Five Frugal Things | free tools for me!
1. I got some free tools
My friend Elaine, a blog reader that I met at book club, said her husband had duplicates of a lot of tools. So, she invited me over for a cup of coffee and a little tool rummaging.
So now I have some small tools, more screwdrivers, and a rake and shovel!
It's not like you need a rake and a shovel every day, but there have definitely been a couple of times in the last year-plus of living here that I wished I owned them.
Funny thing: Elaine said she can never seem to come home from a yard sale without a rake, which is why she had extras. Ha.
Her rake-buying habit worked out very well for me. 😉
2. I used a couple of discount strategies at Target
Zoe's sick this week, and I wanted some Mucinex for her. I saw Target had it for a good price, and I also noticed they had a deal on some color-friendly shampoo and conditioner if you did a store pick-up option.
Sooo, I did that and got a $5 gift card. Plus I used my Target Red Card (debit) for 5% off and I used my Target Circle rewards, which were something like $4.70.
I know some people are verrrry tempted to overspend at Target, and if that's you, a Target Red Card is probably a bad idea, especially the credit card version. But I'm not particularly prone to Target sprees, so the Red Card 5% discount works for me.
You just gotta do what works for you!
3. I got some free botanical prints
Someone in my Buy Nothing group had bought a set of nine botanical prints, and she only needed five.
So she offered the other four and surprisingly enough, no one had jumped on them when I saw the post. Yay for me!
4. I used some old frames to hang up the prints
When I moved out of my other house, I grabbed a stack of old frames that I bought eons ago, and had used in various parts of that house in my kids' rooms over the years.
They've been sitting here at my rental house for over a year because I hadn't figured out what I wanted to do with them.
But I was able to make four of them work for the prints! I just had to cut one down to fit in the smaller wooden frame.
By the way, one of these is missing the glass, and I wrote a while back about how I had a realization that it is actually ok if picture frames don't have glass.
(My children broke the glass in many frames over the years, and eventually, I just decided to be at peace with it! I wrote about that here: "How Second-Hand Items Help Me Be More Gracious." The second paragraph of that post has a sentence that is probably going to make you laugh; I almost wanted to delete it just now, but I left it in as a self-roast.)
5. I got some mark-downs at Safeway
As I've said a million times, Safeway is not the cheapest grocery store.
But it IS very close to my house, so when I stop in for a last-minute necessity, I always peek at the clearance rack. Most of the time it's stuff I have no use for, but sometimes I luck out!
This time I found a medicine I use and also a dented box of cereal, both 50% off.
I also grabbed an enormous bag of peanut M&Ms that were 50% off. Are peanut M&Ms a necessity? No. But I hardly ever buy them and they are making Zoe and me pretty happy.
Sometimes frugal skills save you money; other times, they allow you to get joy-adding items for cheap. 😉
Woot, free tools! What a gracious book club buddy.
--One of our local thrift shops has a freebie table. Sometimes it has produce or day-old bread from the local stores, sometimes it has household items. The grandma who runs the place will all but put things into your hands to get them out the door! Even so, I make a point of only visiting once a week at most so that my inner Magpie doesn't get too greedy. One week's scores included fresh garden produce (I chose vegetables that we weren't growing, ourselves); another's was bread for the freezer; and this week I took two packages of RIT dye (a bottle of purple and a box of denim blue).
—I deep-cleaned/rearranged my home office’s storage closet. I was able to get everything down to one bookcase, which meant the lesser bookcase (a freebie) moved to the garage to store household back-stock like cat litter and laundry detergent.
—This inspired further organizing/rearranging in the garage using still more, shorter bookshelves we already had. Our friends helped move them, so I’m determined to keep the shelves in rotation! Now garden, project, etc. stuff has designated bookcases.*
*We did not downsize our library—books are life!—merely just how much clothing etc. needed stored. The closets in our apartment were so tiny that we had multiple shelves to contain the overflow, whereas my husband and I comfortably share our current 3 x 4’ closet. The pretty handmade and/or antique shelves live in the house; it’s the big box store shelves that moved to the garage.
—Our garage is wired so the wall sockets don’t work unless the overhead light is on. Since we don’t need the light—the electric garage door opener already has one and is on a separate circuit/switch altogether— I replaced the bulb with a screw-in plug adapter. This avoids an empty socket (fire risk) and provides another plug-in should our future selves need one. This is relevant because the adapters were $1.50 each at our local hardware store vs. $6 for a two pack on Amazon!
—Likewise, shelf brackets were .85 apiece at our little hardware store vs. vastly more on Amazon! I’m not looking to do chin ups on the garage’s existing homemade shelves, just store things like the weed eater safely out of the way. The shelves’ previous “brackets” were pieces of wood nailed to the stud’s side, which would be why they hung crooked even when empty…. If I’ve a goal with our time in this house, it’s to leave our successors fewer head scratchers like these!
@N, "books are life!" -- yes!
@Jody S., @N, Count me into the "books are life" club.
We love reading, too, but have gone from "KEEP THEM ALLLLL" to seriously paring down our collection of books. We only keep books that are yet to be read or are ones we will seriously consider reading again. We also have an area for books we've read that we're going to rehome. One goal is for us to have a little free library in front of our house so that we can encourage people sharing books in our neighborhood!
@Erika JS,
Oops!
YES! Books ARE life!!
Have to move in a few months, and friends keep saying I should downsize my collection of books, which number probably 400. But I just look at them and say "Not going to" and try to explain...
@Emily U., For me, "haven't read yet or will read again" is still a large number of books.
1. On Sunday morning we took a walk. Two houses had free files so after we returned home we hopped in the car and went to see what was still there. DH snatched up a large plastic fake rock. It is something we would never buy but he has a couple of places he may use it. I grabbed some kids books to donate to a sale a local church will hold in a couple of months.
2. I bought a pair of New Balance "running" shoes that I love a couple months ago. I bought the discontinued color to save a major amount of money. Yesterday I discovered Zappos had one pair left in my size and they are even cheaper now than they were a couple months ago. I ordered them and will have a backup pair for all the walking that I do. Shoes are something I do spend on (not in am Imelda Marcos way but in a comfortable for the feet way).
3. In more shoe savings, I had three pair of essentially worn out tennis shoes that I was going to recycle at the Nike store. Then I realized that even though they are no longer great for walking (the padding and tread are worn down) that they would be fine for running around town. I've been using them for that purpose the past couple of weeks and they are great for that. I won't need to replace the shoes I usually wear for that any time soon.
4. I went with a friend to an orchard store. It's about an hour away but she always drives (her choice as she doesn't like riding with other people). We split the purchase of half bushels of peaches and pears. I shared some with a neighbor and will share some with a friend when I see her on Thursday.
5. This is the season of excess garden produce. Last week a neighbor shared tomatoes. Yesterday a friend shared tomatoes and peppers and on my way home from my volunteer gig I discover a zucchini and cherry tomatoes at a curbside giveaway. I shared tomatoes with a friend last night. I could eat fresh garden grown tomatoes all day, every day this time of year. A bit like Kristen and her BLTs.
@K D, Are you familiar with Joe's New Balance Outlet? I buy all my sneakers there because I know the size I am and like the way they fit. I never get the same style twice, but I can almost always get last year's "model" for a reasonable price. And I order enough pairs at one time to get free shipping because now I'm a grownup and my feet don't grow!
I agree--My feet don't grow now, but there is one female grown-up exception. I learned by experience, and never ever saw it in any of the multi-volumes of pregnancy information, that one's hands and feet expand during pregnancy and might not go back to their previous size. It is like the bones or tendons or something expand, not just fat or puffiness.
Maybe it is part of the shifts in one's hips and pelvis to allow for the birth?
