Five Frugal Things | Clean yard, filthy me
1. I cleaned up the leaves in my yard
I know this is not a typical January activity.
But in the fall, I was way, way too busy with chemistry and microbiology to even think about any yard maintenance. So, my leaves just sat there.
Yesterday, though, I borrowed my neighbor's leaf blower and lawn tractor, and I cleaned up my yard pretty thoroughly.
My yard's cleanliness and my own cleanliness were inversely correlated; here's what the inside of my shoes looked like.
And my socks looked pretty bad too.
But at least this was way cheaper than hiring a company to clean my leaves...I have a half acre lot here with lots of trees, so it wouldn't have been cheap.
2. I helped Zoe mend two of her hoodies
One was a well-weathered comfy hoodie that was coming apart at the sleeve cuffs, and the other hoodie had a couple of seams that had come apart.
If a garment is going to get a hole, I am always so happy when it happens to be on the seam. That's so easy to fix!
3. I bought ice cream novelties on clearance
The other night Lisey said, "Mom, I think we need some more fun little ice cream treats."
This is a sentiment I can always get behind.
So when I stopped at Safeway for some other things, I looked at their ice cream novelty case and I noticed that a bunch of items were on clearance! I bought something like 6 boxes of fun little ice cream treats, and we are all happy about that.
I am once again so happy I have my new little chest freezer; it makes it such an easy decision to do things like buy six boxes of ice cream novelties. 🙂
4. I used the heels of the bread to make a grilled cheese sandwich
As long as you turn them so the cut side is out, they make a not-perfect-but-still-respectable sandwich.
5. I...
- sold two book on eBay and used saved packing materials to ship them
- got some free binders for school from a Facebook free group
- got more free hamster bedding for Zoe from a Facebook free group
I had a cheap ice cream score this week, too! I bought blue raspberry snowflake cones from Aldi for.99 on clearance. I also bought 8 bags of Christmas shaped gnocchi for .79 each. I love Aldi for seasonal clearance! Other than that, my frugal activities have been the usual: pack lunch, cook at home, make my own coffee, wash, rinse, repeat.
@Becca,
Oh, and I dumped two dinner leftovers (ground pork and peppers and ground chicken with onions and taco seasoning) together into a pot with a quart of beef broth and some ramen noodles to make soup for lunch yesterday. It turned out tasty.
@Becca, Ooh. I had a good leftover makeover on Sunday-- a fried rice sort of thing.
@Becca, I scored a bunch of Aldi Christmas clearance stuff too. Who cares if we're eating Santa shaped pasta this summer? 😉 Btw, does your Aldi mark down produce and perishable items with big round $1 & $2 off stickers? Mine just started doing this in the last six months and I haven't heard anyone else ever mention this.
@Bobi, I've noticed that one of the three Aldis I use does this toward the end of the week. Naturally, I have started stopping in toward the end of the week to catch the markdowns!
@Bobi,
Yes, my Aldis (I shop at four regularly...ok? Don't judge...) use the 1 and 2 dollar off stickers and there also some 50% and 30% off ones too but I mostly see them on meat items. I don't see them as often on produce or bread, but some of the YouTube shoppers I watch find them regularly on baked goods or the salad bags. It does seem to vary from store to store, and the clearance prices vary too. Like Halloween pasta will be 1.29 in one store and .69 in another.
@Becca,
The Aldi I go to uses those stickers. Sometimes I can find our favorite Italian bread with $1 off, but usually you find them on meat items.
@Bobi, I bought 6 of the Christmas pastas too. Whenever I see the pizzas with the stickers I grab them. I go to several Aldi's. I have seen them on almost everything perishable.
—One of our local organic markets had a $5 coupon for members. I put it toward already on sale almond milk, as we were out. This store also has $2.99 cage free eggs for members (up from $1.99 last year), and I always buy two cartons when in town.
—Target’s app had a $10 off $30 coupon, so I bought cat litter and their canned food. Bird flu continues to affect protein supplies for all industries, including pet food, so I feel better knowing our boys are stocked up. We buy their dry food from Chewy.com, as it still has the best price on the giant bags.
--I built a surround for our laundry machine using materials leftover from other house projects. Since I had the wood, screws, paint, and Gorilla Glue, the only cost was $1 for a new-in-package set of L brackets that I found at Habitat Restore, which saved me a trip to Ace. Our washing machine hookups are in our modestly sized bathroom and dictate the corner placement of the machine. Thus, the surround had to be custom, freestanding, and easily removable to access the hookups in case of an emergency. Bonus: It didn't turn out hideous! 😛
--I used a $5 coupon at Ace on items for another upcoming house project. I actually had two $5 coupons, but I didn't realize one of them didn't apply until after I got to the car and checked the receipt. It's not like I won't need another random house thing before the coupon expires, so I decided to save it for next time vs. bothering the cashier.
--It feels like we've had ALL the estimates done lately! The local plumbers and handyman have been over to price out various things that we either aren't comfortable doing or aren't capable of ourselves (water and electrical are on my "Never, never!" list). Nothing is an emergency, but they are definite quality of life/house improvements--like safely replacing the one too-small pipe that always clogs is worth $75 to us. I don't like having people do non-emergency work unless I can pay them on the spot (which they were glad to hear!), and we're also trying to pace out expenses. Everything is on a "Sometime this year" timeline as schedules and spare monies allow, which works for all concerned.
Potential Frugal 50/50: Related to the above, ORKIN is coming over for a free inspection today. Fingers crossed they don’t find anything! I spotted a few small holes that I *know* weren’t there before—I painted every frickin’ inch of this house before we moved in—and it’s driving me batty. Better the inspector find me paranoid than find anything else!
