Five Frugal Things | abandoned treasures
1. My sister-in-law and I did some more treasure hunting
It's been a while since we did a hunt at the abandoned house that my brother bought, but we found out he's sending in demo crews this week.
So then she and I were like, "AHHHHH! We have to rescue all the things!"
We loaded up tubs of kitchenware and other household goods, so now she has a bunch of bins full of treasures (!), and so do I.
What will we do with it all?
Well, we're not sure. We just both hate to have useful things thrown away, so whether we sell or give away this stuff, we will be happy!
2. I snagged a bowl as a jewelry dish
You know how you have a few favorite pieces of jewelry that you wear all the time, and you don't feel like actually putting them away in your jewelry box?
Well, I saw this little dish in one of the abandoned house bins and I thought it would be perfect to hold a few earrings.
I gave it a good scrub and now it looks like a whole new dish.
This is much better than being thrown in the trash by the demo crew. 🙂
3. I tried to fix my glasses
I hopped into the car the other day, picked up my glasses, and tried to clean them off with my t-shirt. But, the one side just cracked, even though I was doing nothing out of the ordinary.
My dad offered to try some of his special plastic glue on them, which was very sweet because left to myself, I totally would have just used Krazy glue.
The jury is still out on whether the fix will hold, but I am giving myself points for not just throwing them away.
4. I batched trips with Sonia to drop her car off
She had a check engine light situation to address on the same day I had to take Zoe to and from some classes right by the mechanic.
So, we just coordinated the pickup and drop-off time with the already-necessary trips to ferry Zoe around.
I dunno if you have looked at pump prices lately, but this is a very good time to not use lots of gas!
5. I got Zoe a different gift
So you know how last week I gave Zoe some birthday earrings that were absolutely obliterated, and then I was all, "Yay, I complained and now a pair of replacement earrings is on the way!"?
Well. The second pair arrived in even worse condition.
(My theory? A dump truck rolled over the first pair. Then they brought in a steamroller to flatten the next ones. 😉 )
I am not about to pay for earrings that are repeatedly ruined, so I got a refund from that seller, and Zoe picked out a cute frog pin from Etsy instead.
And I am happy to report that this pin arrived intact. Whew.
Kristen,
The dish you salvaged is lovely! Have a great day!
@Vicki Skonieczny, I agree! Such a beautiful pattern. It looks just like the pattern on a set of tea cups and saucers I bought at a thrift store a few years ago (might actually be the same). They are so lovely to drink tea out of! Makes it feel like a special occasion.
It's a Johann Haviland pattern; I believe it's from 1974.
I would love to see all the treasures you found. The cow cookie jar in the photo is adorable. Perhaps a reveal of sorts?
It’s been a busy week and the weather was wonderful. My FFTs revolved around spring chores.
1) I needed to have my flower beds mulched this week ahead of a club meeting I am hosting at my house today. Since this is a busy time of year for the landscaping companies, I was unable to get on the list until the end of March. So I decided to do it myself. I had 4 yards of mulch delivered (a yard is equivalent to 14 bags) and spent 3 days shoveling, carting and spreading it. Doing it this way saved $200, there weren’t any plastic bags to go in the landfill, and I spent several outdoors. My back is a little sore though.
2) I finally found the desk that I was looking for on Facebook Marketplace.it was a bargain! My home office is slowly getting set up. This makes me happy.
3) I’m slowly decluttering and organizing in an effort to get rid of the storage space that I rent. I have used this to house my business equipment, supplies, and inventory. However, I received notification that the rate was increasing to $225 a month! That’s insane! It’s like a puzzle, but I’m slowly finding places to put everything. In Florida, there are no basements, and most attics are not really suited for long- term storage. It’s tough and too much stuff makes me jittery.
4) I bought a Lily Pulitzer dress at an estate sale and a brand new pair of summer sandals for $10. Much needed. My summer wardrobe is sad.
5) All the usual things cooking from scratch, drinking primarily filtered water, and brewing my own coffee. Washing my big dog myself, cleaning my house and reading library books.
Wishing everyone peace and good health!
@Bee,
Bee, I know of about 3 houses with basements in my part of Florida. The houses are regarded by other Floridians around here as something akin to space aliens. It is indeed hard not to be able to use attic or basement space, I agree. I'm trying to declutter my house as well - good luck to us both.
Yes, I need to do a whole blog post about my abandoned house treasures. I have been posting quite a few on my instagram if you want to check that out. http://www.instagram.com/thefrugalgirl
I recognize that metal pie/cake cover in your second photo from my childhood. Everything from that little design along the side to the wooden acorn handle brings back memories. I found many good treats under ours over the years. I think my Dad still has it in his kitchen.
