Five Frugal Things
by Katy on June 12, 2023 · 64 comments
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I curb picked a vintage fireplace screen last week, which prompted me to give away the old one, (technically a newer one) to someone in my Buy Nothing Group. The guy said that he’d just moved into a house without a fireplace screen, and it makes me happy to know that my one has been kept in circulation. Imagine if the stale clutter in our homes was consistently given to people who’d put it back to use.
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My sister scored three flats of slightly wilted pansies for free from a nursery just north of New York City. (By the way, that’s 96 plants!) She just bought a house in The Bronx and is motivated and excited to spruce up her property without going broke. And yes, she planted every single one of them in her garden!
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• I encouraged my mother to give me a gorgeous Italian glazed flowerpot that was collecting dust in the back of her kitchen. It’s now on top of my piano and planted with begonias that I rooted on the kitchen windowsill. Thanks mom, sorry about the moochiness!
• I curb picked a metal planter box that cleaned up quite nicely. Not a show stopper, but a classic design and fully within my budget. It being at the foot of a porta potty? Didn’t phase me whatsoever. Now to source some free potting soil!
• I returned a shirt and a pair of shorts to Goodwill that I bought a couple weeks ago. They gave me a store credit which I’ll use before it expires in 30 days.
• I cut a pair of jeans into summer shorts which is my one of my favorite frugal hacks.
• I’m rooting dozens of fuzzy bunny plants from my existing house plants. These grow roots almost immediately and do well in the backyard. I might decide to plant something different in my new planter, but these’ll do if all else fails.
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I’ve had a cold since coming back from Nebraska last Tuesday, which had the side effect of creating an impressively frugal week. Why? Because I’ve hardly left the house and I’m rarely tempted to internet shop. Thanks, dum-dum virus!
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I didn’t buy a Lear Jet.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 64 comments… read them below or add one }
Oooo, how do you source free potting soil? I’ve been re-potting plants and it just seems stupid to buy – dirt!
Me too. I actually googled how to make your own thinking I could just add some stuff to top soil but apparently I was wrong.
Sometimes people put out pots with dried out plants, but the soil should still be okay.
Adding 96 pansy plants would also provide a nice little boost of soil all around the garden.
Experienced gardener here: it’s cheaper to buy it, trust me.
1. This past week I made just over $400 dollars doing my side gig of Door Dash. I plan on using this money to help knock out some debt I have accumulated. I am very grateful to have the opportunity to make extra money to take care of this.
2. I stopped in Lowe’s this weekend and was tempted to buy plants, however I went to the mulch and dirt section and spotted double bagged bags and picked up five bags of pine bark mulch, and a bag of potting soil, all at half off. Lowe’s, at least in my area, will double bag ripped bags and sell them at half off. This is a great savings to me. I spent $13 on all 6 bags. I will go back periodically to purchase more as I work on a new planter bed needing dirt, and want to re-mulch around my home this Summer.
3. My son and I finally ate out yesterday. We brought a coupon. I drank water. We brought home left overs. We talked about the cost of food and eating out, and how we could have made the bill lower. It was a nice treat, but we both acknowledge that for our budget ordering food and bringing it home would be even more cost effective for us right now if we do this again in the near future.
4. We are preparing for a road trip and are researching towns with lower cost hotels to stop at. Also making a list of Flying J’s in each state in the event we need to stop and sleep and cant make it to a hotel. Our last road trip we stayed at a few hotels off the highway that were more expensive than I preferred. Working on changing that.
5. I didn’t buy a lear jet…
Thank you for the Lowe’s tip. I will have to check that out at my Lowe’s.
we often source free mulch from our city or from tree companies that are working in the area.
Chip Drop is the local company that you can sign up for to get free wood chips.
Chip Drop is actually across the U.S.
https://getchipdrop.com/
I looked on chip drop a while ago but didn’t find any active spots for my area. I’ll have to check back in!!
