Five Frugal Things
by Katy on August 4, 2025 · 58 comments
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I stopped by the Franz Bakery Outlet on Saturday to grab a couple loaves of of their $1 bread for our basement freezer. (First Saturday of the month, bay-bee!) I’d hoped to score a couple more sleeves of their restaurant packaged English muffins, as each bag holds a dozen or so muffins, but such was not my luck. Instead I picked up two sleeves of bagels, one bag of their mini-bagels, some hoagie rolls and a loaf of multi-grain bread.
All for $5!
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I had three different neighbors ask me to keep on eye on their houses and water their plants while they vamoosed town for vacation. Not my favorite timing to have everyone leave town at the same time, but I’ll still honor the unwritten neighbor agreement that we help one another. My husband and I vacation a lot less than our neighbors, but they all do the nicest things for us on a regular basis to thank us for our efforts.
“It takes a village” is not just about raising kids.
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I popped into Fred Meyer (Kroger) for a half gallon of milk. I’d already loaded a digital coupon for the $1.39 milk, but also had two paper coupons for free pints of Haagen Dazs ice cream. I pulled two vanilla ice creams from the freezer case to keep to accompany fruit crumbles, but the cashier informed me that I could only use one coupon at a time, so I told her I’d only be buying the single pint. I then got home to discover both containers of ice cream. Did she do this on purpose? I’ll never know.
I also grabbed a $1.50 bag of organic Roma tomatoes from the clearance shelf.
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I baked a mixed fruit crumble, all the more delicious with my accidentally shoplifted ice cream.
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I continue to wear my long ago thrifted clothing, maintain my own yard and garden, read library books, plan short inexpensive summer getaways, accept a less than exciting hair color, drink tap water, minimize gift giving, curb pick most “new” items that enter my house and write a blog that encourages people to use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!
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{ 58 comments… read them below or add one }
Katy! I forgot to tell you that when I visited Seattle, I bought a package of Franz whole wheat English muffins at the grocery store (Fred Meyer).
Unfortunately, mine were not $1. 😉
Love your #5 and all the reminders packed into it.
I like your #5. Thank you for your blog.
1. My middle daughter and her husband are taking a short trip. I will be dropping them off at the train station to save parking fees.
2. I will be dogsitting for my granddog while kids are out of town. We trade this chore often. My mother will feed their cats. I agree that it takes a village doesn’t just apply to children.
3. My oldest daughter sent me a photo of the toilet lid they’d repaired. They added gold powder to the epoxy. She called it very bad kintsugi. I call it genius.
4. I sent a jar of vanilla home with my youngest. It came from a large bottle I bought at an estate sale. She also took dinner leftovers, blueberry muffins, a bag of rice and a few other things I picked up at the discount grocery.
5. I am also reading library books, taking care of my own home, drinking tap water and sun tea.
And a fantastic blog it is! My favorite!
1. I have an appointment this afternoon with a new primary physician since my old one retired. I am hoping no copay because of my double insurance (Medicare and work.) I may work until I croak to keep my work insurance just because of how costly medical care is in the U.S. Work insurance is $60 a month for single coverage. I consider that frugal.
2. I walked in my neighborhood because the closest gym is 20 miles away, and it is cheap to walk.
3. I cooked at home because the simple meals I make are a lot cheaper than eating out. I made a casserole out of things I had on hand with leftover chicken, cheese, broccoli, cabbage, mushroom soup (bought the soup at Dollar General for a $1) and bread I needed to use up….not fancy but filling. I have been eating it for a couple of days. I used the $5 off of $25 coupon on Saturday at Dollar General.
4. I armchair travel by looking at all the posts on FB of my friends traveling and I do enjoy their pictures! I fly once or twice a year across country to visit grands and I am so exhausted, financially ( nonstop airplane flights are $$$) and physically that is about all I can do except for driving trips within a few hours of where I live, so I can get back home at night and not have to pay for a hotel. I know folks travel hack but I can only go across country as my work schedule allows, and I have never figured out how to do it when I am only traveling once or twice a year. Does anyone travel only a couple of times a year for a long weekend and figured out how to travel hack the plane ticket????
