Five Frugal Things | coffee, flowers, pudding, and more
1. I got a $3 Starbucks drink
On my way to do some fun money spending (I promise a report!), I decided to splurge a little and buy a coffee instead of bringing one from home.
But this ended up not being much of a splurge because when I opened the app, I found a coupon for a $3 latte, so my drink was less than half price.
And of course I paid with a gift card, so, $0 out of pocket. 😉
2. I used some slightly sour milk to make pudding
An oldie but a goodie; somehow, milk that is slightly old still tastes fine in chocolate pudding, so that's what I did with the last two cups from my most recent gallon.
Sour milk, if it is pasteurized, is unlikely to make you sick (please see this NPR link), so I am never nervous about this. Besides, I always use it in some kind of cooked form, like in pudding or in bread dough, and I have faith that the heat is killing any potential pathogens.
Relatedly, many of you suggested adding a pinch of salt to milk when I open a container, to keep it from going bad. I have been unable to find a reputable source saying this works, though, so if you have one, drop it in the comments!
3. I got some free flowers
Trader Joe's sells something called paper flowers, and I always stop to admire them when they're in store. And I've considered buying some; they appeal to me much more than most faux flowers do.
So, when I happened to see someone offering up some dusty purple flowers that reminded me of the TJ's paper flowers, I said, "Oh yes, please!" and picked them up.
I put them in my big Ikea pitcher by my fireplace, and they make me smile when I see them!
This is an example of how a flexible approach to decorating works for me; I patiently float through life, and when something free/cheap pops up that fits within the broad range of Acceptable Aesthetics (according to me), I pick it up.
Slowly but surely, my house has come together this way, and the look is sufficiently cohesive for my taste.
(The theme is called Free/Cheap Stuff That Kristen Likes. All the rage. I expect Better Homes and Gardens to feature me any day.)
4. I mended a pair of undies
You know how I sometimes get free undies from Victoria's Secret, with birthday offers? Well, a recent pair seems to have been sewn poorly, because the side seam was coming undone.
So, I sewed it up by hand, with some thread rescued from the abandoned house.
And then I put a little bit of fray chek glue on it to stop my repair from coming apart.
5. I got a meal voucher for work
My manager gave everyone $8 meal vouchers for the cafeteria at work, as a thanks for making it in during the snow.
Soo, one day in the future, I will not have to pack a work lunch!
Your turn! What frugal things have you been up to lately?
P.S. I ended up being needed at work today, so I will unfortunately be away from my computer again. But I promise I will read all the emails you all sent to me. And I'm asking that if you have anything more to say about yesterday's post, please just email it to me instead of starting a discussion in today's comments. Thank you!
Thank you for yesterday’s post.
Hugs to you Kristen!
The snow is hitting US states terribly. Does it ever happen that nursing staff need to sleep over at the hospital due to bad traffic?
This week I
- listed some items for sale, and bought some deco (candleholders) at a thrift shop
- freecycled an appliance
- had a potluck meal with my girl friends from primary school, that I meet up with every year
- made yoghurt, and vegetable broth
- bought 5 kg of carrots at the supermarket that often has bulk offers from local farmers. In this case the carrots were uneven in size, and hence not fit for the usual channels. They taste excellent though. I will be giving some away to people living alone, and we ate some and I will give canning a try. Carrots should be ok to can, I would not expect them to go mushy. And then there will be plenty left. It is still cold, I should be able to keep the carrots for weeks.
I am proud of youngest, who brought up the topic of gifts with his group of friends. Some are really well off, others not at all so. Youngest brought forward the topic of having good times together without financial differences becoming embarrassing. The friends had a good chat about that and still plan plenty of (frugal) get-togethers. How grown up, I thought, and what a blessing to have a group of friends where you can openly discuss such a topic and topics you feel vulnerable in, generally.
Way to go with your son! I don't know if you've seen Friends, but there's an episode where that doesn't go so well. I'm glad it went better with him (and it shows a lot of maturity on everyone's part).
Thank you.
--Now that we're a few years past the craziness of moving, I've been gradually passing on excess supplies. I purposefully overbought paint for our house, as I didn't want to get caught short mid-revamp. We ended up with two extra gallons of our living and dining room color. (There's a big beautiful archway between the two rooms; while seperate, they flow together visually.) Even if refreshing the whole space, we'd only need one gallon, so I offered up the second to a friend who admired the color. She happily claimed it for her own in-progress home projects.
--In return, she offered 10 cleaned milk jugs for seed starting. I want to try winter sowing this year for earlier crops, but our household of two can't compete with the jug output of her household of six! I'll of course share the results with her.
--I bought a ginormous 5 lb chicken for 50% off. My husband roasted it (with vegetables) for one meal; leftovers were his work lunch for two days running; and the remaining half was shredded and tucked in the freezer for later meals.
