- My son is required to attend a Japanese language event every term, and I wanted to make sure he’d located one before I went to New York. We found a Japanese language showing of the newest Studio Ghibli movie at the Portland Art Museum, (When Marnie Was There) so I booked tickets for this afternoon. We were able to browse a bit of the museum afterwards which highly exceeded my expectations. (I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve been.) We saved money by taking the bus both ways, as we have free passes through work/school. By the way, the movie was amazing and extremely touching!
- I was able to buy a high end set of colored pencils for my niece using my son’s employee discount. It saved a lot from the set price and I’ll pair it with a review copy of a fancy coloring book from a previous blog giveaway. I’m trying to bring holiday gifts with me to New York to save on shipping as much as possible.
- I sold an accordion. 😉
- I turned in another Clark Howard article and submitted ideas for some new pieces. I figure I can get a few written while in transit from New York and back. My older son’s college tuition is due at the beginning of January, plus I’m anticipating double tuition payments starting next year as my younger son has been accepted to his first choice school! YAY!!!!! I don’t work any shifts this week, so my next paycheck will be light.
- I’m starting to plan a NYC Birthday Day of Adventures for my sister’s 50th this Wednesday, and am gleaning ideas from New York area friends. I can’t share any details yet, but you know the day will be both frugal and fun! Experiences are better than stuff, people. Experiences > stuff.
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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{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
1. We had a date afternoon and night yesterday. The afternoon entailed thrift shopping and searching for vinyl records. I found two designer tops for work and a casual dress for $38. Probably more than I would have liked to pay, but they were in perfect condition and high end Aussie made.
2. I found a movie ticket website and got movie tickets to The Dressmaker for $6.95, and then used a voucher for gourmet pizza and a salad for $21, which we ate on the beach before going to the movies. It was beautiful.
3. I got a voucher for $10 off a purchase at one of our big chain department stores here, and got the last part of my daughter’s Xmas gift for $15 instead of $25.
4. Tonight’s dinner was fish cakes made of leftovers, and even my youngest daughter ate them. She normally hates anything fish-related.
5. For the next two weeks we are eating out of the freezer and cupboards, and only shopping for milk and fresh vegetables and fruit. I’m hoping to save $100.
Experiences > Stuff
Absolutely! Our daughter and her husband have a son who just turned 13. They’ve made the decision together that they will save throughout the year for a very nice vacation rather than buying expensive stuff that turns to clutter throughout the year. They are building a tiny house right now, so that’s a good thing!
There is nothing more freeing the getting rid of useless stuff and not adding more of it!
Your blogs inspire me to keep looking for ways to save and earn. Thank you!
1. Getting rid of more stuff asrounnd here – to friends, my kids, and GW.
2. Made applesauce yesterday from the last of my neighbor’s apples.
3. Sold a pair of earrings through my Etsy store, as well as several books through my Half.com store. Got them all mailed, as well as most of the packages of Xmas gifts that are going out of town.
4. Starting next week, both sons who are temporarily living here will have jobs, which means eventually – help on groceries and utilities!!
5. Went to GW and bought a tiny Xmas tree to put in the military care package I sent out this week and a really nice coffee table book for the white elephant event at next wk’s party (the gang giving it are in their late 30’s and don’t seem to understnad the “white elephant” idea – they set a limit of $15 for your contribution. 0_0 This book is nice, and it was $1.00. Good enough…. )
Ha! some of my family is the same way about lack of knowledge on the white elephant concept!
Glad to hear that both sons will have jobs. That must give you a feeling of relief and knock your anxiety level down a few pegs.
excuse spelling errors – didn’t see until posted – I haven’t been up long 🙂
1. Speaking of experiences-rather-than-stuff, my husband and I decided that this year our Christmas gift to each other would be tickets to a live theater show. We are going to see a performance of “The Santaland Diaries.” I can’ t say that the tickets were a bargain, but I do feel sure sure we will enjoy the show.
