Five Frugal Things

by Katy on March 18, 2024 · 50 comments

  1. I stopped by the Goodwill near my father’s house and splurged on a like new queen size Ikea Kärrdunört duvet cover and pillow case set for just $9.99. I’d admired this pattern in the store as it’s William Morris adjacent without the William Morris price tag. For this bedding set, patience was key.

    The old duvet cover in my son’s old bedroom had a fair number of snags on it and I’d passively been keeping an eye out for a replacement. We currently have three spare bedrooms, but this room is our main one as it has a full-size bed. (The other spares have a twin and a fold-out couch.) I want it to be guest ready at all times.

    I know the duvet pattern looks a bit discordant against the bold stripes from my son’s middle school years, but I don’t have it in my heart to paint over them yet.

  2. I pulled out a saved pair of shoelaces and cut them in half to sew into the corners as Ikea doesn’t put ties inside their duvets. (Why Ikea, why?!) I hate how comforters bunch up in duvets without some form of attachment, so this is my hack.  There may be a better solution, but this method works for me so I don’t overthink it.

  3. My husband pulled out our standing fan last night only to discover that it had fallen over, and the circular plastic piece that connects the front and back cage pieces was broken. I took a closer look this morning and decided to attempt a repair. Often plastic is not worth repairing, but I came up with the idea to brace the plastic with a cut zip tie and super glue it into place. Binder clips worked as clamps, so we now have our functional fan back in action.

    While many people look for opportunities to replace their old belongings, I’m always hoping to make my stuff last forever.

  4. • My husband repaired and re-stained one of my father’s antique dining room chairs.
    • I found a dime, a nickel and a penny while bagging my groceries at Winco.
    • I found someone in my Buy Nothing group to take the old duvet. Unsurprisingly, it’s also thrifted Ikea.
    • I finished reading my library copy of Kate Morton’s Homecoming, which I devoured both to and from Nebraska. 560 pages of delicious writing.
    • I started listening to The Lost Wife through the library’s free Libby app.
    • I cooked a small batch of pinto beans in my Instant Pot for refried beans. It’s a hard transition to cook for just the two of us, but I’m getting there. I know I can freeze extra food, but I’d prefer to just cook the actual amount my husband and I need. Food waste, be gone!
    • I began propagating more fuzzy bunny plant starts, as they do fantastically in outdoor flowerpots. I like the quote “The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, the second best time is now.” You know, but for free plants instead of trees. I don’t mind having multiples of the same plants in my garden. Plus the idea of something being a “house plant” rather than an summer “outdoor plant” is a false premise.

  5. I didn’t buy a Lear Jet.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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Five Tiny Frugal Things

by Katy on March 14, 2024 · 62 comments


My husband and I just got back from my aunt’s memorial service in Nebraska and are completely and utterly knackered. Okay, we actually got back yesterday, but yesterday was a blur and doesn’t count. I’m going to string some sentences together and count it as a blog post.

  1. I found just two single pennies over the five days of this trip. An extremely low amount, but I wasn’t exactly out and about while in Nebraska. I can’t exactly scour through my cousin’s house in the name of seeding the Found Change Challenge.

  2. My husband and I set our alarms every single day to take full advantage of the hotel’s breakfast buffet. Not because the food was in any way amazing, but because we’d paid for it and by gum we were going to get our money’s worth! However, I’m very good at hacking a mediocre hotel breakfast and figured out that you can top the oatmeal packs with the chopped nuts that are set out for yogurt. Filling, high fiber and actually pretty yummy. I also put any snobbery aside and ate the likely powdered scrambled eggs. Lastly, their coffee was halfway decent.

  3. The person sitting next to me on the Denver –> Portland flight was a premier frequent flier and got a free $10 tapas snack box, which he handed over to me. My husband and I packed food for the day, so I tucked it into my backpack. I then gave it to my son as a treat/gag gift as he loved the word “tapas” in high school and took any opportunity to say it.

