- Last week was EMS Week, (emergency medical services) so my husband’s employer provided a number of treats including meals. My husband is a supervisor, so he spent all day Friday serving up an on-site barbecue for his employees. This included burgers, sausages, sides and freshly made Thai noodles. (The other supervisor’s wife is from Thailand.) My son and I drove over that evening for a delicious free meal, which was such a gift. My husband cleaned up at the end of the day and brought home an enormous amount of leftovers, which included fruit, vegetables, sheets of rice noodles and pre-chopped garlic. But the best part is that my husband was taught how to make the Thai noodle dish, which will increase the meals that he makes from two to three!
- I worked at the hospital on Saturday and brought leftover Chinese food from my son’s birthday, (courtesy of my mother and step father.) I came home that evening to leftover Thai noodles and a perfectly crunchy apple. Of course I drank the free crappy coffee while at work. This may seem like a dull repeat, but almost all of my co-workers purchase daily coffees from the on site café. Yo, people. Free coffee!
- I found a pair of reading glasses at my mother’s house that were missing the right arm. The prescription is perfect for me, so my mom told me to take them. I love to read in bed and already have a pair of glasses missing the left arm, so I now have a complete set. This may sound unbelievably goofy, but a missing arm is perfect for when I want to turn to the side without the glasses digging into the side of my head. Why yes, I am a cheap date!
- I went nowhere yesterday, which is pretty much the most frugal activity on earth.
- I made sure that my older son signed the paperwork for next year’s college housing. He’ll be in the dorms again, and they had incentives for students who sign up early. He now avoids a 5% increase in his meal plan, plus will receive $200 in credit to spend on campus.
Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
{ 85 comments… read them below or add one }
I did pretty well this week, but we had a couple fails.
1. Trimmed and highlighted my hair myself. It turned out pretty good and I’m happy with it. If it had turned out badly, I’m glad I have to wear a hat for work!
2. I needed a portrait done and the last time needed them we paid over $400 and the photographer used the wrong background color. I ended up using my shower curtain for a backdrop and did the pics myself. My hubby was my photographer this time and he got some crazy good pics making me smile and try different poses.
3. Friends treated us to dinner out last night and we had a ton of fun.
4. The weather is finally turning nice, so I started riding my motorcycle to work. I freeze in the morning, so the first 30 minutes after I arrive, I drink the tea that I brewed hot at home in my quart size canning jar. I refill throughout the day using our water cooler and the same tea bags.
5. My strawberries are going crazy in the greenhouse, so I canned 8 pints of jam. Fail: I didn’t pick as often as needed, so there were a lot of mushy ones, but they went to the goats who were extremely happy.
Another fail: finally eligible for insurance through my new employer, unfortunately, the cost is HUGE! It will cost 3 out of every 4 weeks paycheck! We cannot survive on 12 paychecks/year, so we will have to go without and pay the fine. I’m both incredibly shocked and angry at this development.
When you fill out your taxes (at least with TurboTax), it asks if you purchased/had health insurance. And if you click no, it looks through your everything. My boyfriend clicked no, and stated he couldn’t afford it, and he wasn’t penalized. It may be the same for you! (keeping my fingers crossed at least).
Thank you for the suggestion. I hope it is the same for us!
Amanda, make sure to go online and see if you are eligible for a subsidy for health care: a key point of the Affordable Care Act is that your premiums must not cost over a certain percentage of your earnings. Look into your state exchange. If your state did not set one up, look at the federal exchange. There is still a lot of confusion over this law!
1. We had a celebratory dinner out, but we splurged the frugal way. Got a free Uber ride with my new user credit and used a Groupon to pay for the meal.
2. Sold three unwanted books on Amazon.
3. Packed my lunch today with leftovers from last night’s dinner.
4. Received a last-minute request to bring dessert to a party I was attending Saturday night. Instead of buying something, as I was tempted to do, I baked a lovely apple crisp with ingredients I already had.
5. I ate the leftovers of said apple crisp for breakfast the next day.
Oh, totally forgot that I also gave myself a haircut, complete with layers!
Katy do you do these 5 things on a schedule or randomly?
So random, honey. Although I try not to do them two days in a row unless I haven’t blogged over the weekend.
Ok thanks for responding! I’m going to start doing Five Frugal Things and wanted to see if you had a specific day of the week. I suppose you have to do them randomly since you do so many frugal things. LOL
My husband and I just decided to buy a home, so I’m going back into uber-frugal mode so we can save up a down payment. Thanks for the inspiration!
1. Taking metal scrap to the scrapyard today.
2. Wanted to get a to go coffee today while I was running work errands, but I avoided….lol
3. Got family pictures taken by a local girl who is much cheaper than the studios. Printing them with Mpix.com…..super inexpensive.
4. Revamping some home decor by moving it around, painting over some old canvases, and pulling out vases/ect. that had been put away for a while.
5. Going to try to thrift some new dress shoes for DH. He starts a new job that needs some slightly dressier clothing for it. And his dress shoes are pretty shoddy…
It’s amazing how you can spruce up/get a new look by using what you already have.
Super jealous of your free Thai noodles. I bought a wok to try to make Thai noodles at home, but I don’t know what type of noodles to buy at the store. I’m too stupid for my wok.
1. Cleaned out my garage over the weekend. Sold a pair of vintage wooden skis that have been in the rafters for over ten years.
2. While weeding, I dug up a peony that was in the oddest spot in our backyard, crammed in next to a tree, and thinned out a patch of irises. Sold peony for $10, and pot of irises for $3.
3. Bought a pair of rocking Adirondack chairs on a local board. Although sturdy, they were quite worn – overall more gray than white. I sanded them down over the weekend and gave them a couple coats of paint. They look beautiful again, and I just need to get poly on them before I can set them on the porch.
4. Scrubbed out all my unused flower pots and sorted them by color to list in a couple lots on FB boards. Kind of embarrassing how many I had stacked up in the garage. There were only 3 that I decided to keep.
