Five Frugal Things | This one is good at playing!
1. I got some cat freebies on Buy Nothing
Someone was giving away a few cat toys, and since Chiquita is very good at playing with toys, I picked them up.
Getting toys for Shelley is risky because she is not nearly as playful! Chiquita always knows what to do with toys, though. 😉
Some of that is due to her being younger, I think, but also she is just a very playful cat. I doubt Shelley was bouncing off the walls when she was Chiquita's age. 😉
2. I fixed a hole in a sweater
This sweater has a very loose knit, and one of the loops came undone.
I am no knitter, but since the texture is so loose, it was easy to use a needle and thread to sew the spot shut.
And now we're as good as new!
3. I got a free pumpkin bread slice at Starbucks
I mentioned that I'd hauled myself to Starbucks last week to make myself finish my educational brochure project...well, while I was there, I noticed I had 100 Starbucks stars that were about to expire.
Don't get me started on how annoying it is that these stars expire. Starbucks is rather stingy with the stars anyway, and then to make them expire on top of that??
ANYWAY.
100 stars is not enough for a latte, but it is enough for a slice of pumpkin bread, so that's what I got. 🙂
4. I got a mason jar with a pour-top lid for free
The Buy Nothing group strikes again. 🙂
I didn't exactly need another Mason jar, but I was interested in this lid (which sells for just under $10 at Amazon). It's a wide mouth, so it'll fit my short wide mouth jars as well.
It'll be handy for cold brew coffee, or also for times when I make salad dressing in a Mason jar.
5. I used dry bagels to make a French toast casserole
I usually keep some bagels on hand for Zoe, and I recently bought a bag of the small cinnamon raisin variety from Aldi.
But they were disappointingly dry, so they were sitting around, uneaten.
I considered trying to make some sweet croutons with them, but then it occurred to me that they might be good in a French toast casserole.
So, I made a half recipe of the Pioneer Woman's overnight French toast, and it worked out fine.
(Over the years, I have used almost every kind of bread known to man* in that casserole, and it's always been delicious!)
Now the bagels are gone, and Zoe and I enjoyed a sweet treat.
Win-win!
*to be clear, I would not recommend garlic bread. Or sun-dried tomato bread. Or jalapeno cheese bread. We have to exercise common sense here.
Wow! Great finds on cat toys & mason jar (I'm jealous of that jar 😉 ).
Frugal things---
● No shopping on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Secondhand Sunday, Cyber Monday or Travel Tuesday 🙂
● Made 12 quarts Turkey stock from Thanksgiving turkey
● Took neighbor Thanksgiving dinner plate/bag who was not feeling good (just found out has partially collapsed lung from scan)
● neighbor is hairdresser & cut teen hair for free because teen wanted different style (for all we do for them lately). I can cut (again/as usual) next time.
● saved $0.20/gallon on gas & earned $0.30
● ate all leftovers & meals at home making small progress on freezer
● ate all bread products! Sorry birds 😉
● used purposely dripping water (temps in single digits with wind chill) to gaurantee not to freeze to flush toilets & water all plants
● composted partially frozen pumpkins for deer/maybe will grow in spring at compost facility
@Regina, did you make up all those clever names for the shopping days or is that all common stuff these days? So much pressure to shop out there!
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, actually they are all common shopping names for those particular Thanksgiving through following week. Today is also called Giving Tuesday. I just heard the Secondhand Sunday on Sunday from multiple reporting agencies.
@Regina, I didn't know about Secondhand Sunday, but I did that on Friday--found out it was 1/2 price day all items at Salvation Army. Didn't really see much that I wanted/needed. Although I was tempted to buy bicycle marked $30, so it would have been $15. It looked good. I was thinking about getting it and bringing it to the fire station for their Operation Santa.
Hey Kristen, I gave away some nice cat toys on Buy Nothing this week too! My cats were tired of them. I actually looked at your toys to see if it was you, but no. I don't think you live near me anyway, but I suspect we live on the same coast. 🙂
Here's my frugal five:
1. Bought gift cards at HT for the 4x gas points. DH and I drive both cars once a month to the gas station together to save the $35 on gas.
2. Took home leftover turkey, made creamy turkey soup with the veggies I had on hand. That gave us two nights of dinner.
3. Bought pecans to make homemade sugared pecans for my office staff gifts.
4. Wrapped all Christmas gifts with last year's bags, tissues, and bows and a roll of paper I bought last year. Every Christmas, everyone I'm with gives me their bags and tissue, knowing I'll save it.
5. I stopped trying so hard to please my SIL. Every year I get her something super personalized or unique and sometimes expensive, and she says she loves them and never uses them. I found this out recently when helping her to move, some gifts were still in the gift bags. This year, I found some simple things for her that I would like as gifts, but they aren't spectacular and it took very little work to find the items. Less stress, less expensive.
@MommaJo, my MIL was difficult to please. She never seemed to like anything that I bought her and was very forthright about it. I would end up taking her gifts back to the store nearly every year. One Christmas, I bought her a pair of diamond and gold earrings. She gave them back to me and said her earlobes were too fat. After that, my husband told me buy her whatever I would like to have. I would end up with it anyway. I still wear those earrings.
@Bee, her earlobes were too fat LOLOL...oh man. What a grinch.
That is such an interesting complaint because based on my observations, our earlobes tend to get longer and thinner as we age!
@Bee, what a good husband! I would have stopped giving her anything, and maybe have been forthright about it when asked. Not angry, just matter-of-fact.
@MommaJo, My father's fourth wife was exactly like your SIL. So much stress. I do not miss her.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, Actually, I had a relative ask me if my gift to them was lost in the mail. I told her that since she never opened a gift she did not complain about, it made buying for her a chore rather than a pleasure so I would not be torturing myself or her anymore. If I cannot give a gift with a good heart, then I don't do it.
@MommaJo,
I love your #5. Every year I have a chat with myself about close family who do not acknowledge gifts. No quick text to say it arrived, no mention of it in a conversation, and never, ever, a thank you. Two of them are getting cards this year. Clearly the gift is meaningless to them, so I guess I will not try and make it meaningful.
@Kara, Ditto-- Not at the very least acknowledging a package arrived drives me crazy. My otherwise seemingly kind and caring nieces and nephews do not do even that much.
@Bee, your husband is a smart guy! I love this story (:
@Kara,
My cousins' kids never wrote thank you notes (if they were old enough to write) or said "thank you" without a parent or grandparent prompting them to do so. Sometimes they would gripe about whatever I got them. This was true on any gift-giving occasion: Christmas, birthday, graduation, etc. What entitled and selfish little brats!
I got tired of this ugly behavior! So the next gift-giving occasion following the latest one where I was not sent a written thank you note, I got them a box of thank you notes for their present. Of course, I still never received a note; after that, they got nothing at all. Until and unless I receive something from them, they will not get anything from me, be it a gift, letter, phone call, text, greeting card......or mention in my will. (And yes, I have some really good heirloom stuff with no children of my own....)
I haven't heard from any of them in years.
Problem solved!
@Heidi Louise, I have totally dumped those people from my lives. And some of them were grandchildren.
@Fru-gal Lisa, I know this isn't a place to gripe but here goes one of my family stories. Our oldest grandchild is 24, and we have done tons and tons of stuff for him INCLUDING taking him to Hawaii, all expenses paid, three times. The last time was in 2022 when he was 22 years old. He and his mom have issues and one day when husband and I were at lunch, he got into a massive fight with his mom who was staying in a different hotel room.
He was staying in our room. He came back to our room, told us he was going out but would be back shortly AND WE HAVE NEVER HEARD FROM HIM SINCE. Two and a half years, We were and still are, furious. We waited one year and then took him out of our will.
@Anne, you may not see this since it’s a day later, but I hope you have heard of him and he’s OK. It struck me that he could have been a victim of foul play, especially since he was a tourist. Hope he’s fine, besides his ungratefulness.
@Anne,
Same here. Year after year we send birthday and christmas gifts to our grandkids and don't hear anything from them. This year we aren't going to send them anything. They don't appreciate it so why bother.
Not feeling terribly frugal given that we just had a $300 vet visit (one of our trio has kitty flu), but here it goes!
We did participate in a few Black Friday sales, but only for things we had waited and planned for, and strictly online:
--New winter gloves for my husband's outdoor job. Land's Ends heavy winter gloves are amazing but normally $40; I nabbed them for $16 and free shipping. The last pair survived four years!
--Tea! We treated ourselves to an Adagio tea order with free shipping. Their decaf chocolate truffle tea and minty, chocolaty Reindeer Fuel are divine.
--Two new pairs of jeans for me (all of mine are wearing out) for $25 total. One blue pair was $15, and the black color in the same brand was only $10.
