Five Frugal Things -- An Excess of Asparagus
1) My sister picked up an $8 antique "Porcelier" ceiling light fixture from a garage sale that's an exact match to one from our childhood house. Unfortunately it was missing the sockets and electrical parts. Luckily we'd recently been to Hippo Hardware and suspected they'd be able to help.
I think the total after my $25 store credit was $11, which is a terrific price in the end.
She bought a house in the Bronx a few years ago and while the house is technically not a fixer upper, she and the previous owners didn't share the same taste in light fixtures. As a NYC high school teacher, she doesn't possess an excess of riches, so bargains like this are extra special. It'll go into her bedroom.
Next to be replaced is her dining room chandelier.
I had time at Hippo to wander around the store and came across a shelf of painted glass light shades, similar to what I have over my kitchen sink.
Of course, mine is from my Buy Nothing group.
2) I completed my Powell's Summer Reading Challenge bingo card with hours to spare and drove down to the Powell's on Hawthorne location to turn in my paperwork.
Luckily the store is open until 9 P.M.!
Yes, I'm complete and utter book dork. I may have received my Bachelor's of Science in Nursing, but I snuck in an English minor as an excuse to read something beyond dry nursing textbooks.
3) Smoky skies have returned to Portland, but my husband and I still have our handmade Corsi-Rosenthal box to filter the indoor air. Is it an eyesore? Maybe, but clean air is worth it.
Unrelated to nonconsumerism, but I refer to it as the "Rachel Rosenthal" box, which was my great grandmother's name. My dad would appreciate this moniker.
Cough, cough . . . .
4) My youngest is off on vacation with their friend's family, (lucky kid!) which means I have the pleasure to host both Myr and Mama's Little Meatball. They're best friends at this point and not too much trouble.
I will admit that I don't love having "litter box" sneak back onto my daily to-do list. This aspect of cat ownership is the biggest downside. Blegh!
5) I finally used up the entire bag of asparagus that my husband impulse purchased at Costco. This asparagus forward pasta dish was definitely tasty, but I'm happy to see the end of the asparagus.
Now I can put my focus towards figuring out what to make with the random vegetables my sister bought at the farm store on Sauvie Island. She's back in NYC, yet I'm the one with a fridge full of beets, lettuce and corn.
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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Try a Beet Rosti (think pancake) for the beets. I tried it from the How to Cook Everything Book and now I am hooked on beets. Calls for rosemary as well.
Congratulations on completing your Powell's bingo card! Well done!
We are under a heat advisory today, which may be mitigated by a storm, if it develops. Since I am without AC now, I am watching the weather carefully. I already have my big pedestal fan going, and I'm going to keep the shades down. Will be hydrating all day. I will not cook. Granola for breakfast, tuna salad for lunch, and cheese slices, apple slices and pea salad for dinner.
Luckily, I have plenty of books to read, and some work to do on my financial spreadsheets, which will keep me busy.
Yesterday I ran a few errands. I returned some library books, bought a few groceries at Aldi -- granola, blueberries, creamer, and hamburger buns -- and filled up the gas tank at Sam's. I had intended to take a damaged window screen to the hardware store, but I forgot to grab it, so that will have to happen another day.
I also stopped at McDonald's for a breakfast sandwich. I left home without having breakfast, and I am not good at being hungry! So that was a bit of a fail. I did just get water as a beverage. I sat inside and enjoyed the coolness.
I also took a 20-minute walk around the indoor ice rink at the community center.
We're also dealing with the previous tenant's "taste" in our new-to-us apartment.
1. I've decided Tuesday will be Toilet Tuesday and damnit I'm going to get into a habit of cleaning the bathrooms with actual regularity! The bathrooms at our old home in Oregon were really big and at opposite ends of the house so I found lots of excuses to put off cleaning. I whipped up some vinegar and blue Dawn and sprayed the shower, tub, toilets, and sinks. I combined taking a shower with cleaning my shower so I'm not entirely sure how long it took but I did time my kids' bathroom. Twelve minutes to do the whole thing. Will I learn from this? I hope so. This includes trying to scrub off the paint speckles that either the previous tenant's left or maintenance, not sure who touched up the paint but it's touching ever part of the apartment!
