Five Frugal Things -- Getting a Head Start on Gardening
1. I stopped by Dollar Tree for AAA batteries, which I needed for my UV flashlight. Why? Because my grandkitty most likely peed on an upholstered ottoman and I need to engage in some further investigation. (Deep sigh . . . ) I went ahead and grabbed a pair of reading glasses as well since they had the style I like in the prescription I need.
I spent $4.50.
2. I have four hanging wire baskets in need of liners that I've ignored over the past couple of years. I'd kind of hoped to passively come across some free coconut coir, but that never materialized, so I did a web search for alternative ideas and learned that people sometimes line these with burlap or landscaping fabric.
This sparked a few ideas for me, as I can certainly sew fabric into place and can likely source burlap for free from coffee shops. My spider plants have been wildly prolific and I think I have enough "babies" to fill the pots. I can even use some of free potting soil from last year's Fred Meyer's "Fuchsia Saturday" to complete the project. Of course it's too early in the year to plant outdoors, but I can at least get the liner project going.
As always, my intent is to complete this project while minimizing support of immoral businesses. Wish me luck!
3. My husband and I went out to brunch, but I made sure to eat a little something before we left the house. (Toast and tea.) This way I could order lightly off the menu to save a few dollars. I still enjoyed the restaurant experience as much as I would otherwise, so there was no actual sacrifice.
4. I made a small batch of marinara sauce for a pasta dinner, using a container of crushed tomatoes that I'd thrown into the freezer before last week's vacation. I wanted to avoid travel related food waste and had transferred a few things out of the fridge with this goal in mind.
Not an exciting meal, but it did the trick! Also, there was enough to feed us the next night as well.
5. I stopped into Trader Joe's after brunch and bought nothing more than a bunch of 23¢ bananas as I know I'll be going to Winco in a day or so for truly inexpensive groceries.
I also found a penny.
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
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Stopped at Aldi after visiting my younger son after work yesterday. It is on the route I use to get home from his house. I bought an avocado, sliced roast beef, and sliced ham luncheon meat, bagels, cream cheese, chips, and a large bag of fake crab meat. I noticed that the luncheon meat was $3.09, when it had been $2.28 about a month ago when I last stopped at Aldi. That is a huge increase. I think the cream cheese increased also, but not sure. It was $1.15 and I think it was around a dollar a month ago. The chips were still 9 oz for $1.50. It was a large bag of crabmeat (I think part of it is an Alaskan fish) and I forget what I paid, but it was less than a same size package at my regular grocery stores. I also bought paprika for 99 cents.
2. I walked both on the stairs at work and in my neighborhood and managed to walk an hour total.
That is all I have.
Thanks for the plant lining tip! I have several wire baskets that hook onto a fence, and was wondering what to do. They were left behind by tenants at a rental that my husband worked at.
Putting off shopping and using food at home. Frugal
Had a new electrical box installed inside and out (50 years old and leaking water from the outside box into the inside box) frugal bc cheaper to replace than recovering from a house fire.
Happily wearing thrifted or gifted clothes. Loved my Valentine’s outfit of thrifted sweater covered with hearts, gifted black pants, and red glitter Converse sneakers that I have had for at least 14 years
Cooking at home including gluten free brownies for V Day
Library and Free Little Library books. So ready for Spring. Our snow finally melted.
I'll add my frugals later but first I want to give a shout-out to Fru-gal Lisa: Happy birthday, Lisa, from your frugal friends!