You might want to consider NOT cleaning/mowing/raking up leaves in the future. A ton of organisms depend on those dead leaves for parts of their life cycle and when they can't complete their life cycle, the other organisms that depend on them decrease in number (usually birds).
https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com/softlandings.html
https://awaytogarden.com/fall-cleanup-with-ecology-in-mind-with-doug-tallamy/
@Amanda,
To rake or not to rake is also dependent on the lay out of your house and garden. We have only a small garden, but our lot is surrounded by trees. Leaves are forever gathering on our doorstep, where they have a habit of becomming wet and slippery. My compromise is to rake them and put them to decompose in a corner of the garden where there is little wind. I always hope some hedgehogs will go and live there, but so far not. However, we do not cut off the last flowers of summer either and leave the stalks (much to my husbands chagrin) until April of the next year. We were rewarded this month by a visiting bird, unknown kind, who was happily pecking out the seeds of the echinacea. However it does mean the garden does not look tidy for at least 4 months of the year, and that is harder to bear for some folks than for others.
@Amanda, I agree in principle, but I know our landlord wouldn't be very happy if we left huge layers of leaves on the lawn all winter--that can kill the grass. We do scoop them up with our lawnmower bag and dump them in an area of the yard under some trees, where no grass grows at all--it's like a natural fence. But we do clear the lawn area because most property owners prefer there be grass on their lawns.
Yep, part of my lease specifies that I have to keep the yard and landscaping tidy and maintained.
One day, I hope to own a house of my own, but that's probably a bit into the future for me.
@Amanda,
I've been reading some gardening books and one of the authors said, "Leaves are free mulch. Let them stay on the ground if possible." Who knew?
I did bag up some leaves so that I will be able to compost throughout the year.
FFT, Chicken, Lentils, and Decluttering Edition:
(1) As noted yesterday at the NCA, I roasted a whole chicken (from the freezer) on Saturday night for my next-door neighbor’s 84th birthday. I then made a chicken salad with the remaining meat, and used the carcass for a small batch of stock.
(2) Next, I used some of the stock to make a mulligatawny with lentils. I sort of had to wing it on the spices when I discovered I was out of garam masala, but it seems to have worked. And I'm going to mix up my own garam masala from the spices I used.
(3) If it’s January, I must be decluttering: I’ve put together five boxes of books for my local secondhand bookstore owner to assess, and have given three more boxes to a local library that’s still running book sales.
(4) I'm also starting to put things aside as donations for two charity auctions coming up this year. In particular, I've decided it's time to start culling the royal commemoratives collection. (I'm guessing that QEII will be pretty popular now.)
(5) And I've started sorting out the remains of DH's stamp collection. (Fortunately, I too collected stamps as a kid, so I know at least a little about what I'm doing.) I plan to take these to our local stamp club's next show (in February) and sell what I can for what I can get; anything left over will go to one of the charity auctions.
1.) Work only gave me one charger for my laptop for both the office and home. I bought my own for the home office but low and behold I got one from IT as they had forgotten to send the home one for me. Luckily I was able to cancel this.
2.) Bought generic medicine instead of the name brand. I sometimes think the markup on the name brand stuff is almost criminal.
Dealing with sickness isn't frugal per se but it has prevented us from spending a lot as we just don't eat or do much.
3.) Got some good grocery deals at Costco. I also got gas for the first time under $3/gal during the last couple years it feels like.
4.) My Thermapen's battery cover broke. I contacted the company and they sent me a new one. This makes it feel like the price was even more justified.
5.) Working a little bit of overtime again. I swear, I can't get away from it ...
My frugal things feel like same old, same old, but here goes:
*sticking to my $50/week grocery budget and making a menu for such feels like a puzzle or word game. Making me get creative with meals!
*So far, so good on no spend January, though since I had to stay late on Friday {I was on call} I can now purchase the heavy duty tension rod I need for the kitchen window.
*Making my own lunches and perking my own coffee altho Starbucks sounds good..
*repaired a bra that was losing it's outer facing - good as new now
*non-frugal but with much thought: rejoined a favorite wine club at a much smaller commitment. This will allow me to socialize, get first notice of assisting with harvest, and visit with my sister and BIL who are also members.
I found a tea & ground chuck clearance find at an out of town small grocery store.
I went to an out of town Kohl's to get jeans that were in store $25, the week before I bought 2 pairs at a different sales price so I took the higher price back and saved $12 a pair. I bought 5 full size Yankee candles, pink tennis shoes and jeans for $57, received 10 KC that I can use on a puzzle. The candles are a gift for someone. The Kohl's Yankee prices were totally catawampus, 6.16, 10.84 9.99 and those were for the same scent and candle.
I got several Nike and Champion shirts at Goodwill for $4. I was super disappointed that GW raised their puzzle price to 3.99. They were 1.99 and considering you don't know if all the pieces are there...hardly worth the price.
I cannot think of anything and that means we did the usual: fill up the car at the cheapest place in town, cook our own meals and make our own coffee, run the laundry on solar power whenever possible, etc. Plus we did another extra payment against the mortgage.
Future me is going to be happy about that, and also about the extra meals we made and froze.
It is exceedingly busy this week.
@J NL, Three cheers for the usual!
That's where my family seems to be, now and always.
@J NL and @Heidi Louise, I believe that doing the usual is what wins in the long run. It adds up over time.
We did an ice cream run on Friday too! We paired it with a movie (free!) It was a fun way to end the week.
