal basket from Goodwill, so now my stash of $1.99 (or less depending on the color of the sticker) music CDs from Goodwill are not strewn across the passenger seat of my car.
3. Salvaged elastic from another sewing project to take up the waist of a pair of capris so I can wear them the rest of the summer while continuing to lose weight.
4. Used a 15% off coupon to order protein shakes. (Would it be cheaper to order powder and make them myself? Yes. Would I do it? No, as sad previous experience has taught me.) Also did a money-saving bulk buy of cereal, canned dog food, and my son's favorite hot chocolate. This required re-organizing our pantry (no money spent on that project) but totally worth it.
5. Someone at work took both pairs of scissors from our office. I dug in my stash of "stuff too good to get rid of" at home and brought to work a pair of old Goody's hair scissors too dull to cut hair that still cut paper fine. They are now hidden in my desk drawer under the scrap paper. Our main office is incredibly stingy with providing office supplies, and it's less annoying to just bring odds and ends from home than to deal with the supplies person.
Bonus: My husband replaced the handle on our old lawnmower after it broke from metal fatigue and then used YouTube videos to diagnose a problem with the clutch cable assembly after the handle replacement. He fixed that with pipe clamps from his gadget stash.
1. Have been feeling a tiny bit better since starting sublingual Vitamin D. No doctor ever told me (or perhaps didn't know) that for someone like me with inflammatory bowel disease, oral Vitamin D isn't well absorbed. My levels were abysmal. So a small bottle of caps is already improving my health for $10.
2. Found old running shoes. Will not run but walking a couple blocks is gonna be enough for now.
3. Spent $100 entering my daughter's work into two NYC art shows. Both have been accepted. Fingers crossed they sell.
4. Continuing to process gallons of garden produce. Frankly it's getting a little old, but whatever.
5. I think that's all I've got, ha!
@Rose, so glad you are taking Vitamin D. The deficiency of this Vitamin is often overlooked by healthcare professionals, yet low levels are linked to a multitude of chronic diseases including hypothyroidism and depression. Taking Vitamin D with K can help with absorption.
@Rose,
Future you will thank present you for processing all the garden produce. 🙂
You can liven up a bun by sprinkling a little water on it and then warming it up in a pan for a couple of minutes, don't forget to cover the pan.
I shortened my watch this week and used a push pin and a hammer since we didn't have any kit.
I bought a pair of useful and beautiful summer sandals for around $3 from DSW. Originally, I added a different pair to the cart while hoping for a better price. But it was sold out in all colors by the time I had a good coupon. I was eyeing another pair as well but it was sold out by the time I placed my 1st order!
I altered a $5 Lee jeans for the 5th time. This was a size 11/12 and I turned it into a size 8/10. I tried something new/ different every time and this time it fits perfectly. I was out of black thread so I used a very dark brown for my bobbin. It worked great.
Does anyone have a good tip to keep ants away? Thank you!
@Farhana, cinnamon sprinkled where they are getting in is miraculous for handling ants.
@Farhana, peppermint oil
@Farhana, I use boric acid powder. If you can't find this at your drugstore, it's readily available online.
@Elizabeth, thank you for the tips. I sprinkled cinnamon and it helped a little bit but they never stopped coming back.
@Isa, I haven't tried this yet. Thank you!
@A. Marie, how do you use it? Thank you for the tip.
@Farhana,
I have not tried this yet, but have plans to this weekend and will let you know. The guy at HD told me a little old lady told him ants won't cross lemon juice. He said buy a squeeze bottle from the grocery store and squirt it liberally in the window sill that they are coming in. Don't dilute it, but let it dry all nice and strong and lemony. He said he tried it and the ants never came back. Of course because I am frugal, I did NOT buy the expensive squeeze kind. I went to the international aisle and bought a big jug so I have enough for all my windows.
1. Took out cash this week to do purchases. Used colored paperclips on bills in my wallet to identify groceries, gas, dog food, etc.
2. Bought a dress, a blouse and some dress pants for back to school/work at the thrift store. Also bought 2 pairs of jeans, which had been on my list for a while. Paid $30.
3. Kristen is SO right about having the superpower of being easily pleased. It certainly helps in the frugal department because I appreciate what I have and tend to take care of it. Cleaning house and feeling proud of your space helps you feel grateful.
4. Realized the back to school running shoes I had purchased 2 days prior were on sale so I got a price adjustment. $10 back in my thrift store jeans.
5. Eating more salads and smaller portions at meals. Better for my health and buying less food as a result.
1. Paid $0 for parking at an event in a nearby, crowded coastal town simply because we are willing to walk. The people we sat next to paid $20 because they were not. The views throughout the hilly town are sublime, making for a lovely stroll that I feel lucky to enjoy enroute, in addition to the money saved.
2. Made a list of oodles of state parks and beaches to visit during an upcoming month-long RV trip, all of which will be free by way of our annual state park pass, which is just $20 per year for seniors here (California). Having a plan keeps us from accidentally falling for a pricey activity simply due to lack of knowledge.
