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I made a pot of French onion soup, which was extra frugal as I made the bread from scratch, used white cheddar instead of gruyere and threw the above pat of leftover restaurant butter in with the onions. (Worry not, as I added much more butter than this lil’ guy!) I didn’t have any wine, but I added a glug of sweet rice vinegar and it was absolutely divine!
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I spent an hour or so taking everything off my narrow back porch, sweeping it off, reorganizing everything and then putting it all back together. This project was about the functionality of the space, not the aesthetics — although it certainly looked better afterwards. Not everything needs to look cute. You can make over a space using nothing more than cleanliness and organization.
P.S. The shelf was a curb find, as was the vintage green wastebasket. The bag holder was being thrown away by my husband’s employer and the yellow “Portland Recycles” bin came with our garbage service in the 1990s.
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I’ve been taking my daughter out every day to practice her driving, which has been a long time coming. She turned 18 at the beginning of her senior year of high school, so they wouldn’t let her take driver’s education as the program was funded for students “under 18 only.” She then went to college in a walkable town and somehow here we are. Anyway, it’s been a lot of fun and although I’d been willing to pay for driving lessons, this is working out really well so far. I’ve watched a couple of “How to teach someone to drive” YouTube videos, which have been helpful.
I’ll accept any and all advice on how you’ve successfully taught someone to drive.
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• My daughter overwatered and killed a house plant that I’ve given her, so I brought the flowerpot back home. I’m already propagating a number of plants on the kitchen windowsill, so I’ll be able to fill it back up again with fresh plants. Unconditional love = infinite plant replacements.
• I started listing to Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Lathe of Heaven through the library’s free Libby app.
• I socialized with a friend yesterday by taking a walk through the neighborhood and socialized with our back yard neighbors by giving them a tour of the house. Strengthening relationships is always a good plan.
• I picked my stepfather up from the airport, which saved him the cost of a taxi. -
I hadn’t planned on buying a brand new car, so I don’t have to panic buy one before the tariffs kick in.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
My daughter is 27 and can’t drive. I keep meaniing to take her to renew her permit and keep forgetting. She lives in Manhattan so she takes the subway everywhere but it’s important to know how to drive.
I didn’t learn until I was 25, myself. I diidn’t want to earn the money to buy a car in high school (only way I could have gotten one), I went away to college which was walkable, and then when I was 21 my younger brother was hit by a car and killed and I was really scared and upset about learning. Finally, when I was 25 I tthought it was about time I learned, so my husband taught me. On our car with standard transmission. The first time I started it up, I stalled, and my husband said, “Great! You broke it!” and I started to cry. He was taken aback because he was joking. After that he printed a bunch of “Good Driver Awards” to hand to me ever time I mastered something like parking. “Award for Parking Good,” etc yes the bad grammar is part of the joke.
I then taught my son how to drive age 17, with an automatic. First thing he said first time behnd the wheel was, “OK, so how do I pop a wheelie?”
None of us have ever taken driver’s ed, and I decided I just didn’t feel like reading the manual for the required test, but I passed anyway.
I’m sorry about your brother. That must have been hard. One of my children had a good friend killed in a car accident in high school. That slowed down nearly all of her grade getting their license (small town).
Also so sorry about your brother. That’s very hard.
Thanks, it was hard for a long time. Now it seems almost unreal, it was so long ago. I used to send my mom flowers on his birthday every year, which she loved, but now she’s gone too.
At his memorial service, his classmates were bussed in and I remember a lot of teenage girls screeching and crying. Meanwhile I didn’t cry at all at the ceremony.
But yeah, scared to drive. I pushed myself years later because the only way to get over a phobia is to just do it, I think.
1. Received several things from Buy Nothing – three pizzas, two audiobooks and one bulletin board – and was able to group all of the pickups while I was running other errands. I also listed some things that we no longer need/want.
2. Husband went to lunch with a friend and she paid for his meal.
3. Sister and I went to the 25% off matinee. Spent some of our savings on a light meal afterward.
4. Took our dog to the vet for shots and a checkup. Since she was already sedated, we cut her nails at home using a clipper that we received via Buy Nothing.
5. Forgive me, Mother, for I have sinned. After exhausting all other options, I used Amazon for the one-of-a-kind shower ring for our quirky bathroom. Saved $11 in shipping by signing up for free 30-day Prime membership which I’ll cancel before the month is up.
That soup looks amazing. I’ve never made french onion soup. I may have to give it a go sometime.
1. I mopped all of my floors with the new to me O Cedar spin mop I bought at an estate sale. I had been wanting one, but didn’t want to spend the money on it in case I didn’t like it. I prefer to scrub my floors by hand, but with my arthritic knees it is getting next to impossible. It worked very well. I can clean the baseboards at the same time and I think I will use it to wipe down walls.
2. I gave my dog a bath in my shower using the handheld shower head I had installed a few years ago. It’s worth every penny.
