Five Frugal Things | Vans washing
1. I washed my old Vans
I've had this pair of black vans since probably at least 2016/2017. They were starting to get a little dingy-looking, so I threw them into the washing machine, air-dried them, and now they are looking quite fresh and new.
To wash sneakers, I usually just put them in the washer along with a few old towels (for a little cushioning) and they come out nicely.
Disclaimer: wash your shoes at your own risk! I only do this with shoes that are made of washable materials. I would not, for instance, put my suede vans in the washing machine.
By the way, I learned from Lisey that a magic eraser works quite well if the white rubber part of shoes needs some cleaning.
2. I found two clearance bottles of Maui Moisture
Maui Moisture products are a favorite in the curly hair community, so that's what Sonia uses on her hair.
Unfortunately, their shampoo and conditioner is quite expensive; usually $6-$7/bottle. And the bottles are not anywhere near enormous.
So, when I saw a bottle of shampoo and conditioner on the clearance shelf at the grocery store for $2.25 apiece, I hastily put both of them in my cart!
The sad thing is that there were only two bottles; I would have bought 20 of them if they were available.
3. I started a free Kindle Unlimited trial
I came across a book I wanted to read, and I noticed it was free with a Kindle Unlimited membership.
So, I signed up for the 30-day free trial and read the book promptly.
I have a reminder in my phone to help me remember to cancel the membership before I get billed! Otherwise the free trial will be...not free.
And I KNOW I cannot trust myself to just remember to cancel. I have screwed myself over too many times for me to trust myself. 😉
4. I ate two heel grilled cheese sandwiches
Heels of homemade bread are quite tasty, in my opinion. In face, I often purposely give myself a thick fresh heel slice when I bake bread.
The crusty delight! So good.
But when it comes to store-bought bread, the heels are the least-desirable piece.
So, twice this last week, I took one for the team and made my grilled cheese sandwich with the heels.
5. I...
- listed another pair of Sonia's old glasses on eBay
- sold and shipped a cookbook I didn't need
- followed up on some health insurance claims
- continued to batch errands as much as possible
I seem to be the only one in our household who is capable of eating the heels of sandwich bread loaves. It is really quite something. There they sit…until I eat them.
@Laura, I usually throw the heals I the freezer and when I get a bunch make bread crumbs.
@Laura, The only one in our household that will eat the heels is our dog. hahaha
I like the heels of french bread, the very crusty end parts. Once when we were serving it to company, my husband said to save those for me. The guests thought he was being rude instead of thoughtful.
@Laura, I save mine in the freezer for bread crumbs, but occasionally I'll give them to my chickens. A chicken will grab a slice and run to the corner of their pen and the others will try to steal it! Haha! My chickens would rather have stale bread than any of the greens I toss to them!
@Heidi Louise, my dad is notorious for eating the heels of the baguette. When my parents lived in Paris my mom never even saw a baguette with the heels. Dad joked he had to go to a special boulangerie to get them.
@Laura,
When my brothers were adopted from an orphanage, they told us that in the orphanage they always told the girls that they shouldn't eat the ends of bread because it would break their teeth and then they wouldn't be pretty. They also confessed to us that they were certain it was because the boys wanted to get the ends themselves because they were the best parts. Little stinkers.
@Becca, funny, in Jewish tradition, they say girls who eat the ends will become pregnant. Ha.
@Heidi Louise, once my mother-in-law and I bumped hands, both reaching for the crusty end pieces. We got a good laugh because we didn’t know if we prefer that piece or are just used to being the only ones willing to eat it.
@WilliamB, It`s the best part!
FFT
I cut up and froze some bananas that were going brown.
I cleaned my bicycle and greased the pedals. Cycling feels easier now!
I cut some willow shoots from branches that had been cut off after the storm and left where they were. They are growing catkins (is that what you call them?) now they are in a vase.
I am investigating replacement parts for my kitchen machine - pending feedback from the website
I mended a felt slipper.
Possibly frugal: I bought transparent boxes to order and store my supplies of mouthmasks, soap and such. I realized that to curb my anxiety over the war I was tempted to stock up on things that I already had a stash of. So to curb my inner pepper I use transparent boxes to remind myself what I already have, instead of what I instinctively want to buy.
@J NL, I am sorry the war has impacted you. I would feel very anxious myself. Are you in Germany?
@Bee,
Thanks. We live in Netherlands, in between Germany and the North Sea. We are safe and want for nothing. But I do feel anxious and very very sad.
@J NL,
Wishing you strength and peace.
Is that a tattoo of a cat I see on your ankle?? in the Vans shoe photo--
@Millicent, I was wondering the same thing!! I really hope it is!
Haha, yes it is. When Lisey came home at Christmas, she really wanted to get a matching cat tattoo with me, so we both have a little line-tattoo of a cat on our ankles.
Someone in my real life, upon seeing my tattoo, said, "well, if you want to go have a party lifestyle, I guess you'll do what you'll do." But trust me, I am not about to get a zillion tattoos, OR start partying. It's a cute cat tattoo, and is evidence of my love for Lisey, not evidence of a shift in values.
Not that I think you would have seen the tattoo and immediately jumped to the "party lifestyle for Kristen!" line of thinking.
Next up, Kristen gets some of those cool teardrop tats on her face.
@Kristen, your tattoo is cute! When I read that I pictured and old character from Saturday Night Live played by Dana Carvey (as an older lady) saying that. Anyway it gave me a laugh.
@Rose, I literally lol’d!!!!!
@Kristen, cat tattoos are tooootalllly the gateway to a party lifestyle. Of cat ladies. Watch out! 🙂
What comes next after the gateway drug of a cat tattoo? Dangerous things like...possibly owning a second cat? wearing cat earrings?
Everyone knows that a life of crime is preceded by a cute tattoo.
@Cait, Oh man... my teens say I'm boring. Maybe I just need to add a few cat tattoos to my life? I spied the one on her ankle too and thought, "Heck yeah, Kristen! Rep that kitty tatt!"
I figured it was in dedication to the kitty at home as well as her work helping at the cat shelter 🙂
I mean, I do love cats! And I love our cat, of course.
