- I scored two gallons of $1.39 milk whose sell-by date wasn’t even until December 11th. I poured off a glug of milk from one of the gallons and stuck it in the freezer, which means I shouldn’t have to buy milk again for at least a couple of weeks.
- My iPhone earbuds were starting to not transmit sound so well, and I worried that they needed replacing. I took the not sharp end of a needle and scraped out the buds. I’ll spare you the disgusting details, but it turns out that there was enough, ahem . . . matter over the screen to block sound. I finished up the job with rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip and they now work perfectly. #waxon #waxoff
- I put together our December budget, and despite some extra expenses such as renewing my RN license and holiday gifts, we are A-Ok. I’m taking a week off to travel to New York for my sister’s 50th birthday, which means my income will be lower this month, but we’ll still have no problem paying bills while continuing to put money aside for the boys’ college funds. We scrimp and save on the little stuff so we’re able to afford the important big expenses.
- I mixed up a batch of black bean and corn salsa using crock-pot cooked beans, frozen corn and a jar of fancy organic 99¢ salsa. (Grocery Outlet, of course!) I served it with fish last night, and will keep the rest in the fridge for various meals and snacks. Healthy, cheap and delicious!
- I’m batching errands this afternoon to pick up Dave’s Killer Bread from the outlet, buy Costco gasoline and cash in our yearly rebate. I rarely, if ever drive far from the house for a single task.
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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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
1. Whipped a Christmas sweater for my cat using yarn from my grandma’s stash (white yarn purchased in 1960!!!). The cat hated it but it was fun and free entertainment for me!
2. I bought a groupon for a tea service for my mom and I to celebrate her birthday but she got really ill and we were unable to use it. I got an email from Groupon inviting me to “trade in” my expired groupon for credit if I purchased something within 24 hours. I’m in DESPERATE need of sheets and haven’t had much luck finding any at the thrift store so I ordered some right away. Yay!
3. I’m a big fan of freezer meals but not such a fan of buying ALL those cans of beans. I didn’t have everything “together” enough to cook dried beans before I made my bags last time but I found a way to use dried beans instead! I tried it for the first time yesterday and it worked REALLY well!
4. Ordered another set off gifts for my non-NCA-friendly family off of Amazon this week with a $25 credit earned on ibotta! All that’s left is a video game for my nephew. I’m trying to decide if I want to take the chance on getting him a game he might already have (or potentially not be interested in) but give him something tangible to open and play with Christmas day OR if I should give him a gift card for the game he REALLY wants but doesn’t come out until late January. Conundrums!
5. This weekend I’m going to an El Niño preparedness event with free sandbags and information about how my community will handle an emergency. I live about 5 minutes from the beach so this may or may not be pretty important in the next few months. Afterwards I plan to stop by a few thrift stores to look for some warm PJs and then go home to decorate my apartment for the holidays. Cat may or may not go back in the sweater! 😉
LOL! A sweater for your cat! I understand though – there is high entertainment value in knitting/crocheting, not to mention in dressing up your cat. Ours mostly hate it, but when my daughter was younger, she would dress up her kitty in Build-a-Bear dresses, and the kitty didn’t mind. I don’t think that she knows that she’s a kitty, therefore, in her mind, a frilly dress is not unreasonable.
Hahaha! He looked so good! He was purring in my lap after a while. 😉 He also wiggled his way out of it while I was sleeping!
I’m glad your daughter’s kitty didn’t mind the frilly dresses! 🙂 How fun (and less likely for your daughter to get scratched! Ha!) 🙂
They know (and secretly enjoy) when they are being admired. It’s the things like the reindeer antlers that they really hate, because they know it is silly and of an unrefined nature, not worthy to them. 🙂
Our oldest cat can tell when we’re laughing at him, as opposed to just laughing at something in the same room. He gets very offended and grumpy when that happens.
Yes, very true! He gets offended when we laugh at him too but its more laughing at how cute he is rather than at how funny he looks. He was SO FESTIVE and adorable! 🙂
Oh my, I am going to have to consider a holiday sweater for my mini-poodle who totally doesn’t mind her rain coat or fleece jacket. She would look so cute.