--The cats got new food dishes on sale that will hopefully fit the designated space better. I had been using Goodwill Pyrex, but even the smallest bowls don't quite fit. We've a wonderful but petite kitchen, so placement is limited!
As for our sick kitty, we just want him better. He had an antibiotic shot, an anti-nausea/anti-inflammatory shot, and we were given one more of each for the road (the anti shot for today, another antibiotic for next Monday). My husband and I were joking yesterday after the vet that we just gave him to ourselves for Christmas all over again!
@N, I just went to Adagio to order those two flavors, but when it wanted my email before I knew the cost of shipping, I closed the page. You may have presented me a temptation, but I just saved $18 plus an unknown shipping fee. Phooey —I want to try those! (All those companies who moan about abandoned shopping carts need to pay attention —do NOT ask for email addresses prematurely!)
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, That's understandable! A friend gifted me Reindeer Fuel several Christmases ago and got me hooked, so I was already a goner. 😛 I just checked shipping costs for you with my account, so no email risk for you: $3.75 economy (5-7 business days), $7.75 for the same timeframe (?), $27.76 for two day. There's free shipping at $50, but the holiday deal we jumped on was free shipping at $25! That's PLENTY of tea for a good long while.
@N, which Lands End gloves did you buy? It looks like Expedition are the heaviest, though they don't make them in a woman's size.
@Cynthia, https://www.landsend.com/products/mens-squall-waterproof-gloves/id_338823 Men's Squall Waterproof Gloves. My husband wears an XL, and I bought a men's pair in S for myself when we ordered his original set. They're a bit big on me but SO WARM! Different colors are different prices, so be sure to click around.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, belated thought: If you're comfortable having Kristen give me your contact info or vice versa, I can send you a sample of each tea. A stamp is better than $3.75!
@N, Thank you!
@N, oh wow, yes, that would be over-the-top kind and appreciated!
@N, you guys could go to Kristen's FB page and exchange info there too, I think. 🙂
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, I agree with you there. I have so many emails to dump. I don't want more stuff.
1. I went to Sam's Club on Black Friday and purchased gas for my vehicle, toilet bowl cleaner, salad, bananas, and a DD gift card. None of the items were on sale and it was not crowded when they opened at 8:00.
2. We put up our skinny artificial tree that does not require furniture moving.
3. A friend reached out yesterday to see if I wanted to go for a walk. We walked in the heat of the day, which isn't saying much this week. She mentioned a GF cookbook that she likes and I put a Hold on it at the library.
4. I made Spritz cookie dough and it wasn't coming out of the cookie press (maybe the dough should have been chilled). I used a cookie scoop to make drop cookies that I rolled in sugar and they were fine. Not as "fancy" but fine.
5. Same old, same old.
@K D, my hubby loves spritz. I however battle spritz press every year. WAH
@Stephanie,
Spritz are a family tradition in my family of origin but I have yet to find a great cookie press. Decades ago we bought a battery operated one that never really worked. I had a Wilton press that bit the dust after some years of faithful service. I bought a Pampered Chef press at a thrift store and never had success with it. I have a Crate & Barrel press that is okay. I also have the old fashioned Mirro press that I bought in the 1980s. I long ago gave it to my mom and when her house was emptied so it could be sold DD asked for it. She long term loaned it to me last year. Usually it works well but it did not on Sunday. I will try again on a day I have time to fiddle with dough temperature and the like.
This week's frugals:
- found 2 soda cans and a 20ct coin in the streets
-bought a warm roll neck shirt at a (Black Friday, but this was accidental) discount
-filled up the thermos when I boiled water for tea instead of heating every cup anew
-practised my woolfiller kit on a felt slipper with a hole. In the future I would hope to give my expensive wool sweaters a second (homely) life with mended elbows.
-made meals with veg gifted to us by a neighbour
plus one -ate an omelet sandwich for dinner instead if getting takeaway
@JNL, I just remembered after reading your post that we have two thermoses we bought back when we were bringing broth to DS in the hospital...I should use those for my tea water! Thanks!
Not very frugal here, though I'm trying to be careful.
*husband installed a ceiling mounted heater in garage, but didn't need the extra part he ordered, so I got a refund for that.
*husband is downloading usage information from the utility company website so he can see how much heating the garage costs. It's set at 52°F , so it's not luxurious. However, if he has to do car repair over the winter, he wants to stay unfrozen.
* did use a $15 off $90 coupon at Target on black Friday. I was there for a prescription, and the coupon was hard to resist. I did get 3 presents on sale and household stuff I need anyways.
* stopped at Sam's club on the way home from bringing daughter back to school. I bought things we need (including 180 eggs!). Adult daughter came with me and took 30 eggs off my hands. I also gave this daughter my turkey carcass as she loves making homemade broth and soup.
*fail : I did not get gas at Sam's. It's a a bit cheaper than home, but the line was so long and I was tired. ( Sunday after Thanksgiving travel meant all the gas stations were crazy busy). So I decided $3 savings wasn't worth my sanity and came home.
@mbmom11, that wasn't a fail. Your energy, sanity, and time are also valuable. If I lived near you, I'd give you the $3.
As I babysit for work now & kiddos mom provides many items I am slowly rebuilding my collection of kiddo things for my preference (zippers over button & better warmth vs excessive layers).
-was gifted bottle warmer, bibs & a ton of baby clothes from local BNG and a church BNG group!
- picked up some winter clothes for my MIL who is visiting from a BNG page
-made a hearty “leftovers” lentil soup for the week
-bread lady sold me discounted bread because I opted to buy weekly, and sometimes she throws in a feee loaf!
-dinner at church last night means one less day of meal planning
I think jalapeño cheese bread French toast would be good. In fact, the custard doesn't need to be sweet - you can make a savory milk/egg mix instead.
Since I spent thanksgiving week with family in a hotel away from my home town, there wasn't a whole lot of frugal going on. OTOH my father likes paying for us and jokes that anything he spends now is money that won't be taxed as part of his estate.
I nabbed small containers of jelly from breakfast to take home, I bought very few souvenirs (just my usual magnet and Xmas ornament), and took leftovers back to the hotel. Counter-balancing that were the museum admissions.
But with the streusel topping????
That’s a hard no for me!
@Kristen, Mine doesn’t have that so I didn’t think about it. Now that you have me thinking…
I’d make a streusel of grain or breadcrumbs with butter, garlic, and cheese.
That would be good; it's basically a strata, right?
@WilliamB, we would buy Christmas ornaments while on vacation for the places we went to hang on tree & those would be our holiday ornament for that year. Plus is cheap souvenir.
Regarding the Cinnamon bagels- would toasting them help do you think? I find toasting, or better yet, broiling with a little butter on top, makes everything dry or stale taste better.
My FFT
- Was creative in using up all the Thanksgiving leftovers. The turkey white meat was served once as leftovers, then used to make lovely lunch sandwiches. The dark meat was cut up and placed in freezer to make turkey pot pie next week, the carcass sent with my SIL to go into soup, which he'll then share, yum. And we just kept eating everything else leftover as side dishes for lunch and dinner till it was all gone. So just a $12 grocery bill this week, primarily for fresh produce to go with leftovers.
- Spent a full day being entertained outdoors for $0 spend by using my own free energy. A common theme with me, I know, but it was so gorgeous on the water (I was kayaking with a friend) that I could not contain my energy, lol. We also packed our own lunches and parked for free by being willing to kayak a bit farther up from the harbor where we were headed.
- Have thus far resisted turning on the heater, other than Thanksgiving Day when it was mid-60s in the house and we were entertaining, by just wearing one extra layer or using a throw blanket. It's sometimes hard to remember, but really so easy to do. Plus the house warms up naturally mid day from the sun if we open all the shutters and shades, so it's just in the mornings currently that the house feels a bit cool.
- Resisted ordering pizza last night (my sometimes lazy response when I'm tired from a full outside day of exercise) and instead forced myself to make the tuna dinner salads with garlic toast as planned. Healthier, super tasty, and I won't be grumpy when I get on the scale this morning, lol.
- Returned and got more books from our senior center, plus a recent Kristen Hannah, yeah, from a Little Library display box I recently walked by. Free, and no pressure on having to read them by a certain date.
Toasting improved them only slightly, unfortunately! But French toast casserole improved them IMMENSELY. lol
@Tamara R, I believe I could eat cardboard if it were broiled with a little butter on top!
@Lindsey, LOL!
My Betty, like Karen A.'s Clark, is a frugal cat when it comes to toys. She likes to play with anything I drop on the floor, especially if she's not supposed to have it.
