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My son and I took the bus downtown to get his hair cut. I used my free workplace public transportation pass and paid the $2.50 for my son. (We made sure to keep our trip under 2-1/2 hours in order to reuse his pass for the return journey.) We then walked around and purchased iced coffees using a $5 Starbucks gift card that I received from my union.
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I returned a pair of sneakers to Goodwill as they were missing the insoles. I got store credit and wandered the store for a bit, but didn’t actually buy anything. The best bargain is the item never purchased in the first place.
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I have a TV appearance tomorrow and remembered from last time that I somehow don’t own a lipstick. Did I go to Macy’s for a beautifully packaged and elaborately marketed tube of brightly hued glop? Nope, I stopped into The Dollar Tree for a perfectly acceptable alternative. I also bought an eye shadow kit as all mine are pure dust from apparently being dropped a time or two.
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I approved the 35,000th member of the Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group this afternoon. How is this frugal? Amazing and wonderful ideas and inspiration from 35,000 individuals who will answer your questions and give you support as you navigate through your non-consumer journey. Plus, it’s free!
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I didn’t buy a Lear Jet or a vulgar gold-plated apartment in the sky.
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{ 154 comments… read them below or add one }
Just dropping by to say “congratulations!” on your 35K members. Your content is sterling and it’s really attracted a great community of like-minded individuals. Thank you for your hard work!
We have had more frugal fails than wins lately, but due to the previous frugal wins, the fails have not been as painful as they could have been. Our eldest daughter has severe autism and associated conditions and has not been very well lately so the whole household has been just holding on by our fingernails: getting to work, school and feeding ourselves. But, I did manage a couple of frugal wins:
1. Working from home at least a day a week.
2. I was searching for a pair of leather gloves because it’s cold as hell right now and I drive an hour to work in the cold. I found a pair for about 25% of my budgeted amount. Score! I had warm hands this morning.
3. Taking lunch to work as well as snacks and coffee, prevents spending on junk. Especially when our car required $1100 worth of work today *choke*
4. Dinner at Mum & Dad’s last night after a day shuttling my daughter to medical appointments
5. The health system in Australia is a wonderful thing. After all our appointments yesterday our only out of pocket was $35 for three subsidised prescriptions. Doctors were all free. we are so fortunate in this country.
I could have written your first sentence myself. As someone said previously that describes my feelings lately..”some days you are the windshield, some days you are the bug”.
So happy to hear about how good the health care is there. I was re-reading my comment about frugality woes and thinking it sounded insensitive with all you have going on right now. Of course, I was only talking about the frugality part but just wanted to be clear. I wish you and your family easier days ahead.
Thinking of your family, Mand01. So glad you don’t have the worry of healthcare expenses on top of the concerns for your daughter.
You seem to be handling things well Mand01. I am glad you have such a good health care system. I’m sure that eases the stress a little bit.
Sending you a cyber hug, Mand…two of my kids are on the autism spectrum, although high functioning, thank goodness. My youngest daughter is 25 and lives with me. Although she is very gifted in some areas, such as written language and imagination, it is a struggle to get her to complete basic tasks every day, such as brushing hair and teeth, showering, and doing the dishes without a fuss. It’s more like having a young child some days, tantrums and all! I can’t imagine what your average day is like with a daughter severely affected, and I truly feel for you.
Thank goodness for your health care coverage – I certainly wish our country would wake up and nationalize health care coverage. Yes, it would raise taxes, but it would result in a much healthier populace, as no one would have to choose to skip checkups and treatment due to costs. I am truly worried about the road our nation seems to be heading down, with the Republicans in the House passing a harsh health care bill, while the Republican leadership in the Senate is meeting in secret. Even their own party members in the Senate do not know what is in the bill being drafted. Grr. Okay, climbing off my soapbox now.
Thanks everyone for your thoughtful comments and cyber support. My daughter is 17 (about 8 developmentally) and this year has been tough. Usually it’s not as hard as this. We will get through it. Mary, I completely understand what you are saying. I know many adults on the spectrum who have many skills in some areas but the ‘basics’ are very difficult for them to manage.
From what I can understand of the US tax system, our taxes are not any higher than in the US. We do have a Medicare levy but if you choose to hold private health insurance you don’t have to pay it. The private health insurance is also subsidised so it is as affordable as possible.
Recently a new program called the National Disability Insurance Scheme was introduced. This means that eligible people with disability will have their supports funded for their lifetime. This is the first program of its kind in the world and is very exciting. This is being funded by an agreement between the states and federal governments- all the states have given up their funding for disability services to the federal government and it has been pooled to deliver this national scheme. The shortfall is to be funded by a national levy, although there is still some argument about who should pay the levy (which income level). It has bipartisan support. It means that families that have been trying to support their adults with disability will receive proper support for the first time.
Yes, there is a reason Australia is known as “the lucky country”. You’ve had national healthcare since the 70s there, I think, while America has given health care access over to the lobbyists. It’s truly a national shame that America can’t get its act together to recognize that healthcare should be a right, not just a business to make people wealthy. Wish we could emulate Austrailia!
We have something in the US for adults with disabilities–if you hold private insurance plans for those who would otherwise be on Medicare (in my case, my autistic brothers, ages 30 and 32), the state will reimburse you for carrying private insurance and having Medicare as a backup. This reimbursement was around $300 US for both of my brothers, a month, but has decreased each year to the point where there’s little cost/benefit for having them on a private insurance plan–to Medicare it is. Their care will be my responsibility for the rest of my life once my parents are not longer able to care for them (it is slowly becoming this way as they are in their early 60s and not wealthy), and I am a bit concerned about what the future holds, just a reminder for me to open that Special Needs Trust, even though it’s costly and we don’t have a ton to save right now.
It’s something I worry about for my youngest daughter- I don’t want her having that responsibility. We have a special needs trust in place through our wills. It’s a big responsibility, and I wish you the best managing that for two brothers.
Mand, I often think of you even when I’m not reading the NCA. I’ve edited severel books on autism for work, and a neighbor family has a son in his mid-20s with severe IDD and autism, so I have at least an outsider’s inkling of what you and your family are going through. Of course, no one except you really knows the road you’re walking. But you have my good thoughts and best wishes every step of your way.
Thanks A.Marie, that means a lot.
I’ve started writing about it when I can find the time.
https://iloveyoubutweb.wordpress.com/
Mand, I just finished reading iloveyoubut. It is great stuff. I read it all and would have read more. It is that good. Thanks for sharing your story.
+1 to Sandra’s comment. I’m just blown away.
Thank you both – that’s lovely of you. She’s a gorgeous girl and we love her very much. I will write some more, when things settle down around here.
I can relate to your first sentence…. We’re remodeling our kitchen. My grandma passed and left me a little bit of money that made the renovation affordable for us. So we went ahead and did it. OF COURSE when we had the electrician (a family friend who didnt charge us) in, he found all aluminum wiring and shoddy job done on the lights. OF COURSE the water heater broke. OF COURSE the car battery died (since when do batteries cost $130 now?!). OF COURSE we got the worst hail storm to date and it obliterated our brand new shed.
I’m just trying to keep things positive as someone comes out to inspect our roof…. (Our deductible is a super high percentage due to where we live… and I cannot afford $4,000 to replace a roof too!)
There’s never a good time for ANY of that to happen (except the planned kitchen renovation), but all at once just SUCKS. We’ve had stuff like that happen a few years ago…my car needed a bunch of expensive repairs, then my husband’s truck needed a new battery (yeah, right? Who knew batteries for cars and trucks are so expensive??), then the dog got sick…..ugh. It will all work out, it’s just painful along the way sometimes.:-)
I’m impressed that you actually manage to work with a child that has severe autism – that’s a huge undertaking. I’m glad you have good healthcare there, it’s certainly helpful with everything else you endure.
Blessings to you!!
I didn’t for a long time. Now she is in an excellent special school and I am in a workplace that is very understanding. My husband works for our local autism service provider, so between us we have good workplaces. I just got a text from one of my bosses who is overseas, wanting to know what colour toy to buy my daughter. That’s an amazing workplace right there!
“The best bargain is the item never purchased in the first place.” I couldn’t agree more! I competed in a dance competition and a gift to all the finalist was percentage off vouchers to different dancewear companies. I didn’t buy any items, so I was the real winner! 😛
Another frugal win for this week has been living in my new apartment – I had a job close enough to walk to, saving money on petrol or public transport. And as a double win, on my way back I found a beautiful, high-quality whiteboard on the side of the road – the exact prop my theatre company needs for its next production! I was so stoked!
1. Using some leftover whipping cream for my coffee this morning. The fruit it was intended for is gone. These were Grad Party leftovers that I need to use up.
2. Started my laundry early this morning in order to take advantage of the cheaper time of use electric rate that we signed up for.
3. Will hang the laundry to dry on the drying rack I inherited from my Grandmother and my ikea rack so no electric use there.
4. Picked up some coffee beans yesterday at my favorite local coffee shop. I used a birthday gift card. I bought my daughter a lemonade which we shared. We then bought our gas at Costco and had a lunch of Costco samples.
5. Will hand deliver a couple of my daughters thank you notes to family members to save the cost of a couple of stamps. They won’t mind.
Here are my six most recent frugal wins:
1. I cleaned out my dresser for the 1,456th time- and found more things to part with. I listed several on ebay and have made a few sales. With those combined with frugal items #2 and #5, I will be able to double my car payment this month. Hooray!
