Five Frugal Things | some VERY not-skinny jeans

1. I bought some jeans on clearance

I have (somewhat reluctantly) accepted that skinny jeans look a little dated in this, the year of our Lord, 2025.

I haven’t worn any skinny jeans at all for the past year, but this has required frequent laundry loads because my non-skinny-jean stock is…not extensive.

So, when I found a pair of wide-leg $70 Levis marked down to $34, I bought them.

I cannot lie; I still sometimes feel a little silly wearing these larger jeans. 

At the same time, I do trust my children and my young colleagues when they tell me what is in style, and I have always promised myself that I am not going to get “stuck” in a particular fashion era.

Given how quickly fashion cycles move these days, though…I’m keeping my skinny jeans in a box in the closet because who knows? They may be the thing again shortly. 

2. I got some free hand soaps

Unfortunately, I do love the evergreen-scented Bath and Body Works hand soaps you can get at this time of year. I know they are filled with endocrine-disrupting artificial scents, but you know, sometimes we gotta live a little on the wild side. 😉 

I use unscented versions of many other things (like laundry detergent) but the holiday season Christmas-tree scented soaps doooo call my name.

So, I redeemed some of my Citicard reward points for a Bath and Body Works gift card, and between that and a coupon, I got five hand soaps for free.

I will hang on to some of the containers after they are empty, because I saw that you can buy refill cartons of hand soap. I’ll just redeem some more reward points for another gift card and spend it on that; hopefully I can find one in the pine tree scent, and then I can enjoy Christmas-y hands for months. 🙂 

(I know you can make your own foaming hand soap by diluting dish soap with water but I WANT THE STUFF THAT SMELLS LIKE CHRISTMAS TREES OKAYYYY??)

3. I bought non-packet hot chocolate

Back in the day, when powdered milk was more readily available (and more affordable), I used to make my own hot chocolate mix.

But now I just buy a powdered mix, and I love that Swiss Miss sells a big packet-less container.

You can pay $3.39 for a box of eight packets, which is $0.42/serving.

Or you can pay $8.69 for a big 33-serving container, which is $0.26/serving. 

Put another way, you’d pay $13.86 in packets for an amount equivalent to the big container. 

Plus, the container is handy because I prefer not to use the full 3 tablespoons for each mug of my hot chocolate. That’s harder to do with the packets! 

Annnnd, there’s less associated trash too, which is nice.

4. I sauteed some mushy apples

My Hungry Harvest box cursed me with some McIntosh apples, which I happen to think are some of the most useless apples on the planet.

(Along with Red Delicious, obviously.)

I like my eating apples to be high on the crunchiness scale, which means McIntoshes routinely fall short of my standards. 😉 So, I disrespectfully refer to them as Mushintosh apples. They’re really only good for applesauce!

I decided to embrace the not-crunchy aspect, and I gently sauteed them as an oatmeal topping instead.

They do kind of fall apart during the sauteeing (again, a disappointing type of apple!), but hey, mixed into oatmeal, it doesn’t really matter. 

5. I made yogurt

You might be saying, “Kristen! Why are you making yogurt? You are so busy!”

But yogurt requires so little hands-on time, and I had to spend one of my weekend days just doing homework, so I was solidly AT HOME.

It’s good to get up out of the desk chair every now and then anyway, so I did the heating, cooling, and putting-into-jars steps in between paper editing and other such higher education pursuits. 

Another factor in my decision: my Aldi has gallons of milk for $0.99 right now. A single gallon of milk yields four quarts of yogurt, and even when you add in some sugar, vanilla, and starter, that’s still crazy cheap for four quarts! 

(Here’s how I make yogurt without a machine.)

Your turn! What frugal things have you been up to lately?