Four Frugal Things -- Expensive Coffee & Cheap Avocado Toast
1) I walked my buy-one-get-one coffee coupon to New Seasons Market only to find that someone had set two unused coupons on the shelf for others to use.
I love this anonymous pay it forward move, which fits perfectly with Portland's sharing culture. What don't I love? That a single pound of coffee is almost twenty bucks, which diluted the power of this coupon to simply bring the beans down to a normal price.
There are many reasons that I prefer tea over coffee, price being one of them. I especially like that my box of 80 Tetley tea bags set me back just $3.11 at Winco.
2) I sold my old swimsuit on eBay for $25. I listed it in January after thrifting one I liked better for just $6.99.
It's now swimming off to Minnesota instead of languishing in the back of a drawer.
3) Today is the frist Saturday of the month, which means my Franz Bakery outlet store marks some of their bread down to $1/loaf. (I put this in my calendar!) It's been a few months since I last went, so I headed over.
My plan had been to just get hamburger buns and maybe a sleeve or two of English muffins.
That plan went out the window when I spied so many varieties from their gluten-free line!
I normally spend around ten dollars for a four-pack of gluten-free hamburger buns for when we host our daughter. Instead I spent that amount on all of this!
Good thing we have a chest freezer in the basement!
4) I was craving avocado toast and realized that the Herdez brand mild guacamole I picked up at Winco could be used. I added cottage cheese and sprinkled the top with bulk purchased everything but the bagel seasoning.
Delicious and especially frugal as the bread was also from Franz on a $1 bread day.
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
1. Bought at Aldi bagels and their specialty onion garlic sourdough bread. I then went to the Cost plus store and bought a can of mackerel for $2.25 and made mackerel salad instead of tuna salad. Should last me several days for my protein.
2. I forgot I also bought 99 cent eggs at the cost plus store.
3. I walked an hour from 5 to 6 this morning, even earlier than usual bc of how HOT it is here. I used a flashlight and street lights for the first twenty minutes.
4. I turned on the air at 2:30 pm central time bc the windows and fan were not cutting it. No telling how much our power bills here will be with our $$$$ electric company. My last bill was $82 and I used the air maybe five times for about three hours a piece. I remember a decade ago I could keep the bill under $50 a month by being very conservative with the air. Those days are over… sigh.
5. I am about to clean my house because it is too hot to do anything else!
Wow, Aldi has onion garlic sourdough bread? I love their sourdough, but haven't seen that variety. I'll have to look for it.
Great deal on all that bread! Especially the usually expensive gluten-free. I wish we had a Franz outlet near us or any kind of bread outlet for that matter. When I was a kid and when my kids were kids we had a Nissens bakery outlet. Nissens is a New England bakery. But it went under after many years in business so now I make my own no-knead bread or look for sales and store brand bread.
Me, too, on the tea. My husband always makes me a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. After that I have a cup of tea sometime in the day. Just this morning I got a bag of organic medium roast coffee from Trader Joe’s for 13 oz for $8.99.
For Vancouver BC - I say visit Granville Island and Stanley Park. I also liked the Gaslight District where we visited some interesting First Nation art galleries. Haven’t been in a while but often in the past as my daughter went to school there. Victoria, though, is my favorite city. Every year, for years, we would go for a three day getaway.
Yep, today was meet the kids @ the bread outlet. Mom (me), bought for all the kids who showed up.
7-11 for small free slushies. We mixed Coke with cherry. Ohmyyum.
Saturday market for a light early lunch of Sopa de Res Panamanian. bought a Hermiston watermelon.
Came home, individually wrapped the hamburger buns, bagels and brioche buns. Threw them in the chest freezer.
One of my kid's toaster oven died, I found a Breville Smart oven for $20, the people only used it a couple of times, so I gave him my toaster convection oven and kept the upgrade. I also bought a 16 qt. All Clad stainless steel stock pot with inserts, a 12" SS pan, a 10" SS pan and spoon set all for $30. A total steal. I bought a Betsy Johnson bag with several charms for one daughter's upcoming birthday, $10. I saw it listed for $95.