2. Since I am a teacher and moving schools next year, I also went through all of my teaching materials. I compiled several professional books and sold them back to sellyourbookback.com. Total was only $9.58- but that is more than the “free” pile was offering me, so I went with it.
3. My son is having a friend sleepover tonight. I was contemplating just ordering pizza, but instead we are going to do breakfast for dinner- pancakes and bacon. I have all of the makings on hand, the kids will love it and no extra money spent out of pocket.
4. I picked up a couple mystery shops in the coming weeks. I used to do these regularly, but hadn’t done any in several months. I chose only ones that a) don’t require a purchase, just a little time or b) are something I would be doing anyway(grocery shopping)
5. Also listed and sold some unwanted gift cards on raise.com. The cash is worth more to me than cards I wouldn’t use.
6. Entertaining myself with library books galore! SO. Many. Books. I’ve overestimated my hours in the day, I think!
Thanks for #2! I’m checking it out!
When I had many books to sell and was not interested in listing them separately, I used bookscouter.com. It searches several sellers and tells you who is buying. The buyer pays shipping costs.
Breakfast for dinner is a favorite around here! Especially this time of year when we have more eggs than we know what to do with, French toast or scrambled eggs and pancakes are a frugal dinner. Yum!
I need to ask how you make a return to goodwill. All the thrift stores that I have ever been in have signs stating that everything is purchased as is. Is there some kind of exemption at goodwill.
Thanks!
I’m not the original poster but the Goodwills in our middle part of the country all accept returns within seven days if the tag is still attached and you have the receipt. None of our other thrift shops do so Goodwill is not the most frugal but being able to return something if it doesn’t fit another family member or doesn’t work is great!
That’s nice. My Goodwill won’t take exchanges or returns, not even for the DVD + receipt that didn’t have the actual DVD in it.
I finally browbeat them into store credit (which I then “sold” to a customer in line) by repeatedly referencing the Implied Warranty of Merchantability and the lack of “as is” sign, but it took a lot of work.
Not-so-frugal: After telling myself “no more cats” after my Turtle Bean died at 15 or so (I never knew how long she’d been on the road before I got her) well, guess what, I got a cat! Of course I hadn’t saved anything of T’s, so between carrier, litter box etc. on top of vet visit and shots, this is no free cat. (She came to me last minute as a rescue so I didn’t have time to thrift shop for those items, and with no records, so first stop vet of course.) On the other hand, pets are good for your physical and emotional health so maybe somewhat frugal in the long run.
1. Picked an ugly food dish for said cat out of the free pile at recycling. Will do until I find a nicer one.
2. Sold five books on Amazon that I picked out of free pile at my town’s recycling center.
3. Hung laundry.
4. Listed pet ramp my dog refused to use (I wanted him to ride in the wayback of my Forester; he insists on the back seat) on our community list serve: had two buyers interested but ended up donating to a charity that needed it for a disabled client to load her dog.
5. Bought a robo vac on sale last month and regretted purchase. Just resold it unopened, for profit to me, and also savings for buyer.
6. FAIL. I left an entire meal cooked up in the slow cooker sitting on the counter all night. Refuse to risk food poisoning over it, though it is a loss of more than $$: damn it smelled good! The reason for this was nothing more than distraction, and after a good kick-myself I have to let it go.
Sometimes it’s one step forward, two steps back.
6. Cynthia, I’ve done stuff like that plenty of times!
Me too, ugh! I left a roast with potatoes on the counter overnight, recently, such a waste!
Cynthia, cats are cheaper than therapy. 🙂 For me, anyway!
I consider my cats AS therapy, lol!
I doubt that leaving the food in the crockpot overnight is really going to hurt. We used to do it all the time as a kid, before the rules for food safety changed. Reheat the and let it sit at that high temp for a while, then quickly chill it and use it up in the next day or so. I think we have become so safety concerned that we are losing some of our ability to fight off disease, becoming MORE susceptible to things like food poisoning. Just my opinion, and I would rather eat food that is chilled promptly and put away, but I’ve eaten something left out many times without becoming ill.
If the crockpot was on, then the food has remained in the safe zone. If it was turned off, then it’s as if you left the food on the counter overnight.
For me it depends how hot the evening was. It wasn’t left in the crockpot but on the counter, so…
Re: your #6: I will sometimes cook something delicious in my frying pan and then stick the pan in the (cold!) oven overnight, with a Post-it Note alerting me that I’ve done this, so that I can scramble eggs or do something else in the pan the next day. I’ve been doing this for several years now, and I ain’t dead yet. So I might have taken the risk for your slow cooker meal. Of course, we all have different tolerance levels for this sort of thing, and everyone’s mileage may vary.
I used to do this all the time. I finally put a nightlight on in my bedroom and turned it on every time I had something on the counter that needed to be put away before bed. If I went to bed and saw the light on, I knew I needed to go back into the kitchen. My sister, who is also afflicted with this, puts her oven timer on for two hours when she leaves a meal to cool down. The bell when it goes off reminds her to put something away.
I use my timer for things like that also. But as you get older, like me, you will find yourself in the kitchen taking some pills at bedtime–that gives me a second chance to put away anything that might have been left out. Also, since my husband is getting forgetful and sometimes does strange things with leaving things out, I get to double-check on him this way as well.
Lindsey, I love the idea of the nightlight reminder!
Love the reminder ideas! I use my oven timer to remind me of so many things that pretty soon I’ll have to leave a note next to the stove telling me why the alarm is going off!
We do the best we can amid distractions!
I use the alarm feature on my phone for just that reason. Sometimes the stove timer would be going off, and I’d have no idea why. Or I’d be outside and not hear it. With the phone I can label the alarm.
1. I was diagnosed with TMJ and was fitted for a mouth guard by my dentist. I later got a statement from my dental insurance company saying I owed the whole amount — $600. That was scary. I called my dentist’s office and told them, and was told they’d only charge me $150. Then my husband suggested I call our medical insurance company just for kicks, and it turns out that a mouth guard is covered by them. So I’ll only have to pay 10% of the $600, or $60. I was happy about only having to pay $150; I’m ecstatic about $60. (I’m so thankful for it, but it makes my mouth look weird and distorted. My dentist told me I could wear it as much as I wanted … I’m already having visions of wearing it around the house, forgetting I have it on, getting an unexpected visitor, and opening my door with a big smile. Hopefully the person won’t faint.)
2. My husband sold a bike that my son had outgrown a while back. Stuff out and money in, Katy! Now the number of bikes we have matches the number of kids we have.
3. The opening of the liquid dishwashing detergent bottle by my kitchen sink was gunked up to the point that when I’d squeeze it, nothing would come out and then a whole lot would come out. A bunch was being wasted getting squirted across the sink. I spent a few minutes cleaning it with a toothpick. It looks a lot nicer and we’re not wasting it anymore.
4. Two and a half months late, but I finished my money chart for 3/31/17. (This one is for you, Bee!) It’s a quarterly tally of the different accounts I have and how much money is in each … checking, retirement fund, etc. I’ve been doing it faithfully since the mid 1990s – I think that means I’m getting old.
5. My family went to Sam’s and we split up into two groups. My daughter went with me and my son went with my husband. When we met back up the first thing my son said to me was, “Mom! You’ll be proud of us … we got the free sample from the machine!” I think they’re on to me.
Three cheers for your money chart. I do love to use spreadsheets. It is always good to know where I stand. But most importantly, it helps me to stay motivated when I see things progressing.
1. My comment will be somewhat unrelated because, I can tell from your post, you need a special type of mouth guard that had to be made for your problem. I grind my teeth at night and have recently found that my Dollar Tree has basic mouth guards and for me, they have stopped my grinding. Just thought it was worth a mention if it would help others. I hope you get relief from your TMJ!
I grind my teeth at night, too. I use a night time mouth guard from my dentist that is more than 15 years old….fortunately, my dental insurance covered all of it at the time. My new dentist took one look at it (about 7 years ago), and said it’s “the Cadillac of custom mouth guards”. One thing I love about this dentist is that he’s frugal….after our dog chewed on this same mouth guard, my dentist checked it, checked the fit, and declared it was still usable. (They also cleaned it with some sort of hydrosonic cleaner thingie). I’m still using it, and I figured out years ago that I truly sleep better with it, than without it. I hope your’s helps your TMJ, BJS.
Hi BJS, |
As a fellow person with TMJ, I have a cool tip- If you start to wear your mouthguard down, instead of getting a new one every year or so (ouch!) many dentists will add material to fill in the dents. I grind my teeth so much that I bring it to the dentist every 6 months and they just add more material to it. It takes about 30 minutes and is free for me. So happy I brought it in instead of waiting for it to break.
Thanks Jennifer, Liz, and Cara! This jaw pain is fairly new to me so all your experience and tips are extremely helpful! I’ll remember what each of you said.
I’m happy to hear the insurance company is paying for your mouth guard. I’ve had my mouth guard for around 2 years and I wish I’d given in and gotten it sooner – like back when I did have dental insurance. Although as amazingly crappy as that insurance was, I doubt it would have been covered. With my TMJ, my jaw would occasionally freeze and I couldn’t open my mouth all the way. I put up with this until my jaw did the freeze thing on vacation – and I could only open my mouth about a finger’s width for a couple of days. I remember eating trail mix one nut at a time (trail mix because…small pieces!), carefully maneuvering each piece so I could get it in my mouth. My jaw has never frozen since I got the mouth guard, and like Liz B. said, I sleep better now that I have it. Mine is bright green (my choice – my grandkids love it!) because I thought it would be fun to have a bright color. Of course, if some unsuspecting person saw me talk while I had it in, that bright green sure might give them pause!
