Five Frugal Things -- A Helpful eBay Buying Tip
The blog has been running slowly and even straight up not loading recently, so I worked with my hosting company to investigate what was going on behind the scenes. It turns out the blog was "undergoing a pretty extensive attack," but they were able to work their magic/tech knowledge to put better protections in place. Things seem back to normal and they even rebooted my "server into faster CPUs" for free, which is great.
Hopefully the blog will load better, stronger, faster ("Bionic Man" anyone?) instead of software engineering.
1) I sold the pair of $2.99 eyeglasses that I thrifted from Goodwill last week. I had them listed at $150, but was more than happy to accept the $95 offer.
Not only does this keep them out of the landfill, but the buyer got a bargain, as the frames cost around $350 new! Everyone's a winner!
Click HERE to see the listing.
2) I pulled everything out of my pantry (hardly a pantry) two nights ago, as I was sure there was a can of coconut milk hiding in there somewhere. (Spoiler . . . there was not.) This escalated into an entire reorganization project, which A) took much longer than anticipated; and B) was highly satisfying.
This "pantry" (not a pantry) is a weird tall kitchen cabinet that at first looks like a broom closet, except that it's too short to hold a broom. My husband extended the weirdly deep shelves forward a number of years ago and we've "made do" ever since. Unfortunately the narrow 20-inch deep back shelves are notorious for hiding food items, which inevitably go to waste.
I kid you not:
I'm done with this wasteful cycle, so I reorganized the pantry, (not a pantry) to no longer store food on the back shelves. The oddly deep bits are now dedicated to non-food items. Aluminum foil, parchment paper and Ziplocs on the top shelf and canning/storage jars on the lower shelf.
I wiped everything down and then added some shelf liner I had leftover from another project.
The best part is that moving the canning/storage jars opened up a normal kitchen shelf, which is in a much more convenient spot.
My photos will never hit anyone's Pinterest inspiration boards, but it's real life in a wonky old house.
3) I did a big Winco grocery shop and picked up a few items not on my shopping list, like these 16-oz bags of penne pasta. 98¢ used to be the standard price for a pound of dried pasta, but those days are in the rear view mirror.
I grabbed three bags.
4) I messaged a $85 offer to an eBay seller for the above brass heat register cover and then clicked "buy," when they sent that offer to my inbox. (They sell new for $139 and the seller was asking $94.95.) I'd seen one in an Instagram video a couple months ago and started thinking it would be an upgrade from what's currently in our dining room:
Ya'll know that I NEVER splurge on aesthetic things, so this is outside my normal shopping habits. (Although it's still within my "buy nothing new" edict.) Our register covers were all rusty with multiple coats of random paint colors when we bought the house in 1996, and young broke Katy was very excited when a preschool mom friend mentioned how she'd used "Hammerite" spray paint for the registers on a house she and her husband were flipping.
It was a $4.99 home improvement that took the register covers from "eyesore" to "something that'll never catch your eye." Very little in our fixer-upper house was cheap to fix, so it was a miracle at the time.
I'm excited to add this pretty element to our house!
Did you know that you can message eBay sellers to offer a lower price, even when they don't have "Make an offer" as an option? It's an excellent frugality hack!
5) I listed a drone remote control on eBay that I picked up from a garage sale "free pile." I'm only asking $10, but I might as well make a few bucks while keeping it out of the landfill. There's a 0% chance that someone looking for this specific item would've come across it.
Click HERE to see the listing.
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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This blog post contains eBay referral links.
Katy, I used the same paint on my registers. They will never win a beauty contest but they aren't noticeable.
We are under another heat dome so the AC is running, I am not using the oven or dryer hoping to balance everything out as much as possible.
I very much want to put out my Fall decor but it is hard to find the enthusiasm when it is so hot.
Staying home and doing things around the house is my current frugal activity.
I have to say I loved those glasses frames.
