Five Frugal Things -- Used Prescription Glasses
1) My sister and I stopped at the Goodwill on 122nd Avenue, (I know, shocker!) and I spent $2.99 to buy this pair of "Etnia Braganza" designer eyeglasses.
At this point you might be wondering why on earth I would buy used prescription glasses. I get that. However, designer frames hold value and can sell for good money on the secondhand market.
Remember when I bought a pair of Tiffany glasses from the Goodwill bins and later sold them for $55? I doubt I'll get the full $150 for them, but I might as well try.
They're kind of cute, definitely unique.
2) We were feeling a little hungry afterwards and there was nothing but junk food near the store, so we drove the couple minutes over to Costco and took a gamble that they'd have enough samples out to sate our hunger.
It wasn't that off from junk food.
But the price was right. I referred to it as a "symphony in beige."
3) Our next stop was the Goodwill bins on Airport Way, where I picked up a few things and spent $9.50. This hat might be sprinkled with animal hair, (dog?) but this Portland Gear wool blend hat sells new for $35.
I recently sold the exact same hat on Facebook Marketplace for $20, (also bought from the bins) so I simply reupped the old listing.
I also grabbed this pair of "My Neighbor Totoro" slippers to have on hand when the kids visit the house. They'll be going through the wash and hopefully survive the process.
My biggest, (luckily not too heavy) purchase was this new-with-tags outdoor cushion. I have three Adirondack chairs in the backyard and only two of them have proper cushions. This'll be nice for when we have guests, which is frequently.
I also found a pair of jeans that actually fit me, (a freaking miracle!) as well as a pair of glass hexagonal knobs and a brass candlestick. The glass knobs were weighed serparately and cost 11¢.
Everything for $9.50!
4) I then walked outside the store and found a dime and two pennies in the parking lot. Paid for the glass knobs!
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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1. I sold a few items on Ebay including a set of silverplate utensils for $200. I think I paid $13 for them.
2. I combined errands with estate sales. I stopped and paid my summer property taxes at the township office saving two stamps.
3. My daughter #2 and I cleaned up her bee equipment which I listed on Marketplace.
4. My mom and I took a trip to see my youngest for the day. We helped her with organizing closets in her teeny tiny apartment. She finally dragged the table and chairs up that I found on the curb for her. They fit great and she's thrilled to have a place to eat besides her coffee table.
5. My daughter #2 and I have been trading dogsitting a lot lately. I've taken several trips and she has had workmen in her house so it was better for him to stay with me. A huge savings for us both.
What awesome finds! I'm always so impressed by your bin shopping.
After my lost day yesterday, due to not feeling well, I have things to catch up on today. Laundry, for one. A trip to the post office for another, and I'll try to squeeze in a trip to Walmart, where I will apparently get the best buy on Poise pads. While there, I also plan to get their cheap French bread, which I use for croutons. Something l learned from my brother the chef -- freeze the bread and saute cubes only as needed for topping salads. Better tasting and cheap, too.
And of course I will swing by a library drop box to return books. Thank goodness for libraries!
That's a great tip from your brother, thank you!
I can't believe someone donated the Totoro slippers! They're too cute!
1. Today is my husband's first day at his new job! He packed his lunch only to discover that the company has a cafeteria with free lunch! Yes please!
2. The morning was nice and cool so I've taken advantage of it by baking a large pan of granola bars, two loaves of bread, and four hoagie rolls.
3. I forgot to mention in earlier posts that when we left our Airbnb last week there was one wrapped roll of toilet paper, two very large heavy duty trash bags, and about half of a roll of paper towels that left with us. We also were refunded $25 by the host since the dryer was broken and we had to take our laundry to a laundromat to dry.
4. I finished the audiobook I was listening to! (Un) Fortunately, I thought it was a two book series and it ended on a cliffhanger! Wtf! I googled it and the third book is due to come out in October.
5. To soothe my bookish rage I added "The Briar Club" by Kate Quinn to my Libby. I don't think I've heard about it yet and it looked interesting, especially after recently listening to "The Calamity Club", so I'll report back if it's good!
FREE LUNCH!! Sorry for shouting but that is a huge perk.
Breakfast and lunch! Shout twice! Yaaaay!
Now I'm doing the Snoopy Happy Dance - on steroids!
ooooh I feel your cliffhanger pain... do I ever. particularly when the books have hooked me big-time. Write faster, authors!
