It’s time again for Five Frugal Things, small and random frugal hacks that are completely attainable to the average Joe Katy.
- I picked up two over the counter medications at a hospital based pharmacy that’s affiliated with my employer. My employee discount knocked approximately 35% off the bill, and it sure as hell beat the $250 co-pay the prescription plan was going to set me back, which was after the insurance picked up $400+! (Worry not, it’s for a non-lethal rash.)
- Yesterday we celebrated my mother’s 71st birthday by having people over to the house for dinner instead of going to a restaurant. I served pressure cooked pot roast with all the fixings. I made The Frugal Girl’s cloverleaf rolls and a carrot cake from scratch. We drank water with the meal, and I served tea with the cake. Wine was offered and refused. The meal (and company) was lovely, yet the entire meal for six people set me back maybe $25, which includes a massive amount of leftovers. (I easily could have spent much less on dinner if I’d chosen a different menu for the evening.) I spent $5 on her gifts, which were two thrifted framed antique cross-stitch samplers. There’s no reason to think that having a limited budget is a barrier to generosity and entertaining.
- My older son has his last varsity cross country meet today, but the location is almost twenty miles from the house. I’ve put a notice on the high school Facebook page as well as on my personal page asking if anyone wants to carpool. Having so many parents individually drive this distance is such a waste of gasoline and money. (I already plan to utilize this parent board when it comes time for a graduation cap and gown. To buy these items for a single use is beyond ridiculous!)
- The sun is out, which means yes, another load of laundry on the clothesline.
- I found a bright and shiny penny on the ground at Fred Meyer yesterday. Coin Girl is ever present!
Now your turn. What frugal thing have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
{ 52 comments… read them below or add one }
I just switched cable companies for $50 a month difference. I’d be OK without cable but Mr Husband wouldn’t, so I decided to compare plans. AT&T beats Comcast.
Yay!!
Katy
You’re lucky you have a choice! We only have comcast around here and it is expensive. I managed to convince my husband that we do not need cable!
After you put in 6 mo or so with your cable provider, call and ask if you qualify for a lower rate. I did this and they dropped the monthly bill by $15. All I did was ask.
Ann
Not sure if you remember that I went agaist the Town and had my assessment reduced back in August? Well I received a letter today from the town for my school tax payment and that they have refunded the overpayment to the bank to put the money back in my escrow account. Well I called the bank (actually a credit union) and explained the situation and they said they can do an escrow analysis of my account with the tax rates and my new assessment and will reduce my payment accordingly — for FREE I might add! My previous bank charged $15. to do an escrow analysis. All I have to do is send in the paperwork which I plan on faxing tomorrow on my day off. By my calculations, this should drop my payment $50-$75 dollars a month. I will continue to overpay my principle though, but not as much as before.
I am so happy about this — I WON AGAINST THE TOWN!!!!! And I will continue to monitor the housing prices in my immediate area in case they try to do this again, which we all know they will.
See, you can fight city hall. Congrats!!
We like to go to trivia at Applebee’s on Tuesday nights. It costs $2 each and we usually get a happy hour beer each or a soda to split. Sometimes we get free appetizer cards and split an app with the team. When we win we usually break even! It’s cheap entertainment, definitely cheaper than a movie!
We don’t have cable but as a die-hard Red Sox fan I NEED to watch the World Series. Our rabbit ears pick up Fox so I can watch the 1st 2 games during the week but we are getting together with friends for Saturdays game rather than going to a bar. I think we’re going to cook pizza! I offered to bring beer but was turned down (they already have some). Again, cheap entertainment!
Go Red Sox! <-- See how I spelled that right? 😉 Katy
In the process of setting up our new home following the Big Move to Australia and just scored a 4 yr old washing machine for… $60!!
Ran it through a cycle last night and it appears to be working just fine. When I asked the previous owner why he was selling, it was just because they had upgraded to a larger size.
Yes, I would be happy to take your less than huge washing machine off your hands.
