Five Frugal Things | some non-skinny jeans
1. I got a free pair of jeans
Most of my current jeans are the skinny-jean style, and apparently, those are starting to be a slightly dated look.
This is sort of convenient, because I have had most of my skinny jeans for a really long time, and several pairs of them are starting to wear out.
That's a handy time to branch out to a different style!
(I almost said "new" style but I am 44 and at this point in my life, no "new" jeans style is actually new. I think I've worn all of them already!)
So, I stopped in at Old Navy and tried on a pair of non-skinny jeans. I still do feel slightly more comfortable in my familiar skinnies, but man, I'm trying really hard not to get stubbornly stuck in any particular fashion era, so I bought them.
They were 30% off and I also had credits (from credit card rewards!) so they were $0 for me.
2. I used some birthday freebies/discounts
I've been keeping an eye out for birthday offers in my email/apps this month and so far I've picked up:
- a free cookie at Panera
- a free cookie at Potbelly
- almost-free socks at DSW
- a $0.53 pair of undies from Victoria's Secret
And there are plenty more offers I still have left to redeem.
I like that birthday offers are now often available all month long; it makes it way easier to redeem them over the course of the month as I happen to be near the various stores!
3. I'm using up some not-so-favorite coffee
Normally I make my coffee with bags of Starbucks grounds from the grocery store; I keep an eye out for sales and buy several bags at a time.
I ran out, though, so now I am making myself use up the other bags of coffee I have (bags I tried and didn't like as much!)
And in the meantime, I will be keeping an eye out for a sale on Starbucks coffee. 🙂
If nothing pans out, I might order this pack from Amazon, or I could get by with Aldi coffee, which is the best off-brand ground coffee I've tried.
4. I got a problem fixed at Eddie Bauer
I had ordered a pair of shoes in-store, for a size that wasn't in stock. However, the guy helping me with the order seemed a little clueless.
Confident. But clueless.
He kept messing things up with the address and email address, but eventually, he seemed to think that he'd gotten it figured out.
But lo and behold, the shoes ended up going to a completely different city, AND it turned out that the only info he'd put in correctly was my credit card.
So I paid, but I had no shoes to show for it.
I called the store and they said to call customer service.
But when I called customer service, they asked for all kinds of identifying information, and of course, none of it matched what was in the system. They said to go to the store for help.
Sigh.
So I did, and luckily the manager was there. Whew!
I cheerfully explained the whole saga to him, and apparently, it's not the first time that this employee has messed up an online order, so the manager had no problem believing my whole story.
He got on the phone with customer service and got me a refund, a fresh order (for the right address!), and an extra $15 discount (which I did not ask for! I think he was just thankful I wasn't angry...he said, "You are a gem. Thank you for being patient.")
Experience has taught me that if you are persistent and polite, you can usually get what you need in terms of customer service. 🙂
5. I...
- sold a book on eBay (those sales always are trickling in!)
- kept eating up my excess potatoes
- a butter wrapper had quite a bit of butter stuck to it, so I put it into a pan so the butter could melt off
And then I made a grilled cheese sandwich in the buttered pan, using the two heels from a loaf of bread.
As a 10+ year customer service veteran, let me just say THANK YOU, Kristen, for being kind and patient!
FFT
—I spent three hours bringing our house from “Company clean” to “We’d like our deposit back” clean. (We own our home now, but I find “Deposit clean” a useful description!) Paint was touched up, new pictures were hung, ceramics swapped, stainless steel and porcelain polished with Bar Keeper’s Friend, etc. 2023 has brought some expensive joy of homeownership moments—hello, January’s ORKIN visit—and I felt the need to practice gratitude and thank our house for the beautiful refuge that it is. This also frees me from chores for a few weeks, as I’ve a big work commitment coming up.
—I realized I had enough paint and supplies leftover from when we bought/overhauled our house that I could redo our mudroom/entryway/enclosed back porch thingy for basically free. Since this space wasn’t necessary to us moving in—like the rest of the house!—it stayed as-is minus some of our framed prints and our freebie coat rack. However, it’s our main entrance, and my husband and I are both tired of the weird mauve-meets-BandAid color!
—The redo also inspired a round of rearranging and decluttering. The back porch thingy had become a bit of a catch all, as had the garage.
—While I had the leftover paint out, I touched up our kitchen cabinets, outside porch, and mixed black and light blue to match the gray on our shed.
—Some severely freezer-burned trout was saved (sort of) by becoming okay-to-mediocre stew. It was a new recipe full of things we liked and had on hand, yet was very “meh” once complete. It wasn’t unpleasant to eat, but I’m definitely glad to be through the leftovers, especially since I was the only one willing to eat them!
@N, "Deposit clean" is a great term! We once had an extremely nasty landlord--I was told when we moved in by neighbors that no one got their full deposit back. Sure enough, even though we deep cleaned the place (my mom even spent half a day hand cleaning the oven) we were docked about $100 for, among other things, a dirty oven. Boy was mom ticked! I've come to believe it's just an easy scam for some less scrupulous landlords to make a extra buck off hapless tenants. I mean, "clean" is so subjective, it's hard to argue with someone determined to keep your money.
@N, WOW! You got to "Deposit clean" in three hours! And then did all the rest! That's amazing.
@Cynthia, In fairness, we keep the house “Company clean” most of the time, and it’s just over 700 sq/ft to start with. I fricking love that I can deep clean the whole thing in one morning vs. over days!
@N, Small homes rule when it comes to cleaning up! We downsized from over 2000 sq ft to 1600 sq ft and it's lovely.
A friend of mine, whose father owned a number of rental units, gaily told me that of course, landlords always keep deposits! Grrrrrrrr. The only time I've ever kept a deposit, including as an Airbnb/Vrbo short term landlady*, was for the horrible destructive people I had to evict.
*and there was a lot of damage done then, too, but it was hard to prove which tenant, exactly, managed to break my wonderful vintage kitchen light fixture, for example.
@Bobi, One of the few, very odd for them, rules Indiana had for tenants, was that the landlord had to document the unclean parts and itemize each thing they said they had to clean.
No proof, then full deposit to tenant.
Those new jeans are still fairly skinny and look good. Enjoy your birthday month!
@Suzanne, yes, I was puzzled too. Weren't the new ones also skinny jeans? Apparently there are fashion gradations that allude me. 😀
Haha, well, they ARE on the slimmer side, but they are definitely looser than my skinny jeans. Like, I can just pull the leg openings over my ankles, whereas with my skinny jeans I have to pull them off inside out!
@Anne, whoops, I meant "elude."
@Anne, I had the same reaction, I thought both were "skinny". But I'm someone who has been wearing boot cut jeans for the last 20 years even as they have become harder and harder to find!
@Carla,
My Walmart and Meijer have bootcut jeans. Do you possibly have a country and western store nearby? Like a feed store. They might have them.
I felt the same about my skinny jeans and then I discovered high waisted coluttes and couldn’t believe there was something even more comfortable than skinny jeans 😀
My five frugal things:
1. We had nachos on Friday and I finally had to buy ground beef. First time in over two years thanks to my partner who hunts moose. The frugal thing was that I only used half a packet (200 grams). Used onion, corn, black beans and red lentils instead.
2. As we’re finishing renovating the room we’ll use as a walk in wardrobe I wanted to buy new DRÖNA boxes from IKEA as the ones we have is sun bleached and quite ugly pink. Stopped myself and are instead sewing covers for them. Old fabric is something I have quite enough of so it’s no expense.
3. Cut my own hair and dyed my eyebrows at home.
4. My partner cleaned out the garage and as he is more comfortable throwing things out to the dump than me I discreetly (not really) kept an eye on the process. Saved some untreated wood and cut it up so we can use it in the wood stove. Also some small pieces of plywood for making a plant stand for my cactus that are outgrowing its current pace.
5. Cut up some destroyed t-shirts for rags to the bathroom. How come the men’s t-shirts becomes more holes than fabric under the arms? On one side fascinating and on the other side really annoying always having to try to find good quality Fairtrade t-shirts that fit the budget.
Your new jeans look cute! I'm currently thrilled with the wider leg trend for jeans; those are my favorite! For what it's worth, I wore boot cut/wide leg jeans throughout the skinny jean era. With a nice top and shoes, I never felt "stuck".
Frugal wins this week:
1. The usual, we cooked most of our meals at home this week. The two dinners we ate out were prepaid with gift cards or subscription cards.
2. I returned some pants that didn't fit. I know so many people who forget to return things so, I count this as a win.
3. We purchased bulk compost for our new gardens (because our compost bin didn't have enough). For less than $30, we got a truckload of nice compost.