--We left our faucets dripping overnight to protect our pipes during this long, cold weekend. We do this when it's below zero; if it gets to -10 or more, we also turn on the space heater in the basement. Our unheated basement/crawlspace maintains a steady 40 degrees even at -10, but we'd rather take the extra precaution than not.
--Not so frugal: One of our feline trio spent the whole weekend living his best life in the dripping tub,* which resulted in a trip to the vet yesterday for an ear infection. The little fluffernut dingbat.
*Closing the bathroom door isn't an option, as two out of three litter boxes are there.
fluffernut dingbat 🥰
"Fluffernut Dingabt" is my new favorite term! LOL
Did I miss something? When did she write about her son? Thanks
Sorry! I misread that. I thought you were talking about Kristen’s son.
Not sure if it happens at Kristen's hospital, but it does happen at mine! It's not super common, and you do have to be working the next day's shift to be eligible to stay over. They set aside some beds in the less-busy floors of the hospital, and allow people to sign up.
They do the same thing at the hospital where I work - any staff member working the next day can stay over. I overheard some nurses planning on staying at a nearby hotel as well, on their own dime.
Same with my former hospital if there were beds available in observation, then we could bunk there. They gave preference to out of towers who commuted more than 20 miles.
I was a 911 operator/police dispatcher, and some of us would sleep on the floor in an empty office rather than drive home. I ended up buying a house a mile from the station, and during bad weather lots of coworkers would crash at my place. It was like one big multi day slumber party!
So impressed with your youngest!!
I appreciated yesterday's post.
My frugals:
1. I went to the cinema with a friend last night to see Eternity. I bought some sweets but the ticket was free (I got two free cinema tickets when I joined a union; I used the first one to see Clueless) and I just drank from my water bottle.
2. I ordered a dress in a sale when I was home over Christmas. I paid for next day delivery but it didn't show up until I was back in Denmark, and then I had to pay more money to get it sent over! I complained and got a full refund (I didn't get the money back for shipping it over here, but it's 'only' an extra £10, so not a total loss).
3. I didn't get any takeout.
4. I brought leftovers for lunch at work yesterday.
5. I baked a loaf of bread.
I also used my gym membership, got money back on bottles and cans for recycling and stayed home this weekend. I extended my netflix subscription though, so maybe not a full win 😉
I really like the paper flowers! As someone who suffers from hayfever, it's a good idea!
We have been home (and in the neighborhood) since Saturday morning courtesy of the winter storm. We are extremely grateful that power outages did not occur as feared.
1. I spent Sunday morning in the kitchen. I made a pan of granola, a pan of corn bread, and marinated and baked chicken breasts. I made up a new marinade based on one I had used for turkey chops, what I had on hand, and what made sense to me. We thought the results were excellent and leftovers have been greatly appreciated.
2. I discovered that Working Hands hand cream is quite a bit cheaper when ordered from Sam's Club. I placed an order for three jars, with enough other items to gain free shipping.
3. Since my yoga studio was closed on Sunday I signed up for a virtual class/recording on Saturday. I did not "attend" the class but used the recording yesterday. Classes yesterday were virtual so I signed up for Pilates and received the recording. This keeps me active and making good use of my monthly membership.
4. I traded shoveling for walking for exercise the past two days.
5. My volunteer gig was cancelled yesterday so I took the time and worked on a knitted scarf for charity, while listening to an audio book borrowed from the library.
FFT, The Big Chill Edition (updated from Monday's FFT at the NCA):
(1) As in much of the rest of the US, the temps dropped into single digits on Saturday in my part of Central NY, and we got about 12" of snow (not mixed with ice or sleet, fortunately) as of 7 am Monday. So I haven't been endangering my own and others' lives by attempting to go anywhere. Alive = frugal.
(2) Got a robust and free aerobic workout Monday morning by shoveling paths to my trash/recycling carts, the bird feeders, and the street, and by wading down to NDN1's house to make sure that her furnace vent wasn't blocked by snow. (Her furnace seems to be going wonky yet again, and I'm not about to let a frail 87-year-old freeze to death on my watch.)
(3) Keeping busy indoors, I've been doing this and that. I made a very good loaf of bread machine whole wheat (a King Arthur Flour online recipe with a tweak or two as usual), ran a load of laundry and rack-dried it (the house can use the humidity), and completed a joint garden seed order with the Bestest Neighbors (hey, it's gotta be spring sometime, right?).
(4) I'm also doing a cull of my royal commemoratives and other collectibles for the annual antiques/collectibles auction held in August to benefit the library in the town near the BNs' lake house (which members of Ms. BN's family founded). I was up on a stepstool and then standing on my bed dusting the commemorative plates on the plate rail that runs the length of my master BR, and I realized about halfway through the process that I probably shouldn't be doing this any longer. So those plates are going to the auction. A triple win: stuff out of the house, a nice tax deduction, and the wisdom of recognizing my own age-related limitations.
