Five Frugal Things — Backyard Deck & a Lucky Day!
1) I walked to Walgreen’s for my scheduled Covid vaccine and was rewarded with both a penny and a nickel. So yes . . . I “recently come into some money!”
I want extra credit for walking instead of driving, as the skies threatened rain.
2) I then stopped into the library to peruse the Lucky Day shelf.
I grabbed a copy of Mad Mabel, which I think I already had on hold. It’ll have to wait until I finish The Measure, but that’s okay as I have three weeks until it’s due.
3) My walk home included a Free Box, which is always a “Yes, please!” in my book!
Fresh home grown tomatoes for the win!
4) I threw some black beans into the Instant Pot for a batch of chili. This recipe, (ha!) incorporated a number of random items, including:
- Leftover sausage from our “bangers and mash” night.
- Leftover carmelized onion and seared corn kernels from a “homemade pizza” night.
- The last of some homemade marinara sauce.
I enjoyed a bowl for dinner and will serve the rest of it over baked potatoes.
5) My husband refurbished our small backyard deck by power wash and sanding it and then spraying it with a fresh stain. He spread the task over a couple days, but the deck is once again protected against the elements and we saved money by DIYing it.
This photo illustrates how bad the wood had become:
Four years of Oregon elements will take their toll!
By the way, this deck mostly utilized wood from our kid’s old tree house, so it was a “frugal thing” to begin with.
Click HERE to read the 2022 blog post from when we built the deck!
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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Love that you were able to repurpose the tree house wood!
1) Left DS20 a plate of leftovers for dinner, as he worked a double shift yesterday, and has another today. I’ll do the same thing for tonight. He also enjoyed the banana chocolate chip muffins I made for him, using overly ripe bananas.
2) Drove my electric car to my workout class, and then avoided the siren song of Trader Joes, which always ends in me buying too many delicious snacks.
3) Packed my eBay sale in a recycled envelope & dropped off at the USPS mailbox near our house, on my way to my class.
4) Talked to DS19 about what he would like us to bring from the house to Boulder next weekend, and then played around with the bags we are planning to carry on, to see if we could fit it without needing to check a bag. The tent has stakes, so regardless, those need to be checked. Luckily, I’ll be getting free checked bags on the flight.
5) Looks like I will get another chance to use my National Park pass, as we are tentatively planning a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park next weekend, weather permitting. It was very difficult for me to buy the pass, because it comes emblazoned with our current president’s face. You know, the person who has done nothing to protect our national parks & has tried to erode decades of protection instead, to sell to developers.
Enjoy your hike! I thank my lucky stars that we bought our National Park pass before the fragile ego of our infantile president needed to paste his ugly mug and/or name on so.many.things. Â
Try to look past the petulant puss of the pompous pampered puddingface on your pass and enjoy yourselves. I have to admit we’ve been putting off renewing our passports because we didn’t want one with his picture on it but recently found out it’s optional. Hmm…wonder what we’ll choose…
Amazing alliteration! Well done!
Thank you. I have to stay lighthearted about the Toddler in the WH or I’ll put my head down and cry.
I purchased a sleeve on Etsy that conceals the offending image and instead features an actual national park. A worthwhile, sanity-saving purchase in my opinion. 😉
I love that!
Great choice MamieUtah!
Refurbished deck looks great!
1. Gave away a snowblower on Buy Nothing.
2. Gave away six mini loaf pans on Buy Nothing.
3. Received a wooden dog bowl stand from Buy Nothing. Brought it back to life with some lemon oil applied with a cotton ball and a Q-tip. Plan to thrift bowls to fit the two openings.
4. Made a spaghetti sauce out of expired tomato paste, homemade veggie broth, caramelized onions, roasted eggplant, sauteed mushrooms, and dried herbs. And later added the dregs from ketchup bottle.
5. Husband’s brother treated him to lunch.
1. Cooked meals at home using actual ingredients (not convenience foods). These meals fed myself, the husband, my MIL, a friend invited for dinner, and another friend at work.