@Ashley Bananas re your #1, I have been so pleased to see you chipping away at your debts with your side gig. go you! I wonder if they take income tax off at the source or if you are expected to save for that yourself? Curious minds wanna know.
as for your #2, I have been doing this at our local Canadian Tire – a friend went with me to get a ‘bale’ of potting soil with my truck, and they didn’t have any. However, they had a LOT of ripped half price bags of various soils, so we filled up a flat roller thingie and made out like bandits. In addition, we succeeded in pulling the old lady card and got one of the young men working there to load the truck (and my young man son to unload when we got home). I have almost used up the soil.
Continuing on the #2, however, I just picked up an entire yard of garden soil in the back of the pickup truck. I have realized I have a lot of dahlias that are successfully bursting the seams of their gallon pots, and since I am fighting my morning glory/bindweed in my gardens and won’t plant into the ground quite yet, I need to pot into bigger pots. A yard of soil is way cheaper than bags or bales, and I have lots of scrounged bigger pots…
Re #1 Thank you! I’m trying very hard to stem the issue by working hard.
#2 My amazing 14 year old helps me move almost everything >.< lol
Glad you are getting good garden soil. Your yard sounds amazing!! <3
@Ashley Bananas, I am really blessed with my property and am finally well enough and fixed enough (new hip and WEIGHT LIFTING for the win!!) that I can do a lot of both food and flower gardening. I sometimes don’t feel like getting out there, and then if I do it can easily turn into 5 meditative hours of planting and weeding and pure in-the-moment joy. With food and flowers, too!
as for your #1, glad to have reminded you that some of those lovely earnings need to be earmarked for your Uncle Sam. I don’t think Revenue Canada has such a personified nickname, have to think about that! LOL
Also, Door Dashers are considered independent contractors and fill out a 1099 NEC form at tax time. So I will pay taxes then. But, yes, great point. I will need to consider this with the extra income.
1. I picked up groceries at Aldi & Meijer. I mostly stuck to my list. I say mostly because my list is usually incomplete and I forget I need something until I see it.
2. I forgot to buy granola so I made some instead. I’ve never made it before and was pleased that it was so easy. I used ingredients that I had on hand. I also made yogurt.
3. I used a BOGO coupon to buy subs at Jersey Mike’s for my daughter and I for dinner one night. We took them home where we consumed our own chips and drinks.
4. I used bonus bucks from a local nursery to buy some perennials for my garden. This made them half price.
5. My youngest daughter used her chain saw skills she acquired to cut up some trees that had fallen across the paths on our property.
1. Shout-out to USPS! I use their free Informed Delivery service which sends me an email whenever I am about to get mail – and includes pictures of what I will be receiving. Two weeks ago, it showed that we were getting a check from a business that my husband works with. It never came so, using the online dashboard, I reported it as missing and the USPS found it. We are living temporarily in an apartment and the check had been put in my neighbor’s slot (apparently he rarely checks his mail).
2. Bought some canned pumpkin pie mix on clearance to make quick bread. Mixed the leftovers in the can with vanilla yogurt and pecans. Yummy!
3. Wanted to use up some wild blueberry fruit spread so I substituted it for the sugar in a banana bread recipe. So delicious.
4. Tried baking my own yeast bread and it ended up mostly used for bread crumbs and panzanella salad. I’d give myself a 3 out of 10. I like starting near the bottom, then I have nowhere to go but up!
5. Enjoyed some unusual free entertainment in a nearby park. To eradicate invasive buckthorn and garlic mustard, my city hired The Munch Bunch – a group of goats! Not only are they fascinating to watch, they get the job done.
I also used “informed daily delivery” which is so useful. I found out that an old mail carrier wasn’t delivering everything and had a conversation with him about it. Stopped happening.
Your #5…in my former town there was a goat for hire who would clear properties of nuisance plants including poison ivy! I had no idea goats could eat poison ivy and not be affected until I heard about “Bucky”.
Yes goats are quite voracious – meaning there best be enough “herders” to ensure no goats gone wild. So while watching in the park was free entertainment, I’d also be ensuring none found that the “buffet” was better on the other side of the property line.
Selena, the goats are in a fenced off area.