FFT
1. Went to the mall with daughter to spend time together and did not make any spontaneous purchases.
2. While at the mall found a few long sleeve shirts for daughter on really good clearance. She outgrew the shirts I acquired for her at the beginning of winter, so she needed some options.
3. Planned for a trip that we didn’t end up taking because the planning revealed flaws that would have made the trip rather unsuccessful.
4. Going out with a friend to a free local cultural thing today.
5. Ate at home, kept home temperature low ish, lots of ice skating on our free rinks nearby, packed lunches for kids, chunked errands.
@Kaitlin, and my husband took care of ice dams on our eaves himself rather than hiring it out.
And now I'm going to have to google "ice dam". Clearly I live in a warmer area than you!
1. We accepted a generous offer from my parents to stay overnight at an indoor water park resort
2. We ate lunch at home before we drove there, and brought plenty of snacks and food for supper/breakfast at the hotel
3. My youngest is now potty trained! No more diapers here
4. Carpooled to school with a nearby family when there was no busing available that day
5. Some of the usual things- eating oatmeal almost every breakfast, making coffee at home, packing lunches for kids and husband
--I started Frugal Gardening Season 2023 this weekend! Yay! Kohlrabi and cabbage seeds I bought, um, three years ago? A $4 seed packet yields many years' worth of seeds.
--The seeds were started in a strawberry container and a mushroom container, in potting soil I bought . . . maybe three years ago. Someone here asked me last year if I had ever written about how I grow a garden for cheap. I never have, but I will this year, starting today. Post will up later at https://going-country.blogspot.com/
--We had a very frugal meal last night. I had made split pea soup with one of the numerous bags of yellow split peas I get from excess commodities, plus the ham bone from our Christmas Eve meal and two quarts of stock made from the old hens we culled. And then I had randomly been talking about a ploughman's lunch with my children, which they thought sounded good. So with the soup we had bread (the sourdough bread I make), cheese, and pickled green beans from last year's garden. Only their dad had a beer, though. 🙂 It would have been cheaper without the cheese, but, well, we like cheese. And the Walmart brand sharp cheddar is actually pretty good. Way better than most store brand cheese, anyway.
--My son had a basketball tournament this weekend a couple of hours away, and brought with him for the day-long trip the beef jerky and chocolate covered almonds we got him at the dollar store specifically for basketball road food, plus some cookies I had made. He's learning that he can eat from concession stands, but he knows he's responsible for paying for that, and they will eat up his money faster than he can eat that burrito.
--My sons recently read the Hunger Games trilogy I brought them from the school library, and I wanted to see if the movies would be okay for them to watch. Thankfully, I found they were free on Prime, so I could pre-watch it instead of ordering it. I think I'll hold off on letting them watch those. The movies are more disturbing than the books, in my opinion, since there are visuals of the upsetting things in the books. Glad I didn't pay four bucks to decide that.
@kristin @ going country, Good to know about the Hunger Games books vs movies. My daughter is sensitive but was thinking about reading the books and not watching the movies.
@kristin @ going country, that was me who asked about frugal gardening! I’m off to read your post now!
I wish we had room for a stand alone freezer in our apartment, but we do okay with the small one we have.
FFT this week:
1. Added more stuffing to a sofa headrest pillow for my husband rather than buy another one. Took a bit of time to sew by hand, but we watched a movie while I did it.
2. Also used an old pillow case that had some holes in it to make a new case for his sofa-pillow since I could cut away the damaged parts. The rest can become rags.
3. Finished up leftovers instead of ordering in even though we were both tired and achy.
4. Remembered to check the storage closet and avoided buying something I forgot was in there as a backup.
5. Reviewed the products I actually used vs. what I thought I would use so I know not to bother buying them this year. Had been meaning to do this for a while, finally got to it and it was an eye opener.
@AnnieH, You might be surprised how small standalone freezers can be! Our first one was a $20 Craig’s find that the size of a mini fridge. When that freezer died after 5+ years, we upgraded to a 1/2 size standing chest freezer (think washing machine-sized) which we still use. It was thankfully a freebie from a friend who had bought a giant chest freezer and offered us the smaller one. The main trick in our apartment (which had wiring from who knows when) was making sure the freezer was on a different breaker from the kitchen, as it tripped when we tried to have everything in the same room. We just dealt with a freezer (that I covered in pretty contact paper) in the corner of our dining room for many years. 😛 Now that we’ve a house, the same freezer lives on the enclosed back porch just off the kitchen.
@N, Thanks for the tip. We have plans to remodel in a few years and I want to see if we can get more room for a freezer, so I will make a note in my plans to ask. Hopefully it will pass Co-op board review if we need to add to electrical and such, they have final say on all renovation plans. This building went up in the late 60s so the electrical is kind of limited. At the very least maybe our new fridge will have a bigger freezer. Still, we don't have an ice maker that takes up room and I am an expert freezer-packer so we manage to squeeze a lot in the space we have now.
@AnnieH, my very first freezer was a small washing machine size that happened to be same height as kitchen counter--put at end next to counter & happened to be in corner so no one ever knew no counter.
I bought a used four drawer business file cabinet from work to consolidate my bills, medical EOBS, appliance booklets, etc. I bought new hanging files in regular size before I noticed this took legal size. However, there were a gazillion of the right size in the bottom drawer. Initial thought was to make it "pretty" with coordinating file folders, but as I cleaned out the two drawer file the frugal me reused the manila and print folders with new labels instead. Will return the "pretty" ones. Feels good to have this done halfway thru January.
Make tea at home.
