The Non-Consumer Advocate

I stopped into a Goodwill to see if I could find anything to resell or at least photograph for the blog. I found neither and left with my wallet intact. Poor quality crap in the stores = poor quality crap in thrift shops.

I had more figs than I could possibly eat, so I chopped and froze them for some future mixed-fruit crumble. A couple of them were super squishy, but that’ll be fine in a baked dessert as the texture breaks down anyway. My step-mother’s fig tree is producing a tremendous amount of fruit right now, but there’s only so many fresh figs that I can eat in any given day!

My daughter was working a later shift than normal, so I brought her some hoisin tofu over rice and a nice chilly can of flavored seltzer to get her through the dinner hour. I don’t normally buy canned water, but I had a pair of coupons for free cases of Polar water seltzers with “$5 purchases” last week.

My $5 purchase was precisely $5 of bulk spicy sausage from the meat counter, which I cooked up and froze for future use.

It’s been nice to have these drinks to offer up to visitors and gave three away yesterday when my husband stopped at the house midway through his work shift. He had two extra people in his vehicle, so I sent him out with a can for each of them.

My mother’s cherry tomato plant is producing more than she can eat, so she sent me home with a nice big container of my own home grown tomatoes. I have a couple of tomato plants, but I must be doing something wrong as they’re spindly as hell and hardly growing anything.

This one puts the “tiniest” in “five tiniest frugal things,” but I was getting ready to pull down and launder the curtain in our bathroom, as there’s one side that accumulates cat hair from Zelda jumping up to look out the window. Instead I cut off a piece of packing tape and used it to remove the offending cat hair. The rest of the curtain was fine, so it was just this one spot that appeared dirty. Bing, bang done!

I picked more wild blackberries for the freezer. I know this a repeat “frugal thing,” but I’m determined to get my lazy tuchus over to my secret berry patch once a week! I plan to take full advantage of this brief seasonal opportunity. Free amazing food that’s easy to either freeze or transform into jam? I’d be a fool to ignore this nonconsumer opportunity!

Someone in my Buy Nothing group offered up a baking sheet for my friend who needed one. I then thanked them by walking over some propogated pothos starts, as they’d asked for some a couple months ago.

I stopped at Trader Joe’s on my way home from berry picking. I bought the one thing on my list — six of their 23¢ bananas. Nothing more.*

I made my own salmon schmear using some leftover salmon. I simply mixed it into cream cheese and then added lemon zest, garlic powder and salt. I didn’t have any bagels, but it was rather tasty on crackers. Eating whole leftover cooked salmon would’ve fed a single person, but mixing it into cream cheese expanded it into something to be enjoyed by multiple people.

I didn’t cut funding to health care, public radio, medical research, education, national parks and LGBTQ+ crisis lines in the name of fiscal responsibility; and then build a vulgar $200 million ball room.

My youngest’s friend just moved to Portland, so I’m helping them source a couple items they need for their new apartment. I asked for a few items just yesterday, (a cast iron skillet, baking sheet and wall shelves) through my Buy Nothing group and have already picked up a pair of cute wall shelves that should hold plants, books and maybe even a knickknack or two. I also encouraged them to join their own Buy Nothing group.

My neighbor brought over a full gallon-size ziploc bag of freshly caught salmon as a thank you for taking care of her garden. She and her family are heading out for another vacation and I’ll happily water her plants again. She has discovered that my favors can be purchased with fresh food and I couldn’t be happier.

I’m getting another set of houseguests in a couple of weeks, which’ll be fun. Portland is an amazing city to show off and I’m always happy to give friends a free place to stay while they save their hard earned dollars.

I curb picked up an Ikea fabric storage cube that’ll come in handy in some way or another. I’m thinking maybe to corral miscellaneous items in the back of my car, but I’ll give it a couple days of thought to come up with the right answer. In the meantime I’ll give it a good scrub and let it dry in the sunshine.

No one ever stole any of my 16-year-old massage therapists. 

I washed our bedding and hung it to dry on the backyard line, even thought it was shady and late in the day.

It was just me for dinner, so I heated up some homemade refried beans and topped it with whatever I had on hand. I then scooped it up with Juantonio’s tortilla chips, (if you know, you know!) and called it good. Absolutely delicious and decidedly frugal!

I started listening to Jennifer Weiner’s The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits through the library’s free Libby app. Weiner is one of my favorite authors and I had to wait a couple months for this popular  audiobook.

I walked our plastics recycling over to New Seasons Market without buying anything.

However, I did nab this accordian file from a free pile along the way. A perfect find, as I assembled one for my daughter’s important paperwork last year and have been meaning to put one together for my other kiddo. This specific brand sells for just under $25, which makes this an extra enjoyable find. Free organizational supplies? You know that’s my love language!

I started reading a library copy of Dolly Alderton’s Good Material. I’m not sure if this book is for me, but I’ll give a hundred pages or so.

I made an appointment to donate platelets next month through the American Red Cross. They’ve been hounding me to participate in more blood letting come back since I donated back in early July, and finally offered enough incentives to break me down. Those incentives? A $30 Amazon gift card, plus a $15 gift card to the corporate retailer of my choice. I’ll use these vouchers to pick up more canning supplies, as my “buy nothing new” edict does not apply to canning lids.