We are heading into all the Secret Santa / gift swaps at work, etc. This year, I plan to make gingerbread man shaped soaps for these gifts. I like to give something that won’t add to others’ clutter, and soap is useful and pretty! All I had to purchase was the mold – I already has everything else.
Omg! I’m was freaking out about the RN license.I thought I forgot to renew. In Mississippi, RN’s renew every other year so this is LPN renewal year. I didn’t realize some other states renew yearly. Whew, you just made my %$#&hole draw up a little bit.
1. I got a marked down 1/2 gallon of 2% milk for $1.00, 3 packs of cracker Barrel brand cheese slices for $1 per pack, and a $.75 cup of sour cream at the grocery store yesterday. I only took in a $5 bill because I was only getting a pack of shredded cheese for baked spaghetti last night so I had to dig for a little change in my coat pocket . I decided I would just use the cheese slices melted with some milk and chili flakes to make a sauce to pour over the noodles. It turned out great! I made a huge baking dish of it and froze half. Quick meal for a lazy day.
2. I thought of a frugal gift idea I am going to have to get busy on. There are these cute little safes to keep money hid in that are sold online and other places that are disguised as plain old soup or coke cans, Ajax cleaner ,etc. My hubby got me one last year so I am gonna use that one as a pattern to help me make some for gifts out of cans I already have. Then, depending on who is the receiver of the gift, I may put a little money or a gift card inside. Although my husband gave me nothing in mine and I loved it.
3. Still experimenting with using less ingredients when cooking. I made lemon poke hole cake topped with homemade lemon pudding. The recipe calls for 3 eggs in the cake and 3 egg whites for the pudding. I left one egg out of each. Recipe called for 2 1/2 cups of milk in the pudding and I used 2 cups of milk and 1/2 cup of water. My cake tasted exactly the same as it always does. If I had it to do over, I would have made 1/2 a recipe of the pudding or tried even less milk. Delicious!
4. Planning a craft tonight with the kids for Christmas decor with sticks from the yard and paint I already have. Enjoying all the great free Christmas movies on TV. I do love Christmas!
5. Used a black sharpie on my daughters black boots where she has scuffed the ends off pretty bad. May not can salvage these too much longer as they are about to become opened toed shoes.
Let’s see……not sure if I have 5 frugal things right now…..
1. I am making Christmas gifts for the nieces/nephews on my side of the family. So using fabric I inherited when my sister (another of their aunties) passed away I am making 22 bone pillows (for your neck). I inherited some stuffing and got some (new in package) at a yard sale. So I had to buy one bag. Not too shabby for 22 gifts. And I love that it’s a gift from both aunties.
2. I am gearing up for a craft fair this weekend. My big seller is mixes in jars. I will also advertise on our local facebook page. This usually brings us another $200 for the holiday season.
3. FREE advertising on Facebook! 🙂
4. The day before yesterday I made bone broth from our Thanksgiving turkey bones.
5. Yesterday I used the broth to make homemade turkey noodle soup which both my hubby and son enjoyed!
Yay! I did make it to 5! 🙂
I’m sorry for your loss. What a lovely way to include her.
1. Jill your gingerbread man soaps idea made me remember YEARS ago I bought cheap metal holiday cookie cutters I was going to tie onto Christmas gifts. I think we will make a batch or two of fudge and poor it into the cookie cutters as a mini gift for people at work. Now to find the cookie cutters…..
2. Bought a wallet I needed at the thrift store for $3, love it! Have not gone back yet to buy the refrigerator storage dishes I was coveting, my only problem is I don’t have storage space for them or I will have to store the in the basement, not really convenient.
3. Took two boxes full of stuff to the thrift store as well as a few clothing items. While there I noticed other stuff I had brought in October was not out on display, yeah, it sold!
4. Worked on December budget but unfortunately expenses are outweighing income by about $200. Just booked five new dog/cat sits today so if this keeps up I probably will make up the difference. I also can try to cut back on a few categories.