@JenRR, I inherited this exact piece from a great aunt! I love learning that it was a bit ubiquitous for the times. It's a great kitchen staple.
@BeckyB, JennRR, I have it, too! I love how the bottom part can be reversible! And I love the acorn!
I love the dish for jewelry - I have a couple of those around my house, like in the kitchen where I use one place my rings while cleaning up. Another good thing yo can do is glue a super magnet on the back of one to use at your sewing table. It will keep pins and needles from scattering around.
if it's just the jewelry findings that are crushed, you could replace them fairly easily.
Unfortunately, the whole post was bent until it was flush with the earring! I tried to gently bend the posts up, but they just snapped.
@Kristen, Those earrings come from Ali Express in China. There are a ton of them on Etsy, Amazon etc if you want to try again. Heh. Ones without posts.
I have a pair of beautiful antique earrings that I finally remembered to take to a jeweler to have the awful screw backs removed and posts added. Two days later the jewelers closed for a month. Such is life in a summer town. I guess I can wait longer!
1. We just signed a lease on a smaller, cheaper house---in the long run this will save us thousands! Very excited. It's also closer to work and school, so gas savings will be great.
2. With a move upcoming, I am taking a vow to do no unnecessary spending during Lent. In fact, we are going to be decluttering during Lent, which I love to do before a move.
3. I made chicken and rice casserole last night and instead of using boneless, skinless thighs as the recipe calls for, I deboned and skinned regular ones, because they were a better deal, and saved 5 bucks. (This was actually my husband's idea, because he does the grocery shopping, but he was relieved I was happy to do the work to save the $. And to be completely honest, he helped with the deboning, because he's really good at that.)
4. Made a cheap eggless crazy cake for Shrove Tuesday using some bananas past their eating prime, and my youngest is very excited about it as it bakes in the oven.
5. Read three books through my library on my Kindle.
@Karen, Yum! Now you've got chicken and rice casserole on my mind - I gotta make some soon! (So good)
@Dori, I use this recipe https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chicken_and_rice_casserole/
And it is very good as written; that said, I first adapted it to be dairy-free for my father in law. I just used all chicken broth instead of sour cream + cream + chicken broth. He loved this casserole!
Then some of our family asked if I could take the mushrooms out, which I did, and my only caveat would be if you do that, add some extra liquid to make up for the liquid the mushrooms would have given to the casserole. It was a little dry, but my youngest still ate three bowls and told me that "taking out the mushrooms was a good choice."
Oooh, that treasure trove from the old house makes my fingers itch! I used to get opportunities like that when DH and his partner were in the rental property business, but not any more. A lot of the abandoned stuff was filthy junk, but not all of it by any means. (You wouldn't believe some of the things the kids at the party-school university left behind.)
Now, FFT, February's Finally Over Edition:
(1) Just got the bill for the credit card I use for most of my day-to-day expenses, and it was $170 lower than last month's. So Low-Spend February has had at least some good effect. I may try extending it into Low-Spend March.
(2) Increasing daylight and improving weather are permitting longer walks in my 'hood. I found a $1 bill in the middle of a street on yesterday's walk. (This is the best time of year for found money on the streets in Upstate NY, because of snowmelt.)
(3) My garage door wouldn't open with any of the remote openers yesterday. After using some language unbecoming a lady and a Janeite, I RTFM and finally got the door going. Minimum of $100 for a service call saved.
(4) I've finally used up the oldest stack of firewood in our main wood storage area (the old attached garage). The wood pallets that had been supporting this stack are pretty well broken down--so much so that I'm using the pieces for kindling. Waste not, want not.
(5) As soon as the weather improves enough, I'm going to be joining Bee in some DIY mulching. My recently widowed friend up the street has seven or eight bags sitting in her back yard that she says I can have (gardening was her DH's department, and she doesn't want the mulch). It's pretty soggy, and I'm going to need some help getting it down here, but it's free.
@A. Marie, "language unbecoming a lady and a Janeite" is priceless
RTFM was a new one for me. I googled it. 🙂
I hate reading manuals too!
@Kristen, It's a classic in the software world, where I'm from.
@Rose,
It is! And no one does!
@A. Marie, Love the free-to-you mulch! Just want to suggest that you use your wheelbarrow and not to bring back the full bags if they are too heavy, break the bags at your neighbours and load the wheelbarrow with what you can comfortably lift. Steps with a half empty wheelbarrow, even if there are more of them, will be much easier on your body.. and, of course, spread out the mulch spreading over a few days! I Love your posts.