5. Made tacos on Saturday afternoon and still have leftovers for dinner tonight.
You want rice noodles. You can get at an Asian market, in the Asian section of some grocery stores or you can probably order the on Amazon.
Thanks. That’s what I thought I needed, but the grocery store only seemed to have one type, and the other grocery store had zero. I expected more of a selection. No Asian markets here.
Rice noodles are best, but my sister uses pretty much whatever we have at home. She does usually use some kind of Asian sauce, or makes peanut sauce and Asian vegetables, pantry principle.
1. Brought my own lunch to work every day, and drank the free coffee and tea.
2. Cut my husband’s hair last week. I invested in a good electric hair trimmer a few years ago and it paid for itself already around the third time it was used.
3. Cut my DD’s hair last night, which was a bit more nerve-wracking as she wanted to go from really long to a shoulder length bob. It turned out quite well, so she was pleased with the change.
4. Still enjoying an abundance of eggs from our chickens. We sell the extra eggs to colleagues, friends and family, so a little cash trickles in each week.
5. Not really sure if this is a frugal win, yet, but after researching all available options and using all the discount coupons I could find, I finally ordered a proper ice cream machine with a compressor. I like to make food from scratch, and we have so many eggs, so hopefully it will bring us enjoyment in the form of delicious homemade ice cream for many years. I found a recipe for frugal vanilla ice cream on a frugal living blog that I am looking forward to trying!
Please share the recipe if it turns out to be a hit with the family!
Thai noodles sound so good!!
1. Made bread to have for lunch with some soup thrown together from leftovers.
2. No plans to go anywhere today.
3. Reading a library book on my Kindle app.
4. Knitting socks instead of buying new. Does this count as slow fashion?
5. Hanging a load of laundry to dry.
1. Sold 2 items on my local FB swap today so $18 into savings! Have a few more things in mind to post so hopefully that happens this week.
2. Took a frozen pizza to work on Saturday for lunch and shared with my co-worker.
3. Signed up for an extra 4 hours last night on top of my 12 hour. It ended up being nearly 5 hours by the time I punched out. So that’s 4.75 hours @ weekend pay plus shift differential also. I also have 12 additional hours scheduled this week. (Usually weekend package).
4. Planning meals for the next 8-9 days. We leave for vacation on the first so don’t want a lot of stuff that may go bad while we are gone in the fridge.
5. We hired my husband’s co-worker to house/dog sit while we are gone. Much cheaper for us, our dogs stay home and we know our house is being looked after.
6. Used a Shutterfly freebie to pick up a cheap notepad for an end of year teacher gift for my son’s teacher. She’s been amazing this year and he had a great year because of her! (And I’m reusing tissue paper and a gift bag we already had on hand).
Katy, that’s a great idea about using glasses with a missing arm to read in bed on your side! I am going to keep an eye out for used readers for this very purpose.
My frugal five are my usual suspects:
1. Working at home: no chance to spend money on coffee, food, etc.
2. Cheap weekend fun: cooking at home, gardening, hanging out with family and dog, Netflix, went for a run in the park.
3. I did spend $25 on a ticket to a chamber orchestra concert on Sunday. Experience > things, and for me this was money well spent. The visiting solo violinist played so beautifully, I cried when he started playing. Literally moved to tears!
4. Using my pressure cooker all the time, I can rely more on dried beans than canned. More frugal and also healthier.
5. I have a gym membership, and I have been doing better the past couple months using it to its full advantage: swimming laps a couple times a week and attending yoga, pilates, and spinning classes. I like exercising outdoors, but it’s not always possible and I figure, if I’m paying this fee every month, I might as well get the most for my money. I logged a lot of miles on my gym’s treadmills over the winter, too.
1. Did some mystery shops on Saturday while running errands. College fund!
2. Turned some slightly wrinkled apples into 2 apple crisps. Perfect eating for a damp drippy day! Also, some potatoes just starting to sprout, became a double batch of yummy potato soup. I had some for lunch and will take a container to some friends who let me use their SUV to bring DS#2 home from college.
3. Picked up 10 craft storage containers from a fellow Freecycler. They were in new condition and normally sell for $10 each. I will use to organize my sewing and craft space.
4. DS #2 signed up to take an online class through our community college to meet his English requirement at his out of state university. Much cheaper than his university tuition and he can get it done when he’s not carrying his 17 credit load for Nuclear Engineering and Russian!
5. Stopped at the charity shop on Saturday. They sell their clearance merchandise for 90% off ticketed price and clearance clothing for 50¢/ piece every other Saturday after 3 PM. I bought 14 pieces of clothing for resale including a pair of Lucky Jeans and a pair True Religion jeans. I also bought a West bend Penguin ice bucket for $2 and a Soda Stream in new condition for $3. I will work to get everything listed this week and sold. College fund!
where do you live with all these awesome resources!? im moving there lol.
Emily,
I live in Maryland which has the highest median household income in the country and also a cost of living that is more than 10% over the national average. Kristen (The Frugal Girl) and I live n the same county and shop at the same Aldi’s.
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2015/09/17/richest-and-poorest-states/11/
This particular charity shop is run by an organization that helps elderly individuals continue to live in their home. It seems that often when their clients pass away, their families donate the household items and clothing to the charity.
Nuclear Engineering AND Russian?!! Is he single LOL
Lauren,
Your comment made me laugh out loud! Yes he is but he also only just turned 19 and finished his freshmen year. Check back in a couple of years! 🙂
1. I woke up Saturday to a sore throat. I didn’t want to be sick so I threw everything I could think of at it: water with cayenne, lime juice, and maple syrup in it, another big drink with an Airborne tablet and a packet of Emergen-C in it. I also took ibuprofen and sucked on a generic Cold-EEze. It felt better by evening and pretty much stopped it in it’s tracks.
2. It was rainy all weekend so we mostly stayed home. I did walk to the Asian market to buy some blueberries (some of the biggest, sweetest blueberries ever). Today I returned to Safeway blueberries I had purchased there Friday, they were terrible (mushy and tasteless). We love blueberries.
