Five Frugal Things
by Katy on August 25, 2025 · 44 comments
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I mixed up a spreadable cheese mix using cream cheese, homegrown chives, garlic powder, lemon zest, a squeeze of lemon juice and salt. Super yummy on my favorite $1.25 Dollar Tree “entertainment” crackers.
As opposed to Kroger’s version, which costs $4.29 and seem synonymous. It’s hard to get ahead financially when all your money is tied up in crackers.
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My neighbor put a covered propane BBQ out on her curb and I was tempted to just take the cover, as our one is terrible. A different neighbor decided to grab the BBQ for their backyard, but gave me the cover after I joked about how I’d almost taken it for myself.
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I took my thrifted Yakima bike rack to a local store that sells used racks, but they didn’t want it as they no longer sell this model. Fine, whatever. However, they offer to take it “to recycle.” WHAT?! It’s fully functional and still has lots of life left to it. Instead I brought it home and listed it on Facebook Marketplace.
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I came across a limited time offer for a $1.50 bahn mi sandwich at one of Portland’s large Asian grocery stores and have added it to my to-do list for the week. I’m a big fan of adding enjoyable tasks onto a to-do list and this bargain sandwich definitely counts as such!
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I didn’t ban any books, paint over rainbow crosswalks or move my country towards martial law.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 44 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for your frequent great posts and I’m sorry I haven’t had time to comment every day
I stopped in Dollar Tree last week to buy Oxydol and found that they have raised prices to $1.50. They were using stickers to cover up the $1.25 printed prices.
1. We drove past a Free pile down the street from our house and circled back. I picked up a couple of very cute small bird baths that were in need of a bath.
2. We found $.44 while walking. That will really boost my found change total for the quarter.
3. I met a friend for a walk and she gave me a couple of heirloom tomatoes from her garden.
4. I met a friend for ice cream (cheaper than lunch) and he gave be tomatoes from the garden his landlord plants and also blueberries one of his neighbors shared with him (apparently surplus from her job at a produce business). A couple days later I dropped off some Blueberry Buckle while nearby.
5. More free produce. A friend gave me some cucumbers and a neighbor some small red peppers. I shared some watermelon with the neighbor.
Yes, i went to Dollar tree last week. Grabbed 4_things, should be $5. Nope the Oxydol, and Awesome are now $1.50.
One the 2\$ 1.00 greeting cards are gone, will be no reason to go there!
Ollie’s Outlet also has 2/$1 greeting cards.
1. I made yogurt in my instapot using the free half gallon of milk I bought with a coupon.
2. I also made another batch of quinoa salad using mint and parsley that I grew. I ate it for dinner with some fish fillets.
3. I spent the weekend mowing, weeding and maintaining my pool.
4. My handyman cut down a dead tree before it could fall on my pool shed or fence. It was cheaper then having a tree company do it.
5. I’m reading a library book and drinking home brewed coffee on my freshly swept front porch.
1. Made a couple of eBay sales. It makes a huge difference if I list one thing per day. Also a couple of FB marketplace sales. I’ve nearly worked through the pile of stuff a friend gave me to sell (for myself) which is good because my son and daughter-in-law have a pile for me to bring home and sell (I give the money to them) next week.
2. Made soup which included homemade chicken stock, home grown kale and green beans and home grown and home made tomato sauce. It was delicious and it makes me happy to think that the nutritional value of these things is so much higher since it’s picked and cooked same day.
3. Froze a bunch of homegrown green beans. We can’t keep up. These will be used in winter soups.
4. Successfully dried a batch of homegrown grapes into raisins just by putting them on racks in the sun. So satisfying!
5. Our health insurance premiums have increased by 60% this year-and this is good insurance through the school district my husband works for.. Food prices are rising. We are most definitely not better off than this time last year.
The dollar tree near me shut down, so I satisfy myself with the big box of “entertainment crackers” that Trader Joe’s sells. They’re schmancy enough for me!