5. Went and got my free Bath and Body item for my daughter for Christmas, $13 value. Ended up using the 20% off coupon to buy a few of the holiday soaps for gifts which were 5 for $18 so ended up being about $2.75 a piece. They were also providing free clear cellophane bags, real ribbon and bows and a gift tag. May take them back but nice to have on hand for emergency gifts.
6. My usual – working on earning Swagbucks, dried laundry in the house, using the office phone for local calls to save on minutes. Bought some sale food to give for food collection drives, didn’t buy a yacht.
Upstate NY December veggies edition of FFT:
(1) The neighbor who buys “designer” pumpkins every Halloween and then dumps them on the curb shortly after Thanksgiving dumped her pumpkins over the weekend. I grabbed the four that looked the most like they’d be good cookers, gave one to a different (smarter) neighbor, and am going to deal with the other three this weekend.
(2) I’m calling this “The Miracle of the Kale”: I had a leftover-from-cooking stalk of my homegrown Tuscan kale before Thanksgiving, so I stuck it in a jar of water before we went out of town for the holiday. Came home to find that the stalk was sprouting roots. I just went out between rain showers and planted the stalk in a vacant garden spot close to the front door. Realistically, I don’t expect it to survive the winter–but with climate change, who knows??
(3) While I was out there, I also grabbed a couple of leaves off a mature kale, plus a leek, for tonight’s frittata. (As far as I’ve been able to determine, Julia Child never actually said, “First, take a leek,” but I’d love to think so.)
(4) Indoors, I’m working on putting together my gift packages for out-of-town friends. Around here, the gift plan is either (1) NCA-type gifts for those who can handle them, or (2) donations to charities.
(5) And all the usual stuff: hanging laundry, running the woodstove, etc.
LOL, Julia Child pun! She was an earthy soul, so I’m sure she’d appreciate it even if she never said it ; )
Went to hubs retail store to use his BF 25% discount. Only bought two non essentials, a rolling pin and 94 cent stickers. Otherwise only bought things we normally use and an electric heater to tide us over till we can get the furnace fixed. Saved $50 on stuff we would have bought anyway.
MIL treated us to lunch since we were out together. Free lunch is always good.
Found two bags of fruit on the bruised fruit cart for less than $2 for all. Four big apples and two POMs.
Had a good day hanging out with MIL. She will be 92 this week and she’s still independent!
Katy, you are totally rocking the reading glasses. 🙂 Great score on the milk!
My frugal five:
1) One of my frugal friends posted an alert about Dollar Tree having 5 lb. bags of all purpose flour, made by a mill in North Carolina, for $1. I was in DT today buying cleaning supplies and snatched up a bag of the flour, bundled it up in plastic grocery bags and put it in the chest freezer to use when we finish up the current open bag.
2) Yesterday while cleaning house, I finally used up the last of two huge bottles of Spic-n-Span all-purpose cleaner bought three years ago on clearance for $1.75 for the two. That was three years of clean floors for pennies.
3) Plain baking soda has not had quite enough oomph to keep our cats’ big litter boxes smelling fresh, so I am going to experiment with adding some lavender from our herb garden to the baking soda.
4) A helpful postal clerk saved me some bucks on mailing a box of Christmas gifts the other day by figuring out that my plain white box was the right size to ship Priority Mail.
5) This may seem a bit on the cheap side instead of frugal, but I found a series of books I wanted to read and signed up for a free trial of Kindle Unlimited. By the time I finished reading the six books, buyer’s remorse over spending $9.99 a month had kicked in, and I canceled the trial. So I read the books for free, but originally that wasn’t my intention.
I think lavender is a cat deterrent! Be careful!
Mine have grown up around it and it doesn’t seem to deter them. I often pick some of the aromatic herbs from the garden, roll them between my hands and lets the cats sniff my palms. They seem to enjoy it.
It is considered a deer repellent, but we don’t have a problem with that.