  4. • Although we ate multiple meals at my cousin’s house we also took everyone out for brunch one day and my mother and step father out for dinner another. Not officially frugal, but worth every penny. However, Nebraska restaurants are so much cheaper than Portland!
    • My husband and I walked the Holmes Lake trail loop one afternoon as it was sunny and barely even windy. We had perfect warm weather every single day of our trip and I kept joking that people should consider tropical Nebraska as a destination to escape the winter blues.
    • We moved our flight up from late afternoon to morning as Denver was forecast for a dramatic snow storm. There are precisely zero direct flights from Portland to Lincoln, Nebraska.
    • I gave the last of our Aldi purchased Mandarin oranges to my cousin.

  5. I didn’t thrift a Lear Jet.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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Five Frugal Things

by Katy on March 11, 2024 · 61 comments


My husband and I traveled to Nebraska for a family member’s memorial service. Not all that frugal, but I still keep expenses under control when possible.

  1. I brought a library book to read on the airplane and during down times. Homecoming, by Kate Morton. I’m about a third of the way and fully invested in the story. My husband and I also snacked on low effort bags of mixed pretzels with trail mix on the plane.

  2. The airline left my suitcase in Denver, but issued a $50 PayPal voucher to help with my associated costs. I ended up getting my suitcase that night, but I know my rights and that the airline is liable for any costs incurred had I needed to purchase replacement items. The very nice airline employee did not know this information and only offered the voucher when I asked for one. I didn’t hit “accept” on the $50 until I got my suitcase and confirmed I wasn’t going to need to rebuy all my clothing.

    Click HERE to read your rights.

  3. My husband and I stocked up on healthy hotel room food at Aldi, which’ll transform to flight food in a few days. We don’t have Aldi in Oregon, but it’s the darling of frugality writers, so I had to hit it up.

    I see the appeal, but Winco is frankly better as they have a huge bulk section, plus it’s a standard size grocery store so you can buy everything on your list. Plus, Winco is a bit cheaper and employee owned.

    Employee owned > Billionaire owned.

  4. • I’m filling my water bottle from the filtered water dispenser in the hotel lobby.
    • We went to see my cousin’s band play at a downtown Lincoln venue, which luckily didn’t have a cover charge. We also saved money by not ordering one of their famous revolting bowls of alcohol.
    We made sure to set an alarm to hit the breakfast buffet, even though the advent of daylight savings and the time difference made this a crack of dawn endeavor.
    • Those orange sunglasses that match the Aldi branding? Pulled them from a free pile a month or so ago.
    • I din’t use traveling as a rationalization to buy new stuff. My clothes are good enough, as are my travel supplies. And I don’t mean to brag, (I totally d0) but my Diane Von Furstenberg roll-aboard suitcase was pulled from a Westchester county Goodwill dumpster.

  5. I didn’t charter a Lear Jet.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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I have some unfrugal news to report, which is that my 2022 Macbook developed a cracked screen requiring a $448 repair. I consider this laptop to be still under the category of “brand new,” so no, I’m not cool with this development. Especially since I know I didn’t drop it or any other aggressive actions.

Moving on, please enjoy these frugal tidbits, which definitely add up to over $448 in savings!

Remember these organizing bins that I pulled from a soggy free pile?

I figured out that they’re the perfect size to store my cut-in-half kitchen sponges. Because what am I, a Rockefeller, using an entire sponge all at once?

I’ve been passively keeping an eye out for two dining room chairs for my son’s new apartment, so I didn’t think twice on thrifting this pair:

Especially since they were priced at $2.99 apiece. Sure, they were an eensy bit scuffed and wobbly, but it wasn’t anything that a Sharpie and an allen wrench couldn’t fix. They now look completely brand new and go perfectly with his $30 Ikea dining room table.

I found half this broken wooden hanger in my coat closet a month or so ago and the metal bit finally rose to the surface. This repair will definitely offset the cost of my new laptop screen!

Did I do it? Did my frugality save me the $448? Sigh . . . .