5.I washed my jeans in my bath tub and hung them to dry outside.
I use an airline branded credit card. (Mine has an annual fee but there are some that do not have a fee.) I got a big sign on bonus of miles. I charge most everything on the CC & pay the balance off each month. I earn miles to use for airline tickets. I do the same w/ a hotel branded CC. I wait until I have a big purchase looming to apply for a new CC on occasion to earn the sign on bonus. I do not charge items that have a fee for using a CC to pay (property taxes, income tax, etc.) I never carry a balance as the interest rate is very high. I travel 3 or 4 times a year. I use my points for travel costs.
A friend strongly recommends seats .aero for searching for airline points deals.
Thanks!
I recently dog sat for a neighbor and it was a real pleasure, such a sweet little dog. I would have done it without any compensation, but I received flowers, produce, and a gift card. It’s hard to match such generosity, but I am having them to dinner next week to show how much I value them as wonderful neighbors and I am so glad they feel the same about me.
1. I’m hanging another load of laundry outside to dry. We don’t have a line, just a rack that I have to set up and take down, so it is a bit of a pain, but trying to watch the pennies where I can.
2. Signed up for a mystery shop dinner. No payout, just covers the price of the food, but it will be a hot day, so YAY for not having to turn on the oven.
3. Trying to eat down the fridge before we go on vacation and the freezer to free up some space for the house/cat sitter (she stays here).
4. Last night’s dinner was steak (50% off from FlashFoods), with some free seasoning that I picked up from Fancy Food show, grilled zucchini and eggplant from free CSA box, and homemade chimmichurri made from dried oregano (from last year’s garden) and parsley that we have growing in a pot. I LOVE using free herbs from the garden! Free ice cream (although far less scandalous than Katy’s ice cream!) from mystery shop for dessert.
5. I continue to read this blog (and The Frugal Girl) rather than subscribe to another entertainment platform. So, to echo what others have written above: THANK YOU for all of your work to keep this blog active and positive!
1. Grocery shopped yesterday and stuck to sales and one coupon – saved almost $40. Also bought some fancy mocha Oui yogurt from FlashFood for $.50/jar. Tasty treat and also love those jars.
2. Bought dog food to take advantage of a 20% off coupon I was sent that expires this week.
3. Planning dinners from the freezer & pantry this week. Tonight will be a frozen pork loin that we got on a sale ages ago, brown rice, and veggies I bought on sale at the grocery store yesterday.
4. Brought my lunch today
5. Desperately needed an additional jolt of caffein this morning. I resisted the temptation to stop at the numerous coffee shops I pass on my way to work, and drank the crappy free work coffee instead.
Pork loin – you reminded me of the best deal EVER I got on one of those long pork loins (like the ones roughly 2 feet long).
At the time, I worked at the grocery store and we ran out of the pork loin ($.99/lb on sale). I got a rain check.
Rain checks could be used at another store in the chain, they didn’t have to be used at the same store they were issued at. A few days later, I’m at the same store – different location. They had the pork loins, so I get one to use my raincheck.
Being a cashier, I know there’s a difference between how you ring up a raincheck priced each vs a raincheck priced per pound. Little girl cashier, obviously fairly new. She rang that pork loin up as a PRICED EACH vs PRICED PER POUND. I may work at a different location, but it wasn’t my job to tell her how to do hers. I kept my mouth shut. Got that huge pork loin for $.99! Sorry, not sorry.
Reminds me of this bit by the immortal Betty MacDonald:
The stores of Vashon have nothing in common with the early day, “hay, bacon, gasoline and soft drinks” country store. Our stores are modern, well stocked and obliging—if they don’t have it they will get it. Only occasionally do they show signs of naïveté. Once when we first moved here I sent Don to get me some wild rice purposely forgetting to tell him it was $2.25 a package. He came home with eight boxes and after I had stopped screaming he explained defensively, “I only had one but the woman at the checking counter said that as long as they were two for a quarter why didn’t I take a couple more, so I did. We can use it, can’t we? She said ‘Wild rice don’t go good in Vashon. It’s a slow-mover.'”