Susanna, that’s awful about your jaw freezing up, and on vacation — ugh. I haven’t had that happen, but I was waking up with a sore jaw on a regular basis and it was getting more difficult to eat tall sandwiches, so I knew something was wrong. I’m not to the point yet where I sleep better with the mouth guard, but that’s something to look forward to. And I love the bright green … I bet that means you have a fun personality!
1. My Bissell hand steamer would not spray water. I followed their troubleshooting list which did nothing. I took it apart and found a corroded pump. I watched a Youtube video and fixed it! It take up a big part of my evening, but it was very satisfying to fix myself.
2. I sold three items on ebay this week for $60, $16, and $28. First was a gift, second I had bought at a rummage sale for $2, and the last was free from a garage sale.
3. I have been on the lookout for cheap shelving for our basement. I was driving through town yesterday and found a free shelving set by the curb, from a closed business. I swooped it up. It’s exactly what I wanted.
4. When I went to redeem my coupon for a free pint of Halo Top ice cream, I found another coupon sitting by the register. After I paid, a third one printed for me. So I took home 3 free pints of different flavors.
5. I sold two lamps, a pair of curtains, and a purse on the FB sale sites this week for a total of $30. The curtains had been left in our house. The other three were from yard sales, for which I had paid $4.50.
#4 Great score! I love the Halo ice cream, and they are expensive!
Don’t you just love the satisfaction of fixing something yourself? Good for you Bettypants!
Good job on the repair! I love it when I can fix something myself. Very satisfying, isn’t it? 😀
I have a Bissell carpet shampooer and I replace parts and fix stuff on it like that too! It is very satisfying to know you can DIY something and not have to replace it!
1. Cleaned my own house on Friday before a “ladies’ luncheon” I hosted on Saturday for a dear friend who is getting (re)married.
2. Took bus to/from work yesterday.
3. Took a walk after dinner last night and found the outdoor table I’d been looking for in a neighbor’s driveway with a “free” sign on it! Needs some work (it’s rustic, which is what I wanted) including top screwed onto base, base re-painted black, top sanded a bit and varathaned, but son is home from college and can take it on! So excited, it’s long and narrow which will be perfect, and it will seat 8-10 people!
4. Returning something I bought that I shouldn’t have.
5. Found a cute top for DD at the thrift shop for $2!
Prepping to leave on vacation, having vacation bible school and readying a daughter to move to Prague didn’t leave much time last week but I think I can still come up with five.
1. I shopped my stockpile for food to bring to the beach. With what my sister-in-law brought, we’re doing great at fixing tasty meals for five of us.
2. Our stop at the Food Lion was pretty cheap. I found a woman marking down top quality beef patties so bought a pound to make a kale casserole or chili for 2.99 a lb and stew meat which we’ll put over the brown rice we both brought with us for a version of stroganoff with frozen green beans that were 1.00 a lb.
3. I forgot my toothbrush and toothpaste but the dollar store provided each and a .50 Father’s Day card.
4. While my daughter was packing for living in Prague, she really needed a luggage scale to make sure she didn’t go over the fifty lb. limit. It occurred to me our Swiss neighbor goes back home once a year and might have one. She was gracious and loaned us hers. At forty six pounds, my daughter is relieved she has a little wriggle room.
5. On this rainy day at the beach, we’re going to a matinee and eating lunch at a favorite restaurant. And possibly stopping by the Kitty Hawk memorial so my husband can pick up his ten dollar lifetime pass to National Parks before the price goes up this year! And tonight after eight o’clock, we’ll splurge on half priced shakes from Sonic down the hill!
1. Full house with company this week! Kids entertained themselves swimming in the pool and fishing/crabbing off of a neighbor’s dock. Happy as clams. Ate the big fish, threw the rest back.
2. Eating lots of kale & lettuce salad from the garden.
3. Splitting the grocery bill with our company, mostly shopping at the new super Walmart. Resort towns hike up grocery prices in the summer, but our Walmart is still a good deal. No meals out.
4. Netflix when the kids are tired, for Veggie Tales, etc. Also PBS kids for free entertainment.
5. Contacted a local “celebrity” and took the kids to meet him. He stars on a nature show that the kids watch on TV. Got his autograph. They were starstruck.
Frugal fail: All my squash and zucchini plants got the squash bug. I did get a couple of week’s squash out of it before they had to be pulled out of the ground.
Also, kids went to my “craft supplies” (old Christmas cards, stickers, tape, glue, ribbons) and made Father’s Day cards for their Dad.
MommaL, I envy your kids that fishing/crabbing off the dock. And DH and I are also dining luxuriously out of the garden, now that summer’s really almost here (even by the calendar; summer solstice is tomorrow) and the cold/dank period of late May/early June here in Upstate NY seems to have passed. I’ve done three different stir-frys with snow peas and mixed greens in the past week.
No real cure for the squash bug except to start more squash seeds/plants, alas. But you can still probably plant zucchini seeds at this point and get some late zucchini.
I might, A. Marie, its so discouraging, I might plant something else instead, that doesn’t take up so much room per plant!
1. I am tending a friend’s garden while her family is at the beach. Picked seven pounds of blueberries from her garden yesterday. We’re eating our fill and freezing for winter breakfasts. I’ll pick again Wednesday and Friday. I invite friends along, so it’s sociable as well.
2. Husband stepped in poison ivy while berry picking. I washed all clothes as soon as we got home. No itching yet.
3. We bought dog food on the way home from the garden. No extra milage, and husband was with to lift the 30 pound bag.
4. I cooked half of the lima beans gifted from a neighbor. They prove a perfect vehicle for the elder dog’s blood pressure meds. I tuck the tiny pills under the lima skin.
5. Having accidentally overcooked the limas, I used the very thick broth to make my hot cereal for a few days. Drank water, line dried the laundry, read library books, watered my garden containers.
Doing some anthropologic research (and waiting for the library to open on Sunday afternoon), I went to an open house for a vulgar gold-plated condo that has a sky view of Georgetown. Would you believe–the solid cherry kitchen cabinets are not deep enough to hold a dinner plate? When I pointed this out to the agent, she told me, “People who buy at this price point don’t cook.” Or eat?
Spending waaaaaay too much time on Zillow these days, and it’s easy to tell when something’s above my price point: the kitchen has fewer cupboards than my current small home. Crazy!
That is ridiculous, although it does validate my theory that there’s an inverse relationship between how much someone spends on their kitchen and how much they actually cook.
Katy, I like the inverse theory, since I’m a fan of inverse theories in general and have invented a few. (For example, A. Marie’s Theory of Weddings: The happiness and stability of the marriage are in inverse proportion to the amount of money, time, and exasperation spent on the ceremony.)
I like this inverse theory. It sort of justifies why my kitchen is always dirty (I clean several times every day, but there’s a perpetual rotating mess).
And I think A. Marie’s wedding comment is so true. A wedding is a microcosm of the marriage… so is the wedding a day to celebrate family and love and hope and future, or is it a day to be the princess and have “your” special day? I knew my husband was the perfect man for me when he was more concerned about making sure the reception hall was handicap accessible than whether the rental car was the right color.
Katy – it sure seems that way. I’ve met a few exceptions but the rule still stands IME. My kitchen is nice[1] but not at realtor’s so-called professional kitchen levels.
[1] I combined the old kitchen & dining room. Huge island has sink, DW, workspace, & eat-in counter. One wall is mostly upper & lower cabinets & drawers w workspace, another is mostly floor-to-ceiling cabinets.
Mary, I was wondering where you are located in MD? My blueberries aren’t close to ripe but I did pick 18 lbs. of sour cherries today. I’m in the Annapolis area.
Kim,
I’ve often wondered where in Maryland you are. I’m in Silver Spring, but the garden I’m tending is in Columbia. It features several different cultivars of blueberries, some are riper than others.
Mary,
Thanks for responding! I have a friend in Columbia and her blueberries are ripe. I need to finish up dealing with the sour cherries so my blueberries not being ripe yet is actually a blessing!
Do they eat out all the time??
That’s weird. You’d think they would have personal cooks or chefs and what if you wanted to entertain guests?
How weird!! I would never buy property that didn’t have a fully functioning kitchen, no matter how much money I had.
Oh, wow……lucky you to have all those lovely blueberries. I heard the siren song of blueberries on sale at Krogers last week – they’re ok, but not very flavorful.
As for the expensive but shallow cherry cabinets….how dumb is that?? My kitchen is fairly good sized, and has lots of cabinets….and all of them can accomodate dinner plates. At 10 years old, some would say my kitchen is “dated”….yeah, whatever. It’s fine. I don’t need granite, or marble, or concrete, or whatever the current fad is in countertops.
Congrats on the growth of the Facebook group! I love seeing what everyone comes up with. 🙂 This week:
1. I got a free and extremely fancy cat tree from a neighbor. Hopefully this will keep our kitty off our cloth blinds!
2. Mr. Picky Pincher ordered four sets of beer kits on fire sale. It was a lot of money upfront, but this will keep him stocked up on beer until Christmas. 🙂
3. I’ve had food poisoning so I guess the upside there is that I haven’t been eating much food lol?
4. I hung out our laundry to dry instead of using our dryer. Fun fact: I don’t have a clothes line so I hang the clothes on the rafters of our porch!