4. Gave myself a manicure. Admittedly, it's not as nice as the salon, but it works!
5. Continued to put in our new garden beds ourselves instead of hiring out. This is saving us close to $1K.
6. Comparison shopped for bushes and found the ones I wanted at Walmart $5 cheaper per bush than anywhere else. Total savings=$25.
My five:
-I harvested about 8 spears of asparagus so far. Not so much this year, but it is the first year we can harvest. I'm so looking forward to next year's free-for-all.
-We joyfully accepted a free small chicken coop from our neighbor down the road. We moved our broody hen into it in hopes that she'll actually hatch out a few chicks for us.
-My husband and children went to work on the coop to spruce it up a bit and adapt it for our situation. They used only materials we already had.
-I made a meal plan so that, even when I didn't stick to it, I had enough on hand that last minute trips to town were unnecessary.
-We used the library for books and a movie.
@Jody S., Ooh! The first asparagus harvest is so exciting!!! Waiting all those years can test patience for sure. 🙂 I checked our asparagus patch over the weekend and we don't have any poking out yet, but it should be soon.
@Ruth T, Yes! I can't figure out why it took us so long to plant asparagus.
I save all my butter wrappers and use them to grease the loaf pans when I make bread.
--Which I suppose could be my first frugal thing . . .
--We've started eating the first asparagus and rhubarb. Perennials are the best. Put 'em in and reap the rewards for years.
--I used some of the rhubarb to balance out the inedibly sweet peach jam I made last fall--from the free peaches a neighbor gave us--when I used the recipe required for the pectin I had. I don't typically use pectin, but he had asked if I could make a batch of jam with pectin. I only had the standard Sure Jell pectin (as opposed to the kinds that can be used for low-sugar recipes), and holy cow. Sooo much sugar. Most of it I actually opened up after canning and added way more peaches to it to fix it. I still had a couple of jars of the canned overly sweet jam, though, so I added cooked and mashed rhubarb to it. Much better.
--And then I used the peach/rhubarb jam to cook a brisket on Sunday. Yum.
--My oldest son is gone enough now with sports and other things that we decided the time had come to get him a cell phone. He does not, however, need a smart phone. My husband got him a relatively cheap flip phone and put it on his own service plan, which only added I think $15 monthly.
Only two this week that I can think of right now
*I ordered some new work shoes for $130. They are a very good brand, very sturdy, perfect for standing and walking. BUT very stiff leather and very tight across the instep. So I returned them for another brand I know and love, saving myself a good $40 and they should be here this week. I am pretty rough on my work shoes, tho I usually get 4-5 years of wear out of them.
*Yesterday's breakfast was overnight oats (which costs pennies), lunch was paid for by the boss, and frugal dinner last night was a freezer meal that all I had to do was heat up.
I'm trying to shift from the "I'm newly single and poor" mindset to the "I choose to be thoughtful about how I spend my money" mindset. It feels so much more empowering.
I pickled asparagus from our garden. Also made mint tea several times with the fresh mint that is sprouting up.
Made homemade sourdough bread and lemon pound cake to take to my mom’s group instead of buying something from the store.
I superglued my son’s toy that broke.
Trimmed my bangs and ends instead of going to the salon.
Didn’t go out to eat all week, cooked all our meals at home.
I don't like skinny jeans. They only look good on skinny people which is not me. I did buy a new pair of white jeans, which feel springy, last weekend.
I am going to get my cottage tenant to work off some of his back rent by painting my living room. I used to be a great painter but those days are over.
We've been avoiding takeout and eating our leftovers. My cleaning lady charged me less because I asked her not to clean the fridge, because she throws out too many leftovers! So that's a savings too. That's all I got, I think.
Actually, Rose, it is my humble opinion, (everyone, please do not get offended), that it does not look all that great on thin people either. Call it a pet peeve, but skinny jeans, leggings, and jeggings all make me feel imprisoned in fat, even if I am not, and seeing them on others can be bothersome to me, as I am imagining how uncomfortable I assume (probably wrong), they feel. Anyway, have a blessed Tuesday!
Haha, I am not offended! 🙂
@st, I haven't worn leggings in a long time. I feel like I'm too old for them and I should wear something more dignified. I also gave up all my T shirts with lettering on them, except for one college T shirt I've had since 1986. I sold all my ancient band T shirts from the 80s on eBay or gave them to my kids.
@Rose, I'm with you: At my age, I'd look ridiculous in leggings...and that's putting it mildly. But in the winter, I often wear them under long dresses/skirts or slacks. No one sees them (except maybe around the ankle if I wear shoes instead of boots) but they keep me really warm.
@Lisa, I am loving leggings in winter for under dresses and skirts, too! I can't wear nylons because I tend to break out in hives from them, but so far, leggings are wonderful and warmer. I will not, however, wear leggings with things that are more than an inch or so above my knee.
Also: nylons get runs in them if you carelessly look at them too hard. I haaaate nylons for that reason.
@st, I am old enough to still be startled by the body-hugging fashions that are typical now, compared to some decades ago.
Modern maternity clothing is the most startling example to me. Compare the silhouettes now to the tent dresses of the past.
@Heidi Louise, The most startling maternity dress I saw was a wedding dress with a giant hole cut out so her naked pregnant stomach was sticking out through the hole. When I see stuff like that I think it is a good thing I will be dead soon because I am turning into a judgmental crabby old woman. Or maybe the bride will be like me when I see old pics and wonder, "What the hell was I thinking?!"
@Lindsey, I would go beyond "startling" to describe that! I hope that at least they called the baby a baby and not a "bump".
@Rose, I have a few fashion rules: no words on my clothes, and NEVER NEVER NEVER leggings or skinny anything. Don't you wonder if some of these people have dignity? Or mirrors, for Pete's Sake? I dress for my body shape, not for fashion trends. One of the benefits of being a full-on grownup is not caring about keeping up with styles.
@Central Calif. Artist, yes, where are their mirrors?
@Central Calif. Artist,
Maybe they like how they look in the mirror? I think people should wear what they like!
@Emma, well said! You don't like it? Look elsewhere then. Women judging women... don't we have enought of this is the world already?
@isa, Apparently not when it comes to that maternity wedding dress!
@Lindsey, hahahaha...Thanks for sharing. That made me crack up.
@Central Calif. Artist,
Lol! No dignity, no mirrors, but I am oh so comfortable in this prickly world. Avert you eyes or keep looking in horror. : )
Have you ever tried Kirkland coffee at Costco? I have heard it is made by Starbucks.
My best deal this week was specialty old age cheddar cheese - 5.3 oz. for 99 cents. It was in the shape of an Easter egg.
@Zoe, I came here to mention Kirkland coffee too! We love it! Worth a try if you have a Costco membership
Our double gate on our fence had seen a better day so hubs took a ladder apart and made a replacement that works well. This is just in case the gate did not latch the 2nd gate would still block the dogs in.
One person bought all my Ball jars so less work for me selling them. She runs a decorating business.
I also sold a children's saucer, the grands are too big for it. I bought it for $5 sold it for $10.
I have all the stuff from my parent's house ready to our local consignment shop. Lots of antiques, way to many to keep.
Kohl's gave me $15 in birthday cash so I picked up jean's for $5.
We have been eating at home pretty much all the time. My husband has even taken to bringing leftovers for lunch and he never used to do that at his old jobs.
We have been opening the windows to let the beautiful weather in. But now its chilly, so the woodstove is being put back to use for a couple of days. No turning on the heat that's for sure.
Next we will be fertilizing the lawn on our own. I planted seed in spots that needed it and my husband will fertilize other areas. Beats paying a lawn service to do it.
Finally hung some pictures and hooks in the bedroom, so that is complete. Will hang some in other areas the rest of them this week. I have saved all the nails that I previously used in my last couple of residences, so no buying new nails to hang old pictures!
Still scrapbooking using up paper I already have. And I have tons!
Kristen, your "I am 44 and at this point in my life, no 'new' jeans style is actually new" comment made me smile. Hey, kid, just wait till you're pushing 68!
Now, FFT--or, rather, a Mixed Bag Edition:
(1) See yesterday's FFT at the NCA for wins related to garden cleanup and our recent mini-heat wave here in Central NY--plus my P.S. that I certainly didn't have the heat on, and was able to avoid turning on the AC, during the heat wave.
(2) I also did two loads of laundry and, as usual, dried them on my collection of indoor drying racks. But they dried a *lot* faster during the heat wave!
(3) Fail: See yesterday's FFT also for my decision not to grow any vegetables this year except the two potted tomatoes my next-door neighbor and I always grow behind her chain-link fence. There was supposed to be deer culling in my city this year, but so far, my neighbors and I haven't noticed any effects of it. (And I'm especially envious of you asparagus growers. The one year I tried to put in asparagus, the asparagus beetles devoured every last fragile new spear even before the deer could find it.)