Now, FFT, Is It December Already?? Edition (simulcast here and at the NCA):
(1) I have continued to stay home and avoid spending money by continuing to proofread papers for JASNA's electronic journal, which goes live on Dec. 16 (Jane Austen's birthday). However, I'll be finishing what I think is the last paper today. Good thing, too, because I've got to get started on the few holiday preparations I make.
(2) I've reluctantly decided not to attend our local JASNA region's December meeting, since winter has come to Central and Western NY with a vengeance. (I'll be sorry to miss it, but I will save on gas and lunch.) Fortunately, my own city wasn't hit nearly as hard by last weekend's "snowpocalypse" as others were. And also fortunately, I won't be missing our region's big annual luncheon, which we decided to move to April after too many people had to cancel out of last year's luncheon because of the weather.
(3) I'm off to a slow start on holiday cards/e-greetings--and I think most of my communications are going to be e-greetings this year, the price of postage being what it is.
(4) I'm also not quite done with holiday shopping yet, although, as I've noted earlier, I'm relying more this year on charitable donations and gift cards. (Some of the comments above about in-laws who are never pleased with what they get certainly rang a bell with me. I wish gift cards had been more of a thing when my MIL and SIL were still alive.)
(5) Finally, I need to start keeping an eye peeled for Christmas tree trimmings on curbs, so that I can construct my annual evergreen bough for the front of the house--my sole effort at decorating. (Just for fun, I just Googled "Christmas bough," and my eyebrows shot up when I saw what some merchants are charging for these.)
@A. Marie,
Sometimes live Christmas tree lots will let you have tree trimmings for free if you ask. A few years ago, Lowes said they didn't give them away anymore and sold as many as I could stuff in my car for a whopping 25 cents.
@Lazy Budget Chef, thanks for the tip, and I'll keep it in mind if I need it. But I really prefer to use the trimmings I find on curbs. It's my strong hunter/gatherer instinct kicking in again--the same instinct that makes me an ace thrifter and bottlepicker.
@A. Marie, Re:#4: some people are just miserable, unhappy pitas and even gift cards don't solve the problem. Trust me, I speak from experience. 😉
@Bobi, I hear you, and it's entirely probable that a visit from the Three Wise Men themselves wouldn't have satisfied my SIL in particular. My beloved DH, may he rest in peace, was not only aware of the family holiday dynamics but determined not to repeat them with me. We exchanged gifts whenever the heck we felt like it--usually in conjunction with the nearby Madison-Bouckville Antiques Show in late August--but rarely at Christmas. And he used to refer to the general rush to the customer service counters on Dec. 26 as his family's way of celebrating Boxing Day. 🙂
@A. Marie, I just marked my calendar with Jane's birthday. Thank you!
@Book Club Elaine, glad to hear it. And take note that next year is a big one--JA's 250th!!
@A. Marie, did you see the New York Times article “Mary Is the Bennet Sister We Need”? Apparently a 10-part BBC production is in the works.
@JDinNM, not only did I see the NYT article, but I got in a comment on it just before commenting was closed. As you can see there, I don't think much of the prospect of a 10-part series on Mary, for various reasons.
@A. Marie,
My friend used to work at a high-dollar dept. store and she hated, hated, hated having to staff the return counter after Christmas. Too often, people would come up with a tacky gift in a box from her store and try to exchange/return it. Usually, the gift was an item from a dollar store or a discount store (or a very old, worn something that was regifted) and not from her fancy store on the mall. The giver had plopped something cheap into the store's box, trying to make their chintzy item look more expensive and acceptable. But when the clerks tried to explain this to the gifts' recipients, "I'm sorry ma'am, the box is ours but we don't sell that brand of X," this made the customers very, very angry and they took it out on the employees. Customers got equally furious when they presented the store receipt only to be told their refund would be somewhat less because those items were put on sale later in the month.
@A. Marie, Loved your comment! and added a recommendation for good measure. My (far less polished, academic and astute) reaction was "she was my least favorite character and I would never get back the 10 or more hours of my life that the BBC production would steal from me".
@JDinNM, come on guys, she may have lots more depth than we give her credit for. People really get fleshed out in fan fiction, anyways.
I would rather have a Mary for a friend than a Caroline Bingley.
Okay, that mason jar spout intrigues me; I reuse the lids from Parmesan cheese jars on my little mason jars (for chia seeds, vegan Parmesan, etc) but I'd love to use a mason jar for homemade dressing and the lids aren't great for that.
1. Spending absolutely nothing on Christmas decorations. Our artificial tree bit the dust two years ago, and we realized our house is just too small to really accommodate one. So I hauled out my little ceramic Christmas tree that my mom handed down (it was made by a Navy friend of hers in the 1970s), and maybe we'll string lights on the walls later, and I found our nativity set and put it up in the bookcase. Done.
2. Clark continues to adore playing with the rings off of water jugs. And cardboard boxes. And random Nerf bullets we have hanging around.
3. Library books on repeat, and we batched errands yesterday by hitting the grocery store, post office and library all in one trip.
4. Changing out chicken shawarma night to be a small batch of shawarma in the crockpot and a bunch of chicken drumsticks ($5 for 14 at Kroger) has proven to be a nice cost effective change. Boneless thighs are very pricey if you need, say, 8 pounds of chicken, but just one package isn't too bad. The leftover drumsticks get eaten up faster than the shawarma, too, so less waste.
5. Also switching from basmati rice to long grain rice--basmati is very nice, but it was pretty pricey compared to the long grain that always went better with taco night anyway. If the family started asking for basmati, I would get it, but nobody's complained since they pretty much just like rice with butter and seasonings anyway and we are not hidebound to culinary pairings.
6. Using up frozen lumps of pumpkin I tucked away during a pantry clean; I saw the expiration date was coming up so I opened the can and froze it in portions, and am using them in my morning oatmeal.
Forgot to say that is a beautifully aesthetic cat toy, though! Huge improvement over the plastic stuff.
That is true; an influencer who lives in a beige house would totally buy this one!
@Karen A., what I wouldn't give to have a vintage ceramic Christmas tree. My grandma (on my dads side) & Aunt used to make thos back in the 70s & after my parents divorce my mom gave them away years later without asking if I wanted them. My grandma did make my dad another ceramic tree that he still uses today. And of course my Aunt (informed me) still has her ceramic tree (was in attic during hurricane & survived).
@Regina, Mine is a little worse for the wear--DH had to rewire it to replace the bulb and switch, and some of the bulbs have broken off, but it is still cheerful! I have fond memories of it sitting on the piano every year when I was growing up. Now it sits on my desk, near Clark's blanket (he considers half my desk his office, complete with his own "coffee mug" of water) and it makes me happy. My mom handed down very little to me, so this is priceless.
@Regina, eBay!!
Frugal:
I saved odds n ends of bread and buns in October and November in the freezer. I used all of them to make my sausage stuffing and a batch of homemade croutons.
Still trying to stay completely home 3-4 days a week. If I just stay home I do not nickel and dime myself.
Saved 60 dollars on a blower my husband really wanted. BLACK FRIDAY
Made turkey stock with turkey carcass and thanksgiving day veggie scraps. Made turkey noodle soup with stock. It was yummy with homemade croutons.
Use my Libby app for ebooks and audiobooks. Listen to free podcasts while doing housework.
Still making hot tea drinks at home.
Looking forward to getting through winter solstice.
I had some cats that would play well with toys, but most of my cats would look at them with an air of utter disdain. Cats are so funny.
1. I mentioned to my sister that I was going to get a grandchild a CD player for some kids' CD's that I am giving as Christmas gifts, and she promptly offered a brand new, unopened, name-brand player that was gifted to her late husband during his short stay at a nursing home. She tested it to make sure it worked and will bring it with her next week when she comes for another visit.
2. I gave some of my sale-bought cranberries to the daughter who was making the cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, used a sale-purchased can of pumpkin for the pies I made, my other daughter cooked the turkey she gets for free from work each T-day, and she offered leftovers to us all. I got well over a pound of delicious cooked turkey.
3. A daughter and I attended an event this past weekend. Our admission was paid for by my bosses, we each got 10 free raffle tickets when we arrived and my daughter and I each won a small raffle prize with our free tickets. The food and drink were free.
4. We in NW Florida have hit freezing and below each night for days now, with a hard freeze predicted for tonight. I've decided to keep my heat downstairs at 65F (except when I have company) and my programmable thermostat upstairs drops the temperature up there (it has a separate heating unit) during the day and in the middle of the night to rather cool. I have a secondhand down vest that I wear around the house in the evenings and weekends.
Y'all will like this: I have budget billing for my electric, which averages my monthly bill over a 12 month period. Duke Energy recently told me they have reviewed my electricity usage for the past 12 months and will drop my bill starting next month, until my next review in a few months. My bill went down a whole $1.00 a month. Woo-hoo?