2. To try and keep myself on a schedule (and semi-accountable) I got back into the Tody app, free version of course. I now have a weekly Tuesday reminder to clean the tubs, toilets, and sinks. The app is meant to help keep track of cleaning tasks and give you a little dopamine boost for finishing your list.
3. I baked two loaves of bread yesterday and got them sliced and into the freezer. My grandmother and I were chatting about how her mother used to be able to buy 10 loaves of bread for $1 and I told her I probably couldn't make 10 for that cheap now but I can probably make 10 loaves of bread for the cost of a store bought loaf! The kids are on a sandwich kick so we've been going through it about as fast as I can bake it!
4. I listened to "The Wives" by Tarryn Fisher on Libby. It was interesting and I was enjoying it and then right in the middle of the book a massive twist is dropped! I sat up in bed for an extra hour listening until I forced myself to go to bed. Having a bit of a dark and twisty reading kick.
5. Our oldest daughter is rapidly growing out of her current clothes, we'd like to dedicate the next two inches of height to the 150 PBJs she's eaten every week. We combined our store card points and clearance sales with Old Navy and got 20 items for $161.25, including tax. Each item ends up being about $8.06, which isn't bad for new clothes! I had been having a difficult time finding USED clothes in our last neighborhood for decent prices so I'll take it!
1. My partner wants ribs for Labor Day weekend, and the more expensive store had them on sale. I also noticed that they had a $10 off $40 coupon, so I was able cobble together enough other staples and on-sale items to bring it down to $30.02 (after the $10 off, maximizing the most % off), getting what was originally $60.02 for $30.02. This meant the 2 racks of ribs were $13.22 rather than $33.22
2. Went to Costco yesterday, and indulged in their $1.50 hotdog/soda combo for lunch, but didn't indulge in any of their samples. The membership was a gift from my partner's boss, making it extra frugal (it isn't worth it for us, as we are only 2, and often, our local Market Basket has cheaper prices for many items/Costco sizes are too large for only 2 of us).
3. Today, I'm making a double batch of ricotta pancakes with strawberry syrup to use up the leftover ricotta from lasagna making and the strawberries were a mandatory purchase from mystery shop yesterday. I'll freeze half of the strawberries for future self.
4. Based on symptoms (internal tremors [feels like my body is vibrating]) I think my magnesium and potassium levels are very low, so I've been eating a LOT of buckwheat groats, broccoli, pumpkin seeds and pumpkin seed oil, all of which I had in my cabinet. Saved a medical co-pay. After 2 days, issue is fixed, and it has meant I have a delicious healthy breakfast. I'll also introduce my parents to buckwheat groats as a great alternative since they both have diabetes.
5. Today, I'm back at work, but all virtual meetings, so I'm saving on gas, although this is more luck as I can't control when admin decides when we can do this. But I'm wearing old clothes, with holes in them, that nobody can see....
Bonus!: I just got back from a different grocery store. Pork shoulder was on sale for $1.49 per pound, down from $2.99 per pound. However, it didn't ring up at the sale price, which means that under MA law, I was entitled to get $10 off. In the end, I paid $.47 per pound. While there, they also had "dented" limes on sale, which I will juice immediately and throw in the future for when I need fresh lime juice.
First, Katy, I'm sorry I was on the other side of the continent and thus unable to help out with the asparagus glut. I love the stuff.
Now, FFT, Rest of JASNA BFF's Visit and Other Things Edition (simulcast with slight revisions from today's FFT at The Frugal Girl):
(1) On the Sunday of BFF's visit, we frugally stayed at home. BFF, in her role as JASNA essay contest chair, had a pile of correspondence to catch up on. In the afternoon, we watched the Coen brothers' film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which BFF brought up on her laptop with her Amazon Prime account. (I don't have a working DVD player at the moment, which deprived us of our usual video entertainment.) The movie was great fun, and I have a whole new respect for George Clooney as an actor.