JC
Your kitchen cabinets look like mine, with mine the drawers don’t pull out smoothly (they aren’t on a track or anything) and cabinets get stuck, they work well enough though. I also have no pantry, just use a regular kitchen cabinet, which certainly prevents items from getting lost although I do wish I had a bit more space.
1) Neighbor left a bag of hand me downs on our porch for my daughter, my daughter is older and now has more opinions on what she wants to wear but she was excited to look through the bag and choose what she liked, neighbor is fine with us donating the rest.
2) My uncles friend was selling a kids bike that was hardly used at all. My uncle asked if I’d be interested and my son is about to outgrow his current bike so I told him yes (it’s the next size up). It cost $700 new, he was selling it for $150 but when my uncle told him I was interested he said he just wanted it out of his garage and gave it to us for free! I’d never buy a $700 kids bike otherwise so this was quite a win. I’m going to pass along the kindness though, and give my daughters outgrown bike away for free to our neighbor.
3) My weekly farm box has been having issues lately, I’ve used them for years with no problems but several boxes in a row were missing an item or two that they were supposed to include. Luckily you can report the missing item on their website and they immediately refund you. Last week though it was an error in my favor, they gave me more produce than I was supposed to receive.
4) I cooked a bag of dry beans and used some to make Buddha bowls, some in plant based black bean brownies and then froze the rest in two jars. Trying not to use canned (although I always keep a couple cans in stock just in case) since I have so many bags of dry and they are cheaper.
5) My hold for Thea of Golden finally came in and I am really enjoying it, might be my favorite book of the year so far. Right before this I read Yesteryear for my book club which I did not enjoy, this current book is very soothing in comparison!
My book club read Theo of Golden last month. Most of us really enjoyed it as like you say, this book is very soothing to read (especially in these troubling times).
Congratulations on selling the eyeglass frames for a very tidy profit. Your pantry (not a pantry) reorganization turned out great too.
1. I washed and hung to dry three sheets of aluminum foil I used to cover dishes of leftovers. I hang these inside over my sink on a three tier hanging basket I use for fruits and veggies.
2. I hung a load of sheets and a tablecloth outside on the clothesline. I have about a month or so left of hanging laundry outside. After the middle of October, the sun doesn't get up over the peak of my neighbor's house and that part of the yard is in shade.
3. I ate leftover nachos for lunch. We had them for supper last night. Every once in awhile we want snack food for a meal so nachos is an easy somewhat healthy option I can make here at home.
4. I mended a bra.
5. I ate another cup of raspberries I picked from the yard.
My pantry not pantry in our small house built in 1949,are Far Niente wine boxes with lids that fit under my IKEA stainless steel island!
Your mention years ago of spray painting registers inspired me to do so to our hodge-podge of vents and registers, some of which were rust-specked and many did not match the walls -- white vents on real mahogany paneling is a bad look. Everything now looks just right in all the rooms.
For frugal things, I went to Ollie's Outlet this morning and bought canned tomatoes, cranberry juice, cat litter, a bag of chopped walnuts, chipolte ketchup, and gardening gloves, all for about half of what it would cost at a conventional store.
Reused an empty pickle jar to soak clean a couple of used paintbrushes.
Packaged up the last serving of Wednesday's supper for the freezer as a quick lunch at some future time.
Dusted the furniture and put leather conditioner on the sofa with a handful of used color catcher sheets.
Successfully adjusted and used a pair of pinking shears formerly too stiff to fully open.
I picked tomatoes before our freak rain yesterday. Rain at this time of year causes tomatoes to split.
I have towels on the line drying, it's a beautiful day in the low 70's.
I requested a refund for deodorant that gave me a rash.
I tried out some ambient lights that were lovely but not bright enough. They refunded the cost and asked me to keep them.
We are navigating hospice with my mother. I find I don't have energy for much, nor mental space for much. I haven't cooked all week and can't seem to find any motivation for cooking. I'm also trying not to make big decisions. I have been deleting old emails, taking the recycling in, dropping donations at Goodwill, removing some tomato plants, and various other non-demanding things that make life seem somewhat normal.
