Five of my worst frugal ideas
This post is the result of random shower thoughts from the other morning. Ha. I was pondering how we generally share our frugal activities that have worked, but then I thought about how it's actually really fun to read about frugal mishaps/mistakes too.
Because sometimes, our money-saving efforts go sideways, or turn out to be a miserable experience.
I'll go first, of course, and then you can join me in the comments.
(Long-time readers may remember some of these stories because I usually do mention my frugal fails in the course of regular blog posts!)
1. Homemade laundry soap
This immediately came to mind because it was such a colossal fail.
I was so proud of the batch I mixed up, made of bar soap, castile soap, washing soda, and I don't remember what else.
It looked like detergent and smelled like detergent and poured like detergent.
But OH MY WORD it was terrible.
After a few weeks of using it, our clothes smelled distinctly of dirty socks. And they also felt rather stiff, like the soap wasn't getting rinsed out properly.
I switched back to commercial detergent and the problems disappeared.
I know some people swear by their homemade laundry soap but I am not going back. I will cheerfully pay for my scent-free, dye-free laundry detergent from a warehouse club and call it good.
2. Cracker-Making
This one is not so much an outcome fail as it is me deciding it's too much effort for too little payoff.
I gave cracker-making a solid try multiple times over the course of my life, and every time I have decided it's far too tedious.
It's hard to roll the dough to the perfect even thickness, and crackers that aren't perfectly even will bake unevenly. You get some that burn and some that aren't baked enough to get crisp.
Plus, it's time-consuming to prick the dough all over, cut the crackers, and place them all on a baking sheet.
I think cracker-making can be a fun baking project, just for the novelty.
For everyday cracker purposes, though, I'm happy to just buy Aldi's version of Triscuits. They're 100% whole wheat, sugar-free, and no work. 😉
3. Adding lemon-onion-salmon to my scrambled eggs
As you all know, one of the themes of my blog has been food waste prevention.
And one of my standby tricks is to throw random bits and bobs into scrambled eggs; they are an excellent vehicle for small quantities of things.
Well, years ago, I'd made baked salmon for dinner, using a recipe that involved lemons and onions. And I thought, "Hmm, what if I just mixed in some of the leftovers with my scrambled eggs?"
You guys, it was SO BAD. Gross, gross, gross.
I'm a hard sell on salmon anyway (I only eat it because it's healthy), but the lemon/onion/salmon/egg combo was just the worst. I could not even finish it.
And that is how I learned not every leftover can be mixed in with scrambled eggs.
4. Eating sketchy shrimp
This is another food-waste-related one from some years back.
In this instance, I ate some leftover ravioli and shrimp with pink sauce one (trying to eat up my leftovers!) and somehow didn't realize it had been several days since I'd made the dish.
Well, I got a miserable case of food poisoning, complete with stomach cramps that were so painful that I felt like I was in labor.
Obviously, that food ended up going to waste (just in a different way), plus I gave myself a healthy helping of suffering.
So now I am extremely careful about how much shrimp I cook so that I can finish it up at that meal or within 24 hours.
I also try to apply similar caution (being careful not to cook too much) when I am preparing other meats. I am more brave with non-seafood meats, though, given their longer leftover shelf life.
5. I added lettuce to a smoothie
I have had success with adding a lot of things to smoothies, and given that spinach disappears nicely into a smoothie, one time I thought I'd throw in some iceberg lettuce that needed to be used up.
But I should have just chopped that up and made a salad because my goodness, even with all the other ingredients, somehow the iceberg flavor came through so strong.
Yuck.
And it's not like iceberg lettuce was even adding a bunch of nutritional value to my smoothie.
So, learn from me. Don't make an iceberg lettuce smoothie. 😉
Oh my goodness. This gave me a good laugh today!!
🙂
@Ali M,
Oh, it was funnier in person....except for the bee sting. You should've been there! I guess another frugal fail was that we didn't film it, we could've won America's Funniest Video's prize with the water soaking the kitchen part. But I'm glad I made your day!
Like you, I've also tried and discarded the plan to make laundry detergent. I did some mixture with grated Fels Naptha and some other things. Not cheaper than Tide, and not as effective. So it goes. Similarly I've tried making my own cream of xyz at home for making casseroles, and again, not worth it.
Three notables I can think of —
1. Cloth diapering. Seemed like a great idea, but daycare didn't want to do it and we only changed two, three, four diapers a day at home. So I was still buying disposables plus there wasn't enough volume to wash a load of laundry very often and basically everything in the universe smelled like pee and poop. Tried with the first kid, didn't try again.
2. Certain types of gardening and canning. For instance, I like broccoli, but growing enough to make the production worthwhile to preserve for a family of seven makes the Walmart frozen florets a much better deal, especially since I really don't love things like weeding vast areas, or hoeing. Same with cauliflower, although a garden-fresh cauliflower is such a nice treat that I do still plant a couple (and it displays the Fibonacci sequence so beautifully!). Also, I love home-canned peaches, but the way our house is set up I just get sticky everywhere. Like, everywhere. Tracked through the kitchen, tracked to other rooms, cleaning up for days. Not worth it.
3. Washing the car at home. I actually like bucket-washing my vehicle, but the power-wash and soft water rinse make it smarter to go to town. If the choice is running a hose from the hot water spigot for the washing machine to get soft water rinse from inside the house (and so much hot water) or else wiping the whole thing down with a spray bottle of vinegar — yeah, I've paid my dues, and the $20 for a much faster, simpler wash will be fine.
@Karen.,
Oh, my, I hear you on both the broccoli and the car wash. I tried to grow broccoli in one of our raised beds a few years ago (family of 3, very manageable, right?) and with trying to keep up with spraying an organic spray to keep the cabbage moths off - every two weeks, and/or after every rain, completely covering both sides of all the leaves), it was just too much effort for too little broccoli. I'd invariably forget to spray, and come out to find leaves chomped into lacey bits.
Same about car washes - I'll pay the $10 for a basic wash - $12 for the next tier if needed - and partake of the free vacuum. 🙂
@Karen., we have a well, water is hard so both hot and cold go through the softener, Two of our outside spigots bypass the softener, the other has soft water. We *usually* remember to bypass the softener if we're using the one spigot to power wash (we don't use the power washer on vehicles).
@Karen., I've stopped growing my own corn and peppers because I have ways to get them really cheap and a lot easier. I'm with you that not everything is worth growing yourself.
@Karen., I love broccoli too and agree it's easier and cheaper to buy. My one year experience growing broccoli included an infestation of huge worms. 😉
My husband thinks a refrigerator is a time machine and food in it never goes bad. I have to stay on top of leftover management to prevent stuff like your great shrimp disaster.
@Ruby, My husband is the same way!
@Ruby, I recently visited my dad, whose house you must always double-check food before eating anything. With his permission, my son and I went through his fridges, pantry, cabinets and linen closet to toss expired food and old meds. We filled his entire outdoor trash bin. Besides avoiding food poisoning, I’m glad no one will be accidentally taking old meds! Those eye drops from 2013 couldn’t have been great for anyone’s eyes anymore.
