- I made a quick stop into Safeway and noticed a coupon next to the cash register for 88¢ eggs. I asked the clerk if eggs were on sale, and she answered that neighborhood customers had received the coupon in the mail. I commented that I lived in the neighborhood, (which I do) and she told me to go grab some eggs. I was able to buy two dozen and am now set for the next couple of weeks.
- I drove across town to pick up my sister from her friend’s house, and we stopped in at our father’s house afterwards. He’d just baked bread and sent us home with a fresh loaf.
- My visiting niece was feeling poorly all day, but had perked up by the evening. I asked her if she wanted to leave the house for some fresh air and she readily agreed. I took her to a big local park (Mt. Tabor) where I let her use my phone to hunt for Pokémon. We had a lovely time without spending a penny.
- I turned in another Clark Howard article, I put together three Craigslist listings, I signed up for September hospital shifts, I watered plants using my family’s abandoned water bottles and I used a free car wash coupon for my bigger car, making sure to drive through with a full passenger load for full entertainment value. “Release the kraken!”
- I didn’t buy a Lear Jet.
Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?
{ 98 comments… read them below or add one }
Lets see – it’s been a verrrry expensive month with house maintenance around here, so we are cutting way back to make up for it.
1. I have been inventing dishes in the crockpot from leftovers. Last night’s smoky pork and beans were delicious in soft tacos.
2. I sat down for a budget refresh with my husband and we worked out we can save an extra $800 a month – mostly going to the mortgage.
3. We also planned the budget with the kids for the annual fair and our daughter’s birthday party. If the kids want to go to the fair, they will have to save up but they have a month to plan for it.
4. We spent two hours in the garden on Sunday and cleared almost all the weeds and planted new perennials and seeds. It is starting to look beautiful after being horrible when we moved here. We’ve done it on the cheap and with patience.
5. No Lear jet.
I sympathize with you regarding home repair.we put a new roof on this spring, and we have a list of things that need to be done. I do love my house and my neighborhood, so it’s worth it to me.
Me too! We put on a new roof last year. Bee, make sure if you haven’t that you call your insurance company and let them know you had a new roof installed. My insurance went down hundreds of dollars. Home repairs seem to be never ending but we continue to chip away at things as we can and it is worth it.
We love our giant 70s edifice as well, and it was all things that needed to be done and we had been planning. I won’t say exactly how much but let’s just say two months of my take home pay *choke*
Luckily I’m a saver.
Nice work on the budget refresh! It’s easy to go off the rails when expensive months happen.
1. Invited my Mom and Brother for dinner last night. We had the leftover Costco steaks we bought for Saturday nights dinner. Also had corn on the cob my Mom picked up for cheap.
2. Entertaining ourselves at home instead of going out.
3. Eating up leftovers and using up things I’ve found in the freezer and pantry.
4. Researching my power companies time of day rates to see about switching to that. Just found out that it was even an option.
5. Also no lear jet.
I bought a Lear Jet, but just a small one….
ooh. Really. If I knew they carried them in small, well then…..
1. Reusing tea bags in the morning.
2. Staying close to home and not going out for coffee, shopping, etc.
3. Eating up a bunch of applesauce and pizza bagels my husband brought from his school–the kids have free breakfast in the classroom, but so many of them don’t eat their food.
4. Taking care of my thrifted yellow quilt as if it were new–my cats like to vomit hairballs on it, and so I’m sure to get it in the washing machine right away.
5. Up early today to look for subbing work–it’s hard to find jobs at the beginning of the year, but at least I know if I don’t get one today it’ll be because they weren’t available, and not because I slept in.
1. Packing lunches for work – I am 2 for 2 so far this week and want to keep it going. Same goes for taking my coffee and water bottle.
2. Sprained ankle running ten days ago. Have been v cranky. Found some good free “hurt foot” workouts online to do while I heal. Investment in my health and fitness.
3. Used Waze app to find fastest commute route and save on gas.
4. Put another five items in my donation bag and added them to my itemized tax list.
5. Froze leftover pancakes this wknd and was happy when my daughter pulled them out for breakfast today.
I sprained my ankle 6 weeks ago. It took 4 weeks before I thought things were going to be OK. Like you I stopped my exercise but still did my upper body and floor exercises. Trying to stay healthy.
It is definitely frustrating! I am used to getting in a good sweat. Helps with stress relief. Glad you are healed!
88¢ eggs are a good deal. I had to google to find out how to make the cents sign with my keyboard.
1. Wearing my new silver (tone) necklace today that I bought for 50¢ at a yard sale last week.
2. Cleaned up my house and found a handful of things to list on ebay and FB boards.
3. My $9.95 Blue Apron box arrived. I modified the recipes and switched some ingredients around. Well worth the discounted price.
4. Made a batch of oatmeal peanut butter cookies yesterday. I like to have homemade cookies to pop in kid’s lunch.
5. Started walking on my treadmill again. I have found it’s much easier to fall asleep at night if I get some exercise in during the day. It’s starting to cool off here, so I might be able to resume walking on my lunch hour.
I keep seeing Blue Apron for the $40 off cost but that’s still only getting my offer down to $19.99 or in one case. $29.99(!) I’d totally do this for $10 but more than that is a no go for me.
Where did you find your offer?
I did Blue Apron for $10 last week. It was fun!!! I also was able to get a FREE deal off Hello Fresh a few weeks ago, and I honestly loved that service even more. 🙂
I just went back to Blue Apron a couple times and the offer kept changing. The first time I looked it was only $30 off the first order.
I also find car washes highly entertaining!
I was very not frugal the last months. I moved and had to go to my savings for that, and then … well, as I were spending my savings anyway, it was a big temptation to buy other things as well …. bought an expensive road bike that I had been longing for a long time, well at least I LOVE it and now I have it, riding it is free fun.
Still have savings left, but have to get on the frugal wagon again and remind myself that I wouldn’t have had these savings at all if I hadn’t been frugal before.