(5) And the further I get into the culling process, the more I'm finding I can live without. As Thoreau reminds us, "Simplify, simplify!"
A. Marie, I adore you. Your posts always touch me, entertain, and/or give food for thought. Thank you for starting my morning off with a smile.
Further you inspired - one of my goals this year is to change up my reading. Read more nonfiction, and the fiction half to be all the classics I never read. My set of used Jane Austin just arrived this week. They won't be started for a month or so, but they are in-house!
Speaking of classics.........I read East of Eden by Steinbeck during this winter storm. I loved it, and plan to put several more classic books on my TBR for 2026 !!
Thank you for the kind words, AZ Lynn. And I'm delighted to hear about your new-to-you set of Jane Austen and your plans for reading the novels!
In addition to the "big six," do read JA's unpublished early work Lady Susan if you can. I'm rereading it for an upcoming regional JASNA meeting, and Lady S is unlike any other JA character: a completely unscrupulous, conniving, and delightful b***h.
Still culling on the commemoratives! How many do you have?
It is hard to let go of loved items. I am now ready to let go of my study books. It took 20 years of miniming to get there.
We will be empty nesters come April. I hope we will not give in to the temptation to put boxes of "stuff" in the room that becomes available.
JNL, I'm almost ashamed to admit how many commemoratives DH and I collected from the 1980s to 2014 (the year we stopped acquiring for ourselves, though friends still give me some). It's enough to say that the collection spilled out of the china cabinets in the dining room a long time ago and took over the house. 😛
I agree with "Simplify, simplify!". I'm sure I think it everyday, if not multiple times a day. I think things sneak into our house when we're not looking. We shop very little and yet the amount of stuff we have does not seem to indicate that.
Does it count as "simplify!" if I went through a binder of recipes and threw away the ones I knew I'd never use? (You know, that binder of magazine clippings I kept because I wanted to try it someday.)
I love your attempt to splurge on a coffee. It’s like the universe won’t let you spend money!
Haha I was chuckling about that too! Kristen has set up her life to run on joyful frugality and she can't "turn it off."
Me: "Whoops! I got a discount!"
1. I signed up for a non-invasive study at our local university. They have so far paid me $100 for 1.5 hours of my time. Total payment will be $600.
2. We took a family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge this weekend. That's not frugal, but we did some things to save money while there. We used my employer's discount to book the room which saved us 20%. We booked the cheapest room. We brought our own food, coffee, snacks, and drinks. We collected all of the Canadian coins in our house ($13!) prior to leaving, which the kids used to buy candy while we were there.
3. I cooked a pork tenderloin and carrots my mom gave us for my lunches this week.
4. I helped my son bake cookies for a friend's birthday this week rather than buying her a gift.
5. Listed some items for sale on Facebook Marketplace
Ahhh! We're heading to GWL next week for a Sun/Mon stay for our first time. Kids are 13, 12, and 10. Tips for frugal fun while still maintaining sanity?!?!
Based on our experience with 4 kids (5-16yrs) I would say to definitely bring your own snacks/foods. They are clever to place their hotels (or at least the one we were at) in a very secluded area, so it’s hard to find good food options outside the hotel. The food was really expensive and not awful, but definitely not great! It wouldn’t be hard to bring breakfast and lunch options, so your money can go further on other things. Our 11 year old loved the Magiquest game, so it was worth getting them each a package to get to experience all the fun things. A two day stay is a perfect amount of time to enjoy all they offer without getting too bored or going broke! Hope you all have a great time!
So fun! We have been a few times and it's a really good time. Bring bathrobes and sandals to go to and from the water park. Bring a water bottle to fill up. They do let you bring reusable water bottles into the water park, but no other outside food or drinks. Each hotel floor has a microwave and each room has a small refrigerator and coffee maker, so bring food and drinks. If you plan not to bring your own food, consider having food delivered to the resort by a restaurant instead, as the food there is very expensive. We buy the Wolf Pass ahead of arriving to the resort, as we think it's the best deal for paying for the other activities there. If planning to do MagiQuest, see if someone in your Buy Nothing group has wands to keep or borrow. It's so much cheaper to "reload" used wands than to buy them new. The gift shops are very, very over priced. Take advantage of the free activities they offer like BINGO, yoga, etc.
Corrine, your #2 reminds me of my trip to the JASNA Annual General Meeting in Montreal in 2014--where I amused my companions at a bar by pulling out enough Canadian coins saved from the coin machine at my Wegmans to buy myself a drink. Your kids using theirs to buy candy strikes me as the juvenile equivalent. 🙂
Lol! I believe you live close to me, so you know the issue with always having Canadian change you cannot spend when you live close to the border.
Actually, Corrine, I've found that most merchants here in the Salt City will accept Canadian coins up to a quarter at US face value as long as you don't give them a whole bunch at a time. But I had a $2 coin and a couple of loonies that needed to be spent north of the border. And please give our Canadian friends my regards and tell them that at least some of us still love them. 🙁
Yes! Ours were mostly $1 and $2 coins also.