@Beverly,
O.G, my husband is the exact opposite. He will not eat anything if it's been in the refrigerator more than a day. This comes from a childhood when everything was left in the refrigerator and everything went bad. So he's really paranoid about food and I understand that to a point. But I have never once in 30 years poisoned him. Consequently, we have a lot of leftovers. I will sometimes eat them or now my older sister lives near us and she tells me "I'll take all your food." We sometimes feed her for an entire week. I'm just happy the food doesn't get wasted.
@Joyce from Arkansas, ooops I messed up, I wrote you a reply, and then accidentally hit the F12 key and my computer went into some weird mode. What I wrote was that I have actually but not intentionally poisoned my HB twice in 38 years, which in my books are pretty good odds. The one incident involved cooked couscous that I had taken out of the freezer for dinner. My HB and I were both quite ill, I have never frozen cooked couscous again.
@Ruby,
Every single Christmas gathering, my brother would check mom and dad's fridge for any "possible necrosis."
Neither one of them could smell anything and never ate at home anyway. I think buying groceries was a weird social outing for them.
@Joyce from Arkansas, my mom would wrap up food in foil and forget about it until it was moldy. One of my self-appointed chores in childhood was to clean out the fridge on Saturday mornings. To this day I will not store food in metal or foil and prefer glass dishes so it's all visible.
Yes! I love my metal containers for packing lunches but I never ever use them for food storage in my fridge. Out of sight, out of mind.
@JenRR, one time I had to travel 18 hours to pick up my daughter in college. Of course one of root canals started hurting the night before (I had experience with that type of paint previously so I self diagnosed). Luckily, I had a Rx of amoxicillin five years past expiration date. So I prayed that it will work and it did! I did take it for 10 days and it only started to kick in after about 5 days. After 10 days there was no pain. I was able to pick up my daughter, come back, make a dentist appointment (of course the earliest appontment was two months later). So I will take expired meds. I might be more careful with something like eye drops that have been opened. If they were not opened they probably still work, but are less efficient. Googling how the expiration dates for food and meds are set is always the way to go for me. I will eat expired unopened apple sauce container, but will be more cautious with canned tuna that is 2 - 3 years past expiration date.
I work hard (keep lists of days that foods are cooked and then include "eat by" date) to avoid food waste, but in a single-person household that isn't easy.
However, rule number one is firmly in place: Health trumps food waste. ALWAYS.
Like you, I learned this the hard way many years ago when I ate something that I had not cooked (but a friend visiting had done) and had a similar horrific bout with food poisoning.
On that note, if I even remotely suspect a refrigerated or defrosted frozen item is maybe off, in the compost it goes. With no hesitations.
Food waste is not good and to be avoided. BUT...one's health is paramount. For some of us who already have issues with our stomachs, we have to be even more careful.
I would say old-fashioned coupons were a colossal waste of time (back in the days when you had to scrounge around for printed circulars, etc.) given savings versus time put in to accumulate.
I can't remember but I'm sure I tried, several times, and unsuccessfully, to make home made bread. For all of those who say how easy, I say: No, not always. Wasted flour and ingredients. And time.
The other fails: Buying food to cook at home and ending up either eating out or doing takeout. Why? Because of demanding work schedules. I didn't save money exactly by eating out or getting takeout. However, I also did not waste the food I purchased but could not eat or freeze. You have to be honest about what your needs are in certain situations. When I worked 12 hour plus days, it was too late to eat when I got home, so I ate at the office (delivery or takeout). The office did not have a kitchen so there was no way at that time to really bring your own food and keep it safe till when you wanted to eat it.
Being honest with yourself, about what you can reasonably eat after you cook it, how much space you have to freeze leftovers, and whether or not you have the time or energy to cook purchased food that will go bad in a few days if you don't...The mistakes in the past were NOT being honest about the reality of a given time and my energy levels. Once I accepted that I was not going to be able to cook, I learned NOT to shop for perishable items and thus saved a lot of waste. (I always had enough for either another lunch or dinner from any delivery or takeout, and even leftovers from a restaurant.)
It may shock some folks to acknowledge that there may be periods of time when takeout, delivery or restaurant eating is actually "saving" food (if not $).
FYI: I have sampled some of the various meal services when they have the promos and basically, found them to be more expensive than carefully planning a takeout or delivery for the week. Especially as I never really know what I want to eat and am not one who can follow a set meal plan. I rather just shop for basic ingredients and improvise as needed via soups, salads and like.
@Irena, I've ended up in the ER twice from food poisoning. Now, I don't hesitate to compost food I am not sure about. It's soooooo not worth the misery.
@Irena, Thursday is my trash collection day so today (Wednesday) is the day I go through the refrigerator and pretty ruthlessly toss anything questionable. When I purchase meats I always split it up into smaller packages and freeze all but one that goes in the "meat keeper" bottom drawer but still ... I think my problem (one of many) is that I don't like eating the same thing day after day. But I really need to do a better job staying on top of this because .... $$$$$.
@JDinNM, I hear you on not wanting to eat the same things multiple times in a week, especially two days in a row. And I find that my desire for certain foods changes. One week, I'm loving broccoli. Another, I can't even look at it. That makes it tough at times to both order and eat food in a given week, and everything cannot be frozen.
I wish there were some way that there would be a neighborhood collection of still edible food (uncooked, not leftovers) with say one or two persons in our large apartment buildings who could collect this food and distribute that day/night. There are plenty of people who need food but there are limited ways to get it to them in a timely and safe fashion.
Food pantries where I live have strict rules for percentages of some ingredients and as a result will not accept what is very good food that isn't expiring. It is MADDENING.
And wasteful.
It would be a lot safer than dumpster diving, for sure.
@Irena,
I'm sorry your local food pantries are like that. It *does* sound maddening. If it's being done to promote "healthier" foods (which can vary, depending on what guidelines they use), well, I do understand their attempt - but folks who get food from food pantries don't always have the facilities, knowledge, skill, etc., to cook certain foods, or cook at all (thinking of folks living in motels with maybe only a microwave to use). I won't get on my soap box, but its a bit short sighted, IMHO.
@Liz B., the food pantry in my small hometown did a great job, but had a peculiar insistence that dried beans and rice were preferable donations. Folks who don't have money for food probably don't have the money to cook something that takes several hours on the stove. I always gave canned beans, instant rice and other items that needed little or no cooking. When I worked at an urban church, we kept a food shelf for the homeless. The things they liked best were hearty soups they could eat cold, canned fruit, and packs of peanut butter crackers. There is a real place for those useful convenience foods.
@Irena, yes! Someone close to where we live just created a fb group where people can offer up extra food they have prepared so it doesn’t go to waste. You can also offer produce, pantry items…yesterday someone gave away 8 dozen eggs from her hens!
@Irena,
depending on where you live there might be foodsharing (I live in Germany, so .de) Google it, there may be some alternatives to the food pantries, and it is free, too.
one time i really wanted cherries. i love cherries. went to the local d'agostino grocery
store (probably the most expensive store in the neighborhood) and grabbed a bag of cherries. at checkout they rang up $15. boy was i shocked. when i talked about it here i feared i would be thrown off the blog. luckily no one commented at all.
@Anita Isaac, about a month ago I picked up cherries at my local grocery. At the checkout, the woman who was ringing up my food commented how expensive the cherries were going to be. She offered me the option to remove some and make my bag smaller. I took her up on it because it was going to be around $18! I think that the cherries were $8.99 per pound. :/ They were so good and I wanted them, tho, so without weighing them, in my cart they went.
