What to do when a frugal activity backfires
If you've been living the frugal life for any length of time, you've no doubt had a frugal activity backfire on you.
I am no exception, so let me tell you about two of my recent examples!
1. A failure-filled yogurt-making session
I had a rather comical yogurt-making issue recently.
I was heating milk for a batch of yogurt one evening, and I forgot it was on the stove (I was studying in the living room!).
The milk boiled over rather vigorously, and I didn't remember to remove the lid right away, so it got stuck onto the pot with the power of suction.
This has happened to me before, so I should have known to take the lid off right away!
I thought I remembered that if you cooled the pot down, the lid would come off, so I let it sit for a while. But the lid was still stuck.
Then I googled about it and realized that heating the pot is what would solve the problem.
So, I did that, but at that point, it was too late in the evening to finish the yogurt-making process.
I refrigerated the milk and began the process again the next day.
All seemed well when I put the yogurt in the cooler; I left the house for school and had Zoe put the jars in the fridge once the incubation time was done.
But when I went to check on the yogurt the next day, it was oddly sloshy. Like...slightly thickened milk, but also rather gelatinous.
So I thought, "Ok, no big deal, I'll just drain it and make Greek yogurt."
But man, even after an overnight stay in the strainer, the yogurt had let off only a tiny amount of liquid. It's like all the liquid was just STUCK in the gelatinous yogurt.
So then I thought, "Hmm, maybe I could just use it in smoothies."
I made a smoothie and proceeded to spill it when I tried to pour it into a glass.
And to add insult to injury, somehow the weird yogurt even made my smoothie a little odd.
THIS YOGURT WAS CURSED.
At that point, I decided I was done with this batch of yogurt. I dumped it down the drain, got a new gallon of milk, started fresh, and now I have a batch of proper yogurt in my fridge.
I really don't know what exactly was wrong with the milk after just being double-heated. This seems like it should have worked just fine, but obviously, it didn't.
(!!!!)
If you take this story individually, it sure seems like my yogurt-making efforts are not only a waste of time, but also a waste of money.
I wasted a gallon of milk, some sugar and vanilla, some electricity, and also some time, and had nothing to show for it, except a slightly funny story.
But in the grand scheme of things, I have made yogurt probably hundreds of times by now, and given that homemade yogurt is about a quarter of the cost of store-bought, I've saved myself many, many, MANY hundreds of dollars.
Losing a gallon of milk is nothing in comparison to that.
2. A lawn-mowing/hornet-stinging session
Remember how I was mowing my lawn a few weeks ago, but I got stung by yellow jackets (a type of hornet) in the process?
I ended up needing to go to an urgent care place to get some steroids to help with the swelling and itching, and the visit cost me $40.
That's pretty cheap for a visit, of course, but still, when I got the bill, I thought, "Hmm, that lawn-mowing session didn't save me much money at all!"
But since I moved into this house, I've mowed my lawn a bunch of times, saving myself probably $50-$75 each time. A single $40 urgent care visit doesn't even come close to competing with those savings.
So, what do you do when a frugal activity backfires? Zoom out.
When you have a failed effort, zoom out and look at the big picture.
Maybe it's a situation like my yogurt; it's a frugal activity you've done a million times, but this one time it was a fail.
Or maybe it's a new frugal activity.
Like... you tried a new off-brand and it was terrible.
Or you tried mending a shirt and you ended up ruining it.
Or you tried spray painting something and it turned out sticky and blotchy.
Ok, yes, maybe that one thing was a fail, but look at your history of frugal activities. More often than not, they've probably been successful.
So, don't forget about those successful times when you have a frugal flop.
The flop is just a small part of your long history of money-saving efforts. Even ten flops out of every hundred efforts will still get you a grade of 90%.
A fail is a financial loss, yes.
But still, you're way better off than you would be if you'd never done that frugal thing a million times, or if you never tried new frugal things.
Note: Obviously this doesn't hold true if you, say, burn your whole house down as a result of a frugal effort. But for everyday, minor mistakes, you can just zoom out, take in the big picture, and realize that one mistake is not a big deal.
How do you comfort yourself over a frugal fail? And...share your frugal fail stories, please!
We'd probably all love to hear about your mishaps because it will make us feel less alone.
P.S. Remember when I shattered my stovetop? That evening of cooking dinner was a terrible loss financially. But in comparison to the thousands of meals I've cooked over the years, the cost of even a new stove is a mere drop in the bucket.
P.P.S. On an opposite note, here are five ways to make yourself miserable after a frugal mistake.
This is so true! I've thrifted items that ended up smelling so bad even after washing, soaking in vinegar, etc., I had to throw them out. I sniff when I shop now.
More than once, when making broth from bones, I got out a colander to strain it and forgot to put a bowl underneath, cause, usually, I use the colander for noodles and just put it in the sink. So the broth went down the drain. I was so mad when I did this. But most of the time I do remember and the broth is so good.