(This took place around 1942 or so.) Vashon is a pretty island off Seattle.
1. I reheated the restaurant leftovers this morning for breakfast. The scrambled eggs went into a couple of biscuits I had in the freezer. I added cheese and toasted in the toaster oven. The hash browns with ham I microwaved. Unfortunately, they exploded. I scraped and rescued every bit I could, but I will have to clean the microwave later. The fruit, hurrah, needed nothing but to be eaten.
2. I did laundry this morning, and here is the abandoned property I washed: a sun visor, a pair of flip flops, a swim cap, a swimsuit carrier, a small nylon tote bag. All came great, and they will be donated.
3. I found six pennies yesterday, lined up on a ledge. Weird!
4. A new project and free entertainment — I am creating a family timeline on a spreadsheet, mostly from notes my mother left. It’s fascinating.
5. A bottle of chocolate syrup ran out yesterday. I filled it with milk and today it made a nice serving of chocolate milk.
1) The person from buy nothing who picked up the futon we were giving away left us with a bag of peaches from her tree, she also sent a really nice message later about how much she appreciated the futon and it was just what she needed. This was my first buy nothing interaction since I downloaded the app (after getting rid of Facebook) It’s not as active as the fb group but has the same good vibes!
2) I started another library book, Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks, I think I saw it recommended here. So far it’s not for me, but it’s a short read so I will finish it and maybe I’ll end up liking it after all.
3) I used to do a 10 minute meditation daily but somehow fell out of the habit a couple years ago. My health insurance provider gives all its members a free subscription to the Calm app so I have restarted a daily meditation routine. It’s only been a week but I can already tell I’m pausing before responding and am just more mindful in general.
4) Scheduled a bulky item pickup for an old broken grill and the carpet we removed from one room. We get 3 free bulky item pickups per year and we hadn’t used any this year so it’s free. The carpet is technically in 3 pieces but they are letting me count it as 1 item.
5) Went school supply shopping yesterday, both kids wanted new backpacks but they don’t need them, I’m trying to avoid the new backpack every year trap, backpacks can last for a long time, there’s no need and I intentionally avoided getting them character backpacks (like Bluey or Disney princesses, something they might lose interest in before the backpack wears out). I was able to stand firm against their begging, and redirected them to what we could buy (based on the lists from their teachers) They enjoyed hunting for the very specific items listed.
Backpacks are expensive! Could you surprise the kids with a new (or homemade) backpack hanger? Don’t know what to call them but some are cute, and attach with a clip. A sports team or school mascot?
Or a patch? Places that still sell sewing supplies have them.
One of those dumb Labubus? Might make them happy. Bag charms are big.
My son is 31 and we still have his kindergarten LL Bean backpack around somewhere. Granted, he switched to one that didn’t have his name embroidered on it around middle school or something.
I also have one of those LL Bean canvas tote bags embroidered with Crap. I wondered whether they’d refuse it, but they did not. It’s light green. I kept meaning to get another one, light blue, embroidered with Shit but I have enough tote bags.
My metal roof is finished, and I’m still trying to get used to how my house looks. But it rained early this morning, and the rain wasn’t any louder on this roof than on the shingled roof before it. They put some kind of foam insulation between the metal and the roof decking. The metal is thicker than some roofing, and the guy said that would cut down on the noise. This wasn’t a super heavy rainstorm, but so far, so good.
1. Called the city regarding another group rate electric plan. They bid on wholesale plans and pass the savings on to us. I’ve done this for several years now, and I save a lot of money. I’ve had my current plan for 2 years and it is about to expire. Hope to get another good deal with retail electric group rates.
2. Collected some rainwater for my houseplants.
3. Mr. Snuggles has discovered the electric fan cord is nice to chew on. Luckily, it was unplugged at the time. He didn’t eat the plug, so it is still usable. Gathering up some electrical tape and will repair the gnawed-on wires.