Hoping we represented how most Americans feel while we were there!
If this posts twice, I apologize. I had a little glitch. Mostly I did the usual, such as cooking at home. I did, however, use a page from Kristen’s book and collect a bunch of birthday freebies such as ice cream from Publix, cake from Fresh Market, and cookies from Panera. I also took advantage of some discount coupons at stores combined with sales to get a few things I needed such as new underwear.
Happy Birthday!
Those flowers look so pretty! Great find!
My FFT:
1. While emotional shopping isn't good, at least my version doesn't break the bank. I was feeling spendy on Thursday night (we had just gotten the notice that we'd be having our 4th snow day of the week) and I went to Goodwill where I got a big bag of clothes for my family and then went to Meijer where they had a bunch of Detroit Lions and Detroit Tigers gear marked 75% off. I got a super warm hoodie for $12.49, plus a number of shirts for about $5. I know I will wear these a lot, so I feel zero guilt over this. 😉
2. Between my CVS dollars, discounts, and sales, I got 12 bottles of nail polish for about $6 total. They're regularly $2.99 each. They're going in goody bags for my daughter's upcoming birthday party.
3. I made apple chips on one of our days of cancelled school.
4. On yesterday's day of cancelled school, I drove to the discount produce store that's about 35 minutes away and loaded up on fruits and veggies at a great price. I even snagged a couple of discount boxes (like a case of raspberries for $1.99!)
5. I remembered to renew our library materials so we didn't incur any fines. It's small, but library fines still take a hit on my brain after being at a library for a lot of years that didn't charge fines.
Replace those fairly rough looking babies breath with some fresh ones to brighten up the bouquet. They will look nice and dry well too 😀
Love the flowers!!! They're so delicate and in that giant white jug are a great aesthetic!
Thanks for everything you do to make this a welcoming place for your readers!
1) It's been a struggle to get back into life. I'm still recovering with sleep & trying to overcome jet lag, so I'm at the survival mode. DH was supposed to pick up a second easy dish at Costco (stuffed peppers), but forgot. So, I went to the freezer & defrosted a piece of salmon (DH) & chicken noodle soup (me). It wasn't the most exciting dinner, but we were all fed.
2) DH once again repaired our garage door. It's unlikely to last more than six months or so, but that is quite a long time to get more usage out of something before it needs to be fixed.
3) Similarly, DH was able to repair DS19's car. The mechanic's quote was for more than the car was worth. DH ordered a part, trained himself up & fixed it himself. Despite this not being his actual job, he is incredibly handy & enjoys it. His planned "retirement" job is to be either a general contractor or a mechanic. 😉
4) Went to a free Pilates class. It's clear that Pilates would be very helpful to build core strength & help with some of my back & hip problems. But, this place was crazy expensive. I will keep looking for other options (maybe a Y membership?) I get that the Y wouldn't be the same as a fancy Pilates studio, but if I can get 75% of the benefit at 25% of the cost, that would be worth it.
5) I started the long process of trying to understand what's happening with our solar production. we used to get a monthly report, but the company went bankrupt. Something is definitely wrong, so I've got a list of things to try to get more details on our production. It's not "done" yet, but I'm making progress.
Love the flowers!
If you aren't reliably using a gallon and you do have some freezer space, may I suggest decanting it so that you have a 1/2 gallon in the fridge, and a 1/2 gallon ready to be thawed? Milk defrosts quite quickly, so when you're running out of the first lot, get the second lot out - even if you forget, it won't be long till it defrosts. My mum used to do this because she didn't use huge amounts of milk in daily life BUT did like a little bit for cereal and so on and the little bottles are super-expensive by comparison. She got a couple of freezer safe bottles and used them to decant milk.
After YEARS of watching you fix small problems with clothing and saying "I really should do that." I've finally started! So far this year, I've mended a pair of shorts that had a tiny hole by the back pocket and a hoodie with frayed pockets. BUT I keep forgetting to order that fray check glue, but now I have. 🙂
I've always used clear nail polish to stop frays. It works just fine, so I admit I'm confused about a product marketed solely to stop fraying, when clear polish has always just been there?
Fry Check doesn't dry hard and crunchy like clear nail polish does. It also dries a bit more quickly and isn't as sticky when drying like nail polish. It's a costumers best friend.
Got it, thank you!
Go, Denise! I just got my first bottle of fray check thanks to this blog (being not crafty nor sew-y, had never heard of it).
Firstly, thank you.
I haven't done anything especially frugal over this past week.
How much snow did you end up getting? I used to have a friend in Maryland and when they'd get a skiff of snow she wouldn't be able to go to work for days. Meanwhile, here on the Canadian prairies we're regularly buried in a few feet of it. But, when a city doesn't have infrastructure for dealing with it, I can understand why even a skiff could be problematic.
@Tammy, what is a “skiff”?