"Navigating Hospice with your Mom" is something that will be taking up ALL of your energy - and then some! Do be kind to yourself about what you need to do in order to sustain your body, while your mind is so busy doing all this processing. Sounds like you are finding measurable and satisfying tasks that give you a sense of some kind of progress - at least somewhere, if only in the email pile. Take care of yourself, Kara!
Thinking of you Kara. Having a family member on hospice is not an easy place to be. I'm glad you're doing some everyday tasks that don't require a lot of physical and mental energy right now. Hang in there.
Kara, I'm very sorry about your mom. The things you're doing are all good ways to manage your mental space and motivation while still moving forward.
I'm sending you peace. Give yourself grace and accept help if offered during this trying time with your mom.
All the advice offered here by our fellow commenters is good, Kara. I remember feeling the way you're feeling a lot of the time while I was caring for DH. And I add my sympathy and good wishes to everyone else's.
I'm so sorry to hear about your mother, Kara.
I echo everyone else here - whatever you need to do for self-care, even if it doesn't feel frugal in the slightest, is the right choice.
Glad the blog is reengineered!
My DIL has a very shallow and wide pantry that she hated at first but now she loves, precisely because everything is visible.
I have COVID and I've had a couple of very miserable days. I don't have a light case. My doctor prescribed Paxlovid since my age and kidney disease put me in the high risk group. Today I spent virtually the whole day trying to pick up the prescription, and I still don't have it. Think out-of-stock ("but we'll order it"), transfer to different pharmacy, insurance issue (which was really an incompetent employee issue) -- all managed with hour-long telephone queues and incomprehensible websites, because I'm isolating and can't just talk to a person. Maddening! At one point I was simply disconnected after an hour wait to talk to someone! I finally sent my grandson with my actual insurance card to the pharmacy, but he didn't fare any better than I did.
Sorry for the rant, it was just so unbelievably awful.
I didn't spend anything today. No appetite so no resources used up. The AC has been running non-stop, however.
I'm watching Shetland on a free trial.
Beth, I'm sorry things are so miserable for you right now. I hope you get your prescription ASAP and feel better soon.
What MB said. Having COVID in your circumstances is miserable enough, but being unable to get the Rx you need must be maddening. Hands across the miles.
So sorry you are sick. Prayers for it to heal quickly. I can understand your frustration with meds. Dh spent ages in line for my Eliquis today (cannot do without...strokes) after which they told him their system was down. This morning I called Medicare and was told I was 136 in line ! Click. Lol . I miss the olden days.
1. I got 2 calls from Walmart, asking if I charged a $2,400 Macbook on my Walmart Plus account. I do not have such an account. We don't have an Apple store anywhere in town. I don't buy new computer equipment; secondhand is better. I strongly suspect my former roommate is doing this. Walmart cancelled the order and I am going to have to find out how to report her and press charges, assuming my hunch is correct.
2. I put fraud alerts on all my credit cards. Already had them on most, but called again and also tried to see if anyone had charged Walmart Plus to my accounts. Nope.
3. WiFi went down yet again. I now have an Astound installer scheduled to come to my house next week.
4. Writing postcards as part of a postcard campaign before the midterms. I have them all addressed but am trying to figure out how to squeeze all my objections to Trump and his MAGA minions onto half a postcard front. Making a list of adjectives to describe Trump that won't sound overly negative....that ain't no easy task!
5. Not planning to travel anywhere for the holiday weekend, thus saving on gas and staying away from all the drunk drivers on the highway. They're having what I call a "Drunk fest" 15 minutes from my city and I don't want to be anywhere near those buzzed drivers.
I haven’t left a comment in a while, we were on holidays and enjoying summer to the fullest, I was barely online.
I thought the issue with the pictures not loading on the blog was due to my bad wifi connection! It works as normal again now.