4. Line-dried the laundry on racks in the garage. It’s humid so the drying may take longer than usual, but the temperature is every bit as hot as the dryer would get.
5. Store had sale on 24-can cases of soda pop for $6.99, bringing the price down to about 29 cents per can. Bought one on my break. Good thing I did bc we sold out early. There was no limit so my frugal customers were stocking up and buying multiple packs.
Frugal fail: the other day we had some big cans of Folger’s coffee on sale. Forgot to get one. We’ve sold out of that, too.
FFT, Greetings from My Village to Yours Edition:
In tribute to Katy’s “It takes a village” in her #2, here’s what’s going on in mine:
(1) NDN1 has a rather bloodshot-looking left eye. I took her a bottle of regular eyedrops and am using them at least once a day (she has trouble with this). If this situation doesn’t improve in a day or so, either her other CF or I will take her to urgent care. And CF and I will be checking out a new home care aide service on Thursday (the service NDN1 had wasn’t providing the consistency she needs in terms of either personnel or scheduling).
(2) Cherry tomatoes are now coming thick and fast from NDN1’s and my two pots behind her chain-link fence and the pot on my deck. We’re going “nom nom nom” on those little flavor bombs!
(3) I dumped out my potato planter (a repurposed shop-vac tub) and harvested the spuds on Saturday. While I might have gotten a better crop if one of my resident woodchucks hadn’t done a jump shot at the greens, I’m pleased with the 2 pounds of lovely little new potatoes I did get. I shared some cherry tomatoes and a precious few of the baby spuds with my Sunday morning walking buddies. The walking buddy who’s a native of Glasgow and has been teaching me naughty Scottish slang (in connection with You Know Who’s recent Scotland visit and the associated protests) gave me some vegetable soup in exchange for my “wee tatties.” (No, that just means “little potatoes.” It isn’t naughty.)
(4) I just strolled over to the Bestest Neighbors, who gave me some leftover shrimp fried rice (Dr. BN’s creation). In turn, I passed along the latest neighborhood gossip, and was asked for and provided some advice on cutting back a leggy rosemary plant.
(5) And the neighbor on the other side of NDN1 is planning to put out a massive and amazing free pile in connection with a neighborhood-wide garage sale on Saturday (in which I am otherwise not involved). He’s offered the folks on our street a preview of the stuff before he puts it on the curb. Here’s his partial list (all lowercase, a la e.e. cummings). I don’t think he’ll have any trouble getting rid of it:
a french glass dinner service for 4 including extra pieces.
a silver plated tea set with tray.
a waterford crystal chandelier.
an i.m. pei (look him up) designed modern chandelier.
miscellaneous silver plate service pieces.
I think I would grab the waterford chandelier in a heart beat and install it in my bathroom!
JC
I’d love to see an article about where you get/find your coupons. Since I no longer take the newspaper and I hate to print out online coupons (but maybe I should) what are your sources? Thanks.
@Barbara,
Just yesterday, I signed up at Hellman’s website to get a coupon. They texted me a link, and at the store, they scanned the QR code from my phone. ($1 off coupon)
Thank you for your blog! It’s such a good reminder every day. Some of the other frugal blogs I used to read have either changed direction or stopped posting altogether. I’m grateful for this and The Frugal Girl’s blog sticking around.
1. I made an updated inventory of all the food I have so that I don’t buy duplicates. I am doing a very low spend month because I expect to have bigger expenses next month, so I will be mostly eating from the pantry and freezer, and it helps to know exactly what’s in there.
2. I used coupons at Tom Thumb (Albertsons) including one for $5 off any order and several personalized coupons for things I have bought there before. I was able to get comparatively good prices on expensive things like chocolate chips and orange juice and vegan cheese and yogurt.
I also got some pantry staples and cat litter, which the overall $5 off made very cheap.
3. I used leftover chicken broth from the freezer along with a few other things in my pantry to make a batch of Mexican rice and ate it with leftover beans, also from the freezer.
4. When I had finished the beans but still had a little rice left, I fried an egg to have on top of the last bit of rice for breakfast this morning.