3. In line with above, I also located several free walking tours to follow and enjoy in several of the cute and historic beach towns we'll be visiting. We love doing our own tours - trying to locate each building or site on the list is part of the fun!
4. Cooked from scratch for a large gathering we attended elsewhere (sundried tomato bruschetta, and pepitas-cilantro pesto salad) and a book club we hosted here (Hoisin slow cooked pork and fixings). Turned out delicious food and stayed on budget, so win-win.
5. Enjoyed a free faculty jazz concert at a nearby community college, and a free classic car show which also had live music in addition to the amazing cars. It never ceases to amaze me how many free sources of entertainment exist if I just pay attention.
I discovered I really like both Walmart and Aldi vanilla and hazelnut coffees. Even though both have gone up, at under $5 for 12 ounces, they are cheaper than two coffee out. We're using order and collect to get bras for my daughter at Aerie. This will save a lot of time plus they are on sale plus extra 10% off. She's tiny but has a larger chest so it's always a struggle finding the right ones.
I had some really great frugal things this week and one that, while it saved me $ was a bummer.
- I finished a his and hers historical costuming project. The clients love what I did. I love how this side hustle to my side hustle unexpectedly fell into my lap.
- Since I had a bunch of long days and late nights sewing, my husband and I planned on buying lunch during the side hustle dress rehearsal. Turns out we didn't have to because the dinner show needed an audience and the servers needed to practice serving real food. So by putting off eating lunch for a bit, we got a $50 meal for free.
- My embroidery and sewing machine was ready at the repair shop. They told me the repair was free, which I didn't expect!
- "Made" and drank gallons of chilled bottled water by filling our sports bottles with tap water and putting them in the fridge. Rinse. Repeat. A dozen times throughout the day.
- And the one that saved money but was a total bummer. A friend who works in hospitality asked if I wanted to go to Ireland with him the following day in business class for the price of tax on the plane ticket for a few days. I had to decline due to my side hustle opening this weekend and I still have prep work to do (and my passport needs to be renewed) 🙁 Yeah, I saved money in the most disappointing way because the money from #1 would have covered the ticket and probably more. But one of the reasons we live frugally is so we can travel now that the major bills and such are paid.
@Lazy Budget Chef, Bummer!
I really need to get back into sewing. I used to make all my own clothes before kids. Miss it. I did make my daughter a Regency style dress when she decided to go as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for Halloween. I think she was 12. Fun costume.
@Lazy Budget Chef, Sorry to hear about your trip. It would have been awesome but I have no doubt that you'll find other adventures to make up for it.
I wish I could sew. I had a frugal fail this week with sewing - I could only find one needle that was huge so I made some really big stitches so that my daughter's uniform skirt wouldn't fall down while she was wearing it. Of course, the knot I tied wasn't big enough so the stitches came undone after wearing it for a day. So then I thought I'd take out the sewing machine. Neither me nor my daughter could get it threaded (oh, the aggravation). So I found someone who could alter them for me. She said she'd charge $14-$16. The skirts were free, I'm super stressed at work and I'm frustrated so I said sure. She ended up charging me $20 per skirt because it was more complicated than expected. And if I was just a bit more organized and a bit more skilled, could have taken care of the situation. I mean...the skirts fit GREAT now (hemmed up to the right length too) so I'm happy with the end product but I really wish I had put effort into learning how to sew beyond just sewing buttons and hemming pants and sewing up holes. Long way of saying - I admire your skill!
Did some returns to the mall that I had been avoiding.
Made muffins with a third of a can of coconut milk and some cherries both of which were about to go bad.
Foraged a bunch of mushrooms, breaded and fried them up and had fried mushroom nuggets and roasted potato wedges for dinner one night and a vegetable and mushroom stir fry with rice another night.
Trimmed my own bangs and ends instead of going to the salon.
Made two birthday cards instead of buying them.
As a former Computer Science major (which by the way, I really don't recommend to most people) the books change very little between editions. While there may be version changes or some standards changes the concepts pretty much stay the same.
Also good on you for the watch repair. That reminds me that I needed to buy some batteries for my daughter's watch. Also isn't it annoying that with those tiny batteries it's like $1 for one, $1.50 for 20 of them? But of course you never need the other 18, just two so they end up going to waste.
Anyway, here's my list:
1.) I cashed in some Microsoft Rewards points that I'd had for ages and used them to buy a video game I wanted.
2.) Using up some giftcards that I have for necessities. It's not really all that glamorous but I kind of freeze when people tell me to "treat myself." #1 required some coaxing from my wife. I am good at spending money on other people (usually my wife) but not on myself.
3.) Combining trips still even though gas has gone down a bit (though still insanely high compared to what it was.)
4.) Brought food to the county fair this weekend. We did get some treats but fair food is insanely expensive and after admission and other costs it's just not worth it to me to spend so much money on crummy food.
5.) Doing the usual: line drying clothes, cooking at home most of the time etc.
I use an eyeglasses screwdriver to pop the back off of my watch and change the battery, but you are right, it's not that easy to do. I might look for a good deal on one of those tools. What would really help would be if I would remember/see where the tiny special edge is on the back that is just for popping off the back.
