Five Frugal Things | a sandwich date night, even cheaper
1. I bought a meal voucher for a sandwich shop
I got it on Local Flavor, which offers super local discount vouchers, kinda like Groupon.
As you know, I adore sandwiches, and Mr. FG is usually up for eating them too.
Sandwiches are already an affordable dinner out, so with a voucher on top of that, it made for a cheap date night!
2. I sold Zoe's geometry book
I'd sold the solutions manual a little while back, but it took a few more months for someone to buy the textbook.
This is a serious moment to mark in my homeschool career; this really makes it official that I never have to help a kid with geometry again!
(Some parts of homeschooling, I will miss. This is not one of them.)
3. I submitted a lower price offer on eBay
Lisey has a black jumpsuit from Old Navy, which is super cute.
She suggest I try hers on and....let's just say that I am most definitely not the same size as Lisey. I could barely breathe! And the jumpsuit lost its breezy fit on me.
Old Navy was completely sold out (except for XS!), so I poked around on eBay and found the exact one in a size larger than Lisey's.
I saw the listing was accepting offers, so I sent in an offer a little below the asking price, and the seller immediately accepted.
Sweet! It's always worth a try because the worst you can hear is no.
And I know when I'm on the eBay selling end, I will almost always accept a reasonable offer on my listings.
4. I got my first box of 2021 peaches
I popped by the produce stand to see if they had peaches and indeed they did.
And more than that, they had a big box of bruised ones.
I handed over the $8 and snatched them up.
(Here's a YouTube video about how I freeze summer peaches.)
5. I sold a costume by sending an offer
I logged into eBay recently to do some updating, and I saw that there's an option to send an offer to a previously interested buyer.
My Queen of Hearts costume has been sitting there, untouched, for about a year and a half. So, I sent a lower priced offer to someone, and she bought it. Yay!
Now it's out of the house, I have some money in my pocket, and someone else can look fabulous this Halloween.
In case you weren't here in 2019, Sonia completed our Alice in Wonderland trio by being Alice herself.
And I did not list her dress for sale because it's just a regular dress (see it here, although it doesn't seem to come in blue anymore), and she's worn it many times since.
(although obviously not with the apron and pocket watch!)
I have been really, really busy this week. I am in the middle of a project, so I have spent very little money.
1) I have brewed my own coffee to drink when running out the door. No Starbucks stops.
2) I used some Target gift cards that I received on a previous visit as well as the digital coupons and rewards through the Target app. This reduced my bill from $38 to $13. I then scanned my receipts to ibotta and Fetch.
3) I paid bills using my banks bill pay service - no stamps, no late fees. I updated my other financial records and balanced my checking account.
4) I paid a little extra mid-month on my mortgage.
5) I borrowed two library books including
Coming Clean which is about the psychological affects of growing up with hoarding parents. Thank goodness this is foreign to me, but it gave me some insight into the behavior of someone I know well.
I feel super lucky that my parents are pretty organized people; I grew up in a home where it was normal to keep things neat, organized, and put away, and we never accumulated gobs of stuff. That is a privilege that has made my adult life so much easier than the life of someone who grew up with hoarding parents. I can just imagine the challenges!
@Bee, Thanks for sharing about the Coming Clean book. I'm going to check it out since my Mom is a major hoarder.
@Kristen, I grew up in a house full of messes and married a woman who isn't the most tidy. It's a cause of constant stress for me.
Oh, interesting. Tell me more (if you don't mind). Did growing up with messes make you dislike messes? I would have thought that people who grow up with messes would be sort of immune to worrying about it, but it sounds like maybe my guess was wrong.
@Battra92,
I too grew up in a house of messes and I am one myself. I found a book a long time ago and you might still be able to find it, "Messies Anonymous". It was a big help to me even though I did not do absolutely everything recommended. Best of Luck!
P.S. Your daughter will not remember the messy house but she will remember the happy times with her parents.
Vicky M
@Bee, I add my thanks for the tip about Coming Clean. I'm the product of a mixed marriage myself (my mom was a borderline hoarder and my dad had a compulsion to throw things out), but I have several dear friends (two recently deceased and some still living) who were/are hoarders.
@Vicky M, Very wise words. I'm a compulsive mess-cleaner... hate clutter. BUT, I've forced myself to lighten up because it was affecting how much time I spent with my kids, and making me say no to too much. I have to keep reminding myself that I want them to remember happy times with mom (and dad), rather than a mom who was always trying to keep the house completely mess-free. The house can be perfect again after they grow up (and I'll miss those messes!).
My parents were like yours so I have no excuses. Except that I have a little known neurological disorder called nonverbal learning disorder (NLD)--the name is a misnomer as most of us are great at anything verbal and horrible at anything else.
I know. Most people think that being messy and disorganized is either because a person is lazy or because that person has ADHD.
When you have NLD you literally don't see space properly. Putting things into a fridge properly is like trying to solve a hard geometric equation (something I think you know about!)
