Today I Am . . .

by Katy on March 17, 2015 · 17 comments

Today I am . . . 

  • Getting both of my sons up and off to school.
  • Cleaning one of my mother’s guest cottages.
  • Bringing home a bag of sugar from the guest cottage, adding to my canister at home, and then discovering it was infested with ants.
  • Throwing all of my sugar into the compost.
  • Shuddering.
  • Returning 24 empty beer bottles from the guest cottage to get the nickel deposits back.
  • Donating a load of leftover garage sale stuff that’s been sitting in my garage since last summer.
  • Cooking up a batch of black beans in the crock pot for tonight’s burrito dinner.
  • Talking to my NYC sister on the phone while she eats her $1/slice pizza lunch.
  • Picking my son up from his Japanese tutoring.
  • Not needing to bring a book to kill time while I wait for my son, as his tutoring is at the library.
  • Just having a regular, kind of boring day.

Now your turn. What are you doing today?

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }

Sabrina | Frugal Italian Family March 17, 2015 at 1:35 pm

I like your post about a regular day. It makes me think that it is important to remember every little thing…

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Christine March 17, 2015 at 1:39 pm

Too bad about the ants, yuck!
Took my sons to the library for a St. Patrick’s day puppet show. We were head to to in St. Paddy’s regalia, green things we owned plus a few items from the thrift.
Treated myself to a latte afterwards and they gave me a free grande ‘Flat White’ so I could taste compare! (So I drank the flat white and gave the latte to my Mom, whom we were headed to visit). Also got a coupon for a free breakfast sandwich, so I didn’t feel too bad about the ‘latte factor’ today 🙂
Enlisted my mother to watch the kids for an hour so I could nap (we’ve had some long sick baby nights lately). She read the library books we had just picked up to the two of them.
Used a bunch of fridge and pantry items to make the traditional Irish meal of Butter Chicken (complete with wilted cilantro shamrocks) and a beet/spinach/apple salad.
This was way more eventful than my typical day, but still ended up pleasingly frugal/non-consumer 🙂

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Kim March 17, 2015 at 1:41 pm

Well, I pulled out of my overnight stop at Dazzo’s in Wikieup, AZ. (I am traveling the USA in my Airstream.) Gassed up and arrived at Blake Ranch RV Park and Horse Motel. Got set up and now I am just perusing the ‘net before deciding on a nap or driving into Kingman, AZ to see what is there.

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Anne March 17, 2015 at 3:21 pm

I love the idea of a “horse motel”. I can’t begin to describe the pictures it brings up in my mind.

Rooms with hay on the floor instead of beds? 😀

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Kim March 17, 2015 at 1:48 pm

Playing an endless loop of board games with my son who is home sick with the flu. Catching the last episode of House of Cards while he naps. Enjoying the one on one time with him and hoping my flu vaccine keeps the bug away from even though it didn’t help him.

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K D March 17, 2015 at 2:06 pm

Dropped off extra bedding that will be given to the poor.

Did a volunteer gig this morning. It;s my weekly time to be around grade school kids.

Went to a friend’s house for lunch. I ate corned beef and cabbage with part of her family.

Walked to the grocery store since we were out of bananas. Bought just bananas.

Made a smoothie with fruit I have been freezing, stuff that would have gone bad if I had not.

Doing laundry.

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Sandy March 17, 2015 at 2:16 pm

Pretty ordinary day here, too.
Two loads of laundry done and put away.
Dinner is Mexican.
Car had to have inspection so we can get new license plates.
Stopped to get tomato, avocado to expand dinner.
Made a few calls to get surveyors and builders referrals. Will call those people tomorrow.
Printed pattern for egg shaped placemats, located batting and Spring fabrics to make some placemats for us and hostess gifts.
Nice, easy day.

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Isabelle March 17, 2015 at 4:36 pm

Today I am…
* working an extra 3h (yeah, more money!)
* having lunch with my uncle and aunt (I brought my lunch and scored a couple pieces of delicious caramel chocolate)
* Trying to arrange for my spinning bike sale. 4 people interested, yeah! Good bike, low asking price (200$) because I want it gone. 200$ would be welcome for something I never use anymore and just takes space, and someone else will make a good deal (yes, 200$ IS cheap for that kind of bike).
* watching The Big Bang Theory on DVD
* Appreciating my husband doing my choirs of the day because I worked extra hours (I’m usually part-time and he works fulltime)
* Eating too much food while contemplating low-carbs dieting…
* spending the evening with my 2 precious daughters
* looking at flyers to plan this week groceries according to the specials
* reading my favorite blog 😆

Have a great frugal day!

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kris March 17, 2015 at 5:34 pm

**Slept late after getting home around midnight from our very UN-frugal vaca (Universal Studios/Orlando). It was my daughter’s belated graduation present. Usually I can frugal up a vaca with the best of them (hello camping and cooking over a campfire) but not this one. She’s worth it, tho. Made memories and realize this could possibly be one of the last ‘just our family of 6’ vacas, as they are all grown up now with real life responsibilities and obligations.
**Did laundry alllll day (machines still running at 9:30pm!)
**Unpacked everything
**Cleaned out the fridge, tossed some leftovers that didn’t make it while we were gone
**Cooked out of the freezer & pantry b/c I was to tired to hit the grocery store
**Prepped grocery shopping list (for trip tomorrow)
**Made my lunch to take to work with me tomorrow
**Sad my time off is over, lol

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Nathalie March 17, 2015 at 6:40 pm

* Made a large pot of chicken stock, using up all the chicken bones I had been keeping in the freezer as well as a bag of veggie peels and ends.

