- I’m continuing to help my older sister go through her stuff from our father’s basement. It’s a mix of childhood and adult items, and I’m working hard to not bring her bring excessive stuff into my house. (Not so surprisingly, she’s in a very giving mood.) So far I’ve accepted a wall hook, a McCoy vase, a McCoy planter and a preschool-era art project. Why the preschool project? Because it had pennies glued onto it. Hello . . . five cents!
- My husband’s soccer team had their annual potluck picnic at a gorgeous area winery on Sunday. I mixed up a large batch of peanut butter oatmeal cookies and baked 96 of them. All the ingredients were things I already had in my larder, and they set me back maybe a couple of dollars. Of course, they were delicious.
- I’m taking my niece to see the movie Pitch Perfect 2 this afternoon. We’re both obsessed with the original movie, and have the choreographed dance moves to prove it. I found a nearby second run theater playing the movie, which will set me back a grand total of $5.50 for the two of us! Why yes, I am the best aunt! Cheap, but loving.
- I left for work in a hurry yesterday and wasn’t able to pack a lunch. Instead of buying food in the hospital cafeteria, I simply ate some graham crackers and peanut butter. Not the best lunch, but it kept money in my bank account. Hey . . . it’s $7 that’s still available to pay my son’s college tuition!
- I didn’t buy a Lear Jet.
Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
I really enjoyed Pitch Perfect 1, but I hated the second movie! How did you enjoy it?
My 5 frugal things are
* Free passes for a movie for DH and I + free babysitting (grandma) yesterday. Good movie too! (A walk in the wood).
* Did not feel like making supper yesterday so I went to a pizza place and grabbed the special : medium peperonni pizza for 5$. Good deal to feed 2 adults+ 2 toddlers.
* Found 0.20$ while walking this morning
* Used a 3 for 1 coupon on take-out sandwiches, saved 13$
* Picked apples from neighbors tree (with permission)
Have a great frugal day!
Ooooh – have you posted your PB Oatmeal cookie recipe on the site before? They sound fabulous!
I second this! I’d love your peanut butter oatmeal cookie recipe..if you care to share
1. Ate the rest of the soup from my freezer for my lunch today. I had frozen the last three cups of a pot of soup, and ate half yesterday, half today. It was just veggie soup, no meat, so it was really a cheap meal.
2. Ate a piece of homemade bread with homemade blueberry jam on it, too.
3. Wearing a shirt provided by work — it has the company logo and is not my style, but it’s free! I’m also wearing a pair of Sperry’s that were given to me for free by my daughter (they didn’t fit her) who received them for free from a friend (didn’t fit the friend) who got them for free from the original buyer, who decided they didn’t fit her so well and so gave them to the friend.
4. Glad I saved the remnants from the laying of our laminate floor. An area had buckled from a leak, and there’s a guy replacing it for free with our remnants. I’ve decided laminate was NOT the way to go, unhappily, but I’ll live with it until we can afford to change to something more durable.
5. I didn’t buy a Lear Jet either!
My frugal things:
1. I am doing my mom’s laundry (she is in assisted living). That saves her $50 a month and I do not mind throwing her stuff in with mine.
2. Cauliflower for 99 cents a head…I bought 4 and froze what I could not use.
3. Instead of buying spaghetti sauce already made ( around 2 bucks on sale) I have been using my tomatoes from my own plants. I simmer and season them and voila! Good sauce. Add a jalepeno for fun.
4. I have bought nothing new now for a month! This is phenomenal for me.
5. My dog and I have been going for long walks. We both feel better.
Nonfrugal happening:
I bought a pork roast on sale 3 months ago and froze it. I put it in the crockpot with pineapple, soy sauce, and some brown sugar and left for the day. When I got home, there was this awful smell. Evidently the pork must have been from a very old boar and it was so awful even dog wouldn’t touch it. Had I not bought it so long ago, I would have returned it. Yuck! Took me awhile to get the smell out of the house.
Went shopping…cake mixes were on sale for 89 cents a box. That reminds me of a frugal recipe for making only 1 piece of cake at a time.
