Five Frugal Things -- Trauma Bonding With my Porch Light
1) I walked my plastic clamshell plastic over to New Seasons Market for recycling and then walked myself cheap-ass self right out of that schmancy store.
What am I, a Rockefeller?
2) I passed by this antique cast iron light fixture but left it in place, even though it was gorgeous and period appropriate for our house. (The gears in my brain immediately began to plan how to remove the multiple layers of paint!) I have no need for it as we have a high quality Rejuvenation porch light that was a financial stretch back in the day, even though it was from their "seconds" department. (The glass shade was a Goodwill find.)
This was from an era when my husband was in school and I worked full time as a labor and delivery nurse with little kids at home and every dollar spent was an agonizing decision.
As such, I'm trauma bonded with this light fixture.
Hopefully someone in the neighborhood will bring the other one home to refurbish.
3) My husband spent an hour or two organizing our basement to set up the shelving units from his late parents' storage unit. He came across this empty Band-Aid box, which come with the supplies he assembles for first aid kits. I remembered that my friend Lise has accepted these in the past, so I sent out a text.
I'll walk it over to her house this afternoon and be happy that an item that's not useful for me, can be useful for her.
4) My husband and I walked over to a new food cart pod to celebrate the full and absolute emptying of his late parents' storage unit. (His brother went over the weekend and took the final couple items that we set aside for him.) I ordered some "loaded potato Jo-Jos," which found themselves part of both the next day's lunch and dinner!
They're not especially pretty in a photo, but that doesn't mean they weren't delicious. Potatoes = vegetables, onions = vegetables. These are vegetables and I will abide no information to the contrary!
5) Hmm . . . I can't think of a fifth "frugal thing," as I was a major homebody yesterday. (I did finish reading my library book!) However, there's not much that's more frugal than staying at home and essentially going nowhere. I'm motoring through my summer reading program card, having read ten days in a row. So that's something . . . right?
I do have frugal plans today, so hopefully tomorrow's fifth "thing" will be more interesting.
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
Having my usual midnight insomnia, I found a frugal website from England. They are suffering from a heatwave and had to be educated about heat exhaustion and other hacks about staying cool when you lack air conditioning. They already had some good ones.
I added my 2 cents worth (or should I say 2 pence worth?) by telling them to tape foil on the windows to keep the sun out. We used to do that in the college dorms; however, most apartment complexes and homeowners associations take a dim view, no pun intended, of that hack. I also described a car windshield sun blocker. They probably don't have those in the UK so I said cut one to size from corrugated cardboard. And, of course, recommended they park in the shade.
And when they go out take frozen water bottles so when the ice inside melts, they'll have cold water in the park or beach. No one had yet added that.
But anyway, it was fun to read some of their hacks and tips and hopefully I helped someone across the big pond, as they call the Atlantic Ocean. A lot of them said instead of parks or the beaches, they were going to air-conditioned theaters to get out of the heat. That's how folks used to cope with it here in the South before AC was common.
I also read their tips that were not related to the heat wave there. One thing I picked up on is that when they have that last smidgen of jelly in bottom of the jar, they add vinegar, shake it up, and make a salad dressing out of it. I've tried adding milk for a sort of fruit-flavored milkshake-y type thing (written about in the Tightwad Gazette), but it never seems to mix very well. I will switch to vinegar next time. Maybe apple cider vinegar.
Another interesting tidbit is that some Brits use the internet and YouTube for entertainment because they apparently have to pay a TV license tax to watch the BBC and other telecasts or maybe even to have a TV set. I relate to that because I absolutely refuse to pay for cable or satellite or even streaming. I feel the airwaves are supposed to belong to the public, as per the very old FCC ruling.
Katy,
I think I would have taken that light fixture in a heart beat. But I understand your reasoning. I love lamps/lights and taught myself how to rewire them. Trust me it is not hard to do.
My kids got me a T shirt once that said Lamp Lady.
my five frugals are rinse and repeat....
1. because of the heat, almost living on smoothies and salads.
2. laundry done and dried on outside lines
3. reading from materials rescued from DD Goodwill donations, they will be donated when I read them.
4. getting ready for a 4 day get away, buying nothing but food to take with us.
5. repaired the jumper hose between spigot and hose reel 1.99 compared to 40.00 for a new jumper hose.
In the middle of a heat wave here in Cincinnati. Shades and curtains closed following the sun. Fortunately lots of rain before it started so only had to water a few pots.
Exercising early and walking to the gym.
Haven’t driven in 3 days. Dropped my car off for oil change today and they have kept it all day! Ugh
Son came for a visit from out of state. All meals made at home except when he took us out for dinner.
Cleaning out one drawer a day. Finding things to use and much to shred or toss.
Pool finally opened after totally being redone. Packed a lunch and drinks for daughter and boyfriend. Cheap date at the new pool.
USPS is raising first class postage for stamps on July 12. (I think package prices went up already in January). Letters, postcards, international letters.
Ollies Outlet is having a 4th of July sale, advertising heavily. I don't have a routine to go there, nor even a store near, but I know some of you do.
Birthright citizenship remains! Never should have been appealed to Supreme Court. Should have been a unanimous decision-- The decision upholds exactly what the constitution says! Huuuge wastes of time, money, expertise, and fear.
After morning yoga, my neighbor and her 5 littles went to my friend's big farm to sweep the seed storage warehouse, collecting dog food bags full of various seeds for the birds.