5. I cooked enough lunch yesterday to make three meals of vegan mac and cheese, broccoli, and vienna sausage. I had some of the leftovers today and will finish it tomorrow.
I almost forgot number 6: I received a free cat toy from Chewy in exchange for posting a review. I haven’t tried it yet but it looks like something my cats will enjoy – a “beehive” and toy bee they can swat at to make treats fall out like a piñata.
Today I bathed the following errands:
1. Got a vaccine for my daughter. Called around and so glad I did because instead of paying almost $300, I paid $0.
2. Shopped at the discount bargain store and signed up for their new rewards program.
3. Then shopped at Walmart for what I couldn’t get at discount store. Bought 3 clearance breads.
4. Got gas at Walmart (we drove our little Honda Fit, gets better gas mileage than our Chevy asstro).
5. Went to Goodwill and bought 2 items (used a coupon for one).
6. I brought chicken for our lunch but supplemented with curly fries from my favorite curly fry fast food place
* batched, not bathed
Katy, How smart of you to call around to get quotes on the cost of the vaccine for your daughter! Saving $300 is amazing.
Yes, Katy, that was a real shot in the arm for your finances!
(Sorry. Couldn’t resist.)
1. Found a super cute consignment shop around the corner from dinner on Friday and went in. Since it was First Friday, the whole place was on sale for 20% off. Got two new lovely tops that fit well and a funky necklace for less than the price of one new.
2. Went to a concert last night. Had a lovely tailgate with food and drinks from home. Everyone brought something and we had a great time!
3. Resold a phone case I bought custom that was the wrong size (ack!) at a loss, but at least it’s going someplace it will be used and appreciated instead of trying to recoup my money in full while it sits on my desk.
4. Had my eye on a specific swimsuit and was tracking resellers on poshmark for one. Got a price reduction alert today and realized I’ve made it almost the whole summer without buying it and didn’t need it.
5. Drinking coffee at home and swapping to my fancy insulated bottle to keep my water cold (that I inherited after a friend left it in a hotel room).
Thank you for your continued blog posts. I really appreciate it.
1. I noticed a neighbor’s garage door was open without her car being in her driveway (it is not uncommon for people to use their garages for storage instead of vehicle parking where we live). I called her and it was accidentally left open. It just took a couple of minutes to deal with the situation.
2. One of my nieces picked two buckets of peaches at an orchard. She shared some with us.
3. I washed a quilt from our bed and hung it outside to dry. I stored it in a curb picked cedar chest when it was dry.
4. DD and I combined forces and shopped sale items at Giant to use a competitors coupon to save $10 on our order. I like to go just over the $50 minimum spend required.
5. I too continue to wear the same clothes, rock silver “highlighted” hair, cook at home, and enjoy library books. I just finished What Kind of Paradise and recommend it.
I have to ask…
I agree with eliminating food waste as much.as possible. Probably 75%-80% (if not more) of the foods you people put together with odds and ends sound thoroughly disgusting to me. No offense – everyone has their likes/dislikes.
What I want to know is, have you ever put bits and bobs of stuff together that you wished you hadn’t because it was inedible?
Melissa, no offense taken. I am proud to be a queen of concoctions. While I don’t recall anything truly inedible, I know there have been times when I’ve taken one for the team in order to avoid food waste. But I did recently comment that I had made myself a mocktail of tonic water and pickle juice that was absolutely disgusting, and I was not sad when I poured it down the drain after a few valiant sips.
hahahaha, I love pickle juice and tonic water and that does sound really rank to me.
As someone who has cooked this way for over 50 years now, I really don’t remember anything inedible. My family eats on trust, apparently.
Part of the secret is probably that the things that you have in your house all suit your own palate to some degree. Even your leftovers will tend to be Mexican food or French food or southern food, and so have some cohesion when you combine them. Theoretically, you also have enough self-preservation not to combine, say, ice cream, Worcestershire sauce, and peanut butter.
Jump right in and try making your own combinations. They might not be anything I would like, but I bet you can hit on some interesting and positive ways to use up some of your very own refrigerator lurkers.