My worst frugal fail is when I used to make popcorn in the microwave in a paper bag. I did this a bunch of times, its such a cheap snack. One day I noticed some unpopped kernels in the bag, so I didn't want to waste them. I put them back in the microwave in the same bag. A few seconds later, my microwave was on fire. We now have a new microwave. $$$. I now use a silicone container to pop popcorn, its a nice one that was gifted to me.
On a bigger note, Kristen, I love the advice to zoom out on this. I had a rough week last week, full of lots of things thrown at me, all small but they piled up. Part of my job is to listen to concerns. There were lots. I've been working on resetting myself to face a new week. Zooming out is just what I needed to hear. In the long run, that was just a bad week. Most weeks I do better.
@MommaJo, most weeks you do GREAT!!! This week will be better.
@Cindy Brick, you are so sweet, thank you
@MommaJo, hope this week is better for you!
I’ve had hundreds over the years, a lot of them involve me tossing/donating useful things. I have a small house which equals little space. And I hate selling. I do sometimes find that I could have used an item again but in the grand scheme it’s much better to have gotten rid of the stuff. As I still have too much that I need to deal with. A big one was cleaning out my parents home. Lots of useful items and some not so useful. I sat everything on the curb and 95% was picked up by scrapers. Not frugal as I could have sold some of the things. But it was easier and helped me in that way.
@cc, I find this to be so, so true. When my father died and my two sisters and I were sorting through his things, each of them would pick something up and say "Someone should keep this!" and look right at me. I finally told them "The next person who says 'someone' should keep this is the 'someone' who will have to keep it." That put an end to that.
@JDinNM, Yes== When helping my Dad with sorting stuff out, he would say, "Someone could use that" or "Someone would pay money for that." I finally said, "That 'someone' isn't here." We thus donated more, even though his depression era frugal upbringing fought against it.
@JDinNM, perfect answer.lol luckily or not so lucky, I was the only one doing this so no one to tempt me to keep stuff.
I think this concept of zooming out can be applicable to lots of things. A good friend of mine told me he doesn't like it when he's right because then he doesn't learn anything new. He has instead embraced being wrong because of the immense potential to learn and better himself from his mistakes. I will try to come back tonight and write up a funny frugal fail story. I'm sure I can think of plenty, but I need to get ready for work now.
@Becca, I always said being low income made me more creative. I didn’t have the option to spend money and had to learn how to make what I wanted. I’ve done that for so many years that my first thought now is, how can I do that. An example is I do like to eat out sometimes but it has got so expensive for even the occasional restaurant meal. I’ve started looking for recipes to try at home once again.
It’s funny you should post this today, as I’m in the process of repainting my car myself. This is the fourth time I’ve repainted a car,* with marked improvement every time, but the beginning phase—after hours of cleaning, sanding, taping, and priming the rust spots—is definitely the most “What am I doing, and is it worth it?!” part of the process.
As for fails, the first time I painted a car—my first car, incidentally—I didn’t think to tape the windows or lights off. Guess who got to spend hours scraping off stray spray paint with a putty knife? I tape off EVERYTHING now! 😛 Careful taping is also the major difference between “You did that yourself, huh?” and “You did that yourself?!”
*I buy my cars cheap—$700 (painted twice), $1500 (painted once), and $1000–and drive them into the ground. My current, much beloved ride was $1000 eight years ago and is in its mid-thirties—the definition of low stakes, marked improvement!
@N, VERY impressive!
@Gina from The Cannary Family, And also very funny!
I hope the repainting involves flames on the front of the car! (always wanted it, but considering I drive like a crazy woman I don't need to draw any more attention to myself)
@Rose, I’m planning in stars, actually!
@Rose,
LOL! We have a 2008 truck we bought new and paid for 15 years ago. It has some dents but just returned from a 4,000 mile trip and it did great. My hubby is very high on keeping things maintained!
@Sherry, I hear you! DH's truck is a 2002. It still looks great, including the (formerly) burnt-out red shell that he bought for $200 on CraigsList and painted to match the truck himself. His rig only has 110k miles on it and is still going strong.
Frugal fail: I found a pair of Merrill boots at a thrift store for $10. They were brand-new, in the box. The box was faded, but I figured it was no big deal. They were amazingly comfortable and I loved them. On the third hike, the soles literally fell off. Apparently, they had baked in the box for so long the soles had "cooked" and become brittle. Oops.
Ohhh, man! That's frustrating about the shoes! Is the actual sole brittle? Or just the glue that held the sole on? If it's just the glue, maybe they could be repaired.
Then again maybe this is an old story, and the shoes are long gone.
@Dicey doesn't know how or why this posted twice. Zoom out!
There is a little silver lining to this story. I volunteer at the thrift shop where I found them. We have a check-out system, wherein we note the items we're taking to try on, because we're too busy working our shifts when we're at the shop. We can return them, or pay for them at a later time. The soles fell off so completely, that they were directed to the trash bin and the item removed from my card.