@Heidi Louise,
Arches can collapse which also causes a foot to “grow” which is kind of annoying. I had great shoes I thought I’d be able to keep for another several years but my arch collapsed causing every pair to need replacement.
@Heidi Louise, my feet have broadened/widened without the assistance of pregnancy--just with aging. I began adult life in a US women's size 8B shoe and am currently in a 9.5C.
We can put the blame at gravity's door, probably. 😉
@Heidi Louise, This totally happened to me. I was an 8.5 until I got pregnant with my first. I had to go up to a size 9 and have never gone back down. I've been the bigger size for almost 10 years now.
You people are amateurs. My feet were size 10. After my son was born, size 11. After my daughter was born, size 12. Good thing I decided not to have more or my feet might be size 14 by now.
Does this end up being a frugal win or a frugal loss? I was wondering if you can find clearance shoes in big sizes like that. I wear a size 8.5, so my size doesn't tend to end up on clearance very often.
Kristen, newp. My feet and ankles are also usually swollen (stupid psoriatic arthritis) and so on and so on, very hard to fit. I am not a person who gets excited about shoes.
I got an email today from Bali Elf, which I believe you informed me about a good while ago. I bought some very very cute shoes from them but had to have them custom sized because of my big stupid feet. But they were all right with that, which is nice.
Oh, I also have the "sandal gap" (a soft marker for Down's) which means my feet are wide, too. Back when I was a kid or teen I would get upset because it was so hard to find shoes that fit. My mother would airily say she should have had my feet bound at a young age.
Oh yes! I have a pair of Balie Elf flats. 🙂 They're a great company for custom sizing.
@A. Marie,
Same here....I was always a size 7.5B, until I got older, and now wear an 8.5B, but need a wider width with some styles. (I have never been pregnant, and at age 61, I hope never to be! 🙂
@Liz B., well, if you get pregnant at age 61, I think you'd better call the Vatican and the Guinness Book of World Records!
@Heidi Louise, Oh yes, I forgot about that - it happened to my sister! But it's not an issue for me, so it didn't even cross my mind.
@Kaitlin, Huh! I have flat feet, so I didn't know that could happen!
I have extremely high arches. If those ever collapse, I'm gonna have feet big enough to share shoes with Rose. 😉
Kristen, Ha, I always thought the lack of clearance shoes were just my issue! I’m a size 7 narrow my whole life and that size was/is always out of stock if I didn’t hustle to the store. Consequently, only the ugly ones appeared in clearance sales.
@A. Marie,
Same here...from a 7 to a 9.
@A. Marie,
Since so much of the shoes we buy are made in countries where the population tends to run on the small side,I think our footwear shows it.
My husband was a 10.5 shoe when I met him,when he passed in 06,he was wearing a 13.
I'm basing this opinion on the fact he was 37 when we married so betting on his feet had stopped growing.
@Rose, From a 10 to a 12! Ha! I'm impressed. 🙂
I usually try to come up with a list of my own but don’t usually post it. Today here is is
1. Freezer clean out- ground up some random packages of pork and chicken to make meatballs.
2. Canned few jars of pickles with all the extra cucumbers from the garden.
3. Eating vegetables from the garden. In August it’s cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, beans, herbs, onions and garlic.
4. Switched my son to a different soccer team that is much closer to home. Saves time and $$ on gas.
5. Sold a pile of old flooring. Little bit of cash in my pocket, and I’m glad someone else had a use for it.
@Natasha, Love the meatball idea. I have some ground pork in my freezer too and you've given me a great idea for its use. Thanks!
I love that mug!
FFT
1. Did school shopping when everything was ridiculously cheap and used my Target credit and birthday discount at check out making it even cheaper
2. Got a giant Caribou Coffee with an extra shot for free because of a birthday deal. Time seemed to slow to a crawl because of how much caffeine I consumed that morning which helped me work through my chores, but I don’t think I’ll ever do the extra shot again.
3. Bought a ton of fresh blueberries that were discounted to freeze for winter. They are my favorite variety and were cheaper than the frozen blueberries. Blueberries are one of my favorite foods so I will keep buying and freezing until the season is done.
4. Used mouse traps and other mouse deterrents left by previous owners to rid the house of a family of mice. This is ongoing and very not cool. Mostly because I don’t like removing mice from traps.
5. I applied for a better job. I’ve been targeted for it since April and I had resisted because it seemed like another overwhelming life change in less than a year, but after talking to the people in the know I realized that they job is a great fit for my strengths and interests. And they chose me! So now my income will be better and I’ll be able, hopefully, to have a career rather than just a job.
@Kaitlin, Ugh, mice! My DH got the glue traps when we had a recent invasion--a mouse couple that was clearly ready to set up housekeeping. You just take the trap with the mouse on it and toss it in the trash, no removing the mouse. It seems wasteful but was well worth it to us to not handle a mouse!
@Karen A., We only use the kill traps, because the glue ones just don't seem to work (do we have super-mice? perhaps), and my husband recently taught our two younger sons to set the traps and get rid of the mice when they're caught. They LOVE this, and we love this because it means there is always someone who is happy to deal with traps. My husband would do it because we get a lot of mice and he had to, but it didn't make him happy. Wins all around. 🙂
Just please don't anyone use poison. Some friends of mine are heavily involved with wildlife rescue and raptors are always being poisoned by poisoned mice.
@Kaitlin, I don't drink a ton of caffeine, but one day I accidentally had a little more than usual and my coworkers were like "Ooooh we like caffeinated Molly!"
Good luck with the new job! If you want to share, we'd love to hear about it. 🙂
@Kaitlin, number two is hilarious.
@Kaitlin, Congratulations on the new job!! May it be a huge blessing for you and your kiddos!
KAITLIN!! I am so proud of you that you went for the better job. Woohoo!!!
@Kaitlin, Congratulations on the new job! Change can be good!
We are dealing with mice too. Must be nesting season. Lucky for me, DH loves being the man even tho he is squeamish and disposing of the corpses requires major congratulations and stroking. 😉 Everybody wins except the mice...
@Molly, I’ll be working in Special Ed, helping with a pedigogical shift in one of the buildings to more fully integrate kids with IEPs into general Ed curriculum instead of pulling multiple kids out multiple times a day. This is the first year so it’ll be lots of collaborating and learning the school, which will be fun. I think. Right now it feels overwhelming. I was hired yesterday and training starts tomorrow.
@Kaitlin, Hey! That's basically what I do as well! I have a caseload of 28 students with IEPs and I support them in their 6th, 7th, and 8th grade ELA and Math classes instead of pull out. A lot of accommodations and modifications and collaborating. I team teach with several of the teachers, so I end up working with all students, not just students with IEPs. I love my students, but all of the paper work and IEP meetings--so much! Good luck!
@Rose, I've always had luck with snap traps baited with peanut butter. Only once did it not kill the mouse so I decided the drowning would be the quickest end.
Haha! You're right... that second paragraph did make me laugh. 🙂 And as someone with 3 small children, I feel very much the same way as what you wrote in that post.
My FFT:
1. We camped on vacation last week. I am putting this here to give myself grace because our last evening through when we packed up and left at lunchtime the last day featured an intense wind storm that caused quite a bit of damage and we have some camping equipment that now needs replaced. But my as MIL commented when we camped together in June, camping is so much cheaper than staying in a hotel that you could pretty much buy a new tent every year and still come out ahead. So as painful as it will be to replace what all needs replaced, it is still cheaper (and far more enjoyable for the people in my particular family) than if we had stayed in a hotel.
2. When we got back I had a large zucchini in the garden, so I used our one cool morning to make a quadruple batch of zucchini chocolate chip muffins and I froze 2 bags of them for school snacks.