3. My husband brought home items that were being thrown away at work. I have a friend that will look at them tomorrow, if not onto Freecycle they will go.
4. When we travel to see family this summer we may fly to a different airport and save quite a bit of money, even while renting a car. Because three of us will travel and we can fly directly to the farther away airport travel time will be about a wash but the savings hundreds of dollars.
5. I stopped at SAM’s Club to buy salad. Nothing else, just salad. I also brought home a piece of fruit as they put out refreshments during business hours.
– This just happened today not last week but I was so excited I had to share it. We found out today that insurance is going to cover the cost of a new roof for us due to some hail damage. We knew that we were going to have to replace the roof in the next couple years anyway just based on its age so it was so awesome to find out that a new one would be paid for! We have a lot of roof so that’s basically close to a year of college for one kid!
– The day lilies that I got from freecycle last year and planted have come up really nicely and look nice and healthy. They will add some free beautiful color to our landscaping beds when they flower later in the summer.
– My daughter is home sick today, poor thing. But that means I go no where and spend no money. She’s feeling slightly better so I’ve been hanging out on the deck, enjoying the warm day, sunshine, birds, and browsing blogs on my iPad.
– We spent the weekend in Traverse City for a soccer tournament and while the weekend overall was decidedly un-frugal there were some frugal moments. I packed snacks and some food so we could munch in the room or at the tournament and not have to buy snacks. I packed beer, of which we only had a few, but we didn’t have to purchase it in restaurants. Our friends treated us to dinner one night (so we treated their son to lunches when we took him with us). We bought breakfast at McDonald’s across the street instead of paying the higher prices at the hotel restaurant.
– I keep adding to a huge pile that I have set aside for a garage sale that our neighborhood is having. I’ve never participated in one before but I really do have a lot of stuff I’d like to get rid of and it will be nice to try and recoup at least a bit of the money I put out on the items. Just kind of dreading pricing things and the actual sale!
Just a suggestion, but if you’ve never participated in a yard sale before, you might try a couple things to help you price your items: 1) talk to experienced yard salers in your area to see what the going prices are for things (books, clothes, kitchen ware, etc), and 2) do a google search for the same. We used to hold a yard sale every year, and now it’s more like every other (depends on how much stuff we’re clearing out). We always make money, but do best when we have larger items (like furniture) because a full yard seems to draw more people than a yard sale that looks skimpy. I’ve talked with a few people who have not had successful yard sales. They had plenty of stuff, but it always seems they price items too high. You can’t think too much about what you paid for an item; you need to think about what people are willing to pay for it.
Have fun and good luck!
Stumbled across your blog today, and have a feeling I will be returning regularly!
Over the past couple of days, my frugal wins have been:
1. Checking out a book at the library (v. buying it) – always a frugal option!
2. Deciding to return a shirt I bought. I got it for a decent price on sale, but when I tried it on with the pants I’m most likely to wear it with, I didn’t love it. Also, I realized that it was a hand-wash only shirt, because of the fabric. If I’m going to hand-wash something, I need to love it.
3. Keeping the windows open and the table fan blowing yesterday (v. turning on the a/c). This is a grey area that my husband and I disagree on pretty regularly this time of year, so I appreciated him letting me win the decision yesterday.
4. Having a mismatched meal of leftovers for lunch. The combination was odd, for sure, including an Asian-style turkey burger and a southern-style bbq pork loaded sweet potato; but with the addition of some fresh veggies, it made for a decently well-rounded meal and emptied the fridge a little bit.
5. Wearing a ponytail for second-day hair. I’ve been doing this a lot lately (in ponytails or buns), and grateful for the hair products, time, and energy that I save.
1. Went to our after-church potluck – free food and fellowship (although I did take a crockpot of mac/cheese and one of green beans – that tipped over in the trunk) and brought home leftover potato chips and a couple of cookies.
2. Used the rest of the preloaded Visa card I got for touring a local assisted living place “for the future” (no way, since it’s waaay expensive) to refill the Starbucks card my secret parent gave me, then bought a mocha frappachino as my reward for running errands despite high heat and bad headache. $8.80 left!
3. Put off buying a new coffeemaker that I use strictly for tea, which wasn’t working, and a new wine bottle opener to replace the one that got left somewhere, and was gifted one of my son’s extra openers (why does he have 3?) and the coffeemaker mysteriously started working again.
4. Downloaded 5 free books to my Kindle, as well as three free magazines from Amazon.
5. Wore a crappy pair of sunglasses to run errands, since I couldn’t find my good ones, but didn’t buy new ones, and sure enough, good ones showed up again. OK, maybe I *do* need to clean out my purse….
Betty I about cringed when I read about your green beans going over in the trunk! BTDT! I have a solution that helps me a lot with this–not foolproof but works most of the time;
I tote a lot of food to church functions and work-days, and I keep several sizes of sturdy cardboard boxes on hand just for this. I usually try to choose a box slightly larger than whatever I am transporting. Than way I can stuff newspaper in around the crockpot/stock-pot/whatever I am trying to keep upright. This provides insulation, and the larger surface are of the box, combined with its “squareness” makes in much more stable. (It also makes it a lot easier to clean out of the trunk if it does happen to tip).
Lastly, there are several items I never travel anywhere without–one of those being small bungee cords. I usually tie the box to the rear of the trunks with a couple of small bungees, so it can’t even slide. There is something in almost every trunk that you can hook a bungee to, little holes, d-rings, etc…
Just a suggestion–I know how disappointing it is to open your trunk and see your lovingly prepared food all over,,,,
Amanda, I feel for you. My insurance costs through work have gone up to take 40% of my take home pay. It hurts! Yours is the worst I’ve heard, though.
1. I must be doing better at reducing waste. We have reduced the amount of trash we haul off to the dump (no pickup service available in the countryside) by 50%. At first I though it was a fluke, but it’s been each time now.