My frugal/non-frugal moving five:
1. Had to leave my old apartment, and had to pay movers, which was expensive – but had the luck to find a great new apartment, which is smaller, less rent, less heating cost, and I even love it more than the one before
2. Live now in a neighbourhood built in the fifties, the apartment has new windows, new heating, new bathroom tiles and all that, but on the outside the neighbourhood has some very fifty-ish things like communal outdoor clothing lines which I looove in this heat. Also a communal attic where I can hang clothes when it’s not possible outside. No clothes drying in my small apartment. Gave away my dryer. A pity they don’t do this anymore in modern housing estates.
3. Had to do a lot of renovation, hanging new wallpaper and putting in laminate, all costly, but did much of the work myself or with friends
4. Bought a new kitchen – we have to bring our own Kitchen here in germany and take it away with us when we leave. Had a very makeshift kitchen in my previous apartment and found it very complicated to find a used kitchen that fitted the room, and I love cooking, and it seems I will live here for a long time, so I bought a kitchen I really, really love. Not frugal at all, but at least I seldom eat out and love to entertain friends to a home-cooked meal.
5. As I moved into a smaller apartment, except from the kitchen I didn’t have to buy any new furniture, rather choose what to keep. Gave away quite a lot and thereby discovered that we do have a kind of goodwill here, which I didn’t know and which reggrettably isn’t easy to find. They came and took the furniture I didn’t need any more, even the things that really had to be thrown away, so didn’t have to worry about transportation.
I am intrigued by the kitchen issue. Do you supply all your own appliances and work spaces? Does a sink come along with your apartment?
No sink, a kitchen here is an empty room, only you have the connections for water, stove, exhaust hood etc in there, but apart from that, you have to bring and connect everything yourself.
Sometimes you can buy the kitchen from the previous tenant, and sometimes apartments are rented out with a kitchen, especially rooms for students, but normally not.
So different — where my sister lives in the southeast US, her county requires sellers to leave the dishwasher, stove, refrigerator, range hood, and microwave, if it’s built-in, behind. There are no other options, where she lives.
I have seen how European apartments require you to buy your own kitchen appliances on the TV show “House Hunters.” So different than in America.
So I wonder, in America you never get to choose how you want your own kitchen to look like? You take what you get? And if the kitchen is already really old, who decides when to buy something new, and who pays?
You take what you get — which may or may not include appliances, but will almost always include cabinets and sink — and redo it if it’s not to your taste or in terrible shape. So, many buyers end up “buying a new kitchen” anyway, even though their house came with one. At least having it in place gives you time to shop, price compare, and decide what you really want and need, since you can use the old one until you change it.
This conversation is so interesting. I love learning how people do things all over the world!
You take what you get when you rent in the u.s. My daughter has appliances from the 70’s in her apt. She said when people move out they are now putting in new ones.
We have to here in Australia too – not stoves or anything, but certainly fridges, freezers. I’m also intrigued that renters in the US seem to be able to paint or redecorate the rental houses (unless TV has lied to me). That’s not allowed here.
My brother in law, who’s the tightest man I’ve ever met, bless him, didn’t own a fridge – although he had the money to buy one, he refused, so he ripped the tiny gas powered fridge from his old VW van out and ran it on (I think) bottled LPG until he moved in with his girlfriend and she put her foot down. We had Christmas lunch at his house – this is in an Australian summer – and we had to fill the sink with ice to keep the food fresh because the ham wouldn’t fit in the tiny box sized fridge!
Mand01;
That depends on your landlord. My kids rented during their college years, and in most places they couldn’t repaint, or could only repaint in the existing color, which was usually white or cream. My husband rented when he was a single young man in the Navy, and he and his roommates got their rent reduced a great deal by painting (with permission) their whole apartment in a landlord-approved paint. The previous renters had painted it without permission — black, purple, navy, red — which the landlord discovered after they skipped town. Most redecorating in apartments I’ve known about is the temporary kind that is easily removable.
Your brother-in-law — wow, that’s something else!
1) DH and I helped our daughter move this past weekend; so our entertainment included breaking down boxes, hanging pictures, putting up blinds, cleaning, sanding, and painting. We worked hard, but we were able to spend time with our DD who lives 400 miles away. Hard work is inexpensive entertainment.
2) I brought a trash-picked, antique Persian rug with me. Among other things. DD thought it was lovely, and it is now the focal point in her living room. Really, I can’t get over the fact that someone threw this rug away.
3) I picked up a small side job this week. I will work about 20 hours and the funds will go into our emergency savings account which was drained by a car repair last month.
4) I brought a few things back with me that DD no longer needs. A friend of mine is having a garage sale this weekend, and she will sell them for her. We also brought back boxes for recycling. There was not a place for DD to do this. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies on the way home. 🙂
5) I bought a $50 gas gift card for $40 at the grocery store. I took advantage of a BOGO deal on organic milk and coffee last week. Today I am going to a new market that is supposed to have wonderful Tuesday deals.
1.Confession of another expensive week. Took two friends out for birthday lunch plus gifts (purchased at the last minute and quite a bit more expensive than I expected). Goal for next year is to do some thinking ahead and have them (and spouses) over for a picnic at home.
2. Went to a potluck dinner Sunday evening – host gifted me with an extra dessert for husband and insisted that I take home a bag of salad fixings that I had brought to the event but didn’t get used up.
3. Our state fair is about to begin. Husband bought advance tickets which are sold at a discount price. (His tradition is to buy these tickets and distribute them to family and friends.)
4. Found a grocery store deal that included products that I needed. If you bought 3# of bacon at regular price you received free lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise and bread. I froze two pounds for later use.
5. Have been invited to spend a day at a time-share with friends who are vacationing up north. A nice late summer break for me. Will contribute ingredients for lunch and snacks.
Hi, janine. Re: your #1, I too had a shared birthday lunch with two friends this weekend (we call ourselves the “Girls of August”). It wasn’t entirely frugal by any means, but here are the frugal highlights:
(1) We did go to a restaurant–but it’s a favorite “hole in the wall” for one of the Girls and me, and the other Girl (up for a visit from the Big City) was charmed–both with the restaurant itself, and with the fact that the Best Waitress in the World there no longer has to ask what Girl #1 and I want to eat.