3. My daughter helped me move all my heavy furniture out in my bedroom, so I could vacuum behind and scrub the walls and baseboards. I used the plastic moving men I purchased at a yard sale years ago. It would be impossible without them. This furniture is solid wood. My husband and I bought it with our wedding money over 30 years ago.
4. My daughter and I finished up all the accumulated leftovers in the refrigerator. Luckily we both love leftovers. I’ll be starting from scratch this week with some new meals. My daughter is wanting quiche. I will teach her how to make a pie crust from scratch.
5. My mother invited my daughters and I for dinner tonight. She’s making her famous sloppy joes and rice pudding. My contribution will be some tater tots. I have a huge bag from Costco taking up space in my freezer. It will be a nostalgic meal.
Clarissa Dickson Wright of the Two Fat Ladies once made a variation on French onion soup, which was onion soup with Stilton and beer. Absolutely mind-blowing.
I love, love, love heavy wooden furniture! I feel sorry for folks trying to buy furniture today — it’s mostly particle board and IMHO, won’t hold up over many years. After my parents’ passing, I got rid of my 1980s furniture and kept theirs. I just had my front room flooring redone and it has taken several guys to move Mom’s 1948 mahogany dining room suite. It may not currently be “in,” but I love the deep mahogany finish that has a shine to it. I have nightmares about people taking this kind of furniture and painting it to look “shabby chic.” (as has been the fad over the past several years). To me, that’s “poor white trash decor” — like taking something out of a king’s palace and ruining it so it looks like it came from a hillbilly’s shack. Hopefully the trend will reverse. I love the book “Frugal Luxuries” by Tracey McBride bc she tells how to find gorgeous items like fine china and beautiful antiques for very little $ and how to incorporate such luxuries into a bare-bones budget/enjoyable lifestyle. (Thrift stores and estate sales, if not BN groups….and yes, that is helping the boycott! Billionaire oligarchs do not sell this stuff via their discount store chains or online businesses!)
Lisa–I have seen some rather nice Art Deco furniture shabby chic’d with paint. And yeah, I groaned. The thing about paint is that it can be removed, so at least non-currently fashionable furniture is kept out of the landfill, you know?
My other thing is people make too much of a big deal about “solid wood” furnture, as if some crappy 1980s pine is superior to 1920 veneered pieces. Nope nope and nope. Remember, the finest furniture ever made is veneered (the stuff the ancien regime ebenistes made). The ebenistes would have thought it was wasteful and nuts to make an entire piece out of rare wood (like ebony), when you could veneer it onto a wooden carcass.
Very glad to know about the rice vinegar substitute!
1. Our whole family came to another town today for errands and appointments. So I packed lunch: leftover pizza, Arnold Palmers (with sale lemons), clearance chips, muffins, veggies and grapes and coffee for me.
2. Taking a donation to Goodwill and will get a coupon for 20% off one item.
3. Downloaded a free audio book for my son for book club.
4. Bought seeds and soil for a garden.
5. My husband is teaching our kids to drive. I’m very grateful he’s doing it, not me as he’s a great teacher
I taught all four of my kids to drive, pretty much entirely on my own for the required hours (60 apiece). But on top of that, kids here are required to go to a two-week daily driver’s ed program and do some hours of supervised driving with an instructor from the program. You have to do that and have the proof of completion and passing in order to be allowed to take the driving test at the DMV.
Does Oregon not require driver’s ed? If so, I’m jealous! It’s largely a waste of time, and the parents have to drive the kids back and forth to the class daily which is kind of annoying.
My son took driver’s ed in high school. Not a free course, it was a couple hundred bucks, but passing it made our insurance not go up too much when he got his license. Because he’s a bit developmentally delayed, we had him wait until he was 18 to be in the car by himself. His dad was very good about riding with him.
Many, many years ago, I taught my mom how to drive my straight shift car just in case she ever had to. As I did not want her to wreck the transmission, we practiced by drawing a gearshift chart on a piece of paper, using an umbrella as a gearshift and I sat facing her with my feet standing in for the brake and clutch. It took about two weeks of practice in the living room, but she did very well once she was behind the wheel.
Brilliant idea about the straight shift simulator! Who would’ve guessed an umbrella and another person’s feet would work?
We “made” our daughter learn to drive and get her license. It was one of the only things we ever had to make her do as she was a good kid. She is thankful that we pushed it.
1. DD brought her laptop over and used one of my copies of Turbo Tax to prepare their income taxes. I prepared and submitted our state return on the state website so she was able to use the one copy of a state return included with Turbo Tax. Because I bought the software through Costco the state electronic filing fee was reduced by $10. It was only $15 out of pocket for her.
2. I made a batch of Katy’s Lentil Soup for the first time. I had all the ingredients and also added carrots and some kale from the freezer. I am enjoying it as it has a different flavor than other lentil soups that I make.