2. It has been so rainy and gloomy here in the NW that I needed to find a way to brighten up the house. I pulled out 5 candles which I bought at a yard sale for 10 cents each and set them up on candle holders (also from yard sales. Probably paid about 25 cents each) in the fireplace. Everything different colors and sizes, but somehow it actually looked nice. And the nice warm glow did cheer me up.
3. Went to the library and checked out 4 books and 2 videos. Also read some of the new magazines. I don’t know what I would do without our wonderful library.
1) We are having beautiful weather, so I spent a good bit of yesterday outdoors — took a long walk on the beach w/my husband and another a little later in the day with the dog. Free excercise and vitamin D!
2) I made a big pot of kale and sausage soup w/ white beans. My husband and son loved it. They ate it for breakfast both this morning and yesterday.
3) I bought two paperback books at the Goodwill. I was shocked to find out they had increased the price from a fifty cents to $2.00 each. There was not a sign, and I was not happy! Although this is still relatively inexpensive, it is much more than other thrift stores, estate sales, or garage sales. Goodwill pricing makes me crazy!
4) I ate all meals at home this week with the exception of a covered-dish Christmas party.
5) Overbought fruits and veggies this week, So I froze some to prevent waste.
I think vegetable soup and smoothies are on the menu next week.
Yes, GW does some odd pricing on books but at least here they are stickered. I don’t recall they were ever .50 but they did go up from $1.99 to $2.99 for hardback! It’s still a good price, but it’s most annoying when they don’t let you know!
This is a challenging month to find my frugal inner self. I don’t like to skip holiday traditions and expectations but I can make it all less expensive if I don’t succumb to temptation too often.
Family Christmas party was held yesterday – wasn’t asked to bring any goodies so I shopped my holiday closet for interesting stocking stuffers for everyone along with a few purchases. I found several holiday mystery books to augment small gifts of cheese, candy, soap, holiday cups and small stuffed animals for the children. I prefaced my gifts with the remark that none of these items were in any way necessities – just small remembrances – it set the stage for some good laughs- of course most of this stuff was purchased throughout the year at sale prices and in the case of the cups, at a vintage store. I re-gifted the coloring book that I won earlier this month as a door prize and the hostess was delighted – she was happy to receive this year’s “in” gift.
2. No plans for new tree decorations – have boxes in the attic waiting to be reclaimed and loved.
3. Turning over every rock to find a well priced desk calendar for my husband – must be sturdy to last the entire year plus attractive enough so he won’t get tired of it!
4. Putting off major grocery shopping and making sure those odds and ends in the freezer/pantry get used up. Example: found a can of refried beans in the pantry and made some tasty burritos with them as a base.
5. After an expensive lunch and tour of a local museum, have decided that my
major activity will be people watching as I shop this holiday season – free if you don’t buy anything!
If he doesn’t need the calendar right away, they are often very highly discounted just after new years. You can sometimes save 75% or more if you are willing to miss the first week or so of the new year.
This isn’t even a hardship if the current calendar includes January as so many do.
1. After I bought a few things from JcPenney, I found a 20% coupon I could have used. Although it was my own fault for not asking at the register, I also found it irritating they didn’t offer it. I took my receipt in yesterday and they re-rang my receipt.
2. Bought an UnderArmour zip up jacket for $12 from a local board. This will be a Christmas gift for my son.
3. Paid $2 for a toy locally last week, and sold it on ebay for $16.
4. Collected $49 from selling on my local FB boards. Christmas decorations, household items, and one game. More than the money, I’m glad to have the excess items gone.
5. My coworker was planning to buy a meat slicer that was about $120. I found the same model on a local FB site for $15. He was super excited to pick it up. I love it when people realize how much money they can save by not buying new.
1. Had a couple of friends over just because I hadn’t seen them in a while– made lasagna (from scratch), salad (with homemade vinaigrette dressing), and a brazillian corn cake for dessert (also homemade and delish!). By cooking for them, I accomplished a few frugal things. First, I didn’t go out to eat and spend money. Second, there were so many left overs, the lasagna will be about 4 more meals for me and my spouse. Third, it allowed me to control what went in my food which is always healthier.
