- Drove through a wealthy neighborhood that had just completed a garage sale weekend. Brought home a box of free books to enjoy and sell.
- Made a special trip to Costco to buy budget-friendly salmon on Father’s Day. Filled up at their gas station even though I only needed five gallons. $3.59/gallon is way better than the $4.07/gallon that my local station was charging.
- I will be receiving a review copy of Ashley English’s A Year of Pies: A Seasonal Tour of Home Baked Pies. Of course I’ll host a giveaway to share the wealth!
- I brought my lunch to work yesterday, even though the main dish was the last from a pot of homemade chicken soup that was more broth than chicken.
- Bought six boxes of $1 microwave popcorn at Rite-Aid yesterday. I had seen on Frugal Living NW that buying two boxes of the popcorn would spit out a $2 off your next purchase coupon. So after the first $2 purchase, the rest were free!
How about you, have any recent frugal maneuvers to share?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Did you know you can make great microwave popcorn with just plain popcorn in a brown paper bag? No chemicals, no excess packaging, and it’s really good.
http://markbittman.com/real-popcorn (scroll down a bit for the microwave directions).
Yes. I do that for myself, as I don’t want all the “butter-y” flavor. This was a rare treat for my boys.
Katy
Recently I have:
1. Made a blackberry cobbler for a family member who had surgery out of blackberries I froze last summer.
2.Wrapped a birthday gift for a great niece in the funny papers and made the bow out of the same.
3. Went to the volunteer group I am involved in at a neighboring town. Bought gas while there …saved 10 cents per gallon because of last month groceries purchased and it was also 20 cents cheaper per gallon than in my own home town. Also packed my cooler with my lunch to take: leftover corn pudding from Father’s Day gathering, a banana and water.
4. Went to grandson’s ballgame and took our own drinks.
5. Had a clean out the frig meal for lunch the last two days to avoid food waste. Still pretty darn good stuff!
Treats are good!
Your gas is high…we are at $3.17 in Austin!
$3.17? Haven’t seen that price in years. – IL resident
Portland pumps are all full serve though. V cool
Yup, there are zero pump-your-own stations in Oregon. That, and no sales tax!
Katy 🙂
Seriously? No pump your own?
Seriously.
I picked dandelion leaves from the yard (no chemicals) for salad and/or pesto. It’s extremely nutritious, abundant, free, and doesn’t require feeding, weeding, watering, or fertilizer. Seriously.
* making my own refried beans (extra big batch, some for dinner & some for freezer)
* got some of that same popcorn, we are going to enjoy it on our upcoming camping roadtrip (it’s a rare treat for us too we usually use our air popper)
* my daughter gave the dog a bath at home
* made salad using lettuce from our garden
* ate the leftover brownie ;}
Ditto for foraging for dinner. Had pesto—half basil, half lamb’s quarters that popped up in the same garden where I am growing the basil. I NEVER make all basil pesto—it costs $4.99 for four ounces where I live and I never seem to grow enough. I find that I can use young dandelion leaves, lamb’s quarters, chickweed or young fireweed leaves (all of which have high nutritional value, according to our Cooperative Extension publiation), for up to half the recipe and no one ever notices.
Good morning!
I began harvesting my abundant basil leaves, using my dehydrator to dry the leaves for storage ( in a Mason jar). Also dried the dill that self-sowed in the container where I planted it two years ago! Our house smelled divine while the herbs were drying!
Of course I’ve been using the clothes line for laundry and hand-washables…very warm and breezy here.
For lunch I’ve been eating local lettuce, snap peas and green beans from the farmer’s market. I invited my neighbor to go with me last Saturday. She and I are sharing garden space this year in her yard…sunnier than mine. We are “cultivating” our friendship in the process!
Been making White Clover Jelly ( really really frugal to make and YUM)
Made homemade tortilla shells with homemade refried beans
Been making recipes based off all the greens coming in the garden such as falfela balls and layered greens, quiche etc
Made my adult son find his own way here to move in with us when he missed his switch over bus 50 miles away ( seriously we did not have the gas anyways!)
Use fans instead of air conditioning
Stayed home all week
Daily, I track gas prices for the Seattle area and Costco consistently comes up as either the cheapest or just one down. Right now we have a Costco in Woodinville, WA with regular for $3.54/gal.
The frugal thing my daughters and I did was to take a nice car lunch with us when we went to the local vintage/antiques area. Mid way through our shopping we went back to the car, enjoyed our nice repast, then back to the stores.
1. Despite being in the 90’s, I have not turned the central air on; instead, I am keeping cool with ceiling and floor fans and good old-fashioned sitting on the porch to catch the breeze.
2. I’m eating a lot of salads using lettuce and peas from my garden and tomatoes and cukes from the farmer’s market.
3. I save every drop of water possible to use on my gardens. We haven’t had significant rain in months and city water here is expensive, so I try to make it do double duty (rinse dishes, then water perennials).
4. Picked strawberries and made them into jam for Christmas gifts for my family.
5. Found a cheap local source for lard to use in making soap (Christmas gifts) and for general cooking.
6. Scavenged apples and carrots from the employee lounge garbage can and fed them to my horse!
7. Placed a container in the employee lounge (lunchroom) for scraps to feed my compost bin with.
Wow, great stuff. Thanks for sharing!
Katy
1. Ate a pumpkin pie I found in my neighborhood market’s Dumpster.
2. Made a Father’s Day dinner with stuff we already had around the house. It was good enough that my grandma thought we had slaved away over it, even though it was quick and easy.
3. Took the bus several times with bus passes I got free as a reward for recycling.
4. Went to a bag sale at a church, and filled a whole laundry cart for $10 (most of it was stuff I got to resell or share with family and friends, though I found some desperately-need pants).
5. When we took my son to his therapy session, we stopped several places on the way to save gas.