Five Frugal Things -- Recession Indicators & a $35 Day Planner
1) There's an amazing thread in The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group about "recession indictors" that already has 579 comments. It's an absolutely fascinating glimpse into how people from all over the world are working hard to survive the current economic times.
Click HERE to read it. You'll need to join the free group, but worth it as it's a helpful resource. Seriously, there are currently almost 200,000 members!
2) I brought my daughter a gluten-free Domino's pizza, which set me back just $9.87 as they had a 50%-off any menu item offer. Their gluten-free crusts are premade, which means they're always the "small" size. Domino's coupons are normally just for medium or large pizzas, so I keep an eye out for deals that work for her.
I picked it up to save on delivery and even remembered to use the seat warmer to keep it hot.
Why did I get her a pizza? Because I hadn't seen her for four or five days and wanted an excuse to see her face, give her a hug and pet her cat.
3) I downloaded a new audiobook through the library's free Libby app. It was recommended by someone online and came at the perfect time as I'd lost interest in the one I'm currently listening to.
Supposedly the new book centers on the women left behind in 1920s Sicily when the men emigrated to the United States, and how they formed supportive community. Yeah, I'll read that!
4) I took my daughter to an early morning appointment and drove her through McDonald's afterwards when she asked if we could get coffees. I handed her my phone to use the app and she was able to order a large iced caramel latte for just $1.29. I checked and the normal price is $2.70, for reference this coffee would cost around seven bucks at Starbucks.
I can afford seven dollars, but I prefer to hold onto my money so it can be available for important expenditures.
We didn't take a photo of said coffee, so you'll just have to imagine the above coffee in a plastic cup as her's obviously wasn't poured into a breakable glass.
5) I sold my thrifted 49¢ day planner for $35 and the sumo mug I got from a mug exchange for $23. I'd listed the mug for $30, but happily accepted the offer as my initial cost was $0.00.
Kind of a relief to see that I can sell on eBay. It's been crickets lately.
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
I remember when it was a cause for celebration when your group reached 30k members and now you are at 200k??? Wow! Way to go!!!
1. I walked in my neighborhood for an hour.
2. I ate breakfast at home.
I packed lunch to work. Ham sandwich today. I was fancy…. lol.
3. It has hit 91 and I have caved and turned on the air. I only tennis for three hours though.
4. I got gas for 3.29 a gallon in University town. It is still $4.09 a gallon 40 minutes south of there…. Ugh.
5. I hope to take a nap bc it is HOT.
I only intend to run the air for three hours though.
I've definitely noticed a decrease in eBay sales. And FB marketplace sales seem to be the more practical items. I think those are recession indicators.
We find ourselves staying home more. We were already home bodies, and gas over $5.50 a gallon is a great motivation to stay at home. It's a good thing we both have hobbies at home. And there's always work to do in the garden...
I finished sewing a pair of trousers. Fabric cost me $2.
I took used leggings (free to me) to Lululemon and got $40 store credit.
Our washing machine (top loader) was smelling terrible and leaving black streaks on clothes. Dh said we needed a new one. I looked it up online and found how to take the impeller (different from agitator) off and clean underneath. Now it's like new! A lot of money saved there. I adore being able to find fix-its online.
Well done on the washing machine repair!
Wow, great job on the washer repair!
Tell me more about the Lululemon exchange ? Why did they give you a nice credit?
They gave a $10 credit for every pair of used Lululemon leggings that I brought in. Since the used ones were all in a free pile, I felt like it was a great exchange! They email the gift card within a few minutes.
1. Read my book (free from a LFL) on the patio this morning, homebrewed cup of coffee in hand. Part of my staycation, which I'm taking in little bits, as this is my day off.
2. Repotted a spearmint plant, the leaves of which will be crushed into glasses of iced tea. Sun-brewed, of course.
3. Decluttering project: found books to be taken to various LFLs and thrift stores. Also found a stack of worksheets to teach cursive writing, which my high school English kids enjoyed learning (and actually wanted to learn! Go figure!); I will try to find some families who'd like the worksheets, and pass them on. (BTW, If your kids want to learn cursive writing this summer, there are free downloadable worksheets online. I got mine at http://www.k5learning.com. They also have coloring sheets, games and worksheets for other school subjects, so kids hopefully won't get rusty in their various subjects during the summer slump.)
4. Drank my Pepsi leftover from yesterday's supper; filled out the survey on THAT Long John Silver receipt for another one piece fish and fry special deal.
