Six Frugal Things -- Day Three in Vancouver
1) My husband and I wanted to get out of the city, so we drove over to Whytecliff Park for an afternoon of relaxing nature. My goal was to see a whale and since I'd viewed an Instagram reel here with whales, I figured it was a good place to start.
I even brought binoculars, which we keep in the car. Sadly the whales were feeling shy, but it was still a beautiful spot to while away an afternoon. I gave this viewing area a full hour to provide whale-y goodness.
Luckily it was low tide and perfect for exploring the tide pools.
My favorite part was this small outcrop with a mama and baby harbor seal. So delightfully awkward on land as they galumphed themselves around this rock.
The mama then started breastfeeding her baby and my labor and delivery RN-self just about died!
Just as good as a whale sighting!
2) We then drove over to Granville Island to explore and grab a bite to eat. (My husband and I snacked on apples from the hotel buffet during the unfortunate rush hour drive.) We probably should've just gone back to the hotel.
lt wasn't my scene, (crowds and shopping are not my thing!) although we shared an excellent bagel with lox from Seigel's Bagels. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.
We were still pretty hungry, so we repeated our first night's dinner at Dinasty Dumpling House. I was wicked craving their spicy green beans with pork. Vegetables on vacation are the most special of treats.
3) We'd been handed a number of coupons with our hotel check-in, which I didn't want to waste. Yes, we're enjoying their daily breakfast buffet, but Vancouver has too many amazing restaurants to eat hotel meals.
I pored through their menu and came up with a plan. $30 was just enough to get two items off their dessert menu, so I went down and asked if I could order a pair of their $14 crème brûlées to take up to the room.
Laughably small, but actually the perfect amount. It hit the spot and the price was right!
I also had two "free drink with food purchase" coupons, which I handed to a group of diners while waiting for our desserts. They were already enjoying adult beverages and were gregariously excited with their windfall.
4) I made a couple of eBay sales, oddly both on the 12th. Luckily I remembered to set my eBay "handling time" to seven days, which affords me enough time to mail them out without getting a "ding" on my account.
The baby blanket is a Goodwill bins find and part of the $100 Goodwill Gift Card Challenge and adds another $21.79 to my monthly Oregon Food Bank donation.
5) Someone in our Buy Nothing group asked for home beer brewing equipment, so my husband offered up every single brewing related item that's currently taking up space in our basement. This is an abandoned hobby and I'm very happy to get all this Stuff into the hands of someone who'll actually use it.
Hooray for getting things back into circulation! Do you have any abandoned hobbies that can be passed along?
6) I found a Canadian dime!
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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The mama and baby seal would've been the highlight of my day. So very sweet.
1. We're cleaning the house ourselves in anticipation of our out of town guests arriving tomorrow. Thanks to my winnowing down of tchachkes better known as Swedish Death Cleaning, it's basically dusting and vacuuming. DH did have to move four formal dining room chairs downstairs from a spare bedroom we keep them in but besides that, no moving things around.
2. DH also mowed and trimmed the lawn.
3. I made a banana bread for our guests using some overripe bananas we didn't eat fast enough.
4. I hung two loads of laundry this morning. Cold water wash.
5. I'm reading two books for the library's Summer Reading Bingo challenge to get more free raffle tickets and one book for my book club's August read. Pretty busy week but no restaurant or take out splurges. We may take our guests to an ice cream stand that also sells hamburgers/hotdogs/fries/onion rings type food. The picnic tables face a valley with old houses and a cemetery with huge overhanging trees that say Old New England.
You really are getting around, Katy!
That seal nursing photo has absolutely made my day. And yes, forget about whales (you really only see their fins, maybe tails, most of the time). Up close and personal with seals and starfish is pretty darn memorable.
Is a long walk around Stanley Park on your agenda? And remember English Bay, which should be nearish your hotel so accessible by transit or shanks pony.
And another reminder of the ferry ride (transit) across to the north shore - just for the boat-ride part of your bingo card!
I've been vacationing up north with my mom and one of my sisters and brother-in-law. My mom paid for the hotels.
1. We chose hotels with a breakfast buffet for 6 of the days.
2. I shared meals with my mom and sister several times.
3. We chose not to go on the boat tour of the soo locks in Sault Ste. Marie. We watched the boat tour go through the lock from the free viewing platform. We timed it just right and were able to watch two freighters go through also.
