Five Frugal Things --
1. I sold two items this morning, including the Restoration Hardware curtain rings that I picked up at the Goodwill bins last week.
For $85, bay-bee!
I guess that answers the question of whether I should keep them for my own house!
2. I baked a loaf of overnight no knead bread, whose ingredients are nothing more than three cups of flour, ½ teaspoon of yeast, 1 teaspoon of salt and a cup-and-a-half of water.
3. My husband I stopped by Home Depot so he could return something. I pulled a 10¢ returnable can from a wastebasket and found two pennies on the ground.
So yes, I recently came into some money!
4. I pulled a leftover Costco rotisserie chicken from the freezer and cooked up a pot of chicken soup. Nothing fancy, but thoroughly satisfying. Served with a box of Dollar Tree Entertainer crackers, it did the job.
5. I'm not extorting billions of dollars from foreign countries to create a corrupt Board of Peace.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
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Your bread and soup look so good!
1. I too made soup using chicken broth made from a rotisserie chicken carcass plus the last of a packet of Bob’s Red Mill veggie soup mix, celery from freezer and carrots, onion, zucchini. Filling and several meals left for the 2 of us plus still have some broth in the freezer.
2. Hubby figured out a way to keep the wind from blowing a downspout extender around using material on hand.
3. I did some deep cleaning in the bathroom using rags from worn out tshirts, washable floor scrubber, and a small amount of purchased cleaner.
4. All the small things - mending, batching errands, freezing tortillas in small batches so they won’t go bad before we eat them, etc.
5. Not frugal but good for my mental health and for others - making contributions to county food bank, local public media, organizations fighting for our rights.
1. Stayed in for the storm and made guacamole (with avocados free from mystery shop) and chips, homemade wings from the freezer, and beet salad (from free CSA box).
2. Partner will walk up check to pay property tax, saving the cost of a stamp.
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But, my real reason for posting today: I was late in reading Lindsey's post (thanks, MB in MN for letting me know about it), and then became too verklempt to write. Lindsey: thank you for your fellowship over the years. Like so many have already written, your frugal adventures in life have been an inspiration, and I am so thankful that our paths [virtually] crossed. If I had your mailing adddress, I'd sent you an entire case of Sumo and Satsuma oranges.
1. Your bread looks fantastic! My work is delayed until 10 am
bc of potential icing on the river bridge so I was able to sleep in until 7 am!! Yay, since I am normally up between 3 and 4 am!
2. I made a new pot of chili (I froze what was left of the pot I made earlier in the week), this new pot is pumpkin chili and it is delicious!!! I used pumpkin from a can I purchased at Dollar Tree.
3. I made herbal tea from supplies I have at home.
4. I had time to cook eggs with a bagel and cream cheese this morning and that made me happy!
5. I walked in place in my house bc of the torrential rain and wind yesterday.
We had turkey noodle soup from a left over turkey carcass.
Made 2 ebay sales!
Slogging through the snow to get chores finished. Everything takes longer. But, it's just life, gotta deal. The snow is good for the soil and we need the moisture. Hauling water where we are "froze dry" and chopping ice where the water is available. Hoping the power steering hose stays on my old truck. She blows the hose when it's this cold. If I weren't looking for a replacement truck, I'd have DH fix it properly.
Grateful I don't have to commute through the hoot owl hollers to my old, off farm job. It was in the river bottoms, meaning that I had to drive in from the bluff side to get there. Narrow and winding!
School is out due to cold weather. Planning to go sledding once the work is finished. Hoping that all the kiddos have warm homes since they aren't in school. As well as something to eat. Buddy packs are sent home on Fridays and kids being kids, all of the goodies are long gone. I've never been food insecure and the thought of some mother out there worrying about feeding her kids really gets to me.
We are 90 days from green grass! Almost time to start cole crops and tomatoes in the house!
That bread is intriguing. I'll have to try it, since I have no love of kneading. But I'm set for bread right now.