By the way, there were plastic bags at the checkout which I used to cover my hands. I didn't remove cherries with my bare fingers.
Going back for more cherries today but they're much cheaper per pound this week. 🙂
@Anita Isaac, oh, I’ve done this too. Thinking the price of $4.99 was for the bag, but it was per pound but I think it was over $11.00. That was when I was pinching Pennies TWICE to get by.
@Anita Isaac, My husband loves Rainier Cherries. They have a very short season, and they can be quite expensive. I buy them anyway and cut back some place else. It's better to spend $15 on fruit than ice cream.
Cherries are expensive no matter where you get them! As long as they were delicious, I think they were probably worth the $15. 🙂
@Kathy, Frugality with a cherry on top! Or not....
@Anita Isaac,
Not cherries, but u-pick strawberries.....the first time I went to this particular local farm, the price was $7.99 for an entire bucket that holds (best guess) 4 quarts, maybe more. Last year, I went back again, and it was $7.99/POUND.... a bucket cost $30-something dollars. Yikes! I did buy them and eat them - delicious! - but I'll pay closer attention nect time.
@Molly F. C., I used to work at Whole Foods, and one day they had these huge bags of the most beautiful grapes you've ever seen, with a giant sign over it that said $9.99 and then per pound in very tiny letters. The bags of grapes were over $30! We weren't allowed to void +$30 purchases, so every time someone bought a bag and then saw the price, I would have to call for a manager to void the grapes. I ended up warning people about the price to try to save time and stress for everybody (while we waited on managers, we were not allowed to continue scanning) which some people appreciated! However, there was a woman who took great offense and ended up calling the manager to tell her that I both called her "poor and stupid" by trying to casually warn her, and I ended up getting a write-up for it! This was in part because obviously the store made a lot of money for people buying the grapes who didn't notice the price coming up. It's nice that you were kind to the cashier about it!
From @Rachel, this was also 20 years now, so grapes ringing up at that price was a HUGE shock!!
Oh my goodness yes, I would have been shocked as well!
@Rachel, I was grateful to the cashier. I was faintly embarassed, but that passed nearly immediately. The cashier knows me as a regular customer so she likely felt comfortable telling me.
I brought home cherries today and my husband asked me why I bought them since we had still had some. We are nearly out, ahem, so I replenished our supply. I tend to overbuy although I'm working on that. My wonderful husband is the opposite. He'd happily subsist on boxed mac-n-cheese, Aldi's Froot Rounds cereal, and Beefaroni. I try to not eat much processed food so none of those tempt me.
@Rachel, also, that woman likely had issues about money, or being perceived she didn't have money, but to write you up? Ridiculous!
@Molly F. C., What made the situation more maddening is we were timed on our scanning, and whenever you had to call for a manager your scan times would plummet since you were required to just stand and wait for them to come void the item.
So that week of grapes I was yelled at by customers who were mad at the price of grapes and the misleading sinage, yelled at by customers who were in line and angry I had to stop scanning while we waited for a manager, REALLY yelled at by the customer I noted above for commenting that the grapes would be expensive, and then later the manager having 'stern conversations' with me both for warning people about the price of grapes and then again for my increased scan times that week. It was really a no win situation for me, who had zero control over any of it!
It's funny it was so long ago but that woman made such an impression on me out of all the people I encountered there. A negative one for sure, but sometimes it can be good for us to see people we don't want to be like, ha.
@Rachel, People who say 'the customer is always right' have never worked in retail!
This is fun!
Homemade detergent DOES work for me, but I personally know people who have the same outcome as Kristen, and I don't know what the difference is. My sister uses my homemade detergent when she visits, but can't use it when she's home or she gets stinky gray laundry. Is it the water?
I have used paint I had on hand when it was not really the correct paint to use, and regretted it.
I've mixed up leftovers and had some pretty terrible results a couple of times, too.
I just had to get the free hot fudge sundae at Denny's offered for my birthday because hey, free!, back when we had a local Denny's, and shared it with my kids; DH was at work as always. All three of us had quite the case of food poisoning. I never went to Denny's again.
I have bought the giant economy size of a few things because it was the best deal financially and then found out I don't like it, or it doesn't work. It's worth it to pay a little more to get a smaller size first.
I used to spend almost an entire day once a month shopping multiple stores for the very best grocery prices, spending a couple of hours researching first, before I realized my time was worth more than I was saving.
I am wondering if it has to do with hard or soft water. I have city water that is fine to use as-is; no water softener necessary. What's your water situation?
@JD,
I think it must be the water. My DIL makes her own, but the children's clothes are not getting clean. Many are turning gray. I am keeping my mouth shut about this, but I hope she notices soon. I don't want to be that MIL!
@Kristen,
A friend of mine tried making homemade laundry detergent, and said it made their clothes gray and dingy. We have VERY hard water in our area. (We fortunately bought a whole house water softener when we moved into our house 14ish years ago).
@Kristen,
I'm on a well, and all the water in Florida, I think, has some lime in it, but mine is reasonably soft. We were told, and have good reason to believe it's true, that our well taps into an underground spring. Our neighbors all have quite rusty water, while we have next to no rust in ours. Our water runs clear and people like the taste of our well water. My sister is on city water.
The young woman who used to care for DH at home said her mother successfully used homemade detergent, but she couldn't. I didn't think to ask about their water at the time.
Also, I only use white vinegar as a fabric softener. I never think to ask what others use. Vinegar, I read, helps cut the soap film.
I don't use a fabric softener at all; it has never been necessary in my experience with the city water here!
@JD, I'm wondering if the type of washing machine makes a difference? I have an old fashioned Maytag with an agitator that moves the clothes around a lot. I make my own powder laundry detergent and it works great and is cheap. When I had HE machines (a big tub with no agitator) it didn't work.
@Book Club Elaine,
I've used it with front loader, no agitator and top loader, with agitator, BUT, I always used it as a liquid with the front loader - I use it dry with the top loader. I've wondered if the machine makes a difference, too.
Exact same experience here with the homemade laundry detergent! Never again!
Laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent are my frugal fails. Our clothes snelled terrible with the homemade detergent. The dishes had a powdery film on them that required multiple washings. But, you live and you learn!
Sometimes buying bulk seems like a good idea, but only if you can handle the larger sizes. For instance, purchasing a huge bag of flour but then the bag is so cumbersome, you pour half on the counter as you carefully try to fill your smaller container! It reminds me of the Andy Griffith show when Aunt Bee buys the whole side of beef to put in her ancient freezer!
@Crystal, we have learned the hard way that cheese slices in bulk from a CLUB are not for us. Always get mold. We buy cheese slices in packs of 8 or 16 now. None is wasted.
Thank you for confirming that it wasn't *my* failure on the homemade laundry "detergent". Same smell, stiffness, and general not-washed feel of my clothes after using that stuff for a while. Ewwwwww. 🙂
My experience with homemade detergent with a top loader near the Ohio River was powdery residue on ALL the dark clothes ( which is basically DH's "uniform").
Now in NC in a front loader with vinegar rinse works great!!!
