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I took advantage of a rare non-rainy moment for a walk around the neighborhood and was mentally prepared to not come across any “free piles” in such soggy weather. This proved to be incorrect, as I found an abandoned knit cap. (Okay, not officially a “free pile,” but it was to me!) I pincer grabbed it and carried it home, where I gave it a progressive series of washes until it came out nice and clean. I then gave it a once over with my sweater shaver to complete its spa treatment.
I actually know someone who lives near where I found the cap, so she’s going to ask her neighbors if it belongs to them.
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I pruned the candytuft in my front garden and saved a couple dozen to propagate on the kitchen windowsill. I have a big yard, but prefer to not spend any money to keep it up. These flowers go back to 1996, when we first bought our house and dug up some up from my father’s house.
Sharing is caring. Thanks, dad!
By the way, I’ll never stop loving my collection of trash picked sake glasses and Pokemon jam jars!
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I got a class action settlement for $8.74 from Verizon wireless. So yeah . . . I recently came into some money.
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My son and I walked to Fred Meyer to pick up some motor oil for my husband who spent the afternoon changing the oil in both of our cars. I made sure to walk past the clearance section, where I grabbed four bags of Ghirardelli peppermint chips for $1.57 apiece. A nice addition to the pantry for some later date when we’re craving a sweet treat.
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Like President Carter, I washed out and reused my zip-top plastic bags.
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That’s some high-quality frugality ❤️
I mended a thrifted coat last night. I *could* have bought a new one. But I like that this one is warm and has got to be about 40-50 years old. It even has a union label inside!
“Look for … the Union label!” I haven’t heard that song in ages….
I remember that song and the ads!
I still think that ILGWU (the acronym for the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union) stands in my case for “I Love Going Without Underwear.” 😀
Jessica,
That is some impressive mileage on the thrifted coat! I grieved two winters ago when I finally had to let go of a down coat I bought (new) in 1978. Finally the fabric just gave way beyond mending, but I sure was proud of that coat. Which to be fair looked terrible for its last ten years but good enough for the woods.
I pulled out my thirty-ish year old one when I realized it was easier to put on because of limited range of motion from my bad shoulders. The more modern fuzzy microfleece would catch on my shirt and not lay down in the back without lots of extra tugging. But the (highly faux) satin lining in the old coat slides right on and off
I also understand now why elderly women and witches are pictured in artworks with capes and cloaks and shawls. Arthritis.
I love your Foster Care for Lost Hats effort. 🙂
At my house our frugal stuff was of the small but persistent variety:
1. Inventoried our small upright freezer and made a meal plan based on what we have that needs to be used up.
2. Stayed home and spent no money during our snowed in days.
3. Improvised seasoned home fries and grilled frozen onions for snow day hamburgers at home. We had ground beef and buns but no French fries or fresh onions. Potatoes and the air fryer to the rescue.
4. Mended another chewed up stuffed dog toy.
5. Trimmed the dog’s nails and groomed the cat myself.
1. I cleared the snow out of my driveway by myself. I think this is the third time this winter. I want it to at least be worth changing out the mower deck with the snow blower. I don’t know what it would cost to have someone plow but it’s a long driveway so probably worth it to keep doing it myself.
2. My daughter wanted hibachi for her birthday. We went at lunch time and the price was so much better and it was plenty of food.
3. I made yogurt using Kristen the frugal girl’s method. It always turns out great and tastes really good.
4. I uploaded all my receipts to the Fetch app and Ibotta.
5. I read two more library books on my kindle. Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah and The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger. Both books were really good.
I also am a proud baggie washer. Jimmy Carter, what a good man.
1. I found a penny while getting free exercise on a walk.
2. Spent $67 at the grocery store and “saved” about $30. I shopped a lot of sales and coupons in the app. At first the coupons didn’t ring up, so I said something and she re-rung them and got me my lowered total.
3. An old t-shirt my daughter wasn’t wanting anymore went out for the cat to sleep on…he didn’t thank me, but I assume he’s thankful. 🙂
4. We crunched lots of numbers and decided to drive on an upcoming trip instead of fly. Several hundred dollars cheaper.
5. NOT FRUGAL: I burned the beans.
1. I found a penny on the ground in a parking lot. Into the found change jar it went.
2. I used my $10 off per month at CVS. Today I have another $4 off so you can be sure I will pop in while out doing errands and spend it.
3. I borrowed three New Yorker past issues and am reading a great article about the late writer Alice Munro. I prefer novels to short stories so am not acquainted with her writing but it’s an interesting albeit heartbreaking article.