1. Not all of my summer squashes rotted in the rain - I got another one yesterday that made it to maturity.
2. I continue looking for cheaper but healthier treats for my dog, especially to put in her Kong to occupy her while I'm gone. The other day I ordered a pair of pork lungs from one of the local organic farmers, cubed the lungs and dehydrated them. I set the dehydrator on the porch to cut down on heating up the house. The dog thinks they are great, and pork lungs are cheap. It seems not that many people want them, ha.
3. This is almost more of a "finally!" than a frugal, but at long last, I replaced the seat and back cushions on a wood-framed glider chair that my husband bought second hand a few years ago. I bought the cushion foam on sale and trimmed it to fit, found the muslin to cover the foam at a thrift store, and bought the upholstery fabric for the outer covers for $7 a yard off the tail end of a bolt; it was formerly $32 per yard. I had looked for pre-made cushions but the ones that would fit were close to $100, and none of them had a fabric I liked. I'm not a professional by any means, but I'm happy with my results.
4. I made a crock pot of beef stock out of bones and got four quarts of yummy stock.
5. I found two slightly bruised apples in a bag I bought recently, so I stuck them in the refrigerator and cut them up later to use in a dish I was cooking. I find if I leave them in the fruit bowl with even a slight bruise, I'll forget to use them in time and they'll start spoiling the entire bowl of apples.
6. This wasn't my doing, but I'm counting it as a bonus: I now use a financial advisor for my retirement, and we go over my account every couple of months. She knows my situation with my husband and how that negatively affects my budget and retirement. After our discussion the other day, I was amazed and grateful to receive a $60 gift card to Amazon from her, with a message that she is thinking of me. It was a total surprise to me.
@JD, I think I need to borrow your financial advisor! Not that mine's bad or anything, but he sure never sends me Amazon gift cards.
@JD, I tried to do that for my dog using sheep lungs that a hunter friend gave us in his quest to use every single inch of the animal. I honestly appreciate his intentions but the stench of drying sheep lungs was so awful that we opened every window in the house even thought it was below zero outside. I did not care about the heat loss and associated money wasted. For a week afterward I would sniff my work clothing every morning because I was paranoid my cubicle mates would keel over from the smell. I applaud you for your use of pork lungs!
My son has a game where every time he goes to a pet supply store, he tries to buy the most disgusting dried animal parts he can find for our dogs to chew. Uh......EW, some of it.
@Lindsey,
While I did put my dehydrator outside, the smell was very faint even standing right beside it, and not disgusting. I'd say drying pork liver smells worse than lungs. Thanks for telling me about sheep, though. I know not to try that now. Yuck.
@Rose,
Yes, this same farmer also offers the hairy ears and the eyeballs for sale. Uh, no thanks. I can't quite do that.
EYEBALLS? I would faint. (don't anyone tell my son)
@JD, have you dehydrated sweet potatoes (yams) for your dog? mine loves them, friends of mine don't even have a dehydrator but make a practice of slicing and drying in the oven every month or so. they also admit to a lot of sampling. And you can do it inside because they smell DELICIOUS.
The granola i like has been increasing in price to now $5 per bag (yikes) so i made Kristin's no stir granola and have since had to make another double batch this time since everyone LOVES it. If you haven't tried making it, I encourage you to do so. I will be using this recipe to make a big batch to use as Christmas gifts this year too!
Made homemade dog treats. Pumpkin, peanut butter, egg, flour ( whole wheat bought 50% off and popped into freezer as it was coming close to the expiration date
Also skipped grocery shopping and made all meals at home with either harvested items from the garden or freezer stuff
Maybe in a future post we should share what our favourite Kristin recipes are to encourage each other to use them! I'm always hesitant to try new recipes unless I have either ate them myself or have had others comment. (Yes the granola didn't fall into either category but I was desperate this week! Haha)
@Holly, her red sauce enchiladas: chef's kiss!
@Rose, thanks for this!
1. Harvesting loads of produce from the garden now that temperatures have come down from the mid to high nineties. Crowder peas, white acre peas, tomatoes, all kinds of peppers. I am canning, pickling and freezing them as quickly as they are being picked and although it is a lot of work now I know we will enjoy these lovelies when winter is here.
2. I cooked up one of the whole chickens that I found months ago for $0.21 along with pinto beans and a batch of Spanish Rice. It has fed us two dinners as well as several lunches & there are still leftovers to be enjoyed.
3. I picked up 3 dish scrubbers and used liquid castille soap I had on hand to fill the handles. I placed one in each shower to be used to scrub the acrylic and glass as I find this to be the best method to keep them clean.
4. I purchased split chicken breast on sale for $1.49/lb - I bought 50 lbs and we are well stocked on chicken for the fall and winter.
5. Constant rain watered the garden for free and fertilizer we had on had was used to hopefully keep our plants producing for as long as they possibly can before winter arrives.
Bonus: I pulled out all of my seeds and drew up a plan for planting the fall garden. I am excited to use this shoulder season to keep us eating garden fresh veggies for as long as I can and to lessen the cost of groceries.