(2) On Monday, we first visited NDN1 at her assisted living, which pleased NDN1 very much and gave BFF a look at what a good AL facility is like. We then moved on to Second Time Around, where we both made a few small purchases and BFF got to meet the friendly staff, and my favorite local secondhand bookshop, where we both also did some shopping.
(3) I made a frugal tilapia and roasted cauliflower dinner on Sunday night, which BFF enjoyed so much that she requested a repeat on Monday. And this enabled me, for the first time in ages, to use up a head of cauliflower before it started growing brown stuff on the outside. 🙂
(4) On the way home from dropping BFF off at the train station Tuesday morning, I gassed up at the cheapest station in town ($3.99/gal.).
(5) And this past Thursday, I went to LensCrafters to order the new glasses I've been prescribed. On hearing how the preceding pair of LC specs never really worked out for me (long story), the optician got me the best deal he could on the lenses, and agreed to use the practically new preceding frames without the usual sales pressure. I think it helped that I was wearing a Jane Austen t-shirt, and (as it turned out) he's a JA fan and a Regency costume designer in his spare time!
ooo, nice work on your #5! I need new glasses and I LOVE the frames I currently have, but they need to be replaced as their hinges (like many of mine) are loose. I'm hoping that I can get new ones of the same style, but not sure how one goes about that. Huh. Research, I guess.
I love that your sob story got you not only great discounts, but an opportunity to wax lyrical about one of your big loves! JA for the win, as always
Ok, kicking off Frugal September!!
1. Went for a run outside this morning, wearing workout clothes that I've had for years and are still serviceable, and running sneakers that I bought on ebay (new!), thanks to the Frugal Girl for the tip.
2. Packed lunch and snacks for my work day, and drinking tea in the office made from supplies I brought from home (and the cup I'm currently drinking is made from tea that was gifted to me).
3. Menu planned for the week to avoid eating out (aside from a friend's wedding festivities this weekend): Yesterday and today - a summer veggie pasta dish made with veggies from the market and supplies from our pantry, Tomorrow and Thursday - fried green tomatoes (I'll make) and pulled pork (a friend is making), Friday and Saturday - wedding festivities will feed us.
4. I had made a manicure appointment for this Friday in order to have my nails look nice for the wedding (I'm officiating and I'm a bit nervous about getting up in front of everyone). But I have talked myself out of the mani, I have perfect nail polish at home and am decent at painting my nails myself. I just need to set aside time to do so on Friday.
5. I reached out to a friend who is an ace at doing make up to see if she would do mine for the wedding. All I own is mascara and while I want to look nice as the officiant, I'd rather not pay some stranger to do mine just to end up with a face full of makeup and not actually look like myself. My friend has a light touch and has done my makeup before, so I trust her. She wants to do a trial run, so she'll come over tomorrow (she's the one bringing the pork!), we'll have dinner and play with makeup!
I love roasted beets, I rub with oil and wrap in foil and then bake/roast until tender.
They peel just like a baked potato and I eat with butter, salt and pepper sometimes I have sour cream on them also. So good!
I love asparagus! I like it roasted until done but not limp drizzled with butter and salt and pepper. Sometimes I just eat veggies like that for the whole meal.
My frugals are all rinse and repeat.....we are back under a heat dome with the addition of droves of mosquitoes. Spending too much time in the house. If I get bit by mosquitoes the itch lasts for weeks and they love me....
ooo, nice work on your #5! I need new glasses and I LOVE the frames I currently have, but they need to be replaced as their hinges (like many of mine) are loose. I'm hoping that I can get new ones of the same style, but not sure how one goes about that. Huh. Research, I guess.