A dusting of snow or a trace of snow. Or a small boat ;op fyi it was meant to be sassy.
I love learning these new expressions. It was also on this blog that I learned what a sub was!
A skiff of snow sounds poetic-
Sometimes weather related closures (anywhere, but especially for schools with lots of students who walk to school) are due to extremely cold temps or ice/re-freeze issues even once snow has been dealt with. Nobody wants students walking a mile+ in single digit temps. I recently heard that a big city near us also performs school indoor temp checks to make sure their (often old) HVAC systems are keeping up with the demand; if building temps fall below a certain temperature threshold they are required to temporarily close that school. Virtual options go a long way these days to keep classes and workplaces moving forward despite weather- assuming folks still have power.
Fellow Marylander here in the DC area- we got about 8 inches, but 4 was snow and 4 was sleet. It took me over 2 hours to chisel my car out on Monday- that would normally be a 20-30 minute job if it was 8 inches of just snow. It looks like Hoth over here, because everything has frozen solid and we won't go above freezing until next Monday. I envy our northern neighbors that know how to deal with this better than us :o)
So kind of your charge sister to treat the staff to lunch! I recently found out that my new hospital gives staff a coffee shop voucher for birthdays. That will be when I break my packed lunch streak (inspired by Kristen).
Frugal things over here:
*Drove to work on Saturday and stayed in the call room, rather than risk slippy slidy roads and spend extra gas going back and forth. Hospital provided free accommodation and $10 meal. Boss pulled me into office and told me I would be paid for all of the hours I was on site, even sleeping.
*eating down my fridge and freezer until I have to go buy groceries because I am SO happy to be in my own home today.
*Returned a $40 TV mount (failed attempt to install) with one day left to spare and Best Buy cheerfully refunded the money. Used a couple of old hair ties to make the silly leg stand more stable on the top of a little used dresser. Problem solved.
*Painted my two front rooms myself, giving everything a deep clean. Spent about $40 on paint and used other supplies I already had. Will not have to repaint this ever as I am almost too old anyway to be climbing on ladders!
*Tomorrow I will make a big pot of soup using stock and turkey from Thanksgiving that I have been saving for cold days.
Eggs were on sale for .99 this week at Grocery Outlet limit 6. It is funny how no one makes a big deal out of that price but eggs at 10.99 become front page news and a national crisis. Reminiscent of toilet paper, this becomes a reminder to me to live my small life with daily discipline, careful stewardship, and a strong compass pointing to my north rather than what the media screams.
I made a $30 sale of two ceramic roosters that are not coming to the River House. I asked Chatgpt for the most frugal way to use that little bonus to boost my pantry. It came up with several ideas and, ironically, I already had all its suggestions in my pantry. I am turning it into Singapore currency to use for my first taxi in Asia . If all goes well, I will touch my seventh continent at Darwin, Australia by February 11th.
I picked up several travel ready snacks and impromptu meals for when I am traveling to avoid high food prices. CVS gave me a $1.00 coupon when I picked up prescriptions. I picked up a package of dried apples for .99. I picked up 2 larger packages of honey roasted chickpeas - 1.99 each. These are excellent fiber and protein that won't spoil. For the plane I usually bring prepackaged hummus and celery sticks and a container for water. The flight is 17 hours.
@Mary Ann, you are a force to be reckoned with! Your SEVENTH continent!!
Maybe it is good that the 99¢ eggs aren’t front page news or there might be a run on them. But I get what you are saying. . . News is used to stir people up, scare them, make them mad, because then more people will tune in and more ads will be sold.
We got 11 inches of snow in the winter storm and our temperatures are in the single digits. Here's my Snowed In Frugal Five.
1. We haven't changed our furnace setting. We're keeping warm wearing layers, spending more time on the second floor of our house, and drinking cups of hot tea.
2. I've been living in the heavy wool sweater I bought as a Danish souvenir. It was expensive (but cheaper than if I bought it at home), but useful, unique to the area, and I knew that it would last (which are my requirements for vacation souvenirs.) I get a nice little dopamine hit that reminds me of my bucket list trip every time I wear it.
3. I pulled a candle I made from reclaimed wax in case the power went out (it didn't) and started burning it anyway for a mood lifter.
4. My husband shoveled our sidewalks as his cardio workout.
5. I sewed a drinking cup cover from stash fabric and supplies for camping to keep the flies out and a new cloak from Joann Fabrics store closing fabric for my upcoming performance season.
The flowers look lovely!
I mended three pairs of hand-knitted socks. I find darning socks very relaxing and satisfying.
I made a batch of yogurt and some sandwich bread.
I'm reading through Dorothy Sayers' mysteries, downloaded free from Project Gutenberg.
We have some booster cushions in our camper van that had gotten dirty. But when I went to wash the cushions, I discovered that though they are removable, they aren't made of washable fabric. So I'm making new covers with some remnants of denim.
