Five Frugal Things | A fix-it edition
It's a Five Frugal Things Thursday! And ⅗ items are repairs I did, so, yay me. 😉
1. A fish quilt fix
A year or two ago, Zoe's fish quilt had an unfortunate meeting with a nightlight, which resulted in this:
(The nightlight situation has been rectified, and we are super grateful this was the only damage!)
Anyway, the quilt has been sitting on Zoe's bed, un-mended, for an embarrassingly long time.
But the other day, I cut up an old green t-shirt, filled the middle of the hole with a few layers of old white t-shirt fabric, and backed the patch with a piece from an old denim shirt (which has been hacked up for lots of mending jobs over the years!)
When I first put the patch on, it looked especially odd and I couldn't figure out why at first. Then I realized, oh! It's missing the quilting lines. So I sewed lines that mimicked the original quilting and it looked better.
The green doesn't completely cover the burnt part, but I didn't want to stray too far off of the green line. Maybe if a bright blue shirt happens to hit the rag bag, I'll add a little blue strip next to the green part to completely cover the burnt part.
This is fix is very imperfect, but it is also very done. Good enough and done is better than perfect and not-done, I say.
2. A Costco chair fix
We had two folding faux-leather chairs from Costco for sitting on while gaming/watching TV.
These have been working out nicely, except somehow, the wooden frame inside one of the seats managed to come apart at the corner.
(No one at our house seems to have a clue how this happened. Hmm.)
Anyway, I pushed the pieces back together, but they needed some reinforcement to make sure they didn't pop back out. I found a flat metal thingamajig in our toolbox and decided to use that to screw the pieces together.
It was a little big for the job, but hey, it was on hand! I didn't bother screwing screws into the other two holes, as I didn't want to risk messing up the faux leather, and I figured that 2/4 screws would work fine.
Time will tell!
3. A bunk-bed fix
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we got carpet in the kids' rooms last week.
(everything from my children's rooms, except the beds and dressers!)
Gratefully, the carpet installers were happy to work around the beds, which meant we didn't have to take them out of the rooms.
Phew.
The only problem was, they screwed Sonia and Zoe's ladder back on lop-sided, and the board by the ladder somehow got damaged.
(Possibly while they were moving the bed, but I don't know for sure. It is a 14-year old bed.)
The ladder was higher on one side than the other, so it gently bounced when you climbed it.
(One wonders how a person fails to notice this....?)
(the ladder, now properly straightened)
Anyway, I unscrewed it and as I was doing that, I noticed the missing chunk of wood.
The bunkbed wasn't really safe and sturdy like that and since I'm an impatient person and want to put things back together, like, 5 minutes ago, I decided to try to fix it myself.
(I texted a photo to my brother for some advice.)
I got out the chop saw, which I've never used before, cut a piece of scrap wood down to size, and screwed it into the corner post.
Then I screwed the ladder on, through the scrap piece and through the existing bunkbed board, so now the corner is reinforced from both sides.
And the ladder is actually straight now too, which is a bonus. 😉
This isn't the most beautiful fix in the whole world, and my screws aren't perfectly straight because that's such a tight space to fit a drill in.
(And also because my drilling skills are a bit, er, lacking.)
BUT. It's fixed, and it's stable, and as a bonus, I now know I am quite capable of using a chop saw.
At least for straight cuts.
And since the fix is on the inside of the bed frame, it's not like it's generally visible, which means the ugliness factor is sort of irrelevant.
Oh, while I had the drill out, I also screwed down some of the under-mattress slats, since some of them had shifting problems.
4. I got a new pumpkin-carving kit.
When I was at Kohl's the other day for some socks for our Christmas Child (more on that in #5), I walked by the post-Halloween clearance shelves and noticed a carving kit marked way down.
Since a few pieces from our carving collection have broken, I picked this one up for use next year.
If you haven't tried one of those little kits, do! They make pumpkin carving so, so much easier, compared with using a paring knife.
5. I used $15 of Kohl's moola.
On the day it was due to expire, I remembered that I had a $5 Kohl's Yes To You reward, so I popped by to pick up some socks for our Operation Christmas Child box.
Later in the week, I noticed I had a $10/$10 Kohl's coupon, and found some running pants on clearance for $10!
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Whew. That was a long and wordy Five Frugal Things post.
For those of you that made it to the end...feel free to add your own Five Frugal Things in the comments!