I own a house and it's immaculate. Hardest. Thing. In. The world. for me to do. It can take me forever to organize and declutter. There's a lot more to the disorder. fortunately my problems are mostly spatial and organizational but darn it can make life hard.
I wasn't diagnosed until I was 56, but had figured out many ways to compensate. Still it keeps me from accomplishing as much as I can. I constantly check and double check to make sure that I did everything well. One of my superpowers is cleaning a floor--sanitizing, doing everything yet leaving obvious lines and/or feet print. And so on and so on.
I was brought up to be obsessive so it's a bit (lot) harder for me than many people who were diagnosed young and were told they could be a bit messy (my parents were incredible but my father could be a bit difficult).
@Vicky M, You are so right Love is definitely the most important gift you can give a child. I have always embraced that old adage: clean enough to be healthy; messy enough to be happy.
However, the author of this book, Kimberly Rae Miller, lived in an extreme hoarder situation growing up - not just messy. It had a huge impact on every aspect of her life. Yet, one reason she is so successful as an adult, despite her difficult upbringing, is the fierce love her parents had for her, and she has an unbreakable bond with them.
She writes her story with love, compassion, anger, and acceptance. Although I skipped over a few paragraphs here and there because I just couldn’t handle it, the author helped me to develop a better understanding of those in my life who are affected in some way by this disease.
@Bee and Everyone,
There is also a book out last year called Outer Order Inner Calm that gently makes the case of tidiness (not extreme) as a balm with loads of helpful habit-forming behaviors.
The last few months feel like they've taken a blowtorch to my wallet, but I'll give this a go!
1. Returned an unopened package of cat food, as my silly old man cat suddenly found that option unworthy despite eating it for several weeks. I was able to exchange the unopened package for *two* packages of a different kind of food by the same brand, which he's been consuming happily (for now). At least he prefers the cheaper stuff? 😛
2. My husband's work hosted a big dinner for staff, who then parted out the leftovers. We've almost conquered the tub of beans, and we've hamburger buns to last us for months in the freezer!
3. Picked up our 1/16 of beef from a local farm. While a big outlay in the moment, it’s a fantastic price for a happy hippie cow ($5.95/lb, assorted cuts) and means we only need quick weekly store trips for produce. 1/2 to 2/3 of our meals are meatless, so 37.5 lbs should last us a while.
4. We've been making Vietnamese iced coffee (coffee + chicory + sweetened condensed milk) at home, which is a BIG savings over getting it out. There’s a vendor on the way home from my husband’s work, and it’s VERY tempting to stop in on 90+ degree days!
5. Feeling the need to freshen things up around the house, I had a "Fix it" cleaning day using items I already had on hand. In addition to tidying, I tended to all the little "I'll get to that later" types of chores: tightening screws on switch plates (the most used ones work loose); filling nail holes from moving artwork; reorganizing the linen closet; dusting the walls and ceiling corners (we have 10' ceilings) with cut up bathrobe pieces on the end of a Swiffer; cleaning accumulated fingerprints from doors and cabinets with a Magic Eraser, etc. I managed everything but the kitchen and the bathroom, which will hopefully be today.
Your last one: you must feel so good with all those nagging tasks checked off!
@N, It feels so good to get those nagging little things done. Especially the ones that turn out not to be so little, or are disproportionately aggravating for the amount of time involved.
@N, So funny about the cat. Mine is the same. I would willingly buy her a better brand of cat food, but I've tried several brands and she won't touch it. Fancy feast it is!
@Kristen, indeed! It’s surprising how much mental space the little nagging “I’ll do it later chores” take up. It was nice to go through a day without thinking “Dang, I still need to do that.”
@WilliamB, very true! The switch plate screws were super annoying, but it’s not like I usually go around the house with a screwdriver in hand—except for yesterday. 😛
@Sarah G, ours happily ate the same dry food for years, then old age came for his teeth. Thus began the Soft Food Snoot. He at least likes a consistent brand—Tiki Cat—which has helped keep his weight up and his, um, “output” more consistent and less fragrant. We’ll have tried the whole Tiki line up before we’re through!
Five frugal things... hmm. I feel like I don't have any, so I'll be scraping the bottom of the barrel today.
1) our cat had a swollen lip for two days, so I called and made an appt. Well, due to their scheduling and vets on vacation, it was a wait til mid August or plan an urgent care appt. I made that appt after checking if I would be able to cancel if needed. Appt was made on Friday for Monday, and by Sunday night the cat's lip was back to normal. Saved 92.00.
2) I always use less laundry detergent than "recommended". I can double the life of the bottle.
3) I cut my facial cleansing cloths into four. They have enough cleansing product to still do their job.
4) I don't use fabric softener, but when I did, my mom had taught me to cut the sheets in half and use twice. They still work.
5) Hanging our clothes on the clothes line to dry.
