Five Frugal Things -- Free Books & Fish Net Stocking
1) I drove our 21-year-old minivan and noticed that the passenger seat's arm rest had peeling leather. This is a car that my husband mostly drives, so it had escaped my notice.
I knew that continuing to ignore the issue would only make it worse, so I went into the basement and grabbed my trusty bottle of super glue. I just now noticed that this glue says it's for "wood," but I've used it for multiple other surfaces with excellent results.
It's not perfect, but the damage is mitigated. This poor vehicle has seen better days, but that's no reason not to show it some respect!
2) My rosemary shrub is growing exponentially, so I put something up in my Buy Nothing group offering cuttings for "either for cooking or display."
I keep an arrangement of rosemary in our bathroom all year long, as it both looks nice and smells wonderful. It lasts around a month when I remember to keep water in the vase and think it adds a nice touch to an otherwise utilitarian room.
3) My husband and I went for an after dinner walk, which brought us to this "FREE" box. I rummaged through and chose to bring home some Scholastic Book Fair books and a bag of plastic dolls.
I'm always happy to find books for our little free library:
They didn't even make it into the house!
I researched a few of the dolls using Google Lens, specifically this "Miss Punk" one, as hello . . . she's wearing fishnet stockings?!
I'll put together some eBay listings later in the week and likely lot them up.
4) I sold a thrifted mug on eBay and will package her up later on today. I don't remember what I paid, but it was a few years ago, so I'd guess $1.99. Again, not a viral news moment, ("Portland mom sells thrifted mug for $200,00!") but it's the precise things someone was in Wisconsin was looking for and I made a few bucks. Win-win!
It's nice when hobbies makes money.
Click HERE to see the listing.
5) I also brought home this piece of scrap silver from a different FREE box, as it looked like it might be sterling. It's not marked, but that might be because it's only a part and would've been marked elsewhere. Magnets don't stick to it, (a sign of silver plate) so I might try taking it to a we-buy-silver pawn shop.
You know . . . for funsies!
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.
1. While out walking I found a bottle of post office issued Halt on the ground. This will come in handy for biking and also on a trip I am taking where I will be walking in unfamiliar territory. I can't tell you how many times I have had dog issues on my bike.
2. I have been having great sales on eBay. Unfortunately I recently had a shipping charge of $30!! What!!! It was a cloth bag. USPS says it weighs 21 lbs. On line from the manufacturer's website it says 3.5 lbs. I am contesting it but who knows. I will have lost money if USPS doesn't reverse the charge. But overall with sales of everything I am ahead.
3. My husband wears latex gloves for almost everything he does. I have to admit his hands look great. Anyway my mom had boxes of them sitting around and gifted him about 6 boxes of them. Yay, if it's free it's for we!
4. Took some items to Goodwill and received a $5 off coupon along with my receipt for taxes.
5. I am working on creating a cottage garden. I used newspaper as weed block, and picked up some free seed packets from the library. I will grow 20 to 30 plants from seed and transplant them into the cottage and also into our wildflower area. My husband wanted to hire someone to help weed the wildflower area but I convinced him we could do it ourselves if we broke it up into a couple hours a day. It's a HUGE area. It took us about 10 days, but free exercise and money saved.
1) Inspired by an earlier post, I pulled out a plain denim shirt that I had been considering donating and some embroidery floss that was hanging out in the basement and made my own "inspired by" shirt that I'll actually wear.
2) My oldest suddenly had to pack for a 2-week volunteer gig and was able to raid our shared stash of gear. Zero dollars spent, but I doubt the hiking boots will make it past that two week mark given the roll of duct tape that added to the pack.
3) Dipping into that shared stash, we were able to outfit myself and my youngest for a week at summer camp. Lots of thrifted, gifted and free pile finds.
4) Meeting with my credit union about unrelated matters, the staff member was able to tweak my accounts to take advantage of higher savings rates. More money back for doing exactly what I've been doing? Yes please!
5) Still taking the bus, making my coffee, packing my lunch and rocking the thrifted and me-made wardrobe.
The expression, "Put a sock on(in?) it!" Is screaming in my head. Why not cover the armrest with a mate-less sock?
1. Accidentally started a trilogy on Libby and thankfully didn't have to wait more than a day for each audiobook to become available, I finished them all in about 3.5 days. I think it was a young adult series but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was a post apocalyptic story and they had some clever wisdom about "waste not".
2. I gave myself a haircut using the two ponytail method, or as I think of it "a unicorn horn and horse tail" and I accidentally cut a bit more than I intended in the front but I think it turned out fairly nicely! If nothing else it'll buy me another week or so before I need to cut it again.
3. For dinner we made pancakes. A classic in our house when nothing sounds good/we don't want to heat up the house.
4. We cooked and shredded four chicken breasts to divvy up for multiple meals, the first was chicken fried rice using the night before's rice.
5. We're getting a break in the heat later in the week so we just have to hold out until then to do much baking. I might try and get some done while it's cool in the morning but for now we still have some pumpkin muffins in the fridge which have been making good snacks if the kids don't eat them for breakfast.