As far as compacted bean bag chairs, we use packing peanuts to stuff them when this happens. If the outside the of the chair is decent, this will keep the chair in use for years.
Your skills are impressive!!
I not an handywoman at all, when things break I get rid of them usually, very "unfrugal" I know...
My 5 frugal things:
* Got movie tickets for free, so date night was cheap yesterday! Only 6$ for a shared popcorn (Grandma babysat for free)
* Planning groceries/recipes accordingly to the weekly specials
* Borrowing books from the library/getting them from free piles
* Buying only used clothes for myself and trying hard to do the same for the kids (not always possible, in which case I buy new but cheap/on sale)
* Using work gym instead of private club (52$/year instead of 1000$/year!)
Have a great day!
1. Repaired a pair of torn dress pants for my son-in law, who had split the seat out. Enjoyed the story of how this happened in front of his neighbor.
2. Avoided the fancier-than-Aldi grocery store after I had already spent my grocery budget for the week. My daughter needed to quickly run in for something while we were out together, but I opted to stay in the car with the kids and probably saved $50. I have to admit, the main reason was because one of them was asleep in his car seat, but as I sat there it occurred to me that I was actually saving money.
3. Had leftover chicken noodle casserole for dinner, instead of "cooking new".
4. Shopped the thrift store for a pair of flat boots. It was meant to be. The only, and I mean, ONLY, pair of black flat boots in that entire store, were my size. I paid 6.50 and they fit great and are comfy.
5. This last one was a bonus surprise. I bought a pair of Polo brand jeans for my granddaughter, on Amazon. They were her size, but positively huge. I hopped on Amazon to get a return going, and was surprised by the message that they will refund my money, but I didn't have to return the jeans. Say what?! The refund is already processed to my bank account, and I have the money to rebuy the jeans in her size, PLUS Olivia will have the original pair for next year.
I love it when Amazon does that!
Yes, I've had that Amazon experience every now and again, and it's a very pleasant surprise!
Yay, you!
1. I did a big cook on Sunday so we have eaten at home all week.
That's it. We are in ceaseless prayer for a lifelong family friend who was in a horrible accident this week. We'll pay for some of my parents' travel expenses - the hospital is hours from their home and they'll need a hotel - but that's what emergency savings are for.
I have several items that need mended or hemmed...maybe your post will help inspire me to "just do it".
I did do a few frugal things though: when I got home from grocery shopping, I put on a big pot of pasta sauce, cleaned and cut up celery (so I wouldn't have any excuse for not eating it!) cooked 8 chicken breasts (used 5 in a dish for a pot-luck and froze the rest) and made cookies for lunches. I gave away some of the sauce and froze 3 containers for future use. We used up leftovers for lunches on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, and ate leftovers for supper on Monday and Tuesday. (We had a LOT of leftovers from various weekend events!) I've also been working on a photo book that I have a freebie for that is soon to expire.
Now to get those sewing projects done!
It helps me to say, ok, I'm just going to knock out one of these...and then usually the momentum keeps me going through a lot more than one! Getting started is the hardest part.
Well, I finally did manage to get one thing done (required getting out the sewing machine.) I have some buttons to sew on and a couple hems that I am planning for this evening. My goal is to get it all done THIS week!
Love the quilt fix! That's the point of a quilt right? Small, otherwise unusable bits of fabric sewn together.
1. We managed a birth and recovery without any trips to the vending machine or the hospital subway. We did get takeout when we got home, but nobody's perfect.
2. My breast pump has been through several babies. Luckily insurance provides them at no cost now. I know I am ultimately paying for it down the line, but I'd be paying anyway so I'm glad to take advantage of this benefit.
3. We finally finished the refinance of our mortgage. We now have a better interest rate and a shorter term, so we will save tens of thousands and will pay it off eight years earlier. The short term plus is that the new mortgage doesn't start until Janauary and our closing costs were $2000 cheaper than estimated. This unexpected $5000 will cover our hospital stay and our 2016 health insurance premium, due in January.
4. Got a refund check this week from another hospital that messed up submitting our visit to health insurance the first time back in the spring. I had to stay on them to get back what we erroneously paid, but it was worth the legwork in the end.
5. Our microwave bacon tray cracked, but my sweet, frugal husband figured out a way to keep using it for a while. He also glued our vegetable chopper back together. He fixed the toilet and the sink stopper in the bathroom. Marrying him was one of my greatest money decisions!