This is more along the lines of "live and learn" but I no longer contribute to things I don't feel strongly about, just because I'm asked to. I don't know if it's getting older, or widowhood, or caring less about what people think of me (as you sometimes talk about, A. Marie).
It feels freeing, and gets a little easier each time.
@BJS, thanks for the shout-out--and in my case, it's all three (advancing age, widowhood, and "I no longer give a @#$%"). And I too am getting better at picking and choosing my donations. Being retired and living on a fixed income, I have to.
On a lighter "I no longer give a @#$%" note, I've taken to not wearing a bra while gardening as the summer heat comes on and bra-related heat rash becomes a possibility. Fortunately, most of the neighbors already know I'm nuts. But I'm prepared to tell any others that ILGWU stands not for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, but for "I love gardening without underwear." 😀
@A. Marie, Thank you for making me smile! Not caring what others think is truly freeing. Not caring is important factor to be and remain happily frugal!
@BJS,
I really hate it when I am asked to do this at stores and restaurants. Call me cynical, but I wonder if the charities receive 100% of my donation. Everybody seems to want a little bit of my money these days. I do give to a few charities that have a direct and profound impact on my community. I try to avoid those who pay their executives huge salaries while claiming that my donation will be used to solve all the problems of the world.
@Bee, I tell those folks either that I've already donated or to give me the paper/website and I'll look at their info later.
@A. Marie, thanks for the grin today!
@A. Marie, This would be perfect for the "I don't care club" that is all over IG right now. Perfect and funny 🙂
@Bee, I am with you on this. I don't trust that the money goes to charities either but I'm convinced the stores take the tax deduction!
@jodie filogomo, YES! I enjoy the "We do not care Club" posts on Instagram,.....HILARIOUS
@A. Marie, you are too funny!!!!! Thanks for the laugh!
@A. Marie, I too am in the I do not care club (we are very close in age,,,August is a big birthday).
And I can recall when driving home from work I took my bra off. Felt so good. Now I am retired.
@A. Marie, At least it's your underwear. Was driving in the next block over a couple of weeks ago when a guy opened his door, I presume, to let his dog in. The guy was standing there with not a stitch on. A day when I was glad my vision is not what it used to be.
Freezing leftover canned chicken. I thawed it and used it in a casserole. It was HORRIBLE!! Stringy and disgusting…never again! Yuk!
1. Eating more than I need to avoid waste. Not good for my health, and just a different form of waste.
2. Similarly, skipping lunch instead of buying something when I'm at work if I didn't make lunch. I always wind up getting really bloated and sore after dinner. Intermittent fasting is great for some people, but it doesn't work for me, and from a values-perspective I should rate myself over money, and try to make my lunch for the next day.
3. Telling myself I'll eat the same thing every day. I made a double-batch of tomato-lentil soup the first year I moved out, and then I couldn't face a tomato-based soup for a YEAR.
4. Buying in bulk because the unit price is low, but not using it because I only needed a small amount (i.e. Mr. B still teases me about the absolutely enormous bad of red lentils I bought...three years before we got married, that got used up sometime around our second anniversary...and yes, those are the lentils that were involved in point 3.)
Always learning!
Oh, and my most real frequent waste: we keep kosher and there isn't a store with kosher meat nearby. We buy lots when we're around a kosher store, and I often "process" the meat in some way before freezing--either divvying up the packages, or adding marinades, or making meatballs or schnitzels for busy days. Well, sometimes I don't get to it, and we wind up having to throw away a package. It's so expensive, and of all the things to waste, meat is my least-favourite because an animal lived and died for it. So it's also wasteful in a deeper way.
@Meira (meirathebear.wordpress.com), your #1: food goes to waist instead of to waste.
@Meira (meirathebear.wordpress.com),
So true, buying in bulk it's not always frugal. I made my share of mistakes doing this over the years. When I was recently visiting my daughter, I noticed that she had one of those half gallon jars of capers in her pantry. I wonder if she'll ever use that up!
@Meira (meirathebear.wordpress.com),
Keeping kosher is SUPER difficult when a kosher butcher shop is not convenient. There are bound to be times of some waste. Please, don’t be too hard on yourself!
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, haha exactly.
@Bee, I don't know if I could use a half-gallon! I go through something like a mini-jar a year, at most, and I really like capers.
@Kathy L, I try not to drive myself too nuts over it! But I try really, really hard to avoid wasting meat.
Scrap metal collecting was a big fail for me. We were getting through a lot of aluminium cans, so I saved each one in boxes in the garage, along with various metal items that people put out on the curb now and then in my very suburban HOA neighborhood. After a few months we had enough to fill the entire inside of our car and went to the scrap merchants, which was about 20 miles away. Then we had to sit in a queue for about half an hour. When it was finally tallied up we got a grand total of $8. Definitely not worth all the time spent.
@Valerie,
Definitely not worth it from a money perspective. However, recycling is worth it for other reasons. You did good deed.
My frugal fails were buying cheap clothing and shoes that were trendy when I was younger. The clothes practically fell apart in the wash and the shoes left me with very sore feet and aching joints as I worked in retail at the time and was on my feet all day. I caught on and learned to save up and buy the best quality classic style clothes I could afford, even if it meant owning fewer pieces. I also "splurged" on really good shoes that saved my feet, knees and back.
I once bought a huge size bottle of body lotion because it was cheaper per ounce in that size. I don't use a lot of lotion on a daily basis so I had it at least a year and one day it just didn't smell right. I opened it and found a whole mess of mold inside the bottle. Now I buy smaller containers to be sure I use them up quicker.
Couponing was never worth the time and effort to me. Most of the time the store brand was just as good and still cheaper. I also wait for a good sale and stock up on non-perishables.
Never buy Lawn Aerator Shoes!
When we first bought our house on nearly an acre, we didn't have the money to fix up the lawn so it was DIY all the way. My husband saw an ad for Aerator shoes and thought they'd be the answer. You just strap them on your feet and walk around the yard, what could be easier?
He strapped them on and proceeded outside, we hadn't had rain and he couldn't get them to penetrate the ground so he was essentially just walking around on nail platform shoes. So he waited until we had some rain and back out he went, at this point they sunk so far into the ground he couldn't pull them back out and was basically stuck. He had to unstrap them and dig them out of the ground with a shovel. Not one to be deterred, he made several more attempts and aerated perhaps a few square feet of our yard. It took him untold hours to scrap and dig the mud off the contraptions. They finally went in the garbage and I'm surprised to see they're still being sold on Amazon. Guess it's still true that there's a sucker born every minute.
@Bobi, haha! My husband and I love our aerator shoes and use them every year! Granted, we have a small grass yard in an urban city, not an acre. It’s great exercise too. 🙂
@Bobi, sounds like would be a great video!
@AmyLiz, Exercise was one of the selling points for my husband until they made his feet immobile! 😉 It's good to know they work for someone. Now, we have a natural solution to the problem: moles! 🙂
@Bobi, laughter is good for the body and the soul. I laughed so hard at your description of your husband and those shoes that you added a month to my life.
PS I have always wondered about those shoes.
@Bobi, I seldom laugh out loud, but your story did it. Thanks!
I'm with you on almost all of these , although I still make laundry detergent using borax, washing soda, and grated soap. I imagine the problem with the eggs was the lemon, since salmon and onion go great in eggs.