Growing up my grandmother made lots of tomato soup. You never knew what else would be in it. Sometimes pasta and beef. Sometimes mixed veggies, sometimes chicken and potatoes. It was always good and filling. She made really good bread to go with it.
I had a 3 lb piece of venison roast. I soaked it 24 hours in a marinade to hopefully get the gamey taste out. Then I cooked the meat in a crockpot to keep it tender as I have heard game is low in fat & can be tough. I could not eat the venison. The gamey taste was still there. My husband would not eat nor would the cats. It went into the trash.
I find the combinations folk put together quite fascinating, as often the original meals aren’t things I would have cooked (or brought home as doggy bags from a restaurant meal as I wouldn’t have ordered those things). This blog has made me even more aware of the running-list I carry in my head about what is leftover and needing to be used, as well as the additional ingredients that I can use to extend or riff on to make a new meal. Some of the emotional hidden labour of being a mom and the main cook for a lot of years has been the awareness of where we are at with the spoilable food.
As others have said, each of us usually has a theme going in our kitchen so much of what is leftover will play well with each other. And boy howdy is necessity the mother of invention when it comes to putting a fast meal on the table with what is pre-cooked in the fridge.
Soups and stir fry or fried rice have been standbys. and so forgiving.
I’ve never gotten a free ice cream coupon. The best I get is $X worth of free groceries if you spend $Y.
I vamoosed on vacation, which was a cross-country trip to take one of my kids to their first real job on the east coast. It was a good opportunity to see how people outside Portland live. I’m a bit bitter that, no, the homeless thing isn’t just as bad in the rest of the country. BUT, I discovered that walkability isn’t just as good in the rest of the country. The end result is that I’m OK with where I live.
I was shocked that redeemable bottles and cans are scattered everywhere once you get outside Oregon. I showed great restraint and didn’t fill the car with cans to import to Oregon for the 10 cent deposit.
When I got home, karma rewarded me on my first trip to Fred Meyer, where someone had placed 3 garbage bags full of water bottles next to the bottle drop machine. I had them in green bags in no time!
It feels like we spent money like drunken sailors on our road trip, so I’m happy with a small “win”, like finding $20 worth of redeemables. Hotels and restaurants have gotten so expensive! We will be eating beans for a few weeks. Of course, all that time with the kid was priceless.
We don’t have bottle or can deposits in Pennsylvania like many other states do. The best we get is taking aluminum cans to the scrap yard for $.xx/lb. Price fluctuates. I thought I’d be resourceful once and collect tin cans to take to the scrap yard for $.xx/lb. You’d almost have to take a pick up truck full of tin cans to get $1. We just send those to the recycling center with our plastic and paper.
Wow. No wonder they don’t get picked up! If someone throws a can out a car window in Oregon, it won’t be long before someone else comes along and collects it! This is one more Oregon thing to be thankful for.
Very sadly, we don’t have that in Ohio, either. I so wish we did!
1. Cut up a rug gripper mat to keep cutlery and storage trays in place inside kitchen drawers.
2. Bought a $58 ink cartridge for our printer. Uffda. The security tag on it should have been my first clue. I am going to return it and rely on the 20 cents per black and white copy at the library where I can send the print job from my own device.
3. My sister and I took several items to our county’s monthly Fix-It Clinic staffed by volunteers: a mechanical pencil that was stuck, a dog coat that needed new Velcro, and two dog harnesses that needed heavier duty stitching than my machine could handle. Next month I’ll bring in two lawn chairs after learning they have a tool to stitch the seats back in place. It’s an amazing resource.
4. Mended small holes in underwear before the holes got too large to mend.
5. Used a gift card from the Red Cross to reduce my Chewy order by $20.
I had to look up Uffda – literally have never heard it before. This blog and its comments are so educational!
1. Our new mattress was delivered. Got firm instructions from the delivery guy about turning it after the first month, second month, and every few months after that. He said that the problem with modern mattresses is that they are one-sided and break down quickly. Agree with him, as our previous mattress lasted barely a year before it was too soft for husband’s back. We will take different care of this firm two-sided one.