For those of you who have previously proposed that I fence in my own yard, thanks for the suggestion--but my garden is actually a series of garden beds scattered across a double lot, and fencing isn't either financially or aesthetically feasible.
(4) Partial win: The solution of white vinegar, salt, and Dawn dish liquid that I mentioned in last Friday's WIS/WIA, combined with the heat wave, did kill all the weeds I applied it to in one of my gravel walkways. But I ran out of vinegar and salt before I ran out of walkway, so I'll need to get some more of both and wait for the next hot sunny day.
(5) Win: I recently found a NWT Nordic Ware microwave popcorn popper at my Salvation Army superstore for $2, bought a $2.49 2-lb. bag of popcorn kernels at Wegmans to use in it, and am satisfied with the results. Danny Wegman, however, may not be so satisfied with the fact that I won't be buying the occasional $3.09 5-ounce bag of pre-popped popcorn from now on.
@A. Marie, I'm impressed you're on a first name basis with a grocery store mogul! 😉
@Bobi, I think everyone in the U.S. Northeast who shops at a Wegmans is on a first-name basis with Danny. (With a few colorful descriptors tacked on whenever the prices go up and the selection goes down, both of which have been happening too often lately.) 🙁
And speaking of another mogul with whom everyone's on a first-name basis, here's my fashion note for the day: I just got back from errands that included a stop at my local Thrifty Shopper store, where I found a Martha Stewart brand "Relaxed Utility Shirt" for $3.75 plus tax (after my Tuesday senior discount). Martha herself was selling this last fall for $70 (before tax or shipping) on martha.com, and prices on thredUP, eBay, etc. start at $11.99. Cha-CHING!
@A. Marie, Martha is one of those people who comes across snooty and annoying but is actually down to earth and nice in real life. I like her a lot and I love her dogs more than anything.
@Rose, yes, you've said this in the past. But reliable reports I've heard from one acquaintance who worked for the magazine and another who had dealings with her and her staff when she gave a speech here several years ago indicate that everything I've heard about her as an employer is true. In any case, I've had too much fun with Martha over the years to give it up now.
Yesterday I tried calling the Christian medical sharing company we use to try to clear up something that I should have taken care of quite a while ago. But no one seemed to understand what the issue was or to be able to help me. I was very frustrated with that call. I think I know what I need to do/say for the next time I call but I'm giving myself time to clear my head.
For the rest of this month I am doing a "no spend" month (besides groceries) in an attempt to save up for some things I need, like shoes and clothes.
Panera Bread is the worst on my birthday. I get a coupon for $1 off a coffee or something dumb like that. I haven't gotten an actual birthday freebie from them in over 7 years. One of my sisters always gets a free something or other and we live in the same town.
@Tammy, For what it's worth, I used to work at a call center that conducted health insurance interviews for people who applied for U.S. Health's medical insurance. Quite a few applicants told me they were switching from one of those Christian sharing outfits. Just about all of them said it didn't work out the way they'd hoped, they paid for others' needs but didn't get anything much (if anything at all) when THEIR family needed help, and generally felt it wasn't working out. Some even went so far as to call it a scam. You might want to check out U.S. Health -- it's not Obamacare but a lot of independent workers such as real estate agents and truck drivers and contract workers get it. Also, farmers and ranchers and employees of companies that don't provide health insurance frequently sign up for this. You might also want to contact an independent insurance agent to see if they can recommend a good insurance company or HMO. If you happen to be in the Lutheran church (not sure which synod), that denomination also has its own insurance for members, and Knights of Columbus insures Catholics (not sure if you have to be a member of KoC or not).
@Tammy,
It's reassuring to read someone who has had the same experience with Panera Bread's "rewards" program". I have noticed a general trend with a number of so-called rewards programs that start off great, then sizzle to a joke. With Panera, I believe they gauge the birthday reward to overall purchases for the year. When my husband patronized them periodically to take a friend for coffee & used my rewards account, I too received a free birthday item. Now that the friend has moved & his purchases have decreased, the "reward" has dwindled down to $2 off a beverage for a number of years. Some "reward"!
Confident but clueless... ha! Glad you got it all sorted out.
My FFT:
1. I attended a free in-person gardening program and got LOTS of practical, helpful info and also attended a free online freezer cooking class.
2. I made an inventory list of the freezer meals I have in my freezer. Hopefully this will help me keep grocery costs a little lower in the next month. Knowing what you have is always a good thing!
3. While we don't have an official Buy Nothing group, I've found a Facebook group where people give things away. Later this morning I'm going to pick up a free rain barrel.
4. I went to my first yard sale of the season last week! I got a pair of volleyball kneepads for 50 cents for my oldest daughter and - I'm pretty excited about this one - I've been wanting a hanging shoe organizer to start keeping my kids' winter hats and gloves in but didn't want to fork out the money for one, so I've been putting it off, but the yard sale had a really nice one for a dollar!
5. My daughter's cheap-o backpack that we got at the grocery store has 2 big holes in it now (one of which is not really fixable) and I had decided over the year that we are done with cheap backpacks anyways. I hopped on the Lands End website and found that most of their backpacks were on a great sale! I put it (plus some sale shoes she needs) in my cart in the morning, then planned to order in the evening. I had forgotten that when you leave items in your cart, they send you a better discount code that includes free shipping. Yay! We paid for it all with gift cards that give us a percentage back for my kids' tuition.
Oh yes, and I did haircuts for both my husband and my son and then my husband cut my hair! I'm ready for warmer weather!
@Ruth T, ugh, back to snow and cold this week! I love winter during winter months. April is not a winter month.
Oh my goodness, Kris, what a trip! 80's on Saturday, snow yesterday, anticipated 80 on Thursday, then snow again on Sunday. April is wild.
@Ruth T, I LOVE my Land's End backpack! It is the only backpack I have that the straps don't cut into the pressure points on my shoulders (that ultimately results in a tension migraine) when I use it on vacations.
@Ruth T, thank you for the tip about leaving things in the Lands'End cart. I used to do that on Coldwater Creek, but I think they stopped with the HEY! COME BACK HERE! discounts.
We just celebrated our 24th anniversary, so let me see if I can think of FFT, Anniversary Edition:
1. Rented a lovely (newly renovated) picnic lodge in a reserve near where my husband lived when we met--it has lots of memories for us, and the lodge had a new kitchen and HVAC, and was very reasonable to rent for a day! There is a river right behind it with a canoe launch. Took our own canoe and games we already owned, and several of the kids took trips down the river while those on land played croquet until the rain moved in. My best friend from high school (who was our matron of honor) was able to come up and visit, which was fantastic. The kids played board games with my husband and my friend and I visited.
2. Brought all our own food--homemade lasagna, hot dogs, chips, dessert, fruit, veggies. There was a grill, which we used before the rain came, but I had brought our toaster oven, which we used during the rainy part of the day and discovered that a toaster oven makes fantastic roasted hot dogs. Saves on charcoal, which is surprisingly expensive! So we learned quite a bit.
4. The lodge is only 25 minutes from where we live, and our youngest, who usually always wants to go to a cabin in Hocking Hills for his birthday (two hours away and you need to spend the night, and AirBnBs are pricey when you have four kids), has declared he wants to go back to the "game lodge" for his birthday instead, and we are happy to oblige. It will be a lot less expensive and I think more relaxing, as we'll be able to just come home and sleep in our own beds!
5. Read library books, used Amazon points for some books I wanted to own, no eating out.
6. I always forget this. Gave my husband and one of the kids a haircut, and had my husband trim the back of my hair, where I can't quite see it well enough to do so. I'll eventually go in for a professional trim, but he did a pretty good job and I can hold out for a while longer. 😉
@Karen A., Congrats on your 24th anniv.! Your lodge celebration sounds absolutely incredible!
@Fru-gal Lisa, Thanks! To most it wouldn't sound that great but it was absolutely perfect day for us.
Karen A., I can't imagine why anyone would criticize a perfect day like that! It doesn't take a big fortune to make a fantastic memory.
@Karen A.,
Happy 24th, it sounds like you had a perfect celebration! I live about the same distance away from Hocking Hills....maybe a little farther. While it's an awesome place, I'm glad your son decided on the "game cottage"!
1. When I clear out old things, I think about how many square feet of space I've freed up. It's the cheapest way to add square footage to my apartment! We expanded our apartment by about six cubic feet this week 🙂
2. I have made myself known as someone who accepts hand-me-downs for both my daughter and myself. In the last few weeks, I received an excellent maternity top (for next time,) a raincoat, a cashmere sweater, and a swimsuit with matching hat for my daughter.
3. I tried using dried chickpeas instead of canned. It was easy and the texture was so much nicer. Once cooked, the chickpeas were fine hanging out in the fridge for a week until I needed them for curry and for pasta. It's not a huge money-saver for us, but I've been really disappointed with the quality of canned beans in the last few years. So mushy and blown-out. Would do again!