Quarantine tends to reduce outings to the stores, so that's my big save this week. 😉
Kristen, wow, I thought I was the only mom of a teen whose daughter didn't have some form of a smartwatch. My daughter loves her wristwatch that .... wait for it .... keeps time ..... it's nice to know that she's not alone.
@Kris, No smartwatch for my pre-teens eighter!
Haha, yeah, none of us have smartwatches!
@Kristen, most of the staff in the hospital where I work have them. If I thought it would truly impact my fitness then I would capitulate, but I have gotten into a rhythm over the years of regular exercise, so it doesn't really make sense for me to get one. My kids have zero interest in having them. Bonus for our budget.
@Kris, I'm not sure my kids have even heard about smart watches. I wear a really old Garmin (my husband got it for me when I was training for a 5K years ago) and I mostly just use it to tell time and count steps when we go for a hike, as the kids like to hear how many miles we hiked. But it doesn't sync with anything!
Did not buy any new or new to me school clothes this year. I only have two years til retirement so I mended some. Redyed a couple pants and marching on.
Had an excellent week of cooking from home and restyling leftovers into new items. Sometimes I get really creative and sometimes I struggle.
Packing lunch every day for work. WAH! Hate it but find it necessary.
Years ago I spent money on an enormous set of screwdrivers from normal to almost microscopic size. So handy, as I'm the person in charge of fixing everything from eyeglasses to watch batteries to smartphones to laptops to appliances. Let's not forget the dishwasher I had that blew a fuse once a month on the regular, so the torx screwdriver got a lot of use too. I am so unhandy but I can't afford to pay someone else, so me it is! (Smartphones and laptop fixing sounds a lot scarier than it is, really.)
@Rose,
You rock! I'm the person in my family who has all. the. glue.
This past week I moved back to the States, so not really in the frugal department. That said,
1. Sold several things from the apartment I emptied (also our kids bikes) and made back 1000 euros, which was nice as I calculated I had spent 2000 euros on furnishings. Some things I opted to give away to family members instead of selling.
2. Coming back to my house in the States, it's been nice to discover some old clothes I had left behind. Feels like new-to-me although I've worn them forever.
3. Did spend on school supplies as we have not been to regular school really since before the pandemic, but for clothes I usually opt to buy at sales as needed and found a few items on sale now too.
4. Making do with one car. Selling our second car saved us so much money last year. Having an adult child live with us and working will force us to buy one soon, but we will delay it as long as we can.
5. Instead of resigning from my job due to relocation, negotiated a remote contract that can tie me over until I find new employment here.
Welcome back to the U.S.!
@Kristen, Thank you! Hard to say goodbyes but nice to be back.
We attended a wedding last week and the only frugal bit about that, was that we brought cheese buns and coffee on our (early morning) trip and traveled in one car.
But it was the best event ever and it is still making me happy when I look back at that wonderful day.
A frugal experiment: effort to create tomato crisps from a glut of tomatoes. Failed completely, and resulted into a thick tomato paste that I will probably use on a home made pizza.
Now that it is less hot, we feel like cleaning and decluttering again. We may well find some hidden treasures in our own closets, or find a new home for some items that have been sitting there too long.
You can usually find a good deal on coffee at Ollies, good stuff cheap.
* When we paid the car in full last week we used a credit card to pay the maximum allowed on it, collected the affiliated points and paid the card in full the next day. This gave us 40$ worth, which we are using on groceries.
* Starting university next week : I will park for free in the street, 10 min walk, instead of paying the on site-parking. Will wear the clothes I already have instead of shopping for a back-to-school wardrobe. I will borrow the books from the library or, if I can't find them there, buy used copies (to be sold afterwards). I will use the laptop I bought last year on Black Friday, on sale, and the laptop bag I got at Goodwill. Etc
* Even though I find it hard to work full time at my current job (very physical work), I took 2 weeks of full-time before starting school. I'll barely be able to work during school, so.....
* The price of gas in our province (Quebec) is more expensive that in the province next to us (Ontario). Since I work in Ontario, I fill up the car there whenever I have the chance.
Found a cute shirt at Goodwill last week that has all my summer colors in it and was in good shape. I try to limit my color palette each season so everything works together. I got a skirt at a thrift once and then had to buy a new shirt just to wear it, so I've been more careful ever since.
Husband and I are eating through the fridge and freezer after our kids left for college and grad school. Tonight will be fried rice made out of the last of the 3 experimental batches of rice I had to make to figure out the right water-rice ratio for my son's new rice cooker. It was a whole thing...
Picked up an unused microwave popcorn popper at Salvation Army for my son.
Did not buy a really cute skirt at a thrift store. It was a "well, it would fit if it just lose a little weight" situation and I have enough clothes like that in my closet already.
Made a few eBay sales, including a textbook from my daughter. Textbooks are probably only going to sell in August and January and don't take up too much space, so I just let them ride in my listings and don't worry about trying to change prices or send offers.