3. When I stopped to get something at CVS yesterday (because I had a $3 off coupon), I paid attention and spoke up when my item didn't ring up at the price on the sale sign. The cashier adjusted the price to match the sign.
4. There were two meals we ended up eating at McDonald's last week (one lunch and one breakfast) and it wasn't our first restaurant choice, but it's what was available. I checked the app and used some double point bonuses and a 20% off discount.
5. I am planting a fall garden this year. This is a new thing for me! I harvested snap pea seeds and immediately replanted them and they're coming up great! Over the weekend I planted lettuce seeds. This was my first year having success with growing lettuce and I really enjoyed harvesting it rather than buying it, so I'm hoping to experience the same thing this fall.
I don't think I was very frugal this week. Somehow driving half way across the country and back in 4 days doesn't promote frugality. I'll try anyway, but please be aware that there was MUCH excess spending on restaurants and coffee drinks.
--My navigator son used Gas Buddy on our trip. When we saw gas along our route that was less than $3, we were very excited. (Thank you, new Sheetz in Marysville.)
--We allowed my mother-in-law to pretend that she owned a bed and breakfast instead of spending money on a hotel the first night.
--We used rewards points to help with hotel costs for 2 other nights.
--We avoided tolls. I know this can add more miles and time, but taking the back way gives so much pleasure. And some of the empty, straight, and flat roads we traveled afforded us a chance to relax a little bit still drive very fast.
--We used our Sam's Club membership to our advantage when buying gas on the trip.
--My husband and kids at home continued eating from the garden. They also visited a discount grocery store and stocked up on things.
--Yesterday I looked through the fridge and made a big pot of (yummy) soup from leftovers and produce that needed to be used soon.
@Jody S., you probably already know this but if you get the Sheetz rewards card (NOT a credit card) you get 3 cents off per gallon.
@Jody S., Good job. Sometimes we have to do expensive things, but there are ways to keep the cost down.
@Elaine N, Yep. Plus I frequently get freebies just because.
After we moved last year and a few of our frames arrived with broken glass, I decide that some frames are fine without it. It’s not as if I’m showcasing priceless artwork anyway! Whenever I get concerned about how things “should be done” in our house, I remind myself that none of my guests are going to measure to make sure my area rugs are the recommended size for the room or the pictures are perfectly hung.
Frugal things:
-A neighbor went away for a week and asked me to harvest the garden for him. He said I was welcome to whatever I picked, so we’ve been overcome by zucchini, cucumbers, and tomatoes and have been sharing them with friends and family. Bonus: it was very cute watching my 2 year old son help ferry cucumbers to the bag as we were picking.
-I’ve called about two medical bills recently that seemed kind of high. It turns out that both of them were about $800 over what they should be.
-I switched to a new internet provider because ours raised its prices.
-I made a warranty claim for earbuds that had stopped working correctly after a few months and received a new pair a few days later.
-I shopped at our discount bread store and was able to get very good bread for about half the normal price.
Just have to say, that mug ("cup or courage" is perfection! Also, the old frame story, hahaha.
The urges have been strong to spend a lot lately, but I have a few frugal things.
1. My husband and I scoured 3 thrift stores this weekend looking for some clothes and shoes. We didn't find shoes, but we got pants and a couple of work shirts for him. One thrift store was having a sale and 3 items cost less than $11!
2. I submitted a leak adjustment form to my local utility company to try to get some money back from our water bills. They said we were using tens of thousands of gallons, month after months, but it turned out to be an underground water leak. I am so grateful that the utility has this option to sort of reimburse accounts when things like this happen.
3. I researched prices for having a pile of estate paperwork shredded. The rates range from $.32/lb up to $1.49/lb. Wow, I was surprised - and so glad I looked around.
4. It looks like we will be saving around $500 each month, from rent and utilities, by moving to a smaller and more efficient rental. We incurred some moving costs, but we will still come out way ahead in a year. Yippee!
5. I made egg salad sandwiches last night for dinner. Not exciting, but it did the job and I used what I had.
@Brooke,
Where did you find shredding for $0.32/lb? I have checked multiple places that were all $1/lb. Thanks!
@MT, in nyc we have staples and they have great shredding prices. can't remember what it was, i had checked after i shredded the tax papers by hand.
FFT, JASNA BFF Is Coming! Edition:
My JASNA BFF is arriving tomorrow for our annual bout of painting the town a discreet Wedgwood blue for our second-half-of-August birthdays. Here are the small economies we'll be practicing:
(1) She is taking Amtrak and getting her senior discount on the fare.
(2) The Bestest Neighbors have a rather large gift card to a local restaurant and are insisting on using it by taking BFF and me to dinner tomorrow night.
(3) BFF is insisting on paying for a couple of meals at selected restaurants (one here and one in the next city over) to save some Marriott points she's got from expiring and earn a few more. I intend to reimburse her for at least one of these meals, but I'm not sure I'll win this arm-wrestling contest. (She's been working out at her local gym.)
(4) We will be visiting a few museums and using our senior discounts there.
(5) And we will be visiting the two local mercantile establishments she always insists on visiting: Wegmans and Clothes Mentor!
@A. Marie, I think your getting together with your JASNA BFF is causing ripples in the universe, because this week I got in several boxes of Austen-adjacent books at the used book group where I volunteer - e.g. JA memoir by her nephew, reminiscences of her niece, Cambridge lecture from 1935, and even a few JASNA journals. But the one that immediately made me think of you is a book of cartoons, Jest for Janeites, published by the Greater NY Region JASNA...
@Suz, I'm friends with the Jest for Janeites author, Gene Gill! Small world, etc.
@A. Marie, I would have been startled (vexed!) if you weren't -
Hope you have a great time painting the town!
Our local market had a box of bruised peaches and nectarines for $3. I cut them up and froze them.
A friend gave us 10 dozen ears of corn, I gave a lot away and the rest were cut off the cob and froze.
I froze as many berries from our yard that I had room for. Our blackberries went on the wild side this year.
Many of my consignment items have sold that were from Dad's house.
I ran as many errands as I could Monday & planned them in order. Saved some time and money.
I did giggle at the 2nd paragraph
Some times the joy is the important thing.
The 2nd paragraph of the old post made me chuckle this morning. 🙂
A rake and shovel are great tools to have. Our son keeps borrowing ours!
1. Made a batch of peach habanero jam using peppers from the garden and jars, flats, and rings I inherited from Mom. We're past peach season here so I used peaches from the grocery store that were on sale. Will be gifting jam during the holidays.
2. My family went to visit my MIL to celebrate her 90th birthday and she requested BBQ. I bought buns at the grocery store, a cantaloupe at the farmer's market (MIL's favorite) and made dessert to add to the BBQ purchased from local restaurant.
3. I was out of eye cream and didn't want to pay shipping, so I asked my consultant if she had an extra. She dropped it off at my house yesterday.
4. My workout shoes are no longer great for exercising since the padding is worn down. Found a pair at Zappos that were on sale. I love knowing that if they don't work out, it's easy to do a return to Zappos.
5. Our outside garbage bin smells horrible after our freezer went out 5 days before garbage pickup. I got a "bonus" gift card for a free bin cleaning, and I called yesterday and scheduled the cleaning.
@Beverly, Kristen, and others, re: tools: I wish I had you all here within driving distance to help me finish getting DH's tool collection out of the garage. (And this reminds me that I need to call the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore and schedule a house call. This may end up being such a whomping tax deduction that the IRS won't believe me.)
I love the idea about framing botanical prints. I might have to copy the idea, minus the free part haha.
My frugals this week:
1. Used up 3 library reading program slices of chocolate cake at Portillo's. They also gave us a basket of free cheese fries!