You are amazing in your willingness to want to clean up all.the.stuff. I'd be running the other way.
I took my daughter to a fun event at our local art museum Saturday. They have set up a mini golf course which incorporates works of art in the museum. It's kinda pricey to do but I discovered that there is a special deal for 50% off a yearly family membership. It was only about $10 more than the admission cost and now we can go as a family multiple times, so, score!
I dusted off some fun but labor intensive meal recipes to increase the fun quotient at meals while avoiding eating out.
The usual. Eating up leftovers, using Duo to contact my son (free) rather than calling him, using the library.
Oh my gosh! I have that exact cake tin in the second photo! The piece with the little wooden acorn on top!! I did a "treasure hunt" in my great aunt's kitchen when she was transitioning into assisted living (with her permission of course). I love it so much and use it for any cake that needs transport. It's pretty, practical and lightweight. Great find:)
That's so funny!! I am curious to see what it will look like when it is all cleaned up.
I think searching for treasures in an abandoned house sounds like so much fun! The dish you cleaned up for your jewelry is gorgeous!
Let's see, frugal things...
- I roasted a chicken and today am going to make broth from the bones and such.
- We bought our yearly golf memberships the other day and, while this seems expensive when we pay it, we play so much golf at this course that by the end of the season each round has effectively cost us about $10. So much better than paying PER ROUND!
- I started my tomato seeds for this year's garden. I'm excited to get back to some gardening and I know I'll end up saving money on produce this summer.
- We used up leftovers in a variety of ways and I managed to save some potatoes that had grown LOTS of eyes...I roasted 5 or 6 at once and we used them with several meals.
- We've been eating out of the freezer, which is great!
It is super fun! And I am lucky that my new sister-in-law can see treasures under the dirt, just like me. She is my kindred spirit!
That jewelry bowl is absolutely beautiful!!! What a great find!!
1. I started my peppers plants! I've got sweet bell peppers in a variety of colors, jalapeños, and... new for this year... Poblanos! Buying poblanos is usually my biggest expense in making salsa, so I'm very excited to be growing my own this year.
2. In addition to using 2 end-of-season clearance planting trays I bought last fall, I saved 2 cupcake trays and they are holding old yogurt cups that will each contain a pepper plant.
3. Used my fabric shaver to bring new life into one of my husband's sweaters and one of my shirts.
4. Accepted some hand-me-down dresses from a friend for my girls - some of which are in great shape and some that just need a little care. I used the fabric shaver on one and it looks great now and is being worn today. One just needs a little button in the back and another one (a fancy dress) needs an interior seam mended.
5. I had an internal debate and said no to a couple of tempting (and unhealthy) purchases. Today is paczki day and our local bakery fills some with chocolate cream and it's seriously amazing. But my body doesn't need it and my wallet doesn't need to buy them for everyone. (Since I rarely go anywhere alone I'd have to buy them for everyone.) I have a number of things that I'm saving for, so I shouldn't waste my money on donuts.
@Ruth T, oh, I failed in your #5. 4 paczki for $3 at Meijer. They are probably even tastier at a "real" bakery but the ones I bought made my mouth happy. Not my hips, though ....
@Kris,
Good thing they're only around one week a year, right? 😉
That little dish is so sweet. Every time I see your photo of that kitchen, I think that someone lived there who made a nice little home and then something happened. It looks like time stopped in that photo.
For the FFT, I used some Walgreens rewards that were about to expire and bought a bottle of acetaminophen tablets for 45 cents out of pocket. Used a Walmart gift card to buy gas: there's no longer a discount for doing so, but I already had the card for that purpose. Used four store coupons from our local grocery store before they expired for bacon, oatmeal, canned goods, and cat litter. Covid is still raging where we live, so our cheap date night was popping popcorn on the stove and eating a big bowl of it while catching up on Star Trek: Discovery. My husband had a hankering for Italian food, so I made a big pot of tomato basil sauce livened up with sweet Italian sausage (bought earlier with a coupon and frozen). The sauce components and the pasta were bought on sale. For dessert we had brownies made from a box mix bought on sale.
Bonus: Because I was doing the February No Spend challenge sponsored by Donna Freedman at her Surviving and Thriving blog, there were things I put on a list to buy later. Now it's March and I find that most of them we didn't need after all.
@Ruby, "Now it’s March and I find that most of them we didn’t need after all."
There's a lesson to be learned there.
