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I was texted a Redbox code for a free movie, so my younger son and I picked up a DVD of Hidden Figures at the grocery store. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to watch it last night, but that’s okay since I spend no money out of pocket. I still want to see the movie, so I took this as an opportunity to put the movie on hold at the library. There were a whopping 452 holds, but since they have 210 copies I should get the movie soon enough. I waited this long to see it, I can wait a little longer. Patience is a key tool in my frugality tool kit.
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I’m shopping around for a cheaper web hosting company. I’m embarrassed to admit how much I’m paying per month, ($120) as you would rightly lose all respect for me as a frugal advice-giver-outer. The blog was going over its limits every month earlier this year, so I switched to a new company without doing enough research. The real money in blogging is through writing sponsored posts and affiliate links. Since I refuse to do either, The Non-Consumer Advocate ends up being a very successful yet only mildly profitable endeavor. I must keep the expenses as low as possible. It’s a huge pain in the tuchus to switch web hosts, so I’ve procrastinated this chore. No longer!
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My husband has a two-day work class next week that’s in Tacoma, Washington. I’m thinking I’ll tag along as a lesser not-as-exciting-as-Timberline-Lodge mini-vacation. I’ve never actually stopped into Tacoma, which is right outside Seattle before. I’ll probably just go into Seattle for fun, but am open to suggestions of anything interesting to do in Tacoma proper. Any advice or suggestions are welcome.
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I wanted to treat my sons to Mexican food cart burritos last night, but realized I had almost zero cash on hand. Instead I walked to the grocery store and bought peppers and refried beans and was able to assemble the rest from food already on hand. Of course they weren’t as delicious, (nothing is) but they certainly did the trick. Especially since we still had multiple bags of tortilla chips leftover from my husband’s work party a few weeks ago. I did pick up pints of Ben and Jerry’s for each kid as a special mid-week dessert. What can I say? I love to spoil them!
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I didn’t buy a Lear Jet or a vulgar gold-plated apartment in the sky.
Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 103 comments… read them below or add one }
I love the museum of glass in Tacoma. I think it’s worth paying to go in and watch them work with glass, but even if you don’t pay, they have a lot of outdoor artwork near the museum and on the skywalk above the museum.
We have a glass factory/museum near where we live as well. Visited when we had houseguests last autumn, and it was fascinating to watch the glassblowers.
I love that museum, plus there are great strolling to be had along the waterfront, the Bridge of Glass and chilling at the Conservatory.
Hi Katy–the Tacoma waterfront has been cleaned up a ton in the last 30 years and from what I understand, there’s lots to do. I hear good things about the glass museum!
Ah, Tacoma. I went to college there in the late 90s, and much has changed and improved since then. If you want to see some Dale Chihuly glass without paying for the museum, take a stroll around the University of Puget Sound. It’s a lovely campus, and the cafeteria is also quite good and inexpensive. Point Defiance Park is also a lovely place to walk around.
Even as a frugalite I think the admission for the museum of glass is well worth paying…they have different glass artists demonstrating every day in a specially designed auditorium. For free, there is the Bridge of Glass which is lovely to look at. The Tacoma Art Museum, Washington State History Museum and Point Defiance Zoo are all well done. Plus Tacoma overall is really gentrifying so you can find good food, coffee, a nice vibe etc. There’s also really good bus service to Seattle if you run out of things to do…
super creeped out by the use of gentrifying as a positive term! I live in Tacoma, the Museums are great, if you were going to be here this Thursday it is Third Thursday Art walk, the museums are all free and there are lots of things going on downtown. If you know anyone who will lend you their Pierce County Library Card, the library offers museum passes. Point Defiance Park is lovely. Wright Park has a nice conservatory. There are lots of fantastic Korean and Vietnamese restaurants. We have a Goodwill by the pound store if you want to compare and contrast (spoiler alert, yours sounds better). Thursday 10-3 there is the downtown farmers market. The Proctor market on saturday is nice too.
Any specific restaurant recommendations?
Stanley & Seafort’s – one of my favorite!
1. Shopping around for laptops for my daughter for college. Luckily the computer requirements for her college major are pretty low. She’s chosen a pretty inexpensive one that’s on sale this week. I saved a coupon that Dell sent us for being loyal customers. We will save an extra 10%.
2. My daughter won a $75 gift card for the campus bookstore. She was entered in a drawing just for attending a financial workshop while at her orientation. Very few attended as it was optional which increased her chances of winning.
3. Continuing to shop my own house for items for my girls. They will both be moving out the end of this summer. My Mother has also offered to let them shop at her house and also my sister has stored items they can look through.
4. I put some items on facebook yard sale site today. Hopefully they will sell quickly.
5. Resisting the urge to order take out. We’ve been eating out of the freezer and refridgerator. Using things up before we head off on vacation.
Love the idea of shopping at home for things for your daughters. This is what my family did, plus Goodwill finds, every time one of us left home or went back to a college apartment. No back-to-school shopping for us!
Thanks so much Katy for hosting the site, greatly appreciated and has been such a wonderful resource, can’t say thank you enough! Would mentioning Swagbucks in your blog/facebook posts and a referral link for you help a little more? It would be a good opportunity for those not taking advantage of it AND a reminder to us all already doing it not to forget and cash to pay the blog expenses as you get a percentage from each person who signs on and what they earn is my understanding. 😉
Also loved the movie Hidden Figures, listening to the book on Hoopla through the library, interesting but much more slow going for me only half the way through. Hoopla is wonderful but also a downfall – just started listening to America’s first Daughter which is great but adicting. Not sure how anyone else can do work and listen!
1. Received a Meijer credit card reward in the mail yesterday for $10, yeah! I pay my credit cards off every month and stay (for the most part) within my budget, so rewards are great! Also we have a great deal of returnable cans which combined with reward will get us through what we need the end of the month for groceries i.e. milk, eggs, bread, veg/fruit sales.
