Five Frugal Things — Finding Money & Saving Money!

1. Kristen from The Frugal Girl and I stopped for a container of  Tillamook ice cream at Fred Meyer, which gave me the opportunity to grab these clearance items:

   • A bag of six nectarines from the $1.50 clearance shelf.
   • Two cans of baked beans for 67¢ each.
   • Four boxes of Betty Crocker gluten-free cake mix for a $1.57 apiece. These normally sell for about seven bucks apiece, so this was a score!
   • I also picked up three littered receipts to scan into the Fetch app.

2. I found a dime, nickel and penny at the Goodwill Outlet and then five individual pennies at Winco. All coins have been added to my Found Change Challenge jar.

   So yes, I recently came into some money!

3. I ate the last bit of some salad from a few days ago, which was somehow both A) not slimy; and B) delicious! I abhor food waste, but am relieved when eating leftovers is tasty and not “taking one for the team.”

   I also put together this Instagram reel to show a couple examples of how I’m working to avoid food waste.

4. I chose not to accept a free FinCon T-shirt, both because there were 50% plastic, but also because I don’t like event specific T-shirts. Any thrifter can tell you that Goodwills are grossly overrun with outdated single event T-shirts.

   T-shirts from volunteer events, sorority fund raisers and work events have zero customer appeal in the secondhand market and are an example of the thoughtless overmanufacture of clothing. Doomed to fill our landfills. If we stop accepting these items, perhaps people will stop offering them.

5. I continue to not spend one thin dime on anything Harry Potter related, as I choose to not enrich people who quote Adolf Hitler to support their arguments. I’d already made this choice when J.K. Rowling became vocal with her hateful anti-transgender rhetoric and haven’t looked back. I read every damned word of her books out loud to my kids, but am done with anything and everything Harry Potter now. Period.

Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?

Katy Wolk-Stanley