Your pantry looks good and efficient, Katy! We have a similar setup, our pantry is several kitchen cupboards. The only household I ever knew with a pantry was my in law's when they were alive, I was always in awe of it 🙂
I was looking for small organza bags for my homemade jewelly gifts on Vinted and while they were cheap (e.g. 2 Euro for 40) the postage was also a factor. I then had a lightbulb moment and decided to make little origami giftbags out of gardening magazine pages! They turned out quite well, I was following instructions on YouTube - I had specifically looked for a small origami bag requiring no glue.
The toilet paper made out of recycled paper that I buy in Lidl is on the shop floor as multiple 9 roll packs that are packaged in plastic (about 7 packs per lot) and you pull the one you want to buy out of the plastic. Sometimes this plastic surrounding the multiple packs has not yet been opened and one has to tear it open to take out a pack. Whenever this happens I tear the plastic at the top so that I can remove all the 7 packs and then take the plastic to use as a bin bag. Other people tend to tear the plastic on the side which renders it useless. The amount of satisfaction I get for reusing this plastic and keeping it from landfill is ridiculously high!
I passed some tshirts and a pair of leggings on to my mum. She wears a smaller size than me so anything that is too small for me will fit her!
We recently stayed with relations that we only see once a year. During our stay I bought Christmas presents for the family, wrapped them and asked them to put them aside until Christmas. This saves about 20 Euro in postage and there is no risk of anything breaking or getting lost during shipping.
We were able to harvest some courgettes from our (very) small vegetable garden. We will have radishes, soon, too.
Apologies for the typos! * jewellery *I get from reusing
I get the same satisfaction from reusing large plastic wrapping from toilet paper, paper towels or anything else. Like you, I'm careful in how I open the packages. I also get satisfaction from using my cloth bags at the grocery store, washing and reusing plastic food storage bags and aluminum foil. It's the little things that add up to big things for our wallets and the environment.
Very true, it all adds up indeed!
Same! I just used the toilet paper plastic from a 9 roll pack as a "kitty litter garbage bag"....it still gets thrown out, but at least I got another use out of it!
Looking forward to the after picture, with your new eBay purchase!
1) We set out more ant traps, which is only frugal in that we are trying to squeak by without calling in a professional pest service, because we are almost at the end of ant season, and have been staying on top of them at home. But, what a treat it is to constantly be on the lookout. This has been a terrible season for them.
2) Ate a lot of leftovers this week.
3) Went through & added interest rate & term timing for my CDs, so I know which ones to stay on top of. Similarly, I signed up for AARP to get a higher rate on a CD at Barclays bank.
4) Sold two jackets on eBay. eBay offered me a 50% off boosting promo, which I took advantage of & definitely led to more sales.
5) We bought a Southwest voucher for a discount from one of DH's coworkers. I cancelled DS19's Christmas trip home from college (previously booked with United miles) & rebooked with Southwest. The voucher expires, and the miles don't, so this gives us more flexibility.
Hawaii Planner, if you can find the ants point of entry, sprinkle cinnamon there and they will retreat.
Three of my daughters are home for the long weekend, it has been violently misting all morning. I feel like I'm at the Oregon coast. Happy sigh.
We are making 3 big batches of salsa today. Each batch makes 54 pints.
Tomorrow is corn for the freezer day. I plan to pick 3 wheel barrows, whatever that adds up to. The stalks go to the happy cows.
I found a long duster style denim coat at an estate sale and my oldest daughter is 5'11" and wants to embroider some subtle Western designs on it.
I started a fire in the woodstove to take the chill off for my elderly mom. She's happiest at 80°F. I wear shorts at 65°F.
In this cooler weather, our ever bearing strawberries are going strong for their last hurrah of the season. We ate them with fresh from the neighbor's cow sweet cream and crepes.
OOOO, I would love to be in your kitchen making that big batch salsa! WOWZA! can you share the recipe? I imagine it is scalable one way or the other. Asking as I have no kitchen floor space left, due to ripening tomatoes and peppers, would love to put up some salsa with a decent recipe...