5. I paid my homeowner's insurance for the full year, which saves a little money. I set aside an amount each month for that, property taxes and auto insurance.
@JD, Duke Energy's generosity is completely underwhelming. I feel much the same way about National Grid's inflated "delivery charges," which are usually about three times my energy consumption charges.
@A. Marie,
I wish I could tell them to just keep it. It's not going to make much, if any, difference in the long run. Put the extra dollar in my credit column and carry on, but I suppose regulations require them to do it this way. Sigh.
@JD, at least it is a budget plan. Our natural gas company used to have what I call budget billing - same $ per month for year, readjusted in April. Now they recalculate every three months. Hard no, that isn't a budget plan. Even when gas was over $1 a therm, I ended up having to pay *maybe* $25-30 as my balance wasn't enough to cover the entire March bill.
Like most gas and electric, a good chunk of the bill is for "delivery". Our gas bill is squat for about 8 months a year (water, stove, heat, dryer, grill which we use at least 4 times a week). We have a wood stove but during the week days, the furnace does run. Can't remember the last time we paid more than $75 for a gas bill. Conversely, our electric bill is higher during the winter months. Radiant floors (we run one of them Jan/Feb only), wildlife water heaters (benefit of living a frugal life), gutter heater if necessary. A bit higher electric bill is far cheaper than roof damage due to what are sometimes ice stalactites on the 2nd story.
1 - appears we have found a buyer for an item a friend has for sale. Person stopped by to get the name of a service we use and better half told him about the item. If the sale happens, we'll offer accessories that need to get out of our house.
2 - consumed all T-Day leftovers except for enough white meat for another meal. I happily consumed dark meat/stuffing/mashed potatoes/dressing for three lunches. Plus kiddo and I ate turkey for dinner T-Day night (original meal at 1 pm). Better half is game to cook another (smaller) turkey in January. I cannot wait. I could eat turkey for days.
3 - not entirely frugal but I consider a better half sealing and putting return addresses and stamps on Xmas cards to be a good deal.
4 - kiddo helps refugees in her town, they like to give her food as a thank-you. Kiddo shared some with us that we had as a side dish for two dinners.
5 - did a test run of burning of (the latest) larger size invasive trees better half has been removing. Not long burning like oak, hickory, red elm but it does give off decent heat. Free heat which is fine by me and the felines.
Oooh I didn't have an overly frugal week, TBH. Lots of things felt like frugal misses...so mine is five frugal misses and one frugal thing!
1. Frugal Miss: I forgot to make cards for my brother and dad's birthdays which we celebrated this week and bought cards at the drugstore on the way...wow, they are so expensive!
2. Frugal Miss: There were some basic clothing items (leggings, underwear) that I could have gotten great deals on that I missed.
3. Frugal Miss: I couldn't figure out how to make an account on The Bay's website and wound up paying for shipping on Mr. B's Chanukah present, when I could have had it for free.
4. Frugal Miss: We didn't make it to the discount grocery store this weekend, so this week we're buying everything our local stores, which are about 20% more expensive.
5. One frugal win! I got free tickets to the art gallery with my library card. My mom and I are going to go together. Also we didn't get takeout, so that's two wins.
Some weeks are just like that. We're lucky that these kinds of things aren't a big deal to our bottom line (I keep reminding myself) and it's ok to have an "off" week.
I'm still in the middle of moving and renovating (I've been moving for a month! But it is coming to an end cause I have to be out of this house by next week!). All that is left is the big stuff the kids will help us with this weekend.
I haven't been to the grocery at all so that's frugal (maybe not healthy, but frugal).
We are eating meals at home and not out...eating from the pantry and freezer. I have pulled everything we will eat this week and moved the rest to the other house.
The recent car accident was very unfrugal (especially since my car was 10 years old, but just went over the 100k mark...had lots of life left, but will probably get very little from insurance). But, living frugally has allowed us to save up for the rainy day. We will buy a new (to us) vehicle this week in cash rather than a loan with high interest.
I've sold a few items that won't be going to the new house.
I've done very little Christmas shopping. DH and I aren't doing Christmas gifts this year...we're moving and spending $$$. I had picked him up a couple small things throughout the year that I saw and thought he would like so he will have something to open. We're buying my son and DIL a dishwasher so that will be easy to buy last minute. Younger son needed new prescription sunglasses. He bought glasses this year (he's on our insurance until this year), but didn't file with insurance so his allotment for glasses is still sitting there....I went and ordered him sunglasses using the insurance and paid less than $100 for Ray-ban script glasses. I always get my brother and SIL a state park pass. Yesterday they had one month free and $10 off for a year pass, so I ordered then.
I picked up things for a few friends throughout the year when I saw things so I think my parents are all that is left on my list.
@Marlena, 26 years ago we bought our current house. I told my husband that for Christmas that year, I was buying him a house and he was buying me a remodel of the house.
This week I...
1. Did zero Black Friday shopping
2. Passed my Danish exam. The lessons are free if you pass them within a certain timeframe and I have just one module left!
3. Used the library (although I did get a late free as I was unable to renew a book)
4. Saved half a tin of beans for another meal
5. Used some ginger which Past Me remembered to chop and freeze last month
@Sophie in Denmark, is Black Friday a real thing in Denmark too???
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, not so much in shops but it's all over online shopping.
1) Ordered 3 pair of glasses from Costco (computer, driving, and sunglasses) for about the same price as one pair would have cost at the eye doctor's office.
2) Walked out of Costco without purchasing anything after ordering my glasses.
3) Used the free service at the hospital for installation of the car seat in my new car.
4) Ate Thanksgiving leftovers all weekend
5) Finished my Christmas shopping while everything was on sale for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
I love your cat pictures! My first frugal thing is actually related to cats!
1. We are hoping to get a pet cat this week. He's free and comes with toys! 🙂 He doesnt get along well his the otehr cats at that house, but we don't have any other pets, so hopefully he'll do well here.
2. Using the great turkey broth from our Thanksgiving turkey. I also purchased a second turkey this week ($1.19/lb).
3. I found 4 pennies the other day, it cheered me up a little after Dollar General's machine wouldn't accept my $5 off coupon for some reason.
4. Had 2 dresses returned that didn't fit right.
5. Eating mostly at home
@Katy, enjoy your cat. they are so loving and great to have around.
@Katy, Clark is a cat who does not care for the company of other cats. We noticed this at the shelter; he basically ignored the other cats and they did not care for him much. DH is of the opinion that Clark thought the other cats were like furniture or something. He has turned out to be a delightful, person-oriented cat; he'll follow us around and hang out with us. Enjoy your new cat! You have to tell us his name, too. 😉
@Katy, I add my congratulations on your new cat. And as Karen A. says, you need to tell us his name, so that he can join the FG Cat Club along with Chiquita, Shelley, Karen A.'s Clark, my Betty, Ruby's Dora, etc.
And Betty's another one who doesn't appreciate other cats. She goes ballistic even when she sees another cat walk into the yard, although she's strictly an indoor cat. When people ask why I don't get another cat, I say that Betty enjoys being Queen.
@Katy, regarding Dollar General coupon, I would ask for the manager if cashier can not manually put in coupon. Occasionally it happens at our local Dollar General & they over ride it to put in manually. Plus almost all Dollar General stores have the $5 off $25 coupon for people at register if they don't have one.
@A. Marie, DH is convinced Clark doesn't consider himself a cat, but a person, and one who doesn't like cats, to boot. He saw a cat all the way across the street, huddled on the neighbor's porch, and he sat there and GLARED at that little black cat until it finally moved on.
@A. Marie, My kitties are Screwball (10) and Louie (5). Gotta love the cats!
I got a free full-size coconut cream pie from my audiologist because the business was "thankful for their customers." I thought it was a nice gesture in spite of the fact that the hearing aides were not cheap. The pie came frozen so I kept it that way to take to church for lunch. (We have a fellowship meal after the meeting on Sundays.)
I did take advantage of cyber Monday by buying three tops for my niece for Christmas. I did save "$49.00" and paid only $50.00. She's not small and a little difficult to buy for and can always use tops for her work.
I also bought a top on eBay as a present for my Santa gift/resident. The point was to get something with a red cardinal. Her daughter left a loaf of bread size cardinal last Christmas to keep as a year round "pretty," and I tease her about her "red chicken." (It really is that big and beautiful!) The top is from Quacker Factory and had a cyber day
coupon, so purchase and shipping was a total of $20.00. She won't know or care that it is preowned. Quacker Factory items are well made and usually sparkley in one way or another.