4. When I was cleaning for Passover, I found a partial bag of my preferred cough drops (Ricola original.) Despite being old, they weren't expired, so I kept them, and lo and behold I'm sick this week and using them.
5. Not frugal: I dripped balsamic vinegar on a white t-shirt and despite an overnight soak in OxyClean and pre-treat spray, it's stained. Boo. Any tips?
@Meira@meirathebear,
Oh, my, I just spent the weekend getting vanilla extract out of a pair of new shorts which I was wearing for only the second time. I used a combination of a spray mix of hydrogen peroxide and Dawn (test for colorfastness first), Grandma's Stain Remover, Purex color-safe non-chlorine bleach and my homemade detergent to soak, wash, soak, wash, soak and wash again. It finally came out. I didn't let the shorts dry between soakings and washings, either, I just started the process again as soon as I saw the stain wasn't gone. Finally, when the stain was gone, I hung them in the sun to dry. Good luck!
@Meira@meirathebear, You could try hydrogen peroxide from the bottle. I've used this on various "biological" stains on white towels and it doesn't bleach the towels but gets the stain out very nicely. I just drip some on, gently rub it in, and wash in warm water with detergent afterwards.
Why is no one suggesting regular bleach?
Oh yeah, if it's a white garment, I am willing to try bleach, unless the fabric can't handle bleach.
@Rose,
My shorts were colored so bleach was out for my stain, but I've used bleach on stains on whites with less than stellar results in the past. Bleach is my method of very last resort. Maybe it's my water? Bleach often doesn't remove a stain when I use it, plus I absolutely hate the smell of bleach. A lot of my own whites say no bleach, anyway.
@JD, I applaud your persistence with the vanilla extract stain. I have a small bottle of Grandma's that I've been using on an emergency-only basis for years, but it occurred to me that I could look for it on Amazon, so I just did (and paid for it with backlogged Amazon points).
@Meira@meirathebear, When I kept Ricolas for too long, they got soft and stuck to the paper. Ditto for Jolly Ranchers, which I am sort of embarrassed to say that I love. I know keep them both in the freezer and it has eliminated the melting problem. Just in case you have ever had the same problem...
@Meira@meirathebear, if you can't get the stain out you could always dye the shirt.
@Meira@meirathebear, I regularly cook dried chickpeas (after soaking overnight) and then freeze 2 cups per Ziplock so it is ready to thaw and turn into hummus. Definitely frugal (especially if you wash and reuse Ziplocks!)
@Rose, the times I have tried regular bleach on a stain, it dissolved the fabric. 100% cotton! Dang.
@Central Calif. Artist, Yep, that's why I don't spot treat with bleach. I do put some bleach in when I wash our (white) towels, but it's diluted and doesn't break the fabric down as quickly.
I don’t know if I have a frugal thing from this week. Unless leaning on friends to help me make decisions during this decision heavy season.
I have a fail to share though:
Shopped at Aldi yesterday, buying chicken. Hurriedly unloaded groceries at home and raced off to next thing. Realized I never put chicken away but couldn’t find it in car.
Got son ready for school today, grabbed his chair out of the car and there’s the chicken, hanging out right there in the back. {facepalm}It was below freezing much of yesterday but got up to 37F and cars are warmer in sun, so I think I have to toss it. Really don’t want to find out what salmonella poisoning feels like this week.
It’s only a $10 loss. In the midst of my current circumstances, I can recognize the realities insignificance, but still frustrating.
@Kaitlin,
♥♥♥♥♥
A big hug to you!
and from me too. And I'll repeat what I nagged Kristen about--get yourself your own lawyer and get the best one you can possibly afford. Borrow money if you have to. Your divorce is probably the largest financial decision of your entire life and you need a very good person to advise you. (My ex cheaped out and ha ha ha, lost bigtime.)
@Kaitlin, don't beat yourself up about the Aldi chicken fail. You're under a lot of stress. Be kind to yourself. And this goes for Kristen, Rose, and everyone out there in similar circumstances.
"Confident. But clueless." Love that.
Deja vu experience for those who also read The Non-Consumer Advocate blog:
1. Splurged on a new toaster oven that was on sale. We needed a toaster anyway, plus the ability to bake things in a smaller oven helps lower energy costs. Already completely in love and wish I had met this appliance sooner!
2. Received a free 8-oz. block of cheese from the grocery store clerk, who couldn’t ring it up because the UPC code was in a hard-to-scan place.
3. My vehicle registration tabs never arrived. I had the option of having them re-issued by mail (which meant my car would have expired tabs for a while) or going to the office in-person and paying $11 (no way). I took the outlaw route and printed my original order confirmation in case I got pulled over for expired tabs. It was kind of exciting to be on the other side of the law for a few days!
4. Endless free exercise picking up trash while out on walks. There’s a lot of garbage hiding under melted snow!
5. Rescued a filthy knit hat, washed it, and donated it to Goodwill.
I am a little younger than you and have mostly settled into the "I don't care if I'm in style" lifestyle. I'm also a man and men's styles don't change so much. I do have to say that I find that the high waisted look that the kids are getting into looked bad in the 90s and doesn't look flattering on a lot of people now. Wear what fits and compliments your body. Not much can help my ugly self but at least I'm decent. 🙂
That said, here's my weekly FFT.
1.) I too got a new pair of jeans but I got them a few weeks ago at Costco. Since you can't try on clothes at Costo and it's a bit of a haul to get there and back it's always a crapshoot. Well these jeans were a bit too baggy for my liking so my wife was able to tailor them and now I have some nice, straight legged jeans. I also used a seam ripper to take off the branding patch in the back. No one needs to know who made my trousers.
2.) Replaced the joystick in a Switch Joycon for a relative of my wife. Let me just say that this is a PITA to do even though there's zero soldering involved. It's just lots of teeny tiny pieces.
3.) Got some more tools and parts online for fixing things. Sadly I just can't go down the street and buy some JIS screwdriver 4mm bit heads but eBay and AliExpress can get them to me.
4.) Using McDonald's points to get a free Happy Meal for my daughter while she's off from school. I don't normally go to the Golden Arches except sometimes to get a $1 Diet Coke but I use the app to earn points and sometimes you get free stuff.
5.) My wife got some new glasses from Zenni Optical. I also told a coworker about them as our insurance pays almost nothing for glasses and my coworker and her husband often spend around $300 or more for glasses. He's a tradesman and breaks his a lot too. So nice to share ways to save people money,
@Battra92, I love Zenni! I upgrade my lenses in every way possible and still could get new glasses every year for four years and spend less than one pair of glasses from a brick and mortar optical store without the lens upgrades. My kids play rough with me so it’s nice to be able to replace the glasses after they’re scratched up rather than having to deal with it for a long time.
@Kaitlin, what's sad is that the Mom and Pop shops are beholden to Luxotica which a huge monopoly which artificially raises prices on Americans. So we had to skip the mom and pop places and go to those outside of the monopoly.
@Battra92, I think I'm a step beyond you on the spectrum: I'm in the class of "I don't have a clue what's in style." 🙂
@Battra92, Zenni optical is amazing! So cheap. And the quality is there.
Your new jeans look fabulous on you!
We are still unpacking and rearranging in our new home plus spending a lot on necessary work that is out of our ability to do (think sewer lateral upgrade, chimney cap that somehow came off, and branches overhanging the roof) but also have some frugal wins.
1. My newly joined Buy Nothing group came through with both games the 6 yr old granddaughter requested for our play cupboard. Different editions than she is used to but the same game. Why am I surprised that there is a Disney Princess version of Candy Land? I also got a batch of hangers that work better in my new closet than what I had moved and have given away lots of moving supplies. Quite grateful to be living where there is an active group.
2. We have found the least costly but good quality grocery stores near us. Also the lowest cost gas station.
3. New neighbor came over with a bag of lemons as a gift and the offer of more whenever we want them. Another neighbor who is a handyman offered the use of a tall ladder when my husband called to hire him to put the chimney cap back on. Kind but we hired him as Hubby shouldn’t be getting up on a roof anymore. I think we got the neighbor rate though which was nice. Another neighbor has said to call anytime we need help and yet another asked if we would be willing to feed their cat sometime when they go away. We landed in a friendly and helpful neighborhood.
4. Hubby fixed the dings on the one piece of nice furniture that got damaged in the move and we have figured out how to utilize all the pieces we moved.
5. We have all the appliances working well for us thanks to online owner manuals and inexpensive frig/freezer and oven thermometers. Now to figure out the drip irrigation system!
I think my 17-year-old daughter has that same pair of jeans. 🙂 I'm a big fan of the boot-cut look. It balances my proportions better. I have straight-leg jeans and yes, I still wear skinny jeans on occasion. It can be hard to keep up with styles.