3-2-1 cake
Take 1 box of 1 step angel food cake mix and any other box of cake mix you wish (I like chocolate or spice). Whisk together in a Tupperware container to store.
In a cup, combine
3 T of mix
2T of water
Microwave on high for 1 minute. Let sit for a little bit and enjoy! Can be frosted or served with Cook Whip.
I have no idea where this recipe came from. I got it from a neighbor.
Thanks for sharing, I’m gonna try it next time I get cake mix on sale too 🙂 I love it when I can make cake ready to eat in just a few minutes because sometimes, that’s just what I need 🙂
Today I am making tortillas
And bread.
I figured out that I can drop my son off at a bus stop instead of having to drive him all the way to his new school – saves gas and my sanity since I won’t have to join the drop off traffic. Plus he’s excited to ride a bus.
I’m using whatever bags I have to pick up after the dogs.
I cancelled my son’s subscription to Kiwi Crate – he really isn’t into it.
I had to take my dog in for emergency surgery yesterday. Not frugal, but life saving. However, I was still able to save a bit on this:
1) I was able to borrow a cone from a friend instead of buying the one from the vet.
2) I had 2 of the 4 medications for him already at home so I saved that extra expense.
3) I have to go to work, so I asked my friend’s teen if she would stay over and help watch him while I work. She gets a break from her mom (teen thing) and I get free help with the dog.
4) I have to feed the above mentioned teen, so spaghetti and sauce for dinner and lunches from foods already on hand.
5) I was able to soak and then wash all towels and pillows bled on by my dog to pristine condition. No extra sprays and no buying replacements.
I tried my best this weekend…
Hope the dog feeling better, poor little thing.
Best wishes for your dog! So stressful,I know!
1.Another week spending on nothing but groc, gas and medication.
2. Wearing a t-shirt local store gave away if you purchase was over x amount 🙂 Husband talked him into 2 lol.
3. Made a peach cobbler and went to visit a friend ended up receiving a Pamper Chef bowl, Tupperware cake carrier and a dozen eggs.
4. Homecooked meals all week.
Rented a house in Palm Springs for vacation this week and:
1. Was closer to home than Hawaii so drove instead of paying for expensive plane tix for four, plus there was an ebates deal for this house and one free night.
2. Took our own food from home so only had to pick up some fruit once we got here.
3. Taking advantage of the cable, movies and board games that are new to us here so no need to go out for entertainment.
4. Swimming everyday in a pool we don’t have to pay to maintain and enjoying the AC without the electric bill.
5. Awesome friends at home are babysitting our dog so we don’t have to pay for a kennel.
1. Got $5.00 off coupons for a site called seedsnow .com which sell ORGANIC heirloom,NON GMO seeds online! These kinds of seeds are over $4.00 a pack, locally!!! This site has lots of 99 cent seed packs!!!!!
2. Am planning my already-built square foot garden boxes to provide us with free greens and other goodies in our next growing season (soon, here in Az.)
3. Sewing a rip in an old beach/pool towel instead of buying a new one.
4. Attending a free yoga class.Our local yoga school offers many freebies!
5. Ate a plate of roasted veggies for lunch–used up some almost-shriveling colorful peppers, onions, potatoes, etc. from the refrig.
1) My daughter drives my car right now and told me that the ON/OFF button for the radio had fallen off yesterday and that she couldn’t find it. I was spraying weed killer in my driveway this morning and found the button laying there.
2) I remembered that I had bought Sugru for my husband several Christmases ago and was able to find it. He never used it or even looked it it, I guess, because that stuff has a “use by date”. I didn’t look like I was going to be able to use it since it wasn’t as malleable as it should have been, but I stuck a piece of it in the hole of the button, stuck it back on the radio and it does seem to have some adhesive properties left. Yay! Since I have 12 mini packs of the stuff that seem like they might be useless (entirely our fault, we should have read the wording on the bag back in 2011), I emailed their Customer Service to see if there’s any trick to extending the life of it so I can use it in the future.
