Five Frugal Things
by Katy on November 2, 2024 · 10 comments
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I went onto the library website at 12 A.M., November 1st to see if they’d loaded fresh “Cultural Passes,” which has worked well for me in the past. (Fresh passes load on the first of month.) Unfortunately the only passes that popped up were for OMSI, (The Oregon Museum for Science and Industry) which is mainly for kids and be best left for young families.
I did notice that they had Oregon State Park parking passes available, which are normally $5 per vehicle/per day. This is great information to tuck into the back of my brain and I’ll definitely be coming back for a free parking pass!
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My husband’s friend gave us four Portland Trailblazer tickets for last night’s game, but we were too zonked after our adventure day to brave a dark and rainy 8:30 P.M. basketball game. He didn’t want them back, so I passed them along to my friend Lise, whose husband follows the team. I’m always happy to make frugal opportunities for other people.
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My neighbor put out another Bonne Maman jam jar in her recycling bin, which I brought home and added to my stash. They’re perfect for the random food items that I buy in bulk at Winco.
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I finished reading my library copy The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin last night. A really enjoyable read, I feel like I’m on this streak of fantastic books! I hadn’t realized until just now that it’s also a movie and available to watch on Hulu, which we have through an old college friend. Free book and free movie? Cool.
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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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1. At Trader Joe’s, I bought a bunch of 23 cent bananas, another box of $3.49 graham crackers (they don’t carry them all year round so I stock up; in my opinion, they are the best graham cracker around and two squares sub for cookies in our house), and a cucumber for 99 cents. I squirted a few free spurts of hand lotion from the pump bottle at the cash register.
2. Cut up manila folders to use for scratch paper, grocery lists, and the daily Spelling Bee. In grade school, I called them vanilla folders for obvious reasons.
3. With inspiration from The Frugal Girl, I created my own weekly planner page to consolidate my many daily notes and logs in these categories: appointments, tasks, food and fitness. I created a template in Excel, printed it on the back of some bright orange paper, clipped it to a clipboard, and then used a pen to fill in the info as the week progressed.
4. Cut up leftover Halloween chocolate candy bars to use in cookies and quick breads.
5. This weekend I will be roasting the pumpkin we bought for Halloween decor and freezing the guts for future soup. I add roasted carrots for another layer of flavor in the soup.
1. Was tempted but did not buy Christmas themed dog collars.
2. The same feed store had some sort of catastrophe when unloading dog food, with many ripped bags. The bags were resealed and re-weighed, with the price adjusted to 50 cents (!!) a pound. That is about one fourth the price. We now have 207 pounds of dog food in the garage, with plenty left for other customers. This will last us about 2 months. Dogs themselves are very unfrugal but they are worth it.
3. When I reached the point of adding clams to the clam chowder I was making, I realized I had no clams. This has never happened before, we always had a stash. husband offered to go buy clams, but instead we just had potato bacon soup for dinner.
4. Did a mystery shop for a delivered pizza. Free pizza, plus some money for doing the shop. They did not reimburse for a tip so we paid that out of the cash paid for the shop and still came out ahead.
5. Usually we get about 200 trick or treaters and we give out full sized candy bars, so we ordered 200 candy bars for this year. Fewer than 100 kids came, so we ended up with 120 candy bars. Dropped them off at a place that hands out packed lunches to the homeless, and are always short of something to throw in for dessert. Got a tax receipt. (Our neighbor 4 blocks away kept track and they had 813 kids come by!!)
Lindsey, I’ve always pictured you out in the country, but you had way more kids than we did (only 24 and all between 5:30-6:30). It was a cold and wet night here.
This morning (mid-morning our time and super early your time), I posted some comments on your Nov. 1 blog, but I’m happy to see you have another day’s worth of frugalness up online!
1. Started gathering up stuff to take to Salvation Army; trying to declutter. Took a box full of miscellaneous to the charity and in the process of cleaning out cabinets and closets, unearthed items that I’ll need this winter. Also found an unopened package of plastic forks, left behind by the former roommate (who moved out 2+ years ago, never to be heard from again). Will take that to church since they can use it for the next parish luncheon or some other event.
2. Ate some free meals: hot dogs at Trunk or Treat and was given a leftover hotdog at the end. That became today’s breakfast. Yesterday, I attended a mandatory training at work and they put on a breakfast buffet.
3. Went to the dollar store and bought a bottle of glow-in-the-dark Halloween nail polish, marked down after the holiday. It’s now in my tool chest. Comes in handy for marking light switches, remote controls, and other items you may need to locate in the dark.