I had a similar confident-but-clueless experience when I was buying new cell phones for Christmas gifts for my kids from Best Buy. I had to correct the overly-confident sales person twice (he told me a particular phone was 5G--nope, it wasn't .... and the phones he brought out were the incorrect ones and were $50 more expensive than the ones I had picked out--the worst part was that he was stubbornly insisting that he was right and I had to push him to double-check). If I'm the one correcting someone's tech-based errors, it's not a good thing!!!!!!!! I maintained a polite but firm stance but man, that was a challenge.
Those new jeans still look pretty skinny to me, too. I've been wearing jeans that look like your new ones and boot cuts right through the skinny phase. I just couldn't make myself buy new jeans. I've been wearing the same second-hand jeans for years.
1. See my response to Meira@meirathebear for frugally saving my new American Giant shorts after tipping over a bottle of (expensive!) pure vanilla extract. I couldn't save the vanilla that poured out, but I was determined to save those shorts.
2. We had a sudden dip in temperature to 44 deg. F last night, but I kept the heat off.
3. I picked up a few items that I needed and used coupons and an in store sale to pay just under half-price.
4. I roasted a frozen Thanksgiving-purchased turkey this weekend and as soon as it cooled I pulled it apart and used the Foodsaver to freeze most of it in portions. I'm using the rest of it in my meals this week and pulled the last meaty bits off of the frame to use in turkey frame vegetable-noodle soup. The noodles are actually cassava rotini which I had on hand, and all the vegetables were also on hand.
5. One of the pressure-treated wooden uprights in the grape arbor rotted- thanks, Florida heat and humidity - so my daughter helped me get it loose from the wire mesh and I've since replaced it with galvanized pipe that I had on hand. I got free exercise operating post hole diggers to get about 3 feet down. I poured mortar mix I had on hand into the hole to help the pipe stand still. It's normal to keep mortar mix in the utility room, right? Right?
Extras: This isn't my doing, but:
My neighbor cleared a ton of brush from my back fence and hauled it away. That saved me a bundle.
And my single daughter correctly put together a fairly complicated piece of furniture herself instead of paying someone to do it. Since she's dyslexic and instructions to insert tab A into slot B are all a jumble to her, this was a major effort on her part and in the past her first response would be to call a handyman. I would have helped, of course, but she wanted to learn to do this herself.
1. I made all our meals at home. I used up some brown bananas making "breakfast cookies."
2. I took a couple boxes of outgrown clothing to sell at a local store. Then I used the money to buy my oldest new pants at the same secondhand store.
3. I rewore a nice outfit for an interview instead of buying something new.
4. My husband fixed a toy that my youngest broke.
5. I bought a new coffee maker. It uses the cone filters, which we don't have. But we're using the reusable one that cMe with it until we go to the store again (no special trip). I couldn't find the info on the box about the filter or I would have bought them right away.
@Nikki, Try to keep using the reusable filters, if you can. It's better for the environment!
@Fru-gal Lisa, yep. I don't mind the reusable filter, but my husband prefers the disposable kind. Maybe some day I can convince him.
Totally agree with being patient and kind. It almost always works, and if it doesn't, at least you were still patient and kind.
We are currently spending a couple of free nights (using credit card perks) in Quebec City. Free breakfast and dinner is included, and I brought food to make lunches en route. Our activities will be free also, so our only costs will be the gas to drive here, parking downtown and one lunch out. (It is about a 5 hour drive one way. ) I love this city! Visit if you can.
My husband's table saw died, and he uses it a lot. The one he wanted was $400. I looked for discounts and finally opted to sign up for a Lowes card to get the 20% off discount. $80 off = worth the hassle.
I cut my husband's hair before we left.
The snow banks have melted in Maine, which means all the cans and bottles that were thrown out during the winter are now visible. I've picked up several dollars' worth so far (returnable for $ in Maine.) Really sad that people litter, but it's like picking up nickels and dimes.
I changed up my meal plans in order to use a box of veggies the neighbor gave us. My husband discovered that turnips "aren't bad." Flexibility is key:).
@Tricia, I've been working the melting snowbanks in Central NY for all they're worth over the past few weeks. The litterbugs' loss is my gain!
You look really good in the new jeans. I am also reluctantly approaching the end of skinnies but I agree with your acceptance of change. I'm 72, so maybe the new trend will be my last!
I don't know...another 20 years is plenty of time for about 5 denim trends. lol
@Kristen, "another 20 years"? I'll take it!
Haha, what you got were just "less skinny" jeans. These trends crack me up. At Christmas, my trendy, younger SIL and her daughter received pants that were looser, even somewhat flared, at the bottom and cut off just above the ankle. Literally chopped off, with no hem. As a tall girl with long legs, I was kind of stunned. It's been a challenge to find long enough pants my whole life and now they're wearing what??? I can now buy "flood" pants and be totally "on trend"? Not going to happen, even if my comfortable jeans make me look "old". Enjoy your new jeans, but don't be surprised if/when styles change again, long before you have the chance to wear them out.
P.S. I'm not begruging you a new pair of jeans, just lamenting the waste that is "fast fashion". To me, it's not unlike food waste.
I agree about the fast fashion, which is why I find it convenient that many pairs of my skinny jeans are quite worn out by now anyway! I'm getting to the point where I need to replace a few pairs, so I might as well replace them with some newer styles.
@Dicey, I am with you on pant lengths. I have spent my entire life struggling to find pants long enough. I finally started to wear men's jeans because I could buy the right length. Plus in college I liked wearing button and not zippered jeans, for reasons that are now lost in the mists of time. I still find the high-water look, especially when paired with high heels, to be peculiar. And ugly.
@Lindsey, amen! Floods, high-waters. . . nope. I grew up when too-long jeans were shortened by walking the hem off the back. I like 'em stacked on my shoe in front, because otherwise they get like floods when I sit down.
@Dicey, I absolutely agree with you about fast fashion waste!
My favorite trend was the Annie Hall look, where you just grab things out of your closet and mix and match 'em up! But that went out of style, too.
One of my friends is an image consultant. She says that most fashion fads have a 3 year life span. The first year, the item is super expensive, the 2nd year, it is reasonably priced and many people have it or are buying i t. The 3rd year, it may be on sale , close to everyone has several, and the trend will soon be replaced by another fad. And sometime after that it is really out of style. (Think "cold shoulder" blouses, as an example.)
Her remedy? Stay with classic fashions that withstand the test of time, and just go faddish with more inexpensive things such as accessories.
Not sure it can be done with jeans' legs (I mean, how many people are running around in bell bottoms?) but still it's a goal to shoot for.
Happy bday month. I love the heels of bread!!
My son is off deployment. BIG BIG THANKS.
@Stephanie, oops FRUGAL!
Cut up tshirts for rags , got 20 cents off per gallon of gas by going on Friday using Kroger code, planting the ends of the green onions, buying ham on an after Easter close out and buying less mulch this year than usual to save a few bucks.
@Stephanie, congratulations to you and your son! I have a granddaughter who was born exactly 9 months after my son came off deployment and she makes me especially happy.
@Stephanie, I am so happy for you! A member of our congregation is *this* close to being back from deployment, and I find myself so happy for his wife and 2 children. And me. I've missed him. At least I think this was shorter than the entire family's stint at Gitmo. It is such a happy thing.
@Stephanie, so glad for your son and you!
1. I attended my local corporate extension Spring plant sale where I was able to purchase many of he seedlings that I need for my garden for $3-$4 each. This was a savings as seedlings are now $6-$8 in the big box stores and nurseries.
2. My husband fixed our master bath toilet.
3. I sowed zinnia seeds in some of our backyard flower beds. I plan to have them all filled in the next week but it is frugal in that these flowers grow prolifically in the sun & heat and provide fresh cut flowers for my home all Spring, Summer and Fall.
4. I made a double batch of homemade blueberry muffins using up frozen blueberries purchased 8 months ago. I have also now finally worked my way through all of the AP Flour that I purchased in bulk so this weekend I will be cleaning my containers and looking for sales to stock up again.
5. I expanded my growing space in the garden by adding a raised bed to a previously unusable area. This was an investment but we purchased all the materials on sale and used an additional discount. This will give us space to grow root veggies, peas, and several other items that we have not been able to grow previously.
We had a decidedly non-frugal week! A three day out-of-town sports tournament took us six hours away from home. I tried to be frugal where I could, but I also wanted to be social and comfortable while away from home. We traveled with my parents so I needed to work around their needs and wants as well.
1. I knew we would be eating out quite a bit while we were traveling so I made an effort to cut back where I could: I talked my parents into a picnic lunch on the way to the tournament, I packed desirable snacks and drinks, I ordered smaller portions when we ate out to avoid food waste.