For me, it's usually a question of what's worth my time or whether I use enough of it, rather than what actually fails. For example, I don't bake bread because I use so little of it. As I told the late, lamented The Mrs (the website; I'm sure the person is alive and well) I don't make yogurt because I find it tedious.
I thought I failed at making new candles from leftover bits till my niece told me the problem was probably the wicks. Based on the burn patterns I was using a wick designed for a 1" wide candle in a 3" wide mold. At some point I'm going to try again, this time using 3 wicks.
I also tried homemade laundry soap. It was TERRIBLE! We had two soccer and lacrosse players in the house at the time, and it was impossible to get those clothes clean. Back to powdered Tide we went, and I've never looked back!
A suggestion for homemade crackers: I use my (thrifted!) pasta roller to roll out the dough. You don't need to get to the thinnest setting. Comes out smooth and even. I also don't cut into squares, just bake the amorphous shapes on a baking sheet and break into smaller pieces when they're done. It's not something to think of as a money saver, but a special treat.
@Queen of Fifty Cents, I had the thought that maybe a pasta roller would work, if the dough wasn't too sticky (mine is also thrifted, but it is kind of tired and the cutting parts are pretty dull).
@Queen of Fifty Cents, It is so nice to see that you still exist in the blog universe! I followed you for years and missed reading about your adventures when you disappeared. I'm a Salem native now living near Portland. I hope you'll consider sharing your life more frequently.
One of my first frugal fails was when I got my first car. I asked my brother to show me how to change the oil. He refused. So I asked a friend's brother and he was glad to show me. When it came time to change it again, I decided I would get the oil and filter and drive to my parent's so that it would be easier to get under the Chevy. I did everything like I was supposed to. Started the engine and most of the oil spewed out around the filter. I did not have sense enough to realize there was no seal on it. My mom had to take me to a garage in a nearby town (15-20mi) to purchase oil and a filter at a premium price. Needless to say, changing the oil was much simpler after that.
Decided to fix my Mom's leaky faucet (way before YouTube), plumbing in the country is sketchy at best. No shut off valve under the sink. I had water spraying all over the place. My Dad came to the rescue and turned the water off at the pump. (Deep well, pump house, just cold water, which was a step up from hand pumping from the cistern into a bucket.) My Dad's very loud and heated comment was, "A plumber and a mechanic you're not!" Our neighbor, who WAS a plumber fixed it no charge. I will say that I have been able to fix my own leaky kitchen faucet, and as far as mechanic jobs I've changed a thermostat twice as well as a water pump, once. However, car works are not nearly as simple as they used to be, so I don't do that any more.
@Chrissy, I changed the thermostat in my ’68 Ford Ranchero (gawl, that beast certainly built some character in my fragile late-teen ego) three times. Why three? First time I didn’t know about sealing the gasket, second time I installed it backwards, third time was the charm. It was fun-ish to feel so accomplished and competent. Used to change my own oil too, because my dad’s neighbor had a pit. Dad also had ramps when the pit was occupied. Nowthe DIY oil change is a big fat Don’t-Even-THINK-About-Trying.
I mentioned the chickpea soup from attempting to make hummus the other day. I've had similar cooking disasters where food has spilled out of a pan and/or burnt (like dinner the other day - I accidentally turned on a burner super high and forgot to turn on the one for the water). I also tried making homemade crisps (chips) which quite literally burnt to a crisp!
I had the saddest frugal fail yesterday....I bought chocolate and left it in the store. I went back for it but didn't have the receipt! I had to buy another bar.
@Sophie in Denmark, deepest sympathies. I have done the SAME thing. Sob.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, The worst!
I bought a cheap 'wardrobe' I could assemble out of black plastic. It was cheap for a reason! Parts of it kept coming apart, it looked terrible and in the end I donated it. I hope some future person had better luck with it than I did!
I can't come up with five at the moment, but here are a few of my not-so-greatest hits:
(1) The time I tried to freeze homemade chicken stock in half-gallon Ball jars. I thought I'd cooled the stock sufficiently in the fridge before putting the jars in the freezer, but perhaps not. Anyway, the jars shattered. Biggest mess you ever saw, and dangerous to clean up, too.
(2) The time, early in my stock-making career, when I forgot to put a pot under the colander while straining the stock and poured it all down the drain.
(3) And the time I thought it would be a good idea to shut our then two cats, Chequers and Lady Mary, up in the guest room while some remodeling work was going on elsewhere in the house. Unfortunately, I neglected to put a litter box in the guest room with them--and both these kitties had bad cases of what my 92-year-old British friend calls "gippy tummy." (I've always been grateful to Betty for having cast-iron digestion.) The result was that the quilt on the guest room bed (handmade by my MIL) was so badly fouled that I had to throw it out. Maybe Katy at the NCA could have done something, but I wasn't equal to it.
Ohhh, and that is so sad to have lost your half gallon jars too!
@A. Marie, my British phrase for that is 'a dodgy tum'!
@A. Marie, when my jars have broken in the freezer, they have just cracked. I lift off the sections and then rinse the frozen hunk and use it anyway. Talk about living on the edge. . .
Homemade soap was a fail here, too. My groundskeeper husband's work clothes just get too dirty!
I've thankfully never managed to food poison myself or others, but that doesn't mean I haven't had my doozies. My first experience with lamb was a friend's homemade euros; after living on the bathroom floor for two whole weeks, I didn't try lamb again for half a dozen years. It's one of my favorite things now, but that was scarring for a good while!
The other was a sandwich from a store I haven't been to since. The only upside of The Doom Sandwich was that it happened a few months before my fourteen year old soul kitty took a turn and we had to say goodbye. While the food poisoning was NOT enjoyable, I'm deeply grateful for the week of uninterrupted time with him, watching movies, napping, and snuggling. He was such a good boy.
Did anyone here used to read The Simple Dollar? I loved Trent's posts and eagerly copied his homemade laundry detergent recipe. I went through two full batches because I was determined to make it work, but nope. Complete and utter fail.
Another frugal fail that should have been a frugal win was purchasing a quarter cow from a local farm. The price per pound for steaks, ground beef, chuck roasts and more was amazing. We have a large-ish standing freezer and filled it up. A week later a freak storm came through and we lost power for 6 days. We tried hard to save the beef in coolers, but we lost it all. Buying meat this way is still probably a good deal, and certainly better quality, but I've been afraid to take a chance on it ever since.
Yes! I think his recipe was the one that I used.
@Beth, I loved reading Trent's comments!
We use The Prudent Homemaker's powdered laundry detergent, which works well. Have never tried a liquid one.
Trent would often use the frugal fail example of buying cheap trash bags. He had some that split, which meant ever after he bought the expensive Hefty tough ones (if I remember right). My thought was that if the cheap ones split, don't fill them so full.
@Heidi Louise, Yes! I remember that about the trash bags. 🙂
These are hilarious, and relatable. I still have soup in my freezer where it just didn't taste right or have the right consistency, so I kept adding ingredients. It ended up using like 1/2 my fridge, making a crazy amount of leftovers, and triggering guilt because it took so much time, effort and food, and... I still really don't enjoy it. The leftovers mock me when I open the freezer.