Ann
I made a cake for the cake walk at my daughter’s school’s annual “Boo Bash” tomorrow. I’m going to decorate it with sprinkles bought from the bulk section (which were 17 cents per ounce) verses the packaged sprinkles (which are 75 cents per ounce).
I also baked some chicken breasts which I’ll slice up for her sandwiches. I bought the chicken breasts from Albertsons for $1.88 a lb. and use them instead of lunch meat.
I started reading “Money Secrets of the Amish” that I got from my local library.
This is always so much fun! I get inspiration from your frugal activities and it is just fun to think about how I have been saving money.
1. Bought fabric for my kitchen renovation from a local “outlet” run by my cousins. They run a drapery business and sell the remnants in this shop. The fabric is unbelievably cheap–nothing is more than $7/yard, and that’s for fabric that would retail at $25-$50/yard.
2. Took my son to the park yesterday and tomorrow it is the library. Yay for free and excellent things to do with a three year old.
3. We currently have lots of stuff listed on Craigslist. Just waiting for buyers.
4. I’m making my son’s Halloween costume. It is actually more expensive than buying something cheap at Target, but it will be much, much cooler.
5. Our weekend renters left us three bottles of wine. Normally I would just toss them in with our small collection for our next party, but then I wondered if they could be returned to Kroger. $30 on a Kroger gift card says yes! And covered most of our groceries for the week.
I love that you returned the wine in order to buy something you would have spent money on anyway!
Katy
I switched insurance companies (auto and home) yesterday. It will now he taken out of my husband’s paycheck. So it will look like he is bringing home less but, we will save $139 a month this way. It will also be so nice to have one less bill come in the mail.
Yesterday I had five ugly apples hanging out in the fruit basket so, I made apple crisp in the crockpot.
Sadly, I had to start using the heat here (Kentucky) this week.
1. I was asked to bake dessert for a local company’s employee meeting. So I whipped up some of the Pioneer Woman’s Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with ingredients I already had.
2. I found a Taste of Home coupon for a free year’s subscription of the magazine. And sent it in. One of my favorite magazines! I’ll drop them at my doc office once I’ve read them.
3. My mom had a $5 gift card for Albertsons. I went in and bought a quart of whole milk, a dozen eggs, two packages of udon noodles, and an onion. Only owed 38 cents out of pocket.
4. I got a gym membership. And have gone every day since I got it.
5. While it wasn’t CHEAP… I found a discontinued fabric I’m using for curtains in the laundry room. By having more, I know that I’ll now have enough to cover ALL the windows… I was going to piece fabric together that had a similar feel. But if it went wrong, I know I’d hate the result and want to swap them out again. So glad I found it! 😀
All great stuff! And pumpkin cinnamon rolls?! No wonder you have to go the the gym every day! 😉
Katy
I’m eating one now. Soooo gooooood.
1. Enjoying a supper of chili that I had made last week and froze.
2. Worked at the food pantry this afternoon and I am very aware of how much I have to be thankful for.
3. Reading a book because it was finally my turn on the library waiting list.
4. Figured some non-candy and inexpensive Halloween treats to pass out to tricks or treaters.
5. I am imagining what “Coin Girl’s” outfit looks like…some thing with a shimmery thrifted ankle length cape???
Yes to the cape, but no cleavage, as Coin-Girl is always bending over. 😉
Katy
LOL!
1. I found a recipe online for yam/peanut/kale stew and I had all the ingredients on hand in the house, so I made this yummy new recipe without having to go the store. And it made enough for 3-4 lunches and two dinners.
2. I went to the library and picked up two reserve books and a DVD of a movie that I’ve wanted to see that was filmed in my town (Chasing Mavericks).
3. Washed 3 plastic ziplock-type bags to re-use.
4. Put a bucket in the shower to catch water until it was warmed up and then I used the water to water my indoor plants.
Cool! I forgot about doing this–the water saving before it’s hot. When I lived in VA we had a drought for two summers. The restaurants stopped automatically bringing water to your table. Washing cars other than on a site that reclaimed the water was prohibited. Along with other restrictions to save water. One of the suggestions in the newspaper was to save this pre-hot water to water plants, etc. I confess I used a pitcher to catch lots and made sun-tea. Loved doing it. Thanks for the reminder!