My recipe starts with clean and halve 3 full five gallon buckets. Are you sure you want me to continue?
I use a steamer extractor, then juicer to remove most peelings and seeds. Makes 24 qts. Tomato puree.
12 yellow onions, 4 heads of garlic, 3 lbs jalapenos, 6 to 12 Serranos, habanero to taste. 1/2 cup canning salt, 1/3 cup dried Mexican oregano, 1/2 cup Chile powder.
When we open a pint, we add fresh tomatoes, Jalapenos, Cilantro and squeeze of lime. Sterilize jars, pack jars with 3/4" of head space, 1 tsp white vinegar. USDA guidelines 15 minutes at 11 pounds.
Selena - I plant Seascape ever bearing. I am very close to a rain forest in the coastal hills of Central Oregon. Our growing season is temperate, zone 6+. We grow 8 months a year, sometimes more.
Perhaps ever bearing does well on the west coast but I have *NOT* been impressed with them here in the Midwest. Ended up with a few as prior browsers stuck their pots in a flat of June bearing. Someone whose name I will not mention tends to not read labels (hence why we have TWO cuke plants this year). Easy enough to cull the ever bearing out of my patch. The berries were never June bearing shaped.
FFT, A Quiet Labor Day Weekend/Not a Nice Little Old Lady Edition:
(1) Along with Fru-gal Lisa and many of the rest of you, I'm keeping a low profile this Labor Day weekend. In my particular case, I'm avoiding the NY State Fair (a few miles west of me) like the plague. I loathe crowds, and I certainly don't need to be eating any Fair treats such as deep-fried Oreos or worse. If one more well-meaning person asks me, "Oh, are you going to the Fair?", I may have to stop pretending to be a nice little old lady and yell, "Hell, NO!!"
(2) As further proof that I am not a nice little old lady, I cracked my usual joke at my Wegmans checkout with my teenage cashier after I'd been carded for buying beer (which Wegmans requires, regardless of apparent age): "I'm old enough to be drinking beer with your grandmother." This line hasn't failed to raise a teenage giggle yet.
(3) I cashed in $8.40 in container returns (not all my own beer cans!) on this Wegmans visit, and availed myself of Shoppers Club discounts on various health and beauty items. (Well, OK, health, anyway. 😛 )
(4) I just used two overripe bananas to make banana bread, and will offer this to Bailey dog's mom and dad in return for various recent kindnesses.
(5) And, along with Fru-gal Lisa, I've joined the brigade of those writing postcards to protest the current state of affairs in Voldemort World. Because my Senators and my House member are all Democrats, I don't feel the need to choose my words as carefully as Lisa does. Still, Chuck Schumer needs the occasional boot in the butt for trying too hard to conduct business as usual. There ain't no business as usual no more, folks.
(6) Bonus: I'm watching monarch butterflies coming through my garden at about the usual rate, and reflecting (as per numerous signs at the last few protests) that the only Orange Monarchs I want are the butterflies.
Ha! Your #6! Yes indeed.
I absolutely love all the vintageness in your house!! Our house is vintage, and we mostly decorate it vintage, embracing it for what it is. Plus vintage stuff is just way cooler!
Also, as a frequent ebay buyer and a seller, I never thought to message about an offer.
Vintage is not only more interesting, it's also cheaper and usually better quality. What's not to like?!
Cleaning and reorganizing my pantry. ( a real pantry). Which I find way too deep. Things get lost and expired in it. I'm doing a big shop this week, and felt it is time.
So I have a box of nearly expired cans, that will be eaten first.
Thank you Katy for the pasta tip. I'm heading to Winco .
Going to a neighbors hot dog roast on labor day. Think I'm making deviled eggs as my hens are going strong.
A real pantry? No fair!
Thanks, that's a useful tip about messaging an eBay seller; I was unaware of that one.