4. I roasted the turkey I bought on sale before Thanksgiving and had #2 Stepson over for a mini Thanksgiving dinner. DH and him watched football and talked and laughed all afternoon.
5. I’m happy to say I washed out two plastic food storage bags all the while not knowing Jimmy Carter was a baggie-washer-outer too.
Is anyone else of my way of thinking that Alice Munro should have her Nobel Prize revoked, if that’s even a possibility??
1.I enjoyed hearing of President Carter’s frugal ways and I have also always washed Ziploc bag. I do hate having them out drying so I’m trying to find other sustainable storage solutions.
². I mended my one pair of overalls, and both knees on a pair of jeans of my husband.
3. When I first made cloth napkins I made some double sided. I never liked them and yesterday I took the layers apart and made single layer napkins. Somehow it was very satisfying.
4. I made butternut squash soup which I reckon costs less than $1 to make since the squash was homegrown.
5. 2 loads of laundry dried using the solar dryer.
FFT Pre Vacation Edition!
1. Followed my packing list as closely as possible. I use the strategy of chucking everything into the suitcase a few days in advance to visually take stock of what I’m bringing. This helps me realize what I might have forgotten and also think about what I really need.
2. Traveling for 12 days with just a carry-on to avoid fees/hassle checking a bag. Bringing laundry sheets and grabbed a travel clothesline to hopefully keep everything mildew free in some tropical destinations.
3. Remembering my little travel pharmacy (standards of anti-diarrheal, NSAIDs, vitamins) to avoid having to pay resort prices for convenience items. Same goes for tissues and reef-safe sunscreen.
4. Deep cleaning my water bottle to bring with me! This will help me avoid single use plastic and also stay hydrated enough to enjoy our adventures.
5. My teeth have started shifting again post-adult braces. I was able to dig up my original retainer from when I first got them off–I had it replaced because it was starting to get beyond-gross and I read that they have a shelf life of about 2 years. The original one is much more substantial than the once I use now. I de-grossed it and have been using it for a week and my teeth are already looking better. My dentist estimated ~$2500 to “Fix” my slightly off teeth, so I am looking at this as a savings of over 2 grand!
I got a whopping $14 and change from the Verizon settlement. I’ll try to not spend it all in one place.
1. I also got money from Verizon-$14+ and bought half price Christmas candy. Katy, we are practically twins.
2. I had 5 Etsy sales and packed them with used bubble wrap that I liberated from the community recycling bins. (That’s not even a material my city recycles .)
3. I turned the thermostat down 2 degrees.
4. I sewed up a tiny hole in a sweater sleeve.
5. We had a Chinese lunch out and brought home the enormous amount of bland fried rice. The dogs had some. I took the rest and added sautéed peppers, onion, cauliflower, peas and eggs to make re-fried rice. It was much better than the original and made four more meals.
Long time reader, first time contributing. Frugality has always been my thing and I am grateful for Katy’s inspiration and the community here! Here’s my Saturday:
1. Received settlements from Verizon and health provider security breach for all family members, totaling $49.88.
2. While on a 3 hour snowy hike on public trails adjacent to home, found: 1 Ruffwear dog bootie (put on trailhead sign post for hopeful owner find), 1 grocery receipt (to submit for points), 21 aluminum cans (to recycle at $0.10 each in MI), plus 1 full unopened can of beer (delightful local craft brewery IPA my partner will enjoy once it unfreezes, $2.45 value, certainly more $ if served at local brewery), and 1 YakTrax buried deep in snow/ice so it has been there for a long time (will replace one we have and can no longer repair after many years of repair).
3. Gave son a haircut.
4. Sewed/stitched: son’s shirt with rip on side seam, partner’s wool sock with hole at heel, my wool sock with hole starting by toe, wrist/cuff run on my wool base layer top (just received as “hand-me- down/new to me by dear friend). Shoe glued the heel of son’s favorite shoes (already a hand-me down from other daily).
5. Used Target app deal to receive 20% off on grocery pick-up order, which included many B1G150% or 25% off (items like fresh spinach, tofu, tempeh, frozen chicken), while also earning $5 rebate from manufacturer for Mac & cheese items(bringing down to $.43/box vs $1.59). Paid for using previously purchased gift card that was 10% off plus 5% cash back rewards.
Tia, wow, that’s a great first list!
Welcome, Tia!