@Hawaii Planner, dig a hole in the back yard, pour it in, be thankful that it will compost itself, and FORGET ABOUT IT!! No one should be held hostage by bad soup—be free, my friend!
@Hawaii Planner,
I once made a HUGE crockpot full of a chicken curry soup that was so bland and tasteless. No matter what I did, it remained tasteless! No amount of salt, pepper, curry paste or powder could save it. I ended up dumping it. Such a waste!
Too funny—who knew that iceberg even had a flavor?
Couponing for me was a fail because I bought stupid things—fake food was always the focus of those coupons, never eggs, meat, milk, bread, cheese.
Reading sales ads was another fail, because if something was on sale, I’d put it on a list and then feel a false need to go shopping, quickety-quick before the sale ended. Eventually I learned to not read ads, which created false needs.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, YES to the looking at the ads. I completely agree and have saved so much by not looking. I just buy what I need.
I love the Triscuits with a "hint of sea salt" -- much less salty than other crackers. The "dill and sea salt" are good too, particularly with tuna salad.
And completely off-topic, I just wanted to share that yesterday my weather app told me it was 100 degrees but "it feels like ... 99". Thanks! So much better. I hadn't noticed.
@JDinNM,
Wow! A whole degree cooler! 🙂
I'm right there with you on the homemade soap. Gross.
I've made my own crackers for 40+ yrs. Being celiac, gf crackers are so expensive. My family prefers them. I use my pasta accessory for my kitchen aid mixer.
Changing my own oil, I will do it on the tractors as they are easy, everything else is done by the dealership, including my classic '64 pick up.
We tried making cottage cheese, using great grannies recipe. Fail.
I will barter my skills for plumbing, electrical, small engine mechanical work. I detail work vehicles, bake, mend clothes, babysit and critter sit.
If anyone wants to try making crackers and has a pasta maker it works great for getting the dough a very even thickness
I do occasionally make my own (Marseille soap) liquid soap, and use it for the rare occasions that I use liquid detergent. I am more of a soap powder fan as I find that cleaner, cheaper, and better for the machine (I read an interesting article the other day again about how less laundry detergent is actually better for the environment than lower temperatures - and cheaper too. I think it was on the BBC website but I am not quite sure).
What I have tried and discarded: drying (desiccating?) fruits and vegetables. It is not really useful for the tiny garden that we have - I only have some fruit bushes and herbs. For that reason I also do not can anything beyond chutney and relish. I do make batches of pastasauce, and freeze them. Another thing I try to get rid of buying too much groceries in bulk. We live in a densely populated country which means shops everywhere, and relatively small houses. I struggle to keep order in the large quantities of foods and non-foods. So now I only keep foods I can keep in a month, and non-foods that will weather me over until the next seriously good offer happens.
I just remembered another one. My friend and I went on a cheap holiday to Wales and, as is often the case in the UK, it rained 90% of the time. We got lost on a walk with a flimsy leaflet with instructions (which looked like it was published in 1970), my friend got sick and we left a day early!
@Sophie in Denmark, I had a friend at Aberystwyth in Wales during a college year abroad while I was in London at the LSE, but I couldn't convince myself to spend the Michaelmas break in Wales instead of Italy. I was ready for warmer weather and sunny skies! And Renaissance art at the Uffizi.
@JDinNM, No contest! I'm hoping to go to Italy this summer with my sister (I've been to Sicily but not the mainland). That reminds me of another story; not quite a fail but we went on a working holiday together to Greece once (it was a free place to stay) and we had to share a broken sofa bed and help out on a farm. It was an interesting experience, but I prefer going to vacations to relax these days!
@Sophie in Denmark, I loved Milan (La Scala if you're an opera fan, but really the whole city, because northern Italy and southern Italy always seemed like two different countries to me) and of course Florence. Really did not care much for Rome except for Easter Mass at Vatican City and of course the Sistine Chapel.
@Sophie in Denmark, Here's to comfort! Your comment reminded me of of a hiking trip in Devon and Cornwall when we got caught in a downpour and had to camp out in a 3-sided horse shed. Not fun. But it did earn me a reputation as a Good Sport. High praise in England.
@JDinNM, Thanks for the tips! I've had a wish to go to Florence ever since seeing A Room With A View!
@JDinNM, Haha! Good Sport sounds like a very old-fashioned compliment to me, but I'm glad you received it! Devon and Cornwall were my family's usual holiday destinations in summer but surprisingly, we had good weather most of the time from what I remember!
@JDinNM, It also reminds me of when my mother and I had to take shelter in a horse shed during a sudden downpour (although we didn't have to camp, thankfully) and she told me it was character building. I wasn't buying it!
I am extremely adverse to eating anything that might, possibly have an off chance of making someone in my family sick. I know that I am probably in an unpopular camp here but I will not keep anything past expiration except buttermilk and that is only used in baked goods. I have had food poisoning and been hospitalized for it so PTSD for me here all the way. I regularly clean out my pantry and toss anything that is expired and rotate items that need to be used quickly. I also regularly clean out my fridge and throw out items past their best. Leftovers have about 2 days in my house. If they are not gone by then, they go into the trash. That said I try my best to control the waste by rotating stock, planning meals that I know will get eaten up quickly, and freezing to save things. This is good when I make large batches of soup or spaghetti sauce - half to the freezer to begin with avoids waste and gives us a meal later down the road.
My worst frugal fail ever? Easy. Hiring my brother in law to handle renovations and repairs in our home. I am now over $12K in the hole fixing what was done incorrectly. Lesson learned. Just pay the cost to have a professional do the work - it may cost a bit more but you save yourself so many headaches down the road.
@Angie, That reminds me of why I paid someone from Ikea to put together some furniture for me. I'm not terribly proud of not being able to do it myself, but I didn't have the right tools or anyone to show me.
When my children were little, back in the early 90s, I decided that I needed to learn how to sew. I thought that I could make some of their clothing. The first dress I made for my daughter - who was a toddler at the time - required $65 in materials ($153 in today's dollars), $50 for the class and at least 10 hours of my time. I had chosen a complicated pattern. I decided I was better off buying their clothes, especially if I found them secondhand.
I am glad that I learned to sew. I can do some simple alterations and repairs. Money saving. I also have learned to make throw pillows and decorative items for my home. So all in all, sewing is a great frugal skill - sometimes.
@Bee, My mum made some of my clothes when I was little (and I'm around the same age as your kids!) I keep meaning to ask her to show me some things.
@Sophie in Denmark,
There are some good sewing videos on YouTube, but nothing is better than Mom's help. I'm sure she would love to pass her knowledge along to you. I wish that I had taken the opportunity to learn more of these kinds of things from my mom.
@Bee, I have asked before but the sewing machine has been put away and for some reason we haven't got round to it! Hopefully this summer we will 🙂
@Sophie in Denmark, Bee is right -- moms make the best sewing instructors. And they know all the quirks of their sewing machines and can rescue you when you can't get the bobbin back in the right way. Ask me how I know, says the girl who sewed her own prom dress.
Because I love any way to do DIY stuff or make things from scratch, I’ve been meaning to try homemade laundry detergent for years. Today’s comments made me reconsider and then piqued my curiosity as to why it is so terrible. Here’s what I learned about homemade laundry soap
It is SOAP which contains fats and oils, not DETERGENT, which doesn’t contain fats and oils. Thus, detergents are more water soluble.