Which doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy – they are excellent escape artists and have no issue climbing/jumping.
If the one in my neighborhood escapes into my yard, it will be dispensed post haste.
MB-a lovely woman whom we met at a farmers’ market selling cheese from her goats’ milk told us that “if a fence will hold water, it will hold goats.” I laughed, but apparently it’s true.
1. I planted four gift tomato plants in the self-watering container boxes I trash-picked 15 years ago.
2. I also planted pumpkin and beans in the leftover barrow from the Mister’s last summer wheelbarrow creation. Filled the bottom with lots of decaying wood from an old pallet before filling the barrow with soil I bought several years ago.
3. I filled and placed the mosquito traps around the yard. Bought three several years ago and trash-picked a few more. Happily back then Mary bought several packets of the sticky things that go inside to attract the girls.
4. Another quilt commission—using scraps. Got more scraps and washed them with a load of laundry in case they had ever been near cats.
5. I needed to stretch out a section of a quilt I’m working on and don’t have a board the right size. So I used the top of an IKEA end table that I was giving in return for some quilting many years ago.
6. I was given a Brita pitcher and four extra filters a few weeks ago. Found another filter (sealed, unopened) in a neighbor’s trash.
7. A fail—I bought a set of risers for my cutting table that had both 3 and 5 inch heights included. I only needed the threes.
Although I recently purged my tub of fabric of scraps too small to be useful, I held onto a strip of lightweight denim saved from cutting a pair of jeans into shorts for DS when he was 7. He is now 33. A few days ago I used that strip to mend a huge rip in the seat of the pair of his jeans. That made me smile a lot!
Wow, that is playing the long game!
The saved scrap is that very pale blue denim that is just the right shade for mending worn spots on blue jeans. Plus I was kind of nostalgic about keeping and using it because he was so cute in those little jeans so long ago. He was tiny for his age for the longest time, so they were really small too.
A frugal week thus far:
1. Sent hubby to retrieve a case of sports drinks in the Dollar General dumpster. I couldn’t reach them as they were in the bottom of the bin.
2. Made a large veggie lasagna with a large quantity of sliced tomatoes hubby brought home from a restaurant. It turned out tasty. I took some for lunch. The hospital cafe was serving lasagna but mine looked better & was cheaper.
3. Took my cat to mobile vax clinic. Got a teacher discount which lowered the price even more. I was happy at the price but I think the cat was unimpressed.
4. Got a free senior soda at Wendy’s. It got hot waiting in the Texas heat at the mobile vax clinic with my furry friend. The Wendy’s was across the street.
5. Used a 50$ gift card I earned from taking a brief educator survey to offset the price of my Rx at Sam’s Club. The GC knocked the price down to 7$ so that helped a lot.
I did have to buy 2 new tires for my car. Two tires were worn & unsafe. I cringed a bit at the price. Safe tires are a need not a want so I bit the bullet. Saving $ on other things throughout the year often means you have the $ for a necessity.
“Saving $ on other things throughout the year often means you have the $ for a necessity.” <--- Love this, well said!
texasilver,
How old do you have to be to get the free senior soda at Wendy’s? I didn’t know they had such a thing. I’m 63 so I’m hoping I’m old enough.
Also, do they require a purchase to get the free soda? (such as buying a small fries or something?)
Thanks
55 is the age for free senior sodas at Wendys. Not sure about the required purchase as I have only gotten the senior soda with a sandwich…no fries, of course! My waistline and wallet thank me.
Do you know if free senior soda at Wendy’s is daily or a certain day of the week? TY
I believe it is any day of the week. I have asked & gotten the free drink on different days of the week. I used the senior soda offer in Florida (lots of old people there) and in Texas. The employees at Wendys in those 2 states knew about the offer.
I didn’t buy anything on Saturday (June 10) when I got my free soda. Sometimes I buy a small meal at Wendy’s when I get a free senior soda but I don’t think it’s required. On some occasions I was only thirsty not hungry. I looked online & it said 55 and older for the senior soda. There was also info that said seniors get 5% off their order but I have never asked for that.