About that card: When I periodically clear it off, I round up, just as a thank-you for the convenience of having this system. I believe in the cause, so occasionally I round up quite a bit.
The boots looked and felt fine, but I noticed little bits of black stuff everywhere, which made me re-examine them, only to discover the whole sole problem.
I've had so many frugal fails. Most recently was throwing away an entire meal's worth of chicken thighs. (We'd bought chicken at a sale and frozen it.) Stinky thrifted things? Yes. Scorched milk for yogurt? Yes. Two things help me:
1. "It's not the end of the world."
2. My homeschool mom mindset: "Well, now I've learned something (the hard way)!"
Oh gosh I love this post and the comments-
I have several in recent memory.
1- Frugally bought a down vest on a used clothes website from a private seller. Received the vest and the zipper broke shortly after. Took the zipper to a seamstress for repair (thinking that was a cheap fix) and it turns out replacing a zipper is not cheap. Should have just bought a new vest.
2-Not really my fault, but recently took a pair of shoes for repair and the shoe guy literally lost the left shoe. He is "still looking" for it...
3-Making our own orange juice (cost a fortune in fresh fruit)
My most dramatic story along these lines would probably be my wrecking our 2013 Prius in November 2020, on my way to a couple of thrift shops across town. I was seriously sleep-deprived after a long weekend with DH (who was still living at home but well into his "sundowning" phase), and I probably shouldn't have been driving at all. But I was desperate to get out for a little R&R, so I took off the minute his home aide arrived that day.
However, I console myself with these thoughts:
(1) Most importantly, I walked away from the wreck, shaky but uninjured. The alternatives, especially with DH unable to care for himself, would have been awful.
(2) Neither I nor the other driver got a ticket, as far as I know. I may or may not have run a red light, but he was definitely doing 60 in a 30-mph zone--so I believe we were judged to be equally at fault.
(3) The car was declared a total loss in record time; I also got things settled with our auto insurance company in record time; and the payment was, I think, quite generous.
(4) Finally, I was starting to think at that point about disposing of one of our two vehicles anyway, since DH could no longer drive. This wasn't quite the way I'd planned to do it, but the outcome was the same.
@A. Marie, on the way to the thrift store no less. I had my fender bender coming home from the library.
I always think to myself, well if this is a flop, then I spent money on a learning activity. And the more you learn, the fewer flops you have. And you begin to get really good at the thing, so it all evens out in the end. But if you get weirded out over your flops, you never give yourself the chance at improving your skills.
One of my biggest frugal fails is over buying when I find a great clearance deal. Whether it is food, yarn, or something else I sometimes end up giving some of my bargains away. That negates much of the "savings".
I have a GE stove similar to the stove Kristen had though the controls are on the front of the stove (a 2015 model purchase). I too broke the cook top, when a glass bottle of EVOO fell out of the cabinet near it. I was able to order a new cook top and with DH's help we replaced it. It has been several years since then and I'm glad we were able to fix it but it was not cheap, yet was cheaper than a new stove.
1. Signed up for an online class and then was too stressed to go to it.
2. Bought a number of planners and never used a single one, not even once.
3. Free kitten turned out not to be so free! (Just kidding, Gus, we love you.)
4. Never sent Son's slightly too small jacket back.
5. Never sent Daughter's slightly too small shoes back. (Both went to Buy Nothing people.)
6. Probably a lot more if I think about it.
@Rose, my husband always says "Free pets are not free." And its the truth! But we love them regardless and must plan for them.
@Rose, no. 2,...... there are so many times I have purchased something for the life I want to have, don't, and never will. I am so embarrassed to say that, for me, it's dressy clothing. Where does my brain go when I see a beautiful top or dress and think I will wear it to a holiday party? It's been years since I went to one.
@Maureen, Luckily, for a kitten found in the trash, he's very healthy. Cats in general are fairly cheap pets, at least when my daughter stops putting the laser pointer through the washing machine. The most he's ever cost was the vet bill for removing his kitten-makers.
@Rose, I can relate to n°1! Usually the fact that I paid makes me go, though extremely reluctantly! The worst thing is realizing I’ve had a great time, so why was I so stressed out about it in the first place?
@Rose,
We had a cat that we referred to as the $10,000 kitty. He had asthma and developed cardiomyopathy. The last three years of his life he took kitty Plavix. However, we loved him dearly.
@Maureen, Very true, but they're worth it.
@Rose, I'm amused to see "removing his kitten-makers" as a euphemism for we-know-what. On several sites for British working cats, this procedure is referred to as "removing the furry pom-poms."
@Bee, I had a dog we called the Six Million Dollar Beagle. He managed to rack up 10K in surgery bills one year--he had a disc problem in his neck, which they then fused, and then the dreaded ACL.