2. Bought 8 quarts of strawberries last week they were 4-$5 – cleaned and froze them for future use in the winter.
3. Since I am home this summer taking one for the team each day eating what the kid won’t and economizing in every way possible to keep utilities down while I am home.
4. FINALLY making refried beans today in the crockpot out on my front porch (tip from Katy), decided on a recipe from All Recipes.com. DD doesn’t like them but I do and figure bean burritos are a cheap lunch for me this summer. Hoping homemade will change her mind. 😉
5. Pulled off grape vines from the garage and going to attempt to make my own wreaths, will look up tips on the web. Would be a fun craft for daughter and I to make this summer for fall and upcoming holidays with stuff we have.
6. Attempting to train my puppy vs. paying for a class – anyone have a favorite free trainer on You Tube, blog etc. you can recommend?
7. Keeping budget up on EveryDollar which is keeping me accounatable. Also started FlyLady again this week so by the end of the summer I will have a organized, pretty house I love to live in. Goal is to have a garage sale in August.
8. Saw a carpet cleaner for sale on Amazon yesterday, need to get one with a puppy in the house but didn’t get because usually reviews are half and half online – some say excellent others say piece of crap, so hard to decide!
9. DD Dad paid the 5 months of child support he owes for this year (still owes $25 K from past years) which is perfect timing as the Med Flex money I had saved up for summer is running out. Takes a lot of energy/time to work with Friend fo the Court to ensure he finally pays, sometimes the stress seems like its not worth it BUT this money will get us through August until I go back to work in September.
10. Applying for a part-time job at our library which if I get wil be $10-$14.00 an hour and 10-15 hours a week. Fingers crossed as I love the library since I was a kid but didn’t go into the field as jobs are so hard to come by. Many librarians I know have worked for years and have to work two or more part-time positions as full-time are hard to come by. Schools in our area have eliminated the tradional librarians and moving to more computer/media techs.
Beth, I just found out one of our local library systems offers Hoopla (I have two library cards – my home town card, and one to the library close to work). I have the app downloaded, signed up, erc., but haven’t started using it yet (just did all that last night). I’m excited by all it offers!
I, too, am interested to see if anyone has a favorite blog, Youtube video, etc for puppy training. We’re hoping to adopt a pup this summer.
Also hoping to have a yard sale in August. And, finally, I hope you get the library job….I’ve always loved libraries, too. In spite of the job market, looking back, I wish I’d pursued Library Science in school. Ah, well….things happen for a reason, I guess.
I’m a qualified librarian and I have to say it absolutely depends on the kind of library you work in and the kind of work you like. I thought I would love it; turned out I hated it. I lasted one year and left to pursue a job with more variety. But I was working in a specialist medical library – I think that’s a special kind of boring.
Mand01, I know what you mean. Myself, I’d probably love working in a specialist medical library, because I’m a medical nerd – love anything related to the practice of medicine, surgery, etc. Of course, if I did it day in and day out, maybe I wouldn’t love it. One of my sisters is a librarian, and she works as an adjunct professor at a community college, mostly teaching how to use technology to do information searches and the like. She loves it, but again, that’s not a good fit for everyone. She thinks I would love library science, i.e., doing something like archive work/being an archivist, or….now I’m forgetting the other specialty she mentioned. I’m sure those jobs are few and far between. For me, in my imaginary librarian life, being a children’s librarian would be a special kind of hell for me. (Don’t get me wrong, I love kids, but working in that area of a library would not do it for me).
Good for you getting out when you realized it wasn’t a good fit for you. I’m stuck in a job I don’t really care for, but have few options to change careers or jobs at this time.
As a librarian, or at least what I was doing, you don’t really read the books. Mostly it was a huge amount of cataloguing (database work), shelving and reahelving, and maintenance. I am one of those people that requires a lot of stimulation in my work, or I start to feel depressed, just through sheer boredom. Even on weekends I don’t ‘sit and relax.’ Now I’m a Project Manager and tender writer and I’m always working to deadlines and under pressure. Much more my style.
I also couldn’t work with kids – much admiration to teachers and childcare workers.
5 things:
1. Made my son apply for a scholarship in May that he was resistant to. Found out yesterday that he was awarded $2.5k! Definitely worth the time to write the essays!
2. Was going to buy a new pair of Birks because I thought my 3-4 year old pair was breaking. Procrastinated and continued to wear them. Now, I think I will be able to finish the summer in them! I had them resoled last year so I am glad to get another season’s full use. They are expensive to purchase but last long and provide me comfortable walking which is priceless!
3. Almost sent my son out for lunch but remembered left over burgers in the fridge.
4. Gave my daughter a groupon for her day at the water park. It was left from an earlier visit when one of the kids couldn’t go. Now, I have no need to schedule another visit to use it up which would have cost a lot more!
5. Frugral fail – have been buying a lot of coffee out since my youngest has summer school a lengthy drive away starting at 8 a.m. Thursday is the last class, so I will be back to buying coffee at home, which is better for my wallet and my waist line.
back to *brewing* coffee at home!
When my two youngest were applying for scholarships a significant number of their honors or extra awards/accomplishments were a result of me practically making them do some things. I always told them they would have to work if they wanted to go to their dream school–they could either work at doing things that would get them scholarships or they could work once they got in college. They admitted the extras I made them do really paid off. One will finish grad school owing about $6,000 for 5 years of school. The other should finish debt free. We have helped them some but they couldn’t have gone to their their preferred school if they hadn’t put forth some effort to earn scholarships.
1. On Friday I stopped by Safeway to pick up a few $5 Friday deals. I also picked up the cheap cherries, meat on clearance, and a few snacks for a friend to pass along to a teenager in need. That allowed me to save $3 on my $30 order.