3) I saved the cardboard boxes from several recent small furniture purchases to use as weed barrier in my vegetable garden.
4) This year, my son’s middle school has a deal with the YMCA whereby the YMCA will come on campus every afternoon and provide FREE after-school activities (and snacks too!) for the students. Still waiting to hear the details of which activities but since the free library teen program that he was attending on Wednesdays just got discontinued, I’m pretty excited about this.
5) My property tax bill estimate came in and the most it will go up will be about $9. Yes!
1. I have been buying just groceries, gas, and $.01 Staples reams of paper the past several weeks. I have stayed out of other stores and avoided on-line shopping.
2. I have found $.24 over the past several days, while walking.
3. I have cinnamon roll dough rising. A cheap (and relatively easy) treat for my daughter, who is a bit nervous about starting school tomorrow.
4. I borrowed DVDs from the library yesterday. It is nice to have more current movies than what Netflix offers these days.
5. I didn’t buy a Lear jet.
4.
(1) Good for you, Katy, for helping with your sister’s cleanout and accepting only a minimum of the overflow. The second part can be hard to do (ask me!).
(2) DH got started today on helping an older neighbor clean out her garden beds in her front yard (things had gotten out of hand there, and she was feeling overwhelmed). Two other neighbors stopped by to help. Spontaneous community event.
(3) Having BKTs tonight with friend’s personally raised bacon, own kale, and own tomatoes. Yeah, frugality is really hard at this time of year (not!).
(4) Just prepped and bagged up three quarts of tomatoes for the freezer, to add to the three quarts I’ve done already. In the winter, we eat tomatoes out of the freezer or not at all. (Haven’t learned to can yet. Freezing is so much easier that I’ve been kind of lazy about learning.)
(5) DH just ate the last part of one of this year’s cantaloupes (I think this was #10 of 15 from one plant, although we have given quite a few to favorite neighbors). See #3 above re: how hard frugality is at the peak of harvest season.
1. Enjoying a pie I made with peaches I bought on sale for 99¢/lb. I doubled the recipe and made one 9″ and 2 smaller pies. I took one of the small pies to a friend that will be moving soon. I also made a batch of taco chicken meat with the markdown chicken thighs that I got at Aldis. The packages were about 5 lbs. but they had $2 and $1 off stickers because they had to be sold the same day. I bought 4 packages which was 20 3/4 lbs. for less that $6.50. Three were repackaged and are in the freezer and the other became chicken and dumplings and taco meat.
2. The same friend had posted some items on the FB yard sale page. A bath rug and a bathroom set of 2 towels, trashcan, shower curtain and hooks. I messaged her that I was interested and she said I could have them for free. DS#2 that is away at college needs a shower curtain since the glass shower door leaves nothing to the imagination and is on full view when anyone opens the hall door. Saved me a trip to the thrift store to look for one! The towels will go into my linen closet and the trash can will go in the downstairs bathroom.
3. Finished reading the book “The Daughter” that I won in a blog giveaway. It was quite good! Now I will pass it on to my sister.
4. Planning to make salsa tonight with tomatoes given to me by a fellow Freecycler and cilantro I grew myself.
5. Working on purging things out of the house. A bag of books is ready to go to the used book store. I sold a brand new Jansport backpack on FB for $22 that I picked up at the thrift store a few months ago for less than $5; I held onto the backpack until back to school time. Have some more things to list on FB yard sale page. I have gathered colored pencils, markers and pencils that we no longer need in such abundance to give to a teacher friend that teaches in an inner city school.
Decided to redo the menu in my head for this week and use what we have on hand. So I only picked up bananas at the store today. Went out with friends for dinner last Friday night and we each used a $10.00 coupon that had been in the paper. They put my shrimp on my friends Bill, so I bought her ticket for the movie we went to. The cashier gave us both a senior discount, and we both had coupons for free small popcorn. That’s all I can think of. I like to go to the 2nd run theater. It is $2 during the summer, and usually goes down to $1 in the winter. On Tuesdays they have $2 small popcorn, candy and soda.