It is really frozen in time; I think it must have been Christmas when this lady went to the hospital for the last time, because there are lots of dusty Christmas decorations all around, plus Christmas lights.
I always wonder what it looked like in there before it sat abandoned for years.
That little bowl is such a great save!
1. Charged my car for free at work (especially frugal when I compare what it would have cost if I had to fill my tank at the pump). During the pandemic, we moved a little over an hour away from my job, knowing that they might make me come back into the office at some point (though we've proven that we can successfully do our jobs remotely). Well now that the omicron surge is abating in our area, they want me back in the office once a week. So I'm not thrilled to be back at the office but at least my "fuel" was paid for.
2. Seeing Kristen's Safeway freebies reminded me that I didn't re-install my grocery app when I changed phones. So I did and saw that I had a $5 off coupon (w/minimum $5 purchase) and used that to subsidize our expensive (but delicious) apple purchase and a few pantry items.
3. I wanted to get something small for my mom and sisters-in-law so I stopped by the farmers market and picked up some $5 flowers. Brought them home and re-used some tissue, tulle, and ribbon scraps I had lying around the house to wrap three bouquets. I was surprised (and kinda delighted) by how just a few minutes and zero additional expense heightened the flowers' beauty.
4. Used up a jar of chickpeas just in the nick of time. I had previously cooked and frozen them and put them in the refrigerator to thaw but then kept putting off using them. Made fresh homemade hummus that the whole family enjoyed for way less than the $4 store bought version.
5. We somehow misplaced younger daughter’s aligner (she’s doing something similar to invisalign for her orthodontia) and luckily it didn’t cost us anything to replace it. She’s been really good about taking care of everything and this is the first time we’ve had to come in for anything extra.
@CrunchyCake, putting anything in a fancy wrapper makes it nicer. This is as true as an apple for the teacher (imagine wrapping it in a bit of leftover tissue paper and scrap of ribbon) and it is for a painting. My framer once showed me a $12 poster mounted in $450-worth of matting and frames (inner and outer) and boy-howdy did it look amazing.
@WilliamB, Definitely. For me, this one was so satisfying because it made use of so many pretty things that would have otherwise been used once and been thrown away.
Strange how this post disappeared ...
As a fan of bovines in general, I gotta admit that cookie jar is adorable. It's one of those things I'd see in a thrift shop and like but remember that my counter space is already severely limited.
My brother's job is one where he goes through old houses and cleans out stuff, though it's usually because someone died or some rich person wants their summer home liquidated as they tired of it. In the latter case earlier this year it turned out said rich guy was getting rid of everything (furniture, clothing you name it) and told them to take whatever they wanted and to dumpster the rest so my brother ended up with a whole new batch of button shirts. It was funny listening to him tell me the story and then try to explain his actions and I was like, dude, you don't have to justify being frugal to *me!*
Anyway, on to me:
1. Spent last Saturday at the library. I've heard it said that the library is one of the few places left where you aren't expected to spend money. I didn't get anything for me but my daughter had fun and we didn't have to spend any money.
2. Combined the library trip with the grocery store across town we rarely go to. We picked up a couple things on sale including a whole chicken, which has already supplied two meals already.
3. Going through my CD collection and ripping some forgotten favorite albums. It's almost like shopping at home.
4. Making bread, yogurt stock and all the other homemade stuff to save money.
5. Just not doing anything or going anywhere. Everything just feels so expensive lately though it could be mostly psychological.
@Battra92, I'm amazed your brother took only some shirts from the rich guy. Honestly, I would have backed up a moving van to the house, packed up all the contents and spent the next year selling the stuff. Sounds like thousands of dollar worth of goods.
@Anne, He was basically only allowed to take certain things that his employer could not resell (like he couldn't take furniture and home goods and stuff like that.)
So, here's what happened. I apparently scheduled it to publish, but without a title. I noticed this while I was on a break at A&P class. I hopped onto my WordPress app, fixed the title issue, and I thought it saved. But apparently all it did was switch to a draft.
And then when I was on a break again, I fixed the mistake and re-published it!
So, that is the story. I have barely been home today so I've been limping along with the WordPress app on my phone.
I love that you are trying to save usable items from destruction. That speaks to my heart.
1. My husband had a pair of shoes, a new style of his favorite brand, that did not wear well. He contacted the company, filed a damage report and they send him a new pair of shoes. This pair is the same but different (it appears they made a change to address the problem he experienced).
2. A friend moved to FL and gifted me several packages of frozen vegetables and a package of GF macaroni & cheese. She knew I'll use them. I gave away some bars of very dark chocolate because my husband did not like them and I can not longer eat chocolate (unless I want to not sleep well).
