All Days are Frugal, But It’s Not Always Newsworthy
by Katy on May 21, 2025 · 38 comments
I live a life filled with frugal activities, but it’s often a passive frugality. More “I stayed at home and ate leftovers” instead of “I got free library museum passes” or “Look at my $1000 curb picked whatzit!”
Yesterday was a passively frugal day. I drove multiple errands, mostly due to my husband’s bike being in the shop and him needing rides to and from work. This may seem like it should fall under the “expense” column, but it’s because we have just the one car. So, frugal . . . .
Dinner was simple, just some diced Costco rotisserie chicken with cucumbers and homemade dressing. Far from newsworthy.
No recreational shopping, no aspirational purchases, not impressing anyone. Just frugal and happily dull.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
Sometimes dull is best.
1. Stayed home today. Special Olympics softball was cancelled due to rain. Since they informed us early in the day I took a nice long nap! Very frugal entertainment on a rainy day!
2. In cleaning out the fridge yesterday I saved all food deemed “no longer fit to eat” to give to the chickens or the compost pile today.
3. Having ham (from my free Easter ham) with boxed scolloped potatoes (2 boxes for $1) for dinner with a salad.
4. Lunch was egg salad sandwiches courtesy of our hens.
5. Worked on my grocery list and clipped coupons on my grocery app.
With all the crazy in the country right now it’s nice to have a dull boring day.
@Julia T – an egg salad sandwich is on my radar. Also need a chicken salad sandwich – perhaps future leftover chicken will become a sandwich. Regardless, I’m now hungry lol.
Re: Egg Salad – I’ve taken to boiling eggs, peeling them, then dropping them in a jar of pickle brine for a couple of days. It gives dishes like egg salad a wonderful twist. Best of all, it’s free!
Dicey, thanks for that terrific tip! I peel my hard-boiled eggs and put them in a jar for ease-of-use but never thought of taking the next step with the pickle brine.
Happily dull here as well! I just got back from the library, where I read a simple inspirational magazine and checked out two comfortable books.
Making a move on a credit card company which they might never notice but doing so will give me peace of mind. In brief, they have not been able to credit the paper checks I mail them (posting them more than two weeks ahead of time) to my account in time for the due date.
Yes, I can pay online, (as I did this month so I didn’t get hit with charges!), but I don’t want to. We have several no-fee cards and never carry a balance so the interest rate doesn’t matter. This card will go in the cupboard and I will use the one that credits payments promptly, and has as good or better cash back anyway.
Thank you for enduring my brief rant.
Otherwise, hours of gentle rain here were very good for my newly planted potted petunias, at no cost to me. Checking ads for any Memorial Day style groceries to stock up on, perhaps Coke.
@Heidi Louise – if you live in a blue state, notify your state attorney general (with supporting evidence). And f* paying online and f* “rewards” – which cost all of us more in the long run. Financial institutions do *nothing* for free.
Thank you, Selena. I am unfortunately in a dramatically red state where the AG is so extreme that his name makes national news.
Ugh – a worthless person he is (and using he is a stretch). You’re more than welcome to my blue state but you already knew that.
Katy, I embrace everything in your last paragraph: “No recreational shopping, no aspirational purchases, not impressing anyone. Just frugal and happily dull.” So well said.
Ditto! Most days I’m just at home cooking food for my family, tending the garden, and doing around the house. But those daily habits make big impacts over time.
I’m reminded of the headline on an interview Amy Dacyczyn did with a fellow frugalite in The Tightwad Gazette: “Lifestyles of the Frugal and Obscure.”
I believe Amy had a crew that wanted to follow her for a story and she mentioned not going down the soda aisle at the grocery store, not stopping at McDonald’s, etc. Her point was that passive frugality didn’t make for an interesting story.
Yeah, I remember that story too; in fact, I think it was the core of her original article on passive vs. active frugality. As I recall, the film crew sighed and sent her back to line-drying laundry.
Yes! I remember that passage where she talked about the press taking pictures of her NOT going down certain grocery aisles. Frugality isn’t just what we DO but what we DON’T do.
Yeah I live a pretty boring life. Admittedly stocking up on non-perishables and eagle eye on best used by date for pet food is where I tend to spend money. I probably wait too long to replace some clothing/footwear but it is what it is.
Leaving the house but once a week (and only to see an aging relative) does *not* bother me at all. I’ve never understood why people have little desire to spend any time at their primary residence. I love my home, loved my previous home too.
@A. Marie – I’ve told many a co-worker (from a number of prior employers as well as current employer) that I prefer to toil in relative obscurity.
Selena, I was a telecommuting copyeditor for my entire adult working life. So I too happily toiled in obscurity. Copyeditors toil in obscurity by definition, but doing it from home made me the Invisible Woman, apart from my extremely rare trips to the office in NYC. (I occasionally had to make these trips to demonstrate for insurance purposes that I had two arms, two legs, one head, etc.)
1. Picked up 8 yellow squashes from a generous gardener who had more than he could eat.
2. Curb picked a Kate Spade Q size blanket & a nice bath towel. They were in the trash from college move outs. I also snagged a 4 pack of Progresso chx noodle soup which was placed on the top of the trash bin. The blanket & towel washed up nicely.
3. Found a nice solid wood piece of furniture. I am going to use it to put a TV on. A nice man saw me struggling to put it in my SUV & stopped to help me.
4. I landed some work. I didn’t really want to wrangle w/ HS students again, but I need the $. Thus, I will teach Nursing/Stem camp again for 2 weeks. The pay is good & they provide lunch each day.