...free range chickens don't need as much feed, our blueberry bush is ready to be picked (don't need to buy store bought this/next week, got gas at the station that raises their prices last-before they went up .40, free shipping on flea prevention meds, cancelled a streaming program before the free trial period was over-was able to watch the two shows I got the trial for plus a series.
That was a little easier than I thought. 🙂
That's an awfully good list considering you are scraping the bottom of the barrel!
@Lisa, I am so jealous that you have your own blueberry bush. I am in Los Angeles and I think we get too much sun for them or we are too dry.
@Susan, My father-in-law has a blueberry bush (in Nebraska) and said just the other day when I expressed surprise that it grew so well here that it's more a matter of keeping the soil acidic than any other factor. Maybe it's worth a try for you!
@Lisa, re: your cat’s lip, does your cat have plastic food and water bowls? Our cat started getting random swollen lips (which were always gone by the time we saw the vet, of course) that we couldn’t find the cause for. After some internet research, I came across several sites that discouraged plastic bowls because micro scratches in the surface could harbor bacteria, causing—wait for it—swollen /irritated lips! Ceramic, stainless steel, and glass bowls were recommended instead. We switched to small Pyrex glass bowls that we already had, and our cat hasn’t had a swollen lip since. Anecdotal evidence, I know, but easy to try!
@Susan, my mom used to have several blueberry bushes in her Los Angeles suburb. She had them in huge pots with netting (birds like them too). Lots of delicious blueberries!
I remember those costumes! I thought that was a very cute idea and well executed.
I never liked geometry. I took years of algebra, trig, and calculus, but geometry is what stands out as the one math class I just really disliked. I'm happy for you to be done with it, too, Kristen!
1. Remembered to file a skin biopsy with my insurance company, got $25.
2. Took a survey recently on seat covers - I had bought some for our truck that we bought to haul my husband and his electric scooter around - and got a $25 Visa gift card.
3. Paid my quarterly Medicare bill with money set aside for it. Every time I get paid, I put money into a savings account so it doesn't disappear like magic before the bill arrives. (Note to under 65-ers in the U.S.: Medicare premiums come out of your SS check, but until you start to get SS, you pay the premium like any other bill. The age to draw full SS keeps going up, but Medicare eligibility remains at 65, should you choose to use it as your insurance.) I also put aside the money for my Medicare supplement insurance and my pharmacy insurance, which I pay monthly.
4. Chose slower shipping on a recent Amazon order and got $2 digital currency to use. I always rent movies with it.
5. I have started Christmas shoppping. I spend way less money when I'm not hurried.
There are a few things I like in geometry (triangle congruence proofs being one), but I really, really hate those geometry comparison problems...ratios of side lengths, or problems with a bunch of < and > signs. I like the solid-ness of congruence proofs. Ratios and greater-than proportion problems feel too nebulous!
@Kristen, It's so interesting how some students might be intimidated by the geometry proofs but totally understand the side ratios & proportions, while other students feel the opposite is true! Similarly, I often hear people favor either geometry or algebra while disliking the other. Makes one wonder if it's in each of our brain-wiring, or if it has to do with how different objectives are presented? One of the various hats I wear is high school math tutor, and my favorite part of tutoring is watching kids go from "shaky" to "confident" as the metaphorical lightbulbs turns on 🙂
@PD,
I detested the proofs, so I'm one of those. I did fine in geometry, but I was so glad to get that year behind me. I was an algebra fan.
I wear the same shoes all the time, in different colors. They're very specific, so easy to identify on eBay. As soon as I see what I want, I add it to my watch list. This week, I found two pair in excellent condition, so I added them and within minutes had offers from both sellers. One offered 22% off, the other 10%, so I bought them both. My $120+tax shoes came in at just under $45 per pair, including tax and shipping.
I've also done the make an offer thing, but I never would have dared to offer 22% less. In future, I might try doing both.
I feel like we're in "spend mode" so like Lisa, I'll be scraping the bottom of the barrel to try to come up with five things
1) We had a subcontractor visiting at work so my company bought our team lunch every day
2) Reusing all the moving boxes from when our flooring had to be repaired to move our son back home
3) My company has season tickets for our local minor league baseball team that they share with employees. We aren't huge baseball fans but I got free tickets and parking pass so we can have a cheap date night
4) I got some amaryllis bulbs from a neighbor on our local Buy Nothing group
5) Finally returned an order to Lands End that has been sitting my room for months waiting for me to deal with it
@Beverly, I'm in spend mode too, as my house keeps needing maintenance. I'm fortunate that I had many years maintenance-free in which to bulk up my "house maintenance" account. Hang in there! Some of these things come in waves.
Isn't that the truth?? I had a bad run there with appliances for a while.
1) I am entering my second week of camp nursing and being able to eat for free all week. Probably my favorite perk. I wish every job came with 3 meals a day!