Bought a stand up freezer so we can buy and freeze more groceries. It was the style I wanted at a good price, so we bought it. On a not so frugal note, someone was trying to get rid of 2 puppies in the parking lot. I felt so bad, we ended up taking 1. I hope and pray that they didn't just drop the other one, but we already have a senior dog that loses his patience pretty quickly.
Hubby went to the local meat store where we got 10 lbs of hamburger, 2 lbs of breakfast sausage, 2 packs of 2 pork chops each, 1 lb of bacon and 2 pack of x-large chicken breasts for $70 ($85. value). Plus we have been make double and triple recipes to stock up when we don't feel like cooking.
Took the yellow squash our neighbor keeps giving us and marinated it in Lemon-Garlicious before BBQ it. Then someone posted a yellow squash and chicken recipe on FB so I can make that another night. Sounds really good. Always hard to find recipes for yellow squash (summer squash) and people always plant it and have too much of it! I have so much I will have to freeze some of it.
We also had a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers so we chopped them up with some red onion and just put some balsamic dressing in the bowl with it. So yummy because the tomatoes and cucumbers are so fresh. (We already made 5 jars of pickles!)
We also marinated and cooked store-bought asparagus and green beans before they went bad. Last nights dinner was mostly vegetables with a side hamburger. LOL
Made 2 wedding cards for friends that are getting married. I have the supplies from my scrapbooking so why not. And made 4 cards just to send to friends.
@Maureen,
We used to grow a lot of summer squash and some years I was drowning in it. So I found a good recipe for sweet cucumber relish and substituted summer squash for the cucumber. It turned into a surprise hit. Everyone who tried it, loved it, and it uses up a lot of squash.
@Maureen, This is a winner for using summer squash of any sort. https://alexandracooks.com/2022/07/16/zucchini-tortillas-4-ingredients-gluten-free-baked They taste like latkes and if you grate in some onion, you can eat them like latkes. And no frying!! One of the few vegetable realted things my husband has been asking for constantly since I read about them on another blog and tried them.
@Maureen, Wow, I'm glad you were able to rescue that puppy!
@Maureen,
Have to put in another plug for overnight oats as my favorite way to use up squash of any kind. I usually pair zucchini with chocolate, yellow squash with cinnamon and winter squash with pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, ginger, etc). For summer squash, I shred it and add it to the oats raw. For winter squash (pumpkin, butternut, etc), I stab it all over with a fork and then microwave it whole for like ten minutes. Once it's cooled, I cut it open, scoop out seeds (which I then roast or toast) and scoop out cooked flesh to add to the oat mixture. Easy-peasy.
1. I had my annual dermatology body scan yesterday. I took a bit of a detour on the way home and stopped at Sprouts to buy some of the buy one get one free grocery items on sale.
2. Tomorrow Verizon will replace our "antiquated" Fios equipment at no charge. We will also change to a plan that provides faster internet at a lower price. For many years it was a "fight" to not have the rate increase. I did not realize that rates had come down in recent years. Better late than never.
3. I thought I needed to buy more short socks since some had developed holes this summer. It turns out I had some pairs stuffed in the bottom of the drawer, at the back. No need to spend money on short socks.
4. I made a pot of Curried Lentil and Sweet Potato Stew to have for lunches this week. I had all the ingredients on hand.
5. Speaking of low tech, I am still using a pedometer I bought more than ten years ago. It was about $20 and requires a battery change twice a year, which I am fully capable of doing. It lets me know if I am as active as I think I am. It gave my 25 year old niece a chuckle when she saw it earlier this summer.
Mostly food-related this week.
1. I froze two bags of milk, because I won't be able to use them before they go bad. Cheap milk in Ontario comes in a set of three bags. I'm the only milk-drinker in the house, and I only use it for tea and baking. Since milk prices are RIDICULOUS right now, I'm trying not to let it go bad!
2. I rescued some carrots (some were beyond saving and had to be composted) and stuck them in beef stew. Tasty!
3. The stew I made was a double-batch, so we'll freeze half.
4. I had call-shifts all weekend. Not fun and it's mandatory anyway, but I can at least look at my paycheck and see that it adds a meaningful amount of money to our household.
5. My husband's job allows WFH three days a week. Given that he works in another city, we're saving a lot on gas every week!
FFT
1. In emptying my parents house to put it up for sale I was a bit stuck with the large heavy slate from an old pool table. I didn’t want to pay the weight cost to have it hauled away so I offered it up for free on FB Market. A nice young couple came and got it. They will cut it down to make counter tops for an outdoor kitchen they ate constructions. Win-win
2. A large bag of sugar got very hard lumps. So my son banged it hard with a wooden mallet. Sugar fixed. And ready to use.
3 got Free cookies, squash, and Asian pears from a neighbors “free” table.
4. Our old dishwasher was NOT doing a good job of cleaning the dishes. I discovered the top rack sprayer arm was clogged so I used a skewer to unclog it, emptied the two “filters’ that were really nasty and ran an empty load with baking soda and vinegar. Oh my, my dishes are super duper clean now! And no service call needed.