2. Because of your mention of Grantchester we watched seasons one and two on Amazon (included with our Prime membership). My husband wanted to catch up on season three so we signed up for a free one week trial of PBS Masterpiece through Amazon. Now that we are caught up I cancelled the “subscription”, it was $0 out of pocket.
3. I walked to the grocery store this morning and bought 3 bananas. It gave me some exercise and I didn’t need to drive there.
4. Once every couple years a light comes on on my car’s dashboard, something about there could me an emissions problem. I figured out long ago that if I fill the tank with gas and make sure the gas cap is really on tightly that the indicator light goes away. This happened yesterday so I stopped, needed not even two gallons, to fill the tank and on my way home the light went off. Yay, no car maintenance bill!
5. Tonight will be planned-overs for dinner, make your own burrito bowls. Also, I just made blueberry buckle and put in more flour than the recipe called for (I was making a double batch and doubled the amount of flour twice). I went ahead and finished making it after contemplating starting over. It’s fine, just a little bit different.
KD: You can watch PBS shows for free on the PBS website. They usually show up a week after they air on TV. PBS.org/video. Scroll down about a third of the way to find dramas. FREE!
Looks like all of the current Grantchester Season 3 episodes that have aired are available to watch on pbs.org now. Most episodes are available ’til almost the end of July, but one of them inexplicably expires next week.
My husband’s sister and brother in law own The Red Hot, a great beer and hotdogs joint on 6th ave. If you end up going there, let me know beforehand and I’ll let Cindy know you’re coming.
A few people asked for the cherry butter recipe I mentioned in a last post. The recipe I use is this one: http://www.goodstuff.recipes/recipe-view/amaretto-cherry-butter. I skip the amaretto since I use that in my peach jams but I throw in some cinnamon instead.
The only frugal thing I managed yesterday was to go to Sam’s club to pick up something on behalf of an agency I volunteer for, and left without spending any of my own money. I even ate some samples but didn’t buy the product I really liked.
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Much appreciated! The Man’s birthday was yesterday, so this will make him a wonderful present.
Oh, my……..that looks luscious. Thank you for sharing the recipe. I have it pinned for later use….just need to find a deal on cherries!
P.S. Katy, here is a Sunset article on what to do if you have a day in Tacoma:
http://www.sunset.com/travel/northwest/a-day-in-downtown-tacoma
Thanks!
I had a day off yesterday for school holidays and it poured with rain all day. We still managed some frugal fun:
1. We stayed in bed until 10am, searching for books on the Overdrive app. I placed holds on several, including The Handmaid’s Tale, and borrowed some others.
2. I lit the fire and gave the house a bit of a tidy, and did a few loads of washing. We are going away this weekend so I’m getting things done ahead of time.
3. My eldest daughter and I visited an op (thrift) shop and I found a lovely pink shirt, new with tags, that had been $70, for $4.
4. My youngest and I made apple muffins with free apples from the Grow Free cart and blueberry and lemon scones using free lemons also from the cart.
5. We made a Moroccan Chicken dish using ingredients we had entirely on hand, in a tagine my mother gave me two years ago that I’d never used. It was hers and she’d also never used it. It worked so well I will be using it often.
While cooking we watched “The War on Waste” on ABC iView, about how Australians waste food, clothing and recyclables and how we can stop. Great NCA activity with my very thoughtful 12 year old.
LOVE the overdrive app — use it all the time to borrow books on my phone, it’s broken me of the bad habit of impulse kindle book buys on Amazon!
I know that impulse well! I managed to break it by hiding my kindle for a while.
My library has 7 holds on 3 copies of that movie. Hilarious compared to your numbers.
1. It is hot here during the day, but our lower level stays cool with the drapes shut, and we put fans in the windows upstairs at bedtime.
2. I really don’t care for the tiny mugs that came with my new dish set, so I brought home a couple random mugs from my office. I had taken a bunch there a couple years ago, so I would consider it reclaiming rather than stealing.
3. Picked up my hold from the library, and getting back into my routine of reading in bed every night, instead of watching a mindless tv show.
4. Maybe not frugal, but I treated myself to two nice angled Purdy paint brushes. I was midway through painting the kitchen and cursing my gummy paint brush when it dawned on me that better tools would make the job more enjoyable. What a huge difference. I paint a lot (rooms and furniture) and these will be appreciated.
5. The strip between my driveway and the neighbor’s fence has the potential to be a nice flower bed. Currently it is a hot mess of awful sharp stones, weeds, and daylilies. I cleared out a small section and will just keep working away at it.
so there’s over 30,000 members on the fb page right? we could all send Katy a dime!! that would help towards the interweb expenses!! yay!!!!
I really do appreciate that Katy resists turning towards sponsored posts and affiliated links. For those of you who don’t know, one of Katy’s inspirations is Amy Dacyczyn, who wrote The Tightwad Gazette. She also resisted selling merchandise, etc (this was pre interweb). Amy’s advice can be dated on some things, but mostly it is wonderful. However she really is a pretty adamant frugalista/non consumer, and probably to some she will come across as ‘judgmental’. She really isn’t – she is writing for a specific audience, and from her point of view of raising a large family without resorting to childcare or debt.
I am a huge fan girl of Amy’s!
Almost 38,000!
I think that she has a certain style of writing that at times is a little tone deaf to other people’s circumstances and challenges- what we would call nowadays “check your privilege.” I still love her books and return to them often, and even though they were written in the 90s they are still a valuable resource- and my first introduction to this lifestyle. It wouldn’t be a stretch for me to say they saved me at a time when I was very broke and afraid.
My impression is that she is writing from a position of being truly ‘gangsta’ frugal. She was speaking to people who were making excuses as to why they could not live frugally. I could not have accomplished what she did, but I was never offended or put off by her tone. I loved that she fought against something that so many said couldn’t be done – raising a large family on one income. Her determination is very much an inspiration. There was no privilege, just true grit.