@Rose, our first beagle had so many issues that we're pretty sure that we single-handedly put our vet's daughter through private college. Back in the day of paper records, he had the thickest file on file.
@A. Marie, Furry pompoms? I am rolling on the floor laughing!
I have had so many frugal fails over the years. It would be hard to recount them all. Everything from disastrous DIY to meals that we inedible. When things don’t go according to plan, I try to shake it off and move on. Hold on to the good stuff not the bad.
My most recent frugal fail involved a book and travel. I just celebrated a big birthday by going on a trip to Yosemite. (Mostly paid for with points and reward programs.)
My husband and I love to hike, but we are not in the shape that we were in pre-covid. This made me a little nervous.
I saw a book in REI which listed and rated all the hikes in Yosemite by difficulty, elevation change and length. I decided to purchase this book so we could choose our hikes wisely. However, rather than buying the guide new at REI, I purchased it from a secondhand, online book seller. Through this source, it was only $6 including shipping saving me $16 over regular retail.
When the guide book arrived a couple of months ago, I began leafing through it marking hikes that I wanted to take. When it came time to go, I put my book in my backpack and took it with us.
The second day of our trip my husband wanted to hike to Upper Yosemite Falls.I took out the guide book, looked up the Falls hike in the index, and turned to
the page indicated. It wasn’t there!!!!! The book skipped from page 71 to 77. If you looked carefully, you could see where these pages had been cut out. I started leafing through and every once and a while a page or two would be missing. Because of the way it was laid out, I hadn’t noticed these missing pages when I had received it. Grrr….
We ended up hiking to the Falls. It was a difficult hike, but we loved it. If I had read about this hike in advance, we may not have taken it. We were the oldest people on the trail by at least 15 years. Along the way, we met several young people who encouraged us to keep going and we did. The view was spectacular.
Buying this book may have been a financial fail, but it wasn’t a life fail. Yes, it would have been nice to have the whole book, but we made a memory. Stuff happens! Don’t sweat the small things and enjoy the ride.
@Bee, My husband and I just came back from Utah visiting and hiking the National Parks, Zion was a zoo. Anyway on our hikes I started noticing that my husband and I were the oldest people on the trail.
This was September when we always travel and this year the parks were loaded with young people. I am a careful hiker I don't want to fall and break something. But the young people would run up behind us and be impatient for us to move over so they could run up the trail.
That is what got me noticing the people. I thought is anyone working anymore. This is the first year I can remember so many young people being out in September.
@karen, We've noticed the same thing! Is work really this flexible or are people just not working? Parks, stores, restaurants, museums are all filled on what I always thought were off times (weekdays, mornings, etc.) The interstates and roads are unbelievably crowded as well. If unemployment is so low and the economy is so bad, where are all these folks getting their time and money?
@karen, sounds wonderful that so many young people are out hiking!! Much of people's work these days is not confined to "9-5 in an office". Flexible hours and remote work have really changed the traditional landscape (so to speak, I guess!).
@PD, younger people definitely have more flexibility than we had when we worked. I am happy that many people are seeking a better work/life balance.
I also saw more families than I used to see when traveling in October. I thought that more children were being homeschooled too. Covid had an impact on this.
Kristen, I really admire how hard you tried to make that yogurt work!
One of my more obvious frugal fails was when I took an old, queen-sized down comforter and thought I would just cut it in half to make 2 twin-sized down inserts for some pretty duvets we already had. I decided I would just pin two lines, cut up the middle, and then sew each side shut. Well. My house couldn't supply enough pins to contain those feathers, and every time I had to move the pieces, more puffs of feathers billowed out, until I had them all over me, the table, the floor, and just sort of lazily lofting all around in the air. My husband walked in and froze and said it looked like an I Love Lucy episode.
@Suz, Now I'm hearing Ricky Ricardo in my ear: "Lu-ceee! You got some 'splainin' to do!"
My mom never had a dishwasher when we were growing up. "I have four dishwashers," she'd say. OH HO HO, Mom.
So in my early 20s, newly married, I had no idea that putting regular Dawn into a dishwasher was a Bad Idea. Ooops. Oh well, that floor needed mopping anyway!
(In the 90s I bought my mom a dishwasher. She used it now and then but said it was just as easy to wash by hand when it was just her and Dad at home. Whatever!)
@Rose,
I did that once while staying with my ritzy aunt and uncle. My aunt had promise myself and other girl cousin to go on a "spa day", I was 12, I told her we would clean the house while she was at work. Well, the 9 yo cousin put dawn in the dishwasher (she grew up without a dishwasher) and boy, did that kitchen floor get the cleaning of it's life!
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, @Rose, Now I'm tempted to put Dawn in the dishwasher just so my floor can be that clean 😉
@Suz, I suppose by now you know that the proper way to handle that job would have been to sew 2 rows of stitching where you want to cut. Then put a binding over the raw edges.