5. I cleaned our house today myself instead of buying a damned Roomba.
“The best bargain is the item never purchased in the first place.” So true! I’m going to keep a little copy of this quote in my wallet!
1. In keeping with the quote above, I’ve spent the majority of days this month staying home/near home and out of stores.
2. Found out after we got home that we weren’t given the sale price on meat at the butcher shop. In my defense, my husband made the purchase (yep, gonna blame him) and I saw him check the label on the package of meat, so I assumed (I know, I know) that he was checking the price. Turns out he was checking the weight of the meat for some reason. Anyway, called the butcher and he said to stop in the next time we were in the area. My husband was going right past the shop the next day, so he stopped in. Was given the choice of the difference refunded, or a package of their awesome bacon (that well exceeded the difference between the sale price and incorrect choice). Several nights of BLT sandwiches in our future!
3. Paid for the elbow joint needed for the downspout (endless, endless rain this year) and a new stair tread with a Menards rebate. Since the 5 year long remodel of our home is pretty well over and done, we won’t be getting many more rebates. But I’d rather not spend money at all than get 11% back on tons of remodeling money spent.
4. In addition to being rainy, it was unseasonably cold for a few days. I cooked up a pot of beef stew, threw a roast in the crock pot along with a jar of pepperoncini (for quick “Italian beef” sandwiches) and baked up three meatloaves. Took the damp chill out of the house, and I have lots of “thaw and eat” meals in the freezer for days when (if?) the sun returns and we can spend long days working outside again.
5. I’ve been seeing how long I can make products last. If I know we have lots of a product, I tend not to be as careful with how much I use. So I told myself “this bottle of dish soap is all you have in the house (it isn’t), you’re keeping expenses down and it has to last until the end of the month because you can’t buy any more.” The dishes are just as clean, the dish soap is lasting – and it WILL last until the end of the month, if not past. Time to apply this thinking to many other products!
Susannah, it’s been a very cold and wet spring here, too. I’m still making lots of chicken soup for those chilly days. Uses up chicken carcasses, heats the house while it’s cooking, and heats me up when I eat it – win, win, WIN!
Congrats on nearing the end of the marathon remodel. Have you figured out how much you’ve saved by doing so much of it yourselves?
Mary W, I wish I knew for sure exactly how much we’ve saved by doing the bulk of the remodeling work ourselves and reusing materials we had whenever we could. Some things I know the savings almost to the penny; others are ball park, “average cost in your area” estimates. At least $35,000; probably more. There was a reason this house was priced so very far below assessed value! Thankfully, even after everything we did to turn this former hot mess of a house into our dream home, we still got a screaming deal on the place to begin with. I think the sheer ugliness and deferred maintenance scared off a lot of potential buyers, especially since this is more of a vacation home/second home market and most people want to come up here to relax and have fun, not work, work, WORK. For us, it became our very first retirement project – although my husband referred to it as “our retirement full time JOB” on more than one occasion.
Lol, I think your hubby was probably spot on, but think of it this way. You’ve been “paid” for that work to the tune of $35K+, tax-free!
My house is a manufactured home, so not too quirky, but it also had suffered from neglect and delayed maintenance. I’ve ripped out carpet and put in laminate (wish I’d put in hardwood instead, but I couldn’t afford it at the time), done minor repairs and painted. I’m still living with a few jobs I’m not quite brave enough to tackle yet, like replacing all the particle board subflooring in the kitchen, utility room and baths, damaged in various leaks before I bought and then in a flood from a brand new washer right after I moved in. The floor has a definite wave to it in the kitchen and utility, and the master bath floor squeaks and creaks.
I’m also way too good at procrastinating on jobs I don’t like, such as anything electrical. I don’t mind a lot of remodeling jobs, but I’m not fond of messing with electricity, even though the small jobs I’ve done, like replacing a light switch have gone well and shockingly, didn’t (shock me).
I’m not going to pay for travel time for professionals if I can do something myself, so I’m really working on knocking off a small maintenance job every week. With as long as I’ve lived with these deferred jobs, doing one a week will get me to where I want to be in about a year, lol, but at least it will be done!
I’ve had more frugal fails than wins recently…
1. Found a penny on the ground, picked it up, and put it in my pocket.
2. Am wearing an entirely-thrifted outfit today and so is my LO.
3. Got a new car seat, which was paid for by the insurance company because our old one got windshield glass in it (hail storm took out my back window and totaled the car). The old seat was one given to us by my best friend, so I did my research, picked a convertible seat that would grow with him and had great safety ratings, and I love it. And it was free!
4. Planning on Thursday to sit down with hubby and go through our expenses. He has some lofty goals for our future, and I need to be more supportive. But part of what motivates me to not spend is seeing all the numbers and where everything is going. I’m excited about that part.
That’s all I’ve got, folks. Here’s to a more purposefully-frugal rest of the week 🙂
You’ll have to post a link to the video!
1. Ate leftovers for lunch.
2. I’m being more careful about turning off fans and lights when nobodys in the room.
3. We’ve had more expenses lately, namely getting our car re-registered since we moved to a new country, so yesterday I wrote out a list of money saving ideas that I can use in our current context.
4. Instead of opening the fridge a thousand times a day, I’m trying to do better about collecting anything that needs to go in (say after a meal) right by it, then putting it all in at once.
5. My husband trimmed mine and my daughter’s hair.e
Lets see if i have 5…
1. Swept my house instead of running the vacuum.
2. still sorting through my stuff, DH stuff and my moms stuff to pull together a huge pile for donating. I do have a few things to bring to a consignment shop (like my Tiffany Ice Bucket, still in the blue box with the ribbon – was used 2x in 23 years). I know there will still be more to donate/consign.
3. instead of eating or web-surfing, i mowed the lawn yesterday. In all, i hit over 20k steps on my tracker!
4. Last fall, when i owed quite a bit to one of my CC’s, i asked them for an interest rate reduction, which they denied. I paid that card off in full 2 months ago and they sent me a note stating that they should have not denied me and are crediting me for all the interest i paid over those 6 months! Woo hoo! I have had this card since 1994 and because of hubbys’ large medical bills, we had used it a lot for emergencies in the past year. it was the largest i had ever seen it!
5. i forgot i had a package of smoked salmon in the fridge. (not sure how that happened.) So today’s lunch will be deconstructed sushi….rice, smoked salmon, minced ginger and i’ll toast a piece of Nori to break up over the rice/ginger mixture. Won’t be the same as sushi roll but i’ll eat it with chopsticks and the experience will be there (that’s what i’ll tell myself anyway.) 😉 I pulled a piece of sirloin out of the deep freeze to cook up for DS for his rice.
Hey, i did have 5!
Try rolling your own sushi! I’ve done it with the kids, and it’s easy. It’s easier if you have a bamboo rolling mat, but if you don’t and if the sushi falls apart, you can go back to deconstructed (or sushi salad, which we have around here).
Also, try ebay with the Tiffany Ice Bucket, especially if it has the box!
20k steps! That’s impressive. Frugal excercise!
Loud cheers for your #4, Nancy. It’s hard enough to lose a spouse without getting gouged on the credit card rate for the medical bills as well.
the medical bills weren’t on the cards (thankfully). but we had used our cards often last year for different things (needed a washer, oil for heat, car repairs,etc.
When DH passed, I owed over 15k in medical bills. We had multiple ‘payment plans’ with different hospitals and doctors.
1. Froze a bunch of peaches. More peaches ripened, and some will be frozen and others will be made into peach cobbler for our church’s lunch on Sunday. More loquats are being dried. It’s pretty boring, but it will keep us from buying as many raisins, and it reduces wasted food on the tree.
2. AS I WAS WRITING THIS my husband came in to instruct the kids on how to correctly was a paintbrush. Yesterday they left paint in the brushes they washed, and the brushes were hard. Apartment Therapy had a solution (after a quick search) and we will likely not have to buy replacement brushes!
3. We’ve closed up the house the last couple days, and so far haven’t resorted to AC. I dumped waste water on the sidewalk in the sun just before it was time to open up, and that cooled off the hot concrete noticeably. I don’t have proof that it cools off the air, but it makes me happy, and I *think* it reduces the heat sink that the concrete would be anyway. (Humidity is not much of a problem here.)
4. Took the kids to the pool yesterday after they helped my husband paint the barn. They would have finished if we hadn’t run out of paint! Only $2 for the pool — I forgot sunscreen so I couldn’t swim and had to hide in the shade.
5. We’re heading to the coast today to avoid some of the heat, instead of using AC. We’re taking a picnic, croquet set and bicycles for cheap, cool fun.
Loved your #5! what a wonderful way to avoid AC. I miss the coast and hope we can get there for some vacation time this summer.
1. Cut a few hydrangeas from the yard to enjoy in the house. They look great in the large antique milk pitcher I bought at a church yard sale 2 weekends ago for a $1. Got to love frugal flowers.
2. Sold a DVD on Amazon for $70! I’d received it in a box of books someone gave me for free awhile back.
3. Received an online survey about grocery shopping. I’ll receive a $15 Amazon GC for completing it.
4. Did a mystery shop at Crate & Barrel for a new to me company. It required a purchase which I’ll be reimbursed up to $10 and I’ll also be paid $10 and $3 bonus. Looked on C&B website before I went to save time and to be sure to get something I needed or could use as a gift. Bought 7 Weck canning jars that were on 50% clearance. My total OOP after reimbursement is 92¢ for $21 of jars. Now I just have to can the sour cherries I picked!