3. In December we received a box of Harry & David oranges, a gift from my husband's boss. They were not very good (of course we ate them, except for the rotten one) but we did not complain. Others that received the same gift must have complained as I found a box of tangelos on our porch the other day with a note apologizing for the poor quality of the oranges.
4. We will be attending a dress up event next week. I scrounged in my closet to see what I have to wear. Not a lot, but I found a couple options. Either outfit will be fine. I spent no time or money shopping and there was no negative environmental impact.
5. We finished watching Striking Out on hoopla!. I finished reading Factfulness, which I highly recommend, and finished listening to The Last Slave Ship, a worthwhile listen. All were provided by the public library.
1) we didn't get fast food fries when I craved them so badly. We are moving this weekend and figure there will be multiple opportunities to indulge in fast food.
2) we rented an appliance dolly. This extra expense will hopefully help our refrigerator survive the move so I am listing it as a frugal activity.
3) free boxes from friends! we haven't purchased a single box for this move.
4) cancelled Peacock before it auto-renewed.
5) I am eating leftovers/scrapes for lunch this week. I have half a sweet potato and some bellpepper to turn into a meal, maybe I'll use Kristin's "add and egg" trick.
@Rebekah in SoCal, Re: appliance dolly: I think anything that makes it less likely anyone is injured moving heavy or large things is also a frugal insurance.
@Heidi Louise, Agreed--we actually bought a furniture dolly because we have moved frequently and by using it, we can move most things ourselves without hiring movers. Saves so much money.
@Heidi Louise,
The thought of someone getting injured during our move is on my mind. There is now rain in the forecast for moving day so I'm praying that the rain is light or holds off until we get everything down the apartment stairs. (At least the new house has a garage that we can back up to and keep out of the rain.
1. I sewed myself a cardigan using materials and a pattern that I already owned. That felt really good!
2. My cousins are having a baby and we're setting aside all of the stuff we're no longer using for them. They'll use it, and then give it back to us when we have our next kid. Saves on storage, too.
3. We received the gift of a membership to one of our local museums, and we've gone twice in the last two weeks! It's a fantastic free activity for cold afternoons.
4. We have memberships to two streaming services (and share one with my parents.) If there's a movie that we want to watch that isn't on a service we have, we just rent it for five dollars. It's much cheaper than continually adding more services.
5. We had some plants that are toxic if ingested and give a rash if touched, so my husband sold one on Facebook for five bucks. I guess it covers the previous night's movie haha!
My mother had that cake pan, too! I have to say, as dirty as that house looked, I admire you and your SIL for going in there and getting things out of it.
My FFT:
1. This wasn't me doing this frugal thing, but my kids celebrated my "birthday" by making meals for me at their homes. I enjoyed the meals and time with them, and I suppose I contributed to the frugality by not demanding a restaurant meal or store-bought dessert.
It's been suggested to me that I could make my birthday even more frugal by only celebrating it when it shows up on the calendar, but sorry, I'm not doing that. 🙂
2. I juiced a few lemons and had enough to make a pitcher of lemonade with a few tablespoons of juice leftover. I refrigerated the leftover juice and will use it in a recipe tomorrow. I may grow my own lemons but I'm still not wasting the juice.
3. I used a gift card from a survey to purchase a couple of small items I needed.
4. The nice little Fisher Price toy that I found at a Goodwill and cleaned up was a big hit when the youngest grandkids discovered it at my house.
5. I did some necessary pruning, so that my grapevines and olive trees will produce more.
@JD, Happy birthday! I know some other Leap Year babies. Some of them think it's fun, some not so much.
@JD, Happy Birthday!!!! So glad your kids cooked for you. It is always such a special treat to have a meal cooked with love. I swear it tastes better.
@JD, I remember reading about a company that gave each employee the day off on their birthdays. The Leap Year employees only got 1 day off every 4 years! The collective response was that this practice was not frugal but rather cheap and mean-spirited.
The use it up edition:
1. Made a batch of Chex Mix to use up various random bits in the pantry.
2. My daughter sold enough girl scout cookies to pay for both her and my registration for next year, and store credit to pay for her junior's vest. (I will give her the money for my registration so she can get something she wants instead of the other prizes offered)
3. Remembered to use my ecb's at CVS before they expired, and got 2 big bottles of my husband's preferred multivitamin for free.
4. Making Thanksgiving dinner tonight since I already have all the ingredients. Free turkey breast from Ibotta in November, instant mashed potatoes almost free Ibotta deal back in October, jarred gravy, and canned cranberry jelly picked up on clearance after the holidays.