@Suz, well, you know what they say? "Sew Twice, cut once". I LOVED your husband's response!
@Suz, I’m literally lol-ing 🙂
Buying clothes on sale or in a thrift shop just because they fit me (I am plus size) not because the clothes worked well for me. I learned that I like to dress well in spite of my weight.
Stockpiling on offer cans of beans and bags of meal for emergencies, that have or have not resulted in meals after their best before date. I learned that it is better to stockpile foods with a high rotation anyway. ( Or non foods. However, my March 2022 stash shows that one can also have too many toothbrushes and soaps.)
And now I am reminded of the exact opposite: how husband and I did not buy a vellumbound book of jacobean sermons (that we would want to rebind) because we did not want to exceed our holiday budget by 50 pounds. We happened upon it on one of our last days in Edinburgh. Regret, regret.
@J NL, See if the local homeless shelter, domestic violence shelter or an agency that helps people displaced by disasters can use toothbrushes and soaps. If you have a stash of kiddie-sized toothbrushes, could you give them out for Halloween?
@Fru-gal Lisa,
Our local Food bank can certainly use them! Fortunately they are still fit for use. My late mother had a box of toothbrushes that had become so brittle that they would just break in two. Apparently I have my stress response "in case of emergency stock up on household items" from her. But then she was a teenager in WWII and learned how to value a bar of soap and a toothbrush. Not to mention fabric - she learned to sew clothes from old newspapers because there was no spare fabric to be had for beginners.
@JNL, My grandmother was the same way. When she moved out of her home, we looked through her kitchen pantry. She had stockpiled old medications, including some that appeared to be from either the 1940s or 50s -- and this was in the 1990s -- so they certainly were no longer safe to take. I took a couple of interesting-looking bottles to a doctor I knew, who collected old medical items as a hobby. He said one of the medications was a forerunner of Tylenol.
Oh, I feel that yogurt fail! I've had things that were fails from start to finish and I ended up giving up on them, although I can't think of specifics at the moment. I tend to get very frustrated and angry with myself, and have to work to get over it, at least on the day of. I hate to mess up anything, and losing money on something that was to be frugal drives me nuts. I try to calm myself and remember that mostly, things work out right, but it takes a while to get me there.
I decided to fix a pair of thrift store pants with some hand stitching on the crooked hooks and eyes that fasten the waistband. I don't hand sew much, but I'm usually decent at it. I botched it so badly I had to cut out all the stitching and start over twice, wasting thread and time. I have saved a lot by doing my own repairs and hemming over all these years, though.
We had weekend company and I decided to make chicken, one of the cheaper choices, and much cheaper than going out or grilling steaks. I cooked a huge batch of chicken, enough for two meals. I served everyone then I put the rest of the chicken in the microwave to keep it safe from insects while we were eating, since our doors were opening a lot with company there. I forgot it and found all that chicken still there the next morning. I have saved a lot by cooking all meals at home when I have visitors, though.
I was making my own jelly a while back, something I have done a lot, but for some reason I forgot to use my biggest pan that time. The sugary jelly spilled over the pan and burned onto the smooth-top stove. It took forever to clean up and I ended up needing to buy a plain razor blade to get some of it off. I've saved a lot over time by putting up my own jelly, pickles, vegetables, fruits, soups, and some meats, though.
I've had my share of frugal fails over the years, but here's a good one for you: I tried to cook a spaghetti squash in the microwave instead of the oven. Poked plenty of holes in it, set the time for LESS than recommended.
It blew up. It blew the microwave door wide open (lucky I wasn't near!). Blew spaghetti squash all over the kitchen counters, cabinets, floors. Blew spaghetti squash into the dining room and the sun room. I cleaned and cleaned, and still found bits of spaghetti squash for weeks after.
Reckon my microwave was more powerful than I thought. Have never tried to do that again! But it was pretty funny.
@Janie H, I’m so sorry but I laughed so hard at your story!! Thank you for sharing!
@Janie H, I’ve had this happen too. I always split in half now and roast it.
@Janie H, Oh no! What a mess! It sounds something I would do.
@Janie H, Oh my gosh, I could not stop laughing. Thank you! I think you win. I needed that laugh.
@Janie H, Once, a long time ago, I was making myself an egg white omelet, and I thought I'd be super frugal and save the yolks and hard boil them to add to my toddler's food (per the hippy Super Baby Food book I had). Well, I put those egg yolks in a cup of water in a Pyrex cup, and popped them in the microwave for a couple minutes, knowing that it would use less energy than firing up the stove for a couple of egg yolks.
Took the cup out of the microwave and the entire thing BLEW UP in my face. The water had gotten superheated and vaporized into steam immediately. I mean I was lucky to close my eyes in time or they would have been scalded. Bits of cooked egg yolk all over the ceiling, my face and in my hair. I smelled like sulfur all day.
Meanwhile my toddler was calmly eating his oatmeal, watching the whole thing.