I went to 3, yes, 3 thrift stores today and only came home with a single item. I bought some exercise crop pants that are all the rage. It only cost me $1.08 as I had to return jeans that didn’t fit my son. Lululemon can suck it.
P.S. I have to say that your blog is one of the reasons I started blogging again. Thanks for the inspiration 🙂
Megyn,
Happy to do my part. 😀
Katy
1. We’re eating dinner at home tonight, featuring a recipe I found in a Food Network magazine I borrowed from my grandma. There should be enough that I have leftovers!
2. I made a diaper sprayer for $15 instead of buying one for $30! I also bought a secondhand cloth diaper to replace one of ours that started to delaminate 🙁
3. I bought a 6-month membership to a local playgym. It was $140, which isn’t cheap, but it’s normally $195. I got a military discount on it, and I’ve figured out that if we keep going once a week (for social time), each visit will be $6 instead of $10. Plus, we get two free classes (normally $20 each), a discount on Parent’s Night Out (which we may use… we’re not sure), and a $40 credit for a birthday party (ditto). Considering we don’t have friends close enough to do playdates, this is our best option for some baby social time! Bonus: my son snoozes reeeeeaaaalllly well after we come home
4. I just got a box of hand-me-downs from my in-law’s church. Yay, free clothes!
5. We’re having a garage sale this weekend to clean out our garage. Most of the things in the sale are things we picked up off the curb, cleaned, and are reselling. Free money!
This weekend, I’m going to attempt my first electrical DIY project — changing out our doorbell button. (Our current one is original to the house, we think, and finally gave way awhile back — it dinged and dinged for so long that the chime box began to smoke! We’ve had to have it turned off at the fusebox ever since.) At any rate, every manual and website shows this to be an easy fix — unscrew two wires, screw them back into the new doorbell button — so I’m going to attempt it. I get so nervous that I may just turn off the electricity to the whole house while I work! 🙂
I would do the same. Good luck!
Katy
I thought of you yesterday, Coin Girl, because I found a Canadian penny on the ground but still picked it up. (Hey, Canada’s only a 1.5 hour drive from here…) My son (12) (who is not embarrassed to see his mother pick up coins) immediately piped up “Good luck, eh?” in his best Canadian accent. It cracked me up. Laughter—the ultimate free gift!
Great kid!
Katy
Hey that penny is a collector’s item now!
Canadian pennies are obsolete now.
I forgot about that, we’ll have to put in it my jar of souvenir coins of obsolete currency like Austrian schillings, Italian lire, and German marks!
1. Planned a month’s worth of menus to avoid that five o’clock “what are we going to have for dinner” panic and temptation to pick up even cheap take-out.
2. Checked local ads today and found stock up prices on the meat we’ll use later in the month–saving more than an extra dollar per pound over the lowest prices I saw all summer.
3. Sewed last minute costumes for the opera company and scored some complimentary tickets for this weekend.
4. Made a big pot of loaded potato soup–enough to feed friends for lunch plus leftovers for dinner and lunch later in the week.
5. Mentioned the problem I’d had with lighting purchased at Home Depot and received a discount on replacement light bulbs!
6. Planned a date with husband dear for a drive to see the fall foliage at Mt. Rainier (no fee to enter since he’s a senior now), with a picnic lunch en route, followed by a night at the light opera with those tickets.
Nothing outstanding, but all in all, being careful in small things allows you to live within your means and use the saved monies for important things.
1. Found a pair of pants and a long sleeve polo in the “uniform closet” at my sons’ school. As he is in the highest grade at the school, it can be hard to find the size we need so was very happy to find these and will return them there at the end of the school year for someone else to use!
2. Had just a little bit of chili left from a couple of nights ago so did chili over baked potatoes to make it stretch and feed all four of us for dinner tonight.
3. Had the most adorable older gentleman tune our piano today. The piano is 100 years old and belonged to my great, great aunt. The tuning wasn’t cheap but was very needed and both kids use it to practice on at least 5x a week. The tuner shared his story of being a trumpet player in a swing band “back in the day”. Neat conversation!