(2) I gave both other Girls thrifted gifts. They’re used to my NCA ways by now–and I do have a knack for finding Vera Bradley bags in near-mint condition, which helps.
(3) Both Girls are also getting down with the NCA program. Girl #1 gave me a gift card to the local Goodwill “boutique,” and Girl #2 gave Girl #1 an amazing find from her local Housing Works shop.
(4) After lunch, we paid a call on a Respected Elder friend. I brought the Elder cherry tomatoes and a jar of refrigerator dill pickles, both home-produced.
(5) And the Respected Elder, who is heavily into downsizing at this point, directed all of us toward the bookshelf where she keeps books she wants to re-home. We all left with full bags of books!
A. Marie:
Your day sounds great!
The closest I can come is that we discussed our favorite thrift shops, good places for garage sale deals, and whether it would be a good idea to invest in a mini-library which you build in your front yard and put books out that others may take/borrow. (We have a number of them around the neighborhood and people seem to like to forage some new reads in this manner.) I don’t think I could have matched your creativity, but I will use your actions as a model in the future!
1. I was sick yesterday and the day before, so I stayed home and ate very little, all of which is frugal, if not comfortable.
2. I’m wearing a tiny brooch today which I’ve had since I was about nine. It’s cute and fun, and I still love it, even though the enamel is peeling a tiny bit. I just think that adds character.
3. I made some homemade mosquito cream from a plant in my yard (it’s beautyberry bush — go to eattheweeds for more information). It doesn’t work perfectly, but it is a lot better than nothing, and I had all the other ingredients on hand so I spent nothing. I can’t stand the usual poisonous creams and sprays, and the deet lotion my husband used to buy leaked a bit and took the paint right off an appliance. Do I want that on my skin? NO.
4. I’m slow cooking chickpeas to make my own hummus. I plan to add some longevity “spinach” we are growing, to make “spinach” hummus out of it, which I love.
5. My slacks and shirt are thrifted, as usual.
I also live in Florida. I have kept mosquitos out of my yard – especially away from doors — planting herbs like lavender, pennyroyal, citronella, and lemon balm. I also understand that Lantana helps keep these pest away. I wonder if any of these could be made into a repellent. I will have to do some research.
Bee, we have some lavender, lantana, lemon balm and lemongrass planted, probably not enough of it, but also we live very near woods, a pond and a sinkhole, and the mosquitoes are vicious. I keep hoping I won’t look out one day to see them carrying off my little dog…..
I haven’t tried the pennyroyal or citronella yet — thanks for the tip!
Lantana is poisonous and is also classed as an invasive weed in our country- I’d take care putting it on your skin.
I love #2!! 🙂
I dab a bit of tea tree oil on my wrists, neck, behind my knees and on my feet when I am outside at night and it is buggy. Works really well. I usually get eaten alive.
I have to admit I shamelessly stole your Carwash Kraken and my boys love it!
I’ll try not to repeat as I just got caught up on blog reading yesterday and put in a late 5FFs on one of the older posts.
1. Sent a message to the manager of a house that is being rehabbed next door to me. While out of town last week, the contractors installed gutters with downspouts facing right to my foundation. We are located in a very old, urban part of town and the houses are close together. My 120+ year old, formerly abandoned house does not need any more help deteriorating and it’s been a very rainy summer. Anyway, she had them switch the downspouts to channel the runoff towards the front of the house. This hopefully will be a future frugal endeavor for both of us.
2. I made a delicioso stir-fry last night using the abundance of veggies I’ve procured in the past week and clearance tofu I bought and froze months ago. While eating I watched a thrifted movie called The Illusionist I had not seen in many years. I think this movie may have been the beginning of the hipster trend (rebirth) of the Victorian-inspired fashion and facial hair we see today. I think it came out in 2007-ish.
3. My neighbor (and BFF) picked apples yesterday at our community orchard and came home with about a half to full bushel each of fallen and tree picked fruit (and there is still plenty more on the abundant trees). We are canning applesauce and sliced apples on Wednesday evening. The bad parts of the fallen fruit will go to my hens and the compost heap.
4. Ate my fill of sweet, juicy blackberries at the orchard. I also gave away apples and blackberries to the people walking past the orchard. I let them know the fruit is ready for the taking. I live near a severely underserved area and it is essentially a food desert. We planted these edibles as part of a neighborhood group to help combat these issues. I do abhor seeing all the wasted fruit though!
5. Worked on my community garden plot in order to plant a fall garden. I am not putting a lot in, but some extra veggies before winter would be nice. I took a year off from the garden (life and too many commitments had wore me out) and I missed both the community and the gardening.
Gina, I love what you’re doing, growing and sharing food!
1. Breakfast and lunch at home yesterday. We did go out for dinner. I was having a rough day emotionally and it just turned into an evening of me crying and us having a really long talk that left me feeling much better. (I’d been a college professor for three years full time and it’s what I am trained to do, but I quit last year and this year, seeing all my friends go back to school has really been emotional. I don’t WANT to do that job anymore, but I’m also quite scared to pursue my dream of writing–which really doesn’t pay. So, I think the $30 I spent on dinner to cry and talk and just vent was well spent. Cheaper than therapy!)
2. Didn’t watch any tv yesterday and read and wrote instead. Less electricity used!
3. Finished my book from the library _Underground Railroad_ and while it was a strange book, I did enjoy the story (well, as much as one enjoys something about slavery– but you get my meaning– it was a good book, but I need time to sit with it, I think.
4. After dinner, the Missus and I went to Kmart to get a roller blind. Our bathroom has a window in the shower (it’s all tile so it was built with the window in it) with frosty glass. Well, two months we’ve lived here and we thought the frosty glass was just enough that people could see a shape. UH, no. you CAN see through it! So, for two months, we’ve been showering in front of a window! So, we had to get blinds. Last night while she adjusted them (they were $8 at Kmart and $16 on Amazon–shopping around pays!) I read E. B. White’s essay, “Once More to the Lake.” She’d never read it and it’s one of my favorites. Completely free activity!