But the driving force behind getting the tattoo was my love for Lisey. 🙂
Pink sweatshirts with cats on them in puff paint, Kristen. That's next. After the teardrop tats and the neck tat that says -----CUT HERE-----
Gosh, HOW did you know??
@Rose, bahaha I almost just choked on my coffee!
@Rose, Lol she will also get cat socks but try to hide them. You guys are funny!
@Rose, You may think you're kidding. When a certain elderly gentleman in my life had brain surgery, I gave him a smiley face balloon with a dotted "cut here" line on its forehead. He insisted on carrying it into surgery and said he wished he'd thought of getting that as a tattoo.
@Kristen,
You should have said "excuse me, but do you mean paw-ty lifestyle?"
@Rose, Soon she'll be Totally Tulip!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN6U_unq6hg
(fair warning. That will be in your head for weeks)
@Becca, I’m dying lol!!!! So great!
I laugh at your "heel" eating. I make most of the bread we eat and will, on occasion, cut myself a nice thick heel slice when it's fresh out of the oven! It's so good! But otherwise, the heels get left behind by my 2 adult daughters who still live at home while attending university (frugal win for them!) (also have one older daughter who lives in another province) and husband, so I end up with a bag of heels of bread in the freezer! I will toast and eat them, or intentionally save them to make stuffing when we're having a Turkey dinner (2 or 3 times a year, usually).
I really meant to have some frugal things to report, but at least I can say that I am spending mindfully - that is, I've had some big expenditures that I considered necessary and right. However, I AM still taking my lunch to work every day, not ordering anything new off Amazon, reading books I already have, making only one cup of coffee at home every day, driving far less on my days off, and fixing small things around the house that I used to rely on Mark for. No need to call someone - I can Google it and do it myself!
I've decided to shoot for frugal things that feel like saying yes rather than no. Or at minimum trying to frame them that way. 😉
My in-laws asked us to smoke a brisket for them, so I thawed one from our freezer to do at the same time. When I brought theirs home, I also came home with a pie. (Pie I don't have to bake is the only pie I truly enjoy.) Their brisket was a bit over 6 pounds, and ours was 12.6 pounds. The frugal parts of this — free pie, savings on grill pellets by doing two at once (it takes 9-10 hours, so nothing to sneeze at), and multiple ready meals from the resulting lovely beef. Ain't nothin' like Nebraska beef raised about 50 yards out my front window.
Does that count as three? I'm OK with that.
About six or eight months ago I used a nakedwines voucher. Somewhat like Kristen's Kindle Unlimited trial, this is one of those subscription things that I should've realized and cancelled immediately, but I failed to realize it would enroll me just by using the voucher, and by then I had nonrefundable credit, so I did the prudent thing and bought another box. (My hint to all people is, just buy your wine at Walmart. One bottle at a time. Intentionally. lol.) Anyway, I pulled out all the crazy pressed-paper packaging from the box and filled the voids with potting soil and started garden seeds in them. I have a love-hate relationship with gardening but somehow feel like it might be important to have tomatoes this year (and cucumbers and calabaza and and and). So yes! Garden. Reused box pieces, some saved seeds, and some leftover seeds, and a few newspaper cups to round out the setup. Also wine to last a year or more, but hey, I guess that's not horrible, simply not frugal, so much.
And last, I had a meeting yesterday to help put together print materials for a mayoral campaign in a nearby town. This is completely out of my wheelhouse but promises to be interesting and will make me a little money, and I'll learn something.
Calling it five. Have a great Tuesday, y'all.
1. Made a loaf of banana bread with some past-it bananas. My three who can eat gluten gobbled it down in two days--that's less time than those bananas were languishing in the fruit bowl! I wonder if they ask me to buy bananas and deliberately ignore them in hopes of getting banana bread. Possible.
2. We were using these old florist balloon clips for chip clips--the kind they used to give out free balloons at the grocery store, and you'd clip them to the grocery cart for your child's delight. I always saved the clips and we used them to clip bags shut. Well, my kids are all too old for balloons, and over the years they've broken. I saw chip clips at the store and on Amazon but they seemed pricey for a unitasker. So I bought some office binder clips after pricing them out on Amazon, and I love them. I've been using them to clip our kitchen trash bag to the bin, holding up charging cords--cheaper and so much more useful than chip clips!
3. I've been trying a lot harder to eat leftovers up, even leftover veggies. Aside from a couple fails (never cook more black beans than you can eat in a week), I've been doing pretty well using up bits here and there that nobody else will touch!
4. Decluttering for the move continues, and I'm batching errands by only stopping by the Goodwill dropoff when I'm heading to the grocery store, which is on the same route.
5. We used our grocery store rewards points to get free groceries, and I used Amazon card rewards points to get some curriculum and a new watch strap for my Garmin.
Your #2- we have a whole stash of those balloon clips as well! They work great for holding chip bags shut.
@Kristen,
We have a few of those balloon clips that we use as chip clips as well and I have a variety of binder clips that work well. I think they both work better than the plastic chip clips.
@Kristen, I was always so pleased to have a stash--but I no longer have small children who go to the grocery store with me, or who want balloons for their birthdays, so I am down to two. It was time to get some binder clips-which I'm finding are very versatile in lots of ways.
Binder clips work great as do paper clips, clothespins and even short pieces of blue masking tape that can be used again and again.
@MB in MN, I bought a pack of 36 wooden clothes pins from Dollar Tree maybe 7 or8 years ago and still have over half of them.
@Karen, I felt soooo foolish for buying chip clips, once I realized that binder clips would do the job.
@Karen, I’ve had a lot of success freezing cooked beans. It is always nice to find the in the freezer, add to soup, make marinated beans, bean and cheese quesadillas…
I always take one for the team with the bread butts, too. It's all good...if you make a grilled cheese and add a little butter, they're still good:).
I ate the last 1/4 cup of some chili I made last week with some extreeeemely dry cornbread so it wouldn't go to waste.
We're keeping the house at 60* and only using gas logs for heat when we need them (of course, we'll have the opposite problem before too long).
We just cancelled our subscription to Peacock Plus so we didn't incur another month's bill (only did it for the Olympics).
That's only four...I guess I could pull a Katy and mention that I didn't buy a Lear jet or gold-plated apartment in the sky;).