I'm stuck in a pattern of hunkering down inside due to the cold. It does give me the opportunity to get some things done. And I am working my way through my pantry and freezer food and not spending money on groceries, or using gas. (Looking for silver linings here)
My car is parked on the street outside my window. Yesterday it was piled with snow after a long drawn-out snowstorm. In the late afternoon I looked outside and saw that someone had cleaned it off! I don't know what happened. It could be that someone was awfully nice. It could be that I'm mistaken and it's not my car (there are several in the neighborhood that look just alike, and I'm not 100% certain about where I parked last). Or it could be that someone mistook my car for theirs, and now they're saying, "Oh, man....". I'm not going to drive today, so I won't know at least until tomorrow what happened. But if it was the awfully nice scenario, well, that was awfully nice.
It's laundry day, and the steps are clear, so later I will make my way down to the basement and wash two loads. I will probably dry both loads today, as I feel it's too cold for damp clothes in the bathroom....
Planning to make pizza today, but that's only if I can locate pita bread in the freezer. I may have already used it. Otherwise it will be breakfast for dinner.
Thank goodness I have lots of books on hand to help me get through these dreary days.
congratulations on your epic curtain ring sale! yowzer. Is that part of your $100 GC challenge?
Also for your new found money. And for one of the best foods in the world-soup! I cannot get enough this winter. My current fantasy is to have a chief to prepare a new soup daily for both my lunch and dinner. Then to package them in individual servings in my walk-in freezer. A soup library! sigh
1. I came into some money too. I discovered my first found money of 2026! 1 little penny on the big Safeway lot. Have to start somewhere.
2. Was able to snag 24 cans of 50 cent tuna for my church's Park Ministry. They take lunch to the homeless on Sunday afternoons. Also took in 2 5# bags of potatoes from last week's ad. I can't help physically which frustrates me. But it brings so much joy to still participate in a small way.
3. Found a couple of work arounds at home this week that did not involve any shopping. Already had everything needed. YAY
4. I belong to a women's group who get together for lunch/ dinner/ activities monthly. I am building new community, and it is part of my budgeted fun money. We met for Taco Tuesday. My dinner was such a good time, delicious, satisfying, and came to $6.70 + tip. WOOHOO
5. I have been looking for an old fashioned coin purse for over 5 years. I finally found one at thrift for 50 cents.
Hope everyone is safe and warm. Have a blessed week
Question for Katy: Do you freeze your rotisserie chickens exactly as purchased, and then just pull them out & defrost? I've always assumed I need to debone the chicken before I put it into the freezer, but that sometimes seems like a hassle. If I can freeze the entire thing, that would be huge. Of course, it would also take up a sizable amount of freezer space, but assuming I have room for that.
1) Realized that I'd already bought DS18 a ticket home for spring break. I was pretty confident I'd done so, but both of us searching turned up zero options. I bought another ticket, and United helpfully emailed me & provided the original confirmation code & let me know that I was double booked. It was just an hour or so after the second ticket was purchased, so I was able to cancel & get the credit back. (I was using a flight credit anyway.) I'm really organized & am not sure why all of my email searches didn't pull up the flight to start with, or why it wasn't tracked in DS18's United app, but the good news is that's solved. Please see also that flights between the bay area & Denver over spring break are over $800! What in the world?! Luckily, since I bought a bit earlier, they were slightly less than that.
2) I helped my sister find the least expensive options for herself & her son to get to Iceland for her SIL's wedding. My parents gave her their miles, but didn't know how to go about the booking. I spent about 90 minutes on this yesterday, and got it all resolved for them.
3) We had the Costco street tacos for dinner last night (carryover from Saturday night, where I fell asleep at 5:45 pm and skipped dinner altogether, thanks to jet lag). They were good, although expensive on a per serving basis. But, still cheaper than takeout, so a win from that side. We do still have a bit of leftovers, just no chicken meat. Maybe I'll sort that out & we can have one more chicken taco meat from them.
4) DH continues repairing things around the house. Made a big fix to DS19's car, and continues to work on repairing our garage door.
5) I needed something sweet (well, the word need is doing a lot of heavy lifting there) after being so exhausted, and I remembered that I had chocolate covered pretzels tucked away & got those out. Crisis averted for free.