5. Found a brand new Select Comfort mattress pad for $2 at the charity shop. DS#2 needs one for his bed at his off campus house in the fall. Third year of college, third different size bed! It sells for $119 on their website. Also found a LL Bean duvet cover for $1 for our bed. This is at a charity shop that every 2 weeks all final clearance is 90% off after 2 PM.
Other than that I’m drinking my own coffee, hanging out laundry, composting and rescuing forgotten coins from the Coinstar return. Yesterday was $3.02 from one machine and included 2 silver dimes and a 1943 steel penny!
1. My chickens are laying approximately one egg per day. It has cost quite a lot to get them the feed, coop, etc. so I’m glad they are giving back. Is it weird that I feel kinda guilty when I sneak in and steal the hard earned eggs from the hens?
2. I got a big, nice rug for $30 from a yardsale this past weekend. She had $40 on the rug and it was brand new but I thought I would at least try to see if she would take less and she did. Never hurts to ask. I am painting most of the inside of my house so I am gradually getting things that match the new color while selling the old stuff to help recoup the money spent.
3. A friend brought us lunch as a thank you for some things we did for him. I had brought chicken salad for sandwiches for lunch so we just ate them later on that night. Love it when I can skip cooking!
4. I am using half the recommended amount of laundry detergent it says on the bottle. My clothes seem just as clean and it last twice as long.
5. I took my kids to a local frozen custard shop. They never finish a whole frozen custard and it’s so expensive. I asked the girl at the counter if they would mind giving me an extra cup so I could split it. They split it for me and even threw in an extra cherry so each kid would have one! I get really frustrated with how much my kids waste and have found that I can split most of the meals/ snacks if we eat out. Most people understand that some kids don’t eat much and seem glad to help. I don’t mind paying for two meals if they would eat them!
As so many posters mentioned, June has not been a frugal month. Graduations, Father’s Day, guests in town etc. all contributed to the budget busting, but also to summer fun. Did I mention vet expenses for our dog? And – the most frustrating of all – lack of self control.
Here are my five:
1. Cooked a lovely roast beef for Father’s Day and used the scarce leftovers to make a beef pot pie which actually tasted pretty good.
2. We are using a $10 coupon awarded to “members” at a favorite restaurant this evening as we celebrate our anniversary.
3. An opera opening we hoped to attend this weekend is offering 25% off. I don’t think we will be able to make it, but not going at all is 100% off.
4. Cleaning my own house this month – $$ saved.
5. Lots of the usual stuff – trying to form these inclinations into habits: bought gas at Costco when we were out there shopping, ate the free samples, and resisted buying treats. Also, keeping track of expenditures so I can track where I mess up on non-essential buying as well as skipping pricey drinks at restaurants to lower the overall cost of the “experience of being waited on” which I love etc.
Happy anniversary, Janine. You and I have “enjoying eating out” in common; I’m now remembering another post from a while back about that. How is your friend who lost her child recently doing?
She is doing well. She has become active in a political campaign for a candidate her daughter supported which she sees as a way of memorializing her.
Katy, please approve my request on your FB page.
Hello All!
1) Continued to make & bring my own coffee to work and my lunch as well. To date, I have saved about $135 in eating out costs so far.
2) Speaking of which, I went to Grocery Outlet again. They had precooked chicken portions at BOGO (buy one, get one) for $2.99. Got enough for a couple of weeks of chicken topped salads- I froze what I would not be eating this week.
3) Bought smoked salmon from a truck run by Yakima Nation natives. Expensive and worth every penny- will be used to top salads and will make sushi rolls with it.
4) Hung up my wash instead of putting it in the dryer. Only thing I would put in the dryer during the summer are towels. Not doing an outdoor clothesline in the backyard because there is a dovecote (!) and those birds make a mess!
5) Made bitters from my own weeds- dandelion root, wild ginger (!) and mint, along with orange peel.
If you are machine drying your towels to avoid the “crunchy” feeling, try throwing them in the machine for a couple minute when they are mostly dry. I did that for a while, but now my family is used to the crunchy feeling (“natural exfoliation”).
Hey there- that is the reason why I use the dryer- that crunchy feel. I will try your tip! Thanks!
1. I’ve had 3 stay-home, no-spend days in a row.
2. I have to run errands today, so I will batch them. Stop at bank to make a deposit AND take a bowl of coins to the coin machine; drop off donation at Goodwill; go to post office.
3. Still trying to downsize bookshelves. Filled a box today to donate. Checked going prices online of ones I thought might be worth selling.
4. The hubs has been working out of town this week. I freeze individual servings of the meals I cook when he’s gone. Next time he works out of town, they will be new-to-him home cooking.
5. Re: #4 His previous employer paid for groceries to be shipped to his workplace, so he used to order brand-name frozen dinners. He has since changed jobs and takes his own groceries. When that happened, I invested in sturdy containers and began making his work meals nightly from our suppers, which we stockpile in the freezer so he always has a variety to choose from. He used to have a LOT of stomach issues, and ate Tums like candy. He realized shortly after the change to all home-cooked meals that he never needed the antacids anymore. He’s happy with the home cooked meals in their no-waste containers, we never have leftovers spoil in the fridge, and we have crossed cases of Tums off of our shopping list. All frugal things!
Excellent news on the home cooked meals and no need for Tums! I have noticed that with my no takeout month that the bloating and such has decreased dramatically.
Yay you for being able to take Tums off your shopping list, plus eating home cooked meals. My hubby has terrible GERD (takes prescription med AND otc store-brand Pepcid equivalent)….he also drinks a boatload of soda pop every.single.day. Seriously. Cans and cans of Diet Mountain Dew (at least 5 every morning, and sometimes more during the day), plus Diet Rite cola. He knows if he cut down on the soda, he’d feel better (and we’d save the $$), but he’s truly addicted, and won’t do it. He’s tried before, and lasted only a few weeks before starting again. I’m done trying to convince him.:-(
1. Keeping windows in the house open as many hours as possible before closing up and turning on AC for a few hours. I prefer the fresh air. Our thermostat is set for AC to come on once it hits 80 in the house. We live in one of the most arid states in the country, so humidity’s not a problem.
2. A friend gave me two dozen eggs from her chickens. They’re super fresh so should last a long time in the fridge.
3. We had Father’s Day brunch instead of dinner. The highlight was a new-to-me blueberry coffee cake, all ingredients already on-hand.
4a. Entertaining myself with huge stack of library books, mostly on gardening. I also watched the first episode of the new season of Grantchester on PBS on Sunday. It’s one of my favorite series.
4b. Semi-frugal entertainment: We’ve been livestreaming concerts of a favorite band that’s on tour this summer. Though the livestream isn’t free, different friends host each time so the cost gets spread around. Each gathering is potluck. Great music and great company!
5. Used Skymiles to purchase airline tickets for a vacation later this summer. Family is letting us use their condo, so accommodations are free, and we make full use of the kitchen and eat all meals in. Since I have to cook for people with food allergies and other dietary restrictions, we pack some food with us. It’s usually things like GF pasta and pancake mix that I buy by the case on sale at home. This has saved us a lot of money in the past as well as the time trying to locate which grocery stores have the food items we need.
New season of Grantchester?! My sister and I call that show “The Yummy Vicar.”
Oh. so. yummy! Yes, season 3 started Sunday night in the US, and it’s a good thing. I was going through withdrawal the past few weeks. I think the final re-broadcast of S3E1 is this Saturday night, and then episode 2 airs on Sunday. I discovered that my PBS station offers a reminder service for shows. You can choose text or email, as well as how far in advance of the broadcast you want the notification. I bet other stations offer it as well. I put the notification request for Grantchester in at least 2 weeks ago so I wouldn’t miss it!
Grantchester is a wonderful way to pass the time. James Norton is just dreamy!
You should watch him in “Happy Valley”!! He is evil!! Quite the contrast.
Agreed! Still lovely to watch, but a horrific character.
So happy to see Grantchester back on with new episodes. Yummy vicar, indeed!
Now you have at least 35,001 on Fbook. Where can we find you on your TV interview. Nice job with the lipstick. 🙂
1. Restocked my jasmine rice supply. 25 pounds at 50 cents a pound. We are set for chicken and rice for the next six months.
2. I’ve been watching manyyyy free enviromental and frugal documentaries and reading websites the last few days trying to figure out what direction I want to go next. My trash is very little, I recycle or compost what I do have, my grocery bill is small but I don’t buy local or organic unless it’s cheaper, I grow a few herbs and tomatoes but have a yard I could use for more, I use water before showers and washing dishes to water plants, I use ceiling fans to keep the house cool and my utility bills are low, air dry my clothes. Buy clothes and some needed things at thrift stores instead of new. Donate things I no longer use but wonder if I should try selling them instead. Do all our own mowing but learned that gas mowers are awful for the environment and electric is better. Batch errands but wonder if I could go back to riding a bike more. One doc had a guy in Germany who rented his car out to those who needed a car for just a trip or something. He said he thought it was better for there to be fewer cars and helped people who don’t have cars. He said his parents could never do that because they were to attached to their possessions. I think a lot of the youngest generations have a very different mindset towards the world and it is changing things. Brick and mortor stores and restaurants are closing and new trends are becomng the norm. I’m just not sure how I fit and where and which way I’m going yet. I really don’t want to sell things or rent my car or rooms in my house but maybe I should explore those options. It’s much easier for me to be frugal by omission… I don’t buy, I don’t do, I don’t have….but I’m beginning to think that’s not enough to really make any difference and I need to be more proactive. But I’m not sure where to start.