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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Five Tiny Frugal Things

by Katy on March 5, 2024 · 59 comments

    1. I hosted a birthday dinner for my step father’s 74th birthday and kept the menu on the frugal side. I served marinated chicken quarters, (89¢/lb) salad, fried rice, roasted carrots and a scratch cooked pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting.

      This marinade recipe is from Frankie Celenza’s Struggle Meals YouTube channel and is in frequent rotation here at Casa Wolk-Stanley. It wouldn’t be cheap to buy all the ingredients at once, but I pretty much have everything on hand at all times. Measure with your heart and you can’t go wrong.

    2. I used my homemade frozen pumpkin purée for the cake, which added extra moisture and made up for the off-ness of the gluten-free flour. There were two gluten-free guests so I was strict with my ingredients, but I still cooked from scratch.

    3. I chatted with an author at my friend’s birthday party, and we ended up talking about one of her favorite books. (Geek Love) I happened to have an extra first edition on my bookshelf, so I sent it out to her in today’s mail.

      I used Pirateship.com for discounted shipping.

    4. • My husband gave some unused baseball catcher’s equipment to a friend, saving him the cost of buying new.
      • I’m sadly having to return to Nebraska for another family memorial service, so I pulled out the Master Travel List that I created last summer. This list should help keep the travel experience as organized as possible and avoid buying items I already have at home.
      • I put up the hand crocheted “Happy Birthday” banner that my sister gave me as a Chanukah gift last year. Reusable birthday decor for the win! Click HERE to see it.

    5. I didn’t thrift any tiny Lear Jets.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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Five Frugal Things

by Katy on March 4, 2024 · 90 comments

    1. I was somehow able to buy three bags of groceries and stay under $40. I’m dubbing this “The Winco Effect.™” (Your region may call this “The Aldi Effect.”) Either way, I spent $39.19 and here’s what I bought:

      • Spinach
      • Sour cream*
      • Frozen tater tots, (so good crisped up in a waffle iron and then added to burritos!)
      • 2 bags of frozen mixed vegetables, (perfect for fried rice!)
      • 2 bags of shredded cheese*
      • 1 package of Italian sausage*
      • Bulk garlic powder
      • 2 jumbo oranges*
      • 2 boxes of regular fettuccini*, 1 box of gluten-free fettuccini
      • 2 boxes of Tetley tea
      • 18-pack of eggs
      • 2-lb bag of carrots
      • 5-lb bag of potatoes

      * These items were all on sale and I realized looking through the receipt that I was overcharged for the gluten-free pasta. It was supped to be $3-something but I was charged $4.92. I’ll save the receipt and bring it to customer service on my next trip.

      Mind you, not that long ago I consistently spent $10 per bag of groceries at Winco. Thank you, corporate greed! (The food corporations, not Winco, which is employee owned.)

    2. A friend from my Buy Nothing Group is moving to England and offered me her Joybird sofa. Initially for my son, but he bought one last month so we’re actually going to use it here at the house. Our couch was purchased as a “place holder” in 2019 after my aging cat urinarily destroyed two couches in a matter of months. (You can read that it HERE, HERE and HERE!)

      I’ll forever mourn my beloved $125 vintage couch. However with sufficient time I think I can heal. On my new (to me) Joybird sofa.

    3. I went to a friend’s retirement/70th birthday party that was essentially a reception without the wedding. I got to hang out with old work mates I hadn’t seen since I retired five years ago. There was a cash bar, but I stuck with water and a single glass of free champagne for toasting.

      Super fun as I got to catch up with friends and updated on the latest juiciest work gossip. Plus there was a DJ and a dance floor, which is my thang.  I may or may not, (definitely did) have invented a new dance move during the BeeGee’s Staying Alive where I mimed giving CPR while simultaneously spinning an invisible lasso. It was a big hit on a dance floor filled with nurses. Your results may vary.