5. Slept with the bedroom windows open last night and turned off the AC– unheard of in TN in August but wonderful! I slept so peacefully ALL NIGHT!
#1-I consider these kind of nights to be future investments in health.
#4. Very romantic! I love to have a partner read to me while I do something (cooking, cleaning, project, whatever) or reciprocate.
Oh dear to the #4! My sister’s bathroom has an almost floor to ceiling frosted glass window where one steps out of the tub, and I use that bathroom when I visit her! Oh dear again!
How did you find out it could be seen through? I hope your neighbor didn’t have to tell you.
1. I am still making preparations for my daughter’s gender reveal party. I plan to contribute deviled eggs and chicken salad sandwiches because I have the stuff on hand already for these appetizers. Her husband’s mom is contributing the punch using my punch bowl and a few more appetizers. I have a large clear plastic beverage dispenser that I plan to fill with icy water and fruit slices which I think will be a nice touch for very little actual cost. I have hand made some of the decorations with pink and blue paper cut into star shapes that will will drape over the chandeliers in the restaurant(the restaurant was free because I have a great friend who got it for me). I am also filling mason jars halfway with rock salt, which of course I will reuse, and placing tealights inside. I have hundreds of tealights because when my husband proposed to me over 5 years ago he purchased a lot of tealights and paper bags to spell out “will you marry me”on the beach. Turns out it didn’t take that many bags or tealights so I am slowly using them up over the years. Overall, should be a nice party that doesn’t cost much because we are all contributing a little. A gender reveal party is not really frugal but this one is as frugal as they get.
2.Last night I made meatloaf.I used lots of old bread ends from the freezer and various veggies to bulk up the meatloaf with out using much actual meat. It was moist and delicious. We also had leftovers of broccoli, rice, and cheese casserole. The casserole was sorta dry so I just added some milk and topped with more cheese and it was perfect.
3.I cooked a whole bag of lima beans in my crock pot which I divided up into meal sized servings and put in the freezer for future meals.
4.My husband got up on our roof and put up a new antenna then ran the wires to both our televisions. I am so happy to have free TV in my bedroom. Hopefully, I can eventually talk him into getting the satellite turned off. This may take awhile.
5.One of my daughter’s has a cold and I was out of cough syrup. I went to Kroger to pick up my Free Friday Downloads(protein bar and gummy worms) and just happened to notice some of the name brand cough syrup in the reduced bin for $1.99! I also noticed that Kroger had bags of fancy candy 50% off so I picked up a few of those for gifts.
I hadn’t made a meatloaf in years. Yours sounded so good I decided to make one for dinner!
Thank you!I have been reducing the actual amount of meat I put in meatloaf for awhile to cut costs, and make it healthier, and nobody notices. I love to use shredded carrots because of the little bit of sweetness and moisture they give. I just put frozen hunks of bread, onions, carrots, peppers, etc. with spices and salt into my blender without even cutting up anything( I have a pretty good blender). It breaks it all up so it mixes it really well when I dump it in with meat and egg. I usually top mine with ketchup, tomato sauce, or even leave plain. Then I let it cool for awhile before slicing. I only used 2 large hamburger patties for my whole meatloaf!Another thing my family loves is meatloaf sandwiches the next day, so good. Hope yours is delicious and gets put in your regular meal rotation!
I am so impressed with how often everyone has a frugal five.
I’ll make an attempt:
1. My sister is visiting and saying with us for a couple of weeks. We decided to take my dad and stepmom out for lunch, and were going to split the cost. I remembered I had a gift certificate to a wonderful place on the water. (From 4 years ago!) It covered the whole lunch, and I still have money left on it. And the food was great.
2. Took a bag of pears from my tree to my stepmom. This year we have loads, which isn’t the norm. She said she had just been looking up pear recipes, so was happy to get them.
3. I also gave her a lovely, warm, and ITCHY wool sweater that I have had in my closet for probably 18 years, and never worn. Same sister bought it for me when she was in Scotland, and looked at it now and said ” what was I thinking,buying that for you?” Stepmom, who is always cold, said she would wear it, and wouldn’t find it itchy.
4. Listed some clothing items online for sale. I haven’t done this before, so don’t know how successful it will be. Fingers crossed!
That’s all.
I’m just guessing here, but I bet you didn’t buy a lear jet this week. That would make 5! 🙂
Yes, you’re right!
Oh lol I read #3 several times assuming you meant you stepmom is a cold person so you gave her the sweater so she would itch. Cold as in a not very nice person. Ha ha ha. Time for bed…
Ha ha, no she is a warm hearted person, just cold physically!
The car wash is always a fun family event. 🙂
This week:
1. We were rained in this weekend, so we decided to use our time to cook bulk staples like chicken stock, marinara sauce, soup, spaghetti squash, and bacon.
2. We babysat our nephew last Friday, so that meant we got free pizza, which we took home and eat for a few meals over the weekend.
3. I bought poor quality clothes at Walmart (shame on me). Instead of keeping them and sucking it up like I usually would, I’m returning them for a refund. I’m going to use that money to buy less pieces of higher quality clothing. I should have learned my lesson by now!
4. I’m going to list a lot of house items on Craigslist this week in the hopes of decluttering while making some quick cash.
5. I reaaaally wanted cake yesterday, but instead I made a batch of chocolate pudding at home for my craving. It only cost about 50 cents for a huge batch, so that’s a win. 🙂
Your house must have smelled so delicious!
1) Our horse was limping Sunday on his front left leg. It looked swollen, but I didn’t see an injury. I refrained from calling the vet – I thought it might have been from a bite – I couldn’t find an injury and his other legs were fine. So I gave him some liquid Buteless (natural anti-inflammatory) mixed with a handfull of oats and a sliced apple. When we got home that evening his limp wasn’t as pronounced, so I continued with the Buteless 2x per day. He’s walking fine now and it doesn’t look swollen. I’m so glad I didn’t panic – that saved me from a $200 vet bill.