1. It’s my housekeeper’s birthday and she wanted some ivy. I got a basket (designed for houseplants) from a thrift store (50 cents), a bow from my stash of holiday ribbons and a little (already rooted, nice big and full with pretty colorings) ivy plant I bought at Wallyworld (aka Walmart for all you non-Southerners). That, plus a bit of tape and a twist tie, made the plant look like it came from the florist. I just plopped the ivy, flowerpot and all, into the basket. (Yes, I know it is not frugal to buy a plant, but I don’t have a green thumb and I wanted the ivy to be showier than the scraggly plants I’ve rooted from my own ivy.)
2. Neighbor brought me some banana bread. Enough for several days’ of breakfast, as soon as I finish the German bread loaf another friend baked for me. Saved the gift bag in order to re-use it someday.
3. Kept the faucets streaming during the hard freeze we had. Better a bigger water bill than broken pipes and a MUCH bigger plumbing bill!
4. Read another free book obtained via a Little Free Library.
5. Although I’d purchased some boxes of candy canes for 25 cents a few days ago, they were 12 to a box. Store now has 25-per-box candy canes on sale for the same price. So I bought 4 of those, figuring the candy canes will keep for 11 more months.
Has there ever been a case of candy canes going bad? I heard they found an unopened box in King Tut’s tomb and they were fine. They were alongside some Hostess Twinkies, also fine.
Given the amount of preservatives in Hostess Twinkies, no wonder King Tut lasted so long. 🙂
1. We took a long walk to celebrate snow melting/compressing/evaporating. We left a the curb the small refrigerator (maybe 3′ tall) with the “Free” sign on it.
2. I refilled the windshield wiper fluid reservoir in both our vehicles. A lot of salt has been spread on the roads over the past week. It’s safer to be able to see out the windshield.
3. I went to Giant and used a $10 off a $50 purchase coupon from a competitor grocery store. I bought sale items. I also earned about 400 points which are worth at least $4.
4. DH was a money magnet yesterday. He found almost $3 at a CoinStar then later found a quarter and then a couple of pennies in a few different places. It was added to the found money jar.
5. Like President Carter, I washed out and reused my zip-top plastic bags. Some of my most reused bags contained baby carrots.
I did not know that about President Carter, though certainly am not surprised.
Billionaire Warren Buffet is also a very frugal person, living in the same house for decades and using coupons at fast food restaurants, (he eats an amazing amount of junk food, including Utz potato sticks and Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s drive-through breakfasts or Dairy Queen lunches).
1. Bread is baking as I type this.
2. I’m trying to reduce food waste as much as possible, so as a recent “empty nester”, I’ve been experimenting with halving recipes. Tonight we are having half a batch of chili. I have a 1/8 teaspoon and 1/8 cup measuring cup, and these help out. I got them at the goodwill bins.
3. I thrifted some swanky Paul Green boots. So so comfortable!
4. I found some interesting woo-hoo clearance deals, realized that I don’t truly need the items, and put them back on the shelf. Yay for me! Just because something is a good deal doesn’t mean I should buy it.
5. When the bread comes out of the oven, I’ll head out on a walk and keep my eyes open for cans and free piles! At the very least, I’ll get a free workout.
Does anyone else lose posts before they are finished? I had to write this elsewhere and the cut and paste.
Li, I have a separate document that I add things to throughout the week. Then I copy and paste from there.
If I feel like I am taking a long time to type, I will “copy” what I have written, (right click and menu comes up). If I lose it, I can “paste” that, so not all is lost.
Loved the reference to President Carter’s reused Ziplocks. His funeral was balm to my soul. So many delightful stories.
We live in a desert climate and have never turned on out heater. I cheerfully walk around our 40 degree house in the morning reminding myself that Katy says to just ‘throw on an extra sweater.’
1. Made a simple dish on the fly of black beans, rice, corn, green pepper and onions mixed with salsa and sprinkled with cheese.
2. Made a simple tomato soup using tomato puree, sauteed onions, coconut milk, veggie broth and seasonings.
3. For my 5-week trip, I packed my daily supplements in those small plastic film canisters, which have to be at least 20 years old. Each week I transfer the supplements into my 7-day pill container. Without that, I wouldn’t remember what I had taken and when. It also reminds me what day of the week it is!
4. Shout out to my sister who is doing our weekly Adventure Club outings by herself while I’m away. She lacks self-esteem and doesn’t get out much and I’m so proud of her. No outings save me money, but then I miss out on the fun.
5. Does anyone remember the author Elaine St. James? She was so instrumental in my simplicity journey back in the 90s. When I return from Arizona, I’m going to check out her books from the library and take a walk down memory lane.