When soap accumulates in your clothing, it creates a water-repelling effect and attracts and traps dirt. Hence, the gray laundry.
ALTERNATIVE: The Thrifty Homesteader has an article about using simply 50/50 Borax and washing soda, minus the soap, which she swears by, using only 1/8 cup total for a load in her high efficiency machine. She points out that if the combo deals with bad stuff simply by soaking, then it certainly works when used in an agitation cycle. If laundry has some awful smells, she adds more washing soda. She also points out that fragrance in commercial laundry detergent must be super strong to last through the rinse cycle (I DESPISE scented detergents and can barely walk down that aisle in the market).
If you could make homemade laundry DETERGENT, then you'd be golden. You are right; it's the soap that is the issue. 😉
My refrigerator died. I needed to take it out of the kitchen, so that the metal haulers could take it away; I had bought a fridge from Salv. Army and unlike Home Depot, they don't haul your old one off for free. Anyway, removing the fridge included disconnecting the water line for its automatic icemaker. I hired my usual handyman, who often doesn't know what he's doing but won't tell me he's never before done something. He didn't realize he had to turn off the water before undoing the water line. The thing started spurting water all over the kitchen, and was turning round and round like a sprinkler. It was a scene worthy of "I Love Lucy" on TV! My kitchen was flooding and I had to run out and get an outside trashcan to try to hold the water. He couldn't get the knob under the sink to turn, so he goes out to the water cutoff by the curb. That's when we found out that a bunch of bees had nested in the water meter hole. He got stung. That part was definitely not funny! We had to call a plumber, and call the bee removal guy. It was a hot mess, and an expensive one at that.
I also wanted to re-carpet the hallway; my 15-year-old wall-to-wall carpet had seen its day. Since the hall is narrow, I thought getting a lot of rug runners and throw rugs from Walmart and installing them over the carpet pad would be cheaper. I had found a pattern I just loved and thought the patterned rug would be gorgeous. Anyway, the above-mentioned handyman said his brother-in-law and he could remove the old carpet from the hall and spare bedroom and install the rugs. Well, I didn't buy any carpet for the bedroom, I was going to wait til I had more cash, but I let them do the hallway with all the Walmart rugs. The BIL said he needed me to buy various carpet tools, and if I did, he'd take it off his bill. So I spent $100 on them. Well, by the time he finished, there were some lumps in the carpet. And they charged me more than I'd realized bc they said some of it was taking out 2 rooms of carpet and dumping it. I paid, and then I asked my handyman if his BIL would come back and fix the lumps. He never did; he'd gone to jail and then when he got out, he skipped town. I admit the patterned carpet looked good, at least it did before Mr. Snuggles Dog came to live with me. He went hyper when I left one day, and tore up the carpet. The part by the door is in shreds. So I think I will replace it with vinyl plank.
The dog rescue lady recommended I get a doggie crate for Snuggles, so he couldn't wreck the house when I'm gone. I bought one at Walmart, followed her instructions on crate training -- but that ended up being a very bad idea. Who knew a dog could bend the cage wires and somehow wiggle out? The crate is damaged so I can't take it back, and he won't stay in the crate. I'm afraid he could badly injure himself on another escape attempt. Meanwhile, Snug has learned I will come back when I leave, and I have learned not to close the door to the den. We haven't had a rug-damaging incident since.
@Fru-gal Lisa, Oh my goodness! The water line spurting water everywhere must have been quite a scene!
@Fru-gal Lisa,
I remember you describing the issues with the fridge, the water, and the bees after it happened! We can't make this stuff up, can we? 🙂
@Fru-gal Lisa, You might try getting your money back from the mfgr. Cages are supposed to be stronger than dogs so you could argue that yours was defective.
oh my gosh Kristen, I hear you on the questionable shrimp! This happened to me about a week ago, and yes to the major cramps et al: A word that I distinctly remember from high school is the word Peristalsis, and I think of it every time I am in this situation. At this time, I have sworn off shrimp, I may go back to them at a later time, maybe? maybe not?
The cramps are WILD. So so painful.
My husband had the same experience with shrimp,he was in so much pain and so sick to his stomach,I wanted to take him to the ER.
Seafood isn't something to mess with!
I still stick to the idea my time is money concerning certain frugal things, you're not the 1st person I've heard of that didn't have good results with the homemade stuff.
@Patricia, Years ago my husband ordered shrimp at a Mexican restaurant in Oklahoma, right before we drove back to Texas. About 3 hours into the drive home, he started getting sick. When we finally made it back to Fort Worth, I drove him straight to the emergency room. No more seafood at non seafood or steakhouses. Not worth it.
I personally find iceberg lettuce to have the most pungent taste. I don't eat it, but I can tell when my husband has (when we kiss :)). Or if a restaurant served something on it (like chicken tenders at Applebees in days of yore), it was all I could taste.
Hi Kristen,
This is off topic but, you mentioned last week, I think, that Citi rewards are going to be reduced (?) in August. Do you know where I can find out more details about this? I have over 135,000 points and I don’t want to make any stupid mistakes. Thank you!!
Donna
Ok, so, apparently it is only for some cards! See this article: https://dannydealguru.com/citi-will-devalue-thankyou-points-in-august/
I hear you! Sometimes it’s just not worth the time and effort to pinch a few pennies. Your time is valuable.
Oh, I have had failures. One comes to mind. Years ago I read of a frugal hack of cutting new, unused kitchen sponges into smallish squares, soaking it a homemade laundry freshener solution, and tossing in with washed clothes in the dryer, the way one would with fabric softener sheets (which I never bought then and still never buy! LOL). It left spots on the clothes, most crucially several of my husband’s work polo shirts. He was not happy. I quit that! LOL
Similar to your laundry soap fiasco, I made liquid dish soap in an effort to reduce waste and (possibly) save money and the results were awful! I researched, read what I thought was reputable advice, followed the instructions carefully and it was a slimy, non dissolvable mess that required so much scrubbing and rinsing to get anything clean. And I hade made so much of it, about 3 litres! I shoved it in the cleaning closet and eventually used it up by scrubbing the bathtub and was relieved when it was gone. Never again! And since I can buy dish soap in a 5 litre jug for not too much money, the meagre savings were not worth it. After that I didn’t venture into laundry soap, and upon reading your story, I don’t think I ever will.
Hi.
Enjoyed this and realize some of my not great ideas weren't so bad. I also tried to make my own laundry detergent, without success.
Have never tried adding lettuce to a smoothie; that one made me laugh!
If anyone is looking for a safer laundry soap and other cleaning items from a company with sustainable practices, try Meliora: https://meliorameansbetter.com/ Have used the laundry soap for many years!