1. Was going to purchase a State Park Pass but found out that the State of Colorado is now offering a$29 pass with your vehicle registration – the regular one is $79- so I guess I’m waiting until my vehicle registration is due this July.
2. Did a day trip to a free site – Paint Mines Interpretive Site – on Saturday. Packed snacks and drinks. Fun to explore our new state and get the legs out for a good walk. Also drove through different landscapes and spotted many pronghorn. (That’s new for us, too – no pronghorn in SC)
3. Did a good cleaning of the refrigerator yesterday. Handed off a few items we weren’t eating to my son. Then used some wilting and almost expired zucchini and mushrooms for dinner.
4. FaceTimed with friends Friday night. We make a little evening of it to catch up every once in awhile since we live hundreds of miles from each other. I pay for it as part of my phone plan so might as well use it.
5. My husband started making a plan to build laundry room shelves. (Our house didn’t come with any “extras” such as the laundry sink or shelves) We have an area for what should be a laundry sink and he is going to build a storage closet there.
That’s a great deal for a state park pass!
I know, right? I think state parks are such gems – love summer picnic dinners at them!
A coworker just told me about this state park pass option with vehicle registration renewal. Mind is due in July! So excited about this add on!
Uhhh, 96 plants for free? Your sister SCORED!! Very impressive indeed…none of mine are quite that impressive. LOL
1. Bought a tin of hot cocoa mix, and will take the tetra packs of almond milk with us this weekend while we attend a convention out of town. That way we can make hot chocolate in the morning (one of our favorite drinks!) instead of succumbing to Starbucks. This is while we’re going to be staying in a hotel this weekend. The tin of cocoa was not cheap (it is both vegan and sugar free), but it is SURE a lot cheaper than Starbucks.
2. At that aforementioned hotel, they have an amazing breakfast buffet included! Starting at 5 am – wow!! My husband will have an early start every morning, so he can still go enjoy the continental breakfast and have free eats before heading out for his day. (6 AM is the start for the hot breakfast. I was quite impressed by this. I’ll be getting some gorgeous hot food every day, oh yeah…and no extra cost!)
3. Received a gorgeous, bohemian-style skirt from a friend. She also gifted me an animal print cardigan that I probably would never have chosen myself. But I’m trying to have more fun with my clothes, so I think I’ll keep it! There I am, living on the edge like a wild thing. LOL
4. Shopping my own dresser drawers to find some pieces of costume jewelry I’d honestly forgotten I even owned. It’s fun, and of course – FREE. Which is a price point I’m entirely comfortable with.
5. Using grocery store points this week for free spaghetti sauce. Normally $4.69 a jar for free! I think I have enough points to get two delicious jars.
Yes, I always try to book hotels with breakfasts included in the price.
I love that you, and so many others on this site, are JOYOUSLY frugal!As a 75 year old pensioner( Australian equivalent to Social Security) my frugality funds my generosity to those in need ( refugees, in particular) , allowing me to share with those less fortunate.Anyone who has enough to share can consider themselves wealthy!
I love that *you* are JOYOUSLY generous! <3
Love the planter you found!
1. Today my Buy Nothing group gave me games and crafts for granddaughter and drinking glasses. I sent some CDs and an under bed box away with others yesterday.
2. Used a store coupon for needed drugstore items.
3. Batched my errands and planned route to save gas.
4. Walking for exercise.
5. Did not buy any kind of airplane
Not even a single airplane?!
Not even a paper one lol
I would have nabbed that planter also!
All of my annuals came from my DD’s job at the greenhouse. They order plugs and pot about 75% instead of throwing the extras away she brings them to me and I baby them in my pop up greenhouse. I lose a few but keep most. I love saving them and they are free!
1. found wild caught cod and salmon on the mark down rack. Cheaper than ground beef and we love fish. It will be a nice treat.
2. also found strawberries at a good price, I will be freezing some.
3.back to making dog food for my geriatric dog, he started refusing the expensive stuff. Homemade so much cheaper and he loves it.