I had that thought about the quilt...it's kind of fitting to patch it!
Congrats on the new addition to your family!!
Maybe I need lessons from you on dealing with hospitals and insurance companies. I have one bill that insurance won't cover because the hospital is sending the wrong documentation. It is such a time suck!
Persistence is key, I've found. But it IS a huge headache.
You can always involve your State's Insurance Commissioner if you need to. They're often pretty effective.
Good for you for doing your mending. I sometimes take things with me when I visit my MIL and ask her to "show" me how to do it. She has shown me how to take in the elastic on the kid's pant several times. (she is so sweet).
Here are my 5:
1)I baked bread and sub buns for the kid's lunches. This also served as entertainment for the kids because they had Tuesday off of school.
2) I bought all but 6 of my grocery items at Aldi. I've had a couple of bad bags of coffee at Aldi so I buy the store brand at Kroger, since I was there I picked up some of the other "Aldi doesn't sell" items that we use.
3) I bought a kitchen scale. I'm counting this as frugal because it allows me to make frugal things more easily. I used it on the bread, pizza muffins (so easy to pack for lunches) and waffles this week already. I jot down the weights in my recipes so next time it'll be faster.
4) Did a meal plan this week that uses up some freezer meat. I precut some lunch items for faster packing. I have used my crockpot for stress free (not from the pizza shop) meals. I've eaten leftovers for my lunch. I have started saving my bread heals in the freezer for bread crumbs.
5) We used our savings to buy a car a few months back instead of selling a car then buying the "new"one. We chose to do it this way so we wouldn't be desperate for something to sell or to quickly buy a car at any step along the way. It's paid off because we were able to find a good deal on the car we bought (a Prius, bonus frugal points for high gas mileage). Also,we have turned down several low offers on the car we're selling. Fingers crossed we have a buyer at a good, fair (but not lowball) price. She's picking it up this weekend! Had to paid a bit extra insurance a couple months but worth the price.
I've been incredibly unfrugal lately in regards to my private spending (my DVD & Blu-Ray collection may or may not have expanded by several anime series) but I have done some good things, I guess.
1.) When my wife had our daughter a lot of people gave us TONS of food, so we've been eating that. Unfortunately, leftover mashed potatoes have a short shelf life so when my wife and daughter were away at Grandma's house I used them to make potato pancakes, potato sandwich bread (I cheated and used the bread machine) and potato gnocchi.
2.) My daughter has a swing we were given by some friends which uses D cell batteries. Since rechargable D cells are a bit hard to come by (and are often not very good) I simply used these awesome adapters I bought from AliExpress a while back. Two AAs go in parallel and you get, in theory, about 4000 mAh which is still only about half that of a "Heavy Duty" C battery (and about a third of an Alkaline D cell) these are rechargable and can be used again and again. That said, I'm still thinking of disassembing the thing and hooking in an AC adapter.
4 years of Electricity and Electronics training and all I can practically use it for is ranting about batteries. 🙂
3.) My wife needs a new coat for winter so I told her that we'd be buying a nice durable one that will last for years instead of a cheap one to "get by." I don't know if that counts but I'm counting it.
4.) Have been eating a lot of leftovers and stuff from the freezer. Someday we'll go grocery shopping again.
5.) I can confirm that Walmart brand diapers work just as well as the big name. We plan on switching to cloth soon.
I heard that Aldi diapers are really good too!
Our goal is to use cloth at some point. The only sizes Aldi has by us are 3 and 4. She's obviously still in newborns.
Ohh, ok! I haven't ever looked that closely, seeing as I wasn't an Aldi shopper when I had babies/toddlers.
I used and can vouch for Aldi for my kids day time nappies.
Congratulations! And PS, using the bread machine is not cheating.
Wow, aweseome fixes -- I am such a klutz but you are inspiring me . . .!! Saws! Screws! Metal thingamajigs -- you make it look so easy 🙂
1. Eat all breakfasts, lunches and dinners in this week except for dinner with Lovely Grownup Daughter at not too expensive Russian Armenian restaurant -- yum and doable.
2. Cooked spaghetti squash casserole which we ate 2 nights running and even took for lunch the third day after husband was like, enough with the squash. It tasted better and better, and several meatless days to boot.
3. Using pool at gym adjacent to work. $30 per month and I use it 3 -5 times per week. Really helping knee so working with small active children remains a possibility. Was limping and whinging but am sprinting about the campus now. Thanks low impact aqua fit! Figure working as long as I can is frugal . . .