Nancy
One of mine - well, a combo of me and my DH: I like to rehab/paint small pieces of furniture from time to time, especially if the piece is beat up or otherwise unattractive, but useful; when DH saw a storage bench for $20 on Marketplace, he pounced, knowing I would make it look nice. When he got there, he realized the bench was in worse shape than he thought, but bought it anyway (he said the folks selling it looked like they didn't have much). It smelled of smoke, had laminate peeling off one arm, and was made of laminate over pressed particle board. I Googled some rehab ideas, and bought putty, primer, and a sample sized jar of a bright blue color (a blog indicated this was all the paint I needed). The bright blue color was pretty, but did not match or coordinate with anything in our living room....not sure what I was thinking. Lol. I got to work - cleaned it up, putty-shaped the arm after pulling off the peeling laminate, and got to work. I ended up needing more paint - because, yeah, a sample jar is not nearly enough - let it dry....and there it sat, unfinished....it moved to the basement and then the garage, still unfinished.....every now and then, I'd see it and think "sheesh, I need to finish that...." and go on my merry way. It needed a coat of ployurethane..... three years later, I cried UNCLE and gave it away on my Buy Nothing group. I still have never found the bench lid hinges. Lol! It was very freeing to move it along!
I am with you n the crackers! I purchased some delicious homemade graham crackers at a farmers market when I was traveling once. I tried to make them at home and it was a colossal failure (with the exception of the fact that the house smelled wonderful while they were baking). They looked horrible and really didn’t taste good either - I tossed them. I would love to find a source for “ from scratch “ graham crackers.
I have only made laundry soap in emergency situations. The recipe is easy and includes scent boosters but in general isn't worthwhile for my every day life.
I think one of my biggest frugal fails involves canning. I bought a new pressure canner knowing I don't love the experience. My DH wanted to can meats: ground beef, chicken and stew. We did can with it successfully but I calculated how many jars I would need to make to make it worthwhile. As if by magic, we got to that number and stopped using it.
Also preservation: I bought a dehydrater 3 years ago and never opened it. I can hear my whinny voice saying "its loud and produces too much heat." Really I didn't love the idea of it. SMH. Yes, I knew this beforehand.
Here is a weird one. Not a frugal fail per se, just a cautionary tale and a near miss. A few years ago a family member passed away unexpectedly. They had chosen cremation so we dutifully went to a business that did that. The person helping us told us we could fill out the death certificate information with her assistance, or we could go to a coffee shop or some place with internet and do it ourselves and save $250. So off we went to a coffee shop and completed the form. Both of us (my sister and I) proofreading as we went. The person helping us advised us to order only 1 copy of the death certificate to start “because there are often errors” and if you ordered a bunch (because you probably need 5 or more) you end up with a bunch of incorrect documents that are useless. Sure enough - when we got the initial death certificate there was one significant error that we needed to correct. I am still baffled by how/why neither of us noticed when we were filling out the form (we clearly were more distracted/distraught than we realized) but I was grateful for the “heads up” we were given because it saved us $$.
When I was younger and broke, someone gave me the advice to take everything if it was for free. Needless to say, I ended up with a lot of things I did not want, need and had to dispose myself. While I think most things were well intended, that did not work for me. I am older now and grew some backbone to say no even to free stuff that does not suit me right now.
-Even worse for me: cold showers. Yes, there may be some energy savings, but I hate them with all my heart. Only ok after sauna!
If you feel badly about food waste, there are many items that can be composted. If it works out right, you now have something to enrich your soil.
Keeping my barely used paper towels and napkins stacked around until I dirty them up!
Washing soda and shredded zote soap. Easy and effective laundry detergent.
1. Cheap lawyers. You get what you pay for and a cheap lawyer just isn't worth it, especially in a custody dispute. It would've been better if we'd represented ourselves, because even if we'd lost (and we probably would have without an attorney) we could've saved all that money. We wasted over $30,000 - 50,000 on 4 cheap lawyers until we wised up. We aren't rich people, barely in the middle class, if at all. However, we were blessed with the last one and she was excellent. We finally won. And finally got it all paid off.
2. Cheap car parts. Back when my husband did all of the repairs on our '71 VW, we bought the cheapest parts we could because we were broke. I remember the re-built master cylinders for the brakes. In a period of just a few months, the cheap ones kept failing. 3 times. No returns allowed. We learned that if at all possible, buy the best repair parts you can. Sometimes we couldn't, but when we could, we did.
3. Cheap shoes for growing boys. Again, when our son was about 11 years old, all we could afford was Walmart sneakers. $30 they lasted 3 months before tearing up but it was all we could do. As soon as my husband was able to find work, we bought him a pair of Reebok's and they lasted a year. A much better investment, but if you don't have it, you don't have it.
4. Cheap motels. We've had dirty ones, scary ones and beds that were so bad I couldn't sleep. I really like 4 star hotels, but Holiday Inn is just fine with me. The only cheap motels that are worth it are the ones on military bases. Always clean and very safe.
5. Coach seats on an airplane. I'm tall and crippled with arthritis and can't handle the ZERO leg room. I'd rather drive 1000 miles than fly coach.
I made some biscuits from scratch. It's been so long ago I was about 16, but anyway I remember my sister saying we should use these for snowball fights. I laughed so hard that I peed my pants. They were hard as the rubber balls we use to play jaxs.
I don't know how I missed this post...but I also tried making my own laundry soap (powder version) and it worked OK, but it was too much effort, grating up soap bars and breathing in the various powders. I like scented laundry detergent so I was disappointed that my clothes didn't smell pretty. (: For awhile I was making my own bread, but as my mother would ask "do you know they sell bread at the store?" Ha! It was too labor intensive for me. Every leftover thing I have goes into my mouth the next day or the freezer for my future work meals. That being said, I cook for one, so I basically don't have that issue. Another fail for me would be making clothes. I used to love to sew my own but now fabric and notions make it too costly. But back in college I sewed dresses and skirts and tops. Even once made a bikini!
If mine had just not smelled pretty, I might have persevered. But Eau de Stinky Feet was too much to take!
hmmm, it is timely that I came across this. We are in central Montana, where cell phone service can be lacking, to put it lightly. We have been ardent TracFone users since day one. We got our last round of phones, paid for up front, in 2020 with a stimulus check, so needless to say they were getting worn out: the battery life was poor and they were buggy and all around we were ready for an update. So I set forth looking at iPhones... they are so expensive!! I had been piling up money so it wasn't a huge issue, but the sticker shock was definitely shocking!! After looking everywhere, I found a great deal on Boost Mobile's site: Buy the phone, in our case the 16e (3 of them) and get a $25 each credit towards your monthly bill for a year. We could absolutely live on the cheapest plan; unlimited talk and text and 30 gB of data per month, so we were going to pay $10 per month for a year (saving $75 per month because of the discount). Awesome!! We were currently paying around $50 per month for all 3 lines - super chill data users here as data is $$ with TracFone.
We got the phones, got our numbers ported over, and were all set. Cue the dark theme song... there was basically no service in our little corner of the world. I had previously checked the coverage map, found our house, our pastures, our fields, and they were all covered by at least 4G... Lies! We could use the satellite text and call feature, true, but it was very very cumbersome and hard to deal with. So within 10 days of having Boost I ported everything back to TracFone, lost the $40 a month savings, and can now talk to and text anyone I want from basically everywhere on the ranch.
I guess connectivity beats savings in this case...
I tried kale in a smoothie once. Nope! Another time I tried a small amount of beets in smoothie. Also nope! I couldn't drink either of them. Both tasted like dirt.
Agreed on the beets. It takes a LOT of lemon and ginger to make that tolerable.