2) I finally signed up for the ibotta app and got in on the 9 free back to school offers at Walmart. Because I completed 9 offers, I got the $15 bonus, so on my first trip using Ibotta, I scored $37.00. I realize it won't usually be that good, but it gave me a chance to learn the app.
3) I did have a few hours off last weekend, (no meals...ha!), so when I was at Walmart getting the deals, I picked up a couple extra grocery items and was able to eat cheap for those meals, rather than going out.
4) I drove through several free areas of the White Mountain National Park, but chose not to pay $39 to drive up Mt. Washington.
5)I'm having enough free time to check out some side hustles. What are your favorites, I wonder?
1. I got $20 worth of free stuff from the Ibotta app! If you use it, be sure to get the awesome Back to School freebies!
2. I was making an online purchase anyway, so I took the extra time to go through my credit card's portal for an extra 6% back.
3. I planted some basil that, despite my enormous black thumb, has sprouted! It's so expensive to buy here, and I do use a lot of it, so growing it is a savings.
4. We avoided fast food and eating out, and I cooked a bunch of things that were languishing in the freezer.
5. I listed a bunch of things online.
Its been a long time since I sold on eBay but you had to pay to list an item. Can you leave them up now without an extra charge? I wondered how you could leave them until they sold.
If you do a "buy it now" option, then yep, they can just sit there until they sell!
I grew my own tomatoes and zucchini! I also grow my own flowers and can cut fresh bouquets each week. I made my own pizza. I force my kids to brush and floss thoroughly and the upside is no cavities to pay for on our twice annual check ups (today)! We'll eat leftovers for lunch and avoid food waste and cook at home for dinner every night this week. My husband and I had a date night last night when his mom was here to watch the kids (free babysitting) and we got tacos (cheap date!). You're inspiring me to list books I don't use on ebay! Because of your posts, I listed some history curriculum I didn't love and it sold! THANK YOU! Our new history curriculum, I just bought the manual and am checking out all the other books from the library : ) So more frugal wins!!
I finally pulled out all the bread ends that have been taking up space in the freezer and made a giant french toast casserole for multiple breakfasts. Happy children.
This year, I have discovered that I really enjoy making arrangements of wildflowers for my kitchen table. In fact, I like it so much, I did a whole post about it today. We have really great wildflowers that line our dirt road, and so I can have a free arrangement in my kitchen all summer long. I just have to spend the time to make them look nice, rather than like weeds in an old milk bottle.
My husband went into the Outside World to drop our son off at the airport for his trip to see Grandma, and I sent along the school supplies list with him. I really don't like ordering that stuff online, because it find it difficult to get the quantities I want without paying a big markup. Even with four kids in school, I do not need 20 glue sticks.
I found a pair of like-new Converse for my eldest son on a consignment site that he can use for his daily shoes. He needs gym shoes too, which is kind of expensive now that he's in men's sizes, but then I remembered the sneakers my sister left here when she was visiting and said we should just keep or throw away. They don't look at all like women's shoes, and they actually fit him, so he can use those for his gym class once a week.
@kristin @ going country, you inspired me to go look at your wildflower bouquets - they're beautiful! You have a great touch (and lovely wildflowers). I was just this week feeling grateful for all the wildflowers along our road - especially the purple-blue chicory and white Queen Anne's lace. The last time I tried to bring some inside, they had tick and ants all over, so you make good points about how to prepare a successful bouquet! : )
@Suz, Thank you! We do have lovely wildflowers here. I feel very lucky that there are so many right around our house. And yes, I brought many ants inside before I figured out where they were coming from. 🙂
@Suz,
Not to be a buzzkill, and maybe you know this already - but the flowers of wild hemlock resemble Queen Anne's Lace. Even handling wild hemlock can make you sick (not to scare anyone, but the hospital where I work had a very ill patient who had cleared wild hemlock from some property - the hemlock exposure caused respiratory problems). I have read that the flowers of Queen Anne's Lace have a small maroon "dot" in the center, where wild hemlock does not.
I'm no plant expert, just sharing what I've read.
@Liz B., excellent point - giant hogweed looks like Queen Anne's Lace too and causes severe irritation - that happened to a friend, so I just appreciate any of that type of flower at a distance now!
1. I have been shelf cooking this week.
2. My college aged son has been needing a space saver desk for awhile now. I had been perusing for over a year. Found one he LIKED for 133 dollars on clearance and free shipping that was regularly 379! It was an insomnia online peruse!
3. Been hanging clothes out on the line. NOT TOWELS. Hubby seldom complains but will complain about crunchy towels. ( crunchy towels do not bother me!)
4. Really trying to keep heat out of house in various ways. Shades and curtains closed, no stove cooking, etc
We have had 17 inches of rain in my area in last month. This is not a typo.
@Stephanie,
Oh man! I only have a general idea of where you are (if I'm remembering correctly as a fellow Michigander) but it's crazy how much rain y'all have gotten! I never think of your area as a big flood zone. I hope your living situation has been safe!
