Five Frugal Things
by Katy on July 29, 2024 · 45 comments
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I continue to cook from scratch while visiting with my sister in NYC, even though her neighborhood has multiple tempting restaurants. Tonight was a taco/tostada buffet using pinto beans cooked in her Instant Pot and yesterday was okonomiyaki, inspired by a single cabbage that I found in the back of her refrigerator.
Neither of us are rolling in dough, so this benefits both of us.
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My sister used her association with The American Museum of Natural History to arrange free tickets for my neighbor Laura and her son, (including a “special exhibit,” plus entrance to the Hadyn Planetarium!) This was a $63 value and I’m really pleased that I was able to arrange this benefit for my friend. She and I hung out a couple weeks ago and she happened to mention that she was taking her son to New York for a couple of days, so this worked out perfectly for them.
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Tonight was garbage night, so my sister and I took a slow stroll through her neighborhood and brought home a small metal shelving unit, (her) and two unused zip ties, (me.) Okay, the zip ties weren’t really a “garbage night” item, but I was still happy to tuck them into my purse for later usage.
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• I used the last of some plum sauce from last week’s Indian takeout over the okonomiyaki and the last of some spicy green sauce for tonight’s tacos. (Thank you Greta for schlepping takeout all the way from Jackson Heights, Queens to The Bronx!) Asian fusion?
• My sister and I have been watching the Olympics through the Peacock app, which I get for free through my at home internet service.
• I found a filthy penny on the ground today, so yes . . . I did recently come into some money.
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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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{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
$65 for wax museum!!!! Wowzers. I thought $30 in Niagara falls ontario was expensive for the wax museum
I picked up a copy of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” in the free box @ a garage sale. Haven’t read it for 40+ years. My mom is reading it now.
I picked up a beautiful outfit for $6, will wear it to 2 weddings coming up next month. Fertilized the roses before today’s rain (ground is wet here!).
Bought a tote full of “stuff” wanted 2 things that I need for a project, sold the rest to my cousin for the same price I bought the tote for. He was smiling and I was elated. I also picked up an antique 5 shelf heavy wood bookshelf with beautiful carvings for $10. It needs a new back, I have some 100 yo bead board
so I will start working on this project today while it rains.
I am enjoying your New York visit posts.
Blue Gate Farm Girl,
I bet that shelf will turn out gorgeous! Lucky you!
Great savings for your friend and her son!
1. DH and I had a yard sale last Saturday. The town in the next state which borders my neighborhood (I live in an enclave) was having their townwide yard sale so I bought a big old piece of foamboard at the dollar store and made a sign to put up at the state line. No advertising besides FB and the sign. We made $100 ($99.50 to be exact) and the items we no longer needed or wanted found their way into other hands and out of the landfill.
2. Since I advertised on FB, a cousin whom I love but rarely see, stopped by with her foster son to visit for a couple of hours during the yard sale. We sat on the front porch catching up during the sale and it made my day. A friend’s grandson also stopped by as did neighbors, so it turned into a wonderful social event.
3. Tonight I will be attending a Willie Nelson tribute concert at the library, free.
4. While there, I’ll pick up the three books I had on hold through the interlibrary loan system.
5. We went to a cookout yesterday at a friend’s house. She asked me to bring a fruit salad. I gave her and her husband the leftovers and still have half a watermelon and grapes in the refrigerator. Fruit for lunch works for me.
Christine, kudos on your #1 and #2. Our street-wide garage sales were always more about the socializing than the money. But after the last one last year, we’ve agreed that we’re all getting too old for the setup, haulout, pricing, etc. (As I’ve mentioned in the past, my JASNA BFF calls our street a NORC–a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community.)
It really was a lot of work. This may be the last one for us too. There are lots of worthy organizations around to donate goods to. How nice you and your neighbors are in the same age bracket. Here too, there are more retirees (including DH and myself) than working aged folks. When I wax nostalgic about the 1960s and 70s, they get it!
Not necessarily frugal, but funny: Since our rains, the mosquitoes have been horrible. We had an unseasonably cool week and it was possible to enjoy being outdoors — except for the little buggers. I’d saved my old mosquito zapper I’d bought back in the 1980s, but it no longer worked. Was not able to repair it (I tried!). Finally broke down and bought another one. Put it on my covered patio and left it on all night. The next morning, I saw a little bird hopping around on my patio pecking at some dark “seeds”. I couldn’t figure that out, as I’d swept the patio the night before; why was the patio floor covered with those little bitty specks? Looked closer and found that my fine feathered friend was feasting on fried mosquitoes!
(OK, maybe this was sort of semi-frugal: I found a way to produce some free bird feed! LOL!)
I’m listing my usual practices as my FFT this week:
1. Using an antenna for TV watching. Everything I watch is free!
2. AC set no lower than 78, supplemented with ceiling fans and electric fans. (If I’m super hot I may turn it down to 77 or 76 for half an hour, but that’s it.)