5. Did not go ballistic over legitimate questions asked during an interview, nor did I stomp on a microphone, destroying it, when I threw a temper tantrum and stormed off like a 2 year old.
Thanks for the cursive resource! Both my kids are fascinated with learning cursive and disappointed it isn’t taught in school anymore. I found an old second grade workbook that still taught cursive which I gave to my son to practice with but I didn’t have another for my daughter, so I’ll print some pages from the site you shared!
Don’t sleep on finger painting and tracing in sand!
I don't know if it is a recession indicator but in my neighborhood scavengers remove all aluminum cans from the recycling bins before the trucks arrive.
1. I admit to still treating myself to coffee and a pastry at the locally owned coffee shop, but I am trying to walk there and to the library to save on gas (over $6.50/gal in my part of CA)
2. I just spent an hour scrubbing our 2 level painted patio's largest section. Wishing we had a pressure washer but we don't and it is good exercise. Tomorrow I'll do the smaller section.
3. I am going to try to turn a long sleeve PJ top into an elbow sleeve one since there is a growing hole in one elbow. Otherwise I'll hit up the local thrift shops that I can walk to to see what I can find.
Otherwise same ole daily stuff!
I'm not sure what I think of the scavengers, so am not sure about writing this comment, but it is food for thought. Companies that recycle probably rely heavily on aluminum, as it is the easiest-to-recycle at the best cost. Fewer cans mean less profit or more loss for the companies. Picking up discarded cans is a different situation from taking them from the recycling bins.
And yet, I understand people who collect recyclables as supplemental parts of their income.
(When I lived in Iowa many many years ago, Ames had just started a for that time model recycling from trash program, with a whole system that sorted glass, paper, plastic, tin, and aluminum, and would be self-supporting. Then Iowa passed the can deposit and the aluminum wasn't there any more).
Is there a deposit on aluminum cans in your state? In Oregon, I pay an extra 10 cents for every beverage container (excluding dairy and hard liquor), and the cooperative that does the recycling gets to keep the 10 cents if the can is never recycled. They also get to keep the scrap value of the cans that do get recycled. It seems like a good deal for them.
Strangely, I think I’m finding more cans because of the recession. It’s cheaper to buy a can of beer and drink it at the park with friends, than it is to order a beer in a bar, and I see evidence that this is what people are doing.
Ten U.S. states and several Canadian provinces have deposits.
OK? And?
My state does not; I think you are asking Juhli?
Haha. I’m so confused, but your concern makes more sense if your state has no deposit.
I don't know about the deposit situation (CA) but aluminum is sold to recyclers at a good price as I believe it is the most desirable metal for recycling. If it is in our recycling bin the city sells it.
Direct recycling does not go directly to companies that use recycled goods. They purchase it in bulk from the recyclers, and it doesn’t matter if the recycling was brought in from recycling bins or by scavengers that sold it to the recyclers. The only difference is that in option A) the consumer is paying a company to take away their recyclables (either directly or indirectly via either local taxes or their general waste pickup bill). Conversely, the scavengers are paid pennies on the dollar instead of being billed to bring it in. Further, scavenger-sourced recyclables are more likely to be recycled, whereas the stuff that goes into the single-stream recycling bins are more likely to be landfilled do to sorting issues at the recycling plant.
I personally think fondly of scavengers, and am often one myself — more of us should be scavenging as opposed to depending upon new consumer products. The companies will be fine, they make money by exploiting workers, consumers, and taking advantage of loopholes in federal regulations. Any recycling is typically done as a “virtue signal” to their consumer base, and falls well short of what they should be doing.
I completed the clinical study I was enrolled in and received $150 in Amazon gift cards. Living in a hamlet of 6500 limits our selection of items we need. We live about 25 miles from
a bonafide town.
I won a beautiful gift basket with a Michael Kors purse, leather gloves, a poncho wrap. I have them listed on various sites. If they don’t sell I may save them for gifts.
1. Mom's MRI test went off like clockwork, she charmed everyone from fellow patients in the waiting room to all the nurses and medical staff. I didn't lose her in the hospital, either, so I can chalk this one off as a success. Due to my cold I wore a Mask all the time I was with Mom, and didn't hang out with her when I drove her home. I think she was ready for another nap, to be honest – going out in public to new places is hard on those with memory issues.