I loved Amy D’s newsletter and can honestly say that her inspiration made it possible for us to survive a stretch when I was a stay at home mom and the Mister quit his job to finish retraining for a new career. To me, she was and is wonderful and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, but the Mister didn’t like her tone. To get him to go along with tips from the Tightwad Gazette, I had to be careful not to say where the idea had come from, or else he’d dig in his heels.
I loved The Tightwad Gazette newsletter and the books. I know I still have the final edition of the newsletter and my favorite part was all the testimonials of what people had done to be frugal and how they had earned or saved money. Always liked her attitude that her husband’s job was to make the money and hers was to save it. As a SAHM it really resonated with me. I never felt like she was writing from a position of privilege, just one where they had very specific goals they achieved despite plenty of people telling them it wouldn’t be possible. My only gripe with Amy was that her math was often wrong, even if her method/theory was correct.
1. Shopped for materials to make the dog a new bed. Spent about $15 vs the $30 I spent on the last ready-made bed I purchased. And I’m making the cover removable on this one, so it is more easily washed/dried.
2. While shopping I saw some gorgeous autumn decorations on sale that I have been looking at for a couple of years now. The image of my full-to-bursting decorations-storage closet popped into my head, and I decided I have plenty that I can decorate with…zero cost and zero additional space required.
3. Paid all bills on time…no late fees…and only one stamp required.
4. Planning frugal autumn vacation.
5. Made a trip to the state capitol, and managed to successfully navigate around town without the use of toll roads.
I, too, have a decorating closet. I am able to decorate for every holiday or season without ever spending a dime. Most of the things have been collected over several years, but Summer, Winter, Spring, and Fall never change – nor do the holidays associated with the seasons. Even if you don’t have a storage closet, basement, attic, or garage to keep seasonal décor you can still make a nod to the season with small pieces saved in a shoe box and flat wall art that will store easily under, behind, or in a drawer.
I think that college with no debt is a fair trade for the missed burrito cart. It is definitely “spoiling your boys” in the best way possible. You go Katy!
1) Brought home a free package of tortillas from work today. Egg and bean burritos are for dinner!
2) Stopped by Target on the way home and picked up a couple of almost free items with coupons.
3) Walked with my coworker during lunch time. Free exercise and free friend time make me happy.
4) Took homemade coffee to work today. I love me some Starbucks on my work days, so this was big for me.
5) We are watching Modern Family on loan from the library. It’s so funny and even the second time through the series we crack up!
Please go see some Chihuly glass while you’re in Tacoma, so I can live vicariously through you. 😉
My frugal five:
1 – The wild raspberry patches on our property were loaded with fruit this year. I picked about six pounds of berries over the course of two weeks. They’re washed and stashed in the freezer — I plan to use them for smoothies.
2 – A relative gave us two tomato plants for free on Memorial Day weekend. The two plants have five tomatoes-in-progress right now, plus lots more blossoms.
3 – I made a BIG batch of homemade taco seasoning last Saturday, enough to fill a two-pint glass jar.
4 – Our public library just started a magazine exchange. For the “cost” of a few donated ‘zines, I can look forward to a steady supply of new reading material.
5 – My son and I plan to visit the historical museum near our state’s capitol this Friday afternoon. I found out from the museum’s web site that we can use our state park annual pass to get $2 off museum admission. It pays to do research! Our public TV membership card will get us 2-for-1 deals at several restaurants in the area, so we’ll treat ourselves to an early dinner afterwards.
Jenzer, I would love to have your recipe for homemade taco seasoning. Would you mind sharing?
Oops, forgot to check notify of comments.
Personally, if I was going to be in Tacoma… I’d do Tacoma, and not Seattle.
It’s a long hard drive on the weekends or anytime. Tacoma has so much to offer.
I also say, like many others, the Museum of Glass is worth the price, but the free Chihuly Bridge of Glass is nearby and Awesome! Maybe we’re just geeks but there is also Karpleles Manuscript Library Museum that has historic letters and documents that all my history buffs loved and it’s free.
And so many parks and waterfronts it’s a fun visit.
Maureen, that all sounds wonderful. The hubs and I would LOVE the Karpleles museum….we’re both history nerds. Wish we had something like that closer to home!
My 5 things are all variations on a theme. I am in the process of losing weight (having mentally tied it to saving money on the food bill – turns out I’m more stingy than vain :p) but as it’s a process I want to keep my old clothes as long as possible so…
1. ‘borrowed’ one of SO’s old belts and made some holes in it. I can use this for the nicer trousers (no one is going to see I have an 80s style bunched up waist line).
2. sewed on some belt tags on two pairs of trousers, one each side of the zipper, then I can use something to tie them both together as tight as needs be (these are gardening trousers.
3. repaired a split in one of my jeans using the new fangled (to me) yet incredibly old technique of boro/sashiko. Usually I just patch them but I fancied something new.
4. sewed a split where one of my new (outraged!!) bras had a pokey out underwire, it was just a split so needed just few stitches but how rude.
5. Sorted out my clothes (I’m a weight fluctuater) so I have things ready for the existing clothes are just too large (also an optimist :p) to make do anymore.
Good luck. I’ve always struggled with my weight as an adult as well. About six years ago I lost twenty kilograms and one of the ways I have motivated myself to keep it off is that I really don’t want to replace my wardrobe. The thought of spending all of that money and time- no thanks! About five kilograms crept back on this year- I’ve been working on shedding it because my clothes were becoming too tight. It was literally lose it or replace it time. I’ve lost three, two more to go. It’s an ongoing struggle.
Good for you for keeping on top of it. I’ve lost reasonable amounts a few times in my life but invariably I stop weighing and checking on portions/snacks and it slowly goes back on.