2. Gave gifts two those two friends. Had gotten baskets at GW on a half off Saturday and then filled them with either other half price items or things I already had but didn’t need. They each got a book, a mug, and some wrapped candy. He got some chocolates, but since she doesn’t like chocolate (I KNOW, RIGHT????) I gave her a jar of vegan garlic mayo from my pantry (unopened, of course) because she loves to try new foods and is vegetarian.
3. Was planning on staying home yesterday but a friend’s mother was going into the nursing home and he was faced with the task of cleaning out her house. I offered to help. There were few odds and ends he gave me, just because there’s so much stuff that it’s overwhelming– but the best thing was an unopened bottle of cranberry juice and a box of diet coke! (LOL–I’m cheap labor!) This wasn’t so much frugal as it just felt good to help a friend.
4. Stopped at DG and got cat litter and used my $5 off $25 for cat litter.
5. Did a survey for Amazon for a $5 credit that I will probably use on my spouse’s -yet to be thought of- Christmas gift! I’m thinking something German! (We took German in college and loved it and want to travel there!)
1. I have been getting my Christmas on “frugally.” Did not buy anything new decoration wise, just rearranged the living room and put the fake Christmas tree (tree is over 20 years old, I think that’s frugal!) where we have never had it before. While decorating I have a pretty good fake fireplace video on through Amazon Prime – “use what ya got and forget about what ya don’t got” I say. 🙂
2. Had to go to the mall to return some cleats we had ordered that were the wrong size – AGAIN! Geesh! At least the shipping is free. When we returned it also returned some soccer socks daughter had gotten we decided we didn’t need – made them give me cash and not put it on one of their store cards as I knew I would not be buying anything else. Daughter wanted to ice cream from McDonalds so compromised and stopped and bought ice cream from the store – less money and more servings! Of course I bought the ice cream on sale.
3. Before going to the mall made sure we ate so we would not be tempted. We did walk around and check out some of the stores. Even resisted Bath and Body but we did partake of sampling the free lotion samplers. 😉 Later I decided I was so glad I had not bought the lotion as I wore it longer did not care for it.
4. Taking daughter to a holiday orchestra concert today I have been looking forward to through a great deal through Groupon, saved half of what the face value ticket price was.
5. Doing my usual frugal things (more than 5) – got up this morning and unplugged every phone charger/plugged in thing I could lay my hands on, made coffee and immediately poured the coffee into a thermal pot and unplugged coffee pot, working on Swagbucks, doing laundry and hanging everything up to air dry. Hoping to make holiday cookies using two pumpkin spice cookie mixes from last year we never used (should be fine right? the expired date isn’t to old….lol), Going to wrap presents using last year boxes, wrapping paper, bows, bags and tissue paper – re-gifting many bags and tissue I save from when we received gifts. Also going to write out some Christmas cards this week using last years supplies and hoping to create a picture sheet from this years events and printing at work.
If you open your mixes and they have stale smell you can add some allspice or even cinnamon to it then whisk it a bit before adding the wet ingredients. This sort of gives it some fresh air before you cook it to give it a little boost.
Depending on how far past the expiration date it is, if there’s baking powder in it, it may not be as active. You can always add some fresh? Maybe the cookies will be a little flatter. But I would sure use it up!
Thank you for reminding me; I need to be a lot more vigilant about unplugging things.
1 – Yesterday we bought a new-to-us Honda CRV. We went back and forth on just how old a car/how much money/how many miles we were comfortable with, but since we have one heading to college in a year and a half and some looming house repairs we went for 2008/$10,000 less than the highest we seriously considered/105,000mi. I’m excited because my bad back and I finally get heated seats and I don’t have to drive a minivan anymore. 🙂 They need to fix a couple things, so we had to put down a deposit. $1000 on our rewards credit card we pay off every month. We asked if we could pay the rest on credit to get more rewards points, but can’t, so we’ll pay with cash.