Hope you have a wonderful day!
@Melanie, I will take one for the team and make myself a sandwich or toast of the bread heels if they are still reasonably fresh. When they get dry, I freeze them and then grate them for breadcrumbs when I make meatloaf.
The heels that are accidentally thin-sliced are highly prized by me for making pill wraps for my dogs. A little dab of peanut butter to hold the pill on the bread, a quick wrap around and they think it's a marvelous little treat.
@Ruby, I think it was humorist Erma Bombeck who said something along the lines of all the unwanted foods and near death leftovers are only ever eaten by mothers.
The bottom of the cereal bag should be included in this list for sure. 😉
Not the bottom of the Cinnamon Life bag! That's the extra tasty part.
@Ruby, that's a GREAT idea of the pill wraps. Our dog has to get Benadryl daily (she's allergic to grass, poor thing). I'm gonna file that away for next time!
FFT, Filthy Lucre Edition:
(1) I found 75 cents in the Coinstar machine at Wegmans. It had a generous coating of pocket lint, but I didn't care. Coin of the realm is coin of the realm to me.
(2) The same goes for the NY State deposit bottles/cans I'm finding a lot more of as the snow melts. I routinely wash these out in the basement sink before cashing them in, so a little extra dirt doesn't matter.
(3) Trashpicking season will likewise be heating up soon. Of course, as I mentioned in yesterday's comment on Kristen's abandoned house story, I'm trying hard now to keep a balance between my hunter/gatherer instincts and my desire not to become an elderly hoarder.
(4) I continue to work on sorting/decluttering DH's and my photos and personal papers. Asking myself, "Do I want whoever cleans out this house to see this?" is often all the incentive I need to discard something. (Not to mention the spaces I'm clearing in the attic and basement.)
(5) I'm also continuing to eat down the contents of the freezer and otherwise practice Low-Spend March--especially since my annual bill for my own long-term care insurance just came (and is up $800 from last year). But I don't dare let this go. (The premium on DH's LTCI policy, thank goodness, is waived for as long as he's in care.)
Its been quite some time since I posted, manly due to our lives being so hectic with my mother's health and ultimately moving my dad in with us after she passed away. Thankfully she passed away in peace and we know she is now in a much better place.
1. Moving my dad in has been very frugal for us so far. We moved most of his food with him from his house. (which FILLED every shelf and freezer we own) So we should be good on many items. there are many canned items that we will need to be creative with. (canned meat for example)
2 . In preparation for him to move in, we found a wonderful estate auction that had a lift chair, adjustable bed and a headboard for $35! all of these items seem to be in OK to NEW condition. So far he is happy with his new room in our home.
3. My mother was a very frugal person, growing up very poor, She instilled in us a frugal mentality as we grew up. What we DIDN'T know until she passed away was that my dad enjoyed spoiling her with rings! We found SO MANY rings! Thankfully she has 5 granddaughters whom loved receiving one and 1 grandson who is currently wearing one around his neck (sniffle!). We do plan on selling some of the more expensive ones to help pay for her headstone.
4. A little funny (but not funny) moment we all had after her funeral was that one of her cousins (who has NOTHING) mentioned that she would miss her dearly but would also miss all the donations of hand-me-downs (and underwear) from my mom! We made sure to hand over my mom's clothing and underwear to her! We KNEW it would go to good use. We were also able to give this women all of the extra "hospice" supplies that were left. She helps take care of some elderly folks in her community.
5. Now that we are a family of 5, leftovers are hard to come by. I leave my dad a plate in the fridge for his lunch. Great use of leftovers, but there goes the leftovers I used to bring to work. It's a good problem, i guess!
@Jenelle, My condolences on the loss of your mother, and I want to say how awesome it is that you were able to move your dad in to live with you guys. I wish we could do the same for my mother in law, but she has resisted all our offers to move her even to the same town where we live. I think it's great you have that relationship where you can take care of him and be a supportive, loving extended family.
@Jenelle, I noticed your absence. So sorry about your mom and glad that you could find ways to use or give away her things to honor her memory.
@Jenelle, Big hugs to you.
@Jenelle, My condolences on the loss of your Mother. It's wonderful that you were able to have your Dad move in with you.
@Jenelle,
Heartfelt sympathy on the loss of your mother.
@Beverly, So sorry for your loss of your Mom.
@Jenelle, hugs to you all
@Jenelle, my condolences on your mother's passing. (As I go through my personal papers, I'm reminded of the Mom-sized hole in my own life.) But I'm glad that you've been able to have your father move in, and that it's working well so far.
Big hugs to you and your family, Jenelle.
I love the story of the rings; that is so sweet that you dad spoiled her like that.
@Jenelle, Wishing you peace, love and strength during this time. I think it’s lovely that your father is with you.
@Jenelle, What a loving family you sound like!
@Jenelle,
My sympathies for your loss of your mother, and I hope that this time with your dad in your home is a sweet, golden slice of time for all of you.
@Jenelle, sending condolences on the loss of your mother.
A possible source of ideas for how to use your canned meats is Beryl Shereshewsky's YouTube channel. She makes foods from around the world and has found quite a few interesting ways to use canned meats, including Spam.
@Jenelle,
My grandmother died over twenty years ago and I still wear one of her rings everyday. It's a cubic zirconia, but she got it because it looked like a diamond and she always called it "rich looking."
I used to eat sandwiches using the heels, back when I could eat bread. It makes a sturdier sandwich, for one thing.
1. Another young grandchild just had a birthday, and this one is addicted to reading. Part of her present was a bookmark I made for her using materials I had on hand. She reads 3 or 4 books at once, and I had noticed she was using scraps of paper as bookmarks in some books. She was pleased with it.
2. I am building a raised bed in the back yard to replace my container garden. I'm digging out and re-using the still-good soil from my large garden containers, mixing it in with the expensive primo raised bed soil.
3. I trimmed and sliced a beef heart to marinate in homemade marinade. I put the trimmings in my dehydrator and dried them for my dog, who is overjoyed with the results.
4. I transplanted the two broccoli plants from one container to another, as they were all that was left in that container, and I wanted to use that container's soil, see #2 above. I also thinned some parsley in a container and transplanted the dug up plants into my herb garden in the back yard. So far, they haven't shown signs of transplant issues.