@Stephanie, I solve the “crunchy” towel issue by tumbling them on air fluff after line drying. Lol. No one knows!
@Julia, I was advised by a doctor who knows me pretty well (lol) to quickly run everything from line-drying through the 10 minutes no-heat air-fluff dryer setting- gets rid of pollen and maybe little bugs, lint, crunchiness, etc. but doesn’t ruin that fantastic outdoor-dried natural scent! For those of us with seasonal airborne allergies or other respiratory issues, seems like a good idea. I only use a tiny touch of fabric softener in the winter to reduce static.
1) We ate up lots of leftover watermelon! I had bought four watermelons to feed 15 people at my house the week before, and thought we would probably use three of them with one leftover to eat later. Well, I way overestimated, as we didn’t even completely finish two watermelons, so this past week my hubby, teen daughter, niece (who is living with us for the summer) and I ate up the rest of watermelon #2 and finished off watermelon #3. One more watermelon to go! good thing I love watermelon!
2) I picked green beans and garden tomatoes from our garden—yay! They tasted delicious!
3) I learned how to save tomato seeds from a YouTube video. I have saved simple seeds before such as Pumpkin, and such but have always been intimidated by saving tomato seeds. No longer! Especially since the tomatoes I grew this year were heirloom and seeds are either out of stock or prices are rising! So at least I will have some seeds “for sure” for next year!
4) After learning about LLBean having the Peanuts line of things, I quickly cashed in some of my “Bean Bucks” I had been accumulating for two free Snoopy tee shirts! I would have preferred something in short sleeve, but the colors that I preferred were both in a long sleeve version, so oh well! At least I will have two fun shirts this fall, when it finally cools off!
5) I got some underwear from the Kohl’s clearance rack, and had free $10 in Kohl’s cash to bring it even further down. Not NEARLY as exciting as a free Snoopy tee shirt, but I am still happy to have a $40 item out the door for $8.00 instead.
Pictures and more on my blog at: https://chickadeecove.blogspot.com/2021/07/frugal-fridayweek-of-july-11-17-2021.html
I love reading about your selling your used books on eBay. I have a ton of homeschool books that we are finished with, so REALLY need to start doing this myself! It just feels complicated, but you are convincing me that it really isn’t!
~Susan M. In Chattanooga, Tennessee
@Susan M., When we have overbought watermelon, I slice it and dehydrate it. Very tasty!
1. I caught the package of raw chicken chilling in our fridge on its last day of being cook-able, and I made it last night for dinner.
2. Today I'm using some veggie scraps and chicken bones to make broth for the freezer.
3. I hemmed a pair of my husband's jeans. We're both below average height--we have to hem just about every pair of pants we buy! It's the one sewing skill that's saved me the most money over the years.
4. We got my serger repaired. My sewing machine and my serger have required only $65.00 CAD in servicing/repairs over the last 17 years, and are incredibly useful to have. My mom steered me towards choosing quality machines, and it was so, so worth it.
5. A huge fail that cancels out all of the above savings: I messed up on setting up parking at work and wound up paying 5x more than I would have if I'd been more proactive in setting it up. Hospital parking is SO expensive. Lesson most definitely learned!
Here's a riddle: When is an apron a pinafore?
It's not been a great week for me, money wise but here's some highlights of things that went well:
1.) Listed a couple of unopened anime Blu-rays on eBay. They haven't sold yet but better to consider them out of my collection than to keep taking up space, I guess.
2.) Took advantage of a sale to pick up some things related to a hobby of mine. Now I just have to find the time to enjoy them.
3.) Paid my homeowner's insurance in full to get a slight discount.
4.) Have been automatically saving for years so no worrying about financing now that apparently we need roof work done.
5.) Working some overtime. Always a good way to bring in some extra cash.
Not frugal: I totally missed a dentist appointment and now I owe a $25 missed appointment fee. OOPS!
@Battra92, I find dentist appointments especially easy to miss since you make them 6 months in advance. (So hard for us that I've stopped doing it 6 months out, but of course that comes with its own hazards.) And @ your first line - If that's a real riddle, I give up! All my linear brain can think of is the logical answer that a pinafore is the type of apron that's like a sleeveless dress, with a top.
1. Home alone so eating out of the freezer and pantry.
2. Sent in a complaint on a La Roche Posay sunscreen that I got sunburned with after 15 min in the sun despite beeing spf50+. Got a package in the mail with a 400ml bodylotion, anti-wrinkle serum and facelotion as a compensation.
3. Ate the first strawberry from the garden. Looking like it will be a good harvest this year.
4. Refreshed the online listings for clothes I’m trying to sell. Sold five items and made $190. Yay!
5. Since I’m home alone I’ve turned off the heating and just add some wool to my outfits.
It’s been a busy weekend with friends visiting from out of state.