4. Found several paperback books and traded them to the used bookstore. I now have over $30 in credit that I can redeem in merch at any time. Sadly, none of the used bookstores in our region give you cash; needless to say, I would have greatly preferred getting money instead of store credit.
5. Resisted the temptation to buy marked-down Halloween decorations. Figure I can re-use what I already have if I participate in Trunk or Treat next year. I may even do the same trunk decoration again — one wreath, one tablecloth and some baskets and lanterns, all scrounged from throughout the house. As one of my buddies said, the kids are mostly interested in the candy. So minimal trunk decor is OK.
The glow in the dark nail polish reuse is brilliant!
Dang me, Katy, I can’t keep up with the pace of your posting these days–but, along with everyone else, I do appreciate it!
Now, FFT, A Mostly Passive Frugality Edition:
(1) I remain mercifully distracted (on this weekend when we all need distraction) by proofreading papers for the upcoming edition of JASNA’s electronic journal. The less time I have to brood about what might happen from Tuesday onward, the better. And the less time I have to go out and spend money, also the better.
(2) I continue to save money on doing laundry by not running a load in any of my three categories (darks in cold water, lights needing cold water, and lights needing warmer water) until I have enough of any type to fill my front-loader. And, as noted in previous comments, I rack-dry everything except sheets.
(3) Same goes for the dishwasher: No matter how long it takes me to fill it as a single person, I wait till I have a full load to run it. I like to think that I’m driving National Grid crazy. 😀
(4) A bit less passive: I’ve been raking up leaves in my own yard and from the Bestest Neighbors’ splendid pile of leaves on their curb, because I want a real compost heap again. The composter I bought at a Rescue Mission store earlier this year didn’t work out for me. (And the BNs are as adamant as I am about not using lawn pesticides/herbicides, so no worries on that score.)
(5) And a culinary experiment I’m planning: At Wegmans this morning, I found a couple of packages of salmon trimmings at what, for salmon, is a ridiculously low price. I’m betting I can get enough from these for a salmon salad or two–and if not, I’ll do what the package recommends and make a fish stock. (I also returned NY State deposit containers at Wegmans for a total of $11.70, which also helped with the Wegmans bill.)
(5)
Used a customer loyalty coupon at the hardware store to pay only 63 cents out of pocket for a bottle of daily shower cleaner and three little caramels. This purchase inspired by spending two hours yesterday scrubbing our shower from top to bottom.
Gave my adult son a long-overdue haircut. He in turn helped me put the panes back in the bathroom window after I washed them. I am slowly getting all our windows washed by myself. Used up some ground beef that had been in the freezer a while to make a beef-pasta dish with beans and frozen veggies from my garden. Gathered up all the little frozen bits of various berries to make a big pan of baked oatmeal.
I inventoried my kitchen and pantry. I focused on the following to help the budget and avoid food waste:
Dates
Walnut
1 pound bag of Kale
last day red and white cabbage
dried bean inventory
Here is what I came up with:
Sweet and Sour German Red Cabbage
Instapot Van De Kamps Pork and Beans Copycat Kinda
– I used cranberry beans and the ham shanks I picked up at Grocery Outlet
A huge salad of Date, Kale, chickpea and walnut
– This salad with balsamic pear vinegar and Meyer lemon olive oil lasts a week just getting better because the kale maintains it’s structure
Pumpkin Date and Walnut bread
– This was made from my bargain pumpkin puree and .99 spice cake mixes.
I made three boxes worth and froze to have for easy breakfasts
Parboiled Kale
– frozen in cupcake pans for later use in soups
I also asked hubby for pecans which we do not commercially harvest. I have two big bags to start and then I’ll go pick some more. I can roast them for Christmas gifts.
1. I took myself out to lunch, which was free as I found a gift certificate in my wallet.
2. Today, I’m watching 2 videos that will count toward 10 points toward my 200 wellness points to not have to pay a 10% premium on my annual health insurance contribution.
3. I cancelled Netflix which I needed for a research paper, but will be complete by the end of the month.
4. I didn’t drive home (from work apartment this weekend), saving a tank of gas.
5. Still haven’t turned on the heat.
1. I used the same, fabulous costume I had from last year.
2. Drain maintenance with baking soda, Diamond crystal salt and vinegar.
3. Walked a zillion steps which saved my transit funds for later and helped my health.
4. Continue brewing my own coffee at home.
5. Can’t think of a 5th right now.