Last but one time I threw out all my ‘fat’ clothes in gay abandon thinking that would be a great incentive…it wasn’t. So this time I’m going to keep using the clothes as far as is humanly possible.
It’s a process for sure. Probably lifelong for someone like me. But I often remind myself, I’ve not failed until I give up trying 🙂
I know it’s a lifetime process for me too. My husband is one of those perpetually thin and wiry people, whereas I put on weight just thinking about cake. I often wonder what it would be like to go through life literally never thinking about it.
I have a weight problem also, and I fluctuate, so I keep clothes in three sizes..
Omg, wouldn’t that be awesome?? When I meet people like that I’m so envious. Sooooo not something I’ve ever experienced.
Hi there, I have had pokey underwire issues too. I have found that to remedy this problem it helps to make the wire not so pokey by adding some hot glue at the end of it then flattening the hot glue a bit. Basically you are forming a “cap” over the end of the wire so it is more difficult for it to poke through. You may have to make the hole a little bigger to get the new glued end to fit through but once you sew it up, it stays put.
Thanks Jennifer, I think this was a stitching fault but that’s a great tip for next time (or if it happens again this time).
Jennifer, thank you thank you thank you! I have several fairly new bras that got underwire pokey on me (so annoying!! I could see if they were old and worn….). I have been putting off trying to figure out how to fix them. I’ll give your method a try!
You are so welcome! That pokey wire problem is so common. I’m not sure why the bra companies haven’t found a permanent fix. Oh wait, then we will have no need to buy more eating into their profit, lol. I even keep old bras on hand in case one wire breaks, which has happened due to age, So I can steal a wire out of the old one for a repair. I have such a hard time finding bras that I like and that actually fit well that repairs are a must for me.
Jennifer, that’s genius. From now on, I’ll be saving old worn out bras for replacement underwires. I’ve had several bras where they “break”, though more often when they’ve been worn to death. But I’ve also had underwires break on fairly newish bras, too. Drat those bra companies, wanting to pick our pockets!! Lol!!
On last day of our Staycation in Wilmington NC. We had saved $815 for our 5 days off but looking over bills, decided to put $400 towards a home improvement loan and see how much fun we could have at home for $400 (or less).
1. Since we live near the beach 20 min away, we go a lot anyway. This week has been very rainy (I would have been super bummed if I didn’t already live here). We took a 1 hour tourist boat ride and got some great eco knowledge and history of our area. The weather held off for us. It was overcast so not terribly hot. The trip was $50 for the two of us. We were allowed to bring on a cooler of our own wine which was really fun. We had a nice dinner at home before going.
2. We bought paint and sanded/painted our coffee table, bed side table and a side cabinet that holds all those wine glasses. Looks so much better! DH did most of the work while I worked on meals for our staycation that would be “treats”. He also did yard work. Good man.
3. The nice meals I planned for us included fresh local shrimp (scampi!), fresh local grey snapper (Fried!), grilled pork chops and chicken thighs, fresh tomatoes from farmers market. We ate out lunch 2x and were disappointed both times. We really prefer eating at home.
4. Our breakfast every day has been country bread toasted, smeared with guacamole, sliced red onion, local tomatoes, bacon and a fried egg. I add feta to mine. SO darn delicious. I know our breakfasts would have been $20 easily in a nice restaurant.
5. So far we have $200 left of our money set aside for the staycation. It is the morning of the last day and we have no plans. We are keeping our options open but at least SOME of that moola is going towards that loan. It feels so good to pay it down!
PS One of the things we have learned about successful staycation for us is to tell everyone you are going out of town. Not having family and friends contact us has been restful. We do a lot with grandchildren and other family. If they knew we were around, they would have been in touch. We needed a break from jobs AND family. This has been a great learning experience and we’ll do it again.
Good job on the staycation savings, that’s awesome!!
I always tell family and friends we aren’t reachable during vacation time. That way they don’t try to get in touch, unless it’s a real emergency. I think that’s the downside of technology. People expect you to carry your cell phone everywhere you go and stay plugged in. It’s annoying, so I turn it off or leave it in my purse in a closet so I don’t feel like I’m fibbing. I tell my daughter to text or leave a voicemail, if it’s an emergency and I’ll get back to her when I check the messages. It’s so much more peaceful that way!
Aghhh, sorry about your web host. I pay, like, $4 a month, but my blog is much smaller. I hope you can find a company that’s worth its salt (not sure if it helps, but I use BlueHost and haven’t had any major issues with them).
This week:
1. I’ve been bad about making enough dinner to cover our lunches. Instead of eating out, I’ve been eating my freezer meals like a good girl. 🙂
2. I’ve been getting in my free morning workouts thanks to YouTube workout tutorials.
3. I made a smoothie for breakfast using odds and ends of produce from the fridge.
4. We’re going to watch “Fried Green Tomatoes” tonight, which we rented from the library. 🙂
5. We’ve been going on nightly walks after dinner instead of lazing around on the couch.
I returned home from seeing my son and my daughter came for a visits the next day. We have been busy doing the following frugal things:
1) DD was in need of some casual, summer clothes, so we went thrifting. We manage to buy an entire wardrobe for approximately $60 — shirts, shorts, and dresses. We really wanted to go to the Goodwill Outlet, but we found it was 40 miles away or an hours drive in traffic. 🙁
2) During our shopping extravaganza, I bought only one $3 shirt. I really don’t need anything else. All clothes have been washed and hung to dry.
3) We have eaten at home. DD requested seafood. I grilled tuna one night and the next, made the leftovers into fish tacos with mango salsa and slaw. We had company last night and made a low country boil ( shrimp, smoked sausage, corn on the cob, carrots and new potatoes). I also have plans for the leftovers.
4) The whole family went to the gym together on Monday night. We brought our own refillable water bottles and towels. This saves a little extra money. We have also done the usual beach trips.