3. No incandescent lights. Everything in the house is LED (mostly) or CFL.
4. Air drying the laundry. Wrinkled items go in the dryer for no more than 15 minutes to “iron” them. Using off-brand detergent (and not a lot of it, at that); it saves $$$ and still cleans everything very well.
5. Window curtains/drapes are thermal to keep out the hot sun. If that doesn’t do the trick, I have foil or film on the windows for sunblock.
I use 50% of the recommended amount of all household/ personal products, same result! Toothpaste, Shampoo/ conditioner, detergent, whatever! Same result!
@Coral I do the same, and I also cut open the bottles/tubes when no more will come out and scrape the last of it! I find I can get at least 3 more shampoos/toothbrushings by doing this, and my facial moisturizer will last me at least another 4-5 days!
Fru-gal Lisa, I love the story of your birdie feasting on zapped mosquitoes!
What a nice thing to do for your neighbor.
1. I returned empty cans to the grocery store for the deposit. I used the proceeds to help pay for my groceries.
2. I submitted my receipts to Fetch & Ibotta.
3. My daughter fixed one of my seat belt latches. It wasn’t catching..a little lubricant and it’s working again.
4. I had taco night at my house. My mom brought fresh tomatoes from her plant and we made pico de gallo. It was the best part.
5. I went to the last day of estate sale. Everything was 75% off. I needed a new belt and I found a nice leather one that had never been used for 75 cents.
I also read a book my mom loaned me – Go As A River. It was very good. I also read The Marsh King’s
Daughter from the library on my Kindle. It was a quick read and I enjoyed it.
Jill A, re: your #1: The Wegmans totals I routinely report on The Frugal Girl’s Friday “What I Spent, What I Ate” feature are always less than my actual spending, because I return about 2/3 of the deposit bottles and cans I pick up around the neighborhood at Wegmans. (The other 1/3–bottles/cans Wegmans won’t accept, such as Aldi’s and Trader Joe’s containers–go to an efficient and well-run container return operation just down the hill from me.)
And during my regular Sunday morning walk with friends yesterday, I mentioned that I’d made more in container returns in 2023 than I’d earned in interest on a CD. I think they thought I was kidding; granted, with me, it can be hard to tell. But I wasn’t.
A. Marie, I’ll have to look into Friday Frugal Girl posts. I read them but not always the comments. I’d love to see how that works out for you. I know you pick up cans and bottles regularly and I love your resourcefulness.
1-2-3. Got little bits of unexpected money in July: Sold a few books to online service, (it’s the time of year to sell academic books, whether textbooks or classics). Got cash back on credit card from charging our mattress purchase. Received one of those mystery health care refunds, presumably because what we paid and what insurance paid overlapped.
4. Reading “Rich AF: The Winning Money Mindset That Will Change Your Life” by Vivian Tu from my library. Would recommend in particular to young professionals who have started their careers and are fretting over money and not sure what to do for their futures. Clear, lively, and conversational descriptions, (though conversational is not how I write formally!).
5. Looked at my retirement account online. Happy to see how much it has increased in recent years in stocks and bonds without me doing anything or contributing more!
1. Scanning receipts to my fetch app. It’s so easy and every receipt counts for something, which I really appreciate.
2. I’m making my grandmother’s squash casserole recipe tonight from the abundance of zucchini in my daughter-in-law’s garden. I’m cooking most of the meals, which isn’t my strong suit, but I do ok.
3. I’m eating up the food I’d accumulated for myself (lots of food allergies so I need some special things) as I’m probably leaving my son’s house this week. I’ve been here almost 7 weeks.
4. Thinking about what I’ll do when I get home, which includes sitting on some free local beaches, and working on my postage stamp quilt which is a satisfying use of lots of small scraps of fabric. I’m sure there’s some catching up and putting away I’ll need to do. I walked out of my house at a moments notice 7 weeks ago and I don’t even know what I left things like.
5. Sold 2 bunches of dried love-in-a-mist (nigella) pods on Etsy. Since these reseed freely throughout my garden and I do not water them, the cost of this to me is the time spent harvesting the dried stalks and bundling them. I have more bunches to sell…
Trimmed my own hair. Somehow came in way under budget on groceries this week and last week. Still grooming my sweet but feisty big girl kitty myself without major blood loss. 😀 Used a coupon at the grocery store to buy window cleaner almost free. Sewed up a chewed-on dog toy — our puppy has jaws like a tiny shark — for the umpteenth time.
Hi Ruby, I highly recommend using just vinegar for cleaning windows, it works really well! I make a rag wet (but not dripping wet, squeeze it out) and then shake some clear vinegar on it (distilled malt vinegar is the one I use). Works a treat!