1. Just waved goodbye to a drop-leaf table that is going to live with my m-i-l who has space issues in her new downsized digs. I had been using it as my bedside table, so now I’m making do with my alarm clock on an upturned waste basket till I find a size-appropriate frugal little chest with drawers to replace it. Frugal for her/frugal for me. 🙂
2. Making soup out of those turkey dregs.
3. Made a super-cute table centerpiece for Christmas using cake pedestal with books stacked on it in a Christmas-tree shape. Hard to describe, but found it on Pinterest as ‘book lover’s Christmas tree.’
4. Anxiously awaiting a newly released ebook through my public library instead of buying (1 person ahead of me on the reserve list). Love that I can check those babies out online and they’re delivered to my Kindle without making the drive into town.
5. Eating out of the freezer as much as possible, making adjustments to recipes as needed to avoid the grocery store.
It takes a bit of thought to stay frugal this time of year. My FFT include:
1) Picked up a small check from a local consignment shop for items they sold for me. While I was there, I dropped of several new items for resale.
2) I keep a jar by the washer to drop change in. (Not everyone cleans out his or her pockets) When the jar is full, I bring it to the change machine. I had $30 this week. Payment for doing the laundry. It will go in my Christmas fund.
3) Using leftover chicken to make chicken fried rice for dinner — a family favorite.
4) Had a gift exchange at my women’s club meeting. I gave a beautiful, handmade soy candle with a wood wick. They sell for over $20 each, but I bought it new and in the box at an estate sale for $4.00. I wrapped in a gift bag, ribbon and tissue that I saved from last year.
5) Picked up my new, $10′, wool thrift-shop coat from the dry cleaners. Total investment for a handsome coat — $20. Thrifty is the new couture.
1) This one is not at all “frugal” but it is “non-consumer” so I am counting it as a win: at a small, locally-owned gift shop downtown, I found fingerless gloves that had been upcycled from old sweaters. They were really cute, but spendy at $25 a pair. I know I could buy thrift-store sweaters and figure out how to make these myself, but I don’t have the time right now (time is tighter than money this month) and these fit my budget for Christmas gifts for the many young women in my family. I bought four pairs, and felt good about supporting a local business who is selling items made from repurposed materials.
2) Made my second batch of vegetable soup this week. It’s cold and wet out, so it’s perfect soup weather. I also revived a wilted bunch of chard by cutting off the bottom inch of stems and putting it in a glass of water. Bam, good as new in about an hour! I will steam it for dinner tonight.
3) With all the soup-making, I have been using and making a lot of vegetable stock. I make it with the peels and scraps of vegetables that I collect in a mason jar in the freezer until there are enough for a batch. The scraps go into a pot of water along with some bay leaves and peppercorns. I compost the scraps afterwards. It feels great to not buy containers of stock anymore, plus it tastes better.
4) I started wondering why most of my frugal stuff is food-related, and decided it’s because I already have my bills and overhead down as low as possible (no cable, no debt, etc.) and I don’t shop recreationally. When I do shop, it’s mostly thrifting. I love the thrill of the hunt!
5) I did not buy a Lear jet, or any other form of transportation. I did, however, fill the tank of my Prius with gas at Fred Meyer, using fuel points to save 20 cents per gallon.
I feel like all my frugal stuff is mostly food too. I gues its one of the few things we can make daily changes on. It also feels like little bursts of frugal happiness almost daily. In these troubled times we need all the little wins we can get. Those gloves sound awesome and sometimes time trumps money, I can totally relate.
1. Picked up a new wallet at Goodwill for $1 (My old one was starting to loosen a little in the credit card slots, so my cards were not staying in place-recently, my debit card fell out in a store and someone caught me and gave it back to me! I decided then and there to look for a new wallet).
2. My purse strap broke yesterday-it’s a chain strap, so hubby and I used pliers to fix it 🙂
3. At breakfast at work (oatmeal-cheap and healthy), also drank free work coffee (though I did eat out for lunch, which was NOT frugal or healthy).