2. Socialized for free at the dog park and over meals at home.
3. Made coffee at home daily instead of driving through the numerous coffee places nearby.
4. Cancelled various streaming and other subscription services recently (a very freeing feeling in more ways than one!).
5. Our “big†fall break trip will be camping, in the trailer we own, eating food we prep, on BLM or Forest Service land for free. No expensive “get aways†or mini-cruises here!
Have a great time on your getaway!
1. Hubby was racking the wine today. We had everything so we didn’t have to buy anything.
2. I listed some items on Facebook Marketplace.
3. Our neighbor had us over for dinner. I made a cinnamon swirl cake. They sent us home with a big container of chili, a chunk of cake and 2 cinnamon buns. We both had cinnamon on our minds.
4. Our son dropped off his cat for the week. He is traveling for work. Free snuggles.
your deck looks marvy! We keep the kids treehouse as a place for the cows to get out of the weather & rebuilt the ladder to stairs for the goats to play on. Neighbor kids also play on it.
I let the neighbor borrow my large walk behind rototiller, they brought it back with a sack of popcorn on the cob.
Made a batch of grape jam, turned out well. Half the kids liked the texture the other half did not. Reminded me of chunky vs. Smooth peanut butter debate.
Made cinnamon rolls for the kids to take home after fam dinner. Happy Indigenous People Day tomorrow!
We will celebrate with three sister pie, hoecakes with honey and grilled fish.
Stayed home today, spending nothing. I read a lot, since I have three nonrenewable books with a one-week loan. The heat is on!
I used up the last of the corned beef in a Hot Reuben dip, which was pretty good. Courtesy of ChatGPT.
Indulged myself with ice cream, which I sprinkled with walnuts, so it was somewhat healthy?
Both The Measure and Mad Mabel are wonderful (very different genre) books!
FFT, I’m Baaack (and Avoiding Food Waste) Edition:
(1) His Royal Orangeness dishonored our fair city by holding a rally downtown Friday p.m.–ostensibly to support his hand-picked reptile who’s running for governor, but really just to bask in the applause of the MAGAts who attended (most of whom came from outlying areas) and to continue airing his various grievances. There was a protest that was at least as well attended as the rally, but it was sequestered so far from the rally venue that I didn’t attend. (I was also still in the aftermath of dealing with my personal crisis. Yeah, I know, excuses, excuses.)
(2) I made a banana bread Saturday with two bananas that were about to go over to the Dark Side. Believe me, they were on the verge of growing little orange hairpieces. 😛 I shared the bread with one of my two Sunday morning walking buddies (she and her hubs did attend the Friday protest, bless them).
(3) And I made a lamb stew Sunday, which used up some stuff from the freezers and from some groceries the Bestest Neighbors left behind (they’re on a Road Scholar trip abroad). From the freezers, 2 # of boneless lamb (Reduced for Quick Sale at Wegmans) and a partial bag of pearl onions; from the left-behind groceries, a partial container of beef stock, a partial bag of snow peas, and some celery. I added one of the two last bottles of Guinness I found on the curb a while ago, as well as carrots, herbs, and garlic from my garden, and potatoes and onions from my usual supply. (A commenter at The Frugal Girl has called this “curb stew” in honor of the Guinness. I like this name and think it would be appropriate for the meals Katy is concocting with the vegetables from free piles.)
(4) I took a trip out this morning to Second Time Around, where they were having a 50% off sale on candles and candle holders; I pretty well cleaned them out of votives and tealights. (Given the state of the US and world these days, I’m lighting a lot of candles.) I also stopped at the holiday 20% off sale at Clothes Mentor and picked up three small Body Shop gift packs that will make good Xmas stocking stuffers.
(5) And frugal fail: I forgot to mix some crushed red pepper in with the safflower seed in one of my bird feeders, and my new pet chipmunk is stuffing its cheek pouches so full of the seed it looks as if it has the mumps on both sides. At least I’m getting some additional exercise by periodically going to the front door and chasing it off.
Curb stew is an awesome name for it. It sounds delicious!