4.mixing the dough for Angel biscuits, keep in fridge, take and use as needed.
5. finally sold the wrecked truck (yard ornament) because the lawyer/court case settled and not sorry to see it go and the check in my hands.
Now I need to get that area cleaned up and weeds down. It doesn’t show but drives me nuts knowing it needs done.
*bonus we got rain so not having to water for a minute.
I am intrigued by your description of Angel biscuits. This kind of thing would be ideal for me since I’m usually cooking for just me.
Where did you find the recipe?
Sounds like Herman Starter but maybe less sweet? Herman Starter is excellent for quick/snack bread. Now I’ll have to go find Mom’s recipe and start some.
as always, love reading your posts, Katy, and everyone’s comments! Putting free stuff on the curb around here is not common & usually reserved for bigger items. So the clothing for adults, teens & youth, games and even household décor that DD clears out of her home comes to me to be sorted into good quality for Goodwill and Absolutely Perfect for local schools. I make a point of saying anything I gift to a school is for the teachers/staff, their families and/or students and they always seem to love to see me coming. LOVE the idea of a sharing economy!
The planter is terrific! And I’m really glad to know you didn’t curb pick the Honey Bucket. I mean it is the first thing noticeable in the photo and I was seriously concerned
My sister mentioned she got her “Enhanced” driver’s license, which I had to look up, as I only knew about the “Real ID” one from recent U.S. information campaigns.
Turns out Enhanced costs a little more but works for land or sea entry into Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, as well as being a driver’s license. Real ID does not work for border crossings.
Both work for domestic air travel. Neither works for international air travel.
Only available in a few northern border states so far, (MI, MN, NY, VT, WA), and four Canadian provinces have their versions, (BC, ON, MB, QC).
Your Goodwill will take things back?? Wow! I didn’t know that any of them do that.
Yeah, our Goodwills are kind of amazing.
1. Needed to cut down a tree that is dying. $500 from tree removal place but only $100 if we removed it and they just ground the stump down. Husband, who is 74 I might add, got up on Saturday, literally ate Wheaties for breakfast, and went out and sawed down the tree and then sawed it into pieces. The next day he loaded it into the pickup. Saved us $400.
2. We, too, were the recipients of pansies, these from a friend who overdid her seeding. They arrived on a plate, all tangled together. I took them and section by sectioned gently swirled them around in a bowl of warm water until I could untangle the roots. Lost only a few out of the dozens she gave me. She got my excess onion sets as a thank you.
3. Our hot water takes a long time to appear so I keep empty milk jugs by the kitchen sink and fill them until the cold turns hot. Use the jugs to water outdoor flower containers. If we get the kitchen sink water hot, the shower water is already hot, so husband fills them while he is making coffee, which he does before showering.
4. Did two mystery shops that each paid $100 for about half an hour’s work each.
5. Locked myself out of the house when I went into the garden. I didn’t even have my cell phone to call a locksmith (husband 400 miles away in a village). We had changed our lock system and never hidden the new key. I asked the neighbor if she would call a locksmith and she reminded me that their 8 year old loves going in and out of our dog door, which is huge because we used to have Irish wolfhounds and is usually how she comes in when she wants to visit or her mother and I are exchanging baked goods or eggs. The kid was absolutely thrilled to be the solution to an emergency. I was thrilled to have saved hundreds of dollars in locksmith fees. (We have triple pane windows so I could not even break a window to try and get in. And who am I kidding, trying to climb out of a wheelchair (it is a bad day today) and through a window…)
Yay for 8-year olds!
Wheaties for the ($400) win!!!
” It being at the foot of a porta potty? Didn’t phase me whatsoever. Now to source some free potting soil!” @Katy, so glad you didn’t source any (night)soil from that portal potty!