5). I found the 90s TV show, Northern Exposure, on DVD at the library. I absolutely loved this show, and I don’t believe it has ever been in syndication. We have been watching an episode in the evenings. I laugh and dream of returning to Alaska. Of course, like many of you, I watched Grantchester last Sunday. I love Masterpiece and PBS. I also am reading a couple of books borrowed from the library.
I wonder why Northern Exposure is not available on any of the usual streaming services….? I love that show, too. A google search did show you can watch full episodes on Youtube. I think we have the DVDs from buying them years ago.
I don’t have time for a FFT right now, but I wanted to mention that the school in 10 Things I Hate About You is rumored to be an actual school in Tacoma. I’ve wanted to search for that school for years!
Tacoma – great little used books store (they buy for store credit) – King’s Books.
I’m a big fan of the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee – I’d probably see if I could stop by/visit with current kittens. But that’s just me.
I read this fast as “itty bitty titty committee”!!
Bahahahaha! I’m not a member….unfortunately.
1. Sold an item on Amazon. Shipping it today with recycled packing materials, printing postage at home and will be picked up by my mail carrier.
2. Used a $25 ecoupon to pick up needed items at the grocery store. 2 packs of ground beef, bacon, 2 lbs. of butter, a watermelon, bananas, 4 packs of trash bags(for DS#2s off campus house) and 4 ice tea. Total OOP- $2. Used 75¢ coupons, for the ice tea on sale for $1.49, which doubled so free tea. We normally make our sweet tea but free is cheaper! Coupons came from the blinky machine at another store I was at last week for a merchandising job.
3. Putting all my coffee grounds on my 3 new blueberry bushes I put in last month. It really does help produce more fruit.
4. Finished watching A Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu with our one month free trial. Now to reread the book I read years ago. Just need to pull it off the shelf.
5. Went to my favorite charity shop yesterday which has always had great quality stuff and realistic prices. They moved to a new location, in a shopping center, and yesterday was first day. To be honest I was shocked at the prices now. $50 for a pair of shoes and $30 for used Philosophy products! What?!! I bought one item for resale which I should make a small profit and an Old Bay mug for $2 for DS#1 for his birthday. He will love it since he puts Old Bay on everything except cereal! It looks like they will get a lot less of my money now.
In reference to #5, I also have a favorite charity shop that has raised its prices considerably. For instance, they have a piece of furniture priced at $2000. They used to turnover the store’s merchandise quickly. Every time I stopped their was something new. Now things sit for months. They are strongly supported by our community, so they have now have to store donations. This is not the way to make money.
I hate when that happens! I don’t know who they think is going to come in and spend $50 one one pair of shoes in a charity shop (I mean I splurge sometimes, but NOT $50 – the point is looking for bargains! and helping a cause), they’re just hurting themselves by keeping merchandise that they got for free sitting on the shelves instead of A) making SOME money for the charity and B) finding a new happy home for an item instead of it (eventually) landing up in a landfill when it doesn’t sell!
Thank you Katy for refusing to write sponsored posts and/or include affiliate links!
This does matter to your readers and we appreciate your stance (and the impact on the quality of your blog).
1. Instead of eating out for my birthday, the Mister and I had some delicious leftovers at home and stopped at the bakery for a cupcake for each of us. It was much more frugal than a meal out and still felt special.
2. Still chugging away at all frugal activities: wearing mostly thrifted outfits, bringing my lunch and cold drinks from home in my lunchbox, driving with a light foot, using the drying rack for most of my clothes.
3. Nearly got sucked in by a Wow! Clearance! sale online. Had $54 worth of nice but not necessary stuff in the cart before having a “snap out of it” moment and removing everything.
4. Recycled a printed cardboard box that coffee was shipped to me in as a clean, blank mailing box by splitting open the side seam, turning it inside out and regluing the seam.
5. New puppy has discovered chewing on baseboards. She’s not doing much more than scraping the paint off, so I went around touching up her spots with a sample bottle of paint we’d had for a long time.
You are not alone! #3 – I was tempted by a sidewalk sale at the Campus store yesterday on golf polos. I decided it wasn’t worth even $20 to get a Nike polo with the school emblem for a gift. Same goes for tickets to see a Christmas concert I think my hubby would like. The tickets would end up costing me $150, even bought early. I just saved myself $170 by avoiding temptation!
Glad I am not the only one who turns boxes inside out to have a clean surface when I reuse them to mail something. Someone at work saw me doing it and mocked me for saving the company money!
Wow, really? The more frugal you are as an employee, the more successful you help make your company. Most businesses operate on a thin margin. Saving them pennies may be what saves your job in the long run. Plus, why not keep more packaging out of the landfill? I’ve turned boxes inside out for shipping and storage for years. The boxes frozen hamburger patties come in make excellent storage boxes for smaller items and supplies. I keep all my supplies for the community fair in them. They store well under my bed the rest of the year.
1) Cooking all at home even though the wind has been blowing the scent of the awesome, delicious, and super garlicky pizza place two blocks from us right in the windows. So expensive, plus I don’t agree with the owner’s politics. . . and our beef curry with Thai basil from the garden was delicious last night.
2) Signed littlest up for a class at the YMCA we pay for but rarely use. Now she’s trained on all the cardio equipment, and when she turns 12 she gets a second class as part of the original $15 fee to be trained on the weightlifting equipment. She thinks it is SO HILARIOUS to set the stair-stepper for a real building; yesterday after her class she climbed the Washington Monument. Today she wants to do the Eiffel Tower. It will be frugal to get more usage out of that monthly fee (which is subsidized by both my and hubs’ employers, so it’s already a good deal).
3) Speaking of hubs . . . he received a raise on the second day of his new job. Related to their updated assessment of his previous experience, etc. but still – a raise already! We are carefully planning budgets for upcoming months so the extra $ is used well.