1. I am having our home painted and the painter is currently refinishing our wood door (which he told me he had just installed one like it at another home to the tune of $1500.00!!!). I took off the door hardware and decided to update it with spray paint. I used Rustoleum silver nickel to cover the brass door knocker, address numbers and a decorative item on my mailbox. I found some black spray paint in the closet to spray the rest of the mailbox. He has taken off the door sweep and the brass strip that has the rubber seal. He got so excited about my spray painting that he helped me pull the rubber seal apart from the strip and we are spray painting it now. This painter is used to painting for the really rich (those that have two or three multi-million dollar homes) and he is so excited about my “projects”.I feel sure I am the first person to “make do” that he has ever worked with because now he is regaling me with stories of what all his customers throw away that is perfectly useful and good. LOL
2. I have tried to reduce food waste this year but was still throwing out things that got lost in the back corners of the refrigerator. This week I made a list in my planner of what I needed to use up or freeze and in two days I have used up nine of the 12 items!!! It helped to see the things in a list because then I realized what could be combined for a snack or a breakfast or another menu item.
3. Because of this I haven’t been to the grocery store yet,even for the milk we ran out of, because I know we can substitute the yogurt I found. Going to try this with pantry items, too. Writing in the daily planner keeps it up front and not in my head.
4. I remembered two books I had to sell that my son read for school so they are going on eBay.
5. I found some super glue and Gorilla glue in the closet with the paint so I am on a glueing binge. Lots of repairs to keep things going.
Five frugal things…..
1. Shredded 7 medium to large zucchinis. I plan on making bread and cake with them this evening.
2. Picked some huge Roma tomatoes off my bushes and put in the freezer. I put all my tomatoes and any that I’m ‘gifted’ with in the freezer and then do a huge batch of canned tomato sauce in the fall.
3. Stayed home and didn’t drive anywhere today.
4. Started a batch of sun tea….my favorite!
5. Cut all my brillo pads in half, so that they’ll last longer and I won’t waste them. I find half a brill pad is perfect for cleaning a batch of pots and pans.
I loved Pitch Perfect too, but have not yet seen the second.
1. Sewed some pillow covers for the couch pillows using leftover material from other projects.
2. Dinner was pork fried rice using leftover pork and garden veg.
3. Our neighbours have brought over another big bag of vegetables. I will use some for roasted tomato vegetable sauce, use most in this weeks meals and will slice and freeze some green peppers and jalapeños.
I knew the second movie wasn’t going to be great, (which proved true) but it had a hispanic character who only said offensive cliches about being Mexican, even though her character was supposed to be from Guatemala. I can’t believe no one ever stopped it along the line during script revisions.
Not quite a no spend day here:
1. Went to farm stand and got 4 qt basket of peaches for $8.00. They had half
bushels for $25! Is it just me, or is that high? We already polished off all but the last 2 from last week’s 4 qt basket. That is about 16, large, home-grown, perfectly ripe peaches, for 50 cents apiece.
2. We could not think what appealed to us for dinner, so went to the local Mexican fast food place (the only fast food we eat)–less than $14 for two. We plan for one meal out a week, and that’s almost as cheap as you can get. (I think the hot dog stand is cheaper by a bit.)
Since Tuesday is my yoga class, I stopped afterwards at the Salvation Army store and at the Goodwill store. Purchased nothing. Everything is well looked over–I assume from people shopping for school clothes. I will go again in a couple more weeks when they have new stock. One of my nieces works there, (SA) and is able to clothe her three kids in nice stuff from being the first on scene when new stuff comes in. Good thing, as she is divorced and not receiving much in the way of child support–it has to help her budget!!
3..Talked to gyn office and convinced them to try to rebill my last visit with a different code. I have medicare and private insurance and neither paid because they billed it as an anuual physical. My primary already billed an annual physical, so they have to call it an office visit or something. Medical billing is getting WAY too complicated. Fortunately, both my daughter and I have done it in previous jobs, and can at least decipher the problems.