4. I brought a $6 bottle of wine from Trader Joe's that we drank on the hotel patio overlooking Munising Bay on Lake Superior.
5. I gave myself a pedicure beforehand. My BIL received a substantial Veterans discount for the Mackinac Island ferry for him and my sister. My daughter and son-in-law dog sat for me.
We also shared a family suite on Mackinac Island which meant we had to share a bathroom. It was no big deal and saved a good amount.
I love Mackinac Island! I've been several times -- many happy memories!
I sold two more items on eBay -- both from my sister's pile. I wrapped them up this morning and dropped them off at the post office.
I picked up my three prescriptions at CVS. My new insurance has me paying a nominal amount out of pocket, but it was a 90-day supply, so now I'm set for three months.
I picked up three more books on hold at the library.
I got a $10 gift card for Amazon from the American Red Cross. I applied it to the order in my cart, so I got the lids I wanted for my Pyrex and Corningware for only $10.
I found a couple of receipts, so in addition to the one from CVS, surely I will have accumulated enough points to redeem for a $25 gift card from Fetch! I haven't scanned them yet, so the mystery remains.
Abandoned hobbies -- so many. Quilting, sewing, cross stitch, jigsaw puzzles, tennis, photography, yoga. I haven't quite given up on writing and painting. I still read, cook, bake and walk.
As a Canadian kid, my dad used to say "want to buy a silver saileboat for a quarter" you give hom a quarter and he goves you a dime heheheh
As a Canadian kid, my dad used to say "want to buy a silver saileboat for a quarter" you give hom a quarter and he goves you a dime heheheh
Glad you and Mr. NCA are having a good time in Vancouver, Katy. And I agree that the mama and baby seals were easily equivalent to a whale sighting.
Those seals!
1. I bought my BFF some of the leftover peach and blueberry brown-butter crisp, and she treated me to coffee and breakfast.
2. I picked up a mystery shop for some deli meat, so my partner could make a couple of sandwiches to bring to work. In addition to the food, I made an additional $13, and I was already out running errands. I picked up another tomorrow and another on Sunday, based on where I was going to be, anyway, so that is an additional $26 + free food.
3. I was invited to a dinner party as a +1 (as I was at my parent's house and they were going). I didn't end up going, but I made another peach and brown butter crisp, as all of the fruit was from the free CSA box. Tomorrow is their 63 wedding anniversary, so they are taking us all out.
4. Two VERY large yellow tomatoes were in the free CSA box, but they were already soft, so I made a very small batch of golden gravy to pop in the freezer.
5. I stopped doing Swagbucks a while back, and had 400 points sitting there, so I found one more survey to do, and I cashed out getting $5 for a gift certificate, along with the $20 from Fetch. I bought a gallon of apple cider vinegar and large tin of sesame oil, so we are set on our staple oil and vinegar for quite some time.
Longtime lurker here- I'm a short sail away from you on Vancouver Island! I'm happy that you're having a good time on your holiday. In "Canadian" we call those guys harbour seals 🙂 Love you blog and the commentariat! Enjoy the rest of your vacation
HA! That 'ou' is so Canadian
Thank you for sharing your travels with us! It's all so fascinating!
I'm enjoy your vacation but so sorry you had to contend with rush hour traffic and some disappointments.
I have some old 35 mm camera stuff, some of it mine and some of it Dad's, up in the closet. No one uses film cameras like that very much anymore and I no longer take vacations. I have tons of old slides from when I went to England and Hollywood, but have not looked at them in eons. Guess they'll get trashed someday (unless I do some Swedish Death Cleaning, but that's not likely to happen).
My frugal disappointment is the tube socks I bought from Walmart on tax free weekend.They arrived today and I have never seen socks so flimsy. They run small, and therefore feel tight. I doubt they'll survive a half dozen washes. And they are certainly not thick enough for a cold winter day!
Photography students and enthusiasts still use film cameras, and more young folks are interested in non-digital options. We found a film camera for our kid on Buy Nothing, but the same camera sells for about $50 on eBay.
I run lean on hobby supplies. I have passed on some of my mother's unused hobby items, and the recipients have been very happy.
1. I sold a Radio Flyer walker wagon for $50 yesterday. This money goes to ds, as it was my grandkids outgrown walker. I already sent them the venmo, I like to keep up to date.
