Four Frugal Things -- Powell Butte & Expired Cat Food
1) I drove my sister and nephew up to Powell Butte to take full advantage of the 70 degree weather. We brought snacks (tangerines and cheese) and enjoyed a lil' hike.
I even found a disposable water bottle, which I'll return for the 10¢ deposit.
Say it with me:
"So yes, I recently came into some money!"
2) I got a $20-off-$49 Chewy coupon in the mail and although I no longer have a pet, my kids do. I know that my youngest occasionally orders from Chewy, so I texted them the code.
3) I made a huge pot of chicken soup, which I served with a green salad and bread for dinner. We've been 7-9 people for dinner each night, so it was nice to have a simple meal to prepare for one and all. It satisfyingly used up the last of some celery, carrots, onion and potatoes.
4) I curb picked some cans of cat food from a nearby neighbor, but didn't see that they're for "Urinary Care" until I got them home. I was about to list them on my Buy Nothing group, but noticed that they expired in 2019!
Stay vigilant, my frugal friends!
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
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Working an extra 4 hrs this week. $$. Used our Humana rewards to get $25 and $40 Walmart gift cards. Using quarterly OTC allowance to get vitamins. Picked up free Easter lily from church
Katy, From a previous pic you shared of hubby buying coffee beans @ Costco. They are $5 off right now. I did not take note of the sale expire date.
Ooh . . . thank you!
I cooked a beef chuck roast for lunch today. The chuck roast was originally $17, but using my customer rewards card knocked it down to $14 and then the card applied the $4 in cash rewards I had accrued. The ending cost of $10 was a lot more affordable. This will feed us lunch for at least three days.
Bought the perfect pair of jeans last month at a thrift shop, but they are from 2012, according to the maker's tag, and had little sequins glued on the back pockets that made them look dated. So this morning I carefully picked all the bling off the backside. Much better!
Cleaned our neglected hall bathroom from top to bottom yesterday with a pile of rags and various cleansers from Dollar Tree. Though it stinks to high heaven, that yellow Awesome cleaner does wonders for our old bathtub and tile. (I rarely use this bathroom and the household members who do also do not clean.)
Do you dilute the yellow "LA's Totally Awesome" cleaner?
I love that you picked off the "bling," end of an era.
Too bad the cat food didn't get to a cat who needed it before it expired so long ago. That stuff is expensive. I remember using it for a cat who had diabetes, and for my last cat, who had kidney disease.
Looks like a nice hike on a pretty day!
I have stayed home today, because my hip pain level has been difficult. I also had little sleep. I tried to entertain myself with Disney plus, but was asked for a code, which would be sent to my DIL. This has happened numerous times, and I hate to bother my DIL for it when she's working, so maybe it's time to admit sharing is not really working. I rarely watch DP anyway, but I did want to see the final season of The Handmaid's Tale. I hate all the rigamarole of streaming, and today I'm really missing the old days that were so much simpler.
I collected some items to list on eBay, but I'm going to tackle the actual listing on another day. Probably go back to one day at a time, which they say stimulates sales. I also looked up a lot of books to sell on Thriftbooks, but got low offers on only two, not enough to send them in.
So I took a nap and got up feeling more rested, anyway.
Yesterday in the mail I got two batches of free address labels. They don't save a lot of money, but they are convenient.
I heard some sad news from the woman who had hired me to house-sit and dog-sit next month. Her elderly dog was found to have cancer, which was causing her pain, so she made the difficult decision to have her put to sleep. I'm sad for her, and also disappointed to lose that little gig. But of course I agree, it is the best thing to do when pets are suffering. And I am somewhat relieved, because I wasn't sure I would be feeling up to the task.
Yes, it's shame that the cat food got wasted.
Sad about that woman's doggie.
1. My cleaning lady brought me some homemade spaghetti. She is moving to a bigger apartment so I got her a bunch of big boxes for her DIY move.
2. Decluttered more books: collected some how to manuals and gave them to the thrift store that specializes in tools and DIY stuff. Now that YouTube is a thing, I don't need the books.
3. Found a wasp nest. Didn't have insecticide. Used hair spray instead. Wasps died but I suppose their hairdos looked lovely, Lol.
4. Had the handyman touch up the paint in the living room after putting the curtain rod in its proper place. Painters put one curtain rod up by ceiling and the other one down so it was just over the top of that window. They were uneven and looked weird. When moving the first one down, we discovered they didn't paint the wall under the curtain rod holders and this left big white blobs against the dark colored wall. Rod relocated, paint touched up, looks great.
5. Did not act so insane that even Marjorie Taylor Greene calls me out of control.
Hairspray for a wasp's nest? That's a bold and scary experiment!
1. Took my middle school orchestra kid to a free string quartet concert at the library last night. The group are advanced music students at a local university, and they were amazing!
2. Upside had 11% cash back at Kroger, so made sure to claim the deal before I shopped today.
3. Lucked out and must have shopped at the right time of day - picked up a bunch of mark downs at great prices. Most of them were items that were in the "buy 5 get $5 off" sale, so I got an extra dollar off the discounted prices.
4. Batched my errands to save gas. Had not intended to make 3 stops after the gym, but figured I'd knock them all out today and not have to go anywhere tomorrow.
5. We have a travel trailer and spend our summers traveling around the U.S. We live 2000 miles from my hometown, and have a memorial service to attend there in June, so I am planning our summer vacation around that.
Airfare, hotel and rental car for a family of 5 is insane, and it's a rural area with few options so prices are higher. This way we have a vehicle and our hotel on wheels, and only have to buy a single round trip ticket for the college kid who has other commitments and can't travel with us.