4. Will eat dinner at home tonight, and am going to a free party tomorrow night.
5. ??? Sigh…it hasn’t been a very frugal week around here, but I’ll try harder next week 🙂
Love your ear bud fix and I sure agree with being frugal on the everyday things so there is money for the big important stuff of life! Here our my recent frugals:
1. Froze cut up leftover celery as we don’t eat it but had it from Thanksgiving recipes. I’ll throw it into future soups. Also divided leftover butter into 1 T pats, separated with wax paper and froze. Again, we rarely use it but perhaps I can use it in baking over time. Otherwise we ate every bit of the Thanksgiving leftovers except for some ice cream that is still tempting me!
2. Figured out that the too much seasoning added to chili that made it too hot was mostly in the broth. Strained it and am using leftovers for lunch for me as I can eat it now but my husband still won’t.
3. Used a DVD I own to do stretching exercises instead of paying for a class.
4. Addressed Christmas cards purchased at a thrift shop. Only sending to elderly relatives who aren’t on social media and a few cousins.
5. Went out for coffee with a friend instead of lunch. Had a longer and more fun visit!
1. Went through my stash of christmas cards, I’d gotten them at an estate sale a couple of years ago, and I think this will be the year I’m done with them
2. My granny bedpillow that I bought at an estate sale last weekend is almost dry and ready for use. I’ve had it near the woodstove for 3 days.
3. Did the friends and family sale at Freddies, so I’m done shopping for 6 adults, and 3 children and only $115 out of pocket.
4. After 3 nights of turkey leftovers, and 3 nights of turkey soup with veggies from the freezer, it’s almost time to decide what to cook. I love cooking up a huge something, and not having to think about cooking for a few days.
That’s it, only got 4!
1. Went through all of my Christmas and winter stuff. I have too much! Found 8 items to list in CL. I have already sold 2 of these for total of $50. Six more to go. I also packed up a bag of things for Goodwill.
2. Found I had a nice, never-used candle in a jar which I can wrap up for a gift exchange at work. Forgot I had that candle.
3. Found that once again, I have plenty of gift wrap and gift bags for the holidays. I always save and reuse the bags, wrapping paper and ribbons. It’s been years since I bought any of that stuff.
3. Over the past week, my husband and I have watched the final episodes of “Mad Men.” We got the videos out of the library (as usual).
Wow, so many great holiday ideas here that I plan to glean!
Here are my five:
1. Checked our wonderful public library for books I have been wanting to read (I take photos with my phone when I wonder across interesting titles) and found all of them. I put a couple of them on hold.
2. I had to travel for work this week and packed my dinner to heat in the hotel (my travel is all paid for by employer plus I get a set amount per diem for meals. If I bring something from home it is $$ back to me). Sadly, I had to stay at a hotel I normally do not frequent and they did not have a microwave. I heated my homemade butternut squash soup by putting the container in hot water, but I ended up eating it pretty cool. It still tasted pretty good. Hotel also had a continental breakfast and so I ate a little this morning and saved my apple for my lunch.
3. I went with a friend to a cell phone store so he could price out a new iPhone (his stopped charging). I was tempted by the large, easy-to-see iPhone 6+ with it’s fancy camera and pretty screen, but I stayed strong. My older model works just fine and I cannot justify the amount!
4. I do not own a dryer, so always line dry or use the indoor clothes dryer I bought years ago from an Amish market to dry my laundry.
5. I found $0.13 on the ground!
Having a good week:
1-Have sold a couple of items on the neighborhood for sale group
2-tried to use a coupon online-it would not work-e-mailed the company and they gave me a credit (yea customer service)
3-hosted a dinner and went to freezer first instead of grocery store
4-planning the school holiday party suggested not buying everyone individual plastic water bottles as has been done in past-the kids already bring thermos water for snack, we’ll use those
5-went to library
1. Consigned a bunch of clothes.
2. Bought needed clothes for the kids at consignment store for cheap (tags on Hannah Anderson, tags on old navy jeans, and ll bean skirt for about $6 for each item).