1. Day 1 of the visit, we had them over to our house for lunch. We made personal pizzas (from scratch) and had a topping bar, so everyone could have their pizza the way they wanted it.
2. After lunch, we went to a free national historic park and museum. Educational and frugal!
3. Day 2 of the visit, we drove into the city to attend a art event. Those tickets were costly, but paid for months ago as a birthday gift from us to one of our guests.
We were able to reserve a parking space on an app in advance and chose the cheapest one within reasonable walking distance to the venue. We brought water and snacks for the day.
4. Our friends treated us to lunch. My husband and I often split a plate when we’re traveling, because it’s usually plenty of food, less expensive and there is no food waste.
5. Our neighbors kindly shared some of their garden bounty with us. I love fresh tomatoes!
Upcoming move is coming closer, and all semblance of normal life and routines are gone out the window.
1. Skipping regular grocery shopping this week as we are eating down on what's in the fridge/pantry. Some more takeout though.
2. Called around bike stores to find bike boxes for our bikes in the move.
3. Stopped at my consignment store to cash out my credit of sold items. Of course I had to take one final browse through my favorite racks. Found a pair of almost unused kids Under Armor sneakers for $11 for one of my twins (as luck has it, the other twin had gotten a pair from there earlier), and a pair of the exact kind and color of canvas sneakers (Chucks) that I've been looking for myself for $22.
4. Made ice coffee in the afternoons from leftover morning coffee. Leftovers for lunch.
5. For entertainment, swimming every day at the pool, the more we use it, the more the season pass makes sense.
DCLUTTERING!!!
(I'm very excited about this)
Roommate and I are decluttering the (very large) attic. Even my generally-organized self found numerous useful things I didn't know I had. I will donate most of the things so others can get good use of them, but I will sell anything that 1) I can get more than $20 for and 2) isn't too much trouble to list. For example, I expect it's too much work to take apart the custom crate that is holding a glass fireplace screen.
SELLING BOOKS
Powell's Bookstore of Portland, OR, will buy you used books if they're in very good condition, for either store credit or PayPal. You enter the ISBN and their computerized system gets back to you in 15 minutes. They'll pay for shipping, too.
My problem is that I have a couple of hundred books to sell. I found a free app that scans the book's bar code and yields a downloadable ISBN (there's quite a few steps in the process). Once I got that list - it took quite some time to find the app, learn the steps, and scan everything - it was easy to paste the list into Powell's website.
FREE FOOD / FRIENDLY GATHERING
Yesterday Nando's Peri-Peri was giving away chicken quarters to anyone who donated non-perishables to celebrate Nelson Mandela, and I had several jars of hot sauce to give away. I also invited some friends to join me. A good time was had by all.
BORROWED MEDICAL SUPPLIES
Different friends loaned me a wheelchair and a knee scooter, for my relative with the broken ankle..
@WilliamB, As usually I forgot one. Got free STARZ trial week to watch a movie and, natch, am watching a lot of things on STARZ for the next few days.
@WilliamB, I LOVE Nando's! 27 years ago, I was traveling (on $6 a day, all-inclusive). I was staying in Lagos, Portugal and there was a great hole-in-the-wall, Rosie's Cantina. All they did was sell peri-peri chicken and buckets of cheap beer. You can imagine how EXCITED when I first found a place in North America that sold it, so many years ago up in Montreal, no less.
July has been a low-income month in the grab bag that is freelance, but that's been OK since we have had more than enough unusual and/or annual events to make the time balance a little simpler. But that has also meant unusual attention to frugality.
Somehow when frugality is most called for is when I least want to do it and it requires most self control.
1. Harvested (and ate) the first two tomatoes and first two jalapeños from the garden. (The vine plants are not doing anything helpful yet, so they need to get on the ball here.)
2. Organized a rummage sale at church (did I mention unusual activities) which should help me clean the last few items from my friend who passed away out of the garage as well as get some other things out of the house that feels more crowded with every inch the kids grow. I've never even so much as had a garage sale before ... the learning curve is something else.
3. Bought eight bags of bread-style stuffing for 75 cents each and it turns out they're twice as big as a box of Stove Top (or knockoff Stove Top). Pre-seasoned stuffing mix makes the best meatloaf and meatballs, IMO, so I feel like I won a grocery lottery of some kind. Ha.
4. Almost all our 4-H projects use or reuse things we have here already. Spreading the costs of the not-free projects out over all the projects makes all of them seem awfully cheap (in everything but time).
5. The kids have read a zillion books (and I have read a few) on OverDrive/Libby this summer. School has had the library open a couple hours a week as well. The third-grader borrowed a graphic novel the size of a small dictionary ("Dragon Hoops" by Gene Luen Yang) which three of the kids ended up reading and enjoying. Real books are so lovely and ebooks are so convenient. Free. Not sad at all. 🙂
It interests me that so many people close their shades. I know it's smart, but man, my mood goes straight south in a darkened room unless I'm asleep. I guess I'll spend those dollars and call it mental health attention.