5. The dog's fetch ball was lost somewhere in the fenced yard. I could have bought another, but this one is designed for power chewers - which she is -and cost $10. I finally found it, and we enjoyed a rousing game of fetch to celebrate.
I have a very hard time eating heels UNLESS it's a sweet bread, like banana. I can never let sweets go to waste, ha. But something I can do with them is I freeze them, then defrost them and use them to soak up hamburger grease when I'm too lazy to get out my colander. Then I just put the soaked heel in the trash. Another thing I do with hamburger grease is make suet. I take a red plastic cup, fill it with birdseed, and just poor my grease on top to mix in. The birds love it! (Disclaimer: I do not know if it's healthy for them or not :))
@Sarah C.,
A local "native plants only" nursery that I sometimes frequent makes bird blocks from hamburger fat and seed. They cook a massive pot of fatty hamburger on an outdoor cooker, strain out the fat and mix it with seed and cornmeal, then let it solidify and cut it into blocks. So it sounds like you are on the right track.
@Sarah C., When I was very young and my parents had just come to the U.S., we were living at poverty level. My mother would buy hamburger and one night we would have the meat in some sort of casserole and the next night we would have the grease and bread to dip it in. That was the meal, grease-soaked bread. The worst thing is that I still love that and when I brown hamburger, I find it very difficult not to sop up the grease with bread and eat it.
@JD, That is so good to know! My husband suggested it the first time and he was like, what do you think suet is? And so it began. 🙂
@Lindsey, That actually sounds pretty good! I'm thinking, maybe that heel will be tasty now... It's funny, with all the dietary things that have come to light, it's the grease that's okay for us and the bread that is bad. I say go for it!
1. Cooked 4 bone in chicken breasts and shredded them into a pan of egg noodles with a bit of gravy - this fed 5 people dinner for two nights and we have leftovers for lunch today. Total spent for this meal was less that $10 so fairly inexpensive.
2. Ate up leftovers from the fridge to stretch our food dollars as much as we can.
3. Combined errands and trips to save on fuel costs. Set the Econ feature on my car and am also using the auto stop feature to save on gas.
4. Washing clothes in cold water only. This is not usually a big savings but since we moved into a new home I have been washing a lot of laundry so using cold water makes a difference in our energy bills.
5. Repotted some pansies to a pot located by our front door to give some color as I know they will last until late April here. I also repotted some ranunculus that I have purchased into several pots stretching them to add color that will hopefully last through the Spring and Summer. I used soil & pots that I already I had on hand.
My two adult daughters and I are all avid readers and we share a Kindle library. I've found that once the Kindle Unlimited membership expires, Amazon will typically send offers for extended membership (and it's considerable less than the $9.99 monthly cost). I believe the last offer we had was $19.99 for six months. I will let the current membership expire, then wait a couple of weeks until I get the offer, then renew the membership again. We've done this for several years. Since we each read 4-10 books per month on Kindle Unlimited, I feel we really get our money's worth.
So, my frugal thing is:
--Share your Kindle library with someone who has similar reading tastes as you do. (You will both have access to all the books in both of your libraries.)
--Use Kindle Unlimited membership wisely. Let it expire after the initial membership, then wait for the discounted offer. You will get an email from Amazon that provides the date Kindle Unlimited will expire. Go into your Amazon account and cancel the membership. You'll still have access to books until the expiration date, and it'll automatically close on that date.
--My one daughter downloads the books she wants to read, then turns off the wifi on her Kindle (airplane mode). This keeps the books from being returned until she's ready, or her sister or I for interrupting her place if we also want to read the book. This works great on a Kindle, but not so much if you're reading your books on your cellphone and need wifi.
1. I gave my husband and son haircuts.
2. We had yet another meal delivery at work with leftovers that no one wanted. So I have lots of roasted chicken, potatoes and baby broccoli in the freezer for me!
The rest of this is the "going to the dogs" edition, because there is nothing cheap about having a house full of rescued pets:
3. Our oldest dog takes a supplement for her severe anxiety that is $40 for a 30-day supply. When it came time to re-order, I was offered a 25% coupon in exchange for agreeing to accept e-mails from the company (yes!) and then realized if I ordered the size for the next largest category of dog and cut it down for her weight, she'd get 120 days for the price of 30 days. This is easy to do because it's a liquid and I already have a dropper marked for the right dose.
4. We incurred massive pet expenses over the course of about a week: $838 for our cat's visit to the veterinary allergy specialist for testing and treatment and $411 for our middle dog's dental work. We had a dedicated savings account for pet medical, thank goodness, so the household checking account did not have to take the hit for this.
5. My husband used a $10 gift card from Ace Hardware to buy a pair of garden clippers that we dedicated to using to cut dog treats in half. The treats are so hard that even our best knife won't go through them, but the clippers snip them with no trouble.
@Ruby, I too have rescues on meds. A savings I've found is to order their meds through a regular pharmacy (if they carry that medication). Then I use RxSaver or GoodRX to find a cheaper price. Then I see if the vet will prescribe the larger dose and cut it down. We had a med that was a dollar a day from the vet, that we now pay $20 for 6 months!! Yay for savings! 🙂
1. With food prices as they are, I am making more certain that what I buy is of high nutritional value. (That's not to say that I never indulge in junk food. At a recent get-together, someone brought Fritos and, well, let's just say that had I been the sole attendee, I would have eaten way more than I did. Way more.)
2. Made cream of broccoli soup using the last of the broccoli from our garden that I blanched and froze back in July.
3. Continue to be a cheap date. I get movies from the library or sign into a Netflix guest account from my niece's subscription. I can't see myself ever paying for a streaming service.
4. The other day I looked down at what I was wearing and realized that I'd owned those clothes for a l-o-n-g time. Just for kicks, I opened my home inventory spreadsheet (I am one of those people) and sure enough, all clothing had been purchased at least ten years ago. My 22-year-old niece is my clothing consultant, and she assured me that my clothes didn't look outdated. Classic clothes are frugal!
5. Donated blood and brought my own water bottle and snack to avoid waste from packaging and to save the Red Cross a few pennies.