2. Free Chickfila breakfast item & Free McChicken. I gave both to my kids!
3. Our grocery budget is getting so expensive thanks to grocery prices. So I've been cooking more with lentils, well, beans in general. I made lentils & rice twice this week and my kids gobbled it up. So many ideas for lentils. I'm going to make a pasta dish and sub the meat for lentils.
4. Kind of related to the last one but I made a meal plan instead of just scrounging and making whatever each day. I'm hoping that by being more intentional about planning food, we will spend less and be more excited about eating at home. I found a few ideas to try, and am getting some copycat ingredients to make CFA / Piada style wraps.
5. My free K-cups ran out so I've been making all my coffee at home with stashes of coffee we've been gifted.
@Maggie, We are big lentil fans. My favorite cookbook is the More with Less cookbook published by the Mennonite Central Committee. They challenged Mennonites all over the world to spend 10% less on food, and send recipes how they did it. Lentil chili and Lentil burgers along with lentil and rice recipes are staples at our house. Lentils are also the staple of much of vegetarian India. They are easy and quick to cook and very cheap. Enjoy.
@Kristina, that's funny, that is the exact cookbook my mom had when I was growing up. And that cookbook is why I like lentils, because we ate them all the time as kids! Haha
@Maggie and @Kristina, we were talking about that cookbook here not too long ago. And RIP the author, Doris Janzen Longacre, who died far too young from cancer just before completing her second book, Living More with Less. I have both books and heartily recommend them.
@Kristina, that was one of the first cookbooks I ever owned. It is dogeared and stained, and still in use.
Oooh I like the prints! So pretty.
This week I...
1. Did free stuff on the weekend. We visited family, saw a public flamenco class, and walked in a park and saw some beavers and an elaborate marriage proposal (human, not beaver.)
2. Fired up the breadmaker for bread and shopped the fridge and freezer for things we need to use up.
3. I was going to buy embroidered keds on FB Marketplace, but then I sat on it and realized that they don't fit my life right now. White shoes and chasing a toddler through dirt don't mix. Saved me 60 bucks and a hike to the west end!
4. My aunt gave me some leftovers from my visit, and I ate them.
5. Hmm...well, it wasn't cheap, but we bought a ridiculously fancy pepper grinder. Our old one broke and we use it multiple times a day, so we bought one that's a pleasure to use and has a lifetime warranty.
@Meira @ meirathebear, Fresh ground pepper is one of life's joys that is so worth it!
Those are lovely prints! Regarding glass in frames--we deliberately got rid of all glass in picture frames after somebody knocked a picture frame off a mantelpiece and the glass shattered...and a piece of it ended up in my oldest son's foot! It was a really deep, twisted shard of glass, too. My husband had to dig it out and said it was like pulling out a Nargul blade! (Points to anyone who gets that literary/movie reference!) Now none of our frames, what few we have, have glass in them.
A few frugal things here:
--Visited the local Little Free Library and found two books by one of my favorite authors, Elinor Lipman, in great condition and I so enjoyed revisiting them. Will probably keep them.
--Froze some milk before the expiration date in anticipation of making pudding this week, in case a kid gets his wisdom teeth out. He has a consultation, and the last time a kid had a consultation with this oral surgeon they said, "Hey, let's just take them out today!" So I'm meal planning in preparation for that. I have never made pudding with frozen and thawed milk, so this will be interesting!
--Making lentil soup today and using up some celery and carrot sticks that nobody wanted last night.
--Free fitness--DH and I are building a habit of going for a morning walk before the heat sets in, schedule permitting, and using our stationary bikes (great investment) for afternoon exercise. I also found my 5 pound hand weights I bought ages ago.
--Frugal Fail: we go through quite a bit of cocoa powder in this house; everyone likes to put some in their yogurt and I make brownies once a week. I thought it would be clever to get it through my Amazon Subscribe and Save, for a discount, and have three delivered each month, along with other things we get. Well. A box arrived, via UPS (I hate it when Amazon uses UPS), and I didn't notice till I got it inside that the bottom was split and cocoa powder was leaking out! All THREE containers of cocoa powder had busted their seals, and the powder was all over: A box of three reams of printing paper, a box of pencils, two bottles of supplements, and two bags of xylitol. What a mess. I managed to clean it off the other items, but MAN that really was annoying. DH suggested that the cocoa powder is probably not the safest thing to have delivered, so we'll just get it at the grocery store. So much for saving money that way.
@Karen A., I wish I'd thought of the no-glass-in-picture-frames idea while DH was still living at home; he knocked a few low-hanging pictures off walls while negotiating turns, etc. And as for elegant living in general, I usually point visitors silently to the sign that hangs in my kitchen: "Martha Stewart doesn't live here."
@A. Marie, I love another sign from my old workplace: "Your Mom doesn't live here. Clean up after yourself!"
@A. Marie,
I hear you!
1. This morning, I buttered my toast by placing it in the pan that I had just fried eggs in and moving it around until it had sopped up all the leftover butter.
2. Received a small crocheted bear from my Buy Nothing group. It was listed as a child toy but it works great for my dog.
3. Received a $520 tax rebate from the state.
4. Went to a friend's house for lunch and she sent me home with enough delicious leftovers for three more meals.
5. Helped my niece clean out her fridge/freezer/pantry, label everything, and come up with meal planning ideas. Since I'm 40 years older than she is, I was able to share my wisdom and experience gained over the years - including from this blog!
1. I dehydrated basil and cherry tomatoes. Gave 2 friends bags of cherry tomatoes. They are going crazy this year.
2. I cleaned the shower curtain. I chose a white one many moons ago. Bleach makes it look brand new every time.
3. I got 3 sets of PJs on clearance at BJ's that will be Christmas presents. I'm more then half done with Christmas shopping, all of which were sales and clearance.
4. I haven't needed to water since it has been raining every few days. Windows have been open several days thanks to the cooler temps.
5. I made brownies and banana muffins instead of buying snacks at the store.
I have reused mats from the thrift store by spray painting them. My favorite is a linen-textured one that was grubby with age but looks spectacular sprayed copper colored.
The FFT at my house:
1. Did a sewing hack to make one pair of curtain panels work for two windows. Some extra fabric needed to sew rod pockets came from a thrifted sheet.
2. Bought winter pajamas new on eBay. As they are 100% cotton, I line dried them so they would not shrink.
3. Hand-sewed tiny darts in the back neckline of a very pretty Lucky brand shirt bought new at Goodwill to take up the too-big neck opening. I suspect that design flaw is why the original owner donated it.
4. Made two delicious large pizzas from scratch for my family. Dinner plus leftovers!
5. Bought trash bags on sale at the hardware store and hit the trifecta of sale/coupons/reward bucks at the drugstore to buy toilet paper and paper towels.
Bonus: Been using our 25-year-old reusable grocery totes for every shopping trip since laundering and mending them. Line dried a quilt: our dryer is old and takes forever to dry anything heavy.
@Ruby, The copper linen texture mat sounds quite elegant!
Chocolate is basically a necessity in my house 🙂
Now that the initial shock of my husband's unexpected job loss has worn off and we've done the most pressing things (apply for unemployment insurance and update his resume), we were able to finally feel like we could move forward again.
I will say that losing a job is definitely an excellent motivator to reexamine how much more frugal we could really be! Here are my own frugal wins for the week:
https://www.toloveandtolearn.com/2023/08/22/weekly-frugal-wins-the-job-search-begins/
The usual stuff this week (laundry and mealplanning habits, and some house maintenance).