1. Redeemed a mailed Kroger coupon for Betty Crocker cake mix. This was the second free cake mix I've received. I'd rather have the free jar of peanut butter coupons they used to send me!
2. Signed up for a free subscription to Bon Appetit (no credit card info required).
3. Filled up my car and saved 30 cents per gallon.
4. Sold a curb find for $20.
5. Keeping my a/c set on 78 during the day. It gets pretty warm by 4 pm, but I'm managing.
1. Sold our baby bassinet on Facebook marketplace.
2. There is a new book I want to read (actually it's an old book that I've never read) and I made use of the library rather than buying it.
3. Sold our old dining room set (which was a gift to us) and it paid for our "new" (used) sets for our kitchen and dining room.
4. There was a movie from my childhood that I knew my kids would love and I wanted to get it for them. I wondered if I would need to buy it but I found the entire thing on youtube for free and the quality was quite good!
5. We did a trip to the salvage grocery shop and cleaned up on things like coffee, hot and cold cereal, crackers, condiments, cans of tuna, etc. We love this place. You have to pay attention to things like expiration dates for certain items, but all in all it's wonderful.
1. One pound of meat is no longer enough for our family with growing kids, so I added chopped onion and cooked lentils to our taco meat last night to make it stretch farther. We even had enough leftover that I'll be able to make a quesadilla for someone for lunch this week.
2. Thanks to a reader tip from last week's energy post, I have tonight's crock-pot dinner cooking out on the back deck instead of in my kitchen. No need for extra a/c to combat the heat from dinner. (Also, I think this will make my husband happy as I think he gets a little joy out of every time I use the outlet he added near the serving table on our back deck.)
3. My daughter got a Target gift card for her birthday, but our town isn't big enough for a Target and we had to go to a bigger city to use it. Since we were going out for the night, we used some free Taco Bell coupons the kids got through the summer reading program to make for a very inexpensive dinner for 5.
4. While at Target, my other daughter saw a toy my son would love and wanted to give it to him for his birthday (which is tomorrow). Even though it was on clearance and marked half off, it was more than we usually spend for gifts among siblings so we got the two girls to agree to go in together and it will be from both of them.
5. Lots of free entertainment lately... Playdate at a friend's house, park playdate with my daughter's classmates, swimming at a friend's pool, swimming at the pool at the gym where we have a free membership, and storytime at the library.
Before I even do an FFT, I have to say that Kristen's #2 instantly brought to mind (for this Anne of Green Gables fan, anyway) the first line of Anne's House of Dreams, as Anne's getting ready for her long-delayed marriage to Gilbert:
"Thanks be, I'm done with geometry, learning or teaching it," said Anne Shirley, a trifle vindictively, as she thumped a somewhat battered volume of Euclid into a big chest of books... [Note: Nowadays, of course, she'd be listing it on eBay!]
Oh, I had forgotten about that quote! But I am entirely on the same page as Anne here.
Now, my FFT, It's Raining...Houseplants Edition:
(1) I'm as tired of rain as anyone else in the Eastern US (and wishing just as hard that we could ship some of it to our friends and relations in the parched Far West). But at least no one's had to listen to me complain about being Our Lady of the Perpetual Watering Can this summer.
(2) I've fallen heir to about 2/3 of the houseplants collected by one of my two recently deceased friends. The friend's widow is NOT a houseplant fan, so she moved everything out into their backyard, announced that she wasn't bringing anything back in, and put the collection up for grabs. Unfortunately, (a) there were a lot of cacti and succulents, and (b) then it started raining, so not everything could be saved. But I estimate that at current big-box-store prices, I (along with Ms. Bestest Neighbor, who has also scarfed up a few) have saved several hundred dollars in houseplants and unusual pots.
(3) Along with other commenters, I am enjoying putting together bouquets from the garden and taking them along to dinners and other gatherings with friends. I'm growing more (deer-resistant) flowers this year because I'm tired of losing veggies to Bambi--but who know that zinnias, blanket flowers, and even dill blossoms would be such fun to arrange? (And, of course, there's no problem finding vases. The thrift stores have more FTD vases than they know what to do with.)
(4) Thank goodness, I am resuming something like a social life. More interestingly, DH seems to be developing one of his own at the nursing home. He quite enjoys hanging out in the common areas watching TV with his new friends.
(5) Finally, I got my first Shingrix shot today at our Wegmans pharmacy. DH had a nasty case of shingles about 15 years ago, and although he got the Shingrix shots as soon as they became available, I was recently reminded that I haven't had mine. An ounce of prevention...
Aww, I love that your DH is making a friend group at his new home!
And I'd like you to send a little of that rain down south to the Mid-Atlantic; we are awfully dry here.
@A. Marie, So great that you're both getting some branching out in social life!