I invert the bread heels when making sandwiches. I find if no one knows they are eating the heel, then no one complains. (I raised two boys. During their teen years, they ate just about anything I put in front of them and in massive quantities.)
1) I needed some shampoo and toiletries. I took advantage of the Target offer: spend $40 on these items and receive a $10 gift card. I used a $15 gift card that I received previously to partially pay for these items. I earned an additional $15 gift card for making 2 trips in 6 weeks and spending over $60. So $25 in GCs in one trip! I used my Target App and received additional discounts. Then scanned the receipts to Ibotta and Fetch. I am trying to squeeze every dollar until it hollers.
2) I sold and shipped a vintage brooch that I sold on eBay.
3) I listed a queen size bed frame on my local Buy Nothing. No one has claimed it, so I will take it to the metal recycler next time I head that way.
4) We added another shelf to the closet in the guest bedroom to optimize storage. We used leftover supplies from the closet makeover that I did in my office. So there was not any additional costs.
5) I borrowed two books from the library. I have been cooking from scratch, brewing my own coffee, and drinking primarily water. I am trying to batch all my errands.This is easier for me than DH who has never fully adjusted to working from home. He likes to run errands at lunch to get out of the house. There is only so much that needs to be done.
Wishing everyone peace and good health!
Yes, I invert them when I use the heels for a grilled cheese sandwich. It still is a little awkward, but it works.
1. We keep making baby food for the little one (or using the cereal we got as a gift.) We have also increased the frequency with which we do laundry lol.
2. We are writing our wills. We didn't take the cheapest DIY option because it seemed too easy to get wrong, but found a lawyer who would do it relatively inexpensively. Not a happy topic, but hopefully it avoids any drawn out, stressful, expensive court case if we die.
3. I am filing our taxes this year. I've never done it before, which embarrasses me! It makes me feel stressed and kind of silly for not knowing how to do it, but the other alternative is to never learn something new, so here we are.
4. We are going on vacation (Point Pelee--as far south as you can go in Canada!) and I'll meal plan and do a big shop before we go so that we don't wind up getting takeout every night.
5. I semi-frugally am making a semi-frugal Purim costume for my baby! We bought a onesie off of Etsy that's screen-printed to look like a Star Trek captain's uniform, and I'm making her a pair of plain black pants out of an old pair of pyjama bottoms.
1. I have a points card with my grocery store, currently have over $300 (Cdn) in points to spend on free groceries. I usually save them up for the holidays when grocery bills rise and money becomes tighter. This week I received an email offer for $20 in points for every $100 spent (these offers come about every 4 to 6 weeks it seems) so I made my grocery order (online) and stocked up on a few things that also were featured items for points. Anyways, my $104 order ending up giving me almost $30 in points and I'm super grateful for this program!
2. Peanut butter was on sale so I added 5 jars for my local food bank which also helped me get to my $100 without ordering things I wouldn't normally order.
3. Cost of gas has sky rocketed here and we live about 15 minutes from the nearest small town, 30 minutes from the small city. I've been working really hard to cluster my errands so I am only driving back and forth once. For example, picked up my grocery order while my daughter was timekeeping a hockey game at the arena. Also, filled the gas tank and went to the bank. Small things but definitely saving us gas money.
4. Was able to buy a used but like new show jacket for daughter for this upcoming show season (riding!) for a quarter of the price new. Thank you FB marketplace.
5. Also bought new clippers on sale for her horse grooming, she does all her own clipping which saves us hundreds of dollars every year. She even does the clipping for some of the other horses at her stables, and is paid for that. So new clippers = lots of savings for our riding budget.
That's about it for us this week. We did eat at home every day as well.
I got a 12-inch cauliflower crust cheese pizza at Aldi for $5.00 off. $6.99 is a little too pricey for this product, but, for $1.99 I thought I would give it a try. Of course, I added tomato, zucchini, black olives and green onions and it was delicious. I liked the crust better than regular crust. Maybe because it was thin and crispy. I won't be buying this on the regular, but, if I see it marked down again, I will definetly buy.
@Jaybee Martin, good tip! I have one of these in my freezer (bought for a friend’s visit but not used) and I’ve been scared to try it. I didn’t want to “waste” good toppings if it was gross, but I need to just give it a try!
1.) I sold an limited edition DVD set which I bought cica 2002 and watched once ... maybe. Now I sold it for about 2.5x what I paid for it, I'd say I got an alright return on it but boy howdy did it take a while for that return.
2.) Cashed in my Amazon digital credit for a book.
3.) Repaired a few things around the house. Nothing of any consequence but it's nice to know that a little glue or stitching can repair some basic things.
4.) Made a final decision to not visit my in-laws this year. It's 1,000 miles of driving each way and generally leads to me being bored and frustrated the whole time. Plus they got a dog and I won't stay in a house with a dog so we'd need a hotel.
We are planning a couple of shorter trips instead.
5.) Still just doing the normal things and trying to keep my sanity.
@Battra92, regarding no. 2. I was pretty proud of myself for saving up my tiny Amazon credits until I figured out what I wanted to do with them. Then they all disappeared! That's when I realized those credits expired in a fairly short time.
@Anne, Yeah, it's a real pain. I was down to the last week before my points expired so I got lucky this time.
It's birthday season for us so I've been trying to find ways to reduce spending for the celebrations.
1) We picked up a take home "taco box" for family dinner to celebrate our daughter's birthday. It was cheaper than if the five of us went out to a restaurant and provided tons of leftovers for lunches this week
2) Picked up a $10 coupon to use on new sneakers for daughter's birthday
3) Skipped grocery store this week to use up party leftovers and use up things in the freezer
4) Picked up a paper towel holder off our Buy Nothing group for our son's house. We were about to purchase one when it popped up on the Buy Nothing page
5) The usual stuff - cooking at home, bringing lunch to work every day, bundling errands to save gas
1. I have a hybrid SUV and put the ECON mode on in my car. It runs fine and the mileage is better. I am trying to walk/batch errands.
2. I stopped at LIDL for some good buys on produce.
3. When I shop online I use a rebate site, usually Top Cash Back. I just received an $11
gift card and have more cash back pending.