“” It’s much easier for me to be frugal by omission… I don’t buy, I don’t do, I don’t have….
But sometimes opting out of certain consumptive behaviors is the best things. For example, I don’t have a car- so that is $200-400/month, EVERY MONTH, that I do not have to worry about. This has allowed me the privilege of buying a small home, of having savings in the bank for a rainy day, of being able to eat nourishing, affordable meals- and even splurge on excellent wine on occasion. It also means a lot less pollutants i the atmosphere.
Trust me, you are human, you are valuable and you fit in this world.
The Frugal Zealot wrote about this many years about this in The Tightwad Gazette. She wrote a funny piece about how news shows always wanted to do stories about all the things she ‘did’ to save money, but that they really saved money by not doing things. She suggested to a journalist that they show the family driving past McDonalds. She said they weren’t interested, haha.
Thanks guys. Every day I see safeguards and protections erased with the stroke of a pen and instead of cursing and feeling helpless I want to feel a little more “active” in the state of the earth I live on.
Actually tia, by NOT participating in over-consumption, you ARE being an activist. You are actively choosing to conserve air, water, material goods, etc.
I encourage you to keep finding ways to improve on what you’re doing or not doing. I’m encouraged by States that have decided they’re going to be part of the change and move forward, instead going backwards. It takes all of us together to change things. Keep learning, because that makes you a Consciously Aware citizen. 🙂
35000 thrifty people in one place is just too good to be true. Congratulation on reaching this mark.
1) I bought two large bottles of laundry detergent on sale last week. I never used this brand before. Unfortunately, it gave me hives. I gave away the open bottle and brought the other back to the store. I exchanged it for my usual fragrance-free brand.
2) I used coupons to save $15 at the grocery store. The majority of this was a store coupon for $10 off $50. I get excited about these store coupons. 🙂
3) I received my farm basket this week. Although it had all the expected summer fruits and veggies in it — watermelon, cucumbers, tomatoes , corn, okra, and so forth. There was an out-of-season butternut squash in it. This was a bit unexpected. I roasted it yesterday and made butternut squash soup. Then promptly froze the soup. It is just too hot for soup.
4) This week my FFT also included all the usual things : drinking water almost exclusively, brewing my own coffee in the mornings, cooking from scratch, and eating at home.
5) Frugal entertainment included an ocean swim, bike riding, walking the dog, dinner with family and friends, and reading Lab Girl from the library. I also watched the last two episodes of last seasons Victoria and 2 new installments of Foyles War on DVD also from the library. Susie’s Daughter is right; there are many seasons of Foyles War to watch.
Foyle’s War is so good!
I love Foyles War. I missed the beginning of Grantchester but will watch on Sunday. We watch WTVS from Detroit, MI. I love public television. We have a public TV station also TV Ontario which is very good. I can’t bring myself to watch regular TV the ads drive me around the bend.
1. Today at lunch shopped the reduced price rack for apples and peppers at the grocery by my house.
2. Kept my budget up for July to keep a firm grasp on spending.
3. Opened the windows last night and turned off the air.
4. Actively doing Swagbucks to earn gift cards to Walmart buying food to reduce cash spent on food.
5. Got the free CVS 8×10 picture which I gave to my Dad as one of his Father’s Day gifts in a Dollar Store frame.
Congratulations on reaching your milestone! 35,000 is fantastic. You have a wonderful blog and deserve that following. Now, tell us, how did your TV appearance go, and where can we catch it?
My FFT:
1. I mentioned at hand bell practice that I had to wait until next month to get my kitten and the 2 kittens my nephew adopted from the same litter neutered/spayed, as the local humane society low cost clinic is without a vet this month. The dear lady I was visiting with offered to pay for my nephew’s 2 to be fixed at any local vet. I will still probably still use a low cost option, as there’s no sense in wasting her money any more than there would be in wasting my own, but it will be a huge help to only have to worry about my kitten’s cost, instead of all 3. I did find another option, north of here, but serving my county, which isn’t quite as handy, but is slightly less money. Just need to make the arrangements.
2. I found tomato plants, strawberry plants and herbs (plants), all on sale at Fred Meyer yesterday. I added 3 varieties of strawberries, 5 more tomatoes, and several more herbs I didn’t have already. The strawberries rang up at 3.69 at the checkstand, but when I pointed out that the plants had a sale sign for 1.99 (for a big 6 pack) on them, had no trouble getting the sale price. I also picked up the Friday Freebie while I was there – a 33.5 oz bottle of cranberry peach “mocktail”. It was the only bottle left on the shelf, so I hope I like it, or at least that my daughter does!
3. I needed rebar mesh, which I use in my garden, so I stopped at Lowe’s to buy it. The panels were about $8 each, but if I bought 6 of them or more, I could get the contractor’s price of 5.70 per panel. Since I was buying 10, that wasn’t a problem. My tomatoes will be securely enclosed with them, and I’ll have all my climbing veggies growing up them, too.
4. I replenished all the onions, potatoes, and carrots I’ve been using up at home while I was grocery shopping yesterday. That meant I had to commit to peeling all my elderly carrots, placing them in a gallon ziplock bag with some water to crisp them a bit. They still taste good, too. I hadn’t been shopping for a while, so I ended up spending $95, but about $24 of that was for 6 cans of hot chocolate mix, on sale for a good price. I shop for my pantry whenever I see a sale, and then go shopping IN my pantry when I need a new can or jar of something. The rest of the groceries were mainly dairy products and fresh produce, plus cat litter – one expense I can’t seem to get rid of, lol.
5. I purchased ink for my printer while I was in town, and made sure I got a separate receipt for it. I can turn in the receipt for reimbursement for half of the cost from the fair board, since I use the ink to print out all the info I use to decorate and inform in the garden department, where I’m the superintendent. Nearly time to get my decorations printed out and everything ready to put up. I can also be reimbursed for the rest of the cost by my TOPS club, since I print out a lot of forms, etc for the club.
I had my doubts when I picked up the cranberry-peach “mocktail” freebie but it actually was better than I thought it would be. Not overpoweringly sweet, which was what I was afraid of. We drank it over ice or mixed with seltzer and had a few freebie “mocktail hour” celebrations this past week.
Oh, that’s good to hear! I will be trying mine out over ice this weekend when temps are supposed to hit the 90s. Between that and paddling in my little pool, I hope not to need the ac too much. I have a little window unit and only cool the “master suite”, but even that can get spendy.
1. Some one gave me two big bags of clothes they didn’t want and told me do with them what I wanted. Some fit me so I have new to me clothes, I got 14.00 from one consignment shop that pays outright, another consignment shop took some,some went to good will and I mailed some to my niece. The postage wasn’t frugal for me but will help out the new college grad.
2. Shopped at Aldi again and I am sticking to a meal plan.
3. I found a really cute ball in the Aldi parking lot which will go to my little nieces.
4. I planted a few more perennials at my Father’s grave. Only two I planted last year came back so I am trying again. I got them onsale at the local grocery store.
5. I am using materials from around the house to do crafts with my little nieces. Paper plates, a yogurt cup and a broken match box truck made a pretty nifty UFO with a robot driver and left over Pom poms, a tissue box, some string , felt and card board made a fantastic fairy house.
1. My sister and I wanted to take my parents out for lunch for Father’s Day, but I left it too long to get a reservation, so instead I took lunch over to them. We had ham, egg salad, hummus with greens and veggies and dip, with a fresh loaf of sour dough my husband baked that morning. A small chocolate cake was dessert. It was cheaper than a restaurant, was very much enjoyed, and there were left overs.
2. I also bought some kale bean salad at the deli for the lunch, and because I mentioned to the clerk that once I had purchased it, and it tasted less than fresh, she only charged me for a small amount, then filled up the container. She gave me a small taste to make sure it was fresh, and it was delicious.
3. My daughter’s university grad was last week, and I had to buy a new outfit, because I wanted nice photos with her. Not frugal, but I will wear same outfit to my retirement party this week. (And for many events after!)
4. DD painted my toenails for me, for the grad, saving the cost of a pedi.
5. Trying to pack my lunch, drying laundry on a rack (not outside because we have too many seagulls close by), the usual.
Katy- thanks for encouraging frugality with your blog and FB. It helps to keep me inspired.
5 things:
1. Ate lentils and rice I batch cooked and froze.
2.Made my own coffee and croissant (Trader Joe’s frozen)for breakfast. SO much more frugal than the coffee shop and I can snuggle on the couch in jammies with my little one.
3. Found a portable toilet for camping at the local thrift store. Looked never used and was super clean. 8 bucks instead of 30.
4. Took my son to a local kid’s art studio for half priced open studio time. He made three projects with art supplies we don’t have at home.
5. Booked camping for the weekend at a very popular resort area. Used the recreation.gov site and paid about half of what a private campground cost. It was also cheaper than the state park campgrounds. We love to vacation and camping is a pretty frugal way to go. 🙂
1.Didn’t leave the house all weekend, which is pretty frugal in itself. I had plenty of work to do in the house, and it was too hot to be outdoors anyhow.