2) I stopped at the grocers last morning on the way to work and picked up some oatmeal, half & half and a bag of blueberries for breakfast meals during the week. That and the taquitos I have in the freezer, here at work, kept me fed for the day. Much cheaper than eating out.
3) I attended a hardCORE exercise class at the on Campus Fitness center last evening. I’m thankful all the classes are included in my $10 per month fitness membership. I can choose from about 20 classes – all we have to do is show up for the class. I’m working on losing 50 lbs – being healthy will save money!
4) I returned the cat carrier to my neighbor last evening. He let me borrow it a few weeks back when I had my cat spayed. He’s such a nice guy – he’s a retired widower and I love listening to his stories. He invited me in for a Mango-rita. We chatted for an hour, then I headed home. A nice visit and a free beer.
5) I decided I wanted a roasted hot dog for supper, but I don’t want the extra carbs from a bun, so I grabbed a flour tortilla, put some shredded cheese on it and wrapped the roasted hot dog in that. Yum!
Way to go on the breakfast! I do the same, with individual packets of oatmeal (given to me by the food bank a looong time ago) or cereal and cranberries and almond milk bought on sale. At work they have a ton of snacks, so I’ve been eating a Clif bar for breakfast and an apple and a cheese stick as a a snack. They also get us take out every Friday. It’s food, so very little helps, especially if it cuts the take-out craving from my wallet! 🙂
We do that with hotdogs all the time at our house, I slice it into rounds and we call it kid sushi!
I love reading all these Frugal Fives. So inspirational!
I’m a long time reader of this blog and especially look forward to the FFT posts! Here goes my first time trying it…
1. Turned two very ripe bananas into banana chocolate chip bread before any fruit flies could invite themselves inside my house for a free meal!
2. Rooted through the house for school supplies for my two girls upcoming year at the high school. I found more than enough highlighters, pencils, pens, two reams of untouched lined binder paper, and some binder dividers. SCORE!
3. Continuing on the school supply theme, I talked my oldest daughter (senior this year) into trying to reuse some of her barely touched binders from last year if they meet the new teachers’ criteria. The teachers at her school insist that the students organize “their way” and not the way that suits the individual student best – which is why these binders are in such great shape. My daughter brought them in, showed the teachers so she could get “graded” for compliance, and then proceeded to organize her own way. Basically, an expensive way to buy a grade, IMO.
4. Youngest daughter had freshmen orientation today so her BFF’s mom and I decided to carpool. She brought the kids to school and I’ll pick them up when their day is over.
5. Earlier this month, I cancelled my hair appointment for a cut/color (I haven’t had one in almost one year) and decided to let my oldest trim my split ends. Then I bought drugstore hair color and let her and her BFF color my hair. Free entertainment for them and bonus was they did a great job! Saved me easily $200 in the process.
* Got 2 bottles of Dove body wash and 1 bottle of Dove hair conditioner on sale and using coupons, for a grand total of 1,90$! And I went to there walking (exercice + no gas spent) and found 0,10$ on the ground going there.
* Planning 3 social outings with friends in the next 2 weeks that will be almost free. One is a bookclub meeting (only bringing a dish to share), the next is a Quiet Clubbing event (check it out, it’s FUN!!!) and third is a meeting at a friend’s house, probably just chilling there, maybe bring some food. It’s really fun because I have 2 small kids so I don’t get to do so many social outings usually.
* Watching an old DVD box set with hubby at home at the moment (X-men). Old for him but new to me.
* Working 5 days this week (I’m on call)
* Did not lose any food from our fridge and freezer that stopped working yesterday (after buying it new only 7 years ago!). Put some in our chest freezer and brought the rest to my mom’s place….
Which bring me to my “frugal fail”. We had to go and get another fridge ordered ASAP yesterday night (My husband is an anxious person and this-could-not-wait!!), so no time to compare prices at different places since all was closed but that specific store. So we are now owners of a new fridge to be delivered in a couple of days for the sweet price of 1050$! Geez, pretty expensive for a basic top-freezer fridge…. Oh well. At least we did not lose any food, we had the money in our account to pay for it (so not interests) and they are including delivery and pick-up of the old one in the price. Still, I’m sure we could have gotten a better price if we had taken the time to shop…. Choose your battles they say!
Quiet Clubbing sounds so neat! One way to take the sting out of your fridge purchase is to check and see if your energy company offers a rebate for replacing your appliance. Ours offers a $75 rebate for buying a new energy efficient fridge.
Our electric utility not only offers a rebate for qualifying energy-efficient appliances, but they also have a program where they’ll pick up your old fridge AND pay you for it. That part used to be ~$25. Always worthwhile to ask!
My husband is impatient with issues like your broken fridge. My washing machine tore up and I literally had to beg him not to go buy a new one at Lowe’s that very second. I convinced him we would be okay for a few days without a washer. We own a business that has a washing machine so I told him I would take a load to work each day until we had time to troubleshoot the issue. Long story short—He found the broken part, ordered it from Amazon, and replaced the following weekend it for a cost of $15.
Double-win!
1. On a recent trip visiting family out of town, we stopped by the “luxury outlets” and found $4 each underwear for my husband at Gap Outlet. We were going to buy the slightly more expensive pairs until we noticed the better deals on a different rack.
2. Picked up a clean, unused plastic produce bag from the ground outside of yoga. Stuffed it into the car to use for the pets. And it didn’t wind up in a storm drain or worse either!
3. We have been drying our laundry outside in this perfect weather!
4. I have been using hodge podge envelopes. I got this idea from Zero Waste Home since it’s nearly impossible to get rid of ALL junkmail. I save envelopes from rouge junk mail to reuse. Including the Business Reply ones, which I just place a stamp on and black out the pre-printed info. Works just fine!
5. Our credit union put on new security features that block third party budgeting software, like Mint! So our budget system is a bit wrecked with no fix in site. I transitioned to Every Dollar without the account sync because I like the interface better, but I will likely be switching banks–probably to Umpqua or another PNW local. Still a free process!