* Made peanut butter & jelly granola bars for snack using Rice Krispies cereal that had an expiration date of 2012 and the rest of a jar of organic peanut butter that the kids weren’t finishing, among other ingredients. I thought they were bland but Greg and our son actually like them.

* repackaged the contents of a couple of cereal packages (including said Rice Crispies) into plastic containers so wouldn’t get into them.

* ate leftovers for lunch, packed a lunch for my husband and our son packed his lunch too.

* Prepped my shopping list for tomorrow’s grocery shopping trip, trying to remain at $50 or below. I’m at $50.01.

* watered some of my herbs and fruit trees with rainwater that I had collected in bins and stored in upcycled cat litter jugs.

* after consulting with my husband, took the plunge and ordered replacements for ALL our remaining windows instead of just the upstairs windows. We got a 10% off discount but it’s still a huge expense because we’ll be replacing 26 old, decrepit, single-pane windows with energy-efficient, tinted, double-pane windows with full screens (the kind that swings inside so you can clean the outside of the windows without going outside, not that I ever EVER wash our windows but I like having the option to do that!). We’ll charge it to one of our credit card, reap the rewards, and pay it off from our emergency fund.

* husband got the new “unofficial” title that he wanted at work, which is more descriptive of his actual function and could help him secure a higher level management role with an outside company, should he decide to look around. HR is still working on seeing if that can be his official title but it’ll take a while because they need to check the parity at work and the ramifications of giving him the title. We’re hoping that might eventually mean a raise/promotion but in the meantime he’s allowed to use the “unofficial” title to sign his emails. He’s happy about it so we’re celebrating (meaning, I said “woo!”)

* we watched the first 2 episodes of the new season of “Community” as a family, on Yahoo! Screen via our Roku (free!). We were pleasantly surprised as the show was still as funny as ever, even with cast changes and the move to Yahoo! We’re putting it on our Family Calendar for every Tuesday night for the duration of the season.

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Chris March 18, 2015 at 6:27 am

We are about to replace our 19 year old furnace that has had parts recalled – so along with a big outlay of cash, we’ll get nearly $2,000 in rebates, also use the credit card to get some cash back and use the emergency fund to pay the bill when it comes. The rebates will get deposited into the emergency fund when they arrive. Part of the rebate is in the form of a VISA card so I’ll use it for groceries and put the weekly $$ into savings. I’m thinking too that I will cancel the service plan we pay for each month since I got it when the furnace was no longer covered by it’s warranty. Just trying to come up with as many ideas to re-coup some of these costs.

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cathy March 18, 2015 at 9:07 am

Does your utility company or your city or state offer rebates for purchasing energy-efficient windows? In our area, sometimes there are rebates and other times it’s in the form of tax credits.

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Nathalie March 18, 2015 at 7:17 pm

Thanks for mentioning the rebates, Cathy and Chris. I’ll have to look into it. I don’t think there’s anything available at the city level (we live in a small rural city) and I kind of doubt that there is anything at the state level (Florida, we don’t have state taxes and rarely have incentives) but I might be wrong. In any case, it’s worth investigating and I will 🙂

We had gotten a federal tax credit, I believe, for a small fraction of the cost of the last windows we had replaced, back in 2012, but that was the last year that credit was available.

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Jill March 18, 2015 at 6:17 am

Ick! I hate ants. Shudder.

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cathy March 18, 2015 at 9:21 am

Today I am procrastinating…just a little.
We all woke up late, but still got the kids out the door to school on time. Mornings like this make me thankful that they prep their backpacks the night before and put them by the door. I also make lunches at night so in the morning I just have to pull the lunchboxes out of the fridge, add a freezer pack, and they’re ready to go. It makes the morning go so much smoother.
I’m doing laundry.
Dinner will be leftovers–sort of smorgasbord style. One option is pasta w/ chicken, because after I take most of the meat off the bone, I’m going to make chicken stock from the carcass.
Meeting my mom to plan our Passover seder. If we meet for coffee (which she prefers; I’d just as soon make a pot at home), I’ll run a few exciting errands like buying stamps and picking up food for a family in our community.
Doing some volunteer work.
Combining spring cleaning with Kondo-ing my stuff. I’m stuck on “papers.” I’ve considered moving on to something else, and coming back to the horrible piles and files of paper, but at some point I need to just face the task and get it done.

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dusty March 18, 2015 at 11:07 am

Just returned from 2 weeks traveling to NYC from FLA and back. Had a great time but very expensive needless to say. My boyfriend and I have decided to move back to NYC which is where we grew up. It was fun to be in a vibrant city and we walked and took subways everywhere. No need for our car. Now the wheels are in motion to move back there. I’m sure it won’t be frugal!!!

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Katy March 18, 2015 at 11:14 am

I love visiting NYC, which you already know can be extremely expensive while also affording some extremely frugal opportunities.

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