2. I packed gallons of water to refill water bottles between games.
3. I packed board games to play in the hotel and we utilized the onsite pool to avoid expensive time fillers.
4. I preplanned for an easy day for our first day home when I knew I would be exhausted– I had groceries delivered in the morning and planned a ‘from the freezer’ meal so that I wouldn’t be tempted to order dinner.
5. I have set up a new targeted savings account to put aside money for out-of-town tournaments. Future me is going to be thankful!
Frugal Five Epic Flood week:
We were in the area you may have seen on the news that flooded last Wednesday.
We had no idea how much rain we were going to get, it just really took us by suprise.
1) We moved our cars just in time before they were completely flooded. We each had to crawl in through the rear hatches, because water was slightly above the bottom of the doors. We drove to a higher area and waited for over 8 hours until the rain stopped and the water receded enough to drive in. We tried a few times to get home, but the water was too high. I saw a car ahead of me up to it's windshield in water and was able to make a u-turn and go back. We finally got home that night close to 2 a.m.
2) Our house didn't flood, only part of our office. We had 6 inches of standing water in our back office/storage area. We are just a few blocks from wet lands, so the water had a gross swampy, fishy smell. The water was 18" deep all around our building.
3) We had a wet vac, so we could immediately start getting the water out, also we had several fans.
4) We borrowed a hand truck from a friend to use to haul out all the stuff that was soaked (a lot) and ripped out the ruined drywall and insulation ourselves instead of waiting for someone else. I believe this will keep us from getting mold.
5) We didn't have water up to our doorknobs as someone we know did, we didn't loose our cars as many did, and we still have a safe dry home to go to.
I cried on the phone with one of my clients yesterday that wasn't so lucky. So many homes were flooded down here, it's just heartbreaking.
Now, back to finishing up tax returns, because today is the day...
@Sandy Beach, oh my. So sorry for what you and your community are going through and so glad that it wasn't worse for you.
@Sandy Beach, So very sorry to hear of your flooding! It must have been so frustrating to wait for the rain to stop. And it is truly awful to have to clean up after such a mess.
And it smells.
@Sandy Beach, How awful for you! Glad you are safe and had less flooding than some.
@Sandy Beach, So sorry you had this horrible experience, and to think that you were among the lucky ones. You did so many things right, I’m not sure I would have thought to do some of them. Kudos, and good thoughts to you with the cleanup.
1. Repaired the caulk around the bathtub.
2. Did a whole lot of sewing: turned two shirts into short-sleeved versions, shortened a blouse, and took up the top and bottom of a pajama set that was was too large. This is the second time altering the pajamas as I lose weight.
3. Planted tomatoes, basil, and cat mint in big pots we already owned. Sticking to what we will definitely use.
4. Baking bread for our lunches every five days or so in the amazing bread machine.
5. Keeping on keeping on with the zillion daily frugalities.
@Ruby, I just threw a batch of pizza dough into my own amazing bread machine. It's at least 15 years old now and still cranking. Blessings on the neighbor who gave it to us as payment for DH's snowblowing many years ago; it's paid for itself many times.
@A. Marie, mine came from Ollie's in February. Only $42 after using a coupon! With the price of good bread being eye-watering, I figure it's already well paid for itself.
1. I picked up baseball cleats off Buy Nothing for my son for next year. I also gave away a toy and jogging stroller on Buy Nothing.
2. I sold a bike trailer on Facebook Marketplace for $10 less than what I paid for it 8 years ago.
3. In reviewing my gas and electric bills, I realized that the company recently applied a $1,400 credit to my account. When I called to ask about this credit (after many hours on the phone with them!), they explained that I was over-billed and the credit was actually already applied to bills from last year. However, for the bills they are saying the credit was applied to, the company also automatically deducted my bill from my bank account each of those months. So, it seems like the company owes me $1,400.
4. Someone hit my car in my employer's parking lot resulting in $2,000 worth of damage. Luckily another employee witnessed it and was able to get the license plate number. After 1 month of multiple calls to this person's car insurance company, it was determined that they are liable for the repairs and will be paying me directly for the cost of the repairs. This prevents me from having to file a claim through my car insurance and possible see an increase in my rates, but also having to pay my deductible.
5. My husband's friend gave us 4 tickets (worth about $80) to see our city's AHL hockey team play, which we went to this weekend.
1. Bought a couple bathing suits and flip flops for the girls - signed up for their "club" and got an additional 20% off and free shipping.
2. This one didn't save a lot of money but it amuses me nonetheless - my in-laws received a gift basket while staying at our house while we were traveling and left a bottle of pickled vegetables in the fridge. I ate them. They were delicious. So delicious that I saved the brine. I used half of a carrot in my daughter's lunchbox today and cut the rest and dropped it into the brine am planning to do the same with the left over onion from the guac I'm going to make later today. Once I devour the carrots, I am going to give the bottle to my mom, who needs small bottles. The only cost to these shenanigans? Half a carrot.
3. Our ice maker is acting up and it's annoying. We considered getting a new fridge - I'm not sure how old this one is - it came with the house - so it could be 20 years old if it's the original (it looks like it might be). Then I said, nah - let's not; It's old but for the most part it's still working. I'll just use some ice trays. I thought I had tossed them and started looking online to see where I could buy some replacements. Target has them and I was about to go get some when I said, let me just look. Sure enough, in the back of the deepest cabinet we have, there were three ice trays. I think my mom gave them to me when I moved into my own apartment. They might be from the late 80's. So what could have been thousands of dollars ended up being zero dollars.
4. Though I was tired and out of sorts, I checked the online flyers before going in to the grocery store and scored some good prices on a few things.
5. Have been checking around for prices on king arthur flour - was shocked to see that it costs $8 for a 5 pound bag. Remembered Kristen mentioning years ago that the best price she found was at Target. Checked there and it's ~$5.50. Happened to check on salt and it's cheaper there too. Thanks FG!
@CrunchyCake, Thanks for the tip on the King Arthur flour. I'm out and need to buy some.
Instead of buying Thousand Island dressing for a dipping sauce, my husband found a sauce recipe online . . . and we love it for fries/onion rings/sandwiches. (Big win for our house.)
I purchased a used baby carrier from FB Marketplace. (Hopefully, future baby loves being in a carrier because we are a hiking household.)
We made lemonade from free lemons. My husband stored some juice in the freezer so we will have more ready for the hot days coming.
I knitted using my yarn stash.
I read free books from the library. (I might end up buying those books because I likely will want to reference them in the future.
I finally touched up some nicks in the wall with leftover paint.
@Rebekah in SoCal, my mom always made 1000 Island with mayo and a little catsup. My hubby improved on it with a bit of oregano, a dash of worchestershire, and some onion salt.
I have to have a few small splurges in life and coffee is one of them..made at HOME of course! I have found that Trader Joe’s coffee in the 14 oz BAGS is really good.I like dark roast and the medium roast. Maybe give it a try.. is $4.99 a bag where I am in arizona. I still like skinny jeans..I wear a combo of regular and skinny whatever I feel like..
1. We are traveling and staying at a family member's home out of town (one frugal thing), and I loosely meal planned and grocery-shopped before coming so we can be really intentional about when we eat out.
2. We are making our coffee at home on this trip.
3. I made bread and have been eating it all week. One bag of flour will make about 8 loaves of bread.
4. I had a medical bill for a post-op visit that should have been covered within the global period after a surgery. I contested the bill, asked the billing office to investigate, and when they didn't follow up with the results of the investigation, I called again. Their investigation said I should have to pay the bill, but I told them they were wrong and that they had taken too long and not communicated with me well, and they ended up waiving the bill. It was only $54 but I will not give them a dollar more of my money than I have to! 🙂
5. I brought mini rubber resistance bands and am doing my weightlifting workout from my gym from home with them, instead of paying to drop into a class locally (as much as I want to).
Good morning! This week I feel like things have been a mix between frugal and not.
1) paid the bills on time.. no extra fees
2) upgraded the hotel room- its for a government stay and they reimburse so much per stay. I paid 9.00 more to not use a wheelchair accessible room. *I learned that I can call them next time for the government rate
3) we ate a a new ramen place. Oh man. It was delicious. So that was not frugal, but we saved the broth to use at home.
4) my husband fixed the brakes on both vehicles.
5) I cooked dinner instead of getting take out that day. Things were just stressful that day.
FFT
* We’ve instituted “Sunday Funday” and went to a free botanical garden last weekend. Took lots of photos and it felt good to be in nature.
* Husband had a craving for BBQ, so he made potato buns https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/hamburger-potato-buns-recipe and no-sugar BBQ pork, which was pulled from the freezer.
* Our neighbors treated us to dinner on Sunday, to thank us for helping them out of a jam.