3. Donated items not taken by consignment store to goodwill and collected the ticket for the tax write off.
4. Accidentally donated said purchased clothes along with not taken items. Drove back to donation center and literally waded through mountains of clothes and found said purchased clothes after about 25 minutes of digging.
5. Got a workout in for free. (see #4)
I hope you showered after your “workout.”
1. My lunch was free. I ran a short errand for a friend who is a professor who was providing pizza for her class. She gave me a couple of slices of pizza for picking up the pizza for her and bringing it to her school. She got the pizza half price at Domino’s but it was pick up only….
2. The trip to Domino’s wasn’t much out of the way of the trip I was making to the library to pick up the new Leah Remini book and Dick Van Dyke’s _Keep Moving_. Also got a travel guide to London and am going to plan/daydream about taking a trip to England next December.
3. REALLY wanted a pop to go with my pizza with lunch but since I had taken out my debit card and only had a twenty dollar bill, I wasn’t going to break it to buy a soda.
4. Had left over tamales (from a fundraiser yesterday) and leftover chili for dinner so I didn’t eat out and I didn’t have to heat the oven to cook.
5. Stopped at the Dollar Tree to see if they had the book _The Taste of War_ that someone mentioned on here the other day. I’m a historian and that book is so far up my wheelhouse! And, I’m an Anglophile! Alas, that was the last Dollar Tree in town and they didn’t have it at any of them. But, I didn’t buy anything else while I was there and they DO have it on Amazon for $4 so I might just use my swagbucks gift cards to get it.
(Books and food are big spending points for me…so this is pretty good progress!)
Just wanted to add… I like your glasses Katy. I don’t remember seeing them before… pretty sexy (=
Those are just my $1 readers from The Dollar Tree.
1. Sold a vintage tree topper on ebay for $18. I was going to lump that in with a bunch of other random ornaments on my local FB boards for a couple bucks, so I’m glad I looked it up first.
2. Found two odd tools in our garage the previous owner had left. Identified them as rose thorn strippers, and sold those on ebay also.
3. Bought a pair of Columbia snow boots from a local FB board for $25. After testing them out and finding they were much nicer than my current Lands’ End winter boots, I sold those for $12 on the same board.
4. Admittedly, I did not need this, but I bought a novelty sized clothespin from my friend for $2. I already had a walnut one, but hers was red and I really wanted it.
5. Brought out a Christmas bin and decided I didn’t need/want most of the contents. Listed most of it on my local FB boards. Sold a cookie platter, a big box of bows, and a small snowman pillow all for $9.
mine seem to be gift related this week:
1. made 24 egg carton/dryer lint/wax, fire starters for whenever it gets cold and stays cold around here. (I use the fireplace when the weather turns and stays.)
2. made a bow tie with handsome cotton quilting fabric for my son for Christmas. turned out really nice!
3. made quilted key fobs with fabric and batting I had on hand. only had to buy the fob hardware (10 for $5).
4. made map tile coasters for my brother using some new hampshire visitor maps i got for free (already had the cheap, basic tiles on hand from years ago). just need to pick up some waterproof sealer to finish the gift.
5. needed non-fusible pellon to make 2 more bow ties for my son out of suit lining (polyester but looks and feels like silk). went to joanns, had a 60% coupon, 2 yards = $0.79. the lining (1/4yd pieces) cost me all of $1.06.
I got that 60% off joann’s coupon too. Going this weekend to pick up some thing for a craft project.
1. I had a three day training for work to attend this week about 10 minutes from my home. My commute to work is about 45 minutes! Because the training was off site, I’ll get my mileage reimbursed. Since I was so close to home, I went home on the lunch break instead of going out to lunch.
2. I worked on a few Christmas gifts I’m making for friends. The majority of materials were free (pallets) or were things I already had on hand (paint, brushes etc)….I also used a gift card to purchase a secret Santa gift for one of my coworkers.
3. My parents cook chicken instead of turkey on thanksgiving and usually toss the carcasses. I took them home this year and made two huge batches of broth with them and some veggies I had in the fridge already.
4. I wrote out my Christmas cards this week. Every year I have a few left over from the box so I decided to use them all up this year instead of buying more.