    4. • I walked past the expanded free pile from last week, sadly even soggier than ever! A shame considering all the ruined books and furniture, but I was still able to save a couple of hard goods. I grabbed another plastic organizing bin for myself, plus a large fruit/salad bowl and a pizza pan for my son. (Both of which he needed.) My guess is that a tenant moved out and left all this stuff behind and the landlord dumped everything in front of the house. So wasteful.
      • My son gave me his knit beanie cap to sweater shave. Looks as good as new.
      • I took a Lyft to my friend’s party, but my husband was able to come pick me up afterwards. (He had a hockey game in the opposite direction.) We’ve been a one car family over the past few years, which is occasionally a pain in the tuchus. However, it’s cheaper and simpler to occasionally pay a ride service than buy and insure a second car.

    5. I didn’t thrift any Lear Jets.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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{ 90 comments }

Please enjoy this previously published post!

After a summer dominated by preparing all the necessities for my kids’ off campus apartments, (including the arduous task of finding said apartments) I can finally move forward with my life and enjoy my empty nest.

This page? It ruled my every move.

I made a decision in January of 2007 to buy nothing new. This was financially motivated, but also from a strong craving to move away from the over manufacture of poor quality consumer goods. It’s mostly a non-issue ten years down the road, but having to source so many specific things on a deadline was a real challenge. I’m not going to lie, it would have been so easy to walk into Target and cross everything from my list in a single trip.

We were able to assemble pretty much everything we needed from thrift shops, my buy nothing group and stuff around the house, but we made a decision to buy a coffee table and desk in Ashland, Oregon in order to fit everything into our minivan. (Our youngest moved into his apartment last week.)

Of course, the best laid plans will invariably go awry. My husband, son and I unloaded the car and then set out to grab the last few items from my list. None of the five (five!) thrift shops that we visited had anything acceptable, which took me to Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. $50 later, and my daughter was finally outfitted with a solid wood coffee table and desk.

She also needed more hangers, but the Medford St. Vincent DePaul proved to be a terrific source.

I do confess that I made one brand new purchase, which was a whistling tea kettle from Bi-Mart. However, I consider it to be a safety requirement, as my daughter has a history of setting water to boil and then completely forgetting about it. (Nothing non-consumer about burning down an entire apartment complex!) I looked and looked (and looked) for a second hand kettle, but the thrift shops were oddly devoid of this item.

My daughter’s roommate was providing a couch, so you’ll just have to imagine one in this space. That bright blue table? I picked it up at an Ashland garage sale for $8, which brought the grand total of this furniture to be a whopping $28 as the chair and lamp were both garbage picked.

I would estimate that we spent approximately $200 for all the furniture, bedding, bathroom stuff, kitchenware and miscellaneous stuff for both apartments. It’s impossible to pin down the exact amount as a lot of my purchases were from the pay-by-the-pound Goodwill Outlet bins.

Of course no Non-Consumer Advocate visit to a college town would be complete without some of my signature garbage picking. You threw out your old textbooks? I will scoop them up for eBay!

Including these . . . umm . . . unique sunglasses. Totally my style!

My husband (sporting what he calls his “vacation beard”) and I finally decided that we’d accomplished all we could, and pointed the now empty minivan back towards Portland. The two of us discussed how we keep coming to the Rogue River Valley without ever taking the time to enjoy the breathtaking landscape. This prompted us to sneak in an impromptu hike up Table Rock, although we could only hike around a third of the way since it was getting dark and neither of us had water or proper attire.

Look at those empty nesters. Don’t they look miserable?

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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My Free Haircut

by Katy on March 1, 2024 · 22 comments

I finally got my free hair cut at the Supercuts training center, which is always an interesting experience. Tucked in the back of a regular Supercuts salon, the room is without ornamentation and the approximate size of my minivan. I think if it as a speakeasy, at it’s a special secret for those in the know. Only without bathtub gin.

Zero ambiance for zero dollars.

Of course, I’m not one to complain about decor. I like to save my dollars for more important things than haircuts. You know, like the cost of groceries or a full tank of gas.

Before:


After:

I mostly get my hair cut once a year or so depending on how much it’s bugging me. So I can now check this off my 2024 to-do-list!