1. I went to a garage sale and bought a huge package of vacuum cleaner bags for around 25 cents per bag.
2. I’m in the process of making yogurt from clearance milk.
3. I found 26 cents.
4. I was running errands near Costco, so I bought a rotisserie chicken. That’s all I bought.
5. I’m not sending anyone to Uganda because they embarrassed me.
Love a homemade dip/spread!
1. Friend is getting married out of town later this year – I originally booked the room block to avoid a pinch later. Discussed the venue with some other guests and realized there are plenty of other hotels nearby at more reasonable rates – saved $184 by switching. Even if we take cabs around instead of walking, we’re still coming out way ahead!
2. Traveling again soon (surprise, surprise) so we are in fridge-clearing mode again. Tuna sandwiches, eggs, and whatever produce is in there is on the menu.
3. Met a friend for dinner in advance of her birthday – it was a chill Sunday, so we got paninis and drank water. Eating out is never cheap but this was as close to frugal as we could get!
4. We released our free-pile air fryer as we NEVER use it and it’s taking up a lot of precious counter space. Someone else nabbed it within 2 hours. Sometimes the frugalest thing is to let something go to someone else who will use it.
5. Same old – coffee at home, filtered water, easy breakfasts.
1. Rinsed out the nasty salt in the bottom of a jar of peanuts I finished and poured the water on a weed in the driveway. (I’m going for tiny things here!).
2. Am trying to drink less Coca-Cola, meaning to train myself to quit drinking when I am “full” even if the can isn’t empty. I pour any leftovers down the bathroom sink, as it sometimes runs sluggishly, and Coke has cleansing properties I don’t like to spend much time thinking about.
3. Very happy we have had the AC off and windows open for several days. I actively monitor our heating and cooling like Goldilocks to be just right.
4. Wrote down two television shows I am looking forward to on my to-do list for September– anticipation is part of the enjoyment!
5. From the library, read “No New Things” by Ashlee Piper, as recommended here by MB in MN and perhaps others, thank you! I really liked the marketing research she cited about consumer behavior and the changes in American shopping in the last hundred years. She lays out a thirty day plan for not-shopping, and I found some ideas in that helpful to maintain my non-shopping, non-consumer life.
Yet I also spent parts of the book with my jaw dropping at the “average” American shopping behaviors. I can’t imagine spending those amounts of money. She also stresses environmental impacts of shopping. Buying something means having it, maintaining it, and disposing of it at the end of its life, and I am very conscious of all parts of that.
Heidi Louise, I’m glad you enjoyed it as much as I did!
Heidi Louise,
Try some sparkling waters to help wean off the Cokes. This helped me greatly after my heart attacks. I was a Coke addict. I haven’t bought Cokes in a long time, but I think the sparking waters are cheaper. In the interest of frugalness I have now weaned off the sparkling waters also.
I also liked your comment about “having it, maintaining it, and disposing of it”. Stuff owns us!
Thank you, Sugar Cat Farm! I tried that some years ago and found they upset my stomach, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try it again.
(Many decades ago, my aunt was addicted to Pepsis, like eight or more glass bottles a day. Her doctor told her to substitute Diet Fresca, which I find horrible to think about).
Heidi Louise,
I found the LaCroix Pure to be the least likely to bother this sensitive tummy. The flavored ones say “natural flavors” but who knows what those really are.
Being an obligate Coke person I don’t know how your mom could tolerate that much Pepsi lol! Good luck with your Cokeless endeavor!
Sorry…
Your Aunt not Mom
Besides water, I have been drinking Simply Light Lemonade. Meijer had their 1.6 qt bottle for 1.99. It has 5g of sugar and stevia leaf extract. It has 7 8oz servings but I add water to my glass and put lime and lemon juice and 4 cherries with the pits removed. Yummo!
Heidi Louise –
Both Wal-Mart and Aldi have sparkling water (and I recently found a big bottle of black cherry sparkling water at Dollar Tree – haven’t tried it yet though).