The next morning he asked for scrambled eggs, and I started making them while reheating my tea in the microwave. Kiddo came to the kitchen doorway and seriously said, "Mommy, you're not making my eggs in the microwave, are you?" I said no, and he said, "Good, because you know what happened last time."
@Janie H, I’m literally lol-ing!!:)
Good reminders all that also work in reverse; when I sometimes miss out on a deal or pay a bit more than intended I might get stuck or will obsess over the small loss. But then I remind myself that I got what I needed and should not fixate on a few dollars, and in the grand scheme of things my frugal habits outweigh a small loss.
My biggest frugal failure was falling for a scammer who took my money and did not deliver on the purchase. The reason for it being a frugal fail on my part is to not have remembered the old adage of when a deal sounds too good to be true, it often is.
100%!!!! I would say more than half of my "new" frugal tries end up in failure. Very few times does something end up perfect, so I always look at it as a dry run. No sourdough bread is going to be great the first time, worst case it becomes bread crumbs. My spray paint didn't turn out well on a thrifted item? Worst care I break out the citri-strip. Frugality is a lesson in learned independence.
Thanks for the encouragement. I kick myself and KICK MYSELF after a 'frugal fail.'
Two recent cases in point:
*Lost my grocery list, so bought the corn dogs that WEREN'T on sale. $2 x 3 boxes worth.
*Bought a beautiful carved wood bed. They were asking $150, my offer of $140 was accepted -- but I'm betting they would have taken $120. Yes, it's a great bargain even at $150 -- but that $20 difference niggles me.
Ah well. And yes, you're absolutely right.
@Cindy Brick, Is $26 really worth beating yourself up over? Just try to enjoy your beautiful bed which seems like a total bargain anyway.
My aunt, who I can't stand, is a person who prides herself on haggling for everything, even one-price things in regular stores. My mother always looked up to her for getting things at rock bottom prices, but she was and is just a cheap and horrible person. So it could be worse, right?
Just a note: I learnt it the hard way to not be frugal when it comes to hygiene. I used to live abroad where deo rollers were expensive and not widely available. So I was more than happy when a friend left me some when she moved back home. Thing is, I forgot to ask her whether they were unused or not. Turns out she had used them and some kind of nasty bacteria got in there. I got some serious infection (massive boils!) and while doctor's and costs for treatment were really low, I have to admit being frugal was a huuuuge mistake there!!
@Lina,
What are deo rollers?
@Becca, deodorant roll ons. Sorry, language mix up! :-S
Well, it was quite a batch of yogurt!
I have just recently found your blog, while looking for the recipes. The whole frugal thing is new to me, but I do the many of the things you describe for years now with a motivation of eating healthy: I cook and bake from scratch, I freeze ahead, I compost and grow my veggies. I use every morsel of leftovers I can. I have a cleaning routine relying heavily on vinegar and soda for less chemicals, I try to reuse and repurpose, buy new only if inevitable, because I don’t want to provide more trash to store on our planet etc
With that said there is no way frugal living you describe (which I will call smart living) can be a failure. Small set backs are nothing compared to how great to live this life.
Great blog and amazing lifestyle!
Frugal fails--- these are some that I really need to work on continuing not to do!
I buy clothes (for now teen) when find on sale/kind likes for next size(s) up/future use. This has helped out many times (Covid/growth spurt) & I am happy/grateful but then there are other times where don't use (growth sourt/changed style choices) & can not return (Goodwill/second hand). But regardless I still do this & keep receipts attached to tags/clothes (retail stores) which mostly have allowed refund (sometimes slightly less amount paid).
As humans we buy so many different clothes, yet only wear 5-10 of same thing on rotation. I am guilty of this (as many others) yet still have extra clothes don't wear I should get rid of, but don't as I think I won't buy another because already have other(s) replacement.
I have beautiful dresses hanging on my closet (some new with tags/receipts) but don't wear as don't go out & not my everyday style/clothing. Yet I still buy new sun dresses every summer (I do wear everyday). Luckily I always paid 50-60% off retail, so loss but not full price.
I also grew up without a lot of food so I buy in bulk on sale which usually saves me money. And I try to buy mostly what we usually eat & put in rotation so less likely to go past best by date. Teen started to become more picky eater & have not made previous popular food items & have composted/donated some food because was past best by date (which is mostly recommendation but sometimes still good depending of what type food). As I'm looking at 6 boxes of macaroni noodles & 30# bag baking flour.
I’ve recently covered my toaster with soup, after getting said soup out of the microwave. The toaster is now dead, but that didn’t make me too mad. That’s because for years now, my cousin and I have been sharing pictures together of every tea/coffee cup spilled, every glass jar/glass/dish/plate -you name it, we’ve broken it!- in a thousand pieces of after falling on the floor, every knee scrap or muddy jeans or ripped clothes after falling down, etc. Every time one of us breaks something, it’s picture time! We’re both clumsy and over the years, sharing this has made me laugh more than be mad/disappointed/sad. Of course we’re not talking about family heirlooms here. Nor am I only talking about frugal activities. But sharing these “epic fails” with my cousin, and in turn receiving their own epic fails at random times of the day, is such a precious thing to have and a good way to uplift our spirits.