I love that your sob story got you not only great discounts, but an opportunity to wax lyrical about one of your big loves! JA for the win, as always
1. Wearing my somewhat faded scrubs to work. I touched up my scuffed Dansko leather clogs w/ a sharpie. This brand of shoe, while expensive, is almost indestructible.
2. Made a grilled ham & cheese at home. Took to work & toasted it in the toaster for a tasty, crispy lunch. Took a bottle of Pure Leaf green tea to drink. (I got a 12 pack of the bottled tea for $2 at the Habitat store.)
3. Went to the bakery thrift store to get bread for $1 dollar a loaf. (Not as high-end as Franz but decent quality.) I bought $7 dollars worth in order to get a free item. I selected Orowheat high fiber sliced bread. This brand is 5-6 $ in Texas.
4. Rescued a large bag of dry dog food from the Dol Gen dumpster. This will be donated to the local animal shelter. While cruising thru an apt. complex, I spied a tote full of canned goods. Likely someone moving out. I snagged these. All are in date.
5. I find/collect clothes that are not nice enough for the thrift store. These are washed & donated to a nearby psy hospital. The patients will wear them. I have a sack ready to go.
1. Wearing my somewhat faded scrubs to work. I touched up my scuffed Dansko leather clogs w/ a sharpie. This brand of shoe, while expensive, is almost indestructible.
2. Made a grilled ham & cheese at home. Took to work & toasted it in the toaster for a tasty, crispy lunch. Took a bottle of Pure Leaf green tea to drink. (I got a 12 pack of the bottled tea for $2 at the Habitat store.)
3. Went to the bakery thrift store to get bread for $1 dollar a loaf. (Not as high-end as Franz but decent quality.) I bought $7 dollars worth in order to get a free item. I selected Orowheat high fiber sliced bread. This brand is 5-6 $ in Texas.
4. Rescued a large bag of dry dog food from the Dol Gen dumpster. This will be donated to the local animal shelter. While cruising thru an apt. complex, I spied a tote full of canned goods. Likely someone moving out. I snagged these. All are in date.
5. I find/collect clothes that are not nice enough for the thrift store. These are washed & donated to a nearby psy hospital. The patients will wear them. I have a sack ready to go.
1. Wearing my somewhat faded scrubs to work. I touched up my scuffed Dansko leather clogs w/ a sharpie. This brand of shoe, while expensive, is almost indestructible.
2. Made a grilled ham & cheese at home. Took to work & toasted it in the toaster for a tasty, crispy lunch. Took a bottle of Pure Leaf green tea to drink. (I got a 12 pack of the bottled tea for $2 at the Habitat store.)
3. Went to the bakery thrift store to get bread for $1 dollar a loaf. (Not as high-end as Franz but decent quality.) I bought $7 dollars worth in order to get a free item. I selected Orowheat high fiber sliced bread. This brand is 5-6 $ in Texas.
4. Rescued a large bag of dry dog food from the Dol Gen dumpster. This will be donated to the local animal shelter. While cruising thru an apt. complex, I spied a tote full of canned goods. Likely someone moving out. I snagged these. All are in date.
5. I find/collect clothes that are not nice enough for the thrift store. These are washed & donated to a nearby psy hospital. The patients will wear them. I have a sack ready to go.
1. Wearing my somewhat faded scrubs to work. I touched up my scuffed Dansko leather clogs w/ a sharpie. This brand of shoe, while expensive, is almost indestructible.
2. Made a grilled ham & cheese at home. Took to work & toasted it in the toaster for a tasty, crispy lunch. Took a bottle of Pure Leaf green tea to drink. (I got a 12 pack of the bottled tea for $2 at the Habitat store.)
3. Went to the bakery thrift store to get bread for $1 dollar a loaf. (Not as high-end as Franz but decent quality.) I bought $7 dollars worth in order to get a free item. I selected Orowheat high fiber sliced bread. This brand is 5-6 $ in Texas.