1. Inspired by comments last week about how to use less electricity, I cooked chicken breasts in my slow cooker the other day. I am doing the same today with a different sauce. I put the slow cooker outside to minimize the amount of heat in the house.
2. My husband has returned to the office but he packs a lunch every day and I find that I am better at eating bits and bobs for lunch when it is just me in the house.
3. A friend and I got together last week. It was too hot for walking so she just came to my house to visit, rather than going out for lunch or coffee.
4. I had too much watermelon and a neighbor had too many tomatoes so we swapped. A friend gave me a cucumber she'd just picked when I met her for a walk this morning.
5. I bought a class pass from the yoga studio I take classes at before the price went up. I still had some passes but I wanted to take advantage of the lower price.
1. The garden is producing so what we eat is determined by what is ready to harvest. We have already eaten enough to pay for what I spent on seeds and seed starting soil, so now we are eating for free. Because we also have a freezer full of protein, like salmon, our grocery bills are minimal.
2. Husband touched up paint all over the house. I don't have to use my wheelchair a lot in the house but when I do I have a tendency to bash into stuff and I leave marks on the walls. I figure this is frugal because it catches things before they get worse. Plus, he used paint from the original paint job, which he had carefully stored, so no money spent.
3. This is an old house, and we still had one single pane window left. It spends most of the window frosted over---on the inside when it is more than 20 below zero! Husband replaced it with a triple pane. Expensive but he did the work himself, so that was frugal.
4. My friend has a lot of anxiety issues and her husband had to go out of town. She was terrified of staying home alone. I offered to let her stay here but she asked to borrow our dog instead. He has been to her house before and likes her, so off he went for the weekend. She is a runner, so he got more exercise than usual and came home tired and accompanied by two dozen chocolate chip cookies as a thank you. I am not sure my dog would have protected her but he barks like a maniac at strange noises and that was enough for her.
5. Library.
I grew up in a town in SC where there were several peach orchards. In fact, it was common summer job to work at the peach shed in high school. My mom used to deliver mail in an area where they would set aside a bushel basket for her every other week in the summer. Homemade peach ice cream was the normal use for them.
1. Painted our garage door, using paint and a brush we had on hand. Soaked and cleaned the brush in a glass peanut butter jar, which was then washed out and ready for its next reuse.
2. Still using up sample tubes of toothpaste from the dentist before buying a big tube.
3. Peeled and chopped all the fresh fruit that people at my house had lost interest in and made individual custard-topped compotes to add to my lunches. Custard is much cheaper to make than buying yogurt.
4. Also peeled and chopped some aging carrots and potatoes, tossed them in olive oil and roasted them to add as a side dish to my lunches. So good!
5. Used our trusty bar of fels naphtha soap to scrub out the smear of paint my husband got on his new work trousers. A bar lasts for years and can remove almost any stain.
1. I picked up 7 Lunchables off Buy Nothing, which I used for my son's lunches this week
2. We picked raspberries and blueberries from a local farm for $2.50/pint, which is a good price for local berries around here. My kid's promptly devoured them.
3. We decided to take our Child Tax credit now and invest it; 7 months of extra interest!
4. We used garlic and snow peas from our garden to cook dinner. We used homemade chicken stock in a pasta dish. I used some tuna fish, we had in the cupboard, for my lunches at work. We had leftover dry cereal in the cupboard also. So I poured milk over it and added blueberries for my breakfasts this week. It's like overnight oats and yummy!
5. My in-laws gifted us some money, with the contingency we use it for a pop-up camper only. We are buying a used camper off Facebook Marketplace tomorrow, that is very well maintained, and we will still have quite a bit of money left over. The camper will make it possible for is to camp a bit longer, here in Western NY, as it has heat. We currently tent camp frequently, so the camper will bring us much joy!
* Got a 2 for 1 coupon to go to the movies. I will use it with hubby on the discount day, which will bring the tickets down to 3$ each
* Kids are at grandma's for 2 weeks. Hubby and I decided to keep our "holiday'' really low cost/no cost activities. See #1!
* Friend bought back tickets we had for a show that we can't go to anymore, full paid price. Yay!
* Bare minimum for groceries for the rest of the month, as the kids are gone and we already have plenty of food in the house+garden is producing big time. Aiming for 20$ top.
* Going back to work after 1,5 month sick leave without pay. Fortunatly I have the possibility of getting extra shifts, which I will take to cover this time without pay.
both my parents were pack rats. i try to be organized and clean. my hubby had the cleanest bachelor pad i had ever seen. was that ever false advertising. he is an extreme pack rat. and he never can find what he wants when he wants it. guess who the kids take after. not me for sure. but visitors always tell me my place is orderly, homey and so nice. so i am not perfect but i try my best so that my kids can have friends over. i never could have friends over the place was always a mess. in my ideal world everything would have its own place to live. and i would know where to find it
when i need it. but i am one block from target and two blocks from trader joes. and we don' have a car because we live in the city.