I got a really cool pair of taupe colored Skecher ankle boots from Zappos a couple of weeks ago. I have a hard time with shoes/boots and have two sore toes right now. Since these boots fit great, I went ahead and purchased another pair of on sale sneakers in the same size for every day. I have short, fat legs (no ankles) and wide feet. Can't beat the free shipping and free returns w Zappos. In the summer, I wear Easy Spirit Traveltime slides and want something a little warmer for winter and to fit with socks.
After reading prior descriptions of decorating for Christmas, I don't feel so bad about not getting anything out yet here at home. I do decorate a corner of the nurses' station counter at work and was able to find some inexpensive (new) primitive style decor at an antique and collectable store last month. At Aldi, I picked up two "honeycomb" trees in colors to coordinate. It needs a "little more" and I'm never content with the "same old, same old." I'll get the more from my stash.
1. We made our meals at home. We brewed coffee at home. We packed lunches.
2. We made our Thanksgiving meal from scratch. We ate up the leftovers. Yum. I made some turkey in mushroom gravy to use up turkey, mashed potatoes, and mushrooms. I made some hamburger soup to use up the hamburger that was not used in stuffing. I also used up some potatoes and random vegetables.
3. We didn't buy any new holiday decorations. We just used what we had. The tree is about 7 years old. The tree skirt and tree topper are about 18 years old. The outdoor lights are technically new, but I bought them last season on clearance since I knew the old ones were in bad shape.
4. We dug through closets and hand-me-downs to find appropriate clothes for dressy holiday events. No one needed anything.
5. I grouped errands to save gas.
6. I made of list of presents to buy so I don't forget anything and also don't go overboard.
Yet another very helpful post! Thank you so much, Kristen!
I'm finally ready to start giving things away on Buy Nothing and am wondering:
How can a person sort through all the requests for pick up and determine which ones are legit and which ones are not? I really want to get things into the hands of people who actually need them. And how can I decide who*most* needs them?
I'd love to hear the experience of others about this, too, please.
Thank you so much.
Some people just give the items to the first person who asks, others let the post sit for 24 hours and then draw a name.
I personally wouldn't overthink it; the main idea is just to get rid of items you don't need without throwing them away. And we can assume most recipients on a Buy Nothing group won't throw our things away!
@Kimberly, I'm not sure how you can tell who needs the item the most, but on a different aspect - when our area used to have a thriving Freecycle community, I generally focused on the emails that sounded most likely to follow through (e.g. responding with some detail, like telling me they could pick up during a specific one of my proposed available time blocks). Otherwise it can get draining pretty fast, if you end up juggling a bunch of no-shows. Hope it works well for you!
THIS. I skip ppl that I know have been flaky about pickup in the past, and also ppl who literally post to claim almost everything that anyone posts.
@Kimberly, these are great questions! I am selective in the person I pick, which is easier for me because I'm very active in my group and have a lot of experience with different people. The nicer the item I have to give away, the more time I spend looking for the best home. I never pick a random name. I give priority to one of our group administrators (in appreciation for the work that they do) or to a person I know could use a hand up (based on their own requests for things or on their comments to other posts). Or I look for someone who has given me something, so I can reciprocate. I want to give my item to someone who responds with something more than "Interested." That's lazy, in my book, and I love reading why someone wants something or how they plan to use it (which also builds community). I don't select someone who has a reputation for ghosting or making pick up difficult (or doesn't come at all), nor will I choose the person who has given numerous hints that she may be a hoarder. Over time, you'll start to recognize those in your group who are extra deserving and who are more gracious than others. Good luck! Buy Nothing is wonderful for giving away and getting stuff, and for strengthening community ties.
@MB in MN, I operate on the same principles when it comes to my Buy Nothing gifted items.
That's the Baked French Toast recipe I use too. My kids adore it. I use less sugar than it calls for and I never have half-and-half (just milk and eggs), but it is always delicious! I save all the heels or other leftover bread and when I've amassed enough in the freezer, I make a batch of Baked French Toast!
Yesterday evening I was in a slump in the waning hours of Cyber Monday. Not great. I have to make my frugal list of the DID NOT variety:
1. Surfed the web in the evening in search of a MUST HAVE bargain. Nothing jumped out at me.
2. Nearly pulled the trigger on Babbel's "lifetime lessons" I still have six month's on my subscription. I would have to take lessons for another 2 years before it broke even. Nope.
3. Looked at the website for a favorite jewelry site: Uno de 50. 30% off. Then I flipped over to Poshmark and realized any day of the week I can get more than 50% of there.
4. Nearly bought the new Louise Penny on Amazon for 50% off. Then I remembered my commitment to not buy books on Amazon because they do not reimburse authors well enough. I will go through Bookshop.org and mark it under charity in my budget.
5. Finally realizing that I have the BLUES, I put the computer away. I closed the kitchen to stop the weight gain and committed to a list of healthy practices I enjoy when I woke up refreshed.
I woke up grateful that I am retired and can take sometime to work through these doldrums in a healthy fashion.
@Mary Ann, your number 5 is the essence of wisdom and maturity. Congratulations on your remarkable restraint!
@Mary Ann, early sundowns this time of year give me the doldrums. It took me decades to figure out this was happening. Last year I committed to having a real fire in the fireplace 5 nights a week and I am amazed at how much that helped me not dread the approach of winter this year. I hope you can figure out small things that done daily will help you through the slumps.
My FFT...
1. I tried to make sure no Thanksgiving leftovers went to waste. We ate some for Friday dinner and I had some for 2 lunches as well. Then I made a shepherd's pie using stuffing as the base, then added turkey, mixed vegetables, the rest of the gravy, then i used the remainder of the mashed potatoes for the top. I wrapped it up and stored it in the freezer for an easy meal. I cooked the turkey carcass and made broth and got 3 cups of turkey off the bone which i froze.
2. My co-worker is moving soon and brought in a garbage bag of clothes she no longer wants. She let me go thru them and I got 2 grocery bags of items to keep. I donated the rest (with her permission).
3. Same coworker brought in some beauty samples (her son worked in the beauty department at Target) and I snagged a few to put in stockings.
4. Free food which came from a few different sources included: a loaf of bread, a bag of onions, an angel food cake loaf, 2 boxes of Special K bars.
5. I used a coupon on a haircut saving me $9, I searched the clearance at Kohls for winter boots and snagged a pair for over 90% off, I got a croc from another friend who is moving and I now use it to hold utensils in my kitchen.
Even though I am a knitter, I would have repaired the sweater exactly the same way. The trick is to keep the repair from being visible.
What a cool lid for a Mason jar. . . but not worth $10. That's a real score and makes me slightly envious of a Buy Nothing group (but not worth living in a city!)
A neutral week of habitual frugal living:
1. Lots of library books (paper, Kindle, and Libby)
2. Didn't eat out or order in (very few options around here)
3. No botox, lip puff, manicures, haircolors, massages, eyelashes, fake tanning. . .
4. Tossed all catalogs without peeking
5. Started (and almost finished) a scarf (for a gift) using only scrap yarns.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana,
I have found Masontops brand lids on sale before. They sell for around $12 on Amazon for a two-pack, last I looked. I have a pouring top on the Mason jar I use for mixing up hummingbird food.
@JD, if we lived near each other, I'd ask you to split a two-pack with me!
It wasn't a very frugal week, as we booked ski passes for our upcoming end of year trip. We did buy them on a "Black Friday" sale, but they were still outrageously expensive.
1) My sister picked up DS18 from the airport, as she was heading near his college on the way to a family event. This saved me $55 over the price of a shuttle, but it actually saved me about $300 over our original travel plans & of having him fly in & out of Eugene & then Uber. I hadn't noticed there was a huge football game in Eugene, & Ubers were going for $200! There is no other transportation service available to the college. I feel really grateful I'd swapped to Portland for the return flight.
2) DH & I agreed that DS18 can bring his car back on spring break. While it will cost about $400 (gas, plus one of us to accompany him one way & then fly back), it will pay for itself between the logistics of airport travel. DS18 can then park his car at my sister's house before flights & either get a ride (she's a few minutes away) or take a very inexpensive Uber.
3) Similarly, my sister discovered that DS18 is done with his finals early in a couple of weeks. My nephew will come up & pick him up when he's done, and then DS18 gets to join my big family dinner out at the Christmas Ships (the last year it's being held, as the restaurant is closing). My parents, aunts & uncles, etc will be there as well. This is frugal as I again don't need a shuttle & the price of the dinner was included & they had an extra seat (minimum table size). I will give my nephew gas money, of course. DS18 will also stay the night at my sister's house, so more family/cousin time.
4) Put up our Christmas tree, which is an old artificial tree. The lights died years ago, and we took the time to clip them all off (not an easy project) & now we just add our own strand lights & decorate. A lot of our ornaments are crafts from the kids when they were younger, and our tree is decidedly unfancy! I love it.