2. I mentioned some time ago that the grow lights we purchased at 1/3 the normal price came packaged in muslin cloth, which I saved. So far I’ve used the muslin to make straining cloths and patching cloth, and next I’m going to make bread bags. My sister bought some fancy muslin bread bags for her homemade bread, but I can make plain ones that will do the same thing.
3. My husband was going to buy a big planter pot for some of our plants. I scavenged around in our backyard shed and found 2 the size he needed that we’d forgotten about.
4. Hurricane season is around the corner. I’ll start saving bags of ice in my freezer and jugs of water.
5. I finally have my cast iron grill pan seasoned the way I want it. It took a while and cleaning those grooves was a pain in the meantime. It was harder to season than my skillets were. I know two people who bought nice grill pans and then gave them away because the pans were hard to clean, no matter what they cooked. I persevered, though, and now mine is simple to clean with cold water, a nylon brush and a couple of minutes’ time.
If I got benefits thru work it would take 100% of my pay, but I only work part time. Needless to say we use my husband’s plan, which is still expensive, high deductible,etc…but better.
1. Had a no spend weekend…somehow!
2. Attended birthday party over the weekend for child’s friend and could use a gift from the ‘re-giftable’ birthday present stash. Reused wrappng, too.
3. Bought too many green beans and broccoli, but caught it before it turned and blanched and froze the excess.
4. Bringing drinks with me and only using a gift card to Dunkin Donuts to buy a drink occasionally. Trying to stretch it out till my birthday where I will probably get another. Of course, I dropped my bottle the other day and broke the cap….now it’s very leaky 🙁
5. Been cooking from freezer and pantry as much as possible. I have not bought meat in a loooonng time and have been trying to be more creative with eggs, Beans and other vegetarian meals. Some are winners, some not so much…oh well.
one of my favorite frugal things to do with an egg:
use a mini tortilla (think fajita size). Take a bite out of the middle. toast the fajita, crack and egg and cook it in the middle where you bit the hole. then you can flip easily. Pita some cheese and salsa and you have a tostada fajita egg thing. love them and super frugal!
We call those “bulls-eyes”, with whatever bread or additions used. We love them too.
1) Exercised at the gym. I took a class and really liked it. I figure this is frugal since I already have a membership and can take advantage of someone’s exercise expertise in the class (vs. paying for a trainer).
2) Ate leftovers for lunch.
3) Had a friend cut my hair.
4) Using leftover bits of chicken and beans to do tacos for dinner.
5) Car was making a weird noise. Our regular mechanic had me bring it in for a quick look. It cost nothing, and was simple to remedy.
1.I took a bag of cherries back to Kroger because after eating a few we noticed most of them were moldy and mushy, yuck! I paid nearly $7 for that bag of cherries so I wasn’t about to let that one go.
2. Still wearing old clothes but I am down another shirt from my limited wardrobe because a hole has developed right over the boob area.It is really thin material so not much chance of a repair holding up.I had been wearing it with the holes that were at the bottom of it but it is now borderline indecent. This makes about the 5th hole in this shirt. What can I say?..it’s Holy shirt.
3.My hubby, who is not very frugal, used all of my homemade BBQ for one meal. I guess it’s my fault that I didn’t tell him not to pour it all on last nights grilled chicken. I poured what I could out of the chicken, chicken bits included, into a glass jar and we will have it over BBQ ribs later this week.
4.I am still packing my lunches and drinking only water. This is probably the most frugal thing I can do, in my opinion. My young girls and I are enjoying watching our tomato and zucchini plants grow so we can hopefully have some good healthy meals from them in the future.
5.Tonight we will have homemade chicken salad sandwiches. I cooked a whole hen in the crock pot yesterday and made a huge lower calorie batch to last me this whole week. Some of my family will probably eat leftover super saucy BBQ grilled chicken, instead.
Despite zuccini having a reputation for being fool proof, our zucchini plants get powdery mildew on them so we’ve struggled to keep them alive long enough to get a crop. Water low so the leaves don’t get wet. If you see white on the leaves, spray with a mixture of water, baking soda, and vegetable oil. Repeat every few days and after the rain
Oh, thanks! I have planted squash before with some success but never zucchini. Thanks for the tips! I’m taking a screen shot of this post right now in case I need this later.
1) I went to an estate sale in Hollywood Saturday, which happened to be the estate of a jazz musician who worked for Paramount down the street from the house. I bought a ton of stuff for the etsy store, but in the basement speakeasy (!) I found a set of four great glasses for a dollar each to add to my personal collection. I have friends over a lot, and have been needing more glasses. So now I have glasses from an actual Prohibition era speakeasy in Hollywood, which were also really cheap for what they were (hand etched triple rocks glasses).
2) Avoided eating out after church yesterday, and instead did the weekly grocery shop and spent $41 for the two of us, before ibotta rebates.
3) Found out the hotel we’re staying in next month for a wedding has a free shuttle within a 3 mile radius of the hotel. Looked up the church and it’s exactly three miles from our hotel. Free transportation to the wedding!
4) Just walked to the fiance’s house, where I work from (his) home. It’s only a bit over a mile, but any gas saved is less money spent.
5) Making sweet little baby girl dresses for a dear friend out of scraps of cute material. Baby dresses require so little fabric, I can make them with any number of scraps from other projects.
I am so jealous of that estate sale, sounds soooooo cool! I collect vintage glasses too. So awesome that there’s a great story behind the ones you bought!
1. Made ice tea for work, using our used teabags. I always reuse them for this purpose, giving me two drinks for the price of one.
2. Cooked a free range chicken last night, and ended up with four meals from it – dinner, lunch, quesadillas, soup. A chicken is one of the most frugal things to cook. We made stuffing and a big tray of hassleback root vegetables to extend it, and it was good.