And free food for the win, that is like a pay increase right off the bat for your husband!
Because of Katy, I pick up glasses for resale. I've had really good luck consigning them at my cousin's place of work. I always give my friend who thinks of her eyewear as jewelry, first dibs. This week i found a pair of purple cheetah frames at an estate sale for $1, friend squealed when I showed them to her.
Made a Smitten Kitchen plum apple magic cake, tripled the recipe to fit sheet pan. Smells so good!
Made a double recipe of my quinoa, garbanzo chop salad for a book club yearly lunch in the park.
Sold a collection of vintage beer posters we found in a cupboard in the shop. They were the vinyl printed posters w/grommets $150.
sold a pair of men's hiking boots $120. Crap out, yeah! Auto corrupt wanted me to write scrap. Bah!
You are on a roll with all the crap out - and even the purchases you are making for big bucks ($1~~~!!) aren't staying long in your house. Well done!
Those glasses sound very groovy!
They were Sally Jesse Rafael-esque. The home was a time capsule of the roaring '80's, with a dusting of '90's as in pearlized cream leather sofas. Friend paid me $10 for the frames.
1. Went to the local farmers' market on Saturday and stopped by to say hi to a friend who works at a fruit stand. We met at the market and have become close friends over the years. Because of this, in the summer, she'll often give us some storage apples for free when we buy our summer fruit (their plums and peaches are amazing). This time, we picked peaches and one of their homemade juices and she just gave it all to us for free!
2. We did get takeout on Sunday night for dinner, but it was a treat bc I'd spent all day cleaning, and my partner had a generous discount for "first time order with us" type of company, and there was a new local Caribbean place we wanted to try. We each ordered a full meal knowing we'd have enough for lunch leftovers for today.
3. My skirt and shirt are thrifted and I've owned them for at least 10 years.
4. My doctor told me I need to start using compression sleeves on my calves when I run. I bought the ones she recommended but found a 20% off code to use.
5. Dinner tonight will be fried rice made with ingredients from our freezer and pantry.
Love the frames that you’re going to resell. I bet they go quickly.
$103 worth of groceries today for zero dollars using insurance card monthly allowance for groceries.
$.50 off a gallon for gas
Back to picnic lunch for my daughter and myself and went up to one of our local parks enjoy fall like weather.
Same Daughter all about wanting Starbucks, pumpkin spice latte iced coffee. We came home and I opened up a jar of pumpkin purée and made her some iced coffee with that, maple syrup, milk, and pumpkin pie spice.
Shopped at the thrift store for an outfit she needed for the luau dance. That day everything was 25% off so got cute outfit that she can rewear many times.
Soup for dinner tonight using ingredients I have at home.
Yay to Shyla for free lunches at her husband's new employer! What a treat that will be!
1) Made an easy sheet pan dinner last night, and this one is particularly flexible with substitutions. (In case you want to try, it's here. https://allthehealthythings.com/fall-sheet-pan-dinner/#tasty-recipes-23765-jump-target). Used a garden zucchini I got from a coworker, 4 potatoes that I cooked for a bit in the microwave first, and then used the remaining 1/2 bag of Costco frozen vegetables designed for roasting. We didn't love roasting them as the bag instructed, and they were lingering in the freezer, so this made space & ensured the veggies didn't go to waste. I bought the chicken sausage on sale at Costco.
2) My decluttering tear continues. I've: given away, recycled, tossed or donated close to 200 items in August, and have listed another 15 or so for sale. Much is coming from DS19's room (per his request), and I'm also just in another season of life, where I can pass on school supplies & the like.
3) I am working on making a few tweaks to a free Tshirt (well, included in family weekend costs last year) to try & make it wearable. I'm the least crafty person alive, so if I can make it wearable, I'll be pretty impressed. I'm somewhat inspired by DS19, who makes changes to his shirts all the time.
4) Reminded my boss that I wasn't flying to London in September for a work event. While this doesn't really save me any money, and I'd theoretically get airline miles... it saves me a lot of sleep & time wasted on a plane.
5) Got DS19 to cancel the automatic book subscription fee for college, as only a few of his classes take it, and he needs different books. It's not a money saver except in niche instances, IMO. Anyway, he cancelled, saving me $279. Of course, he will need to buy other books, but that was true regardless.