5. Kristen's crustless pumpkin pie is in the oven, and my house smells awesome. Canned pumpkin 39 cents on clearance, I didn't have evaporated milk and substituted sweetened condensed (49 cent clearance) and skipped the sugar, and we'll top it with the last of a tub of whipped cream that was a 39 cent loss leader before Thanksgiving.
And my frugal fail - this is the second pie I've made today. First one never set up, and after cooking it forever and still being runny, I realized I forgot the eggs. Doh!
It still tasted pretty good and husband and I ate some with a spoon, and I'm thinking I might mix it with oatmeal in the morning.
Last week we were in Florida, which wasn't particularly frugal, but we ate at home most of the week, and I packed sandwiches and snacks for the airport because airports are one of my least favorite places to buy food.
I used Walgreens Rewards to pick up 2 cans of olives for free to use at an upcoming baby shower. I also got $1.15 off my groceries using my Hannaford rewards.
We have an LL Bean "waterhog" large rug by our front door that I purchased awhile back. I think it was $50 even then. My husband wanted one for our cabin, but I found an almost identical rug at Marden's (a discount store in Maine) for $13.99. Yeah!
I found a sealed pack of dry beans/creole seasoning mix in a box my son left in our basement. It is 2 years past expiration, but looks perfectly fine. I'm making it today with smoked sausage (over rice) to celebrate Mardi Gras -Louisiana style. It smells wonderful in my slow cooker.
I'm getting 4 large boxes ready to take to Salvation Army. Love that decluttering vibe. Bring on Spring Cleaning!
1. Organized the freezer. With my not-so-list-oriented roommate doing more of the cooking, both the freezer and the list had become inaccurate. Now I know what I have, where to find it, and what I need to buy.
2. Yesterday's lunch was leftovers added to leftover Chinese take-out tofu. I find that many restaurant Chinese dishes have lots of sauce, enough to cover additional add-ins. I added some slightly-tough pork chops (sliced thin to make more tender), air-fried garlicy green beans, and steamed broccoli.
3. More Urban Logging, supplemented with using my neighbors' old newspapers as kindling.
4. Cancelled Disney+ after 2 months as planned; back to Netflix & Prime, both of which are benefits from other things.
5. Finished collecting COVD testing kits (both mail-in PCR and rapid at-home), free from my jurisdiction and the Federal government. Now that I have what I consider to be the appropriate number, I stopped getting them. There's a difference between a right-sized stockpile and a hoard, especially of a scarce resource.
6. Coupon + sale = getting paid to buy small bottles of dish soap.
@WilliamB, here's one similar to your #2: Yesterday, Dr. Bestest Neighbor brought over some leftovers from a pot roast the BNs had made. I happened to have made a beef stew with dark beer the day before, so I slid the pot roast leftovers into the beef stew leftovers, extending the stew by a day.
1. Found a small sports ball on the side of the road, cleaned it up, and it's now one of my pup's favorite toys.
2. Instead of meeting at a restaurant, I went to a friend's house for coffee and I brought homemade scones.
3. Took advantage of a BOGO on fresh spinach.
4. Helped warm up the house by cooking dried beans and freezing in small portions.
5. Went to Costco for the very first time with my niece who has a membership. That was an experience!
It's strange to me that the seller didn't know the state of the earrings before mailing them... twice!
I don't feel like we've been too frugal lately, but I do have some frugality happening.
1) my grocery list was purely as needed- no extras this week!
2) a week ago we brought a thermos of coffee to drink after my diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound. 🙂
3) two 20inch bikes went on clearance today at my store for $74.37. I mentioned the price to a coworker, and he informed me that he lowered them even lower after I bought it. I got $30+ back as the price adjustment. $118 bike for $44! (A birthday gift for our youngest. *bonus that we were already planning to get a bike)
4) I have a core needle biopsy tomorrow, and I made enough cheeseburger soup today to have leftovers tomorrow.
5) I let a friend know that I shouldn't purchase their extra Reba ticket with the medical financials currently unknown.
I actually think it was a problem with shipping. The earrings were not protected enough during shipping, and so I'm pretty sure they got crushed during transport.
I would love to treasure hunt in that house! What fun!
1. After vowing to never return to CVS (poor service, not having sale products, etc), I decided to give them one more try when they emailed me a $3 ExtraBuck. I stopped in today and got three small bottles of Dawn and paid only 85 cents. When I checked the 3 foot long receipt, I discovered a $2 EB!