FFT –
picked up a yard (a truckload) of garden soil rather than buying it in bags – saved big bucks
harvested garlic scapes, lettuce, chard, snow peas and broccoli from the garden. (garlic scapes are DELICOUS when added whole to a pan of roasting veggies like peppers, snow peas and radishes…)
continue to fill the garden beds with starts I grew from seeds rather than purchased. Saving many dollars as I have a lot of raised garden beds left over from a not-sorry-he’s-gone ex. 8 beds built of concrete walls – each bed 50 feet long and 4 feet wide. Good thing I have friends and family to share with!
Planted many sunflower seeds saved from last year’s flowers into the big field that is now partially irrigated – I had bagged the best ones up with paper bags and stored them once dry….
Library is coming through with many of the books I am seeing and wanting – so often they are a quick skim and not worth the purchase, sometimes they are worth buying but I have tried before I buy, and I am saving lots on my book budget!
Fail! Bought strawberries and then didn’t eat them. Chickens got the remnants.
1. My neighbor gave me three plants she had pulled from their garden. So far, they seem to be doing ok.
2. Fought the urge for take out and made a quick turkey chili with on sale ground turkey in the fridge that was on it’s last legs, a jar of salsa and a can of on sale black beans. Really good and has been 4 meals.
3. Watched Roland Garros for entertainment this weekend.
4. My mother was getting rid of some of her fancy french pots and pans. I took them. I love them. I then passed on a couple of my older pots and pans.
5. Organizing a few more things to donate-t-shirts, pants ect.
Your sister planting the 96 pansies…I’m so impressed!
1. I won a $50 restaurant gift certificate in a charity raffle.
2. I thrifted a queen-sized bedspread in perfect condition for $20.
3. I went scrounging in my freezer and found 4 potato hash brown patties and 3 baggies full of black beans. The hash browns were promptly added to a mish mash Sunday night supper of leftovers and 2 of the bags of black beans were added to a pot of chili today.
4. I stopped at the dollar store and picked up a loaf of whole wheat bread, a bag of shredded cheese for tonight’s supper of chili and a card for my mother’s cousin who is turning 93 this month. He was her favorite cousin so now that she is gone, I want him to know we still think of him even though he is two states away.
5. I gave away a fluffy terrycloth robe to a friend who was wishing for one. Frees up space in my closet so it’s a win for both of us.
1. Received a 6 bottle wine tote from Buy Nothing. Our daughter works at a winery and she often needs to bring home free wine! I’m covering the old logo with some fabric.
2. Mended some pajama shorts. I made these shorts several years ago out of a sheet that my aunt bought me 25 years ago. Still going strong! The coordinating sheet was made into curtains for my son’s room when he was a teenager, and now those curtains were repurposed to be the backing for a quilt I just made with his high school t-shirts. The aunt that gave me the sheets just passed away and I have enjoyed working with fabric that were items she gave me.
3. Picking raspberries in our backyard!
4. Homemade baked beans. The canned kind have ingredients I can’t eat. Homemade are so quick and easy and cheap in the instant pot. I freeze them in serving size batches.
5. I picked up items at Target for work. I put in an online order of my own and selected in store pick up which I did during the work errand. Getting paid for the time from work, and completed a task of my own at the same time.
I went ahead and did a refrigerator pickling of some jalapeños that were beginning to shrivel up.
We ate leftovers again for lunch even though we were tired of them. Smaller batches, Bethany!
Went thrifting with my oldest yesterday. Picked up an awful color of purple pair of pants half off. It happens to be one of the school colors of the place I’m teaching at next year. Otherwise I wouldn’t be caught dead in those pants!
Giving away PE shirts and choir shirts in our Buy Nothing group since my kids are switching schools. Indiana voucher system is kicking in $17,000 for their private education.
Husband cut down a diseased Japanese maple. (It was lopsided and growing mushrooms) he’s digging out the stump him self instead of paying for stump removal. We are replacing it with a beautiful one.
I love that you’re giving advice to your future self!
Not a fan of private, read taxpayer, vouchers. On my soapbox but unless one of the very, very, very few truly private prep (aka non-religion affiliated), put your effort into improving your public schools. Off soapbox.
Not to start something, but I’m in solidarity with your soapbox stance. Old enough to remember when there was a separation between church and state, and for darned good reasons.