The only flavor I like at Aldi is the blavk cherry. At Wal-Mart, I like blackberry lemonade, orange creamsicle, and black cherry. My DH drinks peach and fuji applr. They cost less than $1 for a 1 litre bottle and satisfy the “need” for a carbonated beverage. We use very little, if any, salt at our house. I know seltzer water and Perrier don’t have any sodiumin them, but both taste incredibly salty (like drinking from the Dead Sea) to us, so we stay away from those.
Here in Brisbane, Australia, cans of drink are MUCH more expensive than than bottles, and allow you to pour the amount you want to drink. I squeeze the air out of the bottle before I put the cap back on, , so it stays fixxy
First, Katy, re: your #5: I just shipped off a box of books to JASNA BFF (some of which were my birthday presents to her and some of which she bought during her visit here, mainly kids’ books for her grandchildren) via USPS Media Mail. The clerk asked me as usual, “Does this package contain anything liquid, fragile, or potentially hazardous?” I replied, “Well, some folks these days consider books as potentially hazardous.”
Now, FFT, A Lunchtime Story Edition. For something completely different, I thought I’d break the lunch I just ate into its frugal components.
(1) I began with the last of the turkey breast sandwich meat I bought for BFF while she was here (Wegmans house brand, probably the best in its class for the money; unfortunately, I’ve lost the receipt).
(2) I put this on two slices of Pepperidge Farm 15 Grain bread (the loaf was 99 cents at my local grocery outlet and still within its best-by date), which were spread with almost the last of an 8-oz jar of Grey Poupon (purchased at Ollie’s for $1.49).
(2a) After I’ve finished writing this, I will do my trick of putting olive oil, red vinegar (with my own basil in the vinegar), salt, and pepper into the Grey Poupon jar, putting the lid on, and shaking vigorously to make a Dijon vinaigrette.
(3) The first of my fall lettuce is coming in (well protected in my old Easy Washer tub by my trashpicked fire pit lid), so I garnished the sandwich with some of the fresh, tender lettuce.
(4) I accompanied the sandwich with some of my equally well protected cherry tomatoes. Little flavor bombs!
(5) And I also accompanied the sandwich with some of the Xochitl “American Style” (pale yellow, blue, and red) tortilla chips I bought at the grocery outlet (a 12-oz bag for $2.49).
The Dijon vinaigrette is SO smart!!!! I’m going to do this tonight!
1. Took advantage of some cooler days to move some plants around to fill in some bald spots in the gardens.
2. Received 80 lbs. of red potatoes from an acquaintance who is a potato farmer. Will be giving much of it to the food shelf.
3. Checked out The Polar Express book and DVD from the library. It is the theme of our great-nephew’s 5th birthday party (in September… in California!) and I wanted a memory refresher of what it’s all about. He loves to talk about it.
4. At a large picnic, I gathered the empty plastic bags from the hamburger and hot dog buns to repurpose as dog poop bags.
5. Fulfilled the wish of someone on Buy Nothing who was looking for decorative file folders. I had six left from a set I purchased a couple years ago.
1) Picked up a new book from the library, I’ve been waiting awhile for it too. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It’s hooked me right away so that’s good, worth the wait!
2) I made a green curry and put it over some already cooked brown rice I had in the freezer and froze it in portions for lunches. This used a ton of veggies including some Bok Choy that came in my produce box 2 weeks ago and needed to be used. I also made a coconut rice pilaf using a lot of vegetables and my kids devoured it, always happy when I can get them to eat more veggies!
3) It’s our anniversary next week. We are using a restaurant gift card my husband got from work and are going out on a day my mom will already be here so can watch the kids, free dinner and free babysitting!
4) Used a gift card for coffee this morning
5) My kids both got red sauce all over new school clothes while eating lasagna for dinner last week (they aren’t toddlers either, not sure when they get less prone to staining clothes? Although even I still spill on myself often!) I had them take the clothes off right away, sprayed stain remover and washed them. The stains came out, phew!