2. Couldn’t spend any money IN the house because my credit card was hacked and I was waiting for the new one to come. It came today, which was fine.
3. Husband ordered his hearing aid batteries on line, the credit card having arrived just about in time.
4. I ran out of bread flour and since I make our bread, we took a run to Sam’s Club today. Got some great deals so I was happy. Was totally out of boneless pork loin roasts–Sam’s had them for $1.68 a lb. I made six roasts out of a $12 pork loin and those will give us some leftovers as well as 6, $2 meals! 90% ground beef was $2.99 a lb, so I bought about 6 pounds of that as well. Froze it in 12 oz packages when we got home–which is plenty for 2, and often enough for a lunch besides. Walnuts were $6 a lb and I bought a 3 lb bag–I use them in the granola I make every week. Lamb chops were $7.98 a lb, and I bought enough for two meals–a luxury, but so good on the grill in summer! I did remember to get the 25# of bread flour–currently about $5.31 for the bag. A few more items rounded out the purchase. Worth the 35 mile trip to Sam’s, which we do about every other month. My husband found the not-so-cheap ciabatta rolls, which he totally loves–and bought the multigrain ones this time. I will freeze some of those and eat some fresh. I have to admit they are delicious. It did take some time to get everything broken down and foodsaver-ed for the freezer. We both worked together and had it done in less than an hour.
5. Ate leftovers for dinner after we put all the “new” food away–because they were there and needed to be used!
1. My neighbor is moving and she gave me a pack and play with sheets and a baby potty to use when our grandson visits – I will help them with their garage sale as well as have them over to dinner the first night of the sale.
2. My husband just replaced carpet on a cat climber that my daughter received from a friend.
3. I am repainting a shelf that she and her husband took from a free pile. She offered to do all the scraping, sanding and painting but I have the time so one more coat and they can pick it up.
4. We used a gift certificate at a new to us restaurant last night – paid $25 in cash to supplement the card – good food and nice to be out together for a change from eating at home.
5. That said – continue to eat most meals at home using a meal plan that we set each Sunday AM for the week, wearing thrifted clothes, reading from the library.
1. I am seeing 25 clients this week.
2. Got a huge stack of library books that I am looking forward to reading.
3. My cousin and I are going to the MFA together where she has a membership so no cost to me. Looking forward to seeing her and great art.
4. Shopped my closet for a summer handbag.
5. Need new clothes but will make do until I lose some weight.
I “sea” that Sheila is at the Outer Banks of North Carolina for vacation. One of our favorite vacation spots with the kids. Another NCAer entertains her kids with Veggie Tales. Both me and my kids loved the video when they were young.
1. No spending today or yesterday.
2. Discovered the new ceiling fan in the living room will pull in cool air into my bedroom.
3. Dh got his free toothbrush, toothpaste and floss from his dentist visit today.
4. Sunday dh made himself some salmon and I had scallops. Both bought on sale. Can’t wait for the Jersey corn to come in.
5. Watched Doc Martin season 1 and PBS is now showing Doc Martin season 2 on Saturday nights. Getting my frugal Doc martin viewings. I’ve decided to order books from iTunes to read and that the price comes out of my allowance.
1) We’re helping with Vacation Bible School at our church this week. Of course our guide book lists about $10K worth of materials we could buy. Instead we have been making do just fine with what we have around the house and church.
2) We usually only rent our house on Airbnb on the weekends, so I had someone checking out Monday morning and no one new in until Friday. I asked my cleaning lady to clean on Monday afternoon anyway in case we got a reservation while out of town. Sure enough I got a reservation on Tuesday to fill the week. I could tell them to go right on in, and $500 bucks went into the bank account.
3) We went to the beach for the day on Saturday. We are 2.5 hours from the beach. It makes a long day, but it is entirely doable, and I just love getting into my own bed at night after a beach trip. Plus it saves us a hotel, which is the most expensive part of visiting the beach.
4) We used to go for the day before we had kids and pack all of our food so that our only expense was gas. Life is just a little too crazy right now, so we packed snacks and chips and picked up sandwiches for lunch. Then we got a pizza from a local place on the way home for the whole family to share. We got no drinks or expensive beach toys for the kids. We are not doing a full vacay this year, so this beach day felt like a big treat.
5) During this week back home for VBS we haven’t been out to eat or bought anything other than groceries.
What a tremendous milestone. Congrats, Katy!
1. By being a good patient, I finished physical therapy for my feet 3 sessions early, saving me the $10 per session co-pay.
2. Foot problems that led to physical therapy have required that most of my shoes be replaced, so I’ve been shopping carefully — usually finding things at a 75 percent discount, returning anything that doesn’t fit, and aiming for owning just a few pairs. Counting things rarely worn (slippers, boots and dress shoes), I previously had a dozen pairs of shoes, but can easily get by with half that number.
3-5. Doing the daily usual: Packing my lunches and drinks, wearing cute thrifted/secondhand outfits, rack drying my laundry. Also groomed our middle dog myself, and she doesn’t look too terrible. 😀
1. I have been shopping at walmart more than target. I loathe walmart, but its much closer at our new apartment, and there is no doubt its cheaper. I’m living off of savings and ebay right now, so REALLY need to crack down.
2. My boyfriend and I are taking a much needed mini vaca after he finishes his summer finals next week. We usually do day-cations to the beach or Asheville, but this time we are going to stay the night in Asheville. We go hiking, then to the Sierra Nevada Brewery. For any of you on the East coast, it is a great place to go. You can do your own tour of the brewery (free), play games outside (cornhole etc also free), and they have live music on occasion too. The food is very reasonably priced and so are the drinks, so hiking and and afternoon at the brewery usually costs about 60 dollars. I used a coupon code, and hotwire to book a hotel for just about 100 dollars. Hotwire assigns you a hotel, but we have never had a bad experience doing this. The hotel includes free breakfast, and staying over night will allow me the chance to hit the goodwill outlet in Asheville to source for my ebay store, and go on another hike before we leave!
3. Making pasta salad today for lunches the rest of the week. I use penne, black olives, green peppers, cucumbers, feta, oil/garlic powder/red wine vinegar. Really cheap, moderately healthy lunch for hot summer days.
4. Cut coupons for detergent, toilet paper, and other household things. Didn’t print coupons for things I don’t need!
5. Got a notice that I owe our apartment complex 13.85. I will be calling to check on this, because I paid the exact amount of our bill last month.
Love being inspired by everyone’s FFTs! Here are mine:
1. Was going to stop at Trader Joe’s on the way home from a class and decided I e been there too many times lately and we will survive without the few items on my list. TJs is my kryptonite and I have a very hard time sticking to my list.
2. I went to a workout class this morning and signed up for another package of classes, which is such a better deal than paying by the class. I usually go on half-price Fridays which makes it an even better deal.
3. We picked up our son from college in LA last week and found ourselves with some extra time on ours hands so I found the closest Goodwill and hightailed over there. This almost never happens but I found just what I was looking for, even if it was a few $$ more than the stores at home. BTW, I wish we could return stuff at our GWs but they have a strict no-return policy.
4. I did some decluttering of my clothes and found quite a few things to give away. And I actually put the bags in the car and dropped them off right away – which felt so good!
5. The bonus of getting rid of a few things is more space in my dresser so I can actually put clean clothes away. I’m sure my chair will be happier without a huge pile ‘o clothes stacked on it
1. I’m moving house and finally pulling my old belongings out of storage at my parents house (which helps them as they are moving house too, and don’t want to pay the money to transport all 4 kids’ stuff as we’ve all been storing things with them for years!). Years ago I wrapped my belongings in garbage bags to protect against dust and rain. When unwrapping them, I salvaged as many as I could to use again as actual garbage bags.
2. I noticed a post on my local Buy Swap Sell page for three standing pedestal fans, all 3 for less than the price of one brand new! I think that everyone else overlooked this bargain because it is getting to be the middle of winter, so they aren’t thinking about the heat of summer. This will save me a lot of money and hassle when summer comes! Plus, I only really need one or two, so I’m thinking of fixing the oscillating feature on one of them and maybe reselling, or giving it away. I could easily sell it for $10, which would mean I got the other two for free. At the very least, it gives me an opportunity to learn how to fix something I wouldn’t know how to otherwise.
3. I ran out of deodorant and today I am trying out coconut oil as a deodorant instead. If pure coconut oil doesn’t work for me, I have a whole hierarchy of homemade deodorant options to work through til I find out. And the coconut oil can be used for moisturizing and for cooking, so it won’t go to waste.
4. Instead of running out and buying a new fridge ($600+), or buying a ridiculously overpriced second hand fridge (the people here usually ask around $250-$550), I have been taking advantage of the cold weather to keep things chilled, and taking my friend up on their offer to share their fridge for things that really need refrigeration, as they only live 2 streets away from me. Which is also helping me sneak in that little bit more exercise every day!
My 5th one is sadly a fail, not a win.
I bought 1kg of honey for $10 instead of half a kg for $7. Unfortunately the honey I bought is truly horrific and I don’t think I can eat it. I made one sandwich with it, and could barely choke it down.
I’m not sure what I can do about it. I am relying on honey as a sandwich spread with less salt than peanut butter or vegemite, and to make porridge enjoyable (especially since porridge without salt has little flavour on it’s own), as well as to make hot drinks without milk (no fridge, and have to cut salt and cholesterol down).