2 – Forgot to buy pork chops for last night’s dinner, but everyone was fine with the discounted sausage I DID buy, so that saved a trip across town, and let’s be honest, the bottle of wine I also would have picked up on the way. 😉
3 – My son’s closet had a bunch of holes from renovations to the adjacent bathroom. I’d finally gotten all the holes patched and wasn’t excited about buying paint for walls no one was ever going to see. I looked through what I had left from other projects and found a nearly-full gallon of white ceiling paint and used that. Yay!
4 – I was prepared to pay $2.99 for “Elf” on demand, but my son reminded me I’d bought it last year. I virtually never buy DVDs, so I didn’t even consider that we might have it. Good save, son!
5 – My husband and daughter have had a rough semester and wanted to have a party Friday night to celebrate surviving it. I thought this would involve Panera like it usually would, but bought a frozen pizza, frozen chicken strips and tater tots just in case they didn’t get their acts together. They were happy with what I’d gotten, saving us at least $30.
1) We attended my husband’s office Christmas party last night. Free dinner buffet (including dessert) and free drinks, plus he received a $25 restaurant gift card! We just paid a few bucks for parking. A nice frugal night out.
2) I found out that I will be receiving a $500 escrow refund within the next month! I haven’t yet decided if I will put it straight into savings or towards the principal of my mortgage.
3) Purchased a few small Christmas gifts on Amazon. Spent $50 for 5 people. I will make the remaining gifts, which will consist of candied pecans and tiny cross-stitch tree ornaments.
4) I cancelled my Hulu subscription. We don’t watch it nearly as much as Netflix, and I’ve found that there are many shows on Hulu that can be watched for free on station websites and YouTube. So now we are a Netflix-only household. Savings of $8/month.
5) While I was out running errands the other day, I had a craving for a Starbucks peppermint mocha (usually I only go to Starbucks once or twice per year, just for that). In the checkout lane, I decided on an almond Snickers bar instead. Savings of nearly $5!
I love Studio Ghibli movies! I didn’t know about When Marnie Was There, I’m going to keep an eye out for it. 🙂
My frugal weekend:
1. Attending a baby shower today. I checked retailmenot and saved 20% on the gift I ordered online from the mom-to-be’s registry. It arrived last week, and I wrapped it in plain brown paper with some colorful yarn from my stash, and I made the card. All wrapping is compostable.
2. Experiences > stuff!!! I couldn’t agree more! Tonight I am taking my two girls to see the Oregon Ballet’s Nutcracker. The tickets were not frugal, but it’s non-consumer in terms of my biggest holiday gift being a shared holiday experience.
3. I soaked chickpeas last night, and I’m simmering them now on the stove. Some of them will go into a soup or stew that I will make today, for my work lunches all this week. I will freeze the rest of the chickpeas in mason jars to use instead of buying canned ones.
4. Even though I stayed on Kaiser health insurance, I recently switched from paying the premium through COBRA (related to a divorce several years ago) to self-pay, which reduced my premium by $17 (thanks, Affordable Health Care!). I received a refund check for a month’s COBRA premium – over $600! It was a surprise because I forgot, it having been several years, that payments were in advance, so what I thought was my last COBRA payment a while back was actually an accidental extra payment. Anyway, since it’s surprise money to me, I am socking it away into savings. I will decide when I do my year-end analysis whether I want it to go into retirement or college fund.
5. Regular daily frugal stuff. Coffee and oatmeal at home for breakfast, exercising at home for free, cooking all meals at home and using leftovers for work meals.
1) Stopped at Family Dollar on Friday to use a coupon for cat litter and discovered the store had put all the 20 pound boxes of Fresh Step on clearance for $6 each. I bought three boxes and used my coupon for another brand, which netted us 85 pounds of litter.
2) Thanks to a coupon and checking the produce clearance section, I scored a bunch of celery for 59 cents and a four-pound bundle of carrots for $1.19. Both were prepped for freezing and put in the chest freezer, so we now have ready-to-go veggies to add to homemade soup.
3) Found a barely worn heavy denim shirt for my son at the humane society thrift store for $2 on half-price day. It needed a button sewn on one sleeve, but that was an easy fix.
4) Also bought myself a wool cardigan sweater at the humane society thrift for $2. It’s absolutely perfect and is in a mix of colors that both look good on me and won’t show cat or dog hair. 😀
5) Sometimes four is all you got.