3. A Freecycle acquaintance told me about a group called trash nothing (no capital letters in the name). She used it to give items away before a big move. I signed up but I am not sure I will find it useful. I am still trying to stay away from the Buy Nothing group since it is tied to Face Book/Meta.
4. DH wanted to try adding a mattress topper to our bed since he’d like something softer to sleep on. I checked and our Luxi mattress can be adjusted to be softer or firmer. I made my side firmer a few years ago and I just helped him make his side softer. There is padding inside that can be flipped to accomplish that. If that does not make soft enough we will consider buying a Twin/XL Twin for his side of the bed. I told him we are not ordering from Amazon.
5. I had a hold on the book HOW TO RESIST amazon AND WHY at the library and I was able to pick it up on Friday. It was interesting timing.
1. While I was moving our recyclables into the big outside bin, I saw that our upstairs neighbors had thrown 6 soda cans in it, so I grabbed them to bring back for redemption, making $.30
2. I saved the extra sauce from our short rib dinner on Saturday night. I’ll freeze it and take it to serve over polenta one night for dinner.
3. Getting together with BFF. I found a mystery shop lunch, so it cost us nothing. She then took me to Costco to buy some salad greens with her membership.
4. Turned off the heat today! Not sure how long it will last, but it is nice for the moment.
5. FINALLY convinced partner that our phone bill was totally unreasonable! ($170 for only 2 phones – grrr. Verizon). I suggested Mint Mobile, but he at least called and got the price down to $107 as they also have a discount for teachers. Anyone in MA have Mint Mobile and willing to share your experience? Wondering how it is, as it would still be a bit cheaper….
1. Made chick pea curry with expired coconut milk, expired chick peas and expired quinoa to go with it. I’ve been helping my parents and I cleared out their expired food. All of it is within a safe expiry window, so my dad kept some that he would eat, and I took what they wouldn’t eat.
2. Sold 2 items on Ebay. Walked to the PO. One item is out of porch for a hopeful FB marketplace sale today.
3. Solar dryer is doing a great job these days!
4. Saw there’s a free 3 month subscription for Peacock Plus through Target circle (yes I still have my account, though I do not shop at Target anymore). So we cancelled Peacock (my husband was paying $3.99 a month for it to watch English soccer). We will resubscribe when the free offer is up-date is in my planner to cancel.
5. My mother gave me 2 pyrex pie pans she no longer uses. They both had decades of burnt-on stuff around the edges. I scrubbed both til they looked like new. I will keep one and my daughter wants one. It turns out one of them was my grandmothers. Like your porch, Katy, I love making something old shine again.
My DD is turning 16 in 10 months. Technically of age to start driving. This is a scary thought; not sure I’m liking this…
* Got 3 snacks bowls and 3 good knifes at the thrift store, for 6.75$. Not bad
* Still hosting my ”women game nights” every 3 weeks. Hours of fun that costs almost nothing (a couple of bags of chips, from the discount rack)
* Still using my public library like a mad woman! Reading is my main hobby, and it cost me nothing.
* Have been taking an extra shift every week since Christmas. It adds up.
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1. Husband and I have both been sick so we have stayed home and spent nothing.
2. I had some oral surgery which was mostly covered by insurance. That was unexpected and great news.
3. Sold some upholstery fabric that I didn’t need. Some of it was free to me.
4. Used $8 store credit to buy some canvases at the art/crafts donation store.
5.
FFT, Tax Paperwork Handed In and Other Matters Edition:
(1) As I may or may not have mentioned earlier, I got my own tax paperwork to my own accountant last week.
(2) I got my next-door neighbor’s tax paperwork to her accountant this morning. I’ve been watching her mail like a hawk for the past 2+ months to make sure we got most if not all of her 1099s, but the deed is finally done.
(3) And the first thing that NDN’s CF and I are going to do when we get our DPOAs for NDN will be to consolidate some of her numerous small PITA accounts (annuities and small oil well accounts) into her IRA. I thank my stars that all I’m leaving for my own DPOA/executor to deal with are two bank accounts, an IRA, and a TOD BENES account. Simplify, simplify! (And, by the way, how’s that for a dazzling string of acronyms?)
(4) I’m rigidly refraining from doing any of the preliminary yard cleanup I want to do today, even though it’s sunny and in the low 50s. The last thing I want to do right now is to undo the healing of my broken rib.
(5) Finally, I’m going with a current and a former neighbor this afternoon to pay a call on another former neighbor, who’s just been moved to assisted living in her continuum-of-care community. In other words, we three young-old folks (me with my broken rib, Bailey dog’s mom in remission from cancer, and the former neighbor just coming off her second hip replacement) will be calling on our favorite doughty 92-year-old Englishwoman, who joined with two teenage schoolmates to send a wedding gift to the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1947. Huzzah!!!