* A young friend recently moved out of his parents house and is living on his own for the first time. He commented about how expensive groceries are, so I passed along some of the resources and frugal tips I’ve picked up over the years, including the ones specific to our HCOL area. I really appreciate Kristen and this blog!
* They started offering free lunch on Wednesdays at my husband’s work, so one less meal to pack.
- was talking to someone at church and the topic of wood burning came up. Turns out they had lots of trees taken down that they don't want!! My husband got several trailer fulls so far with more to get another time. This is a huge blessing to us and they are happy we can use it!
-cut my son's hair, bonus it was a warm evening so we did it outside- less mess
-after washing the haircut sheets and some towels rags, I noticed they were still pretty wet and was about to put the dryer on a longer, hotter setting, when it hit me- it was a warm, breezy, dry day! I have a single strand clothesline that fit this load perfectly
-I've been wanting some ankle rain boots, and lo and behold, Aldi had them for only $13 in my size! We live on a small farmette and I use my knee high muck boots all the time, but in warm weather it's uncomfortably hot to do so
- using the cooler weather today to do some cooking and baking, including Kristen's granola recipe
-all the usual things... Brew our own coffee at home, pack lunches the night before, meal plan before grocery shopping
Yesterday was perhaps the most frugal day I have ever had.
1. Baked four loaves of bread.
2. This fall we are going on our Last Hurrah trip, figuring that the older we get the less we will want to traipse all over the world. We have traveled and lived overseas so don't feel we have missed out on much if this really does turn out to be our last big trip. We are taking several months and are driving from Alaska to NYC, spending time there and then going to England and Germany and then back to NYC and driving home. We have been saving for this for a long time and while we are going to be prudent, we are not going to deprive ourselves of comfortable hotels or fine meals or live theater. We had accumulated 90,000 points on a credit card and using that plus a coupon/discount, we are staying at a really nice hotel for several nights and it is costing us $39 per night. That is a savings of over $450 per night.
3. We are replacing the window in our garage and the original estimate was $1500 for a triple pane window. We located the window we want that was a special order that was never picked up so buying it now for later installation has saved us $300.
4. I was dropping a load off to Good Will and as I was walking through (still no wheelchair!) I saw a pair of All Birds in my size for $10. They were pristine, no wear on the soles. These retail for over $100. I snapped them up.
5. I sold a collection of all the books in one series written by a British author for $150. There were 22 of them, so they got a good deal and I am unlikely to read them again.
@Lindsey, Forgot to add a number 6. We found renters for our place, an itinerant nurse, while we are gone so that is paying for most of the cross-country drive back and forth. Every time we have eaten in instead of eaten out, every time I made do with something, I told myself I would be glad when I was eating in NYC, so it would be worth it. But finding a renter is something I had not expected and am very thankful.
@Lindsey, wow, this is exciting news about the Last Hurrah trip. And if you'd like to stop off in Central NY on your way from AK to NYC (I imagine you'll be driving on I-90?), let me know your approximate dates. If these work out for us both, I'd be delighted to see you and the husband.
@A. Marie, The husband is the chief navigator, so I have no idea what we are driving. I did not get a driver's license until I was in my late 20s and I have never done any of the driving when we are outside of Alaska, so my knowledge of what roads are where is nil. In fact, I can even get lost in Anchorage. One time I was by myself and hopelessly lost. I flagged down a cab and paid him to let me follow him to my location. That same week I had another lost in space experience, while looking for a Black Baptist church I was supposed to speak at---I knew I was close but somehow could not find it. I saw an elderly Black lady with a going to church hat on and I quick followed her, right to the church. My recurring nightmare on trips is that the husband dies and I have to try to drive back to Alaska alone. My brother is a trucker and he has reassured me that he would drive me home if that happens. Once our dates are finalized, I will let you know when and how we are getting through New York to see if the stars align.
This just shows how far behind the times I've gotten since I had no idea skinny jeans were on their way out 🙂 Of course, I'll still wear mine until they get holes in them, which is coincidentally one of my own frugal wins for this week (except mine involved me turning my pants into cut-off shorts rather than getting with the times and buying a new pair, lol).
Here are my other recent frugal wins:
https://www.toloveandtolearn.com/2023/04/18/weekly-frugal-wins-a-new-dishwasher-at-last/
I also have a few jeans related items this week.
1. I made a patch from a test machine embroidery file I saved and used on my painting/yard work jeans. Once upon a time they were my favorite IRL jeans that eventually got demoted to DIY project wear as they ripped and frayed in too many areas to repair and still look cute. It's now almost a game to see how long I can keep them alive.
2. I also demoted 2 favorite t shirts due to pin holes and fraying to sleep shirts. I made 90% of my sleep pants and shorts from fabric leftover from sewing them as Christmas presents over the years.
3. I built a stand to fit the shape and origination of our new rain barrel by taking the old dry stack brick rain barrel stand apart and re configuring it for the replacement barrel. A zero cost project. Especially when you consider we got the bricks for the original stand and garden border for free.
4. After too many days of rain we got some unseasonably warm weather. As much as I wanted to run to the garden center and buy plants before our frost date, instead I put that energy into cleaning up our garden beds. The weeds are gone. I have a nice chunk of dried clippings for the compost. The following days it got unseasonably cold which probably would have killed what I would have impulse bought.
5. I finally got around to shortening some pants I bought in my new size. Frugal fail: I lost a few more inches and 3 pairs are too big. Since I bought them on sale I'll try listing them for what I paid so I break even and the buyer still gets a deal
Celebrating the advent of non-skinny jeans styles! Which leads me to my first frugal thing:
1. Excavated my closet and dug out a nice pantsuit that had fuller legs than what's been trendy. Now that skinny, shin-hugging legs are fading from view, I can wear this again. (And pretend that it's brand new.)
2. Did some comparison shopping....for laundry detergent! The store I work at put jugs of Arm and Hammer brand on for $3.99. I wanted to make sure that was the best buy, so I stopped by the outlet store. Theirs were $2.99 for a small bottle that was barely half the size. Also stopped at Aldi and theirs were higher still, albeit in regular-size jugs. Went back to "my" store and got a bottle of A&H, which is supposed to do 50 loads of laundry.
3. However, while at the outlet store, I saw a huge box of dryer sheets, the kind that keeps the pet hair off your clothing. It'll last me almost forever ( or 200 dryer loads, whichever occurs first), so I got the $9.99 box. En route home, I noticed the car smelled heavenly; it was those dryer sheets. So I took one out for a car air freshener. I just stashed it under the seat.
4. Shared info with my church study group about frugal ways to be more eco-friendly. One was the idea to bring your own coffee cup instead of using disposable ones. My friend, who is a member of the Altar Guild, said our church already has quite a collection of ceramic coffee mugs that are just gathering dust in the kitchen cabinets; there are enough for everyone to have one, so attendees could use those. We're working to get a coffee cup caddy out in the fellowship hall area and start having folks use those. The Bible study group that meets early in the week can run 'em through the dishwasher.
5. Roommate gave me an item she ordered and didn't want. She said I can take it to Goodwill and get a 20% coupon for it.
Isn't it funny to see those styles come back around again? I love how surprised the younger generation is when we remember wearing them; it's like they can't believe it's really the same thing!
This week's frugal five were a mixed bag of high and low savings:
1. The biggie was a rescue by our in-laws. My husband, through his position on our local chamber of commerce, often gets calls from our food bank asking him to help spread out donations. It can be almost any consumable and we never know when it's coming. This time it was high-end ice cream and frozen foods, while we were an hour away at church. My in-laws were nearby and volunteered to go pick everything up, nearly a pallet of goodies. We've been sharing out and enjoying literally thousands of dollars of Ben and Jerry's and Häagen-Dazs ice cream, and frozen veggies.
2. Son just sold a free curb-picked Cub Cadet mower in beautiful condition for over $500. All it needed was a new battery, and it sold in less than a day.
3. Found a 4-pack bottle refill of black and tricolor ink for our inkwell printer, $4.
4. Oldest son got accepted into an accelerated program at college that will allow him to finish half of his Master's degree while he earns his Bachelor's. He should only need a year to get the Master's once he graduates undergrad. Less time=less tuition!
5. We're doing the decor, music and flowers ourselves for in-laws' 50th Anniversary dinner instead of hiring it out. Making the playlist of their favorite songs, borrowing lots of beautiful crockery and wood accents, and hitting Costco, Trader Joe's and backyards for flowers.
Five frugal things...