Thank you for picking up the plastic bag. 🙂 I live in a coastal community and I really get out of sorts when I see them on the beach and in the water. They are terribly dangerous to sea life.
They truly are. We had a grey whale die on our shore about a mile from our house about two weeks ago–though it wasn’t connected to plastic, it brought back memories to the grey whale that died on our shores back in 2010 with a stomach full of plastic trash. I am a pretty sensitive gal when it comes to this topic!
Plastic bags also hated by us as former cattle ranchers. I read awhile back that you should make a knot (or two) in the middle of any plastic bag you put in the trash, so they don’t get caught in the wind and take off for who knows where. And don’t get me started on balloon releases !
1. Found a replacement salad spinner at Value Village last week. I had dropped ours over a month ago putting a huge hole in the side. We eat a ton of salad (grown in our greenhouse) so we felt a replacement was a necessity, but I knew if I waited long enough, I’d find a used one. $5 spent instead of $30. The best part is that they are identical, so I packed the good parts away ‘just in case’!
2. Today is my daughter’s birthday. I shopped the clearance racks last month at Michaels craft store and got her a bunch of stuff. We were invited to an impromptu birthday party on Sunday for another little girl, so I just grabbed a couple of things and gave them to her, instead. My girl never knew the difference!
3. Friends treated us to pizza and beer at an awesome brewpub on Monday.
4. I’ve been trying to sell my jersey bull to no avail. Another rancher friend stopped by work and I was chatting with him and he offered to take my bull to the auction the next day.
5. We were invited to a birthday picnic on Sunday, wonderful food and friends hanging out. We asked what we could bring and they replied ‘Just yourselves!’
1. I went through all the bins of clothing my youngest has yet to grow into, repacked them by size, re-labeled the outside of each bin, pulled out items I know he’ll never wear and put them into donation/yard sale bags, and found a few things he can wear now. I love ‘shopping in the basement.’
2. Same kid came home from school yesterday with supply lists. Based on the experiences of some NCA readers, we’re super lucky. Teachers request basic items, nothing fancy. The most specific request was for a “hardcover” composition book. We had everything on hand except a couple of lined-paper notebooks and the aforementioned composition book. So school supplies for around $5.
3. Our oldest started college, and one of the biggest perks my husband gets from working at the university is 1/2 price tuition for our kids–at a PAC 12 school! Husband filed the form and the discount will be applied to tuition bill, due by the end of next week.
4. Another awesome benefit from the U is free transportation for students, staff & faculty on our municipality’s bus/light rail/commuter train system. Both husband and son take the bus to campus.
5. Cooking all meals at home, kids taking lunches to school (even the college student) (they have multiple food allergies, so they’re not able to eat in the cafeterias). As I type, I’m enjoying my coffee, made at home about as low-tech as you can get using a reusable stainless cone filter in the Chemex. After pouring a cup, the balance of the pot stays hot in a Stanley thermos. I’ve always enjoyed the sort of zen process of grinding coffee and using a pour-over method. Takes about the same amount of time as brewing a pot in a coffee maker.
Katy, when you ran the post about quality items that last forever, my first thought was our thermos and coffee grinder. My husband had the thermos and I had the grinder before we met, and that was nearly 30 years ago.
#1 can be hard work, and #3 is just plain awesome.
Yes and Yes!! Fortunately, I was able to sort the clothes during the Olympics, which I love to watch. Normally I watch very little TV.
I agree on #3! I live in Utah, and in less than two years will transfer to the University of Utah, which became PAC 12 school not too long ago. Of course, tuition went up. I love my new job, which is in my chosen field, pays well for not having experience, and the bosses are great people, but does not contribute for tuition, so I’m greatly tempted to try to get a job there. I know for their full-time employees tuition is half off and they have good benefits, such as public transportation passes. I just have to be thankful tuition is cheap compared to other schools!
1. Eggs were on sale here for 88 cents a dozen as well!!! So I got 2 dozen. 😉
2. I am still eating from the pantry and freezer as much as possible, but there are some things we still needed, like milk, and eggs, etc. I was able to get out of there for under $40.
3. We have been cleaning out the fridge, trying not to stock it too full, because then things get hidden and going to waste. UGH
4. We have eaten leftovers a few nights. Saturdays evening meal became Sunday’s after church meal, and etc. for a few days now. Doesn’t hurt my feelings to not cook every single meal,nope!
5. I was able to obtain some used clothing for myself and my daughter for fall. I got mine yesterday and will pick up my daughter’s this weekend.
1. The weather was cooler yesterday so I walked to the drug store and grocery store. The drug store had store brand “Working Hands” on clearance, for half price. I also used store rewards so very little out of pocket. The grocery had chicken breasts and brown eggs on sale, and I had coupons. I also picked up 4 pennies and a dime, in five different locations.
2. Dinner last night was Jerk Chicken, masked potatoes, corn, fresh fruit, and frosted brownies. There are enough leftovers for a couple more meals this week.
3. I took one of our vehicles in for an oil change. I was there when they opened, and had an appointment, yet it took almost two hours. They reduced the charge by close to half because it took so long.
4. Tomorrow I will have lunch at the home of a friend of a friend. I asked if I could bring anything but I think bringing my appetite is the best thing I can do.
5. I treated a friend to lunch yesterday using a Groupon. It was less than half price because I used a coupon code on the Groupon and shopped through a rebate site. The food/service were not top-notch, we will not return.
What are masked potatoes? Never heard of them here in England!
Pretty sure she made mashed potatoes with a typo. Not entirely sure you aren’t kidding, but it did make me laugh.
It was a serious question! But I quite like the idea of little masked potatoes – perhaps some prosciutto with cut-outs for the eyes, baked in the oven. Spuds with derring-do!
I thought of Mr. Potato Head toy like spuds with Lone Ranger masks. “Who was that masked tater?”
1 Made Pepper Jelly today to give as Christmas gifts. Already have strawberry made for that also. And have red raspberries in the freezer to do the same with when the weather cools.