5) Ate Thanksgiving leftovers, picked the last of the pomegranate harvest & have been eating pomegranates for snacks. Signed up for a survey & user study site. Have made about $20 on the survey site, and I'm doing a $125 user study tomorrow.
My sister is so incredible helping me out with family, so I thanked her by using miles to buy her a flight, saving her ~$350. I have a wonderful family & feel super lucky.
@Hawaii Planner, do you mind sharing what survey & user study site you use? Your comments about this & knowing legitimate site (which is uncommon) make me interested. Thank You. 🙂
@Regina, sure. Here are the two I've been doing lately: Prolific & Respondent.
With the sweater your fix should work but a darn would be neater. I got into darning for a while but haven't really had the need to in a few years.
1.) Did a toilet repair for my dad. Unfortunately it required me driving to three different places to find a part in stock but that's the downfall of him living somewhere without access to a Home Depot or Lowe's. The fix was still cheap.
2.) Selling some more items on FB Marketplace and eBay. Sometimes it feels more like buying myself a job than anything else but at least I get rid of stuff.
3.) Found my wife a nice pullover sweatshirt with her favorite hockey team on it for $6. It still had the original tags for $50 on it. So she was happy. I also got a pair of nice black pants for the same price.
4.) Made homemade bread for Thanksgiving and it'd been great for leftover turkey sandwiches.
5.) Not going crazy with BF "sales" or anything like that. I only really got what I needed and a few gifts here and there.
The French toast casserole looks yummy! Also, the cat and sprout for the mason jar were great finds!
My Frugal 5’s
1) Drove our fuel efficient 200,000+ miles Toyota Corolla instead of our truck to my brother in law’s place which is an hour away from us for Thanksgiving.
2) Brought home some extra soda and eggnog leftover from Thanksgiving dinner at my brother-in-law’s place. My husband needed soda for work and we didn’t want to go shopping on Black Friday. We left 3/4 of the other drinks we brought.
3) Had a 4 way call with my side of the family on Thanksgiving through FaceTime. It was a great way to connect and more appreciated than cards.
4 & 5+) Did fun experience events with the kids like …
1-Going sledding nearby and drinking hot cocoa made from home.
2-Playing scrabble (Our family Christmas gift I got for a deal off Amazon) and eating a box of chocolates they received as a gift last year. Surprisingly, they still tasted good and weren’t stale.
3-Going to the library to see Santa, the downtown Christmas lights while drinking hot cocoa, and having a horse buggy ride after. Also got a small goody bag they could color, a stuff reindeer and candy canes. There was a pick your favorite decorated tree for a charity event, find the red truck on the trees to be put into a raffle to win a 5 foot tall stocking, decorate the window with an ugly Christmas sweater we colored, and make a clay ornament to decorate for their Christmas tree. We had lots of fun. Plus, everything at the library was free!!!
*Made turkey wild rice soup from the last of the turkey ( I had to use two thighs from the freezer to have enough meat)
*Got $20 off on a karaoke machine on a Cyber Monday deal. My granddaughter’s birthday present.
*Did not do my usual Friday grocery shop. We had leftovers and some other meats in the freezer, so I was able to piece together, so far, four meals. Grocery run today though. Couldn’t last forever!
*Got .10 per gallon off at Kroger with fuel points. I’m sad to hear they are discontinuing this program in January. Wonder if that’s true.
*Thrifted some random Christmas plates to copy a cute idea for decorating a hutch.
@SandyH, it might be because Kroger was trying to merge with another company heard few months ago. There was complaints that merge would effectively make them bigger than Walmart/Sam's Club & have huge advantages (like Monopoly?). Don't know if merge happened or not.
I was concerned about having a tree up in our main living space with the puppy so I used the top portion of our skinnier tree and put it on top of a hutch in the living room. We can enjoy the glow but puppy can’t reach!
My parents and I have been swapping artificial trees for years based on our home’s needs – we’ve both moved a few times over the past ten years. The tree they swapped with me a few years ago that fit by our staircase our last house but wasn’t going to fit in our new house. Since it’s an artificial tree I was able to use 3 out of the 4 sections and put the tree in the basement where we can still see the tree, decorate with our favorite ornaments, and keep puppy away! No need to buy a new tree for the new house!
I scouted out the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for the Christmas presents I knew I was going to buy this year. I also took advantage of Cyber Monday deals to use a few gift cards to make sure I was stretching them as far as I could.
I got a little creative with Thanksgiving leftovers. We sent quite a bit home with our guests but what was left was turned into very “unThanksgiving” meals. I added in pantry items and freezer items to keep this week’s grocery shopping to a minimum.
Continuing to read from my TBR pile, downloading audiobooks from the library, making coffee/tea at home, reminding myself that ‘we have food at home’, batching errands, adding an extra layer before turning up the heat.
My kitty is 18 now, and is much less playful. He used to get empty paper towel rolls and just kick the crap out of them, it was fun to watch!!
That mason jar pour lid is awesome.
Let's see...
1. We did not travel over thanksgiving break. It was the first quiet thanksgiving we've had since probably 2020...maybe 2021? It was a simple and lovely holiday spent at home with the ones we love most. Older daughter wanted to bake an apple pie, younger wanted to make some viral mac n cheese recipe so we did. Both were delicious.
2. Redeemed points for a free iced tea
3. Bought a shelf with a 50% off black friday deal from Ace Hardware. Our handyman said he could cut it down to the right size. The shelves come in 12 inch increments and of course, mine is 25.25 inches wide. Other places would custom cut them for around $48, so paying $7 for it (plus a few minutes of handyman time when he's coming over anyway) seems like a good plan. Times like these remind me that having the right tools for the right job matters. I know Home Depot sometimes will cut things like this but I think this is still less expensive when you factor in the distance and time it would take.
5. Husband wanted to upgrade his phone so we bought some $100 Apple gift cards from Target, which came with $15 bonus gift cards to target. That also triggered a $25 circle reward. We then used those gift cards, the circle reward, and 5% discount for using the Target credit card to buy my Christmas present and saved about $100. I know you're all dying to hear what glamorous gift I got...it's a rice cooker! :). We've been waiting for sales to buy it and it paid off because it was also on sale so we got a great product for a great price.
1) On Friday my mom and I joined my aunt, cousin, and great aunt in cleaning out the home of another cousin who passed way too soon. I came home with a bunch of pantry items, books, and Le Creuset pans. Wow, these pans are nice!
2) We wrote a meal plan and corresponding grocery list for the week that includes a free food item in each meal. Last night we had salmon cakes made from canned salmon my mother in law gave us. Today for lunch I am enjoying soup made from a packet from my cousin's house.
3) The kids all needed some cold weather or a size up in shoes and clothing. Over the last few weeks I have made two ThredUp orders, shopped sales at Old Navy, and finally bought a winter coat for our five year old from Amazon. I tried to find a second hand coat, but struck out. This coat looks very nice and was a cyber Monday deal. I am deeply skeptical that Amazon Prime Day/Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals are really deals, but little man needed a coat.
4) I applied for another position at my university similar to the one I already have because it is a little more money, less teaching, and more prestigious.
5) We are taking the long-begged-for step of becoming a family with a pet. Our eleven year old is absolutely wild about reptiles, so for his combined birthday and Christmas we are getting him a bearded lizard. It is supposed to be fairly easy to care for and as cuddly as lizards get, but it also requires a set up. Last week my husband and I bought a full set up--tank, rocks, lights, etc--from a giant bearded man whose giant bearded lizard had sadly just died. I still had to buy some things from Amazon--new bulb for the heat lamp, disinfectant, live bugs and worms, etc--but I think we are still getting started without spending anywhere near as much as we could be.
@Amanda in VA, hope the job application takes you to a promotion.
@Amanda in VA, oh we love our bearded dragon! His name is Norbert and he is such a chill guy. Setting up his tanks was the hard part but once you get the temperatures right it’s pretty easy to maintain. His tank is in the living room behind my chair so he gets a lot of visual and auditory stimulation. He does like to be held and I let him loose in my office our big bathroom to run around.
My Dora Kitty loves to be played with, but does not play much with toys by herself. Apparently she did in foster care when she had her kittens with her, but is not that interested now that she's the Grande Dame of the household. Our late Ollie was a very playful cat, like all the boy cats we've ever had. He played solo soccer for hours at a time with a ping pong ball, whacking it hard enough to dent the ball. We learned that boiling water will pop the dents back out.
I love the look of that cat toy! Chiquita seems to be enjoying it already.