2. Dh received a bunch of snacks at work, as well as a colleague's cast off motorcycle jacket. Jacket is already listed. Dh took 6 homegrown cucumbers to share at work. It seems that every year there is one outstanding garden item, and this year it is my cucumbers. The only produce I bought this week was a 1 pound bag of carrots. I have 2 fruit cobblers in the oven, both made from homegrown rhubarb plus homegrown apples from a friend.
3. Did my strength exercises at home, as usual.
4. Used $10 Kohls cash from the pants that my mother purchased on my rewards account. I buy Burts Bees lip balm there whenever I receive random Kohls cash. It keeps me stocked up. I never spend any money at Kohls.
5. I picked up 20 holds at the library. Our library has not been accepting hold requests for the last month as they do a complete system overhaul. I'm SO happy to be able to request again. It feels magical to pick up all those books for free.
You are my kind of library person, Kara! 20 holds is perfect for a week of slothful reading glory... even if half aren't great, you have the other half that are!
1. Unlike some others in the commentariat, my cucumbers have been an almost total bust. My zucchini have not, however I don't LIKE zucchini, i'm just growing it because people gave me plants.
I am now giving people zucchini. So far I'm staying ahead of the curve, barely – there was a "half a baseball bat" out there a few days ago, so I am considering making zucchini relish, which I do like. In my non-spare time.
2. Made a batch of raspberry jam from berries I froze earlier this spring. Working on emptying the freezers, and making things that are beloved by my family.
3. Spent time in the greenhouse watering, however prior to that I picked tomatoes. I filled two dish basins (the white rectangular ones from the dollar store) to the brim, one with only San Marzanos (!!) YAY. Picked a lot of random 'slicers', some of which are ripe, many are not yet but needed to be taken up off the dirt to avoid insects when they do ripen. There were quite a few cherry style tomatoes, too, so I'm currently sitting on at least 10 cups of them (!!).
So far all the 'to-ripen' tomatoes that I have brought into the house have coloured up beautifully, and I think it frees the plant up to focus on the next set of fruit. If nothing else, the not-quite-ripe ones are easier to transport as they are less squishy. I'm contemplating what to do with what is currently ready to use/preserve, that was already in the house (another dish basin's worth, I figure).
I also picked about 8 cups of tomatillos, an unexpected bonus. Satisfying and also a bit overwhelming.
4. Washed another load of laundry and hung it to dry on my much appreciated line. I continue to enjoy the whole process; it is more than saving a few dollars and electricity: I find it contemplative to hang and collect the laundry. Go figure.
5. I'm less a fan of the 'adulting' involved in counting out my weekly medication, or measuring out the many things I put into my smoothies to fill a weeks worth of jars in order to save myself time in the morning. I need to find a way to channel my 'laundry contented mind' when I do these things, because that certainly isn't what's going on right now in my head!
I agree about feeling "laundry contented"! It's my favourite chore 🙂 Cleaning the floors, on the other hand...
I love the term "laundry contented" although I'm not sure what household chore does that for me. At the moment I'm simply putting things on my calendar to try to think of them as part of my not-optional routine and it's helping a bit. It seems that after a certain number of decades of chores they should cease to exist!
Hey, I agree! Chores should have a 'completed by' date and once we pass that in our lives we should not have to think about them!
Love the Vancouver photos and agree about Granville Island - lots to see, and I enjoyed a quick drop in, admired the fancy expensive food, and skedaddled 🙂
1. I convinced my children to gather up their piles of treasure (pennies) from their secret spots around the house, as our local Safeway is "buying" pennies without the typical service charge. They must need them! We scored almost $8!
2. While out running errands (and re-homing pennies), I dropped off several bags of cans and bottles for the deposits.
3. I received an email for a $5 gift card for an old survey that I don't recall even doing. I googled the details to make sure it wasn't a scam, and am now richer by a $5 gift card!
4. My son's tomato plant yielded a few yummy cherry tomatoes, from which he carefully saved the seeds. He is now the proud farmer of several pots of seedlings that need to be thinned.
5. I am savoring the last of the Irish butter that is one of my few indulgences. I stocked up when it was on sale several months ago. Once this box is gone, it'll be back to sub-par butter for me 🙂 When I get a new job (fingers crossed) I can go back to the Irish good stuff.
6. I have been running more and scored some Lululemon running shorts at the thrift store. I'm so excited, as the new ones have a hefty price tag.
I so am enjoying reading about your Vancouver trip. The BC anthropology museum looks wonderful --and the mother harbor seal with her baby is heart-melting.
Also, you picked a splendid hotel. Would you share its name?