When Oekraine were invaded, I did some stress/impulse buying including a few cans of sweetened condensed milk that I now don't know what to use for. I tried making fudge, but it was not solid enough to be cut. And it was too thick to pour. So on Sunday I decided to make Chocolate bar icecream: vanilla icecream with a dollop of sticky toffee, a sprinkling of salted peanuts and an au bain marie chocolate sauce with two spoonfuls of peanutbutter. The results were gobbled down in no time and I have enough for a second dessert later in the week. But then, what to do with the other cans? The only options seem to be for high-calory no fibre no vitamin treats.
The coffee beans I stocked up on, proved to be a better purchase, since the price has gone up in the last years.
@JNL, You could make 7 layer bars with the condensed milk.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/9889/seven-layer-bars/
Or just use it in your coffee?
@Rose,
The 7 layer bars look like a great alternative, thanks!
The condensed milk was intended for my husband's coffee, in times of need. He takes sweeteners and a little coffee cream. But the condensed milk is so rich and so sweet that we'd never normally use it. I myself started taking my coffee black, when I discovered the sugar contents of powdered coffee creamer. In the office, the coffee vending machines have this powdered milk.
I thought I'd have a hard time adjusting, but in fact I like my coffee so much better now and have become quite averse to sweetened variety, such as holiday flavoured coffees etc. I restrict myself to 4 mugs of coffee a day, home ground home brewn.
--I traded two loaves of sourdough bread for a cucumber, a few tomatoes, and a bunch of jalapenos that I pickled. The man who asked for the bread said he would pay me, but I give away a lot of bread anyway and much prefer to have produce instead of cash. Particularly in this abysmal gardening year.
--One son complained that his gym shoes (from our bin of old shoes) were too annoying to get on and off and not very comfortable, so back to the bin I went, where I found some Converse that he likes a lot better.
--We got the insurance check after our terrible hail storm and it appears they pretty much wrote off most of our house. The total amount was a third of the entire purchase price of the house when we bought it five years ago (which was really, really low to start with). Definitely enough to replace the windows and carpet that got wrecked. Whether we do EVERYTHING they reimbursed us for is doubtful (our house is mostly an old trailer in its dotage and is not really worth fixing up too much) but it's nice to know we could.
--I found a few books that I thought would be good for our school library, and also happen to be books my own children would probably like to read. As I am the de facto school librarian, I ordered them with library funds. Now my kids--who are all voracious readers and hard to keep up with--will get to read them and then they'll be in the collection for the other kids, too. I don't have to store them or pay for them, so that was nice.
--All that dairy I mentioned in the Friday post that went bad was too nasty for humans to drink/eat, so I gave it to the chickens and dogs. I cooked some of the endless rice and cream of wheat I get from excess commodities in the two gallons of undrinkable milk and that was chicken food for a couple of days. Given the price of purchased chicken feed now, that's a pretty good savings. The dogs got the bad cream.
1. Received a $11.22 rebate from Rakuten, and found 4 pennies on the ground.
2. After tons of research and failed attempts, my husband finally found a handyman who communicates well and charges by the hour (not the project). They are working on installing a railing in our split-level house so that people, especially kiddos, don’t fall off and get hurt. I am thrilled by the railing getting (almost) completed, but also because now we have a good handyman to help with some other house projects that need to be done.
3. I purchased a decent-appearing otoscope and disposable tips for about $60. Being able to check Baby E’s ears at home and saving on $200+ doctor visits for possible ear infections should save some money in the long run.
4. My friend came to visit and brought homemade spaghetti sauce, as she is trying to clear out her freezer before it’s time to make more. We have eaten at least four meals and there is still some left. I was happy to send her home with some excess honey I was given and won’t use, as well as an extra baby monitor. It’s great having frugal/like-minded friends.
5. We attended a party and needed to bring a dessert. I felt under the weather but my friend helped me make banana bread using some of my frozen bananas, so we avoided a trip to the store to buy something.
Thanks for reminding me I need to order some UV plexi for a picture of mine! I keep forgetting.
This week has been once again un-frugal. Even my car is costing me money--$1450 in repairs. Then there's dog repair, as it were, and I'm dreading Saturday's basement flooding person. My daughter ordered a Joan Didion book via my Amazon account I already have.
One frugal thing is that I can make a pretty splashy website on my own, so I don't have to hire anyone to create one for my new freelancing biz.
@Rose, Oy, $71 for the custom cut UV plexi. Had to be done--it's an original pen and ink by Edward Gorey so needs protection. It occurred to me you guys would like it, so I uploaded an image here. https://ibb.co/0Y8qc0x
Oh wow! Worth it for what you've got, not worth it for my free little flower prints. 😉
@Rose,
It is lovely!
Looking forward to hearing about your writing workshop too,
@Rose, yep, that was a good spend to protect the Gorey.
@Rose, Love Edward Gorey's work. The Gorey House is near our older son's home near Boston. That same son had me read EG's book, The Dwindling Party, eleventy million times (as Kristen would say) when he was little.
@Erika JS, Aw, how cute is that? It never occurred to me to read that to my kids when they were little, which is odd because they both grew up with signed Gorey prints in their rooms. I have a decent sized collection of Gorey books and original artwork, as well as oddities like Gorey wallpaper from the Broadway Dracula show (which I was lucky enough to see) and an ancient stuffed bat with red rhinestone eyes. My daughter's poster is this one:
https://www.ashcroftandmoore.com/auction-lot/edward-lear-poster-illustrated-signed-by-gorey_91B45E99CB
@Rose, My children all loved "The Eclectic Abecedarium," and we quote from it all the time. They also like "The Utter Zoo Alphabet." We assigned a creature from it to each family member, so now my husband is Daddy Limpflig, due to his difficulty getting up in the morning. ("The Limpflig finds it hard to keep/from spending all his life asleep.")
@Rose, We recently checked out a picture book about him from our library.
I live a few blocks from a regular chain grocery store, and I often take my morning walk to there instead of around the neighborhood because I need a few things.
Last week, I hit the clearance JACKPOT. I needed bread, and they always have bread, you just can't be picky about what kind you're getting, and I found a locally-made Italian loaf (soft, with sesame seeds), which was PERFECT for my tomato sandwiches, and it was $1.13. THEN, I found FOUR BOXES OF OATMEAL FOR $1 EACH. I usually buy the giant canisters of oatmeal from Aldi, and yes that's cheaper, but $1 for 8 packets?!?! Of organic healthy hot breakfast cereal that includes other grains like barley? MAJOR SCORE! I didn't take all of them, but I went back the next day to see if there were any left after other people got a chance to get some - none left, but that's ok. 🙂
Ok I'm done yelling in excitement now.
@Molly, good buy!
1) Used a free $7 Starbies gift card I'd been given at FinCon's Women in Money here in Atlanta
2) Went to the 3-D IMAX movie free, courtesy of my Fernbank Museum membership (which is not free, but frugal for a large family!)
3) On the way home from Atlanta, trash-picked a bookcase someone had put on their curb - it's now the shoe rack I've been wanting for a year.
4) Applied for and got my internet bill reduced, courtesy of the Affordable Connectivity Program. Savings of $30/month!
5) Made homemade chicken broth from a carcass that was picked clean after eating roast chicken and veggies
1. A few months ago I saw some decorative angel wings in an antique shop in my town. I loved them but they were $775! I did not love them that much and I walked away. My Mom and I attended a vintage market this weekend that I bought tickets for months ago...$6 plus one tank of gas made for a fun girls day out. AND I found a rustic pair of angel wings that I love for $55. They will be hung on my wall and I cannot wait!!
2. Sunday was a lazy day for us after all of that walking at the market. I hit the easy button and pulled two quarts of spaghetti sauce from the freezer and made up a quick batch of focaccia using bread flour from my pantry and yeast from my freezer. Dinner was delish and I avoided takeout.