Ohh, I have put a hold on your recommended Andy Weir book – there are three versions available at my library – the physical book is 58 holds on first copy returned of 24 copies, the ebook has 177 holds on the 6 copies, and the large print (which I really don’t like to read) is 3 copies with 24 holds. You can guess which one I picked! I often do the holds game when a book is recommended – figuring which one will come in quicker.
Andy Weir is a favourite author, although his books are challenging as I don’t get any sleep if I start reading too late at night at get to an exciting part … I’ll stay up all night for some books, his being in that category.
DS-E finally moved out. Hubby went to So Cal for celebration of life service
So I had entire weekend to my self.
1. Spent the weekend oiling all the wood furniture
2. Organized linen closets and sent a bag of mismatched towels home with DS-E
3. Washed all the throw blankets
4. Designed on a dime by switching up pictures.
5. Binge watched The Pitt on HBO which we cancelled effect 8/26
1) I am eating a few snacks that DS18 left when he moved out. What can I say? I’m tired & jet lagged & those extra toasty Cheez Its are hitting the spot.
2) Filled out my work expense report super promptly, as I covered the hotel, transit & all food on my trip. I can apply for a company credit card, but still have to fill out expense report, and this way I get credit card rewards? Let’s see how I feel about it after the next trip.
3) Flew from our family trip to Boulder (DS18 college drop off) to London, due to a last minute work trip. So, I received credit from United for the cancelled return flight. That worked well, as I ended up needing to change the outbound flights, and they were more expensive. The credit offset the extra of the outbound flights.
4) Successfully petitioned the college to approve our health insurance. I did buy the supplemental plan at the health center, as DS18 has no car, but the $2400 they wanted for the university plan was nuts. Also, it was the process that refused to accept our insurance, lots of hoops to jump through, escalations, emails, etc. All done. No $2400 wasted for duplicative health insurance.
5) Speaking of United, Boulder & London, of course I found out that I have to fly to London again, on the only other weekend will be in Boulder this year – family weekend in a month. I’m very excited about seeing dS18, and DH & DS19 are coming as well. I needed to once again cancel my return flight, so went through the hassle of: separating the reservations (so my return cancellation didn’t cancel DS19 & DH’s flight), then calling United to see why I didn’t receive a credit for the cancellation. The system “claimed” that my entire round trip flight was the same price as my now one way ticket. I priced it myself before calling, & that was not accurate. Received a $270 credit for my time.
As with all work travel, ensuring I’m signed up for loyalty programs, etc. It somewhat offsets the giant PITA of work travel to get rewards you can use personally. On a related note, cashed in nearly 10 years of United miles from previous roles to buy business class flight to New Zealand for my 50th birthday. It adds up ever so slowly.
1. Started laundry in the basement, decided to walk instead of climbing three flights back to my condo. I went to the little free pantry — it was a very good day. I came back with a bag of frozen seeded bagels, grapes, onions, and a can of mushroom soup. I had the grapes for lunch along with a corn dog I got for free earlier, so it was a free lunch. The onions (three small ones likely from someone’s garden) have already been cleaned and chopped up. Among the many things I left were a whole watermelon and most of a bakery layer cake. I’m sure someone not on foot will grab those!
2. I picked up a jigsaw puzzle from a LFL yesterday and I’ve started putting it together. If all the pieces are there I will donate to a senior residence.
3. Today I picked up three books from LFL’s. I should explain that I live in an area where there are five different LFL’s in easy walking distance and they are always stocked with good books. I’m very lucky in that way. I have a friend in a nearby state who is in an LFL desert, even though she lives in a university town like me. I appreciate my good fortune.
4. I am also appreciating lovely fall weather that’s allowing me to be comfortable without using electricity.
5. I washed — in the washer — the $10 pair of Ryka ‘s I bought at Goodwill. While they didn’t emerge spotless, they will be good enough. I washed the shoelaces by hand, and I will order some toe caps from Amazon. My big toe always bursts through that thin material on the tops athletic shoes. I’m glad I discovered toe caps.