4. My husband replaced a part on the kitchen faucet. After six plus years of daily use it was starting to leak.
5. I have family vacationing in D.C. this week. I'll take the commuter train to meet up with them. It's much easier and cheaper than driving and parking.
1. I combined the $2 ExtraBuck from last week's CVS receipt with another emailed $4 EB (yes, they sent one again!) to buy four boxes of Kleenex for $2.63. I think this was the last hurrah on the CVS deals though because my receipt didn't have another EB. Sigh. I stopped by the library for more books while out that way to save on gas.
2. I hang all my clothes after drying them for three minutes (I set the timer) which gets out the wrinkles and prevents towel crunchiness, but I have always dried my sheets. However, over the weekend, I figured out I could hang the fitted one stretched between my two drying racks and the flat one in a double-wide doorway. It took two days for them to dry, but I'm the only one here, and it didn't bother me.
3. I used the 99 cent bag of peppers from last week to make stuffed peppers, fried rice and chopped the remainder to put in the freezer. I used the 99 cent bag of zucchini and made quiche and fried rice and still have two small ones to use.
4. Not frugal for me, but Kroger sent me another coupon for a free cake mix (this was the 8th one!), and I gave it to my sister to make cupcakes for her grandson's birthday.
5. She returned the favor when she bought some gift cards at Kroger and let me scan my Kroger Plus card to get 4x the fuel points (200 points!).
Have a good week, everyone!
Eating the bread ends must be a Mom thing. If I don't dry them for bread crumbs, the heels are mine. No one touches them. Personally, I think they are the best part when the bread his homemade or from a bakery. Grocery store aisle bread ends - not so much. Those are almost always made into crumbs.
Here's our Five Frugal Things for the week:
1. Speaking of crumbs, I went on a quilting retreat this past weekend. Had a wonderful, relaxing time. It didn't even bother us to be snowed in by what will hopefully be the last big winter blast. My frugal win was dumpster diving in two centrally located baskets for lovely fabric scraps to make crumb blocks out of. I actually made 20 crumb blocks while there along with making a baby quilt for a new grand nephew due in June. It's amazing how much fabric some people will simply throw away when they are done with a project. There's about four of us that do this. At one point we had it all dumped on one table to pick through. What wasn't taken will be used as filling for shelter dog beds.
2. While on retreat, a couple of the area quilt shops offered discounts. Five of us drove 35 minutes to one of them for a 20% discount. I purchased some bargain bin material for $5 a yard (normally $11.50 a yard), which I will use for the back of the crumb quilt. Also purchased some coordinating fabric for sashing at the discounted offer. On the way back, we drove through the start of the storm, making our trek back to the retreat center a little harrowing at times. We joked about having our fabric to keep us warm if we were forced to stop.
3. Last week I ordered seeds for the garden. When they arrived yesterday, the package contained a thank you note and complimentary package of spring mix seeds - yay!
4. My stepmother went through her closet (she does this three times a year) and we were the recipient of four shopping bags of like-new designer clothes. What me and my daughters don't want for ourselves will be sold online.
5. Found a machine quilting book I wanted used on Amazon in very good condition for 1/3 of the price.
NOT SO FRUGAL: The town reassessed our property...to the tune of a 63% increase in one year!!! We are on an annual assessment cycle, so we generally see a little (or no) increase per year. I plan to contest it for sure.
@Tracey, I don’t quilt, but I think quilts are beautiful. What is a crumb block?
@Bee, You take fabric scraps - even teeny-tiny ones - and sew them together to create "new" fabric. It's sort of like an updated version of an antique crazy quilt. After you create your fabric, you trim them to the size you want - mine were 6 inch squares. I'll pick a pretty fabric for borders and sew them together to create a quilt. If you Google or Pintrest crumb quilts, you'll see some really cool pictures. They are so fun to do. You never know what it will look like!
1. Saved 37 dollars at grocery store using app coupons and sales.
2. Went to a fun event that was only 6 dollars a ticket. Free parking
3. Watching prime for entertainment. Cheaper than cable.
4. Reading books from hoopla library app
5. Using free online workouts for at home exercise
Shopped at Aldi.
Sold four items on EBay, one of which had been listed since September! It’s a seasonal autumn item but it sold right here in March.
All four shipping boxes were padded with paper and bubble wrap recycled from items I received myself. I save it all.
Ate leftovers for lunch x2. Hubby’s bbq ribs-yum!
About to sign up for Medicare. To say I’m confused is an understatement. Hoping to make the most frugal choice for a supplemental program. I am wanting one of the “ give back” programs ( you receive a portion back on your Social Security) but don’t know which one is best.
I always end up with the bread heels too, but I don't mind.
1) I harvested some lettuce from my container garden for dinner last night.
2) I planted two more trays of lettuce seeds.
3) I shopped the Target sale last week and stocked up on shampoo, conditioner and sunscreen. I purchased Target gift cards back in December 10% off, so I used those to make the purchase an even better deal.
4) I had a Butternut squash that was about to go bad, so I chopped it up and roasted it last night and used it in veggie tacos. I also used a haas avocado right before it spoiled. I have a hard time catching those when they are ripe enough to eat, but not rotten.
5) The usual, reading library books on the Libby app, walking daily for exercise and drinking (way too much) coffee at home.
I ate a bread crust for my lunch sandwich today! My husband and I trade off on eating them. I also use them in French toast casserole.
I used a gift card to treat my niece and myself to coffee drinks today. The coffee shop is ridiculously expensive but free is a price I can afford.
My son caught a ride back to his college campus, 5 hours away, with a friend. I paid for a tank of gas. Still saves us significant money versus making the round trip ourselves.
Daughter and I shared pierogies at a restaurant, making our cost to eat out lower.
Using up navy beans in soup today. They have been around for awhile and I don't want them to go to waste.
1. I had one and a half lemons that were getting old so I juiced them into an ice cube tray and froze the juice for future use.
2. I used up the heels from FOUR loaves of bread and made toast for my husband and myself with eggs for breakfast
3. I used 3 half loaves of bakery bread from the freezer to make a ham and cheese casserole, the leftovers from that were turned into bread crumbs. (I swear we really do eat bread in this house!)