I used a “Spend $5 get a free case of Polar Seltzer” coupon from New Seasons. I bought a half-price pint of vanilla ice cream to accompany last night’s mixed-fruit crumble, as well as a small container of yogurt. (New Seasons has a different ice cream for 50%-off each week throughout the summer.) I’m totally happy to drink tap water or home brewed tea, but it’s nice to have flavored seltzers to offer guests who stop by the house. I have a duplicate coupon and will make sure to use it before it expires.

I got another bag of figs from my step-mother’s tree. Thanks, Lindy!

I cooked a large batch of white beans earlier in the week, as my plan was to put together a pot of baked beans. Unfortunately I cooked the beans to a level of mushiness that wouldn’t work for the recipe. I finally took the beans and used them for a batch of white bean rosemary soup. I then added four slices of chopped bacon and a bunch of arugula. Turned out amazing and I avoided wasting the overcooked beans.

I took my $20 Safeway voucher to the store, (Thanks, American Red Cross!) and grabbed a few items that added up to $19.55. I bought supplies to make blackberry jam, as well as on-sale milk and bananas. When the clerk asked if I wanted a 10¢ bag, I said “no” because . . .

There was a bin filled with perfectly good free bags not ten feet away. (I’d forgotten my reusable bags.) I grabbed four bags to bring home, as they were the nice sturdy variety and work perfectly as kitchen can liners. One bag even had a receipt still in it, which I scanned into the Fetch app.

I feel precisely 0.0% guilty for taking bags from their recycle bin.

I recently saw a news piece about “shrinkflation” vs. “sneakflation” and wanted to check it out for myself. I think we’re all aware of the “shrinkflation” phenomenom, where food manufacturers redesign their packaging to contain less product, yet appear the same. (Think shallow boxes of cereal or peanut butter jars with concave bottoms.) It’s been a few years since a “half-gallon” of ice cream became 1-1/2 quarts, so we’re all a bit numb to it at this point.

However, manufacturers have taken it one step further with “sneakflation” where not just size, but also quality is being dropped in order to preserve corporate profits. One example they used was Breyers brand ice cream, which is now made with cheaper ingredients to the point where it no longer meets the legal requirement to be called “ice cream!” I guess another reason to stick with Tillamook ice cream, you know . . . when it’s on sale.

I made a nice big mixed fruit crisp using foraged blackberries, figs from my step-mother’s tree and a forgotten apple. No recipe needed.

I picked up crackers and another pair of helium balloons from Dollar Tree, as my eave pigeons have ramped up their defication campaign since the last balloons lost their floatiness. This odd anti-pigeons solution works perfectly, as long as I replace the balloons every few weeks. My car and front steps thank me for my efforts.

I went ahead and foraged more blackberries. Free sunglasses courtesy of the Red Cross, free hat courtesy of a neighborhood “Free Stuff” box.

I can see why your eye is drawn to the Supreme hat, (which I later sold on eBay for $65!) but it’s actually the olive green baseball cap hiding behind it. I like that it doesn’t advertise a sportsball team or even a university. Just a few simple embroidered leaves and the price was right.

I stopped at Dollar Tree, as I keep hearing that they’re about to raise their prices. I was officially there for another pair of mylar baloons to scare off the pigeons that enjoy A) Hanging out under my eaves, and B) Pooping absolutely everywhere. They were out of helium, but I did stock up on shampoo, conditioner, bar soap and ginger snaps.

I took the last of some not-so-fresh-feeling tangerines from my sister’s visit and juiced them for a batch of tangerine tofu. (Like “orange chicken,” but with tangerine juice and tofu!) I essentially made up the recipe, but it included the tangerine juice, lemon juice, soy sauce, garlic powder, powdered ginger, sesame oil, brown sugar, red pepper flakes and lastly a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce.

Yum!

Random ingredients coming together to create a delicious, yet frugal meal. Anything I can do to stay out of a grocery store is a “win” in my book!

I’d reached the point where I couldn’t get any more goo out of my lotion bottle, so I cut it in half. Now I can access every last bit of product to get my money’s worth!

I haven’t been participating in an official “No Buy July” challenge, but I’m pretty sure than apart from a few thrifted items, I’ve only puchased comsumables this month. Although that’s pretty much every month for me.

The random $1.50 veggie bag that I picked up at Fred Meyer had four, count ’em four sprigs of wilted parsley in it. I’m no quitter, so I snipped their ends and stuck them in water.

You remember, this bag:

Anyway, this is that same parsley, maybe two hours later! Now, how to best use this perky parsley?

The bag also included three green bell peppers and two orange ones. I sliced and froze them, so I’ll be able to pull out however much I need at a time. By the way a single orange bell pepper normally costs $1.49 at Fred Meyer, so that clearance price bag really was a huge bargain!

I didn’t even photograph the zucchini, pair of carrots and the dozen or so organic jalapeño peppers that also came in the bag!

I cut some hydrangeas for my mother, who’d been wanting some for her house. But first I set them on the newel post by the front door, which was confusing for “Mama’s Little Meatball,” who considers this to be her own spot.

I started reading a library copy of Fiona Davis’ The Spectacular. She’s one of my favorite authors and although I’m just one chapter in, I know I’ll zip through the rest of the book up within a day or two.

I didn’t fire anyone from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.