Vinegar does work great, but I mostly don’t use it in this house because it has the original marble features. All the windowsills are marble, and vinegar will damage that stone.
Ah, that’s a pity but yes, better not in that case!
1. I stopped at Giant to pick up items that were a good deal when I redeemed rewards points. Most of the points were earned by buy a gift card to a store DH likes to shop.
2. I rode with a friend to an orchard stand about an hour away. I bought a half bushel of peaches for $29. I shared some with a neighbor and with a friend.
3. I attended the Frugal Girl “local” get together. It was held in a pavilion (we did not reserve/rent it). Everyone brought their lunch and it was nice to see them packed in reusable containers and water bottles. It was a good time. I also brought home a two candles and other items the organizer was giving away. The candles will be given away and the other items I will use.
4. I put our Hulu account on pause since we hadn’t been watching anything on it.
5. Same old, same old.
I wonder if people know you can pause your Hulu/Disney, etc. I just recently got mine off pause so it makes it fun to binge and catch up on favorite shows.
I do this with DirecTv as well. Helps to save money if saving up for something special.
We turn them on and off when possible. We like to have access to a lot of different services, but obviously can’t watch it all. Turning some of them off forces us to search for hidden gems. Then when we turn them back on, whole shows have dropped and are ready to binge.
1. Didn’t eat out at all. Instead, using the free produce from the garden, free CSA, and meat from the freezer.
2. Made more zucchini scarpaccia to bring for dinner this week (to work apartment), along with beet salad. This is all essentially free as zucchini and beets are from CSA.
3. Making cucumber yogurt soup to share at work with a coworker. I normally buy lunch as she helps me with an exhibit opening, but this time, I’m bringing lunch from home.
4. I’ll leave for the long commute in time to hit up the cheapest BJ gas before it closes.
5. Bought some sausage from FlashFoods to put in the freezer.
Can you say more about the free CSA? How does it work?
1. My dad turned 80 yesterday! Since I don’t think he’s shopped for anything other than replacement sneakers in near a decade, I opted for his “oak” birthday gift to be a donation to the US Forest Service to plant more oak trees. He was touched and I did not create any new clutter for him.
2. We packed a lovely picnic dinner for the long drive back home and enjoyed it at a rest stop. Limiting unexpected expenses like fast food is always a relief (and the leftover watermelon feta salad was much nicer than chicken nuggets).
3. The company UpWest is closing which means that all of their clothes (priced at between $40 and $200) are on mega clearance/liquidation. I was excited to peruse for items that I had previously deemed too expensive and pad my summer/fall closet with clothing I am genuinely excited to wear.
4. Not a frugal win for me but for my sister – while we were celebrating this weekend, I did a hair trial for her wedding. I’m moonlighting as a stylist for my family and we were able to settle on an updo that she really liked. I’m glad to be able to save her the money and stress of trying to find a stylist she likes when she can be as honest as she wants with me 🙂
5. Very excited to be able turn the AC off during the day and avoid that extra bill since the intense heat has abated for now!
Wonder gift of trees! Especially oaks!
Thanks for the heads up on UpWest sale!
FFT, More Garden Stuff (Mostly) Edition:
(1) On a day trip around my lovely Central NY on Saturday, I picked up, among many other things, two more quart boxes of pickling cukes at a farm stand. I made these into my final refrigerator dills of the season this morning. (The dill is rapidly going to seed.)
(2) I gave some already ripened dill seed to an 85-year-old neighbor who had asked for some, and will be doing the same for other neighbors who want their own Enchanted Dill Forests.
(3) I took some tomatoes (my three cherry tomato plants are going gangbusters) to the neighbors who allowed me to add a box of papers to their recent visit from a shredding truck.
(4) One of my other Saturday acquisitions (at one of our best local library book sales) was a Folio Society edition of Jessica Mitford’s autobiography of her early years, Hons and Rebels. The six Mitford sisters ranged all the way from Nancy, who wrote Love in a Cold Climate and other books and was an absolute monster to all the younger ones, to Deborah, who became the Duchess of Devonshire. In between were two who became Nazis, one who (almost refreshingly) didn’t do much, and Jessica–who was a Communist for a while, a social agitator all her life, and the author of The American Way of Death (an expose of the U.S. funeral industry). So I was delighted to find this.
(5) And I didn’t make any stupid public remarks about childless cat ladies. Especially since I am one.
Your #4…that book sounds so interesting. I love memoirs/autobiographical. Once read a superb one about the Bronte siblings. Wish I could remember the exact name but that has flown out the window!
Darn autocorrect…AUTOBIOGRAPHIES. There.
Christine, would it have been Dark Quartet, by Lynne Reid Banks? Excellent biography.
Linda in NZ
Sounds familiar. Could very well be.
Thanks for the autobiography recommendation. The Mitford sisters lives are so interesting.