Used up some bananas in quick bread.
Bought gas at the town I work in where it is always cheaper than where I live.
Bought eggs at a Mennonite store, fresher and much cheaper than regular grocery stor.
@Chrissy, I would love a new four drawer file cabinet! How good that must feel for you!
I make my appliance manuals smaller by ripping off the pages printed in languages I do not speak. It makes me feel like I am saving lots of space with something I never, ever look at again.
@Heidi Louise, I throw them all out. On the very off chance I need one, it's on the Internet.
Hmmm..
--I hemmed pj pants my father got for Christmas.
--I let the children order all the free library books they wanted.
--I made homemade bread and English muffins.
--I went shopping in the big town since I was going to be there anyway for another reason. (Groceries are so much cheaper there.)
--We made a chai tea/coffee drink at home and put it in a travel mug before we went to the big town instead of buying one while we were out.
--I threw out the bad thread instead of the sewing machine.
--I baked a pumpkin from our garden AND used it all up in various recipes.
However, we went out for a date at a local restaurant and had the best-tasting hamburger I've ever had, I think. That was not frugal. BUT the entertainment (waitress and another nearby diner painfully flirting.) was free.
@Jody S., thanks for the grin about the "bad thread instead of the sewing machine" and the painful flirting! 😎
I think that burger sounds totally worth it. 😉
@Kristen, If you’re ever in the western part of the state, I can give you the name of the restaurant.
Ice cream novelties in the winter! Sounds like a fun thing 🙂
1. I found that our favourite KAF whole wheat bread is perfect in our new breadmaker. I made a loaf last night and it couldn't have been easier.
2. We tried a new grocery store (Walmart) and learned that it doesn't really suit our needs--they are a few cents cheaper on eggs and cheese compared to the other discount t stores (No Frills and FreshCo) but they are strangely expensive on things like low-salt canned tomatoes. So back to our regular stores we go!
3. I cut out pieces for a new test-pair of pants from an old curtain and a truly hilarious cartoon-animal tunic I made as a teen and thought was, like, devastatingly cute.
4. Mr. B bought diapers at Costco. It's inconvenient due to the distance and there's little else there for us, but they are SO much cheaper for diapers.
5. Mr. B made some easy money by picking up art supplies for am arts org and driving them over, on the way to my in-laws.
1. Began making concerted efforts to wash out my ziploc (store brand) bags, and get as many uses out of them as possible. Haven’t thrown out one in two weeks. Baby steps, here.
2. Managed to avoid food waste by refreshing limp lettuce (using Kristen's method and my salad spinner!) and had many delicious salads.
3. Made a fantastic ham and bean soup with a giant ham bone from the freezer–it was so big I had to ask my husband to saw it in half to fit it in the crockpot, but it was worth it; I got over half a pound of meat off that thing after cooking.
4. Read library books and resisted the lure of my Amazon rewards points to buy new books I don’t really need; used the points for things we DO need, instead. And, well, okay, some drawing pens. I’m not made of stone. And I prefer to make greeting cards over buying them.
5. Used reward points from doing online surveys to get a $10 gift card for groceries. Used it to splurge on some instant decaf coffee, which is a treat for me.
6. Made the executive decision that eggs are strictly for baking now, not a meal/protein source. If I make fried or scrambled eggs for my family, I have to use at least 10 eggs to make enough to go around (four boys=double servings). However, with 2 eggs I can make a tasty pan of cornbread as a good side with soup, so the eggs go farther. Eggs are so expensive these days! One of my boys pointed out that we should be 'saving those eggs for brownies' and I have to agree. 😉
7. Hung several loads of laundry in my indoor drying area, saving gobs of energy not using the dryer.
@Karen A., my middle dog is very ill with congestive heart failure, and a scrambled egg is the only thing that gets her to eat. She's been getting one twice a day, but I buy the less expensive medium sized eggs because that's about the right size for her.
@Ruby, Ugh, poor you. I had a dog with CHF and it was so,so stressful.
@Rose, she does not rally every day until after about 12 pm. From 7:30 to noon, I am wondering if this is the last day, and that is so stressful.
She is the sweetest little dog, my best girl. It's a hard thing.
@Karen A., I understand the double, in my case triple servings for teens. My teen eats 3 eggs each time & goes back to make 3 more each meal. Other day at dozen eggs in one day (breakfast & dinner). Considering sale cereal same price as eggs at least teen rotates.
@Ruby, I’m sending best wishes for your sweet girl. It is so hard.
@Karen A., there are many options for inexpensive egg substitutes in baking. Google it and you may be surprised. I haven't tried any yet, but from what I have read they work great. People with egg allergies have been using them forever. They range from aquafaba to yogurt to bananas to chia seeds and more. There is also Egg Replacer (Bob's Red Mill is one brand and I even read Kroger has one.) Again, I haven't tried them. Also, eggs can be frozen. I just learned that fun fact recently, but if I ever find a sale, I will be stocking up.
@Elizabeth B, thank you.
@Karen A., Consider the cost of eggs by the pound, comparing them to meat. We are all having sticker shock but eggs are a nearly perfect food, and healthy for teens. My local Kroger store sells flats of 5 dozen eggs that are much cheaper per dozen than the smaller boxes, and they keep quite well. Just a thought.
* I picked up a free bag of gerbil bedding from my blessing group.
* I packed two of our travel meals and all the snacks this weekend instead of eating out all the time as we drove 22 hours in a 39 hour time frame for a memorial service.
* I used a gift card someone gave me to pick up a coffee drink for the long trip.
