Five Frugal Things -- Beautiful Flowers & Frye Boots
1) My husband and I enjoyed a nice long walk after dinner last night, which at this time of year is essentially a tour through a series of botanical gardens. This house's calla lilies were almost unreal!
Unsurprisingly I came home with a 10¢ returnable bottle, which seems to be a pattern these days. I carry a small reusable bag on these walks, just in case I come across any juicy free boxes.
2) Our dinner was a free Domino's double-mushroom pizza, as I'd been sent a link for one as my last order was somehow below their standards. (Maybe the delivery took too long?) Either way, I only had seven days to redeem this offer and I wasn't going to let that go to waste.
I cut a couple of the slices into small squares and crisped them up in the air fryer to make "pizza croutons," which I served over our salads. I saw this idea on Instagram and thought it would be a fun addition to the meal. It was.
3) My husband and I stopped into the Oak Grove Goodwill, where I thrifted this new-with-tags Mickey Mouse plush. I paid up at $6.99, but it was a limited edition item and the only other ones on eBay were listed around $90.
I listed mine at $50 as I'd prefer a faster sale and the actual "sold" ones were more around the $40 mark.
Click HERE to see the listing.
4) My husband and I stopped by my mother's house to bring her a Mother's Day gift and spend a bit of time together. She'd mentioned that she wanted look for a specific vintage flowerpot (Roseville Moon and Stars) and I happen to already have one, so that's what I brought her as a Mother's Day gift. I included the plant already growing in it, plus a fancy lemon tart from a nearly patisserie.
5) We were leaving her house and drove past this pair of free boxes, so we naturally pulled the car to the curb.
Hello, Frye leather boots! Sure, they're in a diminutive size, but the price was right. Especially since they sell for almost $500 new!
I'll put a bit of work into the boots before listing them on eBay, but I should be able to get at least $75 for them.
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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This blog post includes an eBay referral link.
Katy, you have an amazing eye for items to resell.
1. My sister took our kitchen knives in for free sharpening. For those in the Twin Cities, you may bring your knives to the meat counter at any Lunds & Byerlys grocery store for free sharpening. Limit of three knives per visit, ready in 24 hours, although they said my sister could wait for them instead. I just recently learned about this free service from a neighbor. Obviously it gets people into the store, although my sister shops there already when she wants a higher end grocery experience.
2. Had landscape mulch delivered on a weekday instead of the weekend to save money.
3. After taking flaxseed oil supplements daily for years for dry eyes, I experimented with every other day and noticed no difference. I do the same with a couple other supplements to bring costs down.
4. Transferred a couple inches of milk left in the jug into a glass bottle. The milk was perfectly good but the jug itself had started to smell funky.
5. Completed April financials by downloading transactions from checking and credit card sites and adding them to my rolling one-year spreadsheet. Because I was a daily Excel user back in my professional days, I enjoy analyzing the data in different ways, but I haven't done any graphs - yet!
I'm with you on the raw meat. It's so abhorrent to me! If DH didn't love it, I would never buy it or cook it. This started with me as a very small child...dinnertime was always a struggle for my poor mother as I fought her constantly on it. The texture, the taste...it never appealed to me. By the time I was a teen my taste had expanded (somewhat) and I would eat it only if it was dripping in gravy or sauce. Still that way. I eat it only for protein, not flavor.
1. I schlepped around Costco, I loathe all shopping. I stuck exactly to my list. I have a meat phobia and usually buy precooked sausages at Costco. But I saw that the uncooked sausages were $1/lb cheaper, so I bought those. I can just manage to tip them into a baking pan and cook them. I endeavor to never touch raw meat. I've never liked meat, the texture both raw and cooked is horrifying to me. I don't think it helped that my Occupational Therapy degree included dissection of human cadavers.
2. Line drying second load of laundry. I don't normally need to do 2 loads in a day but I'm washing some seasonal things. I like to put the coats and quilts away clean.
3. Our charge-by-the-hour financial advisor retired. I've scheduled free interviews with 2 advisors that are vetted by Fidelity. Managing our own money is frugal.
4. Leftovers for dinner. Frugal use of time and power.
5. DIL asked if I would make her a quilt with saved baby clothes. That is something I can happily do and I looked through the stash today. I harvested 2 nice long zippers from sleep sacks, and 3 sets of velcro which will go into my stash of sewing notions. Now I'm off to mend the waistband of dh's pajama pants.
Gave the farm pup a spa day in the outdoor antique claw foot tub after the sun warmed it up. I used the solar shower to rinse her off. Now she is a black and white dog again!
Picked a big bucket of carrots to pickle.
Planted a hill of watermelons using a navy blue shower curtain new in bag found at an estate sale. It will work the same as my normal black plastic.
I can't believe I had to water today! Our cut flowers are 2 weeks early.
Cute boots! They remind me of an estate sale that I went to and she had size 5 feet. Yeah, me too when I was 8.