5. My husband found a much cheaper flood insurance company for our home. Great coverage but saved $2,000 a year!
@Julia, back in Jane Austen's day, sugar was sold in solid loaves, and it HAD to be broken up (with a mallet or whatever other tool worked). Jane wrote in an 1815 letter to her sister, "A better account of the sugar than I could have expected. I should like to help you break some more." So tell your son he's part of a fine old tradition!
Yup, there were actual things called sugar hammers.
@A. Marie, If you go to the historical site of Williamsburg, they sell sugar molded into cones and the sugar hammers to break them up. That sounds like a neat thing until you get carried away and buy a half dozen, bring them home and then have to spend time before every cake or cookie recipe hammering out the amount you need...
@Lindsey and @Rose, I can just imagine Jane and Cassandra Austen taking out their frustrations on the sugar cones/loaves with the sugar mallets. "Take THAT, you miserable publisher who reneged on the deal to publish the first version of Northanger Abbey in 1803!" And so on.
@Julia, I would love the information in reference to the flood insurance company. I have been with the same agency for over 30 years and it is definitely time to find a better deal! Thank you in advance….please email me at: thimble306@gmail.com
@Julia, my dneice bought a rod and gun sportsman club to renovate into a house for herself. She used the long shuffle board game that was left there to make her kitchen counter tops. I can't wait to see them.
We fixed our sprinkler issue with the help of YouTube and advice from Ace employees. (Our friends gave us their gardeners number in case our fix doesn't hold.)
We didn't buy the couch I found (and loved) at an estate sale. It was a good price and so beautiful . . . but a little too big for our house.
We did buy some used tools which we needed at the estate sale. ($10 weed wacker!)
I returned some spoiled lamb to Trader Joes. Sadly all of the lamb was the same lot number so we got steak instead.
My husband and I didn't love the $50 wine we purchased with a Von's gift card and will be quite content to keep drinking Precision when it is on sale for $12.99 at Costco.
Fail: the gerbera daisy plant my husband brought me on our anniversary died. I realized later that the tag said the plant preferred to live at an indoor temperature of 65-70 degrees and my house is almost never in that range during the long SoCal summers.
1. Was able to score another month of free coffee at Panera with the code ONEMONTH which is good through 8/31. This was nice because I ended up sitting in a Panera while DH was at a meeting and I couldn’t yet check into the hotel. I think I drank about 6 cups of coffee?!
2. Have been eating out of the fridge and freezer. And a friend who came to visit brought a giant bag of homegrown tomatoes, mmm.
3. Due to an error of mine, ended up needing to drive 1.5 hours today in order to run an errand. However, I was able to make a return on the way and use stars for a free croissant at Starbucks to tide me over until I got home for lunch.
4. Picked up 4 shirts for DH from Buy Nothing. When I got home, it turned out one is a fancy brand name Italian merino wool sweater- I hope he likes it!
5. The usual things- line drying laundry indoors, eating at home, drinking water, reading library books and frugal blogs, etc.
1. I bought some steaks on discount last weekend to have at camp. Even though the use by date was still good, they smelled a little sour, so I went back to the store and got my $ back. No questions asked. I had photos on my phone to show in comparison to the other pack we bought the same day. Used $19.54 store rewards towards our purchase that day too.
2. I cut, cleaned and froze the peppers that I picked from our pepper plants.
3. Our neighbor stuck tomatoes in a tray curbside for free. Our friend who was visiting took a few and I took some to enjoy. Gotta love good neighbors!
4. I managed to have a true "no spend" day last week. I try to have 1-2 a week.
5. Our dryer was making a funny noise. Hubby took it apart and found the problem. He's quite handy. He also found $2.33 in coins inside. Added to his change jar.
6. My daughter gifted me a bouquet of flowers recently. When some of the flowers started dying, I pulled the good ones out, trimmed them up and made a new bouquet to enjoy awhile longer.
7. After my last physical, remembered to claim my wellness benefit thru my work Aflac plan.
This is five frugal things, only one week left in the US before heading back to Africa edition:
1. Trying to eat up the food in our cupboards. I made your French bread recipe for lunch to use up some of our yeast and flour. I served it with various spreads and toppings (butter, jelly, pb, cucumbers, etc...).
2. Took the kids one last time to get books from the library. I also picked out a free book from the giveaway section.
3. We're trying to sell and giveaway various things before leaving.
4. I've been doing maintence on some of our things to make them last longer: washing shower curtains, doing vinegar/warm water soak on sweat stained shirts, and trying to fix a jean zipper...haven't been successful yet.
5. Enjoying walks and trying to do more push-ups as free exercise.
1. I cut my hair (with my husband's help)
2. I took my sweater shaver to two living room pillow covers & they look like new. They were looking pretty rough from use.
3. I found a pretty crocheted mustard cardigan sweater for $1 at the thrift store to wear for fall. The edges & cuffs looked a bit rough but running the sweater shaver over it made it like new again.
4.I used a coupon for a free movie rental to stream a movie at home.
5. We had leftovers 3 days this past week for supper & I ate leftovers most days for lunch.
And extra...I found some old ground beef in the back of the freezer & cooked it up for my dog. She was very happy.
