Five Frugal Things -- Craft Project or $450 Ralph Lauren Shirt?
1) I brought home a tangle of three MacBook charging cords/power adaptors from last weekend's garage sale after party, even though they were far from pretty. One was obviously past the point of redemption, but the other two were fine.
Dirty does not mean broken.
My daughter coincidentally came over with her charger and I noticed that hers was super messed up from a certain adorable, yet bitey feline. (It's a good thing she's cute!) One of the power adaptor/charging cord sets was an exact match, so she went home with a "new" replacement.
I still have a backup charging set in case Tuna Kitty starts a new cycle of violence.
2) I had an hour to kill away from home, so I drove over to the Hollywood library. (The Portland neighborhood, not the California district!) My goal was to grab some books to have on hand for when I'm in the mood to browse from my own personal library.
None of the Lucky Day books struck my fancy, so I went over to the fiction section and ended up with five random books. None of them had been on my radar, but I'll likely read at least a two of them.
Do you have any books to recommend? I need (NEED!) fresh ideas for books to put on hold at the library.
3) I sold a $7.99 thrifted Mickey Mouse plush for $40. I'd originally listed this "limited edition" guy at $50, but lowered the price after a month or so.
Stuffed animals are occasionally on the profitable end of things to sell, plus they're extremely easy to mail. (Always something to consider as a reseller.) Some eBay sellers make serious bank selling plush, but my knowledge in this category is pretty minimal. There's always more to learn, which is simply part of the fun in life!
4) I watched an Architectural Digest YouTube video, which took us lowly peasants on a tour of Andy Cohen's Hamptons beach house. I like pretty things and occasionally come away from this kind of aspirational (ha!) content with an idea or two.
Although I enjoyed the interiors, (seriously gorgeous wallpaper and tile work!) what I was most struck with was his embroidered denim shirt. I just knew it wasn't evidence that Cohen enjoys craft projects in his spare time.
Nope! It's an out of stock $450 Polo Ralph Lauren shirt, as evidenced by this Harrod's photo. I know how to do all these stitches, (chain, blanket, feather) and certainly have access to weathered denim shirts, (wazzup, Goodwill bins?!) and now I have a future project slotted into place.
It's making me remember when I embroidered red noses on a Goodwill bins Playboy sweater and then sold it on eBay as an "ugly Christmas sweater" for $50 back in 2018!
That was a fun project!
It took an entire evening to embroider all the noses, but it was fun and made me break out in laughter the entire time. Sometimes you have to make your own entertainment.
5) I forced myself to clean off the shelving unit component pieces, even though I was completely beat by the end of the day. Portland is looking at multiple days of forecasted rain and I knew they'd start to rust if I left them to sit out in these conditions.
They're now all nice and clean in my dry basement, just waiting for my husband and I to find the energy to reassemble them.
Sometimes it sucks to be the responsible grown up.
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
Love the reminder about the Playboy sweater. I wonder how many people have worn that sweater since you spiffed it up!
Highly recommend Kathryn Stockett’s The Calamity Club! She is the author of The Help, and this one is just as good. I listened (via Libby, of course) and the narration was well done. It was also a satisfying 28 hours long (at regular speed).
I also recently read The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali. Also SO GOOD! I now have alllllll her other books on hold on Libby.
My two favorite audiobooks EVER are The Correspondent (Virginia Evans) and Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver). Must-listens on any list I have (narrator voice on Demon Copperhead is just SO spectacular I feel like it HAS to be read through ear-reading).
Other recent good reads:
The Quiet Librarian (Allen Eskens)
The Girl on the Mountain (Carol Ervin)
The Library Book (Susan Orlean)
Sorry… books are a favorite (frugal) topic.
I read a physical copy of Demon Copperhead and loved it, your endorsement makes me want to listen to the audiobook now though!
I also recommend the Calamity Club. I'm about 100 pages away from finishing the book. I hope they make it into a movie as they did with The Help.
If anyone is looking for a light summer read there is a series of books by Marie Bostwick called the Cobbled Court Quilt Series. They are about a woman who opens a quilt shop and each subsequent book focuses on a different character that comes to the quilt shop.
First, Katy, I too enjoyed the Playboy sweater story.
Now, FFT, Progress at NDN1's Edition:
(1) NDN1's CF and I had a long and productive meeting with CF's financial advisor on Wednesday about NDN1's money matters. Briefly, as soon as we can get NDN1's tax records (which I put together with blood, sweat, and tears) for the last three years to him, he's going to start consolidating all her little PITA accounts into a couple of big accounts. This will be an enormous relief for both CF and me--and, I imagine, for NDN1's nephew as well (who gave us carte blanche to act as we see fit in this area during his brief visit in late May).
(2) CF has arranged for an estate sale guy (recommended by her realtor friend, with whom we met last week) to come to the house next Monday to see what might be sale-worthy. There's no question of having a sale at the house; he'll just pull out anything he thinks is saleable. NDN1 does have a few nice pieces of MCM furniture (a desk, a rocking chair, and two side chairs), plus a Stickley repro armchair and a few other things. There's also lots of old-fashioned brown furniture, but we're not holding our breath on those pieces.
(3) In emptying out the MCM desk this afternoon, I came across an unassuming little envelope containing a beat-up 1953 Jefferson $2 bill and a 1923 $1 silver certificate in mint condition except for the folds. As a character in one of the Anne of Green Gables books says, "You're never safe from being surprised till you're dead."
(4) I made sun tea this morning in one of my half-gallon Ball jars, using three bags of Constant Comment I found at NDN1's (in an unopened package, well away from the Pantry of Death). Despite the bags' age, the tea seems fine.