1. Received two dozen eggs from my husband's colleague. Used them in an egg bake and as hard-boiled eggs.
2. Husband cleaned our siding, fascia and gutters. I was close to hiring someone because of the danger involved but he strongly vetoed that. Before he started the job, I told him I loved him and that he had been a good husband. He survived!
3. Recent storms have brought down many dead limbs for free, luckily with no damage. We were hoping to have a tree company take care of the dead limbs on several trees earlier this year, but we weren't willing to part with thousands of dollars.
4. Friend brought over a dozen magazines. When I'm done with them, I'll bring them to the free table at the library.
5. To save money and have less packaging, I bought a large block of sharp cheddar cheese and shredded it myself rather than buy the pre-shredded bags. I portioned the cheese out into roughly one-cup servings and froze most of it.
The local grocery store had a digital $1 coupon for store brand cereal, bringing the price of a large box down to $1.99. I bought bran flakes and used an online recipe to make apple-walnut-raisin bran muffins. Walnuts, applesauce and raisins from Ollie's Outlet, along with almond milk from Dollar Tree helped make it a very frugal recipe.
DH moved the portable air conditioner in his woodworking shop to help it cool better, but then the exhaust hose would no longer reach the window vent. We crafted an extension out of an empty two-liter bottle.
Between sales and digital coupons, I knocked $14 off the grocery total, which was mainly for store-brand staples like bread, milk, cereal, and an OTC medication.
Picked three beautiful peppers from the container garden. It's a hotbut rainy day, so there's laundry drying on hangers hung up around the house.
I love that Tetley tea! I've been drinking more of it since coffee prices are so stupid.
Went to the Farmers Days Friday party in my aunt's little town. (My town is having them next week) Frugal fail: fair food, but it was delicious! Frugal win, of sorts: my aunt, 2 cousins, 8 of their kids & I took over 2 tables in the bingo tent for a couple of hours. For 50¢ a card, it was pretty cheap entertainment & we had a couple of wins that offset what we spent. The staff we tickled by our littles and gave them free candy for being well behaved.
Bonus frugal win: I didn't have the energy to head to the next big town to get groceries, so I stopped at the corner store/gas station for bread. Got a quality loaf for $1.49, which was fresher & cheaper than the $2.59 I paid last time I was at Hy-Vee!
1. I visited my daughter and stayed in a currently unoccupied apartment in the four plex they own. I slept on an air mattress I borrowed from a friend. They have an apartment in the basement that they built and live rent free but it is only one bedroom.
2. We attended a free movie screening at the theater. We saw Gail Daughtry and the celebrity sex pass. It was pretty funny. We did buy a soda and popcorn to share and snuck in some snacks from Trader Joe's.
3. I sold an item on Marketplace. Crap out, money in.
4. I signed up for a free year of Apple TV offered by my credit card company. I can add all of my kids to my account also which will save them money too.
I wish I liked tea better than coffee, but I like coffee. I haven't been able to convince myself to give it up. Just invested in a new package, but at least it was from Aldi.
1. I rearranged my storage closet again, this time to free up some cardboard boxes that I can use for shipping eBay sales.
2. Today there was plenty of romaine left from my salad kit, but not much dressing, no cheese, and no croutons. I extended the dressing by adding Parmesan and mayo, and I toasted croutons on the stovetop made from a piece of frozen baguette. There is still more romaine, so tomorrow I'm going to try out BLT pizza on naan, if I can figure out the tomatoes. I think I have a can of diced in my pantry.
3. I scrubbed the outside of one of my frying pans with Barkeeper's Friend, making an improvement, but there's still some work to do.
4. I've used fans all day and haven't turned on the AC.
5. I placed two books on hold on the library's website.
6. On eBay, I listed a studio pottery mug for sale and dropped prices on four items.
1. Eating green beans and cucumbers from the garden. Eagerly awaiting ripe tomatoes.
2. Added a book to the nearest Little Free Library
3. Repotting plants & sticking cuttings into any handy container. Our librarian friend got permission to bring in the baby plants for patrons to take. He said they had a display of free plants once before and they went fast.
4. Picked up a speciality Monopoly game from a pile of trash. I thought I might list it for sale. Though it was in good condition and complete, past sales indicate it wouldn't be worth the trouble. I will donate it. At least I saved it from being ruined in the rain