4. Rescued a large bag of dry dog food from the Dol Gen dumpster. This will be donated to the local animal shelter. While cruising thru an apt. complex, I spied a tote full of canned goods. Likely someone moving out. I snagged these. All are in date.
5. I find/collect clothes that are not nice enough for the thrift store. These are washed & donated to a nearby psy hospital. The patients will wear them. I have a sack ready to go.
1. Wearing my somewhat faded scrubs to work. I touched up my scuffed Dansko leather clogs w/ a sharpie. This brand of shoe, while expensive, is almost indestructible.
2. Made a grilled ham & cheese at home. Took to work & toasted it in the toaster for a tasty, crispy lunch. Took a bottle of Pure Leaf green tea to drink. (I got a 12 pack of the bottled tea for $2 at the Habitat store.)
3. Went to the bakery thrift store to get bread for $1 dollar a loaf. (Not as high-end as Franz but decent quality.) I bought $7 dollars worth in order to get a free item. I selected Orowheat high fiber sliced bread. This brand is 5-6 $ in Texas.
4. Rescued a large bag of dry dog food from the Dol Gen dumpster. This will be donated to the local animal shelter. While cruising thru an apt. complex, I spied a tote full of canned goods. Likely someone moving out. I snagged these. All are in date.
5. I find/collect clothes that are not nice enough for the thrift store. These are washed & donated to a nearby psy hospital. The patients will wear them. I have a sack ready to go.
I prepare beets by scrubbing with a veg brush, leaving about an inch of the top on, and all of the root intact. This keeps them from losing color. Then I boil, whole, until tender when tested with a butter knife. Dump off the hot water, let them cool in tap water and peel. I use the back side of a paring knife to remove the skin. Discard root and trim top. Butter with a little salt or you can make harvard beets. This year they are very sweet, so I eat them plain.
I have a friend who shreds them and makes a very moist chocolate cake with them. I'm not sure about the process, I'm too lazy to mess with it!
1. Dinner again is from the freezer + garden. Sausage and peppers, with rice pilaf I froze before a trip last month.
2. Letting mother nature water the garden today. The catnip is thrilled; the lavender, not so much.
3. I had some lettuce perish as well, so I repotted my skimpy basil plant and relocated it to a sunnier spot. It is now having a lovely end of summer vacation in the back patio.
4. Enjoying audiobooks off Libby to keep me occupied as we pack up the apartment.
5. Sold a pair of heels I had bought as a bridesmaid a shocking 7 years ago. I hated them from the getgo. Well, I finally sold them in a swap group and chuckled to myself that they lasted longer than my friend's marriage 😉 (don't worry, the friend would also laugh about it, I wouldn't say that maliciously!)
Love the vintage light fixtures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. Phoned Specctrum and told the AI bot to fix the @##%$$%!! WiFi and if it ever goes out again, which it has been doing with some regularity, I will switch to Astound, their competitor. It got fixed in 5 minutes.
2. Filled up with $3.27 gas. But what a hassle! I waited until evening when it was cooler to get gas. It was $3.27 at the HEB store close to my house but the gas pump area was so overcrowded that I couldn't get in line. Half their gas pumps were not functioning and all the vehicles were lining up in the wrong direction, where I could not line up so that my car 's gas tank was on the same side as the pump So I drove a couple of miles out of my way --and went through a maze of cop cars, traffic barriers and traffic cones due to construction and a big wreck-- to get to Walmart. Its Murphy gas station was also $3.27 and once I navigated into the Wallyworld parking lot and its Murphy area, I could drive right up to the pump. The place was almost empty. Got my gas and took a long detour home, avoiding the traffic snarl.
3. My evening entertainment was going to be a free Kanopy showing of "Good Will Hunting," but I quickly lost interest in it. Ended up watching "The Sons of Katie Elder" on TV, also free. It was an over-the-air broadcast on either Grit or Outlaw (I forgot which, but a sub-channel OTA network specializing in Westerns. They're both alike.). I've seen portions of this movie before -- but never watched it straight through, from start to finish, like I did last night. A good old-fashioned shoot 'em up with John Wayne at his finest!