I try to buy tofu weekly from our local manufacturer at their wholesale store. It’s few blocks from my work and less than half the price per pound as store bought (my vegetarian kids love sauteed tofu as a main dish).
I also made a gift for a good friend/coworker’s birthday: collage cards and music CDs.
I went shopping for new eyeglasses at the “cheap” store, and found out it would cost me over $1000.00 for two pairs of progressive eyeglasses!
(This is the two for one deal). If I bought only one pair, I would get only 20% off the total price so I was still looking at $800.00. I don’t wear my glasses very often, as I usually wear contacts, so I went back to the place I bought the old glasses at and asked them to just replace the lenses in my old frames. They can do that as they were in good shape, for $469.00. Both my DHs and my health plans pay $150.00 every 24 months for eye care, so total spent will be only $169.00 I can live with that.
But, heat went on for the first time today. Drat.
We now buy our glasses on line—they seldom cost more than $30 a pair. There are several good companies. We like Googles4U and zennioptical. I felt badly not buying local until I saw a 60 Minutes piece on how virtually all brick and mortar places buy form one or two of the same companies and listened to the smug CEO of one of them say they charged what they do because people are ignorant enough to be wiling to pay it.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll investigate online next time I need to buy glasses.
Also, if you are not anti WalMart, their glasses are well priced. I need bifocals, so have been afraid I was too complicated for Zenni or Warby Parker, and Walmart did Zeiss lenses and decent frames for 274$. They will also refill your existing frames, which they did for my daughter.
Don’t have five things, but a few thoughts. I have been harvesting and drying herbs from my yard — in the oven with the just the light on — planning to make herb salts, which I am quite in love with. Also, taking a couple of very interesting classes on Coursera ( getting suggested reading from my local libe) which have been very stimulating and thought provoking. Went to the Farmers Market today for the last of the sweet peppers, and grilled a dozen to peel and freeze. So nice in winter. And so much cheaper than roast peppers at the store, which are crazy expensive. Katy, thank you so much for Five Frugal Things. My absolute favorite, particularly with all the great comments.
So happy to hear that you like this frequent blog category! 😀
Katy
Katy, it inspires and energizes me. I can’t thank you enough!
**Ate dinner at church last night – $12.00 for our family of 6 (Spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, drink & dessert)
**Called my husband on my way to work this morning to remind him to take some chicken out of the freezer (because I forgot to). Otherwise I’d have had to stop on the way home from work to pick up something else to fix. And you know how it is, run into the store for a couple of things and $50 later…
**The outfit (minus my undergarmets but including my sweater) I’m wearing is all thrifted except my shirt and my shoes. And actually the shirt & shoes were free – someone gave a bag of clothes to my teenage girls and they didn’t care for the shirt and the shoes were too big for them so I took them.
Maybe not really frugal, but I have been selling the baby quilts I sew by hand. I use fabric given to me sot he cost to make is minor and something beautiful results. I also signed up for a free online gratitude series. The recent school violence, once again, has made me very forlorn and I need to look at the world with my eyes open wider. And I’m back on a no spending spree beyond basics for the foreseeable future.
We bought handmade baby quilts for twin grand babies born this summer. A wonderful, special gift to cherish. I grew up sleeping under quilts my grandmother made, so I am sure yours will be treasured somewhere, by several someones.
1. Used two pretty pillowcases for which I never found coordinating sheets to make curtains for my laundry room. I cut them open, hemmed the edges and sewed rod pockets — easy sewing, nice results!
2. Cashed in the coins from the change bowl, containing change from the husband’s pockets and found change — almost $46 from a small bowl. Our bank rolls it for free if one has an account there.
3. Someone brought a handful of leftover apples with slight bruising to work to give away — they were shipped straight from an orchard and were delicious. I took three large ones and made an apple crisp for dessert with ingredients I had on hand. I just cut out the bruised parts of the apples.