Well, now I need to google “toe caps”!
Yes I will also
Well, I used the wrong term. What I ordered — and what I have used before — are shoe toebox protector inserts. They are adhesive patches that you stick to the inside of your shoe where your big toe rubs against the top of your shoe. I don’t use those funky-looking rubber sleeves that look so uncomfortable!
Thanks for clarifying! I saw the funky toe sleeves and thought, “She is more dedicated to frugality than I!”
I am impressed that your Little Free Pantry can accommodate a watermelon and a layer cake! Come to think of it, there’s one at our senior center that is quite deep, rather than the others that are shallower.
I was very happy when two other houses in our nearby neighborhood built Little Free Libraries. Including ours, that’s four in the nearby vicinity! I just today dropped off a copy of Matilda by Roald Dahl and picked up The Marian by Andy Weir, Trumpet of the Swan, and a Louis Sachar book.
Beth W: perhaps your friend could start a LFL movement in her area. Building the LFL themselves would be a great Eagle Scout project.
That’s a good suggestion, but she isn’t very handy. I might suggest it to her granddaughters, though!
Beth W: My thoughts weren’t clear… Your friend might contact a Scout troop about the project, and drum up support for LFL among neighbors or friends for placement of completed project
What an awesome idea.
Great idea!
I created my LFL using a hutch. My front porch is close to the sidewalk, so i just put the LFL on the porch. I can fit so many books in!
1. Gave three home haircuts, saving at least $60 before tips and gas spent…and that’s at Great Clips.
2. My best friend had sent me a beautiful 5×7 print, and I was hoping to find a thrifted frame for it. Today I was decluttering my bureau and found…a lovely picture frame I’d forgotten about, exactly the size I needed. It pays to clean out your stuff!
3. Found a lonely banana that had gotten shoved in the fridge, by now well past its prime for eating fresh. Cut it up and froze it for future smoothies.
4. DH has been liking chickpea pasta lately, so I stocked up on the sale-priced brand today.
5. I had to order supplies for my nurse aide training course through the college bookstore, but happily they have an option that allows me to pick the items up at storage lockers located at the satellite campus I attend. No shipping! Yay.
Heidi Louise –
Both Wal-Mart and Aldi have sparkling water (and I recently found a big bottle of black cherry sparkling water at Dollar Tree – haven’t tried it yet though).
The only flavor I like at Aldi is the blavk cherry. At Wal-Mart, I like blackberry lemonade, orange creamsicle, and black cherry. My DH drinks peach and fuji applr. They cost less than $1 for a 1 litre bottle and satisfy the “need” for a carbonated beverage. We use very little, if any, salt at our house. I know seltzer water and Perrier don’t have any sodiumin them, but both taste incredibly salty (like drinking from the Dead Sea) to us, so we stay away from those.
1) Rescued 4 bananas from the garbage can’s grip and made a loaf of banana nut bread.
2) Tonight is venison stroganoff day 2. Used a can of cream of mushroom soup from the outdated pantry of our BIL. So far, we’ve used 1 can of string beans (for DH’s ham and string beans), 1 can of whole kernel corn (DH’s corn fritters), 1 can of cream style corn (baked corn for both of us), the mushroom soup for the stroganoff, and a can of coconut pecan frosting on a chocolate cake…and, we’ve lived to tell about it.
3) Still eating Princess Diana’s Overnight Oats every morning for breakfast. Cheap and healthy.
4) Stumbled onto something at Dollar Tree and wondering why more confectionaries (and other businesses) don’t do this. Jelly Belly now sells “Belly Flops.” They’re not available often though. “These special beans taste great, but don’t quite meet all of our demanding standards for size, color, shape and flavor.” Now, there is a “warning” that says “Please note: Our Belly Flops may contain any mix of our famous flavors.” Therefore, you could end up with some of those “nasty” flavors (e.g. dirty diaper). I’ve only had a couple bad ones so far. Most are good. What a creative way to not waste product and still make money on it.