1. I made my first-ever gluten- and dairy-free pumpkin pie from scratch, using about $8 worth of ingredients. I found out later that I could have bought one for $8.99, but it would have been 1/4 the size and I wouldn’t have had leftovers. Leftover pie is an essential part of the Thanksgiving experience in my family.
2. I tried to get Hulu’s $0.99 a month Black Friday deal, but it said I wasn’t eligible. I was offered a month’s free trial instead. This will save me $12 because a month is really all I need, but at such a low price, I probably would have kept the subscription for the whole year. There are only a couple of shows I want to watch that aren’t available elsewhere.
3. I did not buy anything on sale for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. There is nothing I need right now and the sales on things I could use are not that good.
4. I got some great deals on groceries from pre-Thanksgiving sales. I think I’m set for the rest of the year at this point. I may need some fresh foods later in the month but will try to spend very little this month.
5. I've been eating all the leftovers and finding ways to use ingredients that were partly used for Thanksgiving.
1) Painted an advent calendar tree that we bought at Michael's probably 4 years ago and never painted. Granted, I did need to pay for the stuff to fill it with but we got an afternoon of fun out of it and I didn't need to buy a new pre-made one this year (or in future years.
2) Used my free class passes for my membership at the Jewish Tavern and Learning Center for the "How to Keep a Kosher Restaurant" class last night. While it was slightly confusing w/ all the rules, it was interesting to learn about it.
3) Crocheted face scrubbies w/ cotton yarn that I had left over from other projects instead of buying some
4) Did a good job of repurposing Thanksgiving food so it doesn't go to waste. Biscuits and gravy, breakfast mashed potatoes w/ an egg on top, stuffing waffles topped w/ turkey and gravy, & turkey stew.
5) Filled up a bag of squash ($20) and a two bags of carrots, onions, and potatoes ($50) at the last 2 days of the summer farmers markets. This should get us through at least 2-3 months (maybe the whole winter???) of squash and potatoes likely.
I have been traveling a lot as well due to family obligations, but trying to make it frugal where it makes sense.
1. Booked a Budget rental car with my Amazon account, and received a $30 gift card from Amazon after the rental was returned.
2. For our longer trip, stayed in an Airbnb where we were able to dine in rather than eating out. Only bought food for breakfasts and the next dinner so as to not end up with leftovers (Thanksgiving leftovers was a different story, sad we couldn't take any home!)
3. Did not visit any theme parks although our visit was in Orlando. There is actually a lot of other things to do around there such as nature parks, arcades, etc.
4. I did take advantage of some Black Friday sales online for Christmas shopping or other normal things we need. Every time I buy online, I check my credit card for cash back offers first. I also take advantage of introductory offers to subscribe to web sites, and end up unsubscribing later. This year has been pretty good for online coupons.
5. Accepted free shoes that a relative had ordered that didn't fit, which were not returned for some reason.
A bit of a frugal fail, but here goes. I bought a reusable tea advent calendar from a local restaurant that hosts fancy afternoon tea. I wanted to support a local business so I didn't mind paying a bit extra, especially as the cloth bags with the tea are decorated by an artist and can be reused. However, the teas inside the bags are just normal grocery store varieties, and I expected something a bit more "special" for the price. Oh well. Makes me think of Kristen's post on Monday whether to haggle in craft fairs, and in this case I definitely think I was a little "had".
That looks like a really nice cat toy. And nice save on those Starbuck points.
We have insulating cellular shades on all our windows. The string on one broke, and my husband repaired it, using a kit he purchased years ago for this purpose.
The pocket zippers in my best friend's parka broke and I was able to replace them using zippers in my stash. We had a nice visit while I sewed. (Several years ago, at a garage sale, I purchased a gallon ziplock stuffed with zippers for $2. Some new, some used, every color and length.)
We're still enjoying salad from the greenhouse, though growth has slowed a lot.
I had enough points from our local pet supplier to get my older dog's probiotic treats for free -- a $37 savings!
I mixed up homemade taco seasoning and season salt.
Our Christmas tree is the new cat toy in our house.
@Kris, we stopped getting a Christmas tree when we had a pair of indoor kittens and have never gotten a tree since, even though our current three cats don't live in the house.
1. Leftover ham and turkey are scheduled to be chopped up or kept in whole chunks to season pots of beans and frozen tonight. I will use the other bits for soups, casseroles, breakfast hash etc...
2. I stopped in at McDonald's and collected a free order of french fries since it was my birthday on Nov 29th. I am disappointed at the Starbucks app though as it would not let me in to get my free birthday drink due to some kind of technical issue. Boo! I received a 5% off one single purchase coupon at Target and I will undoubtedly use that for some Christmas gifts for our son and some new neutral flannel sheets for our Master Bedroom.
3. I took advantage of some Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals to buy some sweaters for my husband and I - I shrunk out of all of mine and he never really had any because he was always hot prior to radiation and immunotherapy. I also picked up some hair care products that I use for 40% off.
4. I used accumulated fuel points from Kroger to save $0.50/gallon of gas yesterday afternoon...total saved = $8.79. I love that 🙂
5. My youngest Boxer pup decided to steal my wallet out of my purse and redesign it for me. In other words, she tore it to shreds. A new wallet was definitely needed so I stopped into TJ Maxx yesterday and purchased a lovely new Steve Madden wallet in my favorite pinkish purple fuschia color for $14.99. The best part of this is that I walked out of that store with only what I went in for and nothing more. My husband was flabbergasted.
A side frugal question if I may ask. Is there anyone here that has used the Dave Ramsey method to get out of debt? If so I'd be interested to hear your take aways from the experience. I have heard him say many times to sell your car to get rid of the payment and buy a clunker, but since I don't have the cash to cover what I am upside down on in the vehicles, that seems counterproductive. Also how do you decide how much to allocate to groceries, fun money, etc. given the current fluctuation of the economy and inflation?
@Angie, belated happy birthday!
@Angie, Great question. I don't know the answer to the car question, though I do know that every finance person I know says to buy an old car outright rather than having a payment on one. Could you get a small loan (only big enough to pay off the cars) that is at a lower interest rate than your car payment? Do you have a local credit union? They might be helpful to do the math with if you aren't math inclined...
To give you a point on the curve for groceries and fun money, I budget $350 a month for food for 2 people (one with lots of allergies and gluten free stuff is expensive). We also have guests 4 times a month and this is all in the $350. We budget $100 a month for fun, including eating out, though we rarely use it. We are in a HCOL area. When we had kids at home and less money it was more like $50 a month for fun. And $450 for 5 people, though that was 5+ years ago when food was a bit cheaper. Nowadays I do really stick to my $350 for 2 people. At least half of our meals are vegetarian. Everything is made from scratch. The only thing I buy at chain grocery stores are loss leaders, the rest is at discount grocery stores. I buy in bulk from Azure Standard https://www.azurestandard.com/?a_aid=jWb0sVFU6M
@Angie, Dave says to sell the car and get a loan from a local credit union to pay off the extra owed. It is one of two situations in which I have heard him say to get a loan; the other is a mortgage. I don't know his formula for groceries, but his website is super thorough so you might be able to find it if you look through his articles. Best wishes to you as you get out of debt! It is entirely worth the effort.
You had a great frugal week!
-I rejoined the gym and despite the advertised promo of no join fee already ending, the membership lady just waived it for me anyway! Said it was a non-advertised promo. Saved $100!!!
-Really need jeans and black leggings. No patience for actual thrift shopping. No patience for regular store shopping. Measured myself and decided to try ThreadUp. With their holiday week promo, got 6 pairs of pants for $30! Even if they don't all work, it's still a win.
-Got a free Sheetz coffee, which was unfortunately GROSS haha. Made tea at home the rest of the week, so I didn't spend anything extra at least.
-Thanksgiving was frugal because my MIL cooks a lot and then loves to give the leftovers away! We ate free for a couple days.
-Got my husband a specific watering can he wanted at a garden store closeout sale for 65% off. He almost didn't buy it but keeps commenting how much he appreciates it. I knew lol.
Your sweater repair looks great, Kristen. This week has been frugal because we are using up lots of things we spent tons of $$ for last week.
* As a woman of mature figure, I am thrilled to have found a brand of jeans which are comfortable, look good and do not fall apart or pill after the third laundering. The bad news is they are stupid expensive at the brand name store. While looking for children's Christmas gifts on eBay, I happened to do a chubby lady jeans search and all I can say is "WOW!" After adding several to my wish list, I got discount offers for two, one new with tags and one with minimal wear. The total is less than half the sale price at stupid store.
* Last week we spent $$$ for a fresh turkey and I have to say, it was the best I've ever had. (Not frugal, but I'll do it again.) DH brined it for two days, so I didn't even have to figure out how to season while baking it. The frugality happened over the weekend - after sharing Thanksgiving leftovers with three other households, there was enough for us to have three meals and two bags of meat for the freezer.