3. I cooked up a large batch of brown rice last night and will make some taco meat tonight. Beans from the freezer and a bit of cheese will feed us dinner tonight and make up a batch of burritos for the freezer.
4. I pulled all of my frozen bananas from the freezer and made 3 loaves of banana bread, all the frozen strawberries were made up into 15 pints of jam, and all of the frozen blackberries will become jam this weekend. I am beginning to see the bottom of my freezer and I am proud that we are working our way through odds and ends to avoid waste.
5. I made up September's budget, combined laundry loads, ran full loads of dishes in the dishwasher, packed lunches, drank coffee at home, made an enormous batch of homemade granola and my own taco seasoning.
Cheers friends!
Your flower prints are cute but they have nothing on the images you take on your morning walks. If you printed those in black and white and larger format, you would have artwork similar to or better than some works in art galleries in major art markets. You could even sign them beneath the bottom right edge to seal the fine art look.
I live in an area surrounded by art galleries and wish I could take you to a few of them to see how artistic your beautiful work is in the right format.
Aww, thank you. 🙂
@Erika JS, I second the motion! Kristen's photos are excellent, and I think you have a great idea here.
Kristen, I got a laugh out of the furry pet mention in the previous post. I am so glad you changed your mind about that because 1. I love to hear about the cats and 2. They make your life better. But I have been wondering for a while what made you change your mind. Maybe others are curious too, if you wouldn't mind sharing.
I live on a rural road, while walking to the nearest neighbor for a visit (1/2 mile) I found a very nice blue tooth speaker lying on the side of the road. This time of year the road is very bumpy (cannot grade the road until fall rains), I imagine it bumped out of a car/truck with an open window, maybe it fell off one of many street legal dirt bikes that try to catch air (the riders all stand up while riding this road). Who knows. I brought it home, blew the dust off it, charged it and it is awesomely loud. We used it at the family reunion this past weekend.
I have had on my wishlist a set of linen bed sheets and duvet cover, but I've never found a whole set in clearance. I went to a "moving in" sale where the folks were moving from England to PNW and she had a full set of Irish linen king sized duvet, 4 shams, bedskirt, fitted, top and 4 pillow cases for $30. OMword! I also picked up 2 teak adjustable adirondack chair with cushions for $12 ea and a sweet willow laundry basket for $2. She threw in 4 kong toys for the pup (she tossed them in for free because I guessed her dog's breed mix)I love to upgrade my life at estate sales and moving sales!
I picked apples for apple cider and cider vinegar making party that I am hosting on the farm later this week. The neighbors get their dropped apples picked up and the culls go to the livestock.
The usual, cleaning/organizing freezers/eating from the garden/orchard.
Drinking cold coffee drinks and sun tea.
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, what fabulous finds with your linen set and your teak chairs! Congrats!
I love botanical prints and I have them throughout my house. I also love peanut M & Ms and once ate them until I was sick. I am ashamed to say that they are still in my life.
1. Chicken tortilla
2. Creamy broccoli
3. Italian sausage
Even though it’s deadly hot and humid I’ve been enjoying frugal soups.
4. I joined a cult and found learning Bible principals very frugal what with the free home Bible study and Jesus frugal example. And nowhere is it even whispered thou shalt write bad checks, just the opposite! I only wish my non cult grown children gave me money or even paid their own way. They have no problem spending my money lol. I think raising cats is much more frugal than raising children!
Oh I am still chuckling over your comment about never having a furry creature in your house!!
I was SO CONFIDENT.
@Kristen, why do you think you had a change of heart? Just curious. I think it's great.
Finally some frugal things!
I went to Giant for an "emergency" soda run, only to find that it was B2G2 free.
Curb call for boxes and newsprint means I'm not hauling my moving trash to the recycling center or needing to take weeks to get it into weekly pickup. (The garbage and recycling pickup in my new area are much smarter and pickier: they take only what's in the bin and reject what's sorted wrong.)
My house is furnished with a ton of stuff from my parents' old place (my father downsized). Not only did I get some really nice furniture, dad's movers didn't empty anything before they packed and moved it so now I have a zillion more useful small things - why did my parents have a dozen 10'-25' measuring tapes ~all in one place~??? - and also some really useful and pricey ones, such as a new power drill.
My credit union doesn't charge to cancel checks, so it cost me nothing to cancel the checks that seem to have gotten lost in the mail.
I've been checking out local shops, getting to know the people who work there and asking them for recommendations. It's impressive the number who throw in a bit extra (baguettes, cherry tomatoes, locals' discount, etc) for their new neighbor.
I saved the $45 delivery fee for the glass for me new-to-me (formally parents') breakfast table by borrowing a car and - carefully! - carrying the 50 lb. glass myself.
The Container Store will recut any Elfa you've bought from them, for free. My roommate measured closets and planned the cuts efficiently.
About the Pottery Barn Kids reference in your linked post. It's shocking to me that anyone would furnish their kids' rooms at that price point. Kids destroy things, ya kno, it's practically part of the growing up process. Like you, I'd freak out if my kid drew on a $1000 dresser, but a $50 one I already know I can refinish is a different kettle of fish.
Yes. I liked to have kid things that were nonabsorbent (wood floor, leather couch) and inexpensively obtained. That's a key to mental peace with the destruction children necessarily bring to things. Heh.
Glad to have you back!! And yay for good new neighbors. 🙂
@Kristen, thank you. I never stopped reading but there hasn't been a lot of frugal going on recently.
Botanical and bird prints are two of my weaknesses. I would have grabbed those, too.
1. Well, first - this wasn't anything I did, but my daughter, who kindly insists on keeping me on her phone plan at no cost to me, handed me a new iPhone 14 this weekend. She said it was past time for an upgrade for me. I was using an 8. At least I can give her free cucumbers. Now if I can get used to a phone with no home button...
2. I needed some shredded cheese and had an 8-ounce block of sale-purchased Tillamook in the refrigerator. I shredded the whole thing and froze what I didn't use, about half of it. One of my few struggles with food waste is letting cheese wait too long in the refrigerator, so this was a future save.
3. I sat my toaster oven on the front porch to roast some vegetables, rather than heat up the house.
4. I bought three more Christmas gifts. I always look for good prices/sales and use Swagbucks when I can.
5. I found an unused Forever stamp when cleaning out a drawer. I'm doing another de-cluttering, which sometimes seems to be a Sisyphean task. (For non-US readers, an unused Forever stamp is legal for mailing a first-class letter no matter how much the postal rates have gone up since that stamp was bought. It says "Forever" right on the stamp.)
Awww, YAY for a free new phone. I love that for you.
@JD, when a Forever stamp arrives in my mailbox without a cancellation, I have been known to soak it off and use it again. (The soaking takes a lot longer in these days of self-stick stamps than it used to in the lick-and-stick era, but it can be done.) OK, everybody, go ahead and bust me for fuzzy ethics. But in these degenerate times when a first-class Forever stamp costs 66 cents, I don't feel all that guilty about it.
Ok, I see you out here living a life of crime. It's always the ones you least expect. 😉
Kristen, yep, I only look like a sweet old widow with size 9.5C feet. In my dark-side life, I'm out there soaking uncanceled stamps, peering into other people's recycling bins, etc. 😀
@A. Marie,
It was definitely easier with lick and stick, not that I know anyone who did that.
@A. Marie, Did you know that, adjusted for inflation, stamps have cost about the same for well over 50 years?
When I get an unfranked envelope or a return-stamped (not pre-stamped), I use a mailing label over the existing addy. Never had a problem with USPS for that.
@WilliamB, what is unfranked?
Are you regretting now that you didn't keep the "meow" - tag?