Always good to hear a reference to Dorothy Sayers, and Lord Peter!
Some compilations of her short stories (not all are Lord Peter Wimsey ones) have been published.
I will look for these, Thank you!
We used those type of flowers for our wedding flowers! And we also employ a similar decorating style that I call second hand chic. Your place looks lovely in the pictures you share, so I'm proud to have a similar asthetic!
Frugal things:
1. My husband repaired an old cashmere sweater I had that was getting holes around the arms. He's the seamstress in our household :).
2. We made approximately 95% of our meals at home this week.
3. We ate a few meatless dinners/lunches using dried beans.
4. I gave up buying diet soda (mostly for health reasons, but it's definitely impacted my weekly spending!)
5. We shoveled our own driveway (by hand, but I definitely see a snow blower in our future as we get older-lol).
1. In honor of Lindsey in Alaska, I purchased Sumo oranges with price as no object. Super delicious.
2. Continuing to pick up trash around the community. Feels good to leave something better than I found it.
3. Found a $30 Outdoor Research cap on the side of the road. Washed it for my husband to wear.
4. Watched movies via our basic Netflix subscription: Goodbye June and The New Yorker at 100.
5. Took recycling to the local transfer station (it's not picked up curbside). Arizona - at least the county we're staying in - does not recycle glass. Ugh. Instead of throwing away glass bottles, we've been using them to store leftovers. I am going to bring them home with us to Minnesota for recycling, along with the paper and plastics the county here also doesn't accept (like sour cream containers and berry containers).
1. Frugal Cookery: made challah for Friday, prepped a huge tray of chicken breasts into ready-to-bake schnitzel, used leftover vegetables and rice to make fried rice. I especially did not feel like prepping the chicken, so I'm giving myself an extra-big pat on the back.
2. Frugal sewing: turned two of my old shirts into shirts for my daughter. Pictures here: https://www.instagram.com/meira.the.bear/
3. Didn't get accepted as tenants in the house we applied for. The landlords were...offputting, so it's just as well. And it saves us money each month that we don't pay a higher rent.
4. Did not take an Uber this morning to work this morning, even though I really wanted to and it probably would have been safer--the transit system isn't functioning properly and I wound up walking on unplowed sidewalks which was treacherous. But it's done. The croissant I bought when I got here cost a lot less than the Uber would have!
5. Frugal snowstorm entertainment: made salt-and-flour dough to make "fossils" with toys, Mr. B handled outdoor play, we painted little flower pots together, and we watched a lot of TV.
Those flowers are beautiful! I appreciate your taste in decorating - that's the way I do it to! Have a wonderful day!
1. I used two B&N gift cards to buy a cookbook devoted to cookies. I had checked out eight cookbooks looking for just the right one and I thankfully found it! It was a little painful to “pay” the B&N price, but the gift cards made the cookbook free.
2. I went shopping with my friend who got a new job and wanted to pick up some new bras and makeup before an upcoming work trip. (She hadn’t bought bras since 2018 so it was time!) I found some underwear deeply discounted and was happy to accept the handful of samples from the beauty counter. On my way home from our shopping trip I stopped by CVS and used another gift card to pick up a few beauty products that I needed to replace. It was tempting to buy the products at the beauty counter, but the drug store versions will work for my needs.
3. I finally finished a scarf that had been in my WIP basket for over a year. With temps barely making it above zero this past week, it has been wonderful to have a new plush scarf when I venture out.
4. I used stars for a free Starbucks drink on today’s Tuesday Starbucks Day! I had some stars that were expiring on the 1st so it was use it or lose it time.
5. More menu planning using almost the freezer and pantry exclusively. We have so many frozen veggies from last summer’s CSA that this is an easy task. I needed a few things from the grocery store but managed to check a few things off the list by making them myself (hamburger buns, sandwich bread). In the end my grocery list had three items on it – massive win!
A friend treated me to breakfast Sunday, and I got 2 more meals out of the leftovers!
Found 54 cents in the coin return at self checkout.
Has 2 ebay sales, and shipped in packaging I had on hand from other mailings.
Washed my plastic zipper bags out for reuse.
The usual stuff on autopilot..... bringing coffee and lunch to work, always taking my water bottle and a snack when I run errands, using Upside for gas and Fetch for receipts!
Great title/description of your decorating style. When I was in an apartment during college, I believe my style was Early Garage. After college, I moved into an era called Snatch-and-Grab, because I took anything I could find that was free (and of course which fit my personal aesthetic requirements).
Thank you for your P.S. to this post. Keeping things civil and uncontentious is rare and beautiful on the interwebs.
Frugal things? Nothing comes to mind. I’ll hitchhike on everyone else’s and see if I can glean any ideas.
P.S. In the old blog format, I never had to enter my user name and email, in spite of no boxes to check for saving it. This format requires that I enter things every time. It also doesn’t “Notify me via email if anyone answers my comment” regardless of checking that box. Not complaining, just explaining in case there is something that can be changed in the back office.