I am paying way too much for sattelite TV and except for the news, there is NOTHING I want to watch tonight–on all 250 channels??? What is wrong with this??
That’s not quite five frugal things, but it’s something.
Marcia, I don’t know if you have Internet, but I stopped paying for regular TV years ago and now just watch it on the Internet.
I’ve paid $8 a month for the last three or four years for Hulu, and they have a ton of shows. I find that it’s even better than regular TV. Only disadvantage is you don’t get the local news shows.
You don’t need cable to watch the local news shows as they broadcast over the air for free, as many other stations do. You should check it out! If you have a digital TV, your digital tuner should pick up channels by itself. If not, look into investing in a interior amped digital antenna ( I paid about $50 for mine several years ago but they’ve come down in price I think). If you’re far away from the stations antennas, consider getting an outdoor amped digital antenna. I had to switch from the indoor to the outdoor antenna in the Spring when we had our windows replaced because the new windows are double-pane and the indoor antenna had trouble getting a signal through them. The outdoor antenna is terrific. We get so many channels that I rarely watch Netflix or Amazon Prime Instant anymore. We live in rural Central Florida, about 30 miles from Orlando. I discuss (and link to) the outdoor antenna that we got in this post (it’s priced at $35 on Amazon right now) http://imperfectlyfrugally.blogspot.com/2015/05/todays-frugal-failures-and-successes_11.html
Prior to that post I wrote about living without cable TV here (the name of the indoor antenna that we were using is in that post) http://imperfectlyfrugally.blogspot.com/2014/12/living-without-cable-tv.html
HTH.
1. Spent part of work today doing my favorite frugal work move, repairing library books for more use.
2. Had leftovers for lunch, topped off with homemade salsa (from our kindergarden teacher) and chocolate chip cookies (from the huge box a school mom dropped off to the teacher’s lounge with a wish for a good year.)
3. Spent time with my adopted daughter and granddaughter at the library, her favorite place to play and free.
4. Tossed all the magazine suscription suggestions that have come in the mail.
5. Put dinner in the crockpot this morning, since I figured I’d be too beat to cook when I got home (I was…), so all I had to do was cook brown rice and make a tomato salad with the cherry tomatoes my husband brought home from his work garden and the few I had left from the farmer’s market Saturday.
Your post about your sister trying to convince you to give her things “a good home” reminded me of cleaning out my Dad’s apartment with my two sisters after he died. One or the other of them would hold up an object and say “Someone should keep this” and look at me, meaningfully. I finally said “The next one who says ‘Someone should keep this’ will be the Someone who has to keep it.” That took care of that.
1. Have been walking 15 minutes 2x a day with my new little dog. This is the most effort I’ve put into exercising in years.
2. Made several freezer meals.
3. Someone I know retired and left behind tools of the trade, I found someone starting out who could use those books and other things and was grateful to get them.
4. Shopped the clearance babies summer clearance and got two nice long sleeved t-shirts that I will alter to fit my dog so he stays warm this winter.
5. Used my library and watched some things on youtube.
6. Put several things back at the store that I wanted but didn’t need. I’m learning to do this.
1. Sold both of my baby bike trailers on CL for $200, after buying them for $40.
2. Bought a lot of vintage Jadeite for $35. The only pieces I didn’t love were the salt & pepper shaker set and the creamer pitcher. Selling those today for $25, and keeping the rest.
3. Chicken was on sale for $1.77, which is the cheapest we ever see in these parts. I bought a whole bunch, trimmed it, and flash froze, so we have a stockpile ready to cook.
4. Discovered Frasier is on CL and have been watching a ton of episodes.
5. Frugal fail: oversalted my cauliflower soup and ruined it.
Peel and boil a potato with over-salted things – the potato picks up the excess salt.
1) I went shopping with my Library card yesterday. I picked up an audio book I had on hold and tried finding “The Gilded Age” by Mark Twain. They didn’t have a copy at the Public Library, but I found one at our University Library.
After listening to “Clara & Mr. Tiffany”, now I’m interested in the economics of that period in history.