3. Hung all our washing on our indoor hangers.
4. Ironed all our work clothes while watching ‘Wolf Hall’ on DVD. All my clothes were thrifted.
5. I ate leftovers yesterday and will be eating them again today.
what is the Wolf Hall DVD like? I’m reading the book at the moment and to be honest it’s not grabbing me like other historical books!
Oh really? I just loved it. In fact, her writing was so perfect that for a time I gave up my ambition of writing- why bother when the perfect writing is already out there in the world?
The mini series is good. Both the actor playing Henry VIII and the actor playing Cromwell are excellent.
1) Plenty of leftovers at home. Yay!
2) I found gas for $2.17 over the weekend so I filled up. If my car is even near 1/2 a tank and I find cheap gas I fill it up anyway.
3) I decided to feed my outdoor dogs the same food as my two small indoor dogs – it’s a healthy weight formula. Since it’s Summer and the ones outside don’t need extra calories this will keep me from buying bags of food more often.
4) I unplugged an old Culligan water softener unit we have at home. It’s over 15 years old an apparently it quit working. We need to replace it with a new whole house purifying system (we have hard water). Lowes carries much more economical versions. I’m anxious to see if my electricity bill is cheaper this next month.
5) I bought 3 new-to-me tops at Goodwill last month, so I cleaned my closet out again. Now I just need to donate the box of clothes. I found at least 10-15 items I’m not wearing in there.
1. Spent the afternoon yesterday going to my grand-niece’s dance recital. One $15 ticket but it was worth it. A/C auditorium and a good show. Excellent dancing.
My sister drove me from her house–which reminded me why I ALWAYS drive her instead—she is a terrible driver!! Next time I drive, no matter what it costs. It’s usually to places we are both going anyhow, so it doesn’t cost me MORE to drive her.
2. Did a little bit of weeding today but was very disappointed in myself. My back hurt too much so I didn’t keep at it for long. We have a LOT of yardwork and planting to do.
3. Made bread in the ABM, as usual, and made a pie from canned pie filling which I got at an absolute steal a few months back.
4. Rolled the pie crust out, as usual, between two pieces of waxed paper which began life as the bag inside boxes of cereal. Free waxed paper.
5. Kept our eating out to one meal last week (favorite BBQ place, not expensive). That is budgeted as “entertainment.”
6. BONUS THRIFTY: Said no to DGD who wanted me to buy her a second hand leather couch for $200 plus $20 for delivery. Told her I thought she could find something more reasonable. She has champagne taste and a beer budget and I have been telling her for months to economize. She had to hear the word no to get the point across. She is not happy with me, but it’s a lesson she needs to learn. She has not heard the word NO often enough.
Your god daughter wanted you to buy her a couch?
I can’t help imagining your sister posting her FFTs :
1. Drove my sister to dance recital. Used my gas today, but I ran two red lights, three stop signs (without getting ticketed), and twice I turned into traffic on sister’s side of car. It worked! She’s announced she will be doing all driving in future! Gas savings from now on!
🙂
1. Made good split pea soup with ingredients we have. I don’t recommend thickening it with barley like I did. As a nurse, Katy, I’m sure you know what happened after we ate it haha. Tasted good though.
2. Cut lettuce, cilantro and kale from my garden, froze some of the cilantro for hot summer days when we want guacamole.
3. Spent a rainy weekend purging closets, gave away some art that I hadn’t displayed in years. If it doesn’t spark joy anymore, it left the house!
4. Went to visit a friend who loves HSN and QVC but hates to do returns. Came home with two things for my gift bin and some curtains, all new.
5. Wrote an article for Textbroker. Thanks to this blog, I’m making a little money there on the side.
I made split pea soup last week, too. I’m trying to eat out of our freezer & grabbed a bag marked “ham”. Upon thawing, I realized it was roast beef, but put it into the soup anyway since it was too late to find & thaw actual ham. No one noticed!! Lol.
I used kielbasa for the first time. Tasted pretty good!
Please share how to make the Thai noodles.
1) Instead of buying a new math book for my 13-year-old daughter for next year’s homeschool, I got one FREE from PaperBackSwap.com. It even has the answer key, which I was preparing to have to purchase new. Score! (It’s Saxon math for the curious. I’ve paid $80 for Saxon new.)
2) I ate a bowl of leftover taco salad so it wouldn’t go bad in my fridge.
3) We played at the park today for a couple of hours with friends. We packed lunches so we wouldn’t be tempted by fast food.
4) I made a meal plan based on inexpensive food (I bought a whole chicken instead of parts, planned a few meatless meals, etc).
5) I shopped at ALDI.
The baby is still teething and is waking several times a night again. I’m exhausted. From a frugal point of view, it keeps me from doing anything or spending money!
1. Took the kids to a family fun day on Sunday. Free popcorn, ice cream, lemonade, and packaged snacks. Listened to some music and then played on the beach. A great and free afternoon.
2. Spent Saturday in the garden. Planted the 50 tomato plants, some carrot, lettuce, Swiss chard and corn seeds.
3. Weeded the vegetable beds and the flower beds and gave the weeds to the chickens.
4. Somehow forgot to go grocery shopping this weekend. We’re a little light on fresh fruit and veggies (our garden isn’t producing yet this season) so I cooked some squash that we had frozen.
5. Gathered ends of breads cluttering up the fridge and made a bread pudding. We call bread pudding “garbage food” for being able to absorb random leftovers into it – today it included two slices of plum the toddler didn’t eat, the PB&J sandwich the toddler made but didn’t eat (she likes each separately and knows we like them together but can’t come around to liking them together herself), two brown bananas, some milk that froze when it got pushed to the back of the fridge etc. Plus, I use lots of eggs from our chickens to make it more of a meal.
I guess you have heard this already but my pediatrician told me that teething causes the gums to itch severely. Which very intelligent baby told him this info I forgot to ask but he said to give them Benadryl. It really seemed to help for my kids. Even if you just give it to your baby at night might be helpful or just during really tough times. I am a registered nurse so I felt very comfortable with this but you could call your pediatrician and ask if it’s recommended and specific dosage per weight.