SHABBY CHIC!! That’s a decorating style that I forgot about. That might be my current description.
But do you pronounce it "Shabby Sheik" or "Shabby Chick"?
When I was little, my aunt would talk about shopping at "TarJay". It took me years to figure out she meant "Target."
My aunt Virginia used to shop at Jacques C Pennay.
Same here re the comments. As you described exactly.
My name and email are in the boxes, ready to be clicked, but that might be that they are in my laptop's cache?
And I still really appreciate that the comments come all in one long (long) screen, rather than having to load them in chunks as it was in the past.
The flowers look lovely!
I feel like I haven't done much lately, just staying indoors out of the ice and snow. I'm doing the usual frugal things, cooking at home, making good use of leftovers, wearing layers to keep warm, and using what I have instead of buying more.
Removed 6 under performing apple, plum and cherry trees from the orchard yesterday. Getting ready for any tree opportunity that might come my way!
Today I am watching the 2 oldest neighbor girls as they still have coughs and can't go to school. They asked to work on their cross stitch samplers that I printed on burlap. We will also bake bread and granola bars for their family. If the weather permits we will take a walk to the back door neighbor to visit the horses.
Somehow I have a few more frugal things than usual from this past week!
1. My employer renewed my RN license ($77 every other year) even though I am only an on-call/PRN employee. I’m super grateful for this. They also renew my other licenses including my DEA ($888 every three years), APRN and BLS certification (I forget the cost of these last two) so this ends up being a significant financial benefit!
2. A few weeks ago I received a text from my credit card company about an almost $3,000 purchase… for a time share. I was able to log on immediately and report it as fraudulent, and I now have a new credit card. I am still waiting for the charge to post to the account and then be removed, but the frugal part is that I knew about it and reported it right away. Fortunately this was caught before anything else happened!
3. I’m working on using up various pantry ingredients, probably not before the baby comes in a few weeks but worth a try anyway. Today I am using some dehydrated mushrooms and quinoa in a crockpot dinner.
4. I finished a conditioner that I didn’t prefer, and am *this close* to finishing a hair gel in the same category. I also recently gave away a curly hair cream that did not work for me on Buy Nothing.
5. I grouped some errands on the other side of town, including making some returns and getting some Valentine’s cards. I picked up my free card at Hallmark plus I had a $3 coupon in my account and some other coupon rang up I wasn’t aware of, so my total was under $4.50 for 5 cards.
6. I also managed to find a brand new baby changing pad at Once Upon a Child for half of what it would be new.
7. Fail/frugal: my littlest one pushed a large glass jar of homemade beeswax lip balm into the sink and it shattered. I didn’t want to try to salvage any of the lip balm as it was close to the bottom of the broken jar and the glass went everywhere. However, I finally got around to making more with my older kiddo. It took a long time but it was a shared project and used beeswax and a different jar I already owned. I love this stuff year round, but especially in the winter.
8. I mended three items of clothing.
9. I brought home leftovers from work: meatballs, little smokies, a few crackers, some small bits of cheese, and some slightly dry brownies which softened up in the microwave.
Would you be willing to share your lip balm recipe? I recently ran out of my last tube of homemade lip balm and was attempting to try and use up an old tin of some lemon lip balm and it made my lips taste like licking an envelope - utterly unappealing!
How lovely the flowers look in the pitcher!
My frugal things:
1. Managed to follow the meal plan and made all dinners with main ingredients from the freezer, plus an impromptu pizza to use up the basil plant that found the polar nights too much 😅 First time I’ve managed to keep a store bought herb for months, since June actually!
2. Found my partner a birthday gift secondhand, a really nice Harris Tweed chore jacket from Universal Works for just $50. I see now that it still sells in their online shop.
3. Bought a long 100% wool cardigan in the secondhand shop last week. They burned a scented candle there so I didn’t notice the very strong detergent smell on the cardigan before I got home. The smell was still as strong after washing, but it worked leaving it out in the snow for a few days, yay!
4. The government has changed how the deductible for medicines are calculated so I’ve been waiting for this week so I can get them all at the same time and save a bit of money that way, but it seems it will still be quite more expensive than before.
5. Sold two sets of Marimekko curtains and a Oleana cardigan that I’ve bought secondhand myself for a very good price. Will use the money for stocking the pantry.
This past week was super-busy, but I managed to:
- bring all my lunches & snacks & coffee for work and school
- volunteered to work an extra 4 hours at the end of an 12-hr shift when a bunch of night PCTs called. It's premium pay, I didn't have class until noon the next day, and an extra 4 hours wasn't too bad (not like working an entire extra shift, that I will NOT do!)
- mended my daughter's favorite skirt
- cook dinner at home every night this week (ok, sometimes my husband or kids cooked when I was working!)