2. Mended a beautiful crocheted bedspread my mother made. I p. lan to get it out of staorage and start enjoying it again.
3. Eating lots and lots of produce from the garden. Need to go to the grocery tomorrow….but only for things like milk, flour,etc
4. Excited to be planning a trip to out of state friends. They invited us and another couple to stay three nights with them. How generous! As thanks
we are taking them some of our own eggs, produce and home canned goods.
5. Been on the phone with the hospital and my insurance. Between two claims, I found over $300 in errors that will now be corrected. Tedious time on the phone….but well worth the effort.
we are taking our homegrown eggs, produce and some home canned goods as thanks for their hospitality.
Oops.
somehow my typing went awry!
1. Using my Meijer coupons that expire today for 5% off food and 15% off general merchandise.
2. Spent an hour going through the sale ad and Mperks coupons.
3. Redeeming $5 off and $3 off coupon from purchases I made at Meijer.
4. Swagbucking while looking at coupons – 450 points away from a $25 Paypal card!
5. Daughter away with a friend for the week so saving on utilities and food, although I did fund her with some cash for spending and gave the family some money, they probably will return it.
6. Opened the windows last two nights not using the air (57 out baby at night – love it!). Close windows during the day as the air will come on.
7. With daughter away since Saturday been very good so far eating in, only one treat of ice cream.
8. Started a new job today at the other end of the building away from the “evil” vending machines 😉
9. Eating tomatoes everyday I grew, their awesome!
10. Boss gave me 3 free Redbox rental coupons that don’t expire until end of October, cold weather entertainment when Netflix gets boring. 😉
Eggs for 88 cents a dozen! I pay over $6/dozen for certified humane eggs (organic, free range, etc., etc.) – treasures.
Nothing too frugal these days, not spending much either – the provincial economy in Alberta is in terrible shape. So mostly working (thankfully) and hanging out at home (gardening, cooking, a few projects, crafty stuff, reading, walks, lots of time in the yard).
A couple of things:
I made a big pot of garden borscht using only veg from the garden (some things recovered after a crazy hail storm). So tasty – a couple containers for the freezer and a few meals for the week. (I even had a bowl for breakfast) My grandmother’s recipe. A few more batches of various garden soups before the end of the season. Tonnes of kale, so I need to make a few things with kale. Sad my zucchini didn’t recover from the various storms this summer – I love zucchini bread, and relish.
I’ve been brewing extra green tea, and putting in the fridge for super yummy iced tea, sometimes with a handful of spearmint from the garden, or a slice of lemon or lime. Unsweetened, really good.
No major vacations this summer – a budget week at my brother/SILs lake property in British Columbia, so that was pretty frugal, plus beautiful and fun. Splurge on a case of peaches on the way home, but more than worth it.
Last weekend, friends invited me for a day of boating on Sunday. Nice to have kind friends.
Watching various things on youtube while sitting in the back yard – The Wartime Kitchen and Garden is cool, a couple of crafty Norwegian dudes who knit, garden and crochet – they seem to have a nice life (and now I want to learn to crochet), a Korean cook (Maangchi) in NYC who has really great recipes (her Kimchi recipe is a staple now), travel videos, etc.
Simple things and gratitude these days.
On zucchini – wishing I could gift you a few of our ‘whoa that one got outta hand’ zucchinis, but I am sure they don’t mail well. 🙂
Your frugal activities sound wonderful – dialed up the Wartime Kitchen and Garden – glad I found it!
Also, good iced tea is my symbol for great summer relaxation.
1. Went through all clothes of my 2 kids, school starts this week. We tried on everything. They happily sell their too smalls (at niece’s school fundraiser sale), as the incentive is = gas in the RV tank for fun get-aways.
2. Found a nearly new stroller at someone’s trash. Took home to list on a local FB site.
3. Stopped at local gw, to treat kids for doing a great job with clothes, to fill in a few gaps. (They grow tall like weeds!) Found a little ride on car, nearly new. With my $5 coupon, it was FREE. Listed it on local fb site along with stroller.
4. Kids and I ate leftovers for lunch 2 days in a row. Fun random lunch! And no waste of food.
5. Enjoyed free tomatoes two days in a row, from a client, and then a colleague. Yay!
1. Dinner last night at daughter’s. Son-i-l grilled the best ribs I’ve had in forever! I took a cake I baked from items on hand.
2. Daughter planning garage sale next month and invited me to participate. And I’m in the mood to divest STUFF!
3. Working 5 days next week (on call).
4. My freelance article and photo submission was accepted and I’ll receive an amount equal to one day’s work at my day job; and was offered another article for holiday edition.
5. No fabric purchases, no haircut, no frivolous spending.
1. Called credit card for a refund on a late charge. I haven’t ever paid it late so they were gracious and took off the charge.
2. Bought eggs for .88 as well.
3. Eating from home.
4. Baking banana bread for my nephew from ingredients I already have.
5. Made a frittatta from the .88 eggs and left over vegetables and chicken Italian sausage. That has been breakfast and lunch for a few days.
Back from our last long road trip of the summer. Glad to be home. Listened to audio books from our library both ways. Amazingly, I still like the Magic Treehouse book series after 10 hours of it!
1) Garden is literally busting out of the fence. I had an anxiety dream about zucchini while we were away – not kidding. Cucumbers and squash too numerous to mention, broccoli, cabbage and carrots available. We are trying to be good stewards of the produce blessings, but it is hard to keep up.
2) Picked blackberries and wild apples at my parents today. My mom and I will trade homemade mint jelly for homemade blackberry once I have picked enough. I am cooking down the apples for applesauce as I write this.
3) My mom also gave us 24 more pint jars and 9 quart jars for canning that she had in her attic. Score!
4) Was able to shop a few sales at Target while we were away visiting family and picked up socks and undershirts for the year for DS. And underwear for me with the “bonus” pairs included.
5) Being very intentional about two large bills coming due in September and am budgeting/not shopping as necessary until they are covered. Eating from freezer, garden and pantry instead.