Haha, no, because it's so easy to print out a new one if I want! Right now, that frame holds a picture of Shelly, and it still has the "cutie" label. Which works as well as meow, honestly. lol
Limited on frugality this week. I did drop in to two different stores this week and purchased only what was on my list. That is a major win.
I did the usual. Drank chai latte at home. Brewed my own iced tea. Packed lunch for work. I have my own garden produce of tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, and herbs.
Continue to not mow, now because of the heat. Missed my window of opportunity while it was cool last week. I mow less than my neighbors because I have a certified habitat yard for little varmints and pollinators. When it was cool, I opened the doors and windows.
"since the odds of me EVER owning a furry pet that walks around my house are nil, I took that out and made my own tag."... ahahahahahahahaha.
Sorry. But I'm sure Shelly and Chiquita are very happy your views have softened since then 😉
Well...you were not completely wrong...you don't have one furry thing running around your house, you have two. 🙂
I do not/ cannot remember my FFT's for this week, but sadly I have TFF (Three frugal fails): and since I want to be transparent, I've decided to list them, even though I am quite embarrassed about my mistakes.
1) I bought a watermelon, it sat on my chair in the kitchen in it's cloth grocery bag for a good 6 or 7 days. By the time I looked at it, it had rotted through and I had to toss it into the compost. Loss of about $3.99 Cdn.
2) this one really hurt. I had bought a 600g block of Feta cheese in brine, it had been in my fridge for about 10 days and was still looking good. My sister came over last Thursday and told me to change the brine and put in fresh water. Well! that was the end of that, the next morning the Feta had turned into a block of mush. Since I had already eaten at least half the feta, the loss was $23.99 /2 so a loss of $11.99. Note to self: stop listening to my sister. If anyone can inform me of the correct thing to do with Feta when storing it in my fridge, that would help. Do I just leave it in it's original brine? (It was Canadian goat's milk feta).
3) I was given a small container of home-made blueberry jam, it had the wax seal on top, which I removed. The jam was good for a few weeks, but then yesterday it looked ?different texture? rancid? I do not know. It had been at the back of the fridge, so possibly it was too cold and the jam had sort of frozen? Again, hello compost as I did not know what to do. Any thoughts will be most appreciated.
Hoping to do better this week.
@Linda in Canada, just so you won't feel alone, here's my story. I occasionally buy about six red bell peppers for my husband, and store them in the crisper drawer of the fridge. I bought some last week and let them sit on the counter in the vegetable bag which is fabric and very porous. They sat there for 2-3 days, and every time I passed them, the lazy side of my brain said, "Well, they aren't refrigerated at the store and the bag is porous and airy so what could go wrong?" HA! When I finally took them from the bag, they were mush and had to be tossed.
@Linda in Canada,
Here's my two cents!
I have kept a feta-type cheese in brine in my fridge for several weeks minimum (maybe a month even?) without any problems. I think the saltiness of the brine keeps things fresh?
My only other thought with the jam is that I've had several homemade varieties get weird growths at the top, which I thought were mold... but turned out that it was just the sugar crystallizing out. There was definitely a texture change and color change. The jam never smelled "off" which I think would be fairly evident if it was moldy or rancid or otherwise bad. Better luck next time and maybe you could try smelling or tasting just a tiny little bite-- I think you'd know if it was bad. 🙂
@Linda in Canada, ouch on the watermelon and WHERE Are you in Canada? Minimum price for a watermelon for me (Vancouver Island, BC) has been $4.99 and that was a serious loss leader. As for the feta, I have heard of adding more BRINE (salted water) if the feta ends up above the provided brine, perhaps plain water was the problem? You CAN freeze feta, it is pretty crumbly afterward, but often that is what we are doing to it anyway... and for the Jam, mom used to use Wax seals when she made jam when I was a girl, and store it in the crawlspace with a lid on. Fast forward a few years and she began to seal with a canning lid and BWB for 10 min probably due to losing so many jars to mold. I suspect that the jam probably was fine but if I had wax sealed jam I would use it up once I took the seal off, rather than trying to store for later in the fridge
Just looove those botanical prints! Yes,I also learned aboiut “no glass.” Why not??!
I am laughing at that sentence in the second paragraph of that post.
Wow so many FFT's to read!! I read them all every week but this is my first time listing mine 🙂
1. Decluttered and sold most of it at the community college flea market. Made $135.00 from what would have gone to Goodwill. Good way to spend a Saturday.
2. Listed my DH 20 year old leather jacket on Ebay and to my surprise someone bid $300.00?!
3. Froze some blueberries before they went to mush.
4. Found coffee creamer on sale 2 for .98 cents - what a win!! Gotta have my coffee every morning. This frugal win makes me smile even now.
5. Listed an inflatable jumper on marketplace - hoping it sells soon and someone else can enjoy it as much as we did.
Thanks for reminding me what a great week this has been!!
@Amy A., welcome! And I'm impressed by your #1 and #2 in particular.
@A. Marie, - thanks!! 🙂
1. I picked up some pants off Buy Nothing that should fit my son this year or next.
2. I foraged some more cornelian cherries and made another large jar of jam. I started an echinacea and yarrow tincture with plants I have foraged also (only cost is cheap vodka).
3. I used beans and herbs, along with store-bought root vegetables, to make a vegetable and tofu bake for my lunches this week. I used tomatoes and herbs from my garden to make tofu cacciatore for dinner this week.
4. I used a birthday gift card for Cheesecake Factory to take my niece out to breakfast this weekend. Before going, I signed up for their rewards program to get a free piece of cheesecake.
5. Someone on my team at work is leaving. I had some candies and brand new socks and lotions stored away that I will gift to her.
@Corrine, Cheesecake Factory has a rewards program?!! Thank you!!!
Some weeks I know I've done something out-of-the-ordinary-frugal, but couldn't remember what it was, so haven't participated. This week, I remembered to jot a couple down.
1. The two of us rarely (like once or twice a year) eat out, but I hate cooking, and I don't eat meat, so it's probably a break even for him to eat frozen meals/convenience foods. But I have made a concerted effort to cook dried beans, pasta, and frozen veggies lately so he can add to his meals if desired, and so I don't subsist only on tomato sandwiches all summer!
2. Had some thank you cards from the thrift shop that I don't like and won't use, but bought for the envelopes. So I cut them up and use the blank side for scratch paper and lists. I already do that with the stupid warranty junk mail letters and envelopes that come in, and shred the rest for a friend who uses the shredded paper to make fire starters. I'm old-school and still write out my to-do lists.
3. We've been in a drought lately, and the grass is not growing enough to cut. At the first of the month, I get cash out of the bank to pay the mower guy, so the weeks he isn't needed, I just keep in its envelope and do the same the next month. This week, he's going to pressure wash the house and vinyl fence, and I won't have to pull any extra out of the bank to cover it. During the non-mowing months (except December) I still pull that amount out, so we don't rely on it, and I can pay for extras like the spraying they did on the poison ivy that sprang up behind our back fence and began creeping into the yard.
4. Got over $300 back from escrow overage this week, and the mortgage payment is decreasing by $35/month. It's a delayed response to switching our home insurance last August, so the frugality was last year's effort but the benefit is current!.
5. Took advantage of our church's sale on leftover books from various study group sessions to pick up some for classes I wanted to take, but didn't get to. The books are ordinarily $15-20, and they were on sale for $3 and $5.
6. Was gifted a pair of cute little "frames" that are wooden with a rope for the top frame. Will use some of the many fabric scraps I have to make a couple of mine-quilts to change out for the seasons. I already have tiny clothes pins that will work perfectly. Also received a grocery bag of fleece scraps that will make cute backings for some other small projects I am working on. Got both from the gifting group!
That was supposed to read "mini-quilts".