5. I picked up some .10 stamps so I can add them to my old .29 stamps I used to collect as a kid.
1) Lunch yesterday was free and provided by my Department here at work. It was our Winter Break event. It was good, hot meal with all the trimmings and the best part was, I was able to sit and chat with co-workers I haven’t seen in awhile – since we’re scattered all over the Campus.
2) I’m picking up and dropping off some books on CD. I checked out 3 in the series called “The Friday Night Knitting Club”. I love shopping with my Library Card!
3) I’m taking off early today and heading home to pack for a night out in Bricktown with the Hubby. I bought tickets to see the OKC Philharmonic Christmas show as his Christmas gift and we’re spending some of my Marriott Reward Points for a free night at one of their hotels north of the event center.
4) I found two coupons in the box of Saline Solution I use for my contacts. Both are good for a whole year, yay!
5) I didn’t buy a Lear Jet or a Yacht.
Lavender is also an ant repellant. Put a drop of lavender oil on a cotton ball and put it where the ants are and they will go away.
1) Ate out with my SIL and got a $25 reward. We spent $25 and split that bill so I figure I am ahead of the game.
2) Borrowed my neighbor’s exercise bike as PT for my post surgery knee therapy.
3) Bought a colorful wallet for my MIL for $1 at a thrift store. It was a Nine West wallet and brand new. I also Scotch-Guarded it to water-proofed it and now she has a wallet she won’t loose at the bottom of black purse. Black wallet, black purse was no Bueno.
4) Bunco with friends last night. Spent $5, won $10 and it was cheap entertainment.
5) Made brownies from scratch instead of buying something. They were delicious!
I am proud of some of my efforts and not so willing to admit to others!
I attended an organization’s holiday fundraiser and potluck the other evening. Here is how I cut costs that evening (some of this was plain dumb luck) 1. brought a homemade casserole instead of following my inclination to stop at the deli.
2. was given a ticket for a free beer from someone who had purchased a strip of tickets – savings of $2.
3. bought two raffle tickets and won a door prize of an adult coloring book (coffee table quality) which I will re-gift as a hostess gift later this month.
4. We were encouraged to bring friends so I did – she ended up with a free meal and also won one of the raffled items!
5. Attending another potluck holiday party tomorrow evening. Stopped at a produce market and got good deals on greens and fresh veggies for the large salad I committed to bring.
1. I’ve been saving vegetable scraps (onion and garlic skin and ends, the ends of other veggies I’ve trimmed) in a bag the freezer, along with one and a half carcasses from roast chickens. I threw it all in the slow cooker to make stock.
2. Scraps from the stock went into my Bokashi compost bin. It takes any organic scraps, so the bones went in too. Apart from saving food scraps from landfill, where it doesn’t break down, I drain the ‘juice’ from the bokashi bin which is a free liquid fertilizer for the garden. My lemon thyme is thriving now!
3. I’ve decided to re-gift a cool mason jar that has a solar powered light built in the lid to my nephew. The whole jar glows with the light. It’s been gathering dust and he’ll love it.
4. My housemate had friends over who left a block of fancy chocolate. She doesn’t eat chocolate, so guess who’s been eating free chocolate.
5. I fried up the stalks from a bunch of kale for lunch yesterday. I had a jar with goats cheese marinated in oil. I’ve eaten all the cheese but threw balsamic vinegar in the jar with the oil to make dressing.
1. Took new silk flowers out to the cemetery for Xmas, using ones purchased on super sale this summer, plus a bow bought for 90% off after Xmas last yr. Looks good and didn’t have to buy anything.
2. Picked up more books from the library.
3. Introduced my husband to homemade hot cocoa. He’s in love…. LOL
4. Got a great calendar from our newspaper for next yr, with scenes of local barns, so am not buying a new one.
5. Bought some frozen dinners and microwaveable pizzas on super sale, to keep on hand for times like tonight, when my husband decided to take me out to dinner; using the frozen stuff means the sons do not make a mess cooking that I’ll have to clean up.