Three Frugal Things -- Butterscotch & Embroidery
1) My sister and Lise went up to Mt Tabor park and picked invasive ivy to transform into homemade baskets. I stayed home to work on home projects, but am sure to receive a basket or two as a hostess gift.
2) My niece saw my blog post about embroidering a denim and sent her mom to Portland with one of her shirts for me to embellish. I started last night and will continue to play with it until it's perfect.
As a reminder, here's the inspiration:
Before you know it, we'll all be wearing matching shirts!
3) My youngest has been wanting to ramp up their side hustles and asked to go thrifting together. This $29.99 dresser stopped me in my tracks.
Because the dresser itself is a piece of beauty?
Nope.
Because the handles are amazing!
Ten, count 'em ten yummy butterscotch Bakelite handles!
We bought the dresser, removed the handles and immediately donated the dresser back to Goodwill. Someone will buy it for a project, as it had nice dovetail drawers -- it'll just needs to be stripped and restained.
I think they should be able to get $150-$200 on eBay.
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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Those handles are beautiful!!
Score on the handles.
Woah! The dresser looks like it was a victim of a bad “antiquing” paint job in the 70s! I think I might have taken on the whole project, but ten Bakelite handles take up a lot less room.
I went to a couple estate sales this morning. I hoped to find a 2 quart anchor hocking batter bowl and an immersion blender. I came home with the bowl and a brand new package of canning jars! Not bad! Both items went to use immediately because I spent the rest of the day canning things.
Good eye for recognizing Bakelite handles! I wouldn't have!
I decided to take a trash walk today, but I collected very little trash. Instead, I collected a book from a LFL, an abandoned sushi cat plush toy from the park (which I'll wash and donate), and a protein shake and a bottle of barbecue sauce from the LFP. Also a handful of Walgreens receipts. (I still haven't reached my Fetch goal, however.)
I stopped at Walgreens to check on whether Poise pads were on sale. They weren't, but Edy's ice cream was, if I bought two! So I did.
I logged about 40 minutes.
The rest of the day was devoted to reading and watching a good series about the Anne Frank story, from Miep's point of view.
Those Bakelite handles are amazing!
1. Had my final knee X-ray so no more $25 monthly co-pays. After just four months, my fractured knee is completely fused back together. Pretty amazing. I still need PT but I'm well on my way.
2. Our combo smoke alarm and CO detector went kaput. Tried to get a full replacement under the 10-year warranty but we weren't the original purchaser so we didn't have proof of purchase (other than the actual unit itself!). Instead, the company offered a 15% discount on a new one from their website so we took advantage of that.
3. Our wall oven also went kaput. Spent a couple hundred dollars to have an independent appliance repair company diagnose the issue. A new circuit(?) board was needed at a cost of $1,300, including labor. I asked the repairman what he would do and he recommended not fixing it given the age of the unit and the cost of repair. I appreciated his honesty since that meant his company wasn't getting the repair business. We called our local appliance dealer and after much research due to the unique size of the oven opening, our salesperson found a unit marked half off that had been returned and never opened due to the wrong color being delivered. It's ours now and we love it! I just need to paint some cabinet trim that was covered by the previous oven.
4. Gave away on Buy Nothing a thermometer that came with our old oven.
5. Picked up two jigsaw puzzles from the puzzle swap area at the library.
Found a new-to-me Dollar Tree while getting lost trying to find the Waterloo library. (Never did, but I'll try again later) Stopping at one was on my to-do list anyway, so I went in to explore. It's amusing how the core stock is the same, but every store has some different items. This one may become my new favorite. I left with the cleaning products that I intended to get, a box of asst crackers, 2 books, & a Snickers Ice Cream Bar.
Stopped at a grocery store to see how much their bakery charges for a chocolate cream pie. After I stopped laughing ($17, really?!?) I went down the aisles, gathered a handful of ingredients, and came home to make it myself. I spent $6 and have enough for 2 pies.
I think I'm going to apply for permission to build a little free library. My tiny town library is only open 25 hours a week and I get a decent amount of foot traffic since I'm next to the community center & a park.