2. I grouped my other errands around the CVS location (haircut, library and Dollar Tree) to save on gas.
3. I got 50 cent St. Patrick's Day cards to send to my daughters. I will be using forever Christmas stamps left from two years ago.
4. I picked up five huge apples in a 99 cent clearance bag at Kroger. I ate one and made applesauce with the others.
5. Bath & Body Works mailed me a coupon for a free $7.50 product. There weren't a lot of options, but I got a 1 ounce tube of shea butter hand cream for free. I can't imagine paying $7.50 for that!
It's like free thrifting! Except...dirtier. Ha.
@Kristen,
The dirt wouldn't bother me. My Mom was a real genius at cleaning things, and I'm happy she passed some of that knowledge on to me.
I can't get over the difference in the little jewelry bowl - wow!
1. I picked up little sponges and a brand new toiletry bag off Buy Nothing for our camper.
2. Cooked a ham that, we bought on sale and froze, for dinners tonight. It will be ham with sides (mashed potatoes, vegetables, etc) and then Hawaiian pizzas at the end of the week. Using the ham resulted in a very low grocery bill this week ($65).
3. We went to the zoo this weekend, where we have a membership. It was cold and snowing, but fun!
4. Used leftover biscuits to make egg sandwiches for breakfasts this weekend.
5. We did our taxes using Turbo Tax.
I love the things you salvaged.
I have been forced to stay at home due to an extreme weather event. Days of non stop heavy rain lead to flooding. We had a year's worth of rain in a few days. So that means less opportunity to spend. We have been pretty much out of the flood zones.
Now I need to look through stuff and see what I can find to donate to those who lost everything,
That is all for this week.
We are in the middle of hosting three weeks of Spring Break Code-a-Thon for Missions and I'm facilitating all the logistics for transportation and housing for 35+ people from six different states arriving in our town for this event. So my frugal wins have been frugal on the emotional energy side instead of the finance side this week.
1) I delegated the breakfast food shopping to a remote volunteer to do via WalMart pickup. Although that meant we didn't get rock bottom sale prices, it saved hours of my time and energy. All I had to do was go pick up.
2) I bought a bag of frozen chicken nuggets, a bag of frozen tater tots, and ice cream (on sale at Safeway) to go with some root beer we needed to use up. It was a delightful family comfort food meal just before the first group of coders arrived! The boys had never had root beer floats before, so it was a real treat!
3) I decluttered five boxes of "stuff" via a local Freebies group. Fewer things in my house to use my emotional energy to organize and store when I have a house full of people.
4) I went to a local coffeeshop and spent $6 on a drink because I could pull out my laptop and work undisturbed for three hours. And because I like frappachinos. But... I did use a gift card someone gave me.
5) I bought immune-boosting supplements because keeping us well during this busy three weeks is worth a lot!
And that... is that. There will be a more financially frugal time soon. But today I'm buying sanity. 🙂
@Dorinda, I looked up your spring break code-a-thon - that's a really neat missions opportunity! Good luck as you coordinate/host all the volunteers!
The little bowl is lovely. How wonderful that you and your sister in law are salvaging those household items! How did it happen that all this was left behind - it looks like someone up and left while doing the dishes. An untold story!
Nothing special on the frugal front this week,the usual meal planning and laundry drying.
We were very fortunate that our Eunice damage was covered by insurance.
Also, one of our kids has moved into dorms. We were able to move some furniture and household stuff from our attic, that we had kept for that purpose after my mother passed away some years ago. It is nice to have more space now, it makes Clea ing easier and quicker!
That was my china pattern! I collected pieces throughout high school by getting points at the local Safeway. My mom kept them for me and I started to use them when I got married in 1984. 🙂 Yes, its a Haviland.
I had a major win and a frugal fail last week.
1. Frugal Win! In my state you can choose a natural gas supplier that sells you gas at the CCF rate of your choice. At the time there wasn't an apples to apples comparison of the companies, and their door to door people were cagey about leaving info so you can compare rates so we left our supplier as is. Now that there is a comparison chart online, I discovered we have been paying the highest rate! I crunched numbers and lowered our rate for the next 15 months.
2. Frugal Fail 🙁 I didn't recalculate the unit price on a box of plain white pasta at Dollar 25 Tree and discovered that the unit price jumped 2 cents ahead of Aldi instead of being the same. While I was at it, I compared unit prices of dried black beans at both stores and the unit price is also no longer the same. Not a huge deal but something to keep in mind for the future.
