Five Frugal Things -- A Bespoke Vacuum Cleaner
1) I spent $69.75 at employee owned Winco Foods, which might not appear as a great bargain. However, four (actually five) of the my items were on the pricier side. Think of it as stocking up.
- The Fage yogurt -- $5.98
- The Kewpie mayo, which I bought for a specific recipe -- $5.26
- Chicken breasts -- $8.69
- Multi-pack of flour tortillas -- $7.08
- Cat litter -- $6.43
My grandcat is visiting for a few days, which necessitated the cat litter and food purchases.
Not to brag, (Oh . . . I'm absolutely bragging here) but I bought just the right amount of bulk oatmeal to fill my "oatmeal jar." This is akin to guessing the correct number of jelly beans in a jar -- but you know, the opposite.
What do I win?
Perhaps my prize was this 50¢ ice cold diet Shasta? Hit the spot on a hot summer day and I call that a win!
2) Speaking of refreshing cold drinks, I made another pitcher of sun tea using three random bags of hotel tea. My friends know to bring these to me from their travels.
Note that I make sun tea in a regular pitcher, to which I rubber band a plastic bag on top. No need for a task specific "sun tea jar."
3) My daughter didn't finish her salmon fillet, so I mixed it with cream cheese to make salmon spread. I still had one sleeve of crackers leftover from our recent beach trip. (We bought a cheap case of assorted Carr's crackers from the Grocery Outlet store at the coast.) Topped with homemade red onion, this was the perfect faux fancy afternoon snack!
4) I curb picked this vacuum cleaner at last weekend's Laurelhurst's neighborhood garage sale after party. It looked to be in good condition, so I grabbed it for my daughter. Unfortunately the cord was completely bunged up close to the plug.
Luckily I have a handy husband!
All it took was a $2 part and this $185-ish vacuum cleaner is now back in business! So what that the plug is now white, instead of black? It's now bespoke!
I was tempted to keep it, as it's significantly nicer than our 25-year-old vacuum.
5) I read through my Lucky Day library copy of Emma Straub's American Fantasy in under 24 hours. (Love, love, love Emma Straub!) We also completed the first season of our Star Trek: Strange New Worlds library Blu-ray. This is an accomplishment, as we only watch episodes after our weekly Family dinners, so this took awhile.
I was four-and-a-half hours into my latest Libby audiobook, when I realized that I had yet to bond with any of the characters. Nope! Life's too short to read mediocre books! That's what's great about library books -- there's no gotta get my money's worth mindset to impel you to slog through a book that's not a good fit.
It took maybe ten minutes or so scrolling the Libby app to find a better prospect. I recently read and enjoyed Reid's Atmosphere, so it's a good bet that Maybe in Another Life will be a keeper.
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