1. Tennessee is not charging tax on groceries during August so I have been stocking up when I find good deals. The tax is normally almost 10% so I'm saving quite a bit.
2. I redeemed a coupon for a free small Bath & Body Works product (bath gel).
3. I needed a new soup pot and found a stainless Revereware one in excellent shape at Goodwill for $6.99.
4. Gas here has gone down significantly to $3.16 a gallon. I filled up today and used my 50 cents off per gallon fuel reward to pay just $2.66 per gallon.
5. I found $11.39 in the CoinStar machine at Kroger. I really don't understand people who leave money in these machines, but I'm glad they do!
Just a reminder to anyone close to a Sprouts store--download the September freebies on Thursday, September 1.
1. Picked up a bookbag and lunch box from Buy Nothing for my daughter for kindergarten next year.
2. Went through my kid's clothes and Winter gear for this year. My son just needs a few pairs of jeans and a pair of shoes. We will hit up Goodwill tomorrow.
3. I had my gallbladder removed 6 days ago. My family cooked us so much food while I recovered, so we had a very low grocery bill this week ($60).
4. The person that cleans my house cancelled for last week, which was annoying because I can't clean myself due to surgery, but saves us $100.
5. I made pesto with basil from my garden and froze it. I dried more herbs and cherry tomatoes from my garden. Larger tomatoes will become chicken cacciatore tonight.
1. I harvested more than 100 peaches from the tree in our yard. First year we’ve gotten peaches since planting it 5 years ago. Gave some to friends, ate as many as we could, and froze the rest.
2. We kept our family fed with food we already had despite a broken dishwasher and the chaos of back to school week for all of us.
3. We are waiting until we can get a warranty repair person out to fix our (11 month old!) dishwasher instead of just paying for the repair, even though they can’t tell us when the next appointment will be.
I'm doing a great job this month of sticking to my grocery budget, but other than that, I don't have a lot of frugal wins I can think of. I take my lunch to work everyday, routinely freeze half a dinner for a ready meal, perk my own coffee at home, stay away from vending machines and the gift shop, and a Target run? Haven't done that in MONTHS. Little daily wins. But maybe I should start jotting down some of my thrifty behaviors when I think of them and I am sure to read through all of these!
I redeemed by credit card rewards points yesterday for some groceries, so that was nice.
I also avoided coffee shops, etc., yesterday during a spare downtown hour I had. Instead I worked from my van until it was time to meet a friend for lunch. I just had water, even though we were at a brewery, and saved myself $5.50 that way!
Monday I got a free lunch thanks to a gift card from my sister.
The hubs used his "senior" national parks pass to save us $44 on our next camping trip!
I've already started prepping meals for that so we don't spend as much eating out too 🙂
1) Last week Carmax gave us a free rental while they repaired our car per our warranty. It was a small, cheap car, which was great because I drove it on my 1,000 mile commute while my husband drove the car that is big enough to fit all the kids. I used so much less gas and saved the wear and tear on our car. (I've run the numbers several times, and even with gas super expensive, it is still not a net gain to trade in our reliable, old car for something cheaper on gas.)
2) I meal-planned Sunday night based on what we need to eat up from last week plus what's in the freezer.
3) We had two birthdays in our house this week, and I made cheap, easy cakes at home rather than buy fancy cakes.
4) My kitchen rags were smelling a bit sour, so I borrowed your method of boiling them on the stove and then running them through the wash. Ah, the fresh smell of cotton nothing.
5) Our kids start aftercare this week, so I signed up for a YMCA membership. We won't use the membership--Lordy, I WISH we had time to go to the gym. But the discount on two kids in Y aftercare is worth more than the price of membership. This scheme saves us at least $100 a month. I'll also sign them up for swim lessons in the late spring when I can still take advantage of the membership discount.
BONUS) I am very proud of this one. We have had a regular house cleaner since we had our third child about seven years ago. Since then life has been overwhelming to the point that hiring a house cleaner at our income level made a lot of sense. However, the "baby" just finished potty training. And the older ones have long been learning to help around the house. We are ready to tackle cleaning the house together as a family each week. Our cleaning lady is fantastic and her work will always be more thorough than my cleaning. But we think this change will teach our kids good habits and save us about $400 a month.
1) I picked up 2 free books, a slotted spoon and an audiobook at our local dump/free stand.
2) I used credit card rewards to purchase a lounge pass when I had a 4 hour layover. This allowed me a quiet space and free lunch!
3) I've been canning and freezing garden produce like a mad dog since I got home from vacation. My original goal was 50 quarts, and I am already at 38 quarts, so I may up my goal to 60.
4) We do a lot for an elderly neighbor who doesn't get out much, and as a thank you, he bought me a new pressure canner! I've been hesitant to buy one because it didn't feel like I would recoup the cost, so I am very grateful. Excited for it to arrive next week!
5) I used Amazon gift cards that I have been accruing from various studies/gifts and credit card rewards to buy a new mattress for only $36 out of pocket. It's not a high end one, but it will be used in a kids guest room, so I am quite pleased.
Kristen, After a spendy August I've come to the conclusion that I need to seriously track, my spending for this coming month.