This frugal hack is not just local to Portland, as Supercuts is a national chain. I know that my friend Joel from How To Money in Atlanta has employed this specific money saving practice as well. The way I found the person to contact for a free haircut was to just call different locations until I found the right person. Something you can do as well. I’ve gotten my hair cut at the training center four or fives times at this point and have only had positive experiences. All the stylists are licensed and it actually takes less time than at a salon as it’s just the cut without any frou-frou add ons.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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Thrifting For Profit

by Katy on February 29, 2024 · 23 comments

The popularity of thrifting for resale is through the roof right now, which I support with all my heart. Secondhand goods finding new homes while supporting small businesses? Hell, yeah!

I’ve been selling on eBay since 2005 and I’ve learned a thing or two. I’m not intimidated by the shipping process, but there are still a few categories that I prefer to sell locally. This is either due to the impracticality of shipping, (furniture, I’m looking at you!) or because of local stores that’ll buy my items for a quick and easy flip.

One of my absolute favorite items to thrift are vintage lighting globes. This may seem odd, but let me explain. There’s a groovy store in my neighborhood that upcycles old globes into colorful lighting and will always buy from me. This is not based on selling a couple of times, but dozens of times.

So when I saw this $3.99 globe sitting on a Goodwill shelf this afternoon, it was a no brainer to pick it up and sell it ON MY WAY HOME!

A no brainer. (The decision, not the woman in this photo.)

 

In case my description wasn’t colorful enough:

Will I get rich off this single thrifted category? Absolutely not, but turning $3.99 into $20 with almost no effort is worth it to me. Let’s estimate that I’ve sold thirty vintage globes to this store over the years.

30 X $15 = $450. Worth it.

Of course, glass globes are just one of the many items I’ll thrift for profit. Just a scrap in my patchwork income.

Want to learn more about selling on eBay? Check out this blog post from a few years back.

Katy Wolk-Stanley    

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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Five Tiny Frugal Things

by Katy on February 27, 2024 · 88 comments

    1. My husband and I were driving back from Vancouver, Washington, (which is just across the river) and decided to stop into Ikea as it was on the way home. I wasn’t hungry, but my husband ordered two meatball kid’s meal instead of one adult one, as it’s the same amount of food at $8.58 vs. $9.99. ($1.41 savings!) Instead, they were running a special where it was somehow $3 for his two plates of food using the Ikea family card!

      This prompted me to look up their deals once I got home and here’s what I was able to find. Note that you need the free Ikea Family Card.

      Monday: Meatless Monday — All plant based meatball plates are $3. (Did the cashier think my husband’s meatballs were veggie?)
      Tuesdays: $3.99 adult meals.
      Wednesday: Two free kid meals with the purchase of one adult meal.
      Thursday: $1 off Meatball entrees.
      Friday: 50% off adult entrees.
      Weekends: No deals.

      Not too shabby, especially since there’s no tipping and the coffee is free.

    2. I’m listening to Marge Piercy’s Gone To Soldiers through the library’s free Libby app and reading a Lucky Day library copy of Weyward, by Emilia Hart.

      Gone to Soldiers is one of my favorite books ever, but this is the first time that I’ve listened to it as an audiobook.

    3. My husband and I stopped into a Goodwill while in Vancouver, but all we bought were a 99¢ commemorative baseball, (my husband) and a 99¢ spice rack, for our son. I still have the remnants of a Goodwill gift card from Christmas, so our out of pocket cost was just 54¢.

    4. • I picked up seven discarded 10¢ deposit cans while my husband was at hockey practice.
      • I keep two foldable reusable fabric tote bags in purse at all times, which came in handy for the cans. They’re machine washable, which is great as there were a few sticky drips.
      • The Supercuts Training Center had to change my appointment time, which meant my friend could no longer go. I got a $12.99 Great Clips coupon in my Instagram feed, so I signed my friend up for the offer. Not free, but still a good price.

    5. I didn’t thrift any tiny Lear Jets.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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{ 88 comments }