Adore the Mitfords. Perpetually annoyed with myself for finally writing a letter to Jessica literally days before she died. Still slightly freaked out that my daughter came up with their family sport, “Slowly Working Away,” entirely on her own, only she called it “Like Boiling a Frog.”
“… an earlier sport known as ‘slowly working away’. Slowly working consisted of unobtrusively taking the hand of an elder, usually Tom, when he was reading a book. Very gently at first, and with infinite patience, one would scratch away at one spot. The goal was to draw blood before the victim noticed what was happening.”
borrowable from Open Library,
https://archive.org/details/honsrebels0000mitf
Reorganized pantry so like items are grouped together
Sister repotted some cuttings she had and gifted them to
me
Had family over for dinner on Saturday and had enough leftovers for Sunday
Washed bathmats and mattress cover and air dried them on the patio
Scanned receipts into fetch
Confession: Forgive me, for I have sinned. I spent $40 on four pairs of athletic socks! While it appears I’ve completely lost my mind, I reasoned: I was at the store, I was not willing to go to another store or online, I needed a certain type of sock, I needed them now, this brand lasts for years, and it was just easier all around. For $40 I got socks and a feeling of being kind to myself, so it was worth it. Now I just need to make sure to keep them out of my pup’s mouth this time as she likes to raid the laundry basket.
I prefer to buy quality items that last longer. I hate to see things end up in a landfill.
Nothing wrong with buying a quality product plus good chance the items were shipped but one time – to the store from which you purchased. Don’t beat yourself up but do your best to keep them from becoming dog entertainment!
1. I have returned from my NM vacay w/ my gal pals. I used points to pay for our hotel. I got 30$ per day food & beverage credit due to my CC. I will also get a 60$ credit on purchases charged to our hotel room. We did have to pay 27$ a day parking at the hotel. We split that charge. There is a fee for this CC but it pays for itself due to these benefits.
2. My friends wanted to explore & eat at different cafes. I said “nope” I’m using my hotel credit for free food. They did eat at the hotel for some meals. I said “I tried to feed you for free but you refused.”
3. We took a cooler w/ sandwich meat, bread, etc. to eat on the road.
4. When I was out on my usual walk I found an apricot tree. There were apricots on the grass & curb. I helped myself to a bag of them.
5. I used another CC for a benefit. If you used Apple Pay to pay for something you got a 10$ credit on your bill. I made some very small purchases x 3.
6. Used my Taco Bell app to get a free medium Baja Blast soft drink on July 29.
7. Trimmed the cats’ nails & brushed them well. Free grooming although I don’t think they appreciated my efforts.
8. I had 2 small leftover siders from my last hotel meal. Put those in the cooler & ate for dinner when I got home.
9. We got a refund for a tour we decided to not attend. The tickets were 60$ each so I appreciated my 60$ refund.
10. Bought no tee shirts, trinkets, or other vacation junk to take home. Using Katy’s advice of experiences not gifts or other purchases that clutter.
Sounds like a fun and frugal vacation all around. I love how you helped yourself to the apricots. I would’ve done the same.
Your #7…cats never seem to appreciate us unless we’re putting down a bowl of food for them or providing a warm lap for them to curl up in!
Love the Asian fusion dinner version!
Some frugal things and fails, travel edition
* We brought our own refillable water bottles and were able to refill them at both airports.
* We got a group discount (there was 5 of us) on a train ticket.
* We stayed with family and were able to benefit from the fruit and veg they grow, from apples and blackberries to courgettes, lettuce, beans etc
* As we all have clothes at my family’s place at this stage we were able to only bring carry on bags and did not need to pay for any check in luggage.
* We turned off the electricity while away.
* My friend was feeding our cat and watering our potted plants while we were away. As a thank you we gave her a fancy shampoo bar (she had asked for this when asked if we could bring her anything back), artisan chocolate from the region we stayed in and a big bunch of hydrangeas from our garden.
Fails:
I had prepared a few healthy snacks which I promptly left behind and ended up having to buy at premium airport prices.
We forgot about the 100ml limit for liquids and had to bin a tube of toothpaste that we meant to bring along.
Found a few coins on the ground, and did not hesitate to pick them up!
Scanned receipts to Fetch, reading library books, packed lunches and coffee for work.
Used my Wawa points before they expired to save 15 cents/gallon on gas.
Took my car to dealer for a FREE oil change/tire rotation.
Rescued the leftover brown work bananas from being tossed in trash – took them home and froze for future banana bread, muffins and smoothies. My company provides free office snacks weekly – including apples, oranges and bananas — once the bananas start getting brown spots – no one wants them but me 🙂
I prefer not to eat bananas until they have brown spots. Won’t touch one when the peel has even a hint of green – bleh.
Selena – I am not a fan of a green, or super yellow banana either, prefer mine with spots!