We spent 8 hours in NYC yesterday, it was near to 70 degree’s out! The free light show on the facade of Sak’s 5th avenue is awesome to see and there’s free skating in Bryant Park (weather permitting – it’s getting too warm to keep the ice frozen!)
1) Noticed our toothpaste was empty and honestly, until after Christmas I don’t wanna go anywhere. Remembered my dental hygenist hooked me up last week at my appt and I have 3 trial size tubes (as well as another I got as a free sample in the mail).
2) Had a holiday party this weekend and brought all homemade gifts and for yankee swap. Made frugal homemade baked beans for the potluck, as well as some cookies made with grocery sale items.
3) Made catnip mice out of small bits of yarn leftover from projects for all my kitty owning friends. I found a recipe to make sweet potatoes into dog chewies (cooking them on a low heat in the oven for awhile) and I plan to do that for the doggie owners, since I’ve got some in the cabinet.
4) Working out of the pantry for the most part, trying to stay out of al the stores until the insanity dies down, thus saving moneeeyyy!
5) Sent Christmas cards using leftovers from the last few years. This is one of the Christmas traditions I really enjoy, so I don’t forgo it. I just send cards to the people I won’t see over the season.
Love my 2010 Honda CRV. I bought it new and it has 44,000 miles on it now. I’m figuring I’ve at least another 10 yrs left on it, if not more.
1. Dh replaced the washing machine door that broke. It was $70 for the door and $0 for labor. Love my handy husband!
2. Got a replacement, for free, from the company that I bought my 2016 planner monthly calendar. The one I bought was missing the month of June.
3. Dh and I are using the Kirkland brand tissues from Costco and I love them. I bought a case of them and then ended up being less than $1/box.
4. I’m going to order holiday stamps from the post office by purchasing by mail. Free postage to send in the order and maybe the postal carrier will have them on the truck. Saves me a trip to the post office.
5. got an offer for a $10 gc from Fios just for calling in . I will do that and say no to any Fios services. Frugal fail – forgot to get dh to the Nissan dealership for a free $25 Target gc.
6. I am going to try selling dd’s books on Half.com. We were going to donate them to the library but dd is a broke college student so we’ll try this way first. If it doesn’t sell than we will donate.
* Was “supposed” to bring the kids to a neighbor kid’s birthday party. Not a close friend of us or the kids. The mom cancelled twice already, so it’s out. I brought the gift back for a refund. 20$ extra in our pockets
That’s all for now.
Have a great frugal day!
1) Leftovers of homemade tamales w/chili & cheese tonight.
2) I stayed home today and wrapped Christmas gifts, while watching football and drinking a wine spritzer. I haven’t watched Sunday football in a long while and it was nice to have the house to myself.
3) I ate leftover hummus like a dip with corn chips for lunch. Yumm!
4) I’m sending out a few Christmas cards this year – I believe I bought the cards at the Goodwill a few years back, when they had Christmas stuff on clearance. We have a few relatives that don’t use Facebook, so it’s a nice way to stay in touch.
5) The Christmas wrapping paper I used was leftover from the past 2 or 3 Christmases. I even found a couple of DVDs I’d bought at Goodwill for the grandkids – no telling how long they’ve been in the closet, so I wrapped them up and put them under the tree too.
Great day at home, saved gas and had fun!
Wondering why my post was deleted? 🙁
Ignore last message, weird now it appears….
Good friend told me her favorite gift from me ever was last year when I took her to see the Nutcracker Ballet. I also bought her dinner and gave her a really expensive gift…but she didn’t remember that part! LOL…proof that Experiences > Stuff = Definitely!
(Making up for 2 weeks on UNthrifty-devil-may-care revelry which may or may not have included purchase of recliner or two)
1. Cooking up chalupa stew using 1/2 price beans and cheap pork cut — many servings for about 5 bucks. Smells yummo
2. Planning meals this week — all meals cooked or brownbagged from Sunday thru Thursday at least. Also tracking money spent on food each week.