4. Paid off a credit card, avoiding any more interest being charged to me.
5. A phone scammer tried to call me and reign me in to some dumb con game. Oh boy, did he get the wrong person! (Sure do miss the old-fashioned phones where you could slam the receiver down real hard after you tell those crooks to get lost.) Reported the call to the cops.And the FTC.
*reign*, not reign.
Received about $100 worth of expired food and toiletries from Buy Nothing that no one else wanted. The way things were packaged in such large quantities makes me think they came from Costco and/or Sam's Club. Wasteful for the original owner but a bonanza for me. Having this much food on hand makes me uncomfortable so I'm making sure our meal plan deals with all of this as quickly as possible. Results:
-- Elbow macaroni that expired in 2019 tastes the same to me.
-- Cake mix and icing that expired in 2024 was still fine. I made it in a loaf pan since we all know that quick bread is better for you than cake, right?
-- Hash browns from 2024, enchilada sauce from 2024, and diced tomatoes from 2023 were all featured in a delicious Tex-Mex concoction.
-- Jasmine rice from 2024 starred in a yummy concoction with edamame, chickpeas, tofu, red cabbage, cilantro, soy sauce, and sesame oil.
-- Pineapple juice from 2023 mixed with sparkling water made many refreshing mocktails.
-- Fifteen small tubes of toothpaste - the tube I tested was more than fine.
I've found that "expired" cake/corn bread type mixes may not rise as they would if in date. Tomato/tomato based products would worry me a bit.
Love your take on the quick bread! I heartily agree. Much better for us and less calories too I've heard. Ha ha!
I've found that expired cake/cornbread mixes may not rise as they otherwise would. I'm a bit leery about tomato/tomato based product when it comes to past best used by dates.
I harvested today and am getting ready to freeze a load of greens from the garden: bolted lettuce for soups and swiss chard for green leafy table veggies in winter.
A great thing to make with beets is red velvet cole slaw. Grate red cabbage, carrots, and beets and dress with whatever slaw dressing you like. My preference is half mayo, half greek yogurt, seasoned with salt, pepper, and whatever chopped or even dry herbs are handy: parsley, cilantro, basil... Also, if you ever make carrot and celery sticks to go with dip, beet sticks go right along with them.
Katy, I think your site may have gremlins. For the past week or so (I think), I have not been able to consistently open it or post comments without an "error occurred" message. This happens mostly on my phone but sometimes my laptop, too. It also happens whether I'm using my home Wifi or mobile data away from home. Today, I was unable to post several times. The successful one didn't appear on my phone right away, but it did on my laptop. I've also noticed others' comments duplicating or triplicating lately so something seems off.
This is the message I receive: "An error occurred. Sorry, the page you are looking for is currently unavailable. Please try again later. If you are the system administrator of this resource then you should check the error log for details. Faithfully yours, nginx."
Yes, I am seeing this too - slow to load, weird when trying to post, and your error message. sometimes it won't load at all!
I did an update on the blog, which should help. I've been too busy lately to do the behind the scenes tech stuff that comes with blogging.
Thank you! Everything is working great now!
My husband just put a light fixture in his mom's bathroom that looks very similar, if not exactly the same as that one! I think they found it on ebay.
1. Shredded paper for the worm compost.
2. Found 2 dimes
3. Picked another watermelon, we've been making agua frescas with them.
4. Purchased some of my son's curriculum used.
5. Made egg bake for the freezer and granola.
Photos and more details here: https://practicalwalk.com/2026/09/02/frugal-five-first-day-of-school/
Just tell yourself better to scoop a box than clean it up anywhere outside the box,
Your grand kitties are simply the cutest!! Such a darling pair. What did you get with your Powell's Summer Reading BINGO card?