(5) And I haven't stuffed the Supreme Court so full of sycophants that it'll make any racist, inhumane decrees I choose. Grrrrr.
A. Marie,
I second your Number 5. Outrageous!
All the dead Presidents, and other patriots, must be spinning in their graves.
Katy, I just realized that Ralph Lauren has picked up on the decorative mending and patching trend. Haven’t you shown similar mending? Monochrome Flowers and paisley embroidery is a current trend in stores. Good eye to spot RL’s use.
1. I guess this will be frugal in the long run as I won’t have to drive an hour to my ex husband’s office if I do not wish to use the gas, nor drive 30 minutes to the closest library and have to wait for their limited hours, but I finally got internet at my house. I got Starlink after talking with neighbors about the difficulty of reliable internet here. To be fair, I had internet on my iPhone prepay plan but it is difficult to work from for some things. Also, as I said, the internet for it in this little town is iffy sometimes. Many times I have to post comments to this blog when I am in another town. We shall see if my work from home plan regarding paperwork/word processing actually works. Living in the boonies can be interesting and very cheap in some ways and very expensive in other ways.
2. I went to the farmer’s market after work yesterday (market was behind the city hall where I was working so very convenient) and purchased $18 worth of tomatoes, pink eyed peas, cucumbers. Farmer’s markets here are pretty expensive. I then took $20 cash to the store today and purchased for $17 and some change, mayo, watermelon, couple of diet 2 liter store brand soda which is not a necessity except for my sanity, sugar to make my three ingredient homemade peanut butter cookies, and something else I can’t remember.
3. I walked from 5:30 to 6:30 am this morning.
4. I paid my power bill for the month which was $62.00 for my 911 sq ft house. We will be in the high 90’s from this point forward for a while so I doubt it will be that cheap again this summer. Sigh. We have incredibly high electric rates for such a poor state. I will be running my air, unfortunately, a lot.
5. I do hope to cut the air off, raise the windows, and run the fan tonight.
I’m not sure if you only read fiction but I’m reading a memoir recommended in the comments here, A Different Kind of Power by former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern and it’s very good. I get so many good book recommendations from commenters here, thanks everyone! Also seconding The Lion Women of Tehran and I recently read all the Thursday Murder Club books and really enjoyed them.
1) My sisters friend has season tickets for the WNBA team here. She sells the tickets for the most popular/profitable games which usually covers her entire season tickets cost and so she then gives away tickets for any games she can’t attend to her family and friends for free. Even though I don’t follow any sports, I found the game a lot of fun last year so was excited when my sister said she got some for this weekend if I wanted to go. It’s very kind of her friend to do this (I wouldn’t mind paying since I enjoyed it so much).
2) My son found a new book series to obsess over (Wings of Fire, about dragons) so I was able to get a couple from the library and have requested more on hold. I love that he loves reading so much and am grateful for libraries to keep a constant supply of books flowing for both of us!
3) Our family has one iPad and it’s quite old (by iPad standards, so maybe 9-10 years old) The screen is cracked and some of the apps no longer work because the software can no longer be updated (not supported by Apple anymore) I didn’t feel the need to replace it though because I only use it a few times a week to watch my workout videos on YouTube in the garage and my daughter sometimes would use it to play educational games, my son and husband never use it. It finally did completely break though and restarting, cleaning it etc didn’t fix it. I still may not have replaced it but fortuitously my uncle sent a text to the whole family and asked if anyone would want to buy his iPad, it was 4 years old, in perfect condition and he even still had the box it came in. He sold it to me for $150 which was a more than fair price (he said he wanted to give a family discount). So now we have a new-to-us used iPad. I really wouldn’t have felt good about buying a new one so this worked out perfectly.
4) My kids camp went on a field trip on Wednesday and they hit some traffic so didn’t end up getting back until much later than usual. It meant I got an extra hour to myself between finishing work and needing to pick them up, I used it to complete all these tiny tasks that I just hadn’t gotten around to, like depositing a check I’d received a few days before, activating my new debit card since the current one expires this month, rsvping to a birthday my daughter was invited too. Things you would think I could just do right away since they take literal seconds but for some reason had been putting off. Felt so good to have them all done though!
5) I cooked a pound of dried beans and then put them in jars and froze them. I keep canned beans on hand too but try to use my freezer stash first since dry beans are so much cheaper.
The banned book club I go to read "Last Night at the Telegraph Club" by Malinda Lo and loved it.
Today I went to the hardware store's "buy 3 HVAC filters, get one free" sale. Bought for $8 total a summer blouse and dress at the thrift store that supports homeless women. Ate the last of the homemade spicy chicken-black beans-rice soup from the freezer. Picked another handful of cherry tomatoes from the container garden.
My lovely rosemary bush was badly injured by the severe winter storm we had. Today I took cuttings of the healthiest limbs to root and will try again. The late winter ice storms we get since the weather has changed have killed every rosemary bush we've had.
I'd love to recommend some books!
Lovely War by Julie Berry
A People's History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian
Nimona by N.D. Stevenson
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
I'm glad you were able to find a good home for Mickey! My children adore the stuffed animal section at the thrift shop and I always wonder if the majority end up in the trash.
I’m halfway through Buckeye by Patrick Ryan, a “Lucky Day” pick at the Hollywood branch recommended by a random stranger who was browsing the stacks next to me. She was not wrong - it’s a great historical saga with strong female protagonists. (Hollywood is my home library and I’m not a fan of the remodel - will be curious to see Belmont when it’s complete)