3. Trying to use up Xmas craft stuff for students and only bought a couple kits at Michaels’s 60% off. This saved a lot, and less to store later.
4. Planning to buy gift cards for wonderful coworkers at grocery store to get the cents off for gasoline. Buying fewer groceries has so many benefits — saving, less waste, healthier — but it does mess with the gas points mojo.
5. Found a penny in the rain and a dime in a parking lot.
1. Took advantage of the shopping season and finally posted several Wii Rockband items on CL. Sold everything except a pair of microphones, which we’ll relist this week along with a bunch of other Nintendo DS items my son wants to sell. I’m feeling really good about the way I’m writing descriptions and pricing stuff.
2. Husband gave me a new battery for my phone (to replace the one that wouldn’t hold a charge) and a new charger (to replace the one patched together with electrical tape because it was shorting out) for Hanukkah. It’s like having a new phone.
3. Exchanged a jar of pickles at Whole Foods. They were awful; we think the seal was broken before we got them. While there, I asked if I could have some of the Christmas tree clippings they were apparently going to throw out. Rescued several good size branches that I’ll use for a winter display by the front door as well as bring some small ones in the house. I love the smell of evergreens.
4. Received breakfast at work today and lunch at my parents’. I was so stuffed I skipped dinner.
5. All the Hanukkah gifts we gave this year were in previously-used gift bags. It became a funny gag with my kids as they got the same bags night after night. For the family, included beautiful cards I’ve had for years (but always forget to use). I didn’t have to buy candles either. I have a great stash of candles, accumulated over the years. This year we used natural beeswax ones that were given to me a couple of years ago. We all love the smell of beeswax.
1. My husband and I attended a Christmas concert put on by the symphony, thanks to a generous friend who gave us tickets, worth $94. We ate out before the symphony, but went to a burger place, not a fancy-schmancy place. It takes us an hour to get to the college, and we had to get there early to get parking — the performance was on campus and it was also graduation night — so to eat at home we had to eat at four in the afternoon or at 11:30 at night. The concert was really good.
2. We purchased a tree but couldn’t get it locally. We go back and forth; real tree vs. artificial tree, and we always come down to a small, real tree. I usually wait until they go on sale here in town a few days before Christmas, and get one at 50-75% off, but this year, all our local retailers ran out. We look for the largest tree in the smallest size class, and my husband got his veteran’s discount, so we didn’t pay much for this one, and we batched all our errands and knocked them all out.
3. I caught a lot of sales in the grocery stores. One store had a BOGO sale, and I stocked up on things I truly use, like olive oil.
4. I needed powdered ginger for a few recipes, so I went to the bulk section and bought 40 cents worth of ginger instead of a $4.00 bottle that will be stale before I use it up.
5. My husband needed some small strips of wood for a project, to use as stiffeners. He asked the paint people if he could have some wooden paint stirrers and told them why. They handed him 20 for free. It never hurts to ask.
1. Finished up my baby registry and resisted the urge to purchase anything for him (I’m sure I’ll need to purchase things later on, but I’m trying so hard to resist any impulse buys).
2. Ate leftovers for lunch/dinner yesterday
3. Used a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby for a holiday gift. I still spent the same amount of money that I’d budgeted for this person, but by using the coupon on my most expensive item, I was able to get a little more for them.
4. I (stupidly) lost a receipt to a gift card purchase at a store, but needed to return the item. Because I didn’t have the receipt, the store was only going to give me the lowest sale price on the item (which was a good $18 lower than what I’d originally paid), so I called the number on the back of my gift card and gave the customer service representative the card number, and she was able to pull up all of the necessary receipt information for me. I was able to return the item for a full refund of my money, though it would have been less frustrating, and time-consuming, for me if I would have just held onto my receipt in the first place!
5. Used a Trader Joes gift card to purchase some baking staples for the upcoming holiday…basically free ingredients for me 🙂
SURELY you’ve seen this rant by Louis CK on the wonders of air travel… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEY58fiSK8E
“Everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy” is our family travel motto.
the link to the compact is not working 🙁
Thanks, I’ve fixed it.