So far my frugal practice this week included:
* Packing lunches all week including a healthy snack of homemade hummus and veggies --not succumbing to food trucks outside of work, a true summer temptation.
* Using my pantry and freezer to cook breakfast and dinners for the entire week, no grocery store stock up needed.
* Scheduling walks with friends instead of coffee or dinner out with them.
* Taking an Online shopping hiatus for the entire month of September (thank goodness I stocked up on my favorite coffee supplies Seattle's Best!)
*Pickled the last batch of jalapenos from the garden, used up the last of the tomatoes as well for pasta with fresh tomato and basil from the garden---so yummy
Karen
*
Love the continued 5 frugal things inspiration!
1) I had too much produce over crowding the fruit/veggie drawer, so I went through the fridge seeing what we could use up last night. A few older lemons turned into lemonade, carrots from the garden became a dinner side, & unfortunately a few cherries needed to be tossed.
2) We used a library pass to get 4 free admission passes to an out of town museum.
3) I bought a $3 like new backpack at a thrift store for my youngest. Still on the hunt for my oldest. This is for homeschool co-op, so we still have time.
4) Used an online store rewards credit during a free shipping promo.
5) Used my free Hallmark rewards card of the month coupon.
I've been broke all week, business has been tough! But I've been using up all the random bags and pods of coffee I have at home, and taking coffee to work with me when the situation call for it. My son needed some three ring binders, and we were able to pull a handful off my office shelves - simply because I have saved binders from all the years before! He also grabbed up some folders, which he didn't know he needed until he saw them LOL. A battery literally exploded in my furnace thermostat and destroyed it, and my furnace guy came over last night and replaced the thermostat for free! I was very grateful for that! I've also been enjoying watching movie on Tubi, which is a WONDERFUL free app, with SO MANY good movies on it. I can't rave about Tubi enough! I'm just hoping today that some deposits or checks come in - I have bills to pay! I don't want to have to dip into the small amount of savings I have, IF I don't have to! And how was your week?
@Michaela, Great job working with what you have...I think we've all been there! Attitude is everything, and I can tell you're going to be fine!
1. DS16 biked home one day this week, less driving.
2. DS10 is home sick this week, as is DH, so less driving, ha!
3. I made homemade buns in between conf calls, which everyone loves.
4. I brought home leftover pizza from work (so much leftover food!) I cannot even eat it (gluten), but the family was appreciative. There still a ton left at the office.
5. Hm. Drawing a blank here. I started counting calories again. I hate it, but menopause is not being kind. This will probably reduce my chocolate habit.
1 - Our state is continuing free breakfasts and lunches for all kids this year. So my three oldest should be grabbing second breakfast/afternoon snack when they get to school. The busses don't get the younger ones there early enough and its not worth driving for. The middle three will get the free lunches. I can't convince the rest on that one.
2 - I do the surveys for the grocery store which usually gets me a free item every month or so. But, this month I won the $100 gift card! So, I promptly went and used if for the week's groceries. Not all of them, but a nice chunk.
3 - I needed new dish soap, which I order online. It's more expensive, but it keeps my dishwasher cleaner. We are heavy users of the dishwasher so trying to limit service calls. Anyway, this time they were offering a free storage tin and I got an email for $5 off if I paid with Paypal.
4 - It took me a long time to figure out why our wired smoke detectors were beeping. But, I used the internet to discover that they needed a new CO sensor, I found someplace to order them online, and they were super easy to install. Much cheaper DIY than hiring an electrician who would have had to make two visits to diagnose/order/install the parts. I did pay double shipping because I had to order more after improperly counting the number of units I needed, but still way ahead. Also, when I ordered more they sent extras. Not sure what I'm going to do with those since I definitely have all I need now and they'll expire the same time as the ones I just installed.
5 - I took two pairs of nice shorts to borrow a sewing machine to repair a seam that had come out. Since neither of us use the machine often, it took us a while to figure it out. I'm sure some of you would be horrified by the final product. But, the seam is fixed, can't be seen by anyone, and the shorts live to see another day.
1. I found the jeans I like at Zappos on sale so I ordered two pairs which should take me through four years (I'm hard on clothing & shoes).
2. I've been making meals from the freezer & pantry, and only bought some produce, milk, & bread so the stock is getting used up thankfully, and will be replenished with the advent of fall and soup season.
3. My glasses are annoyingly scratched, so I took them in for a free lens replacement (love that warranty!) and they're giving me both lenses so the vision quality matches. It's almost like a brand new pair 🙂
4. I use a little scrub brush that holds dish soap, but the soap is concentrated, so I fill the container with mostly water, top it off with a small bit of soap and shake. A bottle of soap lasts a long time this way and dishes are still clean.
5. And the score of the week for me--I bought 5 bananas for .97, & 5 apples through self-checkout, and was charged only one penny! I checked it; tried it again with the same result; accepted the price and left with my receipt for $.98. Win!
Chef Jacques Pepin recommends dipping (Not soaking!) stale loaves or rolls in water, then putting in the oven to freshen them up.