5. The body shop has agreed to fix my car for what the insurance will pay. (They don’t actually know how much the insurance company gave me.) I don’t have to pay the 1000$ deductible. My husband worked a deal for me at the body shop. I am driving my husband’s clunker while my car is in the shop. (I guess I cancelled my rental car benefit on my insurance w/o realizing it.) At least no rental car bill.
1. I received an email confirming that we will be receiving a cheque for $1800.00 as partial refund on the $2500 extended warranty we bought 7 years ago on my new Subaru, and never used. This is much needed as we spent $$$ on a new mattress recently.
2.DH took his Honda truck into the dealership for repairs, as it was behaving badly, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with it. They did not charge for the investigation. Of course it’s behaving now.
3. Hanging laundry to dry when possible, as our electric bill has been ridiculous.
I already turn off all lights, heat, etc and am not yet using the A/C.
4. Using the free form of the Duolingo app to practice Spanish, again. I’m tempted to get the version without any adds, etc but can’t justify the cost.
5. Recently started buying eggs from a farm close by, they are $5 a dozen, when all the other farms are at $7. But I need to get up early before they sell out.
The service manager at the nearby garage (“mom & pop shop”, not a chain outfit) has chickens. He brings eggs in to the shop to sell. (Unfortunately not lately as chiçkens are molting.) Anyway, when he has them, $3/dozen. Several places in.the community also have eggs in coolers outside their homes. Most of those run $3.50/dozen.
Allis, I use the free version myself. I tried the ad free version and they did not warn me two days ahead. In fact, they just went ahead and charged me at the six day mark. So I don’t trust them enough to try the ad free. I’ll just put up with the stupid ads. I am enjoying the program and all of my high school German is coming back to me.
Thanks Julie, good to know.
” Just frugal and happily dull.” That’s how I feel most days when people are posting Five Frugal Things. I am happy with the lifestyle.
1. I am same day dull all the time it seems. Cook a batch of dried beans on weekends. Use in meals during the week. Rinse, repeat.
2. Walk in my neighborhood so I don’t have to use gas to get anywhere to exercise.
3. Wear the same three black skirts to work, wash in tub, hang to dry, rinse, repeat, etc.
4. Sit in my plastic pink yard chair I have had for years, I think it was $5 way back when but can’t really remember, in my yard and listen to the birds for entertainment.
5. Stay home when I can.
One lasting benefit of learning to drive when the Arab oil crisis was still fresh is that I always combine errands and arrange my trips so the stops are done in an economical manner. No telling how much that has saved over the years.
Ruby, not only did I too come of age during the Arab oil crisis, but I had parents who grew up during the Great Depression and were young adults during WWII gas rationing (as I imagine you did too). So a constant refrain around our house was “Is this trip necessary?”
My Dad was a young teen during the gas rationing of WWII. His family sewed awnings and he was tasked with driving to outlying small towns to do measurements and estimates of cost an later to install the completed awnings. He gained many social points by combining these trips with dumping a truckload of friends at the state park miles out of town on his way to the work and joining them on his way home.
Thank you so much for sharing this!
That was my parents as well. We lived way out in the country and had neighbors who constantly made trips into town. My parents’ saying was, “They’re keeping the road hot!”
As I tell my husband, “every meal does not have to be an event filled with adventure.” That applies to whole days also.
Love this! So true!
Resurrected some leftover spaghetti sauce with meat I had frozen. Thawed it out and added some more sauce. Spaghetti last night for dinner. Opted to use the homebread I had made the other day to make some garĺic bread. Spaghetti again tonight; thawing out 2 pints of chili for tomorrow.
Now that I’m officially on a “fixed” income, my life will need to be passive frugal and when I do want to shop to replace something, implement active frugality. I’m sorry I with that as I’d rather have more experiences, not stuff.
I saw a funny little picture on Instagram that I think about often. It showed a very cozy house, and the words said something like “People ask why I don’t leave my house very often. I tell them I’m enjoying the mortgage I’m already paying.”
And I like that. I’m lucky that my front porch is quite possibly my favorite place to be.
FFT, boring edition!
1. Drinking my home-brewed coffee and tap water.
2. Hosting some friends in a few weeks and declined their invitation to join to see a Broadway show. It’s $170 per person, which is reasonable for a Friday ticket to a popular show, but neither of us have it right now.
3. Eating lunch out of the pantry.
4. Eating…dinner out of the pantry as well. 🙂
5. Packing for a camping trip using gear we already have to go to a campsite that’s already paid for. Not bad.
I asked ChatGPT about my career and it gave me a lot of lovely paragraphs. Thanks, AI. So flattering, and as my friend said, “It has the virtue of being true.” That said, I’m annoyed and frustrated no one wants to hire me. I will be OK with freelance but it’s still a hit to the ego. Then again, I have to work remote, etc etc and I’m also old blah blah y blah.
I like staying home. We have a nor’easter here today, which isn’t so great in a summer town on Memorial Day weekend. My friend who just opened a pharmacy in town is a little bummed; I made him a leech jar as a housewarming present. Sharpies + plain ceramic jar FTW.
The first part was in reply to “working in obscurity.” No thanks. I need recognition.
Toiling in obscurity has nothing to do recognition. Office or telecommute, I am/was recognized. Tis the fact that no one knows what you look like! Trust me, people know who does and doesn’t get things done.
I saw a picture of a scoop of chicken salad and read comments about egg salad so I wanted some. I poked about my fridge and found frozen rotisserie chicken, a packet of balsamic vinaigrette and some mayo. I diced and mixed everything. It would have been lovely with minced celery and red onion on beautiful leaves of butter lettuce and fresh chopped parsley on top but oh well it was very tasty and I’m happy.
I like that”frugal obscurity”. Frugal invisibility.