* I called a connection from 13 years ago who remembered me and connected us with a discount to an Airbnb owned by church friends in the area of the memorial service. Thankful it gave the boys their own room and they didn't wake me up in the night. 😉
* I kept my phone data under the allotted amount, even on the trip, so I don't have to pay for an extra gig.
* I found a brand new kitty litter box in EN's house and was happy to not buy one after I tossed the dilapidated one.
It was a week for free bedding pet bedding, I guess!
We have some Dekay's brown snakes living in our front yard, a harmless species that eats slugs and snails, and left the leaves under the shrubs and in the culverts where they hang out. It just looks like random mulching. 🙂
The FFT:
1. Made leek-lentil-barley soup with broth from the Christmas duck carcass stashed in the freezer.
2. Used up some more way too tart apples making apple-bran muffins.
3. Chopped the meat off the last of the leftover chicken and froze it for when I next make a use-it-up quiche for lunch. Quiche my way uses two eggs and a lot of veggies, what with egg prices these days.
4. The teaspoons to our flatware set, which was discontinued a few years ago, are disappearing at an alarming rate. I bit the bullet and ordered three from eBay for a not bad price.
5. Sticking to a low-spend January with a tight grocery budget by cooking from the freezer and the pantry. We have some stuff just out of or nearing the best by date that I am using up.
Ice cream and ice cream treats are completely resistible to me, and I have to say I'm glad about that, because they can get so expensive! Good job finding a good sale on them.
Now, homemade ice cream - that's a different story.
1. Mended a hole in the toe of a sock. The hole just appeared suddenly out of nowhere. I did my usual ham-fisted job of it, but the hole is closed. I do so much better sewing on a machine.
2. I bought an upholstered, second-hand occasional chair. It's very comfortable but would fit me better with a pillow behind my back (Being short can be a pain). I looked, and yes, I had saved a pillow form from a pillow with a ripped cover. Sewing an envelope cover is super easy, so I'll just make one.
3. This weekend, I washed three loads of clothes and hung them all up to dry. I washed sheets and towels and hung them up as well. It was chilly, but I managed.
4. I used my once-a-month 15% owner's discount at the co-op on some groceries I bought there.
5. Extended family had their first get-together in almost 4 years this past weekend, so I had a big lunch for free. My evening meal back at home was very small, since I wasn't very hungry. It was nice to see each other in person again.
Are get-togethers tough for you, with all your dietary restrictions? I can imagine that it might be a challenge.
@Kristen,
Yes - there wasn't a single thing there that didn't have something I should not have eaten or at least of which I should consume very little (gluten, red pepper, sweet peppers, white potatoes...) so I just ate and hoped for the best. I had some sore joints the next day, but hopefully that was it. I had asked if I could bring something to help out and was emphatically told no, this was their treat, so I just dealt with it. I can't expect everyone, especially those who haven't eaten with me in almost 4 years, to keep up with my diet, and a mistake is not fatal or anything.
1. My partner is about to start renovating the last room in the house. We’re expecting to move in the next couple of years, and I find it exhausting to plan the renovation with that in mind on a strict budget. But after months of discussions on what clothing storage the new owners of the house would like, (ha!) a sale made our decision for us. Elfa click-in system with 60% discount. So can the new owners change it with minimal effort if they wish and hopefully it will be positive for the sale that we have a “proper” system.
2. Got two TGTG bags at the local grocer. Four packages of cold cuts, two big vanilla yogurt, blue cheese and heaps of fruit and baked goods for $8.
3. Sold a dress for $10 that I got at a fleemarket for next to nothing.
4. Found a super nice dresser in solid wood from the antique store around the fjord (or more accurately, on their Facebook page). Paid $35 for it and $50 for transport. If my partner agrees it will come with us when we move, so happy with it!
5. Inadvertently frugal: had a real crappy day yesterday and decided to break out the credit card and buy myself sushi. Didn’t know that they are closed on Mondays so saved that money. Got a rotisserie chicken and made potato salad at home instead.
1. It is January and we are in the process of eating down the freezer. To that end I batch cooked a small lingering prime rib and a few ribs that I had frozen from a much larger package. I used the broth from the ribs in a pot of Spanish stewed beans and I froze the bones from the prime rib and will be using those in a few days to make some beef broth.
2. I cooked up a whole chicken in my crockpot, shredded it and added some egg noodles to make a delicious, simple chicken noodle soup.
3. I took advantage of the extra weekend day to do some much needed cleaning, decluttering and organizing. I count this as frugal because it makes me feel contented in my space which helps me to want to stay home more and buy less. Plus organizing makes me very aware of what we have so I don't buy things that we don't need.
4. I enjoyed free music on Spotify and relocated a chair into my master bedroom to make a cozy reading nook for myself.
5. I mapped out our January budget...again to account for all expenses we have had. Since hubby hit a deer we have had some unexpected costs. I used some gift cards to shave a bit off of our grocery store trip. I stayed home to save gas and turned off the heater when warmer temperatures allowed.
Cheers to the week ahead friends!
1. Made a pot of beans and used frozen ground turkey rescued from Mom's freezer when she moved last year.
2*. Got a super deal on iris bulbs, which I planted in . . .
3. . . .homemade gopher cages and old terra cotta pots
4. Ordered a pile of books from the library
5. Made great progress on a 2-color sweater from yarn I've had for years–one color bought on clearance and the other a gift from a knitter who gave up.
*Gardeners can get away with this level of planting procrastination in mild Central California, while people in real winter climates need to plant iris in the fall.
But Wait! There's More. . .