- I got an Ulta gift card through the wellness program at my husband's work (basically, I allow it access to my steps information, I get between 1-3 pts per day for getting a certain step count, and those points can be exchanged for gift cards at the end of the year), and purchased new makeup for a fun date night we have coming up. I ended up spending only $15 out of pocket for eye shadow, mascara, lip liner, lip stick, and eye liner (I don't wear foundation, it always just makes me skin feel weird and/or break out). I typically don't wear makeup at all, so everything I have is over a year old, and just not safe to use any more. This happens to me a LOT, where makeup goes bad well before I'm ever going to use it up, so I try to find ways to get free gift cards, since I know I'm going to end up throwing most of the makeup away unused.
1. We have eaten exclusively at home for the last four days.
2. I reused a sturdy Amazon envelope to pack my passport renewal request.
3. We reconciled our spending and our actual budget--always frugal!
4. I bought a bridal shower card at Dollar Tree.
5. I called regarding a medical bill that had not been sent to insurance first, and that is now being processed.
Paper flowers .... Wasn't that a song? Love the look. Very shabby chic.
1. I park on the street in my very urban neighborhood, and when it snows we have to park on one side or the other so the street can be plowed. Today was the second day I had to move my car. I took the opportunity to drive to our community center, where I walked on the indoor track. Free exercise safely accomplished in very cold weather.
2. I also took the opportunity to check the little free pantry. I took home a can of green beans, a can of creamed corn, a box of Red Baron French bread pizza and a tub of salsa. The latter two are now in my freezer. The cans are thawing on my kitchen table. They were frozen solid.
3. I dropped off a book at a little free library and picked up two more.
4. In the alley I found a bag by the dumpsters filled with Cubs shirts in good condition. I'm going to wash them and offer them on eBay. In the same area there were some long-legged bar chairs. I wished I could resell those, too, but I simply don't have the space.
5. I dried some leftover pita bread and crushed it into crumbs. I added the crumbs to a bag I keep in the freezer.
For anyone who needs a reminder that there are still good people out there. 🙂
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/weather/2026/01/27/ohio-snow-plow-driver-cleared-way-to-get-baby-to-cincinnati-childrens-in-snowstorm/88375051007/
DH and I planned for meals in this weekend (we usually go out to eat on Saturday). We've been doing really well breaking our bad habit of eating out so much.
I made a cranberry/blueberry/apple baked oatmeal for my breakfasts this week, using up some fresh cranberries that needed to be used up. The recipe also used up some elderly applesauce that was lingering in my cupboard. (The recipe is from Budget Bytes).
I've been bringing my breakfast and lunch to work every day. I'm here to make money, not spend it! Ha.
Doing the usual.....making my coffee at home (thank you, travel mugs!), occasionally adding some also-elderly hot chocolate mix to make Cafe mocha, eating up all leftovers, etc.
Liz, thank you for that link. I needed something uplifting today!
I'm a big believer in waiting for items to come to you, and clearly these paper flowers are perfect color in your living room, Kristen!
1. Baked sourdough bread to keep my starter going (I feel like I have another pet in the house with this live starter!).
2. Baked banana bread together with the kids who are home from school due to ice.
3. Cut up my cosmetics tubes to use up whatever product was not coming out. Always amazed at how much waste there is.
4. My husband received a confirmation email from Walmart for items he had not purchased. Our credit card had not been used, only his name and email. Still, he contacted Walmart directly to verify that the order was canceled, and the creditor to add an extra credit fraud check.
5. Went to the movies with some friends on movie classic night, and I Venmoed my friend who had paid for the tickets with his loyalty membership, so each ticket was only $6.
1. I either mended or caused somebody else to mend at least one item of clothing. I can't remember. Sorry.
2. I made bread.
3. We've stayed home since the snow.
4. We cooked bones for broth.
5. I helped a boy with scholarship stuff. I will do more of that later this week.
6. I made yogurt, buttermilk, and brewed my own coffee. I brushed my teeth and flossed; this is less expensive that expensive dental procedures. We made all our meals. We bought so very many eggs at a cheap price. Ditto some colored bell peppers and butter.
Your cafeteria must be reasonably priced.
I was the only milk drinker in the house, so My mom bought milk in quarts when it was on sale and it went right into the freezer. When a carton was about 2/3 gone the next carton would go in the fridge to thaw for when the first carton ran out. She did the same with her non-dairy creamers (yuck!) my parents used in their coffees.
A curious mind wants to know … Can future Kristen use the meal voucher at the end of a shift? Your reasoning for bringing your lunch from home is solid! Especially, I don’t have to go to cafeteria and waste time getting the food on my short break. If you could use the voucher at the end of your shift, particularly on a day no one else will be home for dinner anyway, you could eat, go home, shower, and go to bed. Or, at least get a meal to go and eat it when you got home, rather than a bowl of cereal.
Love the flowers!!!! How very awesome.
I do like to read your postings. They are creative and inspiring and fun.