4. I listed a rug we no longer use online to sell, hopefully will get us some cash!
5. Rounded up a bag full of clothes my daughter no longer wears and will take them to a secondhand store to sell.
My husband's tent pole is not wasting food, including bread heels. I felt weird eating them at first (since I used to throw them away when I was single) now I look forward to toasting it and using the heel to make an open faced sandwich. Yum!
Here's my five:
1. I had to buy paint to do touch ups because the last bit of paint in the gallon dried up. I originally wanted to buy a quart but pint flew out of my mouth at the store. They were out of quarts but did have pint testers which I bought for obviously less. Turns out the pint of paint was more than enough for the work I needed to do - whew.
2. I wanted to try crocheting an I cord to use as a drawstring for a dollar store yarn crochet project. Using a crochet hook was too fiddly for my beginner self and I didn't want to buy a lucet fork for 1 or 2 projects. A Google, scissors, and a I asked for no silverware but got it takeout fork later I made a not pretty but it works lucet crochet fork. It's an easy woodworking project that I'll probably make from my scrap wood stash when time permits just because I can.
3.I cancelled a 3 month Apple+ free trial I got with a Christmas present before we had to start paying for it.
4.Did not renew our Instacart Express Membership because we weren't using it as much as we did when we bought the membership.
5. My SIL bought a house that came with a left behind stuff, including a bottle of cheap wine that is no one knows how old it is other than the other bottle in the house had turned to vinegar. My husband and I were too leery to try drinking it. I used the wine to make an advanced cold process soap recipe with ingredients I had on hand and repurposed tools and molds now dedicated it soaping. It came out and is curing and will be ready to use just about the time when I would need to buy more.
I think I can come up with a few for the week....
1. My husband wanted pizza one evening and I found a BOGO deal for him to use.
2. My daughter and I had separate doctors appointments that staff messed up some things. I called a few days later and spoke to the office manager and she took care of my concerns, plus got a script filled for me instead of another appointment to get it (like I had been originally promised); saved me another co-pay.
3. We celebrate our co-worker birthdays by taking turns bringing in treats, etc for the birthday person. This month the birthday boy wanted pizza, so we all got free lunch on the buyer (I had given the buyer a BOGO code to use on the pizzas).
4. Hubby found a fleece liner for his work rain jacket at work. He asked everyone around and everyone said it wasn't theirs, so he brought it home, I washed it and he's now using it.
5. Hubby and I went to a hockey game this past weekend.....found free parking and while waiting in line at the concession stand, an older gentleman gifted us a voucher he wasn't going to redeem for a free hotdog, soda and a popcorn. We thanked him 🙂
I need frugal help. Our ds has moved to Tampa and we need to ship his clothes from NC. Who would be cheapest? Would it be better in several smaller boxes or one giant one? Any tips and thoughts would be appreciated.
@Jennifer, Not a clue if this is helpful, if you have lots to ship, but if you want to play around with costs- Amtrak used to do shipping, though I think is still covid-stopped. You could ride the train with lots of free checked luggage.
Or Greyhound has shipping.
The number and size of boxes would probably depend on the best of use of a particular service. USPS pre-paid boxes are based only on size, not weight, so if you can cram in a lot of stuff, you're good.
@Jennifer, I've heard good things about Pirate Ship. For example, a lady I know uses it to mail comforters for a bargain price.
@Jennifer,
I have had to ship several things from Florida to Wyoming. I find that if you use USPS you can not use anything much larger than 12x12x12 or it costs a fortune. I sent a box recently that contained an ultralight backpack to my son. It weighed just over 2 lbs but measured 22x16x6. I shipped it parcel post. It took 2 weeks and cost $59. FedEx does not ship to that area in the winter. However, I find that they are the cheapest for larger parcels. There are calculators on line.
@Jennifer, I use Pirate Ship for my business, and can assure you it is a legitimate service that costs you nothing. You can play around with different options (one big heavy box vs several flat rate for example). You do need a scale of some sort however.
Not sure if someone has noted this or not, but you can cancel your Kindle Unlimited right now and it will stay active until the 30 day mark but there's no worry of forgetting!
oooh, thank you!
Not much frugal here...
A guy at Aldi gave me his cart, saved .25 and I gave the cart to another.
Their coolers were out so most of what I was shopping for they did not have so I did not spend much money.
We prepaid for our car service (oil change etc) so we don't have to pay when we take it in next week.
Work had an event that had left over chocolates in wine glasses so we each got a couple along with brownies that were super delish.
Got a couple good ones this week that are both long stories and show how it can really pay off to be friendly and polite.
I went into the Starbucks near the Aldi on my way home from work today to use up four gift cards I had been carrying around forever and I wanted to get bags of beans since I always make coffee at home. I wasn't sure how much each card had on it, so I grabbed four bags that were each about 15.00. After ringing it all up, the very nice cashier let me know that they were each worth 10, so I would need to pay about a twenty dollar difference. I asked him if he could take off one bag so I would be closer to the value of the cards. He said he would, but it would mean he had to ring everything up again, and since I wasn't in a big hurry, I said ok. He rang it all up and then said I owed about 15 which I paid on my credit card because a line of a couple people were now behind me. I was tired and still needed to go to Aldi, but the numbers just didn't seem right to me, so I looked at my receipt in the Aldi parking lot and realized he only put three gift cards on the second time he rang it up, so I overpaid and should have only needed to pay about 5 dollars. I thought about it for a minute, and then I was like "ten dollars is ten dollars," so I went back and waited until he was free and then told him I was almost certain that I had four gift cards. He was immediately apologetic and said "I'm so sorry! You definitely had four cards! Let me figure out how to creatively fix this!" I guess he had already tossed the cards? So he ended up refunding TWO of the bags to my credit card even though I was like "are you sure?" But he insisted it was for my trouble. SO super long coffee story short, I got rid of four gift cards bulking up my wallet, have three coffee bags in the freezer for making coffee at home which should last me at least a month AND I ended up with an extra fifteen dollar credit on my credit card on top of the fifteen I was originally charged! I feel like a mystery shopper because I literally made money on this trip!