MRI was free due to Universal Healthcare. For which I have a lot of gratitude these days. Mom was slow to pull out her visa for parking (she was overwhelmed) but fast to hand me a $20 for gas etc – and I am not too proud to take it, as it is more than that in gas to go down to see her, even with my gas sipping little Toyota echo.
2. Not so frugal until I calculate the number of meals we ended up with - I visited with my Daughter who also lives down near my Mom. We went for dinner to a lovely Indian restaurant, where we took the advice of a couple at a neighbouring table and went for 'mild' on every dish. If that was mild, I'm sure glad we didn't got for hotter! Delicious food, enough leftovers for her to have two meals (of rice and lentils or rice and butter chicken, plus some biryani for each night).
3. I also brought home leftovers for me, however (as expected) #2 son will needed them for his next day lunch. He's got very long days in his lab right now, lots of imaging work on the mass spectrometer which takes HOURS every day, and in addition he is trying to get himself moved in with his girlfriend so is packing at night and moving a vehicle load every morning.
“Mom's kitchen” is helping to fuel him until he can get settled, so “Mom's leftovers” will feed him lunch. He'll also take some PB and Jam sandwiches because we have bread, PB and Jam readily available – and he knows he will be starving before the experiments are done. I love that he is wise about how expensive it can be to eat out, even at the University cafeteria, and that he is learning to do a bit more planning ahead.
4. I'm feeling rotten with this cold, however I have a list of things to do and am working my way through them. #2 son brought in a big box of clothing he isn't taking with him, and I've sorted it into donate (homeless shelter and thrift store), gardening (me), back into my rotation (pile vest and some winter toques), and to ask my daughter if she wants (she wears a lot of androgynous clothes, although he is much taller and longer armed than she, she'll still snap things up if they suit her).
I'm laundering everything before it is moved on to the next stations. Too rainy to hang on the line, though.
5. Lentils cooking, beans & rice soaking. rinse repeat!
I mailed off my one eBay sale and listed three more items. Two that I was planning on listing were tabled. A summer sweater had a small mystery stain that I'm treating now. An Old Navy top took such a bad picture I gave up on it and put it in the Goodwill bag. It looks fine in person, but is very unphotogenic. No one is going to go hog wild over Old Navy anyway. I don't think.
I turned on the air because it's hot and muggy. Storms tonight may help.
A friend gave me a Pepperoni pizza that was a little burnt around the edges, and a container of eight croissants that were a day past their use date. Both fine by me.
That book sounds very interesting, thanks for that recommendation! Just added it to my Goodreads list to put on hold at the library sometime.
Oh, do tell how the book goes. I am going to add that one to my library list.
Also, the pizza hack is a good one! I'll have to try that with my 24 yo kid.
1. I'll start with books too. I checked out a book that I saw two separate reviews on recently. I thought it was new but, alas, I live in a cave! It came out in 2014 and is called A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain--it's a scary, fictitious tale about missing women in Canada.
2. Walked to yard sales during our weekend neighborhood event. Found a North American Mushrooms book from a free box. I also found some cheap things to list on eBay. Hubby and I also found some crap to keep for now too. I didn't spend much. I also set up a pile of stuff in the side year (corner lot) with a big "free sale" sign. It worked and I lightened my clutter.
3. Harvested a handful of strawberries from the garden. I've also spent time admiring the huge peonies and other blooms around the yard.
4. Eating from the pantry, taking leftovers to work, making my coffee at home...etc, etc.
5. Walking nearby nature trails for exercise. Sunday, on a really nice hollow trail in a light summery rain, we came across 100s of red efts (juvenile eastern newts). It was so cool to see these little guys everywhere. Eastern newts have a very unique lifecycle and it's worth checking it out if you are the curious naturalist type. Plus, curiosity is free and it costs nothing to love the Earth and her beautiful earthlings.
Happy June!
I am not a coffee connoisseur but I think McDonalds' iced coffee is good. Starbucks stopped carrying most of their SF flavors so that killed it for me. Micky Ds has a SF iced coffee. Yum Yum!
1. I took a nice leather belt pack for repair that was a yr old. It had a broken clasp. I thought the leather would hold up (which it did) but the clasp broke. I also took a purse to get a few stitches put in to secure a pocket. It was canvas with a plastic coat so I could not stitch it myself. Set me back $25 but I like my bags. The shop is a home owned place so that is nice too. (Currently manufactured items are not as well made as in the past IMHO. Soles of my shoes come unglued, stitches come loose, vinyl purses shed their outer finish, clasps break.)