Did you know that if you leave ground chicory too long in a glass jar, it will ‘melt together’ and turn into the hardest of hard candies consistency, and remain forever in said glass jar? Now you know, and so does my cousin 🙂
@F from france, This is priceless! If misery loves company, apparently "epic fails"do, too.
@F from france, this made me smile and miss living by my favorite cousin.
@cc, we don’t live close together at all, for years we weren’t even in the same country! Sharing our epic fails has been a way for us to naturally catch up with the other. Is there a better way to end a cold winter Sunday evening than receiving a picture of spaghetti fallen inside the sink, instead of in the colander that was left sitting there on the counter? I think not 🙂
1. Though I had done it successfully several times before, I once had a disastrous batch of almond milk. It blew the top off spills and splatters all around. Then the bag I was using to drain it didn't make it all into the jars I was draining into. Then a jar full of newly made almond milk almost toppled over. Then I dropped the bag with the almond pulp. Cursed, I tell ya.
2. I bought refillable squeeze bottles (like the kind the kids use for apple sauce or baby food) in an attempt to save money, make less processed food for my kids and produce less trash. the baby food squeezed out both sides. I couldn't get the ziploc side cleaned well. Such a fail.
3. My biggest ongoing fail is my annual attempt at a vegetable garden. I had one successful year and that's only because my husband and kids would water daily because we were all stuck at home during the pandemic. I write the expenses off as a hobby...I think I have all the right intentions. I want to grow my own delicious food. I think it's ill-fated, though. My mom can grow anything. I don't know what the block is.
@CrunchyCake, get soaker hoses, automatic irrigation, etc, for next year?
Back in the 1980s, I was able to qualify for a "first-time homebuyer" house. That was almost unheard of for a young single woman! I remember I had to spend the night outdoors to keep my place in line, this was such a hot deal. I was in line before the deals ran out, so I was able to qualify for my starter home. I got a fixed-rate mortgage, so the APR wouldn't go up. Didn't know any better so I got a 30-year mortgage...that may have been all they offered at the time. Back then the interest rates were sky-high. I believe mine was between 18 and 19%. I paid ahead on the mortgage, but a few years later, when someone told me I could "refinance" for a lower rate, I didn't look into it. Ach! I could've saved thousands of dollars!
@Fru-gal Lisa, Interest rates were absolutely brutal then! I remember because that's when I bought my first house...
@Fru-gal Lisa, In the 80s, the only reason I slept outside on a line was to buy concert tickets!
Kids today don't know the struggles.
Just yesterday I burnt a pot of stock so badly I thought I'd ruined the pot (long story why). My priciest pot, of course, it couldn't've been the inexpensive stockpot.
My response, after cursing myself, was immediate mitigation: water into the pot to stop the damage, then fill it with hot soapy water and let soak overnight, and lots of elbow grease. If that hadn't worked, then I would have boiled baking soda in the pot.
As FG says, I look at the larger picture. I won't get anything done if I expect everything to go perfectly. Even the non-frugal choices can go wrong, such as when the yogurt gets pushed to the back of the fridge.
@WilliamB,
You just reminded me, I was saving money by making hot cross buns to take for Easter refreshments at church, instead of buying them. They turned out lovely, except for one thing. I'd added salt thinking it was the sugar - they were in identical containers. Salty buns! I had to make them again, so my savings dropped quite a bit!
@JD, Oh ouch! I had to change my sugar container so I didn't do that.
I’m sure I have had many frugal fails over the years. Burnt dinners, forgot the salt, etc.
I bought a bunch of items from Thred Up once and missed the return window and ended up with quite a significant amount of items that don’t fit. I beat myself up over that one for a bit. But, I realized the items that did fit were worn all the time and new would have been more than the amount I did not get back in return money. Also, I love the mission of the thrift store I donate to. It helps to know that yes, I messed up but the items are being resold and the proceeds are clothing and feeding children.
My current venture is learning to do my alterations myself. My pants almost always need to be taken in at the waist. This used to be a $10 fix. The last time, I didn’t ask the price before hand and it was a $35 fix. I have also lost some weight, so they now need to be taken in at the seat as well. My current mindset is, the pants are unwearable as is. If I ruin them, I wasn’t wearing them. If I succeed, I have pants I like that I can wear again for just a bit of my time. I typically require tall pants which are hard to find second hand. So if I can keep them going, I definitely want to . But I try to find sales before I buy so paying $35 to have the waist taken in doubles the cost. Result, it took a while but I successfully did 2 pairs. I have 2 more to go but didn’t have thread anywhere near the matching color. Now I have the thread but not the time.