4. Really really trying not to waste food 🙁 so only buying what I think we will eat with the likelihood that we will eat out on the weekend a bit. So counting apples, avocados, etc., since there are only two of us. Taking last of salad for lunch; using up fresh broccoli and pantry for dinner.
5. Free dinner and movie Friday and movies all week at local film festival! Husband gets free pass to the gala kickoff which is really just appetizers and drinks but so much fun. Really recommend this if you are in SoCal area. Movies from all over -- some great, some clunkers but free, people, free! You stand around in line and sometimes even have to queue up to get the tickets but such an interesting cross section of LA to chat with. Other than parking it is free. Must bring snacks for standing in line ; )
Thank you for letting us blather on -- your blog is so helpful and inspiring!
So glad the exercise is helping your knees!
Love the chair fix! Costco could have given you your money back, but this way you keep the chair out of the landfill--much better.
I bought a Greenhouse a couple of weeks ago. my grandsons and I assembled and erected it. Part of it came in a "Box" 10' by 4' made of 2X6's and 2 - 10'X4' pieces of chipboard. I was going to disassemble it to give me some 2X6's and 2 - 10'X4' sheets of chipboard.
But I already have lots of spare wood. Then I realized that if I raised it up against the garage wall - the garage is 10' 2" high, and added some shelves in it from all that spare wood that I aready had, I would have a bunch of shelves in the garage to put "Stuff" on. (I attached it firmly to the wall so that it will not fall on the car or us!)
So I did, and I have. Yay!
Nice! Yay for repurposing.
Mostly just the usual, but one unusual item.
1. Cooked most of my meals and brought snacks to work. When I didn't bring lunch to work, I had the can of soup I keep in my desk.
2. Bought used books online.
3. Mended socks. Since no one sees the mends, I used the random bits of short threads that accumulate.
4. Scrounged for a couple dozen extra coupon inserts, since it had $1/2 coupons on a food I like.
5. The unusual one: bought half a happy/pastured pig. A far more frugal way to eat the meat I prefer, than buying it by the piece from a store.
I've got a major tooth repair coming up -- so a real impetus to eat from the pantry and garden!
1) still getting kale in the garden, so kale soup with lots of stuff I've dried for lunches
2) went through my newspaper-wrapped tomatoes, discarding bads and salvaging ripe ones with some bad spots -- got enough for chili with my own dried beans and peppers
3) baked up a sheet cake which I cut up and froze before we went on vacation (using up a number of things in the fridge), so now using that for dessert and snacks
4)harvested all my celery and dried the leaves for soup and stew seasoning all winter
5)lots of meat in the freezer, so using that for dinners -- the bonus will be I'll be able to defrost it!
My Fix it Philosophy is very similar to yours. If it works its OK to be ugly as long as no one has to look at it. However sewing is my “thing” so I would have made a fish applique to cover the burn in the blanket.
I also love to use a chop saw. Mitered cuts are easy too.
My Frugal Five:
1. I bought a NIB Miniture A.G. Molly doll original price still on the box $22. I got it at Value Village for $2.99, sold it on Craig’s List for $10.
2. I made pizza sauce from homegrown tomatoes
3. I tried a recipe for pumpkin oatmeal using pumpkin from the garden.
4. I used up old milk by using FG’s Chocolate pudding recipe
5. I KILLED my kitchen scale by spilling honey, molasses, and oil into its works. NOT FRUGAL but I replaced it using Amazon gift cards from swagbucks.
Oh, that is a creative idea! I'd never have thought of making a new fish.
Love the patch!
The bunkbed fix reminds me of the time I was trying to figure out why my daughter's mattress sagged so. Turns out, when we moved, we somehow forgot the slats and she and her sister set it up without them. I grabbed some of our scrap lumber and the chop saw and made slats. My friends were so impressed that I could cut them (I told them because I thought it was hilarious that we'd lost the slats and not realized it for a year), but honestly, it was straight cuts and a tape measure, people. Nothing to it.
1. Wanted lunch out, but packed leftovers and ate them instead
2. Wearing some slacks I've had 10 years now. I bought them at an outlet, on sale, and I think I got my money's worth!
3. Still trying to get back to my braided denim rug. It's about half-way done. It's using up old pairs of torn jeans. It's too hot to work on it right now.