I brought along 2 hand held dewalt vacuums, a smallish shop vac and 2 large barn brooms. It took us about 90 minutes to clean the 19000sq ft building. Kids had a blast and tired them out.
This evening I am cleaning up a custom home build site. We organize the large dumpster from recyclables, cardboard, metals and wood. Usable wood goes to the shop, metals goes to the community recycling drop off that gets sold monthly and the proceeds goes to a local charity.
Got the idea from a friend, we downloaded a map of the Portland Zoo, into an AI generator and asked it to create a scavenger hunt with 8 sites for 6 year olds. It created the game in about 45 seconds. When our kids were young, my cousins and I would set up scavenger hunts and geocaching events on our farm and it would take hours!
Finished my book, will put it in the truck to drop off at a LL.
Now am reading "A Piece of the World" by Christina Baker Kline
I met Christina Baker Kline a couple of years ago. My friends rented her house in Maine for a month
DS19 has a friend staying over, and he is a huge eater. He's 6'4" & a college athlete, and eats more than double my two kids put together. We are happy to host him, but I need to get creative to keep everyone fed!
As a result, most of mine are food related. 😉
1) Took the Costco grain salad (prepped section, delicious if you need a quick meal in a pinch) & added 1/2 a rotisserie chicken (diced) to it, along with some chopped cheese to round out taco meat (freezer). DS19 & friend picked up tortillas & chips at the store. I was planning for myself & DH to have the salad, and DS & friend to have the tacos. The tacos went quickly, so the salad was also quickly consumed. I then got out some chopped veggies & a green salad, which seemed to fill everyone up. Plus a package of TJs hold the cones.
2) For breakfast today, I mixed a bit of rotisserie chicken with the end of a bagged salad, and ensured the teens knew what would be good breakfast options. (Yogurt, granola, bananas, leftovers, etc). I also discovered that the bagged salad I buy at Costco has now gone up to $9.99 - absolute insanity. This will be my last bag, unless I'm in a huge pinch. I'll buy my own dressing & sides, chop them on the weekend & sub this one out.
3) I also opted to make lunch for dS19, DS20 & his friend before they headed to the beach. Mine are usually on their own for lunches, as they work, I work, etc & it's each person for themselves.I dug into the freezer, found 4 ciabatta buns & we had 2 leftover burger buns from Sunday's dinner. Then pulled chicken patties out of the freezer as well. Made chicken patty sandwiches, found a package of potato chips in the pantry from another teen get together & got that out. Made a huge fruit salad, and chopped up the last of the cucumbers. Everyone was fed before the beach goers left, and DS20 heads to work.
4) I'm researching where to park the annual bonus I just received, and what to put it into a CD. I'm still trying to decide which bank to use, but it's been a good exercise to maximize term and interest rates.
5) Apparently it will just be myself + DH for dinner, so I will make a small & scrappy dinner using the gyros in the fridge, which we will have over salad. DH must have bought the gyro meat from Costco while I was in Greece, so time to use them up.
Finished reading a free copy of "Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah for the banned book club's next meeting.
Used the last Russet potato and a frozen baggie of coarsely chopped carrots from the back of the freezer in a pot of soup today. Soup may seem an odd choice with a heat index of 101 F., but it makes four hearty meals and warms up in two minutes in the microwave.
One of the transplanted grocery store green onions showed signs of no longer supporting its leaves, so I pulled it up, washed it, trimmed the root and chopped up the good parts, which yielded about a cup of chopped onion. These plants are now each the size of a small leek and I have four left. This is a pretty good return on spending 99 cents for a bunch of green onions. (There were six, but one got eaten by us before I planted them.)
Ollie's Outlet is having 15% off for members this week, so I bought 60 pounds of cat litter, a scratching pad for my son's cat, applesauce, cookie mix, and canned tomatoes.
If's scorching hot and will be like that for a bit, so we are following the sun around the house and closing blinds and curtains to keep things cooler.
1. I'm a bit under the weather today so I didn't get up to much, but I did finish an audiobook while laying down for most of the day. "Don't let him in" by Lisa Jewell. It was very enjoyable!
2. My husband walked with the kids to the park just up the road from us before dinnertime so they could run around a bit. They had a nice time and got some good exercise.
3. We've had the windows open all day to catch as many cool breezes as we can before it heats up again, fans are going tonight so we can draw in the cool air as well. The lack of AC absolutely sucks but we're making the best of it.
4. Dinner was pancakes, a classic cheap and easy staple in our household.
5. We baked muffins and cookies yesterday while the house was cool and my oldest is thrilled to have banana muffins again. Our snack reserves are low and the weather had been too hot for much baking so we're trying to get in what we can without ruining our cool air efforts. But of course, sometimes cookies come first.
Katy, I would gently encourage you not to use the term "trauma" too lightly. You and Mr. NCA had tough times when you were younger and the kids were little, it's true--but it doesn't seem that they were "trauma," strictly speaking. I'm thinking, for instance, of a story in the 6/29 New Yorker titled "Around a Dark Corner" by the magazine's pop music critic, whose husband dropped dead after two massive seizures and left her a young widow with a 13-month-old daughter. I've been discussing this story with two of my former colleagues at my old workplace (a small mental-health-oriented publishing company; several of our authors are mentioned in the story).