1. Free nuggets, $1 fries at McD
2. Birthday Starbucks giftcard for coffee
3. Free bag of Sunchips at Kroger
And didn't impulse buy while grocery shopping at Aldi
4. Sold two items on eBay
5. Used free $25 giftcard Firehouse Subs and 3 free value baskets at Culvers
Apparently I'm all about free food!! 🙂
Frugal Win: Got my auto and house insurance policy renewals and price quotes for coming year and asked my agent to work the numbers on deductibles, etc. to see if we could bring the annual premiums down. So he came up with annual premium savings of about $500 with no increase in deductibles and about a $100,000 increase in coverage for the house. Always pays to ask!
Frugal Fail: This gets filed under "No good deed goes unpunished." Last year I donated my old station wagon to charity (our local PBS station) rather than using it as a trade-in when I bought a new-to-me used car. Did everything right and kept all the paperwork. But in yesterday's mail were 2 "overdue" parking tickets issued in March 2023, 4 months AFTER I donated the car, notified Motor Vehicle Division of the sale, cancelled the car's registration and physically surrendered the license plate to MVD. But apparently whoever bought the car last year (frankly I assumed it would be sold for parts) never paid to register it in his/her own name and has been driving it around without a plate and parking where it shouldn't be. S0 the citations were issued to ME as the last known owner. Yikes. I've sent in all the paperwork and an explanatory letter and we'll see what happens. I should have traded it in even if I would have had to have it towed to a dealership.
1. I checked the BJs app coupons just before I went. For reasons unknown to me there was a $15 off anything!
2. I had planned to buy gas at BJs after shopping. While the gas was pumping I discovered that I'd spent whatever the required amount was to get $0.50 off per gallon!
3. We ate one of the super discounted Easter roasts.
4. We're on week three with one car. That causes some problems, but I'm sure its resulting in less gas usage and generally more mindful car trips. I did Uber once, but it was much less than getting a rental so I'm ok with that expense.
5. I moved my extra tags from last years tag sale to this year's item list. Now I just need to pin them on actual items and I'll hopefully be plus some money with $0 expenditure this year.
Happy Birthday!!
1. Sold a pair of extra farm pliers for $15 today.
2. Filled 8 grocery green totes with pieces of free lumber to use as firewood in my cookstove. It's from a rafter building business - they put out the big boxes for people to take. It's hit or miss whether others have nabbed it, but I hit it at the right time today. If I'm in town already, I go by a couple of times, but don't make a special trip and waste the gas.
3. Local chain of grocery stores is holding Tuesday $1.49 day sales. They limit how much 1 person can buy, but I was able to get 3 bottles of Kraft Salad Dressing, pkg. of 3 sweet peppers, 2 pkgs of small flat bread and a pkg. of bacon - all for $1.49 each item.
4. Still making our own bread. And this week made quite a few small pizza crusts and froze them, with the idea of my son being able to cook them in the air fryer when he's off shift.
5. Used up a single banana that was heading for over ripe, with a recipe from this year's Farmer's Almanac for a banana/peanut butter French toast. Was actually very yummy.
Ok, so I'm in the middle of a very wearying week (nothing really bad, just exhausting), and I'm too tired to count up my frugal five this week.
However, I was lazily skimming through the comments and my husband asked "What are you doing? Doom scrolling?"
I said, "No, no...it's just the comments on Frugal Girl..."
He replied, "Oh...so you're froog scrolling..."
You're welcome.
We trust this is more edifying than doom scrolling. lol
@Kristen,
Definitely. 😉
1. Last week I went to the volunteer appreciation brunch at my son's school. The school had prepared for about twice as many people attending than those who actually showed up, so on top of a very nice water bottle everyone was gifted, we got to take home extra table favors (it was candy-themed, so lots of various candies) and there was a drawing for the centerpiece at each table. I won at our table, which was a set of brightly colored bowls (for popcorn), several bags of microwave popcorn and 4 boxes of M&Ms. Really generous gesture from the school.
2. Took a big boxful of e-recycling to our city's annual Earth Day e-waste collection. It felt good to responsibly dispose of items normally hard to get rid of, like laptop batteries, old shredders, Christmas lights, and old floppy disks/CDs. I did find some organizations in the past that take these, but you normally have to pay to ship them so this was also frugal!
3. Gave away more items on freecycle.
4. Put some library books on hold and returned books on time.
5. Our library is holding a puzzle swap next month, so I found a puzzle to bring in and got a ticket to exchange for another one when they hold the swap. I've been trying to sell this puzzle for ages, so it was good to get it out of the house for now and look forward to hopefully finding a good one to exchange it for.
6. This refers back to the speeding ticket I got last month. I paid the fee and took my defensive driving class online, which was $25 (in Texas they must charge no less than $25). The class I took would mail the certificate for free or you could download it immediately for $3. I chose the mail option and got it in 3 days. I will need to submit this with my driving record which I will order directly from DPS for $10. The driving school offers to order this for you for $25! No thanks, I can do it myself!
I love Old Navy. And everything looks good on you. So don't fret.
Looks like 3 this week.
1) Got some RFQS meats from Wegmans...including duck which is a treat as it isn't on quick sale often.
2) Picked up 2 free pints from a local ice cream shop.
3) Got this months Supper Club book from the library.
1 - I was given 7 lovely new blouses & 2 pairs of jeans...all high quality brands. One of the blouses is linen.
2 - I packed a picnic for park days with my grandson
3 - I also received a $25 Amazon gift card for my birthday.
4 - I dug up & potted three pots of seedlings that sprouted in the yard from last years annuals. (The plants dropped seeds so free plants! I do this every year) I'm especially grateful for them this year because mice got into my garden shed & ate up most of my seed stash.
5 - I also received a $50 restaurant gift card as a thank you for something my husband & I did for a friend....a super generous unexpected gift. We'll use it for our wedding ann. dinner in a few weeks.
Happy birthday!!
1. Bought two egg-dyeing kits and two packages of paper Easter grass for 50% off, and will save them for next year when Baby E will be old enough to appreciate them.
2. Found some marked down items and happily bought a Brianna’s brand salad dressing for 50 cents and a jar of tapenade for $2.
3. I visited my friend in a neighboring city and she took me to Costco, where I found great prices on feta cheese, olives, peppers, eggs, olive oil, and avocados compared to my usual store. I also prefer having larger quantities of those items on hand as they are staples in our house.
4. I’ve been eating a few things I received from Buy Nothing, including two cans of cranberry jelly. I looked up recipes for almond flour and found some brownies that looked good, so I will try making those soon. My mom would make macarons with the almond flour, but I am not that kind of baker!
5. Everyone in the house has been sick recently. Fortunately I found what we needed in our medication stash, so all the coughing and crud have been treated without running to the store for more meds.
Good find on the jeans deal! I am in need of jeans shopping, but I keep putting it off ... trends, colors, size and fit, deals. Feels like a lot of work!
My FFT:
- Found a shirt I loved on the Target clearance rack with no tags + checkout clerk couldn't find it in the system so gave it to me for $5! New shirt win for me, and gave a home to a shirt that may have not found one otherwise - curious what they do with unsold clearance merchandise that doesn't have tags.
- I've been slowly but surely painting my basement walls & ceiling. It's been probably 20-25 years since it was painted (well before our ownership), and the walls have gotten dinged up with kid play and moving stuff down for storage. I call this a frugal win only because my mother in law was shocked that I was doing this on my own rather than hiring someone - so while I wasn't pleased at the time and cost of that many gallons of paint, I'll call it saving a few thousand dollars instead!
- Transplanted a few perennial baby volunteers to a different bed with bare spots. No idea if they'll take, but if so, free plants for me!
- Ordered a new couch months ago but they keep extending the delivery date ... politely complained and they offered an extra 5% off, so I guess that's kind of a frugal win? (Sigh. I already got it on a great sale and frankly would rather just have my couch.)
- I just ordered a curtain rod and rings to do a cafe curtain. Far cheaper than the blinds I was originally planning on, and while I'll need to pull out my sewing machine to shorten the curtains, I'm confident it'll be worth it.
1- went through my closet of home decorations and found 2 photo frames and a couple decorative items to use on my new book shelf so I did not have to buy new
2- last fall I found a deal buy 1 get 2 free blankets at Dicks sporting goods. $14 for 3 blankets!!! I washed them and put them away for outside blankets. I pulled out 2 this week and used them at my daughters soccer game. They were warm and I was so happy to have found them and not have to use nicer blankets outside.
3- went through my freezer and made a list of what was in it. Then made a list of recipes to cook with what I have. I have used 3 items this week!
4- planned a vacation for summer. We did not have a specific week so I was able to search for the best ticket deals and plan to go then
5- the normal things like cook dinner, make my own coffee, read books from the library, did my own manicure
Persistent and polite....I like that!
OMG We love the low acid Aldi coffee. SOOOO good.
This is a little late, but just found fashionista advice about skinny jeans in 2023. Enjoy!
https://www.lifewithmar.com/fashion/how-to-wear-skinny-jeans