My very old car has very foggy headlights. I tried to buy the headlight restore kit that I learned about in an old FG post but it is forbidden in California. So, I used baking soda with white vinegar, and my lights are about 50% clearer now.
(How old? 1996, 240,000 miles. Going strong. One should only love people and use things, but I might love my car. . .)
Oh that is so weird! I wonder why it's outlawed in CA.
@Central Calif. Artist,
I've heard Mr. Clean Erasers do a good job on foggy headlights.
@JD, regular paste toothpaste and a lot of rubbing with a soft cloth will do it too.
@JD, I tried a "magic eraser" to no avail until I added the vinegar/baking soda solution.
I had a great frugal week, mostly because we were able to save a ton on our little weekend vacation:
https://www.toloveandtolearn.com/2023/01/17/weekly-frugal-wins-frugal-vacations-soap-and-duvets/
As someone who is also on a large lot (0.6 acre), I can attest to the fact that the leaf situation can get kind of crazy. We just use ours for free mulch though, which saves us money on flower farming costs 🙂
1) I prepped my lunches and dinners for the next couple days to take with me on my commute.
2) I am learning when to buy Amtrak tickets to get them when they are the cheapest. They don't seem to be as wildly variable as plane tickets, but sometimes the ticket I need is $32, and the next week the same ticket is $65. It seems like buying them two weeks in advance might be the best option.
3) I ordered my daughter a couple of sizes of church shoes and sneakers on Thredup. Used kids' shoes are hit or miss, so when I found a couple options that look like they are in good shape, I went for them.
4) I stretched my set of wool socks as far as I could. After wearing them for years and darning them when they got thin, they are just too far gone. I realized that I was strategizing what socks I worn when. Ain't nobody got time for that. So I broke down and ordered a pack of socks off of Amazon.
5) This is a frugal thing that benefits others. I am our church's treasurer, so I see our parsonage electric bills. The pastor and his family don't see the amount since the church pays it directly. When the parsonage electric bill went way up for no reason last month I emailed the pastor's wife. She had a repairman come out five times before they finally discovered that a line from the hot water heater was "gushing" under the house. As soon as he fixed the line their electric bill went back down. If I hadn't noticed it and pushed it, the church would have paid some big bills, but more importantly, it could have caused very expensive damage in the house.
Definitely relate to your yard work. Our garage & back patio/pool area flooded, due to the crazy rainstorms in NorCal, so I spent a lot of time in the mud & dirt, but was able to resolve everything myself. Particularly happy with this, because my husband was out of town & this would normally be his project.
1) Did a ton of meal prep, while my husband & kids were out of town. Soups in the freezer, made your French bread, six pounds of chicken prepped, seasoned & in the freezer.
2) Got paid my annual bonus (most of it) last week, and maxed out my 401K, put money in the boys college accounts & saved the rest. Oh, and treated myself to a massage. Particularly useful, after the bucket brigade & flooding.
3) Packed snacks & drinks for the boys for their ski trip.
4) Found a good combination of Rite Aid sale, iBotta offer & rewards to save some money on a few things we need.
5) Fought a long standing battle with my credit card company about a billing dispute (double charge) & did not give up on the first rejection. Just got news it was resolved in my favor. Woohoo!!
@Hawaii Planner, it seems as if credit card companies, big box stores, and insurance companies purposely evade doing the right thing, hoping the customers will give up the fight. Way to go on your perseverance!
I saw the first pictures and laughed inwardly, because everything here in CA is sopping wet. We're all mostly happy about that, because we desperately need the water...except the folks in and around Santa Cruz, who have been pounded mercilessly by this series of storms. The t-shirt under the hoodie is inadvertently poignant...
1. It was an expensive week at chez Dicey, as our 75 gallon water heater gave up the ghost. $1700 later, we have hot water again. Had my husband not been able to DIY it, I'm sure the bill would have been twice that, with a long wait for service due to the storms.
2. I'm batch cooking and skipping the grocery store this week as we have plenty of ingredients on hand.
3. We're just wrapping up an extensive condo renovation project. When all the dust settles, we will have hit our projected numbers on the nose. No mean feat, given all the challenges we encountered.
4. We made the project "turnkey" by sourcing from used and free resources. That spending is included in our final tally, even though furnishing the place was not included in our original projections. We just didn't want to spend any more money, so we made it happen by exercising our frugality muscles.
5. An elderly tenant moved out of one of our rentals and moved cross country. We packed up the things she no longer needed and used some of it to fully outfit the condo's new kitchen (including non-expired spices!), donating the rest. Happily, it was not a scary hoarder house.
As a result, our high functioning, but not neurotypical, offspring will be launching into a lovely "new" nest, without the burden of mountains of debt.
@Dicey, we also have a high functioning non neurotypical young adult and did something similar. We own a row home and bought the row home attached to us wit the idea that at some point he can try adulting on his own next door. Until that time we have been renting it out.
Good job on dealing with your leaves yourself. I had the best of intentions to work on yard over the long weekend, but the weather had other plans.
My FFT
- used $5 coupon at Sprouts
- manager's special on deli meat and cheese at Sprouts this week so I got a pound of Boar's head mozzarella for $2.99 and a pound of blazing buffalo chicken for $4.99. Will make for inexpensive lunches for DH this week
- cleaned out frig and freezers, used up odd and ends to make meals, and avoided take out all weekend
- menu plan for the week based on what meat we have in the freezer
- combined errands while I was out and about yesterday to save gas and time
Those ice cream treats look yummy!