The second story shall be known as the saga of the foot cream. I was prescribed a special cream to be used twice a day for four weeks by the podiatrist. When I initially filled it, they gave me three tubes of 30mg each. After about a week, I realized I was going through a tube in about six days, so I emailed the Dr to tell her I was going to run out before four weeks were up. She said "no worries, you have three refills on it." So, when I took my son to have blood work last Thursday, I was like "let me refill this to batch errands." I chatted with the pharmacist about how I was trying to save on gas by not having to come in twice and mentioned how I was burning through the cream really quickly. She started to ring it up and then said "uh-oh, your insurance won't cover it until Tuesday (today)." So I asked her how much it would be to just buy one of the tubes out of pocket. She came back and was "nope! You don't want it! It's ringing up at 186.00! Come get it on Tuesday, but call the prescription in on Monday so I can make sure we have it in stock for you." So, I went home, dug the old tubes out of the trash and cut them open to get like 6 dollars worth of cream out of each of them and then followed her instructions exactly ordering the prescription yesterday. My husband got a strange call telling him to let me know it won't be in until tomorrow (today) and I was like "oh, no problem. I have to wait until Tuesday for it to be covered anyway." Today...I go to the pharmacy, pick up another prescription and then say "do you have the other cream that I ordered?" The pharmacist brings out two tubes of 100mg each (so much bigger!) and then says as he rings it up "oh, are you ok with that charge? 186?" And I was like "Yikes! No! It's supposed to be covered by insurance as of today!" So he goes "oh, let me check the date. Oh, ok, now it's ten dollars." I guess the computer was on yesterday's date...but also, I got more than twice as much with this refill and I know it was because that first pharmacist on Thursday hooked me up with bigger tubes. When I told my husband this whole story he said "you know you're over forty if you have a really long story about foot cream." Sigh...but at least my foot cream is frugal!!!
1. Used our Science Museum membership to take my daughter to the museum this weekend
2. I used leftover goat cheese and frozen grilled chicken to make chicken salads for my lunches.
3. I used my FSA card to pay some medical co-pays
4. Last week I made apple bread using homemade, frozen applesauce. It made 2 loaves, which I froze. It is feeding my kids breakfast this week and next.
5. Our Maple trees are tapped and we have quite a bit of sap. This weekend we will boil it down into syrup.
1. Found 11 cents while cleaning our new house.
2. Using light bulbs my mom gave me when they replaced their CFLs with LEDs. Also, it looks like the previous house owners left us some light bulbs. They also left some cleaning supplies and various brooms and dusters which we will happily use rather than go buy new.
3. Thoroughly cleaned our previous duplex and will have our landlord walk through early, so if there are any issues we can fix it and get our full deposit back. Even though it is technically our money, it will feel like a bonus since we haven’t had it for about a year. 🙂
4. Friends visited to see Baby E, and they brought us dinner and two ripe pineapples. New parents love food, what can I say!
5. Batched errands today to make two additional stops that were on the way home, saving gas. Otherwise we are mostly staying at home these days due to Baby E.
You guys are hilarious here in the comments. LOL! Kristen heading out for a late night on the town with that cat tat showing...
I don't know that we've been particularly frugal or spendy this week. It's just been a week...we've enjoyed warmer days outside biking and golfing, working (me), cooking. I'm limiting myself to once-a-week grocery trips just because that's about all I want to do! We've eaten at home, I've clipped some coupons and started my garden seeds...those will be money savers when my tomatoes and squash start coming in!
I will say Kristen has put me in a mood to make bread. That's on the list for today.
Haha, me and a late night?? I went to bed at 9pm during all of my teenage years. Heh.
Come nighttime, you will always, always find me in bed, unless it's some sort of emergency.
I love reading through everyone's comments, laughing and getting ideas! The foot cream story especially made me giggle.
We're headed out of town today for a speech/debate tournament, so I feel like it's not been an especially frugal week. But, I'm hoping that the investment now pays off in the future as our kids learn to communicate with poise and thoughtfulness. The oldest was just accepted into a government youth leadership program that includes 2 all expense paid trips to our state and national capitols, with lots of activities and meeting legislators, and he credited the speech prep with helping him interview favorably, so maybe it counts as a current frugal win?
One of my sons needed a big piece of fabric as a prop for said speech tournament, and of course I didn't have exactly what he needed in my stash. Really didn't want to spend $15-20 on it, plus an extra stop at the craft store. I was able to find a sheet set at a thrift store I was already dropping some donations off at with enough yardage to make 2 pieces and keep the extra sheets for our beds, all for about $6.
All of the tournament suits were purchased secondhand or passed down. A few needed alterations, but they all look quite sharp and for being able to fully outfit 3 teen boys well in business formal for 3 days of competition at under $100 feels like a coup.
We chose a hotel (Drury Inn and Suites) that offers both a full hot breakfast and supper. For a family of 6, food adds up fast and this will save us $125 daily easily.
This fun one was my husband's: he recently read a vendor email all the way to the end, and it had a raffle entry for anyone that actually read that far. Apparently not many folks do it, so he won a huge box of goodies tailored just to him. It included framed 3 Stooges artwork so he was grinning.
Found a brand new Cuisinart Pro 11 with all the extra blades for $2 at a Goodwill outlet! My old one has a cracked bowl and leaks. It wouldn't work in the store, but I figured for $2 I'd chance being able to fix it. Turns out the safety release was sticking that allowed it to engage. 1 minute fix and it's running great!
Was able to put together 2 fun birthday gifts from the contents of the "gift closet" and not run to the store. They included 2 pillows that I filled with stuffing from disposable hospital pillows after a recent stay, and handmade note cards from vintage ephemera and thrift store envelopes.
I wanted more cotton yarn to make crocheted dishcloths as gifts, but decided it wasn't a real need. Was making conversation with my grandmother and mentioned it. She had a big stash of lovely yarn she was happy to see used, and I didn't have to spend a dime. Hooray!
@Amanda P, Good luck to everyone for your tournament!
Speech and debate were a crucial part of my high school and college years, (you can find scholarships for participating at the college level). They very much made me more confident and better able to read, think, and solve problems, as well as gave me a team of good friends.
I wash laundry with laundry sheets. No bottle, just a paper box. Also using cold water and hang out my laundry to dry.
Cooking at home for sure, and being vegan. Beans and rice and tofu are much less expensive than mean and dairy.