Jennifer,
I know you’re an RN (and I’m not), but both my kids have anaphylactic food allergies that require them to keep Benadryl on hand at all times. When my youngest was a baby, his eczema was so severe the pediatrician recommended Benadryl for when he got really itchy. Yes it works, but (as I’m sure you know) the reason Benadryl makes you sleepy is because it crosses the blood/brain barrier. Even though my kids are now teens, for years our allergist has recommended trying other antihistamines and anti-itch solutions before going for the Benadryl (except for allergic reactions). Overall, it’s much safer. And there are topicals that can be used for teething babies.
Just a different perspective…
These are the reasons I suggested contacting her pediatrician first. Many people have different views on Benadryl. However, I used it with caution during some really tough times at a weight appropriate dose and it helped tremendously for itchy gums. I don’t advocate giving a baby Benadryl to make a them sleep or routinely so I hope that isn’t the message conveyed here. The Benadryl helps relieve the itch so the child can sleep better, not to make the child sleep. It is best for anyone that is interested to contact the baby’s pediatrician before doing anything. I have worked with pediatricians daily for many years but I still contact my children’s pediatrician before giving a baby any medication.
Thanks Jennifer and Cathy! Teeth seem to appear late in this generation (true of our two kids and their three cousins). So our seventeen month old is working on teeth #5, 6, 7, and 8 all at once. We tried some Tylenol at bedtime tonight and we will see how we do with that. If we have another rough night, we’ll check in with the pediatrician. We all need a good night sleep just to give us the strength for another week of this.
1. Boyfriend and I signed up for Jersey mikes reward program and enjoyed free subs for lunch yesterday.
2. Babysitting since 6 am and until tomorrow at 8am, lots of extra cash plus free meals, gas, showers, and the ability to watch cable!
3. inventoried the fridge, freezer(s) , and pantry. Spent only 26 dollars on groceries for the week since I planned around what we have!
4. Have a dr. appointment tomorrow, then will be sitting at home finishing up work, cleaning, and cooking a nice dinner for the boyfriend. He started a condensed calc class for the first part of the summer and is already getting his butt kicked, so I think I will have to do more of the cooking than I usually do!
5. Did a bunch of laundry yesterday, only ran full loads. I really wish I could hang all my clothes to dry, but my allergies are too bad right now to risk the pollen (how does everyone with allergies do this?), but I hung what I could on a rack in my apartment and the tiny clothesline my bf rigged for me indoors!
6. Bought the lear jet, then returned it…. 😉
I second the allergies problem. My shower has seen a lot of wet clothes this year. It’s been worse than ever!
We also can’t use an outdoor clothesline because of allergies. I use an indoor drying rack when I can (and hang clothes from the shower rod too), but don’t beat myself up over using the dryer. We save energy and money in other areas.
My kids have ezcema and allergies so we don’t hang clothes either. I do try to hang some things indoors around the house on clothes hangers to dry.
Allergies here too. I hang things all over in the bathroom, using hangers on the shower curtain rod for shirts, any other protuberance for underwear, and the wire shower caddy for threading socks through. A quick tumble in the dryer on fluff softens and gets the wrinkles out.
Yep, I’m looking for a thrifted clothes rack!
1) We have a short term rental attached to our house and the lovely group of weekend renters checked out today and left: almost full half gallon of milk, 3/4 head of garlic, 1/2 a jar of mayo and 3 ice cream bars! Ice cream being saved as a treat for DS, part of milk went into microwave chocolate espresso pudding for me, rest of milk will go in freezer for clam chowder at a later date. Katy, I would love to know how you decide what to keep and what to toss when cleaning your mom’s cottage?
2) My folks are away and I have the opportunity to tend their asparagus bed while they are gone. Picked a bucket full today in a half hour and am sharing it around, in addition to eating and freezing.
3) Stuck to the lists yesterday on the big city shopping trip. Frugal score was taking my best friend and my dear spouse to Plato’s Closet and they both had a great time. Dear spouse found clothes in her size and her style. Frugal fashion conversion happening? Cross your fingers…
4) We buy a “farm dollars” card for the farmer’s market ahead of the season (gives the farmer money for planting/planning and we get 10% above the value of the cash) so I “bought” some delicious arugula and lettuce at first market on Friday. Will see how long into the season we can go on this prepaid account.
5) Frugal win and loss – I was being a smarty pants and reused a plastic bread bag cut down the middle to cover the cast iron skillet in fridge. Frugal win! When it came time to cook, I turned on the burner (electric) and then put the skillet on it, searing plastic bag to the entire burner. Frugal loss? Or just a pain in the kazoo to clean? Harumph. It did get me to clean the whole stove top, burner pans, etc though so I guess that is a win too.
1. We stayed home most of the weekend. We had a friend over, visited outside and watched the kids play and then decided to cook hot dogs and s’mores over the fire pit. Lovely evening.
2. Bought a few things this week from a local auction: twin sized comforter for.my son’s bed for $4 and a comforter with 4 matching curtains for my daughter for $6, and bought a complete boxed set of the Laura IngallsWilder books for my daughter for $3.
3. Ate from the pantry and freezer this week, and ate up.some yummy leftovers.
4. Listed several items on a local auction site this week……by the end of the auction on Friday, I am hoping to have $100 to put towards a family day later this summer we are planning.
5. Went to a free shop hosted by the locals MOPS group, and came home with three small bags of clothing,.mostly for my kids. I did pick up one nice skirt and sweater for me. If they don’t fit, I will sell them on a swap or eBay.
Katy, I always feel sad you drink the bad coffee at work! Is there any way it could be improved? Short of purchasing better ground coffee yourself, of course!
-Last week my husband was out of town for work, so I ate from pantry and freezer all week!
-I’m making ‘sun tea’ on my kitchen counter for my husband as he’s cut down to 1 soda a day!!