My FFT:
1. I mended a cloth tote bag...twice. One strap broke on 3 of its 4 sides on Tuesday, so I mended it that evening. The next day another one did the same thing! So I mended that one and a third that looked like it might start coming apart soon.
2. There was a mix-up between my local library account and my statewide interlibrary loan account and I was close to my local library charging me for an overdue book. I figured out how the confusion happened, called and explained the situation (and that the book had been returned about a month prior), they looked into it, and they removed it from my account.
3. I made turkey broth in my 18qt roaster after making a turkey over the weekend. All of the broth is measured, bagged, and in the freezer.
4. I cut my husband's hair and my son's hair.
5. I got three different things 90% off at Meijer! A tall trash can (which I'm using to store wrapping paper since our 9yo cardboard box is falling apart) for $1.59, a birthday present for my kiddo for $3.49 that I think she'll be really excited about, and some organic garden fertilizer for $1.60/container.
-We got a lot of soon-to-be-if-not-already stale-ish bread in our TGTG pick-up. More than we could eat before it became stale that is. So we made our own breadcrumbs. We've never done that before but I'm sure they will come in handy next time we make meatballs or meatloaf.
-We did not go crazy buying things we didn't have a plan for at the farmer's market. Just what we needed for what we planned.
-I used a birthday coupon for a free game of putt-putt
-Canned up multiple quarts of chicken broth to put on the shelf
-Free lunch/dinner. Not really frugal by my doing but Sunday night someone ordered Grubhub and it got delivered to our apartment. We called them to say we had it and the girl didn't want it as she had already ordered from somewhere else. So we had housemade potato chips last night, split the burger for lunch, and will eat the salad w/ pizza tonight
1. Sold two more books on Amazon.
2. Sent one of them during a post office mystery shop, so it cost me nothing for the postage. Sadly, the second book was going to a P.O. Box, which you are not allowed to use as a mystery shop delivery address.
3. Husband has lost weight and his performance tuxedo is too big. It must be pretty obvious because one of his singing mates spontaneously offered a generous freebie: the tux left behind by his adult son when he went into the military. The army exercise has changed his physique so he will not be able to fit into it once he does come home. Husband was able to pass his too big tux to another group member.
4. Sometime ago I discovered that cauliflower should not try to masquerade a pizza crust. I have now discovered another vegetable suffering from imposter syndrome: Hearts of Palm trying to be pasta. Someone gave me two packets and we ate them because we don't waste even free food...but never again.
5. Went to the tool library for an obscure wood planer the husband wanted to a project. He was going to buy one, until I reminded him about our community tool library. That place is awesome.
I purchased rooting hormone from Amazon. My plan is to get cutting from a neighbors garden and hopefully grow plants from those cuttings. We want to transition our backyard from a lawn to native (drought tolerant) plants and I would love to do this as cheaply as possible.
I selected the less fast shipping option on a prime order and received digital credits. (I currently have over $7 in digital credits due to a little patience.
I stored a bag of dried leaves so that I can compost year round. The rest of our leaves are pilled around fruit trees for "free" compost.
I purchased used jeans for 2023 yard work and painting.
@Rebekah in SoCal, my favorite gardening pants are a pair of hospital scrubs I bought for $2 at a thrift store. Plenty of pockets for tools, seed packets, etc.!
@A. Marie,
That is a good idea. We have a medical school at one of the local hospitals so I bet the local good will has a lot of old scrubs.
@Rebekah in SoCal, I was thinking that I was nicely piling up Amazon digital credits, but I think they only last for a short time and then disappear. Also, what exactly are they good for? Just the movies on Prime?
No snow?? Lucky you!
* Got many things from my Buy Nothing group lately : pee pads for the dog, food (yogurts and pickles) a lamp, etc.
* Found a library that I declared lost and paid for a couple months ago. They reimbursed me the price of the book and kept 10$ for late fees. 20$ back in my pocket, I'll take it
* Got 3 free slices of cake from differents places, for my birthday
* Been using an amazing face cream that I got from Sephora a year ago as part of a free birthday samples gift (Tatcha dewy cream). I went online to check the price, thinking I wouldmaybe buy a jar.... Well.... 90$ for a 50ml jar? I'll pass! I'll go back to my 6$ St-Yves face cream soon.
* My husband uses natural deodorant that cost 11$/container. I found some on clearance for 5$ but only the rose scented one. Hubby works from home and barely gets out, so I bought one and told him he could use this one on days he's staying in. He laughted!
found a library BOOK, oops
We've been hearing a lot about all the cozy hamster bedding you've been scoring . . . I think we might need a few more pics of Zoe's alleged hamster in this here blog! More cuteness, plz! 🙂
My five frugal things
1. I just clipped a digital coupon to save 23cents/gallon on fuel on Jan 20 in addition to my 10 cents off.
2. Used an expiring gift card (rewards programs making changes) & got 2 movie theater snacks $0.98 total out of pocket.
3. used Lego points to get $35 off my order & free shipping & free bonus Lego with $50 order on Valentine's & Easter Lego. Total $17 spent
4. Teen wanted pizza (& have not had takeout in months) so found 25% off any Hungry Howies pizza (25OFFZA expires Jan 19). I will have leftover from large pizza adleast 1 day until teen eats. Earned free pizza next order.
5. Got used pants needed from free store
This week I had to really search for the frugal wins, so here goes:
1. When we left the Vets office I said OK to an email bill since they were busy. When I checked my email I noticed we were double charged for the visit, so I called and they refunded me $151.
2. I bought a planner and never used it in 2022. I decided to just mark through the dates and write in this years correct day/date and use it.