4. Since we are having unseasonably hot weather (Fall, please get here!) I'm cooking only on stove top, eating leftovers, and whatever else I can do to keep from heating up the house.
5. I bought myself a fountain pen years ago. I only have to buy a box of ink cartridges every couple of years and I write checks, letters, etc., with it. If you have to buy something, buy things that last and have low maintenance costs.
We've done the same thing when some slats have broken. Mr. FG just cut new boards to the right length....very easy.
You rock! So many repairs! And you didn't even need whiskers to do any of that 😉
And prior to this, a saw was on my list of "Whiskers needed to use" list. 😉
I love this frugal 5 thing!
1. I realized last night that we were out of bread. Instead of going to the store to spend $4 (we like good bread) I got at at 5 Am this morning and made my own.
2. The girls needed rainboots for thier naturse center class. I went to the thriftstore and bought them for $6.00 and that was for 2 pairs.
3. We have switched to soy and nut milks to eliminate dairy but we ran out. I found some left over regular milk in the back of the fridge, ( it was still good) and used that up instead of taking another trip to the store.
4. We have not eaten out or ordered in even once this week!
5. Made homemade pizza with things we had at home.
Ohhh, nice! I've kept an eye at thrift stores for my girls, and nothing ever seems to appear there except really small boots. Oh well.
I'm in a better head-space than I was this morning (our friend survived another surgery this afternoon AMEN).
2. Totally scored at Goodwill last weekend - two super-cute blouses (Loft and Michael Kors) for work, petite sizes no less - and a brand-new in the box Umbra hanger for scarves, which frees up some drawer space. All for about $12.
3. The hubs used some of his amazing homemade chicken stock to make soup earlier this week. We need a break from all the leftovers, so I popped it in the freezer. And the rather bland pork tenderloin I made just got chopped, mixed with salsa to moisten it, and froze it for enchiladas.
4. Given the horrible week I've had personally and professionally, I considered getting some friends together to go out for margaritas. But instead I left work a little early, went for a swim, and invited a friend over for dinner and a glass of wine (the hubs has an out of town meeting). Both healthier and way less expensive, but with all the quality time.
5. My dog is my therapist for now. 😉 She works for treats and belly rubs.
Yay that your friend is doing a little bit better!!
I'm always so amazed how well you patch things! Great job. I need to get better at fixing things around the house.
1. I dropped off some dry cleaning at a much cheaper place I just discovered (and they do good work, too).
2. Got all my groceries at Aldi (aside from a random trip my husband made without me knowing, grrrr).
3. I made yogurt! I recently got a little yogurt incubator that comes with glass jars and plastic lids (on sale, but that was a few weeks ago so I'm not counting it), this has made it much easier for me to eat the yogurt I make, and easier to make it properly (all batches of yogurt I've made previously came before I had a cooler, so I never used Kristen's recipe verbatim and had a few failed batches as a result).
4. My husband and I ended up at a thrift store and he very wisely remembered we'd been wanting a set of short drinking glasses. $2 for a set of 4!
5. We cooked two large meals to eat both as dinner and lunch this week. Leftovers are the best for packed lunches!
1. Reviewed our expenditures/budget for the past 6 months and found that when I feel stressed I shop--at thrift stores mostly, yet I purchase clothing I do not need. I have enough of everything! New goal: When stressed,go for a (free) walk.QUIT shopping!!
2. Grocery shopped in my refrig. and freezer--determined to use up items that have been languishing.
3. Made up a month's menus with grocery lists! (Will tweak as I see the grocery ad sales.)
4. Tuned off the pilot light to the gas fireplace which we rarely use.The gas company told us even the light uses up gas..so, my bill should be next to nothing from now on.
5. Had girlfriend over on the patio vs. Happy Hour at a restaurant! Best seats in the house!
Great job with the mending!
These are all from today:
1. Had an hour between a meeting and an event at my older daughters' school today. Rather than going out to eat with my youngest (as I might typically do in this circumstance), I packed lunches for us and we had a picnic in the park and went to the playground. Quality time with Daughter #3 = priceless.
2. Saved $1 per gallon of gas by using grocery reward points today, making it $1.35/gallon to fill up.
3. My mortgage company has been begging us to refinance with no closing or other costs for "customer retention" purposes (thanks to good payment history and credit!) -- finally made the call and will save real money with very little effort.
4. Picked up a penny at the supermarket on the floor! 🙂
5. Exercise today was a run in beautiful weather with free music on spotify.