3. I took advantage of a 32 Degrees one day sale and bought 3 t shirt dresses for the price of one for kick around dresses to wear during the summer.
4. I found an empty notebook to use in my desk to use for my sign language class instead of buying a new notebook.
5. Some friends in different cities are also taking the online ASL class and we met via Facebook Video Messenger (free!) as a study group of sorts. It was very helpful to discuss and clarify a few things I wasn't getting. It was also a mood lifter to "see" friends I don't always get to visit in person.
I understand your motivation to rescue as much as you can before the demo crew arrives. My Mom was a massive hoarder and we're trying to clean up her house now that she has passed. There is so much there that none of us need but I loathe the idea of it going into the landfill. So I've been packing up stuff and trying to give it away on our local Buy Nothing group. That also turns out to be frugal because the estimate we received for a crew to come clean up everything was over $18,000 so the more I can clean out, the less we'll have to pay for someone else to do it!
Frugal things this week:
1) combined errands when I went to Costco for my eye exam
2) Purchased items my kids requested from Costco so they wouldn't have to make the trip themselves. While not frugal for me, it at least helps them out
3) My son twisted his ankle at work and instead of him going to buy an ice pack, I grabbed a ziplock bag from the kitchen at work and filled it with ice from the ice machine for him
4) A coworker has lost weight and gifted me a bag of nice work clothes. What doesn't fit my body or style will be passed along. Was nice to have a "new to me" top to wear this week.
5) The usual things of meal planning and bringing my lunch everyday.
What a beautiful little bowl! I love those kinds of discoveries!
Can you tell me what you used to clean the bowl? I have some old dishes of my mother's that are starting to turn brown and I am not sure what I can use to stop the brown from taking over because just washing them is not taking any of the brown off. Thank you.
These dishes have a brown coating because of being in a smoker's home, so the brown is all on the surface. It comes off fairly easily with dish soap and some scrubbing.
It sounds like yours are brown for some other reason. Does it seem like the browning is under the surface somehow? I wonder if a magic eraser cleaning tool might help; I have used that on some of these more stubborn dishes.
Could you tell us more about the abandoned house! So curious to know what happened. Is there a half read newspaper on the table? Some dishes that needed to be done? A dress hanging in the bedroom waiting to be worn.. ahhh I need to know more!
Ah, always nice to see what folk have been up to.
1. Not sure if this is a win or fail or both>. Went to Costco with a comprehensive and carefully debated list, taking the two rebate cheques I got (one for purchases made at costco last year, and one from my cash back costco Mastercard. ). those cheques were over $350! I wasn't able to get some of the things on my list, and I did 'splurge' on some spring bulbs (at better prices than I am seeing elsewhere, so I went for it). I did pick up one thing for a friend, and she will pay me back. At the end of the receipt, prior to the cheques, I had a large bill - the cheques more than halved it, and I came away feeling virtuous for having used the cheques before they run out. I don't go to Costco often, however when I do I purchase enough to earn my membership, and the credit card is used for so much that cheque is welcome indeed.
2. bought the costco chips on my way out = there are so many, #2 son got a bit of a feast when I got home
3. I purchased 2 small chickens when they were loss-leadered at the local grocery store, and then ran out of time, so they were in the downstairs fridge for a few days. Finally just roasted them late one evening, and tore them apart before bed, putting the meat in the fridge and the bones into a pot on the stove with some aged veggies from the fridge.
4. Visited my mom on the costco trip day, and took her two of the chicken breasts - her favourite meat and the part we don't really prefer here. I thought we would share for lunch at her house but she bought me a small lunch and coffee at the local coffee shop that she has been diligently supporting since COVID hit. we had gone for a walk and she insisted that this is where we were going to eat rather than her house, It was a beautiful day, we sat outside, and I felt great about leaving her the chicken for a few meals (and she likely will freeze some for another time. I didn't expect to stop for lunch so wasn't able to treat her, and she was happy to treat me...
5. The stock was cooked and strained, and I then boiled it down to reduce it. Today I got my pressure canner out and got it canned - 3 litres and a pint! In addition, my son and I have been creating random meals (chicken salad, sandwiches, or just straight leftovers) so those two chickens have been stretched a long way.
6. Bonus frugal win - my son and daughter had a variety of foods that came home to me when one moved home and the other rejected food that had passed the best by dated. I had two stale dated packets of scalloped potatoes, and I put them together and baked while the chicken was in the oven (put a bit of random shredded cheese on top). they were delicious, and #2 son has been really enjoying them.
7. Fail - made fried rice but made too much. That will be chicken feed tomorrow. oh well.