2. Found 60 cents in change in the McDonalds drive thru.
3. I got an iced coffee free at Dunkin using my points. I spied 26 cents in change while going thru the drive thru.
4. I'm trying to lose some weight. Eating less saves $.
5. I found a large sack with various types of out of date chips. I opened a package & found them to be crisp. I will take them across the street to the 12 step groups for their concession stand. (Eating chips will not help me lose weight also.)
Thank you for continuing to post regularly. You really help in a tough time quiet simple continuing on, continuing to care and try and hold on. The support you give is immensely important. I remember you from way back in compact days and am so grateful.
Don't forget Little Caesar's -- they're running a twofer, $5.95 each, if you order through the app. Seems weird that the sale price is what the regular price used to be...but two pizzas made a substantial supper for us, our kids -- and a few slices for breakfast the next day.
I hope you’ll summarize the recession indicators for those of us not on Facebook.
Yes!! I happily do not have any social media, though I miss it in situations like this one
Some of us don’t support Schmark Schmuckerberg! 😉
Me too! I don't do social media of any kind.
1. WFH today because I have an oil change and 30,000 maintenance appointment at my mechanic. I dropped my car off this morning and walked home. I won't be spending gas on driving all the way to the office later. So 3 wfh days this week instead of 2, yay!
2. My husband brought home a free enchilada from work yesterday, and it was huge (more like a small burrito!). We split it for dinner, along with a side salad.
3. Got back late Sunday night from a long weekend away, and had to hop to work first thing Monday morning, so no time to meal prep this week. Went grocery shopping after work Monday and only bought produce and a rotisserie chicken, and it was all on sale.
4. Between my pantry, freezer, and the purchased produce, we'll have frugal meals all week.
5. Got together with a friend after work yesterday and went for a walk in one of our beautiful parks (designed by Olmsted, the same person who designed Central Park in NYC) instead of going out for drinks or dinner.
Olmsted designed some lovely parks in the Chicago area, too! Though I would have to do some travel to take a walk in them; they are not in my neighborhood. Enjoy!
Thank you!! I was just in Chicago last weekend - we share lots of architects with each other! It’s so cool.
I was needing some reusable drink bottles so went looking at the bins. They always have tons but most look like they were used to pound rocks in a chain gang, all dented and scratched. Maybe they are used to pound tent stakes? I did find a new hydro flask in a beautiful blue and a larger dark grey camelbak, both had papers still inside so never used. I threw in a new flower curling iron and some carabiners and other small things to make the one pound at $1.59. I found a pink sticker that says easily distracted by cats to put on the plain bottle.
I also wanted a lightweight crushable jacket to put over sundresses when you go inside frigid buildings. Found a pink one and spring green one that don’t wrinkle and wash and dry in an instant. They were too lightweight to make a pound so threw in a pair of cotton shorts with pockets, a tshirt from my favorite beach side restaurant, and a new with tags stretchy bra.
I wear socks with my comfy Hoka recovery slides(bought at bins) but buy less expensive kids socks for a dollar a pair.
Someone gave me some peaches or nectarines I can’t tell which so Ive been enjoying delish juice running down your face fresh fruit. And a can of smoked trout. Who gives that away? Yes please and thank you.
I’m consistently finding gas for $3.50 or less. I don’t know what that means. Did something change? I would look online or at news but I just find information a jumble of confusion anymore.
1. I gave my dog a bath.
2. I listed several items from my death pile on Ebay.
3. I gave my mom's neighbor a set of trash picked dog steps that she needed.
4. I helped my mom install solar lights on her deck railing instead of paying a handyman.
5. I took a large bag of microfiber cleaning cloths from my mom's garage sale inventory and she took some small travel size pillows from mine.
1. Working through leftovers from our party Saturday.
2. Needed quick dinner last night and got half-price sushi (after 8 pm!) at the japanese shop near us.
3. Keeping the ACs off as long as possible through the heat that is coming - fans are working well so far.
4. Been pretty dehydrated the last few days from general inattention. Got my big ol' water bottle out and am keeping it full and close by. I do not need a new water bottle to get hydrated - my lovely dented thermoflask is the perfect color purple (and was inherited when a friend left it at our place) for the job.
5. Wearing a freebie hat to sweat into while knocking around my garden.
Your #2 is fabulous - I love how much you love and care for your children.