3. I've been mostly reading library books, but the wait was really long on a series I want to finish, instead of waiting I used some amazon slow shipping credits and that brought the price down, so I purchased them for my Kindle app.
1. My insurance company denied an out-of-network claim, citing the fact that they needed an itemized receipt. I called member services and pointed out that I had submitted the itemized receipt with my claim. The rep I spoke to sent the claim back for adjustment as a priority. I was shocked when it was approved within a couple days. Persistence pays off!
2. I was on a roll with insurance claims this week. I submitted another out-of-network claim and a claim for reimbursement on at-home Covid tests.
3. I increased my retirement withholdings.
4. No food waste this week! This has been a problem area for me, so I'm really pleased.
5. I ate all my meals at home this week.
I so understand the yard. I have about an acre and 25 oaks at least. I consider mowing grass in the summer a break after doing leaves for 4 months out of the year (October-January here in SC). It's a dusty, horrible job. I am fortunate that our city comes by and sweeps them up if you get them to the road with this giant vacuum truck. We have a mower and bagger, but I have to wear a mask and still cough for an entire day. So nice of the neighbors to let you borrow their mower. Good neighbors are gold!
I'm not currently doing anything frugal. We are selling our house and buying a house in another city. Seems like we are putting out money constantly for fixing little things here or inspecting the house there.
This week is not a frugal week, but hopefully will be a win in the end to move away from my higher cost of living area.
So, so dusty those leaves are!
1. I mended a pair of pants.
2. We had a snowball fight and enjoyed other free entertainment.
3. I cut up some old shirts for cleaning rags.
4. I wanted to get some new decor but I cleaned and reorganized what we already have.
5. I made most of our meals at home. I used some food that was given to us.
Made bird fat feeders - dried out grapefruit halves (on the top of the warming oven on woodstove) after eating the fruit. Cooked bacon in the air fryer - and poured the fat in the grapefruit halves, into the fridge freezer to firm up. The woodpeckers love fat based treated. And this was 'free' as they were from leftovers. Have had 3 types of woodpeckers so far, 3-Toed female, a Downy, and a Hairy (you'd think woodpeckers would have more majestic names!)
It seems as if we are bleeding money this month--medical bills from tests back in the fall are arriving; fridge needed a repair; I misread the budget pay gas bill for months, which brought on an unexpected disconnect alert, so had to fork out an additional $200. So I struggled to find frugality this week.
1. Hubby goes to bed before I do, so when he does, I immediately turn down the thermostat, and put on a sweater, or sit under a fleece blanket to read. (He is a stroke survivor, and cold makes his affected side spasm, causing pain, so we have to keep the house warmer than I would prefer.) That's around 3-4 hours of lower temps, plus I've convinced him (most of the time) to just turn on the portable heater in the den where he sits and catches up on his news shows, rather than turn the whole house temp up when he gets up in the morning.
2. Got 2 free Kindle books on their Prime First Reads program.
3. Made my own hummus this week for veggie snacks. I don't usually buy my hummus, because homemade tastes better, but don't often take the time to make my own, and therefore will cave to higher-fat (and more expensive) snacks.
4. Took the bag of veggie peels from the freezer and made about 4.5 quarts of soup stock. Started a new bag.
5. The usual random things: bought gas for $.10/gal less at a station on the way home from church than the one closest to me; consolidated errands; as retired, we always eat at home and haven't ordered pizza in since Nov.
@Stephanie D, I've made homemade hummus twice recently! It's really good, and much cheaper than anything I've seen @ the grocery store.
@Gretchen, Do you used canned garbanzo beans, or do you start with dried ones? I like working with the dried ones and it's not that much trouble--if I plan ahead. I like to keep a couple of cans on hand when I get a craving or just to eat. But the soaked and cooked ones just taste better to me!
1. We’ve had free accommodation for the first week of our current road trip, and just spoke with a friend who will host us for the next several weeks. It will be wonderful to see them, and also wonderful to be able to stay for free.
2. I brought a small tube of lotion I received for Christmas on our road trip- it’s not my favorite, but it’s nice to have something small for travel and this way I’ll use it up.
3. Went to a children’s consignment store, but didn’t end up seeing anything Baby E really needed. We will figure out a way to squeeze him into his jammies for a little longer while we travel- his little legs are getting both too chunky and too long.
4. I was going to darn several pairs of partial-wool socks that were handed down from my mom, but realized that they were really poor quality and that it would make more sense to just wear them as much as possible, rather than “spending” time and effort (and wool) to try to repair something that would just fall apart anyway. I’m glad the socks I bought are fully wool, and while they were more expensive up front, they have a lifetime guarantee and will be worth repairing.
5. Cut DH’s hair.
I just had to comment … years ago when my MIL was visiting, she made grilled cheese sandwiches and turned the heel inside out as well. I thought I was going to cry! I loved using the heels crust side out and putting them in my “george foreman” grill to create more of a panini. I would actually save the heels for this. I can laugh about it now!
Five frugalities:
Mended clothes for DH and myself--holes and missing buttons now disappeared!
Cooked at home all week. Ditto coffee.
Organized a pot luck lunch to celebrate my soup kitchen team. We had a great time and a much better lunch than any of us eat home alone.
Nurturing my beautiful white poinsettia, a lovely houseplant. A smaller reddish poinsettia is going to the compost pile.
Rediscovered a great purse in my closet, a welcome change from my too-big bag of fall.
@Kristina, Poinsettia "flowers", meaning the colored leaves, last quite a while if cut and put in water, though the gunky stuff in the stems might not mix well if combined with other flowers in a vase.