I needed a new umbrella for our patio table and was so proud to find one with my husband’s favorite craft beer logo on Craigslist for very little money. Only when I went to put the umbrella in the table, I somehow missed the hole and shattered the entire glass top. Glass was everywhere! We ended up needing a new table.
I had a funny and slightly expensive fail. I sent 2 pounds of assorted chocolate covered coffee beans to my son stationed in Qatar. It was cold here but hot there. The beans had melted and solidified into one big lump. He had to hammer off chunks to try and eat them. Ha! Lesson learned and a funny story to remember.
I bet he still appreciated the thought!
The biggest frugal fail this summer was my garden. We had tons of cucumbers but trying to pick them with 4.2 million biting mosquitos was impossible. My tomato plants did very poorly too so I am glad I did not plant anything else. Fortunately for me my brother put in a tons of tomato plants and shared his tomatoes with me. We did have tons of Blackberries but we went so long without rain they were not very sweet.
Next year I am planting pumpkins, something that only needs picking once. Ha!
I have a painted rock that reads, “A mistake is a bruise…not a tattoo.”
Ok, here's my best frugal fail story. While visiting my mother-in-law out of town, we drove to the beach. I didn't want to pay for parking, so I drove all around looking for street parking. I was pregnant at the time, and I had my husband, daughter, son and mother-in-law all crammed into my little Honda Civic. My mother-in-law kept telling me I wouldn't find a spot close to the beach but I found one! She insisted it was too small, but I was very confident in my parallel parking skills, and I got the car into the world's tightest spot. It was so tight that my car's bumpers were literally touching the cars in front and behind me. I definitely did not hit them or damage the other cars in any way, but the owner of at least one car lived right near where I parked and was apparently pissed at my audacity. They called the beach cops, who wrote me a huge ticket and I ended up having to hire a lawyer to attend court for me because I didn't live there. It definitely cost me way more than just paying for parking would have. I'm still proud of my amazing parking skills though...
I hope you took a picture of your parking job!
@Kristen,
Well, um, the owner of the other car did, I guess...sigh...people who live at the beach are surprisingly unchill...
@Becca, "Pride goeth before a ... parking ticket." I think that's the famous saying, right?
Were you able to destroy the nest so they won't get you again? I have a saying "no good deed goes unpunished" but we still continue to go forward. My most recent was I was trying to change to a cheaper phone service and my phone died. It just didn't have the spunk to change providers. A new phone had to be ordered...oh me!
I have not been able to locate the nest! It was in a very leafy area at the edge of my yard, and I am too scared to poke around a lot to find the nest.
Thanks for sharing your story. That's funny in retrospect. I'm sure it was frustrating at the time. I appreciate your advice to zoom out. Mistakes happen. I gave my daughter a pretty terrible haircut with too short bangs. But I learned how to cut her hair better and saved money over the years.
I've bought various clothes from thredup that were supposedly in my size, but when they arrived, they didn't fit and it cost too much to return them, so I ended up donating them to a local charity that specifically provides clothing to those in need. Usually I will only shop thredup with there is a decent sale on what I'm looking for and when I can get free shipping, so although it cost me money out of pocket, hopefully those clothes went to someone else who really needed them.
Once I had dropped my son to soccer practice and was hurrying to get to the library about half a mile away to return some books on time. Well, I didn't see the speed limit sign until too late and got caught and ticketed. Ugh! Adding insult to injury, when I did finally reach the library, it had just closed 10 minutes earlier! I ended up spending much more money to take defensive driving and clear the ticket than I would with the library fine of late books. My one consolation was that my son of driving age got first-hand experience on what to do when pulled over for speeding. :/
Timely post for me too!
I'm in process trying to replace 2 (um, 3) 6 foot privacy fence panel sections. Quote for just a 16 foot section was going to be over $500, and realized that we definitely should be able to do it ourselves, but just realized after making the trip for the materials, that we actually need to replace another 4x4 post so back to the store for another post/concrete and more digging and waiting for it to cure, and then hoping the fancy new nail gun we bought actually works.
One of my bigger fails in the last year or two was trying to mount some unfortunately too heavy wall lights on my apparently weak drywall. Ended up with a pretty impressive hole in the wall, had no matching paint, so had to ditch the lamps (they wouldn't work without serious reinforcing) and also had to patch and get new paint for the entire wall. Donated the lamps, and at least I was able to repair and paint everything myself so not out too much money and time, but still!
Oh man, the lamp situation is an annoying one because you had to do a bunch of work only to end up in the exact same place where you started!
I put in Luxury Plank Vinyl flooring in my basement. It’s not perfect but it is nicer and cleaner than the 70s era carpet! My eyes are drawn to the flaws and I try to tell myself better than it was and cheaper than hiring someone!
Ok, I see you out here being a handywoman!