-Received a fancy Fitbit from dd for Mother’s Day. This one collects so much data in addition to counting steps. I’m not competitive, but, seeing the data change each day is rewarding. So, I’m exercising daily and waiting to see an improvement in my blood numbers.
-Saturday found us at a local farmers market. We bought strawberries that were delicious. Bought local, free range eggs. Enjoyed some with dinner tonight, again, the flavor was so good! Got some local cheese, oh! Yum! We will make this a regular Saturday morning outing. Next week we’ll get home made pasta, more cheese and eggs and some green veggies. Carried a basket and had my produce bags with me. We picked up info on buying pastured beef, which we’ll do after we’ve moved. I was hoping to find bread, but, no such luck. Just have to make my own.
-Used my own home made reusable produce bags, at the grocery store. Worked great, I could even read the code on the apples thru the mesh at the self checkout. Used my reusable shopping bag and cooler bag.
Thanks for all the inspiration, Katy and everyone!
If you’re a Walgreens shopper you should sync your fitbit with your Walgreens account to earn points/$ for your exercise!
Also, aren’t farmers markets just great 🙂
Don’t feel bad for me. Being content with less than perfect in life is a powerful frugality tool.
Amen! There seems to be a real lack of that among so many these days.
Do you have the opportunity to make the coffee yourself? The coffee at my work is terrible too, but we’ve started to sprinkle a little bit of salt and cinnamon into the grounds. It cuts the bitterness and makes it taste pretty good!
Yes! The salt thing totally works. Totally get the being okay with less than perfect, but usually crappy coffee means high acidity for me and a stomach ache :/
1. Started wearing my fitbit again. I’m trying to lose weight and also as I commented above, I have it synced with my Walgreens account so I earn points/$ for exercising (or just walking). Also, I compete with my friends who have fitbits so we get some friendly competition going.
2. Went to Target to do the soap deal I’ve seen on all the coupon sites, of course my target had the soap for .75 higher so it wasn’t a good deal. Needless to say, held out on buying the soap. Made sure I used shop kick to get my points for entering the store so one day I’ll have enough to get a gift card.
3. Went to use my free $10 gift card to BR before it expired. Had hoped to only spend that $10 but I failed… did buy a very nice top though. failllllll. Made sure shop kick was also open during my trip to this outdoor mall so I gained points for all other stores in the area.
4. Went to a free Barre fitness class on the pier. It’s usually $30 for a class, and although this was definitely not as intense as a regular class, it will hopefully kickstart me getting back to working out. My town has several free exercise classes per week during the summer and since I’m currently unemployed I hope to take full advantage of them.
5. Ate a dinner of spinach, caramelized onions, and reheated rotisserie chicken. Everything was coming close to it’s longest allowed time in the fridge so this helped me eat before they had to be thrown out… which I do more often than I’d like to admit. I buy the rotisserie chickens because I live alone, am never home, and will eat everything else in the house before raw chicken cooks and then not be hungry when it’s done. I noticed some of the onions had started to sprout so I put them aside to stick outside tomorrow and sliced up the so-so ones and put them in the freezer to take up less space.
6. I have an interview tomorrow and my whole outfit (minus the unmentionables :p) is thrifted/rummaged.
7. Grabbing dinner with my friend in the city after the interview, not frugal but definitely need some girl time. Then we’re going to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D at a special PGA member screening. Technically “free” but to join the Guild it was $$$ – so frugal in a way that I’m making sure I get my money’s worth 😀
Lauren – how does it work earning points with your Fitbit? I never heard of it before. Any other stores offer that? What’s a good example of what you save/earn? thanks for sharing!
This explains it best!
https://www.walgreens.com/steps/brhc-loggedout.jsp
1. Completed my work medical insurance paperwork. Our costs to employees went up by 15%. I chose to pick the insurance with a higher deductible then I currently have and plan on maximizing my current $300 deductible before July 1, getting my CPap supplies in early July so not to incur costs under the new deductible. It will still cost me more than I am currently paying but not as high of a increase.
2. FINALLY got my tomato plants in the ground now that I don’t have to worry about cold weather. Also moved some of my perennials around filling in bare spots or saving some plants being over run by aggressive ground cover. Tomrrow night plan on getting my two flats of flowers in their pots. I also make my own hanging baskets saving a few bucks and they always match my pots of annuals that way.
3. Fit in a few Swagbucks tonight while doing paper work. Slow going this month reaching my $25 Paypal goal but i will get there.
4. My night clerk job ended last week but was approached by my dog walking company to become a scheduler for them helping to make up for the loss of the other income. The nice thing is I can work from home, not having to leave my daughter at home alone.
5. Booked another vacation house/dog sit for end of June which will bring in several hundred and serve as a mini-vacation for us away from our home. We love the little town and home and its such a pleasure to stay there.
6. We had a retirement luncheon last week and I brought in two bouquets of flowers – Lilly of the Valley and Bleeding Heart. Going to bring in vases of my purple iris’s and lilacs this week. 🙂 The students at my school and staff seem to really enjoy them too.
7. Received a check for $44 from the consignment shop for stuff that had been sitting in my basement for years. Confession time – some of it was brand new Pampered Chef items I had never used! I have a small galley kitchen with no storage and some how I never remembered to go down and get the items to use them. It’s always so freeing to take boxes to the thrift store. Sadly they are closed over the summer so my next goal is to have a garage sale this summer.
1. Sold $30 with of Brita pitcher/filters. No long are using water filtration. Will save us a lot of money, our city water is fantastic and we have updated pipes in our home.
2. Sold a soccer jersey on eBay. Both the filters and jersey took patience, but it paid off.
3. Drinking tea and coffee at home, saving money from being tempted to go out!
4. Dug up some old foreign money for our upcoming trip. Only .57 euros but still! (We have 20+ sterling pounds for when we go to the UK in March—hopefully).
5. Changed my hotel for an upcoming business trip to one that give airline miles. I don’t have to pay for my travel expenses, so this is a free perk!