5) Doing a load of laundry tonight to hang in the spare room to dry. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow and I have an appointment between school runs that’s going to keep me stepping…
Would you please share the recipe for Princess Diana’s overnight oats?
Hi Kimberly. I was curious, too, so I googled it & it came up right away. I’ve heard it’s good!
1. Spent a morning pulling trash out of the bushes around a local stream that leads to one of the salmon bearing rivers in my valley. It was a big event all over the valley, folk were sent to different areas of both big rivers, and came together with our trucks-o-trash to sort the metals, returnables, recyclables and just plain trash.
Then I got a free veggie burger and drink and sat with some folk who I know, but not well, and got to know them all better. I shared some information with one friend about my training coach, and she shared some different info with me about a beginner running clinic. This was exciting to me, as this person is someone who I really admire. We are both in the same ‘stage’ of our lives, with young grandsons, aging bodies, enthusiasm for community and the environment. I am thrilled that she seems to be interested in connecting a bit more – new friends are precious at any age, and particularly as we get older!
2. Washed a small load of laundry on cold, hung outside.
3. Picked all the prune plums (maybe 20-25 pounds?) and half of the other purple plums (another 20-25 pounds). The rest of the purple plums could do with a few more days on the tree, although they do ripen once picked – it is a balance between ripening and wasp bait, but this year we seem to be very low on wasps and bees. (although I am reminded I found a hive under a building yesterday, need to get more wasp spray because I think it is a big hive).
I also picked about a dozen pears – they aren’t ready to pick (even though I do pick them unripe and ripen in the house) however the ones I picked are at chicken eye level and I really am loathe to let the chickens eat my favourite fruit. The two pear trees are loaded so I need to block out some time to peel and can, once they ripen. #2 son loves canned pears and has offered to help, we shall see if he shows up!
4. Continue to read a lot of books on Libby and that I have requested and checked out from the library. I read an interesting post about how it is important that we keep books in circulation, as the library actually doesn’t have room to store all the books in their catalogue – they need US to help them store them all! Yet another reason to keep taking books out, even if I don’t read all or even ANY of the book.
A friend of mine’s son has a poetry book in the library catalogue. She has made a habit of requesting it and asking it be delivered to libraries in different cities (our library is a regional one, serves much of the big island I live on, so there are at least 10 different cities/towns with libraries). Her theory is that if the book ends up in a different city, and she doesn’t pick it up, the librarians might put it out on display and someone new might be exposed to her son’s work. Isn’t that a lovely thought for a mom, and a way to support her son?
@Ecoteri,
I’d request the poetry book from my library system .
Katy, I’m catching up on about 10 days’ worth of posts. We went on vacation and took the train (my husband thought it would make a nice change from what is a long, often-boring drive across the Nevada desert) and… I caught Covid on the trip over. I spent very little time online (not really a bad thing), but one of the posts that caught my eye was your Daily Non-Consumerism (I think that was the title) from August 15. I would love to see you post the whole thing on the Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook page. There seem to be an awful lot of people who have found that group and have Very Specific Ideas about what it means to be non-consumer, but they don’t see the connection between non-consumerism and frugality. I don’t think they’ve ever read your blog. Anyway, just a request from a long-time reader. Thanks for always providing us with ideas and inspiration!
1) We have Aerogardens in the living room and grow low-acid cherry tomatoes, mini peppers, Swiss chard and basil.
2) Got a box of food from my Buy Nothing group that contained canned/frozen/pantry goods, and the woman even delivered it to my door!
3) My sister’s coworker’s son gave us large summer squash from his garden and we gave him a dozen of our mini peppers.
4) Made japchae (Korean sweet potato noodles) that were left by a house guest we had several months ago. Made a great dinner cooked with some chicken breasts we had in the freezer and some of our chard.
5) Still eating mozzarella sticks that I bought when our local Stop&Shop stores were participating in the Flashfood program. Sadly they are no longer doing so.