I’m definitely going to spring for the $18 one next time, as I know that it is quality honey that I enjoy a lot.
Kiera, good for you with #1! Wish I could show it to my 4 older kids, 3 of whom are out of the house (and the 4th moving in Sept), but then they’d know I comment on this blog and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. . . some of our frugal tricks we slide right past them 😉
Kiera, is returning the honey an option? If it is just awful, and that can happen with honey if the bees were feeding on something that gives the honey an off taste, you should be able to return it. In fact, I think it’s important to let the seller know, because if your kilo of honey is nasty, it’s likely the whole batch is, too.
If not, I suppose it could be used in soap making or something….
I’m not sure, I’ve never returned food before, and I don’t know anyone who has.
My mother suggests offering it to my cousin who lives in town (& has 4 kids who are all sick right now).
I’ve bought another (small) container of the honey that I think I’d like more (before buying the big one and having the same problem on my hands!)… But I barely like this one anymore either.
It’s possible that the medications I’m on have somehow changed my tastebuds or something, and that it’s just me who thinks this honey is bad, in which case I couldn’t possibly complain to the company hahaha!
I think I’ll have someone else taste it and tell me if they think it is good or not. That should give me somewhere to start.
I took a honey I didn’t like and simmered it for half an hour with 2 teaspoons of dried red peppers. It ended up a sweet-hot sauce I have used to baste a ham and added some water to thin it out and turn it into a dipping sauce. I read about the dried pepper thing on some blog long ago and then again more recently and love it. (But I like hot things…)
That’s a really interesting idea!
Unfortunately it won’t work for me, as I have a bit of an allergy to chilli! But really fascinating anyway, and perhaps there are other flavours I could experiment with.
Sometimes it rains. Then it keeps on raining!
After I wrote my FFT and we had our car repair of $1100 our other car started playing up – another $400. That’s $1500 in two days! Yowzer! That’s enough now thanks.
Whatever you do, don’t ask what else could go wrong?!!!
Ugh, So frustrating.. sorry about all the damn rain.
1. My mum made us a lovely chicken soup out of last nights roast chicken carcass and leftover meat. My daughter and I both had leftover chicken and potatoes for our lunches today.
2. We have some time to kill before a sports event this afternoon so I’m taking the kids to get hot chocolate with a cafe voucher I was gifted.
3. Took some library books back and borrowed new ones. This has become a fortnightly activity for us, not only do we get to read free books but we have fun going to the library, looking around and having a play.
4. Our cleaner is no longer as the price went up 25%. I’ve been doing a bit here and there as I find time and saved us $$ hiring a new cleaner each fortnight.
5. Have been offered 3 hours of work this week which also means free coffee and lunch.
Summer is a very un-frugal time for me and it is hard to not get discouraged and to lose focus. It seems like everyone I know was born in summer. Best pals, husband, brother, coworkers… So, invitations to nice dinners out are non-stop. I try and suggest lunch at my place or dog walk dates, etc. But, there are a few I “need” to go to. I will press on, though, and tighten my belt in other areas.
1. During my morning coffee and evening tea, I do a survey or two on Swagbucks. I’ve hoarded the points for gift certs that I am are buying birthday gifts for people mentioned above.
2. Really trying to kick my diet soda habit. Using the rest of the boiled kettle water to fill a one litre glass jar to make iced tea every morning. If it’s already made, I’ll gladly drink it instead of soda.
3. Continuing to line dry clothes, use old stained clothes as dust rags and am making my own spray cleaner.
4. Batch cooking lunches one or two days a week. If I’m making quesadillas for dinner, I’ll go ahead and assemble and freeze a few burrito bowls for the next couple of days.
5. Cleaned out the fridge and found six stale bagels (my husband is the culprit there). Made a huge batch of bagel chips for lunches and snacks.
There’s a goodwill that accepts returns?!? NONE of the ones by us do! Color me jealous…
I had no idea some didn’t accept returns. The ones around here have a 7 day return policy, for store credit only, and their price tags must not be removed, receipt required.
1) Our Admin office gave our outgoing CIO a nice farewell reception yesterday. The food was free and great. Instead of purchasing and expensive gift, they printed off matted and framed a nice quote and had our department employees sign the matting. Cool idea and no cost to the employees. Since the reception was in the late afternoon, I didn’t have to eat dinner at home.
2) I’m returning a book to the Library at lunch and plan to put more books on hold for pick-up.
3) One of our Campus museums has free entry on Saturday, if you have a Library card. I’m keeping my grandkids this weekend, so I plan to have my daughter give me their Library cards to I can take them to the museum for free on Saturday.
4) I bought frozen tamales at Aldi’s last weekend. That will be our evening meal on Saturday. I already have chili and grated cheese for toppings.
5) I received a refund for the shoes I bought a few weeks back from Amazon. They didn’t fit correctly and had a weird squeak in the soles.
Frugal Fail: The shipping cost for the shoes being sent to me and returning them was not refunded, which means I lost $18 on that deal. I learned my lesson on that deal. I won’t be buying shoes online anymore.
Alas I have learned that lesson also. Never again!
Buy your shoes on Zappos. Free returns!
Good to know, dawnelle! I will check them out.
The only reason I bought them online was because I have a pair of slingback mules with a cork inner-sole that I love; however, they are getting so old the sole is warping and the rubber is coming off the bottom. They are really looking worn. I think I got them at Ross several years back, but I’ve yet to find anything like them in the shoe stores that don’t cost a small fortune.
I was so thrilled when I found those shoes on Amazon. I ordered a normal B width, which is what I wear, but when I got them they fit too tight and rubbed blisters on my toes when I tried to wear them the first day. I was so discouraged and it really made me mad when they wouldn’t refund the shipping cost. I will NEVER buy something new online again that can’t be returned for free.
Learned my lesson but good on that one!
I don’t think we have them here (Australia)
1. We went to see Cars 3 at the theater and since my brother frm out of state sent ua a gift card, it costs us nothing.
2. We have stayed home recently. No eating out, no going anywhere out of just errands and grocery shopping. Boring but frugal.
3. Resisted the urge to buy a new blanket and sheet set on FB market for my daughter. It was cute as can be, and was only $5, but we do not need it. So I did not buy it.
4. Frugal fun for the kids so far this summer has been playong outside, and in our small blow up pool and in the sprinkler.
5. Hubs boss gave him a bonus this week on hos paycheck, and as tempting as it was to spend some on something we wanted, we decided not to and to put it in thr bank and leave it there. Boss also gave our daughter a y bike that hisnkids outgrew and he was getting rid of. Blessed…..
Not sure if anyone said this already, I didn’t read through all 120+ comments – try putting the eyeshadow back together with rubbing alcohol. It works great on pressed powder, so it should work with eyeshadow too. Put in just enough to wet the powder, smoosh it back together, and leave the lid open overnight to dry. Viola, like new!
1. Was driving and saw a free sign. Grabbed some dishes for a friend – turned out she didn’t need them so I dropped them off at the thrift store and they gave me a coupon off my next purchase.
2. Was shopping the clearance section at a clothing store and I checked online to see if an item I liked came in multiple colors – found that it was further reduced online by another 10.00 dollars – showed the sales clerk and she honored the online price.
3. We’ve been sticking to our meatless Mondays for the past three weeks. I’m very fortunate my family likes burrito bowls.
4. We filled our yard waste container but still had a huge pile left over so I asked around and was able to put the rest in neighbor’s containers. We can only use the containers from the garbage company for yard waste – otherwise you have to buy brown paper yard waste bags since it is turned into compost at a municipal facility. I didn’t want to but the bags so it all worked out.
5. Returned several items that I had purchased, realized that if they’ve been sitting in their bags for a few days, I didn’t really need them.
Congrats on 35,000 fb members! Well deserved. Your blog is great, and I’ve already learned a lot.
My FFT:
1) Found a large bag of summer tops a friend gave me last fall, all in very good condition. No need to buy new t shirts or tops for work.
2) Prepping for vacation, which was “paid for” months ago using rewards points (flight & hotel). Will be freezing unused produce, bread, and other perishables before leaving. I love the idea of having a meal in the freezer for when we get home, but we’ll be getting home too late to make that work. Great idea for future vacations, though. Have looked up cheap and free things to do – found a Groupon for a dolphin sighting bost trip that might be fun. Found out I have a vendor benefit through work for discounted airport parking ($2.00+ off the regular daily rate, + free newspaper, etc). Did buy a new bathing suit at a decent price, and two new pairs of shorts (50% off sale). All needed, as my 10+ year old shorts are wearing out, and my (ahem) old bathing suit doesn’t (cough cough) fit anymore.
3) Used free, new-to-me pavers to create a “paved”entry to my garden. Hoping that will make the gates easier to open (less vegetation growing there).
4) Returned son’s library books on time, and he got a pencil with a special rocket-ship-shaped eraser for participating in their summer reading program, and reading 5 books so far. The library lobby was set up like a photo booth, with space-related props (their summer reading program name is something space travel-related)….my son had the BEST time posing for pictures.
5) Took out ground pork from the freezer for a meal, and ended up not using it…..so made homemade sausage to use the next time I make baked ziti. (No problem refreezing it).
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Just a word of caution if you want it, if not keep scrolling. I would be careful of dollar store makeup. Dr. Oz just did an investigation on it. Lead!
Did he investigate other brands as well? I assume they’re all equally toxic.
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