2) I still have over 900 minutes and 500 days of service on my tracfone. I don’t think I’m going to need to add any minutes this year, so no money out on a cell phone.
3) Instead of buying stuff for hubby’s birthday, I’ve decided to take him to a classic rock concert. Tickets to those are much cheaper than newer bands and it’s one he loves, so we’ll have a fun night out without adding any household clutter.
4) I fixed meatloaf over the weekend and he loves meatloaf sandwiches, so we’ve managed to stretch that meal into about four.
5) I didn’t buy a Lear Jet this week either.
This is a slightly off-beat and kind of sad frugal happening, but I thought it was important to share with the audience. My friend’s Mom just passed away (peacefully, after a long life) and my friend was telling me about the extraordinary costs of the funeral arrangements, etc. Which, its important to know–you can always haggle on. She told me the local newspapers wanted $400 for the obituary to be printed in the paper!! I had no idea! They charge by inch. Well, she was able to compress the obit to the length the paper said was THEIR smallest size allowed, and talk the papers into taking $300 instead. Still, I think it is outrageous for the local papers to charge so much! Her hands were tied on the matter as her mother had many elderly friends in the area who might not hear of her passing except through the newspapers, but it got me thinking. I think I will rely on social media to get the word out and celebrate a life next time someone in the family passes. This includes sending people a link to the obituary page on the funeral home site, which are always nicely presented.
1. Sold 4 things on eBay.
2. My mother-in-law treated us out to dinner at Red Robin. I had her use my RR Royalty card and when it was used, one of our meals was free.
3. Earned an Amazon gc & Paypal through doing surveys.
4. Purchased marked down bananas and apples for baking and smoothies.
5. Used a CVS gift card earned from doing surveys to purchase 24 rolls of toilet paper. My total was $1.28 for tax.
6. Paid for my youngest’s high school year book and ASB card with funds saved from doing surveys and selling on eBay.
1. had free craft time and new books/videos to take home for the kids from the library.
2. had to ask a question about my lease on my car and got free lunch for the kids and me at their free cafe. cookies included.
3. making bread, even though i think what i got is not flour but some other type of flour because its just not coming out right. doesn’t matter, everything taste good with butter on it.
3. made pesto pasta from pasta given to me buy my mother in law and pesto from the basil in my garden. plus some cantaloupe i scored at one of the food banks i go to during the month. (yes i am that poor). with just the cost of the parm cheese from grocery outlet feeding 4 of us for 2.50.
4. found a 2 dollar coupon on next purchase outside of a rite aid and a stack of new coupons outside the dmv. i did have to pay 33 dollars at the dmv but the licence was necessary.
5. used less diapers because naked time to potty train is best, even though there was a couple of mishaps.
6. got my 15 dollars gift card in my email from swagging.
better day then most and feeling good about it.
I didn’t have time to pack lunch yesterday *and* I was practically falling asleep at my desk. Not a likely environment for frugality, right? I’m pleased to say “wrong!” to that idea. I was both self-indulgent and frugal by have a $.75 Cup o’ Noodles for my lunch. (I make it slightly less unhealthy by rinsing the noodles – I fill the cup with hot water, let it sit a minute, then pour it out and refill. That gets rid of a lot of the salt – there’s too much for my taste – and a little of the fat.)
1. Finally made the switch from buying gallons of spring water to using a filter pitcher. It had been worth it to me for clean water, but the excess plastic is no longer worth it to me for environmental reasons. We will save approximately $21 a month from making the switch.
2. I hemmed a shirt that had been at an unfashionable length and incorporated it into my work wardrobe, instead of buying a new shirt.
3. I altered a skirt I already had that had a weird part hanging off (part of the original design), and now I also have a skirt for my work wardrobe. Both these alterations were part of my bigger challenge to come up with a two-week work wardrobe without buying anything new. I did it!
4. I used up some dried beans that had been sitting in our pantry forEVER to make burritos.
5. We used some stale corn chips to make chilaquiles for breakfast. I recommend it…an easy meal.