2. Delivery people said they would took our old (clean, smoke-free, pet-free) mattress to someone who had had a house fire. It should be better for one person sleeping on it than two.
3. Manipulating drug store coupons to get supplements for less, as I am deficient in iron, calcium, and vitamin D. Looked up best times to take them and whether with food or not.
4. So pleased the weather cooled enough to open the house up for several days.
5. City replaced our water meter, as it was not sending user info as it should have. (First clue was guys in orange t-shirts and yellow hardhats laying on the end of the driveway while they opened the tiny manhole. Rather a surprise to look out and see them). I don’t know if the bill will be estimated or if we will get the month it was off for free. A surprise to look forward to.
Their names didn’t happen to be Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michaleango, did they?
Ha! I hadn’t thought of that.
And I think the correct term now is something like “access port”, not “manhole.”
Love your number 5. All of that daily stuff adds up.
It really does!
Today I went to Aldi largely to stock up on coffee and buy ground turkey and ground pork to make kibble topper for my dogs. On the way there, I stopped at Ollie’s and bought puppy pads at about half the regular store price. Demon Puppy relapsed on her house training after her very scary gastro illness last month, so we have been using a couple of pads most days.
Came home and cooked up 16 days worth of kibble topper. I am out of homemade frozen meals for myself and made the Dollar Tree Dinners vegetarian version of rice cooker spicy black beans and yellow rice and that college stand-by of shells and cheese with tuna and peas. Tomorrow I will make a couple of Tightwad Gazette soups to freeze.
Here’s a website that sells refurbished ink cartridges for less you might want to check out: inktechnologies.com
I have a Lexmark C2425 laser printer. I currently get my cartridges here; however, if anyone knows of a better deal, I’m all ears.
I get remanufacured ink cartridges from LD Products https://www.ldproducts.com
They’re currently offering 20% off for their back to school sale.
1. I have tapped into the rewards program at Staples and started to recycle items there for points. If you recycle once a month you can earn about 500 points or $2.50. Certain items like printer cartridges can recycle for more. It’s interesting. I plan to recycle once a month and accumulate points for needs in the future.
2. I bought two .50cent boxes of crayons for free with points at Staples this week and received a two pack of very nice pens as a freebie item with purchase. Zero out of pocket.
3. I house and animal sat this weekend. It was fun and interesting and helped someone else.
4. I picked someone up from the airport this past week. I did this for free to help someone else.
5. I brought garbage and recycling home from someone else’s home who had too much. Saving them money from taking items to the dump or renting a dumpster.
1. I watered my potted plants with the veggie washing water. Water from glasses at the end of the night goes into the dog’s bowl. In the morning the dog’s bowl gets dumped on plants and filled with fresh water. We don’t waste water and water is cheap where we live.
2. I had a banana nut chocolate chip muffin and a hard boiled egg for breakfast. Always grateful to my past self that I cook a lot on the weekend. Lunch was leftover chicken pot pie at my client’s house. Dinner was leftover pizza. I like it when I don’t have to cook.
3. Driving to work I saw a huge pile of stuff at the curb. I took a kids electric drivable car. Hubby checked it out tonight and it works. I am going to pass it on to my SIL. She has 2 young grandsons and another grandbaby on the way.
4. I went to my friend’s son’s baseball game. I wait to go to the ones that are close to my house. We get to chat for an hour and a half. I brought my refillable water bottle. I ate before I went so I didn’t need to spend money at the concession stand. I brought a muffin for the baseball player because I know he likes them. His mom is GF and can’t eat them otherwise I would have brought her one too.
5. I am reading my favorite frugal blogs instead of watching the news or shopping on Amazon.
I think it is fascinating how many of us rely on NCA and FrugalGirl for not only for frugal resources but:
community
we have quit watching the news
entertainment
a safe place to speak our frustration
and a variety of other reasons. Katy and Kristen, you two should poll your readers. I think the results would be fascinating!
Frugality is a way to control a few things in your life when everything else seems off kilter!
Simply thank you . You keep me on an even keel.