4) We are missing our very old cat, who succumbed a few weeks ago. The younger cat and the dog are a bit concerned by his absence, so I’ve been careful to give each of them some extra attention each day. Good for them, good for me, makes the “free kittens” ads that keep popping up on my neighborhood exchange a bit less tempting.
5) No vulgar gold-plated anything, thank goodness.
I have to admit I’m a little frugal-discouraged right now.
I love nursing my sweet 10 month old DS, but my nursing bras are all stretched out and my nursing shirts are all pilly and stained with baby spit and toddler goo. Nursing bras (that fit properly, and that I can do one-handed) are $55 each. Shirts are about $35 each and are simply impossible to find thrifted. So I’m muddling through and just sort of feeling dumpy.
DH and I really want to move to the country. DH is doing house repairs himself instead of hiring all the work done, so things are going at pace, but slower than if we just hired the work out. Last week there was a series of home invasions in our neighborhood, and one of our neighbors had her house invaded with her daughter still inside. DD, DS, and I happened to be walking by as it was happening, so I called 911, and then I scurried away like a cowardly mousie… I didn’t want the babies in the middle of a crime scene if things went wrong. Anyway, so now I’m feeling discontent with the pace of the frugal home repairs, and I don’t feel safe with all our usual frugal entertainments (going for walks, going to the park, going to the playground, doing chalk in the driveway). The neighbor’s daughter is safe, btw, but everybody is really shaken up.
*sigh*
Is there a children’s consignment shop anywhere near you? I always had good luck finding maternity/nursing clothing at ours.
I’ve had very good luck with finding second-hand maternity clothes, but no luck at all with nursing things. Maybe other folks are buying them all up! Or maybe other moms with new babies also have toddlers covered in sticky, staining goo, so the nursing things never survive to second-hand life! ha!
I remember those days, Shevaun. I think I just always felt sticky, milky, and dumpy during those days. As much as I loved nursing, I wanted to feel kinda attractive again.. which I didn’t. Continue to enjoy these days because they pass by so fast.
I just wanted to give you some empathy on the Mom frustration and especially let you know I’m glad you and your neighbors are okay. That’s scary and can be disheartening. The year after we moved into our current home we were broke into and it leaves you feeling vulnerable. Hang in there and prayers of comfort for you!
Thank you, ouvicikie. And thanks to Jennifer, too. People on NCA are just so kind and supporting to one another.
I finally figured out my frugal five, and this week I received all of them as gifts:
Kindness
Mercy
Love
Justice
Compassion
Awwww!! That’s so nice!!
The first thing i thought of was, you should listen to the One Bad Mother podcasts, and/or follow the OBD facebook page. The podcasts are hilarious (but caution: they do use swear words freely, if that offends you). You will find tons of support, empathy, and commiseration when going through the not-so-fun parts of parenting, and pats on the back, whoops of joy and celebration when things are good. Their tag line is “you’re doing a great job”. 🙂 It’s a great community, if you want to check it out.:-)
1. We had a rent one/get one free Redbox code. Coincidentally, we got Hidden Figures (which was amazing!) and Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them (saw it in the theater, and wanted to see it again).
2. Batched errands yesterday including library, post office to return an item to Lands’ End (since it was mis-sized, I didn’t have to pay return shipping), and two grocery stores. At both stores, we needed groceries, plus I had a return/exchange to make at each one. I found the exception to rule of doing the errand furthest from the house first and working your way back: When it’s 100 degrees and you’re buying groceries, you do that last :-). My husband and I make an effort to do as much as possible “in the neighborhood” so the reverse order of my errands wasn’t a big deal.
3. Family members have too many pollen allergies to hang clothes outside, so I’m making an effort to use my drying rack even more than usual. I’m also experimenting with drying times with my dryer (I always set the minutes rather than use pre-sets) and discovered I can cut the minutes in half for kitchen towels.
4. Sent my brother an e-card for his birthday. Made it myself so I wouldn’t have to pay a subscription fee for the card I liked.
5. Began my first effort at sheet mulching. I have a small bed I’ve wanted to improve to add to my edible garden, but much of it was overrun by weeds, mostly the dreaded bindweed. After hoeing several times, I put down sheets of cardboard I’d been saving and topped with several inches of compost. We’ll see how successful that is at weed suppression. There are a couple other spots in the yard where I’ll layer more types of things over grass to create new beds to plant in next spring.
1. Sold 2 items in Ebay, making $60.00
2. When grocery shopshopping a worker was handing out $1 off coupons for produce. For some reason this particular coupon paid me back $1 plus tax. I will take it!
3. When running errands today I looked at my McDonald’s app since I was close by and picked up a free cherry lime ade with code from my app. Free drinks taste better.
4. Staying at home this week, no running to activities, because we are totally booked next week, and would like to save up for that.
5. Our goodwill closed. So after searching Thrift Shops and online at Ebay, I looked up a Red Rack a little over an hour away, and found what I needed for family in one trip on one if their 50 percent off days. Was able to get 3 pairs of cargos for the hubs, one brand new with tags, 3 shirts for hubs, and 3 shirts for son, for $20. I went to Aldi while in that town to save more on groceriez. Successful trip.
1. Was going to buy margarita mix, but I’ve been cringing lately at all the plastic in the world. Instead, I saved the last empty bottle and filled it with homemade margarita mix made from lime juice, water and sugar. I don’t think I saved much money–I had to buy 8 limes, but it was still worth it.
2. Convinced my husband not to buy a book at a bookstore, as he was already over his personal money budget for the month. I felt like such a witch, as it was the true story behind Hidden Figures–how many men buy that book? and also it was a famous independent bookstore in Washington, D.C.
3. Tempted by takeout last night, but luckily we had a can of refried beans and rice a roni–so easy to put together. We will have takeout another day.