4. Had roast chicken, then chicken sandwiches, then chicken pot pie, then made chicken stock, all from the same chicken. The veggies for the pie were leftover from other meals.
5. Went out before work in the 42 degree weather and hung out a load of jeans. I’ll take them in when I get home — it’ll be 75 degrees by then.
I love finding ways to be frugal all day long.
What great activities! Apple crisp is a great way to use up less than perfect apples, whether they’re bruised, mealy or a kid ate a single bit and lost interest.
Katy
My 16 year old son wanted a “Disco Bow Tie” that he saw online for last Saturday’s Homecoming dance. Price-$24 plus shipping and we would need to get 2 day shipping if we hoped to get it in time so $17Â shipping. $42- NOT happening. Googled it to see what it was and found an Instructables post on how to make it. Took him to 2 fabric stores, found silver metallic fabric he liked and for less than $4 and 90 minutes of time he had a bow tie and pocket square! He loved it and said he got lots of compliments. He wore it with his Nautica silk dinner jacket bought new at Value Village for $5 2 years ago.
Damn, now I want a “Disco bow-tie!”
Katy
1. I stopped at the fabric store on my way home from work to pick up what I needed for a grandson’s halloween costume. I thought it would be $8-10. While there I studied the pattern (pinterest) and came up with a way to make it cheaper. I ended up spending $2.
2. I’ve remembered to bring my breakfast and lunch to work every day this week.
3. Because of a cold snap, I went thru my closet to find whatever cool weather clothes I’d been hoarding for my grandsons. Turns out I had a pretty good stash for both of them!
4. While looking for the aforementioned clothes I found a Christmas gift I had hidden away and forgotten about.
5. Accepted a box of clothing I was being given, I doubted any of it would fit but I could donate it, right? Found a skirt in there that fit and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Plus a sweater that fit my daughter perfectly. Both like new. To think I almost passed on that box!
I love reading these comments. It helps me with ideas as well as encourages me to press on and become more thrifty.
What I’ve done lately:
*Ate leftover pea soup for dinner that normally would have gone bad in the fridge.
*Made popcorn balls for the treat for my daughter’s class even though she initially wanted me to buy pre-packaged ones. I felt great when she said “Great treat, Mom. Everyone really liked them. How did you make them?”
*Bought some work appropriate clothes I really needed at a consignment shop following a bust at 2 Goodwills & 1 Savers store. The consignment clothes were slightly more expensive than Goodwill, but not by much.
Katy, this is off topic, but could you possibly do a piece with ideas for inexpensive holiday gifts for adults? I usually give baskets of home canned savories (not jams, most people get a lot of those other places), but I think that is getting old. I am fresh out of ideas. Thanks for considering the topic.
1. I have also been making pan after pan of apple crisp and crockpot after crockpot of applesauce from apples picked from my parents’ orchard. I freeze the sauce in bags and supply the extended family with sauce for the year.
2. We had to turn on the furnace this week. 🙁 We keep it at 64 and in the evenings, use a space heater in the living room to make it more comfortable. We also use a thrifted 3-panel room divider in front of the doorway that separates the living room from the rest of the house to keep the warm air where we are. We also use afghans when we watch tv or read in the living room.
3. Using a tip from Amy D’s Tightwad Gazetter, I use a flea comb to remove pilling from sleeves of sweaters to make them look newer. Flea combs can be purchased for under a dollar at the pet store.
4. I have been cooking from the pantry rather than going to the grocery…made rice and beans, veggie sushi rolls and granola yesterday.
5. Even tho it snowed for the first time yesterday (I live in NE Ohio), we enjoyed garden tomatoes with dinner. I picked all the green tomatoes a few weeks ago when I was “putting the garden to bed for winter” and am ripening them slowly in our three-season sunroom. Delicious!
I LOVE when “coin girl” makes an appearance – I walk our local mall early in the morning 3 days a week for exercise and I usually find at least 1 of those “rental strollers” sitting abandoned, so I grab it, walk it around to the next corral and get the 50c reward for returning it! It’s the highlight of my walking… at least now I know you would back me up on this 😉