@StephanieLD, I was really sifting through my brain trying to figure out "mine quilts." Hmm, does she gift them to people who done her wrong and she wants to see them disappear? Because that sounds like a plot for one of my beloved British mysteries. 😀
Not a frugal week other than being at the cabin without any place to spend money. But here are a few comments elicited by your post (and the comments) today:
1. Such a perfect mug: strong in shape, delicate in decoration, and pithy in message
2. Meow (falling down laughing about that old post. . .)
3. When I was a kid, my parents referred to the discount bread store as the "used bread store".
4. There is a place that takes almost wornout shoes and gives them to people in places who have no shoes at all. https://samaritansfeet.org/where-to-donate-old-shoes/
5. M&Ms are such happiness makers, and I am certain that the peanut variety is nutritious; I like them in spite of rarely being able to find the dark chocolate version.
Peanut M&Ms DO offer some protein, I'm just saying.
I'm blessed with many wonderful friends, one of whom has several pear trees. She can never use all the bounty, so we go to her home and take some off her hands! I'm canning pears now for a few days, thanks to my friend and her generosity. We won't need to buy canned pears for, well, months. Eons.
Last week I was ready to post my FFT's, but the post didn't show up in my email. I had the list written down, but when I did laundry I must have washed the list along with my mini notebook. I had a partial one attached to a unused one. I was carrying them in my back pocket so I would have something to write on when an idea occurs or when I think of something I need to get at the store. The only thing that came through the laundry was the two spirals and a tiny bit of fuzz on my navy shorts. Weird. Usually there's a ton of fuzz over everything. I digress.
1. I have coffee for free at my meetings, church and hotels I stay at for work.
2. At the hotels, I use the amenities like pools if they have them. I take the little shampoos etc and donate them to a group that gives things away to the homeless. Also, recently I have taken the cups with the lids that are in the room ( because they never have enough sugar and creamer for me to make my coffee in the room) to use to make my instant cappuccino when I'm at home and want to or need to travel somewhere.
3. The freezer clean out inspired me to use up some fruit that had been in there for a while. I made several smoothies. I had purchased a pint of blueberries and used some of them as well. I like fresh fruit but I don't always use it up before it gets old.
4. I finally got my car back from the shop. They put in a rebuilt transmission and covered the cost because I only had the car a couple of months. Even though I drove it past the miles in the warranty, they adjusted the warranty and honored that one. Over $3000 in repairs. Yay.
5. Yesterday, I used a 10% off deal for a restaurant next to the hotel where I'm staying.
I enjoy these posts the most. Y'all inspire me and remind me of things I do that are frugal. Not everyone understands the difference between frugal and cheap. Thank you.
1. My dad is visiting from Florida & I promised him firewood since he's camping for month. I drive by house that regularly cuts down trees & puts by road for free. Loaded whole full size truckload of firewood. Took to my dad who (surprisingly) did not take very much firewood. Took (most) of it home & stacked in fence row for campfires at home.
2. Found Swell tumbler water bottles on Poshmark (75% less but paid shipping) for lunches.
3. Swell had sale & was able to get large snacker & another tumbler with handle & base bumper for $31 (normally $82) with free shipping for lunches. Earned another reward for future purchase & need to use my free personalization. Thinking going to use on tumbler water bottle on sale for holiday gift.
4. Read about Sams club 18 piece spice set in glass with stainless steel shaker lids in bamboo stand for counter/drawer/hang on wall $29.99 (online only) with 5 years free spies refills (you pay shipping) & ordered as heard sells out quickly.
5. Been looking for spark plug wires for my truck because time for tune up & having difficulty finding. After checking any stores & online ordered from Amazon (& orderd 2 sets) GM original parts (had15 day before ordered which then only had 5). Was offered free Amazon Prime for 30 days (free shipping) & next day. Put cancellation date on calendar so not to be charged monthly fee.
6. Used reward points for free 2 topping pizza for teen for dinner. Next 5 days was 50% off all online order pizzas. Earned few reward points towards next free pizza & saved me cooking on 90+ degree days.
I found chocolate & almond candy bars on sale 50% off. Like your candies...they weren't a necessity, but some days they feel like they may be, and now I'm stocked for those days!
I called the dentist about my EOB from my insurance showing that I overpaid. Sure enough, I had a $97 credit that they just put on my account. Being my insurance usually pays most everything, that could be there a bit, so I asked them to send me the reimbursement instead.
I ran by the commissary while I was near the military base to stock up on a few items. Got lucky and found my husband's cereal on sale for $1.50. I bought enough for a few weeks.
My car A/C keeps having issues, but we had it fixed and it continues to not work properly. It is under warranty so we took it back again (100 degrees today in my part of SC, so A/C is a must when you travel for work). They charged me $10 for some type of fee, but the manager was there and said there should have been no charge so they gave me a gift certificate for a free oil change. Great for $10!
I found a storage cabinet that was desperately needed in my garage at Goodwill for a great price!
Have been using lots of local beaches and splash pads for free entertainment in the last weeks before school starts.
Made sourdough discard pancakes for breakfast.
Made cucumber salad with cucumbers from our garden.
Made focaccia with veggies on top as a dish to pass for a party we went to instead of buying anything.
Trimmed my own bangs and ends instead of going to the salon.
Free tools are a great thing, provided they are tools that you can use, otherwise they add to clutter. My fiancé is a DIY guy that has a lot of tools, and they have come in handy when he has a project or a repair to do. I do a lot of different crafts, so I appreciate the value of good tools. I have a pair of Wiss sewing shears that are over 50 years old that I got from my mom, they are a high quality steel that hold a sharp edge versus the low quality plastic handle garbage that they currently sell in craft stores.
We are enjoying fresh produce from his garden now. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, herbs, carrots, beets and berries. And then we will be doing a lot of canning. He still has some venison left in the freezer from last year’s harvest, so we are using creative ways to use it up before this coming season. I do love venison, so I am not complaining.
I injured my wrist a couple months ago and now I am back to getting full use of my right hand. So Sunday night I informed him that my wrist was in good enough shape to give him an overdue haircut. In his defense, he said he would take care of it, but I asked him to wait because I wanted to cut his hair. So he took a seat and I gave him a haircut. He was happy with the results, and Monday we were visiting friends, and one friend noticed that he had gotten a haircut. She complimented on how nice it looked, and he told her that I was his barber. She said nice job lady. Now I need to convince my daughter to let me give my three grandsons their haircuts. They look pretty straggly as she lets them go way too long without haircuts. I told her that it would save her money, and she remembers that I always cut her brother’s hair.
A few more weeks of warm weather, then it will be time to fire up the wood stove. I love the warmth, seeing it burning, but hate splitting wood and hauling it in.
Love the botanical prints with the black frames. Sure does make them pop
Hahaha love that "self-roast." How many of us have said "I will never _______" and be SO wrong lol. My entire career is one of those!
1. I used Kristen as an inspiration to submit a medical bill from an office that doesn't bill insurance and, it worked! Feels like a great rebate is coming my way, and it was easy to do.
2. I made a batch of yummy lunch and a pan of baked oatmeal over the weekend so I have been eating only homemade food all week.
3. My husband made 2 pizzas with Kristen's perfect dough recipe, continuing my delicious homemade food trend.
4. My credit card number was stolen, so while waiting for the new card, making purchases with other sources messes up my system. So I didn't want to deal with it and I didn't spend much. (I use credit like debit basically and pay off monthly. Better rewards than debit).
5. My sweet sweet coworker offered to buy me classroom supplies of my choosing, which really alleviates the budget! I thought I would never be one of "those" teachers, but there are just things that a teacher needs that the school either can't afford or can't get in time. Also, I get 2 tissue boxes per semester. They're gone already, so......
Wishing everyone a frugal and joy filled week!