Search out the Goodwills up there. They are amazing.
About 10 years ago I spent 5 days on federal jury duty in Tacoma. I hopped on Link, the free light rail, every morning to the courthouse in Union Station. I checked out the walk of glass, antique stores, restaurants, U of W bookstore, etc. Kind of a neat area. Plenty to do without having to drive around if you are staying in that area.
1) The Campus Wellness Campaign, was offering free caps and sunscreen down by the dorms, yesterday. My Supervisor wanted to go, but had a meeting, so I told him I’d pick up the items up for him so I could get in some steps and p/u free College sports posters for my neighbor at the football stadium. Yay for exercise and I kept one of the free sunscreens which is a tube that fits on a key chain.
2) I’m going to the Library today to shop with my card and p/u a book I have on hold.
3) I dropped by the grocers to get cream this morning and p/u a frozen cuisine meal they had on sale for $2.56. I forgot my lunch, but this is a cheaper & healthier choice than eating out.
4) I used a 2 for 1 coupon last evening to get burgers on the way home. I was too tired to cook and it’s way to hot anyway. At least I had a coupon to ease the laziness I felt.
5) No gilded apartments, yachts or unneeded junk bought today.
1) I have used the same name brand allergy eye drops for years and years. It is a great product and works wonderfully, but when I run out I always groan at the double digit expense. Then in Target yesterday I found a generic alternative! For $3.50! I have already started the new bottle with the exact same results as the name brand.
2) I took on an adjunct teaching gig for January. Unfortunately many graduate students and recent grads have to take on adjunct courses to feed themselves. I am fortunate in that I don’t need the extra cash to survive. Instead I’m taking the gig because it really is a cv builder. I’ll be rolling the paycheck directly into savings come January.
3) I updated our bookkeeping myself this morning. Our company is growing, and the bookkeeping has gotten more complicated, so I do bring in help if I run into an issue and at end of year. However, I actually like bookkeeping, and I like knowing the business finances on a more intimate level than I would if I was just looking over reports once a month. So I still do most of the bookkeeping myself, which saves us money.
4) Enjoying a salad for lunch that I made myself last night.
5) I read frugality blogs today, which helps keep me on pace.
Which blogs do you read?
I have been at a conference this week, which is normally a time when I worry a little bit less about spending; but I was still able to make some wi$e choices.
1. On Sunday, my travel day to Fort Worth, I packed breakfast and snacks, so the only thing I bought for my morning flight was a chai latte from the airport coffee shop. I also successfully avoided the temptation of buying magazines by bringing stuff to read from home (and looking forward to the onboard airline magazine).
2. On Tuesday evening, I honored both my mental energy and my pocketbook by passing on the arranged outing to a local bar. As nice as it would have been to continue conversing with other conference participants, my brain was ready to rest, which had the added benefit of not spending money for drinks and snacks.
3. My flight home isn’t until 7:30 pm this evening; but the last free shuttle from the conference location to the airport was scheduled for 8 am. Sadly, no earlier options were available, flight-wise, but I am getting a ton of work done sitting here at the airport, for the minor cost of wireless access ($8), which I consider a bargain since shuttle or transportation arrangements of my own would easily have cost $30 or more.
4. My husband just accepted a new job that will come with some transition expenses, but we are actively taking steps to reduce those costs (i.e. cancelling unnecessary gym memberships).
My five frugal things:
1. Canned 20 quarts of apricots and froze 6 quarts of apricot sauce.
2. Picking zucchini and green beans from the garden.
3. Made all meals and snacks at home this week and carried snacks and drinks with us when we went out.
4. Made a flower arrangement from the garden for the kitchen.
5. No trips to the grocery store this week.
5 Frugal Things:
1. Hubby put the belt back on the lawn mower one more time. He’s nursing it along trying to make it last through the summer.
2. I bought an Instant Pot on Amazon Prime sale. I’m waiting to purchase accessories when I know for sure what I need. I may already have some things that I can use.
3. I made a big pot of soup this week that provided 5 meals.
4. No grocery shopping for a couple of weeks.
5. Hubby repaired the door on our mailbox by putting new hinges on it…$6
6. We ate Mexican food last Friday night and had the leftovers for breakfast the next morning.
I’m enjoying everyone’s frugals!!
Did you ever try contacting Synthesis web hosting? I pay about $40/month less than you’re paying, and that’s even with hosting the eleventy thousand photos I have on my blog. Heh.
Oh, and I used Fantasktic to do the transfer to Synthesis…they were GREAT. I didn’t have to do a thing and it was marvy-fab.
This may be listed in the above comments but have you considered having a “donate here” button on your page (I’m not sure how that works behind the scenes.) I visit websites with far less content that have them, they must be working for them. Just a thought. It is nice to come to the homepage and not be hit in the face with a pop-up ad or any ads at all!
Sometimes your privilege can just be not recognising that just because you can do certain things/have certain skills, doesn’t mean everyone does. When I used to work with parents of kids with disability (I’m also a parent of a young person with disability), I would often feel frustrated that they were not doing things with or for their kids that I thought were ‘obvious.’ A colleague said to me very patiently one day “remember that not everyone has the same skills as you.” That was basically telling me to check my privilege, and it changed my perspective completely, and made me much, much better at my job to this day.
I love Amy’s books, but occasionally I feel like saying to her, “remember that not everyone has the same skills as you.” That’s all I’m saying when I’m talking about a privileged position.
I am also an admirer of Amy D – always admired the skills she has that I didn’t/don’t posses. Loved your explanation of “check your privilege”. I suppose it could also be explained as “talented in certain areas”. I am a reasonably good musician but a poor artist, a good cook but not a great housekeeper etc. Developing a tolerance for everyone’s foibles helps!
She actually wrote about as her church’s minister told her that exact same thing.