Bonus #6) Got invited to a BBQ tonight by a business associate of dear wife. No cooking+ Good company+Beautiful night outside= A triple win!
1. Made homemade breakfast sausage for the week.
2. Bought Portobello mushrooms, grocery bag full, for $2.49 and made stuffed mushrooms with herbs on hand.
3. Used a Home Depot gift card earned from surveys to buy drain clog remover (all other alternatives have been attempted) and received a dollar and change back in cash which I put in my change jar.
4. Checked out books and a movie from the library.
5. Took an item that was taking up a lot of room & hasn’t sold in a year to a local consignment store. If it sells, earnings will go towards out debt snowball.
Just back from a vacation away from home, in which we employed many devices of frugality:
1) Paid nothing for hotels as we stayed with family for 2 nights, and used some of my pilot husband’s millions of miles points for the 4 hotel nights. We saved at least $1,600 in hotel room fees this way and they were gorgeous hotels with pools and hot tubs!
2) Parked our rental car in a free mall parking lot each night. We had to walk about 10 minutes to get back to our hotel but worth a savings of $100!
3) I bought some fresh fruit, yogurt and instant oatmeal to have for cheapo healthy breakfasts, as we wanted to spend our food $ on the excellent BBQ and Chicken the area was known for. We also drank the delish high quality coffee from our hotel room, asked the staff for extra packets, and ‘borrowed’ some portable half & half containers from the expensive hotel breakfast place. This was a savings of at least $200 over 4 days as the hotel restaurant breakfasts were outrageously expensive. $6.95 for a bowl of oatmeal!!!???
4) It cost us nothing to walk in and out of the music venue and listen to live music, and also walk around the exquisite tropical gardens at our hotel property.
5) We forgot our child’s booster seat, which we wanted to use in our rental car, so we stopped at a local Walmart and got a booster for $13. The rental car would have charged us $13 per DAY to rent a seat! We saved $91 in booster seat rental fees!
6) Bonus thing! We did not do long term parking at the airport at home, but rather parked for half the price at a hotel across the street, in a COVERED garage, and just took the free hotel shuttle to/from the airport. SCORE!
It’s been an expensive month, so I’ll see what I can come up with. Stress has caused me to up my spending.
1. Purchased discount tickets for our annual state fair in advance, saving $6 for the two tickets.
2. Rode my bike to the store to purchase the tickets, saving gas money and getting some exercise.
3. We had an expensive weekend out last weekend, so decided to make the upcoming weekend relaxing and hang out at home playing games or watching movies.
4. A colleague gave me excess produce from his garden. I’ve been enjoying fresh cucumbers and tomatoes for the last few weeks in various forms.
5. Planning a bachelorette party for a friend. Thankfully the woman I’m planning with is also frugal, so we’re doing a lot of research to find the best options to save everyone some money.
AN: hope the stress is getting less and less for you.
1. Had a sales rep and VP in my office for a visit and then out to lunch. Free lunch at a lovely locally owned café and they both loved the restaurant and their food!
2. Doing 2 mystery shops before I go into office today and will do another tonight. College fund!
3. Sold 6 items on Amazon in the past few days.
4. Found 11¢ on the ground in the past 2 days. Not as good as the $10 bill I found last week but hey every penny counts!
5. Buying 4 vintage windows from CL today. I will then resell them on FB yardsale group where they are gaga over old windows. I should be able to triple my money.
5.
Our FB groups go nuts over old windows too! And old suitcases.
I wish that the stores act responsibility and discontinue the use of plastic bags. I know it is difficult, but it would be better for all of us in the long run.
1. Have done another week of the usual: packed my lunch and drinks to work, wore my cute thrifted work outfits.
2. Paid attention to a discount code the local supermarket emailed me and it saved $9.97 off last week’s groceries, along with another $3-plus in-store coupons.
3. Ordered a book I needed for work and got a “like new” used copy, which saved me 4/5ths the cost of a brand-new copy.
4. My husband noticed we were not receiving a water bill and was diligent about getting the problem tracked down. Turns out our meter was stuck and not registering. Because he brought it to the water company’s attention, the company was very agreeable about working out a estimation/payment plan that is favorable to us.
5. Got a couple of free leashes at work (old promotional items) for my dogs.
1. Received a 20 dollar gift card to FL after calling/emailing about 3lb of bad chicken I brought home a month or so ago. They were very apologetic, and I appreciated the gift card very much.
2. Have basically been doing nothing but working since it is the beginning of the school year. So many evaluations.
3. Going to a wedding out of state this weekend. Wearing a dress I already had, found a 1.99 pink clutch at goodwill to add a little flare. Unfortunately the BF needed basically a complete outfit. The tailor messed up his suit and didnt finish it when she was supposed to. She gave us a discount but we will probably have to get it re-done. ELSEWHERE! lol.
4. Hit the outlets last weekend. Went into Kate Spade and got some earrings for under 10$. They were having a crazy sale and I used my school ID to get more off. Stashing these for xmas gifts. Also got a pair of shorts at J.Crew for about 8 dollars. J.Crew fits me very nicely and their classic styles never really phase out.
5. Really trying to reign in the spending. I got very spendy for things around my apartment. Nothing crazy, but definitely spendy by my standards. My insane work load lately has reminded me I do not want to work for 50 years, so that was a reality check 🙂
1. I saw an offer for free bubble wrap which I use a lot for shipping for my etsy store. I drove over to pick it up off the curb and it was HUGE!! The neighbors must have laughed watching me unroll about 1/3 of it and shoving it into the car, moving the front seats up so I could squish the rest in. I think it’s enough bubble wrap to last me a lifetime.
2. I earned a $5 gift card to Starbucks for doing an on-line survey. I pick up chai for my boss each day I work and I’ll use the gift card for her order.
3. Work has picked up again and now that my husband has retired, I don’t need to take the dog to day care as much. It’s good for him (the dog not the husband) to have the opportunity to play with other dogs so he will go less but still occasionally.
4. Meals at home, library books, and netflix – same old, same old.
5. No lear jet!