1. Bought 15 like-new books from a thrift store for our school library. Saved at least 80% over retail and re-homed used books that the students will enjoy.
2. Got our (large) tax return and immediately paid off the rest of our (large) car loan. Feels good to have that debt off our back!
3. Hung as much laundry as I could to dry inside my house, as the weekend was rainy.
4. Sold some toys my kids don’t use anymore. $35 in my pocket, and the buyer won’t be going to the store to buy new items.
5. Concentrated this week of using up odds and ends from the pantry and freezer. Made smoothies using frozen berries that had been in the freezer for a while, and finished up the last of some snacks instead of letting them go to waste.
1. Ate lunch and drank coffee at work two days this week.
2. Had leftover carbonara for dinner tonight.
3. Had a birthday party so I regifted a gift my daughter received that she couldn’t use due to allergies. Her little friend loved it!
4. Replaced the chargeable batteries in my son’s toy and charged up the flat ones. I haven’t bought disposable batteries for four years.
5. I sold an unwanted item on eBay for $300.
6. I’ve remembered to turn my heater down when I go to work so it’s not heating an empty house.
7. Picked up a library book I had put on hold. Remembered to take back my other books to avoid a late fine.
8. Found a really cute skirt at the second hand store for $2.50. My winter wardrobe is nearly complete!
We’ve been in a busy season with trying to sell our home so we’ve had the significant fail of eating out almost everyday since it went on the market as I’ve been out of the house with 5 kids over 20 hours in the last 4 days. But there have been some frugal wins, too.
1. Packing lunches to eat at parks while we’ve not been out.
2. Meeting my goal of selling $1000 of stuff from our house this year on FB groups with items being picked up off our porch. I’m glad I set the goal early because the most active group changed their boundaries and now our street is out of bounds so I would have to go out and meet up with people, way too much work for the $1-5 items which made up the bulk of my sales.
3. Found excellent condition Nikes, Sofft shoes, Hanna Andersson pants and Old Nacy shorts for a total of $6.33 at Salvation Army. All are items needed now so as not to add clutter to our clean (for once!) home.
4. I gave 5 haircuts at home, despite the complaints from the teenager.
5. We went searching for a nice hoodie my son lost a few weeks ago. We finally figured out he likely left it at a soccer field and amazingly my husband found it at the lost and found at the gym next to the field this morning. I’m so happy to have this back as he has no spares and we would have had to get a replacement. Now to get kids to not leave their items behind…
Wow! $1000 bucks worth of $1-5 items? Great job!
1. Found a really good deal on rump roast so I did crockpot copycat Chipotle barbacoa. We ate burrito bowls for dinner the other night, and froze the rest for future meals.
2. Just finished chicken soup that was the final meal starting with a roast chicken.
3. We’ve accumulated a lot of unframed art over the years, so I made it a priority to get it framed and hung. I have had very little luck finding second-hand frames, but was able to buy several at 50-60% off at Michael’s over the weekend. I still need at least 6 frames in various sizes. Hope to find them at yard sales.
4. Husband has a top name microphone that stopped working. The company told him to send it in for repairs (that they would cover). He spoke with them again today and they are sending him a brand new mic instead. No charge.
5. Oldest kid brought home “free swag” (his words) yesterday from school. A new storage box for CDs. As he noted, he has few music CDs, but plenty of games that have the same size case. I like the fact that he was looking at the frugality side, but also that he brought it home because it was useful, not just because it was free.
1. Found some hair layering scissors that my sister didn’t want and cleaned up my short haircut before it turned into a mullet. Asked a friend to come over and buzz the back of it.
2. Dyed my own hair using $5 discount health food store hair dye. Frugal fail: Realized too late that my hair was short enough I could have used 1/2 the dye! I mixed it with the developer so I had to use it all, though. Next time!
3. Made a huge salad for the week and pre-dressed it with vinegar dressing. That will help keep the salad fresh for an extra few days. I also made a massive pot of pasta salad for work lunches/ snacks.
4. Used a gift card to buy fancy brunch for my boyfriend and I.
5. Found $20 in the pocket of a free-pile jacket I just got around to washing. It was from a college move-out day so there was no house I could go back to in order to return the money, so I put it in savings.
That’s my kind of clothes shopping!
I love, love, love that you mention the coffee at work. I work at a large company that doesn’t provide coffee, but instead has Starbucks inside the office. I can’t tell you how much my coworkers blow on coffee! I did the math and it costs me four cents a day to make high-quality coffee at home that I like. And no sugar or artificial ingredients, either. Free/cheap coffee is the best coffee. Down with Starbucks!
I love the glasses idea! To think of the one armed ones I’ve thrown out in the past. Tsk tsk tsk.
I often use my phone to put something on YouTube or Netflix to fall asleep to and have to watch through blurred vision because glasses are so uncomfortable lying on my side. I gotta tell ya, I’m thinking of breaking some arms now.
Here’s my not so clever list.
1. A plastic piece somehow broke off the end of my phone charger and I glued it back on. So far, so good.
2. Finally found a cat food my cat will eat. She’s been on this kick of only wanting treats. Not only are they a little expensive, but she was gaining weight. Still treating her, but she’s eating better and cheaper now.
3. Had our son and our daughter and her family over for supper yesterday evening. I’m doing a pantry/freezer clean up, so this was a great opportunity to use some leftover cornbread for dressing (stuffing), which is always a hit. I used the last of some elbow macaroni the make Mac and cheese casserole, and several other things. After all was cooked we had an inexpensive but delicious feast. Bonus: Free entertainment in just talking and laughing together. We had a blast!
4. Still cross-stitching. At this point it’s free entertainment because I’ve more then gotten my money’s worth with all the hours I’ve enjoyed this project thus far. Hoping to have it finished before long so i can give it to my daughter and her husband for their anniversary.
5. Kept the a/c off for days during the cooler weather, finally relenting yesterday evening. Gotta check the weather forecast. Love saving money by not using a/c or heat when possible.