That's a great little haul, especially the cute patio cushion! Will look pretty in your backyard! How could you tell that those pants would fit you? A lot of the thrift stores near me don't have dressing rooms anymore so I would really hesitate with buying pants (especially as I typically need a petite size) . . .
Dori, I don't remember where I learned this, but 1) put the pants waist around your elbow and extended fingers. If you have to bend your fingers, it's too small.
2) wrap the folded waist around your neck. If the ends meet, it fits.
I think method #1 works best for me. Good luck!
I just held them against my waist and threw caution to the wind!
The universe must be telling me to buy these frames... they were my runner up choice last time I bought my last pair about 2 years ago. They are really cute!
Ha, that's too funny!
1. My dad is out of town and when we went over to clean and have our son mow his lawn, the bottom fell out of his sink! It was horribly rusted and decided to die. My handy husband spent the day over there fixing it and also replacing a door handle that was about to plotz. My dad is 83 and it’s harder for him to get to these chores so it was great we could do them while he was away!
2. My energy has returned and I had the most productive day I’ve had in about 3 months. Three cheers for HRT and a week off from work!
3. We hit our goal of spending less than $800 in groceries this month which is huge. (We live in Canada and it’s more $$ here). We also have tons of food in the freezers and cupboards so we might stay under $700 for September.
4. While on holiday we went blueberry picking in my aunts secret spot. In about 2.5 hours we picked about 4 gallons which came home with us. We packaged them in some of my aunt’s million containers and will eat them all winter.
5. I stocked up on school supplies since they are dirt cheap at Walmart. I bought two math sets so that if my son “forgets” his at school he can still do his homework. It’s a good time to stock up since everything is $1-$3. They will be $5+++ by October.
I’m so happy to see you’ve come into some money. Those frames are great!
It’s been a good day so far. I went to Winco this morning and they had their discontinued wine marked half price! I’m not much of a drinker, but it’s good to have a few bottles at the ready for hostess gifts.
I processed some tomatoes from the garden and came up with some tomato-forward meals for the week.
After lunch, it was too hot to work outside, so I accompanied my husband on an errand to get some farm equipment repaired. A few days ago, Blue gate farmgirl mentioned a “free estate sale” and I figured I’d never encounter such a thing. I was wrong! We followed some signs, and there it was! It was an estate sale company that I usually won’t bother with because they price things too high, and they had a lot of leftovers from last weekend’s sale, which they were giving away. I got a few serving bowls. (I like to be able to bring food to a potluck and leave the serving dish if necessary.) I also bought some crafty items.
There was a scene in one of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels where she talked about the senior citizens chowing down on all the free samples in a warehouse club store, LOL. And I bet those eyeglass frames sell almost as fast as the Bakelite handles.
1. Thanks to some fellow NCA-ers, I am all signed up for the Kanopy streaming service via my closest public library. Didn't even have to go in person; I signed up online. I also tried to register for Hoopla, but this library doesn't have it. The next town over has a Hoopla-participating public library, so I will go there tomorrow and get my card renewed. (I used to have their card also, but I let it lapse since I'm within walking distance of the first library.) So a great big THANK YOU to the folks who told me about these freebies!!!!
2. Bought a half gallon of Blue Bell Ice Cream while it was still on sale for $5.99. Tomorrow the price goes up to $7.49 until the next sale. We're under an Extreme heat Advisory; in this weather, ice cream is almost a necessity. Air conditioning IS a necessity!
3. Used a back to school coupon to get a cheap haircut. What used to cost $5.99 now costs $18 without coupon. My coupon brought it down to $6.99 + tip.
4. Lined the indoor trash cans with some large plastic shopping bags.
5. De-cluttered a closet. Found a purse I thought I'd lost and it contained a better pair of reading glasses I will wear to work.
I find that Libby (free from my library) is better than Hoopla for my reading preferences. Libby has more current titles - both audio and books. Hoopla has older and more second or third tier titles.
My library allows me to have up to 15 titles on Hold. When i visit a bookstore i take photos of books that interest me and then reserve them on Libby or ask my library to purchase them. I do support independent bookstores by purchasing items or books that are local authors, regional topics or books I would not expect my library to stock.
I usually buy books when I am on vacation. Otherwise it’s my wonderful library or Libby (brought to me by my wonderful library).
Costco samples...a beige buffet.
Exactly.