* In addition, I froze two gallons of turkey broth in one cup amounts. Should last several months.
* Watched DVDs from the library and read library books.
* This last one is not frugal for me, but I am so happy to have helped a young friend. (I'm always surprised at how many millennials do not know how to do simple mending. Granted, clothes seem to be constructed differently now so mending can be complicated if not impossible, but I digress...) Reconnecting an elastic loop (for a button closure) to a blouse took less than five minutes and a couple of inches of thread and magically an unwearable garment becomes completely wearable again. Frugality is just fun!
@Book Club Elaine, when LLBean stopped making the style of jeans that worked for me, and all my pairs fell apart (about 15 years old), I found 2 on eBay. Of course I bought them both, and sure hope I can get 15 years out of them (and that they either fit for that many years, or hope hope hope, they get baggy.)
1. I used up some over ripe bananas to make banana pancakes for my kid's breakfast this week.
2. I used some leftover naan bread, frozen home made pizza sauce, frozen homemade pizza dough, and leftover mozzarella to make pizzas for my kid's lunches this weekend
3. I used left over cooked rice and left over 1/2 and 1/2 to make rice pudding
4. I used the turkey carcass from Thanksgiving dinner to make turkey soup for dinner this week and I used leftover hotdog buns to make garlic bread to go with the soup.
5. I got 3 packs of chicken breast and 1 pack of ground beef for 50% off at Aldi. I also got a bag of lettuce for $1.
I'm gonna have to dig deeep for frugal wins this time!
*I needed ONE Christmas card this year, so instead of buying a whole box of them, I got a single one from TJ's when I stopped in to buy seasonal goodies. Bought the $5 wine for our Christmas dinner, and some inexpensive stocking stuffer treats, too.
*I ordered a pair of Dr. Marten's boots (which were a steal at $55), but they were too big. The seller agreed to waive shipping fees for my return. Then I found a pair on Amazon for less than $40, made of leather, similar style. Win!
*Enjoyed meals from home this past weekend. Heated the last of the Day after Turkey soup for my lunch today.
*Got a free ornament from Shutterfly with free shopping, so I made a sentimental Christmas ornament for my sister.
*Going book shopping tomorrow with gift cards I got for my birthday - its going to feel so lux to buy NEW books, ha ha.
P.S. Thank you for the reminder to make French Toast Casserole!
Our kittens would love that ball tower! What a great find!
Work supplies filtered water to all, so I fill my reusable bottle at least twice each workday.
Treating myself with some new-to-me clothes from Thredup (they haven't arrived yet). Hopefully at least some of the pieces will be winners but all are returnable.
Sewed a few tears in my favorite winter gloves that are no longer available to buy. They're leather with shearling liner and a gortex liner between leather and shearling. SOOO cozy and I'm really fighting surrendering them so I keep sewing them.
Continue reading only library supplied books/ebooks/audiobooks.
Medical deductible is paid through next June, so getting on all of those needed medical appointments.
My husband got out the woodbins, kindling basket, and made the first woodstove fire of the season. Because it's a seriously efficient stove, the house can get incredibly hot, so Mr. Retired warms it up during the day and then backs it off so by the time I get home from work things are just comfortable instead of way too hot. Although contributing to particulate matter pollution, we do need to heat the house and our other option is our oil furnace, so it's sort of a toss up. At least this way we'll have about 4 bills for oil in the $150 range rather than the $500 range. (Water heater is electric/heat pump.)
And here's a gem from way back years when kids were young. We used to have an oil burner that also heated our water. The kids knew they had a 5 minute shower limit. Once they hit 5:30, I would knock on the door to warn them, and then flick off the switch for the oil burner and they'd only have the water left in the pipes which cooled quickly in New England--very effective method of teenager displacement from a shower 🙂
You can also use that jar lid for pancake batter.
Ohhhh good idea!
I read that cats, being predators, get bored once they have “killed” their toy and that it’s good to rotate new toys in and out. Maybe folks with cats. Could trade toys back and forth as they cats get tired of them.
1. Picked up a bag of clothes that was set out as “few.” A few things will fit my DD, two flannel shirts for guys I know who work in food freezers, others will go to a friend to look through. I kept a few t-shirts that were stained to cut into rags.
2 Curb picked another flannel shirt for the freezer guys and a small Christmas tree to use out front in one of my pots.
3. Having fun with secret shops. It’s Tuesday and I’ve done 5 shops already. So far I’ve gotten a hamburger and fries meal from a sit down restaurant, $30 in gas, $30 in chocolate, some snacks and two pizzas. And some $. I have one more shop scheduled this week that I’m signed up for. Friday will be free pizza night!
My cat gets frustrated and mad as Hades with the ring with ball we have. We'll put it away for a while to keep her sane.
Jalapeno cheese bread french toast casserole doesn't sound bad to me - I'd skip the vanilla however. Maybe topped with some sour cream or cream cheese or with Huevos Rancheros instead of tortillas.
1. As per my tradition, I put up my frugal Christmas wreaths today. I have a double front door so I have to have 2 wreaths/door decorations, and this can get costly. But one year, I found a matching pair of Christmas wreaths. Like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, they were fairly dilapidated so I added some package decorations to both. Each time I get some kind of really good holiday decorations, pine cones or artificial flowers, greenery or red holly berries, I stick it into the wreaths. It's gotten to be a running joke, my wreaths sometimes have stuff falling off of them, but they were cheap and they make me laugh. Even as I stick the decorations back on and try to shut the door gently so they won't drop off again.
2. Went ahead and worked a last-minute substitute teaching job today. Put off my errands until later in the week.
3. Frugal fail: didn't check on when the HEB (supermarket chain) "Feast of Caring" was. I had already eaten supper when I found out it was tonight and missed getting the free supper. (Topic of a future forum: Is it ethical to go to HEB's free supper when you mostly shop at Aldi and Walmart and not at HEB?)
4. Checked on coupons for medications I use. Some expire Dec. 31 so I will be stocking up.
5. Found a very nice and suitable present for the Christmas party via my regifting closet. It cost a dollar at a thrift store a couple of years ago, and had just been donated there by a major store. It's a useful household item that I'm sure someone will like. Plopped it in a gift bag and I'm good to go. (And, no, I'm not trying to hoodwink someone into thinking I got it at the fancy dept. store.)
* No shopping on Black Friday/Cyber Monday
* Decided against going to the movie theater with DD and DH. We watched a Netflix instead, saving us 28$ (+ snacks, let's be real! Movie popcorn is the best). I have the Netflix with-adds subscription, for 5.99$/month (Canadian). Good deal if you ask me.
* Took inventory of my hygiene products. I have a ton of shampoo, conditioners, deodorants, soaps, body and face creams, etc. I'm committing to not buying anything unless it needs to be replenished.
* October 1st I have embarked on a one year no new clothes/shoes/jewelry shopping (unless I need undies or socks, but I should be ok). Thrifted ok. I almost caved in last week for a new pair of jeans, but left them at the store. So far so good.
* Taking advantage of student massage therapists coming at my work place once a month. 20 minutes at no charge? Yes please 🙂
I like that pour top. It might be a cute item for my daughters.
By the time I see something useful on the Buy Nothing page it is gone. A lot of other items I may like but I don't need.
1. I had bought a rotisserie chicken (again) and some chicken thighs before Thanksgiving. We had the rotisserie for dinner 2 nights and chicken salad. I then made chicken soup using the thighs. After i put all of the ingredients in the slow cooker, I wrap the remainder of the rotisserie in cheesecloth (less problem getting it all out). The last of the soup was eaten last night. It's been good with this change in weather hear in the lower northeast. I now make this soup about once, sometimes twice a month now.
2. And I picked up a free loaf of bread at the Sr. Center to enjoy with the soup.
3. I went out Black Friday (not to shop) but stopped in at our local Salvation Army looking for a book. It was 1/2 price day on all stock. I purchased a book by an author I want to read and a photo frame. Total price $2.29
The book is for an idea I came up with for a club meeting. I hope the members will be enthusiastic to it. A Yankee Swap type book exchange. A book we liked, wrap it up. Hopefully a discussion with happen between the giver/receiver and the members will get to know each other. We'll do it in February--the darker parts of winter.
4. Someone on the Buy Nothing page was giving away cross stitch fabric and no one had grabbed it up yet. I add it to the stash. Bright red and green fabric. Don't usually see that in stores. There were a couple of patterns in the pickup.
I agree wholeheartedly with the Starbucks stars! I'm not a big starbucks person, I'd rather have a cup I made at home, but I do enjoy them when running errands or need to kill a little time before an appointment.